India News

NEW DELHI : Hemchandra Pandey, a freelance journalist, was also killed in the encounter in which top Maoist leader and spokesperson Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad was killed in Andhra Pradesh on Friday.

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Gandhinagar :Personnel of Indian Coast Guard detained a suspicious boat carrying seven persons, believed to be Somali nationals, off Veraval port in Gujarat.

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Mumbai : Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray has flayed International Cricket Council president Sharad Pawar for his statement that he will push for resumption of Indo-Pak bilateral series, saying even thinking of such a thing is "sin".

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Jhargram (WB) : A CPI-M worker and former panchayat member was shot dead by suspected Maoists at Jhargram in West Midnapore distric.

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New Delhi : A Delhi court today rejected the bail plea of a youth who was arrested for allegedly raping two Dutch women after taking them to Jammu and Kashmir posing as a tourist guide.

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New Delhi : The Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, on Saturday said the success of the integrated T-3 Terminal of the Indira Gandhi International Airport proves the success of the Public Private Partnership model in execution of large infrastructure projects, asserting that the new terminal exemplifies India's resolve to bridge fast enough the infrastructure deficit in our country.

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Mumbai : The wife of encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma, arrested in connection with the fake encounter case of gangster Chhota Rajan''s aide Ramnarayan Gupta, today approached the sessions court seeking direction to the police for not to shifting him to Nashik jail citing threat to his life. According to Swikriti Sharma, the police decision to shift Sharma from the Thane central prison, where he is lodged in a special cell, has been taken with malafide intentions.

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Meerut : A group of Jats today threatened to disturb the upcoming Commonwealth games in the national capital if the government failed to take a decision on their demands for reservation in government jobs by July 10.

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Guwahati : A protestor was killed in police firing and two constables were injured in a clash during distribution of BPL rice cards in Mangaldoi town in lower Assam today.

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New Delhi : The official and residential premises of a senior IAS officer working in Union Urban Development Ministry were searched by the CBI in connection with a case registered against officials of Lakshadweep.

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Ballia : An FIR has been lodged against BJP leader and former minister Bharat Singh in Dokati police station here on charges of rioting and attempt to murder.

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New Delhi : Senior BJP leader L K Advani today appealed to Karnataka Lokayukta Santosh Hegde, who had stepped down from his post alleging corruption in the state, to withdraw his resignation.

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New Delhi : The death of top Maoist leader Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad in Andhra Pradesh's Adilabad District has come as a big blow to the Maoist movement in India, as he was a top-ranking member of the Maoists' central committee, who had specialised in field-craft as well.

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Jaipur : Police have arrested nine Indian Oil Corporation officials in Jaipur in Rajasthan. They were held on criminal charges of negligence that led to a major fire at an IOC refinery near Sangner.he fire raged for over two days, claiming 11 lives besides causing extensive damage to an adjacent factory.

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New Delhi : Black pepper and jeera prices declined by Rs 100 per quintal each, in the national capital today, as demand from retailers and stockists declined.

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Jammu : Four Amarnath pilgrims hailing from Punjab were killed and three others injured when their vehicle skidded off the road and plunged into a gorge near Ramsu on Jammu-Srinagar highway this afternoon. The vehicle met with the accident when the driver was negotiating a curve near Ramsu, police said.

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Kolkata : Calcutta Stock Exchange (CSE) index declined sharply during the trading week. Benchmark index CSE-40, which in the previous week had gained 12.04 points, slid 124.44 points during the week. The index opened at 7148.79 points and lost ground in most of the trading sessions except on Tuesday. It closed at 7024.35 after touching intra-week low of 7014.95.

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Ami Trivedi who plays Kokila in the newly launched show, 'Papad Pol-Shahbuddin Rathod Ki Rangeen Duniya' on SAB TV, shares her views about her character she plays in a short talk with IndianExpress.com.

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Film icon Kamal Haasan will wear the director's hat for a third time in his 50-year-long career even as younger daughter Akshara steps into the film industry as assistant to Rahul Dholakia.

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Karimnagar (AP) : Police have seized a cache of explosives and other bomb making materials in separate incidents in the Naxal-hit district and arrested three persons in this connection.

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Ballia : An FIR has been lodged against BJP leader and former minister Bharat Singh in Dokati police station here on charges of rioting and attempt to murder.

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Mumbai : Before the brand runs out of steam, Akshay Kumar has decided to run the next instalment of 'Singh Is Kinng'.

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New Delhi : Copper prices strengthened by Rs 2 per kg, in the local non-ferrous metal market today in tandem with firming trend at the London Metal Exchange.

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New Delhi : In restricted activity, mustard oil gained by Rs 20 per quintal in the wholesale oils and oilseeds market today on local buying. Castor and neem oils in the non-edible section also moved up on increased industrial offtake.

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New Delhi : The United States has congratulated India after it became a member of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global standard-setting body for anti-money laundering and counter financing of terrorism.

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Jaipur : Nine Indian Oil Corporation officials, including General Manager for Rajasthan, were today sent to 15 days of judicial custody by a local court. The officials were today produced before Judicial Magistrate (Sanganer) who sent them to 15 days of judicial custody.

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Bangalore : Karnataka BJP unit will today discuss strategies to improve the state government''s image at a meeting here chaired by its national president Nitin Gadkari. The meeting is being held in the wake of attack on the BJP by Lokayukta Santosh Hegde for its non-cooperation in his crusade against corruption, illegal mining and its "failure" to provide relief measures to flood-affected victims in 15 districts, BJP sources said.

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Gurdaspur (Punjab) : In a major recovery along the border with Pakistan, the Border Security Force (BSF) Saturday recovered 31 kg of heroin here in Punjab, officials said here.

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Jammu : An anti-personnel mine was today detected by the BSF at an agricultural land near the Indo-Pak border in Samba district of Jammu and Kashmir, police said. Acting on an information provided by a farmer, troops of 182 BSF battalion rushed to Khodada village and detected the landmine, they said.

It was later defused, police added.

A day after a couple sought police protection following a threat issued by a khap panchayat, the district administration on Saturday warned the self-styled caste council in village Sikandarpur Kakodh against taking law into their hands.

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A Delhi court on Saturday sent three main accused in the sensational honour killing case here to judicial custody for 12 days.

Metropolitan Magistrate Satish Kumar remanded the accused Mandeep Nagar (23), Ankit Chaudhury (22) and Nakul

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Pakistan government today informed an anti-terror court hearing the Mumbai attack case involving LeT's Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and six other suspects that the latest Indian dossier on the 26/11 strikes said Ajmal Kasab could not be sent to Pakistan to testify against the accused.

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Chandigarh : To woo tourists, especially the foreigners during the upcoming Commonwealth Games, Haryana government is planning to provide them with camp site facility.

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Bedika New Delhi : Most of his childhood was spent in hostels and that's why filmmaker Anurag Kashyap felt a tinge of jealousy when he first read debutant director Vikramaditya Motwane's script for 'Udaan', a coming-of-age story about a small town boy.

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Muzaffarnagar : Faced with parental opposition to their relationship, a girl allegedly ended her life by consuming poison followed by a suicide bid by the boy, who is battling for his life in a hospital.

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New Delh : Government's regulatory and policy framework should be aligned with the requirements of the civil aviation industry to encourage serious investment in the sector that can absorb upto 120 billion dollars by 2020, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said today.

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MUMBAI : Global economic apprehensions of a slowdown in manufacturing growth in the coming months on debt crisis in Europe pulled down the BSE benchmark Sensex by 114 points during the week.

Metal shares slid sharply on heavy selling. The BSE-Metal index fell 500.58 points or 3.36 per cent, after the Conference Board, a US-based research group, corrected its April 2010 gauge to assess the outlook of China's economy.

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JAMMU : A bandh called by Shri Amarnath Sangrash Samiti (SAYSS), which spearheaded the land agitation here last year, to protest the alleged attempts to disrupt the Amarnath pilgrimage has evoked little response on Saturday.

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PATNA : Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar had a close shave on Saturday when his helicopter with two others onboard took off from Gidhar in Jamui district with its door open, police said.

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Panaji :  On the run for nearly a month, Goa's former Tourism Minister Fransisco Mickky Pacheco on Saturday surrendered before the Sessions Court in Margao in connection with the death of his friend Nadia Torrado.

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By signing a new civil nuclear agreement,Canada and India have sought to wipe off a history of strained relations that goes back to India's 1974 nuclear test.The incident resulted in Ottawa freezing nuclear cooperation with New Delhi.

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HYDERABAD : A Maoist couple who entered Andhra Pradesh from neighbouring Chhattishgarh was arrested on Saturday from the state's Khammam district, police said.

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Srinagar :  For more than a week, Kashmir has been in turmoil over the deaths of a series of young men killed by security forces. In an interview to NDTV's Barkha Dutt, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah says the initiative for a political dialogue has been ineffective, and that there's a need to revive the political peace process in the Valley.

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Raipur : Under attack for his disparaging remarks about the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Chhattisgarh's police chief Vishwa Ranjan Friday praised the paramilitary force that has lost more than 100 men to Maoists since April.

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Srinagar : The unrest in Kashmir is now spreading to Jammu with the Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti turning the clashes between the protestors and security forces into a protestors versus Amarnath yatris debate.

The Samiti has called for a bandh in Jammu on Saturday against what it calls attacks on "civilians, media and security forces" by the protestors in Kashmir.

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Hyderabad : The Central Bureau of Investigation has blamed pilot error for the helicopter crash in which former Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Rajashekhar Reddy was killed.

Almost 10 months after the helicopter carrying YSR crashed in the Nalla Malla forests the CBI finalised and submitted its report on the tragic incident on Friday.

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The delay in second spell of showers this monsoon has left farmers from the Saurashtra region in the lurch as most of them have completed sowing but have no water for irrigation. With reservoirs almost hitting the rock bottom and underground water no longer available, farmers are now highly dependent on rain to save their crops.

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India's cricket chiefs meet Saturday to choose a new member of a disciplinary committee that will decide the fate of Lalit Modi, the suspended chief of the scandal-hit Indian Premier League.

It follows the decision by the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to step down from the panel after Modi -- who faces allegations of corruption, indiscipline and money-laundering -- accused him of bias.

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In a rare surgery performed by doctors of the Hero DMC Heart Institute (HDHI) and DMCH, a seven-month pregnant woman diagnosed with aortic dissection was saved and so was her baby, through a ceasarean operation.

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Jaipur : Nine Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) officials, including general manager Gautam Ghosh, have been arrested for criminal negligence in a major fire at its depot in October last year in which 11 people were killed, police said Friday.

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Ahead of a meeting in Kabul later this month, India and Afghanistan on Friday discussed a wide range of bilateral and regional issues, besides reviewing developmental partnership between the two countries.

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A month after Farid Tanasha — a close aide of gangster Chhota Rajan-— was shot dead at his residence in Tilak Nagar, the Crime Branch on Friday said they had cracked the case with the arrest of nine persons.

Police said the arrested had received contract money from gangsters Bharat Nepali and Vijay Shetty to eliminate Tanasha, as an 'insecure' Nepali felt a threat to his life.

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SRINAGAR : Four militants were killed as Army foiled an infiltration bid along the Line of Control in Nowgam sector, a defence spokesperson said on Saturday.

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AHMEDABAD : The BJP on Friday invited Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi to campaign in Bihar, a move that is sure to be a red rag to the JD(U) and may revive a bitter clash between the two coalition partners ahead of the assembly elections.

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RAIPUR : The Union government might be divided over sending in the Army to take on Maoists, but the BJP backs Army deployment, said Sushma Swaraj, leader of the opposition in Lok Sabha, on a visit to Raipur on Friday. She said she was speaking on behalf of her party."

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HYDERABAD : Swami Agnivesh, who is acting as a mediator between the Centre and Maoists, on Friday described the killings of two top Maoists as unfortunate, but said he wouldn't call off his peace efforts.

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Bollywood stars Ajay Devgn and Bipasha Basu alongwith director Priyadarshan are in Diu for shooting of 'Akrosh'.

The actors and film director arrived at Diu airport yesterday and are likely to stay in the union territory for six days, Diu Collector office sources said.

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SARKEPALLI (ADILABAD) : The encounter site amid tall bamboo plants and covered with boulders and stones at Sarkepalli village in Jogapur forests in Wankhidi mandal hardly resembled a place where an alleged exchange of fire took place in the late hours of Thursday.

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Here is something for legal eagles of the government of India to chew on: while Dow Chemical Company denies any responsibility for damages caused by Union Carbide in Bhopal, it has taken over all liability of Carbide for fighting out over 75,000 asbestos related law suits in the US. Dow/Carbide expects to incur liability costs of $839 million in the coming years. They have already spent a whopping $687 million in litigation costs, besides paying out $1,480 million to an unspecified number of claimants till date. Carbide became a subsidiary of Dow through a merger in 2001.

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BANGALORE : The BJP government has started singing a new tune in the wake of increasing opposition to the illegal mining controversy. Chief minister B S Yeddyurappa told the assembly on Friday that he will request Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to call a meeting of CMs for evolving a political consensus to ban iron ore exports.

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NEW DELHI : Slamming the government for "failing" to check spiralling prices, Opposition BJP on Friday requested all opposition parties to join hands for the nationwide strike on July 5 to oppose the "anti-people policies of the Congress-led dispensation".
Party chief Nitin Gadkari, who addressed the media, appealed to people across the country to support the bandh and apologised for the inconvenience it might cause.

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The correspondent of the Kodaikanal Public School, who is accused of sexually harassing a girl student, surrendered before a court in Virudhunagar on Friday, hours after his daughter and school principal were arrested for allegedly abetting the crime.

M L Bright, 73, had gone into hiding in the middle of last month after a 14-year-old Bhutanese girl lodged a police complaint through her parents.

MUMBAI : Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has become the world's ninth-largest software services company in terms of revenues, its chairman, Ratan Tata, told shareholders at the company's fifth annual general meeting on Friday. The big daddies in the global IT industry include IBM with revenues of $96 billion, Microsoft ($58 billion) and Accenture ($22 billion).

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Attitudes to women leaving the house to work may be changing in India, but economically testing times could reverse gains being made in gender parity, says a new survey. Gender-based discrimination remains a workplace reality with a majority of respondents feeling that men were more likely to get opportunities for jobs that pay well than women who were equally qualified.

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Anup Mishra, Madhya Pradesh health minister and nephew of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, on Friday submitted his resignation following allegations of his family's involvement in last week's firing incident in Gwalior, in which a 20-year-old was killed.

Mishra on Friday handed over his resignation letter to CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan who then forwarded it to the governor.

NEW DELHI : India will host a two-day ministerial round on climate technology transfer and cooperation in November before the year's big UN meet on the subject in Mexico. The meeting of ministers is intended to thrash out a deal on how the rich countries can share clean technologies with the developing world.

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NEW DELHI : There's something about 'Raavan'. Even if Abhishek Bachchan, according to a majority of critics, failed to make the cut as Raavan in Mani Ratnam's recent flop, 'Raavan', the character yet fascinates.

With ten heads, a flying chariot, a city of gold, Raavan was the glamorous learned king, albeit with a roving eye. And some of the rakshas king's greatest admirers are actors who have played Raavan in various theatre formats: on stage and on screen, both small and big.

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HYDERABAD/KOLKATA : It's seldom that Maoists feel the need to communicate with the outside world. When they do, it invites flashbulbs, bytes and media hype. It was left to Cherukuri Rajkumar aka Azad, to handle propaganda.

Since Azad was CPI(Maoist)'s spokesman, he acted as an aide to Maoist chief Ganapathi. "He believed it's neither the gun nor the pen which is powerful. He always felt man is more powerful to bring change in society," recalls Nellutla Venugopal, who last met Azad at Regional Engineering College, Warangal, in 1978.

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