Tokyo: A delay in Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his wife moving into their official residence, the site of past assassinations, has revived talk of ghosts in the corridors, prompting the government to deny any knowledge of hauntings. Abe has not moved into the prime minister's official residence for five months since he took power.
Asked by an opposition lawmaker about the reported hauntings, the government issued a formal statement on Friday saying it was not aware of ghost sightings, Asahi newspaper and other media reported.
The residence, formerly the prime minister's office, was built in 1929 and was the site of military rebellions, including in 1932 when then-Prime Minister Tsuyoshi Inukai was assassinated. Talk of ghosts has long haunted the building, remodelled in the early 2000s.
It has served as the official residence for the prime minister and the premier's family since 2005. Abe has given no explanation for the delay in moving in, but it is not uncommon for the premier to take some time before taking up residence....
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04:08 PM, May 25, 2013
Thiruvananthapuram: As the Congress led-UDF government completes three years in Kerala, there are more reasons to worry than cheer. The simmering rivalry between Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and state Congress President Ramesh Chennithala has now become an open conflict. An interview given to the New Indian Express has now openly pitted Chennithala against Chandy. A key bone of contention has been Chandy's failure to induct Chennithala into the Cabinet. After...
10:10 AM, May 24, 2013
New Delhi: The Prime Minister's Office on Friday tweeted that growth must be inclusive and must benefit the poor, especially in rural areas. It further tweeted that wages given under MGNREGA per day have almost doubled since the launch of the scheme. "Every fifth rural household in India benefits from Mahatma Gandhi NREGA scheme," another tweet said. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act aims at enhancing the livelihood...
09:16 AM, May 24, 2013
Kolkata: The Left Front on Thursday asked Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to respond to allegations by a senior West Bengal IPS officer about "corrupt practices" when she was the railway minister. "Serious allegations of corruption have been levelled by a senior and respected IPS officer from the state. We don't to want question her (Banerjee) integrity. But to keep that image intact the chief minister must come out with an...
04:26 AM, May 24, 2013
New Delhi: The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) on Thursday opposed scrapping of the provision which requires the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to seek government's permission for probing bureaucrats in corruption cases. The DoPT raised the issue during a power-point presentation at the maiden meeting of the Group of Minister headed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram which discussed the issue of giving greater autonomy and more financial powers...
10:44 PM, May 23, 2013
New Delhi: The Group of Ministers formed by the PM to review the SC observations on the CBI met for the first time on Thursday in New Delhi. Union Ministers P Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal, Salman Khurshid and MoS PMO V Narayanasamy were in attendance. However, CBI Director Ranjit Sinha, who was one of the special invitees to the meeting, did not attend it. Coming out of the meeting, Sibal said...
05:11 PM, May 23, 2013
New Delhi: The first meeting of the Group of Ministers (GoM) to ensure greater independence for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will take place on Thursday in the Finance Minister's office. The government had set up the GoM after the Supreme Court had pulled it over the lack of functional autonomy to the CBI. The Supreme Court in its order has asked the government to bring a law which...
02:20 PM, May 23, 2013
New Delhi: Sports Minister Jitender Singh has said the ongoing spot-fixing controversy has not just given a bad name to cricket but also to sports as a whole. Talking exclusively to CNN-IBN, the minister said, with greater money in cricket, it must be ensured that there should be more responsibility by all. Singh also said there was no need to stop the IPL, but there should be checks and balances,...
06:46 PM, May 22, 2013
The Congress government in Andhra Pradesh is under pressure after two ministers named in the Jagan Reddy disproportionate assets case stepped down on Sunday night. Voices of dissent from within gained ground even as Jagan's wife Bharathi Reddy wrote to the Prime Minister, alleging the CBI probe is unfair and that her husband is being victimised. ...
08:44 PM, May 20, 2013
New Delhi: In the wake of the spot-fixing scandal in IPL, Law Minister Kapil Sibal on Sunday proposed a law to tackle fixing and other illegal activities in sports in India. Sibal spoke to Sports Minister Jitendra Singh and proposed to plug the loopholes that help the accused to escape punishment. Sibal, who recently took charge of the Law Ministry, made the proposal to ensure strict punishment for the guilty....
06:24 PM, May 19, 2013
New Delhi: All issues, including the boundary question, would be on the table when Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh meet in New Delhi on Sunday evening for talks. Li, who arrives in India Sunday afternoon on a three-day state visit, and Manmohan Singh are also likely to discuss the proposed border defence cooperation agreement during their talks, sources said Saturday. Li's visit comes days after the...
07:58 PM, May 18, 2013
New Delhi: The Congress on Saturday ruled out change of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the run up to next Lok Sabha elections but steered clear of questions whether he would again be at the helm if the UPA-III comes to power. In reply to questions about change of the Prime Minister soon and holding of early Lok Sabha elections, Congress spokesman PC Chacko said "please do not think of...
07:50 PM, May 18, 2013
New Delhi: A committee looking into US giant Walmart's lobbying activities to enter India today submitted its report to Corporate Affairs Minister Sachin Pilot. Former Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court Mukul Mudgal who headed the panel set up to look into lobbying activities by Walmart, submitted the report to Pilot at his residence. No details of the report were immediately available. ...
07:35 PM, May 18, 2013
Jammu: BJP on Friday said the Congress-led UPA should declare its Prime Ministerial candidate first and whether Rahul Gandhi is a stakeholder for the top job or not. While insisting that BJP Parliamentary Board will take a decision regarding its PM candidate at an appropriate time BJP national general secretary and former Gujarat Home Minister Amit Shah said, since UPA was in power, it should first take a decision in...
07:28 PM, May 17, 2013
Bangalore: The four-day old Siddaramaiah ministry in Karnataka will be expanded on Saturday with the induction of 29 ministers, an exercise from which the "tainted" would be kept out. Siddaramaiah, who was sworn in as the Chief Minister on May 13 marking return of Congress to power after a seven-year hiatus, however, ruled out induction of any Deputy Chief Minister. Twenty-nine ministers will be sworn in at Raj Bhavan, the...
06:04 PM, May 17, 2013
Guna: Congress General Secretary Digvijaya Singh on Thursday expressed doubt as to whether giving autonomy to CBI would serve the purpose. "There is a question mark on the issue," he told reporters in Guna. "Giving autonomy to CBI...may be like giving autonomy to a police inspector," Singh said. "Is the common man in favour of giving autonomy to an inspector?" he asked. The issue of CBI's autonomy has come to...
01:42 AM, May 17, 2013
New Delhi: India is likely to press for access to Tahawwur Hussain Rana, and wife and two girlfriends of Mumbai attack terrorist David Headley during Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde's visit to the United States next week. Government sources said though India got access to Headley, who carried out a recce of the 26/11 targets for the Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba, the US has not given any opportunity to question...
08:00 PM, May 16, 2013
New Delhi: India's Sports Minister Jitender Singh on Thursday said that the roadmap for India's return to the Olympic fold has been chalked out by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and it will take 30 to 60 days to complete the entire process. The Sports Minister, who met the IOC officials in Lausanne on Wednesday, said, "The roadmap has been decided by IOC to bring India back into the Olympic...
08:28 AM, May 16, 2013
Karan Thapar discusses the future of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), called a caged parrot by the Supreme Court of India, with a panel of experts. ...
09:55 PM, May 15, 2013
New Delhi: Against the backdrop of several alleged sex scandals in the force, Defence Minister AK Antony on Tuesday asked the Navy to take "sternest possible action" against its officers who are found involved in such "inappropriate behaviour". Referring to some isolated incidents of inappropriate behaviour by a few personnel, Antony urged top Commanders to take sternest possible action against those who tarnish the image and prestige of the armed...
07:50 PM, May 14, 2013
