India News

Thiruvananthapuram : Lapses on part of airport officials were responsible for a Pakistani pilot of a Gulf-based foreign airline landing here and staying overnight in a city hotel in May, Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said today.

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New Delhi : Novatium Solutions Private Limited on Wednesday announced the launch of MTNL Nova Navigator Service for the MTML broadband subscribers in Delhi and Mumbai.

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The telecoms ministry has set up a panel to look into mobile firms' concerns over the sector regulator's proposals, including levying a one-time fee on 2G radio spectrum, a government statement said on Wednesday.

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Mumbai : A benchmark index for Indian equities Wednesday closed 153 points lower, with energy, banking and metal stocks coming under selling pressure.

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New Delhi : A delegation of Tamil MPs from Sri Lanka today met CPI MP D Raja and impressed on him the need for active Indian involvement in hammering out a political solution for ethnic problem in their country. The delegation of Tamil National Federation (TNF) MPs including Sambandam, Suresh Premachandran and Senadhiraja met Raja in the CPI headquarters here and sought Indian help.

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New Delhi : A Delhi court today framed charges of murder and rioting against senior Congress leader Sajjan Kumar and others in connection with a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case in which six persons were killed in Sultanpuri here.

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New Delhi : As the army moved into curfew-bound areas of Kashmir, the Centre today said the force will remain there till necessary for a "deterrent effect" for the shortest possible time.

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Newly-married Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who is celebrating his 29th birthday today, arrived in the city with his wife Sakshi to a rousing reception from enthusiastic fans.

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New Delhi : Twenty-seven people, including a Bangladeshi, were today formally arrested after they were caught at the airport here with fake documents while trying to fly to Dubai with police suspecting that a "rival visa racket" blew the lid on the matter.

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The state-run refiners hope to work out rules for setting market-driven prices of fuel across the country by mid-July, two sources directly involved in the process said on Wednesday.

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Mumbai : A prosecutor has stirred a controversy by unauthorisedly seeking a copy of the judgement in the 26/11 case from the Bombay High Court to be forwarded to Pakistan, prompting his superior to demand an explanation for his conduct.

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Muzaffarnaga : Hearing in three CBI cases in the alleged police firing on Uttarakhand activists in 1994 has been deferred till July 27 as the CBI special court is yet to be established.

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Bangalore : Karnataka Lokayukta Santosh Hegde, who had tendered his resignation following 'indifferent attitude' of the BJP government on corruption, today met Governor H R Bhardwaj and formally withdrew his resignation.

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New Delhi : Security agencies are looking for the man who arranged fake visas for 27 people who were arrested at the airport here Tuesday, officials said Wednesday.

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Chandigarh/Dispur/Thiruvananthapuram : Army help das been sought in Ambala and Kurukshetra districts of Haryana following heavy rains in the state. In neighbouring Punjab, vast tracts agriculture land have been inundated.

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Desaraju Surya Hyderabad : Byelections to 12 Assembly seats in Telangana region on July 27 and the obvious power game in the ruling Congress party in Andhra Pradesh have risen the political temperature in the state.

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Raipur : The two-day shutdown by the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) that began Wednesday hit life in Chhattisgarh's vast interiors, particularly in Bastar region where iron ore transportation was hindered.

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Kolkata : Normal life was hit in tribal-dominated areas of three West Bengal districts as Maoists began a two-day shutdown Wednesday to protest the killing of their spokesperson Azad in Andhra Pradesh.

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Jharkhand : Four Maoists were killed in a gun battle between two rebel groups in the vicinity of a jungle in Palamu region of Jharkhand on Tuesday. According to the top brass of the district police, the firing took place between ultras of Tritiya Prastuti Committee (TPC) and a newly formed rebel group headed by Pramod Yadav, former associate of TPC. After recovering the bodies, the police sent them to the Sadar Hospital for post-mortem.

The cool dude Salman Khan turns a widower and a working class father of two in Mahesh Manjrekar’s Hindi adaptation of the Marathi movie Shikshanachya Aaicha Gho. No one had probably imagined the chiseled Sallu to play such a deglamorized role.
 
Surprising all his fans, the Wanted star has agreed to add some kilos to fit into the character. The movie is now being shot in Sri Lanka, in which Mahesh Manjrekar will be seen playing the role of his father.

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Keshub Mahindra, the former chairman of Union Carbide India Ltd (UCIL), on Tuesday said he wants to do something concrete for the Bhopal gas tragedy victims.

''I have said for 20 years that my sympathies are with the people of Bhopal. I think something should be done quickly. If they need compensation, give them quickly. Help them with health. Instead of spending time on legal matters, we should help the people of Bhopal,'' Mahindra said.

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Jammu : Another Border Security Force (BSF) trooper has been killed in firing from across the international border in Jammu and Kashmir, the second incident of ceasefire violation by Pakistan, official sources said Wednesday.

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JAMMU : Over 82,000 pilgrims have paid obeisance at the Amarnath shrine in south Kashmir Himalayas, while an eighth batch of 2,820 people today left here for the 3,888 metre high Lord Shiva cave shrine.

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KOCHI/NEW DELHI : A senior Indian Navy officer was Wednesday killed in accidental fire near the firing range of INS Dronacharya, a gunnery school near the southern naval base in Kerala's Kochi city.

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CHANDIGARH : Hundreds of passengers were Wednesday stranded at railway stations in Chandigarh and in various towns in Punjab and Haryana with heavy rains leading to trains being delayed or cancelled for the second consecutive day.

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NEW DELHI : Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday called for a meeting of the cabinet committee on security affairs to discuss the Kashmir situation. The meeting will decide on the mandate for the Army, which has been called in the valley to help maintain peace in the state by chief minister Omar Abdullah.

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John has found a perfect role model. And it’s Aamir Khan whose career strategies are rapidly becoming the most emulated in tinsel town.

Most of John’s friends and Bipasha Basu think he has given his career’s best performance in Abbas Tyrewala's new love story earlier entitled 1-800-Love now entitled Call Me...Dil after a song in Tyrewala’s film.

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Bollywood babes better watch out... Looks like Shahid Kapoor isn’t content giving the heroes a run for their money.

The actor will be seen in a short skirt and pink top in Boney Kapoor’s Milenge Milenge that will release this Friday. Director Satish Kaushik can’t stop laughing when he remembers the scene in which the actor dared to go for a major makeover. “I didn’t have to convince him at all.

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While Dhoni has renounced his bachelor title, Harbhajan Singh too seems to have found a new girl.

A source said, “Harbhajan Singh, who was missing in action at Dhoni’s wedding ceremony made a late entry at 3am.

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Lucknow : Unidentified men threw acid on a 25-year-old constable at a police station in Uttar Pradesh's Varanasi district Wednesday, an official said.

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Jammu : Police today arrested three local Hurriyat leaders, who were planning to enforce a bandh in Surankote town of Poonch district.

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New Delhi : Sting operation -- a method used by investigative journalists to expose irregularities has become a tool for Delhi Police to check corrupt officials in its own department, making it the first in the country to adopt such a measure.

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Bhubaneswar : Road services were hit in Orissa's interiors as Maoists began a 48-hour nationwide shutdown to protest the killing of their top leader in Andhra Pradesh.

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Srinagar : The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has provided financial aid of 400 million rupees for drainage systems development project in Kashmir. Other developmental projects taken out by the government are construction of roads and water supply schemes in various cities and towns of state.

NEW DELHI : The government is on course to mop up its budgeted direct tax target of Rs 4.3 lakh crore for this fiscal, with the first quarter (April-June) collections pegged at Rs 69,000 crore, a growth of 15% over the same period last year.

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KOLKATA : For all those worried over the impact of a possible hounding of The Dow Chemical Company on foreign investment flows to India, rest assured! Dow itself has no intention of scaling down its proposed expansion plans for the country in the wake of fresh pressure building up on the UPA-2 government to have a relook at the 1984 Bhopal gas leak issue.

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NEW DELHI/WASHINGTON : In a crackdown on offshore tax evasion, American authorities have begun a criminal probe into HSBC individual account holders, who may not have disclosed their accounts in India. Indian finance ministry officials admitted that authorities in New Delhi "must have passed on the information to their US counterparts as part of bilateral or multilateral agreements".

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NEW DELHI : Tata Motors on Tuesday said it will invest about Rs 10,000 crore in the next two to three years on product development, modernisation of its facilities and other capex purposes.

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MUMBAI : The Wadias of Bombay Dyeing are looking at restructuring their group businesses. As part of the restructuring, Bombay Dyeing is mulling options for its polyester staple fibre (PSF) business, which could include the sale of the entire unit in Patalganga. PSF has not been making money for the last several quarters.

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Hyderabad : The 48-hour shutdown called by the outlawed Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) to protest the killing of their spokesperson Azad evoked partial response in parts of Andhra Pradesh Wednesday.

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Srinagar : An indefinite curfew was imposed Wednesday in various towns of Kashmir Valley, including Srinagar where the army staged a flag march in some parts following widespread violence the day before that led to four people being killed and over 90 injured.

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Chandigarh : Rescue operations were on at a war footing Wednesday in Haryana's Ambala and Kurukshetra districts where major breaches in rivers and canals led to the flooding of vast areas, prompting authorities to warn against travelling on the busy National Highway 1 to New Delhi.

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New Delhi : Twenty-seven people were today arrested after they were caught at the airport here while trying to board two Dubai-bound flights following a tip off from a rival visa agency that they were carrying forged travel documents.

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Jammu : In the fourth ceasefire violation in two days, Pakistani troops today fired at a forward outpost along the International Border in Jammu sector, killing a BSF jawan and leaving a villager injured.

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Mumbai : The Indian rupee weakened by 11 paise to a touch one-month low of 47.01 against the US dollar in early trade today on account of foreign fund capital outflows from equities and increased demand from importers.

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Shimla : Four students were injured early Wednesday when activists of two political outfits clashed in the Himachal Pradesh University here, police said.

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Mumbai : The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex today opened 55 points lower as funds and retail investors preferred to book profits after yesterday''s rally. The 30-share index, which had gained 173.04 points in the previous session, shed 55.84 points, or 0.32 per cent, to 17,558.64 points.

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New Delhi : A city court has ordered a celebrity yoga guru to pay a maintenance of Rs 35,000 per month to his wife - daughter of a former Vice Chief of the Indian Air Force - for his alleged adulterous conduct. The court also restrained him from his visiting his 3-year-old son, saying his "treacherous behaviour could influence the child". Metropolitan Magistrate Veena Rani noted that complainant's husband, a reputed yoga guru, was having an affair with his private secretary and one more woman.

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New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought Delhi University's response on an application seeking deletion of an allegedly distorted version of the Ramayana, part of the History (Honours) syllabus. A Bench headed by Justice P. Sathasivam issued notice to DU on historian Dina Nath Batra's application, who complained that the Vice Chancellor had ignored the apex court's order for referring the issue to DU's Academic Council.

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New Delhi : NCP chief Sharad Pawar's request to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to 'reduce his burden' has put the Congress in a quandary, as it threatens to unsettle the delic-ately-balanced allocation of ministerial berths and portfolios. Congress sources said there has been no official discussion on a reshuffle and they were not certain whether it would take place before Parliament reopens on July 25 - as Pawar wants - or after it closes in August.

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Navratna mining giant National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) is in talks with Japan's Nippon Steel for setting up a Rs 10,000-crore project in Karnataka, and also with Kobe Steel for another in Andhra Pradesh.

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New Delhi : A week before the crucial meeting of seven chief ministers to firm up the government's anti-naxal strategy, the Home Ministry told the Railways on Tuesday to ramp up security during the two-day CPI (Maoist) bandh. The bandh has been called to protest the killing of Naxal leader Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad.

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Mumbai : A day after the city shutdown owing to the nation-wide bandh, the government began the process of getting the political parties to compensate for the losses.

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New Delhi : India and Japan on Tuesday held talks to intensify counter-terror and anti-piracy cooperation. During the first-ever "2+2 dialogue" Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and Defence Secretary Pradeep Kumar held talks with Japan's Deputy Foreign Minister Kenichiro Sasae and Vice-Minister for Defence Kimito Nakae on a range of strategic and defence issues.

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Mumbai : The crumbling British Improvement Trust (BIT) chawls that stand on prime land in  south central Mumbai and are all set to be redeveloped. Minister of State for House Sachin Ahir told Hindustan Times that Municipal Commissioner Swadheen Kshatriya has been told to submit a plan on how the 133 chawls will be redeveloped by inviting bids from private developers.

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Srinagar : The Army was deployed in Srinagar to assist the state administration in maintaining law and order as indefinite curfew continued in the city and other parts of the Kashmir valley for the second day today after violent protests left three persons dead and over 70 injured. Army columns were deployed in the entire city which saw widespread violence in Batmaloo and Maisuma locality resulting in the death of three people yesterday.

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Lakhs of devotees have made their way into the city as a part of the annual pilgrimage to Pandharpur. Though the atmosphere of the Palkhi continues to remain devotional as usual, the concern over the spread of swine flu has kept the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) on its toes to avoid devotees getting infected with the virus.

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New Delhi : A day after the Delhi High Court admitted a contempt plea against the Army Chief and the Defence Secretary, the government on Tuesday appealed to the Supreme Court against the grant of permanent commission to women in the Army. The government has sought a stay on the March 12 High Court order directing the grant of permanent commission to serving women officers.

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The Talala police in Junagadh district on Tuesday arrested a couple on charges of allegedly raping and blackmailing a 20-year-old woman, who was their neighbour.

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The Army turned down a J&K government request for a flag march through Sopore town after a 20-year-old was killed in firing by CRPF on June 28.

The Omar Abdullah government, through the Deputy Commissioner, put in the request for the flag march with General Officer Commanding, Kilo Force, Major General N George.

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A Sexagenrian agriculturist died after he was allegedly attacked by a former sarpanch and three others at his house in Pannuan village in Mohali late Monday night. A land dispute was reported to be the provocation behind the alleged assault.

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Incessant rain since Sunday forced the closure of the busy Chandigarh-Ambala-Delhi National Highway after a breach in the bundh on the seasonal Tangri rivulet at Jodhpur village near Handesra and overflowing of a seasonal rivulet flooded the major stretch near Jharmari barrier on Punjab-Haryana border in Lalru.

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The much-ambitious project of the state government Nano City has been called off. With the main investor Sabeer Bhatia failing to show any interest, the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructural Corporation (HSIIDC) is now mulling new avenues.

The HSIIDC never heard from Bhatia again after communicating a deal with him in June. There are rumours that the corporation is looking for fresh investors for industrial development ranging from IT to pharmaceuticals.

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The Kumartuli idol maker's colony development project has come under the scanner of Calcutta High Court. After hearing a petition related to the issue on Tuesday, Justice Indira Banerjee directed the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) to file an affidavit in two weeks. The case will come up for hearing after one month.

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