Month: July 2013

WikiLeaks chief denounces US ‘rhetoric’ on danger of leaks

by

The founder of WikiLeaks today disputed assertions by US officials that disclosures by his anti-secrecy organisation and fellow leaker Edward Snowden have put lives at risk.

Julian Assange, in an interview with ABC television, was asked to respond to recent remarks by US Secretary of State John Kerry that people could die as a consequence of explosive revelations by Snowden, the fugitive former National Security Agency contractor who blew the lid on vast US phone and Internet surveillance programs. Other US officials have repeatedly made the same assertion.

Rise in Muslim population due to migration from B’desh: Swamy

by

Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy today said the population increase among Muslims is a result of the burgeoning illegal migration from Bangladesh.

“Growing population among Muslims is due to the migration from Bangladesh. The neighbouring country needs to be firmly told to take back their people,” Swamy said at a book release function “Muslim Jansankhya: Ek Chinta” published in Marathi and Hindi.

On article 370 of the constitution for Jammu and Kashmir, Swamy said it can be repealed through a presidential notification. There is no need for a parliamentary vote, he added.

Woman raped, mob stones police vehicle

by

A day after a class IV girl was brutalised at Kaliganj, a woman was today allegedly raped at Nakashipara in Nadia district triggering mob protest in the area.

Two cops were injured as a mob stoned the force and ransacked the vehicle of the local outpost and reinforcements had to be sent demanding immediate security measures for local women and girls, police said.

Under pressure, you tend to miss Dhoni, says Kohli

by

Stand-in captain Virat Kohli admitted that he missed the vast experience of Mahendra Singh Dhoni during pressure situation against West Indies as India lost a close encounter by one wicket in their first match of the Tri-Series.

Dhoni, who suffered from cramps while batting didn’t come out to field and it was Kohli who led the side.

“There were times when you are under pressure and you miss him (Dhoni) because he remains calm under pressure,” a disappointed Kohli admitted at the post-match presentation ceremony here today.

Bomb hoax delays Indigo flight, passenger says he was ‘joking’

by

A bomb hoax on a Kolkata-Indore Indigo flight at Swami Vivekananda Airport at Mana here sent authorities into a tizzy Sunday morning.

The flight was delayed by about three hours after a passenger claimed that a bomb had been kept in the aircraft.

Airport Director Anil Kumar Rai said the Indore-bound Indigo flight from Kolkata landed at Raipur around 8 am as per the schedule. After all the Raipur-bound passengers alighted, a man called Prabal Pratap Chouhan (27), who was going to Indore, told the crew that there was a bomb in a black-colour bag kept on the aircraft.

Theatre the most difficult performing art: Big B

by

Megastar Amitabh Bachchan says stage is the most trying and difficult of all performing arts and that it would be wonderful to get back to it.

The thought came to the 70-year-old after he came back from watching a play at the Prithviraj Theatre at the weekend. He says the experience reminded him of work in school and college.

“It would be wonderful to get back to it, but now it is frightening to get up there… a controlled environment is suitable to us today,” Big B posted on his blog.

Acting on stage is tough job.

India manage to score 229 for seven vs West Indies

by

Indian batsmen battled hard on a difficult track as they managed 229 for seven in stipulated 50 overs against West Indies in a Celkon Mobile Cup Tri-Series match here today.

Rohit Sharma (60) scored a composed half-century while Suresh Raina contributed an useful 44 after the ‘Men In Blue’ were put into bat by West Indies’ stand-in captain Kieron Pollard.

Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni battled cramps that hampered his running between the wickets badly yet he carried on manfully to chip in with 27 off 34 balls before he was cleaned up by a Tino Best inswinger.

Mahatma’s ‘Satyagraha’ first took root in South Africa: Obama

by

US President Barack Obama today donned a teacher’s hat to tell his two young daughters how Mahatma Gandhi’s ‘Satyagraha’ had influenced American civil rights leader Martin Luther King to fight injustice.

While visiting the Robben Island prison in South Africa where his hero Nelson Mandela spent two thirds of his 27 years in jail, Obama told Sasha and Malia how Mahatma Gandhi started his non-violent political struggle in South Africa.

Chinese trio held by Indian troops near Line of Actual Control

by

After dealing with the PLA incursion last month, army personnel have now apprehended three persons of Chinese origin along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) carrying political maps in Arabic language in the same area.

The three men, identified as Adil, Salamo and Abdul Khaliq, were nabbed inside the Indian territory on June 12 near Sultanchku and it took nearly 10 days for the authorities to make them give their name, official sources said.

All the three men are Sunni Muslims aged between 18 and 23 with fair complexion but their language was not comprehensible, they said.

Bomb attacks kill 43 people in Pakistan

by

At least 43 people were killed and over 100 injured in Pakistan today in different attacks, including a powerful bomb blast that targeted a passing convoy of security forces.

In the first incident, at least 17 people, including four children, were killed and nearly 50 injured when the powerful remote-controlled bomb targeted a passing convoy of security forces near a busy market here in northwest Pakistan.

The blast, believed to be an IED explosion, targeted the convoy of Frontier Corps on their way to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s capital Peshawar from Kohat district but narrowly missed it.

Rains prevent rescuers from extricating bodies from rubble

by

Rains today prevented rescuers from reaching Kedarnath town to extricate bodies buried in the rubble even as the National Disaster Management said the death toll could be “huge” as they gain access to areas ravaged by the flash flood a fortnight ago.

“National Disaster Relief Force team had planned to go to Kedarnath town with heavy equipment to extricate the bodies, but the heavy lift helicopters could not take off with the equipment due to bad weather,” M Sashidhar Reddy, Vice Chairman of National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), told reporters.

Women cadres shedding traditional roles in LWE areas

by

Women in naxal cadres are being recruited more for military operations in Bastar Maoist-hotbed as against the general perception of their role as cooks, motivators and shields, according to recent findings by the state police.

The women cadres are also being given equal chance in decision making at special zonal committee rung of outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist).