Islamabad, July 01: Pakistan’s National Commission on the Status of Women will now be known as the ‘National Commission for Women’ and it will be an autonomous body following the devolution of the ministry of women’s development.
“With the autonomy, we will at last be able to operate independently and contribute with a big difference to the cause of women,” Dawn quoted Anis Haroon, the commission’s chairperson, as saying.
Hyderabad, July 01: Gone are the days when a physician’s profession was considered noble and patients revered the doctor as God.
Today, patients are more likely to drag this ‘God’ to court or before the human rights commission as the patient-doctor relationship has become more or less a business transaction sans trust and respect.
Medicine has become big business as hospitals and clinics have been corporatised, charging a fortune for administrative services, diagnostics and drugs.
Hyderabad, July 01: Resiling from his recent statement, the Praja Rajyam chief, Mr K. Chiranjeevi, on Thursday said that he would return to movies.
Mr Chiranjeevi made the statement at the premiere of the Amitabh Bachchan-starrer Bbuddah Hoga Terra Baap.
“I will return to acting with my 150th movie which will be directed by Puri Jagannath,” said Mr Chiranjeevi to thunderous applause.
Hyderabad, July 01: The ban on plastic carry bags below 40-micron thickness comes into effect in the city from Friday.
Sources said that enforcement teams of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation will raid plastic manufacturing units, dealers, distributors and whole-sellers, besides major malls and markets, in the first few days after the ban coming into effect.
Hyderabad, July 01: According to the Andhra Pradesh Tourism website, “With more than 600 tourist locations, the second largest coastline in the country, 1000 years of history and pilgrimage centres of every major religion, AP is truly ‘the essence of India’.” Sounds welcoming? But reality doesn’t quite live up to expectations of foreign tourists.
Many tourist destinations in Hyderabad have different entry fees for foreigners and local citizens. The fee for foreigners is almost 15-20 times more than what locals pay.
Mumbai, July 01: Southern beauty Asin Thottumkal, who has shared screen space with Bollywood star Salman Khan in two films, says that the actor encourages new talent a lot.
“Salman is quite encouraging of new talent. I saw a lot of these young boys come up to him with their portfolios for a break and he really encourages them…. takes them under his wings and does whatever he can to help them. I found that very nice and endearing,” Asin told IANS.
The 25-year-old actress has worked with Salman in the films “London Dreams” and “Ready”.
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Washington, July 01: The White House will host a Twitter session with President Barack Obama on July 6. The president will answer questions submitted via Twitter, which limits messages to 140 characters. The session will focus on jobs and the economy, and a video feed of Obama’s answers will be streamed online.
While Obama has taken questions submitted on social networking sites in previous public meetings, including one hosted by Facebook, the White House says this is the first time the questions will come exclusively through Twitter.
Manila, July 01: The Philippines is to ask for clarification from Saudi Arabia after it announced it would stop granting work permits for Filipino domestic staff, President Benigno Aquino’s spokesman said.
Philippines officials will also look for other markets for workers in the event that the freeze, announced in Riyadh on Wednesday, is put into full effect, Aquino spokesman Edwin Lacierda told a news conference.
Saudi authorities announced the new policy, which also affects maids from Indonesia, after failing to agree on hiring conditions imposed by the Asian countries.
Hyderabad, July 01: Here’s the reality check of the city police’s claim that it is closely monitoring contract marriages.
On Thursday, the marriage certificate issuing section of the Wakf Board was processing two applications one involving a 75-year-old Arab sheikh from UAE who got married to a 22-year-old girl from Miralam Mandi area of Old City. The other applicant was a 42-year-old Omani national who got married to a 21-year-old girl. Both the marriages were performed in June and officials said such applications for certificates were routine.
Atlanta, July 01: Kulsoom Abdullah of Atlanta has filed to compete in the US weightlifting championships a day after the sport’s world governing body modified its rules to accommodate her Muslim beliefs.
The International Weightlifting Federation announced on Wednesday that it would allow athletes to wear a full-body “unitard” under the customary weightlifting uniform.
New Delhi, July 01: Indian athletics has been hit by five fresh cases of doping, prompting the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) to launch an inquiry into the rising incidents, which touched seven Thursday.
With just over a year left for the 2012 London Olympics, the dope cases come as a serious setback for Indian athletics, specially the women’s 4×400 metres relay team, which won the gold in last year’s Commonwealth and Asian Games and was tipped to make the finals in London. Two runners, Sini Jose and Mandeep Kaur, of the women’s relay team were among the dope offenders.
Hyderabad, July 01: A businessman from Karimnagar district, who was allegedly kidnapped 10 days ago, was found murdered and his body stuffed inside a refrigerator in an apartment at Uppal in the city.
The family had paid Rs 1 lakh as ransom to the abductors after the kidnap but they murdered him nevertheless, police said.
Hyderabad, July 01: City police today arrested a woman for allegedly cheating an NRI youth from United States of Rs 14 lakh by promising to marry him. Cyber crime wing of Crime Investigation Department (CID) arrested Deepika Reddy alias Deepthi Vallapuri in this connection.
The youth had filed the complaint of cheating and impersonation against an unknown woman on June 20.
U Rammohan, SP, Cyber Crime, said that the complainant, a software engineer, came to know Reddy through a matrimonial website. Her profile said she was a doctor.
Lakhimpur-Kheri (Uttar Pradesh), July 01: Contradicting two autopsy reports, the National Commission for Women (NCW) said here Thursday that the minor girl found dead in a police station complex in this Uttar Pradesh district had indeed been gangraped.
“Not only one, several people raped the girl and brutally killed her. Thereafter, the girl’s body was hanged from a tree to give a suicide angle to the incident,” NCW acting chairperson Yasmeen Abrar told reporters in Lakhimpur-Kheri, some 140 km from Lucknow.
Mumbai, July 01: His last words were “Maria, Maria!” a call for help to another man’s lover, according to a statement the woman would make later. The cry was drowned in minutes as he was stabbed, allegedly by the other man, with what must have been a “rather blunt kitchen knife”.
Once Neeraj Grover was dead, Emil Jerome Mathew slapped his girlfriend Maria Susairaj several times and then, according to her statement, raped her twice.
It was a crime of passion that would be recounted several times in the courtroom and on the news.
THE KILLING
Hyderabad, July 01: “Police force is an instrument of social change. An understanding of the local problems and a sincere effort towards change will earn the respect of the public,” said K Aravinda Rao, director general of police (DGP), Andhra Pradesh, who retired from service on Thursday.
The police personnel turned up in their ceremonial best for the DGP’s farewell parade at the Amberpet police grounds here.
Kolkata, July 01: An alarming case of 18 infants’ death in the last 36 hours has come to light from Kolkata’s BC Roy Hospital on Thurday June 30.
Family members alleged negligence on part of the hospital authorities. Police had to resort to lathicharge as the infuriated family members smashed hospital furniture and blocked a road for over an hour.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee has ordered probe to determine the cause of the deaths. The chief minister said that the report is expected within 24 hours.
New Delhi, July 01: Ahead of the all party meet scheduled on July 03, Anna Hazare along with his team will be meeting Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, Friday, to garner support for their version of the Lokpal Bil.
Team Anna had met LK Advani earlier this week and were invited to come back to brief other senior leaders. However, party president Nitin Gadkari won’t be part of the discussions as he is in Berlin to attended a cultural festival celebrating the 30th anniversary of Sri Sri Ravishankar’s Art of Living Foundation.
Phnom Penh, July 01: Cambodian recruitment agencies have decided not to send maids to Kuwait after complaints by human rights groups of abuse by employers, a recruitment official said on Thursday.
Impoverished Cambodia is one of Asia’s biggest exporters of maids abroad, a valuable source of foreign exchange.
Jeddah, July 01: The wife of the suspect who was recently arrested in connection with at least 13 kidnappings and brutal rape attacks on little girls has denied rumors that she wants a divorce.
While claiming that her husband is innocent of all the crimes attributed to him, she appealed to security authorities to release him at the earliest opportunity, Al-Watan newspaper reported.
The woman said there was no truth in the allegations that her husband had committed the attacks.
Washington, July 01: The US considers Pakistan based terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Taeba (LeT), held responsible for 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, as a formidable terrorist threat to Indian, US, and other Western interests in South Asia and potentially elsewhere.
In Afghanistan, the US military and NATO are committed to preventing Al Qaeda’s return and disrupting any terrorist networks located there that have the ability to plan and launch transnational terrorist attacks, the White House said in its new counter-terrorism strategy.
Islamabad, July 01: It was Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence, which leaked the US intelligence information about bomb making factories in Pakistan’s tribal areas, a top Republican Senator said as he demanded the Obama Administration establishes strong benchmarks for American aid to Islamabad.
New Delhi, July 01: What would you make of 377, 2/7, 730? Could be a code or a logical reasoning question. But, for queers, 377 is the Indian Penal Code section that denied them the right to love for over a century, 2/7 is when the Delhi High Court famously read down the section and 730 the number of days since homosexuality has been decriminalised in India.
It was exactly two years ago on July 2, 2009, that the high court struck down provisions of Section 377 saying that it violated the fundamental right of life and liberty and the right to equality as guaranteed in the constitution.
San Jose, July 01: A total of 580 knives, many homemade, as well as drugs, liquor and cash were seized Thursday by Costa Rican authorities at the La Reforma prison, the country’s main such facility.
In all, police seized more than $6,000 in cash from the prisoners, 68 litres of liquor, 10 cell phones and 800 grams of drugs such as crack and marijuana, Justice Vice Minister Fernando Ferrero told reporters.
Dehra Dun, July 01: The Uttarakhand government on Thursday night issued a red alert following heavy rains in the state that left 10 people dead and triggered a series of landslides.
An official statement said Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank has advised the administration to issue red alert in sensitive zones particularly in Chardham and Kailash Mansarovar yatra areas.