Thaindian News

Chandigarh, June 30 (IANS) The ruling Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance in Punjab Monday claimed a 'landslide' victory in elections to 87 municipal councils and seven nagar panchayats even as violence marred the polling in several parts across the state. Scores of people were injured as clashes, mainly between ... Read more...

New Delhi, June 30 (IANS) A 22-year-old woman Monday alleged that four unknown men had raped her in the Central Park of Connaught Place in the heart of New Delhi, but the police termed her allegation as fake and concocted. The matter came to light when Lady Hardinge Hospital authorities ... Read more...

Kolkata, June 30 (IANS) The wife of a Bengali film producer, accused of cheating banks to the tune of Rs.150 million, was Monday arrested here while she was about to board a train and escape. "Rashika was arrested from Sealdah Station here Monday while she was about to board the ... Read more...

Kolkata, June 30 (IANS) A city court Monday sent a man to jail for keeping 81 birds for breeding and trading purposes. "Acting on a tip-off, officials of the wildlife department raided Mohammad Wakil's residence at Narkeldanga in north Kolkata Sunday and seized 81 prohibited birds," Deputy Commissioner (Detective Department) ... Read more...

DPA Sharm el-Sheikh (Egypt), June 30 (DPA) Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe faced his critics at the African Union summit Monday and came under pressure from the UN and African leaders to negotiate a settlement with his political rival. Mugabe arrived to the summit held in Egypt's Red Sea resort Sharm el-Sheikh ... Read more...

Mumbai, June 30 (IANS) India's largest private sector lender ICICI Bank Monday decided to increase interest rates or its fixed deposits as well as consumer loans. The interest rate on fixed deposits of less than Rs.1.50 million will go up by 0.5 percent to 1 percent from July 1. The bank's ... Read more...

Srinagar, June 30 (IANS) Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad would Tuesday chair a crucial cabinet meeting here to decide on rescinding the allotment of forest land to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) which triggerred unprecedented protests in the valley over the past week. Addressing a media conference ... Read more...

New Delhi, June 30 (IANS) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Monday called for more sensitivity towards HIV/AIDS patients as well as homosexuals and commercial sex workers to win the battle against the dreaded disease. "The fact that many of the vulnerable social groups, be they sex workers or homosexuals or drug ... Read more...

New Delhi, June 30 (IANS) With a split with the Left parties looking imminent, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Monday made one last-ditch effort to bring scpetics on board and win new allies for the India-US nuclear deal, saying that he will bring the deal to parliament before "operationalising" it. The ... Read more...

Kolkata, June 30 (IANS) Polyester manufacturer Indo Rama Synthetics (India) Limited's profit after tax (PAT) dropped by 85.4 percent to Rs.30 million for the financial year ended March 31 compared to Rs.200 million during 2006-07. The net sales for 2007-08 rose from Rs.20.11 billion to Rs.25.45 billion by 26.5 percent. ... Read more...

Mumbai, June 30 (IANS) Oil companies Monday hiked the price for aviation turbine fuel (ATF) by almost Rs.3,000 ($75) effective from Tuesday. This is the seventh price hike of ATF in the past six months. According to figures obtained from Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), ATF in Mumbai will cost ... Read more...

Everyone has some old bad bones in the cupboard, and SAM Champion is no exception. He has been keeping his sex life in the closet and this did not go down well with his fans. Sam Champion is a sanguine weather anchor with a small history. About an year ago, ... Read more...

DPA Washington, June 30 (DPA) US President George W. Bush Monday signed a $162 billion spending bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that will pay for the conflicts through the end of his term. The bill also includes billions to provide education benefits for the veterans of the two ... Read more...

Kolkata, June 30 (IANS) Jai Balaji Industries Ltd, the flagship company of Jai Balaji Group, which is engaged in construction of a 5-million-tonne steel plant in Purulia in West Bengal plans a land-for-land rehabilitation package for the displaced people. Rajeev Jajodia, joint managing director of Jai Balaji Group, said: "We ... Read more...

Kolkata, June 30 (IANS) Kolkata-based Allahabad Bank Monday said it would increase its benchmark prime lending rate (BPLR) by 50 basis points to 13.50 percent from July 1 to increase its cash reserve ratio. The bank also decided to hike simultaneously the term deposit interest rates of various maturities. The ... Read more...

New Delhi, June 30 (IANS) The seventh round of auction of India's hydrocarbon assets Monday received 181 bids from 96 companies for exploration in 45 blocks, the government announced. Indian petroleum officials termed this round as the "most successful round ever", there being every indication that investments would top $3 ... Read more...

New Delhi, June 30 (IANS) India will add 300,000 MW of power capacity over the next decade presenting an investment opportunity of $600 billion, according to a leading management consulting firm. In a report released Monday on 'Powering India: The road to 2017', McKinsey said: "Of the total investment, $300 ... Read more...

New Delhi, June 30 (IANS) Basketball legend Dominique Wilkins has a good news for India when he visits the country next week. The player is nurturing an Indian talent at his New York home who he feels has the potential to make it big in future. Wilkins' sister Wander Ousley ... Read more...

Srinagar , June 30 (ANI): Jammu and Kashmir Governor N. N. Vohra on Monday asked Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad to prove his majority on the floor of the Assembly by July 7. Meanwhile, Azad today said that he is ready to prove the majority of his government at ... Read more...

New Delhi, June 30 (ANI/Business Wire India): NDTV Media, India's best-known and most respected Media Marketing and Consulting Company has been appointed by UFO Moviez India Limited as the sole and exclusive sales partner for their Digital Cinema Advertising Business in the Private Sector. UFO Moviez India Limited. has ... Read more...

Xinhua Tehran, June 30 (Xinhua) An Iranian citizen was given death sentence by the country's Revolutionary Court for spying for Israel, Press TV reported Monday. Ali Ashtari, 45, was arrested some one-and-a-half years ago. The court found him guilty of high treason and sentenced him to death. "Ali Ashtari had links ... Read more...

Vizag (Andhra Pradesh)/Bhubaneshwar/Malkangiri (Orissa)/Gaya, June 30 (ANI): Police and soldiers scoured a remote ravine in east India on Monday looking for dozens of anti-naxalite officers feared dead after Maoist rebels attacked and sank their boat in a reservoir on Sunday. Police said 29 officers, some with gunshot wounds, had survived, ... Read more...

Colachel (Tamil Nadu), June 30 (IANS) Coca-Cola and the Red Cross Society Monday handed over 41 houses built in the port town of Colachel in Tamil Nadu to families affected by the 2004 tsunami disaster. Coca-Cola had initiated a series of reconstruction and livelihood projects across Tamil Nadu as a ... Read more...

Noida, June 30 (IANS) Two factory workers were killed and one was critically injured when a massive blast rocked a factory here Monday while they were filling oxygen in cylinders, the police said. The incident occurred at about 3.00 p.m. in Seema Air Products Ltd in Sector 3. The workers ... Read more...

New Delhi, June 30 (IANS) Ludhiana-based realtor Impact Projects Pvt Ltd Monday signed a joint venture (JV) agreement with equity fund company South Asian Real Estate (SARE) to set up two luxury townships in Amritsar. The Isle of Man-based SARE has made investments in many housing projects in India through ... Read more...

Bhopal/Srinagar, June 30 (ANI): Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L K Advani slammed Jammu and Kashmir government's decision of revoking land allotment to Sri Amarnath Shrine Board. This is a complete surrender before communalism and I condemn it. I hope that the so called secularists will not surrender before communalism ... Read more...

Everyscape has begun taking web research a notch higher. The company which is headed by Jim Schoonmaker who has spent the last 17 years in the high technology industry, claims that it isn't an online world but that it’s the world online. Everyscpace .com is making the visual of ... Read more...

London/New York, June 30 (IANS) Oil prices Monday surged past $143 a barrel, an all-time high, as the dollar remained weak amid tension between Iran and Israel. The front-month August Brent contract on London's ICE futures exchange was up $2.72 at $143.03 a barrel after earlier touching new record high ... Read more...

New Delhi, June 30 (IANS) Two men who did not know swimming jumped into the Yamuna here Monday to save two boys from drowning but one of them died in the river along with the youngsters, the police said. Vijay, 22, and his colleague Neeraj plunged into the water after ... Read more...

DPA Madrid, June 30 (DPA) Qatari Energy Minister Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah Monday emphatically denied claims by some oil importing countries that supply shortages were making oil prices soar. "There is no shortage," al-Attiyah told DPA during the 19th World Petroleum Congress in the Spanish capital Madrid. "There are a lot ... Read more...

New Delhi, June 30 (IANS) A city court will start from Tuesday hearing final arguments in the nine-year-old BMW hit-and-run case in which six people were killed on the Lodhi Road here. Additional Sessions Judge Vinod Kumar ordered that the final arguments will be heard from July 1 to July ... Read more...

DPA Taipei, June 30 (DPA) Taiwan Monday protested against Japan in a fresh row over a group of Japanese congressmen boarding a Japanese coast guard plane to fly over the disputed Diaoyu Islands to back Japan's territorial claim. "We solemnly protest against such an action," said Taiwan's foreign ministry in a ... Read more...

New Delhi , June 30 (ANI): The Ministry of Home affairs on Monday issued a press release stating that the Suspension of Operations (SOO) agreement with the Dima Halam Daogah (DHD), a militant outfit operating in Assam , has been extended by six months beyond 1st July, 2008. The ... Read more...

Lucknow, June 30 (IANS) Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) legislator Shribhagwan Sharma alias Guddu Pandit, arrested on charges of rape, intimidation and adultery, was referred to the Aligarh Medical College in Uttar Pradesh after he complained of a heart problem, police said Monday. "His family members approached us and informed us ... Read more...

Ahmedabad, June 30 (IANS) Ahmedabad's 131-year-old Lord Jagannath chariot procession will have a new feature this year: tribal dancers will join music bands, gymnasts' teams and beautifully caparisoned elephants when the three chariots crissccross the city July 4. "The tribal dancers (from Dangs district) will perform between 6 a.m. to ... Read more...

New Delhi, June 30 (IANS) The state-run New India Assurance Co Ltd will provide $6.5 billion insurance cover to Air India's 140 aircraft from Tuesday, an airline official said Monday. Jitendra Bhargava, spokesperson of Air india, said there were two bids - one for the public sector insurance companies and ... Read more...

Research on the reputable sperm bank company Fairfax Cyrobank showed that one of their donor, number 1476, is the Biological father of at least 36 children, all born between 2002 and 2007. However, Fairfax company Fairfax Cryobank is still tops as one of the world's largest and most experienced sperm ... Read more...

Dhaka, June 30 (ANI): Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) led four party alliance has decided to boycott the upcoming local polls here today saying contesting elections would legitimize the ''illegal activities'' of the current regime. BNP Secretary General Khandaker Delwar Hussain said, ''There is no question of legitimizing the ... Read more...

Kolkata, June 30 (IANS) West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee Monday said the state government will, during the monsoon session of the assembly that opens Tuesday, table its rehabilitation policy for land losers. "We need to have an alternative policy on land acquisition, rehabilitation and compensation. We are in the ... Read more...

Shimla, June 30 (IANS) The Himachal Pradesh government is planning to install anti-hail guns to protect crops from hailstorms that are common in the hilly state. State Horticulture Minister Narender Bragta told IANS Monday that the government might purchase anti-hail guns from Spain-based Innovative Solutions. Every year, hailstorms damage 20-30 percent ... Read more...

Raipur, June 30 (IANS) The cadres of the outlawed Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) Monday killed three senior members of a civil militia movement, Salwa Judum, in Chhattisgarh. The bullet-ridden bodies, that also bore injury marks of sharp-edged weapons, were found from a forested area in state's southern restive Bijapur ... Read more...

Madrid, June 30 (IANS) Thousands of Spanish soccer fans Monday took to the streets across the country to celebrate Spain's memorable 1-0 win over Germany in the Euro cup 2008 final, EFE news agency reported. Soon after Italian referee Roberto Rosetti blew his whistle to signal the end of the ... Read more...

Xinhua Islamabad, June 30 (Xinhua) Pakistan's Supreme Court Monday adjourned for two weeks an appeal against a ruling that barred former prime minister Nawaz Sharif from contesting a parliamentary by-election. A full bench of the Lahore High Court had disqualified Sharif from contesting the by-election. The Supreme Court, after receiving from ... Read more...

Karachi, June 30 (IANS) Controversial Pakistani fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar has filed an appeal in the Lahore High Court against his 18-month ban imposed by the Pakistan cricket Board (PCB) holding him guilty of indiscipline. The ban was slapped on the 32-year-old paceman after he publicly criticised the PCB for ... Read more...

New Delhi, June 30 (IANS) An upcoming state-of-the-art multi-facility centre for higher military learning at the Delhi Cantonment here has been renamed the "Manekshaw Centre" in memory of former Indian Army chief Field Marshal S.H.F.J. Manekshaw who died Friday, it was announced here Monday. "We have decided to rename the ... Read more...