Month: August 2011

Hyderabad, August 09: Service tax officials visited some Tollywood production houses on Monday and reportedly reminded them to pay their service tax dues. The offices of top producers Allu Arvind, Dil Raju, and Bellamkonda Suresh were reportedly visited.

Many producers have received notices to pay up their service tax arrears but they have been protesting against the 10 per cent service tax on the film’s total budget, for which they intend to seek exemption from the government since the industry is in dire straits.

Hyderabad, August 09: Markazi Mashaiq and Ulema Forum president Moulana SS Asrar Hussain Razvi Al Madani, along with a delegation of Muslim leaders on Monday called on N Kiran Kumar Reddy and appealed to the Chief Minister to use his good offices to forward their sentiments to all concerned and see that all agitation programmes during the Holy month of Ramzan be postponed. The Chief Minister sympathetically responded to their request and assured that to do whatever he can in this regard.

Hyderabad, August 09: The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, for a change, has been accused of encroachment. The famous Toli Masjid committee has alleged that the GHMC has encroached and set up a garbage transfer station on masjid land — a wakf property — at Karwan, Old City.

The GHMC has also laid a road through the wakf property to the garbage transfer station.

The Masjid committee had made a representation to the issue to the State Wakf Board which had forwarded it to the GHMC. While the Corporation has not replied so far, garbage is still being dumped on the land.

Hyderabad, August 09: TRS president K Chandrasekhara Rao on Monday appealed to MLAs of all parties to submit their resignations again. He said this is the only way to achieve Telangana by putting pressure on the Centre.

He was speaking at the dharna camp of Gandhi hospital doctors organised in support of the employees proposed general strike.

Coming down heavily on chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy for his adamant attitude to conduct SI examinations, Rao wanted him to shed his arrogance.

London, August 09: A teenaged girl in Britain had a miraculous escape from death after being buried alive on a beach for 15 minutes as the hole she was digging collapsed.

Paige Anderson, 15, turned blue and had stopped breathing after being trapped under a 5- feet wall of sand for quarter of an hour as paramedics, police, lifeboatmen and coastguards frantically dug her out, Daily Mail reported.

She was playing with her sisters Jade, 19, and Taylor, nine, on the beach at Caister, a settlement near coastal town Great Yarmouth, Norfolk county, when the disaster struck.

Utah, August 09: An office manager is suing her former employer, claiming her boss at the time gave her a Monday to Friday schedule of how to dress, including ‘Tube-top Tuesday’ and ‘No bra Thursday.’

Trudy Nycole Anderson, 44, of Utah County, Utah, claims she was sexually harassed and is seeking undisclosed damages

She filed the suit in U.S. District Court against Derek Wright, the owner of Lone Peak Controls and D&L Electric Control Company.

London, August 09: Mittu the parrot deserves congratulations – or as the African grey might say, ‘shabaash’, Daily Mail online reports.

The bilingual bird has developed an impressive vocabulary in both English and Urdu after being raised in a home where both are spoken.

Melbourne, August 09: An Australian man who allegedly raped an 85-year-old woman at a Melbourne train station just to have ‘a bit of a thrill’ has been sentenced to 11-year imprisonment.

Allan Richard Hodson, 65, reportedly attacked the aged woman at Southern Cross Station in a public toilet on January 27.

Victorian County Court Judge Duncan Allen adjudged Hodson guilty to rape, causing serious injury and threatening injury, and described the violent activity as shocking and horrific.

Fasting during Ramadan was ordained during the second year of Hijrah. Why not earlier? In Makkah, the economic conditions of the Muslims was bad. They were being persecuted. Often days would go by before they had anything to eat. It is easy to skip meals if you don’t have any. Obviously fasting would have been easier under the circumstances. So why not then?

Hyderabad, August 09: The announcement by the Telangana Recognised Private Schools Managements’ Association (TRPSMA) in Warangal on Sunday over the indefinite closure of schools from August 17, came as a shock to the managements of private schools in Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy districts.

Even parents and students in the city were shocked to hear about the move — part of the ‘general strike’announced by various T- employees’ associations.

Surprisingly, the school managements are not aware of the existence of any association called TRPSMA.

It is permissible for a person to avoid fasting if he is so ill that by fasting it will endanger his life, worsen his illness or there is a fear of becoming physically disabled. Such a person should keep the missed fast’s after regaining his health.

New Delhi, August 09: The Supreme Court Monday admitted a petition by the Akhil Bhartiya Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Punarudhar Samiti challenging the Allahabad High Court verdict in the Babri Masjid case.

An apex court bench of Justice Aftab Alam and Justice R.M. Lodha, while admitting the petition, tagged it with the main case.

The Sunni Waqf Board, which opposed the plea, said the Ram Janmabhoomi Punarudhar Samiti was not a party before the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court that had pronounced the Ayodhya verdict Sep 30, 2010.

New Delhi, August 09: Literacy rate is one of the most important indicators of educational status. As per 2001 census figures, the literacy rate of Minority communities is as follows:

Religion                                        Literacy Rate

Literacy Rate       Literacy Rate       Average
(Males)               (Females)     

Muslims                            67.6                     50.01             59.1

Hyderabad, August 09: Government employees in Telangana Monday launched protests ahead of their indefinite strike from Aug 17, demanding a separate Telangana state.

The employees began “work to rule” protest, by refusing to work beyond 5 p.m. and also held lunch-hour demonstrations, as a prelude to the strike.

Raising slogans of “Jai Telangana”, the employees gathered in the premises of various government offices in Hyderabad and other parts of Telangana.

Mumbai, August 09: The nine Muslim youths in jail for the Maelgaon 2006 blast have agreed for a polygraph, a lie detector test, in MCOCA court on Monday while the court postponed the decision till 2nd September 2011.

National Investigative Agency (NIA) that took over the case from CBI after the confession of Swami Aseemanand demanded to do a polygraph test on Noorul Huda, Shabbir Ahmed, Raees Ahmed, Dr. Salman Farsi, Dr. Farogh, Shaikh Mohammed Ali, Asif Khan, Maulana Zahid, and Abrar Ahmed.

New Delhi, August 09: Slamming the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for demanding her resignation over the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report on the Commonwealth Games irregularities, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit Monday said she was not answerable to the party.

“What the BJP says is something that I don’t have to answer. They can go on saying something or the other but the facts are contrary to what they are saying,” Dikshit told reporters here.

“If the PAC (Public Accounts Commission) calls us for any clarifications, we are ready,” she added.

Cairo, August 09: An Egyptian woman has applied for divorce after her husbands’ cooking skills proved to be better than her own, the Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper reported Monday.

The family row came amid the Islamic holiday of Ramadan, when observers fast from dawn to dusk and then break the fast with festive meals after night prayers.

Mohammed Said, a chef at a Cairo hotel, surprised his family with his excellent cooking skills when he took over kitchen duties from his wife Nahal at the beginning of Ramadan.

Hyderabad, August 09: Markazi Mashaiq and Ulema Forum president Moulana SS Asrar Hussain Razvi Al Madani, along with a delegation of Muslim leaders on Monday called on N Kiran Kumar Reddy and appealed to the Chief Minister to use his good offices to forward their sentiments to all concerned and see that all agitation programmes during the Holy month of Ramzan be postponed. The Chief Minister sympathetically responded to their request and assured that to do whatever he can in this regard.

Lucknow, August 09: In a case of human sacrifice, a man in this Uttar Pradesh city killed a minor boy after a self-professed godman assured him that the act would make him wealthy overnight, police said Monday. While the man has been arrested, the godman is on the run.

Rajan Kumar, a native of Nauchandi area, Sunday killed the 13-year-old son of Chandan. The boy’s body was recovered Monday on the information Kumar gave the police.

Hyderabad, August 09: The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Monday took a serious exception to the protagonists of Telangana State calling for bandhs again and again causing severe hardships to the general public frequently.

Gandhinagar, August 09: Sanjiv Bhatt, Gujarat cadre IPS officer, who shot into the limelight after his claimed presence at a crucial meeting of Chief Minister Narendra Modi on the night after the Godhra train carnage in 2002 where a signal for retributory action was allegedly given, was suspended from service late on Monday night.

The suspension order, meanwhile, was served on him under rule 3(1) of the All India Service Rules and signed by Varesh Sinha, additional chief secretary (Home) of the Gujarat government.

Calcutta, August 09: Somdev Dev Varman maintained his No. 65th spot, in the ATP rankings released on Monday. Sania Mirza, meanwhile, lost a place at No. 65 in the rankings, updated by the WTA.

Sania, though, maintained her doubles rank of No. 11 and the status of world No. 2 team along with Russian Elena Vesnina in the Race to WTA year-end standings.

Meanwhile, Sania’s poor run in the singles event continued as she failed to qualify for the WTA Rogers Cup after losing in a marathon three-setter to Germany’s Kathrin Woerle in the qualifiers.

Dubai, August 09: Muslims who live high up in the Burj Khalifa will have to wait a little longer than everyone else to break their fast during Ramadan, according to a new religious edict.

In a fatwa released over the weekend, the Grand Mufti of Dubai called upon Muslims living in skyscrapers, particularly those in the world’s tallest tower, to adjust their fasting and prayer times according to what floor they call home.

Peshawar,August 09: Minister for Information KPK Mian Ifitkhar Hussain has said that the government did not want to indulge in confrontation with the Ulema over moon sighting issue, as it would lead to division of the people, which they do not want.

Replying to a question by a newsman during press briefing after the cabinet meeting the other-day, the Information Minister said, “we do not want to propagate matters involving religion as it is not good for the people and the country”.

Mumbai, August 09: The U.S. has handed over to India voluminous documents related to Pakistani-Canadian Tahawwur Hussain Rana, who is accused of offering support to 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, and his confessional statements that will help NIA to file a charge sheet against him.

The documents, which include evidence collected by U.S. authorities, tapped conversation between Rana and another 26/11 conspirator David Headley, phone records, personal diaries, intercepted email and others, were sent by the US Department of Justice.