| One
killed, six injured in bomb blast at Bihar court Ara
(Bihar): One person was killed and six persons injured when a crude bomb exploded
inside the Ara District Court premises here. According to police, the bomb exploded
inside an advocate’s chamber. Ara is about 60 km from Patna, the state capital.
The crude bomb was tied to the waist of the man and exploded when he was about
to take a seat in the advocate’s chamber. Among the six injured are four lawyers.
They were rushed to Patna Medical College Hospital for treatment. The condition
of two was said to be critical. Security in the court premises has been beefed
up following the blast. District Magistrate AN Safina visited the injured in hospital. SC
refuses to stop Mayawati statue installation Top New
Delhi: A two-judge bench of the Supreme Court, comprising Chief Justice KG
Balakrishnan and Justice P Sathasivam, today refused to stop the installation
of statues of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati and other Dalit leaders in
Noida. Rejecting a petition filed by lawyer Ravi Kant, the apex court bench said,
the process has been approved by the state cabinet, the court can't intervene,
till reports of misappropriation are brought into focus. Environmentalists are
opposing the installation of statues of Mayawati, her political mentor Kanshi
Ram and Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar on the Yamuna riverbed near Sector 15A of Noida, alleging
that the installation violates green laws. The apex court had issued a notice
to Uttar Pradesh Government and Mayawati separately on June 29 on the matter.
Opposition parties in Uttar Pradesh allege that the government is spending around
Rs 2,000 crore for installing these statues across the state.
Many teachers
injured in police baton-charge in Patna Top Patna:
A violent protest by thousands of temporary teachers, demanding regularisation
of their services, caused serious injuries to many protesters and policemen here
on Friday. In a bid to control the situation, police baton-charged the protestors
and also used tear gas shells to disperse the crowd. The 1.75-lakh temporary teachers,
who were hired by Nitish Kumar Government in 2006 to plug the huge demand gap
in the number of primary school teachers, are demanding to be regularised on par
with the regular government teachers. In fact, the state had agreed to their demand
on a condition that all teachers would have to pass (45 per cent marks) in an
eligibility test, before they are regularised by the government. However, the
teachers are challenging the Bihar Government's condition by saying that the test
was not mentioned when they were hired as panchayati teachers. The rules only
provided that there would be evaluation of the panchayat teachers' performance
after three years of their service and there was no mention of holding a competency
test, they said. The teachers have moved the Patna High Court against the Government
plan to conduct competency test. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, in his statement
in the state Assembly on Friday, has refused to budge to the demands of the teachers,
by saying that they'll have to go trough the competency test as per the government
rules. Ahmedabad
hooch death toll rises to 103 Top Ahmedabad:
The Gujarat hooch tragedy death toll has risen to 103. According to police,
the number of fatalities could go up as about 200 people are still undergoing
treatment. The new cases were reported from Odhav, Amaraiwadi, Rakhial and Raipur.
On Thursday night, Gujarat Police rounded up over 800 bootleggers and sealed scores
of illicit liquor dens across the state. Earlier, the police had detained one
suspected bootlegger Harishankar Kahar alias Hariom, who allegedly supplied spurious
liquor in the Majoor Gam and Odhav areas where most of the deaths have occurred.
Two ACP's and four police inspectors were also suspended and transferred for dereliction
of duty. The Gujarat Government has announced that a commission headed by a retired
High Court judge will probe the incident. Investigations have been handed over
to the crime branch. G8-G5
summit: World powers accept warming limit Top L'Aquila
(Italy): Developed and developing nations have agreed that global temperatures
should not rise more than two degrees Celsius above 1900 levels, a G8 summit declaration
has said. That is the level above which, the UN says, the Earth's climate system
would become dangerously unstable. US President Barack Obama said the countries
had made important strides in dealing with climate change. But the G8 failed to
persuade developing countries to accept targets of cutting emissions by 50 percent
by 2050. According to the BBC, on Wednesday, the G8 agreed its own members would
work towards 80 percent cuts by the same date. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon
said the G8 had not done enough and should also set 2020 targets. He said that
while the G8's Wednesday agreement was welcome, its leaders also needed to establish
a strong and ambitious mid-term target for emissions cuts. The second day of the
summit, in the Italian city of L'Aquila, opened its discussions to take in the
so-called G5 nations - Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa. Egypt is
a special invitee. In other developments, the world's biggest economies also agreed
to work to reach a global trade deal by 2010. Leaders of major developed and developing
nations have agreed not to resort to competitive currency devaluations In a joint
statement, President Obama and UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the detention
of British embassy staff by the Iranian authorities was unacceptable The Major
Economies Forum, of 16 developed and developing nations - the G8, G5, AUSTRALIA,
South Korea and Indonesia - plus the European Union, issued the latest declaration.
The group accounts for about 80 percent of the world's total greenhouse gas emissions.
Obama said developed nations had a "historic responsibility to take the lead"
"We recognise the scientific view that the increase in global average temperature
above pre-industrial levels ought not to exceed 2C," it said. It added that the
economies would work towards a global goal for substantially reducing emissions
by 2050 between now and December, when the UN holds talks in Copenhagen on a successor
to the Kyoto treaty. Obama, who chaired the meeting, said the countries had had
a candid and open discussion about the growing threat of climate change and what
must be done both individually and collectively to address it. "I believe we've
made some important strides forward as we move towards Copenhagen," he said. "I
don't think I have to emphasise that climate change is one of the defining challenges
of our time. The science is clear and conclusive and the impacts can no longer
be ignored." R K Pachauri, who chairs the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate
Change, praised the declaration's mention of the 2C limit but said more details
were needed. "It certainly doesn't give you a roadmap on how you should get there
but at least they've defined the destination," he told the BBC. Obama added that
the United States, as a major polluter, had not met its responsibilities in the
past, but those days were over. Railways
has over 1.7 lakh vacancies: Mamata Banerjee Top New
Delhi: Indian Railways has over 1.7 lakh vacancies for various grades, which
will be filled in after reviving the existing recruitment process, Railway Minister
Mamata Banerjee informed the Rajya Sabha on Friday. Replying to a question, Banerjee
said the review of the Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) would also examine regional
aspirations and problems raised during the railway recruitment process in Maharashtra,
Assam, and Karnataka. The fresh recruitment process will resume only after reviewing
the entire process, Mamata said. She informed the house that, of the 1,72,444
vacancies, 1,12,566 posts are vacant in Group C, 58,329 are in Group D and 1,549
vacancies in Group A and B. Replying to a separate question, Mamata said there
was a backlog of 1,814 vacancies of SCs in Group C and 1,688 for STs. There is
no backlog of vacancies of SC and ST in Group A and B. A special recruitment drive
will be launched to fill SC and ST vacancies at the earliest, Mamata informed
the house. Mamata also informed the members that Railway Ministry is launching
its own catering service, the pilot project will assume in Rajadhani and Shatabdi
trains. US-based
outfit to distribute three million laptops to poor Indian rural kids Top New
Delhi: A movement to get rural poor children learning on the screen using
a state-of-the-art laptops has begun in the country. Every fourth child in the
world who needs screen-based learning environment is in India. A US-based non
profit organization called One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) is planning to distribute
three million XO laptops, each costing Rupees 11000, among children entering schools
by the end of 2009. It has already distributed 1000 laptops in 20 schools in UP,
Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu on an experimental basis. Its ultimate mission
is to ensure that all school children, aged between five and 12, are able to effectively
engage with their own personal laptop. Each XO PC comes with Microsoft Windows
and Microsoft Office pre-loaded, besides many other features. Satish Jha, President
and C.E.O, OLPC India, said the project is funded by a number of sponsor organizations,
including AMD, Bright star Corporation, eBay, Google, Marvell, News Corporation,
Microsoft, SES, Nortel Networks, and Red Hat. Each company has donated two million
dollars. Microsoft is contributing through its features that are fitted into the
XOs The OLPC has set up its India office in New Delhi. OLPC India aims at creating
educational opportunities for India's poorest children by providing each child
with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop with content and software
designed for collaborative, joyful, self-empowered learning. Its eventual goal
is to integrate the quality of the next generation of India's work force with
the global needs. The OLPC project is drawing a good response from all over the
world. It is already a success in Latin America and some African countries such
as Libya, Nigeria and Rwanda. Nearer home, it has been received warmly by Pakistan
and Nepal. In India, the XOs will be distributed among all primary school children
in phases. The OLPC is soliciting support from the central and state governments,
industrial houses committed to social responsibility and various foundations.
Jackson's
body still stored in LA crypt, awaiting burial! Top New
York: If reports are to be believed, late King of Pop Michael Jackson's kin
have stored his body in Motown maestro Berry Gordy's crypt in the Hollywood Hills,
Los Angeles, until they sort out what to do with the superstar's remains. Sources
have revealed that Jackson's brother Jermaine and father Joseph are insistent
the Gloved One be buried at Neverland Ranch so that the family can profit from
a proposed Graceland-style museum there, a process that may take years. "Jermaine
is the one that wants him at Neverland -- he and Joseph -- because of the whole
Elvis thing and the money potential. They are seeing dollar signs," the New York
Post quoted a family source as saying. On the other hand, adds the source, Jackson's
mother Katherine and most of his siblings want that his body be laid to rest elsewhere
out of respect for his wish, following his acquittal on child-molestation charges,
to never return to Neverland. The source says that her son's physical purgatory
has left Katherine shaken. "She is still upset that Michael isn't buried and he
is at Gordy's spot in Forest Lawn. This fighting has to stop. We can never unite,
and that's an injustice," the source said. The newspaper report suggests that
the fight between the clan has become so contentious that Jermaine rode in a separate
Rolls-Royce limousine to Jacko's public memorial at Los Angeles' Staples Center,
even though his mother had wanted all the brothers to ride together. Meanwhile,
most of the kids and Katherine are said to be onboard with a proposed documentary
about the family, which can earn them 20 million dollars. "They're doing this
documentary because with the kids, they will get 20 million dollars," the source
said, adding that Katherine was pushing all her children to be a part of it.
Foul play
in Jackson’s death not ruled out Top New
York: A top cop probing into Pop King Michael Jackson’s death has revealed
that the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) has not ruled out homicide as yet,
as investigators subpoenaed the singer’s medical records. "Are we dealing with
homicide? Are we dealing with an accidental overdose? What are we dealing with?
So as we are standing here speaking, I can tell you, I don't have that information,"
the New York Daily News quoted Police Chief Bill Bratton as having said on CNN
on Thursday night. His comments came at a time when Jackson’s father, Joe, revealed
his own suspicions about his son's death. "I do believe it was foul play," Jackson
told ABC News' "Nightline". Bratton said that the probe into the ‘Thriller’ star’s
death might lead to the framing of criminal charges, based on "corroboration from
the coroner's office as to the cause of death." Five doctors, who had treated
Jackson in the past, are being investigated to determine whether they supplied
the singer with the powerful sedative Diprivan. Bratton said that the federal
Drug Enforcement Agency and the State Attorney General's office, which keeps a
database of prescription drugs, were assisting. One of the doctors being scrutinized
is Jackson's dermatologist Arnold Klein, his attorney Richard Charnley has confirmed.
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