A Delhi high court judge on Friday recused himself from hearing a plea of senior Congress leader Jagdish Tytler challenging a lower court order by which the CBI was asked to further investigate his role in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.
“In any case, I am not going to hear it. Put this matter on July 3 before another bench,” Justice Kailash Gambhir said, without assigning any reasons for his recusal from the hearing.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Friday he was considering expanding the cabinet.
“Cabinet expansion is being considered,” Manmohan Singh told reporters on his way back from a five-day overseas trip that took him to Japan and Thailand.
There are several vacancies in the cabinet. Congress ministers Ashwani Kumar and P.K. Bansal quit recently; before that, the Trinamool Congress and the DMK parted ways with the United Progressive Alliance.
Breaking his silence on the raging spot-fixing scandal, Sachin Tendulkar today said that the developments of the last two weeks were “shocking and disappointing” and the faith reposed by the millions of fans in the game should be justified.
Tendulkar said the authorities must take sincere steps to get to the root of the issue and ensure that credibility of the game is restored.
The champion batsman, who retired from IPL after his side Mumbai Indians won the title recently, said as a cricketer he has always learnt to play in the true spirit of the game.
The mutual-friends feature on social networking sites such as Facebook creates myriad security risks for the users and raises privacy concerns, a new study has revealed.
The study conducted by University of Pittsburgh shows that even though users can tailor their privacy settings, hackers can still find private information through mutual-friends features.
The Lahore High Court has deferred the hearing of a petition against alleged harassment of former president Gen (retired) Pervez Musharraf till June 10.
The court has given him a chance of fair trial as required by the law.
According to the Daily Times, the court asked petitioner, Barrister Javed Iqbal Jaffrey, to defend himself against the allegations.
Jaffrey alleged that Musharraf was being subjected to harassment by the state and was treated like a convict even though he was just an under trial prisoner.
Pakistan’s Taliban has said it will not participate in peace talks with the country’s new government and will exact ‘revenge in the strongest way’.
The comments from the terrorist organization came after one of its top leaders was killed in a suspected U.S. drone strike.
According to the Washington Post, confirming the death of Wali ur-Rehman, the second-ranking leader of the group, Taliban’s chief spokesman blamed Pakistan Government for not doing more to prevent CIA-launched drone strikes in the country.
As per the report of Mr. Mohammed Nazeer Ahmed HoD Urdu, University College for Women’s Kothi, issuance of forms for admission into B.A., B.Sc., and B.com English medium for the year 2013-14 has begun. The last date to submit filled in applications is June 5.
Europe will “emerge even stronger” from the current economic crisis, said German Ambassador Michael Steiner here.
In a globalised world, distances do not matter any more and there is need to revise old notions based on geographic maps, said Ambassador Steiner while addressing diplomats at an event Thursday evening.
Touching on the eurozone debt crisis, Steiner said “Europe’s fundamentals are pretty strong” and marked by “unprecedented integration” of the European countries.
Rejecting reports of a rift between him and Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday asserted that there was no truth in it as the two worked together almost on all issues.
“In all truthfulness, there is no difference of opinion between me and the Congress president,” he told reporters on his way back from the five-day visit to Japan and Thailand.
“We work together on almost every issue and where consultations are needed, I consult the Congress president,” he said.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday refrained from commenting on the ongoing IPL spotfixing controversy saying investigations were underway but hoped politics and sports don’t get mixed up.
“I wouldn’t like to comment on this issue. This matter is under investigation and it won’t be proper for me to comment at this stage of investigation. I would only hope that politics and sports don’t get mixed up,” he told reporters on his way back from Japan and Thailand.
The British Safety Council has awarded Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) a 5-Star rating. In order to get a five start rating, a minimum score of 92 per cent has to be obtained across all parameters and by scoring a 96 per cent during assessments the RGI airport has bagged the award.
After getting the prestigious award GMR CEO K Kishore told that it is an unbelievable achievement, the award is given for its Health & Safety Management System and Shamsabad airport has become the first airport in the country to get the award.
Siasat news
Karnataka’s ruling Congress Friday won a keenly contested assembly seat, taking its tally in the 225-member house to 122. The BJP finished in the fourth spot.
Congress nominee K. Venkatesh defeated K. Mahadev of the Janata Dal-Secular by over 2,000 votes in the May 28 poll whose votes were counted Friday.
Periyapatna, about 200 km from here, did not vote with the rest of the state May 5 following the death of the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate.
Venkatesh polled 62,045 votes while Mahadev bagged 59,957, election officials told reporters here.
A benchmark index of Indian equities markets was trading more than one and a half percent down in mid-afternoon trade Friday, after official data showed that the Indian economy last fiscal grew at its slowest pace in the last 10 years.
The economy grew by a sluggish five percent in the financial year ended March 31, 2013.
According to data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), in the fourth quarter of the 2012-13, the Indian economy grew by just 4.8 percent.
Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar Friday described the spot fixing scandal that has rocked the Indian Premier League (IPL) as “shocking and disappointing”.
Speaking out for the first time on an issue that has taken cricket by storm, Tendulkar said: “It has always hurt me when the game of cricket is in the news for the wrong reasons.
“The developments in the last two weeks have been shocking and disappointing.”
“As cricketers we are always taught to go out, fight hard, give our very best and play in the true spirit of the game,” the iconic player said in a statement.
Actress Madhuri Dixit, who will be seen in two upcoming Hindi films, is happy to work with a new crop of talented actors and says she has been working in Bollywood as per her own plan.
Madhuri is set to stage a comeback in Bollywood after a gap of six years with two projects – Vishal Bharadwaj’s home production Dedh Ishqiya and Anubhav Sinha-produced Gulab Gang.
She has also done an item song in Karan Johar’s home production Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, which released today. The item song, Ghagra, features her and new age actor Ranbir Kapoor.
Breaking his silence on the raging spot-fixing scandal, Sachin Tendulkar today said that the developments of the last two weeks were “shocking and disappointing” and the faith reposed by the millions of fans in the game should be justified.
Tendulkar said the authorities must take sincere steps to get to the root of the issue and ensure that credibility of the game is restored.
The champion batsman, who retired from IPL after his side Mumbai Indians won the title recently, said as a cricketer he has always learnt to play in the true spirit of the game.
Sanathnagar police has registered a case against a doctor on the charges of negligence. It is said that fazalunnisa Begum (40) suddenly fell ill, she was rushed to a hospital at Sanathnagar. The doctor reportedly showed carelessness due to which the patient’s condition deteriorated and she later died.
Taking relatives and local people’s anger into consideration, police registered a case against the doctor and investigations are underway.
Siasat news
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has declared Syria has received its first shipment of advanced S-300 air defence missiles from Russia.
The announcement is expected to become a hindrance for UN peace talks in the region which might get bolstered by tensions, The Independent reports.
According to the report, Russia’s move to send arms to Syria comes after the European Union lifted an arms ban on Syria, thereby allowing its 27 member countries to send weapons to rebels fighting to overthrow Assad”s regime.
Kerala witnessed showers Friday. The first showers here at the end of May signal that it is time for the onset of the southwest monsoon, which the IMD forecast Friday could arrive in the state in three to four days.
The director of the India Meterological Department (IMD) here, K. Santhosh, told IANS that conditions for the onset of the monsoon are now favourable.
“This is all I can say now, as the analysis is going on,” Santhosh said.
Mahatma Gandhi’s vision of “gram raj” is not realistic in the times we live in, union Minister of State for Human Resource Development (HRD) Shashi Tharoor said here Friday.
Tharoor was participating in a question-answer session following his keynote address at the World Management Conference organised by a collective of the Indian Institutes of Management at a resort in Miramar on the outskirts of Panaji.
“There’s something not realistic about the notion of gram raj. The world is moving in a different direction,” Tharoor said.
She can dance but believes she can act better – Pond’s Femina Miss India World 2013 Navneet Kaur Dhillon is ready to follow in the footsteps of her predecessors and break into the acting world. She however says she won’t be comfortable with intimate scenes.
Dhillon is currently gearing up to compete at Miss World 2013 scheduled to be held near Jakarta Sep 28. While most past Miss India contestants chose to dance at the pageant’s talent round, the 20-year-old wants to do something different. Acting on stage is definitely on her mind.
A major fire broke out in two mother plants of the public sector Numaligarh Refinery Ltd (NRL) in Upper Assam’s Golaghat district Friday morning.
No casualty or injury has been reported.
The fire broke out in the crude distillation unit (CDU) and vacuum distillation unit (VDU) of the refinery at around 5.25 am and the blaze was contained within an hour, a spokesperson of the refinery said.
Four fire tenders from the refinery and three others from the district administration battled the blaze which was doused at 9.46 AM when the NRL authority declared “all clear”, she said.
The second eligibility test for admission into degree courses, B.A, B.Com and B.Sc in Dr. B R Ambedkar Open University is scheduled on July 7. X or inter fail students can take admission by qualifying entrance exam.
The 3 year degree course is equivalent to degree of other universities. For information and guidance reach Mohammedan institute Julukhana complex, Ladbazar. Inter pass students will be given direct admission.
Siasat news
Three key institutions of Minority Welfare department will be deprived of their chief today. Managing Director Minority Finance Corporation M A Waheed (IFS) will retire on 31st May. Apart from the Minority Finance Corporation, he was heading Minority Commissionerate and Christian Finance Corporation.
With the retirement of M A Waheed on May 31, three key posts will remain vacant in one go and the government has not made any appointment on the said posts so far.
The post of the Principal Secretary, Minorities Welfare, is also vacant ever since Rani Kumudini went on central deputation.
Aged man’s dead body found
(Siasat News): Habeebnagar police has recovered the dead body of a 67-year-old man from the footpath adjacent Habeebnagar chowrastha.
Police said that the cause of the death is yet to be ascertained and the drive for the identity of the dead body is started.
Woman lecturer ends life