Month: July 2014

An Indian expatriate was killed in a road accident near Ibra, the second largest city of Oman, media reports said today.

Mohammed Ali who hailed from Kerala, was returning with three of his friends from a trip to Wadi Bin Khalid, a popular tourist spot, when their car collided head-on near Ibra last night, The Times of Oman reported.

“It was a head-on collision. Mohammed suffered severe injuries. He was rushed to Ibra hospital but he succumbed to injuries late in the night,” Shameer PTK, a social worker is quoted as saying.

Actor Ajay Devgn, who is often pitted against Shah Rukh Khan, says the two may not be best of friends but they stand by each other.

There were reports of a cold war between the two actors during the release of SRK’s ‘Jab Tak Hai Jaan’ and Ajay’s ‘Son of Sardar’ in 2012 where Ajay accused producers Yash Raj Films of using their dominant position in market to get more screens for ‘JTHJ’.

And recently there was a patch up buzz when SRK visited the sets of Ajay’s upcoming film ‘Singham Returns’. Ajay, however, denies that they had any issue between them.

GHMC Mayor Mohammed Majid Hussain on Thursday directed the officials to set right the Central medians after completion of road widening.

The Mayor held a review meeting in his chambers today with regard to road widening works in the South Zone. Referring to the 100 feet road already widened in front of the Owaisi Hospital, he asked the officials to take up the process of correction of central medians all over the city on immediate basis.

England captain Alastair Cook Thursday praised Moeen Ali and said the part-time spinner had improved “leaps and bounds” — thanks to his stint with Worcestershire where he bowls with Pakistan offie Saeed Ajmal.

Moeen Ali produced a match-winning spell, taking six wickets as India were bowled out for 178 in their second innings, handing England a 266-run win in the third cricket Test at The Rose Bowl here Thursday.

With the comprehensive win, England tied the five-match series 1-1.

A team of 68 Malaysian police personnel arrived in Kiev Thursday to work together with Dutch and Australian teams to help secure access to the Malyasia Airlines crash site, Prime Minister Najib Razak said Thursday.

“Malaysia fully supports the international investigation, and we are grateful to the Netherlands for their lead role in the international team,” Razak said during a joint press briefing in the Netherlands with the host country’s Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

Repatriating the remains of victims as fast as possible is a shared priority, Razak said.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi Thursday refuted former union minister Natwar Singh’s allegation that she had access to government files, while also voicing her wish to write a book herself for “everyone to know the truth”. She was backed by former prime minister Manmohan Singh who said “private conversations should not be misused for capital gains”.

“I will write my own book and then everyone will know the truth,” Gandhi told news channel NDTV.

“The only way the truth will come out is if I write. I am serious about this,” she said.

Petrol price was today cut by Rs 1.09 per litre, the second reduction in three-and-half-months, while diesel rates were hiked by 56 paise a litre.

The revisions will be effective midnight tonight, Indian Oil Corp, the nation’s largest oil firm, announced today.

Petrol in Delhi will cost Rs 72.51 per litre from tomorrow as against Rs 73.60 a litre currently. Similarly, diesel will be priced at Rs 58.40 per litre from tomorrow as compared to Rs 57.84 currently.

India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni today blamed his batsmen for the “soft dismissals” which saw them suffer an embarrassing 266-run defeat in the third cricket Test and said they would need to discuss their four-bowler strategy ahead of the fourth rubber.

Asked about the decision to go with four bowlers in the third Test, Dhoni said: “The reason for using four bowlers is the we never used the fifth. We just used him for 10 and 8 overs. With Shikhar and Vijay and Rohit around we thought we could do it.

For Wajid Ali, Atif Waheed and Waseem Sajjad, kabaddi players from Pakistan, India is no different from their homeland.

Here in the city for the Rs one crore prize money Pro Kabaddi – the franchise league for the sport otherwise famous in rural areas – the three players hope the two countries live happily like two fighting siblings.

Having landed in India on July 25, they have celebrated Eid with their Indian teammates. The Kolkata hotel staff prepared meethi sewai for the Telugu Titans duo of Wajid Ali and Atif Waheed.

Estranged Gandhi family loyalist K Natwar Singh, a former external affairs minister, today raked up Sonia Gandhi’s Italian origin, suggesting that her “ruthless” side came from it as “no Indian would have treated me” like she did to him.

The extremist Islamic State (IS) has imposed restrictions on women’s clothes in the areas they control in the Syrian province of Deir Ez-Zor, bordering Iraq, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said Thursday.

According to SOHR, the jihadis have released a statement in Deir Ez-Zor province with rules for the clothes to be worn by people in the province.

The Islamist extremist group has ordered women to wear a full “niqab” that masks their eyes and an “abaya” or tunic which must cover the rest of their clothes and be wide enough to hide the shape of their body.

Fast bowler Ishant Sharma will miss the fourth cricket Test against England at Old Trafford as he is still recuperating from an ankle injury, India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni said today.

Ishant had returned with a career-best figures of seven for 74 to guide India to a 95-run win over England in the second Test at Lord’s, but he missed the second Test after picking up an injury in his left ankle.

He was replaced in the third Test here by Rajasthan pacer Pankaj Singh.

Normal life was disrupted in the country’s IT hub today as it observed a 12-hour bandh called by pro-Kannada outfits to protest rising incidents of sexual offences against women and children with a mixed response.

Large parts of the city were devoid of the hustle and bustle of a working day, with buses running with fewer passengers, most commercial establishments and shopping malls closed and a section of autorickshaw drivers staying off the roads.

The rupee today depreciated 49 paise to close at a three-month low of 60.55 against the US dollar on capital outflows after the US Fed trimmed its monthly bond buying programme by another USD 10 billion.

Heavy dollar demand from importers and weakness in local equities also pulled the rupee down against the Greenback.

The dollar index was quoting up by 0.10 per cent against a basket of six major global currencies. The American currency gained strength on signs of an improving US economy, besides the USD 10 billion cut in stimulus, forex traders say.

Moeen Ali’s maiden six-wicket haul in India’s second innings helped England tie the five-match series 1-1, beating the visitors by 266 runs in the third cricket Test at The Rose Bowl here Thursday.

An abysmal batting performance by India saw them being bowled out for 178 on the final day before lunch.

Ajinkya Rahane’s 52 not out was the standout performance for the visitors.

In what was the worst batting performance in the series, India, who were 112 for four at stumps on the fourth day, lost six wickets for just 66 runs in the morning session to hand England an easy win.

Government support to solar equipment manufacturers will lead to improved energy security, job creation and huge foreign exchange savings for the country, according to a report Thursday by consultants KPMG.

Published jointly by Indian Solar Manufacturers’ Association (ISMA) and KPMG, the report says a holistic policy to encourage domestic solar manufacturing is urgently needed given the strategic need for solar power in India.

The jihadist Islamic State has imposed a strict dress code for women in eastern Syria, forbidding them from showing any part of their bodies, a monitoring group said today.

“Women… Are completely forbidden from showing their eyes,” said the statement, which the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said was distributed in IS-controlled areas of Deir Ezzor province in the east.

Women are also forbidden from wearing “open abayas (traditional black gowns) that reveal colourful clothes worn underneath”, it said.

Biscuits, snacks and artefacts made by jail inmates in Punjab could soon be supplied to educational institutions and government offices across the state, a minister said Thursday.

“Punjab government is seriously contemplating the move to supply the artefacts, biscuits and namkeen made by inmates of Central Jail, Ludhiana, to government educational institutes and offices across the state,” Punjab Jails Minister Sohan Singh Thandal said during his visit to the Ludhiana Central jail.

The Delhi Metro Thursday completed tunnelling work at Lal Quila Metro station, as part of its third phase expansion.

The 650-metre-long tunnel runs between Jama Masjid and Lal Quila Metro stations, part of the extended Central Secretariat to Kashmere Gate corridor of the third phase.

A similar tunnel on the same stretch is being constructed and is scheduled for completion by October 2014.

Delhi Metro is scheduled to build 53-km of underground lines as part of its phase three construction work which involves seven projects. Phase three is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2016.

BJP president Amit Shah Thursday exhorted his party parliamentarians to work for the upcoming assembly polls in four states, and suggested they should intensify public interaction to ensure that the faith reposed by the people in them in the general election is not diluted.

He said the Bharatiya Janata Party parliamentarians should set up public-interaction cells in their respective constituencies.

“Party MPs should use ‘contact, coordination and dialogue’ as a medium to learn about people’s grievances and work towards their redressal.

US Secretary of State John Kerry Thursday visited the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi.

He went to the school of biology and visited two of the laboratories there.

Kerry was in the institution between 8.30 a.m. to 10.30 a.m., an IIT professor told IANS.

He also interacted with the students and looked at their projects.

Kerry arrived here Wednesday on a three-day visit to strike up the US’ first high-level engagement with the Narendra Modi government.

–IANS

A British judge today said Russia has a case to answer in the death of former KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko, who had accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of ordering his murder.

Litvinenko, 43, was killed by radioactive poisoning at a London hotel in 2006 and had accused Putin from his deathbed of being linked to his killing.

Judge Robert Owen who opened a public hearing into the death of Litvinenko said he would be able to hear secret evidence behind closed doors in connection with the inquiry, expected to last until the end of next year.

Amidst the grave tragedy in Malin, the village almost entirely wiped out by a landslide in Maharashtra, rescue teams Thursday dug out a three-month-old infant and his mother safely from the debris, officials said.

The duo, Rudra and his mother Pramila Lembhe, were rushed to a hospital where more joy was in store – they were reunited with Rudra’s grandmother, who was rescued Wednesday night.

“It is truly a miracle that they could make it safely. They were buried in the darkness under several feet of debris and wet mud for so many hours,” said medical team members.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today said that Israel is determined to destroy all the tunnels built by Hamas to infiltrate into its territory, signalling a prolonged conflict in the Gaza strip.

Speaking ahead of the security cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said that Israel Defence Forces (IDF) soldiers were currently finishing off the job of destroying tunnels.

He said that most of the 32 tunnels it has uncovered have now been demolished and that dismantling the remainder will take no more than a few days.

Night shelters meant exclusively for homeless women will be built in the national capital before the winter season, a statement from Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung’s office said Thursday.

The decision was taken after the district commissioners Wednesday submitted a field report to Jung on the city’s water and power supply, de-silting of drains, removal of encroachments, inspection of hospitals, schools, night shelters etc. in a meeting held at the governor’s residence.