Month: December 2011

Ahemdabad, December 01: The Gujarat high court has handed over the Ishrat Jehan murder case to the CBI.

In a setback to the Narendra Modi government, the high court said the Gujarat state police could not be trusted for the probe.

The court said the Ishrat Jehan case is exceptional and has national ramifications.

The court ordered the SIT to file a fresh FIR with the CBI so that it can begin its investigations into the case.

Ishrat Jehan’s family had sought a CBI probe into the case.

Dubai, December 01: The United Arab Emirates announced Wednesday that children of Emirati women married to foreigners could apply for citizenship once they turned 18, moving closer to giving women the same nationality rights as men.

President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahayan decreed that the “children of women citizens married to foreigners should be treated as citizens,” WAM state news agency reported.

In the move, the children are to get the “right to apply for citizenship when they reach 18,” it added.

New Delhi, December 01 : After busting what they termed a major module of the homegrown Indian Mujahideen terror outfit with the arrest of six of its activists, including a Pakistani national, the Delhi Police Thursday announced a Rs.15 lakh reward for clues about the module’s kingpin — Ahmad Siddi Bappa alias Shahrukh.

“A reward of Rs.15 lakh has been announced for any clues about the mastermind of the terror outfit. Bappa is wanted in a blast case of Delhi apart from cases in other states,” said a senior police officer. Bappa is untraced and on the run.

Berlin. December 01: A German federal court is to rule on Wednesday whether a Muslim pupil has the right to pray according to Islamic rites in school, capping a more than two-year legal battle.

The 18-year-old pupil, identified only as Yunus M., insisted on his basic right to religious freedom but school authorities argued the practice endangered the smooth running of the state high school.

With about four million Muslims living in Germany, the case has sparked interest after two earlier regional court rulings first found in favour of the boy, only then to be overturned.

Riyadh, December 01: Saudi employers will be counted as part of the Nitaqat Program’s Saudization quotas, said Abdullah Bin Mohammed Al-Abduljabbar, Director General of Insurance Information at the General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI).

The Nitaqat Program automatically includes the employer in the Saudization percentage, provided he or she registers the establishment with the Social Insurance Scheme and does not work for another company, Al-Abduljabbar said in a report carried by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) Wednesday.

Riyadh, December 01: A teenaged Saudi boy and his girlfriend thought of a novel way to date each other away from the eyes of the country’s feared religious police so they thought of the lifeless desert. But the couple, both 18, had apparently not given any thought to the camel shepherd who appeared to be not bothered by them.

On the third day of their meeting, the couple had their first visitors — members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.

Dubai, December 01: A jobless Afghani allegedly assaaulted a compatriot and made away with Dh1.5million, three mobile phones and a laptop, the Dubai Criminal Court heard on Monday.

The accused, 28-year-old NAA, with the help of two other accomplices (both fugitives) raided Arkozia General Trading Company and threatened its Afghani owner Fazel Ahmad Nada Mohammed with a knife and forced him to disclose the code of the safe.

Dubai, December 01: Indian blue-collar workers in the Gulf are being warned not to carry strangers’ luggage or accept free air tickets when travelling home.

The warning comes following reports by Indian intelligence agencies that workers leaving the Gulf countries are being used as carriers of fake currency.

In several such recent cases, Indian workers, mostly from the state of Andhra Pradesh, have been arrested for carrying bags with fake currency notes.

Riyadh, December 01: A US court has issued an international warrant against a Saudi student who allegedly sold a desert lizard to an American man for $7 million as an extinct dinosaur species from Arabia, a Saudi daily reported on Thursday.

The court sent the arrest order to Interpol and Saudi Arabia’s embassy in the United States, Sharq Arabic language daily said.

Mumbai, December 01: At a time when going ultraglam seems to be the only ‘ talent’ required to be heroine material in Bollywood, Sonakshi Sinha is naturally going all out to change the desi girl image she acquired in her debut film Dabangg.

In her new film Son Of Sardar ( SOS) , a romantic thriller, which Sonakshi signed recently opposite Ajay Devgn, the actress has decided to go sexy and westernised with vengeance and also lose weight to fit into trendy attire.

New Delhi, December 01: Stepping in to defuse tensions over the Mullaperiyar Dam issue, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Thursday asked the union water resources ministry to hold a meeting of officials of contending Kerala and Tamil Nadu soon.

Manmohan Singh said this in a letter to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa, in which he also said he looked forward to her cooperation on the Mullaperiyar issue.

New Delhi, December 01: The Supreme Court Thursday directed the Gujarat government to make available to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) details of the phone calls made between senior police officers and other functionaries of the state during the 2005 killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh.

—IANS—

New Delhi, December 01: In a significant move ahead of assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress Thursday said the government was working speedily to give reservation to minorities within the OBC quota.

Congress spokesman Raashid Alvi said here that the party had mentioned in its election manifesto of 2009 too that it had pioneered reservations in government jobs and educational institutions for minorities in Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh on the basis of their social and economic backwardness and was committed to adopting the measure at the national level.

Kabul, December 01: A bomb attack has killed at least three Afghan policemen and wounded four others in the country’s northern Baghlan province, police say.

The incident occurred on Thursday when a bomb hit police vehicles in the Nawrozak area of Baghlan province, 160 km north of capital city of Kabul.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, Xinhua reported.

Violence continues across Afghanistan despite the presence of nearly 150,000 US-led foreign troops there.

New Delhi, December 01: Successful prosecution and conviction of Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab and access to interrogate Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative David Headley in the US are among the notable achievements of the P. Chidambaram-led union home ministry since he took over three years ago.

Chidambaram took over as union home minister Dec 1, 2008, after his predecessor Shivraj Patil was asked to step down in the wake of the Nov 26 Mumbai attacks that year.

New Delhi, December 01: In the wake of media and think-tank reports estimating the size of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal, India on Thursday said it does not comment on the veracity of reports about nuclear weapons of various countries.

“Government does not comment on the veracity of specific reports about nuclear weapons of various countries,” said Minister of State for External Affairs E Ahamed in the Rajya Sabha in a written reply to a question by BJP’s R N Pany who had sought to know whether Pakistan has more nuclear bombs than India.

New Delhi, December 01: The Delhi High Court on Thursday issued notice to N D Tiwari on a plea by a city youth against its earlier order that the veteran Congress leader cannot be compelled to give his blood samples for DNA test to decide the youth’s paternity suit.

A bench of acting Chief Justice A K Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahay Endlaw issued notice on the plea by Rohit Shekhar, who claims to Tiwari’s biological son, and sought his response by January 19 next year.

New DeLhi, December 01: With tensions escalating between the states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, the Prime Minister on Thursday wrote a letter to the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Jayalalithaa on the Mullaperiyar dam issue.

As per reports, the PM has pointed to Jayalalithaa that the matter is sub-judice and that a meeting will soon be arranged between both the parties to allay their concerns.

Manmohan Singh had indicated on Tuesday also that a meeting of Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu and Kerala would be convened soon to discuss the contentious issue at length.

Guntur, December 01: The YSR Congress leader Y S Jaganmohan Reddy has faced an unhappy situation during his ‘Odarpu Yatra’ in this district Wednesday night.

Hyderabad, December 1: Coaching for Group I exam conducted by Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission for the recruitment to nearly 263 posts in various departments has been arranged by Siasat daily.

According to the notification Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission (APPSC), Hyderabad has invited applications for recruitment to 263 various post in 19 departments.

Applicants must possess a Bachelor’s Degree and must be in the age group of 18 to34 years. Applications can be submitted from December 9 to January 8 on apspsc.gov.in.

Hyderabad, December 1: A Muslim man faced the wrath of local non Muslim people for purchasing house under the Malkajgiri police station limits. The furious local people argued with the man and his wife and stabbed both leaving them severely injured. The couple were shifted to the hospital.

New Delhi, December 01: Two officials of US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) involved in frisking former president A P J Abdul Kalam at an American airport in September have been sacked for not following “appropriate procedures”, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Thursday.

“Senior TSA officials in a meeting with the India embassy in Washington on November 1, 2011 informed that the two TSA officials involved in the screening incident have been terminated from their job,” External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said.

New Delhi, December 01: Parliament may be in a state of paralysis these days, but it has not deterred the authorities from taking a digital leap of faith. Aiming to make its office paperless and the members tech-savvy, the Lok Sabha secretariat has sanctioned Rs 50,000 for each member to buy an iPad.

“We are encouraging MPs to use iPads. This would save a lot of paper,” Lok Sabha Secretary General TK Vishwanathan said. Officials said the MPs can buy either Apple iPads or Android-based Samsung Galaxy Tabs.

Kabul, December 01: US-led NATO forces have killed two Pakistani men in Afghanistan, a few days after airstrikes by the military alliance killed 24 Pakistani troops.

—Agencies

Baghdad, December 01: The deadly incident took place on Thursday when an explosive-laden car parked in a street market in the town was blown up, said Ali al-Temimi, an official at the Khalis police department.

The whole town, located about 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Baghdad, was placed under a curfew immediately after the blast, Reuters reported

On Monday, 19 people were killed and 22 others were injured in a car bomb explosion outside an Iraqi prison near the capital.