Month: August 2014

The World Bank has pledged USD 200 million in emergency funding to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone to help the West African countries contain spread of deadly Ebola infections and improve public health systems.

World Bank President Dr Jim Yong Kim, who is experienced in treatment of infectious diseases, said the new financing commitment was in response to a call from both the three African countries hardest-hit by Ebola and the World Health Organisation for immediate assistance to contain the outbreak.

Rescue efforts were on for the second day on Monday to pull out a six-year-old boy trapped in an abandoned borewell at a farm in nearby Sulikeri village with no clue yet about his condition.

In a joint operation, teams from National Disaster Relief Force, nearby Hutti gold mines and fire brigade struggled to rescue Thimmanna Hatti, reportedly stuck at a depth of 160 feet in the 300 feet borewell.

Attempts to pull out the boy using a robot yielded no result as it hit a rock at a depth of about 140 feet, police and district officials present at the site said.

Salman Khan-starrer `Kick` has earned Rs 200 crore within 10 days of its release.

The Sajid Nadiadwala`s directorial debut had earned a total of Rs 178.28 crore in its first week.

The film has also become Salman’s highest grosser in India.

The film, which was the awaited release for Eid this year, minted over Rs 80 crore in just three days, and it touched the Rs 100 crore mark even before the festival on July 29.

Supporting India’s tough stand at WTO on the food security issue, UN body for development of agriculture IFAD on Monday said ensuring food for its people is more important than creating jobs in certain other nations.

“Creating jobs for some other country, while people are still hungry, doesn’t make sense… If I was in the position of feeding my own family or creating jobs for someone else, what would I do? What would you do?,” International Fund for Agriculture Development President Kanayo Nwanze told PTI.

The Himachal Pradesh High Court on Monday directed the state government to file status report in the case relating to the drowning of 24 engineering students of Hyderabad in Beas River in Mandi district before August 11.

Posting the matter for August 11, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Mansoor Ahmad Mir and Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan asked the amicus curiae in the case to examine the entire issue and make submissions within a week.

Mahindra Conveyor Systems, a leading supplier of material handling equipment and systems, has formed a joint venture with Japan’s Tsubakimoto Chain Co, as the partners eye various global markets including Europe and Middle East.

“Tsubaki and MCS already have an existing tie-up for technical know-how and Tsubaki has now gained majority (51 percent) holding in MCS, to assist it in making inroads into new markets in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe,” Mahindra Conveyor Systems (MCS) said in a statement.
MCS will now be renamed as Mahindra Tsubaki Conveyor Systems Pvt Ltd, it added.

First the rescue from Iraq and now it is from Libya. 44 nurses from Kerala, stranded in strife torn Libya arrived at the Cochin International Airport on Tuesday.

In total 58 nurses were rescued from Libya to Tunisia. From there they were taken to Dubai and booked on a scheduled flight to Kochi.

Three nurses are expected to arrive by another flight; the remaining are expected to reach Kerala on Wednesday. Another 43 nurses have reached the Tunisia from Tripoli, reports said.

The Reserve Bank may maintain the status quo on interest rate in its bi-monthly monetary policy review to be unveiled on Tuesday amid apprehensions that deficient rainfall may further push up food inflation.

The food inflation remaining over 8 percent mark will weigh heavily on the RBI, which has been maintaining that containing inflation is its top priority.

The Hyderabad High Court on Monday issued notices to Bollywood actress Mallika Sherawat and the Centre on a PIL against a poster of her upcoming film ‘Dirty Politics’ that shows the Bollywood actress draped in the three colours of the national flag.

Admitting the PIL, the high court also issued a notice to K C Bokadia, producer of the film.

In his petition filed last week, a city-based rights activist T Dhangopal Rao alleged the actress and the film producer have intentionally insulted the national flag in the poster of ‘Dirty Politics’.

Actress Ellen Pompeo is turning executive producer for a TV series, an adaptation of the novel “Debt”.

“The Grey’s Anatomy” star is developing author Rachel Carey’s book about the 2008 financial meltdown in New York City into a series for ABC Family network, reports contactmusic.com.

—IANS

Are you a new mother and cannot figure out why you are still sleepy and tired at work even four months after birth? Get your maternal leave extended to catch some sleep.

A new study finds one in two new mothers is excessively sleepy four months after giving birth, urging new mums to be cautious about returning to work too quickly.

Troubled actress Lindsay Lohan is planning to write her autobiography.

The “Mean Girls” star met publishers to discuss a tell-all book, and promised not to hold back on any detail, including the truth about an alleged list of her famous lovers which was leaked earlier this year and mentioned the likes of Colin Farrell, Justin Timberlake, James Franco and Max George, reports contactmusic.com.

If Rani Mukerji will be seen kicking, slapping and punching criminals as a police officer in “Mardaani”, Ajay Devgn will also be seen doing similar things in his forthcoming release “Singham Returns”. But the actress says it’s unfair to compare the two films.

When asked whether the release of “Singham Returns” before “Mardaani” — both being cop-dramas — would impact her film, she said: “He (Ajay) is a huge star and the film is a huge franchise. I have seen ‘Singham’ and I loved it.”

Even before communal embers get extinguished in Saharanpur, tension gripped neighbouring Meerut after a young madrasa teacher alleged gang-rape and forced conversion into a community.

The 20-year-old, who was a regular teacher of Hindi and English in the Sarawa village madrasa in Kharkhauda, alleged that she was abducted on July 23 and taken to a madrasa in Hapur and later shifted to another one in Muzaffarnagar. She claimed that she was gang-raped and later forced to adopt the religion of a particular community and her named changed.

In his first visit to Uttar Pradesh after being elevated to the post of BJP president, Amit Shah will address a workers’ convention in Lucknow on August 19 and inaugurate a public relations office of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Varanasi.

“BJP national president Amit Shah will visit Lucknow on August 19. The next day he will reach Varanasi where he will inaugurate the public relations office of Prime Minister and Varanasi MP Modi,” BJP spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak said here today.

The United Nations and its partners are supporting the governments of India and Nepal in search-and-rescue operations and providing assistance to thousands of people displaced due to landslides triggered by monsoonal rains in the two countries.

While the Indian government has led the response in search and rescue operations, OCHA’s Asia Pacific regional office in Bangkok has been in close contact with Indian authorities since the landslide.

A newsreader has caused a stir in Saudi Arabia by shunning traditional Islamic dress to deliver a bulletin ‘bare-headed’.

The presenter was broadcasting from the London studio of Al Ekhbariya, a state-owned news channel which featured the Kingdom’s first female newsreader when it launched a decade ago.

Women often appear on Saudi TV without wearing headscarves or veils, but the appearance was thought by many to be the first by a newsreader on a government-owned station.

The Indian Air Force deployed its C-130J Super Hercules transport aircraft to transport a team of geologists and disaster management officials to Nepal for clearing the landslide in a river there which is threatening to cause flood in Bihar.

A C-130J Super Hercules aircraft carried out a night landing at the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu on Saturday and dropped a team of Geological Survey of India, Central Water Commission and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) there to assist the Nepalese Army in clearing the landlside in a calibrated manner, IAF officials said.

The government has announced ten measures to improve the safety of workers in coal mines.

Minister of State for Power, Coal and New and Renewable Energy (Independent Charge) in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha said today that the safety measures are as follows:

(i) To promote and propagate safety awareness in mines, National Safety Awards (Mines) and National Conference on Safety in Mines are organized by DGMS. The recommendations of National Conference on Safety in Mines are being implemented to enhance safety of mine workers.

Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Robin K. Dhowan will be visiting Canada from August 5 to August 8 on the invitation of the Commander of Royal Canadian Navy (RCN).

Admiral Dhowan is reciprocating a visit made by the Commander of RCN to India in January 2013, a Ministry of Defence statement said.

During his tour, Admiral Dhowan will visit the Esquimalt Naval Base at Victoria, which is the headquarters of the Maritime Forces Pacific of the Canadian Navy.

Delhi Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung said Monday that Delhi is proud of its DMRC services. That is the reason they are increasing the metro feeder bus services.

Jung said, “We believe that DMRC is a unique gift for India. And it is an international class service, which Delhi and its people are proud of.”

“Keeping this in mind, it will be increased and is increasing, to the fullest. No service works without the feeder facility. That is why these buses have been started,” he added.

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has set a target of capacity addition of 29,800 MW from various renewable energy sources during 12th Plan period.

The target comprises of 15,000 MW from wind, 10,000 MW from solar, 2,100 MW from small hydro and 2,700 MW from bio-power.

Minister of state for Power, Coal and New and Renewable Energy (Independent Charge) Piyush Goyal revealed this in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha today.

Lieutenant General Philip Campose took over as the Vice Chief of Army Staff on August 1, in place of General Dalbir Singh, who has assumed charge as Chief of Army Staff.

Lieutenant General Philip Campose is an alumnus of St Xavier’s School, Delhi, the National Defence Academy Khadakwasla and the Indian Military Academy at Dehradun.

The Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination Committee on Sports has named Justice (Retired) Sair Ali as the acting Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman and also the chief election commissioner tasked with holding fresh elections to appoint the new chief of the board, the Dawn reported on Monday.

On July 21 the double-bench of the Supreme Court, while disposing of different cases of the PCB, had ordered the prime minister as patron of the PCB to appoint an ad hoc chairman and an election commissioner to hold fresh elections inside 30 days.

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has approved the appointment of Lieutenant-General (retired) Mohammad Alam Khattak as the defence secretary, said a notification issued by the defence ministry on Monday.

Khattak replaces former defence secretary Lt. Gen. (retired) Asif Yasin Malik, who stepped down from his position last week after completion of his contract.