Month: October 2012

IANS) Yemen’s Defence Minister Mohammed Nasser Ahmed escaped an assassination attempt Tuesday near his home located in the capital city of Sana’a, Xinhua reported.

A car bomb was discovered near Ahmed’s house and was removed before it could explode, said police sources.

This was the seventh occasion when militants, suspected of belonging to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), targeted the defence minister since the interim Yemeni government came into existence last December.

Some 235 people have been arrested in three Bangladesh districts over last week’s religious violence in which agitated mobs attacked Buddhist temples, monasteries and homes following an alleged desecration of the Holy Quran, police said Tuesday.

Mobs, comprising thousands of Muslims, went on the rampage in a Buddhist-majority village – Merunloa – following the alleged desecration of the Holy Quran by a Buddhist man of the village on Facebook, the social networking site.

Authorities in Turkey began work to exhume late president Turgut Ozal’s remains from his grave in Istanbul Tuesday, as part of an investigation into his death under mysterious circumstances in 1993.

Ozal, the eighth president of the Turkish republic, died of heart failure in April 1993 in an Ankara hospital at the age of 65, Xinhua reported.

An Indian taxi driver in Australia has been found guilty of raping a woman student who was in an inebriated state.

The court found Sunveer Jassar, 28, guilty of raping an intoxicated female student in the back of his cab after driving her to an isolated area in Brisbane’s city centre early last year, the couriermail.com.au reported.

The incident occurred last April, when Jassar raped the then 27-year-old Thai national under the Story Bridge at Kangaroo Park.

Being overweight proved a blessing in disguise for a Briton who survived despite being stabbed 38 times by hoodlums.

Danny Ross, 44, a computer analyst by profession, who was left for dead required 70 stitches after he was strangled with a belt and then knifed dozens of times in his home, Daily Mail reported.

His attacker, David Johnson, 33, was convicted of attempted murder at Exeter Crown Court Monday.

Ross had been watching television at home in Exeter city centre last August when Johnson knocked on the door and accused him of stealing money from a family member.

Development of infrastructure in India is a key factor for economic growth and for attracting investments while the country demographic profile is better than China, said a senior official of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) here Tuesday.

Delivering the 33rd Frank Moraes memorial lecture at an event organised by United Writers’ Association, Subir Gokarn, deputy governor of RBI, said lack of infrastructure would impact investment, which in turn affect job creation and overall economic growth.

It takes an average woman as much as 40 years to finally find out her fashion feet and ‘perfect clothes shop’, a study has found.

Women don’t get the hang of clothes shopping until they reach the grand old age of 57, and it is only then that they begin to feel confident in the clothes they buy, Daily Mail reported.

It was also found that by that age women are also least likely to return clothes they have invested in, try on items in store before purchasing or need compliments to feel good about what they are wearing.

Filmstar Saif Ali Khan’s ancestral palace in Pataudi near here, being run as a hotel, has put bookings on hold for renovation, ahead of the actor’s wedding to actress Kareena Kapoor Oct 16.

The Neemrana Hotels, which manages the palace, has put room bookings on hold till Oct 25, an employee said Tuesday.

“We don’t know what will be the role of the palace in the marriage but renovation is being done,” a palace employee, who did not wish to be named, told IANS.

For the last one month, Saif’s mother, Sharmila Tagore, has been visiting the mansion regularly, he said.

A man who spiked two women’s drinks and took pictures of them while they were lying unconscious before raping one of them has been jailed for eight years.

Nottingham Crown Court was told Fryer suffered from somnophilia — a condition which makes him aroused by ‘interfering’ with a sleeping woman.

The court heard how Robert Fryer, 30, drugged the women before taking lurid photos while they were passed out leaving his victims’ lives ‘completely shattered’, Daily Mail reported.

Cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan’s party Tuesday said it will go ahead with its march against the US drone strikes in Waziristan tribal region irrespective of a possible government ban.

Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) will begin the march towards south Waziristan, starting off from Islamabad Saturday and reaching Waziristan Sunday, Xinhua reported.

“Waziristan peace march will proceed according to plan whether the government gives permission or not,” said party spokesperson Shafqat Mahmood.

India posted a score of 152/6 for South Africa to chase in the final World Twenty20 Super Eights match at the R Premadasa Stadium here Tuesday.

Suresh Raina top scored for the Indians with 45 off 34 balls while Morne Morkel and Robin Peterson took two wickets each for the South Africans.

Union Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal Tuesday apologised for the derogatory comments he had made on women, but said he had been quoted out of context.

“I apologise if people are upset, but my comments were taken out of context,” Jaiswal, also a Congress Lok Sabha member, told reporters.

He was reacting to criticism of his comments made during a poetry meet at K.K. Girls College in Kanpur Sunday night when he had likened “the joy of a new victory to a new marriage” and said “as the years go by, the celebrations like in a marriage become old”.

Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday began his 117-day long padyatra from Hindupur of Anantapur district.

Before proceeding to Hindupur Naidu, accompanied by his wife Bhuvaneswari and son Lokesh, visited the NTR ghat and paid floral tributes to the samadhi of NT Rama Rao. Later he also garlanded the statue of Mahatma Gandhi at MG Road in Secundrabad on the ocassion of Gandhi Jayanti on Tuesday.

Telangana Political Joint Action Committee Chairman Prof M Kodandaram on Tuesday accused the State Government of unleashing a propaganda attributing violence to the Telangana movement.

Talking to reporters before launching a “Mouna Deekhsha” (silent protest) at Bapu Ghat on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanthi here, Kodandaram said that the movement seeking statehood for the region has been peaceful. However, the State Government has been attributing violence to the movement to defame its leaders and activists and also to suppress the movement, he alleged.

Arvind Kejriwal and other social activists addressing during a protest rally in New Delhi. UNI Photo (files)
After splitting with Anna Hazare, Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday launched his political party without giving out its name, promising to change the system and not just faces in Parliament. From the dais with an imposing poster of Mahatma Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Shastri in the backdrop, Kejriwal said they will announce the party’s name on November 26, the day on which in 1949 the Constitution was adopted, as the group is yet to finalise the registration process.

After being selected as India`s official entry to the Oscars in the foreign language film category this year, Anurag Basu`s ‘Barfi!’ has added another feather in its cap – the film joins the Rs.100 crore club of Bollywood.

The total cost of the movie has reportedly been Rs.30 crore and since its release Sep 14, the unique love triangle featuring Ranbir Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra and Ileana D`Cruz has appealed so much to the moviegoers that it has raked in Rs.100 crore at the box office.

After judging children`s reality show ‘Chhote Miyan’, actress Mahima Chaudhry is set to turn an anchor for a poetry show ‘Kahta Hai Poet’.

The show will be judged by actor Shekhar Suman and writer Rumi Jafry.

“This is the best show of the soil. A show which narrates emotions of every Indian. And we are glad that we are introducing something that is first of its kind,” Mumukshu Mudgal, project head and creative director, said in a statement.

However, it is still unclear when the show will go on air and on which channel.

IANS

Actress Vidya Balan, who was a part of “Lage Raho Munnabhai”, a film that gave birth to the term Gandhigiri, says she tries to practice Mahatma Gandhi`s preachings in her day-to-day life.

“It may or may not be alive in my surroundings, but I try to practice Gandhigiri. I am not always successful in doing it, but I keep trying,” she told reporters when she was asked whether she sees Gandhigiri around her anymore?

The Pakistan Taliban have said they captured and “executed” five tribesmen in the restive North Waziristan region for spying for the Inter-Services Intelligence and the Central Intelligence Agency of the US.

A leaflet in Urdu circulated in Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan Agency yesterday, said Arbab Khushali Wazir, Tariq Wazir, Moti Macha, Wali Hassukhel and Khursheed Alam were killed by Taliban for working for the two spy agencies. The leaflet claimed Arbab Khushali Wazir was involved in “harming the Taliban” before the holy month of Ramzan.

India and Pakistan have been unable to maintain normal neighbourly relations since their inception and jurists from both sides can help foster peaceful interaction that leads to “real time trust and harmony”, Pakistan’s Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry has said.

Many issues have “dogged” the India-Pakistan relationship but “there is no issue in the world which cannot be resolved through peaceful negotiation”, Chaudhry said during an interaction yesterday with a visiting delegation of over a hundred Indian lawyers.

An Iraqi official says five people have been killed in two separate incidents near the disputed northern city of Kirkuk.

A senior police official in the city, Brig Gen Sarhat Qadir, says three street sweepers stumbled onto a bomb this morning as they were trying to empty a garbage bin in the nearby village of Zab.

The blast killed the three workers. Kirkuk is located 290 kilometres north of Baghdad.

Also today, Kirkuk police found two bodies, including that of the district administrator in al-Wihda village.

India on Tuesday said it did not expect Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari to rake up the Kashmir issue at the UN General Assembly, affirming that the state is its integral part.

“I did not expect that President Zardari would make a reference to Kashmir and once a reference from Pakistan at the highest level in the UN is made, then it is certainly the responsibility of India to state its stated position,” External Affairs Minister SM Krishna told PTI here.

It was time again Tuesday to remember that greatest icon of peace. On Mahatma Gandhi’s 143rd birth anniversary, millions enjoyed a holiday but thousands also flocked to places dedicated to his memory to pay tribute to the man who spearheaded India’s bloodless struggle for freedom from British rule and left a legacy of amity and ‘ahimsa’ as eternal as time.

As the nation’s leadership gathered at his memorial Raj Ghat for the annual remembrance, ceremonies were held across the country to mark the day, observed as Gandhi Jayanti.

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi should apologise now that his allegations that the central government spent Rs.1,880 crore on UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s foreign visits and treatment abroad have been proven false, the Congress said Tuesday.

“Modi should apologise to the nation and to the Gandhi family now that it is proved that his allegations on Soniaji’s foreign visits and her treatment abroad were wrong,” said Congress leader Rajiv Shukla.

More than 1.35 lakh people committed suicide in the country in 2011 of which the highest number were reported in West Bengal followed by Tamil Nadu.

Family Problems and illness, accounting for 24.3 per cent and 19.6 per cent respectively, were the major causes of suicides while poverty was to be blamed in 1.7 per cent of the cases, according to government data.

Love affairs (3.4 per cent), drug abuse/addiction (2.7 per cent), dowry dispute (2.4 per cent) and bankruptcy (2.2 per cent) were among the other causes.