US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, James Dobbins, on Thursday said that the elections in Afghanistan, scheduled next year, should be given more importance than the ongoing efforts to get representatives of Taliban for a round of peace talks.
A man accused of repeatedly raping his neighbour, who later became pregnant, has been acquitted by a Delhi court on the ground that the girl has turned hostile and refuted allegations of rape.
Additional Sessions Judge Renu Bhatnagar let off Delhi resident Sugad Singh saying the alleged victim has deposed falsely against him on the instigation of one of her neighbour who had some property disputewith him.
A Hindu temple in Canada has been vandalised by two men armed with baseball bats, outraging the country’s minority community which termed the act as a “hate crime”.
The men smashed three windows at the front entrance of the Vedic Hindu Temple on June 23 in Surrey, British Columbia.
“They left after breaking the windows and leaving those bats, which is self-explanatory,” a temple official was quoted as saying by local media.
British tennis star Andy Murray has said that he believed that he would lose if he played against American ace Serena Williams on grass courts. Making his admission on Twitter, Murray, who marched into the third round at Wimbledon on Wednesday with a 6-3 6-3 7-5 victory over Taiwanese Yen-Hsun Lu, said that he does not rate his chances against the five-times Wimbledon winner, the Daily Star reports.
Iran’s supreme leader says a solution to the nuclear impasse with the West is “easy” if the country’s foes are serious about reaching a deal.
The remarks by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei are his first on the nuclear issue since the presidential election earlier this month of Hasan Rouhani, who supports direct talks with the US.
It suggests Khamenei also could endorse bolder diplomacy by Iran if talks resume with world powers.
Several newspapers today quoted Khamenei as saying “the solution to Iran’s nuclear case is an easy and smooth job” if Western powers want to strike a deal.
The gown that an 18-year-old Elizabeth Taylor wore for her first wedding to hotel heir Conrad ‘Nicky’ Hilton Jr has fetched USD 187,931 at an auction.
Christie’s director Nicolette Tomkinson said the sale price, more than double the highest estimate, reflected the gown’s significance in the history of film and fashion, reported the Huffington Post.
The combined worldwide shipments of PCs, tablets and mobile phones are anticipated to jump 5.9 percent to cross 2.35 billion units in 2013, a new report has revealed. Tablet shipments are expected to be the major beneficiaries with a projected 67.9 percent growth at 202 million, along with the mobile phone market, which is projected to rise by 4.3 percent to more than 1.8 billion units, Enterprise Innovation reports.
On a rare trip to Tibet, the US ambassador to China has met with residents and officials and urged authorities to allow foreigners to travel more freely in the tightly controlled region.
Gary Locke’s three-day local government-organised trip in and around the region’s capital, Lhasa, with members of his family and embassy staff ends tomorrow.
US Embassy deputy spokesman Justin Higgins said it was the first time Chinese authorities had approved an embassy request to visit Tibet since September 2010.
The top 10 contestants of singing reality show ‘Indian Idol junior’ gave a power-packed performance in the capital along with their mentors Shreya Ghoshal and Shekhar Ravjiani.
The two-hour long concert kickstarted with an introductory video of the participants on the song ‘Badtameez Dil’.
“Today not only our top ten, but also the judges of the show, Shreya Ghoshal and Vishal Ravjiani will be performing,” said host Mandira Bedi.
Ecuador’s Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino has said that it took two months to grant WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange an asylum in the country and request for asylum by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden may not be addressed sooner. Snowden who had been hiding in Hong Kong after leaking details about US led ‘snooping’ programme, recently fled to Moscow in a bit to claim asylum in Ecuador so as to escape US extradition.
Cats pay attention to their owners, distinguishing them from all other people, a new study has found.
The study is one of the few to examine the cat/human social dynamic from the feline’s perspective.
Co-author Atsuko Saito of The University of Tokyo explained to Discovery News that dogs have evolved, and are bred, “to follow their owner’s orders, but cats have not been. So sometimes cats appear aloof, but they have special relationships with their owners.”
Applying pressure to the inner wrist with an acupressure wristband is an effective and quick therapy for relieving nausea of migraine sufferers, scientists say.
Nausea is one of the most debilitating symptoms of migraine and affects 80 per cent of migraine suffers in the US.
Leading headache physician, Dr Zoltan Medgyessy of the Berolina Clinic in Lohne, Germany has demonstrated in a trial that pressure to the P6 antiemetic point on the inner wrist with an acupressure wristband can relieve in migraine sufferers.
Joining the popular image sharing app is White House, which posted its first photo showing President Barack Obama with his family flying away from the Executive mansion aboard Marine One. The First Family is on an 8 day African vacation in which they will visit Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania, reports New York Daily News.
Strike! Humans started throwing with accuracy about two million years ago, according to a new study by researchers, including an Indian scientist.
Researchers found that a suite of changes to our shoulders and arms allowed early humans to more efficiently hunt by throwing projectiles.
These changes helped our ancestors become part-time carnivores and paving the way for a host of later adaptations, including increases in brain size and migration out of Africa.
A new study suggests that women should take calcium and vitamin D supplements after menopause for bone health.
An analysis from the major Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) trial throws weight on the supplement side—at least for women taking hormones after menopause.
Among the nearly 30,000 postmenopausal women in the hormone trial, some 8,000 took supplemental calcium (1,000 mg/day) and vitamin D (400 mg/day), and some 8,000 took look-alike placebos.
A new study has revealed that while men tend to match their partner’s emotions during mutual cooperation, women may have the opposite response.
Cooperation is essential in any successful romantic relationship, but how men and women experience cooperation emotionally may be quite different, according to new research conducted at the University of Arizona.
Two girls were allegedly raped in a moving car by unidentified men in this satellite town, a senior police official said today.
The victims lodged a complaint that they were offered a lift in the car outside a Gurgaon pub last night where they had attended a party, Deputy Commissioner of Police (East) Maheshwar Dayal told reporters.
“The two women took lift from M G Road to Delhi last night in the car. After travelling for some distance, two more men boarded the car,” Dayal said.
There were three men in the car, the officer said.
Almost twenty percent of working men in their 30s, toil more than 60 hours a week that makes it difficult for them to rear their own kids, it has been revealed.
According to a 2013 government white paper, which deals with the low rate of birth, a dad with children younger than 6 years old spends just over an hour each day, to help raise them or get involved in other household activities, the Japan Times reported.
The report suggested that reducing the long-drawn-out functioning hours, for those with little children, could help to deal with the declining birthrate. (ANI)
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi today asked the Maharashtra BJP unit leaders to highlight the corruption of the Congress and good governance of states where BJP is in power.
“BJP has to be voter-centric. We have to go the people now and highlight the corruption of the Congress and good governance of BJP ruled states,” Modi told the core committee of the state BJP unit here.
This is Modi’s first visit to the state after being appointment as BJP’s poll campaign committee chief.
Atleast two persons sustained injuries when police lobbed tear gas shells and resorted to baton charge for dispersing dairy farmers gathering at Sabar dairy here, officials said.
Police had to use mild force and lob tear gas shells as the dairy farmers gathering at the Sabar dairy’s general meeting turned violent and resorted to brick batting, police officials said.
In the melee, a few policemen also sustained injuries and wind shields of many cars parked inside the dairy premises were broken, they said.
The injured have been taken to hospital for treatment, officials said.
For the first time in Goa, around 25,000 school students would be provided two pairs of uniforms free of cost under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan (SSA).
The students are from SCs, STs and below poverty line families, SSA Goa project director Minanath Upadhye told PTI.
This would be in addition to the Goa government’s programme under which students in the government-run schools are provided a set of uniform.
Around 1,019 government primary and middle schools would be covered under this ambitious scheme, for which the Centre has sanctioned Rs 80.63 lakh, Upadhye said.
Four children died when a wall collapsed on them in village Chaushala in Kalayat block of Kaithal district in Haryana, police said Thursday.
The children were identified as Ajay, Nutun, Sachin and Bhupinder, all aged between seven to eight years, an official spokesman said here.
The four had gone missing last evening after they had left their houses for playing, villagers told the officials.
The four were found buried under the debris of the wall, which had collpased due to the recent rains.
There would be no reduction in the 1.25 lakh pilgrims under the government’s Haj panel, but the quota of private tour operators would be reduced by 20 percent, the government said on Thursday.
“The quota of private tour operators will be reduced by 20 percent. They will be compensated next year. However, the quota of the Haj Committee of India will not change as mostly poor people benefit from it,” External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid told reporters after discussing the issue with around 200 delegates from all over the country.
Rainfall in Bhopal during the month of June so far this season has surpassed the record of last 74 years. According to weather officials, a total of 401 mm of rainfall was recorded in Bhopal till 8.30 PM Wednesday night.
Prior to this, June received a rainfall high of 296 mm in the city during 2011. As monsoon has just begun, its possible that the total rainfall in this month may cross 500 mm, they said. The capital city of Madhya Pradesh received the highest rainfall for the month of June (393 mm) in 1938.
–PTI
A 56-year-old man hanged himself to death at Begumpet area. It is said that retired employee of electricity department Chanda who lived at Brahmanwadi area hanged himself to death yesterday night. According to police the reasons behind his suicide are yet to be ascertained.
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