TDP has announced suspension of Vanita, MLA of Gopalapuram in West Godavari district, on Wednesday.
Vanita was elected to the Assembly in 2009 as the TDP candidate. She has recently expressed her dissatisfaction at the way she was being treated by her colleagues in the party. Reports also said that she was trying to join the YSR Congress. The party has construed her open dissent as anti-party activity and chose to suspend her.
Tension mounted at the Secretariat on Wednesday when the students of OUJAC attempted to gatecrash into it demanding boycott of AP Formation Day celebrations on November 1.
The students held a flash dharna in front of the Secretariat and raised slogans against the State government. When they rushed towards the entrance gate of the Secretariat, the police arrested the students and whisked them away. (NSS)
Labour Minister Danam Nagender on Wednesday declared that he would participate in Andhra Pradesh Formation Day celebrations on November 1.
Will dangling a “ministerial carrot” help the ruling Congress to prevent exodus of party legislators to the YSR Congress Party?. As part of this move will the Chief Minister accommodate first time-legislators during the proposed revamp and reshuffle of his cabinet?.
These questions have assumed importance and heatedly debated in political circles in the wake of a sudden spurt in the desertions being faced by the Congress and the YSR Congress Party gaining strength.
The police have made elaborate security arrangements all over the Telangana region, especially in the twin cities, in connection with the Andhra Pradesh Formation Day celebrations on Thursday to prevent any disturbance by the T-agitators.
The TRS and the TJAC have called upon the people in the region to observe November 1 as “ Telangana betrayal day” and boycott all official functions. They had also appealed to the Telangana ministers to boycott hoisting of flags in their respective districts in connection with the celebrations.
Sunanda Pushkar Wednesday termed as “downright disgusting” and belittling of women the comment of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi describing her as the “Rs.50-crore girlfriend” of Shashi Tharoor.
In an interview to a news channel, Pushkar, who was allegedly linked to the IPL Kochi cricket controversy in 2009, said she was “extremely disappointed” at Modi’s remarks and wondered, “how can someone stoop to something like that”.
Underworld don Chhota Rajan’s aide Rohit Thangappan, who was behind bars for the murder of senior scribe Jyotirmoy Dey, was today arrested in connection with a firing case involving a hotelier, two days after a local court sought his production, police said.
The court had on Monday issued the production warrant after the crime branch, probing the firing at hotelier B R Shetty on October 3 by unidentified assailants near Infinity Mall in suburban Andheri, sought Thangappan’s custody stating his role in the crime. Shetty survived the attack.
Heavy rains and gale continued to lash Nellore and other districts of Andhra Pradesh close to Tamil Nadu today due to the cyclonic storm ‘Nilam.’ The cyclone was supposed to cross north Tamil Nadu and adjoining south Andhra Pradesh coast — between Puducherry and Nellore near Chennai — this evening, official sources said. The arrival of the cyclone led to rainfall at most places. Heavy to very heavy rainfall would also occur over south coastal Andhra Pradesh and Rayalaseema during the next 48 hours, according to the Met department.
Music maestro A R Rahman says he had a beautiful experience working on his maiden project with late filmmaker Yash Chopra, whose film ‘Jab Tak Hai Jaan’ will release this Diwali . “The experience of working with Yash Chopra is very beautiful. He was a very kind and an interesting person,” Rahman told reporters after arriving here to perform for the first time in Madhya Pradesh on the occasion of the state’s 64th Foundation day tomorrow. Rahman has composed music for the Shahrukh-Katrina starrer, which incidentally is his first film with the ‘King of Romance’ Chopra.
Congratulating External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid on his assumption of office, Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said she looks forward to working closely to promote friendly and cooperative bilateral ties. “I wish you every success and look forward to working with you closely to promote good neighbourly, friendly and cooperative relations between our two countries. “We attach considerable importance to taking forward the ongoing dialogue process,” Khar said in a letter to Khurshid.
Union Health Minister Gulam Nabi Azad today accused the BJP government in Himachal Pradesh of taking undue credit for centrally sponsored health schemes by renaming them. “BJP government in Himachal is trying to take credit of schemes sponsored and funded by the UPA government by changing their names, which is highly objectionable and immoral,” he said while talking to reporters here. He claimed the BJP government had issued advertisements taking credit for schemes which were envisioned and funded by the Centre for all the states in the country.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy today alleged that TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu was misguiding common people during his ongoing state-wide padyatra. “Chandrababu is promising to waive loans of farmers and women self help groups, which will be around Rs 80,000 crore by 2014. This is something the state can not afford,” Reddy said addressing a ‘Indiramma Bata’ rally in Medak district. “Chandrababu’s ongoing march is not going to do any good to people,” the chief minister said.
Bollywood star Emraan Hashmi has reportedly signed Academy Award-winning Bosnian director Danis Tanovic’s next film under the collaborative banner of several big production houses. Tanovic is best known for having directed and written “No Man’s Land”, which won him the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2001- the same year Ashutosh Gowariker’s “Lagaan” was nominated in that category.
Excise Department today claimed that during the three-day Formula one event, the game enthusiast consumed 1.15 lakh bottles of beer, which was more than double the consumption during last year event. “This year during the three days of Formula one, 1.15 lakh bottles of beers were consumed by the fans at various liquor outlets who had got licences for the event,” said Kuldeep Yadav, District Excise Officer. “This year beer consumption was more than double the last year’s consumption. Last year beer consumption was 50,000 bottles,” the officer said.
Leader of the Opposition in Bangladesh Begum Khaleda Zia today visited several historical monuments in the Pink City. She visited the City Palace, Amber Fort and other historical places in the city, officials said. She will leave for Ajmer tomorrow to offer prayers at the dargah of sufi saint Khawaja Moinuddin Chisti. Earlier, the BNP chairperson arrived here on a two-day visit to Rajasthan. She was received at the airport by top officials of the state government. PTI
Four assailants today robbed around Rs 12 lakh from a government bank here a by holding its staff and customers hostage at gunpoint, police said. Three of the accused robbed the bank of Rs 12 lakh at gunpoint, while the fourth kept watch, SSP Prashant Kumar said, quoting bank manager Rajiv Kumar who was present at the time of the incident. They fled from the scene after committing the crime, the SSP said, adding, hunt was on for the accused. PTI
Gujarat will celebrate Diwali on November 13 along with the rest of the country and then on December 20 when the results of the state election would be counted, Chief Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday as he renewed his attack on the Manmohan Singh-led central government.
Gujarat Parivartan Party (GPP) president Keshubhai Patel on Wednesday said Chief Minister Narendra Modi was spreading lies about the state’s development. Addressing a huge public rally on the conclusion of his month-long ‘Parivartan Sandesh Yatra’, he said here, “If there were a competition for telling the maximum number of lies, Modi would win.”
The US on Wednesday dismissed as “hollow” the offer of humanitarian aid for superstorm victims from JuD chief Hafeez Muhammad Saeed, the 2008 Mumbai attacks mastermind and for whom the US has offered a bounty of $10 million. “As you all well know, Saeed is believed to be behind organising the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack in which 166 people were killed, including six Americans. That is why he is actually now the subject of a Rewards for Justice programme,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.
New Human Resource Development Minister MM Pallam Raju on 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.
In a shocking incident, a woman panchayat member’s nose was chopped off by five persons who dubbed her as a witch and beat her up in Bihar’s Khagaria district. The woman, a member of Kenjari panchayat, was beaten up on Tuesday on suspicion of practising witchcraft, by five persons.
The woman was also beaten up by the man one who blamed her for the recent death of his son and her nose was chopped off, SHO Beldar police station Mukesh Kumar Jha said.
During a telephone conversation with Myanmar Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin on Wednesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi called on the Myanmar government to try to prevent the killing of Muslims in the country.
Salehi expressed deep concern over a new wave of sectarian clashes between Rohingya Muslims and Buddhists in Myanmar and said it is necessary that the country’s security forces to show moderation and act discreetly in dealing with the clashes and try to prevent the killing of Muslims.
Antonio Me?o, the Spaniard who was in a 23-year coma brought on by medical negligence, has died, sources at the law firm representing his family told EFE Tuesday.
Me?o was 21 when he went into a vegetative coma July 3, 1989, after undergoing a rhinoplasty at a Madrid clinic that later was absolved of blame in lawsuits filed by his parents.
In the first ruling in 1993, the court obligated the insurance company to pay Me?o the equivalent of more than 1 million euros.
Archaeologists in Britain have unearthed a 1,300-year-old feasting hall of the Anglo-Saxon era in a first major find of its kind in 30 years.
The hall, where a king and his warriors would have enjoyed epic days-long feasts, has laid just inches underground for 1,300 years, the Daily Mail reported Wednesday.
A team from the University of Reading working with villagers and local archaeologists made the exceptional discovery in Lyminge, Kent.
At 69 feet by 28 feet, the hall would have been an impressive structure with room for at least 60 people.
A pill said to halt the devastating onset of Alzheimer’s disease could be on the market within four years, the Daily Mail reported.
Believed to be more than twice as good as anything already available, it could greatly slow or even halt the progression of the illness.
Given early enough, it could stop Alzheimer’s from ever developing, an international dementia conference was told Tuesday.
A version of the twice-a-day pill – developed by British scientists – has already been tested on patients, with “unprecedented” results, the Mail said.