Month: July 2011

Riyadh, July 5 – The General Court in Riyadh recently sentenced two judges and a businessman to a total of 15 years in prison and SR15 million in fines.
The suspects were accused of being involved in forging stamps and signatures of officials and of two deceased judges – Muhammad Bin Muslem Al-Otahimeen and Ruahsid Bin Muhammad Al-Qaisi – of the General Court in Al-Bada’ governorate. They were also accused of issuing forged title deeds for vacant state land on the coast in Sharma.

Jeddah, July 5 – King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, has ordered the appointment of Prince Saud Bin Naif Bin Abdul Aziz as Adviser to the Second Deputy Premier and to the Assistant Minister of Interior for Public Affairs, at the rank of minister. This was on the recommendation of the Second Deputy Premier and Minister of Interior.

–Agencies

Dammam, July 5 – Expatriate business people and professionals have come out in support of government’s efforts to train and ensure employment for young Saudis.

Hyderabad, July 5: TRS on Monday night hit out at Union Home Minister P Chidambaram accusing him of not taking into cognisance the en masse resignations of Congress and TDP lawmakers over Telangana statehood issue.
“I am asking Home Minister Chidambaram (that) more than 100 people’s representatives of Telangana have resigned, is it not a congnisable matter? Instead of taking it seriously, Chidambaram spoke in an improper manner today,” party president K Chandrasekhar said here.

Hyderabad, July 5: Hours after nearly 80 legislators from Telangana resigned, including 41 Congress MLAs, Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) chief K Chandrasekhar Rao, speaking on behalf of the Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC), gave a call for a 48-hour bandh in the Telangana region on Tuesday and Wednesday. He added that they will further intensify the agitation for a separate state after the two-day bandh.

Rajahmundry, July 5: East Godavari district sixth additional sessions judge K Bhishma Gangeyudu awarded death sentence to one Karem Srinivas Dora here on Monday, for the rape and murder of a minor girl.
He was also awarded 10 years rigorous imprisonment under Section 376 and seven years imprisonment under Section 354 of the IPC and a penalty of Rs 2,000. All the three sentences would run concurrently. According to police, Madhuri Veeraveni (15) of Beerampalli village of Gangavaram mandal was raped and murdered by Karem Srinivas Dora on July 14, 2008.

New Delhi, July 5: As the Telangana crisis deepened on Monday with the mass resignations of MPs and MLAs from the region, the Centre came up with a small concession on the Free Zone issue but kept mum on the demand for a separate state.
The Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA), chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, met for over an hour and decided to recommend to President Pratibha Patil to repeal Clause 14 (F) of the 1975 Presidential Order. The decision enables people of the region get preference in employment especially in the police force in Hyderabad.

Vishakapatnam, July 5: Tension prevailed for sometime at the Collectorate on Monday as some DSC-2008 qualified candidates attempted self immolation in front of the Collectorate on Monday.
The DSC aspirants attempted mass self immolation demanding assurance from officials that they would be given jobs.They said though they were given appointment letters, no postings were given till now.

Kolkata, July 05: Sharing power in West Bengal after 34 long years, a keyed-up Congress is now gearing up for the Rajya Sabha polls in the state where it is in a position to win a seat on its own strength for the first time in over a decade.

Six aspirants are in the fray for being nominated as Congress candidate with the party set to contest one of the half-a-dozen seats up for grabs in the July 22 polls.

Srikakulam, June 5: As illegally made country made bombs have been taking many lives in the district including four deaths recently at Bhagavandaspeta village of Ponduru mandal in the district, police are gearing up to crack down on poachers making bombs.

Hyderabad, July 5: In a bid to steal a march on the Telangana Congress legislators, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) MLAs from the Telangana region put in their papers even before the ruling Congress MLAs submitted their resignations on Monday. Till Sunday, the Telangana Telugu Desam Forum had been reiterating that the party MLAs would tender their resignations only after the Congress legislators did so.

Khammam, July 5: Two students died in police misfiring on the Police Commemoration Day last year. The incident during the open house programme conducted by the district police at ZP high school in Velerupadu.
A class VIII student Pasumarthy Satyasaibaba (13) son of Tirupathi Rao, Medepalli Venkatakrishna (15), a class X student and son of Venkateswarlu, died after a constable misfired his rifle.

NEW DELHI: Four more parliament members and 16 legislators from Andhra Pradesh’s Telangana region resigned Tuesday to step up pressure on the central government to carve out a separate state.
Intensifying the movement for a separate state of Telangana, parliament members of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) have submitted their resignations.
While TRS chief K. Chandrasekhara Rao and his colleague Vijayashanti faxed their resignations to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, TDP MPs N. Nageswar Rao and Ramesh Rathore tendered their resignations in New Delhi.

Hyderabad, July 5: The Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust is yet to submit a report to the Andhra Pradesh government on its functioning even as police intensified its probe into unaccounted cash seized last month.
It was on June 27 that the government sought a report from the trust on its activities in view of the cash seizure and the allegations made by a section of devotees.
According to sources in the endowments department, the trust has not yet sent the details regarding its activities, finances and future. The department was given a 10-day deadline to the trust.

Kathmandu, July 5: A chartered accountant from New Delhi, who after building a casino empire in Sri Lanka and then losing it seemed poised for a repeat history in Nepal, has been handed a reprieve by the republic’s apex court.
New Delhi businessman Rakesh Wadhwa, whose control over eight casinos in Nepal decreased to just four in two years and even those threatened to slip out of his grasp, can now heave a sigh of relief. The Supreme Court of Nepal has ordered the government not to scrap the Indian’s licence to run casinos.

Dhaka, July 5: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s reported comment that a quarter of Bangladesh’s population is anti-India cannot be seen as “an innocent remark”, a Bangladeshi daily said Tuesday.
The prime minister made the “off the record” remark to a group of Indian editors but it got loaded on the government website by mistake – and taken off amid embarrassment.

Melbourne, July 5: The Australian hotel, which ejected a Sikh man from its premises because he was wearing a turban, has apologised to him while admitting that its policy of ‘no headwear’ should be applied with sensitivity to religious and cultural beliefs.
The Sikh man was asked to leave the Royal English Hotel in suburban Brisbane on Sunday because his turban contravened its “no headwear” policy. Coles subsidiary Spirit Hotels, which owns the venue, apologised to the unnamed man yesterday.

Hyderabad, July 5: The political crisis in Andhra Pradesh deepened on Tuesday with the resignation of four more parliament members and 18 legislators from Telangana even as the Congress leadership began talks with state leaders and a 48-hour shutdown crippled the region.
MPs of both the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) submitted their resignations.

Fatehpur, July 05: Accusing Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati of depriving Dalits and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) of their rights, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Uma Bharti said here Tuesday that their condition remained unchanged under her rule.

“It is only for votes that the BSP approaches Dalits and OBCs. Once their mission to acquire power is accomplished, the party tends to forget those people who had voted it to power,” Uma Bharti told reporters in this Uttar Pradesh district.

Lucknow, July 05: Uttar Pradesh’s ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Tuesday spoke almost in one voice as they termed Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi’s ‘padyatra’ (march) in western areas of the state a ‘political gimmick’ and ‘a drama.’

Issued almost simultaneously, the BSP’s and BJP’s press releases advised Gandhi to instead ‘use his influence on the central government to expedite the amendments in the land acquisition laws which have been pending for a long time’.

New Delhi, July 05: After tendering their resignations, Congress ministers, MPs and MLAs from Telangana region in Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday met Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, who supervises the party’s affairs in the state, here on Tuesday in a bid to persuade the central leadership to accept demand for creating a separate state.

They also explained as to why they had put in their papers and agreed to participate in discussions on the issue.

New Delhi, July 05: India and the UK on Tuesday discussed ways to strengthen bilateral co-operation in counter-terrorism, policing, homeland security issues and key priorities in taking forward the enhanced partnership.

The issues were discussed by Jeremy Browne, UK Foreign Office Minister, who is here on a two-day visit, during his meetings with Home Minister P Chidambarm and Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur.

New Delhi, July 05: The Delhi High Court Tuesday rejected the bail plea of former Commonwealth Games (CWG) Organising Committee (OC) secretary general Lalit Bhanot, arrested for alleged irregularities in a deal with a Swiss firm for the mega sporting event last year.

‘I find no merit in the bail application moved by accused Bhanot, therefore, his bail application is dismissed,’ Justice Mukta Gupta said.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested Bhanot and former OC director general V.K. Verma Feb 23.

Patna, July 05: : BJP on Tuesday reiterated that it would give its views on a strong Lokpal Bill in parliament once it was presented.

“We will give our considered views on a strong Lokpal bill in parliament once it is being brought after approval for debate,” BJP National Spokesperson Syed Shahnawaz Hussain told reporters here.

“It is because of the BJP and its top leader L K Advani that the twin issues of corruption and blackmoney are being debated, he claimed.

Norway, July 05: All five passengers of a helicopter have been killed in a crash after the aircraft struck mountains west of Norway.

The aircraft — an Aerospatiale 350 — crashed before 8 p.m. on Monday in a remote area at the bottom of the Hardanger fjord, east of Bergen.

“We can confirm that all five people onboard died,” local police chief Oeystein Torsnaes said, adding that it remained unclear what had caused the crash, AFP reported.

“The investigation is ongoing,” he said.