Month: February 2013

An Iranian official has confirmed reports that a monkey had been sent into space in a space mission, although he admitted that one of the two photos of the space-travelling primate depicted the wrong monkey. Mohammad Ebrahimi, a senior space official, has said that one set of pictures showed an archive photo of one of the alternate monkeys and added that the photos were not related to the time of flight, Huffington Post reports. One set of pictures showed a relatively dark-haired monkey.

Rising Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell stole the thunder from his illustrious compatriots, fetching a whopping USD one million (Rs 5.3 crore), while Abhishek Nayar and R P Singh also invited unexpectedly high bids in the players’ auction for the sixth edition of the IPL today.

The 24-year-old Maxwell was bought by Mumbai Indians after fierce bidding war with new entrants Hyderabad Sunrisers in an otherwise low-key auction where 108 players went under the hammer. (Follow IPL auction live blog)

The body of a Pakistani investigator, probing a corruption case involving Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf and found hanging last month, has been exhumed from his grave for investigation, a media report said.

A murder case was earlier registered in the death of Kamran Faisal, assistant director of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), assisting in the corruption scandal involving Ashraf.

Ashraf is accused of receiving kickbacks over construction of power plants when he was minister for water and power.

A fire broke out Sunday in a vacant military barracks in Pakistan’s port city Karachi but was soon brought under control, a media report said.

The incident took place in Shahrae Faisal area, Dawn News reported.

The barracks was unoccupied when it caught fire and no injuries were reported, the Pakistani military’s media wing said.

The fire appeared to have been caused by an electrical short circuit.

Fire-fighting teams and emergency teams of the Pakistan Navy reached the spot and brought the fire under control in three hours.

—IANS

Admissions for the third phase of two-year D.Ed. course of 2012-14 batch through DIET CET 2012 will be finalized through website http://diet.org.gov.in as per the schedule. State ranks would be available on website from 6th February. The candidates could exercise their options on website from 21st to 23rd February. They can download the provisional letters of admission from 24th to 27th February.

The candidates have to report to the colleges concerned for admissions and for verification of certificates on 28th February.

—Siasat News

YSR Congress Party said that Congress Govt. led by Mr. N.Kiran Kuman Reddy has lost majority in the Assembly. Talking to media men, YSR Congress leader, Dr. M.V.Mysora Reddy said that after the expulsion of nine Congress MLA’s, by Congress President, the Govt. lost majority in Assembly. TDP has the weapons dislodging the Congress Govt.in the form of “No Confidence” motion.

He said that in his padyatra, Mr. Naidu has been telling that Mr. N.Kiran Kumar Reddy is incompetent to rule A.P. and he is also claiming that Congress has lost the confidence of the people.

Minister of Information Technology, Mr. P.Lakshmaiah, told that the next revolution in the country would be in the field of education. He declared that the deficiencies in the field of education are responsible for all the evils in the society. He said that illiteracy and poverty are due to lack of education.

He was addressing a gathering of two day American Education’ summit 2013 organized by Indian Foundation in collaboration with FAPCCI.

All India Urdu Mass Society for Peace organized a seminar at Malakpet.

It was presided over by Prof. Mohammed Abdul Lateef, Editor of “Sheerin Zaban”. Mr. Syed Shah Raziuddin, Director Computer Institute, CTI and Prof. Syed Shah Muslehuddin, Principal, Young Wing Youth were the chief guests.

Speaking on this occasion, Mr. Anees Ahmed Iqbal, Secretary, Urdu Mass and Peace Society told that his society organizes literacy competitions for the students of schools, colleges and Universities so that the talents and treasures of Urdu Language could be explored.

Congress MLA from Krishna District, Mr. Jogi Ramesh alleged that Mr. Botsa Satyanarayana, President of A.P. Congress committee expelled nine Congress MLA’s from the Assembly. It is a conspiracy of destabilizing the Congress govt. of A.P. led by Mr. N.Kiran Kumar Reddy. He has created a crisis in the State by expelling these MLA’s. He told that President of Congress has an eye on Chief Minister’s post. However, he was not dare enough to pronounce the names of MLA’s whom he has expelled. He said that he came to know thought the newspapers that he has also been expelled.

General Secretary of Congress Party, Mr. Abid Rasool Khan met Mr. N.Kiran Kumar Reddy, C.M. of A.P. and demanded that Urdu should be made compulsory in all the Govt., Aided, Private, Telugu and English medium schools.

Prof. Kancha Ilaiah, Chairman of Citizens for Social Justice in a press conference said that making Telugu compulsory in all the Govt. Schools is an organized attempt to close down all the Urdu medium schools in the State. He heavily opposed this move of the Govt. and demanded to withdraw these orders. He threatened to organize a mass protest in case these orders are not withdrawn. He also warned the Government that if need be, a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) would also be filed in the A.P. High Court.

CBCID has started investigations about the arrest of Dr. P.Shanker Rao former Textiles Minister of Govt. of A.P.

Mr. N.Kiran Kumar Reddy C.M. of A.P. had given orders for this probe.

Mr. Krishna Prasad, Addl. Director of CID is investigating the case.

Doctors of Palmer University (USA) will conduct a free medical camp for three days from 28th February to 2nd March from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Abid Ali Khan Eye Hospital at Darulshifa. These chiropractic doctors would treat the patients suffering from Joint pains etc. free of charge.

Mr. Zaheeruddin Ali Khan, Managing Editor of Siasat, the chairman of the camp and Dr. Mohammed Samiullah Khan and Hakeem Syed Ghousuddin are the coordinators.

A meeting of the steering committee of the students of Osmania University Joint Action Committee was held at Arts College yesterday and decided to intensify Telangana Agitation.

A decision was taken to organize cycle rallies in 10 districts of Telangana on 15th February. On 2nd March Students’ Simha Garjana (Lion’s Uproar) would be organized at Nizam College. “Chalo Assembly” programme would be organized on 20th March to gherao the A.P. Assembly.

Dr. Reddy’s Foundation is offering a three-day trainings programme for the benefit of unemployed youths in Personality Development, BPO, Computer, English Conversation and Interview Practice.

For further details, interested candidates may contact Lakshminagar Colony between pillar numbers 67 and 68 in person or at phone numbers 8498894446 or 9705567140.

—Siasat News

A.P.State Hajj Committee has finalized the procedure of registration of the applications of Hajj Pilgrims for 2013 Hajj season. An important meeting of Hajj Committee was held at Hajj House yesterday under the chairmanship of Mr. Syed Khaleeluddin Ahmed, President of Hajj Committee. He briefed the members about the details of issue of Hajj applications and their processing on submission.

He told that application forms would be issued from 6th February to 20th March from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

This time, the pilgrims would get only one chance to perform Hajj.

The United States has called for an end to the Assad regime in Syria, insisting that it will continue supporting the Syrian Opposition.

The US Vice President Joe Biden held meetings with the Syrian Opposition leaders along with the Special US Representative on Syria in Munich as part of the US effort to resolve the Syrian crisis, which he also discussed in his meeting with the Russian Foreign Minister, his office said yesterday.

Recent controversies surrounding Kamal Haasan’s movie ‘Vishwaroopam’ or Ashish Nandy’s alleged anti-Dalit comment were reflection of a society which seems to be increasingly becoming a culture of “competitive intolerance”, Union Minister Shashi Tharoor has said.

The events over the last week which also saw writer Salman Rushdie being denied entry into Kolkata “do not speak well of us”, he regretted.

A small plane has crashed into the sea off Venezuela’s coast, leaving one person dead and five survivors who were rescued and brought to shore.

The twin-engine Beechcraft BE-58 went down east of the coastal city of Cumana in the Gulf of Cariaco on Saturday, Interior Minister Nestor Reverol said.

Reverol said the pilot had declared an emergency due to the failure of both engines and put the plane down in the water.

After the crash, rescue workers and fishermen helped the survivors to shore, the Minister said on state television.

TRS MLA Mr. J. Krishna Rao told that Congress President Mr. B. Sathyanarayana himself admitted that Congress Govt. led by Mr.N.Kiran Kumar Reddy has been reduced to a Minority since it lost majority consequent on the expulsion of nine Congress MLA’s.

At this juncture, TDP should move ‘No Confidence’ resolution in A.P Assembly so that Congress Govt. is defeated.

An important meeting of the steering committee of Telangana Political Joint Action Committee will be held today. In which the action plan of agitation for the future would be finalized. Prof Kodandaram told the newsmen yesterday that programmes like “Chalo Hyderabad” and to block national highways would be finalized in today’s meetings.

He told that Telangana JAC is of the opinion that separate Telangana state could be achieved only through stern actions. Only such actions would compel the center to take a decision on Telangana Region.

It may not be untrue if a statement is made that banks are distributing loans to all communities but they are busy in collecting back the loans already sanctioned to the members of Minority Communities.

In the state level bankers’ committee meeting, a review was presented giving the details of the loans sanctioned by banks to each community. Chief Minister himself attended this meeting in person he issued instructions to bankers.

Noted actor Annu Kapoor, who has essayed versatile roles in a number of movies, has revealed that he never watches films.

“I do not watch Hindi films and neither do I see English movies nor the theatre,” Annu, who hails from Madhya Pradesh, said during a recent visit.

The actor said that there was no particular reason for not watching movies, adding that he simply felt bored by them.

Annu made a name for himself by appearing in a number of films, including `Mr India` and received accolades for his roles in Amitabh Bachchan`s `Main Azaad Hoon` and Pankaj Parashar`s `Chaalbaaz`.

The key to understanding how people come to care about their community might lie in the relationships fostered as adolescents, say researchers in psychology.

Craig Kielburger, 12, travelled to India to learn about child labourers; Malala Yousafzai, 14, defied the Taliban in Afghanistan and insisted on education for women. Their lives demonstrate that under the right conditions, the desire to reform the world starts early in life.

External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid has said India is speeding up the process of resolution of land boundary issues with its friendly neighbour Bangladesh.

Speaking on the sidelines of an event here yesterday, Khurshid hinted that on this score, his ministry might soon bring up a constitutional amendment regarding the same in the upcoming session of parliament.