Month: November 2012

The Yerawada Central Jail, where Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Amir Kasab, convicted for 26/11 Mumbai attacks, was hanged last week, has over two dozen death row convicts awaiting execution, an official said Monday – the fourth anniversary of the carnage.

“Their execution papers are still in process,” the jail official, who declined to be identified, told IANS, adding that the Mumbai terror attack anniversary passed off peacefully at the high security prison here.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak Monday announced he was leaving politics and would not run in the January general elections.

Barak, 70, leads the Atzmaut (Independence), a small political party that is unlikely to win any seats in the next Knesset, the Israeli parliament.

“I have decided to retire from political life and not to run for the next Knesset … I will end my term as defence minister once the next government is established, in about three months,” Barak told a news conference in Jerusalem.

The Japanese government will continue gathering information about a possible missile launch by North Korea and is ready to defend itself, Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said Monday.

Last week, Japanese media reports said US satellite images showed North Korea had delivered what are believed to be long-range ballistic missile parts to a launch site.

Stating that the naming of some Kolkata Metro railway stations after icons has created problems for commuters, Minister of State for Railways Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury Monday proposed insertion of locality names beside those of the stations.

“Kolkata is a cosmopolitan city and everybody may not be aware about Uttam Kumar or Kavi Subhas. It is a big problem especially for people coming from outside the state,” Chowdhury said here at a railway function.

Pro-government troops in Syria are waging a war with well-armed groups of Al Qaeda militants, Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoebi said Monday.

“At present, the government and its supporters in Syria have to resist Al Qaeda and the Qatar coalition (the recently formed Syrian National Coalition for Opposition and Revolutionary Forces), representing the Muslim Brotherhood of Syria which seeks to reinstate their presence in the Syrian history,” the official SANA news agency quoted al-Zoebi as saying.

The Muslim Brotherhood of Syria was banned by the secular Baath Party in 1963.

Being employed as a public servant in China is viewed as a respectable job. But with the job market being so gloomy, about 50,000 candidates sat for a national exam in Shanghai to compete for 147 local government posts.

The fiercest competition was for one vacancy in the Huangpu district post administration, which attracted more than 1,100 candidates, the Shanghai Daily reported Monday.

Shanghai Customs, Shanghai Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau, and Shanghai Entry-Exit Frontier Inspection Station also had a huge number of candidates.

International Gemological Institute (IGI), the world’s largest independent gem certification and appraisal institute, is setting up a laboratory for testing and grading of jewellery and diamonds in Hyderabad.

The laboratory, which will become operational in January next year, will be the 10th such facility of GI in India.

Tehmasp Printer, India managing director of IGI, told reporters here Monday that the 2,500 square feet laboratory and the institute were coming up at Panjagutta in the heart of the city.

Lanco Infratech Limited (LITL), a leading integrated infrastructure conglomerate, Monday announced that it will raise $2 billion from Chinese banks and financial institutions for power projects.

The company has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the China Development Bank (CDB), a bank owned by the Chinese government, to arrange $2 billion debt for two power projects – Anpara Phase II and Himawat, each having capacity of 2×660 MW with supercritical boiler technology.

In yet another setback to former Karnataka minister Gali Janardhana Reddy, a special court here Monday dismissed his bail plea in the illegal mining case.

This was for the sixth time that the court dismissed a bail petition of Reddy since his arrest last year in a case involving his Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC).

The mining baron, who is a member of the legislative council, had sought bail to participate in the next year’s assembly elections in Karnataka.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special court, however, was not convinced with the arguments put forward by Reddy.

To ward off dengue and malaria fever, people in Jharkhand’s Bokaro district are offering prayers to the ‘mosquito god’ to seek a shield against the life-threatening mosquito-borne diseases.

A big mosquito statue was installed at Chas a day earlier and a procession organised Monday by devotees who beat drums and chanted mantras to appease the winged god.

A priest recited mantras in the presence of hundreds of people and the statue was also garlanded and worshipped before the holy fire.

Gold prices on Monday surged by Rs 100 to all-time high of Rs 32,950 per 10 grams here on sustained demand from stockists and retailers to meet the rising requirements during the ongoing wedding season.

The previous record of gold price was Rs 32,900, set on September 14.

Silver also rose by Rs 200 to Rs 63,200 per kg on increased offtake by industrial units.

Traders said the gold sentiment turned bullish on rising wedding season demand and a weak rupee against the US dollar.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy Monday directed the State Disaster Response and Fire Services Department to conduct a detailed enquiry into the fire which claimed five lives, including that of a new-born baby, at Manikonda near here.

The Chief Minister spoke to the state Home Minister Sabita Reddy who visited the spot and obtained details about the last night incident.

The Tihar Jail authorities were on Monday asked by a Delhi court to produce LeT terrorist and 26/11 Mumbai attack key handler Abu Jundal before it in a case lodged by the NIA against him for allegedly conspiring to launch terror strikes across the country.

District Judge IS Mehta, who had on November 3 ordered for Jundal’s production before it for today, issued production warrant against him for tomorrow after he could not appear before it, the court sources said.

A prisoner serving life term in Dhubri district jail in Assam stabbed a police constable and a fellow inmate Sunday seriously injuring them, the police said.

During head count in the jail here, lifer Manabendra Baruah attacked constable Rituparna Chakraborty with a knife he was working with for cutting bamboo and cane to make furniture there.

While the policeman sustained wounds in his neck and head, another lifer Abdul Baten was injured when he tried to save Chakraborty, the sources said.

Baruah later said he attacked Chakraborty as he used to taunt him regularly in the jail.

BJP Assam unit President Sarbananda Sonowal on Sunday accused Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi of “failing” to take steps against the perpetrators of “secret killings”.

“The ruling Congress has criticised the erstwhile Asom Gano Parishad (AGP) government under Prafulla Kumar Mahanta down the years for being involved in such killings, there have been so many probes but till now the culprits have not been identified which is a failure of the government, which has been in power for last three terms”, Sonowal told a felicitation programme at Chabbua in upper Assam.

The wife of the 29-year-old youth, who was allegedly shot dead in Adoli village here on Thursday last, Monday alleged that her family members were behind the death of her husband.

According to the Abdul Hakim’s wife Mahvish, the victim was shot dead by her family members on November 22 after he had just entered the village along with her and their two-year-old daughter.

However, the police claimed that it was not a case of honour killing as none of the accused named in the FIR by the deceased’s brother was from Mahvish side.

After winning over audiences with his fun-loving and enduring character Rancho in 2009 film “3 idiots”, actor Aamir Khan is set to take his fans on a thrilling trip with his next film “Talaash”, which is ready to hit screens Friday.

Directed by Reema Kagti, the film promises a lot of suspense, drama and thrill.

It is among the list of much-awaited Hindi movies of the year, and comes two weeks after two big-ticket Bollywood releases – Shah Rukh Khan’s “Jab Tak Hai Jaan” and Ajay Devgn’s “Son Of Sardaar”.

The first World Congress on community-based rehabilitation (CBR) of the disabled began here Monday.

The three-day conference, which aims at realising the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities through CBR as a global strategy, saw participation of 1,200 delegates from from 85 countries.

A NASA spacecraft is keeping tabs on a vast dust storm on Mars that has spawned changes in the Martian atmosphere felt by Curiosity rover on the Red planet’s surface.

The Martian dust storm was first spotted by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) on November 10 and has been tracked ever since, the space agency said.

Using the orbiter’s Mars Colour Imager, Bruce Cantor of Malin Space Science Systems, began observing the storm and subsequently reported it to the team operating NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity.

Smoking ‘rots’ the brain by damaging memory, learning and reasoning, according to a new study.

Researchers from the King’s College London in brain tests and analysis of health and lifestyle data of a group of over-50s found that smoking affects the brain negatively even more than high blood pressure and obesity.

Participants took brain tests like learning new words or naming as many animals as they could in a minute, the BBC News reported.

They were all tested again after four and then eight years.

Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency says a Palestinian man has been charged with relaying information to Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon about sensitive government sites, including parliament.

It identified the suspect as Azzam Mashahara, a resident of east Jerusalem, which Israel captured in 1967.

Palestinian residents of east Jerusalem, unlike Palestinians from the West Bank or Gaza Strip, have Israeli identity cards that allow them to travel freely within Israel.

The agency said the indictment was handed down on Sunday, a day after Mashahara was arrested.

He is the liberal face of Indian Islam and the Bohra community. Author and activist Asghar Ali Engineer, who has dedicated his life to studying communalism in India and South Asia, believes that his community (Bohras) will not vote for the BJP in the Gujarat assembly elections in December.

Pakistani troops opened indiscriminate fire in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch sector in another violation of the ceasefire, sources in the army said Monday.

The firing took place late Sunday night. According to army sources, the Pakistani troops targeted three Indian posts along the Line of Control (LoC) in Krishna Ghati sector of Poonch district.

Describing it as a ceasefire violation, an army official said the firing was aimed at diverting attention of the troops from infiltration bids by terrorists from across the LoC that divides Jammu and Kashmir between India and Pakistan.

Ireland will act “speedily” to implement legislation providing limited access to abortion if an expert group’s recommendation is accepted by the Cabinet, a minister has said, amid the raging controversy over the death of an Indian dentist.

The expert group set up to examine how the state deals with the issue of lawful abortions has favoured legislation allowing for the limited provision of abortion along with regulations to deal with practical matters, according to media reports.

Alcohol seized, youth arrested
(Siasat News): The Shahalibanda police seized around 200 packets of alcohol from a man at Shahalibanda chowrasta after his vehicle toppled at the junction spilling the packets on the road.

According to police 19-year-old Rajan’s bike was hit by a vehicle when he stopped at the signal near Shahalibanda chowrastha and the alcohol packets fell out.

Further investigations are on.

Probe into CID affairs