Month: May 2012

Vidya Balan receives National Award from Hamid Ansari

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Bollywood actress Vidya Balan received her maiden Best Actress award at the 59th National Film Awards on Thursday.

She and other talents from India’s $2-billion Indian movie industry received the honours from Vice President Hamid Ansari.

Top honours, including best feature film, best direction and best actor titles, were bagged by regional talents. Vidya came on the dais in a rose pink-coloured sari with her hair neatly tied in a bun to receive the award for her portrayal of South siren Silk Smitha in The Dirty Picture.

Russia may strike US missile system

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A top Russian military official says Moscow retains the right to a preemptive strike on the US-led missile system in Europe if Washington refuses to engage in constructive dialog over the issue.

“Considering the destabilizing nature of the [American] ABM system, namely the creation of an illusion of inflicting a disarming [nuclear] strike with impunity, a decision on pre-emptive deployment of assault weapons could be taken when the situation gets harder,” Chief of General Staff of Russia’s Armed Forces General Nikolay Makarov said on Thursday.

Plea against Nityananda’s appointment as pontiff

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A petition seeking a direction to the Tamil Nadu government to forbear controversial Nityananda from acting as the 293rd Pontiff of a 1500-year-old Saivaite Mutt by holding his appointment as illegal, arbitrary and contrary to the provisions of the Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Act-1959, was moved in the Madras High court on Thursday.

The petitioner, an advocate, also sought a direction to the authorities concerned to safeguard the assets of the Madurai Adheenam (Mutt) valued at several thousand crores of rupees.

Osama wanted Illyas Kashmiri to target Obama and Petraeus: reports

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Osama bin Laden had planned to kill US President Barack Obama and General David Petraeus, who then was the top US commander in Afghanistan, and had issued instructions to Illyas Kashmiri to set up two units to target planes carrying them.

According to the documents seized from the Abbottabad safe-house of bin Laden, where he was killed by US forces about a year ago, the then al-Qaeda leader wanted to target only Obama and Petraeus.

Some of these documents were released by the Combating Terrorism Center (CTS) at West Point on Thursday.

TP-JAC asks for details of Chidambaram-Naidu meeting

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Telangana Political Joint Action Committee Chairman Prof M Kodandaram on Thursday demanded that Union Home Minister P Chidambaram explain the details of what transpired between him and Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu which obstructed the formation of separate Telangana State.

TRS asks Naidu to clarify his meeting with Chidambaram

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Telangana Rashtra Samithi leader and former MP B Vinod on Thursday demanded that Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu give an explanation over his meeting with Union Home Minister P Chidambaram over Telangana issue.

Talking to media persons, Vinod said that Chidambaram’s statement in the Lok Sabha claiming that Naidu met him over statehood issue proves that Naidu was against the formation of Telangana State. He asked Telugu Desam Telangana Forum members to question Naidu on what forced him to meet Chidambaram in New Delhi.

YSRC questions TDP’s secular credentials

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The secular credentials of TDP came under heavy fire from YSR Congress Party which has questioned the sanctity of its moral policing and attempts to whip up religious, caste and other sensitive issues.

“YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has visited Tirumala for over 15 times by now and objections, if any, should have been raised by the concerned officials and not TDP,” party spokesperson Jupudi Prabhakar Rao told reporters here on Thursday.

CEO gives nod for organising Rythu Chaitanya Sadassus

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Chief Electoral Officer Bhanwarlal on Thursday gave green signal to the State Government to hold Rythu Chaitanya Sadassu across the States, except for 12 districts where by-elections are to be held on June 12.

Talking to reporters at the State Secretariat, Bhanwarlal said that the State Government could organise the Rythu Chaitanyua Sadassu as it was not political in nature. However, he said another programme Rythu Sadassus should be held only after June 15.

Meeting with Jagan was ‘accidental’, says Vamsi Mohan

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Telugu Desam Party leader Vallabhaneni Vamsi Mohan on Thursday gave reply to the show-cause notice served by party president N Chandrababu Naidu over his meeting with YSR Congress president Jagan Mohan Reddy during the election campaign in the Krishna district.

Never met Chidambaram over Telangana: Naidu

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Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu has condemned Union Home Minister P Chidambaram’s claim that he met him on the Telangana statehood issue.

“While making a statement on Telangana in Lok Sabha yesterday, Chidambaram noted that I met him personally (on the issue). This is totally untrue,” Chandrababu said in a statement today.

He alleged that the Central government that was supposed to find a permanent solution to the vexatious problem was seeking to sidetrack the issue.

Congress in Catch-22 situation on Telangana issue

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The prevailing political ground realities in Andhra Pradesh read with Union Home Minister P Chidambaram’s statement in Lok Sabha on Wednesday make it clear that the central government appears to be in no hurry to take a decision on the contentious Telangana statehood issue.

With by-elections to 18 Assembly constituencies — 17 of them in Andhra-Rayalaseema regions alone — and the Nellore Lok Sabha seat slated for June 12, any decision in favour of Telangana will only be suicidal for the ruling Congress.

SC refuses judicial probe in Azad killing case

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The Supreme Court Thursday refused to order any judicial inquiry or a probe by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) into the alleged fake encounter killings of top Naxalite leader Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad and a Delhi journalist Hemchandra Pandey.

A bench of justices Aftab Alam and C K Prasad said there was no reason to believe the allegation that the investigation conducted by the CBI into the encounter was not “honest”.

Last date for second year inter exam fee extended

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The Board of Intermediate Education has decided to extended the last date for payment of second year examination fee up to May 4.

According to BIE Secretary Subrahmanyam, the decision to extend the last date has been taken by Secondary Education Minister K Parthasarathi.

–Agencies

Indian media is promoting superstitions: Katju

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Accusing Indian media of promoting superstitions and backward ideas to divert people’s attention from real issues, Press Council chairman justice Markandey Katju today alleged that the media houses are often looked upon by their owners as the means of making money.

Indian media promoting superstitions and backward ideas: Katju

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Accusing Indian media of promoting superstitions and backward ideas to divert people’s attention from real issues, Press Council Chairman Justice Markandey Katju today alleged that the media houses are often looked upon by their owners as the means of making money.

Petition filed in SC against Haraze, team members

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A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking action against anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare and his team members for allegedly showing disrespect to national flag during his agitation for lokpal bill.

The petitioner LK Venkat, a Chennai resident, alleged that during the agitation in December last year the associates of Hazare had shown disrespect to the national flag and the government failed to take any action despite a complaint filed against them.
He has made Hazare and his associates Kiran Bedi and Arvind Kejriwal parties in the case.

HC defers hearing Facebook, Google

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The Delhi High Court today deferred its hearing till August 7 the case filed by Facebook and Google challenging the trial court’s order to prosecute them for hosting allegedly objectionable content on websites.

The court, however, said its interim order that refused to stay the summons issued against both the networking sites by a trial court over a complaint related to allegedly objectionable content on websites will continue till the next date of hearing.

Meeting with Jagan was ‘accidental’, says Vamsi Mohan

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Telugu Desam Party leader Vallabhaneni Vamsi Mohan on Thursday gave reply to the show-cause notice served by party president N Chandrababu Naidu over his meeting with YSR Congress president Jagan Mohan Reddy during the election campaign in the Krishna district.

TP-JAC asks for details of Chidambaram-Naidu meeting

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Telangana Political Joint Action Committee Chairman Prof M Kodandaram on Thursday demanded that Union Home Minister P Chidambaram explain the details of what transpired between him and Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu which obstructed the formation of separate Telangana State.

Hazare defends Ramdev

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Coming to the defense of Yoga guru Baba Ramdev over his remarks about MPs, Anna Hazare today said that Ramdev had not referred to all the MPs.

Ramdev’s statement that there were “dacoits and murderers” in the Parliament has drawn a lot criticism.

Talking to reporters here, Hazare, who recently joined hands with the Yoga Guru for the anti-corruption campaign,
said that he talked to Ramdev about the statement. Ramdev did not mean all the MPs when he made the statement but only a few, Hazare asserted.

Refuting reports of rift in his team, Hazare alleged that it was a media-creation.

Mosque Gives Hope to Drug Addicts

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For 30 years, Feisal Fakharudin lived a heroin addict’s life, sleeping on streets, getting into trouble with police and rotating in and out of drug treatment centers.

Now, he has high hopes to live like any other human being, thanks to the help of a mosque in Muslims-majority Malaysia.

“In the past, there was no one to help me,” Feisal told Reuters on Thursday, May 3.

He said he used to feel like the “scum of society.”

Thanks to Ae-Rahman mosque in the capital Kuala Lumpur, Feisal is now being treated from his drug addiction.

4 wives at home, yet actor elopes with 16-yr-old girl

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An FIR has been lodged against a small time actor in Jalalabad for allegedly eloping with a 16-year-old girl, police said today.
Waqar Khan, a resident of neighbouring Shahjahanpur district, developed a relationship with the girl while frequenting her house for business, her father Asfaq Khan said in the FIR filed yesterday.

He has claimed that the two eloped on the pretext of the girl going to school to enquire about her exams, they said.

Islam Among Fastest-growing Faiths in US

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Islam and Mormonism are the fastest-growing religion in the United States in the past decade, a new census has found, The Globe and Mail newspaper reported Thursday, May 3.

“Christians are the largest group in every state,” researcher Dale Jones told a press conference.

“But some of the things we found interesting was the growth of the Mormons, who reported the largest numerical gain in 26 states.”

The census, by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies in Chicago, found that American Muslims almost doubled in the past decade.