Month: June 2015

Queen Elizabeth II, who has always impressed people with her sense of style, has something big in her bag for Germany this time, as Prime Minister David Cameron believes she will play a major role in strengthening Anglo-German ties.

During the summit, the Prime Minister will mention for the first time just what it is that he wants to renegotiate with the rest of Europe, before the British people vote on their membership in a referendum in 2016 or 2017, reports the Local de.

Scientists have designed a new chemical compound that has reduced the growth of pancreatic cancer tumours by 80 per cent in treated mice.

The compound, called MM41, was designed to block faulty genes by targeting little knots in the DNA, called quadruplexes, which are very different from normal DNA and which are especially found in faulty genes.

The findings showed that MM41 had a strong inhibiting effect on two genes – k-RAS and BCL-2 – both of which are found in the majority of pancreatic cancers.

Hollywood stars Ben Affleck and Matt Damon have teamed up to produce a movie inspired by the FIFA scandal.

The film is based on “Houses of Deceit”, a book by BuzzFeed’s reporter Ken Bensinger, reported Ace Showbiz.

The film will revolve around FIFA executive Chuck Blazer and his role in the largest sports and public corruption scandal in history.

Gavin O’Connor, who directed Affleck in “The Accountant”, is attached at the helm while Anthony Tambakis is on board to write the script.

Taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over Lalitgate, Congress today accused him of following “Raje dharma” and “not rajya dharma” by shielding Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.

“The Prime Minister should follow ‘rajya dharma’ and not ‘Raje dharma’ or ‘Lalit dharma’,” party spokesman Ajoy Kumar told reporters here even as he reiterated the party’s demand for the sacking of Raje and Swaraj.

Former Kerala minister and film actor K B Ganesh Kumar, MLA, has landed in trouble with a Vigilance Court here issuing a notice to him for illegal possession of a jumbo which he had bought from Forest Department 20 years ago to offer the animal to a temple.

Judge John K Illikadan served the notice yesterday on a complaint filed by one C P Sasidharan.

It has been more than two months since the issue cropped up, but Mumbai Cricket Association officials are still in the dark about the identities of their two Ranji Trophy players, both the whistleblower and the alleged culprit, who were involved in another IPL-related corruption attempt.

The Confederation of Indian Industry and the India Design Council in partnership with the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), will be organising a session on Make in India: Making it Happen by Design.

The event, which will be held on June 29, will be addressed by Amitabh Kant, Secretary, DIPP.

The recent initiative taken by CII and Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation (DMICDC) Limited in bringing designers in the planning process, will also be discussed during this session.

Congress leader Ajay Maken on Saturday said the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Government was busy fighting with the Central Government and the municipalities while no work was being carried out in Delhi.

“Delhi Government is busy fighting with the Central Government, with municipalities, with Haryana Government. No work is happening, no file is moving,” Maken told ANI.

“67 AAP MLAs and seven BJP MPs were not elected by Delhi to get into childish fights with each other,” he added.

Amidst controversy engulfing the BJP government in Maharashtra over allegations against its ministers, its ally Shiv Sena has said it needs to be explored why such such issues were emerging within a year of the new government coming to power.

Sena further said that accusations against the ministers shows that “politics is being played to put a halt to their ambitions”.

“BJP is in trouble at the Centre and in the state. The problems it is facing at the central level can be kept aside as there are two leaders like Narendra Modi and Amit Shah to take care of them.

A large number of voters queued up outside various polling centres in Tripura’s Pratapgarh and Surma constituencies to cast their votes in bypolls on Saturday morning.

Under heavy security, some 92,146 voters have been reported to have exercised their franchise, which will decide the fate of nine candidates across 115 polling stations of both the assembly segments.

The polling began at 8 a.m.. There was a significant voter turnout despite bad weather.

A large number of female voters also turned up to cast their votes, leaving behind their household chores and children tucked in.

A voter turnout of 35 per cent was recorded till noon for the ongoing Assembly bypoll in Chokpot constituency of Meghalaya.

“Voting is on in all the 46 polling booths in the constituency. The voter turnout till 12 noon was about 35 per cent,” Returning Officer Tangseng G Momin told PTI.

There was no untoward incident and voting was peaceful, he said, adding that information from all booths was yet to be obtained in view of poor connectivity.

Over 24,000 electors are eligible to exercise their franchise to elect one out of the four candidates in fray.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj left for Bangkok on Saturday to attend the Vishwa Sanskrit Sammelan and a meeting of the Indo – Thailand Joint Commission.

“Leaving for Bangkok for Vishwa Sanskrit Sammelan and Indo – Thailand Joint Commission meeting,” Sushma said on twitter.

The Vishwa Sanskrit Sammelan (World Sanskrit Conference) is the most prestigious academic gathering of scholars related to Sanskrit studies. The conference will be held in Bangkok from June 28 to July 2. (ANI)

As “Star Trek 3” began production in Vancouver, Canada earlier this week, Paramount has signed two lead stars Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto for a potential fourth installment.

Pine and Quinto, who play Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock respectively, have granted an option for “Star Trek 4” as the studio renegotiated their deals, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Sources said Paramount and Skydance Entertainment “recently completed last-minute renegotiations with (Chris and Zachary), a move that has added as much as USD 10 million to USD 15 million to the budget.”

Sci-fi thriller “Interstellar” has won big at the 41st Annual Saturn Awards, taking six awards including best science fiction release.

The film saw off competition from “Edge of Tomorrow”, “Godzilla” and “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1” to win the honour, reported Ace Showbiz.

“Interstellar” also won best film writing with Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan as the scriptwriters.

As per a new research, it only takes two weeks of not using their legs for younger and older people to lose a third of their muscular strength.

University of Copenhagen’s Andreas Vigelsoe said that the experiments reveal that inactivity affects the muscular strength of young and older men equally. Having had one leg immobilized for two weeks, young people lose up to a third of their muscular strength, while older people lose approximately one fourth.

Zahid Ahmad Qureshi, a kashmiri youth who crack the prestigious IIT is not so lucky as UP brothers whose entire expanses of education will be borne by the Akhlish Yadav government.

In spite of getting the enviable rank of 89, Zahid is struggling to fix his fee to secure his berth in the IIT and no one in Kashmir has turned up to help this militancy victim so far.

In the wake of the issue of forged certificates of important personalities in the country came to fore Maulana Azad University could come into the ambit of investigations any time. According to reliable sources central government plans to scrutinise documents used in connection with the recruitments made in the university. Final decision will be taken in this connection after consultation with experts. Chancellor of the University Zafar Sareshwala is serious over eradicating irregularities and corruption in the university.

Vigilance and Anti-Corruption bureau officials today arrested Ernakulam Additional District Magistrate (ADM) for allegedly accepting bribe from a person for granting explosive license, a top official said here today.

The accused ADM, B Ramachandran was arrested from his quarters this morning after he allegedly took Rs one lakh bribe from a native from nearby Thrippunithura for issuing license for running his explosive store, the official said.

Noted ghazal singer Pandit Vithal Rao passed away on Thursday night in the hospital. Pandit Vithal Rao was missing from quite some time. He had gone to Shirdi along with his family members and went missing from there. According to police Vithal Rao was found near Country Club, Begumpet in very critical condition. Police rushed him to Gandhi Hospital where he died while undergoing treatment. It remains unknown how he came to Hyderabad from Shirdi. His last rites will be performed today at 1 pm. His dead body would be kept at his house from 11 am to 1 pm.

A vehicle in the convoy of Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje was said to have been hit today by a TV channel’s car as she was headed to the airport here on her way to New Delhi.

According to the Chief Minister’s Office, the car in Raje’s convoy “was hit by a vehicle of TV channel obstructing the way”. However, there was no mention of anybody being hurt in the incident.

In a statement here, the CMO added, “At a few places, accidents were about to occur as Raje’s convoy was on way to airport and the electronic media followed her.”

Florence and the Machine covered a Foo Fighters song during their set at Glastonbury.

Singer Florence Welch and her bandmates treated the crowd to a version of “Times Like These” as they filled in for the band, which was forced to cancel their headlining appearance at the festival after frontman Dave Grohl fell off stage and injured his leg during a concert earlier this month, reported Ace Showbiz.

Before starting the song, Welch praised Grohl and thanked him for his support early in her career.

Written competitive exam will be held for recruitment on vacant posts of Assistant Executive Engineers in Transco, Genco in Telangana state. A mock test will be held for the candidates on Sunday June 28, from 2:30 to 4 pm, at Siasat Mahboob Husain Jigar Hall, opposite Ramakrishna Theatre, Abids for B.E/B.Tech, Electrical, Electronics, Civil, Mechanical branch candidates. Candidates can obtain model paper by appearing in the mock test. Information regarding Telangana will also be provided.

Siasat news

Telangana unemployed visually challenged Joint Action Committee has urged the government of Telangana to cancel the 6 point rooster system for reservations to physically handicap so that injustices done towards blind persons could be rectified. Committee leaders Messrs K Srinivas, Swami Nayak, Kashi and Viraraghu told that in a press conference here on Friday.

Actress Richa Chadda may be one of the most popular faces in upcoming film Masaan but the actress says content is the real star of the film.

“Masaan is not riding on my shoulders but on the able shoulders of the film. This film is closest to my heart. I find the film spiritual and so I have been on board since the beginning. It would be unfair to say that I am carrying the film on my shoulders. The film will work for itself… It’s a team effort,” Richa told reporters during the trailer launch of the film.

Six persons were today arrested at Belakoba and snake venom worth about Rs 100 crore was seized from them.

The six persons were arrested by forest police personnel from Belakoba today, Sanjoy Datta, Ranger, Baikunthapur forest division, said.

The venom was seized from the persons who were on three motorcycles and it was probably being smuggled to Bhutan, he said.

It was stored in containers inside schoolbags which they were carrying, he said.

Scientists use venom to develop anti-venoms.