Month: October 2012

Five persons were killed and 17 injured when a private bus rammed into a stationary lorry near here in the wee hours on Wednesday, police said.

The mishap occurred near Bankapura, about 48 km from here, on the Bangalore-Pune Express Highway, they said while adding that all the victims were passengers of the bus.

Four of the deceased, including two women, hailed from Tumkur, while the other was from Bangalore, police said.

Three persons died on the spot while the other two succumbed to their injuries on the way to hospital.

Scientists have designed a human like robot named “NimbRo-OP,” with contrasting white head and black body, which is adept in playing soccer.

Although chess computers have beaten humans, “humans are still clearly better at soccer than robots”, said Sven Behnke, professor of computer science, who led the Autonomous Intelligent Systems working group at the University of Bonn.

Behnke’s working group has created the most successful team worldwide at the RoboCup, a soccer tournament for robots, with wins in 11 individual competitions, the journal Psychology and Sociology reported.

The Indian women’s cricket team lifted the inaugural Asian Cricket Council’s Twenty20 Asia Cup after beating arch-rivals Pakistan by 18 runs in a low-scoring final here today.

India’s decision to bat first seemed to have backfired when the team folded for 81 but the bowlers did a splendid job to dismiss Pakistan to 63 in 19.1 overs.

What was particularly impressive about the Indian bowlers was their discipline, giving away just a couple of wides from 19.1 overs, which they took to bowl out their opponents.

Targeting the BJP over “corruption” charges against its leaders, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday asked the opposition party what action it took against those facing such allegations.

“We take action wherever there are allegations of corruption. Did they take any action when corruption charges were levelled against them and their leaders. They did not utter even a word,” Gandhi said in a veiled reference to BJP chief Nitin Gadkari.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Leader of the Lok Sabha and union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, Deputy Speaker Kariya Munda and senior BJP leader L.K. Advani paid floral tributes to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in Parliament House on his 137th birth anniversary Wednesday.

The portrait of Sardar Patel, a stalwart of the freedom movement and the first home minister and deputy prime minister of independent India, was unveiled by the then President Rajendra Prasad, in the Central Hall of Parliament House April 23, 1958.

Targeting the BJP over “corruption” charges against its leaders, Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi Wednesday asked the opposition party what action it took against those facing such allegations.

“We take action wherever there are allegations of corruption. Did they take any action when corruption charges were levelled against them and their leaders. They did not utter even a word,” Gandhi said in a veiled reference to BJP chief Nitin Gadkari.

Trashing accusations of money laundering and corruption against him, a combative BJP chief Nitin Gadkari today said he was ready to face a probe but asked why the Congress was reluctant to inquire into Robert Vadra’s dealings.

Gadkari also rubbished allegations made by Arvind Kejriwal of his having business links with NCP supremo Sharad Pawar and controversial Rajya Sabha MP Ajay Sancheti. “I have no business links or partnership with them,” he said.

Reviving moral education is high on the list of priorities of new Human Resource Development Minister M.M. Pallam Raju, who took charge Wednesday.

The minister took charge after a traditional puja ceremony, worshiping Tirupati Balaji, believed to be an incarnation of Hindu god Vishnu.

Raju said “heritage” was India’s strength, and emphasised reinstating the “traditional value system” in the present generation.

New Human Resource Development Minister M.M. Pallam Raju Wednesday came out in defence of his ministerial colleague Shashi Tharoor, terming as unfair the BJP’s taunt that the minister of state for HRD should be made minister of “love affairs”.

Raju was reacting to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi’s comment that a “love affairs ministry” should be created for Tharoor.

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, at an election rally in Himachal Pradesh two days ago, described Sunanda Pushkar as a “Rs.50 crore girlfriend” of Tharoor.

Anushka Sharma’s character in “Jab Tak Hai Jaan” (JTHJ) has been revealed – she plays Akira, a documentary filmmaker, in the movie and sets out to chronicle the life of superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s character in it.

Akira is an employee of Discovery Channel, and she wants to make a documentary on army officer Samar, played by Shah Rukh. The movie is the last directorial of late filmmaker Yash Chopra, who passed away earlier this month.

The audience will discover the entire story of the film through Akira’s eyes.

The Institute of Islamic Banking Finance and Insurance (IIBFI) has launched a 6 months online certificate course in Islamic Banking from September 16 for the students in Hyderabad. The course is designed to provide a basic understanding of the principles, nature and form of Islamic Banking, Finance & Insurance, as is relevant to those entering and/or working in the financial services market. By the grace of Allah the first batch of the online course commenced with 32 students.

Shop owners of Sabzimandi suffered heavy losses following the destruction caused by miscreants at Sabzimandi on Monday night. Miscreants set afire at least 9 big shops and tried to target the houses of minorities.

Unfortunately only 4 fire engines were called to douse the fire. Locals have to say that had there been more number of fire engines, it would have been easy to put off the fire.

It`s confession time for Arjun Kapoor. The actor reveals he has a huge crush on actress Kareena Kapoor and would do anything to grab a chance to work with her.

The actor, who made a successful debut with ‘Ishaqzaade’, made the candid confession during UTV Stars` “Live My Life 2” show, which lets a lucky fan be in the shoes of his or her favourite Bollywood celebrity for a day.

The switchover for cable TV digitisation in all the four metros has reached an overall 93 percent with barely a day remaining for the deadline which gets over today.

The Government, meanwhile, said exclusive teams have been set up for physical verification of the progress made in digitisation and refuted charges about inaccuracies in the switchover figures.

A release issued by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry tonight said the digitisation process in the four metros–Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai–had so far touched 89 percent.

Hundreds of police and soldiers have been dispatched to restore security in western Indonesia after 14 people were killed and dozens wounded in ethnic clashes, police said Wednesday.

Four people died during a clash Sunday in Balinuraga village of Lampung province, and the death toll climbed to 14 with more people killed when the clashes continued Monday and yesterday, National Police spokesman Brig General Boy Rafli Amar said.

Bollywood films, crossover films and southern films — actress Tabu has tried her hand at all, and says the entertainment industry follows a similar pattern across the world.

“I think the film experience, acting, actor-director relationship and all the film industries look similar everywhere, be it Bollywood, Hollywood or the southern industry,” the 40-year-old said here in an interview.

“There is a pattern of entertainment industry which remains same. For an actor and a performance, I think all are same as we just have to act and do our role,” she added.

An electric shock occurred in Ain Badr village of Saudi Arabia during a wedding celebration killing 25 and wounded 30 others.

According to an Al-Arabiya report, mostly women were killed as they were celebrating a wedding in the eastern region of Saudi Arabia early on Wednesday.

The disaster believed to be occurred when a high voltage power line fell on the metal door of the house where the wedding was being held, according to sources from the Saudi Civil Defense.

More than 150 unclaimed putrefying bodies are lying in Osmania Hospital morgue and are becoming health hazard to the patients arriving at the hospital for treatment. The bodies leave the whole surrounding stinking. GHMC has decided to call NGOs and other agencies’ attention to take initiative to perform funeral rites of the dead bodies.

The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex rose by over 43 points in early trade Wednesday, led by recovery in stocks of consumer durables and healthcare sectors, on emergence of buying by funds amid a firming trend in Asian region.

The 30-share barometer rebounded by 43.24 points, or 0.23 per cent, after Tuesday’s steep losses, to 18,474.09.

Similarly, the wide-based National Stock Exchange index, Nifty moved up by 9.10 points, or 0.16 per cent, to 5,607.00.

The main reason for the increase in atrocities on women day by day is the inefficiency of the Govt. towards resolving women’s issues. It is the duty of the Govt. to take stern action against those who are found guilty of committing atrocities on women. Mr. B.V. Raghasvulu, State Secretary of CPI (M) told this while addressing a gathering at Collector’s office in Hyderabad yesterday. He demanded the Govt. to investigate atrocities on women by instituting fast tract courts to ensure justice to women. He also demanded the Govt.

Mr. Dana Kishore, IAS, Secretary Dept. of Minorities Welfare, Govt. of A.P. conducted a meeting in Hajj House yesterday to hear complaints about the irregularities in Minorities institutions managed by Govt. He fixed Monday for hearing all such complaints. One such meeting was held yesterday. The results of the meeting held yesterday were not very encouraging. Only 16 complaints were received which included 14 complaints about Minorities Finance Corporation in connection with scholarships.

There is a need to establish Urdu medium B.Ed Colleges in all the districts of Telangana. A delegation led by Mr. Mohammed Mahmood Ali, President of Minorities cell of TRS met the Director of Higher Education and presented a memorandum demanding to establish Urdu medium B.Ed colleges in each of the 10 districts of Telangana.

One of the reasons of failure of police in resolving the issues pertaining to communal violence erupting in the city from time to time is the absence of Muslim police officers. Complaints have been received that right from sub-inspectors up to Asst. Commissioner of Police, candidate belonging to Minorities have been overlooked in appointments. It is encouraging the miscreants to extend their violent activities.

Journalists’ organizations expressed their severe irritation on the arrests of Telangana journalists on the occasion of Prime Minister’s visit to Hyderabad. They expressed their wrath on the autocratic behavior and anti- Telangana attitude of the police. They organized a protest rally from Sundarayya Vigyan Bhavan to Indira Park in which people form various walks of life participated Noted among them are Prof Kodandaram, Mr. E. Rajender, MLA, Mr. Devi Prasad, President of Telangana N.G.O’s Association, Mr. Srinivas Goud, Mr. C.Vithat, D.O.W. Sindhya, Mr. M. Ved Kumar etc.

President of Telangana Rashtra Samithi, Mr. K.Chandrasekhara Rao appealed to the people of Telangana to celebrate 1st November as the day of treachery and to hoist black flags on the houses as a mark of protest. In this way, they should express their displeasure to the merger of Telangana into A.P. State.

He appealed to TRS workers to organize protest rallies in all the districts of Telangana.