Month: September 2011

Mumbai, September 30: 19-year-old model Poonam Pandey, has taken a jibe at former South Africa cricketer Jonty Rhodes’ wish of meeting her in the television show ‘Bigg Boss 5’. Both of them are rumoured to have signed a contract to appear on the reality show.

Poonam, writing on the micro-blogging site Twitter, said that she is out of the fielding legend’s reach. She tweeted, “Jonty Rhodes is n was a Gr8 Fielder, Heard he has Started Fielding for Me! But even being a Gr8 Fielder he is Gonna Miss this Catch! LoL”

Bhopal, September 30: A blast took place in a home in Madhya Pradesh’s Tikamgarh district, killing six people and injuring four, police said Friday. The cause behind the blast is yet unclear.

“It is too early to comment on the reasons but it seems the scraps inside the house caused the blast,” Tikamgarh Superintendent of Police Aakash Jindal told .

Of the six killed, four were children. Tikamgrah is over 300 km from here.

Trivananthapuram, September 30: It took a long time coming, but the people of Vachathi village in Tamil Nadu have finally got justice. On Thursday – more than 19 years after the tribals of the village in Krishnagiri district were raped by forest, police and revenue personnel -a sessions court pronounced all 269 guilty.

“Justice has been done at last,” S. Perumal, 70, who was the village chief then and was present at the court premises, said.

New Delhi, September 30: The Congress Core Committee met in New Delhi on Friday to deliberate on the delicate Telangana issue on which party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad submitted a report amid indications that a decision on it will take some more time. Amid mounting pressure from pro-Telangana groups whose agitation for a separate state continued for the 18th day on Friday, Congress’ top brass, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and party chief Sonia Gandhi, met in Delhi.

Hyderabad, September 30: The ongoing agitation in Andhra Pradesh over the demand for a separate Telangana state has put Karnataka in darkness.

The road and rail blockades in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh have cut off coal supplies to the thermal power plants in the state. That has led to the shutting down of two of Karnataka’s main thermal power plants leaving the state struggling with load shedding and constant power outages.

Coal transport from the Singareni collieries has been blocked by pro-Telangana activists forcing the thermal power plants in Raichur and Bellary to shut down.

New Delhi, September 30: From the moment Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi announced his so-called Sadbhavana mission, it was clear that the political conversation and media discourse would be dominated by theatrical gestures and acts of meaningless symbolism.

New Delhi, September 30: Arguing that there was “voluminous evidence” against Home Minister P. Chidambaram in the 2G scandal, the Bharatiya Janata Party​ (BJP) Friday said he should be sent to Tihar Jail.

Quoting party president Nitin Gadkari’s address at the two-day national executive meet here, BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad​ accused the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government of shielding Chidambaram.

Hyderabad, September 30: Telangana activists have set fire to 2 Volvo buses near Kukatpalli housing board colony in Hyderabad a short while ago. According to reports one of the bus is belongs to Kesineni Travels.

Patna, September 30: A brother and sister were killed when they were run over by trains in separate incidents at Hajipur junction of East Central Railway in Vaishali district today.

Police said here that Munni Kumari had come at Hajipur junction to see off her brother Vijay Kumar who slipped while trying to board a passenger train. He was run over and killed by the train.

Munni Kumari, in her desperate bid to cross the tracks, was run over by a goods train.

The bodies were sent for post-mortem, police said.

Kathmandu, September 30: She might have been vilified by outraged members of the public for falling in love with and marrying an alleged murderer but come October and Nihita Biswas Sobhraj, the Nepali wife of Charles Sobhraj, will show the world who’s the Bigg Boss.

The 23-year-old, who became an instant celebrity three years ago when Sobhraj — doing time in a Kathmandu prison — announced they had fallen in love, flew to New Delhi Thursday morning to take part in the upcoming fifth series of Bigg Boss.

Tikamgarh, September 30: Four persons were killed and six others seriously injured Friday when a powerful hand grenade exploded in a house here, police said.

The impact of the blast was such that the debris of the house, located near the bus stand, and remains of the victims were thrown about half a kilometre away, they said.

The deceased were identified as Rajpal (25), Brijendra (30), Sonu (20) and Arun (25), police said, adding the injured were admitted to the district hospital where their condition is said to be serious.

New Delhi, September 30: In a clear indication of split in the Sangh Parivar over Narendra Modi’s projection as party’s prime ministerial candidate for 2014 polls, senior saffron leader Vinay Katiyar on Friday indicated that the Gujarat Chief Minister must first look at his own state before nurturing plans of pitching for the Prime Minister’s post.

New Delhi, September 30: With the agitation for a Telangana state intensifying, Home Minister P Chidambaram on Friday said an all-party meeting to discuss the issue will be convened soon after parties from Andhra Pradesh, including the ruling Congress, convey their position to the government.

“An important stage of consultations appears to be over. Azad (Ghulam Nabi Azad, in-charge of Congress affairs in Andhra Pradesh), will present report to the government,” Chidambaram told reporters in his monthly interaction with the media.

London, September 30: A woman teacher in Britain has been detained under the Mental Health Act for having a lesbian relationship with a teenaged pupil.

At an earlier hearing at the Ipswich crown court, Suzanne Harrison, 38, admitted four sex offences while in a position of trust involving the 15-year-old girl over a seven-month period, the Daily Mail reported.

The offences had been committed when Harrison used to work at a school in Colchester town of Essex county.

Prosecutor Godfried Duah told the court that Harrison had swapped telephone numbers at the girl’s 15th birthday party.

Hyderabad, September 30: A Special CBI Court today dismissed the bail pleas of former Karnataka Minister Gali Janardhana Reddy and his brother-in-law B.V. Srinivas Reddy, arrested in connection with alleged illegal mining activities.

Judge B. Naga Maruthi Sarma also dismissed the agency’s petition which sought custody of both the accused for nine more days.

Mr. Janardhana and Mr. Srinivas are in judicial remand till October 3 and lodged at the Chanchalguda Central Prison here.

Jeddah, September 30: The Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Endowment, Dawa and Guidance has requested that mosques dedicate a sermon next month to raising breast cancer awareness.

The new initiative will coincide with the second national campaign for breast cancer which will run in October.
“The campaign targets more than 10 million women in the Kingdom who constitute 49.1 percent of the total number of citizens and residents,” said Sheikh Abdul Mohsen Bin Abdul Aziz Aal Alsheikh, Assistant Undersecretary for Mosques Affairs, according to a report in Al-Watan newspaper.

New Delhi, September 30: The Congress core committee meeting to discuss the creation of a separate Telangana state out of Andhra Pradesh is reported to have ended without making any headway on Friday.

Congress sources said the core group discussed the report which has been prepared by Azad after talking to party leaders from various parts of Andhra Pradesh. Azad, the Congress in-charge of Andhra Pradesh, is the Union health minister. The core group meeting was held at 7 Race Course Road official residence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

New Delhi, Sept 30 (IANS) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been urged to set a time-frame for identifying the bodies found in mass graves in Jammu and Kashmir and setting up an independent commission to prosecute the guilty.

The demand was contained in a letter sent by think tank Centre for Policy Analysis. A copy has been marked to Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.

New Delhi, September 30: Women in Delhi can now find out on a website the areas that are not safe to travel alone, while women across the country can report about the harassment faced by them.

Whypoll, an NGO on citizen empowerment, Friday launched www.whypoll.org with a series of lectures titled “Safe in the city”.

New Delhi, September 30: Had Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram offered to resign in the past 10 days amidst a raging controversy over the 2G note of Finance Ministry?

“Frankly, I have a very short memory,” is how he jokingly tried to steer clear of the question at his monthly press conference in New Delhi on Friday about the working of the Home Ministry.

Charallave, September 30: Two commuter trains collided in a tunnel outside Caracas, killing at least one person, injuring about 30 and leaving frightened passengers gasping for air in the dark, officials said.

One train suddenly braked due to an apparent malfunction and another crashed into it from the rear on Thursday, causing the first to derail, Transportation Minister Francisco Garces said on state television. Officials said a packed train coming in the opposite direction was able to stop before colliding with the others, averting a possible disaster.

New Delhi, September 30: Former Telecom Minister A. Raja on Friday told a Delhi court that he would not respond to the Central Bureau of Investigation’s fresh plea to invoke an additional charge of criminal breach of trust against all the accused till the agency stated that its probe in the 2G spectrum allocation scam was over.

Gandhinagar, September 30: Suspended Gujarat Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Sanjeev Bhatt, who had alleged that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi had asked officials to be indifferent towards rioters during the 2002 riots, was arrested by the Gandhinagar police on Friday.

Bhatt was arrested on a complaint filed by KD Pant, who worked as a subordinate with Bhatt in the state Intelligence Bureau. According to Pant’s complaint Bhatt had forced him to file an affidavit in which Modi had been named.

New Delhi, September 30: Home Minister P. Chidambaram Friday steered clear of the 2G controversy, saying he suffered from amnesia.

‘I have a very short memory and I cannot recollect,’ Chidambaram told reporters here when asked if he had at any stage during the week-long row offered to resign over a note prepared by the finance ministry that blamed him for not getting the valuable spectrum auctioned.

New Delhi, September 30: The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Friday demanded the resignation of Home Minister P. Chidambaram in the wake of the controversial finance ministry note on the 2G spectrum allocation.

Addressing reporters after a two-day politburo meet, party general secretary Prakash Karat said ‘the finance ministry matter is not closed’.

Mukherjee had Thursday said the note from his ministry on the 2G scam did not reflect his views and it was a background paper. Chidambaram had then said that the matter was closed.