Month: July 2014

Janata Dal (United) leader Ali Anwar on Monday said issues such as inflation, communalism and granting special status to Bihar should be discussed during the Budget Session of Parliament.

Anwar told ANI that, “The biggest issue is inflation, due to which the common man is suffering the most. It was expected to come down, or at least, stay unchanged. But, it has increased drastically. Prices of essential commodities, including onion, salt and even sugar has gone up.”

Lord Leon Brittan, the former UK home secretary, was reportedly questioned by Scotland Yard last month over claims that he raped an 18-year-old student in 1967, British media reported on Sunday.

The Independent on Sunday reported that detectives were said to be investigating an allegation that Lord Brittan, who was not an MP at the time of the alleged incident, assaulted a woman at an address in London in 1967. Lord Brittan was in his late 20s at the time of the alleged incident.

Water samples collected from at least five swimming pools across the city both government and private was all found to be contaminated.

The coliform bacteria presence in one of the private pools in Sanikpuri was the highest (93) and E. coli bacteria were also found in the samples taken from LB Stadium and Melkote Park, Narayanguda.

Every single one of the samples also showed differences in the chlorine levels.

The samples collected by the newspaper were from two GHMC swimming pools in Ameerpet and Secunderabad and one from Melkote Park, Narayanguda, Sainikpuri and LB Stadium.

A 22-year-old woman was allegedly gangraped by three youths in Harsoli village of the district, police said today.

The woman had gone?to collect water from a handpump in the wee hours yesterday when the three youths picked her up and gangraped her.

They had also threatened to kill her if she reported the matter to police.

Circle Officer S P Sharma told reporters today that police have registered a case against three accused Intazar, Irfan and Harish.The accused are absconding.

The number of domestic violence cases in Gujarat rose by 1154 to 7812 in 2013 with the conviction rate of just 2.30% which is far below the national average in this category, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).

Gujarat now ranks seventh with 7812 cases of domestic violence (DV) while 25th among 28 states in terms of conviction rate.

As per the NCRB data, the cases registered under section 498-A (offence by husband or relatives of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty) of IPC rose by 17.3% in 2013 from 6658 in 2012.

The prices of tur dal, urad dal and moong dal move up while rest of the commodities remained unaltered in the wholesale foodgrains market here today. Moong dal rose steeply by Rs 400 per quintal to Rs 9,400 from its closing rate of Rs 9,000. Urad dal opened the week at Rs 8,200, an increase of Rs 200 per quintal from its last rate of Rs 8,000.

The first day of the Budget Session of Parliament on Monday witnessed an opposition-led disruption on the issue of price rise, thus forcing an adjournment of proceedings in the Lok Sabha till noon.

As soon as the Lok Sabha met for the day, several opposition members raised slogans against the price rise and the government’s failure to control it.

Amidst the chaos, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan adjourned the House till noon. Similar scenes were witnessed in the Rajya Sabha. The 42-day-long Budget Session of Parliament began on Monday and will have 28 sittings.

Communist Party of India-Marxist ( CPI-M) leader Sitaram Yechury on Monday said the C. Rangarajan Committee report on new poverty lines makes neither common sense nor economic sense.

“They are appalling. This is ridicules figures. This makes neither common sense nor economic sense. Nearly one third of the country is under poverty,” Yechury said.

“We will surely raise this issue in the parliament,” he added.

A panel headed by former Economic Advisor to Prime Minister C.Rangarajan sets the poverty line at RS.32 per day in rural areas and Rs.47 in urban areas.

Building and construction companies in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have stopped buying cement stocks for the past two days in protest against the unprecedented 50 per cent spurt in prices in the past few weeks.

Last week, Builders had announced their decision not to lift cement stocks during July 5-12 as a mark of their objection alleging cartelisation in pricing by the Cement Manufacturers’ Association.

The Supreme Court Monday held the Shariyat courts that dispense justice among Muslim community members have no legal sanctity and at times their order infringes the fundamental rights of the people.

The apex court bench headed by Justice C.K. Prasad said that religious courts cannot pass an order that infringes on the fundamental rights of a person or of an affected person on a plea by a third person.

The court said the Shariyat courts can only pass edicts and only when an affected person approaches it.

“O mankind! Be conscious of your Lord, who has created you from one soul (Adam), and out of it created its mate (Eve), and out of the two spread many men and women. And remain conscious of Allah, in whose name you demand [your rights] from one another, and of these ties of kinship. Verily, Allah is ever watchful over you!”
(Quran 4:1)

Rajasthan BJP today slammed state Congress chief Sachin Pilot alleging that he was trying to impress his party high command by making baseless statements against Chief Minister Vausandhra Raje, whom he had criticised a day before for “seeking” to repeal MGNREGA.

State BJP president Ashok Parnami alleged that the Congress leader was “busy making a record of false statements” against the Rajasthan government.

“Pilot is busy making record of false statement against the Raje government every day and misleading people of the state,” Parnami told reporters here.

Tamil Nadu Coastal Area Fishermen’s Association and the Fishermen’s Association on Monday decided to boycott fishing activities indefenitely from July 21 to protest against continuous arrest and attack on fishemen by the Sri lankan navalmen.

A meeting of the Associations was held here after 20 fishermen were arrested along with their four boats and were taken to Sri Lanka yesterday.

The fishermen also wanted the Centre to restore their fishing rights in the traditional areas in Palk Bay which included Katchatheevu, Jesuraja, president of the Fishermen’s Association told PTI.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has expelled Samajwadi Party leader Rajesh Masala for his anti-party activities.

Masala, who was party’s nominee from Amethi in 2007 Assembly polls, was expelled from the party for six years yesterday. Yadav, who is also the state party chief, ordered the expulsion.

According to local MLA and Cabinet minister Gayatri Prasad Prajapati, “Masala had garlanded BJP leader Nitin Gadkari when he was in Amethi district during the Lok Sabha polls.”

“Anyone found indulging in anti-party acts will be dismissed from the party,” he said.

Reacting to the transfer of Gujarat Governor Kamla Beniwal to Mizoram today, Congress said it was a “political transfer” and an “act to damage democracy” by the BJP.

“It is a political transfer. Earlier, she was asked to resign, but she had declined. A governor should not depend on the mercy of the government or cannot be shifted as the government changed,” Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president Arjun Modhvadia told PTI.

Kamla Beniwal (87) took charge as the Governor of Gujarat on November 27, 2009.

As the budget session is set to begin on Monday, the Delhi Congress is likely to gherao the Parliament House protesting against the rail fare hike and rising prices of essential commodities.

DPCC president Arvinder Singh had earlier said that the protesters will assemble outside the Parliament and launch a “Halla Bol Andolan.”

Meanwhile, the party is protesting against the rail fare hike in Faridabad.

Eleven builders were crushed under a warehouse wall in Tamil Nadu on Sunday, barely a week after the collapse of an eleven storey building killed some 60 people in the same state.

Building collapses are common in India, where unscrupulous builders and officials often dodge regulations and the shortage of affordable housing means new arrivals to cities are often willing to live in substandard accommodation.

Nicole Scherzinger says she was not able to enjoy her success in her twenties.

The 36-year-old star, who has been in an on-and-off relationship with British Formula One driver Louis Hamilton for six years, said she wasn’t able to enjoy her success when she was a member of The Pussycat Dolls

“My 20s were fruitful but not enjoyable. Being in The Pussycat Dolls was probably my loneliest time because I was quite insatiable. Nothing was ever good enough and I didn’t know how to take a break. My 30s have definitely been more chillaxed.

Cheng Cheng, a two-year-old Chinese boy can live without milk, but not without alcohol.

The toddler, who lives in the Anhui province of China, has become an international sensation for showing extreme addiction to alcohol at such a young age.

Cheng was just 10-months-old when he tasted alcohol for the first time and downed his first bottle of beer before celebrating his first birthday, The Daily Mail reported.

The boy’s father is said to have dipped chopsticks in white wine and put it in his infant’s mouth.

Incidents of sexual assaults continue to bring shame to Uttar Pradesh and the country.

A 23- year- old school teacher was allegedly abducted and raped in Balwakheri village of Muzaffarnagar district on Saturday evening by a youth while two others videographed the incident on their mobile phones.
The victim was returning home after giving tuition when one of them abducted her.

Kate Upton says she is sick of fake rumours in tabloids about her life.

The 22-year-old model said that the tabloids are obsessed about her life, especially her love life,

“Reading things about myself that aren’t true drives me crazy. I’ve managed to block it out, but my family really hasn’t – so they’ll read about me and then call me up saying, ‘Are you alright? I saw this happened’.

“My mum will call and say: ‘Well, I saw you went to Vegas, when you could have come to the family reunion…’ and I’m like, ‘mum, I swear, I’m in Europe!’ It’s insane!,” she said.

The Middle East emirate has announced their plans to build the world’s largest shopping mall titled “The Mall of the World” in Dubai, according to reports.

The largest shopping mall will have its own theme park, 20,000 hotel rooms and a inside climate-controlled dome, Metro.co.uk reported.

Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum said that this project complemented their plans to transform Dubai into a cultural, tourist and economic hub for the 2billion people that lived in the region around them and they were determined to achieve their vision.

At least five policemen were killed in two separate firing incidents in Pakistan, media reported Monday.

An official said three policemen were killed and one was injured late Sunday when some people riding motorbikes opened fire in Sindh province’s Hyderabad city, Xinhua reported.

The official said the policemen were on their routine patrol across the city when they stopped four suspected people riding two motorbikes.

In another incident in the city of Quetta in Balochistan province, two policemen were killed in firing by unknown gunmen.

……IANS

Twenty-seven-year-old Serb tennis star Novak Djokovic won his second Wimbledon title on Sunday night after a hard fought five set match against seven-time Wimbledon champion Roger Federer.

Djokovic beat Federer 6-7 (7-9) 6-4 7-6 (7-4) 5-7 6-4 to secure his seventh Grand Slam title, reports the BBC.

He had lost his previous three major finals, and will now reclaim the number one ranking from Rafael Nadal.

After his win, an emotional Djokovic dedicated the title to his soon-to-be wife and forthcoming baby, and thanked Federer for ” allowing him to win”.

A benchmark index of Indian equities markets Monday hit a record high of 26,099.35 points in the early session on pre-budget optimism.

Budget is due July 10.

Good buying was observed in IT, metal and auto sectors, while selling pressure was seen in fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector.

The 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 26,039.67 points, was trading at 26,058.61 points (at 9.28 a.m.) in the early session, up 96.55 points or 0.37 percent from the previous day’s close at 25,962.06 points.