Congress General Secretary Digvijaya Singh today said he was sad that RJD chief Lalu Prasad had been found guilty in the fodder scam but expressed confidence he would prove his innocence in the higher court.
“I am sad about the fact that Lalu Prasad Yadavji has been found guilty; …..I am sure he will be able to prove his innocence in the higher court,” Singh told reporters here.
“He has been a trusted and an old partner of the Congress Party,” he added.
A 21-year old woman died today due to severe bleeding after delivery allegedly conducted by a nurse at a village primary health centre in the absence of a doctor.
Suganya, married to Sathessh two years ago, was admitted to the Rengampalayam Primary Health Centre in the district last night following labour pains.
Around 9 pm, she delivered a baby girl. But bleeding could not be controlled for four hours. She was rushed to the Government Hospital here but died at 4 AM, police said.
Union Minister Beni Prasad Verma, who has been attacking Mulayam Singh Yadav, today hit out at at the SP leader over communal violence in Uttar Pradesh and claimed there was threat to his life as he was the only Congress leader speaking against Mulayam.
He demanded immediate intervention by Centre in Uttar Pradesh to check communal violence alleging that a nexus between BJP and SP was fuelling it and claimed that some Congress leaders were hobnobbing with Samajwadi Party.
Former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad, who was convicted by a special CBI court in Ranchi today in the fodder scam case, may lose his Z+ security cover provided by the NSG black cat commandos.
Sources said a decision to withdraw the commandos could soon be taken as the threat perception to Lalu, also a MP, scales down in view of his conviction and restriction of movement.
The National Security Guard (NSG) commandos only provide him mobile security based on “extant” threats and the Union Home Ministry may take a decision in this regard soon, they said.
Five Andhra Pradesh government employees, including two police personnel and a Civil Supplies officer, were nabbed by ACB on the charge of taking bribes in separate cases reported across the state.
N Jwaala Prakash, Visakhapatnam district supply officer with the civil supplies department, was caught red handed by ACB sleuths yesterday when he was allegedly accepting Rs 3 lakh from an owner of a gas agency for doing an official favour, an ACB release said here today.
Prakash was subsequently arrested.
A day after a devastating car bomb attack in a busy market killed over 40 people, a top Pakistani police official today indicated targeted operations could be launched to prevent more incidents of terrorism.
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa police chief Nasir Durrani said the provincial government has been asked to provide more officials for the bomb disposal unit and more sniffer dogs.
Talking to reporters at the site of yesterday’s bomb attack in Qissa Khwani Bazar, he said public places were soft target for terrorists.
Madras High Court today directed police to probe the complaint of a Scheduled Caste woman employee at the Quaid-e-Milleth College for Men here, who alleged that she was sexually harassed by the Principal and Office Superintendent.
Justice P Devadoss directed the Assistant Commissioner of Police, St Thomas Mount and Inspector of All Women Police Station at Madipakkam that if any cognisable offence was made out of her complaint, action shall be taken as per law and a competent police officer probe the matter, if a case was registered.
Syria’s foreign minister today blasted the West’s “blatant” aggression and insisted to the UN General Assembly that no conditions must be set for an international peace conference.
Walid Muallem accused Western states of supplying chemical weapons to the Syrian opposition in a speech in which he called for an end to sanctions not only against his own country but also Iran, North Korea, Belarus and Venezuela.
“There is no civil war in Syria, but it is a war against terror,” Muallem told the annual summit at United Nations headquarters in new York.
Urging top advertising gurus, brand strategists and managers to take “Brand India” to the world, BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi today said the need of the hour is to inspire and not to impress.
“We have failed to present Brand India in front of the world because of some self-created problems,” he told a global marketing summit here.
Modi was the guest-speaker at the dinner session of the summit, organised by International Advertising Association.
A Saudi doctor has gone on-air to dismiss claims made by a well-known cleric who caused a stir when he said medical studies show driving affects a woman’s ovaries.
In comments aired over the weekend by the privately owned Rotana channel, gynecologist Mohammed Baknah says scientific studies have not proven that driving has adverse effects on women’s reproductive health.
He was addressing remarks by Sheik Saleh Saad el-Leheidan who said that women who drive suffer from having the pelvis forced upward. His remarks were published Saturday in an interview with the website el-Sabq.
Paris prosecutors opened a preliminary investigation today into the assets of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s uncle, whom anti-corruption groups accuse of illegally obtaining a vast fortune and property empire.
A judicial source told AFP the investigation had been opened into Rifaat al-Assad, the brother of Bashar al-Assad’s father Hafez, after a criminal complaint filed on September 13.
The pro-united Andhra employees of the state government, who have been at the forefront of the stir against the proposed division of Andhra Pradesh, will take their fight to Delhi.
The employees, who have been on strike since August 13, and their supporters will not relent and continue to strive for a united Andhra, their leader P Ashok Babu said here today.
On October 9, 10 and 11, the united-Andhra protagonists would organise dharnas in Delhi and meet leaders of different parties in the national capital, Ashok Babu added.
The BJP is the only party in the country which can provide good governance to the people, BJP president Rajnath Singh claimed today.
Speaking at at an interactive session organised by MCC Chamber and ICC here, Singh said if elected to power in next year’s Lok Sabha election, the BJP would turn India into a developed nation in 10 years.
Singh also heaped praises on the party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, saying, “We are fortunate to have him. He is a popular leader.”
Singh said that the people of the country were eager to see a change in the country.
The Allahabad High Court today issued notice to Uttar Pradesh minister Azam Khan on a petition filed by policemen belonging to the Jat community who alleged they were transferred out of Muzaffarnagar after the recent communal clashes in that district upon his “orders”.
Justice Sudhir Agrawal also stayed the impugned transfers “provided they have not already joined at the transferred place” and that the authorities concerned shall, in the meantime, “ensure payment of their salary at Muzaffarnagar but it will be open to them to take work or not”.
BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi today launched a blistering attack on Congress accusing it of misusing CBI and other agencies for “witch- hunting” political rivals and asserting he would not be cowed down by such threats.
He also said there was “crisis of confidence” in the country and even Congress’ allies were disenchanted and wanted to quit UPA.
“The government in Delhi wants to stop our march to power. They have fielded the CBI to threaten us. CBI can silence Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mayawati but not me,” he told BJP supporters at the airport here.
Police today moved an application before a sessions court here seeking issuance of a transfer warrant against Siraj Rehman, who is in custody in connection with August 22 photojournalist gang rape case, on charges of kidnapping and molesting of a 50-year-old woman.
The application, filed in the court of principal judge Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi, cited a production warrant issued by a local court in Girgaum against Siraj in the molestation case.
As many as 74 fishermen have gone missing after three fishing boats sank in the South China Sea in the path of Typhoon Wutip, Chinese authorities said Monday.
Two of the boats set out from the southern province of Guangdong and sailed close to the Xisha Islands, located some 330 km (200 miles) from Hainan Island, when they were shipwrecked.
Early Monday morning, emergency management services found 13 survivors from the first two boats, after which they continued with their rescue mission.
Three labourers were killed Monday in China’s Gansu province Monday when an under-construction building for displaced people collapsed, authorities said.
The accident occurred as the building’s foundation caved in, burying three workers nearby. Their bodies could be pulled out half-an- hour later, reported Xinhua citing the provincial safety watchdog.
A probe has been launched into the incident.
–IANS
As Kenya Airways boosts its fleet to meet increased route expansion, the airline will now have direct flight to China.
Kenya Airways will launch direct flights three times a week to Chinese business hub Guangzhou Nov 19 while maintaining the four-time-a-week linked flights to the city via Bangkok, reported Xinhua citing the airline’s CEO Titus Naikuni.
Naikuni said Far East is not only a key source of foreign direct investment and trade for Africa, but is also emerging as an important source market for the tourism sector in the continent.
Seven bogies of a goods train derailed at Vizianagaram railway station this evening, Government Railway Police said.
No one was injured in the mishap, they said. The incident occurred at around 6.45 pm at platform number 5.
One of the rails was broken, which probably caused seven bogies of the Raipur-bound goods train carrying gypsum to derail, according to the preliminary probe.
No one was injured and train movement was not affected as platform number 5 is meant only for goods trains, a GRP officer said.
The US Senate Monday rejected a budget bill, cleared by the lower house of the US Congress earlier, with barely hours to go to avert a US government’s shutdown, BBC reported.
The Democratic-led Senate, the upper house, voted 54-46 against the bill, which would fund the government only if President Barack Obama’s healthcare law were delayed a year.
Also, the Senate eliminated the provision repealing a tax on medical devices that are intended to help finance the healthcare law.
More than 67,000 Syrian refugees were registered in the UN refugee agency’s offices in Lebanon in September, the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) said Monday.
In its weekly report, the UNHCR said that the total number of registered Syrian refugees in Lebanon has exceeded 768,000.
Lebanese President Michel Suleiman called on the international community to help his country in coping with the Syrian refugees’ influx, during a meeting last week in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
–IANS
An accused arrested in connection with the 13/7 Mumbai triple blasts case has written a letter to Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, seeking that the probe be transferred to the National Investigation Agency from Maharashtra ATS.
“Accused Nadeem Sheikh has written a letter to the Union Home Minister from the jail,” confirmed Nadeem’s lawyer Shahid Nadeem.
Nadeem has shot off the letter after Yasin Bhatkal, a key IM operative arrested on August 28, reportedly confessed that wrong people were arrested in connection with the 13/7 case.
Iran seeks the policy of mutual respect and strengthening of cooperation with the Arab countries, an Iranian deputy foreign minister said Monday.
“Iran and Saudi Arabia are two key countries and main players in the region, and our interaction, cooperation and consultations can help resolve many problems in the region and even in the Muslim world,” reported Xinhua citing Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.
Thirty-three people were injured in the US when two trains collided at a station in northwest Chicago Monday morning.
A Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) official said the 33 people suffered minor injuries and were transported to hospitals, Xinhua reported.
The accident took place at 8.00 a.m. when an outbound train, stopped at Harlem station, was hit by an out-of- service train going in the opposite direction on the same track. There were no passengers on the out-of-service train.
The CTA was investigating the case, the official said.
–IANS