CURRENT AFFAIRS: 07/28/11

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Kapil wants to see Yuvraj play at Trent Bridge

Nottingham :Kapil Dev wants to see World Cup star Yuvraj Singh in India's XI for the second Test starting here at Trent Bridge on Friday.

"Somehow, Yuvraj must play. I am not sure who should make way for him, but I want to see Yuvraj in India's XI," Kapil told MiD DAY.

Kapil cited Yuvraj's bowling abilities as the reason for his inclusion, "If Yuvraj is around, he can bowl 10 to 12 overs a day. He will also add a lot of depth in the batting department. He must be high on confidence after his World Cup success, and must be raring to go. Yuvraj should be encouraged to bowl as much as possible in the nets, and make the team as the fifth bowler," said India's first World Cup-winning skipper.

RIM has released an update to its famed BlackBerry Messaging service revising it to version 6. The big difference - app integration that lets users continue messaging without having to close or exit certain apps. BBM has been integrated into a number of apps including Forsquare, ScoreMobile, Pocket Ants, Huffington Post, PowWow, Placar UOL, Menoo, Photo Booth, Navita Sports, Navita Translator and many more. In the months to come more apps are expected to join this library.

Taking a leaf from telecom giant Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Vodafone also increased tariffs on their pre-paid plans in select regions while Bharti expanded its new tariffs to other circles, officials familiar with the development said on Thursday.

Idea has increased its tariff from 1 paisa per second to 1.2 paisa per second for calls made from Idea to other networks including both local and STD calls in the Delhi region under the per second billing scheme.

Nintendo Co. stayed deep in the red in the latest quarter, forcing the Japanese video game giant to cut its full-year forecasts and slash prices on its new 3DS handheld device.

Nintendo on Thursday posted a net loss of 25.5 billion yen ($324 million) in the April-June period, worse than the 25.2 billion yen loss a year earlier. For the fiscal year through March 2012, Nintendo expects net profit of 20 billion yen, down 82 percent from its previous outlook, on sales of 900 billion yen.

Shares of Nintendo Co. shed a fifth of their value Friday after the Japanese video game giant posted a deep loss in the latest quarter, cut its full-year forecasts and slashed prices on its new 3DS handheld device.

The sell-off sent the stock down more than 20 percent to 11,190 yen as investors rushed to unload a company struggling to regain momentum. It opened the trading day ask-only, meaning the market was overwhelmed with investors wanting to sell.

Oracle says a former Hewlett-Packard executive has been falsely accused of stealing trade secrets in one of several ongoing legal skirmishes between the two technology heavyweights.

Oracle Corp. demanded in a letter sent to Hewlett-Packard Co. on Thursday that it drop its lawsuit against Adrian Jones, a former senior vice president who was in charge of HP's server, storage and networking businesses in Asia before going to work for rival Oracle.

Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc., the maker of cellphones and cable set-top boxes that split off from the rest of Motorola in January, is struggling to continue its turnaround and find a stable foothold in the world of smartphones and tablets.

On Thursday, it posted a loss for the latest quarter and forecast earnings for the current quarter well below analyst expectations, sending its shares down.

Sprint Nextel Corp. on Thursday said its loss widened in the second quarter as it spent more to attract and keep customers, in the face of competition from AT&T and Verizon.

The extra spending meant that Sprint kept adding subscribers, continuing a fragile turnaround, but investors frowned at the extra spending and sent the stock down sharply.

Sprint shares fell 82 cents, or 16 percent, to close at $4.34 Thursday.

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Sydney: An Air Canada flight was forced to return to Sydney airport on Thursday after crew members saw smoke coming from an oven in the galley, an airline official said.

No one on flight AC34 was injured in the incident, which forced the pilot to dump fuel before safely landing the plane in Sydney, said Jeannie Foster, Air Canada's general manager for Australia and New Zealand.

London: An Indian woman who lives in Britain and wants her husband to join her there cannot do so because a new immigration law requires him to speak English. The couple have now challenged the law in court.

British citizen Rashida Chapti, 54, applied for her husband Vali Chapti, 57, to join her in Britain.

The couple have been married for 37 years and have six children together. Vali Chapti is an Indian national and does not speak, read or write English.

Washington: Hours before a crucial vote, Republican leaders in the US pleaded with their fractious rank and file on Thursday to support a House plan to stave off an unprecedented government default. The vote would bring President Barack Obama and Congressional leaders a step closer to endgame efforts before Tuesday's deadline.

Kabul: Two suicide bombers and militants armed with heavy weapons launched twin attacks targeting the Afghan government and its allies on Thursday, killing at least 19 people in the latest outburst of violence weakening the government's grip on the Taliban's southern heartland.

Insurgents have been assassinating Afghan officials and attacking government installations to demonstrate they remain a potent force despite pressure from the US-led military coalition. They are also out to show Afghan President Hamid Karzai's administration is too weak to provide security as foreign troops begin to withdraw from the war.

Hijacked MV Jubba released from captivity of Somali pirates

New Delhi: An oil tanker belonging to the United Arab Emirates, hijacked by Somali pirates on July 16, has been released, state news agency WAM reported on Thursday.

Seventeen sailors from India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Sudan, Myanmar, Kenya and Somalia were on board the tanker, according to WAM.

Cairo: Al Qaeda's new leader has praised Syrian protesters seeking to topple the regime of President Bashar Assad while trying to portray the uprising as an Islamic battle against American and Israeli interests.

The video message posted on extremist websites on Wednesday is Ayman al-Zawahri's first since Al Qaeda named him its new leader in June following the death of Osama bin Laden in a US commando raid in Pakistan on May 2.

Miami: A man punched an American Airlines pilot who kicked him off a flight from Miami, and he and his brother then attacked the pilot again before bystanders tackled the brothers in the terminal, officials said Thursday.

Jonathan and Luis Baez, both of Las Piedras, Puerto Rico, were arrested at Miami International Airport. They had been aboard American Airlines Flight 1755 bound for San Francisco on Wednesday night, according to an arrest affidavit.

Oslo: Jens Stoltenberg, whose government and party was targeted by last week's deadly attacks, has been unanimously hailed for his dignified and quintessentially Norwegian handling of the crisis aftermath.

According to a poll published on Wednesday, 94 per cent of Norwegians have been satisfied with the prime minister's performance in the aftermath of last week's massacre while only two per cent have been dissatisfied.

Lima: Ollanta Humala, the leftist military man who won Peru's presidency after abandoning a radical platform, promised in his inaugural address Thursday to make his priority the one in three Peruvians still mired in poverty.

The 49-year-old former army lieutenant colonel charted a plan for spreading the wealth from Peru's mineral boom beyond Lima, where it has been concentrated among a small elite, to long-neglected hinterlands.

Benghazi: The head of the Libyan rebel armed forces was shot and killed Thursday just before arriving for questioning by rebel authorities, their political leader said in a carefully worded statement to reporters that gave few details on who was behind the killing.

Adding to the confusion, the rebels had said hours earlier they had already detained the commander, Abdel-Fattah Younis, on suspicion his family might still have ties to the regime of Moammar Gaddafi, raising questions about whether he might have been assassinated by his own side.

Washington, Jul 29 (PTI): The US has promised that it will protect the interests of hundreds of Indian students at the University of Northern Virginia (UNVA), which was raided yesterday by investigating and law enforcement agencies on charges of visa fraud.

In a day-long exercise, dozens of officials from different federal agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), entered the Annandale campus of the university and took away with them a large number of boxes full of documents and computer hard drives from its administrative division.

Rebekah Brooks, left, standing next to Sara Payne

London: Britain's simmering phone hacking scandal erupted again Thursday as a charity founded by the mother of a murdered child said she was targeted by a detective who worked for the News of the World.

The charity, Phoenix Chief Advocates, said Glenn Mulcaire, a detective employed by the now-defunct tabloid, had the details of Sara Payne in his notes. Payne is the mother of 8-year-old Sarah Payne, whose murder by a pedophile in 2000 shocked Britain and was heavily covered by the News of the World.

Lucknow: A 22-year-old married woman was allegedly gang raped in Unchahar area of Rae Bareilly, Congress President Sonia Gandhi's Lok Sabha constituency, by four persons, who lured her by promising a job.

The victim was called to NTPC colony on Sunday to meet Ashish Mishra, who had promised her a job in NTPC, police said.

Gorakhpur:Man shot by motorcycle-borne masked gunmen

Gorakhpur: An accused, in an attempt to murder, case was shot at, by two motorcycle-borne masked gunmen in Boga village in this district, police said today.

Amarjeet, who was out on bail in the attempt to murder case, was on his way to a local market here when the two masked men fired at him, injuring him critically, the victim's cousin Surendra, who was at the spot when the incident occurred, alleged in the police complaint.

Jilted lover stabs woman, mother in Lucknow

Lucknow: A woman and her mother were allegedly stabbed by a jilted lover and his accomplice in the
Wazirganj area in Lucknow, police said today.

The incident occurred last evening when the accused Rahul (22) and his accomplice Babloo stabbed the 35-year-old woman and her mother after the woman allegedly refused to marry him.

Irfan Sheikh (left) and victim's father Ghulam Khan

Mumbai: When Ghulam Mohammad Hamid Khan (47), decided to abandon Mumbai and board a train for his UP hometown from the Mankhurd railway station, he decided to travel light.

The first baggage that he decided to get rid of was none other than his 9-year-old daughter Roshni.

He didn't have to look far- along came Irfan Sheikh (21), a drug addict.
Not only did the desperate father give the addict permission to have his way with her, he also paid the man to buy himself some drugs.

Mumbai: A driver in a white sedan being chased by two cops on bicycles. Half-an-hour into the chase, the two cops on the cycles catch the accused in the car and good overcomes evil.

While, this would make for the perfect end of a high-adrenaline action movie, this was an incident in real life at Santacruz.

Late on Saturday night, head constable Chaganlal Ghule and constable M Lad from Santacruz police station saw 21-year-old Yogesh Buldani zipping past them and noticed that the white sedan he was driving was damaged.

Finding it suspicious, both of them pursued Buldani for more than 30 minutes on their cycles, after which they caught him and began to question him. However, Buldani refused to oblige.

Mumbai: The death toll in the July 13 serial blasts in Mumbai rose to 25 on Thursday as another injured died of his injuries at a hospital in Mumbai, officials said.

According to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's Disaster Control Centre, 48-year-old Vallabhbhai Gadhiya died at Saifee Hospital.

Ahmedabad: Narendra Modi's governance during the Gujarat riots of 2002 has been evaluated in a report that was presented to the Supreme Court today. The detailed report will stay confidential for now, said the court.

The report is based on the case filed against Mr Modi by Zakia Jafri, whose husband, Ehsan, was burnt alive in the communal riots that left 1200 people dead.

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New Delhi/Bangalore: The BJP has said the party's decision to ask BS Yeddyurappa to resign immediately was a unanimous one. Party spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad also said that he is confident that Mr Yeddyurappa will follow his party's orders. (Watch: Rise and fall of Yeddyurappa)

In Bangalore, the Karnataka Chief Minister devoted his day to proving exactly the opposite. He conducted a long meeting with more than 32 BJP leaders, including eight ministers. The session was intended to clearly telegraph his popularity among ministers and MLAs in his state - the assembly has 121 BJP MLAs.

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New Delhi: The cabinet has cleared the anti-corruption Lokpal Bill, and has decided that the Prime Minister will be exempt from investigation for corruption while he or she is in office. Senior judges also won't be covered by the Bill.

What the Cabinet has approved today is based largely on the recommendations of the five ministers who were part of the drafting committee of the Bill. The other half of the committee - Gandhian Anna Hazare and his four activists - had delivered a separate bill, which has been completely abandoned by the government.

London: A four-year-old British girl, who was allegedly kidnapped while on a holiday in Portugal in 2007, has reportedly been tracked down to Leh city in India's Jammu and Kashmir state.

The parents of Madeleine McCann are, however, not sure if the lead is credible.

Kate and Gerry McCann's team of private investigators said they were working with Leh police who were alerted after a British woman spotted a girl she thought to be Madeleine. The abducted girl would now be eight years old.

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New Delhi: The cabinet has cleared the anti-corruption Lokpal Bill, and has decided that the Prime Minister will be exempt from investigation for corruption while he or she is in office. With this, the battle between the government and civil society activists led by Anna Hazare has peaked.

What the Cabinet has approved today is based largely on the recommendations of the five ministers who were part of the drafting committee of the Bill. The other half of the committee - Gandhian Anna Hazare and his four activists - had delivered a separate bill, which has been completely abandoned by the government. "This is not a Lokpal Bill, it's a Dhokapal (betrayal) Bill," said Kiran Bedi, a member of Team Anna. Mr Hazare says in protest, he will start a hunger strike on August 16. (Watch: Team Anna lashes out)

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Bangalore: Now that BS Yeddyurappa has said he will quit as Chief Minister of Karnataka, the Reddy brothers who are ministers in his government have indicated that they will follow suit.

Janardhana Reddy, who is Karnataka's Tourism Minister, said the question of his resignation does not arise as the entire Cabinet 'goes' once the Chief Minister quits.

"When the Chief Minister has given the resignation, it means the entire Cabinet will automatically go away. So there is no question of this thing... party leaders will take the decision and we'll respect it," he added.

New Delhi: The CBI sources have said that there is a possibility that Sadiq Batch's suicide note has been forged adding that it has been sent for forensic examination.

Mr Batcha, who was being interrogated by the CBI in connection with the 2G spectrum scam, was found hanging in his home in Chennai two months ago. He was a close aide of former telecom minister A Raja who is in Tihar Jail in connection with the scam.

PMO reshuffle: Sonia's man in Manmohan's team

New Delhi: In a reshuffle in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister T K A Nair has been appointed as his adviser while senior bureaucrat Pulok Chatterji will take Mr Nair's place.

Mr Nair, a retired IAS of 1963 batch, will hold the office of adviser with the rank and status of Minister of State (MoS) in the PMO with effect from October 3 till further orders, an official statement said.

New Delhi/Bangalore: Twenty four hours after he was indicted for accepting kickbacks from a mining company, BS Yeddyurappa has agreed to resign as Chief Minister of Karnataka. (Watch: Rise and fall of Yeddyurappa)

His party, the BJP, said that it made a "unanimous" decision this morning that he has to make way for a new leader. The BJP said it expected Mr Yeddyurappa to abide by its decision. He spent most of the day demonstrating the opposite. A meeting at his house drew eight ministers and 24 other senior BJP leaders; it telegraphed Mr Yeddyurappa's grip over the party in his state. (Read: Yeddyurappa discusses options with loyalist ministers, legislators)

Bangalore: Twenty four hours after he was indicted for accepting kickbacks from a mining company, BS Yeddyurappa has agreed to resign as Chief Minister of Karnataka. His party, the BJP, said that it made a "unanimous" decision this morning that he has to make way for a new leader.

In a press statement late on Thursday evening, Mr Yeddyurappa said he will resign as Chief Minister of Karnataka on July 31.

New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is likely to seek the opinion of the Law Ministry on the controversy whether Ruia-controlled oil major Essar was an associate in the telecom joint venture with Loop Telecom in the backdrop of divergence of views with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA).

While the Ministry has stuck to its view that according to its records Ruia's-led oil major was not an associate in the telecom venture, the CBI, which is likely to file a chargesheet against Loop and Swan by the end of next month in 2G spectrum scam case, claims it has evidence to show Loop was a front for Essar.

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Mumbai: Shiv Sena's executive president Uddhav Thackeray has called for a Mumbai bandh on August 1 if the mill worker issue is not resolved by then. However, his estranged cousin and Maharashtra Navnirman Senja (MNS) party leader, Raj Thackeray is opposed to the idea.

"The issue should be sorted out in Vidhan Bhavan. Mumbaikars will face problems because of the bandh," said Raj.

Kolkata: Senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee will take a class for newly-elected party MLAs in West Bengal to help them understand the proceedings in the Assembly, their rights and duties.

"Mukherjee, who was a lecturer in Political Science in a South 24-Parganas district college before joining politics in the early 1960s, will take a class on House norms for the newly elected MLAs tomorrow," state Congress president Pradip Bhattacharjee said on Thursday.

New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has asked Baba Ramdev's prime aide Acharya Balkrishna to appear for questioning in a case under the Passport Act.

Mr Balkrishna, who was reportedly missing for the last few days, reappeared claiming he has applied for a UK visa and his travel documents are with that mission.

Another Tri-Valley in the US?

Washington: US has assured to protect the interests of hundreds of Indian students at the University of Northern Virginia (UNVA), which was raided by investigating and law enforcement agencies on suspected charges of alleged visa fraud.

In a day-long exercise, which continued late in the evening, dozens of officials, from different federal agencies including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), entered the Annandale campus of the university and took away with them a large number of boxes full of documents and computer hard drives from its administrative division.

There are no shortcuts to those seeking - or pursuing - justice in Mumbai's terror blast casesI spent the morning having a long conversation with Saqib Nachan, described by the Mumbai police as a terrorist mastermind, someone who trained and armed Muslim youth to execute a series of terrorist attacks that struck Mumbai in late 2002 and through 2003, killing and wounding dozens. The reason I was able to talk to him this week is not because I was given special access to his prison cell, but because he is out on bail. Nachan was speaking to me from his native Padgha, a semi-rural hamlet two hours north of Mumbai, where he says he has returned to his family business of 'land development'. This transformation - from an alleged militant boss accused of multiple attacks- to dealing in property is not an isolated instance. Soon after, I spoke to another 'ringleader' of another Mumbai blast, Dr Abdul Mateen, who has been fully acquitted, now at home in Aurangabad, practicing medicine.

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New Delhi/Bangalore: After putting up a fight for over 24 hours, BS Yeddyurappa has finally agreed to resign as Chief Minister of Karnataka on July 31. A hunt is now on for his successor. BJP leaders Arun Jaitley and Rajnath Singh will be in Bangalore today as observers to oversee the election of a new legislative party leader. While the MLAs select the new Chief Minister, Mr Yeddyurappa, sources say, is likely to go on an extensive tour of temples. (Watch: Rise and fall of Yeddyurappa)

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) called on B.S. Yediyurappa, the chief minister of Karnataka, on Thursday to resign over a $3.6 billion illegal mining scandal, trying to regain the initiative as it seeks to tap public anger against widespread graft that could undermine economic growth.

The BJP "advised" Yediyurappa to resign, party spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad said, after it came under attack from the ruling Congress party for what it called hypocrisy over graft charges.

Nottingham: India fast bowler Zaheer Khan has been ruled out of the second Test against England at Trent Bridge with a hamstring injury, captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said Thursday.

Left-arm quick Zaheer broke down in the first Test at Lord's, which India lost by 196 runs, after taking two wickets for 18 runs in 13.3 first innings overs and didn't bowl again in the match.

New Delhi: The cabinet Thursday approved the draft of an anti-corruption Lokpal bill, to be introduced in the monsoon session of parliament, that does not include the prime minister, judiciary or the conduct of MPs inside the house in its purview and has left the civil society members deeply disappointed.

The draft bill excludes from its ambit the prime minister, the chief justice of India and members of parliament for their actions inside the house, informed sources said. This led to immediate protest from Team Anna, which described it as a "sarkari" Lokpal.

Thursday, July 28, 2011

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