Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram will visit the violence-affected areas of Assam Monday to review the situation, an official said Sunday.
During his two-day visit starting Monday, he will review the law and order situation in Kokrajhar and neighbouring areas and will meet senior state government officials, the home ministry official said.
“He would also assess the impact of relief measures and other steps taken to normalize the situation,” he said.
After the discovery of a tunnel running from Pakistan to India, security personnel fear that more such tunnels may have been dug to push terrorists and weapons into Kashmir.
The tunnel, still under construction, was discovered by a farmer Saturday near a border post on the international border in Samba district south of Jammu.
One official told IANS that the tunnel’s aim was to “push in militants, arms and ammunition from Pakistan”.
With India’s Independence Day only 18 days away, some fear that the tunnel may have been prepared to infiltrate militants on or ahead of Aug 15.
India’s foreign exchange (forex) reserves grew by $589 million to $287.34 billion for the week ended July 20, central bank data showed.
Foreign currency assets, the biggest component of the forex reserves kitty, increased by $565.5 million to $255.10 billion for the week under review, according to weekly statistical supplement released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
Activist Anna Hazare Sunday pulled up his supporters for staging a noisy, unannounced protest outside Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s residence here a day earlier.
While saying that the protest showed that people were angry with the government, he told his supporters to “think before doing any such thing” in the future.
“We should think before taking any such step as it involves the country’s prime minister,” Hazare told reporters before starting his indefinite fast here.
Dyavati Poshetty, Village Revenue Officer, Koritikal(V), Mamuda (M), Adilabad district, was caught red-handed by sleuths of Anti Corruption Bureau at his private office when he accepted bribe of Rs 5000, from the complainant, to issue him passbook.
Siasat news
Students from nine districts of Uttar Pradesh have painted the horrors of wars at an event organised by the Mangalayatan University here as part of a global effort to create a Guinness record.
The paintings are in memory of the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear holocaust. The winners’ paintings will be put up at the Hiroshima Peace Museum in Japan Aug 6, a university official said.
Students from Aligarh, Agra, Hathras, Mathura, Merrut, Bulandshahar, Unnao, Sultanpur, Kasganj and Firozabad took part in the contest.
President Asif Ali Zardari has promised to break up Punjab and create a new province of Janoobi (South) Punjab.
The Associated Press of Pakistan quoted him as saying this to a delegation of his Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) activists.
“The creation of a Janoobi Punjab province will help provide the people of south Punjab with openings and opportunities for their socio-economic development,” the president said.
A PPP team from south Punjab led by Makhdoom Shahab-ud-Din called on the president.
Social activist Anna Hazare began an indefinite fast against corruption here Sunday, calling for the establishment of real “swaraj” or people’s rule in the country.
The 75-year-old began the hunger strike at 10.30 near the Jantar Mantar observatory demanding a stringent Jan Lokpal bill to check corruption.
A total of 350 others including three Team Anna members have been fasting since Wednesday. One of them was in hospital but stable after being in critical condition earlier.
Addressing thousands of supporters, Hazare said: “It is time for the return of swaraj in the country.”
An ‘under-construction’ tunnel was found near an army post in the Samba district. The tunnel stems from the Pakistani side of the international border in Jammu and Kashmir. Acording to police sources a ‘stretch of sunken earth’ was detected by a farmer on Friday near the Chinari border post of India, about 55 km south of Jammu and was informed to the police, the police inturn reported the matter to the BSF.
(IANS) If you sleep only for five to six hours, it is bound to affect your work negatively. Experts recommend eight hours of sleep for ideal health and productivity.
Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School, have found that regardless of how tired you think you are, lack of sleep can influence the way you do certain tasks.
Girls and boys start grade school with different approaches to arithmetic problems – girls favour a slow and accurate approach and boys a faster but more error-prone approach.
The girls’ approach gives them an early advantage, but by the end of the sixth grade, boys had surpassed the girls, a study by the University of Missouri says.
The study found that boys showed more preference for solving arithmetic problems by reciting an answer from memory, whereas girls were more likely to compute the answer by counting.
The Kerala government has given its approval to set up of a Rs.300 crore hospital and medical college in which the diaspora will be allowed to invest, it was announced Sunday.
The Kerala Institute of Medical Education and Research will come up in Alappuzha district in three years, an official said. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy cleared the project at a cabinet meeting last week.
In his budget speech, Finance Minister K.M. Mani had announced plans to set up five government medical colleges in the state. This is the first of them.
(IANS/RIA Novosti) Australia’s Emily Seebohm underlined her status as a leading contender for 100 metres backstroke gold by setting a new Olympic swimming record in the heats Sunday.
Seebohm’s time of 58.23 seconds was comfortably inside the mark of 58.77 seconds set by Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry in Beijing, but outside the world record of 58.12 seconds held by Britain’s Gemma Spofforth.
Seebohm was part of the Australian team that won gold in the 4×100 metre medley relay in Beijing in 2008.
There is less chance of new modified electronic voting machines being used during the parliamentary elections in 2014, as several loopholes were found in the modified electronic voting machines (EVMs).
He might be a big superstar in India, but that’s not just what Salman Khan’s is famous for. The actor, who’s set to grace the Madame Tussauds’ New York museum, since his wax statue which adorns the London museum is on loan for three months and will be showcased at NY, has interestingly become one of the most famous stars Indian in United States.
“Salman Khan is one of Bollywood’s most enduring and recognizable stars,” said Bret Pidgeon, general manager of Madame Tussauds New York, which boasts of a Bollywood Zone that comprises of stars like Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan.
TV actress Jayati Bhatia “rediscovered” her passion for dance on “Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa 5” and the 41-year-old hopes she has been able to inspire women of her age to utilise their free time pursuing their hobbies or favourite activities.
She didn’t expect to be eliminated from the dance reality show so soon, but is happy with her performance.
Boys hand out bags containing water, laban and dates to motorists during Maghreb prayer in Jeddah on Saturday. Citizens and charities can be seen throughout the Kingdom’s cities handing out iftar bags to motorists who are unable to get home and open their fasts on time.
—Courtesy:SG
If this was said in jest, then Saif Ali Khan is clearly not one who’s having the last laugh here as one of Hollywood’s most sought after stars threatens to sue.
Rewind to last week, the Bollywood actor was quoted by the media as saying that he is working on a film project with Oscar winner Natalie Portman, calling it a ‘romcom’ and saying the rest was all hush-hush.
Well, it seems news travelled to the star of ‘The Black Swan’, who was completely oblivious to the fact that such a movie was in the works.
A 90-year-old Saudi man decided to end nearly a century of bachelorship and married in a massive party attended by all villagers and guests invited from nearby towns, a newspaper reported on Friday.
“It was a big wedding that was held in exceptional conditions given the groom’s age…it will be remembered for many years to come,” said Ahmed Ibrahim al Sulami, tribal chief in the western Saudi village of Shaab.
The groom, Khalil Al Sulami, told Kabar newspaper he would spend his honey moon at a five-star hotel in the nearby city of Qunfudah.
A constable allegedly committed suicide by consuming pesticide in Rajaomandi mandal of East Godavari district, police said on Sunday.
Under tension after being served a memo by his senior, constable Srinivas, attached to Jeddangi police station, consumed the poisonous substance last night, police said.
The case was being investigated, police said.
–PTI
The husband of a minor girl is entitled to his wife’s custody but cannot consummate his marriage with her till she attains the age of 20 as law gives her the liberty to approach the court to get her marriage declared void.
A Delhi High Court bench gave this ruling in response to a division bench reference as to whether a minor can be said to have reached the age of discretion and thereby walk away from the lawful guardianship of her parents.
A private school teacher in Bangalore allegedly sexually harassed his students.
The accused Baravraj, a Hindi school teacher, used to harass his students by passing lewd remarks and physically abusing them. The girl students alleged that the teacher ‘sexually harassed’ them and threatened that he would fail them in exams if they informed anyone.
Building upon the positive momentum generated by the handover of 26/11 handler Abu Jundal by Riyadh last month, India and Saudi Arabia are set to intensify their security and economic cooperation as India cuts down on Iranian oil and hikes its oil supply from the most powerful economy in the Middle East.
A meeting was held in Darulshifa High School to felicitate Mr. Mohammed Tameezuddin Ahmed, President of Association of Urdu Development on the occasion of his nomination as the member of Anjuman-e-Taraqqui-e-Urdu Executive Committee and also to recognize his 40 years of yeomen service for the cause of Urdu language.
The meeting was presided over by Mr. Ismailur Rab Ansari, President of Urdu Forum. Rich tributes were paid to Mr. Tameezuddin’s services for his untiring efforts for the cause of Urdu.
Convener of TDP’s Telangana Forum and MLA Mr. E.Dayakar Rao told that the remarks made by Rayalaseema MLA of TDP Mr. B. Reddy Rajasekhara Reddy are his personal thoughts. He also said that very soon, Mr. Chandrababu Naidu is sending a letter in support of Telangana to Central Government. He told that TDP has passed a resolution in support of Telangana and the Central Government has been informed about it. He told that the Telangana leaders of TDP are exerting pressure on Mr. Naidu to send a letter in support of separate Telangana.