The Congress Tuesday demanded the resignation of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi till the investigation is over in the 2006 killing of a witness in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh case.
Tulsiram Prajapati was killed in an alleged staged shootout Dec 28, 2006 in which then minister of state for home Amit Shah is the main accused.
Prajapati was the only witness to the December 2005 police shootout in which Sohrabuddin Sheikh was killed.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa Tuesday urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to advise Karanataka not to build any hydel power projects on the Cauvery.
She also requested the prime minister to tell the ministry of environment and forests not to give clearance to any project of Karnataka.
Actor Sushant Singh Rajput, who has made a foothold in the industry with the success of his debut film ‘Kai Po Che’, says he never takes up work for commercial reasons and being a star is not on his mind.
Sushant became a household name with his portrayal as Manav in popular TV show ‘Pavitra Rishta’. But he quit small screen and entered Bollywood with the Abhishek Kapoor film which won him lot of accolades.
Actress Parineeti Chopra says her cousin, the multi-talented Priyanka Chopra, is a huge inspiration for her.
After bagging the Miss World title in 2000, Priyanka ventured into films, and she is among the top Bollywood actresses today. She has also forayed into singing with two international singles – “In my city” and “Exotic”.
Parineeti, who joined showbiz in 2011 with “Ladies vs Ricky Bahl”, is all praise for her elder sister.
“Priyanka is a huge inspiration for me,” Parineeti said here.
Turmoil over missing coal block allocation files and the recent hike in fuel prices led to three adjournments of the Lok Sabha today, with opposition members shouting slogans and trooping into the Well.
Uproarious scenes were repeatedly witnessed since the House for the day, with Trinamool Congress and Left members agitating against the hike in fuel and onion prices.
Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj demanded that the Prime Minister should make a statement in the House over the missing files today itself as he will leave tomorrow for St Petersburg for the G-20 Summit.
Ruling Congress MLAs, MLCs and Andhra Pradesh ministers from coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions today organised a protest in the Legislative Assembly premises here in support of united Andhra Pradesh.
About 15 ministers, more than 40 MLAs and 15 MLCs participated in the three-hour protest organised by the United Andhra Pradesh Congress MLAs and MLCs Forum.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh insisted Tuesday that his government has nothing to hide vis-a-vis the coal scam and it was wrong to assume that it was “hiding something”.
Manmohan Singh said it would be premature to conclude that official papers sought by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the irregularities in allocation of coal blocks were indeed missing.
He told the Rajya Sabha that the vast majority of the papers had already been handed over to the CBI and that there was nothing “fishy” as a section of members feared.
Swan Telecom Promoter Shahid Usman Balwa, facing trial in the 2G spectrum case, today told a Delhi court that CBI should not make any “irresponsible statement” without verifying their facts.
Balwa appeared before the court today after CBI had yesterday alleged that they have got “information” that the Swan Telecom promoter was travelling abroad without prior permission.
CBI prosecutor K K Goel had made the statement while opposing Balwa’s plea for personal exemption from appearance before the court for five days.
Pakistani police have arrested a woman under the controversial blasphemy laws for declaring herself a ‘Prophet’.
According to police, Salma Fatima, wife of Tanvir, who lived in the vicinity of Gulberg, a thickly-populated locality of Lahore, distributed ‘blasphemous’ pamphlets in the area yesterday morning.
In the pamphlets, police said not only she declared herself a “Prophet of Muslims but also had committed blasphemy in the honour of Prophet Muhammad.”
The locals rushed to her residence. Police who reached there as well to control the situation.
A 57-year-old teacher of a Government school was arrested on charges of sexually assaulting an eight-year-old girl student.
Harikrishnan was arrested yesterday under Section 10 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act after the girl’s parents along with residents of Irulanchanthai and Kirumambakkam villages staged a road roko seeking action against the teacher, police said today.
The rupee today further depreciated by 50 paise to 66.50 against the dollar in early trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market due to renewed dollar demand from importers and appreciation of the US currency overseas.
Forex dealers said besides dollar’s gains against the yen and euro on improved economic data, increased demand from importers for the American currency also put pressure on the rupee.
They said, however, rupee’s decline was restricted by persistent rise in domestic equities.
The rupee fell by 30 paise to close at 66 against the US currency in the previous session.
A large collection of rare coins minted in the 19th century have been discovered from a 300-year-old Shiva temple in West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh.
About 975 coins comprising 5 gold, 40 silver and 930 copper were found last month during an excavation at the foot of the temple ‘Dwajasthambham’ (pillar), which is being restored after its collapse last year in November, Executive officer Suryachandra Rao of Ksheera Ramalingaswara Swamy Temple told PTI here.
Three women were raped in separate incidents in the city, police said today.
A 28-year-old married woman was allegedly gangraped in Pisawava area yesterday by her neighbour Raghuraj and two others, they said.
Raghuraj called the woman at his place and raped her with his two friends, they said, adding that he was later arrested but two others involved in the incident are still at large.
In a separate incident in Sakaran area, a 26-year-old woman was raped by Acheylal in village Chakaria in Sakaran area when she went to the fields yesterday.
A female Iranian swimmer has said that her country’s sports ministry is not recognizing the 20 kilometers which she claimed that she swam in the Caspian Sea in June because of her ‘feminine figure’.
According to the New York Daily News, 32 year-old Elham Asghari, who wears a swimsuit that adheres to strict Islamic code and weighs an extra 13 pounds, is demanding credit for what she calls a personal record-breaking swim.
French Open champion Rafael Nadal is rejoining Spain’s Davis Cup team for their play-off against Ukraine from September 13-15 in Madrid, despite the US Open finishing just few days the tie.
According to Sport24, alongside the 27-year-old, countrymen Tommy Robredo and Fernando Verdasco are also returning to the Davis Cup side.
The Royal Spanish Tennis Federation said that Nadal was returning to the team after being absent for the last five playoffs because of a serious knee injury that kept him off the courts for seven months last year.
The Syrian government will attack US interests in the Middle East in the event of a military strike on the country, Syria’s Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said.
“Any act of aggression towards Syria is aggression towards the Arab world and the region,” Mekdad told Lebanon’s al-Manar TV channel.
The TV network is owned by the Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah, an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
“Our response will be to attack American interests,” said Mekdad, considered highly influential in the Assad government.
Another case of sexual assault by the five accused in the Mumbai photojournalist gangrape case has come to light with a woman alleging that she was raped by some of the culprits in the gang at the defunct Shakti Mills compound here.
According to a police official, the woman claimed to be have been criminally assaulted in July this year by some of the men arrested in the photojournalist case.
She too was brutalised at the deserted mill compound and has identified some of the assaulters, the official said today.
As part of a stratregy to prevent the population of houbara bustards from becoming extinct, the International Fund for Houbara Conservation (IFHC) last year released a total of 5,855 Asian houbara bustards at sites across the Arabian peninsula.
The number of houbara bustards released so far this year is 1,450 from IFHC’s world-leading captive breeding programme at designated protected areas in Kuwait, Qatar and Yemen, complementing the record number of houbara bustards released as part of IFHC’s well-established programme in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The Supreme Court, while constituting the Special Investigation team (SIT) for post- Godhra riot cases, never ordered it to probe the “larger conspiracy” behind the 2002 communal violence in Gujarat, the inquiry panel’s counsel told a court here today.
“The Supreme Court, when it ordered the setting up of SIT to probe nine cases of post-Godhra riots, never desired or ordered us to probe larger conspiracy behind riots, as claimed by Zakia Jafri (a riot victim) in her protest petition,” SIT advocate R S Jamuar told Metropolitan Magistrate B J Ganatra.
Singer Nicole Scherzinger believes she ain’t special. She says she is like any other woman, and so, she had her own share of dark moments following her split from from Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton.
The duo parted ways recently after their hectic work schedules put a strain on their five-year-long relationship.
Scherzinger, 35, believes her breakup encouraged her rediscover herself.
“I’m just like every other woman, I’ve had a blanket of tissues over me many a night. Ordered a random, ginormous pizza for myself,” femalefirst.co.uk quoted Scherzinger as saying.
Pop star Lady Gaga says she does not concentrate on fame as much as she does in putting all her energy into creating music instead.
The 27-year-old, who underwent a hip surgery in February, admits that her time away from work made her re-evaluate her priorities.
“I really enjoyed the down time because it rejuvenated my creativity and I figured out a lot about myself after the last few years,” contactmusic.com quoted Gaga as saying.
Dubai’s first orphanage — Family Village — will soon receive $2,72,257 from Landmark group to support the establishment of an endowment or investment fund for its operations, the retail and hospitality giant announced Monday.
“The Landmark Group is pleased to have rolled-out the fundraiser in aid of the Family Village project. Through this initiative, we continue to demonstrate our commitment to projects that benefit the local community,” Renuka Jagtiani, vice chairperson of Landmark group, said.
Actor Will Smith and his wife Jada Pinketh Smith have reportedly put their dream home in Calabasas, California up for sale.
They have put up the house for sale in the market for $42 million. They have lived there for two years, reports dailymail.co.uk.
They had reportedly taken seven years to build the 25,000 sq ft property.
If reports are to be believed, they have also said to put their house in Hawaii up for sale.
Will and Jada Pinkett have two children – Jaden, 15, and Willow, 12.
—–IANS
Beijing Monday unveiled a package of measures, including cutting vehicle emissions and curbing industrial pollution, in a bid to improve air quality in the often smog-shrouded city, Xinhua reported.
The package is part of an action plan released by the municipal government, which has pledged to reduce particulate matter (PM) of 2.5 density by 25 percent or more by 2017.
According to the five-year clean air action plan (2013-2017), the municipal government will restrict the number of new cars on the road each year from January 2014.
Forty-nine inmates escaped from a jail in Tunisia’s southern town of Gabes, official TAP press agency reported Monday.
By early afternoon, 35 of the prisoners had been recaptured, Xinhua reported citing a security source.
Three prison guards were injured during the jailbreak, Tunisian radio reported.
After the incident, Justice Minister Nadhir Ben Ammou visited the prison, located some 500 km away from the capital Tunis, Monday.