Taking forward its campaign against the alleged irregularities in coal blocks allocation, the BJP is launching a nationwide agitation on the issue beginning Friday.
The BJP has been demanding the cancellation of allocation of 142 coal blocks and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s resignation.
BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said that the party will organise demonstrations in 40 cities across the country.
A day after the Supreme Court verdict upheld Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab’s death sentence, the state government Thursday transferred a 26/11 hero, Sadanand Date, as joint commissioner of police.
Date, who will now take charge as joint commissioner of police (law & order), was appointed head of the elite Force One, formed in November 2010 to counter terrorist attacks like the one of 26/11.
The Cherlapally Central Jail officials on Thursday seized an amount of Rs 15,000 from jailed Bellary city MLA Gali Somashekhar Reddy, an accused in the cash-for-bail scam involving his brother and former Karnataka minister Gali Janardhan Reddy.
Cherlapally jail officials conducted surprise checks in different barracks of the jail as per directions given by Director-General (Prisons and Correctional Services) T P Das, Cherlapally Superintendent of Police Srinivas Rao said.
A factory employee was arrested here for sending obscene text messages to the family of a girl who rejected his marriage proposal, and attempting to extort Rs.5 lakh by blackmailing them, said police Thursday.
Waseem Akram, native of Najibabad in Uttar Pradesh, was arrested from north Delhi following investigations into a complaint filed by the brother of the girl in June this year.
In a major setback to the Sahara Group, the Supreme Court on Friday directed two of its companies to refund around Rs 17,400 crore to their investors within three months with 15 percent interest.
A bench of justices K S Radhakrishnan and J S Khehar directed SEBI to take action against the companies, Sahara India Real Estate Corporation and Sahara Housing Investment Corporation, if they fail to refund the money.
The apex court allowed the regulatory body to attach properties and freeze bank accounts of the two companies if they did not comply with its order.
The UN Security Council has extended its peacekeeping mission in Lebanon for another year by unanimously adopting a resolution Thursday.
The resolution extends the mandate of the 11,500-strong UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) until Aug 31, 2013, UN spokesperson Farhan Haq told journalists.
The UN force has been in southern Lebanon since 1978 but was expanded after a 2006 war between Israel and Lebanon’s political party and militant Shia Muslim force, Hezbollah.
UNIFIL is tasked with overseeing a peace along the border between Lebanon and Israel.
Russians have been found as world’s worst dressers in a poll involving over 12,000 people from six countries.
Conducted by Skyscanner, Europe’s leading travel search site, the survey found the Russian tourists have a bit of a style problem and are the worst dressers in the world.
The travel search site, surveyed people in six countries and asked them who they believed to be the home to the most stylish people and who were the biggest losers on the catwalk.
The Russians scored lowest with 13 points out of 60, especially in the eyes of the British, Spanish and Dutch.
Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams and Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide completed almost a record long spacewalk outside the International Space Station (ISS), reported NASA.
NASA Flight Engineer Williams and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Flight Engineer Hoshide spent eight hours and 17 minutes in the outer space doing maintenance work on the ISS.
Madiga Porata Reservation Samithi founder Manda Krishna Madiga on Thursday informed that the 72-hour dharna proposed to be held from Friday has been postponed to September 7.
India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Thursday cautioned his teammates from taking New Zealand lightly and said the visiting team’s pacers would look to exploit the overcast conditions during the second Test match, starting on Friday.
“New Zealand is a good bowling side and will come up with good bowling plan by exploiting the overcast conditions at Chinnaswamy stadium. The first spell will be really crucial for both sides,” Dhoni said.
“Indian batsmen have to negotiate their pace and they have to get as many wickets as possible,” he added.
The music of Madhur Bhandarkar’s much-awaited film ‘Heroine’ was launched amidst chaos at a popular temple here today.
Flanked by actor Kareena Kapoor, the chief protagonist in the film, Bhandarkar launched the music album at the Siddhivinayak Temple in Central Mumbai this afternoon.
The Telugu Desam Party on Thursday alleged that former YS Rajasekhara Reddy did injustice to the Krishna Delta region during his tenure as the Chief Minister.
The United States on Thursday slapped sanctions on Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e- Toiba’s top eight commanders, including Mumbai terrorist attack mastermind Sajid Mir and its founder Hafiz Saeed’s son.
Announcing the sanctions, the US said LeT, despite being designated as a foreign terrorist organisation in January 2002, continues to “operate in Pakistan” and throughout the region and engage in terrorist activities worldwide.
The deficient rainfall is bound to have a major impact on the agricultural production in the State.
Addressing a press conference at the Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural University at Rajendernagar here on Thursday, university’s vice-chancellor Prof V Nagi Reddy informed that although the rainfall was normal, the major reservoirs in the State had poor inflows due to non-receipt of rain in the catchment areas. Therefore, the farmers at many places have been advised to go for alternate crops.
The Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission will conduct the Group-I main examinations from September 3 -12.
According to APPSC secretary Poonam Malakondaiah, as many as 16,426 candidates would be competing for the 314 Group-I posts across the State. The examination will be held at five centres including Hyderabad from 10 am – 1 pm. The candidates will be able to download hall tickets till September 3 from the APPSC website http://www.apspsc.gov.in/.
Jackky Bhagnani has built an eight-pack abs for his upcoming film “Ajab Gazabb Love” and says it is a compliment that people compare his physique with that of Salman Khan, but adds that he is not even a patch on the superstar.
“You compared me to Salman, I am happy with that. I have nothing else to say. He is the pioneer of body building and we all are inspired by him and if I can even become ‘S’ of Salman, it will be a great thing for me,” the 27-year-old said here Wednesday at the launch of first look of “Ajab Gazabb Love”.
Actress Vidya Balan has signed a whopping Rs.5 crore deal for endorsing a sari brand.
The elan with which Vidya carries the traditional Indian attire, has prompted a well-known Chennai-based sari brand to sign the actress as its brand ambassador.
Actress Raveena Tandon, who is all set for her first major role in five years in ‘Shobhana 7 Nights’, will be seen playing a high-society cougar in the film.
(A cougar is an older woman who frequents clubs in search of younger men)
In the Sudipto Chattopadhay directed film, the 37-year-old actress plays a socialite columnist and author named Shobhana, who gets into an intense relationship with a struggling actor in Bollywood.
Newcomer Amit Purohit will essay the role of the struggler, who turns to prostitution to survive his journey into Bollywood.
Activists of various students associations have launched an agitation in front of Technical Education Bhavan at Masab Tank here. They entered the counseling room and tried to obstruct counseling.
The students have demanded the state government to announce its stand on fee reimbursement scheme. The police have arrested the students who launched agitation. SFI, AISF and PDSU organizations participated in the agitation. (NSS)
The Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy has said that the State Government will pay the full fee to the top 10,000 rankers (eligible), and the students who studied their intermediate at Government colleges, SC/ST/Minority and Government sponsored colleges, and pay Rs.35,000 (enhanced from Rs.31,000 to 35,000) to every eligible engineering student in other colleges.
An all party farmers meeting held here on Thursday has decided to block highways in four districts on September 1, on the problems of the farmers of Krishna delta.
The meeting has also decided to intensify the agitation on the problems of Krishna delta to mount pressure on the government. The joint action committee of farmers has declared that it would launch a long-term struggle from September 4, if the government failed to release drinking and irrigation water to the delta area. (NSS)
The union home ministry has lifted the ban on bulk SMSs imposed in the wake of the Assam violence.
In a press release, the home ministry said the ban was withdrawn with immediate effect.
It may be recalled that SMSs from across the borders had played a havoc with the lives of people of Assam.
To tide over the present power crisis due to unprecedented demand of power and severe shortage of gas and failure of monsoon and consequent drastic reduction in Hydel generation, the State Government has decided to adopt 6-point programme for creating wide range awareness among the consumers and public on the significance and impact of conservation of energy for the benefit of both utilities and consumers as well.
Trade Union Coordination Centre (TUCC) National secretary S.P. Tiwary has demanded the Central government to call tenders for the mining leases and 2G spectrum, through Global Open tender system only.
AICC secretary Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy, on Thursday, has forwarded the representation of Society of the Black Workers Committee, with regard to re-appointment of dismissed employees of Singareni Colleries in four districts of the State, to the Chief Minister.