Osama bin Laden, the Al Qaeda chief, was unarmed and had already died with a bullet to the brain when the US Navy commandos entered his bedroom during a raid in Pakistan’s Abbottabad city, a US Navy SEAL has revealed in a book.
Giving a firsthand account of last May’s raid, the SEAL who also participated in it, has disclosed that Osama had been fatally wounded before they entered the room.
Ahead of the 16th Non-aligned Movement Summit in Tehran, a group of retired diplomats and experts Wednesday pitched for a proactive leadership role for India in steering the agenda on nuclear disarmament in the 120-nation NAM.
The Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) and the Indian Pugwash Society organised a discussion on “NAM positions on nuclear issues” here that asked India to leverage NAM to advance its national interests.
A gunfight between security forces and separatist guerrillas started Wednesday morning in a Kashmir village, police said.
“Troops of Rashtriya Rifles and Jammu and Kashmir Police surrounded a house in Lamer village in Kupwara following information about the presence of militants,” a police officer told IANS.
Reports said exchange of automatic gunfire had started although there was no official word about the number of guerrillas hiding in the village, 82 km from here.
—-IANS
A Jet airways flight from Milan to New Delhi had to make an emergency landing at the Rajasansi airport here on Wednesday in a bid to save the life of a three-year-old child, who started vomiting on board.
The efforts of the airways staff, however, went in vain as the child Jasmeet Kaur was declared brought dead by the hospital she was rushed to, after the emergency landing.
Jasmeet who was on board along with her parents and brother, was shifted to a hospital at Verka Bypass in Amritsar where she was declared brought dead, hospital sources said.
Ten terrorists and nine soldiers were killed Wednesday when militants stormed a check-post in Pakistan’s northwest, a media report said.
The attack took place in South Waziristan Agency, Geo News reported.
Dozens of militants, carrying rockets and grenades, launched an assault on the checkpost in Surang Baba Ziarat village, said a senior security official.
Nine soldiers were killed and four were injured while 10 militants were killed in retaliatory fire.
—IANS
The BJP Wednesday downplayed former Gujarat minister Mayaben Kodnani’s conviction in a Gujarat riots case, calling it a “legal process”.
“We don’t want to politicise the judicial process. This is the first court, it is a judicial process, it will go on,” said Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Prakash Javadekar.
He also said that Kodnani had resigned from her post as soon as a charge sheet was filed against her.
The case is related to the killing of 97 Muslims by a mob in Naroda Patiya neighbourhood in Ahmedabad in 2002.
It’s not without reason that “Forbes” magazine recently ranked Congress president and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi the sixth most powerful woman in the world. It needed only a word from her for Rae Bareli, her parliamentary constituency, to have uninterrupted power supply.
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav late on Tuesday issued orders to also ensure round-the-clock power supply to Amethi, the parliamentary constituency of Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi.
(Siasat News) It is obligatory for every Muslim to help the Muslims of Assam. Communal elements have brutally killed the Muslims of Assam in an organized way in the name of Bangladeshis. Killings in Assam are still going on. Central and State Governments should come forward to protect the Muslims. If the Govt. is not in a position to control othe communal elements, army should be deployed so that the Muslims return to their homes. These thoughts were expressed by Mr. Zahid Ali Khan, Editor Siasat while showing the green flag to bus arranged by Indian Muslim Relief and Charities.
Congress on Wednesday welcomed the Supreme Court verdict upholding the death sentence of Ajmal Kasab in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks case and demanded his “quick” execution.
“…Now, he should be given complete sentence quickly. Punishment should be executed quickly,” Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh said reacting to the Supreme Court verdict on Kasab’s appeal against his conviction and sentence.
Upholding the death sentence of Kasab, the court said that waging war against the country was the primary and foremost offence committed by the Pakistani terrorist.
With memories of the 9/11 attacks etched in the psyche of New Yorkers, city police say they give particular attention to Urdu and Bengali speakers when they eavesdrop in restaurants and stores to gather information on terrorists.
Commanding officer of the New York Police Department’s elite intelligence division Thomas Galati said he has keen interest in Urdu-speaking New Yorkers.
Welcoming the verdict in the 2002 Naroda Patiya riots case in Gujarat, Law Minister Salman Khurshid on Wednesday said the judgement enhances faith of the people in the legal system.
“For all of us, it is a matter of comfort that faith in the legal system gets enhanced and strengthened. Every time this kind of inhuman act is made accountable, people who are responsible should feel a sense of reprimand,” he told reporters here.
He said though there are a number of cases pending in the courts, they are disposed off in a good time.
Reinforcing AK Antony’s virtual no 2 slot in UPA II government’s pecking order, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is understood to have issued a communication that the Defence Minister will chair union cabinet meetings, if required, during his visit to Iran.
Singh, who left for Tehran this evening to attend the NAM Summit, is learnt to have issued the communication before his departure.
After the exit of Pranab Mukherjee from the Council of Ministers, Antony seemed to have got the number two position in the government.
A woman in central Russia’s Ryazan city threw her nine-month-old son out of a ninth floor window during a visit by child welfare officers, police said.
Two officers of a police unit for the issues related to minors visited the 23-year-old woman, following a request from her mother, who said her daughter was not taking proper care of the baby.
“The woman was in a state of agitation. In a conversation, she complained of difficult life and then, suddenly, threw the baby who she held in her hands, out of the ninth floor window,” police said in a statement.
With memories of the 9/11 attacks etched in the psyche of New Yorkers, city police say they give particular attention to Urdu and Bengali speakers when they eavesdrop in restaurants and stores to gather information on terrorists.
Commanding officer of the New York Police Department’s elite intelligence division Thomas Galati said he has keen interest in Urdu-speaking New Yorkers.
A Pakistani Christian organisation has demanded a separate province for the minority community in view of the growing sense of insecurity among Christians following the arrest of a minor girl for allegedly desecrating the Quran.
Younus Masih Bhatti, President of the Pakistan United Christian Welfare Association, said the formation of a commission to work on creating new provinces by the Pakistan People’s Party-led government “reflected the need to make new provinces in Pakistan”.
Heavily-armed Taliban militants attacked a check post in Pakistan’s lawless tribal belt killing at least nine soldiers and losing 10 of their own men, security officials said Wednesday,
Fighting erupted in South Waziristan tribal region after militants attacked the check post at Farhang Baba area, the officials were quoted as saying by TV news channels.
Nine soldiers were killed and several others injured in the attack.
The security forces launched a counter-attack and killed 10 militants, a security official said.
Eight more militants were injured in the clashes.
The government on Monday said it is for a strong and enlightened regulator for the power sector, indicating that it may provide state regulators greater autonomy in tackling issues that are hampering growth.
“If you want 10 percent growth, you need 9 percent growth in the power sector and that is why we need a strong and enlightened regulator. This is the kind of message we would like to give to the regulators,” Power Minister Veerappa Moily told reporters on the sidelines of an NTPC event.
Only 24 percent of over 7,000 cities and towns in the country have developed their master plans, the Union Urban Development Ministry said on Wednesday and asked them to expedite the process of preparing documents to infuse more development.
The Ministry also said the process of developing GIS database for select 152 towns and cities across the country is on and that satellite image for all these places have been procured.
Rainfall next month is expected to be better as monsoon is unlikely to be influenced by El Nino weather pattern, helping rice and other kharif crop, Agriculture Secretary Ashish Bahuguna said Wednesday.
El Nino refers to abnormal warming of surface ocean waters in the Pacific that disrupts weather pattern causing drought and floods in many regions of the world.
Reserve Bank of India Governor D Subbarao has said the battle against inflation has not ended yet and high prices were mostly hurting the poor people, who do not have a mechanism to get their voice heard.
The inflation continues to remain high and needs to be brought down to “more acceptable” levels of five percent or less, Subbarao said here, while noting that the challenge was to calibrate interest rates to control inflation and support economic growth at the same time.
He is perceived to be a fearless batsman but flamboyant Virender Sehwag says he feels “nervous” and has butterflies in his tummy whenever he faces the first ball but never shows it to the bowler.
“Every time when I go to the crease and prepare to face the first ball, I?m nervous and there are butterflies in my tummy. I never show it because if the bowler senses it, he?ll come hard at me and try to put me under pressure”, Sehwag said.
The country`s largest realty firm DLF has decided to end its five-year long association with cricket tournament Indian Premier League as the title sponsor and did not renew its contract that was due by last month.
The company, however, said it will promote other sports and is currently exploring various such platforms for association. It had last week gifted luxury sports utility vehicle `Audi Q5` to four Olympic medal winners from Haryana.
India is to widen the scope of its cyber-security coordinator in the wake of incendiary internet data that swept the country earlier this month and forced an exodus of northeastern people from Pune and Bangalore but there is no move to take up the issue with Pakistan, a senior official said Tuesday.
India has also reiterated a demand made three years ago to toughen cyber laws to prevent such hate campaigns, the official said.
India is to widen the scope of its cyber-security coordinator in the wake of incendiary internet data that swept the country earlier this month and forced an exodus of northeastern people from Pune and Bangalore but there is no move to take up the issue with Pakistan, a senior official said Tuesday.
India has also reiterated a demand made three years ago to toughen cyber laws to prevent such hate campaigns, the official said.
The fourth vulture census conducted in Gujarat shows 36.2 per cent rise in the population of the critically endangered long-billed species between 2010-12.
The head count of long-billed vultures in Gujarat has gone up from 265 in 2010 to 361 in 2012, official statement said.
However, the white-rumped vulture population has decreased from 793 in 2010 to 577 this year.
The census puts the total vulture population at 1,043, in the state including the globally threatened species like Egyptian vulture (97) and Red-headed vulture (8), enumerated during the exercise for the first time.