Month: October 2011

Jeddah, October 08: The cabinet Friday decided that 125,000 pilgrims from India will go on Haj under a subsidized scheme even as three of the 30,177 Indians already in Saudi Arabia have died.

Two of the dead pilgrims came through the Haj Committee of India and one through a private tour operator, the Indian Consulate General in Jeddah said.

A total of 11 flights have flown from India to Saudi Arabia, bringing 1,829 pilgrims to Makkah. The rest are in Madina, the mission said.

One of the deceased was identified as Farooqui Husain, 70, son of Hafiz Anwar Husain Khan.

Lucknow, October 08: Unable to pay bribe allegedly demanded by the hospital staff for admission, a poor woman gave birth to her child on the doorsteps of a government hospital in Bahraich town of Uttar Pradesh Friday afternoon.

The incident took place in the women’s section of the district hospital where the woman Kamla was rushed by her husband Ram Bahadur earlier in the day from their native village Bisheshwarganj, about 37 km away from Bahraich town.

Washington, October 08: Ten years after the US launched the war on terror in Afghanistan, President Barack Obama said Friday the US is “responsibly ending” the warfare despite the “enormous challenges” that remain there.

Obama marked the tenth anniversary of the Afghanistan war by honoring the nearly 1,800 American service members killed in the war and all those who have served there, according to a White House statement, reported Xinhua.

New Delhi, October 08: Archeologists overseeing the upkeep of the Taj Mahal denied on Friday a press report that said the iconic structure could collapse in as little as two years because of its weakened foundations.

The white marble mausoleum, known as the ‘monument of love’ after it was built by a former Mughal emperor as a tribute to his dead wife, attracts four million tourists a year to Agra.

It stands on the banks of the Yamuna, which provides moisture to wooden structures that hold up the onion-shaped dome and its four minarets.

Hyderabad, October 08: HYDERABAD: One of city’s most celebrated heroes, Mohammed Azharuddin turned up at the Gymkhana to begin a new innings not only for himself but, more importantly, for his older son Mohammad Asaduddin just 21 days after they lost their dear one Ayazuddin.

According to a source close to the family, Abbas (as Asad is known) has been the most affected as the brothers were very close. “It was wise on the part of Azhar to get Abbas to the ground so that the youngster can overcome his grief,” said the source.

Bangalore, October 08: Home team Royal Challenger Bangalore (RCB) late Friday survived a scare to beat New South Wales Blues (NSW) by six wickets at the Chinnaswamy stadium here to enter the final of the ICC Champions League Twenty20 (CLT20).

Chasing a stiff target of 204, a surcharged RCB raced to the winning post in 18.2 overs despite losing three quick wickets in a span of 10 runs in the slog overs.

Mohammad Kaif hit the winning runs with two consecutive fours of Daniel Smith to reach the target. He remained unbeaten at 13, off eight balls.

Washington, October 08: The population of immigrants in the United States has grown to more than 40 million people, according to a study released by the New Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) on Friday.

The center’s analysis of Census Bureau data considered the nation’s both legal and illegal immigrant population, which is sometimes referred to as the foreign-born.

Mumbai, October 07:Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray came up with an angry rejoinder Friday to activist Anna Hazare’s reaction to his Dussehra day comments on the anti-graft movement.

In a sharp statement this evening, the 85-year-old Thackeray warned Hazare to stop behaving in a “childish manner” and not to lock horns with the Shiv Sena.

“Yesterday, I had praised him saying he was doing his work honestly,” Thackeray said. “However, his net had torn and the big fish were escaping, but he should not get discouraged and carry on with his mission.”

Friday October 7, 2011 marks the ten year anniversary of the United States invasion of Afghanistan, considered by many as the nation’s longest war. To date, it has cost some $460 billion. Hundreds of thousands of US troops have been sent to Afghanistan, many on multiple tours, nearly 1,700 of them are dead, tens of thousands are wounded, and at least 20 percent of them have mental health problems.

New Delhi, October 07: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is likely to meet Andhra Pradesh Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan Saturday to review the spate of protests and strikes to push for statehood in Telangana region, Congress sources said.

Ahead of the visit, senior Congress leaders including Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, political secretary to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi Ahmed Patel, Home Minister P. Chidambaram and Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, who is in charge of Andhra Pradesh, met Friday to take stock of the situation.

New Delhi, October 07: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Arun Jaitley Friday said party veteran L.K. Advani’s Jan Chetna Yatra would set the political agenda for the country.

Jaitley, opposition leader in the Rajya Sabha, said though the political agenda was being shaped by the course of events, the BJP had decided to influence it.

He said political agenda for the past one year had converged to the issue ‘good governance and clean politics’ — the theme of Advani’s yatra.

New Delhi, October 07: Two high-ranking Maoist guerrillas, arrested Sunday in the capital, wanted to set up joint training camps in Myanmar and were also working at forming a strong front in the northeast and in Jammu and Kashmir, police said Friday based on their interrogation.

The duo, who belonged to the outlawed People’s Liberation Army (PLA), were identified as Arun Kumar Singh, 30, and N. Dilip Singh, 40. They were arrested from a hotel in central Delhi’s Paharganj area on Oct 1.

New Delhi, October 07: Three members of a family, a 50 year-old woman and a 33-year-old man undergoing treatment for depression committed suicide in different parts of the capital, police said Friday.

Vijay Kumar Sharma, 55, a car accessories businessman, along with his wife Neena Devi, 47, and daughter Soniya, 17, committed suicide at his rented house in Rajouri Garden in west Delhi Thursday.

Sharma, a native of Punjab, was under tremendous pressure to return money he had borrowed from various banks and friends.

Panaji, October 07: Politics over the illegal mining scam in Goa got tangled further on Friday as the BJP took on the government for not tabling the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report in the assembly and alleged that Chief Minister Digambar Kamat and an unnamed Congress leader in Delhi were amongst the main beneficiaries.

Accused of sitting on a Rs 3,500 crore illegal mining scam, the Goa government got a major reprieve after Speaker Pratapsing Rane refused to table the PAC report in the assembly, the last day of the monsoon session.

New Delhi, October 07: India has underlined the need for an early reform of the powerful UN Security Council “to reflect the contemporary reality”.

K Rahman Khan, the Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, discussed the crucial issue during his nearly 30-minute meeting with UN General Assembly President Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser at the UN headquarters here.

Khan stressed the need for early reform of the 15-member body “to reflect contemporary reality”.

New Delhi, October 07: Anna Hazare on Friday launched his campaign against Congress in the Hisar Lok Saba by-election by asking people not to vote for the party because it has failed to bring the Jan Lokpal Bill.

Carrying out his threat issued three days ago, Hazare issued an appeal to the electorate through a CD saying Congress should be defeated.

“We have appealed to people in this polls. Congress should be defeated as it has failed to bring Jan lokpal Bill,” he said in the ten-minute CD named ‘The Government of the Corrupt’.

New Delhi, October 07: India and the United Kingdom will embark on their annual joint naval exercise ‘Konkan’ off the coast of Goa starting on Saturday keeping the focus on submarine operations including nuclear underwater vessels.

India will field its Shishumar Class INS Shankush HDW submarine and the British will have one of their Trafalgar Class nuclear submarines on show during the week-long exercise, Navy officials said today.

Vietnam, October 07: Nearly 56,000 homes have been flooded, while more than 6,500 hectares (16,000 acres) and worth USD 2.7 million, of the world’s number two rice exporter’s rice fields have been destroyed.

The flooding has been recognized as the worst set of floods to hit the country’s Mekong Delta in the past decade.

Meanwhile the Thai Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation has placed the death toll of flooding in Thailand at 244.

The floods there have affected at least two million people.

Deoband, October 07: “Are women allowed to do a full body wax?” Just an everyday question for the “fatwa” desk at Darululoom Deoband, a famed cradle of conservative Islamic thought in Uttar Pradesh.

Hundreds of queries seeking guidance on every aspect of social and religious life are posted to the
school each week and dutifully noted in a green leather-bound register by Habibur Rahman, a 21-year-old student.

Lucknow, October 07: A 22-year-old dental surgery student here Friday committed suicide by jumping from the second floor of a building in her college campus, police said.

The family of Deep Shikha, the fourth-year student of Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS), allege she was driven to suicide after being repeatedly harassed by the college staff.

They said Shikha was booked for using unfair means during exams at the Saraswati Dental College, where she was a student.

Hyderabad, October 07: The Telangana Joint Action Committee (JAC), spearheading the movement for a separate state, has postponed the three-day rail blockade programme in the region to Oct 12, 13 and 14.

The JAC had earlier given a call for the blockade on Oct 9, 10 and 11.

JAC convenor M. Kodandaram told reporters Friday, after a meeting of the JAC steering committee, that they decided to postpone it in view of other protest programmes planned on those days.

Hyderabad, October 07: A leading light of the Telangana Armed Struggle, a first generation communist leader and veteran trade unionist Raj Bahadur Gaur passed away here on Friday morning.

The 93-year-old leader died in a hospital where he was admitted for treatment of high fever. Doctors said the death was caused by sepsis.

Hyderabad, October 07: Rayalaseema Rashtra Samithi (RRS) president K Venkat Subba Reddy will go an indefinite fast from November 3 demanding formation of Greater Rayalaseema State.

Demanding that the Centre must start consultation process for formation of Greater Rayalaseema State, RRS president K Venkat Subba Reddy said that he would go an indefinite fast from November 3 in front of the Anantapur Collectorate.

Hyderabad, October 07: YSR Congress Party president YS Jaganmohan Reddy on Friday received a major jolt with one of its prominent leader from Kurnool district joining the Telugu Desam Party.

Condemning Jagan’s style of functioning, senior politician Shilpa Chakrapani Reddy raised a banner of revolt and joined the TDP at NTR Trust Bhavan in the presence of its president N Chandrababu Naidu​. Admitting Chakrapani Reddy in the party, Naidu reportedly assured him that he would be given ticket from Srisailum Assembly constituency in the next elections.

Hyderabad, October 07: Describing the Telangana agitation as historic, Handlooms and Textiles Minister Dr P Shankar Rao on Friday stated that no one should compare this statehood agitation with any other issue.

Talking to media persons at Congress Legislature Party office, Shankar Rao lauded the employees who are participating in the general strike and said that people of the region would not forget their sacrifices made for the statehood agitation.