Islamabad, March 03: Rubbishing the idea that it was desiring “strategic depth” in neighbouring Afghanistan, Pakistan has sought a trust-based relationship with Kabul that sets aside the past associated with support for the Taliban.
“If we are looking for any strategic depth it cannot be achieved militarily or come through a proxy war. The only way to do is through building trust with the Afghan state,” Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said.
To mark the 10th anniversary of Gujarat communal riots, a Democrat lawmaker has introduced a resolution in the House of Representatives urging the state government to restore religious freedom.
The non-binding resolution “recognising the 10th anniversary of the tragic communal violence in Gujarat” introduced by Keith Ellison early this week has been sent to the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Falak, the two-year-old battered baby who has been battling for survival at the premier AIIMS Trauma Centre here, has shown signs of improvement and is likely to be discharged soon, said a doctor looking after her for the past almost month-and-half.
“She is showing body movements and moving her limbs, she has survived now,” Deepak Agrawal, assistant professor (neurosurgery) at the AIIMS Trauma Centre, told IANS Saturday.
A sessions court on Friday dismissed the revision pleas of Sathya Sai Central Trust seeking return of Rs 35.5 lakh cash seized by police from a vehicle, allegedly belonging to the Trust in June 2011.
Judge T Gangi Reddy upheld the orders passed by the court of Hindupur judicial magistrate which had directed for handing over the seized amount to the Income-Tax Department in August last.
The judge dismissed the revision petition filed by the Trust saying the money will be in custody of the IT department till the final investigation in the case was completed.
Under fire from a section of Muslim community for his remarks on Gujarat riots, Pakistani Islamic scholar Tahir-ul-Qadri has clarified that he only stated that unfortunate incidents should not recur.
Qadri accused a section of media of distorting his statement made during his visit to Gujarat last week.
Ending the long suspense, the Andhra Pradesh assembly speaker Friday disqualified 16 rebel lawmakers belonging to the ruling Congress party who were loyal to Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy.
The speaker has also accepted the resignation of another Jagan loyalist Shoba Nagi Reddy of Praja Rajyam Party (PRP), which has now merged with the Congress party.
A statement about the disqualification was released from the office of speaker Nandendla Manohar Friday night.
Charges were today framed against a close aide of hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani and three others, arrested for allegedly running hawala racket to fund banned terrorist outfit Hizb-ul-Mujahideen in Kashmir Valley, by a Delhi court, paving the way for their trial.
District Judge H S Sharma framed charges under various sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act against Ghulam Mohd Bhat, said to be Geelani’s close aide, Mohd Siddiq Ganai, Ghulam Jeelani Liloo and Farooq Ahmed Dagga, who are presently in Tihar jail under judicial custody.
Former Australian batsman Dav Whatmore, who coached Sri Lanka to victory in the 1996 cricket World Cup, has reached Pakistan to sign a coaching contract with the country’s national team.
Whatmore will be Pakistan’s fourth foreign national coach after Richard Pybus, Bob Woolmer and Geoff Lawson.
After his arrival at the Allama Iqbal International Airport in Pakistani eastern city of Lahore Friday, he was escorted to his hotel under very tight security. Media persons tried to talk to him but he remained silent and made no comment on any question raised to him.
A reality show singer, who was a pillion rider, died after her two-wheeler was hit by an Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) bus near Paradise on Friday.
Mahankali police said that Vyshnavi,19, was going on a two-wheeler along with her uncle, Prasad, near CTO, Paradise. An APSRTC bus belonging to Ranigunj bus depot hit the two-wheeler on the rear side. “She was shifted to a hospital where she succumbed to injuries while under going treatment,” Mahankali sub-inspector K Ravi Kumar said.
The NIA, in its chargesheet, had said, “Funds through hawala channels were being sent to Jammu and Kashmir for funding terror and secessionist acts in the state and Pakistan-based Maqbool Pandit, a member of banned Hizbul Mujahideen and Aizaz Maqbool Bhat, at present living in Saudi Arabia, were the key accused behind it.”
The Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) on Friday sought an unconditional apology from senior IPS officer and home secretary P Gautam Kumar for casting aspersions on the tribunal in connection with the hearing in a plea filed by him challenging V Dinesh Reddy’s appointment as AP DGP. This is one of those rare occasions when CAT has sought an apology from a complainant.
President Barack Obama issued his most direct threat yet of US military action against Iran if it builds a nuclear weapon, but in a message to Israel’s leader ahead of White House talks he also cautioned against a pre-emptive Israeli strike.
“As president of the United States, I don’t bluff,” Obama warned Iran in a magazine interview published on Friday, three days before he will host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington.
Members of Coalition Against Genocide, a broad-based coalition formed to obtain justice for the victims of 2002 pogroms in India, welcomed the introduction of a resolution in the United states House of Representatives by Congressman Keith Ellison, marking the 10th anniversary of Gujarat pogroms.
India has begun to reboot its relations with Egypt, which is stirring out of the dormancy of the Mubarak-era, and is looking for new friends and allies to fulfill its ambitions of emerging as an independent regional heavyweight.
The External Affairs Minister, S.M. Krishna is leading this effort of exploring the full depth of possibilities of establishing a robust relationship with Egypt.
A young man whose hands were chopped off after he failed to repay a loan languishes on the floor of a government hospital here, frightened and worried about his life ahead while police are yet to take action against his attackers more than a week after the incident.
Ram Sagar Chandravanshi (21), belonging to an extreme backward caste, has not been even given a bed at the Patna Medical College and Hospital where he has been lying for the past many days.
The French president was forced to take refuge from hundreds of angry protesters who threatened to beat him up during a campaign trip
French President Nicolas Sarkozy was forced to hide in a bar after a mob of protesters threatened to beat him up.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy begins his campaign in Bayonne amid
unhappy protesters. However, it was all fine till he was suddenly pelted
with eggs.
The 57-year-old French president, who is standing for re-election in April, was campaigning in the south west of the Basque country.
Pelted
A day after Mansoor Ijaz told the judicial commission, probing the circumstances leading to memogate controversy, that he was done with recording his statement, the panel on Friday asked Pakistan former Ambassador to US Husain Haqqani to appear before the commission.
The judicial commission resumed hearing a day after Mansoor Ijaz recorded his statement through video link from London and asked the authorities concerned to submit record of telephone bills of the former ambassador.
Crew shortage, late catering, lack of spare parts were some of the reasons why 2,461 of 7,603 flights from Mumbai airport were delayed in January
The on-time performance report of flights at the city airport for January 2012 reads like entries made in the school diary of a habitual adolescent latecomer, except that the latter is more innovative.
As per the report submitted by Mumbai International Airport Ltd to the Civil Aviation Ministry, each day in January saw around 80 flights getting delayed by at least 15 minutes
Man brutally murdered in Chandrayangutta
(Siasat News): A man was brutally killed by some unknown killers in Chandrayangutta. According to police the killers are yet to be traced and the motive behind the murder is not ascertained.
According to inspector A Srinivas, 45-year-old Ramulu, resident of Ghouse Nagar, Bundlaguda, was brutally killed near the compound wall of the water board.
When former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf visited India in April 2005, he met with Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, as all visiting Pakistani leaders do, evidently to be seen to offering solidarity with the Kashmir cause.
At that meeting, according to narratives of those present, Musharraf sought to persuade Geelani that the days of open support for Kashmiri separatism, backed by patronage of terrorists spawned by Pakistan’s ISI, were over.
He had to give all the canned tuna he had stocked up in anticipation of an earthquake that was supposed to hit Dubai on Sunday to his two cats.
This was what resident Ziad Al Jamaan (@ziadaljamaan) shared on Twitter.
Did he lie about the tuna? Or the earthquake?
When contacted by Gulf News, he said that the tweet was a tongue-in-cheek message to those spreading the false news about the earthquake. However, not all Twitter users reacted the way Al Jamaan did.
At least 63 militants and 10 soldiers were killed in a suicide attack and clashes between security forces and extremists in Khyber and Orakzai agencies on Friday.
At least 10 soldiers and 23 Laskar-e-Islam (LI) militants were killed in fresh skirmishes took place in Lakaro Baba, a far-flung area of Tirah Valley in Tehsil Bara of Khyber Agency, officials said on Friday.
As the adage goes, the higher you soar, the harder you fall. In a fickle world where careers are made and broken every weekend, box office numbers are the only failsafe to determine the way the tide will turn in future.
Actress Chitrangada Singh bounced back by attacking strip queen Poonam Pandey, who has shortly become much talked about Indian Celebrity World wide.
Chitrangada tweeted, ” How do you compete with Poonam Pandey, when she is ready strip for kabbadi matches? (sic)”.
Poonam has maintained a stoic silence on Chitrangada’s rant.
A Delhi court on Saturday accepted a plea for a trial of a close aide of Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani and three others. They have been allegedly running a hawala racket to fund banned terrorist outfit Hizbul Mujahideen in the Kashmir valley.
The court decided to put the four on trial, ordering formal framing of charges against them under various provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
In the 10 Muslim-dominated districts that will go to polls on Saturday, the BJP is hopeful of springing a surprise in many seats. BJP leaders are confident that their party would out perform its 2007 tally when eight of its candidates won from these districts.
They are pinning their hopes not so much on the party’s own efforts but on the Muslim reservation issue — “raked up” by the Congress and Samajwadi Party — and more so on many Muslim candidates in the fray, “thanks to the remaining political parties”.