The Majlis Bachau Tahreek has appealed to the people, especially the Muslims, to observe ‘Black Day’ and Telangana and Andhra Pradesh bandh on December 6 on the 22nd anniversary of demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya.
Israel looks set to hold early elections within months following a crisis in the ruling rightwing coalition provoked by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, media reports said today.
The burgeoning crisis, which could mean the second general election in some two years, is set to come to a head tomorrow when MPs vote on a bill to dissolve the Knesset, or parliament.
It comes in the wake of a growing wave of Palestinian unrest and deadly “lone wolf” attacks, with the prospect of peace more remote than ever.
Meeting expectations, a global e-auction of red sanders, a valued item in traditional medicines and woodcraft in Asia, has fetched Andhra Pradesh government Rs 991 crore on a sale volume of 4,160 metric tons.
In the global e-auction conducted by MSTC Ltd, a GoI enterprise, between November 24 to December 1, the Indian and foreign buyers picked up red sanders of ‘A’ Grade-4.69 MTs, ‘B’ Grade-166.18 MTs and ‘C’ Grade-3,988.81 MTs.
Multiple Grand Slam winner Leander Paes today backed the proliferation of leagues in different sporting disciplines as vehicles to promote the players and the sport itself.
The tennis veteran singled out the Amanora Premier Tennis League (PTL) being held here as an ideal example for providing the platform for Indian players to play, learn and earn from the sport they live for.
“What PTL has done is fantastic. It has provided one platform for the cream of Indian tennis players to come together and play as a team,” said Paes during a media interaction at the Deccan Gymkhana here.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Vice President Rahul Gandhi today condoled the death of party veteran A R Antulay, describing him as one of the most significant leaders of Maharashtra.
Sonia said she was deeply saddened by the demise of the first Muslim Chief Minister of Maharashtra who had a long public innings.
“He was a brilliant legal mind and committed member of the Congress party. He was known for his frank contributions on party forums and will be remembered for his being committed to the party in trying times,” the Congress President said.
At least 36 people were killed Tuesday in an attack on a stone quarry in Kenya’s Mandera town by Al Shabaab militants even as President Uhuru Kenyatta vowed to intensify the war against terrorism.
According to officials, gunmen opened fire at the quarry after separating Muslims and non-Muslims, Al Jazeera reported.
The scene of the latest attack is about 30 km from the Nov 22 raid on a bus, in which 28 non-Muslims were separated from the Muslim travellers and were executed.
Six people were killed Tuesday as a Libyan army warplane carried out air strikes in the town of Zuwarah, some 120 km west of the capital Tripoli, according to a military source.
The source told Xinhua that a MiG-21 fighter carried out air strikes and hit a food warehouse in Zuwarah, as a result of which six people were killed and at least 20 were injured.
Two of the dead were foreign nationals, the source added. However, another military source from the Libyan national army said the building they hit was an ammunition depot, not a food warehouse.
Iran and the world powers are very close to a comprehensive nuclear agreement in the coming months, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said here Tuesday.
“To prepare the details of the final accord we need an extension of the talks, and the seven-month extension is aimed at buying the time,” Zarif was quoted as saying by official IRNA news agency.
Most of the negotiators over Iran’s nuclear issue believe that the final deal would be reached earlier than the new deadline, he said.
At least eight Afghan soldiers and 20 Taliban fighters were killed during a five-day siege of an air base in southwestern Afghanistan that also left 15 others wounded, official sources said Tuesday.
They added that the wounded were members of the Afghan National Army (ANA) who took part in the fighting at the Shorab air base in Helmand province after it came under attack last Thursday.
Security forces managed to end the siege Monday, said Omar Zwak, a spokesman for the Helmand provincial governor.
Armed forces continue to suffer from shortage of manpower, even as government is making efforts to attract youth, parliament was told Tuesday.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, in response to a question in Rajya Sabha, said according to latest data, there is a shortage of 7,989 officers and 26,928 other ranks in the army, 1,499 officers and 11,631 sailors in the navy and 357 officers and 2,951 airmen in the air force.
The figures do not include the shortage in medical and dental branches.
The body of an Indian national in Saudi Arabia has been lying in a mortuary for more than five months awaiting repatriation, media reported.
Ali Hussain, 65, an Indian carpenter, died following a massive heart attack in Hofuf in Eastern Province June 17, the Saudi Gazette reported Tuesday.
His son, Saddam, who works in Jubail as a labourer, has been striving to fulfill his 55-year-old mother’s wish to see her husband for one last time.
Saddam’s mother and six siblings have been desperately waiting for the mortal remains of the deceased man.
Goa will host a seminar on tourism, trade and investment opportunities in Nepal later this week.
A day-long seminar, which gets underway Dec 5, would focus on creating a tourism-oriented synergy between Goa and Nepal, director general of Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry R.S. Kamat Tuesday told reporters.
The seminar will be organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci).
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today disapproved of the controversial remarks by Union Minister Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, saying such comments were “not acceptable” and asked party MPs to refrain from those that gave a bad name to the government and the party.
Sources said the Prime Minister, while addressing the BJP Parliamentary Party, told the MPs to be cautious while making public comments and asked them not to give any “address to the nation.”
Jammu and Kashmir recorded a voter turnout of 71 percent while Jharkhand recorded 65 percent in the second of the five-phase assembly elections held in the two states Tuesday.
In Jammu and Kashmir the polling percentage saw an increase from the 68.79 percent recorded in the 2008 assembly polls.
During the recent general elections, the state recorded 61.04 percent voting, Deputy Election Commissioner Vinod Zutshi told the media here.
A court here observed that menace of drunken driving has taken an alarming proportion and needs to be dealt with a stern hand as it upheld the conviction of an auto-driver, charged for driving vehicle under the influence of alcohol.
Additional Sessions Judge Manoj Jain’s remarks came while hearing a revision plea filed by south Delhi resident Hemant Sharma, 25, challenging a magisterial court order, which has sentenced him four days jail for driving vehicle under the influence of alcohol.
A woman government school teacher suffered a serious ear injury after a class 12 student slapped her, and official said Tuesday.
The 36-year-old computer science teacher in a government school in Maduravoil near here scolded the boy Monday for switching off the mains. After sometime, the boy went up to her and and slapped her hard.
On Tuesday, the teacher took leave for medical check up as her left ear ached. Doctors advised her to undergo a minor surgery as her ear drum has been affected.
Turkish students know Albert Einstein but can’t name any Muslim scientists or scholars, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan complained today as he called for a new curriculum in schools.
“If you ask them who Einstein is, every young person has something to say about him. If you ask who Ibn Sina is, you see the child has never heard about him,” Erdogan told a teachers’ forum in the southern city of Antalya.
Syria’s civil war has killed more than 200,000 people in less than four years, a monitoring group said today, adding that most were fighters from the two sides.
“We have documented the killing of 202,354 people since March 2011,” Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman said, adding that more than 130,000 of them were combatants.
“Of the total, 63,074 of the killed were civilians, including 10,377 children,” said Abdel Rahman.
“Among the anti-regime fighters, 37,324 were Syrian rebels, while 22,624 were non-Syrian jihadists,” he added.
The Kochi-Muziris Biennale in Kerala has become a major topic for this year’s prestigious Chevening Clore Leadership Programme for professionals in the art world.
Kochi will host the works of nearly 95 artists from about 30 countries at the second edition of the 108-day Biennale which will begin Dec 12.
Students from the art school Central Saint Martins, London and Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology, Bangalore will conduct an online study.
Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi today said Bihar government was determined to develop industries in the state and would provide all possible help to investors and entrepreneurs.
“We are determined to develop industries in the state. We also want to encourage agriculture-based industries so that farmers get maximum financial benefits for their produce. The single-window system to promote industrial development has been put in place for this purpose,” Manjhi said while inaugurating a rice mill in Akodhigola in Rohtas district.
Security forces broke into Al-Azhar Girls University in Nasr City, eastern Cairo following a protest rally staged by alleged Muslim Brotherhood-linked students.
A group of students Tuesday staged an on-campus protest against former president Hosni Mubarak’s acquittal verdict and raised anti-police slogans, state-run MENA news agency reported citing a security source.
Since last week, with the beginning of the new academic year, Students Aganist the Coup (SAC) held a number of protests clashing with riot police and Falcon personnel
Cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar, brand ambassador of the 35th National Games to be held in Kerala in January-February next, is expected to participate in the group run titled ‘Run Kerala Run’ organised as part of the Games.
“Run Kerala Run” is to be held in 7,000 centres across the state and date of the event would be finalised after getting confirmation from Tendulkar, State Minister for Sports Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan told reporters here today.
The state has proposed to Tendulkar January 20, 21 and 22 as the dates for the event, Radhakrishnan said.
Young people of colour in the US feel that they are not being treated fairly, President Barack Obama has conceded while initiating steps to streamline the police system in the aftermath of the Ferguson shooting.
“I think Ferguson laid bare a problem that is not unique to St Louis or that area and is not unique to our time and that is a simmering distrust that exists between too many police departments and too many communities of colour,” Obama said in his remarks at the White House yesterday.
The BJP today said that under the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC government the people of West Bengal were being “looted” instead of getting jobs and progress.
BJP national spokesperson M J Akbar also alleged that all evidence in the Saradha scam was coming from TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee’s colleagues in the party themselves.
“The people of Bengal want jobs. Instead, they are being looted. Bengal wants progress. Instead, they are witnessing dacoity,” Akbar told reporters on the sidelines of the BJP’s intellectual rally in Kolkata against Saradha scam.
Socialite Paris Hilton has been targeted by an anti-Semitic man who has sent her death threats.
The 33-year-old, who was raised a Roman Catholic, and her father Rick Hilton have both been targeted over social media where several abusive and anti-Semitic messages have been posted, reports tmz.com.
In one post, the man wrote to Rick: “One month and she’s (Paris) dead, she’s never coming home.”
Police say they know who’s making the threats but they need the Facebook and Instagram verification before they can make an arrest.
(IANS)