Month: February 2014

FIR against unidentified people for disclosing Tehelka victim’s name

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A case has been registered against unknown people late Friday for disclosing the identity of the Tehelka rape victim via mass e-mails, police said Friday.

An official said that a first information report under sections relating to insulting the modesty of a woman and section 66 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) has been registered after the victim complained that an email with her photo as well as vulgar content had been mass mailed earlier this week.

Gogoi challenges Kejriwal on corruption charges

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Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today challenged his Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal to prove his accusation that he is “corrupt”.

Reacting to Kejriwal’s list of “corrupt politicians” where his name is included, Gogoi told PTI here, “Let him prove I am corrupt”.

“The people of Assam have never accused me of being corrupt. There is no corruption case ever filed against me by the vigilance,” Gogoi asserted.

“Let Kejriwal put up candidates in the elections in Assam as he has said, and the people of Assam will give a fitting reply,” he said.

Lawyer questions intentions behind commission on snooping case

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Advocate Ratna Vora, who has sought to join as a party to the petition challenging legality of the inquiry commission set up by Gujarat government on the ‘snooping’ scandal, has pointed out that the panel was set up by same people who are under the cloud of suspicion.

She has also attached, to her affidavit filed in Gujarat High Court, government’s reply to her Right to Information query and sought to know under whose instruction the notification on the Commission was issued.

According to RTI reply that the notification was issued by the General Administration Department.

Pak court sentences 5 in honour killings case

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A Pakistani court has sentenced one person to death and four others to life in jail for murdering four people, including three brothers, in the infamous Kohistan honour killings case that made global headlines in 2012.

Police had arrested the five suspects in the case who were brought before the court early this week amid tight security.

The convicts were also fined Rs 2 lakh each.

India’s trade jumps 5-fold to USD 792 bn over nine years: Govt

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India’s merchandise trade rose over five-fold to USD 792 billion over last nine years, the Commerce Ministry today said.

“This was achieved through robust policy announcements, which provided crucial support to struggling enterprises, especially labour intensive industry to ensure their global competitiveness,” the Ministry said in a statement.

It said that over the last nine years, the total merchandise trade increased to USD 792 billion from USD 142 billion.

Seven children escape from remand home in Bhopal

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Seven inmates of a children’s remand home in Jehangirabad area here escaped after burrowing through a wall, police said.

The incident took place last night. These seven children were sent to remand home on the charges of murder, attempt to murder and rape, police said.

Acting on the complaint of the remand home employees, police launched a hunt to nab them, though none of them has been caught so far.

Among these seven, three are from Bhopal, two from Vidisha and one each from Rajgarh and Raisen, police said.

MP CM writes to PM for reconsidering impractical provisions of Food Safety & Standards Act

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(Pervez Bari): The Bharatiya Janata Party, (BJP), ruled Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has requested the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh to urgently convene a meeting of all Chief Ministers to ascertain their views regarding implementation of provisions of Food Safety & Standards Act, 2006. He sought Prime Minister’s indulgence in keeping the implementation of the provisions of the Act under abeyance till the issues are fully resolved.

Gambhir attends Tihar Jail’s cricket final

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Final of the Inter Jail Cricket tournament between Central Jail no.1 and Central Jail No.3 was today organised by Tihar Jail administration, here.

Central Jail no.3 won the summit clash, which was witnessed by Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir as chief guest.

Batting first, Central Jail No.1 scored 195 runs in 20 overs which was successfully chased down by Central Jail No.3 with two balls to spare, scoring 196 runs in 19.4 overs.

Seemandhra region protestors urge MPs to oppose bifurcation

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Students, government employees and members of political parties today staged a sit-in protest at the sub-collector’s office asking MPs to stall introduction of the AP Re-organisation Bill when it is brought in the coming Parliament session.

TDP MP K Narayana Rao and Andhra Thinkers’ Forum Convenor Chalasani Srinivas addressed the gathering.

They urged members of parliament from the Seemandhra region to stall the introduction of bill in Parliament.

Syria regime showed no ‘serious commitment’ in talks

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Syrian opposition chief Ahmad Jarba accused the regime of showing no “serious commitment” during a week of peace talks in Geneva that wrapped up today.

“We cannot speak about a serious commitment by Assad’s representatives,” Jarba told reporters after a first round of closed-door negotiations ended with no concrete results.

Jarba confirmed that his National Coalition will take part in a second round of talks, expected to kick off on February 10.

Cong cannot win elections by spreading lies: Modi

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Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi today hit out at the Congress saying that they cannot win the elections by spreading lies among the people.

“When people are fed up of mis-governance of the UPA government led by Congress, the party cannot win the elections by spreading lies,” Modi was quoted as saying in a BJP statement.

Modi was addressing a state executive meeting of the party held in Gandhinagar today.

The chief minister told party workers to get at least one lakh people enrolled in each Lok Sabha constituency in Gujarat with the BJP before the elections.

Kejriwal must prove charges or apologise for calling leaders

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BJP today condemned AAP for terming its leaders “corrupt” and demanded an apology from Arvind Kejriwal even as it threatened to take legal action in case he failed to do so.

Targeting rival politicians, Congress leaders included, Kejriwal today charged that they were “corrupt” and said that AAP would field candidates against all of them.

“BJP condemns the statement and expects that he will either present proof (backing)… The wild allegations or seek an apology… Otherwise, all options are open, including that of taking legal action,” said party spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi.

UN slams Israel destruction of Jordan Valley homes

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The UN humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories criticised Israel’s demolition of 36 homes in the Jordan Valley and urged a halt to such actions in the West Bank.

Hundreds of activists, yesterday staged an overnight demonstration in the Jordan Valley region.

The demolitions in the Jordan Valley community of Ain el-Helwe on Thursday displaced 66 people, including 36 children, James Rawley said in a statement.

Religious violence in Nigeria kills eight: locals

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A Christian family of seven was killed in northern Nigeria, prompting a revenge attack on Muslims in which one person died, locals told AFP.

A group of unknown gunmen in a car and on motorbikes broke into the family’s house yesterday in Unguwar Kajit, a village in the mainly Christian part of southern Kaduna state, and opened fire.

There have been similar attacks in the area in the past, notably after the last presidential election in 2011, in which southern Christian Goodluck Jonathan beat northern Muslim Muhammadu Buhari.

UK plant gets all-clear after radioactivity levels rise

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Britain’s Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant was given the all-clear after “elevated” levels of radioactivity were detected.

The plant in northern England had told all staff except for essential workers to stay home after its monitoring system picked up higher-than-normal radiation readings overnight.

But operators Sellafield Ltd later said the higher readings were “naturally occurring background radon”.

Visakhapatnam team lifts AI Major Ports Championship trophy

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Host Visakhapatnam Port Trust (VPT) lifted the 34th All India Major Ports Cricket Championship trophy, defeating Mumbai Port trust in the finals held at the Port Diamond Jubilee Stadium here today.

Mumbai Port secured runner-up position and defending Champions Jawaharlal Nehru Port stood in the third position.

In the semi-finals, Visakhapatnam Port beat Mormugao Port and Mumbai Port beat Jawaharlal Nehru Port and entered into the finals.

Patel assures help for return of 2 Indians stranded in Iran

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Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmed Patel today assured to take up with the External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid, the issue of two Indians stranded in Iran.

The family of Vadodara resident Sanket Pandya, who has been illegally confined in Iran with an Indian colleague Mohammed Hussain Khan (hailing from Haryana), today met Patel and requested him to ensure their release.

Syria talks end with accusations, next round uncertain

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Syria’s warring sides traded barbs over the failure to achieve concrete results at peace talks in Geneva, amid doubts over the regime’s participation in a planned new round in February.

No ceasefire was agreed, talks on a transitional government never began, and a deal to allow aid into besieged rebel-held areas of the central city of Homs went nowhere.

Clouding the horizon further, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said nearly 1,900 people had been killed since the talks began a week ago.

Next Iran nuclear talks set for February 18 in Vienna

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World powers will hold their next talks on Tehran’s contested nuclear programme February 18, top Iranian and European Union diplomats have agreed during talks.

In an initial accord in November, Iran agreed with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — plus Germany (a group known as E3+3) that it would open up its nuclear programme so as to allay fears it was seeking atomic weapons.

Boston could prove sympathetic to bombing suspect

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Given the powerful grief and anger over the Boston Marathon bombing, Boston would seem to be a particularly hostile place for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to stand trial. But it might just be his best hope of escaping a death sentence.

Opposition to the death penalty runs deep in liberal Massachusetts. In a Boston Globe survey in September, 57 percent of Massachusetts residents polled favoured life in prison for Tsarnaev, while 33 percent favoured execution.

Pak Taliban vows to enforce Sharia either through ‘peace or war’

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Pakistani Taliban has said that its objective is enforcement of Sharia law in the country.

Tehreek-i- Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Shahidullah Shahid said that they wanted to enforce Sharia, whether through peace or war, Dawn News reports.

Meanwhile, he said that a session of the central Shura of the TTP would present its point of view to the nation in a few days following the formation of a four-member team by the government for talks with the group. (ANI)

Pak panchayat orders ‘gang-rape’ of sister over brother’s alleged affair

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A Pakistani panchayat has been accused of ordering gang-rape of a 40-year-old woman in revenge for her brother’s alleged affair.

A divorced woman was stripped on the orders of a panchayat in Radiwala about 80 kilometers from Muzaffargarh, Dawn News reports.

According to the report, six men were arrested out of a total of nine accused.

The incident happened on January 24 after a villager sought the formulation of a panchayat accusing Ajmal of having an affair with his wife.

Death penalty for ‘most stupid’ Indian in UAE

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An Indian national, who bludgeoned his neighbour’s maid to death in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has been sentenced to death by a court.

The man killed the maid, with whom he had a relationship after she told him that she was pregnant and threatened to slap a rape charge on him, The National reported Thursday.

He believed her claim despite the fact that they had never had sex.

The defence lawyer described him as “the most stupid man I have seen in 40 years”.

SpiceJet, IndiGo launch second fare war with 30 pc discount

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A second round of fare war was unleashed by SpiceJet today, with Jet Airways and no-frill carriers IndiGo, GoAir and JetKonnect jumping into the race to offer limited period, low-priced air tickets to customers.
With the peak travel season coming to an end, Indian carriers, barring Air India, triggered the second fare war offering low fares across several sectors within the country.

Kashmiri Muslim girl students develop Android app

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A group of four Kashmiri Muslim girls, studying engineering in a Punjab college, claim to have developed an Android application (app) that will help their institution become a paper-free campus.

The girls, pursuing an engineering degree course in Aryans College of Engineering near here, said official notices and other communication meant for students can be accessed by students of the institution from the app instead of checking the paper notices.