New Delhi, October 01: That Nelson Mandela Road made it to the list of unsafe places is no surprise; Soumya Vishwanathan was shot dead on the road in 2008. Three years on, Delhiites still find that stretch connecting Outer Ring Road with Vasant Kunj one of the most dangerous places in the city. The outer circle of Connaught Place, several metro stations and a few sectors of Noida have found a place in a list of 100 Most Unsafe Places in Delhi and NCR for women.
An unprecedented collaboration between the Obama administration and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC, formerly called the Organization of the Islamic Conference) to combat “Islamophobia” may lead to the de-legitimization of freedom of expression as a human right.
The administration is taking the lead in an international effort to “implement” a U.N. resolution against religious “stereotyping,” specifically as applied to Islam.
New York, October 01: Pakistani journalist Saleem Shahzad was probably killed by his country’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency, but the initial order was to rough him up and give him a scare, says an article in The New Yorker magazine.
But sometime before Shahzad disappeared on May 29, the order changed from kidnap and hurt to kill, wrote Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Dexter Filkins, citing an unnamed American official.
Baghdad, October 01: A car bomb exploded Friday near a Shiite mosque south of Baghdad where mourners had gathered for a funeral, killing 18 people, Iraqi officials said.
The explosion triggered new anger at Iraq’s leaders and their armed forces, who will soon take over responsibility for the country’s security on their own as US troops rapidly leave the country. Violence has dropped since the height of Iraq’s bloodshed a few years ago, but Iraqi forces have failed to stop attacks that continue to claim lives daily.
Ahmedabad, October 01: A day after Sanjeev Bhatt was arrested by cops from his own force, IPS officer’s wife on Saturday wrote a letter to Gujarat DGP (Director General of Police) and Ahmedabad Commissioner, saying she does not trust the state’s police.
Sanjeev Bhatt had accused Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi of complicity in 2002 post-Godhra riots.
In the letter, Bhatt’s wife also said there is a threat to her husband’s life.
Washington, October 01: President Barack Obama is declining to endorse strong criticism of Pakistan levelled by the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, while saying Pakistan must do more to deal with insurgents.
Obama was asked on a radio show today about Adm Mike Mullen’s claim that the Haqqani network “acts as a veritable arm” of Pakistan’s intelligence agency.
London, October 01: A 20-year-old former beauty queen has claimed she has been the “secret lover” of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi since she was 18.
Former Miss Montenegro Katarina Knezevic said she found the 75-year-old Italian leader “extraordinary”.
“In love, age is not important,” the Daily Express quoted Knezevic as telling Italian newspaper La Repubblica.
Knezevic said their “two-year affair” began after Berlusconi’s wife Veronica Lario walked out on him.
London, October 01: England outplayed India in all three formats of the game in their recent home series but one-day skipper Alastair Cook says beating M S Dhoni’s men in their backyard in an ODI series next month would be a lot tougher task.
Stating that Indian team would be “itching” for revenge, Cook said, “Of course it will be difficult over there. They will have a point to prove and the conditions will obviously suit them. I doubt we will see much green grass on the wickets we play on.
Hyderabad, October 01: A 25-member jumbo delegation, led by TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao and comprising leaders of his party and the Telangana political Joint Action Committee, left for Delhi on Friday to find a way out of the Telangana impasse.
The delegation, which will stay put in Delhi till October 4, will try to meet prime minister Manmohan Singh, Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, leaders of the Congress and some UPA partners.
Hyderabad, October 01: The Hyderabad-based Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee (CLMC) has urged Congress president and UPA Chairperson Ms Sonia Gandhi to respect the popular demand for a separate Telangana state out of Andhra Pradesh, and press the Central government to take immediate steps to fulfill the demand.
Karachi, October 01: India’s tennis star Sania Mirza and her Pakistani cricketer husband Shoaib Malik have met Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and expressed their wish to play exhibition matches to raise funds for the flood victims in the country.
The president thanked them for their concern for the affected people and appreciated their offer of support.
Sania and Malik plan to play exhibition matches in Pakistan as well as overseas.
The president also praised Malik for his cricketing skills and congratulated him and Sania on their marriage.
–Agencies
Puducherry, October 01: Testing times: This year, when the class X supplementary exams were held at a private school in a town 125km from Chennai, there was a high-profile student among the many nervous candidates – Puducherry education minister P M L Kalyanasundaram.
A Class X dropout from a government school in Puducherry, 34-year-old Kalyanasundaram had quit studies in 1991 after failing in science and social sciences, and began helping his elder brother with his sand mining business. About 10 years later, he entered politics and contested the 2006 assembly elections on a BJP ticket.
Hyderabd, October 01: Mild tension prevailed in Osmania University on Friday with students staging a dharna in front of OU police station from 12 noon to 4 pm.
The students were demanding the release of OUJAC leaders who were arrested during Sakala Janula Samme that has now entered its third week. Students also demanded police officials to open all the blocked gates and entrances to the campus.
London, October 01: A British university’s charity calendar has evoked controversy after nude photographs of the women students posing for it were found posted on pornographic sites.
Pictures of students from the University of Portsmouth’s calendar have ended up on porn websites. The photographs have also been posted on forums where they have been viewed and commented on thousands of times, the Daily Mail reported.
The pictures which went into the calendar were edited to preserve the girls’ modesty. But the ones uploaded online are unedited.
Islamabad, September 30: A teenaged girl was allegedly gang-raped by two men in Pakistan’s Lahore city, Geo News reported Friday.
The incident occurred three days ago when the duo brought the girl from her college on the pretext of her mother’s illness and raped her.
The traumatised girl, who remained hospitalised for three days, could not record her statement before the police.
The victim’s father, in his FIR, has accused two influential men of raping his daughter.
–IANS–
New Delhi, October 01: The Telangana agitation has entered its nineteenth day on Saturday and the Centre has once again failed to find a way out. Sources have said that government employees in the state now face a salary cut for skipping duty on the days of the strike.
On Friday, the Congress found interlocutor Ghulam Nabi Azad’s internal report on the claim for a separate Telangana state inconclusive. Sources added that the party may now send a team to Andhra Pradesh to study the situation there.
London, October 01: Actor Brad Pitt feels he has psychological defect due to which he cannot perform any task in reverse gear.
“If I’m walking out the door and I’ve forgotten something, I can’t go back and get it. It is something in my nature. If I’m driving down the road and I miss a turn, I have to keep going forward. I can’t reverse. It’s some kind of psychological defect,” contactmusic.com quoted him as saying.
Islamabad, October 01: Over 10 million eligible voters in Pakistan are missing from the draft electoral rolls, a media report said Saturday.
The deficit between eligible and registered voters has risen due to lapses in the house listing operation conducted by the Population Census Organization, the news website Daily Times reported quoting a study by the NGO Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen).
Fafen monitored the effectiveness of the house count exercise as part of its national survey in July-August on democratic practices.
New Delhi, October 01: Rahul Gandhi, tipped by many in the Congress to become the Prime Minister, has sought a fresh look on the Rs 32 yardstick for poverty. Sources said the Planning Commission is now likely to do a rethink on the below poverty line (BPL) yardstick.
Sources said the Congress General Secretary is seeking answers on the affidavit filed by the Planning Commission in the Supreme Court which said an individual must earn Rs 32 a day to be above the poverty line in cities and Rs 26 in villages.
Mumbai, October 01: How difficult is it to break bread with commoners in the afternoon and court celebrities at a star birthday party at night? Not at all, feels Imtiaz Ali. A train ride from Jamshedpur to the City of Joy, dining at his favourite biryani joint in his alltoo-familiar Kolkata, rushing off to the airport only to reach Mumbai well in time to attend Ranbir Kapoor’s birthday party on Tuesday – it’s all in a day’s work for the director.
Puducherry, October 01: This year, when the class X supplementary exams were held at a private school in a town 125km from Chennai, there was a high-profile student among the many nervous candidates – Puducherry education minister P M L Kalyanasundaram.
A Class X dropout from a government school in Puducherry, 34-year-old Kalyanasundaram had quit studies in 1991 after failing in science and social sciences, and began helping his elder brother with his sand mining business. About 10 years later, he entered politics and contested the 2006 assembly elections on a BJP ticket.
New Delhi, October 01: The two-day BJP National Executive Meet has been overshadowed by a cold war between the party’s two big guns – LK Advani and Narendra Modi. While who’s who in the BJP trooped into the national capital for the party’s National Executive Meet, Modi made his presence felt by his absence.
The Gujarat Chief Minister skipped the event, even though open support for him came as one of the prime ministerial candidates. The BJP, however, insisted that the party isn’t divided on the leadership issue.
New Delhi, October 01: Home minister P Chidambaram on Friday said India knew where underworld don Dawood Ibrahim was but no one would allow it to go to the place and point out his house even as Pakistan consistently denied his presence in the country.
The home minister also said India was not surprised that the US had discovered Pakistani intelligence agency ISI’s links with terror outfits, including the Haqqani network.
Hyderabad, October 01: The Telangana agitation has entered its nineteenth day on Saturday and the Centre has once again failed to find a way out. Sources have said that government employees in the state now face a salary cut for skipping duty on the days of the strike.
On Friday, the Congress found interlocutor Ghulam Nabi Azad’s internal report on the claim for a separate Telangana state inconclusive. Sources added that the party may now send a team to Andhra Pradesh to study the situation there.
Mumbai, October 01: She is back after a “deliberate” hiatus of two years. One look at Ayesha Takia, who was in the city, looking chirpy as ever, and you can tell that marriage seems to have done much good to her. “Oh yes,” comes the instant reply. “I am happily married and I’m enjoying every bit of it.