Jammu, March 26: The Srinagar-Kargil Highway, closed since December last owing to heavy snowfall in the region, is expected to be thrown open to traffic from April 7, a senior official said here Thursday.
“With snow clearance operations being undertaken around Zojila pass, the Srinagar-Kargil road is expected to be thrown open for vehicular traffic by April 7, 2009,” Deputy Commissioner (Kargil) Satish Nehru said.
New Delhi, March 25: Kolkata Knight Riders coach John Buchanan has dropped Sourav Ganguly as captain of the IPL team for the Twenty20 tournament to be held in South Africa from April 18 next month.
The team will have four captains, team coach John Buchanan announced on Wednesday in Kolkata.
Times Now had reported on Tuesday of a rift between the coach and the captain and that Buchanan wanted Dada to be axed as captain.
Buchanan had expressed favour of a rotating captaincy in a match.
Cape Canaveral, March 25: After eight days together, it’s time for the space shuttle and space station crews to say goodbye.
The hatches between the linked spacecraft will be sealed early Wednesday afternoon. Three hours later, Discovery will undock.
Discovery will be bringing back five months’ worth of science experiments from the space station. The blood, urine and saliva samples need to be kept cold for as long as possible, and will remain in the station freezer until the last possible moment.
Hyderabad, March 25: With the realignment of political forces in Telangana making statehood to the region a dominant issue in the assembly and Lok Sabha elections in Andhra Pradesh, the Congress is under pressure to bring some clarity on its stand.
Banglore, March 25: As hundreds of young people graduating in engineering and management in India’s IT hub feel the heat of the global financial meltdown, they are united on one issue – vote in the Lok Sabha polls and vote for those with the best economic recovery plan.
With fewer job offers and lower compensation this year at the summer campus placements, talk among young Bangaloreans centres on the five-phase polls beginning April 16.
Only by electing right candidates can the future become secure. That is the view that dominates the discussion over coffee at a popular hangout.
New Delhi: Have an election related query and don’t know whom to ask? Simply call the toll free number 47617500 and get an answer by one of the young employees of the Delhi election commission’s round-the-clock call centre. Answering more than 500 calls every day, the call centre, which has been functioning since March 15, is the election commission’s effort to attract people to vote and make the seemingly cumbersome process of voter registration easier by answering all their queries.
Johannesburg, March 25: Weather and proximity to India were the decisive factors in South Africa edging past England as hosts of the Indian Premier League (IPL), which has now been shortened to five weeks starting April 18. IPL commissioner Lalit Modi and Cricket South Africa (CSA) chief Gerald Majola in a joint press conference confirmed that the second edition of the Twenty20 league, which was moved out of India because of security reasons, will be held in six venues in South Africa.
The venues include Durban, Cape Town, Bloemfontein, Pretoria, Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth.
The leaders of the two parties reached the agreement in the evening. However, a formal announcement is likely to be made Wednesday.
TRS leaders claimed that the TDP has agreed to leave 48 assembly and nine Lok Sabha seats for the party, which is spearheading the movement for separate statehood to the Telangana region.
On a day of dramatic developments, the TRS had set a deadline for the TDP to accept its demands and had even threatened to walk out of the alliance, which also has the two communist parties as the other constituents.
Director General of Police Kuldeep Khuda said after a brief ‘deceptive lull’, Pakistan has restarted pushing infiltrators into the state.
Security forces ‘have been asked to be on highest alert on the Line of Control (LoC) and the international border’ after reports that militants are grouping to infiltrate to this side, Khuda told IANS in an interview.
He said Pakistan continued to support militancy and push terrorists into Kashmir though there had been a drop in infiltration and ‘terrorist activities after the Nov 26 Mumbai attacks’.
New Delhi, March 25: It is aimed at giving the blind voter dignity and secrecy. For the first time, Braille-facilitated electronic voting machines (EVMs) are being introduced on a large scale for the 15th Lok Sabha polls.
‘A total of 1.05 million EVMs are being used, of which 450,000 are Braille-enabled. These EVMs are spread across the country in many states,’ an Election Commission official told IANS.
He said earlier the rule was that one person would accompany the blind voter. ‘Now, the blind persons can cast their vote without any help.’
Johanesburg, March 25: The decision to move the India Premier League 2009 to South Africa was “one of the hardest decisions that the BCCI ( Board of Control for Cricket in India) has ever had to take”, Lalit Modi, chairman and commissioner of the IPL, told a press conference in Johannesburg as he jointly announced the decision with Cricket South Africa chief executive Gerald Majola.
“But I am equally confident that staging it here will be a massive success for us,” Modi said on Tuesday evening.
Colombo, March 22: An International Monetary Fund (IMF) team is to hold talks with Sri Lanka Sunday and finalise its request for a $1.9 billion standby loan to prop up the country’s dwindling foreign exchange reserves, media reports here said.
Responding to reports that conditions may be attached to the IMF loan, a Central Bank official said that there had ‘so far been no talks on conditions’.
New Delhi, March 23: Capping a journey full of admiration but not bereft of controversies, the Tata Nano is all set to steer India into automotive history. Tata Nano is all set to launch today.
The small yet innovative car, revered for its tag of being the worlds cheapest, is ready to fuel up, promising an affordable and comfortable vehicle to millions of Indians for whom a car was far out of reach.
Even as all the major political parties in Andhra Pradesh are busy in finalizing suitable candidates for the 42 Parliamentary seats, Hyderabad is the one constituency where the battle lines have already been drawn. The only Muslim dominated Lok Sabha constituency in Andhra Pradesh (now with whopping 70% Muslim electorate after the delimitation) Hyderabad has traditionally been a stronghold of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) and it has won all the elections from here since 1984.
Hamilton: Sachin Tendulkar gave ample display of his class with a masterly 160 as India tightened the noose around New Zealand by taking a huge 241-run lead and snapping up three early Kiwi wickets in the first cricket Test here today.
Tendulkar not only notched up his 42nd Test century but also anchored the innings brilliantly to steer India to a commanding first innings total of 520.
Mumbai, March 11: John Abraham says the best thing to happen to him in 2008 was his brother’s marriage. And the most unusual happening in his life in 2009 could be his first stage performance, thanks to the success of his Desi girl number in Dostana.
“My brother’s marriage in Romania was beautiful. Standing there at his wedding as his best man as he took the vows with his wife in a beautiful old church I felt so content. I was never happier. And I liked being the best man. Because I’m the best. People ask me where I’m going from here. And I tell them, I’m only going to get better.”
Islamabad, March 05: The Geo news channel – a Pakistani TV – has aired what it claims is footage of the terrorists escaping the site of Tuesday’s dastardly attack on the Sri Lankan cricket players in Lahore. The dramatic visuals show the gunmen fleeing on motorcycles and on foot.
The edited footage of Geo TV were captured on CCTV cameras in the streets around Liberty chowk and Gaddafi stadium where a group of gunmen, said to number 14 killed six policemen and injured five members of Sri Lankan cricket team.
Ahmedabad, March 02: In a fit of rage, a woman allegedly castrated her husband’s genitals while he was asleep in his home in the Amraiwadi area of the city, police said on Monday.
The incident occurred late yesterday night when Kailashben Mackwana (23), who had a fight with her husband Kanusinh (23) earlier in the day, in a fit of anger, cut his genitals with a knife, they said.
Kanusinh, who had lost lot of blood, was admitted to the civil hospital where he was operated for over two hours, they added.
“The woman was arrested Sunday night from the Civil Lines locality in Aligarh, but one of her accomplices managed to escape,” Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Brij Lal told reporters here on Monday.
“The woman has admitted that she works for a man named Sheru in Madhya Pradesh and that she came to Aligarh to hand over the consignment to Dinesh Singh. All the pistols are of 32 bore,” the police officer added.
The woman also confessed to supplying arms in Aligarh earlier.
London, March 01: Just months ago she was a virtual nobody, but with the eight Oscar sweep by her debut film “Slumdog Millionaire”, Indian model-turned-actress Freida Pinto is now hot property for magazine covers. Being the obvious new darling of Hollywood, Freida has also become a much in-demand magazine cover girl back home for obvious reasons, reports dailymail.co.uk.
The actress will dominate the newsstands across India in March, with men’s magazine Maxim opting to put her face and knock-out body on its cover, as will women’s magazines Cosmopolitan and Vogue.
Hyderabad, March 01: Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday said here the party had no objection to carving out a separate state of Telangana from Andhra Pradesh but was trying to evolve consensus on the issue. Addressing a massive public meeting, she merely reiterated the party’s stand on the issue, leaving Telangana supporters disappointed.
Tehran, March 01: Iran’s supreme leader Saturday warned Iraq over the prolonged presence of US forces in that country, the Iranian media reported.
‘The occupiers are preparing grounds for a long and enduring presence in Iraq and this is a big danger of which the Iraqi officials should be aware,’ Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told visiting Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.
Mumbai, March 01: Bollywood stars Hrithik Roshan and Priyanka Chopra were declared the best male and female actors respectively at the glittering 54th Idea Filmfare Awards ceremony here late Saturday night.
Hrithik won the award for essaying the role of Emperor Akbar in “Jodhaa Akbar”, while Priyanka walked away with the black lady statuette for her performance in “Fashion”.
“Jodhaa Akbar” pipped “Dostana”, “Ghajini”, “Jaane Tu.. Ya Jaane Na”, “Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi”, and “Rock On!!” to bag the best film trophy, while the best director award went to Ashutosh Gowariker for “Jodhaa Akbar”.
Mumbai, February 28: Indian actress Freida Pinto Made it to the U.S. without doing the same old song and dance.
Though the 23-year-old former model from Bombay auditioned for melodramatic Bollywood roles, she’s going Hollywood with her film debut, playing a child of the ghetto in Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire. Hood never looked so good.
How hard is it to break into India’s film industry?
It’s really difficult. You have to have a godfather or parents who can get you in. I got into modeling for the visibility factor, hoping that portals would open up for me to act.
London, February 28: An 11-day-old baby girl died after her mother unwittingly infected her with the virus which causes cold sores, probably through a kiss or breastfeeding, a coroner ruled.
An inquest on Thursday found newborn Jennifer Schofield died from Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV). Her mother Ruth, 35, probably caught it late into her pregnancy, the coroner said, most likely for the first time in her life, meaning she had not developed immunity and nor had her child.
The virus attacked the baby’s major organs and she died within days.