Month: July 2014

The Uttar Pradesh government Monday recommended that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) be referred the Mohanlalganj murder case in which a woman was found murdered 10 days back on the outskirts of the state capital.

Though the police claimed to have cracked the case and arrested a private security guard, neither the family nor opposition parties were satisfied with the investigation. The family then demanded a CBI probe into the matter.

The family had begun a sit-in in the city, demanding the case be handed over to the CBI.

Indian squash players Saurav Ghosal and Anaka Alankamony bit the dust Monday bringing to an end their individual campaigns in squash singles at the Commonwealth Games here.

While Ghosal lost his men’s singles bronze medal match 1-3 to England’s Peter Barker, Anaka went down in the women’s singles plate final with an exact scoreline of 1-3 to Deon Saffery of Wales.

After losing the first game 5-11, Ghosal came back well to win the next 11-6 and level the match. But Parker was the better on the day to win the next two games 11-5, 11-6 and take home the metal.

People Monday blocked the Gurgaon-Rewari state highway for over five hours while alleging police inaction against cow smugglers.

The residents of several villages Monday afternoon blocked the state highway near Hyatpur village, eight km from the Gurgaon bus stand. It resulted in a huge traffic jam.

Aam Aadmi Party leader Yogendra Yadav criticised the police for inaction against cattle smugglers.

In his statement, Yadav said police remained inactive despite the people informing them about smuggling of the animals.

Assam has approached the union government for support for setting up skill development centres across the state to increase employability of the state’s youth, a minister said Monday.

State Industry and Power minister Pradyut Bordoloi said a proposal has been sent by the state government to Union Minister of State for Sports and Youth Affairs and Skill Development Sarbananda Sonowal in this regard.

Emirates will stop flying over Iraq due to concerns over jihadist missile attacks following the MH17 air disaster in Ukraine, the airline’s president Tim Clark said today.

Almost 300 people aboard Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 died when it came down in eastern Ukraine nearly two weeks ago, with Washington and Europe claiming it was shot down by a Russian-made surface-to-air missile fired by pro-Moscow militants.

Thailand’s Election Commission (EC) is accusing former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra of abusing power by using public funds to campaign for elections, local media reported Monday.

EC investigators have alleged that Yingluck, along with eight other former cabinet ministers and national police chief, violated the already-abrogated 2007 constitution by making trips across the country ahead of the later-nullified Feb 2 general elections, Xinhua reported citing the Bangkok Post which quoted a high-placed source in the EC.

The leader of Hamas is demanding anew that Israel end its occupation of Gaza and the West Bank.

Khaled Meshaal said in an interview broadcast today that he believes the world hasn’t taken an even-handed view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“Unfortunately the world doesn’t blame the Israelis,” said Meshaal, interviewed by CBS news anchor Charlie Rose from Cairo.

Meshaal complained that Palestinians too frequently have to hear pleas for the security of the Jewish state, asking “why don’t you give it to Palestinians?”

Four people, including two women, have been arrested after a woman in Rohtak town in Haryana said they assaulted her and hammered nails into her private parts, police sources said Monday.

The woman alleged that two men, and their wives, abducted and assaulted her and her husband over a petty dispute.

She said the accused hammered nails into her private parts. The woman was admitted to a hospital in Rohtak Sunday.

Alleging that the incident took place a week back, the woman said she was kept in illegal confinement.

The aviation regulator Monday directed budget passenger airlines SpiceJet to immediately refund the passengers of a Mumbai-Delhi flight which was delayed for five hours last month.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) took cognisance of aborted flight SG-419 which was ferrying 172 passengers between Mumbai and New Delhi on June 16. The flight was delayed by around five hours due to a technical fault.

The flight was finally operated after about four-and-half hours of delays when another plane was brought in.

India’s men paddlers suffered a disappointing finish in the team bronze medal playoff, losing to Nigeria 1-3 at the Commonwealth Games here Monday.

India, who had won the bronze in the same category four years ago at home in New Delhi, started well by winning the first singles match but lost the next three to go down to the Africans at the Scotstoun Sports Campus.

Veteran A. Sharath Kamal gave India a good start by winning the first match 3-0 (11-9, 11-5, 11-7) against Segun Toriola.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon Monday urged Israel and te Islamist Hamas movement to renew a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza and called on those responsible to “step back from provoking or inflicting yet more tragic violence on civilians there”.

“The secretary general calls on the parties to renew a humanitarian pause in Gaza and reiterates his demand for a durable ceasefire that could set the ground for the start of comprehensive negotiations,” said a statement issued here by Ban’s spokesman.

At least 31 people were killed and 20 others wounded in the latest violent attacks and conflicts in Iraq, police source said Monday.

Police patrols Monday found 14 unidentified bodies – 11 men and three women – in different parts of Baghdad, a police source told Xinhua, noting that most of the bodies had signs of torture and gunshot wounds.

It was not immediately clear when and why they were killed and no group has so far claimed responsibility for the killings.

A search is under way for an Indian sailor who went missing after he fell overboard from a ship he was working in in Australia, media reported Monday.

Mukesh Lala Fulbaria, 41, fell off from a crude oil tanker MT Sigma Integrity off the coast of Carnarvon in western Australia Sunday and has been missing since then, the WAtoday.com news portal reported.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) issued a general shipping call and two vessels, The Venus and the Vil Atlantic, immediately joined the search along with an AMSA Dornier aircraft out of Perth.

Health Minister Harsh Vardhan Monday said health personnel at both the central and state levels will be mobilised to boost diarrhoea-control measures.

He was speaking at the launch of the nationwide “Intensified Diarrhoea Control Fortnight (IDCF)”.

“The measures are a set of activities which include enhancing advocacy, stepping up awareness generation, establishing more ORS-zinc corners, enthusing ASHA volunteers to reach oral rehydration solution (ORS) packets to families with children as well as detecting kids in need of treatment,” the minister said.

Two men, against whom 125 cases including that of murder are registered in Haryana and the National Capital Region (NCR), have been arrested here, police said Monday.

Sanjay, 32, and Sandeep, 26, were arrested July 24 from Palam Vihar area here.

Sanjay is a resident of Delhi while Sandeep hails from Sonipat district of Haryana. Both are school dropouts.

“During interrogation, they revealed that 125 cases of heinous crimes, including murder, are registered against them in Sonipat, Panipat and Delhi,” Joint Commissioner of Police Vivek Sharma told media persons.

A 40-year-old man has been arrested here for molesting a 10-year-old girl, police said Monday.

Ram Swarup Mandal, who hails from Madhubani district in Bihar, was arrested for sexually molesting his landlord’s daughter in Naharpur Rupa area.

“He molested the girl on the night of July 25 when the child was sleeping with her family on the terrace as there was no electricity,” a police officer said.

During a similar power cut Sunday night (July 27), when the family went to the terrace, the girl refused to go and revealed about the molestation.

Union Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari Monday announced an ambitious plan to double the capacity of 12 major Indian ports from the current 800 million metric tonnes to 1,600 mmts in the next five years.

In this context, the ports have already drawn up action plans for capacity addition of 500 mmts, of which projects to the tune of 350 mmts will commence from the current fiscal, he said.

“Ports and roads play a key role and country’s GDP can be boosted by two percent if these key infrastructure sectors are developed to their potential.

Militias in the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic (LNR) in eastern Ukraine have killed 23 Ukrainian army troops over the past 24 hours, media reported Monday.

The Ukrainian army’s territorial battalion Aidar was taking part in three different operations in the southeast of the country and each of its groups sustained losses, the UNIAN news agency reported.

In all, 23 troops were killed, the news agency reported citing the battalion’s social network account.
(IANS/ITAR -TASS)

At least three people were killed Monday in an explosion at a petrol station in northern Nigeria’s Kano state, police sources said.

A police officer told Xinhua over phone that a female suicide bomber attacked a petrol station Monday morning, killing at least three people and injuring many others.

The source said more than 10 injured people were taken to hospital.

This bombing came after twin blasts rocked a Catholic church and a police checkpoint Sunday afternoon.

This is the third explosion within five days in Kano.

–IANS

Amid continuing protests by civil service aspirants demanding the scrapping of an aptitude test, the government said Monday that the row will be resolved soon.

“The UPSC issue will be resolved within a week,” said Home Minister Rajnath Singh, a day after he apprised Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the steps being taken to address the concerns of the aspirants who have dubbed the Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT) “discriminatory”.

A students delegation met Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, who promised to raise the matter in parliament.

Police here Monday registered a criminal case against clerks of the Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) for forging documents to sell a plot of Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat in the Indirapuram area.

Police said a man named Gulab Yadav filed a complaint in which he alleged that GDA clerk Vinay Kumar lured him to buy two plots in February 2010.

He said the clerk arranged a meeting with supervisors Chandra Pal and Virpal Raghav, who called three clerks Prashant Kumar, Rajendra and Mewa Lal.

Three major political parties of Nepal, at a meeting here chaired by Prime Minister Sushil Koirala, Monday decided to make the upcoming visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the Himalayan nation a grand success.

The meeting also discussed the preparations for the visit and discussed ways on how to make it a success, party leaders said after the meeting.

Chaired by Prime Minister Koirala, the meeting had top brass from Nepali Congress (NC), Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) (CPN-UML) and United Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-M) attending.

Indian security equipment manufacturer MKU Monday said it has bagged an order to provide 40,000 pieces of body armour to Ecuador, which is upgrading the protection ability of its police force.

“India is looked upon primarily as an importer of defence and security equipment. Orders like this will help in putting India on the export map of world class defence and security technology,” said Manoj Gupta, chairman, MKU.

Following the clash violence between Sikh and Muslim community members in Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur town, a high-level delegation of Shiromani Akali Dal met Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav in Lucknow on Monday and urged him to ensure safety of Sikhs in the state.

The delegation of Punjab’s ruling party urged Akhilesh Yadav to provide adequate compensation to Sikhs, who become victim of the violence. They also urged him to ensure safety of Sikhs and asked him to allow construction of the gurdwara as per the norms under the ambit of law, a party spokesman said here.

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