Month: November 2014

India will be future centre of power: Nizar Juma

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India will be the future centre of power even as the nation is yet to recognise its potential which other countries have realised, Kenya-based industrialist and Adidas Team Sport’s CMD Nizar Juma said today.

“India has dazzled the world over in the past two decades with a stunning display of domestic economic growth, entrepreneurial ability at home and abroad, and emergence as a world power in information technology,” said Juma, who is the founder and coordinator of The Future of Power initiative.

Zac Efron, Sami Miro attend Halloween party

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Actor Zac Efron and his girlfriend Sami Miro attended the Treats!, an annual Halloween celebration at a theatre here.

The 27-year-old actor was spotted wearing a white mask as his partner Miro donned denim-on-denim for the Friday event, reports eonline.com.

According to a source, the duo looked happy together.

“They were acting very much in love, she kept hugging him, their love looked genuine,” added the source.

Michelle Rodriguez, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ryan Seacrest, Robin Thicke, Paris Hilton and Derek Hough were also spotted at the event.

(IANS)

IS distributing guidelines for women on how to be ultimate wives of jihadists

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Islamic State militant group’s new media arm is distributing guidelines for women in Syria and Iraq on how they can be the ultimate wives of IS fighters.

According to the Independent, the Zora Foundation is the latest IS media group operating across social networks.

The militant group regularly releases propaganda showing brutal executions, violent atrocities and threats to western countries as the U.S. led coalition airstrikes continue.

However, this propaganda particularly targets women supporting IS militants by distributing guideline on how to be ‘good wives of jihad’.

Pak minister says Bangladesh hell bent on digging up past graves post JI chief’s death penalty

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Pakistan’s Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar has expressed his concern over the death penalty to Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami saying that he was alarmed how Bangladesh is hell bent upon digging up graves of the past.

According to the Express Tribune, Nisar said that Bangladeshi government “still seems to be living in the past”.

Nisar said that it was unfortunate that 45 years after the tragic events, Bangladesh has not forgotten anything and seems to be “ignoring the time tested virtue of forgive and forget”.

Dharma presents ‘best moment with SRK’

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Dharma Productions created a special gift for Shah Rukh Khan on his 49th birthday Sunday – they created a bouquet of memorable moments from their films with SRK for his fans to enjoy.

The message on the production house Twitter handle read: “Heart-warming storylines… Stellar megastar casts… Record box-office collections… Watch our films on http://bit.ly/Dharma-YT”

The best of scenes are picked up from “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai”, “Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham”, “Kal Ho Naa Ho” and “Kabhi Avida Naa Kehna”.

Over 300 died in 9 years in communal incidents in UP: RTI

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Over 300 people lost their lives and 3,000 were injured in incidents of communal violence in Uttar Pradesh in last nine years, according to a RTI reply.

According to information received through the RTI for the period of 2005-2014, 1,271 communal incidents have taken place in Uttar Pradesh in the last nine years, out of which 56 were recorded in 2014 in which 10 persons died and 144 were injured.

In the 1,271 incidents, 336 people lost their lives and 3,107 were injured.

Campaign by Indian-Americans led to Indo-US civil N-deal: Book

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It was a grassroot campaign by Indian-Americans, who literally flooded their lawmakers with emails, letters and faxes, that saw the Indo-US civil nuclear agreement pass through the Congress, says a new book on the unprecedented coming together of the community for the deal.

Leading Indian-American entrepreneur and activist Swadesh Chatterjee in his book ‘Building Bridges: How Indian-Americans Brought the United States and India Closer Together’, provides a first-hand account of the involvement of the influential community in getting the deal through the US Congress.

Himachal CM invites 1,400 industrialists to business meet

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Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh has written more than 1,400 letters to leading industrialists for an investors’ meet this week, an official said here Sunday.

In the first phase, investors’ meet will be organised in association with the Confederation of India Industries (CII) in Mumbai, Bangalore and Ahmedabad Nov 5-8, a government spokesperson told IANS.

“The state government is also contemplating to freeze the power tariff for the (new) industries for the next five years,” a government statement said.

Mouse hunt delays New York bound flight by 5 hours

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In an unusual incident, a mouse in the cockpit of a Norwegian airline delayed a flight to New York by five hours.

The incident happened on Tuesday aboard a Norwegian Air Shuttle airplane when a mouse was spotted while the plane was preparing to take off.

Staff frantically began to search the cabin for the rodent, but the flight ended up being delayed by five hours until the mouse was finally captured, ‘The Local’ reported.

“A mouse was discovered aboard the plane, which delayed the departure,” Norwegian Air Shuttle’s spokesperson, Charlotte Holmberg Jacobsson, said.

1984 anti-Sikh riots: Accused in 7 cases out of 255 convicted

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Accused in seven cases out of the 255 lodged in connection with 1984 anti-Sikh riots have been convicted by September this year, an RTI query has found.

27 accused in the seven cases were convicted while 591 accused in as many as 121 cases were acquitted, according to the RTI query.

Delhi-based RTI activist Gopal Prasad had filed a query with the anti-riots cell of Delhi Police, which was constituted in 1990, asking for details about the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

Appeal on granite probe was to prevent delay: TN CM

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Amid demands from DMK that orders be issued to enable U Sagayam to go ahead with the probe into illegal granite quarrying, Chief Minister O Panneerselvam today said the government’s appeal in the Madras High Court against appointing the IAS officer as legal commissioner was to prevent delay in the issue.

The Tamil Nadu government went on appeal against the Madras High Court order, appointing Sagayam as legal commissioner as the probe to bring out the scam was over and due legal processes were initiated against those involved, he said in a statement here.

Modi is a ‘great orator’, says Arvind Kejriwal

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AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal says Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a “great orator” and has sent all the “right” messages but felt delivery of his promises were “very low”.

Kejriwal also suggested that Modi as prime minister has brought some positivity in the country in the last five months, adding only time will tell whether the aspirations of the people will be fulfilled or not.

“He (Modi) is a great orator and he has spoken the right things. But delivery is very low. So let’s see what happens,” the former Delhi Chief Minister told PTI in an interview.

Thailand boosts security in restive south

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Security was beefed up in Thailand’s Muslim-dominated southern border province of Pattani following separate bomb attacks at four places recently.

The Friday attacks in Muang district killed one and injured two others. Authorities yesterday said the attacks were carried out by the same group.

The unrest in restive region has left 5,634 people dead and 10,554 injured between January 1, 2004 till Friday, the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) said.

Last month there were 39 attacks in Yala Pattani and Narathiwat. Nine people were killed and 23 others were injured.

Banks yet to restrict free ATM transactions in metros

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Even as RBI allowed banks to charge ATM transcations beyond five in metros, the lenders are yet to restrict the number of free withdrawals for their own customers at home automated teller machines.

Leading banks like SBI, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank have not yet announced any cap on free transactions.

The lenders are refraining from putting a cap as restriction on free ATM usage would increase footfall in branches, a senior official of a public sector bank said.

IS militants kill at least 50 people in Anbar province of Iraq

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Islamic State (IS) militants have killed at least 50 people of a tribe in western Anbar province of Iraq, said officials and tribal leaders.

The men and women killed were reportedly lined up before they were shot for resisting the fighters, reported the BBC.

A lot of people from the same tribe called Al Bu Nimr were found dead in mass graves earlier this week.

The Al Bu Nimr tribe had joined the Shia dominated government’s campaign against IS militants.

There have been many such killings in large areas controlled by IS militants in Iraq and Syria. (ANI)

A record 30 Indian-Americans vying for office in US poll

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A record 30 Indian-Americans are contesting Tuesday’s US elections that will determine the course of power politics in the last two years of President Barack Obama’s term in office.

Nearly three million people of Indian descent with an ever growing number of officials in high places,are better educated, earn more than other Americans, but haven’t had much of an impact on national politics though they have two state governors and a lawmaker in the House.

Need cooperation from Swiss banks to bring back black money, says SIT chief

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Chief of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on black money, Justice M.B. Shah, on Sunday said it was not difficult to bring back the black money to the country but added that it would require cooperation from the Swiss banks.

“Inquiry is going on, but how much time it takes cannot be said. It’s not difficult to bring back black money but if the banks of Switzerland will cooperate then the money will come back,” Justice Shah told ANI.

He added that nobody knew yet how much money was stashed abroad and how much of it could be brought back.

Maharashtra: Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis allots cabinet portfolios, keeps Home, Housing, Health with himself

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Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis today allocated portfolios to his ten-member council of ministers while keeping the Home, Urban Development, Housing and Health departments with himself.

As per the information provided by the CMO, the portfolios not specifically allocated to any minister will be with the Chief Minister.

Senior BJP leader Eknath Khadse has been given revenue, minorities development and wakf, agriculture, animal husbandry, dairy development and fisheries, and state excise.

‘Gold may decline to Rs 24,500 by Dec if rupee stays constant’

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Gold prices are likely to decline further to around Rs 24,500 per 10 grams by December if the rupee continues to rule at the current level, according to analysts.

“We expect the gold prices to remain bearish and if the rupee continue to rule at current level the yellow metal may touch Rs 24,500 level by December. We expect gold to consolidate in a week or two, then continue to decline further from mid or end of December,” Motilal Oswal Associate Vice President – Commodities – Kishore Narne told PTI here.

Bar bribe: Vigilance to probe charge against Kerala finance minister

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Hit by the “bar bribe controversy”, the Congress-led UDF Government in Kerala today announced a vigilance probe into the allegation by bar owners that state Finance Minister and Kerala Congress (M) supremo K M Mani had demanded a hefty sum for favourable decisions.

State Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala said the Director of the Vigilance and Anti-corruption Bureau had been asked to conduct a “preliminary inquiry” into the allegation.

Sanitation work of five more wards privatised in BMC

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The Berhampur Municipal Corporation (BMC) has privatised sanitation work in five more wards. With this, sanitation work has so far been been privatised in 22 of 40 wards in this south Odisha city.

Sanitary workers of the newly-privatised wards would be diverted to non-privatised wards for better sanitation works, said Commissioner of the Corporation Anjana Panda. Around 550 sanitary workers of the Corporation would look after the 18 wards.

Bangladeshi media doyen Mir Quasem Ali gets death for 1971 war crimes

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A top leader of fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami party and Bangladeshi media doyen Mir Quasem Ali was sentenced to death today by a special tribunal for war crimes he committed during the independence war against Pakistan in 1971, days after the party’s chief was given capital punishment on identical charges.

“He (Ali) shall be hanged by neck until he is dead,” pronounced chairman of the three-member tribunal as the 62-year-old Jamaat leader looked bewildered on the dock.

BJP government failed to curb crime in Rajasthan: Congress leader Virendra Beniwal

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Former state Home Minister Virendra Beniwal today alleged that the BJP government has “failed to curb crime” in the last eleven months of its rule and were “unable to provide fearless atmosphere” to the people in Rajasthan.

Crime was rising as the BJP government failed to curb the activities of anti-social elements indulged in loot, rape, murder and robberies besides rampant corruption in government machinery, Beniwal told villagers yesterday at Lunkaransar, his old constituency.