Month: November 2011

Capetown, November 17: A South Africa-based meat supplier is reportedly labeling pork as halal to sell to the country’s Muslim minority, sparking fury in the heavyweight African state.

“Evidence came to our attention that the Orion Cold Storage Company in Cape Town has been importing pork products from Belgium and Ireland, relabeling them as halal sheep and veal products,” Maulana Saeed Navlakhi, of the SA Meat Industry Company (Samic) told VOC.

He said that the company is also accused of relabeling kangaroo meat from Australia and buffalo meat from India as halal.

Ahmednagar, November 17: Anna Hazare on Wednesday said Sachin Tendulkar should be conferred with the Bharat Ratna, joining a long list of admirers who have demanded the country`s top civilian honour for the cricketer.

“Sachin Tendulkar is an icon for Indian youth. He has made India proud with his exploits in cricket. I feel he deserves the Bharat Ratna,” the anti-graft crusader told PTI after inaugurating a tennis tournament in memory of his late mother Laxmibai at his native village Ralegan Siddhi.

New Delhi, November 17: The Cabinet gave its seal of approval to amendments to the PFRDA Bill 2011, while agreeing to the proposed 26% foreign investment in the pension sector. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance has already examined the bill and it is likely to be taken up for consideration in the Winter Session beginning November 22.

Hyderabad, November 17: (Siasat News) The Government of Andhra Pradesh has announced notification details for the recruitment of VROs and VRAs in Andhra Pradesh. The Cabinet Sub-Committee headed by N.Raghuveera Reddy has announced the notification details. Selection will be based on the interviews to conducted by District Selection Committees (DSCs) headed by the respective District Collector. There is no entrance test or written test for VRO and VRA vacancies. Reservations will be followed as per the rules.

Hyderabad, November 17: Playing down the spate of communal incidents in the city in the last two weeks, city police commissioner A K Khan on Wednesday remarked: “Hyderabad is a big city…Such incidents do happen once in a while.

Mumbai, November 17: Finally on Wednesday six Malegaon blast 2006 accused were released by the Arthur Road Jail authorities after completing long formalities which took nearly 11 days. A special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court on 5th November had granted bail to the nine accused on a personal bond of Rs.50,000 each.

Hyderabad, November 17: The four main parties in Andhra Pradesh; Congress, Telugu Desam Party, Telangana Rashtra Samithi and the Bharatiya Janata Party all say they support a separate state of Telangana, but there have been no concrete steps in that direction. A Ganesh Nadar reports.

New Delhi, November 17: Amid indications of a stormy Winter Session of Parliament, an all-party meeting has been convened by Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar on Thursday to ensure that the sittings are held smoothly.

The session commences on November 22 and ends on December 21.

The Monsoon Session earlier this year had failed to transact much official business despite heavy government agenda in the wake of the Opposition interruptions on several issues.

Opposition parties are preparing to raise a number of issues triggering apprehension that the session could be tumultuous.

New Delhi, November 17: Pakistan’s former president Pervez Musharraf has said that although he can’t confirm gangster Dawood Ibrahim’s presence in Pakistan, the suspected mastermind behind the 1993 Mumbai multiple bombings, is being held in “high esteem” by many in his country making his extradition “complicated”.

Jakarta, November 17: Indonesia has blasted the US over its planned military buildup in the north of Australia, warning that the move could create tension and mistrust in the region.

“What I would hate to see is if such developments were to provoke a reaction and counter-reaction precisely to create that vicious circle of tensions and mistrust or distrust,” Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Thursday.

New Delhi, November 17: Shweta Bhatt, wife of suspended Gujarat IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, is undaunted by what lies ahead in their fight against the State administration. Taking on the Narendra Modi government, she said the State people wanted “a change” and were not afraid to speak against the system.

New Delhi, November 17: Aam-admi likely to receive a great news soon. Petrol price, which has already been reduced by Rs 2.22 per litre, might be shed by almost Rs 5.

The proposal has been brought by the main opposition party – Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as the party was not pleased with the central government’s decision to cut petrol price only by Rs 2.22 per litre.

The politicisation and communalisation of the investigation process since 2006 in terrorism-related cases has led to a paralysis of the investigation machinery in the states and the government of India.

The result: Barring the 26/11 terrorist strikes in Mumbai which were successfully investigated and prosecuted, our investigating agencies have not been able to detect any of the post-26/11 terrorist strikes in Pune, Mumbai, Varanasi and New Delhi. Said so, they have not been able to successfully prosecute even the major terrorist incidents that had taken place before 26/11.

New Delhi, November 17: Senior counsel Ram Jethmalani on Wednesday argued that the former Gujarat Home Minister, Amit Shah, was falsely implicated in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case in a bid to “destabilise the Narendra Modi government.”

London, November 17: A Republican politician has sparked religious fury by demanding all Muslims be forced out of the U.S. military.

Tennessee State Representative Rick Womick claimed serving Muslims posed a significant threat and needed to be kicked out of the armed forces because their religion commands them to lie.

Interviewed on Veteran’s Day by the Think Progress website he said: ‘Personally I don’t trust one Muslim in our military because they’re commanded to lie to us.

Lucknow, November 17: Asserting they were not hankering after power, yoga guru Ramdev on Wednesday said massive campaigns against corruption and black money would be launched in five poll-bound states, including Uttar Pradesh.

Talking to reporters here, he reiterated his demand for declaring black money stashed in foreign banks abroad as national property.

“A list of 700 people who have stashed black money abroad has been received by the Centre but has not been made public. This is a serious matter,” Ramdev said.

Mumbai, November 17: Actor Abhishek Bachchan has said that his wife, actress Aishwary Rai Bachchan and their new born baby girl are healthy and they are taking rest at the Seven Hills hospital in Marol, Mumbai. The excited Bollywood star has all thanks for the prayers of fans of the Bachchan family.

Jeddah, November 17: A 19-year-old Saudi boy committed a suicide by using his clothes to make a loop and tie it around his neck inside a mosque in the Gulf Kingdom.

Newspapers said a man who went into the mosque found the boy hanging by the window in the empty mosque in the northwestern province of Hail.

“Investigation is under way to determine the motive of the suicide,” Hail police spokesman Colonel Abdul Aziz Al Zinaidi said.

——Agencies

Gaza, November 17: Acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas has promised to speed up efforts to form a caretaker unity government with Hamas, and pave the way for elections.

Speaking at a ceremony in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Wednesday to commemorate Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Abbas also vowed to push ahead with efforts to cement a landmark unity deal between Fatah and the Resistance Movement of Hamas.

His remarks came as Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal are set to meet in Cairo on November 25 for new rounds of reconciliation talks.

Allahabad, November 17: A PIL seeking a ban on controversial TV reality show “Big Boss” accusing it of violating “norms of decency” and having a “polluting effect on public morality” today came up for hearing before the Allahabad High Court.

The public interest litigation has been filed by a Varanasi-based social activist Rakesh Srivastava who has alleged that the programme was “causing severe discomfort to all those conscientious citizens who care for moral values and dignity of Indian womanhood”.

Riyadh, November 17: Saudi authorities are reportedly planning to push ahead with a court ruling and flog a woman for defying a ban on female driving despite winning a royal pardon.

Shaima Jastaniya was sentenced to 10 lashes by a court in the city of Jeddah in September for persistently flouting the conservative kingdom’s men-only driving rule.

Mumbai, November 17: Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray has lashed out at Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi for his comments on migrants from Uttar Pradesh, saying though the migrant population has “destroyed” Mumbai, his party never called them beggars.

“The huge influx of UP migrants in Mumbai and the rest of Maharashtra has virtually paralysed the state and the migrants have destroyed the city. But we have never called them beggars. Hunger has no caste or region,” Thackeray said in today’s editorial of his party mouthpiece “Saamana”.

Kolkata, November 17: Actress Nandana Sen today said she received hate mail and faced objections from different quarters for a nude scene in the period drama ‘Rang Rasiya’ where she plays the muse for 19th century painter Raja Ravi Varma.

Sen, who created an uproar four or five years ago after a portrait in which she posed as Goddess Laxmi was leaked while shooting a film, said, “I received hate mail for the scenes. There were objections from different quarters also.

Hyderabad, November 17: Congress MLA from Station Ghanpur T Rajaiah and an independent MLA from Ramagundam constituency Somarapu Satyanarayana on Wednesday stated that they would appear before Assembly Speaker Nadendla Manohar after November 22 to explain their position over resignations submitted for the cause of Telangana statehood.

Rajahmundry, November 17: Cine actor Nandamuri Balakrishna on Wednesday stated that TDP president Nara Chandrababu Naidu has a clean image from the beginning and such probes and enquiries sought by his opponents was not new to him.