Finally, it’s the Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, who seems to have the last laugh in handling the state administration as well as party affairs. This was evident from the way he managed to get a ‘free hand’ to deal with the prevailing political turmoil in the state from none other than the party chief Sonia Gandhi.
At least three militiamen and over 20 militants were killed in clashes between Pakistani troops and militants in Pakistan’s northwest tribal area of Bajaur Saturday afternoon, reported Xinhua citing local media.
According to a report by local Urdu TV channel Geo, the clashes broke out at noon time when a group of Pakistan and Afghan militants attacked security forces in Salazai area of Bajaur Agency, a militant insurgent tribal area at Pakistan-Afghan border.
A total of six people including a local official were killed and five others injured Saturday in separate gun and bomb attacks in Iraq, police said.
In Iraq’s northern province of Nineveh, gunmen opened fire on Ibrahim Younis, a municipal council member, near his house in Doumiz district in southeastern the provincial capital city of Mosul, some 400 km north of Baghdad, and shot him dead, a provincial police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
The JRM Racing team of Karun Chandhok, David Brabham and Peter Dumbreck put in some hot laps to be in top 10 during the two free practice sessions ahead of the FIA World Endurance Championship race here Saturday.
The team were fourth in the first practice session with Chandhok clocking the quickest lap among the three drivers with a one minute, 46.491 seconds while Brabham went faster in the next session, posting a 1:47.715.
After India’s convincing win over Maldives in the Nehru Cup here today, national football coach Wim Koevermans said his boys have the ability to do better and he would always encourage them to improve and get accustomed to playing the passing game.
India rode on the twin strike from skipper Sunil Chhetri and a goal by Syed Rahim Nabi to record a convincing 3-0 win at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium here.
–PTi
Samajwadi Party on Saturday accused the Congress and BJP of misleading the people through their public spat on scams and hoped that the Parliament would start functioning from next week.
Party spokesman Ram Gopal Yadav alleged that scams were surfacing one after the other in the UPA government.
“These scams had started during the NDA regime be it 2G spectrum scam or the coal block allotment one and both of them (Congress and BJP)are publicly involved in a bitter tussle on the issue only to mislead the people,” Yadav alleged on the sidelines of an event in Bahjoi area.
The CPI on Saturday asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to “face Parliament” and said the government must own up responsibility for the huge loss to the nation on the coal block allocation issue.
“The Prime Minister must face Parliament especially when it is in session. Disruption does not mean that he would not come to the House,” party National Secretary D Raja said here.
Burma Task Force-New York is hosting an inter-faith press conference to speak out against and spread awareness about the pogrom currently taking place against Rohingya Muslims in Burma / Myanmar. The clergy will also address the spate of shootings in the US, the most recent being the New York City shooting. Muslim Peace Coalition USA, a national alliance of Muslim organizations has welcome Mayor Blomberg’s prompt announcement that the New York shooter was a disgruntled employee and not a religious bigot.
Filmmaker Anubhav Sinha feels its high time that adult content in Indian cinema is redefined and the guidelines that the censor board follows are reformed.
“In a society where human bodies are being minced and played on TV, I think it is time to redefine adult content in Indian Cinema,” Sinha tweeted.
“I am wondering if TV will still sell flavoured condoms and not show ‘Jannat 2’ or ‘Jism 2’ or such???” he posted.
Sinha said the guidelines that censor board follows need to be reworked on.
Entrepreneur Karl Mehta, the only Indian-American among 18 Presidential Innovation Fellows, would work on “The 20 percent Initiative” that aims to transition international development assistance payments from cash to electronic methods.
Selected out of 700 applicants for their data, coding and programming expertise, the fellows would spend six months in Washington DC to work on five “high-impact” federal IT projects aimed at supporting entrepreneurs, small businesses and the economy.
An Indian-American neurosurgeon has been convicted by a federal jury on tax charges for his alleged failure to disclose $8 million in income held in a bank account in India in 2009.
Arvind Ahuja, 50, of Greendale in Milwaukee County, is scheduled to be sentenced in January by Chief US District Judge Charles Clevert, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Thursday. He remains free on bond.
The jury convicted Ahuja of filing a false tax return and of failing to file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts, while acquitting him on five other counts.
No political leader has visited the family of Subegh Singh, who died in the shooting incident in a gurudwara in the United States on August five, victim’s brother said here today.
Subegh’s family members in village Rattangarh, near here, in Fatehgarh Sahib district, lamented what they alleged
the apathetic attitude of the Punjab government towards them.
Neither any politician nor any official has visited us,” 70-year-old Ranvir Singh, the victim’s brother, said.
We came here 50 years ago and developed the village,” he said lauding Subegh’s contributions in this regard.
The YSR Congress party Minority Cell Convenor Habbeeb Abdul Rahman has demanded an unconditional apology from TDP leader YS Chowdhary for his remarks of on power supply to Muslims during Ramzan festival.
An Indian-origin pathologist, who conducted the first post-mortem examinations on a man who died in the 2009 G20 protests in London, is not fit to practice, a British tribunal has ruled.
Freddy Patel wrongly said Ian Tomlinson died from heart problems, BBC reported.
The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service said his work was “deficient” and the service will now decide upon sanctions.
Policeman Simon Harwood, who had pushed Tomlinson to the ground but was cleared of manslaughter, now faces police disciplinary proceedings.
Terrorist outfits of the northeastern region have shifted their bases to neighbouring Myanmar following crackdown by the Bangladesh security forces, an official of the para-military Assam Rifles said Saturday.
“Several terrorist groups of the northeast India have been shifting their camps to Myanmar after the Bangladesh security forces continued their crackdown against them,” Inspector General of Assam Rifles Satish Dua told reporters here.
Bollywood actors promoting their films on small screen is not new and the latest to join the list is Bipasha Basu. The actress is set to make a comeo appearance in crime-based TV show “CID”.
“‘Raaz 3’ promotions in full swing. Today I am on the sets of the very famous TV show CID! My little cameo in one of the episodes! Fun!” she tweeted.
“Raaz 3” is about the struggle in an actor’s life to attain fame and success. It releases Sep 7.
IANS
India will press Iran to cooperate in the investigation into the attack on an Israeli diplomat in February when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh holds talks with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Tehran next week.
“We haven’t received the report of the Delhi Police so far,” Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai told reporters here Saturday when asked whether the Feb 13 attack on an Israeli diplomat in New Delhi will figure in the discussions between the leaders of the two countries.
Rubbishing the no loss argument of the government in the coal block allocations, BJP on Saturday made it clear that it is in no mood to allow Parliament to function till its demand for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s resignation is met.
“A nation wide debate is on on this issue though it is not taking place in Parliament. Our strategy does not permit that we allow the government to use Parliament to end this debate without any accountability. We want the debate to go on further,” Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley told reporters here.
The US Anti-Doping Agency stripped Armstrong of his seven Tour de France titles and banned him for life after the American decided not to fight charges that he used performance-enhancing drugs during his career.
One former rival, Filippo Simeoni, questioned why Armstrong didn`t continue to contest the charges.
Chief Justice of India S H Kapadia on Saturday said judges should not govern the country or evolve policies and apply the enforceability test on some verdicts like making “right to sleep” a fundamental right.
Doing some frank introspection on judiciary’s functioning, he also wondered what would happen if the executive refuses to comply with judiciary’s directives that may not be enforceable.
To control rising wheat prices, the country’s second biggest commodity bourse NCDEX has hiked deposit money to 23 percent from today onwards for traders keen to buy the grain from the exchanges’ platform.
The deposit money (margin) has been increased to 23 percent from 13 percent for wheat traders. The margin is a minimum percentage of money that traders are required to deposit with the exchange to trade in the commodity future.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will leave for Iran on August 28 to attend the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit, which will be preceded by crucial bilateral talks with Iran’s supreme leader Ayotollah Ali Khemani and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
A host of meeting with the leaders of other NAM countries, including Pakistan, is also likely to take place on the sidelines of the 16th Summit of 120-nation grouping, Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai said while briefing reporters here on Prime Minister’s four-day Iran visit.
There were over two crore vacancies across many government organisations ranging from the bank sector to the CBI, Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, V Narayanasamy, said here on Saturday.
These vacancies were in different sectors and would be filled soon, he said, inaugurating the ‘Question Bank Workshop on English Language and Comprehension’ organised by the Staff Selection Commission’s Southern Regional Office here.
The trial of seven Pakistani men, including Lashkar-e-Toiba commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, charged with involvement in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, was on Saturday adjourned for a week at the request of a defence lawyer.
Khwaja Haris Ahmed, the counsel for Lakhvi, submitted an application that asked the Rawalpindi-based anti-terrorism court to put off the hearing as he was unwell.
Judge Chaudhry Habib-ur-Rehman accepted his request and adjourned the case till September 01.
The court summoned four prosecution witnesses to appear at the next hearing, sources told a news agency.
The Sri Lankan Navy has arrested at least 98 people who were trying to illegally leave for Australia by two trawlers.
A trawler named Ann Mishal was intercepted with 77 on board in the western seas off the West coastal town of Chilaw while 21 more on board another unnamed trawler were intercepted eastern waters off the eastern coastal town of Batticaloa, the Navy said.
The arrested are to be handed over to the police for further investigations.
Sri Lanka in June launched special coordinated operations to nab illegal immigrants to Australia after recurring cases.