Month: October 2012

The Congress Monday stressed that FDI in multi-brand retail would not pose a threat to small shopkeepers and said it would hold a rally – to be addressed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh – in the capital on Oct 28 to explain the economic move to the people.

Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, addressing a gathering of farmers, retailers and Congress party workers at her residence here, said the rally would also be addressed by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and other senior leaders.

Six members of a family, including children, were burnt alive in their sleep early Monday morning in an arson attack on their hut by miscreants in Ramanathapuram district, said police.

The victicms were identified as Karuppaiah, his daughter-in-law Kalimuthu, grand-children K. Kaaleeswari, K. Bala Murugan, K. Saranya and K. Sakthi.

Kalimuthu’s husband is working overseas.

Police said the hut was at an isolated spot in a village in Ramanathapuram district, 550 km from Chennai.

Mumbai, October 01: Observing that politicians like Raj Thackeray do not deserve any importance, the Bombay High Court today refused to hear a contempt petition filed against the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief while hinting that media make such leaders big by giving them publicity.

Actress Sonali Bendre, who is making a comeback on silver screen with Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai 2, says, she prioritises her personal life over her professional career.

“I definitely don’t want to do roles that I have played earlier. I would like to play my age which I am doing.

Also, I have too many conditions so unless it falls into my priorities I don’t do it (films). Either my son should have holiday when I am shooting or the shoot has to be in Mumbai,” Sonali Bendre said in an interview.

Shops, restaurants and pharmacies across Kerala will down shutters for one-day on October 3 in protest against Centre and State government policies, including Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in multi brand retail sectors in the country. Talking to reporters here Kerala Vyapari Vyavasayi Ekopana Samithy (KVVES) President T Nazirudheen said they were compelled to go on the dawn-to-dusk token strike to protest the Centre’s decision to allow FDI which would jeopardize the sector.

BJP leader LK Advani on Monday said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was critical of FDI in retail during the NDA rule and had told the Federation of Maharashtra Traders in 2002 that the government had no proposal to invite such investment.

In the latest post on his blog, Advani said Manmohan Singh’s letter to the Federation of Maharashtra Traders had found mention during discussions on the economic resolution at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national council meeting last week.

Seeking to punch holes in BJP’s opposition to allowing Foreign Direct Investment in multi-brand retail, Union Commerce Minister Anand Sharma on Monday said the NDA government had readied a Cabinet note favouring 100 percent FDI in the sector.

Addressing a gathering of Congress supporters here, Sharma lambasted the BJP for trying to “mislead” the country on the issue and asserted that UPA government had taken the decision with “conviction” and “clarity” and there will not be any rethink on it.

New Delhi, October 01: Telecom service provider Bharti Airtel Monday moved the Delhi High Court challenging a recent notice of DoT to telecom firms asking them to stop 3G roaming services outside their licensed area.

The operators had entered into roaming agreements with others to offer 3G services such as video calling, mobile TV and multi-media gaming in areas where they did not have 3G spectrum.

President Pranab Mukherjee wants simpler honorifics to be used with his name and ‘His Excellency’ be replaced with the simple ‘Sri’, a letter from his secretariat to the Lalit Narayan Mishra University (LNMU) said.

LNMU Registrar Vijay Prasad Singh told a news agency that the President’s secretariat had sent a letter to the university recently stating that he wants traditional honorific like ‘His Excellency’ be dropped as prefix to his name and replaced with the simple prefix ‘Sri’.

The Supreme Court on Monday reserved its verdict on a plea by a former Samajwadi Party MLA seeking to set aside the directions issued against him by the Allahabad High Court in a case of alleged illegal confinement of a girl in which Rahul Gandhi’s name was dragged.

Kishore Samrite, a former MLA from Madhya Pradesh, has challenged Rs 50 lakh fine imposed on him by the High Court for approaching it with these allegations.

The High Court on March 7, 2011 had also directed the CBI to register a case against Samrite and to find out as to under what circumstances the PIL was filed.

There are no Muslim faithful in most of this crumbling town’s main mosques anymore, no Muslim students at its university.

They’re gone from the market, missing from the port, too terrified to walk on just about any street downtown.

Three-and-a-half months after some of the bloodiest clashes in a generation between Myanmar’s ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and stateless Muslims known as Rohingya left the western town of Sittwe in flames, nobody is quite sure when — or even if — the Rohingya will be allowed to resume the lives they once lived here.

Six members of a family, including children, were burnt alive in their sleep early Monday morning in an arson attack on their hut by miscreants in Ramanathapuram district, said police.

The victicms were identified as Karuppaiah, his daughter-in-law Kalimuthu, grand-children K. Kaaleeswari, K. Bala Murugan, K. Saranya and K. Sakthi.

Kalimuthu’s husband is working overseas.

Police said the hut was at an isolated spot in a village in Ramanathapuram district, 550 km from Chennai.

Anna Hazare on Monday said he would campaign for his former Team Anna colleague Arvind Kejriwal if he contested elections against Union minister Kapil Sibal.

“I will tell Arvind, fight elections against that man from Chandni Chowk, what is his name… Kapil Sibal,” Hazare said at a press conference. Sibal, who represents Chandni Chowk constituency in Parliament, holds the portfolios of communications and human resource development.

“If he fights against Sibal I will go and campaign for him,” he said.

President Pranab Mukherjee Monday expressed his “deep alarm and dismay” over a survey that revealed abuse of the elderly and said everything must be done to ensure that they can live a life of dignity.

Addressing a function organised by HelpAge India on the occasion of International Day of Older Persons, the president said the elderly “should be encouraged to get out of a retirement mentality and think about old age as a second inning” and to “look beyond the self and the family and work for the community”.

In a bid to prevent floods during the rainy season, Saudi Arabia plans to build new dams in the north of Jeddah city. The new dams will complement five dams and a few others already under construction, a media report said.

After many floods in 2009, the Geological Survey suggested building dams in the east, and five locations were selected, Xinhua quoted Zuhair Nawabm, chairman of the Saudi Geological Survey, as saying Monday.

“The Geological Survey is studying to have more dams in the northern side of the city,” Nawabm said.

Men with shaved heads are seen as tougher, powerful, taller, stronger and having greater potential as leaders, according to a US study.

Researcher Albert Mannes from the University of Pennsylvania, and a balding man himself, carried out three experiments to look into how men who shaved their heads were perceived by others, the Daily Mail reported.

He said perceptions of dominance and masculinity extended to physical characteristics such as height and strength.

Sampat Pal, head of Gulabi Gang in Banda district of Uttar Pradesh, is likely to be one of the housemates in the sixth season of reality show “Bigg Boss”, going on air Sunday on Colors channel.

Confirming that “people from some channel” had come over to shoot at her house and had discussed with her if she was “okay with the idea of spending many days with 13 unknown faces in a locked house”, Pal told IANS that she was thrilled with the idea of going to the famous reality TV show.

Traders downed shutters and locals took to the streets Monday in Punjab’s Faridkot town to protest Punjab Police’s failure to act over the kidnapping of a teenaged girl by a local gangster last week.

Under the banner of a newly formed Gundagardi Virodhi Saanjhi Action Committee, traders, local residents, NGOs, unions and other associations called for a shutdown here Monday.

The United Nations meeting on the safe use of Living Modified Organisms, or the Parties Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (COP MOP 6), began at HICC Convention Centre here on Monday.

Masamichi Saigo, Representative of COP-MOP 6 (Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety), President (Japan), has declared open the 19-day conference which was attended by hundreds of delegates from about 200 countries participating. The conference will be discussing the safe handling and transfer of LMOs.

The Telangana Bandh call given by Osmania University Students Joint Action Committee and other parties on Monday evoked poor response across the region, especially in the State capital.

Most of the educational institutions and business establishments remained opened while the services of RTC buses were partially disrupted. Although some private schools and colleges were closed, the State-run educational institutions functioned normally. However, some institutions were closed early following thin attendance of students and faculty members.

Their campaign is back on track after the morale-boosting win over Pakistan but India can hardly afford to relax as they take on an erratic but still quite intimidating South Africa in their final Super Eight match tomorrow for a place in the semifinals of the ICC World Twenty20 here.

The fight for the second semi-final slot from group-2 is indeed intriguingly poised as both India and Pakistan have a fair chance of making the cut although Australia seems favourite at the moment.

Japan’s unpopular prime minister reshuffled his cabinet Monday, picking a woman with Beijing-friendly credentials in what commentators said signalled his hope to move past a damaging territorial row.

Yoshihiko Noda named a relative unknown as finance minister, but kept several key positions unchanged as he seeks a balance of continuity and change ahead of an expected general election.

Noda, whose Democratic Party of Japan governs in coalition with a smaller grouping told reporters the changes would boost his government.

An overwhelming majority of Indian-Americans support US President Barack Obama against his Republican rival Mitt Romney in November presidential elections, a national survey has said.

Romney has so far been able to gain support of a minority of Indian-Americans despite the frequent anti-Obama rhetoric by two leading Indian-American Republicans — South Carolina Governor Nicky Haley and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal.

In a proposal that will hit Indian IT companies the most, US software giant Microsoft Corporation has suggested a whopping fee of USD 10,000 (over Rs 5 lakh) for a new category of H-1B visas and USD 15,000 (more than Rs 7.5 lakh) for permanent residency or Green Card.

This could raise a huge USD5 billion over a decade, it said.

Both the new categories of H-1B and Green Cards, according to the Microsoft plan, would have an annual capacity of 20,000 and would be restricted to STEM (science, technology, engineering and math).