Month: January 2013

California physician Ami Bera, who has become the third Indian-American member of the US House of Representatives, has been named on three prestigious committees on foreign affairs, science, space and technology. Bera’s parents migrated to the US from India in the 1950s.

Democrat Bera,47, who represents California’s 7th Congressional district in the House, follows Amritsar-born Dalip Singh Saund, who represented a California district from 1957 to 1963, and Louisiana’s current governor Bobby Jindal, who was a member from his state from 2005 to 2008.

There are indications of the Congress party getting a big jolt in the Prakasham district. There are reports that two MLAs of the party are likely to join the YSR Congress.
It is learnt that YSRCP leaders are in touch with Addanki MLA Gottipati Ravi Kumar and Darsi MLA Buchepalli Siva Prasada Reddy.

It is learnt that party senior leader Balineni Srinivasa Reddy has been in touch with Gottipati Ravi Kumar. There are indications that both the MLAs would join the YSRCP by the end of the month.

High Court Judge Justice Eshwaraiah has observed that the country would develop further only when the juvenile delinquents, who committed crimes during adolescent age, were reformed. The society hinges on the welfare of the young generation, he added.

Justice Eshwaraiah was speaking after inaugurating an awareness seminar for police officials on “How to deal with juvenile delinquents” on the premises of Nampally Criminal Courts complex here on Saturday.

Telangana Political JAC convener Prof. Kodandaram today made it clear that they would not accept regional council or packages and want nothing short of Telangana State.

Talking to the media here on Saturday, Prof. Kodandaram said Telangana people want self-rule and self-respect. He said they would oppose any decision against the aspirations of the people. He said the people of the region want a Telangana State with 10 districts and Hyderabad as its capital. He also said the JAC would organize a public meeting on January 21 at Gadwal in Mahbubnagar district.

As the Union Home Ministry has approved the deputation of Dr Akun Sabharwal as Assistant Director in S.V.P. National Police Academy, Hyderabad for four years, the Director General of Police has relieved Dr Sabharwal from the post of Deputy Commissioner of Police, South Zone, Hyderabad.

Bollywood ‘baadhsah’ Shah Rukh Khan Saturday wished actress Deepika Padukone a 27th birthday full of love and luck, and wished her “happiness being on top of the list”.

“Deepika Padukone happy birthday. May Allah give you all that you wish for and more, happiness being on top of the list. Lots of love, have a good life,” the 47-year-old tweeted to the actress.

Deepika made a dream Bollywood debut opposite Shah Rukh in the 2007 movie “Om Shanti Om”. They have reunited for forthcoming film “Chennai Expresss”.

Sapna Bhavnani was said to be embroiled in a verbal spat with Salman Khan during her “Bigg Boss 6” stint. The celebrity hairstylist, the latest to be evicted from the show, agrees she had differences with the actor, but says she isn’t obliged to defer to him just because of his star status.

“Salman is not god, neither am I. We have differences. He is the number one star, which doesn’t mean that I have to act with him in a certain way,” Bhavnani said post her eviction.

Actress Bipasha Basu, who has launched her second fitness DVD “Break Free”, says it is hard to choose a fitness icon from among Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar and Hrithik Roshan as each one of them has their own story to tell. Salman, however, can be credited for popularising a fit body.

“I think Salman Khan has brought fitness into our industry. He is just going to be iconic forever. He is the fitness icon,” the 33-year-old said here Friday at the launch od her DVD.

Indian cricket selectors Vikram Rathour and Saba Karim Saturday had long discussions with skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and senior batsman Virender Sehwag and kept a close watch on the side’s preparations for the dead rubber against Pakistan here Sunday.

The selectors will meet here Sunday after the match to pick the team for the five-match ODI series against England.

Rathour and Saba had a long chat with Dhoni, who is under pressure following the team’s dismal performance since the 2011 tour of England, on the sidelines of the net session at the Feroze Shah Kotla.

Mumbai captain Ajit Agarkar feels Sachin Tendulkar’s presence in the side will a big boost as it takes on Baroda in the Ranji Trophy quarterfinal at the Wankhede Stadium here Sunday.

Though Mumbai will be without the services of Zaheer Khan, Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane; the record tournament champions will have the experience of Tendulkar, who recently announced his retirement from One-day Internationals.

As many as 228 houses will be immediately delivered to citizens of Dubai as part of the 1,240-house project.

The houses at South Barsha were ordered by the UAE’s Vice President and Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

The project which cost 1.4 billion dirhams was expected to be completed by September 2014. Construction began in October 2008.

The total cost of the 228 houses, whose work began in February 2009 on a total area of about 30 hectares, was 272 million dirhams.

–IANS/WAM

Arabs are groping for new models of governance in the wake of uprisings that began in 2010 that led to regime changes in some countries, an international expert has suggested.

They have few models of governance to choose from, and that could be Turkish, Iranian or Iraqi, but they are still grappling to find one, said Iranian-Canadian political scientist Ramin Jahanbegloo at the India International Centre here Friday evening.

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah Saturday announced 80,000 jobs for educated youth of the state, asserting that employment generation in the government and private sectors was his regime’s top concern.

Addressing a rally of panches and sarpanches (village council members and headmen) here, Abdullah said: “We have already set in motion a mechanism to fill up vacancies in government departments as fast as possible”.

Invoking charges of criminal conspiracy and murder against eight policemen, including two retired officers, the CBI today said the encounter of Sadiq Jamal was stage-managed and he was kept in illegal confinement of city crime branch.

The copies of the charge sheet, which was filed on December 22, were handed over to the accused today by the court.

Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Saturday refused to get into the controversy over the claim by the friend of the Delhi gang-rape victim that police response to their distress was tardy, saying he would comment only after knowing the facts.

“I would not like to comment on the issue. I will comment only after I get a detail report on it,” he told reporters here.

Shinde was replying to a question on the claim by the male friend of the gang-rape victim who claimed that Delhi Police’s response was tardy when they were thrown out of the bus after she was gang-raped by six men.

National Cadet Corps have set up camps in around 600 districts, including Naxal-affected ones, across the country as part of its attempt to encourage the youths join the mainstream.

“We have set up several camps in about 600 districts in the country including backward areas like Bastar. We will be training our cadets there,” NCC Director General Lt Gen P S Bhalla said here.

The NCC has commenced its Republic Day camp here which is being attended by around 2,000 cadets from across the country.

The entire North India on Saturday continued to remain in the grip of severe cold, which claimed 11 more lives in Uttar Pradesh, taking the death toll this winter to 140.

Delhi continued to shiver at a minimum of 2.9 degrees, four notches below normal, whereas the maximum temperature in the city plummeted by eight degrees below normal to settle at 12.6 degrees.

The Met department forecasts a foggy morning for tomorrow.

In Uttar Pradesh, officials said while six persons died in Barabanki district due to cold, four died in Sultanpur and one in Etah district.

A team from Britain will fly to Myanmar to search for at least 124 Spitfire fighters that were buried in the country when Japan surrendered in 1945 to end World War II.

David Cundall, 62, told The Sun he was convinced that up to 124 planes were buried in Myanmar.

A deal with the Myanmar authorities means Cundall gets to keep 30 percent of any Spitfires found, the daily said.

Despite being buried for 67 years, he believes they can be restored to fly again.

In the approaching twilight of its war in Afghanistan, the US is forging ahead with a giant infrastructure project long criticized as too costly in both blood and money.

It’s a USD 500 million effort to refurbish the massive Kajaki dam and hydro-electric power system with an extensive network of power lines and transmission substations.

It is supposed to bring electricity to 332,000 people in southern Afghanistan, increase crop yields and build up a cohort of trained Afghan laborers in a region badly in need of them.

The office of Iraq’s ailing president says he is making progress in a German hospital recovering from a stroke last month.

A brief statement Saturday described the health situation of Jalal Talabani as “reassuring” and says his medical team has started rehabilitation. It did not give more details on his condition.

Talabani, a 79-year-old senior Kurdish leader, was flown to Germany for treatment more than two weeks ago.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces have reportedly captured the brother of the head of al Qaeda.

Mohamed al-Zawahiri is said to have been seized in Deraa in the south-west where he was meeting opposition activists.

According to the Independent, rebel fighters insisted al-Zawahiri, the brother of Ayman al-Zawahiri, was engaged on a humanitarian mission and had not been involved in violent acts.

They also claimed that he had, in fact, proposed a local truce to enable aid to get through, the paper said.

A Pakistani man allegedly shot dead his former fiancee after the woman’s family broke up their engagement, a daily reported Saturday.

The incident took place in Rawalpindi city, three months after the 22-year-old woman’s engagement ended, the Dawn said.

The woman was shot dead and her mother and younger sister were injured in the attack, the girl’s family said.

The woman’s mother said she, her husband and her two daughters were at their home in Amarpura area, when the accused came in along with two other men.

Thousands of Pakistani tribesmen Saturday joined a protest against US drone strikes in South Waziristan tribal region, two days after pro-government Taliban commander Mullah Nazir was killed by a CIA-operated spy plane.

The tribesmen took to the streets in South Waziristan Agency and shut all markets in Wana, the main town in the region.

The protestors condemned the drone strike that killed Mullah Nazir and a dozen of his fighters, tribesmen said on phone from Wana.

Warning that “forces of doom and gloom” are bent on derailing the system, Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf has said that Pakistan will have to redefine its military doctrine to comprehensively tackle terrorism.

“We need to work on a strategy which can comprehensively tackle (terrorism). We have to redesign and redefine our military doctrine to achieve this objective,” Ashraf said.

The crisis that has hit Indian tennis deepened on Friday with the revolting players today threatening to pull out of the upcoming Davis Cup tie against South Korea unless AITA discusses their “legitimate” suggestions for improvement in the system.

The eight players issued a joint statement and insisted that their intention is not to challenge the authority of national tennis body.