Tehran, October 18: The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has called on Iran and the United States to hold direct nuclear talks without any preconditions.
Outgoing IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei said on Saturday that US President Barack Obama “has understood that talks with Iran” over its nuclear energy program are “the only possible solution” to the issue.
Mumbai, October 18: Himesh Reshammiya, who refused AR Rahman’s offer to sing for him, has now decided to make an exception to his golden rule only for Salman Khan.
“Anything for Salmanbhai! He just has to say it and I’ll do it,” says Himesh emotionally. According to reliable sources, Himesh will be composing and singing for Salman in the sequel to Wanted titled Most Wanted.
Banglore, October 18: Bangalore Royal Challengers and Delhi Daredevils crashed out of the Champions League Twenty20 after the formers’ eight-wicket victory over their Indian Premier League opponents in Bangalore on Saturday.
In a dramatic League B Super Eight match at the packed Chainnaswamy Stadium, Ross Taylor smashed a blistering 65 off just 38 balls to help Bangalore surpass the target of 139 with nearly five overs to spare.
Earlier, Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Anil Kumble led from the front by grabbing three wickets to restrict Delhi Daredevils to a modest 138 for six.
Rio, October 18: At least 12 people have been killed and a helicopter downed in fierce clashes between drug gangs and police in Rio de Janeiro.
It is one of the worst recent outbreaks of violence in Rio and comes two weeks after the city was awarded the 2016 Olympic Games, despite worries over its high levels of violence and poor security.
Two policemen were killed while two others were wounded early on Saturday when their helicopter was shot down by drug traffickers in a day of running battles in the slums of northern Rio, said military police commander Mario Sergio Duarte.
New Delhi, October 18: The 16-digit Unique Identification number that the government proposes to give you could become mandatory for opening a bank account, getting your passport or even your driving licence, among others.
The Unique Identification Number (UID) scheme, which is expected to roll out the first number in 12-18 months, however, will not confer on anyone any rights, including citizenship, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Chairman Nandan Nilekani said.
Shanghai, October 18: Top seed Rafael Nadal profited from the ninth retirement of this week’s Shanghai Masters as he advanced into the final 6-1, 3-0 after fellow Spaniard Feliciano Lopez retired with a right ankle injury.
Nadal, an injury victim himself twice this season and still on his way back to full fitness, will play Sunday for his fourth Masters 1000 title of the season against Nikolay Davydenko.
Mumbai, October 18: Priyanka Chopra says she gives importance to script and not her co-stars while choosing a film. That is why she agreed to work with Hurman Baweja in “What’s Your Rashee?”.
She did “Kaminey” with Shahid Kapoor when all wasn’t hunky dory with him and she is also pairing up with yet another flop actor Uday Chopra in her next film “Pyaar Impossible”.
“The scripts work for me. ‘Kaminey’ has proved right – it’s proved to be a huge success for being such a different film. It’s tremendously successful and that goes to show the importance of a story,” she said.
Munich, October 18: In a three-way battle among operating systems, Windows 7 comes out ahead by a nose.
At least that’s how the experts at Munich-based Chip magazine see it. The magazine recently compared the latest operating system from Microsoft with Apple’s Mac OS X Snow Leopard and Kubuntu, a Linux distribution.
The testers found that Kubuntu is hardly a pushover, especially for tech-savvy computer users. Even so, the review ultimately turned into a duel between Mac OS and Windows 7.
Kabul, October 18: Pakistan Militants clashed with troops advancing into their main sanctuary near the Afghan border on Sunday amid signs the army faces a far tougher fight than in other assaults against al-Qaeda and the Taliban in the northwest.
The operation in South Waziristan follows repeated requests from the U.S. to take on the jihadists behind soaring terrorist attacks in the nuclear-armed nation and al-Qaeda and other extremists believed to be plotting strikes in the West.
Baghdad, October 18: A suicide bomber driving a dynamite-laden truck destroyed a key bridge Saturday on a highway used by the departing U.S. military, while separate attacks killed nine Iraqis, most of them security force members, police said.
There were no casualties in the blast that destroyed the bridge outside the city of Ramadi, which is about 70 miles (125 kilometers) west of Baghdad, said a local police officer. The highway is used heavily by the U.S. military to transport equipment out of the country, and is also a major roadway for civilian traffic.
Kabul, October 18: Afghanistan’s election crisis deepened Saturday as President Hamid Karzai resisted international pressure to accept fraud rulings that could force him into a runoff with his main challenger.
Three more American service members were reported killed in separate bombings as the U.S. and its international partners sought a way out of Afghanistan’s political impasse, a crisis that threatens the legitimacy of the Afghan government and the future of the U.S.-led military mission.
Mumbai, October 18: Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan, who plays a 12-year-old progeric in “Paa”, says he has taken cues from his grandchildren to adapt a child’s mannerisms for the role .
“A lot of prosthetics went into making me look like a 12-year-old in ‘Paa’. I did try to watch kids and took a little bit of hints from my own kids’ childhood, but I took most from my grandchildren. They were quite an inspiration for me for ‘Paa’,” said Amitabh.
Denver, October 18: Police are to file criminal charges against family members involved in Colorado’s runaway balloon saga, law enforcement sources confirmed Saturday.
Richard Heene (L) holds his son Falcon Heene as he talks to reporters outside their house in Colorado October 15. Falcon, who set off a massive search and rescue operation and media frenzy after it was reported he was inside a homemade helium balloon that broke loose and drifted for hours thousands of feet above Colorado has been found safe in his attic, police said.- Reuters
Los Angeles, October 18: NASA’s much-hyped mission to hurl a spacecraft into the moon turned out some worthwhile data after all, scientists said.
New images show a mile-high plume of lunar debris from the Cabeus crater shortly after the space agency’s Centaur rocket struck Oct. 9.
“We were blown away by the data returned,” Anthony Colaprete, the mission’s chief scientist, said in a report Friday from the Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif., which managed the launch. “The team is working hard on the analysis, and the data appear to be of very high quality.”
Baghdad, October 18: Four Iraqi policemen were killed and 10 injured Saturday when a bomb targeted their truck near the Iraqi city of Falluja, security sources said.
In Ramadi, west of Baghdad, a bridge was blown up on the highway between Iraq, Syria and Jordan. A police source told DPA a loaded truck exploded on the bridge.
The incident came a day after gunmen blew up a wooden bridge south of Falluja connecting Ameriyat al-Falluja and Abu Ghraib towns near the Euphrates river.
—-Agencies
Chennai, October 18: A Kualalumpur-bound Etihaad Airlines from Abu Dhabi made an unscheduled landing at the airport here today after one of the passengers suffered “severe heart attack”.
According to airport sources, permission was sought by the pilot to make an unscheduled landing at the airport after the passenger Ismail (55), suffered a “severe heart attack” mid-air.
Mr Ismail was rushed to a private hospital in an ambulance upon landing, the sources said, adding the flight later left for its destination.
—PTI
Kabul, October 18: Three US soldiers were killed in bomb blasts, while Afghan and NATO forces killed 25 militants in Afghanistan’s volatile southern and eastern regions, officials said Saturday.
The two US soldiers were killed in a roadside blast in the east of the country while another was killed in a similar explosion in a southern province, the US military said in a statement. Both incidents took place on Friday.
Chennai, October 18: Seven officials, including three policemen, have been suspended in connection with a fire accident that claimed 32 lives in a cracker godown in Thiruvallur district of Tamil Nadu.
District Collector V. Palanikumar suspended four officials in the tehsildhar office and three police personnel Saturday.
Meanwhile, the bodies of 31 people were handed over to their relatives.
Mumbai, October 18: A US aircraft with 205 Marines on board was forced to land at Mumbai airport today for allegedly violating Indian airspace.
An airport official said the chartered plane was on its way from Fujiriah in the Middle East to Bangkok.
The aircraft was using a civilian call sign which triggered some confusion.
The aircraft landed at Mumbai airport at 7.52 am and has been parked at a remote bay. All passengers are on board.
The official said the Indian Air Force is looking into the issue.
Bangalore, October 18: Bruised pride proved to be the perfect base for Royal Challengers Bangalore to spring ahead and defeat Delhi Daredevils by eight wickets in an Airtel Champions League second phase match at the Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Saturday night.
Zurich, October 18: FIFA and the World Anti-Doping Agency are set to team up on an anti-doping project to test Europe’s top footballers for banned drugs.
FIFA chief medical officer Jiri Dvorak said Saturday that a blood-profiling scheme similar to cycling’s biological passport could start trials next month.
“Blood testing in-competition is the future of anti-doping for football and other sports,” Dvorak told The Associated Press at FIFA’s inaugural medical conference.
Tehran, October 18: Direct talks without preconditions between the United States and Iran are the only solution to the conflict over Tehran’s nuclear program, the U.N. nuclear agency’s head was quoted as saying on Saturday.
New sanctions against Iran would only aggravate the dispute rather than push it to give in to international demands, Mohamed ElBaradei, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told Austrian daily Die Presse.
Madrid, October 18: A massive protest has been held here against the government’s reform of the voluntary-abortion law.
The Spanish government approved last September the reform of the abortion law making 16 years the age when a woman is considered an adult and may decide to voluntarily abort her pregnancy, one of the aspects of the legislation that has sparked great controversy.
The new regulation allows freedom of abortion up to the 14th week of pregnancy and up to the 22nd if the woman’s life or health is at risk, or if the foetus presents a serious deformation.
Mumbai, OCtober 18: Six firefighters working with the city fire services died due to suffocation after they got stuck in a lift in a housing complex, where they had gone to put out a blaze in the wee hours of Sunday.
The firemen were among the team which went to attend to a call from the Tarangam housing society in Vartak Nagar locality of the city, police said.
Peshawar, October 18: Pakistani forces fought fierce battles with Taliban militants on Sunday, a day after launching a long-awaited offensive aimed at bringing the writ of state to lawless tribal lands on the Afghan border.
The offensive on the global Islamist hub of South Waziristan follows a string of brazen militant attacks in different parts of the country, including an assault on army headquarters, in which more than 150 people were killed.