More than 14,000 people fleeing Boko Haram violence in northeast Nigeria have streamed into Chad since the beginning of 2015, according to a United Nations report today.
The report by the UN’s Office for the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) put the daily arrivals rate at 774 and said it expected 30,000 refugees to arrive in the country this year.
Actress Swathi Reddy, who is basking in the success of “Karthikeya”, is being considered for the sequel to last year’s Telugu sleeper hit “Geethanjali”. The rest of the cast is expected to be finalised soon.
“The plan to make a sequel was finalised in December last year. Since then the makers have been on the lookout for a suitable heroine to play the titular role. Swathi Reddy is likely to be part of the sequel. The talks are going on,” a source from the film’s unit told IANS.
EU foreign ministers will add names to a blacklist of individuals sanctioned over the Ukraine crisis when they meet but stop short of new measures targeting Russia’s economy.
The leaders of the 28 European Union nations issued a rare joint statement on Tuesday telling ministers “to consider any appropriate action” after a bloody upsurge in fighting around the key port city of Mariupol by pro-Russia rebels.
Actor David Tennant will appear in Marvel and Netflix’s ‘AKA Jessica Jones’.
Marvel Studios announced that Tennant, 43, will have a recurring role in the limited-run series as Zebediah Killgrave, a villain more commonly known as the Purple Man, reported Entertainment Weekly.
The mind-controlling Killgrave has a connection to superhero-turned-detective Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter), and throws her life into chaos when he reappears in New York City.
Kerala-based Neha Ratnakaran, who is making her cinematic debut in upcoming comedy drama “Ivanuku Thannila Gandam”, says Tamil filmdom is the best place for an actor to start one’s career.
“When I got the lead role in ‘Ivanuku Thannila Gandam’ I was excited because I was going to make my debut in an industry where talent is given top priority and acknowledged. The Tamil film industry is a great place to start one’s career in,” Neha said in a statement.
The film, which is directed by S.N. Sakthivel, revolves around a character’s fear of water.
Neha says she’s not afraid of water.
Actress Katie Holmes will appear in the third season of ‘Ray Donovan’.
Showtime announced that Holmes, 36, will have a “major guest starring role” in the upcoming episodes, reported E! online.
Holmes will be involved in a storyline that introduces Deadwood’s Ian McShane as wealthy movie producer Andrew Finney, who hires fixer Ray Donovan (Liev Schreiber) to keep family trouble secret.
The actress has been cast as Andrew Finney’s stylish and aggressive daughter Paige.
Two women died and another was injured when they were buried under a heap of coal at IP Power Station in central Delhi where they had sneaked in to steal coal today.
The deceased have been identified as Neelima and Manisha while the injured has been identified as Vijaya.
“They had accompanied a group of women from Anna Nagar JJ Cluster near IP Estate who had entered the power station allegedly to steal coal to burn at home as fuel and sell.
“Locals often gain illegal entry into the power station to steal coal,” said a police official.
The incident took place around 3 PM.
ISIS step a way forward and threatened to behead US President Barack Obama. In a new video released by them titled ‘Bombardment of peaceful Muslims in the city of Mosul’, show the destruction of the Iraqi city Mosul by US attack.
The video titled ‘Bombardment of peaceful Muslims in the city of Mosul’ shows how the Iraqi city of Mosul has been damaged by Peshmerga shelling.
Girls who frequently consume sugary drinks tend to start their menstrual periods earlier than girls who do not, new research shows.
The team from the Harvard Medical School in the US looked at the relation between sugar-sweetened drinks and the age at which girls have their first period.
They followed 5,583 girls, aged 9-14 years between 1996 and 2001 and found that those who drank more than 1.5 servings of sugary drinks a day had their first period 2.7 months earlier than those who consumed two or fewer such drinks a week.
Suzuki to invest up to Rs 8,500 cr in Gujarat facilityJapan’s Suzuki group will invest up to Rs 8,500 crore in setting up a manufacturing facility here to supply cars to its Indian arm Maruti Suzuki India.
The foundation stone of the facility, which will have a total capacity of 7.5 lakh unit annually, was laid by the state Chief Minister Anandiben Patel here Wednesday. The first line of the plant will be operational by May 2017.
Housing sales in Delhi-NCR market declined by 43 percent last year at 40,575 dwelling units, the lowest in a decade, while prices rose marginally by 3 percent, according to property consultant Knight Frank India.
The National Capital Region, the country’s largest residential property market, had recorded a sale of 71,421 units in 2013.
New launches fell by 24 percent to 73,143 units during 2014 as against 95,678 units in the previous year.
Budget carrier SpiceJet today joined the low fare race in the domestic market putting on the block half a million seats with ticket prices starting at Rs 1,499 under a limited period promotional offer.
The bookings under the three-day “Super Sale” offer can be made from today for a travel period between February 15 to June 30, SpiceJet said in a release.
The offer comes two days after its competitor AirAsia India announced a discount fare scheme with a seven-day booking window period.
State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) Wednesday said its natural gas output will jump 81 percent to 116 million standard cubic meters per day by 2019 after it bring newer fields in western and eastern offshore into production.
“Gas production will rise from 64 mmscmd to 116 mmsmcd by 2019,” ONGC Chairman and Managing Director Dinesh K Sarraf said at the India Energy Congress here.
The increased production will come from Krishna Godavari basin gas block KG-DWN-98/2 as well as western offshore discoveries.
The Food Ministry is in favour of extending export subsidy for only 1.4 million tonnes of raw sugar in the ongoing 2014-15 marketing year.
“A cabinet proposal to extend export subsidy on raw sugar for 2014-15 marketing year (October-September) has been sent for inter-ministerial views. The Food Ministry has proposed a cap on quantity at 1.4 million tonnes,” sources said.
Last year, the Centre had announced a subsidy for exports of raw sugar up to 4 million tonnes in order to help the cash-starved industry clear sugarcane arrears to farmers. The subsidy scheme ended in September 2014.
In a stinging attack on Aam Aadmi Party convenor Arvind Kejriwal, BJP’s chief ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi today called his influence “highly toxic” and described him as a “negative” person.
Bedi, who as part of Team Anna worked with Kejriwal before they parted ways around two years ago, said she had differences of opinion with him even during the anti-graft movement but did not snap her association considering the common goal of having a Lokpal.
To ensure hassle free credit to small borrowers, the RBI on Wednesday directed banks to do away with the practice of obtaining ‘No Due Certificate’ from individual loan takers.
The RBI said it received complaints from borrowers as banks were refusing to grant loans without ‘No Due Certificate’, specially in rural and semi-urban areas.
Homegrown chat application Hike messenger said on Wednesday that it will offer free voice calls to its users over 2G, 3G and Wi-Fi services across the globe in over 200 countries.
The introduction of voice calls has come within a month of Hike making it’s first acquisition — a free calling app — Zip Phone. The free voice calling feature has been launched in beta on Android, which contributes to over 90 per cent of its user base whereas the iOS and Windows versions are slated to release by the end of this quarter, the company said in a statement.
An informative career programme on the topic, ‘How to prepare for the exam?’ will be held on Thursday, January 29 at 10 am at Urdu Academy auditorium at Khilwat. Career expert M A Hameed will deliver career lecture and give information on exam technique. Deputy Chief Minister Mr. Mohammed Mahmood Ali will be the chief guest. Mohammed Osman Chairman Deccan Federation will preside over. SSC students can attend the programme.
Siasat news
In the Name of Allah, the God Almighty, the Most Glorious the most Magnificent, the Most Merciful, and the Most Compassionate; we human beings should try to act and imbibe the qualities of mercy and compassion.
An NDFB-Songbijit ‘sergeant major’ involved in the killing of a teenage girl that shook the state last year, was shot dead in an encounter in Kokrajhar district tonight, a police officer said.
At about 9.15 PM the militant exchanged fire with the police in the deep jungles of Ripu Reserve Forest under Kochugaon police station, 5 km north of Nabhi Nagar, IGP L R Bishnoi told PTI.
A local outfit here today demanded clarification from the Centre for conferring Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian award in the country, on Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.
“In his regime , the drug mafia in the state is flourishing. His relatives and many leaders of SAD are allegedly involved. Is he being given the award for this?” alleged Vinay Jalandhari, head of Shiv Sena Uttar Bharat.
Ranchi Rays came from two goals down to secure a hard-fought draw against Dabang Mumbai in their Hockey India League (HIL) match here this evening.
It was the visitors who began strongly at the Birsa Munda stadium here and had taken a 2-0 lead by the 15th minute.
The early pressure on the Ranchi goal paid off for Dabang Mumbai as first Glen Turner in the 12th and then Santa Singh in the 15th minute both scored field goals to put the visitors 2-0 ahead.
Social activist Anna Hazare on Wednesday said he will launch a fresh stir on the Lokpal issue even as he criticised the Narendra Modi government for its “failure” to bring back black money stashed away abroad and said that people will teach it a lesson for the “fraud” done on them.
“The Modi government has not implemented the Lokpal Act even after 365 days of the President’s having signed it. It has not fulfilled assurances made to the people,” he said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was meeting today in emergency session with Israel’s security chiefs to discuss options after a Hezbollah missile attack killed two Israeli soldiers, his office said.
The premier “is at this hour convening a security situation assessment at defence headquarters in Tel Aviv,” his office said, adding among those taking part were Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon, armed forces chief Lieutenant General Benny Gantz, and the head of the Shin Bet security service.
A 55,000-year-old partial skull found in the Middle East gives clues to when our ancestors left their African homeland, and strengthens theories that they co-habited with Neanderthals, scientists said today.
Found in Manot Cave in western Galilee, north Israel, the cranium has the characteristics of an early Homo sapiens, as anatomically modern humans are called, they said.
Manot is just a few dozen kilometres (miles) to the north and northwest of two other sites — the Kebara and Amud caves — where Neanderthal remains had been found.