Month: October 2013

Seemandhra ministers vow to defeat Telangana bill in assembly

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Unlike some central ministers and Congress MPs from Seemandhra who resigned to protest the union cabinet’s decision to carve out separate Telangana state, the Andhra Pradesh ministers have decided not to quit so that they can defeat the resolution whenever it is moved in the state assembly.

Ministers and state legislators of Congress from Seemandhra (Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra) Friday had a meeting with Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy to chalk out their future course of action. They vowed to defeat the resolution in the assembly.

If I am not wanted, won’t contest elections: Assad

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Syrian President Bashar al-Assad Friday said he will not run in next year’s presidential elections if his countrymen do not welcome the move.

“If the Syrian people don’t want me, I won’t stand for office,” Assad said in an interview with Turkey’s Halk TV channel.

It was still too early to take such a decision, however, said Assad, whose forces are mired in a devastating 30-month-old conflict with rebels seeking to overthrow the government.

“The situation should become clearer in the next four or five months because there are rapid changes taking place on the ground,” he stated.

British school bans Muslim teens for not shaving

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A Muslim family in Britain has claimed that its two teenaged boys have been subjected to discrimination at school for not having shaved their beard. The school authorities said it was a matter of dress code, not religion.

The two Muslim 14-year-olds say they are being excluded because of “pure discrimination”. They have been banned from attending lessons with other pupils at a school in Lancashire’s Accrington town because they refuse to shave their beards, reported The Independent citing one of their family members.

Andhra CM asks police to handle protests carefully

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Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy Friday reviewed the law and order situation in the wake of protests in Seemandhra against the union cabinet’s decision to carve out separate Telangana state and directed police to handle the situation carefully.

As protests rocked Seemandhra (Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra), the chief minister asked police to be on high alert and handle the situation carefully.

A statement from the chief minister’s office said the situation was reviewed in view of the shutdown being observed in Seemandhra.

‘President Mukherjee is rightfully protecting nation’s integrity, interest’: BJP

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The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday said President Pranab Mukherjee is rightfully protecting the nation’s integrity and interest through his tough remark that state-sponsored terrorism emanating from Pakistan’s soil cannot be tolerated.

“The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the three forces, and being the Supreme Commander of the armed forces, he has made this statement because he is above the day-to-day politics or party politics,” BJP spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi said.

Youth gets 3 yrs in jail for sexually assaulting 6-yr-old girl

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A 24-year-old youth has been sent to three years in jail for sexually assaulting a six-year-old girl with the Delhi court saying that instances of minor girls falling victim to “nefarious acts and deeds” were on the rise.

The court awarded the jail term to northwest Delhi resident Santosh Rai saying there had been prior instances when he had kept a watch on the movements of the child and tried to befriend her.

“The convict offered to buy the child a cream roll and, when she did not succumb to his attempts to lure her, sexually assaulted her after pulling her towards his house.

Indian student bags British enterprise prize

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An Indian engineering student from the University of Nottingham fought off stiff worldwide competition to be awarded the overall prize at a British government-backed entrepreneurial contest.

Ashutosh Pathak is working on developing a much cheaper, more efficient pipe inspection and leakage detection system.

His impressive skills secured his Brobotics team, which boasted participants from seven countries and five continents, USD 7,500 in Amazon web credits and a working space to help them develop their ideas further.

Address concerns of Seemandhra: Reddy

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CPI leader G Sudhakar Reddy today said the Centre should assure people of Seemandhra that their issues will get priority and urged them to withdraw their agitation against creation of Telangana.

“Yesterday’s decision by the central Cabinet on Telangana is in the right direction. We appreciate it and welcome it, though this is a very delayed decision. They accepted the justified demand of people of Telangana,” Reddy told PTI.

Seemandhra Cong leaders to stay put, wait for Assembly

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Congress leaders from coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions of Andhra Pradesh have decided not to resign and instead exercise the “only option” left to prevent bifurcation — defeat the resolution on the subject in the Assembly, sources said here.

They also refrained from taking any tough posture against the Congress high command today, noting that it took the decision on division “under inevitable circumstances”.

Ban on publishing details of probe in Hyderabad blasts case

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A special court has banned the publication of details of probe into the Hyderabad twin blasts of February 21, in which Indian Mujahideen co-founder Yasin Bhatkal is the key accused.

The National Investigation Agency court in Hyderabad issued the prohibitory order against publishing of probe details by media houses, an official release said.

The court gave directions to print and electronic media not to publish any proceedings without its prior permission.

SL court remands 4 fishermen to judicial custody till Oct 14

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A court in Sri Lanka today remanded till October 14, four fishermen from Tamil Nadu, arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy for reportedly crossing the International Maritime Boundary Line.

Oorkaval Thurai Magistrate M Mahenthira Raja passed the order remanding them to judicial custody till October 14, U Arulanandam, president of Pamban Innocent Fishermen’s Organisation told reporters here, quoting information he received from Sri Lanka.

The four were part of a group of about 2,000 fishermen who had put out to sea in 500 mechanised boats yesterday from this coastal town, he said.

No going back on Telangana: Digvijay Singh

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Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde on Friday pooh-poohed the resignation drama being enacted by some Union Ministers and Congress MPs from the Seemandhra protesting against Telangana State formation.
Taking the resignation move by his own ministerial colleagues and party leaders from the region in a lighter vein, Shinde quipped “ Such reactions and actions are common in such situations” and added that there was nothing new about it.

Telangana a political, electoral decision: Mamata

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West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has described the union cabinet’s clearance to creation of Telangana as a separate state as a decision guided by politics and elections.

“It is only a political decision and an election decision,” Banerjee said in her Facebook post.

Cong not looking for any gains from Telangana decision: Shinde

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ongress is not looking for any political advantage with the decision to create separate Telangana by bifurcating Andhra Pradesh, senior party leader and Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said today.

“We have not seen any profit for Congress while taking this decision. It was a Congress commitment and we have fulfilled it,” he told reporters when asked whether Congress would be electorally benefited following creation of Telangana.

Pakistan to continue its stay on death penalty

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Pakistan will continue with the moratorium on capital punishment until the country’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the new President Mamnoon Hussain meet to review the measure, officials said.

Denying recent reports that the government has decided to scrap death penalty, Interior Ministry spokesperson Omar Hameed Khan told PTI, “It is old news. Prime Minister has stopped death penalty till meeting with the President.”

The two leaders are likely to meet in a couple of weeks to take a final decision on whether to lift the ban or continue the previous government’s decision.

Pakistan court dismisses petition against ISI

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A court in Pakistan has dismissed a petition filed by the civilian officials of Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) over the agency’s slow and discriminatory promotion process, a media report said Friday.

Islamabad High Court’s Chief Justice Muhammad Anwar Khan Kasi dismissed the plea Thursday, declaring it as non-maintainable and asked the petitioners to approach the Federal Services Tribunal to file their grievances, reported the News International.

South Korea forex hits new high

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South Korea’s foreign reserves hit another record high in September due to the depreciation of the US dollar, central bank data showed Friday.

The reserves reached $336.92 billion, up by $5.83 billion compared to August, according to the Bank of Korea, reports Xinhua.

The reserves recorded the highest monthly gain since October 2011 when the figure increased by $7.59 billion.

Sales of foreign currency stabilization bonds by the South Korean government also contributed to the growth in the foreign reserves.

Spain, Brazil on collision course over striker Costa

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Atletico Madrid striker Diego Costa will be ineligible to play for Spain in World Cup qualifiers against Belarus and Georgia this month, the Spanish football federation RFEF said.

Thursday’s announcement came as Brazil and Spain were headed for a collision course over the Brazilian-born 24-year-old’s future, reports Xinhua.

Costa has expressed his preference to play for Spain despite having represented the Selecao against Russia and Italy this year.

United AP protesters try to enter Botsa’s house; cane-charged

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A large number of united-Andhra supporters gathered outside the residence of Andhra Pradesh Congress President Botsa Satyanaryana at Vizinagaram near here today against the move to divide the state, prompting police to resort to mild cane charge and tear gas shells to disperse them.

The protesters, including students and state government employees, reached the residence of Satyanarayana and tried to go inside, police said. This forced the police to use mild cane charge to disperse the agitators, they added.

Azad for better coordination between medical bodies

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Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad today stressed on better coordination between different medical bodies to weed out the problem of duplicate registration and other malpractices.

“There is greater need for better cooperation and coordination between the Medical Council of India and State Medical Councils so that issues relating to duplicate registration, malpractice and ethical issues are dealt with more efficiently,” Azad said.

Congress mulls paid leave for furloughed US govt employees

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Furlough days for thousands of employees ordered off the job in the ongoing US government shutdown may turn into paid leave if Congress passes legislation today that retroactively pays lost wages.

The measures were considered just as a dramatic car chase unfolded yesterday in Washington in which US Capitol Police — who are working during the shutdown but without pay until the budget crisis is resolved — helped stop the suspect.

BJP going for communal polarisation: CPI-M

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The BJP and its affiliates are fuelling communal passions as the “Gujarat model” of development has increasingly come under attack, the CPI-M has said.

“Given this, the BJP has, obviously, returned to its basics – communal polarisation as the mainstay of its campaign for the 2014 general election,” CPI-M mouthpiece “People’s Democracy” said in an editorial.

Not surprisingly, it said, Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh had denounced Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde’s appeal to chief ministers not to arrest or jail innocent Muslims on terror charges.