Hitting back at Sonia Gandhi, BJP president Rajnath Singh today said if she has any concern for Prime Minister’s respect, she should ask Rahul Gandhi to resign as Congress vice-president or seek apology for his statement on the ordinance on convicted lawmakers.
Rajya Sabha member and Congress leader, Rasheed Masood, was on Tuesday sentenced to four years in jail by a Delhi court in a corruption case, becoming the first MP to lose his seat after a recent Supreme Court judgement had removed the immunity for convicted lawmakers.
67-year-old Masood, who attains the dubious distinction of being the first lawmaker to be disqualified after the July 10 Supreme Court judgement, was immediately taken into custody by the court.
YSR Congress party president Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy paid floral tribute to his father and late chief minister Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy at his samadhi here on Tuesday.
Jagan, who reached Kadapa by a train, visited YSR’s samadhi along with his mother YS Vijayamma and wife YS Bharathi. Hundreds of YSRCP activists took part in a prayer meeting held at the samadhi. This was his first visit to Idupulapaya after his release on bail in the Disproporation Assets case from Chanchalguda Jail, where he was lodged for nearly 16 months.
The State Government has invited the Andhra Pradesh Non-Gazetted Officers’ Association for talks to explore the possibilities of ending the ongoing strike over State’s bifurcation issue.
According to sources, Chief Secretary Dr PK Mohantay will lead the talks on behalf of the government, while Ashok Babu and other leaders would represent the unions which are on strike for the last 64 days. The talks are likely to be held on Tuesday evening.
Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu will launch the second phase of “Telugu Jaati Atma Gaurav” bus yatra from October 7.
According to TDP sources, the second phase of bus yatra would be launched from Parchur in Prakasam district and Naidu would tour the district for five days.
Pradesh Congress Committee president Botsa Satyanarayana will visit the national capital on Tuesday evening to meet Central leaders on the State’s bifurcation issue.
The Jamaat-e-Islami Hind on Tuesday urged political parties not to protect tainted politicians.
The criminalisation of politics and involvement of tainted people in governance have proved devastating for India, Jamaat’s secretary general Nusrat Ali said.
“It is unfortunate that even 65 years after independence, we as a nation cannot produce people of high moral values to run the country,” Ali said in a statement.
Iraq’s Al Qaida Front Tuesday claimed responsibility for a wave of car bombings in Iraq’s capital Baghdad Monday that killed and wounded scores of people.
In an online statement, the front said that its fighters “simultaneously hit selected targets”, which were security headquarters, military patrols, strongholds of Shiite militia groups and leading figures in the security forces as well as the Iraqi Shiite-dominated government.
Jamaat-e-Islami chief Syed Munawwar Hassan has said India is carrying out the terror and subversive activities in Pakistan. The comments from Hassan came after the Taliban’s categorical denied that they were involved in the Peshawar bomb blasts. In a statement, he said that former Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik had stated on record more than once that he had indisputable evidence of India’s involvement in the terrorist activities in Balochistan and other parts of the country.
A new research has revealed that humans distinguish the difference between fine textures, such as silk or satin, through vibrations, which are picked up by two separate sets of nerve receptors in the skin and relayed to the brain.
Study’s senior author, Sliman Bensmaia, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy at the University of Chicago, said that coarse textures are reflected in the spatial pattern of responses by one set of receptors, but that’s only a small part of the story.
Leaders of government employees in Jammu and Kashmir Tuesday courted arrest here in support of their demands, including raising the retirement age from 58 to 60.
Abdul Qayoom Wani, president of the state government employees joint consultation committee, told IANS that more than 30 leaders courted arrest outside the civil secretariat.
“The leaders reached the secretariat despite a police crackdown on our leaders at night,” he said.
“Ours is not an underground movement. We are demanding the implementation of our genuine demands, already agreed to by the government in 2003.”
Ingredients
Green Peas – 1 cup
Fenugreek leaves (Methi) – 1 bunch
Cream – 1/2 cup
Tomato – 1 (pureed)
Cumin seeds – 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder – a pinch
Chilly powder – 1/2 tsp (optional)
Milk – if needed for gravy
Butter – 1 tblsp
Salt – to taste
To grind
Onion – 1
Green Chilly – 1
Cashew nuts/ Almonds – 1 tblsp
Poppy seeds(khus khus) – 1 tblsp (optional)
Curd – 1 tblsp
Ginger – 1/2 ” piece
Cinnamon – 1/2 ” stick
Cloves – 3
Cardomon – 1
Method
1. Roast all the ingredients under “to grind” except curd. Make a paste of it with the curd and keep aside.
Potato fry is a very very versatile recipe and there are n number of recipes for the same. You could just add salt and fry the potatoes. Some others like to add salt and chilly powder. Some more daring cooks try too add chicken masala, mutton masala, channa masala etc and make it more interesting. You can also add other ingredients like onion, garlic, ginger, cumin seeds, carom seed (ajwain) etc. It all depends on each persons preferences and taste. Here is a basic recipe as a guideline. You can make changes as per your taste.
Ingredients
Potatoes- 2-3
The Congress on Tuesday taunted Narendra Modi over his “silence” on the conviction of RJD chief Lalu Prasad in fodder scam case, claiming that the Gujarat Chief Minister is “not happy” since the order “suits” Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
“Despite his four tweets of yesterday, Narendra Modi’s silence on Lalu Yadav’s conviction shows he isn’t happy because it suits Nitish Kumar,” party general secretary Shakeel Ahmed commented on Twitter.
Ingredients
Maida (All Purpose Flour) – 1.5 cups
Rava – 1/2 cup
Sugar – 1 cup
Butter/ Ghee – 1 cup (at room temperature)
Baking Soda – 1/2 tsp
Baking Powder – 1 tsp
Chopped Walnuts – 1/4 cup + 1/4 cup
Method
1. Cream the butter and sugar together with a wodden stick or with an electric blender.
2. In a seperate bowl, mix together the maida, rava, 1/4 cup of chopped walnuts and baking soda.
3. Mix this with the creamed butter sugar mixture. Knead everything together to form a soft dough.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued a contempt notice to former Army chief V K Singh in connection with his recent remarks on his age row.
The SC had on Monday taken suo motu cognisance of his remarks against its order on his age row and decided to hear the contempt case from today.
Majority of Americans has said they want direct diplomatic negotiations with Iran in an effort to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons, a new poll has fund.
The CNN/ORC International Poll found that three-quarters of Americans want direct negotiations with Iran, as compared to one in five, who opposed negotiations.
CNN Polling Director Keating Holland pointed out that large majority of Americans favor negotiations with Iran over their nuclear programme, the Washington Times reports.
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has said Pakistan is not a sponsor of terrorist activities but is actually a victim of foreign-funded terrorism. He also denied calling the Indian prime minister a “village woman”.
“When the Taliban disown the attacks, the mind is naturally compelled to think that there are external forces at work to destabilise Pakistan. We need to find out who these hidden hands are and who is behind them,” the News International Tuesday quoted Sharif as saying in London while on his way back home after addressing the UN General Assembly in New York.
Chinese president Xi Jinping concluded a tour of Central Asia Friday, in a bid to shore up influence in a region increasingly seen as pivotal to China’s security and energy interests.
While analysts said it was largely a symbolic state visit that coincided with the annual meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Kyrgyzstan, Xi’s tour-his first to Central Asia since taking office as president in March-took place against heightened regional security concerns regarding the impending withdrawal of NATO troops from Afghanistan next year.
Xinjiang’s fragile future
The 6x4ft ‘Diana’ film poster that had been placed outside Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris, where Princess Diana had died in a horrific car accident, has been removed after it’s location sparked outrage among Diana’s closest friends.
Earlier, one of the trusted pals of the Princess of Wales, Rosa Monckton, had asserted to a UK publication that she wanted the poster to be immediately taken down, Contactmusic reported.
Monckton had said that she didn’t have words to describe how she felt about the cynical and shameless attempt to publicize a film that should never have been made.
The Rajasthan High Court on Tuesday rejected self-styled godman Asaram Bapu’s bail plea in connection with a sexual assault case.
This comes a day after a local court had extended the judicial custody of Asaram and his attendant Shiva till October 11.
Asaram, 72, who was arrested from his ashram in Indore in Madhya Pradesh, had sought bail claiming that police erred in booking him under a rape charge, which is non-bailable.
Taking a jibe at the Congress-led UPA over the ordinance on convicted politicians, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Arun Jaitley on Tuesday said any sensible government would have thought that this is not the time for such a law.
“How many people are there in the country who are affected by it? Two or three or five for maximum. So that a convicted man can be a lawmaker, you amend either the Constitution or the law. So, any sensible government would have thought that this is not the time for such a law,” he told media here.
The spotlight would firmly be on out of favour veterans like Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir when India A seek revenge for the opening match humiliation against the West Indies A in their second unofficial Test starting here tomorrow.
Led by Cheteshwar Pujara, India A were beaten by a massive 162 runs in the opening match in Mysore.
It will be interesting to see how Pujara handles the team filled with heavyweights such as Sehwag, Gambhir and pacer Zaheer Khan , who have been out of the national team for different reasons.
Vedanta Resources, the natural resources conglomerate, is now eyeing expanding its footprints into gold mining and looking at bidding for now closed Bharat Gold Mines Ltd (BGML), which owns famous Kolar gold mines in Karnataka.
Vedanta Chairman Anil Agarwal told PTI that the government should begin the process of selling the assets of BGML “as quickly as possible” as the Supreme Court has already approved the asset sale plan.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott Tuesday said an Australian Centre for Indonesia Studies will be established with government and private funding in Australia.
The centre’s mandate will be to strengthen and deepen Australia-Indonesia business, cultural, educational, research and community links.
The centre would also promote greater understanding of contemporary Indonesia and its growing importance to Australia, Xinhua quoted Abbott as saying in Indonesian capital Jakarta.