Month: February 2014

Modi is No.1 in spreading misinformation: Tarun Gogoi

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Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today attacked BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, saying that he was “number one” in giving misinformation.

“Modi is number one in giving misinformation. We are number one in work. When NDA ruled at the Centre and AGP was in power in Assam, there was no smile on peoples’ faces. It was darkness everywhere. We have brought back smiles,” Gogoi said at a public rally here.

“Rahul (Gandhi) is not looking for any post, but (Narendra) Modi is looking for it. Rahul only wants to empower the people,” Gogoi said.

Sikh bus driver wins right to wear turban in Finland

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A Sikh bus driver in Finland has won his fight to wear a turban while at work.

Gill Sukhdarshan Singh has been in dispute with his employer, Veolia Transport in the city of Vantaa, for more than a year for his right to wear turban at work, Yle, the Finnish public broadcasting company, reported Tuesday.

His year-long dispute with the Veolia bus company was resolved after an agreement between the transport workers union (AKT) and the employers’ organisation (ALT).

Bhatkal’s aide confesses involvement in 2013 Hyderabad blasts

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A close aide of Indian Mujahideen (IM) co-founder Yasin Bhatkal has confessed before a magistrate that he had assembled the explosives and had “guided” the members of the terror outfit while planting bombs at Hyderabad’s Dilsukhnagar area in February 2013.

In his confessional statement recorded under section 164 of the CrPC in October 2013, Asadullah Akhtar said the February 21, 2013 twin blasts at Dilsukhnagar area were executed by him on the instructions of another IM co-founder Riyaz Bhatkal who is now in Pakistan.

Obama warns Afghan President of full troop withdrawal

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President Barack Obama has threatened to pull all US troops out of war-ravaged Afghanistan by the year end if a crucial bilateral security agreement is not signed.

Obama conveyed the terse message to Afgahn President Hamid Karzai, who has refused to sign a Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) with the US that would allow presence of US troops in Afghanistan post-2014.

Singh to meet Hasina in Myanmar on March 4

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Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will meet his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina in Myanmar next week in the backdrop of delay in signing the long-pending agreements on Teesta river water sharing treaty and India’s ratification of land boundary agreement with that country.

Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh said Singh will meet Hasina on the sidelines of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation(BIMSTEC) Summit on March 4 in Myanmar.

Saudi crown prince arrives in India

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Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud arrived here Wednesday on a three-day official visit during which the two countries are expected to sign an agreement on defence and enhance cooperation in hydrocarbons and security.

Vice-president Hamid Ansari received Crown Prince Salman on his arrival.

Crown Prince Salman’s is the highest level political visit from the kingdom after the January 2006 landmark trip by King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud as the chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations.

Opinion polls should be authenticated: Kejriwal

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Election opinion polls conducted by media should be properly authenticated, former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said Wednesday.

A day after a Hindi television news channel carried out a sting operation that indicated a political conspiracy to manipulate public opinion, Kejriwal said the sting operation aired by the channel, if assumed to be authentic, represents a dark hour for the Indian media.

“It shows that political parties like the Bharatiya Janata Party have been buying favourable service to manipulate public opinion,” the Aam Aadmi Party leader said.

Doctors perform heart surgery on 70-year-old woman

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A hospital here performed a successful open-heart surgery on a 70-year-old woman who has one kidney and a history of breast cancer, from Chhattisgarh’s Raipur town.

Nirmala, who was surviving on a single kidney after donating one to her brother earlier, underwent the surgery successfully at the Fortis Escorts Heart hospital here and is recuperating.

A team led by S.N. Khanna, cardiac surgeon at the hospital, carried out the surgery last week, a hospital release said.

Nirmala complained of severe breathing difficulty for the last six months which aggravated recently.

There is no threat to me, says Aamir

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Aamir Khan has rubbished reports of threat to his life in the wake of sensitives issues taken up by him during the first season of his television show ‘Satyamev Jayate’.

After Aamir touched upon sensitive topics like female foeticide, medical malpractices and honour killing in ‘Satyamev Jayate’, he had apparently received several threats to stop highlighting such cases.

There were reports that Aamir had ordered a bullet proof car as some of the episodes of ‘Satyamev Jayate 2’ may throw light on governance and issues related to Lok Sabha elections 2014.

Elaborate security for rallies of Modi, Mulayam, Kejriwal

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Elaborate security arrangements have been made for the rallies of BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav and Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal in the state on March 2, a senior police officer said here today.

Modi will address his party’s rally in Lucknow, Mulayam in Allahabad and former Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal in Kanpur on the same day.

Miandad’s future in PCB to be decided tomorrow

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Former captain Javed Miandad’s future in the Pakistan Cricket Board will be decided tomorrow during the meeting of the managing committee.

Miandad has sent his resignation to the PCB Chairman, Najam Sethi leaving it up to him to decide his future.

“With a new chairman and a new managing committee now supervising cricket affairs they should decide what role I can play in Pakistan cricket,” Miandad said.

Details of TRS’ merger being worked out: Digvijaya Singh

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Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh said that details of TRS merger with Congress is being worked out.

He told reporters in the national capital Wednesday that Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief K. Chandrasekhara Rao indicated merger of his party with the Congress.

“We are happy that KCR met the Congress president (Sonia Gandhi) and the vice-president (Rahul Gandhi) and has indicated merger of TRS with Congress. The details are being worked out,” said Digvijaya.

Harbhajan can make a comeback to India team: Sourav Ganguly

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Out of favour he might be right now but former Indian captain former captain Sourav Ganguly feels seasoned off-spinner Harbhajan Singh can make a comeback if the selectors look beyond those favoured by skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

“I think Bhajji can make a comeback to the national side in both form of the game,” Ganguly told a news channel here last night.

Describing Harbhajan as one of the country’s top spinners, the former India captain slammed the selectors for not choosing the Jalandhar man over Dhoni’s choice.

Aamir visits Mountain Man’s village

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Bollywood actor Aamir Khan visited the village of Dasrath Manjhi, also known as the “Mountain Man”, who single-handedly carved out a 360-foot-long path through the Gehlore Mountain in Bihar’s Gaya District over a period of more than two decades.

Khan visited the Gahlaur Village to meet and interview family members of Manjhi for the second season of his television reality show ‘Satyamev Jayate’ (Truth Alone Prevails).

Sensex touches 21,000 as FIIs remain optimistic of India story

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The benchmark BSE Sensex today breached the 21,000-mark after a month, but settled the day a tad lower at 20,986.99, a gain of 135 points, amid mixed trends from global markets.

India’s largest gas distributor GAIL rose 2.97 per cent to end the day as the biggest Sensex gainer. Cigarette major ITC recorded a smart gain of 2.07 per cent.

IT stocks continued its winning streak for the second day. Wipro rose 1.38 per cent to trade at its 52-week high level. Infosys was up 0.56 per cent.

26 sentenced to death in Egypt

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Egypt’s Cairo Criminal Court Wednesday sentenced 26 people in absentia to death for forming a terrorist cell to target ships passing through the Suez Canal, media reported.

The 26 defendants were also charged with making missiles and explosive devices and possessing automatic weapons and huge quantities of ammunition, Xinhua reported citing state-run Ahram website.

Since the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi last July, the security conditions in Egypt have been deteriorating as hardliners frequently stage attacks on military and police premises as well as energy facilities.

Afghan security agency foils attacks, seizes explosives

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A string of possible terror attacks has been thwarted in western Afghanistan’s Ghor province, the country’s intelligence agency said Wednesday.

“The enemies of peace and stability tried to launch several bombings and terror attacks during election campaigning of presidential candidates in Dulina district of Ghor province and its provincial capital Chaghcharan city. But the attacks were hindered as the personnel of National Directorate for Security (NDS) found and seized the enemies’ explosive cache there,” Xinhua quoted NDS as saying in a statement.

Third Front is mixture of political parties: Badal

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Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today dubbed the formation of third front as “mixture of political parties”, saying the front was not capable of preventing Narendra Modi from becoming Prime Minister.

Badal, while talking to mediapersons on the sidelines of a function here, also dared the third front to declare its Prime Ministerial candidate so voters can make choice between them and BJP.

“Going by the mood of the nation this front is not capable of preventing Modi for becoming the Prime Minister of the country,” he said.

Ram Vilas Paswan all set to align with BJP again

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Coming full circle, Ram Vilas Paswan’s LJP, which left the NDA in 2002, is all set to align with the BJP in Bihar for Lok Sabha polls, giving a jolt to Congress’ plans to have a “secular” alliance with the LJP and the RJD.

The alliance between the BJP and the LJP is likely to be announced in a couple of days as the party’s Parliamentary Board authorised Mr. Ram Vilas Paswan to take a final decision in this regard and did not hide its bitterness towards Lalu Prasad’s RJD.

Hope to complete Karnataka land acquisition by March: Arcelor

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NRI billionaire L N Mittal-led ArcelorMittal has 2,659- acre private land already in possession. It had acquired 1,827 acres and 832 acres in December 2011 and December 2012.

“This leaves a balance of 136.33 acres land owned by the Karnataka government which is being processed for allocation is expected to be completed during the first quarter of 2014,” ArcelorMittal said in its latest annual report for 2013.

In the 2012 annual report, the company had said that balance (136.33 acres) was being processed for allocation by the state without giving any timeframe.

Muslims outraged with Katy Perry `anti-Islamic` `Dark Horse` video

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Katy Perry’s new music video for her hit single ‘Dark Horse’ has offended Muslims as it shows the killing of man who is wearing a pendant which says Allah in Arabic. In the video, the ‘Roar’ singer plays a powerful Egyptian queen who can zap her subjects with lightning and turn them into sand, Stuff.co.nz reported. Now, members of the Muslim community are lobbying for the removal of the video, which has garnered 31 million views, from YouTube.

5 teachers booked

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Five teachers of a private engineering college near here were booked by police for allegedly abetting the suicide of a first year B.Tech girl student, who had “poor“ academic record. Parents of I Vinodhini, a first year B.Tech (Electronic and Electrical Engineering) student, suspected foul play and refused to claim the body and demanded justice.PTI

Over 100 rebels killed in Syria

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More than 100 rebels were killed Wednesday by Syrian troops in an ambush in the eastern countryside of the capital Damascus, media reported.

The troops ambushed the rebels at al-Ataibeh suburb in the Eastern Ghouta countryside of Damascus, Xinhua reported citing the local media and the pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV.

It added that the rebels were radicals from the Al Qaeda-inspired Nusra Front.

Meanwhile, official SANA news agency said the ambush was based on “intelligence information”, and dozens of rebels from the Nusra Front and the so-called Islam Brigade were killed.

Yusuf Pathan working hard for national comeback

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Expressing confidence over his return to national squad, Baroda skipper Yusuf Pathan today said he was working hard to achieve this goal.

“My focus is to play good cricket and I have done well with the bat this season. I know if I play good cricket then it would be better for me (to come back in Indian side),” said the 31-year-old.

Yusuf’s Baroda will be playing Mumbai in West Zone One-day match for Vijay Hazare Trophy beginning here tomorrow.

Aamir Khan visits Bihar village of man who cut a path through a mountain

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Bollywood actor Aamir Khan visited the village of Dasrath Manjhi, also known as the “Mountain Man”, who single-handedly carved out a 360-foot-long path through the Gehlore Mountain in Bihar’s Gaya District over a period of more than two decades.

Khan visited the Gahlaur Village to meet and interview family members of Manjhi for the second season of his television reality show ‘Satyamev Jayate’ (Truth Alone Prevails).