Bijnor, October 20: Women and children of Railway Colony at Seohara near here laid down on the tracks at Seohara Railway Station and held up trains in protest against the authorities’ alleged failure to provide water for the past six months.
The residents laid down on the railway tracks in front of the Link Express which had just arrived and held it up for one hour yesterday to protest inadequate water supply by Railways.
Islamabad, October 20: In a move to isolate Tehrik-e- Taliban, Pakistan Army Chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani has appealed to the Mehsud tribe, linked to Hakimullah Mehsud, to support the ongoing offensive in Waziristan as it was aimed at liberating them from the clutches of “ruthless terrorists”.
As the crucial operation entered the fourth day, Kayani’s appeal, air dropped as leaflets in the lawless tribal region, was addressed to the Mehsud tribe hailing them as “respectable and patriotic” tribesmen.
Lucknow, October 20: Fifty nine people have been arrested during a special drive launched across the state to check sale of adulterated food items during the festival season.
Fourteen more people have been arrested for allegedly dealing in spurious medicines, under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act.
“Raids were carried out at 371 places, 1,197 samples were collected and 59 people were arrested on charges of adulteration,” principal secretary Food and Drug Control Department, Desh Deepak Varma said.
Patna, October 20: Seeking to end the controversy over giving legal protection to sharecroppers in Bihar following recommendation by a commission, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today said his government has no plans to enact a legislation to protect them.
“I want to clarify at this stage that the government has no plans to enact a legislation to protect sharecroppers.
Nobody is going to lose his ownership rights over their land,” Kumar said here.
Mumbai, OctoberKoena Mitra is always gung ho for experimentation and when it comes to her hair, she leaves it to her hair stylist Asif Rajan.
Mumbai, October 20: After experimenting with everything from the dark and dangerous to the edgy and cool this year, Bollywood is ready with a cute film, Mumbai Mantra Media Ltd’s Aao Wish Karein.
The film, starring Aftab Shivdasani and Aamna Sharif, promises the kind of entertainment that kids, teenagers and parents are bound to enjoy.
New Delhi, October 20: Relatives of Indian pilgrims going for Haj will now be able to remain in contact with them as computers have been installed at various locations of the pilgrimage, External Affair Minister S M Krishna said today.
“Relatives sitting in India can now find out through the website of the Haj Committee of India the whereabouts of their relatives performing Haj and can communicate with them during their stay in Saudi Arabia,” he said during the flag off ceremony of the first batch of pilgrims at the Haj terminal of IGI airport here.
Mumbai, OctoberApna Govinda has quite a fan following in India but the actor was pleasantly surprised when he was literally mobbed in Hong Kong by a huge bunch of locals, who told him that although they don’t understand the language, they like watching his films.
Govinda was shooting for Chai Garam when a huge group of people surrounded him and demanded that he show some of his trademark moves. Now Chi Chi couldn’t say no to such a sweet request and obliged them. Must say, he’s gone global and how!
—Agencies
Mumbai, October 20: Years ago a smart-alecky director wanted to cast Dimple Kapadia as the seductress and mafiosi in Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi who entraps Akshay Kumar into a lustful bath.
“Can you imagine how embarrassing that would’ve been?” Dimple had almost choked later on. That role, blessedly, went to Rekha. But Dimple and Akshay are now finally coming together as mother and son in Nikhil Advani’s London-based, cross-generation drama Patiala House which also pairs Rishi Kapoor and Dimple for the fourth time.
Karachi, October 20: The Pakistan cricket Board (PCB) will earn approximately USD 5.5 million from their tour to England next year when they play separate series against the hosts and Australia.
The PCB will be paid a participation fee of USD 3.6 million to play four Tests, five one-dayers and two Twenty20 matches against England and is guaranteed a minimum of USD 1.9 million earnings from the two Tests and two Twenty20 matches against Australia.
Shillong, October 20: There are no takers for coins in Meghalaya.
Small change have almost become collectors’ items not only here in Meghalaya, but also in some other states though they are very much legal tender and as such valid for all transactions.
Shopkeepers deny to take the small change and say ‘yeh nahi chalta hai’, while if you give them matchboxes or toffees instead, they will readily accept them.
Mumbai, October 20: Now that Shatrughan Sinha has allowed Salman Khan to launch his daughter Sonakshi as a leading lady in Dabangg, the Bollywood hunk is taking his duty as the protective guardian very seriously. Initially, the Sinhas were opposed to the idea of a film career for their daughter.
But Salman convinced them by promising to look after the girl. And so far, he has more than lived up to his word.
New Delhi, October 20: The stage is set for the Supreme Court to start hearing from Tuesday one of the most-watched battles in India’s corporate history, involving Anil Ambani-led Reliance Natural Resources and elder Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries.
At the crux of the dispute is the supply of natural gas from the Krishna-Godavari basin, awarded for exploration and harnessing to Reliance Industries, before a split in 2005 in the group founded by legendary industrialist, the late Dhirubhai Ambani.
Hyderabad, October 20: Access to Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Shamshabad, about 30 km from the city, is set to become smoother and faster with India’s longest flyover being thrown open to traffic Monday.
The 11.633 km long PVNR Expressway, named after former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, connects the Mehdipatnam area in the city to the Hyderabad-Bangalore national highway (NH 7) en route to the international airport.
Kabul, October 20: A UN-backed watchdog ruled yesterday that almost 1.3 million votes cast in Afghanistan’s presidential election had been faked.
The report stripped a third of President Hamid Karzai’s original tally to deny him outright victory and put him under enormous international pressure to accept a run-off before winter weather makes a fresh ballot impossible.
New Delhi, October 20: The Ghaziabad Provident Fund scam assumed wider a wider dimension on Tuesday morning as the Supreme Court asked the Uttar Pradesh government to hand over the viscera report of main accused Ashutosh Asthana to CBI for further examination.
The court ordered a judicial enquiry into the death of the accused and asked CBI to examine the report at All India Institute of Medical Science and submit the report to the apex court within eight weeks. The state government or the High Court would not be allowed to intervene in the case now.
Pakistan, October 20: Pakistan’s army, in the midst of a major new offensive against Taliban militants, has struck deals to keep two powerful, anti-US tribal chiefs from joining the battle against the government, officials said Monday.
The deals increase the chances of an army victory against Pakistan’s enemy No. 1, but indicate that the 3-day-old assault into the Taliban’s strongholds in South Waziristan may have less effect than the US wants on a spreading insurgency across the border in Afghanistan.
Hyderabad, October 20: Family of an engineer, who belongs from Andhra Pradesh and was abducted by militants in Assam Friday, are worried over his safety and is praying for his safe return.
The family of civil engineer P. Krishna Rao in Gannavaram in coastal district of Krishna Monday offered special prayers at a temple for his return while the state government said it was in touch with authorities in Assam to seek his release.
Rao, 50, was working as project manager on a national highway project in Assam.
Paris, October 20: Astronomers announced Monday the discovery of 32 new planets outside our solar system, some of them only a few times larger than Earth.
The relatively small size increases the odds that these so-called exoplanets could have conditions similar to the ones that gave rise to life on Earth.
Scientists made the finds using the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher, or HARPS, the most successful low-mass exoplanet hunter in the world.
The HARPS spectrograph is attached to the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) 3.6-metre telescope at La Silla, Chile.
New Delhi,October 20: Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh’s letter to the prime minister suggesting India needs to dramatically change its stance on climate change has created an uproar.
According to one newspaper, the letter said India ‘must mitigate its carbon emissions in self interest,’ and that India must no longer support the G77, a group of developing nations, but ally with the G20, a grouping of the world’s 20 richest countries.
The newspaper quotes Ramesh as saying that sticking with the old stance could cost India a UN Security Council seat.
Washington, October 20: American actress-singer Lindsay Lohan is scared by her father Michael’s behaviour and is seeking a restraining order to stop him from contacting her.
‘Lindsay is actively getting a restraining order, her lawyer has already been contacted. She’s scared. This is really serious,’ contactmusic.com quoted a source as saying.
The news comes a day after Michael said that he wanted to ‘kidnap’ his daughter and take her to an isolated location to help ‘get her straight’
–IANS
Mumbai, October 20: The Indian rupee strengthened by 28 paise against the US currency in early trade today following dollar’s weakness against other currencies.
At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (forex) market, the local unit appreciated by 28 paise to 46.01 a dollar.
The Indian rupee ended 6 paise lower at 46.29 in the previous session on Friday. The forex market remained closed yesterday on account of ‘bahu-beej’.
Dealers said the dollar’s weakness against the major currencies gave a boost to the domestic unit.
–PTI
Chennai, October 20: The Indian government is ready to release Rs.500 crore (Rs.5 billion) to Sri Lanka if needed for the rehabilitation of Tamils affected by the internal strife there, union Home Minister P. Chidambaram said here Sunday.
‘The Indian government has already announced financial assistance of Rs.500 crore for the rehabilitation of the Sri Lankan Tamil refugees. We are ready to sanction a similar amount if needed,’ he told reporters.
Washington, October 20: As a UN-backed panel threw out nearly a third of Hamid Karzai’s votes from the August Presidential polls, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the Afghan President will “set the stage” for resolving the political crisis by announcing his intentions today.
Clinton also hoped that the crisis in the war-torn country would be resolved soon.
New Delhi, October 20: Concerned that many physicians are no longer taught to diagnose and treat tuberculosis (TB), the World Medical Association (WMA) launched a new online refresher course here Thursday.