Month: June 2015

Senior Congress leader V Hanumantha Rao today questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s silence on ‘Lalitgate’ issue during his ‘Mann ki Baat’ programme and on allegations against foreign minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje.

“He (Modi) talked about yoga, environment, women and all in his ‘Mann ki Baat’. That is good. But, he did not remember Lalitgate,” Rao said.

During the UPA government, Congress leaders like Pawan Bansal, Ashwini Kumar and Shashi Tharoor had quit as Union ministers soon after allegations were made against them, he recalled.

Muslim minority is anxious about the difference in claims and actions of KCR in respect of its development. KCR is famous for his political acumen, revolutionary temperament and to respond in his own style to his opponents but the dual stand taken by him in respect of Muslim minority raises doubts about his intentions. He has applauded the Govt. of Nizam on various occasions but is he opposed to Nizam in writing is a question.

AAP MLA Alka Lamba, sought information from Govt. of Delhi about rape cases. It was revealed that in 96% rape cases, the victims knew the rapists. Till 31st May 1947 cases of molestation were reported by women. Delhi police claimed that it solve 80% cases within a fortnight. The police also reported that fast urbanization and expansion of sub-cities like Dwarka and Rohini with unplanned colonies are the major factors of rape cases.

The Sunni Barelvi Markaz of Dargah Ala Hazrat’s Mufti Mohammed Saleem Noori has passed a fatwa saying that Muslim women can run their own business with full Hijab. There is, however, a hitch that they can only run those businesses in which their interaction is limited to only women.

The fatwa came after Zaima Shaikh, from UK, on June 22, asked the body whether women from the community are allowed to run their own business.

An ITI aspirant who had a dog’s photo on his admit card was today detained for interrogation by the police as part of the inquiry into how the animal’s photo came into his admit card.

“Soumyadip Mahato (18) has been detained for interrogation as part of inquiry into the case that sparked a lot of controversy,” police said.

A petition has been filed in the Madras High Court challenging a recent public notice by Tamil Nadu Government that wearing of helmets by two-wheeler riders and pillion riders would be compulsory from July 1 and that bike’s registration document would be impounded in case of violation.

Petitioner D Gopalakrishnan, a clerk of an advocate in the high court, submitted that the notice issued on the basis of the Motor Vehicles Act (MVA), 1988 does not have any provision for impounding vehicle documents in case of violation.

At least 20 members of families living under Islamic State crossed from Syria into Turkey amidst the Kurdish advance on al-Raqqa, the main stronghold of the radical group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said on Monday.

The London-based NGO noted that the family members “included 13 women, one of them is a Tunisian doctor,” and that initial reports showed that five of those who fled across the border were arrested by Turkish authorities.

The relatives of IS militants entered the Turkish border from al-Raii area, in the northern Syrian province of Aleppo, SOHR added.

The concept of Islamic “caliphate” entered its second year last Monday. The activists of IS have occupied a large territory in Syria and Iraq. It is posing a threat to enter Tunisia and Kuwait.

The head of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi made an announced on 29th June 2014 that he wants to revive Islamic caliphate.

During the last one year it occupied many territories in Syria and Iraq despite military support by a U.S.-led coalition air campaign.

It aims to expand its territory in Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Pakistan and other countries and wants to project fear on universal scale.

World number one Serena Williams began her 2015 Wimbledon campaign with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Russian qualifier Margarita Gasparyan, recovering from a slow start to ease into the second round.

The five-time champions, who is looking for her fourth straight title, was not at her best during the match and was forced to save six break points before winning the match.

The top seeded player said she knew that Gasparyan would be a good competitor.

Stressing that former Delhi law minister Jitender Singh Tomar’s fake degree issue had been brought out much earlier, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Pankaj Pushkar on Monday said that compromises happen when there is a lack of courage.

“Everyone knows that this issue was brought into notice much earlier. But at that time the party leadership was in a fix. And when there is a lack of courage, then compromises happen. We look for a winning candidate, that is why all this happened,” said Pushkar.

Tunisia has arrested a “significant number” of suspects in the terrorist attack on foreign tourists at the beach resort of Sousse that killed at least 38 and injured dozens, Interior Minister Mohamed Najem Gharsalli said on Monday.

Gharsalli said “the first part of the network” responsible for the gun attack at the beachfront Imperial Marhaba Hotel had been detained, local Radio Shems Fm reported.

“We have begun with the arrests of a first group, a significant number of people belonging to the network behind this criminal terrorist,” Gharsalli said.

Most of the victims of last week’s killer heatwave in Pakistan’s Sindh Province were homeless, beggers or drug addicts living on the streets here, a minister said today as the death toll reached nearly 1300.

“The inquiry into the deaths of nearly 1300 people from the heatwave had found that two-thirds of the victims were homeless,” health minister Jam Mehtab Dahar told PTI.

Iraqi premier Haider al-Abadi has “retired” the army’s chief of staff, the most senior officer removed since jihadists overran large parts of the country last year, his spokesman said today.

General Babaker Zebari “has been retired” on Abadi’s orders, Saad al-Hadithi told AFP, without providing further details.

Abadi has sacked dozens of army and police officers in an effort to restructure and improve security forces that performed disastrously when the Islamic State jihadist group launched an offensive last June, overrunning major areas north and west of Baghdad.

Superstars Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan will be clashing at the box office next year with ‘Raees’ and ‘Sultan’, respectively, but King Khan says that they are friends and do not consider it a clash.

Both films are going to release next year on Eid.

“We have now become friends, so everything we will do together. For you all it is clash, but not for us. We both are going to do well then. There might be a business clash but there will be equal profit for us,” Shah Rukh told reporters here at an event.

Directed by Rahul Dholakia, ‘Raees’, an action-thriller,

Union Minister for Steel and Mines Narendra Singh Tomar today had to face questions from BJP youth wing workers on the party’s traditional Hindutva agenda and the black money issue.

Speaking at an interaction organised by Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), Tomar said to a question about “Hindu state” that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made it clear that “all the 125 crore Indians were equal and there was no room for discrimination.”

A prominent Islamic State leader was killed in airstrikes launched by the US-led international coalition west of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

General Najim al-Jabouri, commander of security operations in the Nineveh province, said on Monday that coalition aircraft targeted the car belonging to Abdullah Mohamed al-Huran, the military commander of Mosul’s eastern front.

The electricity bill of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s Civil Lines residence was about Rs 91,000 for the months of April and May, according to an RTI reply.

The General Administration Department of Delhi Government has furnished the copies of electricity bill of Kejriwal’s Civil Lines residence running into Rs 91,000. The RTI query was filed by Vivek Garg, an advocate and RTI activist.

Delhi BJP, however, claimed that the bill was over Rs 1 lakh and said that it would also seek power bill details of all AAP ministers.

The $10 billion TAPI gas pipeline project will top the agenda of Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to the Central Asian country of Turkmenistan early next month.

Modi, who will be in in the Turkmen capital of Ashgabat on July 10-11, will hold discussions with President Gurbanguly Berdimuhammadov on the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project, which is gathering speed after many years.

Turkmenistan’s envoy to India Parakhat H. Durdyev said that the TAPI project would be very much part of the agenda of talks during Modi’s visit.

The Reliance Industries (RIL)-led consortium partner in the eastern offshore KG-D6 block, Niko Resources of Canada, on Monday said it may defer development of the R-Cluster and other satellite gas fields if the gas price outlook remains uncertain.

The consortium, that includes British major BP, has made 19 oil and gas discoveries in the KG-DWN-98/3 block in the offshore Krishna-Godavari basin, while only three gas fields have been brought to production.

Development plans for five other discoveries have been approved.

Karnataka Lokayukta Justice Y. Bhaskar Rao on Monday ordered Upa Lokayukta Justice Subash B. Adi to stop further investigation into corruption charges against some officials in the anti-graft body.

“Rao has directed Adi to stop Lokayukta Superintendent of Police Sonia Narang from further investigating the corruption charges against some of their officials on complaints lodged by RTI activists and a few state officers,” a spokesperson of the anti-graft body told IANS.

British Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday called on the BBC not to use the phrase “Islamic State” when referring to the terror group operating in Iraq and Syria.

The prime minister, who calls the group “ISIL”, said Muslims would “recoil” at the phrase being used to justify the “perversion of a great religion”.

Cameron insisted that the battle against extremists targeting Britons around the world can be won but would require “extraordinary resolve and patience”.

He criticised BBC presenter John Humphrys for referring to the group as Islamic State.

A-42-year-old person, who was declared brain dead at a private hospital here, saved the life of four people after his family members consented to donating his organs including the heart and both kidneys.

According to the doctors — the patient, a resident of south Delhi, on June 23 complained of severe headache on the right side and was rushed to Rockland hospital.

He was diagnosed with aneurysmal, a condition in which the headache is caused due to rupture and blood leak in the brain.

Indo Nissin Foods Ltd. on Monday announced the withdrawing of its instant noodles brand Top Ramen from the market on the direction of regulator Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).

“We are withdrawing our instant noodles Top Ramen from the market as our application for regulator approval is still pending with the FSSAI,” a company official told IANS.

Pope Francis on Monday deplored the “atrocious, inhumane and inexplicable persecution” of Christians still taking place in many parts of the world and “often beneath the eyes and sealed lips of all”.

Pope Francis made the remarks during a sermon as he celebrated mass at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome as it marks the feast day of its patron saints, Peter and Paul.

The Delhi University on Monday released the second cut-off list for the 2015 academic session, announcing a dip of up to one percent in arts and commerce and up to three percent in science courses giving hope to scores of students who were unsuccessful in securing a seat in the first list.