Month: February 2013

Iran today responded positively to US Vice President Joe Biden’s offer to hold direct negotiations with the authorities in Teheran over the country’s contested nuclear programme, but demanded the West to stop building up pressure on the country. Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akhbar Salehi, who was eagerly awaited at the 49th Munich Security Conference, welcomed Biden’s statement as “positive” and as a “step forward”. However, he repeated his country’s position that it will be prepared for negotiations with the US only when they take place on an “equal basis”.

“I thought I was seeing a dream!” This was how the Delhi gang-rape victim’s father felt when he saw Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul at his doorstep.

The 53-year-old recalled Sunday that Congress MP Mahabal Mishra repeatedly telephoned him Saturday evening to say “a very big leader” was planning to visit his house.

When the first of the telephone calls came, the father, a porter at the domestic terminal of the Indira Gandhi International Airport, had gone to a hospital because he had fever.

But he got no clue as to who the “very big leader” could be.

A youth was found dead while his minor girlfriend was battling for her life at a city hospital after being shot at inside her house in east Delhi today, police said. Jitendra Tomar (20) was found dead around 7 am by a group of children in Chauhanpur area in east Delhi after which his parents and relatives rushed to the spot. According to police, Tomar had an affair with a 16-year-old girl, who was shot at and injured inside her house in Karawal Nagar this morning.

A dusty box full of textbooks found at the bottom of a cupboard in a school laboratory in Britain turned out to be 300-year-old works of Isaac Newton owned by the school’s first principal.

The books were found in Newcastle-under-Lyme School, Staffordshire, the Daily Express reported.

The discovery was made by 16-year-old physics student Will Garside working on recording artefacts from around the school site.

The books contain Newton’s Laws of Motion and an account of the principles of gravity spanning more than 1,000 pages.

Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot today announced a reward of Rs 5 lakh for the commandos of Rajasthan police who secured the first position in the All India Police Commando Competition. Commandos of Rajasthan police bagged the top position in the third All India Police Commando Competition. Gehlot, who was the chief guest of the concluding ceremony of the six-day competition at Rajasthan Police Training Centre here, also announced a new police building in Jaipur at the proposed cost of Rs 84 crore.

Soft-drinks maker Coca-Cola today said its ‘Support My School’ campaign had received commitments from individuals and organisations raising over Rs 9 crore, which will be utilised in revitalising 250 schools. In association with NDTV, it had organised ‘Coca-Cola NDTV Support My School Telethon 2013,’ which aims at funds from eminent celebrities and garner support from corporate houses, NGOs, students and individuals, to improve the basic infrastructure across government schools in India, the company said in a statement.

A total of 48 women students from various universities of the UAE will visit Scotland to receive training in multi-culturalism and leadership.

The Al-Maktoum College of Higher Education in Dundee will receive the students from the British University in Dubai, Zayed University, UAE University, Dubai Women’s College, Abu Dhabi University, American University of Sharjah and Arabic and Islamic Studies College in Dubai.

The month-long training will be held Feb 9-March 8.

The Al-Maktoum College has hosted a total of 541 students from the UAE and Qatar so far.

A youth was found dead while his minor girlfriend was battling for her life at a city hospital after being shot at inside her house in east Delhi on Sunday, police said.

Jitendra Tomar (20) was found dead around 7 am by a group of children in Chauhanpur area in east Delhi after which his parents and relatives rushed to the spot.

According to police, Tomar had an affair with a 16-year-old girl, who was shot at and injured inside her house in Karawal Nagar this morning.

Iran on Saturday unveiled its newest combat jet, a domestically manufactured fighter-bomber that military officials claim can evade radar. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a ceremony broadcast on state TV that building the Qaher F-313, or Dominant F-313, shows Iran’s will to “conquer scientific peaks.”

Continuing his attack against Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, Aam Aadmi Party National Convener Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday accused her of behaving like a “middleman” for power discoms and water companies in the capital. At a rally in Rohtas Nagar in the capital, Kejriwal also said the next elections would be a fight between common man and the political establishment and not between Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi as being projected by the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Unhappy with provisions of the ordinance over sexual crimes, women’s groups are planning a big protest against it Monday and a signature campaign in the near future.

The women’s groups are holding a protest at Jantar Mantar Monday afternoon.

“We are planning a mass signature campaign against the ordinance,” said women’s activist Kavita Krishnan, secretary of All India Progressive Women’s Association (AIPWA).

“We want to begin a mass awareness campaign about the provisions of the ordinance,” Krishnan told IANS.

Thousands of people climbed the sacred U Lum Sohpetbneng mountain here Sunday as part of an indigenous tribal pilgrimage to the “navel of heaven”.

U Lum Sohpetbneng, popularly known as “umbilical heavenly peak”, is situated by the scenic Umiam Lake (Barapani), 17 km north of state capital Shillong.

Thousands of Khasi-Jaintia tribesmen make this annual pilgrimage to the top the 1,344-metre peak to offer their obeisance to god.

Noted economist Amartya Sen Sunday criticised Muslim groups for the hue and cry over writer Salman Rushdie’s plan to visit the city, saying it amounted to distracting attention from the community’s real issues and was against Indian tradition of constructive argument.

“Lot of people, who are enormously disadvantaged, have enormous reasons to complain about other things,” the Nobel laureate said at the Kolkata Literary Meet.

Leon Panetta, who as CIA director oversaw the US operation that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, said the job could have been done without resorting to controversial interrogation methods that some have said constitute torture.

The outgoing defense secretary, in remarks aired Sunday on the NBC program “Meet the Press,” said there had been many pieces to the “puzzle” solved to find bin Laden, who was held responsible for the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and the Pentagon.

More than literature, it was politics that got highlighted at the concluding day of the Taj Literature Festival Sunday with a tussle over Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as a prime ministerial candidate.

Author Shobha De targeted Modi for post-Godhra riots and ruled out his candidature for prime ministership. She said if the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wanted to project him as its candidate for the top post, “Why don’t they announce his name right now?”

BJP leader Vani Tripathi countered her, saying: “When the time comes, it will be done.”

A 20-year-old man was shot dead while his teenage girl friend is battling for life after being shot here Sunday in what police suspect to be a case of honour killing.

Jitendra Tomar was found dead around 7 a.m. with a bullet in his chest in north Delhi’s Chauhanpur area, while his friend, Jugnu Singh Yadav, 16, was found shot in her chest inside her home in east Delhi’s Karawal Nagar area around 4.45 a.m., police said.

The two lived in adjacent colonies and were reported to be in a relationship, said a police official.

The Coca-Cola NDTV ‘Support My School’ campaign raised pledges worth Rs.13.6 crore towards the revitalisation of 272 schools across India via a telethon led by cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar and Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.

The telethon, which marked culmination of a six-month long fundraising drive, received pledges from several organisations and individuals alike, with significant contributions from donors such as Tetra Pak, Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt Ltd, SRF Foundation and UN Habitat, towards raising the amount.

Amid Modi-for-PM chant in BJP, a senior Samajwadi Party leader on Sunday proposed the name of party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav for the top post.

“Everybody is looking forward to Mulayam Singh Yadav, a leader of the farmers, as the Prime Ministerial candidate,” SP general secretary Ram Asrey Kushwaha said here.

“Congress is projecting Rahul (Gandhi) as its PM candidate while BJP is pushing the name of Modi… I want to ask are they farmers?” he said.

Kushwaha said India would progress only when a farmer becomes the Prime Minister.

Continuing to dodge the issue of Prime Ministerial candidate, BJP president Rajnath Singh today maintained that the decision in this regard would be taken by the party’s Central Parliamentary Board (CPB).

He conceded that at this stage, it was hard to zero-in on a candidate acceptable to entire NDA.

Answering a volley of questions as to why the BJP was shying away from naming Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as its Prime Ministerial candidate, the BJP President said, “There is a tradition in the party to decide such issues in the CPB.”

Amid a demand for lowering the juvenile age limit in the wake of the Delhi gang-rape case, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Sunday gave her support, saying the nature of the crime should not be overlooked while deciding on the age issue.

“If you match the nature of the crime with the age of the person with being juvenile and non-juvenile, then I think that evaluation could perhaps help in (deciding the issue),” Dikshit said.

Backing Prime Minister David Cameron’s decision of sending British troops to support the French effort in Mali to put down terrorists, ex-Premier Tony Blair has said West’s fight against al-Qaeda could last for a generation.

The former Prime Minister said today that Britain was right to send troops to support the French effort in Mali to put down a terrorist attempt to overthrow the country’s government.

David Cameron faced difficult decisions to fight terrorism, Blair said, but warned the cost of standing aside would be far greater.

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAl) today achieved the Initial Operational Clearance (IOC) for its Advanced Light Helicopter Mk-IV, the Army Version of ‘ Rudra’.

Dr K Tamilmani, CEO, Center for Military Airworthiness and Certification (CEMILAC), presented the certificate to the company, a HAL release said. “The occasion gives us the confidence. It is a proud moment for the country and boosts our indigenous activities,” HAL Chairman Dr R K Tyagi said.

Clearing the way for screening of Kamal Haasan’s Tamil movie Vishwaroopam, the ban on it was lifted on Sunday, a day after the actor-director struck a compromise with Muslim groups to end the week-long standoff.

In a swift follow up action, district collectors across Tamil Nadu revoked prohibitory orders under which the release was banned on January 23 after Muslim outfits came out strongly against the mega budget movie, holding some scenes in it hurt their sentiments.
Official sources said the prohibitory orders imposed under Section 144 of CrPc have been lifted.

After being halted for more than a year, land acquisition for the showpiece Rs 52,000-crore Posco steel plant in Odisha resumed on Sunday amid clashes between police and protesters.

The acquisition process for the South Korean steel major’s mega project amid tight security in Jagatsinghpur district was marked by claims and counter-claims on the violence following allegations of police crackdown on project opponents and injuries to some villagers due to lathicharge.

Former military ruler Pervez Musharraf kept such a tight lid on intrusions by Pakistani troops into Indian territory in Kargil in 1999 that the ISI learnt of the development when it intercepted Indian Army communications, a retired general says in his new book.

Lt Gen (retired) Shahid Aziz, who headed the analysis wing of the Inter-Services Intelligence at the time, writes that when he brought “strange wireless intercepts” to the notice of then ISI chief, Lt Gen Ziauddin Butt on May 3 or 4, 1999, he asked Aziz to keep the documents with himself.