Month: July 2014

A two-year-old boy was killed when a speeding car hit him and his mother near here Friday, police said.

The mother and child were hit by an unidentified car in Pahri village near Pataudi Friday morning, some 35 km from Gurgaon.

“Deceased Shivam was adopted by the couple (Dayachand and Maya) a few months back from Dayachand’s younger sister,” police officer Prahlad Singh told IANS.

The child died on the spot while his mother Maya was injured.

A case has been registered at Pataudi police station.

–IANS

Selling children in the garb of adoption is illegal, a Delhi court has held while urging the authorities to make it an offence punishable under the Indian Penal Code.

“Children/infants are sold in adoption market/’Baccha Baazar’ like potatoes, tomatoes and onions,” Additional Sessions Judge Kamini Lau said, adding that a “big racket of illegal sale of children for adoption exists in many states”.

She noted that baby selling and buying are illegal in many countries and came within the category of adoption fraud.

Sri Lankan Foreign Minister G.L. Peiris Friday met External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and discussed issues related to fishermen besides ways to boost economic ties.

External affairs ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin told reporters here that the two sides discussed issues related to fishermen and felt the need for a long-term solution.

“Both countries felt that there is need for long-term solution to the problem and it should be seen as a matter of livelihood,” he said.

Social media has played a significant role in recent Lok Sabha elections and it will continue to do so in future, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said today.

“There was an important role of social media in 2014 elections. It will continue to do so in future too. We have to accept this fact,” he said addressing a seminar on media’s role in 2014 general elections here.

Singh said social media did not have a significant role five years ago but its role has increased manifold now.

“Through social media, the government is outlining its plan, its vision,” he said.

Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy Friday said the state government is committed to the rehabilitation of 46 nurses, who returned from conflict-hit Iraq last week.

“We are fully committed to extending rehabilitation schemes for these 46 nurses besides all other nurses, who will return from Iraq,” Chandy said here.

“Today (Friday) we got in writing from the Iraqi authorities that the salary dues of the 46 nurses would be paid from next week,” he said, addressing the nurses.

Meanwhile, the nurses continued to receive job offers from various non-resident Keralite businessmen.

An Indian-origin man, who was extradited to the US from India to face trial, was sentenced to life for killing his wife and two children in 2008.

Lakshminivasa Nerusu, 46, an unemployed computer software programmer, stabbed his wife 59 times and later slit his two children’s throats when they returned to their Michigan home from school Oct 13, 2008.

After the killing, he spent nearly five years on the run in India.

He was arrested in 2013 and extradited back to the US to face the charges. Authorities said domestic problems led to the deaths.

Pakistan Friday condemned a US drone attack in North Waziristan that killed at least six people at a time when the country’s security forces are engaged in a ground offensive against the militants in the region.

The US spy aircraft fired two missiles at a house and a vehicle in the Datta Khel area of North Waziristan Thursday.

The government of Pakistan condemned the incident of US drone strike that took place on the morning of July 10 in North Waziristan which resulted in casualties, Xinhua cited the Pakistan foreign ministry as saying.

Punjab’s Non-Resident Indian (NRI) Commission has ordered district authorities in Gurdaspur to take prompt action to hand over possession of Denmark-based NRI Sarjit Singh Ahluwalia’s rightful property to him, a panel spokesman said here Friday.

The commission also directed the Gurdaspur deputy commissioner and district police chief to submit a report to it regarding action taken to fix the responsibility of the erring officials by Sep 23.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will make his first foray into international diplomacy when he leaves Sunday for the sixth summit of BRICS countries July 15-16, with the meeting expected to discuss creation of development bank and reforms of the UN Security Council.

It will also provide the first occasion for Modi, who took office May 26, to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin as also leaders of Brazil and South Africa.

The Cyber Crime Police of Cyberabad arrested three accused namely (A1) Kalyan @ G Venugopal (27) Resident of Kamalanagar, road No 5 Chitanyapuri, Dilsuknagr. Hyderabad (A2). Arshad Naveed @ Akash @ Yaswanth @ Vikram Agarwal (38) an real estate business Resident Rajendranagar,. MBNR Mandal, Mahboobnagar district (A3) Praveen Pandurng Sonkamble Resident of Mumbai for issuing fake Cap Gemini appointment letters to complainant and collected Rs.1,50,000.

Ashraf Ghani, one of the two contenders disputing the Afghan presidential election, Friday accepted an audit of 43 percent of the votes amid fraud allegations made by his rival, Abdullah Abdullah, who was trailing him.

Ghani’s spokesperson Daoud Sultanzoy told Efe news agency they had accepted the audit of “3.4 million votes, that is almost half of the total votes” cast in the June 14 election, a review process that should be “intensive and broad”.

Telangana Government denounced as “undemocratic and unethical” the passage of a Bill in the Lok Sabha today that paves the way for Polavaram project in Andhra Pradesh by merging some villages and mandals of the newly formed state, and indicated that legal options are being explored against the Centre’s decision.

To prevent disasters in the Beas river, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh here Friday stressed the need for installing modern warning systems.

Presiding over the state disaster management authority meeting, the chief minister favoured adopting GPRS technique so that in case of any mishap or disaster the people in that area could receive an SMS instantly.

The Narendra Modi government has ‘cheated’ the people of Assam as the Union Budget did not offer anything to the state, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said today.

“People of Assam voted for the BJP overwhelmingly during the Lok Sabha elections. BJP and Modi had charged Manmohan Singh of doing nothing for the state. BJP promised to give a lot to the people of Assam, but gave nothing in the budget,” Gogoi told a press conference here.

Western army commander Lt.Gen. Philip Campose will be the next vice chief of army staff (VCOAS), an Army spokesman said Friday.

Campose will take over from Lt Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag, the current incumbent who takes over as the Army chief Aug 1.

Campose will hand over his charge of the frontline western command to Lt Gen. Kamal Jit Singh, an Armoured Corps officer, Aug 1.

Kurdish security forces seized two major oilfields in Kirkuk Friday after they expelled Arab workers and replaced them with Kurds, the Iraqi government said in a statement.

The statement issued by the country’s oil ministry said that Kurdish forces, known as Peshmerga, stormed the crude oil production facilities of Kirkuk and Bay Hassan at dawn and took control of them, Xinhua reported.

Sri Lanka”s Foreign Minister G.L. Peiris met External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj at the Hyderabad House here today. The two leaders reportedly held high-level bilateral discussions pertaining to issues such as the Palk Bay conflict between fishermen of India and Sri Lanka and the much-discussed economic partnership agreement. Peiris is on a three-day trip to India which he completes today. The Sri Lankan foreign minister’s visit comes barely two months after President Mahinda Rajapaksa held bilateral talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi soon after he was sworn in as Prime Minister.

The Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC) and the communist parties have called for Telangana shutdown Saturday to protest passage of Polavaram bill in Lok Sabha for merger of over 200 villages of Telangana with Andhra Pradesh.

The TJAC, which led the movement for separate statehood to Telangana, urged all sections of people to voluntarily take part in the strike to register their protest.

TJAC chairman M. Kodandaram told reporters that the central government’s move in passing the bill without consent of Telangana is against the federal spirit.

No shop within a 500-metre radius of schools in Kerala can now sell tobacco products, said a state minister.

Tobacco products include cigarettes, beedis and other items containing tobacco.

Following a high level meeting with police officials, state Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala told reporters Friday that the new order comes into force with immediate effect.

“The earlier rule was 100 metres and the new one comes under our government’s new programme called ‘Safe Campus, Clean Campus’. Strict action will be taken against those violating this new rule,” he said.

At least 25 children of a government school in Bihar’s Siwan district fell ill Friday after eating mid-day meal in which a dead lizard was found, officials said.

The children were admitted to a government hospital in Siwan and are said to be out of danger, said Durgesh Kumar, a district official.

The children complained of uneasiness after eating the meal at the Sonbarsa middle school in Maharajganj block, the district official said.

Samples of the meal were collected by police.

A programme head of a private news channel here has been booked for sexually harassing a colleague, police said Friday.

Sandeep Mishra, programme head of private news channel Eyewitness here in Sector 44, has been booked under Sections 354A (sexual harassment) and 509 (act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code.

A case was registered at Sushant Lok police station after a news anchor of the channel reported the sexual harassment by Mishra.

Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy Friday welcomed the Supreme Court’s order to grant one month’s bail to Kerala-based People’s Democratic Party (PDP) leader Abdul Nazir Maudany.

“I welcome the verdict of the Supreme Court… I do not subscribe to the idea of keeping a person in jail without trial for so long. The state government had limitations to interfere in the case,” Chandy told reporters here.

Bhagyashree, best known for her debut role opposite Salman Khan in ‘Maine Pyar Kiya’, is returning to TV with a new fiction show and the actress says she wants to stand out by doing powerful roles on the small screen.

The 45-year-old actress, who was last seen on the small screen in a reality show, said she wants to play substantial characters.

Kim Kardashian says that her nephew Mason was not in favour of her having a Coachella-themed birthday bash for her daughter North at his home.

Kim hosted her daughter’s first birthday bash in the back garden of Kourtney and Scott Disick’s home in Calabasas.

“When I said, ‘North’s having a birthday party at your house,’ Mason said, ‘No! I’m having a birthday party at my house! She can never have a party!” Kim told people.com.

Kourtney said: “Before Kim even said we were having it at his house, he said, ‘I’m going to put Legos everywhere! I’m going to scare everybody!'”

The Lok Sabha on Friday passed the Andhra Pradesh Reorganization (Amendment) Bill 2014 which facilitates merger of seven submisible mandals into Andhra Pradesh by voice vote amidst protests from members of Telangana, Chattisgarh and Odisha States. With this, the seven mandals of Khammam district would be merged into the AP after the Rajya Sabha endorsed the Bill.