Month: August 2011

Cairo, August 05: The headquarters of the Arab League – which had supported the move to impose a non-flying zone over Libya – was attacked in Cairo. Molotov cocktails were thrown at it by unidentified men, a media report said.

Two men riding a motorcycle threw two bottles of Molotov cocktail at the building Thursday, Xinhua reported citing independent news website El-Youm7.

The fire was extinguished, with no reports of damage or injuries.

Sources said there were rumours that a bomb was planted three days ago in the building, but police found nothing there.

Hyderabad, August 05: Telangana Legislator Toorpu Jayaprakash Reddy on Thursday announced that he has decided to go on hunger strike from Friday at Sangareddy to demand the state government for deletion of Clause 14 F from the Presidential Order of 1975.

Mr Jayaprakash Reddy told media persons at the Secretariat that he was forced to take this step to safeguard the interests of Telangana candidates who had applied for the Sub-Inspector’s posts.

The Sub-Inspectors’ recruitment exam has been scheduled for August 13 and 14.

Hyderabad, August 05: Minister for Minorities Welfare, Wakf and Urdu AcademyMohammed Ahmadullah on Thursday said that he has requested the APCPDCL to ensure uninterrupted power supply ‘without’ fail in the Holy Month of Ramzan.

In a statement, Mr Ahmadullah said that, keeping in view certain complaints on power cuts in the city, he has requested AP Central Power Distribution Company Ltd Vice-Chairman and Managing Director B Anantha Ramu to ensure uninterrupted power supply without fail during the Holy Month of Ramzan to avoid inconvenience to Muslim brethren.

Hyderabad, August 05: A showdown between the government and the employees appears imminent if the words of Telangana Employees Joint Action Committee leaders are taken into account during a relay hunger fast at the Indira Park on Thursday.

Various employees’ union leaders, speaking one after the other at the dharna site, warned the state government against invoking the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) to stop them from participating in the proposed strike from August 17.

New Delhi, August 05: Minister of State for Personnel V Narayanasamy introduced the long-awaited Lokpal Bill in the Lok Sabha today amidst objections by Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj over the exclusion of the Prime Minister’s office from its ambit.

Hyderabad, August 05: The formal merger of the Praja Rajyam Party into the Congress will most likely be postponed after Congress president Sonia Gandhi was forced to rush to the United States for a surgery.

The merger, scheduled to take place between August 7 and 10, would have been formalized after PRP President K Chiranjeevi joining the Congress party in Ms Sonia Gandhi’s presence.

The AICC chief had already invited Mr Chiranjeevi to New Delhi to meet her anytime between August 7 and 10 to formally take primary membership of the party.

Libya, August 05: Tweet this Share reddit this Martin Chulov and Chris Stephen in Misrata guardian.co.uk, Thursday 4 August 2011 19.42 BST
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s son, Saif al-Islam. Many view his comments as an admission that Tripoli supports terrorism. Photograph: Chris Helgren/Reuters

New Delhi, August 05: An UPA ally, NCP, on Thursday joined the opposition in charging the Government with adopting a “soft approach” towards terrorism.

Participating in a discussion in the Rajya Sabha on growing incidents of terrorism in the country, Yogendra P. Trivedi (NCP) said, “We are probably too soft in handling terrorism. Killers and terrorists should not feel India is too soft on them.”

There have been several terrorist attacks in the country in the last decade, he said, adding “This has become something which is common and people have become resilient.”

Hyderabad, August 04: The Andhra Pradesh High Court today reserved orders after hearing arguments for the last four days on the writ petitions filed by the Andhra Pradesh Minister P Shankar Rao and two others who sought a CBI probe into alleged disproportionate wealth of YSR Congress Party president Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy.

Kabul, August 04: The US-led military alliance says four American soldiers have been killed amid increasing attacks by militants against foreign forces in Afghanistan.

The US-led forces lost their lives in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday, NATO announced.

In another incident on the same day, a NATO soldier was killed when a man dressed as an Afghan policeman opened fire on him.

On Wednesday two NATO soldiers were killed in a roadside bombing in southern Afghanistan and one other lost his life in a noncombat-related incident in the east of the country.

Kolkata, August 04: Union Finance Minister and Congress stalwart Pranab Mukherjee’s son Abhijit Mukherjee Thursday was made the general secretary of the party’s West Bengal unit besides becoming a member of the All India Congress Committee, a party leader said.

‘Abhijit Mukherjee along with MLA (member of legislative assembly) Sukh Bilas Verma has been made general secretaries of the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee. Two posts of general secretaries were lying vacant so we decided to fill it up,’ Congress general secretary and state in charge Shakeel Ahmed told IANS.

New Delhi, August 04: Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj on Thursday justified her objection to exclusion of Prime Minister from the purview of the Lokpal Bill saying government has given no reasons for his exemption and insisted that nobody was above criminal law.

Just before the government introduced the Lokpal Bill, Swaraj spoke in the Lok Sabha expressing her party’s objection to the exclusion of the Prime Minister from the purview of the Lokpal.

Bangalore, August 04: D.V. Sadananda Gowda Thursday became the Bharatiya Janata Party’s second chief minister in Karnataka but his opponents in the ruling party boycotted the oath-taking ceremony at Raj Bhavan here.

On being called by Governor H.R. Bhardwaj, Gowda alone took oath of office and secrecy in Kannada in the name of god.

New Delhi, August 04: Terming home-grown terror modules as the ‘new reality’ faced by India, Home Minister P. Chidambaram Thursday said the problem was not paid adequate attention when the nation was fighting cross-border terrorism.

Replying to a short duration discussion in the Rajya Sabha on the situation ‘arising out of growing incidents of terrorism in the country with special reference to recent blasts in Mumbai on July 13,’ Chidambaram said the country was building capacities to improve intelligence gathering and fight terrorism.

Srinagar, August 04: The son of a senior Jammu and Kashmir minister and Congress leader was arrested in south Kashmir’s Anantnag Thursday for rioting including assaulting a village headman, police said.

‘Six people including Sufan, the son of state Education Minister Peerzada Muhammad Sayeed were arrested on charges of rioting, trespass and mischief by the police in Kokernag after they beat up a local sarpanch, who then lodged a complaint with us,’ a senior police officer said here.

Melbourne, August 04: Children who are beaten up by their parents have far less self-control than those spared the trauma, a new study has found.

They also fall short when it comes to verbal communication, decision making, and resisting temptation.

Lead researcher Prof Kang Lee said “the ability to control behaviours, to switch from one task to another, and to plan actions” were all stronger in children raised under “positive parental control”.

Mumbai, August 04: Extending losses for the third day, the benchmark Market plunged by 247 points to close at a six-week low on across-the-board selling by investors after food inflation crossed 8 percent mark fanning fears of yet another rate hike.

After a promising opening, the 30-share Bombay Stock Exchange came under hectic selling after midsession and closed at 17,693.18, a steep fall of 247.37 points or 1.38 percent.

All 13 sectoral indices ended in the red, with realty, auto, FMCG and metal segments suffering the most.

Mumbai, August 04: Bollywood hunk John Abraham took his obsession with mean machines to another level when he surprised the cast and crew by lifting a 150 kg bike in ‘Force.’

Apparently, when director Nishikant Kamat told John about the scene, the hunk of an actor persisted on the doing the scene all by himself, that too without any harness.

London, August 04: A new theory has come up that the earth might once have had two moons – the one that shines at night today and a smaller companion, which was destroyed in a slow collision between the two satellites.

While the side of the moon facing the Earth has relatively low and flat topography, the side facing away is high and mountainous with a much thicker crust.

Scientists have proposed different theories to explain this lack of symmetry. One leading idea is that gravitational tidal forces reshaped the moon’s crust and made it lopsided.

New Delhi, August 04: A ranking by UK-based risk analysis and mapping firm, Maplecroft, suggests that Somalia is the most vulnerable nation to terrorism.

The latest Terrorism Risk Index (TRI), released by Maplecroft, rates 20 countries and territories as ‘extreme risk’. In this category, Somalia is followed by Pakistan (2), Iraq (3), Afghanistan (4), and newly-formed South Sudan (5). The top four rankings were unchanged from Maplecroft’s previous survey issued in November 2010.

Hyderabad, August 04: The XXI Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate on Thursday rejected the bail petition filed by former Satyam Computers chairman B Ramalinga Raju and seven others.

Raju and his co-accused had applied for bail before the Court, stating that the trial has not been completed by July 31.

The Supreme Court had earlier given the accused in the sensational account fraud scam the option to file a bail plea only after July 31, if the trial is not completed by the local court by this time.

New Delhi, August 04: UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Thursday underwent a major surgery in the United States and will stay out of the country for about three to four weeks.

As per reports, the surgery performed on the Congress party president was successful and she had been advised to take adequate rest for three-four weeks.

Confirming the news, Congress spokesperson Janardan Dwivedi said, “Sonia Gandhi has been unwell for quite some time and the doctors attending her had advised her to undergo a surgery, for which she had flown to the United States recently.”

Hyderabad, August 04: Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on Thursday informed Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy that he has already sent the file relating to deletion of Clause 14 F from the Presidential Orders to the office of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his approval.

Mr Chidambaram was replying to Mr Kiran Kumar Reddy’s request, conveyed during an earlier telephonic call, informing the Union Home Minister that getting a second resolution passed by the state Assembly was impossible and urging him to forward the file to the Prime Minister’s Office.

New Delhi, August 04: YSR Congress Party president YS Jaganmohan Reddy was on Thursday sworn in as the Member of Lok Sabha from Kadapa at 11.01 AM in the Central Hall. Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar administered the Oath.

Mr Jaganmohan Reddy took the Oath in his mother tongue Telugu and in the name of God.

Hyderabad, August 04: Minorities welfare minister Mohammed Ahmadullah on Thursday gave an assurance to the effect that the income ceiling of Rs 2 lakh for claiming the fee reimbursement and post-metric scholarships by the minorities’ students will be considered.

Earlier, the Centre had raised the income limit of SC and ST families from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 2 lakh. “Efforts are on to extend the same facility to minority students also,” Mr Ahmadullah said.