Month: October 2014

Cricketer Harbhajan Singh Thursday congratulated the Indian hockey team for clinching the gold medal after 16 years at the Asian Games in Incheon.

Two-time champions India beat arch-rivals and defending champions Pakistan 4-2 via penalties in the final at the Seonhak Hockey Stadium, thus booking a berth to the 2016 Rio Olympics.

“Well done Indian hockey team for winning the gold.sending a big hug to all the players# proud# jai hind,” Harbhajan tweeted.

–IANS

Union Minister for Water Resource and local MP, Uma Bharti, today said she will devote 300 hours instead of 100 hours annually to the ‘Swachh Bharat’ mission.

Taking part in the campaign at different parts of the constituency, she said, “We will not take up the cleaning just for today but on a daily basis. The prime minister has given a call of 100 hours and we will do it for 300 hours to contribute in this campaign”.

She also visited the Nagar Nigam office and administered oath to the employees to join the campaign.

Goa Governor Mridula Sinha, cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar and actress Priyanka Chopra have all accepted Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘challenge’ to take the ‘Swachh Bharat’ mission forward.

The team of the popular comic soap opera ‘Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah’ also said that they would put all their efforts in making the Prime Minister’s vision successful.

The Indian men’s hockey team regained the gold medal after a gap of 16 years while the women’s 4x400m relay team also picked up a yellow metal as India added four medals to jump to the ninth position in the overall standings in the 17th Asian Games here today.

The men’s hockey players hogged the spotlight with the thrilling victory over arch-rivals Pakistan to ensure a berth in the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Tensions in Hong Kong soared today after police were seen unloading boxes of tear gas and rubber bullets close to the city’s besieged government headquarters as the authorities urged pro-democracy demonstrators to disperse “as soon as possible”.

Protesters have shut down central areas of the southern Chinese city with a mass sit-in, including outside the city’s legislative assembly, and have given Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying until midnight to step down, or face escalated action.

Clad in white seamless cloth, about 1.50 lakh Indians along with tens of thousands of Muslims from across the world today moved from the holy city Mecca to nearby Mina marking the beginning of the annual Haj pilgrimage.

Chants of ‘Labbaik Allahumma Labbaik’ (O God, here I am answering your call) and ‘Allah-o-Akbar’ (God is Great) reverberated as the pilgrims, wearing the ‘ihram’ or the two- piece seamless white garment, began moving to the tent-city Mina in groups, situated five kilometers to the east of Mecca.

The Indian hockey team beat Pakistan 4-2 in the penalty shootout to clinch the Asian Games gold at the Seonhak Hockey Stadium here Thursday.

After regulation time, the scoreline read 1-1.

Pakistani troops violated ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir injuring six civilians including two women, to which India retaliated.

According to an Army officer, Pakistani troops resorted to heavy firing by small arms and automatic weapons and shelling of 81 mm mortar bombs in two forward sub-sector of Sabjian and Mandi since 1840 hours yesterday and intermittent firing continued till mid night, during which six civilians including two women were injured and six houses were damaged.

Actor-filmmaker Ramesh Aravind says films in southern cinema will take time to join the Rs.100 crore club box office business, but he believes that until then, filmmakers should concentrate on producing content which will help them “recover initial investment”.

“Cinema is art, but it’s also a business and one needs to see it that way. The Rs.100 crore club box office business is a different ballgame. It will still take southern cinema a while to get there. As a director, I strongly feel it’s very important you make a film that helps the producer recover his cost,” Ramesh told IANS.

Noting that only a clean country can be healthy, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh today said every person should dedicate at least two hours per week for cleanliness.

“Where there is cleanliness there is god. This has been our old tradition, special emphasis was given on cleanliness in villages,” Rajnath Singh said while launching Swachh Bharat campaign at Charbagh railway station here.

Veteran Bollywood actor Dilip Kumar was once arrested by police for his ‘anti-British’ views and spent a night on hunger-strike along with other ‘Gandhiwalas’ lodged in a prison cell.

In his recent autobiography ‘Dilip Kumar: The Substance and Shadow’, the legendary actor recounts how his patriotic eloquence met a fate he had never imagined!

Islamic State jihadists are inflicting staggering human rights violations in Iraq which could amount to war crimes, a top United Nations official said today.

“The array of violations and abuses perpetrated by ISIL and associated armed groups is staggering, and many of their acts may amount to war crimes or crimes against humanity,” said UN human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein.

Film: “Govindudu Andarivadele”; Cast: Ram Charan, Kajal Agarwal, Meka Srikanth, Prakash Raj, Kamalinee Mukherjee, Jayasudha, Rahman, Aadarsh Balakrishna, Rao Ramesh, Kota Srinivasa Rao; Director: Krishna Vamsi; Rating: **

Intensifying his attack against former ally BJP for ending the 25-year-old alliance over seat-sharing issue, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray today alleged that the BJP broke the partnership to play ‘separate Vidarbha’ card to garner votes in the Assembly elections.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hit back at the White House after Washington criticised Israeli plans to build thousands more settler homes in east Jerusalem, Israeli media reported today.

Israeli public radio quoted Netanyahu as telling US President Barack Obama in talks in Washington yesterday to “study the facts and details before making statements” about the settlement plan.

Pakistan intelligence agency ISI was “closely connected” with top operatives of banned Indian Mujahideen (IM) and provided shelter to its members wanted in India, the National Investigation Agency has told a special court here.

The NIA said this in its supplementary charge sheet filed against 20 suspected IM operatives, including its absconding co-founders Riyaz Bhatkal and Iqbal Bhatkal, in connection with a case relating to larger conspiracy of the banned group to carry out terror activities across the country.

A Telangana cultural organisation is planning to celebrate the state’s ‘Bathukamma’ floral festival in over 25 countries next year.

“Since there was not much time this year, we could not spread the message and importance of the festival outside. Next year we plan to do it in more than 25 countries as the present government has taken up the celebrations of this event as a state festival,” Telangana Jagruthi promoter and Nizamabad MP Kalvakuntla Kavitha told reporters here today.

Actress Kate Winslet credits her long-standing friendship with Leonardo DiCaprio to the lack of romantic feelings between them.

Winslet and DiCaprio, who are hailed as one of the best on-screen couples in Hollwyood have remained friends since their first film together ‘Titanic’ (1997).

The 38-year-old actress said though people wanted them to be together, they never felt beyond friendship for each other, reported the Daily Mirror.

Breaking his silence over the Shiv Sena-BJP split in Maharashtra, veteran BJP leader L K Advani today said he would have been happy if the alliance had continued.

“I would have been happier, if this (alliance) would not have been broken. But, this is also right that people from our party were saying that the seat-sharing formula was not proper and we (BJP) should get more seats,” Advani told reporters here.

MNS chief Raj Thackeray has blamed NCP chief Sharad Pawar for the 25-year-old Shiv Sena-BJP alliance split in Maharashtra ahead of the Assembly polls.

“He (Pawar) told a senior BJP leader that you break the alliance with Sena and we (NCP) will support you,” Thackeray alleged.

Addressing a meeting of MNS supporters in western part of the city last night, Thackeray claimed that one of his close confidantes had heard the conversation which was confirmed to him (Thackeray) by a journalist friend.

The Telugu version of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to the nation would be broadcast at 8 PM tomorrow by the All India Radio stations in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

“Prime Minister’s address to the Nation will be relayed by all AIR stations of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and the Telugu version of Prime Minister’s address will be broadcast at 8 PM from the stations of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh states on the same day i.E 3.10.2014,” All India Radio, Hyderabad said in a press note today.

US President Barack Obama was “very pleased” to meet India’s new Prime Minister Narendra Modi and values the opportunity to discuss a broad array of topics reflecting the depth of the strong ties between the world’s two largest democracies, the White House has said.

Wielding the broom himself, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today launched ‘Clean India’ campaign joined by chief ministers, lawmakers, prominent personalities from various fields along with lakhs of countrymen in a drive that is expected to cost nearly Rs 2 lakh crore.

Asserting that “Swachh Bharat” mission is “beyond politics” and inspired by “patriotism”, he invoked Mahatma Gandhi’s vision of a “clean and developed” India as he formally kicked off the five-year-long campaign, which will cover 4,041 statutory towns, on the 145th birth anniversary of the Father of the Nation.

Andhra Pradesh and Telangana Governor E S L Narasimhan today launched the ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ at the Raj Bhavan by administering a pledge to the staff.

The Governor and his wife Vimala Narasimhan later symbolically swept the roads near Raj Bhavan.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, flanked by Union ministers Venkaiah Naidu and Nitin Gadkari and actor Aamir Khan, takes pledge for cleanliness during the launch of the nationwide campaign, the ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’ at Rajpath in New Delhi

Actor Aamir Khan, who was present at Rajpath here today when Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the “Swachh Bharat” mission, said he will be happy if he is made the brand ambassador of the cleanliness drive and appealed the people of the country to support the initiative.