Month: July 2014

Israeli warplanes and naval artillery heavily bombed the Gaza Strip Friday, as the Palestinian death toll rose to 100 since Israel earlier this week launched Operation Preventive Edge to stop rocket attacks from the Strip.

Medical sources in Gaza said 100 Palestinians had died and almost 700 had been injured since the offensive began last Tuesday.

The death toll rose Friday after 50 more targets, including four homes, were struck in the Strip, leaving eight people dead, including a baby and a seven-year-old boy, the health ministry in Gaza reported.

The Supreme Court Friday granted one month bail on health grounds to 2008 Bangalore serial bomb blast conspiracy prime accused and Kerala-based People’s Democratic Party (PDP) leader Abdul Nazir Maudany.

A bench of Justice J. Chelameswar and Justice A.K.Sikri said that during his one-month bail, Maudany will not leave the city of Bangalore and the Karnataka government is at liberty to take all steps, including putting him under surveillance, to ensure that he does not get in touch with witnesses in the case.

England were batting at 131/1 in their first innings at lunch in the third day’s play of the first Test against India at Trent Bridge here Friday.

Resuming the day at 43/1, the hosts put on 88 runs in the morning session without losing a wicket in 31 overs. Opener Sam Robson and Gary Ballance are both batting on 59 not out.

India were bowled out for 457 Thursday.

The following is the scoreboard at lunch on Day 3 of the first Test between India and England being played at Trent Bridge here Friday:

India (first innings) 457

England (first innings)

Alastair Cook b Shami 5

Former minister Dr P Shankar Rao on Friday demanded that the Income Tax Department withdraw the notices that it has served to AICC President Sonia Gandhi and other leaders in the National Herald case.

Nagaland Governor Vakkom B. Purushothaman, who held additional charge as Tripura governor, resigned Friday protesting that he was not consulted on his transfer as governor from Mizoram to Nagaland. He is the sixth governor to put in his papers since the NDA came to power at the Centre.

“We have unofficially learnt that Purushothaman has resigned, but no official communique was received from Rashtrapati Bhavan yet,” a Tripura Raj Bhavan official told IANS.

Deputy Leader in Telangana Legislative Council Mohammad Ali Shabbir alleged that Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has no control over the administration in the State.

In protest against the passing of controversial bill on Polavaram Project in the Lok Sabha on Friday, the Telangana Congress has called for Khammam bandh on Saturday.

Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Global Markets and Director General of the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service, Arun M. Kumar , will lead a U.S. economic delegation to India from July 12 to July 18.

His delegation will include senior officials of the Department of Commerce, the Office of the United States Trade Representative, and the Department of State who will make a stopover in New Delhi, Mumbai, and Hyderabad.

The delegation will discuss with senior officials of the Government of India a broad array of topics aimed at growth of the U.S.-India commercial relationship. (ANI)

Leader of the Opposition K Jana Reddy on Friday demanded that the Telangana Government convene an all party meeting to discuss the fee reimbursement issue.

Israel conducted more air strikes on Gaza even after the US said it was ready to broker a ceasefire between Israel and those in occupation of the Gaza Strip.

Palestinians said that five people had died on a house attack in Rafah that had brought the death toll to 98.

A petrol station was reportedly hit in Israel. Gaza and Lebonon fired rockets at Israel.

According to the BBC, rockets were fired at Israel from both Gaza and Lebanon. A petrol station was hit in the Israeli town of Ashdod whereby three people were injured.

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao expressed his deep dissatisfaction over passing of the ordinance incorporating amendments to the state Reorganization Act by Lok Sabha today, transferring the submerged areas under Polavaram in Khammam district to the State of Andhra Pradesh. He said this is a clear cut violation of Article 3.

Actor Ajay Devgn today said he fails to understand why he and superstar Shah Rukh Khan are pitted against each other when they have no problem between them in real life.

Shah Rukh’s ‘Jab Tak Hai Jaan’ and Devgn’s ‘Son of Sardar’ had released on the same day in 2012 on Diwali and Bollywood was abuzz with the talks of cold war between the two actors as Devgn had accused Yash Raj Films of taking advantage of their prominent market position to get maximum screens for ‘JTHJ’.

Investigation into the rape of a 10-year-old girl allegedly on the directive of a Panchayat chief in Bokaro district is complete and the charges against the three persons arrested in connection with it would be submitted soon.

“We arrested three persons on Wednesday. A thorough investigation (into the incident) has been completed and charges would be submitted soon,” Bokaro Superintendent of Police, Jitendra Singh said today.

For the families of two workers from Nadia district of West bengal, it is an agonising, endless wait. While 16 others from the district have returned home from the conflict-hit Iraq this week, the two men have been kidnapped by militants along with 38 other Indians.

In fact, 25 Indian workers, all from West Bengal, were evacuated from Iraq after conflict broke out in that country and have returned to their villages in Nadia, North 24-Parganas and Burdwan districts.

A fire broke out in the basement of an apartment building in Ghaziabad Friday, officials said.

The fire broke out around 2.00 p.m. in the basement of ATS Apartments building in Indirapuram and four parked cars were burnt, a fire official said.

Ghaziabad’s chief fire officer A.P. Singh said prima facie it appeared that an electrical short circuiting could have caused the fire.

Sixteen fire brigade tenders from Noida, Sahibabad and Ghaziabad have been rushed to the spot to control the fire, he said.
(IANS)

US Secretary of State John Kerry has welcomed the appointment of veteran diplomat Staffan de Mistura as the new UN special envoy for Syria.

The top American envoy Thursday praised de Mistura as “a distinguished diplomat who brings a wealth of experience to this pressing crisis” in Syria from his work on Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Somalia, Sudan and the former Yugoslavia, Xinhua reported.

De Mistura, a former deputy foreign minister of Italy, was selected Thursday by UN chief Ban Ki-moon to fill a vacancy left by Lakhdar Brahimi, who resigned in May.

A teenaged girl Friday sustained serious injuries when a man set her on fire after she resisted his molestation attempt in Bihar, police said.

The attack took place in Banka district’s Sonepur area.

Police said the man, identified as Manoranjan Kumar, poured kerosene on the girl and set her afire when she resisted his molestation bid.

The girl is battling for her life at a hospital in neighbouring Bhagalpur district with nearly 80 percent burnt, a police officer said.

Using the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico, astronomers have discovered a split-second burst of radio waves, providing important new evidence of mysterious pulses that appear to come from deep in outer space.

The finding marks the first time that a so-called “fast radio burst” has been detected using an instrument other than the Parkes radio telescope in Australia.

Five Taj hotels have featured in a list of world’s most luxurious hotels known for exceptional standards and impeccable hospitality, a statement said Friday.

The ‘Travel + Leisure USA World’s Best Awards List 2014’ included the Taj Lake Palace in Udaipur and the Rambagh Palace in Jaipur – both in Rajasthan, a statement issued by the Taj group said.

Among the hotels in metropolises, the Taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai and the Taj Palace Hotel in New Delhi featured in the list. On the international front, The Pierre, a Taj Hotel in New York, featured in the list.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said 21 more people have died from Ebola in West Africa over the past two days, bringing the total death count to 539.

In a statement, the UN body said 44 new cases had been detected over the same period, and added that the situation was worst in Sierra Leone and Liberia, with 35 new cases and 15 dead in the former and 11 cases and four deaths in the latter.

However, from July 8 to 10, only one new case was reported in Guinea, which suggests the epidemic is taking a downward turn in that country, said the WHO.

With the Lok Sabha Friday passing the contentious Polavaram bill for the merger of over 200 villages of Telangana with Andhra Pradesh, the government of Telangana is planning to challenge it in the Supreme Court

Terming the central government’s move “undemocratic” and “unconstitutional”, Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao said he was consulting legal luminaries and constitutional experts. “The fight will continue. The modalities will be announced later,” said a statement from the chief minister’s office.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy said Prime Minister Narendra Modi getting an invitation from the U.S. Government and President Barack Obama in particular is a step in the right direction, adding that India has always wanted good relations with the United States.

Rajiv Pratap Rudy told ANI, “The U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, who was in India recently, has extended the invite of the U.S. President Obama to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to meet at the sidelines of the General Assembly Meet, which Mr. Modi is possibly going to attend in September.”

Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) leader K. Kavitha on Thursday said the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, which paves way for the Polavaram Project, was passed in the Lok Sabha without a proper discussion on it, and added that the bill is against the interests of tribals.

“The Polavaram Project was always a bone of contention between Andhra and Telengana. But today, a bill was passed which proposed merger of some parts of Telangana with Andhra Pradesh. We were opposing this bill since this bill was unconstitutional,” said Kavitha.

Isotonic beverages that soccer players and other sportsmen usually drink during breaks in matches do not improve their performance in the second half, media said Friday, quoting a scientific study.

The conclusion was drawn from an experiment led by Michael Kingsley of the Australian La Trobe University analysing the effectiveness of sports drinks in maintaining blood glucose levels of top players, local channel ABC reported.

A benchmark index of Indian equities markets Friday fell 348.40 points or 1.37 percent on heavy selling in capital goods and metal stocks.

Banking, oil and gas, realty, power, consumer durables and auto sectors also came under selling pressure while good buying was observed in IT and healthcare scrips.

Traders said the market corrected after the government said that the General Anti-Avoidance Rules (GAAR) will be applicable from April 1, 2015. The market was hoping that GAAR would be deferred to 2017.