Month: November 2012

Polling in the hill state of Himachal Pradesh started on a slow note with about 10 per cent of the voters exercising their franchise in the first two hours today.

Polling to elect the 68-member Assembly is likely to pick up as the day progresses, said election officials.

“Aleast seven EVMs were replaced due to malfunctioning, four of them in Kullu and one each on Shimla and Bilaspur,” Himachal’s Chief Electoral Officer Narinder Chauhan said.

The electorate comprises 46.08 lakh voters, including 22.31 lakh women. Counting of votes will take place on December 20.

The Finance Ministry in a study will verify the claims of losses by state-owned oil companies on selling diesel, LPG and kerosene below cost price and decide the quantum of subsidy for 2012-13 based on the report.

“The Finance Ministry in consultation with the Oil Ministry is conducting a study on the under-recoveries of the OMCs. The report is likely by November 15,” a senior government official told PTI.

—PTI

Students taking admission in educational institutions without verifying whether they are recognised or not are to be blamed themselves, the Supreme Court has said, refusing to sympathise with them.

A bench of justices KS Radhakrishnan and Dipak Misra refused to grant recognition to a Madhya Pradesh-based institute and turned down its plea to sympathise with students as they would suffer if recognition is not granted.

A plea challenging the appointment of Company Law Board (CLB) Member (Technical) A Bandopadyay has been dismissed by the Delhi High Court.

Bandopadyay’s appointment had been challenged by one Veena Kalra, of the unsuccessful applicant to the post, on the alleged ground that the appointment was not as per the apex court’s guidelines.

he life sentence awarded to a man for poisoning and smothering his wife to death fourteen years ago has been upheld by the Supreme Court.

A bench of justices Swatanter Kumar and Madan B Lokur refused to grant any relief to Kerala native Ramachandran noting the “clinching” medical evidence that the convict had forcibly poisoned and smothered his wife to death.

Yuvraj Singh is all set to regain his spot in the Indian Test squad when the new national selection panel, headed by Sandeep Patil, sits down tomorrow to pick the team for the series-opener against England at Ahmedabad from November 15-19.

Though skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni has said that the left-handed batsman was the best judge of his fitness for the rigours of Test cricket after having undergone treatment for cancer, it looks unlikely that the selectors will leave him out of the squad.

US President Barack Obama guaranteed Saturday all necessary aid to states hit by Hurricane Sandy, which left at least 100 dead and caused widespread damage on the East Coast.

Obama, who attended a morning meeting of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, acknowledged that “we still have a long way to go to make sure that the people of New Jersey, Connecticut, New York and some of the surrounding areas get their basic needs taken care of and we get back to normalcy”.

Indian America Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal on Sunday asked the White House and state leaders in the Northeast dealing with storm relief efforts to “stop declaring victory, stop giving speeches” and focus on helping victims of the storm

The Republican governor, appearing on Fox News, said “I think it’s way too early for the president or anybody else to say how the response is going.”

India and Bangladesh must live in a friendly atmosphere. This was President Pranab Mukherjee’s message to the former Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Begum Khaleda Zia, who called on him here on Saturday.

Begum Zia, who is Leader of the Opposition and Chairperson of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, and Mr. Mukherjee discussed issues that are of concern to the two countries.

The President recollected that he had the privilege of working with Begum Zia twice before when she was in power.

Two suicide bombers Saturday hit an up-market restaurant in the Somali capital Mogadishu, killing a guard, along with themselves, and wounding three others, an official and witnesses said.

“The two suicide attackers and one of the guards died in the explosion which happened at the gate of the restaurant after the guards prevented the attackers from getting into the building,” Hodan district commissioner Abdi Mohamed Dhabaney told Xinhua.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack.

–IANS

A policeman was killed and three others were injured when a police jeep on patrol duty overturned and skidded into a roadside ditch in Bihar’s Banka district.

The policemen, led by officer-in-charge, Rajaun police station Banshidhar Mandal were on night patrol when their jeep overturned near Kataria bridge last night and rolled into a roadside ditch, Superintendent of Police Vikash Varman said.

The injured have been send to Bhagalpur sadar hospital, the SP said.

The body has been brought to Sadar hospital for post mortem, the SP added.

–PTI

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and senior BJP leaders will arrive here tomorrow to pay condolence to veteran BJP leader Kailashpati Mishra, who died on Saturday after prolonged illness, party sources said here.

“Narendra Modi telephoned me to say that he will be coming to Patna tomorrow to pay condolence to Mishra,” Bihar BJP President C P Thakur said.

Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi confirmed arrival of Narendra Modi, BJP veteran L K Advani, leader of opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj, party leader in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley and BJP General Secretary Ananth Kumar.

Let Terrorist and 26/11 Mumbai attack key handler Abu Jundal was Saturday ordered to be produced before it by a Delhi court on November 26 as he could not appear before it after expiry of his judicial custody period.

District Judge (DJ) I S Mehta issued a production warrant against Jundal for his appearance in the court after jail authorities told it that he was in the custody of Gujarat ATS, court sources said.

Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray will undergo the second phase of his heart treatment at Lilavati Hospital here, party sources said.

The 51-year-old leader had undergone the first angioplasty in the same hospital in July, following complaints of severe chest pain.

The medical team had then discovered multi-vessel blockages and suggested that he must undergo two series of medical procedures to relieve his condition.

Americans living in predominantly wealthy, white neighborhoods account for nearly all the sizable campaign contributions in this year’s presidential election, according to an analysis, even as the presidential candidates have aggressively courted Hispanics. Latino voters are widely viewed as pivotal for victories in some battleground states Tuesday.

The disparity in donating particularly affects Latinos. About 16 per cent of the US population is Hispanic, but not
even 4 per cent of the more than USD 1.3 billion in 3 million-plus itemised contributions came from mostly Hispanic

Four years after it catapulted Barack Obama to victory, ‘change’ once again became the buzzword in US politics, as the president and his challenger Mitt Romney both revisited the theme in their last appeals to undecided American voters.

Having returned to campaign fields after a brief break from the election theme, brought out by Hurricane Sandy, the two candidates set about on a packed schedule of rallies through a host of battleground states.

Interestingly, both of them tried to present themselves as the real harbinger of “change”, the much promising election slogan of 2008.

Holding that Bangladeshi infiltrators have spread all over the country, RSS on Saturday demanded the Centre and state governments take steps to check the border, detect and deport them.

“If they (infiltrators) have got citizenship rights or other rights, they should be deprived. And ultimately, they should be deported… Central government should check the border…,” RSS All India Joint Secretary, Krishna Gopal said.

Model-actress Mink Brar, who will enter the ‘Bigg Boss’ house as this season’s first wild card contestant, feels her decision to participate in the show is a risk.

Brar is known for supporting roles in films like “Hum Aapke Dil Me Rehte Hain”, “Raaz” and “Ajnabee” and she says the show can either break or make her career.

“I am not here for getting a new platform because ‘Bigg Boss’ is a show which can make somebody popular or destroy their image. I would not like to come out as an aggressive or a crazy person,” Brar told PTI.

Google and YouTube will receive updates regarding “blacklisted” websites in Russia, the country’s communications oversight agency said.

The agency’s press release confirmed that Google Inc and YouTube LLC had formally agreed “to receive information from the register regarding content banned in Russia”.

The register detailing “blacklisted” sites and content that is banned in Russia was launched by the agency Thursday. The zapret-info.gov.ru site will consider complaints lodged by the public, who can submit screenshots and URLs of the offending sites.

At least 10 people died in Democratic Republic of Congo Saturday in a head-on collision between two trains, authorities said.

The accident took place in Songololo. The 365-km rail line that passes through Songololo has become dilapidated. It was built in 1898, Xinhua reported.

—IANS

Congress leader Digvijay Singh today again hit out at the Comptroller and Auditor General over reports that it has taken exception to the Oil Ministry’s decision to “accede” to the demands of Reliance Industries Ltd on audit of its Krishna-Godavari basin asset.

CAG interim report again leaked. Would CAG instead of sermonising every one please look into his Leaky Office?”
Singh wrote on the popular microblogging site Twitter.

The polling for the 68 seats of Himachal Pradesh assembly began amid tight security Sunday.

Electors across the state could be seen reaching polling stations even before voting started at 8 a.m.

Poll officials said there has been no report of any delay in starting the poll process. The polling will end at 5 p.m.

Poll officials are expecting heavy polling as the weather is clear and sunny.

A record number of 459 candidates, including 27 women, are in the fray.

—IANS

Coinciding with the Himachal Pradesh election, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and general secretary Rahul Gandhi will address a mega rally here Sunday.

Tens of thousands of party workers are expected to throng the Ramlila ground in the heart of the capital in what is expected to be a clear show of strength at a time when the Congress is under all round attack.

The rally will be attended by all Congress chief ministers, state unit chiefs, heads of block and district units, MPs, legislators and leaders of the party’s frontal organisations.

Three Trinamool Congress supporters, arrested for allegedly storming the premises of a private waste management company and beating up its employees in West Bengal’s Hooghly district, were released on bail Saturday.

The incident in Sreerampur took place Friday when the Trinamool activists led a large mob into the factory accusing the management of polluting the locality and attacked the employees as also the owner Sumit Kumar Agarwal with rods and sticks.

Myanmar and the European Union have vowed to cooperate closely in their joint efforts to build peace in the country.

U Aung Min, minister at the President’s Office, and Jose Manuel Barroso, EU commission president, signed a joint declaration at Myanmar Peace Centre here, Xinhua reported.

The centre is to serve as a platform for dialogue among all involved in Myanmar’s ethnic peace process. In support of the initiative, the EU said it will provide funds.