Month: July 2014

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman announced Monday that he has decided to sever the joint faction he established with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu due to “fundamental disagreements”.

“The differences between me and the prime minister became fundamental and do not enable a future partnership,” Lieberman told reporters Monday.

Netanyahu and Lieberman have had disagreements over how Israel should respond to the recent outbreak of violence (including the kidnap and murder of the three Israeli teenagers) and volleys of rockets from the Gaza Strip.

Iraq’s parliament Monday postponed its session scheduled Tuesday due to the failure of the political blocs to agree on the three top posts of the speaker, president and prime minster, a lawmaker said.

“There has been no consensus among the political bloc and the parliament session, therefore the session will be postponed to August,” Mohammed al-Khalidi, a Sunni lawmaker, told reporters.

The state-run Iraqiya channel said that acting Speaker Mahdi al-Hafidh decided to set Aug 12 as the alternative date of the session, Xinhua reported.

The Supreme Court Monday refused to suspend Lt.Gen. Dalbir Singh Suhag’s appointment as the next Indian Army chief, as sought by an officer who contended he had a better claim.

“There is no reason for us to stay,” Justice T.S. Thakur and Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel told counsel R.K. Anand for petitioner Lt.Gen. Ravi Dastane.

Lt.Gen. Dastane had challenged Lt.Gen. Suhag’s appointment as the GOC-in-C Eastern Command, which paved the way for Suhag being appointed the next army chief to succeed incumbent Gen. Bikram Singh.

Seventy-four nurses from Kerala working at the Baghdad Medical City are in two minds – whether or not to return to India – following the violence in the Middle East nation, a nurse said Monday.

The nurse told IANS over phone from Baghdad that at the moment things were normal where the nurses were located, and the situation remains as it was when they arrived in January.

Historian S Irfan Habib Reacting to the Supreme Court (SC) verdict on Shariat court, historian S Irfan Habib said, “The court has reiterated what it felt about the issue. It has said earlier also that Shariat courts are illegal. If they or anything violates the fundamental rights of the citizen, then you can’t call it legal. In that case, Shariat courts are illegal . This is the scant over rule of what the highest court of the country believes.”

Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today attacked Narendra Modi government, saying though BJP promised good days before polls, steps taken by the Centre in the past one month have “burdened” people with price rise and indicate that the future is far from bright.

“The BJP government, which has taken many anti-people decisions during the past over a month of coming to power, has shown that the future is far from being bright,” the Congress leader said while addressing a party rally at Ladwa in Kurukshetra district.

A six months ban from all forms of cricket has been rolled out to Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan for breaching rules.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has also decided not to issue Hasan any no-objection certificate (NOC) for 18 months.

According to Bangladesh’s Daily Star, BCB president Nazmul Hasan Papon said that the decision came after the board received a series of allegations.

Talks over Iran’s nuclear program are making little headway, with Tehran resisting US-led efforts to crimp activities that could be turned toward making weapons, diplomats said today.

As negotiations move closer to a July 20 target date for a deal, both sides are trying to plug holes in a sketchy draft agreement.

Commenting on the C. Rangarajan Committee report on new poverty lines, Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP) leader M.J. Akbar on Monday said that it is a matter of shame that even after six decades of independence, the country is still debating on poverty.

“The debate over the number can continue, but what saddens me is that even after six decades since achieving freedom, we are still discussing poverty. It is a shame,” said Akbar.

A man in Saudi Arabia call it quits with his wife right on their wedding night, after looking at her intimate images, given to him by her spurned lover.

According to religious preacher Shaikh Ghazi Bin Abdul Aziz al Shammari, the shocked and traumatized groom, who had come to him the very next day, couldn’t bear the humiliation, the Mirror reported.

It is believed that the lover had threatened to reveal the pictures if the woman refused to be with him, despite which, she had told him off as she wanted to start a new life with her husband. (ANI)

The Indian cricket team has a chance to go up a rung and be third in the ICC rankings if it beats England in the upcoming five-Test series starting July 9.

As things stand at present, India occupy fourth position with 102 ratings points, while England are a spot behind with 100 ratings points.

Depending upon the outcome of the Test series, both teams can go as high as number three or drop to as low as number seven.

For India, the equation is straightforward — a series win will be sufficient to help it leapfrog Pakistan into third position, the ICC said in a statement.

YouTube has tied-up with Tata Docomo to allow the telecom services firm’s 3G prepaid users watch online videos for as low as Rs 9.

YouTube, Apalya Technologies and Tata Docomo will offer the video data plan ‘YouTube Recharge’, which will offer users about 50 per cent discount from regular data charges to watch online videos.

Users can watch 100 MB worth of videos for Rs 9 (valid for 24 hours) on YouTube and Apalya’s Live TV streaming service, while they can have access to 150 MB (valid for 3 days) for Rs 19.

A 23-year-old girl from Jeddah has become the second Saudi Arabian woman to obtain a commercial pilot license.

Yasmeen Mohammad Al Mainmani, who has been dreaming about becoming a pilot from the time she was seven years old, trained in flying academies in Jordan and the US and recently became the second Saudi women to receive a commercial pilot license, Gulf News reported.

Advocating a bottom-up approach, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao today asked his government machinery to draft plans from the village level towards a “re-oriented and re-invented” state.

“Plan for the village. Plan for the mandal. Plan for the district and then plan for the state. What all happened in the past is irrelevant for Telangana. Plan critically in the context of Telangana. It should not be a mere bureaucratic planning. Take every elected public representative right from the village level into confidence while drafting the plans,” Rao said.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Monday said her party should get the post of Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha.

“Congress should get the post of LoP,” Gandhi told reporters.

When asked what if Congress does not get LoP post?” Gandhi replied: “We’ll see.”

The tussle over getting the post of Leader of Opposition (LoP) between the Congress and the Government has been going on for a while with the Congress pushing its case for the post on grounds that it has the most seats (44) in the opposition.

Amid spiralling violence and growing tension over the killing of three Israeli teens and the burning of an Arab boy in retaliation, a bereaved Jewish family has emerged as a steady and calming voice trying to instill reason among people calling for revenge.

Rachelle and Avi Fraenkel, whose 16-year-old son Naftali was kidnapped along with Gilad Shaar and Eyal Yifrah on June 12 and was later found murdered, have been unequivocal in their condemnation of the murder of an Arab teenager largely suspected of having been burnt alive in a revenge attack.

Around 2,200 Indians residing in southern Iraq are likely to return home in the next 36 to 48 hours, the Ministry of External Affairs has said in a media briefing over the weekend.

These include around 400 Indians in three batches from Najaf and Karbala who are likely to be back home tomorrow.

A group of around 200 Indian nationals returned from Najaf by Iraqi Airways flight on Sunday morning.

The Malaysian Government has said that it will deploy more equipment in the southern Indian Ocean area for the search for Flight MH370 which went missing four months ago.

The country’s Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein was quoted by news24, as saying that a naval ship equipped with a multi-beam echo sounder – a device to map the ocean floor – would set sail on August 4 for the deep-sea search zone far off western Australia.

Scientists have created the world’s very first toolkit which has the potential to manage menopausal conditions globally among women above the age of 40.

Led by Professor Susan Davis, the research team from the Monash University combined the existing research on menopause, diagnostic algorithms and extensive clinical experience to develop the diagnostic tool. Designed for use by General Practitioners, it also works through a patient’s medical history and risk factors to arrive at the best treatment solution.

A 36-year-old Indian was today jailed for 30 months in Singapore and ordered three cane strokes for rioting and setting ablaze property during the Little India riot last December, becoming the 14th Indian to be jailed in the country’s worst violence in 40 years.

The court heard how Sarangan Kumaran was in the Race Course Road area of the Little India precinct when he saw a group of workers surrounding and hitting the bus that had knocked down an Indian national on the night of December 8.

Asserting that inflation has risen to unprecedented levels under the stewardship of the BJP-led Government, Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad on Monday said that prices were never so high when the UPA regime was in office between 2004 and 2014.

“If UPA raised prices, it was done gradually. But, in the last one-and-a-half months, prices have skyrocketed,” said Azad during a Budget Session intervention in the Rajya Sabha.

Union Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Uma Bharti today said that the whole country is committed to ensure the continuous and uninterrupted flow of the River Ganga from Gangotri to the Ganga Sagar.

Speaking at a Ganga Manthan event, Bharti said we will work with full sincerity on the outcome of this dialogue.

She said, “We have had a series of discussions with various stakeholders on the issue, and will soon arrive at some positive outcome”.

Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza has entered the top-five for the first time in her career as the new WTA doubles chart was released on Monday.

Sania, who turned a professional tennis player in 2003 and overcame a career-threatening wrist injury in between, has achieved her career-best rank of number five in the world.

Sania and her partner Cara Black from Zimbabwe could not go deep in the recently concluded Wimbledon championships, but a second round appearance provided the Indian tennis ace with her crucial 130 ranking points that were enough to push her in the top five.

How long have you been wearing the same shoe size? It is important to realise that women’s feet are constantly changing due to factors such as ageing, weight gain or loss and pregnancy. Still there are a few mistakes that women make when buying that perfect pair.

From buying unfit shoes to wearing heels for a long time are the few basic mistakes that ladies make while buying shoes, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

* Mistake number one: Buying shoes that do not fit now.

Three Pakistani policemen have been killed and another was critically injured when unidentified gunmen on a motorbike opened indiscriminate fire on them in Sindh province’s Hyderabad city.

The three policemen were killed and their colleague injured when they were on patrol duty in a police car last night in the suburbs of the Latifabad township.

The injured was rushed to a hospital.

“Masked men on motorcycles opened indiscriminate firing on the police mobile killing three of them on the spot while another has been critically injured,” DIG Sanaullah Abbasi said.