Palestinians can play a crucial role in ending the decades-long conflict with Israel by keeping up the pressure and using their collective power like the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, says Palestine’s leading writer Raja Shehadeh.
A Silkair flight from Singapore with 183 passengers was diverted to Thiruvananthapuram due to heavy winds here and landed at the city airport at 2.30 AM today after a delay of four hours.
The flight was to have landed here around 10.30 PM last night but could not do so due to heavy winds, airport sources said.
The flight was diverted last night to Thiruvananthapuram and it returned here around 2.30 early in the morning, they said.
Of the 183 passengers, 110 left the airport and the others, including those waiting for connecting flights were accommodated in hotels, they said.
A fortnight-long exhibition, showcasing rare photos of Noble Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, digital collections of his paintings and an array of selected books, concluded here yesterday.
The exhibition titled ‘Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore: A Visionary, Artist and Poet’, was organised by Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) and Tripura Government Museum. It was inaugurated by Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar in the presence of IGNCA Director Dr. P R Goswami and other dignitaries.
The US Senate failed to reach a deal that would prevent key counterterror provisions from expiring at midnight, plunging US national security efforts into potential disarray amid persistent extremist threats.
The Senate actually took the step of advancing painstakingly crafted bipartisan reform legislation yesterday that would end the controversial National Security Agency program which scoops up telephone data on millions of Americans with no connection to terrorism.
India is exporting medicines to Afghanistan at a cost much lower than the pharmaceutical products of western nations to tap the healthcare market in the war-torn country.
Currently, 96 per cent of Afghanistan’s pharmaceutical needs are met from overseas imports with a large part of it coming from India.
Cooper Pharma, a Delhi based pharmaceutical company, is among many Indian firms exporting medicines to Afghanistan. The company supplies a wide range of medicines to Afghanistan since 1993, including antibiotics, oral antibiotics, injections and syrups at a very low price.
CredR, a new start up by young entrepreneurs from IIT Mumbai and Stanford University with operations in Mumbai, Bangalore and Pune has entered the decades old pre-owned vehicles market by offering never heard before features such as free Inspection on 80-plus parameters of the bike, test rides at the home of the buyer, a six-month warranty, one-year roadside assistance and an advanced algorithm to determine fair price.
Alberto Contador won his second Giro d’Italia title and would now try to win the Tour de France to become the first man since 1998 to win both titles in the same year.
The Spaniard, who rides for Tinkoff-Saxo, won the Giro by a minute and 53 seconds from Italy’s Fabio Aru, 24, who rides for Astana.
Jubilant with the victory, Contador said that it had been a very beautiful experience for him, the BBC reports.
The 2008 champion becomes just the second man, after France’s Bernard Hinault, to win all three Grand Tours (Giro, Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana) at least twice.
Former IAS officer Jyoti Prasad Rajkhowa was sworn in as the Governor of Arunachal Pradesh on Monday.
Appointed on May 12, the 1968-batch officer has served as the chief secretary of Assam before his superannuation from service.
Rajkhowa will take over from his duties from Lt. Gen Nirbhay Sharma, who has been shifted to Mizoram. (ANI)
Rajya Sabha Independent MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Monday on the NDA Government at the Centre to pursue the Captain Saurabh Kalia case in the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which is located in The Hague.
“This is a case where a crime has been committed against a brave soldier and his family has been struggling to make sure that justice is done. I have myself petitioned in the ICJ in December 2012, and that petition is pending because the then government [UPA-II] did not think it appropriate to intervene on behalf,” Chandrasekhar told ANI.
In a ghastly incident a man along with his two friends allegedly raped a minor girl who lives in his neighborhood in BodUppal area of Medipally.
According to police the prime accused, Ravi, 23, a car driver and the 17-year-old victim are neighbors. About ten days ago, Ravi called the victim over the phone saying that he wanted to meet her to a spot near Boduppal.
Former greats Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman were today inducted into the BCCI’s newly-constituted cricket advisory committee to guide the Board and the national team on various “progressive steps” needed for future challenges.
“The President of the BCCI, Mr. Jagmohan Dalmiya, has nominated Mr. Sachin Tendulkar, Mr. Sourav Ganguly and Mr VVS Laxman as esteemed members of the Cricket Advisory Committee of the BCCI, with immediate effect,” BCCI Secretary Anurag Thakur said in a statement.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday justified the decision to name former Singapore finance minister George Yeo as the Chancellor of the Nalanda University, stating that he had played a ‘key role’ in its establishment.
“George Yeo played key role in setting up Nalanda University. It is East Asia Summit initiative.Great choice by Rashtrapatiji.@ShilpiTiwari5,” she tweeted, in response to a query over the choice by one of her followers.
On Saturday, the Ministry of External Affairs had confirmed Yeo’s appointment.
Having recently completed one year in office, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Monday, brushed aside criticism on his government’s track record and asserted that ‘Acche Din’ have become a reality in the country.
In an interview to news agency UNI, Prime Minister Modi said, “Acche Din have arrived but some people are trying to belittle the work done by us.”
Modi also said that his government won’t tolerate violence against any particular community.
Jet fuel price was hiked by a steep 7.5 per cent today and rates of non-subsidised cooking gas (LPG) by Rs 10.50 per cylinder in step with global firming of rates.
Price of aviation turbine fuel (ATF), or jet fuel, in Delhi was raised by Rs 3,744.08 per kilolitre (kl), or 7.54 per cent, to Rs 53,353.92, oil companies announced today.
On May 1, ATF price was hiked by a marginal Rs 272 per kl or 0.5 per cent to Rs 49,609.84.
Government today said Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is testing more Maggi samples collected from different states in the wake of UP FSDA finding monosodium glutamate and lead in excess of the prescribed limit in the instant noodles.
While complete report of the tests are expected in the next two to three days, the government said Maggi brand ambassadors will also be liable for action if advertisements are found to be misleading.
Ending three-week long suspense, Karnataka government today decided to file an appeal in the Supreme Court against acquittal of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa and three others in the disproportionate assets case.
The decision to challenge the May 11 verdict by Justice C R Kumaraswamy of the Karnataka High Court was taken at a cabinet meeting after the advice by the Special Public Prosecutor in the case B V Acharya and state Advocate General Ravivarma Kumar as also the state Law Department.
A worker at Japan’s Tokyo Station has gotten an unpleasant shock after opening an abandoned suitcase: the decomposing body of an elderly woman inside.
Japanese media said the body was discovered Sunday after the suitcase had been kept in temporary storage for more than a month to see if the owner would turn up.
The bright yellow suitcase measured 28 by 20 by 10 inches. It was found in an unlocked locker at Tokyo’s main train station on April 26.
The body is 140 centimeters tall (4-feet, 7-inches) tall. Police are trying to establish the woman’s identity.
A 15-year-old girl was allegedly raped when she went to fetch water from a public hand pump here, police said on Monday.
The accused, identified as Munfat and Jabid, allegedly raped and threatened to kill the victim, they said.
The incident took place on Saturday when the victim, resident of sector 55, was alone at a public handpump.
Munfat allegedly clamped her mouth and took her to a room where he assaulted the victim, while Jabid was guarding the room, police spokesperson said.
West Bengal Agriculture Marketing Minister Arup Roy on Monday denied any reports of suicide by potato farmers in the state.
Replying to a question in the state assembly, Roy said that according to reports received from the district authorities no farmer has committed suicide.
Last month, opposition Left Front and Congress had staged separate walkouts in the Assembly after they were not allowed to discuss the issue of alleged suicides by farmers.
—PTI
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras spoke with the leaders of France and Germany in their second conference call in three days to discuss progress in the talks between Athens and its lenders, Greek officials said.
The 35-minute call with French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday “went very well,” and it was agreed that a deal must be completed very soon, the officials said.
The centre-left party of Italian premier Matteo Renzi faced battles in regional elections, exit polls showed today, after balloting which is also seen as a measure of the fading fortunes of ex-leader Silvio Berlusconi.
Yesterday’s polls were the first in Italy, which is slowly emerging from recession, since European elections a year ago in which Renzi’s Democratic Party (PD) won with just over 40 percent of the vote.
Al-Qaeda’s North Africa arm has claimed responsibility for two attacks against the United Nation’s MINUSMA peacekeeping mission in Mali this week, the Mauritanian Al-Akhbar news agency reported.
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) said it was behind a “rocket attack on a MINUSMA base” in the capital Bamako on Tuesday and a landmine explosion Thursday targeting a UN convoy in the restive north, according to Al-Akhbar, citing AQIM spokesman Abderrahmane Al-Azawadi.
The Al-Akhbar agency regularly carries jihadist statements.
Nearly two dozen people have been evacuated from their condominiums in Puerto Rico’s capital after a water tank collapsed through a residential building’s roof.
There were no immediate reports of any deaths or significant injuries at the condominium complex in the wealthy Miramar neighborhood of San Juan.
Firefighters say roughly 20 people were left temporarily homeless after yesterday’s incident.
Firefighters and engineers are trying to brace the building to prevent further collapse to the structure while utility workers check gas lines.
Some 400,000 people in Colombia’s bustling port city of Buenaventura lost power after a key electrical tower was destroyed — an act military officials blamed on FARC rebels.
“At 9:45 am (local time) Buenaventura was left without electrical service,” read a statement from the power company yesterday, the Energy Enterprise of the Pacific (EPSA).
A military overflight located the destroyed electricity tower some 27 kilometers from the urban center of Buenaventura, officials said, after two large explosions were reported.
Socialite Paris Hilton says she is a ‘tomboy at heart’ and insists she’s actually more adventurous than people think.
Hilton, 34, said despite being known for her love for all pink and girly things from her time on the reality show “The Simple Life”, she is actually more than that in real life, reported Heat magazine.
“I’m a total tomboy at heart and I love jumping out of planes and doing crazy things,” she said.
Hilton added she thinks her biggest ‘talent’ is her courage to try anything.