Month: September 2012

Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde is likely to visit Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir next week to review the security situation in forward areas along the Indo-Pak border, including Kargil.

This will be his first visit to the two border states after assuming office.

During the three-day tour, he will visit forward border guarding posts in Attari-Wagah, Leh and Kargil and interact with soldiers and officers posted there.

For the first time after his split with Arvind Kejriwal, Anna Hazare will be in Delhi on Sunday for a meeting with his supporters and activists to chalk out the future course of action.

Hazare’s meeting comes against the backdrop of his blog posting in which he put the blame for separation squarely on Kejriwal-led pro-party group.

The meeting is likely to be attended by activists Medha Patkar, Dr Sunilam and others, sources said. Hazare will return to Ralegan Siddhi on Monday.

Congress will begin its nation-wide membership drive from October 16.

A decision to this effect was announced in the meeting of party general secretaries and in-charges of the states at the AICC headquarters on Saturday, which chalked out plans to carry out this mammooth exercise that aims at increasing the membership of the party by at least 25 per cent in all states.

Congress currently has an estimated membership of around four crore, a senior party leader said.

A Sikh woman and her three children have been found dead in their home in Brussels.

The family hailed from Ludhiana in India, the EuAsiaNews reported Sunday.

It was the woman’s husband who made the terrible discovery when he returned home from work Friday. All four victims had their throats cut.

The authorities have confirmed that they are investigating the crime, but have refused to comment further on the case.

The father whom the Belgian media named as Jasbir Singh, 37, was living in Belgium since 15 years and was working in a restaurant.

Iran has unveiled an indigenously built sniper rifle with a range of three kilometres, Xinhua reported.

The Shaaher 14.5-mm-caliber rifle is 185 cm long and weighs 22 kg.

A tactical vehicle called Neinava was also unveiled during a ceremony in Tehran Saturday. Iran Army’S Brigadier General Ahmad-Reza Pourdastan attended the event.

The 2.5-tonne vehicle, which boasts a 240-horsepower engine, is designed to transport troops and equipment.

—IANS

A special CBI court today acquitted former Jammu and Kashmir minister Raman Mattoo, Congress legislator G A Mir and IAS officer Iqbal Khanday in the 2006 JK sex scandal case, allegedly involving host of politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen.

The Court gave benefit of doubt to all the three, even as public prosecutor R K Handa later told reporters outside the court that the investigating agency had sought prosecution of the witnesses/victims “who have turned hostile deliberately by giving false statements”.

Israel has already breached its own red line set by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by acquiring “dozens of nuclear warheads,” Iranian Defence Minister Ahmad Vahidi said today.

If having the atomic bomb is passing the red line, the Zionist regime, that possesses dozens of nuclear warheads and weapons of mass destruction, has passed the red line years ago, and it has to be stopped,” he said, according to the ISNA news agency.

A top Russian general said today that Moscow expects to secure a deal to extend Russian military presence in the Central Asian nation of Tajikistan by the first half of 2013.

Russia’s ground forces commander Vladimir Chirkin said in an interview on Ekho Mosky radio station that outstanding issues on the terms of the deal will continue to be discussed with Tajikistan until the end of March.

Some 7,000 Russian soldiers are posted across three garrisons in Tajikistan, which is a major transit point on the northbound trafficking route for Afghan heroin.

Government is planning to extend Visa-on-Arrival facility to nationals from countries having sizable Buddhist population such as Thailand and Malayasia.

Inaugurating a two-day International Buddhist Conclave in Varanasi today, Tourism Minister Subodh Kant Sahai said his Ministry had also decided to develop a Ghat in the temple town in the name of Lord Buddha on the bank of river Ganga.

India, being the land of origin of Buddhism, is the main attraction for Buddhist tourists from across the globe.

Sufi singers from various parts of the globe are all set to perform in the annual world Sufi music festival ‘Jahan-e-Khusrau’ to be held here next month.

The artists performing this year at Jahan e Khusrau in Jaipur on October 27 and 28 are -Abida Parveen (Pakistan),
Whirling Dervishes (Turkey), Shafaqat Ali Khan (Pakistan), Zia Nath (Indian modern dancer),” said Muzaffar Ali, director of the festival.

The event is being organised jointly by the tourism department of Rajasthan and Rumi Foundation.

A Qatar airways flight from Doha safely made an emergency landing in the Nigerian economic capital Lagos today after encountering a problem with its tyres, the civil aviation body said.

The plane has landed safely,” said Harold Demuren, the head of Nigeria’s Civil Aviation Authority. “We lost one of the tyres… We are now towing the aircraft,” at Murtala Mohammed International airport, he added.

He told AFP that no passengers were injured during the emergency landing and that one of the plane’s tyres had to be replaced.

Former Pakistan spinner Abdul Qadir has asked Pakistan to take advantage of “internal politics” in the Indian cricket team when they clash with the arch-rivals in a crucial Super Eight match of the World Twenty20 tomorrow.

Qadir felt all was not well with the Indian team as it looks skipper Mahendra Singh is not getting along with opener Virender Sehwag.

I don’t like to comment on internal matters of Indian cricket but it is a fact that I don’t see a very good future for Dhoni after this ICC World Twenty20. There is definite politics and problems within the Indian team,” Qadir.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today condemned the violence by protesters during his ongoing ‘Adhikar Yatra’ and slammed their conduct as unbecoming of democratic and political culture of Bihar.

The protesters pelted stones on my motorcade and made a bid on my life apparently to stop me in my endeavour to seek betterment of Bihar and its people by getting special status,” he told public meetings in Supaul and Araria district.

Kumar said he has ‘full respect’ for the democratic rights of the people but the violent protest was uncalled for
and unexpected from the people of Bihar.

City Police today arrested three car-lifters and recovered from them Rs 5 lakh in cash and a high-end vehicle.

Sayyed Wasif, Mohammed Dawood Ahammed Khan and Mohammed Farheemuddin were apprehended for looting Rs 8.5 lakh
cash from one M Vasant Rao earlier this month, Commissioner of Police J Purnachandra Rao told reporters.

Police recovered Rs 5 lakh of stolen cash and an SUV used in the crime from the trio who are hardcore criminals, he
said.

On September 8, the trio followed Rao in their car and decamped with the bag containing Rs 8.5 lakh which he had kept

The Congress-led UPA government at the centre would soon find a permanent solution to the Telangana issue after taking into confidence people of all the regions in the state, Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee President B Satyanarayana said today.

Addressing a press conference here, the PCC President said that the UPA government was actively involved in the
matter and trying to build a consensus by holding consultations with political parties in all the regions.

He also alleged that the main opposition Telugu Desam Party was taking different stands on the Telangana issue and

Jharkhand Chief Minister Arjun Munda today handed over a cheque for Rs 1.5 lakh to a student, Rahul Kumar who suffered injuries after some miscreants threw acid on his face.

The money was sponsored by Jharkhand Chamber of Commerce, according to an official release here.

Lauding the Chamber for footing its financial support in the treatment of the injured charted account student, Munda
expressed optimism that the student would recover fully and complete his studies.

Kumar, who hails from Bijupara in Ranchi district, was attacked by some persons with acid some time back, and is

The Pakistani military today dismissed as “absurd and baseless” a British newspaper’s report that the Inter-Services Intelligence agency was behind a defamation campaign against Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar and PPP chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

A spokesman for the Inter-Services Public Relations denied The Telegraph’s allegation that the ISI was running a
defamation campaign through the Bangladeshi tabloid Blitz against Khar and Bilawal, the chairman of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party.

Alumni of the Convent of Jesus and Mary, whose two class VI students were found dead under mysterious circumstances, will hold a peace march along with members of an NGO to ease the tension brewing in the city
following the incident. \

The procession would start from Sanjauli Gurdwara tomorrow at 4:30 PM and go to Kala Dhank (Hillock) from where the two girls Sakshi and Nancy fell and died under mysterious circumstances, and return to the Gurdwara.

Police today produced three accused, who were in police custody, before a local court after completion of their interrogation in connection with a terror case.

The First Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate court remanded two of these accused to Judicial Custody till October 11, while the third has been handed over to ATS Maharashtra, police sources said.

The case was registered at the Basaweshwara Nagar Police Station a month ago.

Investigation is continuing, police said.

A reporter of a TV news channel was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in the restive Balochistan province of southwest Pakistan today, officials said.

Abdul Haq Baloch, a correspondent for ARY News in Khuzdar city, was attacked by two gunmen riding a motorcycle near the local press club at Chakar Khan Road at 7:30 pm (local time).

Officials said the motive for the killing had not been ascertained.

ARY News confirmed the incident and said Baloch was heading home when he was attacked.

The channel said the reporter had not received threats from anyone.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday filed a chargesheet in a special court here in the 2006 Tulsi Prajapati fake encounter case in which former minister of state for Home and Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s close aide, Amit Shah, has been named along with 19 others.

Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate AY Dave, while accepting the chargesheet, has kept the issue of taking cognisance pending till the court verifies the document and kept further hearing on October 10.

A total of 22 gunmen were killed on Saturday in clashes with government troops in Syria’s northern province of Aleppo, the state-run SANA news agency said.

The clashes took place at Tal Zarazir in Aleppo, SANA reported, adding that the troops also dealt deadly blows to armed insurgents at Wadihi and Kafr Dael in Aleppo, once a bastion of support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Aleppo, a city of three million, has emerged as a key battleground in Syria’s civil war.

The clashes there hit a new high after rebels announced Thursday the start of “decisive battle.”

Kolkata: “Looting is on in the name of aam admi and reforms,” Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee hit out on Friday ahead of her party’s demonstration in Delhi on October one to protest the UPA government’s decision to allow FDI in multi-brand retail.

“Reforms are meant to usher development for the people. Now-a-days, the trend is whenever any anti-people decision is taken, it is taken in the name of reforms,” Banerjee, who left for Delhi during the day to attend her party’s demonstration at Jantar Mantar on Monday, said in her post in Facebook.

After dithering over it for two years, India finally notified the permission to multi-brand foreign retailers to set shop in the country. But the move might yet be a non-starter given the inherent gaps in the policy framework heralding the entry of big ticket global retailers.

The UPA government pushed through the announcement ringing in a policy which vests the future of global retailers in hands of states, many of whom have expressed virulent protest to FDI in multi-brand retail.