13 killed in Afghan floods

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Heavy rains and floods have killed 13 people, including two kids, while leaving hundreds of people homeless in Afghanistan’s Balkh province, police said Wednesday.

“The natural disaster of flooding hit parts of Sholgara and Kashandi districts last night during which 13 people including two children lost their lives,” Xinhua quoted police official Shir Jan Durani as saying.

Besides destroying scores of houses and leaving hundreds homeless, the floods have washed away two schools and a clinic in the mentioned districts, he added.

Chit fund accused Debjani framed, says sister

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Arrested director of the tainted Saradha Group Debjani Mukherjee was not only framed by the chit fund company owner but also prevented from surrendering to West Bengal Police, her sister claimed Wednesday.

“(Saradha chief) Sudipta Sen has framed her. She wanted to surrender before the police, but she was prevented from doing so. My sister is innocent,” Mukherjee’s cousin Arpita, also an employee of the chit fund-funded group that has gone bust, claimed to the media here.

6-old raped by 14 year old in Delhi”s Seemapuri area

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New Delhi, Apr. 24 (ANI): At a time when the people of the national capital are angry over the brutal rape of a five-year-old child, yet another incident of rape has come to the light.

A six-year-old girl has been raped in the Seemapuri area of northeast Delhi. The accused, aged 14, has been detained.

The victim has been admitted to a nearby hospital.

Further details of the crime are awaited.

Indian workers in Saudi Arabia assured all help

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Indian Ambassador Hamid Ali Rao has assured expatriate Indian workers in the country’s Eastern Province of all possible help in mitigating their problems following new immigration law.

In a meeting held at the Indian School in the provincial capital of Dammam Tuesday, the ambassador took first-hand information about the problems faced by members of the Indian community, the Arab News newspaper reported.

Deputy chief of mission Sibi George accompanied him.

Members of the community submitted memorandums listing their various grievances.

Pakistani court rejects Musharraf”s bail in Benazir murder case

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Islamabad, April 24 (Xinhua-ANI): A Pakistani court on Wednesday rejected bail of former President Pervez Musharraf in the 2007 assassination case of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, prosecutors said.

Musharraf had got an interim bail in the case and had approached the court for extension. However, the Lahore High Court rejected his application as his defence lawyers failed to appear before the two-member bench.

Michelle Keegan crowned `world’s hottest woman`

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London, April 24 (ANI): British actress Michelle Keegan has been named as the world’s hottest woman.

The 25-year-old actress has defeated American model Kate Upton to top ZOO’s Hot 101 list this year.

Upton came second in the poll, which was voted for by tens of thousands of the magazine’s readers, the Sun reported.

Leah Francis and Alice Goodwin bagged the third and fourth place respectively, while `Celebrity Juice` judge Kelly Brook came fifth.

Beautiful actress Mila Kunis took away the sixth spot followed by pop princess Rihanna in the seventh position.

Buddhist violence against Muslims in Myanmar ‘wron

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Amid damning reports showing official Myanmar complicity in ethnically cleansing entire Muslim towns and villages, the world’s foremost Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, has condemned the violence that has left hundreds dead and an estimated hundreds of thousands homeless.

Chidambaram vows not to allow fiscal deficit to exceed 4.8 percent of GDP

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New Delhi, Apr. 24 (ANI): Finance Minister P. Chidambaram today said that India would limit the fiscal deficit for 2013-14 to below 4.8 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

“We have been able to send a powerful signal to the rest of the world that we are determined to get back to the path of fiscal consolidation. We have laid out a new path and I have said these are red lines; these will never, never be breached. I have kept my promise,” said Chidambaram, while addressing India Summit organised by UK-based magazine ”The Economist”.

9 in 10 Americans approve of govt. handling of Boston Marathon bombings

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Washington, April 24 (ANI): A Fox News Poll has found that nine out of ten American respondents were satisfied with the application of law enforcement during the recent terror bombing on the Boston Marathon.

The poll was solely based on telephone calls to randomly chosen 1009 registered voters nation wide.

The poll released on Tuesday, reported that almost 91 percent approved of law enforcement, 71 percent believed in Obama”s administration and 55 percent praised the media on the manhunt saturation coverage.

Myleene Klass granted quickie divorce in hearing lasting just 100 seconds

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London, April 24 (ANI): Myleene Klass was granted a quickie divorce from her former bodyguard husband – in 100 seconds on Tuesday.

The TV host and ex-Hear’Say singer was granted a decree nisi on the grounds of Graham Quinn’s unreasonable behaviour.

The pair met in 2001 when Quinn was working for Hear’Say and they got engaged in 2005 and wed in 2011.

Quinn, 39, left the classical pianist and daughters Ava, five and Hero, two, last April- six months after they married.

Tourists savour Kashmir”s most popular almond flavoured Kahwa in Srinagar

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Srinagar, April 24 (ANI): In a bid to woo more tourists to the Kashmir valley, the department of tourism is promoting the region”s popular almond flavoured tea. Popularly known as Kahwa, tourists said they enjoyed having it in the picturesque Tulip garden. “It was really nice. It is very new to me as I had not tasted anything like this before. The taste was unique and I enjoyed the tea as it was made up of saffron. Saffron is also unique in this place. It tasted good,” said Shruti Pathak, a tourist. Kahwa is made with saffron, and garnished with almond silvers.

TV chefs intensifying `obesity crisis with fatty dishes `

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London, April 24 (ANI): Celebrity chefs are “exacerbating” the obesity crisis by encouraging people to eat fatty dishes, a new study has claimed.

Nutrition experts, who tested more than 900 recipes from 26 famous cooks, found that 87 per cent fell “substantially short” of the Government’s healthy eating recommendations, the Independent reported.

According to researchers from Coventry University, just 13 per cent used ingredients to create “healthy” meals in line with the Food Standards Agency’s (FSA) guidelines.

Boston bombing suspect’s wife ‘had no idea of plot’

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Sydney, Apr. 24 (ANI): The wife of deceased Boston Marathon suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev had no idea of any plot, her lawyers have said.

Katherine Russell last saw her husband on Thursday night, just hours before he was killed in a police shoot-out, her lawyer told CNN.

According to news.com.au, she was handing over their two-year-old daughter to him before heading to work.

Her lawyer Amato DeLuca told CNN that she learned about her husband”s involvement in news, and is ‘is very distraught’ and ‘cries a lot’.

Ex-Secretary of State Kissinger ‘confident’ there will be no Korean war

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Washington, Apr. 24 (ANI): Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has said he is confident North Korea will not be permitted to start a general conflict.

In Beijing on Wednesday, he added that he hoped the effort to deal with North Korean provocations would become ‘a common Sino-American conceptual enterprise’.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Kissinger, who was in Beijing to attend an energy conference, is not alone in downplaying the potential for conflict.

UN official blames Boston Marathon bombing on ‘American global domination’

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Washington, Apr. 24 (ANI): United Nations official known for blaming the U.S. for unrest in the Middle East has blamed the Boston Marathon bombings on ‘American global domination’.

Richard Falk, the UN Human Rights Council”s Palestine monitor, wrote in an article for Foreign Policy Journal titled, ‘A Commentary on the Marathon Murders’, said that the American global domination project is bound to generate all kinds of resistance in the post-colonial world

Four men rape mother and daughter, three arrested

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Three people have been arrested in Bihar for abducting and raping the mother and sister of a youth as a revenge for his eloping with the sister of one of the accused, police said on Wednesday.

The attack took place in Sariswa village under Majhaulia police station of West Champaran district on April 19, but came to light after a case was lodged with the police. “Three people were arrested after an FIR (first information report) was lodged on the basis of the statement of gang-raped victims,” Superintendent of Police Sunil Nayak told repoters.

Ex- Romney campaign intern arrested for black mailing women with nude photos

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Washington, Apr. 24 (ANI): A former campaign intern for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has been arrested and charged with cyber-stalking and blackmailing young women online.

Authorities said Adam Savader, 21, was arrested from his home in his Great Neck, L.I., home on Tuesday by FBI agents.

According to the New York Daily News, Savader is a political science student at SUNY Farmingdale who’s interned for former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan and Romney.

Jewish rabbi releases book on physical intimacy for ultra-orthodox community

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London, Apr 24 (ANI): One author in Israel has released a book on physical intimacy to educate young Jewish couples who likely have very little bedroom experience with the opposite sex.

It might be the most natural thing in the world, but at least Dr David Ribner, an ordained rabbi, thinks that the country’s ultra-orthodox Jewish community need a little help when it comes to newlyweds beginning their married life together.

New Hampshire Republican claims U.S. government planned Boston Bombing

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Washington, Apr. 24 (ANI): A Republican state legislator in New Hampshire has claimed that the U.S. Government is responsible for the Boston Marathon bombing.

State Republican Stella Tremblay posted on the Facebook page of conservative talk show host Glenn Beck that the attack and the subsequent search for suspects was playing out how Beck had suggested.

Partial lunar eclipse to be visible tomorrow night

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The first of the three lunar eclipses of the year will occur tomorrow, giving astro enthusiasts all over the country an opportunity to witness the celestial event.

A tiny sliver of the Moon will be covered by the Earth’s umbral shadow at maximum of the partial lunar eclipse, N Sri Raghunandan Kumar of Planetary Society of India said.

This is the third shortest partial eclipse of the Moon for the 21st century, lasting just 27 minutes.

According to NASA, the shortest partial lunar eclipse of the 21st century will be on February 13, 2082, lasting only 25.5 minutes.

Fukushima nuclear plant cleanup may take over 40 years, says IAEA

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Tokyo, Apr. 24 (ANI): A United Nations nuclear watchdog team has said that Japan may need longer than the projected 40 years to decommission the Fukushima power plant, and urged Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) to improve stability at the facility. Japan Times quoted the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency team, Juan Carlos Lentijo, as saying, that damage at the nuclear plant is so complex that it is impossible to predict how long the cleanup may last. The government and TEPCO have predicted the cleanup would take up to 40 years.

Police arrest two Maoists in W.Bengal

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Police in West Bengal”s Jhargram District arrested two Maoists and recovered the skeletal remains of three persons on Wednesday. Superintendent of Police of Jhargram, Bharati Ghosh said: “Belpahari Police and Additional Superintendent of Police (head quarters) recovered those dead bodies.

Wimbledon to become richest tournament ever with 40 pc hike in ‘prize pool’

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London, Apr 24 (ANI): The Wimbledon is reportedly set to be the richest tennis tournament to be ever staged following the All England Club`s announcement of a massive 40 percent hike in the prize pool for the tournament`s championships to be held this summer. The prize money will now be worth a reported 22.6 million pounds, the Mirror reports.

Asian monsoon may be predictable months in advance

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Washington, April 24 (ANI): A Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego-led study has found a crucial connection that could drastically improve the ability of forecasters to reliably predict Asian monsoon a few months in advance.