CURRENT AFFAIRS: 08/01/11

Monday, August 1, 2011

Foreign varsity bill hurdle

New Delhi, Aug. 1: Reputable foreign institutions may not come to India if a provision in a proposed law preventing them from taking back surplus from education activities is retained, a parliamentary panel has said.

The Foreign Educational Institutions (Entry and Operations) Bill prescribes a time-bound format for granting foreign universities approvals but bars them from repatriating profits.

The bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on May 3, 2010, and referred to the standing committee on HRD, headed by Congress MP Oscar Fernandes.

Monsoon crop scare

New Delhi, Aug. 1: Rainfall during the remaining two months of the monsoon season is likely to be 10 per cent below normal, weather scientists said today, predicting monsoon behaviour that they say “has the potential to hurt crops in some places”.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said rainfall over India during August and September is likely to be 90 per cent of the long period average, after a copious 111 per cent rainfall in June but a deficient 86 per cent rainfall in July.

Anna waves survey

New Delhi, Aug. 1: Anna Hazare’s group today made public the results of a “referendum” on the Lokpal bill it had conducted in Delhi’s Chandni Chowk, the Lok Sabha constituency of minister Kapil Sibal.

It claimed that 85 per cent of the respondents had favoured the provisions of Hazare’s “Jan Lokpal Bill” over that of the government’s bill. Group members construed the results as a vote on Sibal’s performance as MP from the constituency.

Maoist release doubts

New Delhi, Aug. 1: The Bengal government may be having second thoughts about releasing Maoist leaders from jail following repeated advisories from the Union home ministry about the risks involved, officials said here today.

Mamata Banerjee had said her government would release 52 political prisoners, including CPI (Maoist) members Pradip Chatterjee and Chandi Sarkar, as part of efforts to facilitate talks with the rebels.

Last week, the home ministry sent an advisory to Bengal asking it not to release Chatterjee and Sarkar. “Following that, we feel the state is having second thoughts about the release of (Maoist) prisoners,” a senior official said.

Bengal eyes more tax from bottling plants

Calcutta, Aug. 1: The Bengal government has sounded out the Centre on a proposal to increase tax on soft drinks bottling plants and mineral water producers so that the state’s civic bodies can raise revenue without levying water tax.

The plan to impose more tax on the bottling plants, both domestic and multinational, was mooted following pressure from the Centre on the Mamata Banerjee government to impose water tax in Calcutta and other municipal areas.

Mamata Banerjee

New Delhi, Aug. 1: The Trinamul Congress today indicated it would focus on funds for Bengal during Parliament’s monsoon session rather than walk the extra mile to defend the Centre against the expected Opposition assault over corruption and price rise.

Trinamul MPs will try to pressure the Centre to release funds for Bengal by raising the issue during Zero Hour in both the Houses, the party’s Lok Sabha chief whip Sudip Bandyopadhyay said.

Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee had yesterday met Trinamul MPs in Calcutta, a day ahead of the start of the monsoon session, and briefed them to keep raising the subject in the House.

Sudip said: “In the monsoon session, Trinamul will raise the issue of a special economic package for Bengal. Thirty-four years of CPM rule has made the state bankrupt and it urgently needs assistance. It is a genuine demand.”

P Chidambaram

New Delhi, Aug. 1: P. Chidambaram today appeared to take shelter behind Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to deflect a direct attack on himself by the BJP in connection with his alleged role in the 2G scam.

The Union home minister was facing a barrage of questions from journalists on why he was not reacting to the BJP’s allegations, levelled after former telecom minister A. Raja named him in the case.

“They are targeting more than me, they are targeting the Prime Minister. Well, all I can say is that there must be some reasons to target us,” Chidambaram said, choosing “us” over “me”.

“Although they know... and privately, a number of BJP leaders have told me that they don’t believe in what some of their colleagues say,” he said.

VC choice fear

New Delhi, Aug. 1: The expert who proposed an overarching higher education regulator has criticised key provisions of the bill the Centre plans to bring in Parliament’s monsoon session to set up such a body.

Yashpal’s main objections are related to proposed rules that require vice-chancellors of central universities to be picked from a pool of candidates suggested by a collegium.

Glimpses of Gayatri for home Cooch Behar

Jaipur, Aug. 1: As Maharani of Jaipur, Gayatri Devi would go back to her native Cooch Behar every year to relive her childhood days.

Now Cooch Behar will get to see how one of the world’s most beautiful queens spent her days there.

An exhibition of rare, unseen pictures of Gayatri Devi, especially of her days in Cooch Behar, will soon be put up in the former north Bengal princely state for people to get a glimpse of her lifestyle and work.

The exhibition will also travel to Calcutta, Delhi and Mumbai this year, making it a year-round affair, said author Dharmendra Kanwar, the managing trustee of the Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh Benevolent Trust that will organise the shows.

Calcutta, Aug. 1: The Congress has decided to take back the rebels it had suspended for contesting against Trinamul candidates in the Assembly elections, saying Mamata Banerjee has “shown the way” by drafting one of them into her own party.

“If she (Mamata) takes back a Congress rebel into her party fold, then what’s the necessity of our being rigid about the others who had contested against her nominees?” Shakeel Ahmed, Congress general secretary in charge of Bengal affairs, said today.

Manmohan Singh

New Delhi, Aug. 1: The Congress and the BJP appear to be locked more in a war of wits than real confrontation, which is a clear signal that Parliament’s monsoon session will start normal business after symbolic disruptions for a couple of days.

Sensing the public mood, members from both parties have given notices for urgent discussions on two issues — corruption and price rise.

While the BJP is itching to send out a message that the Centre had done nothing to curb rising prices and scandals, the Congress wants to show that the government was not fighting shy of confronting these problems.

Mamata Banerjee

New Delhi, Aug. 1: The Union finance ministry has calculated that Bengal will need at least Rs 19,000 crore this year over and above the usual inflows and is working on a package to help out the state.

A meeting to discuss the financial reconstruction of the state has been called by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee tomorrow. The meeting is expected to be attended by Bengal finance minister Amit Mitra.

Mukherjee today confirmed to PTI that the central government “was working out a package” to bail out the debt-ridden state.

Call for conservation

Ranchi, Aug. 1: Three hundred cheers for the majestic big cat!

The state forest department has, finally, moved to raise a territory toast to the endangered Royal Bengal Tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) by honouring a 12-year-old central notification that recommended an additional 300sqkm room at the Palamau Tiger Reserve.

Hatia opens up ambitions

Ranchi, Aug. 1: The political focus now shifts to Ranchi from Jamshedpur as the Supreme Court is set to hear a petition challenging Jharkhand High Court’s order to recount votes polled in the 2009 Assembly constituency, now being eyed by a JVM buoyed by its recent success in the Jamshedpur Lok Sabha seat.

Bhim Munda, who had contested the Hatia Assembly elections as an Independent, has challenged the high court order on the ground that the Election Commission was not made a party to the case by BJP nominee Ramji Lal Sarda, who challenged the election of late Congress MLA Gopal Sharan Nath Shahdeo.

Mittal

Aug. 1: Telecom titan Bharti Airtel has proposed to pay its founder Sunil Mittal Rs 70 crore a year.

Shareholders will get to vote on Mittal’s pay hike at the next annual general meeting.

The pay increment amounts to a staggering 154 per cent over the Rs 27.51 crore that Bharti Airtel’s chairman and managing director drew as gross remuneration in the year ended March 31. In 2009-10, Mittal was paid Rs 23.5 crore.

Systems fail a young mother

Calcutta, Aug. 1: Calcuttans tried many a trick to fight the discomfiture induced by rolling power cuts today but a doctor in a pitch-dark labour room had little else other than a pack of cotton to help a lady who had become a mother minutes ago.

The young mother lay in the labour room bleeding for 30 minutes this morning as the doctor could not stitch the cut in the feeble light of candles and hand-held torches, while three generator sets squatted defunct in the government-run Chittaranjan Seva Sadan, a hospital less than 500 metres from the chief minister’s home.

Nottingham, Aug. 1: Having done one honourable act, by recalling Ian Bell, it’s time for Team India to do the next one — abdicate the No. 1 position in Test cricket.

No top-ranked team would, after all, play like India did over what became the last two days of Test No. 2.

Calcutta, Aug. 1: The security supervisor of Bidhan Nivas had masterminded the crime in which 93-year-old Shanta Bhattacharya died a horrifying death, police said today.

Swadesh Mukherjee, the 38-year-old prime suspect now in custody, had continued to work as usual at the apartment complex near Ultadanga. Swadesh had gone to the extent of partaking of the feast associated with the last rites of the lady who had trusted him enough to invite him to lunch but died at the hands of robbers he had handpicked.

Being slim doesn’t ensure strong heart

LOOKS can be deceptive. Apparently, healthy looking and lean lndians run higher risk of heart disease compared to obese whites. Scientists claim to have figured out why this is so.
A new study published on Thursday says South Asians are more likely to add additional fat onto their internal organs such as the liver when they gain weight, while people from other ethnic groups just add it to their waistlines. This perhaps explains high levels of heart diseases and other metabolic disorders among Indians even though they may look healthier otherwise.

thin-woman_430

New Delhi, August 01 (ANI):Here comes good news for all Rajni fans. Yes, buzz has it that Rajnikanth would again start shooting for Rana from October. Currently, the superstar is back in Chennai after over six-week treatment in Singapore.

Priyanka Debnath, working as a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) content writer at Jhuns Infotech, felt like a fish out of water when she joined a firm which had only male employees. Having studied in an all-girls school and college didn’t make it any easier!
“At the interview I was told that I am the only girl recruited. It took a while for me to adjust and get over my shyness,’’ says Priyanka who completed her education in Kolkata. Encouraged by her bosses, Priyanka shed her inhibitions and familiarised herself with her 28 male team members. Over a period of time, Priyanka started to feel comfortable in the work environment. “Now, I can work in any company.

The deep hole being burnt into buyers' pockets by inflation is forcing retailers to offer early discounts to woo customers.
Buyers appear to be keeping branded apparel at a distance as price hikes curb their spending capacity. This, in turn, has left retailers scurrying to find ways to increase footfall.
With customers slashing spending on apparel and other luxury good, most large format retail stores, such as Shoppers Stop, Pantaloons, Westside, Reliance Trend, Wills Lifestyle and Globus, have started offering discounts to the tune of up to 60 per cent.

The warriors of the land, guardians of the sea, and air have a common background. Most of these officers have cleared the NDA exam to join the elite forces. The candidates need to first specify the choice of Academy they wish to join: either National Defence Academy or Executive Branch of Naval Academy. The candidate can then indicate his preference as per his interest viz. Army, Navy and Air Force.

The Common Admission Test (CAT) to be conducted on 20 testing days within the 28 day window between October 22 and November 18 will be in a yet new avatar. According to the latest news, the number of sections has been reduced to two from the erstwhile three. These are as follows: o Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation, and o Verbal ability and Logical Reasoning. Each section will have 30 questions and 70 minutes will be given making the total test time as 140 minutes, 5 minutes more than CAT 2010.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Sunday announced a last-minute deal to raise the U.S. borrowing limit and avoid a catastrophic default and he urged lawmakers to "do the right thing" and approve the agreement.
Laying out the endgame in the U.S. debt crisis just two days before a deadline to lift the borrowing limit, the White House and congressional leaders said the compromise would cut about $2.5 trillion from the deficit over the next 10 years.

Rising rates, fuel prices hurting India autos demand

SEOUL/TOKYO (Reuters) - New vehicle sales in Japan fell by a record in July, battered by production disruptions from the March 11 earthquake, while South Korean rivals extended their winning streak to report strong global sales.
Sales of new vehicles, excluding 660cc minicars, in Japan fell 27.6 percent to 241,472 vehicles, with Toyota Motor Corp leading the decline.
"Looking at the trend from April onwards, the situation hasn't changed much from June," said Michiro Saito, general manager at the Japan Automobile Dealers Association.
"Vehicle supply won't return right away and we're looking forward to the production recovery at automakers from around September ."

Is your intimate life getting tedious and stagnant? Is everything looking so predictable that it's taking out all the fun and excitement from your love life? If so, then it's high time you pay immediate attention to it as the after effects can be quite tumultuous and can even rock your marriage. So, try to bring back action into your life by spicing things up in the bedroom. We have some simple and easy tips just for you:

Will ensure Infosys shuts US ops: Jack Palmer

Bangalore: Leading IT companies are spending sleepless nights on the recent visa allegations against them.
Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Wipro and Cognizant Technologies, have been at the receiving end in the last couple of months. Two individual lawsuits have been filed against Infosys over the last six months alleging misuse of the H1B visa and age discrimination in local hiring, said a report published in The Economic Times.
Though the company refused to comment on this issue when asked during their press meet in Mysore last month, the IT major has a long legal battle ahead.

NOTTINGHAM, August 1, 2011 (AFP) - Tim Bresnan shone with both bat and ball as England crushed India by 319 runs at Trent Bridge here on Monday to win the second Test with more than a day to spare.
England's victory, achieved despite Sachin Tendulkar's fifty, gave them a 2-0 lead in this four-match series as they looked to knock India off top spot in the ICC's Test Championship table.
Andrew Strauss's side will replace India at the summit if they maintain or better their lead in the remaining two Tests.

From workouts to healthy diets, many of us make an effort to look after ourselves. However, we could be compromising our health on a daily basis without even knowing it. From bottling things up to eating fast food, here are the top 10 male habits you should try to break.

Avoiding the doctor

Research by the charity Men’s Health Forum has revealed that men are 20% less likely than women to visit their doctor, despite the fact that they have shorter life spans than women and are more likely to die from cancer. While visiting the doctor is rarely a pleasant experience, diagnosing most illnesses early increases rates of survival, so stop ignoring those symptoms and give your doctor a call.

Not doing self-checks

Just like with visiting the doctor, many men avoid doing necessary health self-checks due to fear, denial of the risks, or confusion over what to do. However, it is vital that men check themselves regularly for signs of testicular cancer as incidence of the disease is on the rise, particularly in young and middle-aged men. If you are not sure how to go about checking yourself, visit a reputable website or ask your doctor for tips on performing these necessary check
Binge drinking

men-beer_430

Even past records don't favour India

New Delhi:

India's highest successful run chase in the fourth innings of a Test, away from home, is when they scored 406 against the West Indies at the Port of Spain in 1975-76. What India require in the ongoing Test match is another 64. With the likes of Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman back in the hut, both, past statistics and current dynamics of the sport do not favour the visitors at Trent Bridge.

Model turned Bollywood actress Bipasha Basu will walk the ramp with her mother at the India International Jewellery Week (IIJW) that started here Sunday.

"Walking the ramp today (Sunday) with my mother for the first time, for Gitanjali in association with Beti, against female foeticide," Bipasha posted on micro-blogging site Twitter.

I am the face of commercialisation of education: Manoj Bajpayee

Prakash Jha's forthcoming film Aarakshan puts the spotlight on the contentious issue of reservation and Manoj Bajpayee, who plays a negative role in it, says his character shows how education is used as a medium to mint money.

"Here I am the face of commercialisation of education. Nikhilesh Singh (Manoj) is tempted to make money and he uses education as the medium to do it," Manoj told IANS in an interview.

Priyanka Chopra in a grunge look and Bipasha Basu in a gypsy zippered dress will feature in a hip-hop number in Ganesh Hegde's latest album "Lets Party"

The song, "Mind Blowing", took four days to shoot at a studio in Mumbai. Audiences will see the two leading ladies dancing to the song, which is sung, styled and choreographed by Hegde himself.

Taking off his shirt to fight the enemy is not enough anymore.

Salman Khan is all set to perform the most difficult action sequences of his career in Sajid Nadiadwala's Kick, and that too, in locations rarely ever seen in any kind of cinema.

Says Sajid, "We wanted the action in the film to go way beyond what we've seen Salman do in Wanted and Dabangg. So, we're working towards that."

Neha Dhupia has been extremely guarded about the new man in her life. Though she does not mind stepping out with him at events and being photographed by the shutterbugs, divulging details about him is a strict no!

The mystery man, who has been snapped with the actress, has been referred to as Jimmy, a Venezuelan. But his real name is James Sylvester, Jimmy being his nickname.

Galloping across the desert, his inscrutable baby blues fixed on the horizon, Daniel Craig makes for a surprisingly convincing cowboy. Some actors, including a few in his new movie, Cowboys & Aliens, look too modern for old-timey roles. There isn’t enough grit, suffering and poor nutrition in their faces, and their gestures and gaits are timed to the impatient rhythms of the information age. But Mr. Craig, with his brutally handsome face and coiled physicality, looks like a rawhide whip that’s just itching to get cracking.

Beirut: Syrian security forces backed by tanks and snipers killed more than 70 people in a ferocious assault Sunday as the regime raced to crush dissent ahead of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month that could become a turning point in the nearly five-month-old uprising.

President Barack Obama called the reports "horrifying" and said Assad is "completely incapable and unwilling" to respond to the legitimate grievances of the Syrian people.

Washington: President Obama and Congressional leaders of both parties said late Sunday that they had agreed to a framework for a budget deal that would cut trillions of dollars in federal spending over the next decade and clear the way for an increase in the government's borrowing limit.

With the health of the fragile economy hanging in the balance and financial markets watching closely, the leaders said they would present the compromise to their caucuses on Monday morning in hopes of enacting it before a Tuesday deadline to avert default.

Tehran: An Iranian woman blinded and disfigured by a man who threw acid into her face stood above her attacker Sunday in a hospital operating room as a doctor was about to put several drops of acid in one of his eyes in court-ordered retribution.

The man waited on his knees and wept.

"What do you want to do now?" the doctor asked the 34-year-old woman, whose own face was severely disfigured in the 2004 attack.

Dadaab, Kenya: Refugee Barwago Mohamud huddles silently beneath a few blankets stretched over sticks at night, fearing for her life after a neighbor was raped, and a naked woman who had been kidnapped and gang-raped for three days in front of her terrified children was delivered to the medical tent next door.

'Strange smell' forces US plane to land in Cuba

Havana: A United Airlines jetliner carrying 135 passengers from Washington to a Mexican beach resort made an unplanned landing in Cuba on Sunday after a strange odour was detected on board.

United Airlines Flight 831 left Dulles airport in the morning and was bound for Cancun but instead diverted to Havana around noon after "the crew noticed an unfamiliar smell in the cabin," airline spokesman Charles Hobart said in a statement.

Islamabad: Pakistani authorities recently detained the US Ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter, at Islamabad airport. Pakistani officials said they were enforcing a rule that requires all foreign diplomats to have a "No-objection Certificate" (NoC) for travelling outside Islamabad.

Mr Munter, who reportedly possessed the NoC, was stopped at Benazir Bhutto International Airport, and asked about the document, while he was travelling to Karachi last week. The envoy "strongly protested" the incident, which was subsequently taken up with President Asif Ali Zardari, the Dawn newspaper reported.

Militants set 10 NATO tankers on fire in Pakistan

Islamabad: Militants torched 10 tankers carrying oil for NATO forces in Afghanistan in southern Pakistan, injuring five persons including the vehicles' drivers, police and witnesses said today.

Three drivers were among the five persons injured in the attack in Khairpur district of Sindh province, police said. The injured were taken to a nearby hospital. Doctors said two drivers were hit by bullets.

According to police, the incident took place late last night.

Oslo: A 16-year-old survivor of Norway's shooting rampage told his attacker that good would prevail over evil, in a heartfelt open letter published today.

"We are not responding to evil with evil as you wanted. We are fighting evil with good. And we are winning," Ivar Benjamin Oesteboe, who lost five friends in the attack, said in the letter addressed: "Dear Anders Behring Breivik."

Urumqi, China: China on Monday blamed Muslim extremists trained in Pakistan for launching one of two deadly weekend attacks in a troubled far western region, while overseas activists feared the government could respond by cracking down on ethnic Uighurs widely blamed for the unrest.

Sunday's attack left 11 dead, including five suspected assailants, in the Silk Road city of Kashgar. Authorities have not pinpointed suspects behind clashes a day earlier in the city that killed seven, including one of two men who allegedly hijacked a truck and rammed it into a crowd.

25 migrants found dead on boat travelling to Italy

Rome: More than two dozen African migrants trying to reach Italy from Libya died in the hold of a rickety boat so packed with people that the migrants could not get out as they struggled to breathe, Italian media and coast guard officials said Monday after the bodies were found below decks.

Hundreds of migrants fleeing unrest and conflict in Libya and across North Africa are believed to have died since the beginning of the year in desperate journeys across the Mediterranean.

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New Delhi: AIADMK members in the Lok Sabha Monday shouted slogans to protest the presence of Sri Lankan delegates, led by Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa, who were in the house as special foreign guests.

AIADMK members, led by S. Semmalai and Munisamy Thambidurai, shouted "shame, shame" as soon as Speaker Meira Kumar began reading out her welcome message to Rajapaksa and his other colleagues, including Sri Lankan ministers, sitting in the special box to the left of her.

Press release: Team Anna's referendum on Lokpal Bill

The verdict is out. The so called representatives have failed to represent their people. The electorate of the HRD minister Kapil Sibal has come out strongly against the provisions of the Lokpal Bill approved by the Cabinet. The referendum conducted by team Anna in the Chandni Chowk Lok Sabha constituency reveals that the elected representatives are not voicing their electorate's wishes. Eighty five percent of the people surveyed in Sibal's constituency have opted in favor of the provisions proposed by team Anna.

Blast in a market place in Imphal, 4 killed

Imphal: At least four people, including a student, were killed and a few others injured when a powerful bomb exploded near an educational institution in Imphal West district of Manipur this afternoon.

Suspected militants tied the bomb to a two wheeler and it exploded at around 2 pm killing four persons on the spot, official sources said.

Chennai: MK Stalin, former Deputy Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, was released after being in police custody for a brief spell in Chennai for leading a demonstration attended by nearly 3000 people. The police say that Mr Stalin did not have permission for his gathering.

Several other party leaders including actor Khushboo were also arrested with Mr Stalin and were subsequently released.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court today declined to grant interim bail to Bollywood producer Karim Morani, an accused in 2G case, on medical ground, saying he could approach the special court conducting the trial if Tihar jail authorities do not provide the treatment needed by him.

While refusing to grant relief to Morani, a bench headed by Justice G S Singhvi said that he can approach the jail authority for any kind of medical treatment.

New Delhi: Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal has asked the Defence Ministry to vacate spectrum as per the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the two and is likely to take the matter to the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) for resolving this and all other outstanding issues.

Sibal has written a letter to Defence Minister A K Antony for early vacation of spectrum as the same is required for expansion of mobile telephony.

Oz radio host slams India, Ganga provoking calls for apology

Melbourne: An Australian radio show host is facing criticism from the Indian community over his reportedly derogatory comments on India and Hinduism, in which he called river Ganga a 'junkyard'.

A Sydney-based Indian group is seeking an apology from the radio station following a report that host Kyle Sandilands made anti-India comments on his "Kyle and Jacky O" show.

New Delhi: Anna Hazare and his supporters took their battle for a new tough law against corruption to Kapil Sibal's doorstep today. They conducted what they describe as a referendum in his constituency - Delhi's Chandni Chowk - and said an overwhelming majority of voters support their version of the Lokpal Bill. A sarcastic Mr Sibal said, "They are being modest. I am surprised it is not 100%."

New Delhi: Day 1 of the new Parliament session was short - both Houses were adjourned by noon- long enough for the war cries to ring out.

The BJP has formally sought a debate, followed by a vote on corruption and price rise. The Left wants it too. The government says it doesn't have a problem with that, as long as the resolution moved by the Opposition does not refer specifically to a party or an individual.

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Sopore: Two policemen have been suspended and an MLA has been arrested for protesting against the custodial death of the 28-year-old Nazeem Rashid in Sopore.

On Sunday, Nazeem Rashid, brought in for questioning in connection with a murder case, died at the police station.

New Delhi: Chemists ended a day-long strike today against the stricter norms on sale of antibiotics, after meeting Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad.

"The strike has been called off," All India Chemist Association president Kailash Gupta told IANS.

Chemists in Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan and Orissa staged a protest against a proposal to introduce stricter norms on sale of antibiotics.

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Bellary: Less than 48 hours after the Supreme Court ordered all mining and transportation of iron ore in Bellary to be stopped, nearly 10,000 tonnes of the ore was seized from the district in four different raids.

The case just highlights how the Supreme Court's order is still being defied brazenly not just by the Gali Reddy brothers, but by other big corporates as well.

Bus falls into river in Madhya Pradesh, 26 killed

Raisen: At least 26 persons were killed and 15 others went missing after a private bus fell into the swollen Barna river off a bridge in Raisen district today.

The bus belonging to Maa Gayatri Travels, carrying 60 passengers, fell off the bridge about 100 km away from Raisen when one of its tyres burst and the driver lost control.

So far, 26 bodies have been recovered from the river while 15 others are feared to have been swept away, police said.

Beijing: China on Monday blamed Muslim extremists trained in Pakistan for an attack that killed six civilians in one of the most troubled ethnic regions where police later fatally shot five suspects.

Sunday's attack raised the death toll from weekend violence in the Silk Road city of Kashgar in China's far west to 18.

Kashgar is in Xinijang region, which has been tense since nearly 200 people were killed in fighting between Uighurs and Han Chinese in 2009 in Urumqi, the regional capital.

Damascus: Syrian forces killed nearly 140 people on Sunday when the army stormed the flashpoint protest city of Hama to crush dissent on the eve of Ramadan, activists said.

Activists said it was one of deadliest days in Syria since demonstrators first took to the streets on March 15 demanding democratic reforms before turning their wrath on the regime and calling for its ouster.

Islamabad: ISI chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha has embarked on a secret visit to China that is being seen as part of Pakistan's efforts to reduce its dependence on the US in the wake of strained military and intelligence ties.

Pasha is expected to open a "broad-based strategic dialogue" with Beijing during his visit, The Express Tribune reported.

Monday, August 1, 2011

From workouts to healthy diets, many of us make an effort to look after ourselves. However, we could be compromising our health on a daily basis without even knowing it. From bottling things up to eating fast food, here are the top 10 male habits you should try to break.

Avoiding the doctor

Not doing self-checks

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