Month: July 2014

The controversial Article 20 in Bahrain’s draft traffic law that bars expatriates from driving in the country has been ruled “unconstitutional” by the Constitutional Court here, a media report said Thursday.

In its landmark ruling, the court, chaired by its President Shaikh Khalifa bin Rashid Al Khalifa, said the article was not in compliance with provisions of the constitution, Gulf Daily News reported.

The Bahraini parliament first introduced the article into the draft traffic law with MPs refusing to omit it as they claimed that most traffic offences were committed by expatriates.

Did you miss the staging of “Side-Effects” last time in the capital? Here is an opportunity to catch up on the Saleem Shah-directed play, which is coming here once again at the weekend.

Inspired by Oscar-winning Hollywood director Woody Allen’s three wittiest stories — “The Lunatics Tale”, “Retribution“ and “Remembering Needleman”, the Indian adaptation of “Side-Effects” will be staged Saturday and Sunday at Alliance Française in the capital.

World football body FIFA said that no evidence of match-fixing was found during the World Cup as claimed by German daily Der Spiegel.

The German newspaper Tuesday sensationally claimed that Croatia’s 4-0 win over Cameroon was fixed. This led to the Cameroon football federation (FECAFOOT) opening a probe against its own players, reports EFE.

Ralf Mutschke, FIFA’s director of security, said in a statement that the allegations “put the integrity of FIFA World Cup matches in question, which is a serious allegation.”

UN agencies are calling for urgent action from the international community to help avert a humanitarian crisis in Somalia.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the UN Children’s Fund (Unicef) also called on donors to help them step up their response as well as to consolidate the recent gains made in the Horn of Africa region, Xinhua reported.

A Bangladeshi national, suspected to be an Indian Mujahideen operative and involved in the 2010 German Bakery blast in Pune, was arrested here and Thursday sent to police custody till July 16 by a court here.

Zahid Hussain was nabbed by the Special Task Force of the city police Wednesday and explosives, ammunition and fake Indian currency were seized from him.

AirAsia India founder and CEO Tony Fernandes looks forward to the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to set things right in the civil aviation sector.

“Indian aviation history has failed so far. Not many have made money, some airlines have gone bust…” Fernandes said.

Modi’s plans to promote tourism and a favourable ruling to allow carriers to fly the international route soon could help the industry greatly, Fernandes said.

Currently, a carrier has to operate domestically for five years before being permitted to fly on international routes.

Walking regularly improves the mood, fitness and ability to think in people suffering from Parkinson’s disease.

“The results of our study suggest that walking may provide a safe and easily accessible way of improving the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease and improve quality of life,” said study author Ergun Uc from University of Iowa in the US.

The study was based on data from 60 people who participated in moderate activity sessions while wearing a heart rate monitor.

There is “no reason for any anxiety” at the moment, said Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy Thursday as 46 Indian nurses were moved out of Iraq’s Tikrit city by insurgents.

“…at the moment there need be no reason for any anxiety,” Chandy told reporters here. However, he added: “We are unable to say where they are heading.”

Chandy, who was flanked by three senior cabinet colleagues, was speaking to reporters after interactions with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her team of diplomatic officials during the course of the day.

Majlis Itihad-e-Milat, a group of religious organisations in Jammu and Kashmir, Thursday cautioned the Centre against any move to create separate settlements for migrant Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley.

The group, however, said the Pandits were welcome to return and settle at their ancestral places.

“Kashmiri Pandits are an important part of our society. They are welcome to return to the Valley and settle at their ancestral places or any other place alongside their Muslim brothers.

Desert scorpion burrows have complex construction, with a flat platform just below the entrance leading to a cool deep dead end chamber that provides a refuge for the scorpions to rest during the heat of the day.

Rather than being simple holes in the ground, it was found that the burrows followed a very sophisticated design. Each burrow began with a short, vertical entrance shaft that flattened out a few centimetres below the surface into a horizontal platform.

The government is examining proposals for interest subvention and public-private partnership to meet the housing shortage in urban areas, Urban Development Minister M.Venkaiah Naidu said Thursday as he suggested a 25-point charter for planning and management to ensure planned urbanisation.

Addressing a conclave of ministers of housing and urban development of states and union territories here, Naidu called for “out of box” thinking and solutions to address emerging challenges of urbanisation in the country.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced Thursday that his country will ease some of the unilateral sanctions imposed on North Korea.

The prime minister, who gave no details on the sanctions to be lifted, made the announcement after the regime of Kim Jong-un accepted to investigate the kidnappings of Japanese citizens in North Korea decades ago.

“We will lift some of the measures” when North Korea starts investigating the abductions, Abe said.

The Indian government Thursday introduced four new vaccines, including one for Japanese Encephalitis (JE), in the national immunization programme, which will now provide free vaccines against 13 life-threatening diseases to 27 million children annually.

The decision to introduce the vaccines for rotavirus, rubella and polio (injectable) as part of the universal immunization programme was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, an official here said.

The JE vaccine would be available for adults in 179 districts in nine states where the disease is highly prevalent.

The Supreme Court Thursday asked BSES Yamuna, one of the three private power distribution firms in the national capital, to pay its current outstanding dues of Rs.161 crore to electricity generation and transmission companies by July 15.

The apex court bench of Chief Justice R.M. Lodha, Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice Kurian Joseph ordered the payment of dues outstanding till June 30 as mentioned in a statement furnished by BSES Yamuna.

Thirteen months after actress Jiah Khan was found dead in her Mumbai home, the Bombay High Court Thursday ordered the Mumbai police to hand over the case to the CBI.

The court ruling came on a plea filed by Jiah’s mother Rabia Khan last October seeking a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

A US citizen, Jiah, 25, was found dead in her Juhu residence late June 3, 2013 in a case of apparent suicide. Police later recovered a suicide note purportedly penned by her.

The US government has notified the US Congress of its plans to sell to India 22 anti-ship missiles at an estimated cost of $200 million, saying it would help strengthen the US-India strategic relationship.

The Pentagon’s Defence Security Cooperation Agency, which handles foreign arms sales, said it had delivered the required certification notifying Congress of this possible sale following approval of India’s request by the State Department.

Two troopers of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) Thursday sustained injuries during a gun battle with militants in Meghalaya’s insurgency-hit Garo Hills region.

A police official said an operation was launched by security forces on specific information about the presence of 15 Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) rebels at a hillock at Bolsal A’ding in North Garo Hills district, about 300 km from here.

A benchmark index of the Indian equities market Thursday closed 17.46 points or 0.07 percent lower after resuming trade post-noon.

Trading was hit by a technical snag for nearly three hours. “The market closure duration from 9.42 a.m. till 12.45 p.m. was approximately 3 hours and 3 minutes,” the BSE said in a statement.

The 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 25,875.75 points, closed trade at 25,823.75 points (provisional), down 17.46 points or 0.07 percent from the previous day’s close at 25,841.21 points.

At least two people were killed Thursday in firing in Pakistan’s Balochistan province.

A police official who requested anonymity told Dawn online that police found two bullet-riddled bodies in Panjgur’s Tasap area.

Residents of Tasap spotted the bodies and informed the police.

“Both bodies have been shifted to Civil Hospital Panjgur,” the official was quoted as saying.

The motive behind the killing could not be ascertained.
(IANS)

On Wednesday the discovery of a body in a Jerusalem forest raised suspicions that a missing Palestinian youth had been killed by Israelis avenging the deaths of three abducted Jewish teens.

Rock-throwing Palestinians come to blows with Israeli forces in Jerusalem after the news, but no serious injuries were reported.

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli PM, in a statement, urged police to “to swiftly investigate who was behind the loathsome murder and its motive“. He called on all sides “not to take the law into their own hands”.

Ukraine will eventually regain control of Crimea, the east European country’s newly-appointed Defence Minister Valery Geletei said Thursday.

“I am certain Ukraine will be victorious. Believe me, the victory parade will be held in Ukrainian Sevastopol,” Xinhua quoted Geletei as saying in a meeting at the country’s parliament, the Supreme Rada.

The Ukrainian parliament Thursday appointed Geletei as defence minister after his candidacy was submitted by President Petro Poroshenko for deliberation.

The US is likely to sell anti-ship Harpoon missiles to India at an estimated cost of $200 million in a bid to strengthen the strategic partnership between the two countries.

The US Department of Defence in a release said the State Department has “made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to India” and the Congress was notified about the required certification of this possible sale on July 1.

Shaik Janimun all set to become the first Muslim woman to occupy the prestigious zilla parishad chairperson seat in Andhra Pradesh.

She belongs to Kakumanu village in Guntur district. No Muslim woman was elected to the ZP chairperson post in the undivided AP.

Janimun was a graduate in computer sciences, was elected ZPTC member from her native mandal, Kakumanu, on TDP ticket. Though, party district leaders promised to make her ZP chief of Guntur for a full five-year term during the campaign for general elections, they changed their plans after the party returned to power.

Myanmar authorities Thursday imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew in six townships in Myanmar’s second largest city Mandalay, after a series of communal riots in the town led to the death of two people and injured 14 others, official sources said.

The curfew was imposed in Mandalay’s townships of Aungmyay Tharzan, Chanaye Tharzan, Mahar Aungmyay, Chanmya Tharzi, Pyigyi Tagon and Amarapura, Xinhua reported.

The curfew, which bans gatherings of more than five people, will be in effect from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m., the sources said.

In 1935, picture of a cherubic six-month-old baby girl was picked up by Nazi dictator Adolph Hitler’s propaganda machine as its symbol of the “perfect” Aryan baby.

According to reports in The Independent and The Daily Mail, the frontage was replicated across Nazi Germany on cards and posters without knowing that the baby was Jewish.

“I can laugh about it now,” the 80-year-old Professor Hessy Taft told Germany’s Bild newspaper in an interview. “But if the Nazis had known who I really was, I wouldn’t be alive.”