Month: November 2012

The ruling Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh Monday asked the Congress why its leaders kept mum on issues like the fuel price hike, cap on subsidised cooking gas cylinders and inflation at a rally held in Delhi the day before.

In a statement issued here, Samajwadi Party spokesman Rajendra Chowdhary also questioned the “anxiety of the Congress” in implementing FDI in retail.

“Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh must explain to the people why are they so desperate to get FDI in retail implemented in the country?” he asked.

The Saudi monarch has removed Prince Ahmad bin Abdulaziz from the post of interior minister and replaced him with Prince Mohammed bin Naif bin Abdulaziz.

The royal decree, issued Monday by Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, said the king relieved Prince Ahmad from the post “upon his request”.

The king instructed the concerned authorities to immediately implement the decree, Xinhua quoted the Saudi press agency as saying.

Apple announced Monday that it sold three million iPad mini and fourth generation iPad when the products went on sale this weekend.

Apple didn’t disclose how many of the three-million sales were for the iPad mini and fourth-generation iPad. CEO Tim Cook said the smaller iPad were almost sold out.

“Customers around the world love the new iPad mini and fourth generation iPad,” Xinhua quoted him as saying.

“We set a new launch weekend record and practically sold out of iPad minis. We’re working hard to build more quickly to meet the incredible demand,” Cook said in a statement.

A youth was today arrested here for allegedly setting ablaze a girl after she resisted his attempt to rape her, police said.

The incident took place in Chandora village under P S Chhatari here when one Bhagirath (25) forcibly entered into the house of the 25-year old victim and tried to rape her. Failing to rape the girl, Bhagirath poured kerosene on her and set her ablaze.

Bhagirath has been arrested while the victim has been hospitalised at Aligarh Medical College, Senior Superintendent of Police Gulab Singh said.

The West Bengal government has been considering regulation of autorickshaws to bring them under control and reduce harassment of passengers. Keeping this in view, State Transport Minister Madan Mitra today held a meeting with the unions of autorickshaw operators and police officers to chalk out a stratgy. Mitra has sought a report within 15 days about the unregistered autorickshaws in the state, particularly in the city and its adjacent areas. He also cautioned the auto-rickshaw operators against forcible collection of fares hiked by themselves from the passengers. PTI

A local court today rejected the bail applications of two accused in custody for their alleged role in riots at Azad Maidan on August 11. Magistrate P S Rathod declined to grant the relief to Salim Chaukia and Faisal Hussain who are accused of snatching a gun from police and torching a media van respectively when the mob, attending the rally in South Mumbai to condemn alleged attacks on Muslims in Assam and Myanmar, turned violent. A sessions court had last week granted bail to 14 accused who were arrested for their alleged role in the riots.

In a suspected case of honour killing, a man allegedly strangled his teenaged sister and shot a relative of her lover in a village in Uttarakhand’s Haridwar district in the wee hours today. Ishtekhar flew into a rage and throttled his 17-year-old sister after finding her making love to Irfan in the early hours in Kheri Shikohpur village, police said. After throttling his sister to death, Ishtekhar went to the house of Irfan, who had fled from the scene, and fired at him with a country-made pistol, they said.

Defending Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi for criticising the Centre during his poll campaign, BJP today said had the UPA government not discriminated against Gujarat, the state would have progressed much more rapidly. “It is important to highlight the Centre’s discrimination towards the state. It is the duty of the Union government to treat every state equally. Had they done so, Gujarat would have progressed more,” BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitaraman told reporters when asked why Modi was speaking on national issues during his campaign ahead of the Assembly polls.

An elderly woman today threw a stone at Jharkhand Chief Minister Arjun Munda’s convoy, breaking the wind screen of his pilot car in Simdega, the police said here. Munda’s car was at a safe distance and the driver of the pilot car managed to maintain the speed that avoided any pile-up of cars following it, the sources said. The incident happened during Munda’s “Johar Yatra (road tour)” of the district, and he was returning to Circuit House after attending a programme near the block office, the police said.

In view of communal tension prevailing in parts of old city, prohibitory orders have been clamped for three days starting tomorrow under seven police station limits. City Police Commissioner Anurag Sharma, in a notification issued here tonight, said the prohibitory orders under Section 144 of CrPC would come into force from tomorrow and will end on November 8. “Communal tension is still continuing between two groups in some parts of old city…which may cause disturbance to public peace and order,” the police commissioner said.

An Air-India plane with 400 Haj pilgrims onboard made an emergency landing at the NSC Bose International Airport here tonight after its fire alarm suddenly went off due to a technical glitch. The Boeing 747 aircraft landed safely at 10.45 PM, airport sources said. The plane from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia was scheduled to land at 11.10 PM but the pilot sought to make emergency landing when the fire alarm went off due to some technical glitch, they said. All the passengers were safe, the sources said.

Criticising Narendra Modi for his controversial remark on Union Minister Shashi Tharoor’s wife, Congress in Gujarat on Monday said the Chief Minister should stop talking about the private life of public figures. “Modi should stop talking about the private life of others…,” Gujarat Congress chief Arjun Modhwadia said while addressing a rally in Ahmedabad.

Sulking Science and Technology Minister S Jaipal Reddy on Monday said anybody handling the ministry of petroleum and natural gas would be “totally frustrated”. “I was the minister of petroleum and natural gas. Anybody who handles this portfolio will be totally frustrated as nobody knows why the oil prices increase,” he said at the International Bio-energy Summit in New Delhi.

Describing Narendra Modi as ‘propaganda-hungry’, Gujarat Parivartan Party President Keshubhai Patel on Monday alleged that the Chief Minister observed ‘Sadabhavna’ fasts across the state and also wooed the Tatas to set up Nano project in Gujarat only to boost his image. “Modi has spent around Rs 160 crore for observing fasts in various districts in the state. Fast is considered as penance in every community but the Gujarat Chief Minister has made a cruel joke of it by wasting people’s money for self-propaganda. He has misguided the people of Gujarat with his false claims,” Patel said.

argentina has invited farmers from India to purchase land there and cultivate it.

Argentinian Ambassador Ernesto C. Alvarez, who met Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in New Delhi Monday, suggested that India and Argentina could be partners in farming.

In a major relief to film producer Madhur Bhandarkar, the Supreme Court Monday quashed the charge of alleged rape levelled against him by actress and model Preeti Jain.

The apex court bench of Justice H.L. Dattu and Justice C.K. Prasad quashed the charge after it was told that the actress was no longer interested in pursuing the matter after nine years.

An Indian man was killed in a series of coordinated blasts and another hurt in Bahrain’s capital Manama Monday amid escalating political and ethnic unrest in the Middle East country that is home to around 300,000 Indian nationals.

India’s Ambassador to Bahrain Mohan Kumar said that Indian national Murugayya was killed.

India has strongly condemned the blasts and asked the authorities in Bahrain to ensure the security of Indian citizens, the largest expatriate population in that country. One of the blasts occurred near the Indian embassy in Manama.

Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh Monday sought a clarification from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) over BJP chief Nitin Gadkari’s controversial remark comparing the IQ of Swami Vivekananda with that of gangster Dawood Ibrahim.

“Gadkari represents the RSS and has its ideology… the RSS should clarify,” Digvijay Singh told reporters here referring to the controversial remark.

After a delay of over eight months, Saudi Arabia and India Monday agreed to discuss issues relating to the over two million Indian labourers working in the Gulf nation and also to sign agreements in this regard at a later date.

This is viewed by India as a major breakthrough in securing the interests of its migrant labourers, who go to Saudi Arabia for employment, and also to put in place a system to match the skills of eligible workers and the needs of the Saudi employers.

Iran has warned of reaction to the West’s possible tougher sanctions on the country’s oil industry, Xinhua reported.

Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi Monday said the Islamic republic would react to the West’s possible tougher sanctions on the country’s oil industry, reported IRNA news agency.

“The lack of Iran’s oil in international markets would lead to an increase in its global price,” Qasemi said, adding that in that case people in consuming countries will suffer.

The National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) Monday said the incidents of atrocities against Dalits in the Haryana were rapidly increasing and the state needs separate police stations and fast track courts for such cases.

Raj Kumar Verka, vice-chairman of the commission, Monday visited Gurgaon and said the state needed separate police stations for Dalits and fast track courts for the settlement of such cases.

Verka was here to inquire into the custody death of 29-year-old cab driver Bharat Bhushan.

Two Saudi Arabian border guards were killed Monday after they were ambushed by 10 people involved in terror crimes, reported Saudi News Agency.

According to Saudi Arabia’s interior ministry, a border guard patrol in Najran city near the border with Yemen, was ambushed by armed people at 4.50 a.m. in which two guards died, Xinhua reported.

“The attackers were identified and were chased while trying to escape to Yemen, in which 11 attackers were arrested, including four who sustained serious injuries,” the ministry’s spokesperson said.

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy would be heard this week over allegations of suspected illegal financing of his 2007 election campaign by L’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt, Xinhua reported.

Having lost immunity from prosecution after failing to snatch a second term last May, Sarkozy’s home and offices were searched by French police in July as part of investigation into the Bettencourt affair.

Veteran journalist D. Sitaram passed away here Monday after prolonged illness. He was 88.

He was associated with many newspapers including The Statesman, The Economic Times and The Patriot and weeklies like Link and news-wires such as United Press of India (UPI) and United News of India (UNI).

Even after five decades of service and post-retirement, he continued his association with the print media by contributing to a leading English daily and language newspapers here.

An unemployed man in the Philippines was killed after falling into a crocodile breeding pen in a resort and attacked by the reptiles, said police.

The remains of Sorbelo Sonajo, 57, were recovered Friday morning from a man-made lagoon inside the inland resort in a town of Santo Tomas, in Mindanao’s Davao del Norte province, Xinhua quoted a police official Zosimo Jose as saying.

“Parts of (the victim’s) head was ripped away and the arms and right leg were missing, possibly eaten by the crocodiles,” the police official said.