The National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) is set to establish a banking channel between India and Pakistan by opening a NBP branch in Mumbai or Delhi. NBP President Dr Asif Brohi stated that NBP has already contacted the Reserve Bank of India to seek permission for establishing the NBP branch in India and is awaiting a formal approval, the Daily Times reports.
Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari has claimed war is not the solution to end terrorism, calling for unity and harmony among the people to address the challenges of extremism and terrorism. While addressing a national conference, which was organised by the Ministry of National Harmony at the Presidency, Zardari said there was a need to adopt the approach of peace and reconciliation to eliminate the menace of extremism and terrorism, the Daily Times reports.
Irked by police inaction into the rape and murder case of three minor girls here in Maharashtra, hundreds of locals carry out a protest rally on Saturday, demanding death penalty for the culprits.
In a gruesome incident, the three minor sisters were brutally murdered after being raped and later dumped into a well on February 20 at Murmadi village in Bhandara district of the state.
A social worker on the condition of anonymity expressed his views on the recent blasts in Hyderabad and questioned why is it that when any blast occurs, our media and investigative agencies point the needle of suspicion towards only one direction. He told that the investigations proceed towards the same direction where media speculated. Why our investigative agencies after every blast assume that it is the handiwork of Muslim terrorist outfit.
A 14-year-old girl was rescued by police from a red light area in Nashik, Maharashtra, thanks to a sex worker.
According to police, the girl’s “uncle”, identified as Vjay Bhika Dive, brought her to the city by promising to buy her new clothes and tried to sell her to a pimp.
But the women who he had approached for selling the girl, instead tipped off the Bhadrakali police, which rushed to the spot, and called the girl’s parents, who are residents of nearby Dindori town.
While the girl was handed over to her parents, Dive was handed over Dindori police for further action.
—PTI
India’s Sania Mirza on Saturday clinched her second doubles title of the season after she combined with partner Bethanie Mattek-Sands to defeat Nadia Petrova and Katarina Srebotnik in the title clash of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, here.
The unseeded Indo-American duo prevailed over the Russian-Slovenia combo 6-4 2-6 10-7 in a tightly-contested final of the USD 2,000,000 hard court event.
The match lasted for one hour and 32 minutes.
A local court today sentenced a 23-year-old youth to death for raping and murdering a minor girl in Basnajhar village in 2011.
The court sentenced Lal Banjara to death after holding him guilty for rape and murder of a four-year-old girl.
Banjara took the girl, who was known to him to a pond near the village and then raped and murdered her on June 14, 2011, police said.
—PTI
Doctors of a Singapore hospital who had treated the December 16 gang-rape victim were on Saturday asked by a court here to depose as witness through video conferencing.
The doctors will record their evidence from Monday before Additional Sessions Judge Yogesh Khanna, who is holding the trial on day-to-day basis in the case.
The victim was airlifted to Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore on December 27, 2012 for further treatment on the advice of a team of doctors from Safdarjung hospital after 10 days of the incident.
Police have made progress in the investigations into Thursday’s twin bomb blasts at Dilsukhnagar, which claimed 16 lives and injured over 100 others, Andhra Pradesh Home Minister Sabita Indra Reddy said Saturday.
Many clues were found during last 24 hours, the minister told reporters and exuded confidence that the case would be cracked soon and the culprits would be arrested.
She said the government would take all steps to ensure that the guilty are punished as early as possible.
Normalcy is returning to Dilsukhnagar, the scene of Thursday’s devastating twin blasts which left 16 people dead and over 100 others injured.
After a day of grief and shutdown, people in the busy area resumed their daily activity Saturday. Many shops re-opened while vendors also returned to the footpaths.
The traffic on the busy road, however, was hit due to gathering of curious onlookers at the blast sites in front of Dilsukhnagar bus station. Policemen remain deployed at the blast scenes and they continued to have tough time in controlling the crowds.
Bharat Ekta Manch and HELP Hyderabad are jointly organizing a consultation meeting of leaders and intellectuals of various religions, entitled ‘Terrorism: Causes and Remedies’ on February 25, from 4:30 pm at Henry Martin Institute, Chiragh Ali Lane, Nampally station road.
Justice Vaman Rao, former High court judge, AP and President Ekta Manch will preside over. Major Syed Ghouse Quadri general secretary will welcome the gathering. Mohammed Aliuddin Quadri (founder Ekta Manch) will present the agenda.
Siasat news
Actor-singer Ali Zafar got up, close and personal with Aditi Rao Hydari in “London, Paris, New York”, however, he says kissing on screen is something he would never do as it makes him uncomfortable.
“I can’t kiss on screen! I can’t do these scenes for sure. Its more of a personal choice. I don’t think I will feel comfortable. Even before signing a film, I tell them (producers) that this is one thing that I will not be able to do,” Ali told IANS.
The 32-year-old is married and even has a son.
Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Praveen Togadia today alleged that the Centre was following policy of “minority appeasement” at the cost of majority.
The leader came down heavily on successive governments at the Centre for “consistently ignoring the interests of Hindus only to win the Muslim vote bank.”
Togadia was addressing a meeting of VHP workers here today.
He gave examples of schemes to buttress his claim saying “several schemes were launched to give incentives to minorities by the Union government and many state governments by depriving the Hindus of their due.”
One more legislator of Karnataka’s ruling BJP Saturday quit the assembly pushing the Jagadish Shettar ministry to the brink of collapse but the chief minister remained unfazed.
H.S. Shankaralinge Gowda, who represents the Chamaraja constituency in Mysore, about 130 km from Bangalore, submitted the resignation to Speaker K.G. Bopaiah here. He later said he would soon join Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S).
The speaker’s office said Gowda’s resignation has been accepted.
The battle for Syria’s second-largest airport intensified today as government troops tried to reverse recent strategic gains the rebels have made in the northeast in their quest to topple President Bashar al-Assad.
Assad’s troops have been locked in a stalemate with rebels in Aleppo since July when the city, the largest in Syria, became a major battlefield in the 2-year-old conflict which the United Nations says has killed at least 70,000 people.
Rebels have been trying to capture the international airport for months.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is to visit Hyderabad Sunday in the wake of the blasts in the city that killed 16 people, informed sources said.
The sources said the prime minister will visit the hospital where the injured are being treated and would be briefed about the situation by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy.
Two blasts in Hyderabad Thursday left 16 people dead and over 100 others injured.
The United Progressive Alliance government has faced an opposition attack over the blasts that took place on the first day of parliament’s budget session.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani Saturday indirectly charged Pakistan of involvement in the Hyderabad blasts, saying the “neighbouring country” is solely responsible.
Advani said that the Hyderabad blasts should not be viewed as an isolated incident and that they are a part of a string of militant attacks on India planned by the neighbouring country.
Twin blasts in Hyderabad Thursday left 16 people dead and over 100 others injured.
A woman has emerged as the Britain’s worst serial killer after over 2.5 million criminal records between 1770 and 1934 were placed online by the National Archives and revealed that she murdered 400 babies.
Amelia Dyer was dubbed the ‘Angel Maker’, a prolific serial killer responsible for the horrific crimes that sent shockwaves through 19th century Britain, the Daily Mail reported Saturday.
She preyed on the down-on-their-luck and desperate unmarried mothers who paid her to have their children adopted, believing she would find them a better life.
Iran has found more uranium deposits and selected 16 new sites for nuclear power plants, the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI) said Saturday.
“Following months of efforts, 16 new sites for nuclear power plants have been designated in coastal areas of the Caspian Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Sea of Oman, (southwestern province of) Khuzestan and northwestern part of the country,” reported Iranian Press TV citing an AEOI statement.
Actor-producer Shah Rukh Khan Saturday said he personally doesn’t have time to play cricket and the Cricket Championship League (CCL) doesn’t need a “smaller star” like him.
“I will be really honest… I am someone who believes professionalizing sports in this country is perhaps the most important aspect if I can any way get attached to it. I am happy that I am associated with it,” Shah Rukh told reporters at the grand opening ceremony of the Toyota University Cricket Championship (TUCC).
UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan has granted a total of 1,762 residential plots and houses to citizens of Abu Dhabi.
The president signed a decree that aims at delivering the highest standards of stability and dignified living to Emirati families, at bolstering social cohesion to ensure better future for the generations to come.
—IANS
A suspected robber has been arrested in Taiwan for stealing gold jewellery worth more than $500,000 by cutting holes in coffins.
The Central News Agency said the man, identified only by his surname Cheng, was arrested in western Yunlin county after his car was caught on a surveillance camera at a cemetery last month.
Police said Cheng stole jewellery from about 500 graves starting from 2009.
He dug up graves at night and cut holes in coffins above the wrists of the deceased to remove gold rings and bracelets.
Top Muslims leaders and clerics Saturday warned secular parties not to use the Muslim community as their “vote bank”only but sincerely work for their socio-economic uplift and political empowernment.
Ukraine has initiated a probe into living conditions and health of Ukrainian children adopted by foreigners, in the wake of a recent spat between Russia and the US over alleged abuse of Russian children adopted by US foster parents.
“We sent a letter to the (Ukrainian) foreign ministry with a request to conduct an investigation into living conditions and health of children adopted by foreign citizens,” said Social Policy Minister Natalia Korolevskaya.
Despite progress in Russia-US relations, Moscow and the West could face a serious crisis if the sides fail to resolve the standoff over the deployment of a US missile shield in Europe, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has said.
In an interview with the Cuban media, Medvedev said he was satisfied in general with the development of Russia-US relations in the past few years as Moscow and Washington signed a number of important agreements, including the new START arms reduction deal, and “American colleagues” actively backed Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organisation.