Kolkata: Opposition parties in West Bengal on Friday demanded deployment of central paramilitary forces in an all-party meeting convened by the State Election Commission to ensure proper, free and fair panchayat elections. "We need adequate protection for candidates and the voters though every state of the polls - filing of nomination, campaigning, polling day as also counting. The ground situation is not conducive for that. In various local elections across...
04:47 AM, May 18, 2013
New Delhi: The BJP on Friday hit back at Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi for his remarks that the Opposition was responsible for the UPA's failure to pass the Food Security Bill, saying the UPA government should emulate the Chhattisgarh Food Security Act. The Bharatiya Janata Party said the Chhattisgarh Food Security Act covers a higher proportion of the population and provides foodgrain at a cheaper cost. "If the Congress...
04:12 AM, May 18, 2013
Chandigarh: In the wake of alleged political violence in the state, Punjab Congress on Friday demanded the resignation of deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal saying, he was the main architect behind "political murders and growth of mafias". "Sukhbir is a total failure as state's home minister and he has no right to continue in power. "Punjab is heading to a state of total anarchy as no rule of law...
03:50 AM, May 18, 2013
Karachi: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) on Friday announced that it would boycott the re-polling at 43 polling stations of the National Assembly constituency 250. MQM's senior leader Reza Haroon told a press conference that the decision to boycott the re-polling was taken by the party high command as it was clear that efforts were made to snatch the party's mandate in Karachi. Earlier in the day, the Election Commission...
12:25 AM, May 18, 2013
New Delhi: Two officers of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), including one reportedly investigating the coal scam, were arrested in Delhi while taking a bribe of Rs 7 lakh for settling down a land dispute, an officer said on Friday. Superintendent of Police Vivek Dutt and Inspector Rajesh Karnatak were arrested by the internal vigilance unit of CBI from Lodhi Colony area in south Delhi. "Dutt was taking bribe...
12:12 AM, May 18, 2013
London: David Beckham would not rank among the top 1,000 players of the last 40 years, former England winger Chris Waddle said on Friday in comments at odds with glowing tributes to the retiring midfielder. Beckham, 38, announced on Thursday that he was retiring at the end of the season after winning trophies and titles in four countries and earning 115 caps for England - a record for an outfield...
11:50 PM, May 17, 2013
Bangalore: Former World No. 1 Boris Becker on Friday said Rafael Nadal has good chances of winning the French Open this year but added the Spaniard will face competition from Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer. "Rafa's chances are looking good. But then you have others like Djocovic, who is world No. 1. You also have Federer, who is still very good. There is question mark about Andy Murrey though, who...
11:43 PM, May 17, 2013
New Delhi: BJP on Friday made clear its reservation over the Food Security Bill being keenly pushed by the government, saying it is a "half-hearted attempt", and hit back at Rahul Gandhi for saying opposition was stalling it. Till now BJP had said it was disrupting Parliament in the second phase of the Budget session due to more pressing matter of resignation of two Union ministers - PK Bansal and...
10:11 PM, May 17, 2013
New Delhi: A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) official, who is also the Chief Investigating Officer probing the coal block allocation scam, was caught taking a bribe of Rs 15 lakh on Friday. The CBI Internal Intelligence Unit nabbed Vivek Dutt in an operation that was personally supervised by the agency's director Ranjit Sinha. However, CBI sources said the bribe is not related to the coal scam. Rs 15 lakh...
10:08 PM, May 17, 2013
New Delhi: With the 2G spectrum issue getting caught in logjam in the JPC, the BJP on Friday sought to bring the matter to the forefront of Parliament's Public Accounts Committee saying the matter is pending and should be disposed of. The demand to settle the pending issue came at the first meeting of the newly-constituted PAC. BJP member Prakash Javadekar raised the issue of PAC's draft report on 2G...
09:35 PM, May 17, 2013
New Delhi: Congress top brass, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and party chief Sonia Gandhi, on Friday deliberated on the way ahead on the issue of Food Security Bill. All options were considered, was the response of party sources who said no decision has been taken about the future course of action on the ambitious legislation as also on the Land Acquisition Bill. Food Minister KV Thomas was specially invited...
09:28 PM, May 17, 2013
New Delhi: Time is appropriate to "reactivate" the GoM on spectrum vacation that could free over 122 Mhz of radiowaves as DoT has almost completed alternate communication network for defence forces, Sam Pitroda, Adviser to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, has said. "With the anticipated completion of the terrestrial network for defence services undertaken by DoT...there are fresh possibilities for vacation of more spectrum by the defence services. In addition, digitisation...
08:55 PM, May 17, 2013
London: The website and Twitter feed of British newspaper the Financial Times were hacked on Friday, apparently by the "Syrian Electronic Army", a group of online activists who say they support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The group posted links on the newspaper's Twitter feed to a YouTube video, uploaded on Wednesday, which purports to show members of the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front Syrian rebel group executing blindfolded and kneeling members...
08:29 PM, May 17, 2013
Islamabad: Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, who will travel to Islamabad next week to hold talks with President Asif Ali Zardari and caretaker Prime Minister Mir Hazar Khan Khoso, will also meet PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif, who is set to form Pakistan's new government. Li will meet Sharif on May 23. Sharif, whose PML-N emerged the single largest party in Parliament in the May 11 general election, is expected to arrive...
08:19 PM, May 17, 2013
Tehran: A member of Iran's constitutional watchdog group insists that women cannot be presidential candidates, a report said Thursday, effectively killing the largely symbolic bids by about 30 women seeking to run in the June 14 election. Even before the comments by Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, chances for a woman candidate in Iran's presidential election were considered nearly impossible. Women also have registered as potential candidates in past presidential elections, but...
08:13 PM, May 17, 2013
New Delhi: Girls have once again outperformed boys in this year's ICSE Class-X and ISC Class-XII examinations the results for which were declared on Friday. In all, 98.78 per cent of girls and 97.73 per cent of boys passed the Indian Certificate for Secondary Education (ICSE) exam, while 96.66 per cent of girls and 93.91 per cent of boys passed the Indian School Certificate (ISC) examination. Anika Aggarwal, Simran Khanuja...
07:47 PM, May 17, 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
Dehradun: Rights activist Avdhash Kaushal on Friday sought a ban on the entry of BJP leaders Uma Bharati, Ramesh Pokhariyal Nishank and environmentalist GD Aggarwal in any hydel project area in Uttarakhand and demanded their arrest under the NSA if they did so. Criticising these leaders for opposing the uplifting of the Dhari Devi temple which will pave the way for 330 mw Srinagar hydropower project, Kaushal, a Padmashree award...
05:10 PM, May 17, 2013
Jaipur: An employee of the Army Supply Corp, posted in the South Western Command in Jaipur, was arrested for allegedly passing confidential information to Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, police said on Friday. "The accused Upper Division Clerk BK Sinha (43) was spying for ISI and sharing classified information and documents regarding Army's transport related movements to Nepal based ISI agent," said Additional DG (Intelligence) Dalpat Singh Dinkar. Sinha was arrested by...
04:56 PM, May 17, 2013
Kolkata: The West Bengal Election Commission on Friday announced dates for the Panchayat elections in the state. The elections will be held in three phases on July 2, 6 and 10. The results will be announced three days later. The state government's demand for a two-phase polling was earlier shot down by the Calcutta High Court. The state election commission though said that the court order was not clear on...
04:55 PM, May 17, 2013
