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I was forced to impose President's rule in Arunachal: Governor

         Itanagar: Arunachal Pradesh Governor VC Pande has told President APJ Abdul Kalam that he was compelled to impose President's rule in the state and sought withdrawal of the same. "I regret to say that the signature in the said report was obtained under duress. Not only myself but also all my staff including the secretary were put under tremendous mental and physical pressure by all ex-MLAs and their political workers who stormed into my chamber and remained there gheraoing me for more than five hours," wrote Pande in a letter to the President.

Three militants, army officer killed in Baramulla encounter (Go To Top)

          Srinagar: Three militants and an army Captain, SS Malik were killed today in an encounter in Baramulla district of Jammu and Kashmir. According to the police, the operation lasted for several hours and a large quantity of arms and ammunition, including three AK rifles were recovered from the militants.

Meghalaya CM wants PM to intervene in boundary dispute (Go To Top)

          Shillong: Meghalaya Chief Minister DD Lapang has sought the Prime Minister's intervention in resolving the boundary dispute with Assam. During his meeting with Manmohan Singh in New Delhi yesterday, Lapang apprised the Prime Minister of the long-standing dispute and the plight of the people residing along the boundary areas. According to the sources, Chief Minister also discussed some other issues with the Prime Minister and the latter gave him an assurance to consider the same.

Seven RS members take oath (Go To Top)

         New Delhi: Seven newly-elected Rajya Sabha MPs from Bihar and Jharkhand, including former Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha and AICC general secretary R K Dhawan, took oath as members of the Upper House. The four members from Bihar who took oath on Thursday included Jai Narain Prasad Nishad (BJP), Mutiur Rehman and Subhas Prasad Yadav (both RJD), and Sharad Yadav (JD-U). Congress MP Stephen Marandi was the other member from Jharkhand who was administered oath by the Rajya Sabha Chairman Bhairon Singh Shekhawat.

Inciting religious hatred in UK could now be a punishable crime (Go To Top)

          London: In a novel attempt to control fundamentalists British Home Secretary David Blunkett has proposed a new law to make the inciting religious hatred a criminal offence. According to The Daily Mail, this law will take care of religious and political extremism and is likely to be modelled on the existing crime of inciting racial hatred which carries a maximum penalty of seven years' imprisonment. "We tried unsuccessfully to introduce an offence of incitement to religious hatred in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks but I hope we will now have the parliamentary backing to put this in law ," Blunkett was quoted as saying in a speech to an Institute for Public Policy Research conference in London. The Home Secretary has said that extremists must be "faced down" in order to promote a positive and inclusive sense of British identity. Though the law also aims at protecting the minorities , the Islamic Human Rights Commission has expressed their apprehensions towards it. According to the report, the Commission fears that law will make the minorities an easier targets for prosecution rather than getting protection from it. Commission's chairman has warned that if Blunkett's proposal is accepted, then it could lead to more legal battles over rows between religious groups. "We are very concerned that this legislation could infringe freedom of speech and will be used against religious minorities, rather than protecting them, just like the only other legislation we have got which is similar to it," he was quoted as saying.

The world is at Maria Sharapova's feet! (Go To Top)

         New York: The winner takes it all and who can identify with it better than this year's Wimbeldon champion Maria Sharapova who beat Serena Williams to bag the title. According to New York Post, the one-time promising young Russian player is suddenly tennis' hottest new celebrity and has been inundated with media offers to hog the limelight. She appeared on "Live With Regis and Kelly" and NBC's "Today Show" and is also expected to be on MTV's "Total Request Live." Her agents say they have been fielding calls from literally hundreds of companies that want to sign her to endorse their products. According to Max Eisenbud of IMG Models, which has repped the player since she was 9 and has already signed contracts for her with Nike and Prince racquets, "It's been absolutely out of control. Everything has changed now, and any plans we had a couple of weeks ago, we have to re-evaluate." Fashion magazines also want Sharapova to model for them. Leading them is Vogue, which has a nine-page photo shoot with her in the August issue. According to Sasha Charnin Morrison, the fashion director for Allure, "Everybody loves a winner - and especially a beautiful one. This girl has a grace and elegance we haven't seen in a while. She's stunning."

Cricket to make Asian Games debut in Qatar in 2006 (Go To Top)

          New Delhi: The 2006 Qatar Asian Games in Doha will host a record 40 disciplines, including cricket for the first time. The format of the cricket tournament is yet to be finalised but Randhir Singh, general secretary of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), told reporters on Thursday that a six-nation event had been approved in principle. "We will know from what the ACC (Asian Cricket Council) says and what the ICC recognises. I heard that even the ICC (International Cricket Council) has given their blessings to them but let's see how it works out. This is the proposal they presented. There is no problem for chess. As far as cricket is concerned, I was the one who mentioned that let's have it but it has to be cleared by ACC," Singh said. The other new discipline added to the Games is chess. "This time it will be the largest sports in the Asian Games. 40 sports in the Asian games. There will be 40 disciplines in the games. In the last games there were 38 in Pusan, Bangkok, but now it's 40," Singh added. Singh said Guangzhao in China, the lone bidder for the 2010 Asiad, had been awarded the Games in a meeting in Doha last week and New Delhi was a strong contender for the 2014 event. "It was felt that since we brought the games to West Asia which is Doha after Tehran in 1974 we brought them to West Asia and India is the only country that has held the games in 1982 so India will be bidding for the 2014 Asian Games," he said. The Indian capital was chosen last year to stage the 2010 Commonwealth Games. New Delhi also announced its decision earlier this year to bid for the 2016 Olympics. Athens and Beijing will host the next Summer Olympics in 2004 and 2008. The 2012 hosts will be decided next year.

Union Budget proposes Rs 466 crore for Sports (Go To Top)

New Delhi: The Union Budget 2004-05 has made a budgetary proposal to allocate Rs.466 crore for sports, which is Rs. 38 crore more than what was allocated in the previous fiscal. Presenting the budget in the Lok Sabha, Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram said that out of the total amount, Rs.66 crore would be earmarked as non-plan expenditure. Chidambaram also announced plans to implement new schemes like state sports academies, development of adolescents, national and state youth centres.