Month: July 2014

The third meeting of the Nepal-India Joint Commission at the foreign minstry-level started here Saturday after a hiatus of 23 years.

Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, who arrived in Kathmandu Friday evening, jointly inaugurated the meeting with her Nepali counterpart, Mahendra Bahadur Pandey.

Syed Akbaruddin, spokesman of the Indian external affirs ministry, said that the two sides were working to establish an Eminent Persons Group (EPG) to look into the potential of growth in bilateral relations.

JD(U) today expressed deep concern over the recent communal flare up in different parts of the country and sought a “clear” stand from Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue.

It also said that it will coordinate with non-NDA opposition against “implementation of any hidden agenda of the government.”

The Afghan Independent Election Commission (IEC) Saturday announced that the presidential runoff vote auditing process has temporarily been suspended and will resume after the upcoming Eid festival.

“The audit process of presidential election runoff ballot papers has been suspended until after the Eid holidays,” IEC Chief Yousuf Nuristani told a press briefing here.

Shooter Prakash Nanjappa won the men’s 10m air pistol silver in the Commonwealth Games behind Australia’s Daniel Repacholi at the Barry Buddon Shooting Centre at here Saturday.

England’s Michael Gault took the bronze.

–IANS

Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi today called for an end to the “politics of hatred” in the country as communal tension flared up in Uttar Pradesh while his party accused BJP of carrying out “pre-planned communal polarisation”.

“I am deeply saddened to hear of clashes in Saharanpur. Violence, divisiveness and hatred have no place in our country. This politics of hatred must end. I appeal to every one to remain calm and refrain from fanning communal passions,” Gandhi said in a statement here.

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi Saturday said he was “saddened” to hear about communal clashes in Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh.

“I am deeply saddened to hear of clashes in Saharanpur,” Gandhi said in a statement.

“Violence, divisiveness and hatred have no place in our country. This politics of hatred must end.”

“I appeal to everyone to remain calm and refrain from fanning communal passions,” the Gandhi scion said.

The much awaited alliance of Bihar’s ruling JD-U, Lalu Prasad’s RJD and the Congress to contest the by-elections in 10 assembly constituencies was finalised here Saturday, state leaders said.

“The alliance has been finalised. We will contest the by-polls together,” Food and Civil Supply Minister Shyam Razak told media persons after he met Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad.

Razak made the statement after former chief minister and Janata Dal-United leader Nitish Kumar spoke with Lalu Prasad over telephone Friday night.

As many as 85 Syrian government soldiers have been killed over the past two days in attacks launched by the so-called Islamic State (IS) on a military base in Syria’s northern al-Raqqa province, activists said Saturday.

The 85 soldiers and officers have been confirmed dead during the twin bombings the IS had carried out at the gates of the 23rd Division base in al-Raqqa and in the clashes that ensued, said UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The United States army is reportedly developing pocket-sized drones which will enable them to monitor dangerous environments aerially.

According to The Washington Times, the pocket drones developed by the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center in Massachusetts, is a small aerial surveillance device that will provide real-time surveillance of threats in environment.

The condition of seven of the students who were injured in the fatal bus-train collision at an unmanned railway crossing in Telangana’s Medak district on Thursday continued to remain critical, doctors said today.

“Four children are still in very critical condition and three are in critical condition. Condition of four kids is stable but they are still under observation. Nine students will be shifted from ICU to general rooms,” doctors at a private hospital here said.

About one per cent of Chinese households own one-third of the nation’s wealth, a report has said, raising concerns about income inequality in the world’s most populous country led by Communist Party of China.

Chinese households on average had a net worth of 439,000 yuan (about USD 71,000) in 2012, up 17 per cent from the 2010 level, said the study by Peking University on China’s livelihood development.

Ingredients
2 Traditional Free Range boneless chicken breasts, skin on
juice 1 lemon, plus 1 level teaspoon grated lemon zest
3 thick slices lemon, cut into quarters
2 fl oz (55 ml) olive oil
1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed
1 level dessertspoon chopped fresh oregano
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
2 bay leaves, torn in half
salt and freshly milled black pepper
For the gremolata:
1 clove garlic, peeled and finely chopped
1 heaped teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

Method

A 12-hour “humanitarian window” began today after Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza agreed to a UN request for a pause in fighting, even as 76 more bodies were recovered taking the Palestinian death toll in the 19-day conflict to over 940 with 38 Israeli deaths.

The bodies were retrieved in the first few hours of the “humanitarian” truce that came into effect at 0500 GMT as top world diplomats in Paris worked on a longer-term ceasefire.

Megastar Amitabh Bachchan has shot for the first episode of his game show ‘Kaun Bange Crorepati 8’.

The 71-year-old actor, who entered the small screen with the show in 2000, began shooting yesterday for the eighth season.

“The new season of KBC starts and the first day has been shot and canned… The crew and the atmosphere familiar, but never too familiar to destroy the work on hand,” he wrote in his blog.

“It may be 14 years since our association with it… But each moment needs the kind of concentration and effort that shall make it endurable and loved,” he added.

UP Waqf Minister Azam Khan has alleged that the protest held outside his residence in Lucknow was an attempt to please BJP.

“Whatever has happened in Lucknow was an attempt to please the BJP and the perpetrators must had realised creating chaos on the occasion of Juma Alvida Namaaj was condemnable,” Khan said here late last night.

Yesterday, over 50 persons of minority community were detained by police as they tried to gherao Khan’s house over the alleged move to appoint “corrupt persons” to the Shia Central Board in the state.

French police have banned a protest against Israel’s Gaza offensive that was due to take place in Paris today, following several similar rallies that turned violent.

The ban, announced by police yesterday, comes in the wake of clashes earlier this month at pro-Palestinian demonstrations, in which some protesters shouted anti-Semitic slogans and fought with police.

Two of those rallies had been banned but went ahead anyway.

Following yesterday’s announcement, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve appealed on organisers to cancel the rally.

Violent clashes today broke out between two communities over a land dispute here with the two sides indulging in brick batting and arson, leaving some persons injured and prompting authorities to impose curfew in the district.

Tension prevailed in the district and additional forces have been rushed to bring the situation under control.

“As per the information received so far there was a dispute over land between two communities which escalated this morning,” Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Mukul Goel told PTI.

Syria’s Al-Qaeda affiliate has released a video of a US suicide bomber who blew himself up at an army post in the northwest of the country.

Moner Mohammad Abu Salha, alias Abu Hurayra al-Amriki, was believed to be the first American national to carry out such an attack in Syria’s more than three-year-old war.

“I want to rest in the afterlife, not in this world… My heart is not at peace here. Hopefully it will be in heaven,” Abu Hurayra says in broken Arabic in the 17-minute video posted on YouTube yesterday by Al-Nusra Front.

A new poll has revealed that almost one-third of Americans think President Barack Obama should be impeached.

While 33 percent Americans think the president should be impeached, 65 percent believe that he should not be impeached, reported Politico.

The poll also showed that 57 percent of Republicans feel Obama should be impeached as opposed to 35 percent independent voters and 13 percent Democrats.

A new study has revealed that slow walking speed and memory complaints can predict if a person is at risk for dementia.

The scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and Montefiore Medical Center, who put 27,000 older adults on five continents to a simple test measuring walking speed and cognitive problems, found that nearly 1 in 10 met criteria for pre-dementia.

South Africa captain Hashim Amla has kept his team’s hopes alive in the first innings of their second Test against Sri Lanka as he battles on with just four wickets remaining.

South Africa currently trails Sri Lanka by 220 runs. At the time of the filing of this report Amla had scored his century and was batting on his individual score of 107. Keeping Amla company at the crease was Vernon Philander on seven.

The Andhra Pradesh government has started discussions with Kochi-based Startup Village, seeking their support and expertise to set up a similar incubation facility in their state.

A high-level delegation led by IT Advisor to Andhra Pradesh government, J Satyanarayana, met Startup Village Chief Executive Officer Pranav Kumar Suresh and Infopark Chief Executive Officer Hrishikesh Nair at Startup Village in Kalamassery yesterday.

For Gaza resident Mahmud Khalaf, it was a bizarre new experience, prostrating himself for his daily Muslim prayers beneath the gaze of an icon of Jesus Christ.

But since the war in Gaza began, he has had no choice but to worship in a Christian house of God, where he took refuge after Israeli air strikes pummelled his neighbourhood in the north of the Palestinian territory.

They have snatched the momentum with a brilliant show on the dreaded Lord’s green-top and India’s in-form cricketers would now aim to take an unassailable series lead against a demoralised England in the third cricket Test starting here tomorrow.

The visitors won the second Test at Lord’s by 95 runs on a green-top wicket after the first Test at Nottingham was drawn. The stage is now set for Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s men to overwhelm the hosts, who are in turmoil.

Now that US President Barack Obama has invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the White House, the visa issue associated with him is a thing of past, a top American official has said.

Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Nisha Desai Biswal told lawmakers at a Congressional hearing on Thursday that the Obama Administration is looking forward to welcoming Modi in Washington in September.