Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan on Saturday announced the start of their annual “spring offensive” against the US-backed government, vowing a nationwide series of attacks as foreign troops withdraw.
The Islamist extremists said that multiple suicide bombings, “insider attacks” by Afghan soldiers and “special military tactics” would target international airbases and diplomatic buildings to inflict maximum casualties.
Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy asked various Government departments to consolidate the vacancies and speed up the exercise at the earliest.
A Pakistani anti-terrorism court today had to put off the cross-examination of a key witness in the Mumbai attacks case as the lawyer of the main accused, LeT commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, did not attend the hearing.
Judge Chaudhry Habib-ur Rehman of the Rawalpindi-based court adjourned the case till May 4 on the basis of an application from Khwaja Haris Ahmed, the counsel for Lakhvi.
A bomb blast has destroyed an election office in a Pakistani tribal region near the Afghan border, officials said on Saturday, the latest violence ahead of historic polls next month.
No deaths were reported following the explosion which took place late on Friday in Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan tribal region, also known as a strong bastion of Taliban and Al-Qaeda linked militants.
The Lok Satta Party’s State Working Committee at its first meeting here on Saturday decided to organize training camps for its leaders at the grass roots level in a bid to prepare them for local body elections scheduled from June 2013.
Chief Secretary Minnie Mathew on Saturday conducted the Special Task Force (STF) meeting and reviewed the progress of works pertaining to Right of Way (RoW) and shifting of utilities for the Hyderabad Metro Rail project.
YSR Congress Party honourary president Y. S. Vijayamma reiterated on Saturday that YSR family will never go back on its promise of bringing the welfare state back to people.
“YSR family stands by its word of bringing back the welfare state for you. After coming to power under the leadership of Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, YSR Congress Party will reintroduce all the welfares schemes once implemented by YSR to usher in the welfare state again,” she told people at a Rachchabanda programme at Chevella as part of her 1-day tour of the RR district.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday stressed on curbing unauthorised chit fund activities like the one involving Saradha Group in West Bengal.
“The unauthorised collection of deposits in exchange for the promise that exorbitant rate of return will be given, this is something which has to be curbed,” Singh told reporters in the Rashtrapati Bhavan here.
He was responding to media queries on the Saradha chit fund scam which has allegedly defrauded thousands of depositors.
Telangana Rashstra Samithi president K Chandrasekhar Rao on Saturday categorically stated that conspiracies could not stop formation of Telangana State.
Addressing the party’s 12th Formation Day at Armoor in Nizamabad district, Chandrasekhar Rao said that a handful of politicians were trying to stall the Telangana formation through conspiracies. Describing them as worthless leaders, KCR said that while some leaders from the Telangana region betrayed the statehood movement by going back on the promise of resignations, the Seemandhra leaders staged the drama of mass resignation.
Chairman of Japan’s Suzuki Motor Corp (SMC) Osamu Suzuki on Saturday met Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and informed him that the board of company’s Indian subsidiary MSI has decided to start the work at Gujarat plant.
Top company officials, who also planned to carry out detailed inspection of the site at Hansalpur near Becharaji in Mehasana district tomorrow, said as per their schedule the manufacturing would start from the plant by 2015-16.
GHMC Mayor Mohammed Majid Hussain has expressed his shock over non-compliance of the detailed project report (DPR) submitted to Government of India by the housing officials of the GHMC.
The Mayor held a review meeting with the officials of housing department in his chambers today. He has informed that it has been mentioned in the DPR that 36 Community halls, 35 Anganwadi centres, primary health centres including infrastructure will be but not even a single tender has called for so far and this shows the negligence of the officials while performing the duties.
The Supreme Court has asked SEBI to deal sternly with companies indulging in manipulative and deceptive practises to send a clear message that market abuse will not be tolerated in the country.
“SEBI, the market regulator, has to deal sternly with companies and their Directors indulging in manipulative and deceptive devices, insider trading etc. Or else they will be failing in their duty to promote orderly and healthy growth of the Securities market,” a bench of justices K S Radhakrishnan and Dipak Misra said.
Online flash sales company the LivingSocial has been hacked.
More than 50 million accounts have been affected and the Washington-based company has asked its members to reset their passwords.
According to ZDNET, LivingSocial’s spokesperson confirmed the security breach.
In an email to its employees, CEO, Tim O’Shaughnessy, informed about the unauthorized access to some customer data from their servers.
The data included, names, email addresses, date of birth of some users, and encrypted passwords, the report added.
Sea surface temperatures in the Northeast Shelf Large Marine Ecosystem during 2012 were the highest recorded in 150 years, it has been revealed.
According to the latest Ecosystem Advisory issued by NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC), sea surface temperature (SST) for the Northeast Shelf Ecosystem reached a record high of 14 degrees Celsius in 2012, exceeding the previous record high in 1951. Average SST has typically been lower than 12.4 C over the past three decades.
An unmanned cargo vehicle on Friday successfully docked with the International Space Station, in a delicate manoeuvre after its navigation antenna failed to properly deploy following launch, Russian mission control and NASA said.
Russian cosmonauts Roman Romanenko and Pavel Vinogradov first oversaw a so-called partial “soft docking” of the Progress craft at 1225 GMT, careful to make sure the unopened antenna did not cause any damage.
Prominent names from Bollywood, including veteran writer Javed Akhtar and filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, turned up at a special screening of ‘Bombay Talkies’ here.
The screening, held Friday night at Light Box in Santacruz here, also saw celebrities like Ranveer Singh, Randeep Hooda, Gauri Shinde, Punit Malhotra, Abhishek Kapoor, Varun Dhawan, Sonam Kapoor, Ritesh Sidwani and Kalki Koechlin.
Omron Corporation Limited, one of the world`s biggest medical equipment makers, has developed world`s first blood pressure analysis service named `Medical Link`.
Kohno Seiji, a representative of the system`s developer Omron Co., says: “We have got a lot of positive feedback from the user. Even a 96-years-old lady living on her own said, she didn`t face any problems while using it.”
China`s deadly outbreak of H7N9 bird flu has spread to a province in the country`s south, the government said today, marking the second announcement in two days of a case in a new location.
The local health bureau in the southeastern province of Fujian said a 65-year-old man was confirmed to have the virus.
Yesterday, the eastern province of Jiangxi confirmed its first case of H7N9, in a 69-year-old-man.
Cancer cells, which can break out of a tumour and invade other organs, are much more aggressive and nimble than nonmalignant cells, a new study has found.
According to the study, these cells exert greater force on their environment and can more easily manoeuvre small spaces.
The study said that a systematic comparison of metastatic breast-cancer cells to healthy breast cells revealed dramatic differences between two cell lines in their mechanics, migration, oxygen response, protein production and their ability to stick to surfaces.
A daily crossword or Sudoku puzzle can help boost brain power and keep mind alert in old age, a new study has claimed.
Researchers reviewed studies on mental decline and said that most showed no strong evidence that physical exercise or taking vitamins or drug treatments helped keep the brain active, the Daily Express reported.
The team of researchers, who reviewed 32 trials involving about 25,000 patients, said that mental exercise in the form of a regular “brain-teaser” puzzle is the only proven method to boost brainpower as you age.
Regular exercise may help reduce the chance of developing liver cancer, a study has said.
The research involved two groups of mice that were fed a control diet and a high fat diet, which were then divided into separate exercise and sedentary groups.
The exercise groups were made to run on a motorised treadmill for 60 minutes per day, five days a week.
After 32 weeks of regular exercise, 71 percent of mice on the controlled diet developed tumours larger than 10mm versus 100 percent in the sedentary group.
Scientists have found a way of detecting and quantifying an infant`s risk of autism in the womb itself, says a new study conducted by scientists in the US.
Researchers at the Yale School of Medicine have figured out how to measure an infant`s risk of developing autism by looking for abnormalities in his/her placenta at birth, allowing for earlier diagnosis and treatment for the developmental disorder.
The findings are reported in the April 25 online issue of Biological Psychiatry.
Drinking two or more cups of coffee daily could decrease the risk of breast cancer recurring in patients taking the widely used drug Tamoxifen, a study at Lund University in Sweden has suggested.
In the study, patients who took the pill, along with two or more cups of coffee daily, reported less than half the rate of cancer recurrence, compared with their non-coffee drinking, Tamoxifen-taking counterparts.
Rajasthan Royals romped to an eight wicket win over Sunrisers Hyderabad in their Indian Premier League match here Saturday.
Chasing 145, Shane Watson (98 not out) got the team home in 17.5 overs.
Earlier, James Faulkner took five wickets for 20 runs.
—IANS
Expressing concern over the misuse of central funds in Odisha, a delegation led by state Congress president Niranjan Patnaik met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to seek a need-based financial package for the state, party leaders said here Saturday.
“The prime minister has said that there is no discrimination whatsoever with Odisha as is being claimed by the state government, and under the revised guidelines of backwardness, the state would get its due share,” Patnaik said.