Month: November 2011

Phulpur, November 14: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday launched his party’s election campaign in Uttar Pradesh by attacking the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party government, saying it is corrupt, has siphoned-off central funds and is insensitive to the poor.

In a symbolic move, Mr. Gandhi began his party’s poll campaign from Phulpur which was his grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru’s Lok Sabha constituency. The day also marks Nehru’s 123rd birth anniversary.

Chandigarh, November 14: Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani continued to face protests on the second day of his Jan Chetna Yatra in Punjab.

Activists of the pro-hardline fringe Akali factions and radical Sikh organisations disrupted his public rally at Amritsar late Monday evening by raising pro-Khalistan slogans.

Hyderabad, November 14: Disappointed over the comments of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh favouring consensus on the separate Telangana demand, Congress MPs from the region are planning to seek the intervention of party president Sonia Gandhi.

“People of Telangana are shocked and feeling betrayed over the PM’s comments as we have made a commitment earlier,” Congress MP Madhu Yashki Goud told reporters.

He said consensus may never be possible on the Telangana issue as the non-Telangana regions are bigger in size.

Hyderabad, November 14: The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Monday asked the CBI and Enforcement Directorate to conduct an investigation into the assets of former Chief Minister and Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu.

A bench comprising justices Ghulam Mohammed and Nooti Ramamohan Rao gave these orders on a petition filed on October 17 by YSR Congress honorary President and Pulivendula MLA Y S Vijaya.

Vijaya, widow of late Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, filed the petition seeking a probe by the CBI and the ED against Naidu on various counts.

London, November 14: Jordan’s King Abdullah has told that Syrian President Bashar Assad should step down, becoming the first Arab ruler to make such a call.

“I would step down and make sure whoever comes behind me has the ability to change the status quo that we’re seeing,” the King said of Syria’s President.

Jordan has been critical of Syria’s violent crackdown on anti-government protesters in recent months.

The King added that the Syrian leader should initiate political dialogue, the BBC said on its website on Monday.

New Delhi, November 14: The Parliamentary panel examining the Lokpal Bill today began finalising its report with a large section of members favouring enacting a single law to set up the anti-corruption ombudsman at the Centre and the states.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances and, Law and Justice was also veering towards recommending lowering punishment for filing frivolous complaints against public servants with the proposed Lokpal.

Many members were learnt to have favoured treating such complaints on the lines of contempt of court proceedings.

Jakarta, November 14:A shallow undersea quake measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale hit eastern parts of Indonesia Monday. There was, however, no tsunami warning or immediate reports of any casualties caused by it, officials here said.

The quake, which occurred at 11.05 am, had its epicentre at 69 km southwest of Labuha port in the country’s north Maluku province.

The temblor was at a depth of 10 km under the seabed, an official of the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said.

Mumbai. November 14: The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena Monday gave a sharp rejoinder to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s statements in Uttar Pradesh, terming him “ill-informed”.

“For how long would UP youths go and beg in Maharashtra,” Gandhi had asked while addressing a rally in Phulpur in the state Monday afternoon.

Retorting, MNS chief Raj Thackeray demanded to know how the situation had come to such a pass, especially since the Congress had been ruling Uttar Pradesh for several decades.

Kabul, November 14: A French soldier has been killed, while another has been injured in Northeastern Afghanistan, as violence continues in the war-torn country.

The death comes after French forces came under attack by Taliban militants while escorting a convoy in the Kapisa Province east of Kabul, the Associated Press reported.

According to a statement made by the office of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Monday’s attack also left another French soldier injured.

At least 76 French soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since 2001.

Myanmar, November 14: A powerful blast in a residential area in Myanmar has claimed the lives of at least 10 people, including two women, and left tens of others injured.

The Sunday blast injured 23 people, including 15 children, in Myitkyina, AFP reported.

Officials say a man inside the house was demonstrating how to plant a bomb when it detonated and resulted in a fire that spread to two neighboring homes.

The explosion follows two other bomb explosions in the same town on Saturday. No casualties were reported.

New Delhi, November 14: Evidence of prior meeting of minds of accused persons to commit a crime is essential to convict a person for conspiracy, the Supreme Court on Monday ruled, acquitting a finance dealer charged with conspiracy to kill an auto driver for loan default.

“The gist of the offence of conspiracy is the agreement between two and more persons to do or cause to be done an illegal act or a legal act by illegal means.

Hyderabad, November 14: The Andhra Pradesh High Court Monday ordered preliminary investigations by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and other agencies into the assets of former chief minister and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) supremo N. Chandrababu Naidu.

A division bench of acting Chief Justice Ghulam Mohammed and Justice N. Ramamohana Rao asked the CBI, Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to submit to court, their reports within three months in sealed covers.

Bangalore, November 14: External Affairs Minister SM Krishna on Monday said he is happy that the legacy of hostility between India and Pakistan has given way to cordiality and understanding.

“We have had a legacy of hostility, but now I am happy that the hostility between India and Pakistan is giving way to cordiality and understanding,” he told reporters on the sidelines of Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation (IOC-ARC) conference here.

Kabul, November 14: The incident took place near the site of the upcoming four-day assembly of Afghan tribal elders, known as the Loya Jirga.

The attempted attacks come as the Taliban threatened to target the assembly’s participants, gathering to discuss the possibility of a long-term US presence in Afghanistan.

The militants claim that they had received secret documents, outlining security plans for the assembly. Afghan authorities reject the claim as a scare tactic to intimidate participants.

New Delhi, November 14: A huge cache of arms and ammunition, including 70 kg of ammonium nitrate, has been seized in the Maoist-affected Chhattisgarh-Maharashtra border, an officer said here Monday.

The day-long operation conducted Sunday involved around 200 officers of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Chhatisgarh and Maharashtra police and resulted in the recovery of 31 detonators and 19 grenades, among others.

New Delhi, November 14: Steadfast over the demand for withdrawal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from his state, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah sounded positive after his meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister P. Chidambaram here Monday, saying the two leaders were ‘receptive’ to his idea.

Defence Minister A.K. Antony, who met the chief minister here Sunday on the issue, said his talks were ‘inconclusive’ and called for a ‘matured and cool’ handling of the ‘sensitive’ issue of AFSPA withdrawal.

Tehran, November 14: The rhetoric escalated even more in the US presidential debate on Saturday when some of the Republicans made it loud and clear that a war with Iran would be the ultimate solution to Iran’s nuclear program.

New Delhi, November 14: The Delhi High Court on Monday reserved till November 16 its order on the bail plea of Sudheendra Kulkarni, advisor to BJP veteran LK Advani, and four other accused in the 2008 cash-for-votes scam that rocked Parliament ahead of a trust vote.

Ahead of the court ruling, the Delhi Police said that it would not oppose the bail petitions of five jailed accused in the case, including two former BJP MPs and LK Advani’s former aide Sudheendra Kulkarni, besides the anticipatory bail plea of a party MP in the Delhi High Court.

New Delhi, November 14: Asking public sector units to invest more money in research and development, Defence Minister AK Antony on Tuesday said they should reverse the trend of over-dependence on imports to meet the increasing military hardware requirements of the Armed Forces.

India is looking to spend over USD 100 billion on defence procurements in next five to ten years but depends on foreign countries for around 70 per cent of these requirements.

New Delhi, November 14: BJP on Monday attacked Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, saying he was selling big dreams to the people of Uttar Pradesh while the UPA at the Centre had failed to alleviate the sufferings of the poor.

“UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi had said recently that mere speeches are not going to remove corruption. Similarly, the condition in Uttar Pradesh is not going to change with speeches. Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi has spoken about the welfare of the poor while his party has been playing politics with them,” BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain said.

Bhubaneswar, November 14: Asserting that the Lokpal cannot completely wipe out corruption which is as old as the civilisation itself, Team Anna member Justice N Santosh Hegde on Tuesday said that if the menace could be contained up to 60-70 per cent, “we would be very strong”.

“Let me be very frank. You can’t eradicate corruption. Corruption is not born yesterday, last year, last century… Corruption was born with the birth of civilisation itself. Go through any scripture you will know corruption was there,” he told a local television channel here.

New Delhi, November 14: Members of civil society, including former bureaucrats, scientists, a former Navy Chief and NGOs, on Tuesday approached the Supreme Court seeking its direction to stay construction of all proposed nuclear power plants.

They have filed a joint PIL pleading that the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010, be declared as unconstitutional and appoint an expert independent body to conduct a thorough safety reassessment of all existing and proposed nuclear facilities in the country.

Deoria, November 14: Former BJP president Rajnath Singh on Monday said Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati’s recent statements favouring reservation for the poor among the upper castes and Muslims were mere “election stunts”.

“She has been in power for the past four years and took no concrete steps in this regard but now ahead of the Assembly election, she is writing letters to the Prime Minister demanding quotas for different sections of society just to gain electoral advantage,” he told reporters here.

RENOWNED Swiss politician Daniel Streich, who rose to fame for his campaign against minarets of mosques, has embraced Islam.

A member of the Swiss People’s Party (SVP) and a well-known politician, Daniel Streich was the first man who had launched a drive for imposition of ban on mosques minarets, and to lock the mosques in Switzerland. The proclamation of Streich’s conversion to Islam has created furore in Swiss politics, besides causing a tremor for those who supported ban on construction of mosques minarets.

Hyderabad, November 14: A labour died while cleaning a manhole under Chaitanyapuri police station limits. The incident occurred when 40 year old A Jangayya resident of Kottapet Saroornagar Village was busy cleaning a deep manhole yesterday morning at Chaitanyapuri area. He accidentally drowned in the manhole. A case has been registered by Chaitanyapuri police.

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