Month: September 2014

Rain drenched the national capital Wednesday. The Met department has forecast a cloudy Thursday with more rain and thunderstorms in many parts of the city.

The maximum temperature of the day was recorded at 33.2 degrees Celsius, a notch below the season’s average.

The city received 2.2 mm rainfall till 5.30 p.m. Wednesday.

“Delhi will see a cloudy Thursday with more rain. The day will be pleasant,” said an official of the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

Thursday’s maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to hover around 32 degrees and 25 degrees Celsius, respectively.

Travel industry body International Air Transport Association (IATA) Wednesday said India’s domestic market increased by six percent in July over the previous year.

“This could be an early sign of the success of the new government’s business-friendly stance. However, the government’s July budget announcement showed little spending stimulus which could keep India’s growth trend below the pace of other emerging markets,” IATA said in a statement.

Taking serious note of Rajnath Singh’s remark that police officials initiating action against Maoists should not worry about reactions from human rights bodies, social activist Swami Agnivesh on Wednesday said the former’s statement will send out wrong signals to the lower police ranks.

Agnivesh told ANI, “If he has said this, then we have to take it seriously, and a home minister of India should not give such statements. It will give wrong signals to the lower level.”

Stardom is not all glamour. It’s synonymous with non-stop work! I was prepared for a long, relaxed and sit-down interview with Priyanka Chopra here but what happened eventually was a complete surprise – a quick talk in her car on the move.

She was sleepless, under the weather with cough and cold and had a long list of work commitments. That notwithstanding, the actress made full use of her time on the road to accommodate media interviews through a little ‘relay’ game. All this for “Mary Kom”, a film close to her heart.

Former Director General of Police (DGP) of Uttar Pradesh, K L Gupta, on Wednesday seemed to be not in tune with Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s comment that police officials initiating action against Maoists should not worry about reactions from human rights bodies, saying it is easy to make remarks but the ground reality is very different.

NATO member countries should support human rights protections in Afghanistan beyond the end of the NATO combat mission post-2014, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday.

The Sep 4-5 North Atlantic Treaty Organisation Summit in Casnewydd, Wales, is slated to discuss future alliance support for the Afghan government.

A glider flown by a woman trainee pilot Wednesday crashed into a residential colony here, police said.

The incident took place around 3 p.m. at the Railway South Colony in Babupurwa area.

The glider, belonging to a private aviation firm, was on a training flight when the pilot lost control and it nosedived after losing altitude.

Police said the residential quarters had been vacated a few weeks back as it had to be demolished. Hence there was no loss of life.

Having received the relevant documents, India will soon sign the India-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in services and investments, Commerce Secretary Rajeev Kher said Wednesday.

The agreement documents could not be signed at the India-ASEAN Economic Ministers meeting in Myanmar last week as Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman could not attend owing to other engagements.

A proposed $1.1-billion joint venture fertiliser project, to be financed by the Indian government, has been pushed to the backburner by the Ghanaian government because it wants to use the gas to support energy production for now, President John Dramani Mahama has said.

Speaking to the media after inspecting the $800-million gas processing plant built with a Chinese Development Bank (CDB) loan, President Mahama said: “Our number one priority now is energy.”

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abott will reach New Delhi on Thursday on a two-day visit during which he will hold talks with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi.

Abott will meet Prime Minister Modi at the Hyderabad House here on Friday evening after which some agreements are expected to be signed between the two nations.

The Australian Prime Minister will also call on President Pranab Mukherjee and Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari during his stay in New Delhi.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will call on the visiting dignitary. (ANI)

A news correspondent with a satellite TV channel of Assam has been arrested for his alleged links with Bodo insurgents, police said Wednesday.

Jaikhnong Brahma, 44, who works with News Live channel, was arrested Tuesday night from his residence in Kokrajhar for alleged links with the anti-talk faction of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland.

Police said the journalist used to facilitate the banned outfit’s violent activities, compromising national security.

Amidst criticisms from all quarters, England captain Alastair Cook has said he will not step down from his post but said the management was free to sack him.

Cook said he was hungry for success in ODIs and wants to carry on with the job. His comments came in the wake of England suffering three consecutive heavy defeats against India, the latest being the nine-wicket loss here at Edgbaston Tuesday night. England also lost the ODI series 3-0 with a match yet to go.

Upholding the state government’s new liquor policy, Kerala High Court Wednesday dismissed a petition filed by the Kerala Bar Hotel Owners Association which had challenged the decision announced by the government last month.

In its ruling, the court said liquor business was not a fundamental right and the state government has made things very clear in its liquor policy.

The association said it would challenge the high court verdict in the Supreme Court.

Israeli ground forces, backed by bulldozers and armoured vehicles, rolled Wednesday into an area in southeast Gaza Strip territories, the Gaza interior ministry said.

The interior ministry said in a press statement that the Israeli army ground force rolled in about 100 metres into southeastern Gaza Strip, bulldozed the ground and left the area, Xinhua reported. No injuries were reported.

With the rise in advertisement spending by the e-commerce, telecom, fast moving consumer goods and consumer durables sectors in India, the online advertising market is projected to touch Rs.3,575 crore by March 2015, a report said here Wednesday.

The report ‘Digital Advertising in India’ was jointly done by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IMRB International. The online advertising market was pegged at Rs.2,750 crore in March 2014 and it is growing at the rate of 30 percent year-on-year (y-o-y).

The BJP Wednesday demanded a CBI probe into the murder of a RSS leader here Monday.

Addressing reporters, former state BJP president P.K. Krishna Das said a police probe would not bring out the truth on the killing as the Congress and the CPI-M were in collusion in Kerala vis-a-vis the BJP.

“Our leaders will be meeting Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and make our demand for a CBI probe,” said Das.

The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh called a dawn-to-dusk shutdown Tuesday to protest the killing of RSS leader K.T. Manoj, who hailed from Kannur district.

Buoyed by the introduction of an exotic shrimp variety, the volume of fish and fish product exports grew more than three-fold in the five-year period between 2009-10 and 2013-14.

“During 2013-14 the volume of fish and fish products exported was 9,83,756 tonnes worth Rs.30,213.26 crore as compared to 2009-10 (6,78,436 tonnes; Rs.10,048.53 crore),” an official release said here Wednesday.

“This was due to L. Vannamei (also known as whiteleg shrimp), an exotic shrimp variety, introduced in 2009 which accounted for nearly Rs.20,000 crore of export, in 2013-14,” it added.

Iraqi warplanes Wednesday bombed areas controlled by militants of the Islamic State (IS) Sunni extremist organisation in the northern city of Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq, a security source said.

The source explained to Efe news agency that a military aircraft launched the first missile at an IS position but it was unclear if there were any casualties in the strike.

A second missile was fired at a house containing civilians, killing three women and injuring two other people of the same family, including a child.

Yemeni Prime Minister Mohammed Basindawa Wednesday submitted his resignation to President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, a government official said.

“Basindawa submitted his resignation to President Hadi today (Wednesday) in a meeting with the president,” the official told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

He said that Hadi accepted Basindawa’s resignation and would proceed to issue a presidential decree to name a new prime minister within hours in line with a compromised initiative that Hadi issued Tuesday to resolve a weeks-long standoff with Shia Houthi rebels.

(IANS)

The Kremlin Wednesday said Russian and Ukrainian presidents have just discussed “steps” towards a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine, denying any “permanent” ceasefire agreement as Kiev announced earlier in the day.

“It is not the question of a ceasefire agreement,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a Russian radio station.

“It is about the presidents discussing concrete steps to promote a ceasefire between the militia and the Ukrainian forces in the southeast of the country,” he said.

Israel’s military has said that more than $2.5 billion was spent for carrying out military operations in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip that left more than 2,000 people dead.

Israel’s Minister of Military Affairs Moshe Yaalon Tuesday put the expenditure of the war on Gaza at “more than nine billion shekels”, which is more than $2.5 billion, Press TV reported.

Over 6,000 places were attacked in Gaza, including “more than 5,000 by the air force, about 900 from land and sea”, the minister said giving account of Tel Aviv’s air, sea and ground attacks.

At least five people were killed and nine others wounded Wednesday when armed militant groups attacked a passenger bus in southern Syria, media reported.

According to police sources, the bus was headed to the town of Hiran in the western countryside of the southern province of Swaida when two explosive devices went off, Xinhua reported the state-run SANA news agency.

Last month, five people were injured in a similar attack in the town of Dama in Swaida.

With a major offensive against the radical group Al Shabaab under way, the Somali government Wednesday offered a 45-day amnesty to Islamist rebel fighters.

During an extraordinary meeting of the Somali cabinet, ministers discussed the current security situation of the country and reviewed progress of the new campaign to retake Al Shabaab-controlled areas, Xinhua reported.

“The government gives a 45-day amnesty to anti-peace groups to surrender and the government will pardon those who hand themselves in during that period,” the government statement said.

Jharkhand Police Wednesday killed two villagers, whom they mistook as Maoists, prompting Chief Minister Hemant Soren to order a probe.

Four people were also critically injured in the incident that took place in Gumla district.

Police tried to stop a truck but the driver did not stop, prompting police to fire assuming them as Maoists.

Driver Herralal Oraon and Nelesh Oraon, a labourer, were killed in the incident.

Earlier, police claimed that the people were killed in cross-firing between the Maoists and police.

Bangladeshi authorities must immediately tackle a disturbing rise in enforced disappearances over the past two years, stop the use of torture, and end their increasing crackdown on freedom of expression, Amnesty International said Wednesday.

The briefing sets out some of the key human rights issues facing Bangladesh following the January 2014 elections, and makes recommendations to the government on issues which demand urgent attention.