6 Trinamool Congress Ministers submit resignations

  (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); New Delhi, Sept 21:  Six Trinamool Congress Ministers have submitted their resignations to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Earlier in the day, outgoing Railway Minister Mukul Roy had told reporters: “We will resign from the ministry. Ministers belonging to the Trinamool Congress will submit resignations to the Prime Minister and at 4:30 PM go to President House to hand over a letter withdrawing our party’s support to the Government.” While Roy is a Cabinet Minister, Saugata Ray, Sisir Adhikari, Mohan Jatua, Sultan Ahmed and Sudip Bandopadhyay are the ministers...

Read More

At least one killed, 20 wounded as Libyan Islamist militia swept out of Benghazi

Headquarters of Islamist Ansar al-Sharia group, linked to last week's attack on the U.S. consulate, targeted in popular protest against armed groups in the Libyan city. A Libyan Islamist militia was swept out of the eastern city of Benghazi in a popular protest against the armed groups that ran into the early hours of Saturday morning, Reuters witnesses said. At least one person was killed and 20 wounded, a hospital source said, as militias tried to fight the demonstrators from a heavily fortified base. Gunfire could be heard in the area before the fighters were forced out. Looters...

Read More

MDMK workers detained near Sanchi ahead of Sri Lanka President Rajapaksa's visit

Bhopal: Nearly half a dozen MDMK supporters opposing the scheduled visit of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to Madhya Pradesh were detained at Salamatpur near Sanchi in as a precautionary measure after police got suspicious about their movement, police said on Thursday. Rajapaksa will be reaching Sanchi on Friday via Bhopal to lay the foundation stone for the International Sanchi Buddhist University and Indic Studies. “We picked up five-six persons belonging to Tamil Nadu on Wednesday when they failed to give satisfactory response to their presence at Salamatpur, close to Sanchi town in Raisen district of Madhya Pradesh,"...

Read More

Kudankulam protests: Fishermen lay siege to Tuticorin port

Tuticorin: Protests against the Kudankulam nuclear plant continue unabated with hundreds of fishermen having laid siege to the port at Tuticorin today, demanding the closure of the controversial plant.Nearly five hundred fishing boats have blocked entry to the Tuticorin harbour, which is situated around 60 miles away from the nuclear power plant. The loading of nuclear fuel, which is on at one of the reactors at the Kudankulam plant, has not in the least dented the determination of the protesters, all fishermen hailing from the districts of Tuticorin, Kanyakumari and Tirunelveli - where the...

Read More

Courage and risk needed to get higher growth: PM

New Delhi: Government does not not appear to be in any mood to yield the demands of allies and opposition to roll back the policies on FDI in multi-brand retail and the diesel price hike with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh saying it was an important step in the right direction. After unleashing big bang reforms measures in the last two days, he said it will take "courage and some risks" to break the policy logjam and strongly favoured higher FDI an FII flows. Justifying the diesel price, Singh said rational energy pricing was critical and "our energy prices are out of line with world prices". In his opening remarks at the full Planning...

Read More

Turmoil Over Contentious Video Spreads

SANA, Yemen — Deadly outrage in the Arab world over an American-made video insulting Islam’s founder spread to at least half a dozen places across the Middle East on Thursday and threatened to draw in Afghanistan, two days after assailants in Libya killed four American diplomatic personnel, including the ambassador, and caused a foreign policy political clash in the United States. The worst of the violence was in Yemen, where at least five Yemenis were killed as hundreds of protesters stormed the American Embassy and were repulsed by Yemeni security forces. The embassy’s entire staff, sensitive to impending danger, had been safely...

Read More

CJI's trailblazing legal legacy: Kapadia set to demit office after reinforcing faith in judiciary Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2200839/CJIs-trailblazing-legal-legacy-Kapadia-set-demit-office-reinforcing-faith-judiciary.html#ixzz26DZSHrAP

Chief Justice Sarosh Homi Kapadia will walk out of the Supreme Court (SC) on September 29, but he will leave behind a streamlined court registry, trend-setting judgments and an example of judicial conduct worth emulating for judges in the times to come. Justice Kapadia has consciously avoided interviews and social interactions as an old school judge but volumes can be written about him, with his judgments and administrative decisions laying bare his legal acumen, his philosophy as a judge and his intolerance to corruption. A month before he took over as Chief Justice of India (CJI) in May 2010, he made it clear that he would opt...

Read More

Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9" vs Apple iPad, Microsoft Surface, Galaxy Note 10.1

Moving in the high-end tablet market, Amazon revealed its first full-HD tablet Kindle Fire HD 8.9" on Thursday. Featuring some of industry leading features, Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9" is going to compete with the likes of Apple's new iPad, Samsung's recently launched Galaxy Note 10.1, Microsoft Surface with Windows RT. Amazon Kindle Fire HD not only improves on the display, but also comes with the latest generation dual-core processor from Texas Instruments. Amazon CEO claims that the TI OMAP 4470 processor outperforms NVIDIA's Tegra 3 quad-core processor. Company is releasing two variants of the tablet - Wi-Fi only and 4G LTE. Both...

Read More

Sensex ends 337 points up on ECB's bond buying plans; ICICI, RIL lead

Mumbai: Led by ICICI Bank and RIL, the Sensex on Friday surged over 337 points - the biggest single day gain in two months - on all-round buying by funds after European Central Bank announced a potentially unlimited bond-buying plan to revive Eurozone's ailing economies. The BSE benchmark index, which had gained 33 points ahead of the ECB meet on Thursday, was off to a rollicking start on Friday tracking overnight gains in US stocks and early Asian cues. The 30-share Sensex opened 229 points higher and thereafter built on gains with ICICI Bank, RIL, Infosys and L&T leading the rise. Sensex finally ended at 17,683.73, up 337.46...

Read More

U.S. designates Haqqani network a terrorist organization

The Haqqani network's Afghan warlords, who are based in Pakistan's border area, have attacked U.S. troops and Afghanistan civilians. A 1998 photo of Jalaluddin Haqqani, founder of the Haqqani militant network, which the U.S. has designated a terrorist organization. (Mohammed Riaz, Associated Press / August 22, 1998) WASHINGTON — The State Department on Friday designated Pakistan's Haqqani network a foreign terrorist organization, opening the way for the use of new tools to thwart a complex enemy that has attacked American troops and Afghan civilians while operating much like an organized...

Read More

Parliament’s ‘Monsoon Session’ Ends in Washout

The Indian Parliament’s “monsoon” session ended Friday after repeated disturbances, with little to show for its 19-day stretch in the way of bills passed or legislation debated. The Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, the principal opposition to the Congress-led government, repeatedly interrupted the session’s proceedings to protest the allocation of India’s coal resources, leading to debate about whether disruption is a legitimate parliamentary tool. But on Friday, the opposition defended its actions. “Disruption can sometimes produce results that discussion cannot,” Arun Jaitley, a senior BJP leader, said at a news conference. The BJP...

Read More

Anna announces new action plan; not to form party

Mumbai: Following Team Anna's dissolution, anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare on Thursday announced a new action plan, which includes appealing people to vote for the "right" candidates, instead of forming a political party. In a statement issued on Thursday, Hazare also appealed the youth to ensure a 90-plus per cent voting in the elections. In the appeal, aimed mainly at anti-corruption activists in Maharashtra, Hazare said, "There is no need to form any party or to contest elections, but to provide an alternative to the people. "Only the people have the power to transform and we have to undertake the work of awakening them,"...

Read More

Washington Post publishes correction in Prime Minister story

New Delhi: Washington Post on Thursday admitted certain parts of its controversial article on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh were taken from one-year-old edition of an Indian magazine as the PMO slammed the write-up as "unethical and unprofessional" conduct of the journalist. Amid protest from the PMO, the Post published a correction with regard to quotes attributed to the Prime Minister's former Media Adviser Sanjaya Baru and political historian Ramachandra Guha. "An earlier version of this article failed to credit the 'Caravan', an Indian magazine, for two statements that it originally published in 2011. "The assertion by Sanjaya...

Read More

Sivakasi fire: factory owner, 5 others arrested

A day after 36 people were charred to death in a devastating fire that broke out in Om Shakti factory, Sivakasi, the cracker factory owner, Murugesan, and five others have reportedly been arrested.   Om Shakti factory, located in India's firecracker hub Sivakasi, 500 km from Chennai, had its licence temporarily suspended for violation of safety norms, just a day before the devastating fire broke out. Unofficial figures, peg the toll at 54. Around 80 people were injured and admitted to hospitals in Sivakasi, Virudanagar and Madurai. Om Shakti factory is one of...

Read More

Clinton boosts Obama in rousing convention speech

In a rousing speech to the Democratic National Convention, former U.S. President Bill Clinton formally nominated President Barack Obama Wednesday night saying, “I know we’re coming back” from the worst economic mess in generations and appealed to millions of hard-pressed Americans to support Mr. Obama for a second term in the White House. Mr. Obama walked slowly on stage as Mr. Clinton completed his impassioned speech. The former president bowed, and Mr. Obama pulled him into an embrace as thousands of delegates jammed into the convention hall roared their approval. Mr. Clinton’s nationally televised speech was the highlight of...

Read More

BJP taken aback as Congress shifts focus away from Coalgate

The hostility between the government and the BJP escalated on Wednesday, with the former making it clear that it was determined to push ahead with the constitutional amendment Bill to provide for reservation in promotions to the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes. Earlier in the day, the government introduced the Bill in the Rajya Sabha, amid continuing chaos and hold-ups. The Congress issued a whip to its members to be present in the House on Thursday to see the Bill through. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal said: “This is a social justice measure with wide political support.” The BJP was clearly taken...

Read More

Heavy rain lashes Mumbai

Heavy rain lashed Mumbai and parts of Maharashtra throughout Monday affecting life in the financial capital. Heavy showers are predicted by the meteorological office during the next 24 hours in the city and the suburbs. Authorities said Colaba recorded a rainfall of 79.2 mm, while Santacruz recorded 148.9 mm. Heavy showers were witnessed in the drought-prone Marathwada region, including Beed, Osmanabad and Latur. The local railway, Mumbai’s lifeline, was thrown out of gear with hundreds of hapless commuters being marooned on railway platforms and stationary trains. Trains delayed Trains along the western, central and...

Read More

Navy, let-off with warning

Rameswaram (Tamil Nadu): Twenty eight Tamil Nadu fishermen were detained by Sri Lankan Naval personnel on the charge of entering the island waters in the Palk Strait but released after a stern warning on Saturday, officials in Rameswaram said.The fishermen from Akkaraipettai village near Nagapattinam were fishing in four mechanised boats when they were arrested and taken to Mannar in Sri Lanka, Assistant Director of Fisheries Gunasekaran said quoting information received.Though the fishermen said they were fishing in Indian waters only, the Sri Lankan naval men told them that they had intruded into their territory. The...

Read More

Congress using Raj Thackeray to counter BJP-Shiv Sena coalition: JD(U)

New Delhi: JD(U) President Sharad Yadav on Sunday alleged that MNS chief Raj Thackeray was a "stooge" of the Congress which was using him against the Shiv Sena-BJP combine for electoral gains in the state. "Raj Thackeray is a stooge of the Congress and the ruling party in the state is using him against the Shiv Sena-BJP combine," Yadav told reporters when asked about the MNS' chief's remarks on the Hindi news channels. Alleging that Hindi news channels were 'distorting' his statements, MNS chief Raj Thackeray on Sunday said they should not air news without understanding issues. Yadav said the MNS chief was of "no importance" and...

Read More

Parliament can function if Govt scraps coal licences: Sushma Swaraj

Mumbai/Bhopal: Relenting a bit, BJP on Sunday agreed to allow a discussion on Coalgate provided Government cancelled coal licences and ordered an independent probe into the allotments. However, the party made it clear that it will stick to its demand for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's resignation on the issue. BJP, which has disrupted Parliament for most part of the Monsoon session insisting that it will not allow the two Houses to run if the Prime Minister does not step down, toned down a little. Addressing a press conference in Mumbai, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj said when Sonia Gandhi spoke to her, she...

Read More

Govt expands scope of GAAR panel to cover all non-residents tax payers

The government on Saturday expanded the scope of the expert committee on General Anti-Avoidance Rules (GAAR) to include all non-resident tax payers, even as the Committee submitted its draft report to the Ministry.The announcement to increase the scope of GAAR committee , which is headed by tax expert Parthasarthi Shome, was made after the panel in its report suggested changes in the Income Tax Act and Rules.The committee, which was set up by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in July to address concerns of foreign and domestic investors on GAAR, suggested the government should issue a circular to clarify GAAR provisions along with...

Read More

Samsung says Apple trying to limit consumer choice

Samsung on Saturday accused Apple of resorting to litigation in an effort to limit consumer choice after the iPhone maker said it was seeking to stop the sale of Galaxy S III smartphones in the United States. Fresh from its $US1 billion court victory over Samsung, Apple, in a separate case, asked a federal district court in San Jose, California, on Friday to add four more products to a list of Samsung goods that Apple says infringe its patents. The new list of 21 products includes Samsung’s flagship smartphone Galaxy S III as well as the Galaxy Note, another popular Android phone. If the court finds those devices are infringing Apple’s...

Read More