Month: June 2015

An Egyptian court on Sunday sentenced 47 supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi and Muslim Brotherhood group from three to 15 years in prison over violence charges, MENA news agency reported.

The Zagazig Criminal Court found the defendants guilty of terrorist activities, violating the new anti-protest law, possessing anti-government fliers, resisting the authorities and assaulting private properties at Sharqiya province, some 65 km north of the capital Cairo.

The ruling regarding other 31 defendants facing similar charges has been delayed to June 30.

Actress Lindsay Lohan, who had reportedly contracted the chikungunya virus in December 2014, has been undergoing cryotherapy to ease her pain. She finds it relieving and amazing.

The 28-year-old actress, who contracted the rare, untreatable disease from a mosquito bite in Bora Bora, shared images of herself and friend Brittany Byrd emerging from a -230 degree Fahrenheit chamber after receiving treatment, and admits she turned to the therapy to help with the joint pain she has suffered in recent months.

Actress Amy Poehler has advised up-and-coming comedians to keep out of showbiz if their only aim is to fetch money and fame.

She offered words of wisdom to aspirants at the Upright Citizen Brigade’s Del Close 17th Annual Marathon here and asked them to figure out why they really want to break into the business, reports people.com.

“If the goal is doing good stuff and working with your friends … if you’re doing that then you’re succeeding,” Poehler said, and added: “If the goal is to be famous and make money – then you’re in real trouble.”

Nine people died after they sneaked into and got trapped in an abandoned coal mine in China’s Fujian province, authorities said.

Rescuers said that 12 people entered a closed mine in Yongding district’s Longyan city on Saturday to dig coal. Nine entered first. When the rest three went down to the well, they smelled strong odour and came back. They called the police when the first nine did not return, Xinhua reported.

Rescuers were sent to the mine but a high concentration of carbon monoxide slowed the process.

The rescuers found the nine bodies on Sunday.

In a landmark judgment, the US Supreme Court on Friday guaranteed right to same-sex marriage nationwide. The legal milestone is in step with sentiment among millennials around the world, including India — where nearly 49 percent of them support marriage equality, according to a recent study.

The Next Normal, a study by Viacom International Media Networks Insights, spanned over 20 countries, included 15,000 interviews and revealed global trends among the generation belonging to the age group of 12-30 years at the turn of the century.

West Indies will play against hosts Zimbabwe and Pakistan in a tri-series during August-September, the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) confirmed on Sunday.

The series will be a straight contest between the two visiting teams to book the eight and last Championship trophy slot. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) are yet to confirm the schedule for the series, ESPNcricinfo reported on Sunday.

A 27-year-old graduate has been arrested for allegedly duping people by using their ATM card details to purchase and then encash Metro Travel Cards, police said here on Sunday.

“He would purchase 20-50 Metro Travel Cards and recharge them. He would later return the recharged cards at the Metro station counter and collect cash against the recharged value of Metro Travel Cards,” Sudhir Kumar, chief of cyber crime cell, told IANS.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Sunday held another meeting with his US counterpart John Kerry in the Austrian capital, as part of the negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 group of world powers.

Deputy foreign ministers as well as experts from both sides were also present in the Sunday session, Press TV reported.

Ahead of his Saturday talks with Kerry, Zarif told reporters that hard work was needed to nail down a final nuclear deal, adding: “We’re determined to do everything we can in order to be able to get to this important milestone.”

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Sunday said Sanskrit is not a mere language but a world view.

Addressing the 16th World Sanskrit Conference inaugural here, she said: “Just as mutual trust, love, harmony, cooperation and other inclusive features are essential for an individual family, so are harmony, trust and cooperation necessary among different nations, different societies, and different sects and traditions in the family of the universe.”

The Odisha government has urged the Centre to declare three industrial estates having food processing units as designated food parks to receive credit support from NABARD, said an official on Sunday.

He said the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) department has urged the union Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MOFPI) to declare three industrial estates as designated food parks.

US intelligence agencies are reassessing their approach to the Islamic State (IS) terror group as a “regional threat” following three terrorist attacks in three countries over the weekend, media reported.

The US National Counter-terrorism Center is working with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to determine the extent to which the attacks were coordinated by IS terrorists, a report on Politico website said on Saturday.

The new office-bearers of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes (AMMA) are mulling ways to raise funds to continue their monthly pension scheme for ailing artistes, said its president Innocent on Sunday.

“We provide a monthly pension of Rs.5,000 to about 105 members and we have decided that to sustain this, additional funds should be raised and for that, we have in mind a few schemes,” he said after a meeting here.

The European Union (EU) on Sunday afternoon released the latest draft proposals offered to Greece but were later rejected by the Greek government, following Greek parliament’s approval of a referendum on them to be held next week.

“In the interest of transparency and for the information of the Greek people, the European Commission is publishing the latest proposals agreed among the three institutions,” EU’s executive body European Commission said in a statement.

A Congress legislator from West Bengal on Sunday courted controversy after he dubbed the state police as “dogs” and warned them against becoming “touts” of the ruling Trinamool Congress.

The remarks by Congress legislator Ashish Marjit, who represents Khargram constituency in Murshidabad district, were made in the presence of state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.

At least five people were killed and 15 others injured in a suicide bombing attack near a hospital in Nigeria’s Maiduguri city, an official said on Sunday.

Two female suicide bombers on Saturday attempted to gain entry into a government-run hospital located in Molai area of the city but were stopped by security operatives on duty at the facility, Xinhua reported citing Mohammed Kanar, the regional coordinator of the National Emergency Management Agency.

World No.7 and Spanish tennis ace David Ferrer pulled out of Wimbledon with an elbow injury on Sunday.

The eighth seed was supposed to face Britain’s James Ward in the first round, but now will be replaced by a lucky loser from the qualifying rounds.

Italy’s Luca Vanni is set to take his place.

The 33-year-old’s exit opens up the draw for Rafael Nadal, who could have faced his countryman in the fourth round.

But with Ferrer gone, Nadal could have an easy route to the last-eight where he could have a potential encounter against No.3 Andy Murray.

At least 21 people have died in devastating flash floods and landslides triggered by heavy rains that lashed southeastern hilly districts of Bangladesh, officials said on Sunday.

Tens of thousands of people were marooned on higher ground as flood waters submerged areas around Cox’s Bazar and the hilly district of Bandarban, Xinhua reported.

Police confirmed that 21 bodies were recovered from a river on Sunday.

In 2012, at least 88 people were killed in devastating landslides caused by heavy rains in Bangladesh’s two southeastern districts, Cox’s Bazaar and Bandarban.

The director of a private residential school in Bihar’s Nalanda district was beaten to death by villagers on Sunday after the bodies of two missing students were found in a pond nearby, police said.

Devender Prasad, director of the Devender Prasad Sinha (DPS) School in Nirpur, about 100 km from Patna, was beaten to death by angry villagers, district police official Sanjay Kumar said.

Both students — Sagar Kumar, 10, and Ravi Kumar, 11, — went reported missing on Saturday from the school hostel and their bodies were found on Sunday.

Police today busted a prostitution racket and arrested seven persons on the charge of running brothels in different parts of the city.

According to police, M Veerababu and R Ramesh are allegedly organisers of brothel houses which they have been running in different areas of Hyderabad and Secunderabad since the last eight years.

They were also involved in similar cases and wanted in four cases, a release from City Police stated.

BJP president Amit Shah today said Hindu religion has solution for all the problems in the world.

“Hindu religion has solutions for all the problems of the world… I am not saying this because I am born Hindu,” Shah said at Gujarat University convention centre, while unveiling former President A P J Abdul Kalam’s book ‘Transcendence: My Spiritual Experiences with Pramukh Swamiji’.

AICC General Secretary Digvijay Singh has said late Prime Minister Pamulaparthi Venkata Narasimha Rao saved the nation from economic and political crises with his political and economic brilliance.

Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC) chairman Prof. Kodandaram has said they had accepted Section-8 as there was no other option at that time. “If they think cash-for-vote case is farce, they can approach the court”, Kodandram said, adding that what is the relation between Section-8 and cash-for-vote case? They (TDP leaders) are demanding implementation of Section 8 just to escape from the case, he added.

TRS secretary-general K Keshav Rao today asserted none can stop ACB investigation into the notorious cash-for-vote scam.
Talking to mediapersons here on Sunday, Keshav Rao said the law will take its own course and none can stop the ACB from investigating case to take it to logical end. He also slammed Andhra Pradesh leaders for their persistent criticism on the bribery case in which Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu was yet to respond on his alleged voice in the audio conversation with MLA Stephenson.

Union Minister of State for Labour & Employment Bandaru Dattatraya today paid floral tributes to former Prime Minister late P.V. Narasimha Rao on the occassion of his 94th birth anniversary at P.V. Ghat, Necklace Road on Sunday. (NSS)

Agriculture Minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy today paid rich tributes to former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao on his 94th birth anniversary.