Washington, June 03: The United States on Thursday said that it is not trying to ‘hold China down,’ despite crucial differences over issues like supplying arms to Taiwan and was trying to ‘manage’ differences with the ‘global power.’
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates expressed his satisfaction over the level of relationship between Washington and Beijing.
Washington, June 03: Hackers have targeted Japan’s electronics giant Sony, claiming that they have stolen personal information of more than one million user accounts.
A group calling itself “Lulz Security” announced a new round of cyber attack on Thursday, posting online snippets of data it says came from a breach earlier this week of personal information belonging to one million user customers, The Huffington Post reported.
The group claims the information includes unencrypted passwords, names, addresses as well as birthdates for thousands of people.
London, June 03: A blast in an oil refinery in west Wales has killed four people, shaking the windows and sending black smoke in the air, Milford Haven coastguards say.
The explosion happened with “a massive bang” at the Chevron refinery at Pembroke Dock just after 1720 GMT on Thursday but the cause has not been defined yet, the state-run BBC reported.
A spokesman for Welsh Ambulance Services had earlier confirmed that paramedics dealt with casualties at the scene, but because of the heat of the flames, it was not yet certain how many people had actually been hurt.
Islamabad, June 03: Islamist militants who flowed out of Afghanistan fought a second day of fierce battles with Pakistani security forces Thursday in one of the deadliest clashes on the Pakistan side of the frontier in months. Authorities said 63 people were dead.
Signaling a deepening of the rift with the United States and voicing Islamabad’s anger over the attacks, the government issued a statement late Thursday voicing Pakistan’s “strong concern” about the attack.
Hyderabad, June 03: AP Deputy CM from TelanganaIn case Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy musters the requisite numbers, things will be different.
And if he fails in his misadventure he will lose his credibility as well as his “unknown” strength among the Congress Legislators.
In fact, Mr Jagan had planned to leave on Thursday evening for Jerusalem along with his MLA mother Ms Vijayamma and 15 other family members and relatives on a Thanksgiving pilgrimage for their massive victory in the just-concluded Kadapa and Pulivendula by-polls.
The introduction of advanced technology to make Haj and Umrah more comfortable for pilgrims will be the main topic at a forum looking at the annual pilgrimages.
The forum of Haj studies will be organized by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Institute of Haj Research at the Umm Al-Qura University in Makkah on June 12-17.
Tabuk, June 03: Sometimes a husband needs financial support from his wife to overcome a rough patch.
Yet, there are many reasons why women are wary of lending a helping hand to their life partners. Some of them think it would give the wrong message if they let their husbands rely too heavily upon them. Others are afraid that a reversal of traditional roles could cut both ways, in that their husbands start finding fault with their beauty or cut back on their rights.
Mumbai, June 03: Kareena Kapoor More PicsThe long drawn-out suspense over Kareena Kapoor sharing space with the likes of fellow Indians Sachin Tendulkar, Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Hrithik Roshan at Madame Tussauds Waxwork Museum in London finally ends.
Ashiqat, the region wide poetry contest for Arab women initiated by anaZahra.com in collaboration with celebrated Saudi poetess May Kutbi, and inspired by Belle, the new oriental fragrance from Yves Saint Laurent, concluded its ten-week run on a festive note, with a recital celebrating the winners of the poetry writing contest. The six winners, determined by audience voting on anaZahra.com, will be featured on Ashiqat 2, a follow-up to May’s successful lyrical debut album.
Hyderabad, June 03: Boys cornered the glory by bagging all the top 10 ranks in the Integrated Common Entrance Test ( ICET-2011), the results of which were declared here on Thursday. However, girls took a slight edge over boys with a pass percentage of 90.59, which was more than the boys’ percentage of 89.98.
Mumbai, June 03: Noted Pakistani singer Adnan Sami would not be able to perform shows in Dubai, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa with the Mumbai Sessions Court today rejecting his application seeking to travel to these nations.
Objecting to Sami’s application, Public Prosecutor Mohan Sawant argued that Sami is a citizen of Pakistan and there is no extradition treaty with that country and it would be very difficult to get him back if he chooses to go to Pakistan.
Sanaa, June 03: Yemeni gunmen stand guard in Sana’a, the country’s capital, on Thursday June 2, 2011, as tribesmen continue to battle forces loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Thousands of Yemeni tribesmen have threatened to flood into the capital Sana’a to join the battle against President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s forces.
The tribesmen on Thursday warned the government that if the country slides deeper into an all-out fight for power, they will join hands with other tribesmen who have been battling with Saleh forces for the past two-weeks, AP reported.
New Delhi, June 03: A 24-year-old man, with an MBA degree from Britain, was arrested for using cloned ATM cards to shop and withdraw money from accounts of various people, police said Thursday.
“The accused, Mukul Garg, was arrested Wednesday in Mukherjee Nagar (in north Delhi). Four white blank ATM cards fixed with magnetic strip were recovered from him,” said a police officer.
“He procured a number of cloned ATM Cards through some websites and used them for shopping of expensive articles and sold these articles for lesser amount,” added officer.
Hyderabad, June 03: Responding to the news that the Telugu Desam Party would introduce a No Confidence Motion against the N Kiran Kumar Reddy government, Telangana Rashtra Samithi Floor Leader in the Assembly Etela Rajender on Thursday said, “We will act responsibly and ensure that the Motion is passed.”
However, Mr Rajender’s words may not have give that much confidence to the Telugu Desam Party, especially after the fact that the TRS MLAs cross-voted during the elections to the Legislative Council earlier in the year.
Hyderabad, June 03: While accepting that the YSR Congress Party lacked the requisite numbers to pull down the N Kiran Kumar Reddy government, party leader Konathala Ramarakrishna on Thursday stated that it was now time for those MLAs elected during the stint of former chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy to decide if their loyalties lay with the Congress or with YSR.
New Delhi, June 03: Meira Kumar, the first woman speaker of the Lok Sabha, Thursday completed her two years of running India’s highest democratic institution during which the house saw some of the worst scenes of tumult over alleged corruption scams in India.
The Lok Sabha secretariat organised a colourful function in the parliament library building to honour the speaker for her “successful completion” of two years in office. Several MPs, officers and staff of the secretariat attended the function that concluded with a musical programme.
Kolkata, June 03: Former Indian cricket captain Sourav Ganguly Thursday said his legal battle on allotment of land for his school was the “toughest innings” of his life.
Hyderabad, June 03: The Bharatiya Janata Party leaders on Thursday demanded uniformity in laws pertaining to acquiring agricultural lands for the Special Economic Zones across the country.
Speaking to media persons after his party submitted a memorandum to Governor ESL Narasimhan at the Raj Bhavan, BJP state unit president G Kishen Reddy appealed to the government to streamline the acquiring of lands for industrialization.
Mr Kishen Reddy said that the government should bring uniformity in the laws for acquiring lands for Special Economic Zones and for industrialization purpose.
Hyderabad, June 03: Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Thursday extended the upper age concession of five years granted in favour of candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes for direct recruitment over and above the age limit prescribed in State and Subordinate Service Rules / Special Rules.
The Chief Minister took this decision with an objective of uplift of the disadvantaged persons of the Society and providing equal opportunities to all.
Hyderabad, June 03: Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Thursday in separate letters to Union Minister for Finance, Pranab Mukherjee and Union Minister for Textiles, Mr Dayanidhi Maran requested them to remove the restriction on the exports of cotton and permit to export an additional 15 lakhs cotton bales, so that farmers would get remunerative prices for cotton.
Hyderabad, June 03: Governor ESL Narasimhan on Thursday accepted the resignation of Deputy Speaker Nadendla Manohar from his post.
With the Congress High Command deciding to elevate Deputy Speaker Nadendla Manohar to Speaker’s post, Mr Manohar submitted his resignation.
According to highly placed sources, the Governor appointed former minister and Congress senior leader JC Diwakar Reddy as Pro-tem Speaker to facilitate Speaker’s election.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Camp Office sources state that Telangana leader Damodar Rajanarasimha has been chosen as the Deputy Chief Minister.
Chennai, June 03: Textiles Minister Dayanidhi Maran Thursday sent a legal notice to The New Indian Express demanding Rs.10 crore damages for publishing a defamatory article alleging he “looted” the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) while communication minister between 2004 and 2007, his lawyer said.
Maran strongly denied the allegation in the article that he set up a BSNL telephone exchange with 323 home lines at his Boat Club residence and connected it to his brother’s Sun TV Network.
Hyderabad, June 03: YSR Congress Party leader and MLC Jupudi Prabhakhar on Thursday stated that the party will take a decision on extending support to No Confidence Motion to be introduced by the Telugu Desam Party against the government only after discussing it thoroughly.
Talking to media persons at Sagar Society, Mr Prabhakar said the notice given by Telugu Desam Party for introducing No Trust Motion has many lapses.
Hyderabad, June 03: Maintaining that he would not join any other party, suspended Telugu Desam Party Telangana leader Nagam Janardhan Reddy on Thursday appealed to Telangana leaders to come forward to fight for the separate state on common platform leaving their differences aside.
Talking to media persons at Assembly Media Point, Mr Janardhan Reddy stated that the Telangana leaders should make united and cohesive efforts to achieve their common goal. “All of us must unite and come on one common platform to fight for Telangana,” he stated.
Russia, June 03: A woman here was Thursday sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison for attempting to sell her newborn baby boy for 10,000 rubles (about $330), a local court said Thursday.
The woman in the Urals town of Satka was an alcoholic who did not have a permanent place of residence or a steady job, the court said in a statement. She was arrested in March after selling her baby to undercover police officers.