Amman: Lebanese Hezbollah militants attacked a Syrian rebel-held town alongside Syrian troops on Sunday and Israel threatened more attacks on Syria to rein the militia in, highlighting the risks of a wider regional conflict if planned peace talks fail.
Activists said it was the fiercest fighting in Syria's two year-old civil war involving Hezbollah, a Shi'ite group backed by Iran which they said appeared to be helping President Bashar al-Assad secure a vital corridor in case Syria fragments.
Speaking from Qusair near the border with Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, activist Hadi Abdallah said Syrian warplanes bombed the town in the morning and shells were hitting the town at a rate of up to 50 a minute. At least 32 people were killed.
"The army is hitting Qusair with tanks and artillery from the north and east while Hezbollah is firing mortar rounds and multiple rocket launchers from the south and west," he said....
more
06:23 AM, May 20, 2013
Nashik: People in Nasik trooped out on Sunday on the streets to welcome and offer chilled soft drinks to over 1,000 Muslims who embarked on a 300-km Gandhian march to Mumbai demanding reservations in job, an official said. The protestors started from the sensitive power-loom town of Malegaon after the Friday prayers for Mumbai's Azad Maidan as their destination, which they hope to cover by May 26, according to Muslim...
06:01 AM, May 20, 2013
New Delhi: The Chinese embassy was on Sunday turned into a fortress as Premier Li Keqiang arrived on a state visit while a tight security ring was thrown around the Taj Palace Hotel where he is staying. Delhi Police have deployed more personnel and shut down certain roads, including those near the Chinese embassy, as a precautionary measure. All the inner roads leading to the hotel have been barricaded and...
05:43 AM, May 20, 2013
New Delhi: An advanced digital breast cancer detecting machine with the capability to see the lesions in breasts with much more clarity than ever before was unveiled in the national capital on Sunday. The mammography machine 'Amulet' by Fuji films is claimed to be India's first low dose resolution system. Speaking at the launch, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sushma Swaraj said: "Every woman should be aware about ever growing breast...
05:33 AM, May 20, 2013
Gurgaon: Supreme Court's Justice P Sathasivam, who is also the executive chairman of the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA), on Sunday said that cases related to women are being given priority by courts after the Delhi gang-rape. "After the unfortunate incident in Delhi, we (Judiciary) are identifying the cases related to women and children and giving priority to those cases," said Justice Sathasivam at a function in Gurgaon. He was...
05:06 AM, May 20, 2013
Kolkata: With the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal coming up with a draft textile policy to attract investment to revive the sector, leading industry lobbies have expressed hope that the policy roadmap would help the industry to grow significantly. States like Maharashtra and Gujarat unveiled their new textile policies in 2012 to woo investors. "A policy was necessary. It will surely help Bengal's textile sector grow rapidly. The roadmap...
04:54 AM, May 20, 2013
New Delhi: A day before he was found dead under mysteriouos circumstances last week, Delhi Police Inspector Badrish Dutt had filed a police complaint that spot fixing was to take place in the multi-crore IPL tournament and players would under-perform during agreed upon overs in exchange for huge amounts. Dutt filed the First Information Report(FIR) in the case just a day before his and his live-in-partner's bodies were discovered in...
04:27 AM, May 20, 2013
Pretoria: South African President Jacob Zuma was not involved in a wedding scandal in which a private plane of the affluent and well-connected Indian Gupta family landed at a sensitive military airbase, an investigation revealed on Sunday, reported Xinhua. "In any event, the president is not involved in authorizing the landing or not landing of aircraft at airports," Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Jeff Radebe told reporters in Pretoria. There...
04:16 AM, May 20, 2013
Bangalore: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Sunday allocated portfolios to his new 28-member ministry, keeping key posts such as finance, energy, industries, IT and Bangalore city with himself. According to a Raj Bhavan communique, Governor HR Bhardwaj allocated the various portfolios on the advice of the chief minister to 20 cabinet ministers and eight ministers of state. Besides the key portfolios, the chief minister will also be in-charge of five...
04:08 AM, May 20, 2013
Guwahati: BJP will launch a week-long 'Jail Bharo' campaign protesting against alleged corrupt practices of the UPA government. The campaign would start on May 27 and continue till June 2 in all states, BJP vice president SS Ahluwalia told reporters in Guwahati on Sunday. The UPA government at the Centre had over the years been rocked by various scams losing the moral right to continue in office, he said. Various...
03:53 AM, May 20, 2013
Dharamsala: Himachal Pradesh Congress chief Sukhvinder Singh on Sunday asked party workers to start preparations for 2014 Lok Sabha elections, saying they should reach out to people and help solve their grievances. The Congress state chief told party members to work as a unified unit to help achieve desired results in the next Lok Sabha polls. Singh presided over the first meeting of Kangra District Congress Committe in Dharamsala to...
03:41 AM, May 20, 2013
Bhubaneswar: Alleging rampant corruption and plundering of BPL rice, minerals and from gullibles through chitfund during BJD rule in Odisha, Congress on Sunday claimed it would capture power in the next polls by dumping the Naveen Patnaik government in Bay of Bengal. Addressing a function to accord a reception to the new OPCC President Jayadeb Jenan, senior party leaders including Union Minister Srikant Jena slammed the BJD government of failing...
03:10 AM, May 20, 2013
Meerut: A girl on Synday thrashed a youth in public and handed him over to the police, lodging a complaint against him for establishing sexual relations with her on false promise of marriage, police said in Meerut. The 21-year-old girl stated in her complaint that she was forced to take abortion pill as she got pregnant after the accused established sexual relations with her, promising to marry her, police said....
02:52 AM, May 20, 2013
Dhaka: Bangladesh on Sunday slapped a ban on political rallies for a month to maintain law and order in the wake of deadly protests by Islamists that left at least 28 people dead earlier in May 2013. "Some political parties have caused a law and order problem in the name of holding their programmes. Hence, no one would be allowed to hold any kind of rally for the next one...
02:40 AM, May 20, 2013
Chennai: Pained by continuing internal bickering in his party, DMK chief M Karunanidhi on Sunday made a fervent appeal for unity, saying he was grieved over the fact that there was enough squabbling in the ranks that would harm the party more than any external factor. With less than a year left for the next Lok Sabha polls, considered crucial for the DMK after being drubbed by arch-rival AIADMK in...
02:15 AM, May 20, 2013
Mumbai: A 23-year-old youth was arrested on Sunday for allegedly killing his elder brother by stabbing him over 12 times. According to Mulund Police, the deceased Udayraj Yadav (25) was a college dropout who used to "beat his family members including his father Hiralal (56)". On Saturday, the accused Vinay Yadav returned home from work and had an argument with Udayraj over timing of dinner. Udayraj slapped Vinay and in...
01:54 AM, May 20, 2013
Karachi/Lahore: Cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan will lead protests in Pakistan's largest city of Karachi against the killing of a senior leader of his party for which he has directly blamed MQM chief Altaf Hussain. In a video message released on Sunday, Khan, who is under treatment at the Shaukat Khanum hospital in Lahore after an accident during the election campaign, said as soon as he was well he would himself lead...
01:43 AM, May 20, 2013
Pudukottai: With the break-up of UPA in Tamil Nadu, Congress leader and former Union minister EVKS Elangovan on Sunday said there was a possibility of his party heading a new alliance sans the two major Dravidian parties - DMK and AIADMK - for the next Lok Sabha elections. Rejecting the charges against Congress over the Sri Lankan Tamils issue, he said people were not aware of the party's good work...
01:27 AM, May 20, 2013
Darjeeling: Two agents and two other linkmen of Pakistani spy agency ISI were arrested at Kurseong in Darjeeling district. "Two ISI agents identified as Maghan Bahadur Singh, a resident of Chotta Adalpur and Mesho Sauria, a resident of Panighatta Tea Estate were arrested on the charge of spying for ISI this afternoon," Superintendent of Police Kunal Agarwal told journalists at Kurseong police station. Two other ISI linkmen Gopal Khati of...
12:56 AM, May 20, 2013
New Delhi: In a firm message to China, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday night voiced India's serious concern over the recent Chinese incursion in Ladakh and told his counterpart Li Keqiang that in the absence of peace and tranquility along the border, bilateral ties will suffer as the two leaders held hour-long cordial but candid talks. 57-year-old Li, on his first foreign trip since becoming Prime Minister two months...
12:33 AM, May 20, 2013
