Month: April 2013

SC says centre will ‘take steps’ on Italian marines

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The Supreme Court Friday, hearing the petition of the two Italian marines accused of shooting dead two Indian fishermen off the Kerala coast, said that the central government would take steps in pursuance of its Jan 18 judgment.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) would now continue its investigations into the killing of the two fishermen, Gelastine and Ajesh Binki, Feb 15, 2012.

The marines, Lattore Massimiliano and Salvatore Girone, posted as security staff on board an Italian cargo vessel, had mistaken the fishermen for pirates.

–IANS

All eyes on Gayle as RCB face Mumbai Indians

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The rampaging Chris Gayle will be the cynosure of all eyes as table-toppers Royal Challengers Bangalore lock horns with Mumbai Indians in the Pepsi Indian Premier League (IPL) here tomorrow.

Placed sixth in the points table, it will be imperative for Mumbai to get Gayle early if they are to continue their winning momentum, after the positive result against Kolkata Knight Riders.

For the record, Gayle had smashed his way to the fastest century in the history of T20 cricket in his team’s massive win over Pune Warriors. And the strapping Jamaican has it in him to do an encore once more.

Bombay High Court acquits teacher of rape charges

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The Bombay High Court has acquitted a science teacher of charges of raping a student at his house on the ground that the prosecution had failed to establish the guilt of the accused beyond reasonable doubt.

Accordingly, the court set aside the 10-year jail term imposed by a sessions court on 28-year-old Dharmaraj Ganpatil, a teacher in a school in Ratnagiri area of Maharashtra.

Hearing an appeal filed by the convict, Justice Sadhana Jadhav recently ordered Ganpatil’s release from Kolhapur jail where he is currently lodged.

Two killed as fishing vessel sinks in Arabian sea

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Two fishermen were killed and four went missing when an Indian fishing vessel sank after it was hit by a large vessel off the Goa-Karwar coast in the Arabian sea Thursday, an official said Friday.

The fishing vessel, Sea Messiah, was knocked out by the unidentified large vessel about 250 nautical miles south of Mumbai around 5 a.m. Thursday, the maritime official said.

At the time of the incident, the fishing boat was at anchor and there were 29 fishermen on board.

Sea Messiah reportedly split into two after the collision and sank within minutes.

Boston bombers targeted New York’s Times Square

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Amid a brewing controversy over whether the surviving Boston Marathon bombing suspect was read his legal rights too soon, officials said the brothers planned to detonate the rest of their explosives in Times Square.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, recovering from serious injuries in a Boston Hospital had told the Federal Bureau of Investigation that he and his older brother Tamerlan, 26, “spontaneously” decided that New York would be next, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Thursday.

No element of Stalinism in Russia: Putin

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President Vladimir Putin says he see “no element of Stalinism” in Russia and denies his government is holding political prisoners.

“Stalinism is linked to the cult of personality, mass violations of the law, repressions and camps,” the Russian leader said Thursday in response to a question during his annual live phone-in session.

A liberal journalist posed the question after Human Rights Watch released a report asserting that Russia is experienced the biggest campaign of repression since the fall of the Soviet Union.

‘Indian Embassy has taken up Azam Khan issue with US’

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Taking serious note of the questioning of the Uttar Pradesh minister Azam Khan at the International Airport in Boston, the Indian Embassy has raised the issue with the State here.

“The issue has been taken up with the State Department,” the Indian Embassy spokesman, M Sridharan, said inresponse to a question if the Embassy was aware the incident at Boston airport on Wednesday.

Asteroid could fly 8,600 km from Earth in 2026

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A celestial body 20 metres in diameter will pass dangerously close — 8,620 km — to the Earth’s surface in 13 years, an Italian astronomer has said.

The flyby of the asteroid 2013 GM3 April 14, 2026, may bring it within 15,000 km of the Earth’s centre, or 8,620 km from the planet’s surface, said astronomer Francesco Manca of the Sormano Astronomical Observatory near Milan.

The latter figure is slightly more than one radius of the planet, and within the geostationary orbit of 35,700 km.

VVIP chopper deal: Singling out an individual is wrong

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In the ongoing investigation of bribery and corruption in the VVIP helicopter deal, the Central Bureau of Investigation, or CBI, appears to have made up its mind that the then Indian Air Force (IAF) chief, Air Chief Marshal S.P. Tyagi, was instrumental in swinging the deal in favour of AgustaWestland.

News reports attributed to CBI sources imply that technical requirements were tweaked by the then air chief to enable the Italian helicopter AW101 to emerge as the winner in the contested deal.

Sunil Tripathi’s family seeks privacy after body identified

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Sunil Tripathi’s family has sought “privacy” for itself and “for our love for Sunny” after forensic dental examination confirmed that a body found in Providence River was that of the missing Indian origin student.

“On April 23, our beloved Sunil was discovered in the waters off India Point Park in Providence,” his family wrote in a statement after the Rhode Island Department of Health confirmed the identity of the 22-year-old’s body Thursday.

UP minister to cut short US visit

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Uttar Pradesh Minister Mohammad Azam Khan has decided to cut short his US trip after his “long and humiliating frisking” at the Logan airport in Boston, an official here said.

In a statement issued by his personal assistant Muktinath Jha late Thursday, the minister alleged that on the pretext of frisking him homeland security officials humiliated him, and that he was targeted because he is a Muslim.

Spain’s unemployment rate rises

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Spain’s unemployment rate hit 27.16 percent in the first quarter of this year, with the number of jobless people topping 6 million for the first time amid an economic downturn that started in 2008, the National Statistics Institute, or INE, said.

More than 6.2 million people were jobless during the period, with 237,400 workers joining the ranks of the unemployed during the first three months of 2013, the INE said Thursday in its Labor Force Survey.

India protests Azam Khan’s detention at Boston airport

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India has formally protested to the US over the brief detention of Uttar Pradesh Urban Development Minister Mohammad Azam Khan at Boston airport as he arrived to take part in an event at Harvard University.

Khan, who is accompanying State Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav for the presentation of a Harvard study on the Kumbh Mela pilgrimage, was detained for about 10 minutes for “further questioning” at Boston Logan International Airport on Wednesday, according to Indian officials.

Asteroid could make a flyby at 8,600 km from Earth in 2026

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A celestial body 20 metres in diameter will pass dangerously close — 8,620 km — to the Earth’s surface in 13 years, an Italian astronomer has said.

The flyby of the asteroid 2013 GM3 on April 14, 2026, may bring it within 15,000 km of the Earth’s centre, or 8,620 km from the planet’s surface, said astronomer Francesco Manca of the Sormano Astronomical Observatory near Milan.

The latter figure is slightly more than one radius of the planet, and within the geostationary orbit of 35,700 km.

AP inter 2nd year results today at 4 PM

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Andhra Pradesh intermediate (second year) results 2013 would be declared on April 26 (Friday) at 4 pm.

The Andhra inter results would be announced by the Board of Intermediate Education of Andhra Pradesh (BIEAP), Hyderabad.

Candidates can log onto the website http://examresults.ap.nic.in/ to access their results.

Are people going mad: Delhi HC on child rape

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The Delhi High Court on Thursday expressed concern over the gang-rape of the five-year-old girl in the city, saying, “something somewhere is wrong” and wondering whether “people are going mad”.

“It is surprising, what is happening in Delhi. Something somewhere is wrong,” said a division bench of Chief Justice D Murugesan and Justice Jayant Nath.

“Are people going mad? A five-year-old has been raped… Some sort of awareness is needed,” the court observed.

The bench also asked the home ministry and Delhi Police to find out the “root cause” of the sudden spurt in rape incidents.

Modi to inaugurate Ramdev’s school

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Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi will on Friday inaugurate Yoga guru Baba Ramdev’s Acharyakulam School in Haridwar in presence of influential spiritual leaders like Morari Bapu and Rameshji Oza.

Swami Awadheshanand, Anand Murti Maharaj, Pejawar Swami, Dr Pranav Pandya are some of the other prominent spiritual leaders who are expected to be present at the event.

Another scam rocks APSMFC

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The AP State Minority Finance Corporation (APSMFC), which was embroiled in a fixed deposit scam last year, has found itself in the middle of another fraud. Cheques worth Rs 1.18 lakh meant for low income minority students was siphoned off by scamsters, it was learnt recently.

Thirty-four cheques meant to be disbursed to pre-matric students in Nalgonda district was fraudulently en-cashed allegedly by a peon, Shankar, along with his associate Shafi. Shankar, who was employed on contract basis with the MFC, stole 120 cheques in December last year from the corporation’s office in Nampally.

Quake rattles HP, Nepal-India, Indo-Bangladesh border

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Earthquakes of slight intensity jolted Chamba district of Himachal Pradesh, Nepal-India border (Uttarakhand) and Indo-Bangladesh frontier region in Tripura on Thursday, the met department here said.

While the quake in Chamba was recorded at 3 on the Richter scale, the same in Nepal-India border and Indo-Bangladesh border was measured at 3.2 and 3.1 respectively.

The Indo-Nepal border was the first to be jolted at around 8.09 pm followed by the quake in Chamba at around 8.22 pm and in Tripura at about 9.30pm.

–PTI

Fifty-year-old held for rape of six-year-old girl

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A 50-year-old man was arrested on Thursday in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district for allegedly raping a six-year-old girl. The incident triggered angry protests in the area, a police official said.

“Police arrested Qamrul Hoda, a vehicle mechanic, on suspicion of raping the child. He had been absconding after he raped the child in a village under Motipur police station in Muzaffarpur Wednesday evening,” district police official Anoj Kumar said.

Kumar said Hoda found the girl playing near his shop, and attacked her.

“The victim told her mother about the incident,” the police officer said.

China intended to limit US operations in West Pacific: Pentagon

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Expressing concerns over the pace at which China is increasing its defence budget and rapidly modernising its armed forces, the Pentagon has said that the aim of the regional hegemon is to limit US’s ability to operate in Western Pacific.

“The concern that we have is the pace of this military expenditure as well as the scope of the investments. China’s investing in a comprehensive modernisation of its military,” David Helvey, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence for the East Asia Asian and Pacific Security Affairs, told Senators during a Congressional hearing.

Jennifer Garner to work in Disney film?

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Hollywood actress Jennifer Garner is said to be in talks to star in Disney’s family movie.

Directed by Miguel Arteta, the film is an adaptation of Judith Viorst’s children’s book “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” .

Garner is in negotiations with the movie studio to star alongside Steve Carrell, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

The film, however, will deviate slightly and centre on a boy who has a bad day and makes a magical wish that his family could suffer the same symptoms.

Dubai’s campaign to reduce plastic bags hailed

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If you are in the UAE next month, and you go shopping and see a staff member of the Dubai Municipality approach you with a free jute bag, do not decline it, a UAE newspaper has said.

“It is not an optional goodie. In fact, it is a planet-saver. We can no longer afford to view the rustle of plastic bags in just about every area of our life as a functional sound. It is a sound that needs to be silenced,” the Gulf News daily said in an editorial.

British embassy in Dubai celebrates queen’s birthday

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The British embassy in Dubai celebrated the birthday of Queen Elizabeth II. The event was attended by UAE Minister of Economy Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri and British Foreign Secretary William Hague.

In a speech, Hague praised the people-to-people relationship between Britain and the UAE, and expressed joy over the upcoming visit of UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al Nahyan to Britain, at the invitation of the queen.

Perrie Edwards comfortable with beau

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Singer Perrie Edwards says she has reached the most comfortable stage of her relationship with boyfriend Zayn Malik.

The couple is dating since over a year and they have been together despite claims that Malik cheated on Edwards.

“Zayn and I are at the stage where we feel fully comfortable with one another,” metro.co.uk quoted Edwards as saying.

The singer also said that Zayn likes her with or without make-up.

“My boyfriend says he likes me either way,” she said.

–IANS