Month: January 2012

Hyderabad, January 24: Giving a major relief to thousands of intermediate students, the State Government on Tuesday deferred the decision to introduce jumbling system for one more year.

According to Minister for Secondary Education K Parthasarathy, the government has taken this decision as many private college managements have been opposing the system arguing that exposing students to new laboratories would hit the marks of students as facilities in majority of colleges were not up to the mark.

Eluru, January 24: Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday appealed to all Kapu leaders in the state to come back to TDP fold and join hands in the fight for social justice.

Addressing media persons during his Rythu Poruyatra in West Godavari district, he said that the TDP always gave prominence to Kapu community and hope that they would return to the party to strengthen his fight against social injustice.

Hyderabad, January 24: The West Zone team of Commissioner’s Task Force has rescued two girls after raiding a brothel at an apartment in Humayun Nagar.

According to police, the women organizer started the brothel house on the pretext of running Herbal Weight Loss treatment clinic in a rented apartment. She hired two girls from a friend and used to pay Rs 500 to them for each customer. She used to charge Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500 to known customers.

However, on a tip off police raided the Al Asgar Apartments at First Lancer and arrested the organizer while rescuing two sex workers.

Jaipur, January 24: Furious over the cancellation of his video address to Jaipur Literature Festival, Salman Rushdie today slammed the central and Rajasthan governments, saying the buck stops with it for the “awful” situation and questioned the commitment of Congress over the issue.

The controversial India-born author also hit out at the Muslim groups opposed to him and wondered whether India was moving towards totalitarianism like China by allowing extremist groups to dictate terms.

Mumbai, January 24: Why B-town Hotties lie at the airport?This time it was Sonal Chauhan who had to pay a fine of Rs 85,000 for not declaring her designer purchases

Sonal Chauhan’s trip to Macau over the weekend for an awards event ended on a bitter note.

On her arrival in Mumbai on Sunday night, the actress was intercepted by the airport customs for carrying high-end brands. She was fined Rs 85, 000 and then allowed to go.

Mumbai, January 24: The victim went missing from the vicinity of her house in the night, was spotted entering the area in the morning in a horrific condition; cops have registered a case of kidnapping and rape

The Govandi police have launched a manhunt for an unknown person accused of kidnapping and raping a minor.
The girl (7), a resident of Baiganwadi in Shivaji Nagar, had accompanied her grandmother to fetch water, when the unidentified person abducted her from the locale on Sunday night.

Florida, January 24: During a town hall at an American Legion Hall here Monday afternoon, Rick Santorum was asked a question about President Obama’s religion that’s been a common refrain amongst certain Republicans going all the way back to 2008.

Kolkata, January 24: Sulking West Bengal Congress minister Manoj Chakraborty, who had dubbed the Mamata Banerjee government “dictatorial” after she divested him of two portfolios, on Tuesday formally submitted his resignation.

Chakraborty, a legislator from Berhampore in Murshidabad district who was last week permitted by the Congress high command to quit the ministry, said that his resignation letter has been sent to the chief minister.

“In my two-line letter I said that I tender my resignation from the ministry and request her to accept it,” he said.

New Delhi, January 24: Amid contradictory claims by Mumbai ATS and Delhi Police over an arrest in the July 13 blast case, BJP today claimed that?a lack of political will of government and “appeasement politics” of Congress were behind loss of morale of security agencies in dealing with terror incidents in the country.

It also said the failure of the government in solving nine recent cases of bomb blasts was in fact the “failure” of Home Minister P Chidambaram who owed an explanation to the country.

Mumbai, January 24: Mother of Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, prime accused in the September 2008 Malegaon blast case on Tuesday said that her daughter had been “falsely implicated” and was “innocent”.

“My daughter cannot even kill a worm and this is not what is taught to her. She cannot not commit any such act,” Sarla Devi, who came to meet her daughter at the women’s jail in Byculla here, told reporters.

“The Congress government has put her in jail. Why was my daughter subjected to such hardships?,” she asked.

Chandigarh, January 24: Congress president Sonia Gandhi Tuesday blamed the policies of the Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) combine in Punjab for the state lagging behind in several areas.

Addressing rallies at Gurdaspur and Samrala (near Ludhiana) in support of Congress candidates for the Jan 30 elections to Punjab’s 117 assembly seats, Gandhi said the Akali Dal-BJP government had even failed to benefit the state from the financial support extended by the central government through various projects, especially the national rural employment guarantee scheme.

Jalandhar, January 24: Promising to set up the office of an ’empowered Lokayukta’ in Punjab, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Tuesday said properties and wealth of corrupt leaders would be confiscated and declared government property if the party was voted to power.

Releasing the BJP’s manifesto for the Jan 30 elections to Punjab’s 117 assembly seats, BJP leader Arun Jaitley said that the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP alliance in Punjab was ‘in favor of an empowered Lokayukta and not a mere paper tiger’.

New Delhi, january 24: Amid protests by Muslim groups against hosting Salman Rushdie in Jaipur, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit today said that one may have differences with what he writes but the “very, very eminent” writer is welcome in the capital.

Dikshit’s remarks came when asked about the open invitation extended by artist-activist group ‘Sahmat’ to Rushdie yesterday to attend a function in Delhi following developments at the Jaipur Literature Festival.

Washington, January 24: A Wisconsin man accused of assaulting his wife claims a ghost was behind the act.

The situation on Jan. 15 began with an argument between Michael F. West and his wife over the foreclosure of their house, according to a report by The Northwestern newspaper.

West tried to strangle the woman twice, then told her to call the police, the report said, but as she reached for the phone, he punched her repeatedly in the face, giving her a nosebleed.

Riyadh, January 24: An old Saudi man arrested by police for raping a seven-year-old boy denied the charge and told them to look for another underdog. But when they put the man in a line and asked the boy to identify his rapist, it was just a few seconds before the boy plunged into a crying fit.

“The little boy immediately recognized his rapist and burst into crying…police decided it was a sufficient evidence,” Ajel newspaper said.

Hyderabad, January 24: CBI authorities have reportedly arrested YSR Congress chief Y S Jaganmohan Reddy’s close associate and Personal Assstant Sunil, in his illegal assets case.

New York, January 24: A training film material used by the New York police that accuses Muslims of launching a holy war against the West is sparking a storm of condemnations in the United States, amid accusations that the world’s largest police force is sowing fears of Muslims in the country.

London, January 24: Lawmakers, human rights advocates and Muslim leaders have joined hands to call for a public inquiry into distorting media coverage of Muslims and their faith in Britain.

“An alternative inquiry is necessary to investigate what many regard as widespread and systematic discriminatory practices in reporting on Muslims and Islam in the British media,” they said in a joint letter cited by the Guardian.

Mumbai, January 24: Hinting at “partiality” by the state election commission (SEC), Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray Tuesday hit out at the panel saying it was expected to be “neutral” in the upcoming civic elections in the state.

“The state election commission must behave like one so that suspicions are not raised in our minds,” Thackeray told mediapersons here Tuesday afternoon.

He reiterated his party’s demand for simultaneous counting of votes polled in the Zilla Parishad elections (Feb 7) followed by the municipal corporation elections (Feb 16).

New Delhi, January 24; Former Gujarat minister Amit Shah Tuesday moved the Supreme Court, seeking permission to “enter, stay and function” in the state in which he has been barred entry since Oct 30, 2010 in the wake of an apex court order.

Shah sought modification of the order which, while declining to suspend the bail granted by the Gujarat High Court, directed him to stay away from the territorial limits of the state.

Mumbai, January 24: The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex on Tuesday crossed the 17,000 mark before easing a bit to close the day 244 points up as investors cheered RBI move to cut cash reserve ratio to infuse liquidity in the system.

The Reserve Bank announced 0.5 percentage point cut in CRR, a move that would inject Rs 32,000 crore into the system, but left lending rates unchanged which was largely on the expected lines.

The 30-scrip Sensex crossed the crucial 17,000 mark before ending 244.04 points, or 1.46 per cent, up at 16,995.77.

Colombo, January 24: At least 20 people were injured on Tuesday in a clash between guards and inmates in a Sri Lankan prison, officials said.

“There were 19 inmates and a jailor among those admitted to hospital”, a spokesman for the Colombo National Hospital said.

Inmates of the Magazine prison at Borella clashed with staff. As the clash developed into a riot the guards opened fire.

The rioting inmates had set fire to a building.

They were protesting against poor conditions in the prison.

Memphis, January 24: Memphis Police arrested a man for assaulting his own mother and stabbing the family dog.

Washington, January 24: Women suffer pain more intensely than men in virtually every disease category, according to an exhaustive analysis.

Stanford University scientists based the findings on a novel database that examined more than 160,000 pain scores reported for more than 72,000 adult patients.

“None of these data were initially collected for research, but this study shows that we can use it in that capacity,” said Atul Butte, senior study author from Stanford, the Journal of Pain reports.

New York, January 24: Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif are likely to spend almost one month together in Cuba.
And so the Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif saga continues. After shooting together in Ireland and Istanbul, the former lovers and still-thick-friends will soon head to Cuba to shoot for their film ‘Ek Tha Tiger’.

The movie, directed by Kabir Khan of ‘New York’ fame, has a story that is set against the backdrop of many metropolises throughout the world. The next schedule will be in Cuba.