Month: August 2014

Saudi Arabia”s King has warned Europe and the US against possible terror attacks by extremists if a strong international response to terrorism was not taken soon.

King Abdullah”s statement comes as the Islamic State group continues to seize large swathes of territory across Iraq and Syria.

The King, while refraining from taking any terrorist group by names, said that he was certain that the extremists would target Europe and America in the near future.

A report has revealed that British intelligence agency MI6 and America’s Central Investigative Agency (CIA) have intercepted conversations on mobile phones, e-mails that show that several former British Army officials have joined the ranks of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). According to a defence source, agents linked to the ISIS have also revealed that people with English accents and a military background are now training the members of the terrorist organization in Iraq and Syria, reported The Daily Star.

A royal command appointing Thailand’s interim cabinet headed by Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha was announced Sunday, with five deputy prime ministers included in the list.

The five deputy premiers are Prawit Wongsuwan, Pridiyathorn Devakula, Yongyuth Yutthawong, Supreme Commander Tanasak Patimapakorn and Wissanu KreaNgam, according to the royal command issued by the king Saturday and published in the Royal Gazette Sunday.

Ministers of the PM’s Office are M.L. Panadda Diskul and Director of the National Intelligence Agency, Suwaphan Tanyuvardhana, Xinhua reported citing the gazette.

England have included uncapped batsman Jason Roy for the sole Twenty20 International against India at Edgbaston Sep 7.

The Surrey batsman, who represented England Lions this summer and played a key role in helping his county to the NatWest T20 Blast Finals Day earlier this month, is the only uncapped player in the squad but Tim Bresnan, Ravi Bopara and James Taylor make a comeback to the side.

Eoin Morgan will lead the English team in the absence of regular captain Stuart Broad, who is to undergo a knee surgery Sep 4.

Pakistani police has reportedly fired tear gas and rubber bullets at thousands of protesters who were attempting to march toward Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s house in Islamabad. A crowd of about 25,000 people led by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) Chief Dr Tahirul Qadri made its way to Sharif’s house late Saturday after talks with the government mediated by the Pakistani military failed, reported the Dawn. Violence broke out as protesters tried to remove containers in front of the President House using a crane.

Actor Boman Irani has been given police protection following a reported threat call from a gangster.

A source from Mumbai Police confirmed the news and told IANS: “Yes, we are giving protection to Boman Irani from Friday.”

However, he didn’t confirm the threat reports.

Earlier, Morani brothers – film producers Karim and Ali – and actor Shah Rukh Khan too received threats from the gangster.

Meanwhile, Boman will be seen with Shah Rukh in “Happy New Year”, scheduled for a Diwali release.

(IANS)

Pakistan television channel Geo News came under attack early Sunday from a crowd of protestors, gathered in Islamabad, as they attacked the media office with stones.

As supporters of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) marched towards the Prime Minister’s House, some decided to take their anger out on the Geo News office where editorial and other staff were to cover the events as they unfolded, the TV channel reported.

The staff struggled to find a safe passage and finally managed to escape from the site.

Reliance Industries (RIL) Sunday said it has returned around 1,384 acres of land in Gurgaon acquired for its special economic zone on the grounds that withdrawal of the concessions offered to SEZs has made such projects unviable.

“Reliance Haryana SEZ Limited (RHSL) on Friday returned 1,383.68 acres of land in Gurgaon acquired from HSIIDC for setting up SEZs due to revision of strategic priorities,” the company said in a statement here.

Saudi Arabia has launched a food aid programme for the people in besieged areas of Gaza, an official said Sunday.

“This project is the result of the kingdom’s efforts to provide Palestinians with their basic needs and ease their suffering,” Arab News quoted Saed Al-Harthi, adviser to the Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Naif and president of the campaign, as saying.

The aid programme is part of various projects financed by a Saudi committee that are currently being implemented in Gaza. The committee recently signed an agreement with several bodies to help get aid into the strip.

Taking the right decision in a matter of seconds is crucial when dealing with heart attacks or acute heart diseases. The process will become a lot easier with the help of a new app.

Researchers have developed a mobile application that allows people to have instant access to the best recommendations on their mobile devices.

Developed by the Acute Cardiovascular Care Association (ACCA) of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), the user-friendly interactive application allows immediate access to diagnostics pathways on mobile phones.

Know what happens inside people’s brains when they watch movies together in a theatre? Their brain activity gets synchronised as they watch intense scenes.

Structured movies that use a lot of cinematic devices and carefully composed shots do the synchronising effect to the brain in a better way than movies of unstructured reality, researchers say.

Uri Hasson, a psychologist at Princeton University analysed brain scan data his team collected as people watched several different video clips.

Captain Alastair Cook has defended England’s approach against spin after they lost the third ODI in Nottingham by six wickets allowing India to take a 2-0 lead in the five-match series.

England were, at one stage, comfortably placed at 82 for no loss but were finally shot out for 227 runs at Trent Bridge, Saturday. They lost six wickets to spin as off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin took 3-39, while slow left-armer Ravindra Jadeja and part-timers Suresh Raina and Ambati Rayudu got a wicket apiece for India.

The narrowing gap between petrol and diesel prices will hopefully push people towards less polluting petrol-run cars, citizens in the national capital say.

“The multiple petrol price cuts this month are a big relief for us middle class car-owners, especially now with prices going so high,” Rajnish Garg, a Delhi resident, told IANS Sunday.

“With the price difference (between petrol and diesel) going down, hopefully more people will move to petrol-engine cars,” Garg added.

Varun Dhawan, who has started shooting for Remo D’Souza’s “ABCD 2”, says the film is dedicated to dancers across the country.

The youngster who flaunted his dancing skills in movies like “Student of the Year” and “Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania”, is ready to wow his fans again.

“Since I was a little boy I’ve had a passion for dancing. Today (Sunday) I start#abcd2 as an ode to dancers across India (sic),” he tweeted Sunday.

For “ABCD 2″, he has teamed up with Shraddha Kapoor, who had earlier called him a “fantastic dancer” and that she was nervous to match dance steps with him.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh will visit Nepal Sep 18-19 to take part in the sixth meeting of SAARC home or interior ministers.

Spokesperson at Nepal’s ministry of foreign affairs Khaganath Adhikari Sunday said the meeting will take up common regional security issues and implementation of the past agreements.

It is expected that Rajnath Singh and Pakistan’s Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan will meet on the sideline of the meeting.

Rajnath Singh, Nisar Ali Khan and other ministers from the member states will be arriving in Kathmandu Sep 18.

A minor stampede broke out today during the ‘Lolark Chhath’ festival in Varanasi injuring at least a dozen people.

While many female devotees were injured in the stampede, the situation was later normalized with the help of the administration.

Lolark Chhath festival is celebrated during the monsoon season and is dedicated to the Sun god. Devotees take a dip in the ancient stepwell pond of Lolark Kund which is a sacred water body.

Couples perform rituals and pray for the blessing of a child.

Australian telecommunications and information services company Telstra Sunday appointed Upendra Kohli as the country managing director for India.

The post is “a newly created role to develop and execute the company’s overall strategy for the Indian sub-continent”, Telstra said in a release here.

Kohli will be based in Bangalore and will be responsible for customer relationships throughout the country and drive relations with all Business Process Outsource (BPO) and IT service providers globally, Telstra said.

Three honeytrap thieves have been arrested after they stole Rolex watches and hid them in their vaginas at casino hotel in US.

Bryanna Warren,Trinity Kennard, and Charmella Triggs performed sex acts on victims at casino hotel before getting their hands on expensive watches valued at 7,000 pounds and 2,500 pounds, the Mirror reported.

Warren and Triggs apparently flirted with a tourist from India.

Officers caught the women outside the hotel after victims alerted the security and recovered a stun gun and one of the watches from them.

A police case was registered here Sunday against filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma for his objectionable tweets on Lord Ganesh.

On a complaint by lawyer Karuna Sagar, a case was filed against Varma at the Saroornagar police station in Cyberabad.

“We have registered a case against Varma. We will seek legal opinion before proceeding further in the case,” Saroornagar police inspector B. Naveen Reddy told IANS.

The Indian men’s hockey team will take on Sri Lanka Sep 21 while the women will clash against Thailand Sep 22 in their opening matches of the 17th Asian Games to be held in Incheon from Sep 19 to Oct 3.

The men’s team, who are placed in Pool B with Pakistan, Oman, China and Sri Lanka, will be playing their second match against Oman Sep 23. However, it will be their third match that everyone will be keenly keeping a close watch on.

India will take on arch-rivals Pakistan Sep 25 after which they play their last group match against China Sep 27.

A West Bengal court Sunday sent three Visva Bharati University students, arrested for alleged sexual harassment of a female student from the northeast, to three days’ police custody, police said.

“We sought seven days’ custody but the court after hearing the prosecution and defence counsel, remanded the three accused to three days’ police custody,” said Bolpur sub-divisional police officer Surya Pratap Yadav.

Batsman Ajinkya Rahane credited India’s superb turnaround in the ODIs against England to the addition of new boys in the side who have brought in a lot of fresh energy.

India, who lost the Test series 1-3, lead the five-match ODI series 2-0 after three outings. They won the third ODI here Saturday comfortably by six wickets and had beaten England in the second ODI by 133 runs via the Duckworth Lewis method. The first ODI was washed out due to rain.

Spanish basketball star Serge Ibaka Sunday insisted he is only suffering from a minor physical problem despite missing out on his side’s impressive start to the FIBA World Cup.

Ibaka had been one of Spain’s standout players in the buildup to the competition forming a devastating partnership with Pau Gasol under the hoops of their rivals, reports Xinhua.

However, while Gasol tore an Iranian defence to shreds, scoring 30 points in Spain’s 90-60 opening day win, Ibaka was forced to watch from the sidelines nursing a muscle injury to his right hamstring.

The BJP Sunday criticised Kerala Governor Sheila Dikshit for signing an order appointing the new vice-chancellor of Mahatma Gandhi University despite having resigned from the governor’s post.

Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) state unit president V. Muraleedharan said here it was most unfortunate for a governor, who has already resigned, to sign an order to appoint Babu Sebastian as new vice-chancellor of the MG University.

“We will initiate legal steps against the new vice-chancellor as he does not have the requisite qualifications prescribed by the UGC,” he said.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Imran Khan Sunday vowed not to spare Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif after eight people were killed and 450 injured during anti-government protests here.

Cricketer-turned -politician Imran Khan told his supporters that FIRs would be registered against the Sharif brothers and the interior minister for murder as clashes continued in the Pakistani capital city between police and supporters of PTI party and Tahir-ul Qadri’s Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) party.