Month: July 2014

England skipper Alastair Cook today praised the efforts of his team’s senior members for their contribution in the 266-run victory over India in the third Test here.

The seniors received a lot of a flak after England lost the second Test at Lord’s on a green top, but they came back strongly in the third game with Cook scoring two fifties, Ian Bell getting a century and James Anderson taking his 16th five-wicket haul in Test cricket, to help the hosts level the five-match series 1-1 in an emphatic fashion.

A group of international experts Thursday reached the crash site of the Malaysian passenger airliner in eastern Ukraine after the Ukrainian government called a daylong truce in that restive region.

Observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) along with four Dutch and Australian experts arrived at the crash site of the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, the OSCE mission in Ukraine said in a statement Thursday.

Accusing the TRS Government of not fulfilling a single promise that it made with the people, former minister DK Aruna on Thursday said that the Telangana Congress was planning to launch agitation across the State.

Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj Thursday said she raised the issue of US agencies allegedly snooping the BJP with visiting US Secretary of State John Kerry and conveyed to him the public anger in India about it.

“This act on part of the US is completely unacceptable to us since we are friendly nations,” Sushma Swaraj told the media here in a joint interaction with Kerry.

Kerry however said he can’t discuss the issue with the media as it is a practice in the US that intelligence matters are not discussed publicly.

India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni feels that if the batsmen fritter away starts in the remaining two Test matches, it could be a bit of a concern for the visitors.

On a track where England piled up 569 for seven, India scored 330 and 178 in their two innings.

“It will become a bit of concern once it becomes repetitive. Let’s hope that it doesn’t become a habit,” Dhoni told the mediapersons when asked about some of the batsmen throwing away their wickets after getting a start.

Forty trained men are scaring away monkeys from the parliament premises by posing as langurs, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu said Thursday.

“The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has hired 40 young people for this purpose,” Naidu said in parliament.

Rubber bullets are also being used to tackle the monkey menace, Naidu informed.

To deal with the problem of stray dogs, a team of dog catchers visits Parliament House and its surrounding areas twice a week.
(IANS)

Demanding a white paper on the total loan waiver, YSR Congress has said the TDP government is pushing the farmers in to indebtedness by going back on its poll promises and changing its stance frequently without addressing the core issue nor revealing how and when the waiver will be implemented.

The first budget session of Andhra Pradesh State Legislative Assembly is likely to be convened from August 16.

According to sources, Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnu will present the first budget of residuary State of Andhra Pradesh on August 18. Unlike 40-day long budget sessions of united Andhra Pradesh, the duration of forthcoming budget session may be comparatively short.

Officials say a commander with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah was killed in Iraq.

The Lebanese officials, close to the Shiite Hezbollah, say Ibrahim Mohammed al-Haj was killed during the past week while on a “jihadi mission” without providing further details.

It is the first known Hezbollah death in Iraq since Sunni extremists captured large parts of the country north and west of Baghdad in June.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

The CBI Thursday conducted 30 raids in various places in West Bengal and Odisha in connection with its probe in the Rs.10,000 crore Saradha chit fund scam.

The raids were conducted at offices as well as residences belonging to the various accused and the private companies against whom cases have been registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Trinamool Congress’s Rajya Sabha member Kunal Ghosh is one of the accused.

“We have conducted raids at 10 locations in West Bengal and 20 in Odisha,” a CBI official said.

A 31-year-old Indian has been jailed for four years in the UAE for smuggling and possessing poppy seeds which he claimed he had brought to use in cooking.

Customs inspectors at Dubai International Airport seized 102.5g of poppy seeds placed in the luggage of the Indian farmer, only identified as BS, when he arrived in Dubai in April.

During his trial, the accused admitted that he had brought in the substances with him but denied that it was a drug, Gulf News reported.

Apex industry body Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) has suggested to the Telangana government to take growth outside Hyderabad by building infrastructure in other parts of the state.

Stating that Telangana has potential to achieve double-digit growth rate, it called for expediting ongoing infrastructure projects and creating new infrastructure in other parts of the state.

Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has finalized two models of news cars to be inducted into the police force. He took the decision during a review meeting with the senior police officials at the State Secretariat here on Thursday.

Famed Bengali writer Nabarun Bhattacharya, a Sahitya Akademi awardee known for his radical left and anti-establishment views and championing of the marginalised urban milieu, died at a hospital here Thursday after a long battle with pancreatic cancer, his associates said. He was 66.

Bhattacharya, who left behind his wife and a son, breathed his last at 4.20 p.m. at the Thakurpukur Cancer hospital.

The Himachal Pradesh government Thursday requested the central government to make it mandatory to construct crash-barriers on roads located at a height of 4,000 feet and above, said Transport Minister G.S. Bali.

“The central government should make it mandatory to construct crash-barriers in all the Himalayan states,” he said.

At least 21 people were killed and 15 injured when a state roadways bus Tuesday rolled down into a gorge in Shimla district.

Deputy National Security Advisor Nehchal Sandhu, a former Intelligence Bureau director, resigned Thursday due to “personal reasons”, the government said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has accepted the resignation with “regret and expressed appreciation for Sandhu’s outstanding service to the country in a career spanning over 40 years”, an official statement said.

A career police officer, Sandhu was also the Secretary, National Security Council Secretariat.

The Board of Intermediate Education on Thursday extended the 2nd Phase of admissions into 1st year Intermediate for the academic year 2014-15 up to August 14.

The extension will be applicable to all Government/Private Aided/Private Unaided/Co-operative/ Residential/ Social Welfare Residential/Tribal Welfare Residential/Incentive Junior Colleges and Composite Degree Colleges in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana States who are offering two year Intermediate course.

Power-starved Meghalaya is preparing “wind energy density maps” to identify regions in the mountainous state where wind energy could be tapped to meet the power requirement, an official said Thursday.

“The MeECL (Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited) is mapping certain areas of the state where wind mills could be set up to harness the energy,” John Kharshiing, co-chairman of the Meghalaya State Planning Board, told journalists.

The corporation has so far identified some wind potential areas in West Khasi Hills and Jaintia Hills for setting up wind mills.

Andhra Pradesh government is moving towards achieving “zero- power cuts” milestone.

In a meeting with the AP Power Secretary, APTransco CMD and other officials, Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu said that the power deficit in the state has been brought down from 22 million units per day to zero during the first week of June 2014. The state government will implement the “power for all” programme in Andhra Pradesh October 2, 2014. This initiative will ensure 24×7 power supply to all domestic, commercial and industrial consumers.

The death toll in Maharashtra’s Malin village, which was almost entirely wiped out by a landslide, rose to 31 Thursday. Home Minister Rajnath Singh visited the disaster-struck area and assured full central assistance to the state to deal with the tragedy.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also assured all possible help to the state in dealing with this enormous natural calamity,” Rajnath Singh told media persons after visiting the site and meeting the survivors undergoing treatment in nearby hospitals.

Ghana has offered to settle progressive farmers from Punjab to give a push to the agricultural sector in the western African country, a Punjab government spokesman said Thursday.

Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal acceded to the proposal by a delegation from Ghana led by Deputy Energy and Petroleum Minister Benjamin Dagadu to settle farmers from Punjab in Ghana.

Badal assured the Ghana minister that a high-level delegation from Punjab would visit the African country soon to lay the groundwork for this settlement scheme, the spokesman said.

A 60-year-old pedestrian succumbed to the injuries which he suffered after being hit by a motorcycle while crossing the road.

According to Maheshwaram police, the deceased, A Narasimha, met with the accident near his residence in Masanapally on July 24. He was admitted to the Osmania General Hospital where he died Thursday morning.

———————–INN

The Ramgopalpet Police on Thursday retrieved the body of a 65-year-old man from the Hussainsagar Lake.

The deceased was later identified as E Mallesham, a resident of Sanjeevaiah Park. He was a watchman at a private firm and is suspected to have committed suicide by jumping into the lake on July 29 due to financial problems.

———————–INN

The imam of China’s largest mosque has been killed in a city in the country’s Xinjiang region that has witnessed simmering violence over the past one year, often attributed to its ethnic population.

Jume Tahir, 74, was reportedly stabbed after he led early morning prayers at the Id Kah mosque in the county-level city of Kashgar in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous region Wednesday, BBC reported Thursday.

Tahir, who was from Xinjiang’s mainly Muslim Uyghur ethnic minority, was a supporter of Chinese policies in the region.

In separate cases, three persons including a woman committed suicide due to different reasons.

In Saifabad police limits, 26-year-old A Priyanka committed suicide by consuming sleeping pills at her residence in Chintal Basti. She took the extreme step on July 25 and died at the Osmania General Hospital on Wednesday night. According to police, Priyanka was upset with her husband A Vijay who was a habitual drunkard.