The 9th meeting of the UAE-German joint economic commission, held under the chairmanship of UAE’s Economy Minister Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri and German Minister for Economics and Technology Philipp Roesler, has concluded here.
The closing meeting was co-chaired by Engineer Mohammed Ahmad bin Abdul Aziz Al Shehhi, UAE’s undersecretary of the ministry of economy and Ruth Herks, the state secretary at the German federal ministry of economy and technology.
Iran has expressed its solidarity with Syria amid prevailing crisis, with the visiting national security head from Tehran assuring support to President Bashar al-Assad’s efforts to handle “aggressive foreign policies”.
Alaeddin Boroujerdi has arrived in Syria on a three-day visit to discuss prevailing situation with top Syrian officials including President Assad, Xinhua reported.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem accused “foreign powers” of targeting Syria’s pivotal role in the region, as he met Boroujerdi Sunday.
Rugby player Danny Cipriani says that he and his girlfriend Kelly Brook have always cared for each other, even when they were not together.
The couple dated for 20 months before calling it quits in 2010. Later Brook later dated rugby player Thom Evans but they ended their relationship.
Once again Cipriani and Brook appear to be getting on rather well, but the latter is yet to confirm she’s dating Cipriani.
Fighting which started between the military and Islamic insurgents in Nigeria’s northern state of Borno on Friday has claimed about 185 lives in a fishing community.
A local government chairman Mr Lawan Kole informed state officials yesterday that the bodies of the recovered victims had been buried even as the search for more dead persons has not ended.
Brig Gen Austin Edokpaye, the military spokesman said the insurgents used human shield and attacked soldiers with rocket propelled grenade and sophisticated machine guns.
Rains occurred in parts of Andhra Pradesh on Sunday damaging standing paddy, mango, chilli among other crops.
Moderate to heavy rainfall with strong winds swept various places in the state.
Though the rains gave relief to the people reeling under severe heat conditions, it caused damage to mango, chilli, paddy and other crops, reports reaching here said.
–PTI
Mehvish Mushtaq Hakak, a 23-year-old computer science student, has become a role model for Kashmiri youths by developing the first-ever android application for the Valley – Dial Kashmir.
Mehvish is the first Kashmiri to develop an android application.
Dial Kashmir contains over 500 contacts of government departments and private numbers. It is a one-stop source for “essential information” about the state.
“Dial Kashmir is an application that may be described as a virtual yellow pages directory,” Mehvish said.
The mother-in-law of Manoj Kumar Sah, who was arrested for allegedly abducting and raping the five-year-old girl, on Sunday said he should be hanged for the crime, while his wife sought stringent punishment for him if the charge was proved true.
“He (Manoj) should be hanged for the bestial act,” said the 22-year-old youth’s mother-in-law Nirmala Devi.
Manoj was arrested from his in-laws’ house in Chiknauta village in Muzaffarpur on Friday night.
One more person allegedly involved in the rape of a five-year-old girl in New Delhi a week ago has been arrested, police said on Monday.
Pradeep, the second accused, was apprehended from Bihar in a joint operation by Delhi and Bihar Police, Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar told PTI.
“He will be brought to Delhi on Monday after getting a transit remand from Darbhanga court,” Kumar said.
Manoj, the first accused who was arrested on Saturday from Muzaffarpur in Bihar, had told police during interrogation that one of his friends was also involved in the crime.
Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy on Sunday said a BJP nominee will be the National Democratic Alliance’s candidate for the Prime Ministerial post.
“Six out of the seven NDA allies have no aversion if the candidate does not meet the secular standards of Janata Dal (United),” Swamy said in response to questions after addressing the Global Patriotic Tweeples’ Conference.
Swamy also said the leadership issue can be discussed and decided at the NDA meeting, but added that it is not necessary to have such a meeting at this stage.
The Opposition is all set to corner the government in Parliament which resumes on Monday after a recess with BJP and other parties deciding to raise the “deliberate leak” of the JPC draft report on the 2G scam and the reported vetting by the Law Ministry of the CBI report on coalgate.
A political storm has already broken out with an agitated opposition alleging that the report on 2G is a “cover up” and has been prepared to give a clean chit to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P Chidambaram.
Notwithstanding his party rejecting his views on separation of powers between the Prime Minister and the Congress President, Digvijay Singh has said that the buck should stop at one point and the general impression was that the present system does not really help.
Singh, however, declined to discuss the issue as to who should be the next Prime Minister–Manmohan Singh, Rahul Gandhi or someone else.
Congress leader Digvijay Singh today termed the rape of a five-year-old girl in Delhi as a “dastardly act” and slammed BJP for “playing politics” over the brutal incident.
Congress leader Digvijay Singh today termed the rape of a five-year-old girl in Delhi as a “dastardly act” and slammed BJP for “playing politics” over the brutal incident.
“Collective effort is required to uproot such social evils. Thus, law enforcing agencies, civil society and others will have to get together, apply their mind and bring out a solution,” Singh told reporters during a private visit to the city.
US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel held out hope on Sunday for a nonmilitary way to ending the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran, but he also emphasized Washington’s willingness to let Israel decide whether and when it might strike Tehran in self-defense.
Hagel, on his first visit to Israel as Pentagon chief, seemed intent on burying the image that Republican critics painted of him as insufficiently supportive of the Jewish state. That portrayal was central to a failed campaign to derail Hagel’s Senate confirmation in February.
Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Sunday night said Rs 1,000 crore and Rs 400 crore will be spent this year for infrastructure and water works in localities were SCs and STs stay. He also announced that in order to provide better education facilities for students completing tenth standard, 100 hostels for SCs, each costing Rs 2 crore and 250 hostels for STs, each costing Rs 1 crore each, would be set up in the state.
As churches paused to mourn the dead and console the survivors of the Boston Marathon bombing on Sunday, the city’s police commissioner said the two suspects had such a large cache of weapons that they were probably planning other attacks. The surviving suspect remained hospitalized and unable to speak with a gunshot wound to the throat.
After the two brothers engaged in a gun battle with police early on Friday, authorities found many unexploded homemade bombs at the scene, along with more than 250 rounds of ammunition.
The body of a Andhra Pradesh Police officer killed by Maoists in the forests of Chhattisgarh following a gunfight Tuesday was brought to the state’s Khammam district Saturday night.
The body of Vara Prasad, reserve inspector of Greyhounds, the elite anti-Maoist force of Andhra Pradesh Police was brought to Cherla police station near the border with Chhattisgarh.
The officer’s body, which had decomposed beyond recognition, was secured from the custody of Maoists after mediation by some civil liberties activists and tribal leaders.
India’s civil society continues to express concern over the Gujarat Government’s failure to protect people or arrest those responsible for communal violence in 2002, a US report on human rights has said.
The report, titled ‘Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2012’ released by the US State Department, as mandated by the Congress, says human rights groups continue to allege that investigative bodies in their reports showed bias in favour of Gujarat’s Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
Emphasising the need to inculcate values in youth to control social evils, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi said traditional Indian value-based systems have been painted in “secular” and “non-secular” garb. Inaugurating a youth training centre of Brahma Kumaris in Ahmedabad on Sunday, Modi spoke on recent crimes against women.
A helicopter carrying BJP leader L K Advani today made seven rounds over an election meeting venue here as the pilot reportedly could not locate the temporary helipad, police said.
The chopper later landed at Kumarapatnam, 18 km from here, at a permanent helipad of a private company after which Advani, accompanied by BJP Karnataka unit chief Prahlad Joshi, proceeded to the venue by road, police said.
Advani was at Ranebennur in Haveri district to launch the BJP campaign for the May five Assembly polls.
——PTI
Indian tennis star Sania Mirza spoke about what Sachin Tendulkar meant to her, in an interview with Boria Mazumdar for the Outlook magazine special edition on the occasion of the maestro’s fast-approaching 40th birthday.
Prince Khaled Al-Faisal, Emir of Makkah region, received a delegation of Indian scholars from the southern state of Kerala at his palace Friday.
The delegation was headed by renowned scholar and general secretary of the All India Muslim Scholars Association Kanthapuram A. P. Aboobacker Musliyar.
They mainly spoke on the issues concerning the expatriate community such as the effects of Nitaqat implementation and “Huroob.”
The brutal rapist of the five-year-old girl had met his equally vile partner-in-crime during a chance meeting aboard a train earlier this year, sources claimed on Sunday.
Identified by sources as one Pradeep, the man in question is now ‘officially’ the second accused in the case which took place precisely a week ago.
“Manoj Kumar Sah, the main accused, kept twisting facts, changing his statements and putting the entire blame on Pradeep as soon as he was arrested,” said an officer.
A one-month-old boy who was allegedly sold for Rs 1.5 lakh in Nizamabad district of Andhra Pradesh has been rescued by the police, officials said on Sunday.
Two persons including the baby’s father Gangadhar, a labourer and one mediator called Linganna, allegedly sold the baby ten days ago, the Nizamabad Rural police said, quoting a complaint lodged by the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) authorities.
Former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has been confined to two rooms of his sprawling farmhouse, which has been declared a “sub-jail”, and has been barred from meeting his lawyers, personal staff or relatives, one of his close aides said today. “Musharraf has been restricted to two rooms and his family is not permitted to meet him. His personal staff have been restricted to the office within the farmhouse,” Muhammad Amjad, a leader of the All Pakistan Muslim League party, told reporters this afternoon.
A 22-year-old mentally challenged woman was raped allegedly by the warden of a hospital in Chinchwad in Maharashtra’s Pune district, where she was admitted.
According to the police, the warden allegedly raped the woman around midnight on April 16.
What’s worse, upon discovering the rape, the two doctors in charge of the hospital, used the opportunity to lock the warden in a room and blackmailed the warden instead of informing the police.
The doctors – husband and wife – and the warden have been arrested by the Chinchwad Police.