New Delhi,January 04 :THINK Bipasha Basu, and you are normally thinking bold. The Bong bombshell has cultivated that image for herself over the years.
Fans of the sexy star were in for a surprise, therefore, when she recently landed in Bangalore for the store opening of a jewellery brand she endorses and chickened out on seeing a large crowd.
Baghdad,January 04 :About 162,000 people, almost 80% of them civilians, have been killed in Iraq from the start of the 2003 US-led invasion up to withdrawal of American forces in 2011, a British NGO has said.
Iraq Body Count (IBC) warned that, contrary to apparent trends in figures released by the Iraqi government, the level of violence has changed little from mid-2009.
The organisation, however, revealed that attacks were markedly down from when the country was in the throes of sectarian war in 2006 and 2007, The Sydney Morning Herald reports.
New Delhi, January 04: Widening its probe into the finances of yoga guru Ramdev, the Enforcement Directorate has summoned his aide Balkrishna in connection with a foreign exchange violation case registered against their trusts.
The agency, according to sources, has asked Balkrishna or an authorised representative on his behalf to be present before agency officials here on January 10. The representative also has been asked to bring along documents and letters related to the firms run by Ramdev’s trusts.
Beijing, January 04: Hundreds of Muslims in a northwestern China village trying to prevent the demolition of their mosque clashed with police, causing several deaths, Hong Kong media and residents said on Tuesday.
Fighting between police and members of the largely Muslim Hui ethnic group broke out on Friday in Ningxia region, adjacent to Inner Mongolia province, after authorities declared their newly built mosque illegal, the South China Morning Post said.
Hundreds of residents in Taoshan village confronted police armed with teargas, truncheons and knives, the newspaper said.
Tehran, January 04: Feeling the toll on its economy from sanctions imposed by the U.S. and EU, Iran released a threat to take action against the U.S. Navy if an aircraft carrier is moved into the Gulf.
After sanctions targeting the nation’s oil sector were imposed, Iran’s currency has fallen 40 percent against the dollar in the past month.
Last week the U.S. Navy moved the USS John C Stennis, an aircraft carrier, out of the Persian Gulf because of Iran’s naval exercises. Iran says they will take action if the ship returns.
Muscat, January 04: The divine nature of Islam makes it the only religion that offers genuine solutions to the existing problems, Sheikh Ahmad bin Hamad Al Khalili, the Grand Mufti of the Sultanate, has said.
“Let it be financial crisis or social unrest, Islam and the Holy Book Quran have solutions to resolve the issues. Even the Western thinkers and philosophers have now started to agree on this,” the Grand Mufti told media on the sidelines of the inaugural meeting arranged by Kerala Islamic Association (KIA) to award the Holy Quran quiz winners.
New Delhi, January 03: The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the bail plea of Abdul Naseer Madani, arrested for his alleged role in the 2008 serial terror blasts in Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Jaipur.
A bench of justices P Sathasivam and J Chelameswar, however, directed the Karnataka government to provide medical treatment to Madani, founder of Peoples Democratic Party in Kerala, at the Kottakkal Arya Vaidya Sala in Bangalore for his various health problems.
Hyderabad, January 03: The CBI, probing corruption allegations against Kadapa MP YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, today alleged that his financial advisor V Vijay Sai Reddy was the kingpin behind the conspiracy in accommodating the ill-gotten money by floating fictitious firms.
The CBI which arrested Vijay Sai last night, the second accused in the alleged disproportionate assets of Jagan Mohan Reddy case, in its remand report claimed that vital information pertaining to the case was within the exclusive knowledge of Vijay Sai.
Hyderabad, January 03: Upset over the murder of her coach during New Year celebrations, a woman hockey player Tuesday committed suicide in the port city of Visakhapatnam.
Two days after G. Bhaskar Rao was murdered by his junior, Meena ended her life by immolating herself at her residence. A police officer said she was upset and unable to bear the loss of her coach and hence committed suicide.
New Delhi, January 03: Congress on Tuesday sought to disapprove of the remarks of former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh over the age row involving Army Chief V K Singh.
“He (Amarinder Singh) had already clarified that this was his personal view. Generally, politicians should not comment on internal affairs of armed forces,” AICC general secretary Janardan Dwivedi said.
In a letter written to Defence Minister A K Antony, former Punjab Chief Minister had supported the contention of the army chief who is involved in a tussle with Government over his date of birth.
Pune, January 03: Doctors attending on activist Anna Hazare said Tuesday that his discharge from hospital, earlier slated for Friday, might be postponed for two more days due to his frail health.
‘Anna’s health was fine until yesterday. But he could not sleep properly last night due to severe coughing. We are planning to increase the dosage of antibiotics from five days to seven days,’ said Mahendra Kawedia from Sancheti Hospital, who has been closely monitoring Hazare’s condition.
New Delhi, January 03: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday questioned the credibility of the campaign undertaken by Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh.
“The initiatives taken by Rahul Gandhi to empower entire Uttar Pradesh and bring development to the state, we would like to question him about the deal cracked by his party over the killing of innocent people and which direction do they want to take the state of Uttar Pradesh in order to save the prestige of their ruling party,” said BJP spokesperson Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.
New Delhi, January 04: The Lashkar-e-Taiba is raising a group of 21 female terrorists at its training camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir for carrying out sabotage activities in India, Army sources said on Tuesday.
“We have confirmed reports that LeT is imparting training to 21 selected female terrorists at its training facilities in Muzaffarabad in PoK for carrying out terrorist activities in India,” an Army official said here.
They said the new group, named as Dukhtareen-e-Taiba, is planned to be made active in the Kashmir Valley by the LeT.
New Delhi, January 03: Delhi Government has served a show cause notice on Swami Agnivesh for alleged fudging of bills and told him to refund an “unspent” amount of Rs 2.23 lakh out of total grant of Rs 18 lakh given to his NGO to carry out a survey on bonded labourers in the city.
The Revenue department has given 10 days’ time to the activist as chairman of Bonded Labour Liberation Front to comply with the notice.
Riyadh, January 03: Saudi Arabia’s feared religious police arrested a divorced local woman for having an affair with a Sri Lankan man after confessing she was pregnant, a newspaper reported on Tuesday.
Members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice seized the woman with the Sri Lankan private driver at his room in the eastern province of Ihsa, ‘Sabq’ said.
Hyderabad, January 03: A minister in Andhra Pradesh Tuesday complained to President Pratibha Patil against his cabinet colleague, whom he held responsible for a recent attack on him.
Textiles Minister P. Shankar Rao met Pratibha Patil, who is on a southern sojourn here, and demanded action against those involved in the Dec 20 attack on him.
Accompanied by Dalit leader Manda Krishna Madiga, Shankar Rao told the president that Home Minister P. Sabita Indra Reddy is responsible for the attack.
Kolkata, January 03: Denying any deal with the Congress on the issue of Lokayukta in the Lokpal bill, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Tuesday said she felt that the state ombudsman should remain a prerogative of the states.
‘Some news channels were saying that there was a deal with the Congress regarding the Lokayukta in the Lokpal bill. But I want to say that there was no such deal. I don’t believe in deals. I believe in transparent politics,’ said Banerjee while addressing mediapersons here.
New Delhi, January 03: The BJP on Tuesday condemned the treatment meted out to Indian diplomat S Balachandran in China and demanded that authorities there conduct a thorough inquiry into the incident and ensure that it is not repeated as several Indian businessmen visit the neighbouring country.
“The Chinese Government must conduct a detailed enquiry into the deplorable incident and take appropriate action against those responsible for ensuring that the Indian diplomat was provided adequate security and other facilities while he was on duty,” BJP spokesperson Tarun Vijay said.
New Delhi, January 03: Congress on Tuesday said it was now up to BJP to demonstrate its stand on corruption after sulking former Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa virtually gave an ultimatum to the party leadership to give him a suitable position by January 15.
Sydney, Janaury 03: The distribution of an offensive pamphlet depicting a Muslim man physically abusing a woman and a child and alleging that the practice is condoned by the Islamic teachings is sparking a storm of condemnations from Australian Muslims.
“We are sad about it, we don’t agree with the booklet or its logic,” Yusef Mansuri, the vice-president of the Islamic Society of the ACT, told Canberra Times on Tuesday, January 3.
“But that said, Australia is a democratic country and people are entitled to express themselves.”
Paris, January 03: In an effort to fight alcohol addiction, French Muslim football player Franck Ribery has opened an alcohol-free bar that would serve fruit juices.
“I wanted a concept that’s a little different from the ordinary,” the 28-year old told French newspaper La Voix du Nord.
Called “O’Shahiz”, the bar takes its name from Ribery’s two daughters Shahinez and Hizya.
The Bayern Munich midfielder is believed to have reverted to Islam in 2006 after marrying a Muslim woman of Moroccan origin.
Tehran, January 03: The daughter of influential former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was on Tuesday sentenced to jail and banned from political activities for “anti state propaganda” dating back to the 2009 disputed presidential election, Iranian media reported.
The Islamic state has piled pressure on the opposition ahead of a parliamentary election in March 2, the first test of the clerical establishment’s popularity since the 2009 vote that critics say was rigged to re-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.