Month: July 2014

India has sought help from France in securing the release of 39 Indians who are in captivity in war-hit Iraq for over a fortnight.

The matter was discussed during the meetings the visiting French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius had with leaders here.

Confirming that the matter was discussed, Fabius, however, refused to divulge the details as to what kind of help has been assured by France.

“We discussed that, but I will be discreet about it. We are exchanging elements by our intelligence,” he told a select group of news agency journalists.

China launched bullet train services Tuesday along a mountainous terrain touted as the most challenging the country has ever built.

The train left Yichang City of central Hubei Province Tuesday morning for Wanzhou district in southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality, traveling a route that cuts through rugged mountains and under hundreds of bridges and tunnels, Xinhua reported.

Wang Tongliang, a railway official, said the service will cut journey time between Chongqing and Wuhan, capital of Hubei, from over 11 hours to just six hours and 40 minutes.

India will build a broadband highway connecting 2.5 lakh panchayats across the country in the next three years to provide a host of public services, union Communications and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said Tuesday.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set a target of providing broadband connectivity to 2.5 lakh local bodies (spread over six lakh villages) across the country over the next three years, with 50,000 this (fiscal) year and one lakh each over the next two years,” Prasad said at a meeting here with IT industry honchos.

Ace shuttler Saina Nehwal, who won the Australian Super Series title in Sydney on Sunday, claimed on Tuesday that her performance in the Uber Cup had helped her to stage a comeback.

“While I was training during the last two months, I was quite confident that I will soon get hold of a title. Even before the Uber Cup started, I had predicted it, but it never crossed my mind that I will get it so soon,” Saina told ANI.

The Delhi High Court today sought response from a part-owner of the alleged disputed house in which former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal was expected to move into as tenant.

Justice V K Shali directed Narender Kumar Jain to file his response on the plea moved by his elder brother Virender Kumar Jain, who claims to have 50 per cent share in the property-No. 4-B, Flag Staff Road, Civil Lines, Delhi, where Kejriwal had planned to shift as a tenant.

Kerala Government has appointed senior IAS officer A P M Mohammed Hanish as Nodal Officer for the matches likely to beld in Kochi during the 2017 FIFA under-17 world cup football.

The appointment is as per FIFA’s direction, a Kerala Football Association press release said.

The official has also been entrusted with overseeing the infrastructure and development of soccer in the run up to hosting the event.

Hanish is the Kerala Roads and Bridges Managing Director.

BJP today slammed Uttar Pradesh Parliamentary Affairs Minister Azam Khan for his remarks comparing BJYM protest against deteriorating law and order situation in the state with the terrorist attack on Parliament and said he “must prove his point”.

“Azam in his statement in the Assembly has said that BJYM workers (during their yesterday’s protest) were armed with petrol bombs and acid bottles. If it is so, then what were the state police and intelligence unit doing?” BJP spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak asked.

Spelling cheer for tiger lovers, the union environment and forests ministry Tuesday notified the Bor Sanctuary, New Bor Sanctuary and the New Bor Extended Wildlife Sanctuary in Maharashtra as a critical tiger reserve, the sixth tiger sanctuary in the state.

The announcement was made by Minister of State for Environment, Forests and Climate Change Prakash Javadekar in New Delhi.

The Bor sanctuary in Wardha district is the sixth after the existing tiger sanctuaries in Tadoba, Melghat, Pench, Sahyadri and Nagzira, and the 47th in the country.

The Delhi High Court today agreed to hear the appeal of one of the three persons awarded life term in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case for the murder of five members of a family during the pogrom.

A bench of justices P K Bhasin and J R Midha allowed the appeal filed by Girdhari Lal against his conviction and sentence awarded by the trial court in May last year and listed it for hearing on July 7.

Six western Balkan countries Tuesday signed up to join Horizon 2020, the EU’s new seven-year research and innovation programme.

The countries are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and the Republic of Moldova, Xinhua reported.

The six countries, all of which have cooperated on research and innovation with the EU through the seventh framework programme (FP7), signed association agreements in Brussels together with Robert-Jan Smits, director-general for Research and Innovation at the European Commission.

Andhra Pradesh Leader of the Opposition in Legislative Council C Ramachandraiah today demanded Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu take immediate steps for waiving loans to farmers.

“I demand Chandrababu Naidu not to indulge in dilatory tactics. We are fully aware what lone is to be waived. There is no necessity for constituting a committee and giving 45 and 50 days time to submit the report…. We need action,” he told reporters here.

Holding that Naidu came to power on the loan-waiver plank, Ramachandraiah wondered why the TDP government could not waive the loans.

There has been bombing and firing in the vicinity of the building in Iraq’s Tikrit town which houses 46 Indian nurses and they had taken refuge in basement, the government said Tuesday and expressed hope that they will be evacuated safely.

External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said here that it was a “delicate situation” and Iraqi authorities had been informed about the location of nurses.

He said that despite the difficulties, the government hoped to extricate the nurses safely.

There was uproar in India Tuesday over reports that the US allegedly allowed its National Security Agency (NSA) to spy on the BJP, with both ruling and opposition party leaders urging the government to take up the issue with Washington.

“Edward Snowden’s revelation on spying on BJP needs to be authenticated. If true, MEA (ministry of external affairs) must respond to this appropriately,” Bharatiya Janata Party leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy said.

“It is a matter of deep concern,” he added.

The opposition Congress also said that the government must take up the issue with the US.

A new healthcare model that empowers the non-physician work force to diagnose individuals at a high risk of cardio-vascular diseases has considerable potential, a study has found.

“Models of care that empower the non-physician health care workers to work alongside physicians and support them to diagnose and manage high-risk individuals appears to have considerable potential to deal with the growing burden of cardio-vascular disease in resource poor settings,” a series of studies done at the George Institute for Global Health, Hyderabad, said.

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), now calling itself Islamic State, Tuesday captured an eastern Syrian town bordering Iraq after days of intense clashes with rival jihadist groups.

The ISIS, an Al Qaeda splinter group, Tuesday captured the Bukamal town in Syria’s eastern province of Deir al-Zour after “intense” battles with the Al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, Xinhua reported citing the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London- based watchdog.

The National Commission for Women (NCW) Tuesday issued notice to Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha member Tapas Paul seeking an explanation for his controversial rape remark.

The NCW took suo motu cognizance of media reports and complaints received from various organisations on the “derogatory statement against women” made by the Trinamool parliamentarian.

The panel asked Paul to provide an explanation in the matter, said an official release.

With the countrywide chorus rising for his arrest and expulsion from parliament, Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha member Tapas Paul Tuesday tendered an unconditional apology for his “deeply insensitive” rape comments.

With political leaders, eminent personalities and activists baying for his head and the National Commission for Women (NCW) writing to the president and prime minister seeking his expulsion from parliament, the Lok Sabha member, in a letter addressed to his party and the media, sought apology terming his comments a “gross error of judgment” and “deeply insensitive”.

India’s leading real estate company DLF Tuesday said it has got a five-star grading from British Safety Council for its office complexes in Gurgaon.

“It is an overwhelming achievement for us and a testament to our passion, drive and commitment to safety,” said Sriram Khattar, chief executive officer of DLF’s rental business.

“It not only encourages us to continuously strive for excellence but also places responsibility of continued adherence to the highest safety standards,” Khattar said in a statement.

Goa recorded a 13.25 percent increase in foreign tourists arriving by chartered flights during the recently concluded tourist season, a tourism ministry statement said Tuesday.

As many as 1,128 charter flights carrying 2.61 lakh foreign passengers landed in Goa during the peak season from October 2013 to May this year.

This was against 996 charter flights from October 2012 to May 2013 which brought in 2.15 lakh tourists.

In a major crackdown on illegal immigrants, police in Saudi Arabia have arrested 21 Indians for residing illegally in the country, media reported Tuesday.

Riyadh police conducted the major field operation to catch labour law violators with the help of aerial surveillance for the last six days which covered remote farms, villages and courtyards on the outskirts of Riyadh, the Arab News reported.

“Individuals who were arrested included expats who have been residing illegally in the country,” Fawaz Al-Maiman, Riyadh police spokesman, was quoted as saying.

The Supreme Court Tuesday declined to entertain a PIL seeking direction to the government and the CBDT to enforce the tax demand of Rs.20,000 crore on the telecom giant Vodafone as they could not turn their back on their statutory obligations.

Declining to entertain the plea senior counsel Bishwajit Bhattacharyya, a bench of Justice H.L.Dattu and Justice S.A. Bobde asked him if he had ascertained what steps the income tax department had taken to recover the tax dues in pursuance to its notice to that effect.

Leading online consumer service and feedback platform Akosha Tuesday announced securing $5.2 million (Rs.31 crore) venture funding from Sequoia Capital to invest in technology and expand its enterprise solutions.

As a virtual platform, the company enables consumers to share grievances and feedback, resulting in quick resolution of their problems, while brands are able to leverage its software solution (OneDirect) to drive resolution and protect their brand equity by keeping customer complaints off social media.

The national capital experienced a sunny, sultry Tuesday with the maximum temperature settling at 35.2 degrees Celsius, a notch below the season’s average, but the humidity registering a high of 80 percent. Showers are expected in the city Wednesday, the Met office said.

“The sky will remain partly cloudy tomorrow (Wednesday) and some parts of the city may get thundershowers,” said an official of the India Meteorological Department.

The maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to hover around 34 and 29 degrees Celsius, respectively.

Well known producers Prasad V. Potluri of PVP Cinema and Dil Raju have jointly acquired the all Indian languages remake rights of recent Malayalam blockbuster “Bangalore Days”.

The film is expected to be remade in Telugu and Tamil right away.

“Taking the tinsel world by surprise, PVP Cinema and Dil Raju have jointly acquired the remake rights of ‘Bangalore Days’ for all Indian languages,” read a statement from PVP Cinema.

Robbers looted cash, jewellery and other valuables worth over Rs.30 lakh from two houses in Loni village here, a day after a man was gunned down and Rs.18 lakh looted from him, police said.

The robberies took place Monday night in Agraula area of Loni in Ghaziabad district, police said.

About a dozen robbers armed with pistols, iron rods and knives barged into the house of Phire Ram at 1.30 a.m. and took the entire family hostage.