The Israeli army Sunday denied responsibility for the deaths of 16 Palestinians during Thursday’s attack on a UN school in northern Gaza.
“The inquiry as well as documented footage conclude that a single errant mortar landed in the courtyard of the (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees) UNRWA school in Beit Hanun when it was completely empty,” Xinhua quoted an Israel Defence Forces (IDF) spokesperson as saying.
India were knocked out of badminton semi-finals 0-3 by England, who will now play for gold against Malaysia, who struggled their way past Singapore 3-2 at the Commonwealth Games here.
England had to fight hard for their 3-0 victory, particularly in the mixed and men’s doubles. India’s top singles player Parupalli Kashyap lost his match against Rajiv Ouseph in straight games at the Emirates Arena late Sunday.
In UAE it was announced that Eid-ul-Fitar will be celebrated today which will include all the seven states namely, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Raasulkhaima, Ajman, Umul Khawain and Fajera. President of UAE Shaik Khalifa bin Zaid-an-Naihan and Prime Minister of UAE and ruler of Dubai Shaik Mohammed Rashid-al-Maktoon have congratulated the Muslims community on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitar. Govt. of UAE has declared holidays for all the Govt. offices which will continue till 2nd August. The offices will reopen on 3rd August. In all the mosques and Eidgahs of UAE, Eid prayer will offer at 6 a.m.
Vice Chairman and MD of A.P. Dairy Development Cooperative Federation limited informed that 7 lakh liter milk will be available for sale in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad for Eid-ul-Fitar. It will be sold at Rs. 38 per liter which is cheaper than any other brand of Milk. He requested the people to make use this facility which is available at 1700 milk booths in the city. Milk will also be available in the afternoon of 28th July.
–Siasat News
It seems that there are bleak chances of expansion of Telangana cabinet. Mr. KCR had hinted at expanding his cabinet while reviewing the functioning of various departments in collectors’ meeting that the cabinet would be expanded at the end of the month but it is understood that the aspirants of cabinet berth will have to wait a little more.
Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee Chief Ponnala Lakshmaiah today resolved to fight it alone in future elections of GHMC and avoid MIM to take along with to contest. It was also decided to conduct membership drive and proposed to set up a cell on grievances of people as well as party workers.
Dy. CM of Telangana, Mr. Mohammed Mahmood Ali reiterated that the TRS Govt. is bound to fulfill its promise to provide employment opportunities to the Muslims according to their population. It has also promised to provide 12% reservation to Muslims. Mr. KCR is making serious attempts in this regard.
Govt. of Telangana has decided to investigate the scam in the implementation of Housing Schemes. Mr. KCR has ordered probe through CB-CID. It is learnt that there has been mass scale irregularities in Housing Scheme. According to the statistics presented to CM, it was revealed that soon after the formation of Telangana State a review of the scheme was conducted in 593 villages. The officials found that there has been a misappropriation of Rs. 235 crore. It was reported that there is no record of construction of 22, 40, 000 houses constructed during 2006-14.
WIPRO Chairman Dr. Azim Premji along with his team met Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Dr. N. Chandrababu Naidu here on Sunday and discussed WIPRO Business Plans in the residuary State.
At least five people were killed in two bomb blasts in Nigeria’s Kano city, a mainly Christian area, Sunday afternoon, police said.
The first blast occurred under a bridge in the Sabon Gari district of Kano. But no casualties occurred. The second bomb hit the Saint Charles Catholic Church in the same area, killing at least five people and injured many others, Xinhua reported.
–IANS
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon Sunday urged “in the strongest terms” both the Israelis and Palestinians to extend, for an additional 24 hours, the humanitarian ceasefire that was in effect and mostly observed until early in the day.
The secretary-general “notes the importance for both Israelis and Palestinians to be able to have a break in the violence that has killed too many, marred so many lives, and caused such destruction”, Xinhua quoted a statement issued here by Ban’s spokesman as saying.
Moments after the Hamas announcement of a 24-hour truce in the Gaza Strip, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Sunday accused the Palestinian militant group of violating its own ceasefire and vowed to do whatever is to be done to protect his country.
“They are violating their own ceasefire. Under these circumstances, Israel will do what it must do to defend its people,” Xinhua reported citing Netanyahu as saying, in an interview with CNN.
Punam Yadav won bronze in the women’s 63 kg weightlifting category bringing in India’s third Commonwealth Games medal Sunday.
Shooters Shreyasi Singh (women’s double trap) and Mohammed Asab (men’s double trap) had won a silver and bronze apiece earlier in the day.
Punam finished third with a total lift of 202 kg behind Nigerians Olauwatoyin Adesanmi and Obioma Okoli who took the gold and silver, respectively.
A 25-year-old Delhi University student has filed a complaint against one of her friends, saying he raped her in a flat in Ghaziabad near the capital, police said Sunday.
The woman filed a complaint at the Mehrauli police station in south Delhi.
Police said the woman, a resident of Mehrauli area, had developed friendship with the 28-year-old accused Anil Sharma around a year back.
Former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly Sunday began a new innings as a cricket administrator – with his unanimous election to the joint secretary’s post at the Cricket Association of Bengal’s 83rd annual general meeting here.
At the helm since 1993, barring the period when he was expelled from the BCCI, Jagmohan Dalmiya was also unanimously re-elected as CAB president. Biswarup Dey and Subir Ganguly were too reappointed as the treasurer and joint secretary respectively.
Indian shooters continued their medal winning spree in the 2014 Commonwealth Games with Shreyasi Singh and Mohammed Asab winning the double trap silver and the bronze while the women lifters also made an impact as Punam Yadav got the bronze medal Sunday.
India’s medal count touched 20 – five gold, eight silver and seven bronze – but the 2010 hosts were still in the fifth place behind Canada, Scotland, England and Australia.
Poovamma Machettira qualified for the women’s 400 metre semi-final after setting a time of 54.01 seconds in the heat at the Commonwealth Games here Sunday.
However, it was disappointment for 100m sprinter Narayana Sharadha and shot putter Om Parkash Singh Karhana who were knocked out of the Games in the qualifiers being held at the Hampden Park Stadium.
Poovamma, 24, was third and last of the eight competitors to reach the semis. Chandrika Subashini Rasnayaka Mudiyanselage of Sri Lanka topped the heat with 53.75 seconds and Nigerian Regina George came in second, clocking 53.92.
The following is the scoreboard at stumps on the first day of the third cricket Test between India at England at The Rose Bowl here Sunday.
England 1st innings:
Alastair Cook c Dhoni b Jadeja 95
Sam Robson c Jadeja b Shami 26
Gary Ballance batting 104
Ian Bell batting 16
Extras (b 1, lb 5) 6
Total (for two wicket in 90 overs) 247
Fall of wickets: 1-55 (Robson, 20.5 overs), 2-213 (Cook, 75.6)
Bowling:
Bhuvneshwar Kumar 22-7-58-0
Mohammed Shami 18-3-62-1
Pankaj Singh 20-3-62-0
Rohit Sharma 6-0-21-0
Ravindra Jadeja 22-6-34-1
Shikhar Dhawan 2-0-4-0
Captain Alastair Cook and Gary Ballance’s 158-run second wicket stand took England to 247 for two, putting them in a strong position at the end of the opening day of the third Test against India at The Rose Bowl here Sunday.
Ballance’s 104 not out and Cook’s gritty 95 gave England the initiative on a testing day for the batsmen. Ian Bell was lucky to be unbeaten on 16. Indian debutant Pankaj Singh’s brilliant swinging delivery had him plumb in front of the wicket but Australian umpire Rod Tucker had other ideas.
India downsized their bowlers from five in the first two Tests to four in the third, which started here Sunday. It was a decision based on the tourists concluding the wicket would help bowlers.
This transpired to be a misreading of the wicket; although it is fair to say hardly anyone deciphered otherwise.
At least seven people were killed and 20 others wounded Sunday when a bomb-laden vehicle blew up in Syria’s central Homs province, media reports said.
A booby-trapped pick-up van exploded in the main street in al-Arman district, Xinhua reported citing state news agency SANA.
The blast caused huge losses to houses, shops and cars in the neighbourhood.
Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it was not immediately clear whether the blast was a result of the booby-trapped vehicle or caused by a rocket launched on that district.
The decomposed bodies of a 30-year-old woman and her seven-year-old son were found from their house here Sunday, police said.
The bodies of Sommati and Kamal were recovered from their first floor flat in Govindpuri area of south Delhi around 4 p.m., after police broke into the house after neighbours complained of a foul smell emanating from there, said a police official.
The official said that it was very difficult to say how the victims were killed because the bodies were in highly decomposed condition.
As many as 20 militants were killed in separate clashes in eastern Iraq, as the country continues to stave off a Sunni militant onslaught, security sources said Sunday.
The eastern province of Diyala witnessed security forces recapturing seven villages near Udheim city, north of provincial capital Baquba. The clashes there saw the death of nine militants, Xinhua quoted a provincial police source as saying.
All the bodies of 48 victims in the Taiwan passenger plane crash have been identified, the island’s aviation safety council said Sunday.
The TransAsia Airways Flight GE 222, with 58 people onboard, crashed into residential buildings after a failed emergency landing in the island county of Penghu Wednesday.
TransAsia will pay funeral subsidy worth 800,000 new Taiwan dollars (around $26,600) to each family of the victims, and 27 families have been compensated, Xinhua quoted the aviation safety council as saying.
Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan says that he is happy about India being polio-free for three years and receiving WHO certification, but warned against becoming complacent and neglecting steps to save the country from getting re-infected by the polio virus.
“I feel so happy and satisfied… We are talking to each other in a polio-free India which has been certified polio-free by World Health Organization and in the last three years we have not seen any case of polio. I think the credit for all this goes to the whole country.