For the third time in five days, India on Wednesday test-fired two surface-to-air anti-aircraft ‘Akash’ missiles from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur near here, achieving success in one while the data of the second trial was being analysed.
“Two Akash missiles were launched from the ITR. While one test was successful, data for the other is still being analysed,” ITR Director M V K V Prasad told PTI over phone.
At least four journalists were killed when armed gunmen blew up the newsroom of a pro-government television station near the Syrian capital.
Hours before Wednesday’s attack at the al-Ikhbaryia satellite channel, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said his country was in “a real state of war”.
Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi lashed out at the European Union and Arab League for “instigating” violence and said they were “fully responsible” for the TV station attack, state-run news agency Sana reported.
At least five persons were killed and 18 others injured when a powerful bomb went off at a railway station in the restive Balochistan province of southwest Pakistan on Wednesday, officials said.
The bomb, hidden in a tea stall on the platform of Sibi railway station, was triggered by remote control late tonight while the Jaffar Express train was at the station.
“Five persons, including a railway policeman, were killed and 18 were injured. Eight of the injured are in a critical condition,” Deputy Commissioner Shahid Saleem Qureshi told the media.
For the third time in five days, India on Wednesday test-fired two surface-to-air anti-aircraft ‘Akash’ missiles from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur near here, achieving success in one while the data of the second trial was being analysed.
“Two Akash missiles were launched from the ITR. While one test was successful, data for the other is still being analysed,” ITR Director M V K V Prasad told PTI over phone.
A minor fire broke out in the brake van in the Chennai-Alapuzha Express as soon as it left a station in Tamil Nadu early Thursday but no one was injured, railway officials said.
They said the station master at Thottipalayam Railway Station between Erode and Tiruppur noticed smoke emerging from the brake van of the train that left around 4 AM and alerted railway officials at nearby Perundurai Railway Station where it was stopped and firemen doused the fire.
“Since the fire broke out in the brake van, no one was injured,” they said.
A bandh call given by the YSR Congress party in protest against the arrest of their leader YS Jaganmohan Reddy on Wednesday evoked a mixed response in Andhra Pradesh even as police clamped prohibitory orders in the city to prevent any untoward incident.
In another development, Jagan’s mother and MLA YS Vijaya along with other members of her family, launched a fast outside their Lotus Pond residence here even as the MP was produced in the special court of CBI.
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari’s popularity has dipped to an abysmally low, lower than his predecessor Pervez Musharraf, while cricketer-turned politician Imran Khan has the highest popularity ratings in the country.
“Only 14 per cent view Zardari favourably, little changed from last year (11 per cent in 2011), but down significantly from 64 per cent in 2008,” the Pew Research said releasing the results of its survey in Pakistan on Wednesday.
Indian prisoner Surjeet Singh, who has served a life term following his arrest on charges of spying in the 1980s, will be freed from a prison in this eastern Pakistani city and handed over to Indian authorities tomorrow, an official said on Wednesday.
Singh, 69, will be released from Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore at 10 am tomorrow, a senior official of the prison department of Punjab province said.
Policemen will escort Singh to the Wagah land border crossing, where he will be handed over to Indian authorities, the official, who did not wish to be named, said.
A Pakistani court on Wednesday set September 5 as the deadline for President Asif Ali Zardari to disassociate himself from political activities and warned that he would have to face the consequences if he failed to do so.
A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial of the Lahore High Court asked the President to relinquish his post of chief of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party.
Hindi film star Saif Ali Khan will lead the India Day parade considered to be the largest of its kind outside the country, organizers said.
They were speaking at a kickoff meeting in connection with the event.
The meeting, held at the Consulate General of India, was addressed among others by Kanubhai Chauhan, president of the Federation of Indian Associations (FIA).
Another woman in Rajasthan has requested the authorities to annul her marriage which was solemnised when she was a child and sought permission to live with another man of her choice, police said Wednesday.
According to police, the woman, Sajana Kumari, 21, is a resident of Beelwa village near Khetri town in Jhunjhunu district, some 200 km from Jaipur.
Shocked by the U-turn by Pakistan on the release of Sarabjit Singh, an Indian prisoner on a death row in Pakistan on terrorism charges, his family decided to hold a protest at New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar Thursday to seek his release.
Sarabjit’s sister, Dalbir Kaur, who has led the campaign for his release in the last few years, said that the family will hold a dharna at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi.
Family members and other supporters Wednesday evening took out a silent candle-light protest in this Punjab city, 150 km from Chandigarh, to urge the Pakistan government to release him.
The compromise between the human resource development ministry and IIT Council over the entrance exam pattern for admission to the engineering institutes Wednesday garnered mixed reactions from the IIT alumni.
“Most of the concerns have been addressed which is a good thing, and I think the IITs will be able to maintain their autonomy,” IIT Faculty Federation secretary Atul Mittal told IANS.
“This is a step in the positive direction,” he added.
Two passers-by were shot by a snatcher who opened fire when he fell from his bike in a desperate attempt to flee after snatching a woman’s chain. The victim received head injuries while the accused managed to escape, police said Wednesday.
The incident took place in east Delhi’s Shahdara area around evening. The injured were taken to a nearby hospital.
According to the police, the victim Mamta Gupta, 43, was on a cycle rickshaw with her daughter-in-law, Preeti Gupta, 24 when the two motorcycle borne accused approached them from behind and snatched Mamta’s gold chain.
Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty, who recently gave birth to a baby boy with husband Raj Kundra, says she is sleep-deprived because the tot is keeping her on her toes.
The 37-year-old gave birth to her first child Viaan on May 21 and Shilpa says being a mother is a full time job and she hardly gets time to do anything else.
“I know I’ve been twitter lazy. Son keeps me busy. Dunno how time’s flown! Sleep deprived and look like a zombie but Viaan is joy personified!”
Bollywood actor Ranbir Kapoor today failed to appear before a local court in connection with a case registered against him for allegedly smoking in public.
The court has now asked him to appear before it on July 26.
Pictures of Ranbir Kapoor smoking at a public place here last month while shooting for his upcoming film, ‘Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani’ had appeared in the local press.
A complaint under CrPC Section 156(3) was lodged at a court in Udaipur following which Ranbir was served summons asking him to appear before the court today.
The ICC Board today unanimously acknowledged the lifetime ban imposed on Pakistan cricketer Danish Kaneria by ECB for his role in a English spot-fixing scandal and urged the member nations to enforce the verdict to the fullest extent.
Congress today asked BJP to rename itself as Bhrasht (Corrupt) Janta Party after the Opposition party attacked the government over the Adarsh scam and the resignation of Union Minister Virbhadra Singh.
“BJP has lost all moral rights to speak on corruption and that is why they have outsourced it to the civil society. The opposition party should look within.
Marathwada region, from where the arrested LeT handler of 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attack, Abu Jundal hails, is fast becoming the “new Pakistan”, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray said today.
“Marathwada, which was earlier known as the land of saints, is now becoming the land of terrorists,” the Sena patriarch said in an editorial in party mouthpiece ‘Saamana’.
CBI counsel has argued that Jagan feels as if he was the Chief Minister. He has alleged that Jagan has committed an economic offence to the tune of Rs. 43,000 crores. He said the agency has investigated into the irregularities by Bharati Cements, Vanpic and two other companies.
Eminent jurist Ram Jethmalani has argued that the arrest of the YSR Congress president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy was illegal.
The bail petition of Jagan has come up for hearing in the high court on Wednesday. After initial arguments, the further hearing of the case was posted to Thursday.
The Journalists have staged a dharna at Babu Jagjeevan Ram statue here, protesting against the State Government filing cases against the Sakshi senior reporter K Yadagiri Reddy.
On Wednesday, the journalists have organized a rally from Basheerbagh Press Club to Babu Jagjeevan Ram statue, raising slogans against filing the cases against Yadagiri Reddy.
Speaking on this occasion, the journalists flayed the State Government’s attitude towards the Sakshi reporter. (NSS)
The Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Mukul Wasnik has said that the issue of Scheduled castes categorization was under consideration of the Centre.
Speaking to the media at Gandhi Bhavan here on Wednesday, Wasnik said that the Centre had addressed letters to the States with regard to SC categorization issue. Few States have responded on the issue but many were yet to respond. The Centre will take a decision on the issue only after all the States responded, he said.
Dubbing the State Government’s new liquor policy as a ‘4-Point Formula’-producing more liquor, make the people to drink more, earn more revenue and make the people ill and join hospitals in a big way, TDP Women’s Wing Chief Shoba Hymavathi has said that the lathi-charge on the women agitators, who were protesting against the State Government’s liquor police, with male police shows that there was no security to the women in the State.
The Afzalgunj police has detected a case of snatching cash within, four days and recovered stolen property i.e. Rs. 2,05,000/- out of Rs. 2,05,380/- by apprehending the accused Mohammed Rukhsan Khan alias Irfan, a Plumber of Azampura.