Month: October 2014

It is back to the golden olden days when everything was forgotten if the India’s hockey team did well at major multi-discipline events. The majority of the present generation were not born when India beat Pakistan last 48 years ago when Railway man Balbir Singh Jr became celebrity overnight with his extra time match-winner.

Now it took 16 years for India to win the Games hockey gold again. Coincidentally, the man in charge of that 1998 team Maharaj Krishan Kaushik is back in the support staff led by Australian coach Terry Walsh.

Andhra Pradesh government today constituted a Working Group to identify parameters and prepare a road map to improve connectivity with neighbouring Chhattisgarh.

The Working Group, which was mooted during a meeting of AP Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh in Raipur on September 22, would be co-chaired by chief secretaries of the two states.

The 17th Incheon Asian Games concluded Saturday with 14 world records broken 17 times and six doping cases detected prior to the closing ceremony.

From the bonanza of 439 events, China reaped 151 gold medals to keep their dominance at the Asian Games for the ninth consecutive times. They also collected 108 silver and 83 bronze medals from the fortnight regional sports gala.

Hosts South Korea were pushed to a distant second place with 79 golds, 71 silvers and 84 bronzes, but well ahead of rivals Japan who placed third on a 47-76-77 sheet.

Force India drivers Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg will start the Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix in 11th and 13th positions, respectively, at the Suzuka Circuit here Sunday.

Though Perez and Hulkenberg qualified in 12th and 14th spots Saturday, Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne dropped 10 places on the grid due to an engine change and will start in 20th position.

Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg took pole from teammate Lewis Hamilton while Valtteri Bottas of Williams will start third.

Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju Saturday contradicted Air India’s denial that no lethal object was found in its aircraft which was to operate from Jeddah to Mumbai.

The minister said that a stun grenade was found in the aircraft and might have been left there after a security drill that was carried out in the aircraft before it was pressed into duty.

The Andhra Pradesh Government today issued formal order constituting a body which will “operationalise its farm sector debt redemption policy” and also serve as a “one-stop-shop” for welfare and empowerment activities targeted at farmers in the State.

Farmers’ Empowerment Corporation (FEC), which will be headquartered in Vijayawada, around which the new Andhra capital will come up, is to become “fully functional” by October 22, a date announced earlier by Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu.

Certain parts of Noida and Ghaziabad will not get Ganga water for at least 20 days beginning Saturday as shutters at Haridwar have been closed for the annual cleaning up of the Upper Ganga Canal.

Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg will be visiting India next week to attend a summit.

Zuckerberg will also meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, according to sources.

His visit comes three months (July, 2014) after the visit of Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of the social networking giant, to the country, which is the second biggest market for Facebook.

Thousands of people Saturday thronged this cultural capital of Karnataka to witness the grand finale of the Dasara festival, as the famous victory procession of caparisoned elephants (jamboo savari) passed through main roads from the illuminated royal palace to Bannimantap ground across the city, amid tight security.

Actor Charlie Sheen has been sued for sexual assault, battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress by his dental technician Margarita Palestino.

The technician has claimed that the “Anger Management” star jumped out of the dental chair, pulled his nitrous oxide mask off and grabbed her breast.

The lawsuit stems from an alleged incident during an appointment Sep 25. The complaint was filed Friday at the LA County Superior Court by Palestino’s attorneys, reports hollywoodreporter.com.

India’s Vidya Pillai and Amee Kamani advanced to the semi-finals of the Australian Open women’s snooker tournament here Saturday along with two local challengers Jennifer Budd and Jessica Woods.

Pillai, the 2010 champion, defeated Kathy Howden 3-0 while Kamani accounted for fellow-Indian Suniti Damani 3-0 in the quarter-finals.

Earlier, in the pre-quarter-finals, Kamani defeated Carlie Tait 2-0, Damani overcame Theresa Whitten 2-1 and Pillai, who made the tournament’s highest break so far of 58, eased past Lyndal Ellement 2-0.

North Korea Saturday said the nuclear deterrence of “Songun Korea” or the military first policy, will never be given up unless the US terminates its hostile policy and nuclear threat toward Pyongyang.

A North Korean foreign ministry spokesperson in a statement slammed senior US officials’ North Korea-related remarks, which “slandered the DPRK’s (North Korea) line of simultaneously pushing forward economic development and building of nuclear force”, Xinhua reported.

India-born scientist Arogyaswami Joseph Paulraj and mathematics scholar Himanshu Asnani at Standford University in the Silicon Valley have been awarded prizes by the Marconi Society in Washington.

Paulraj, 69, was honoured Tuesday with the prestigious Marconi Prize for his pioneering work on developing wireless technology to transmit and receive data at high speed.

Asnani, 27, received the Society’s Paul Baran Young Scholar Award for contributing to point-to-point and multi-terminal channel coding and source coding problems.

Gold should be put to work for the Indian economy, creating jobs, developing skills, generating exports and revenues, the World Gold Council (WGC) said in its Vision 2020 for the country.

“Our vision for gold is that it should be put to work for the economy, creating jobs, developing skills, generating exports and revenues – an essential part of the financial, economic and social structure of the country,” a statement by WGC said here on Saturday.

Stocks of gold in India currently stand at over 22,000 tonnes held by individual households and temples.

A campaign in the Delhi University will be launched soon by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) students to counter ‘love jihad’ in an attempt to raise voice against an alleged “atrocity against women”.

According to ABVP leaders, the campaign will be launched soon after the varsity reopens in mid-October after vacation and includes sensitizing and raising awareness on ‘love jihad’.

Telugu actor Ram Charan and Mani Rathinam had declared that Dulquer Salman will act in his place in a film to be directed by Mani Rathinam.

Ram Charan was the son the Telugu superstar Chiranjeevi. His film Govindudu Andarivadele directed by Krishna Vamsi which has Prakash Raj in the cast was released yesterday.

The Indian football team’s friendly international against Palestine, which was scheduled for October 9, has been cancelled as the south east Asian nation has already committed its availability to the Pakistan Football Federation in the same window.

The match was supposed to be held at the Kanchenjunga Stadium in Siliguri, West Bengal. However, the first international friendly on October 6 will be played as scheduled.

AIFF has been intimated by the Palestine Football Federation about its unavailability.

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh Saturday stressed the need to preserve traditions and customs.

Addressing a gathering at Sunni in Shimla district at the conclusion of two-day festivities of Dussehra, he said: “Our traditions and customs needed to be preserved at any cost and the coming generations must strengthen them.”

“In the absence of preservation of traditions and culture, no nation can prosper,” he added.

Markets seemed to be in consolidation mode after strong rally as the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex and CNX Nifty declined 58.33 points and 23.30 points, respectively during the truncated week as operators decided to play safe after the Reserve Bank kept key interest rates unchanged.

Realty, metal, banking, power, capital goods and FMCG sectors attracted profit-booking and mainly weighed on Sensex.

Srinagar has been witnessing frequent cleanliness and sanitation drives ever since the flood waters receded in the city.

Emergency workers have been battling to prevent waterborne diseases like cholera from spreading as fetid water swilled around the Kashmir Valley after the devastating floods.

More than 75,000 people were in partly submerged homes in Srinagar, where roads transformed into stagnant canals strewn with wreckage, trash and dead animals during the floods.

Close to 300 people died in the natural disaster and thousands remain homeless, some in relief camps.

The United Nations human rights report claims that militants of the Islamic State (IS) are literally putting price tags on abducted women and girls to sell them as merchandise in a major Iraqi city.

According to ABC News, the UN report says that UNAMI/OHCHR received a number of reports that an office for the sale of abducted women was opened in the al-Quds area of Mosul city.

The report said that women and girls were brought with price tags for the buyers to choose and negotiate the sale.

These buyers are reportedly said to be mostly youth belonging to the local communities.

Branding the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) as parties indulging in corruption, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday asked the people of Maharashtra to vote for a clean and strong government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

“These people aren’t ‘rashtravadi’ (nationalists), they are ‘Bhrashtacharvadi’ (those who indulge in corruption). Do you need people who take away your lands? We have to free the nation of such people. I have come here to urge you to ensure the BJP’s victory,” Prime Minister Modi said while addressing an election rally here.

Newly-wed couple actor George Clooney and British human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin have reportedly jetted to the North Island in Seychelles for their honeymoon.

According to a website X17Online.com, the couple is staying at a luxurious resort on the island, which can only be accessed by helicopter, reports dailymail.co.uk.

Clooney and Alamuddin exchanged vows at a ceremony in Venice Sep 27.

Clooney’s close friend and actor Brad Pitt recommended the private getaway for the duo’s honeymoon.

Launching a frontal attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday described Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre as an empty vessel that makes the loudest noise.

“Empty vessels make the most noise, being loud doesn’t mean you are speaking the truth,” she said while addressing a rally here.

Claiming that the Centre was taking credit by renaming the programmes started by the previous UPA regime, Sonia Gandhi said, “The BJP is taking credit by renaming programmes started by us.”

Lieutenant General Subrata Saha said here on Saturday the Army has been responding continuously to the ceasefire violations by Pakistani Rangers.

Unprovoked firing and ceasefire violations by Pakistani troops at Indian positions along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir left one dead and injured four civilians on Friday.

Two persons were also injured by in the Swajian sector of Poonch last night.