Hindustan Times

Karzai sworn in as Afghan president

2009-11-20T11:21:00.001+05:30

Hamid Karzai called for Afghan forces to assume responsibility for unstable areas in three years and to take complete control of security within five, in an inauguration speech closely monitored by the international community on Thursday.

After being sworn in for a second five-year term as president, Karzai promised to tackle corruption by prosecuting government officials and ending a culture of impunity.

Dignitaries from more than 40 countries, including the Pakistani president, Asif Ali Zardari, the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, and the British foreign secretary, David Miliband, attended the ceremony in Kabul.

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Leave Pakistan-India ties alone: Government to meddling United States

2009-11-19T10:42:00.002+05:30

India reacted sharply on Wednesday to the reference to India-Pakistan ties in the joint statement issued by US President Barack Obama and Chinese Premier Hu Jintao.

Tuesday's joint statement had said the US and China "support the improvement and growth of relations between India and Pakistan".

The role of any `third party' in bilateral matters between India and Pakistan "cannot be envisaged, nor is it necessary", a statement from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said.

"India is committed to resolving all outstanding issues with Pakistan through peaceful dialogue," the MEA said. "We also believe a meaningful dialogue can take place only in an environment free from terror."

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Filmy excess at big, fat Ludhiana wedding

2009-11-18T11:22:00.000+05:30

Hollywood is being recreated in Ludhiana -as part of a wedding celebration.

The grandeur of Stephen Sommers's The Mummy will be reproduced on six acres of land on the outskirts of Ludhiana for a party on November 20.

This is Ludhiana-based realtor Gulshan Kumar's "pre-wedding gift" to his son Rohit and bride Kiran.

For this, artisans have been hired from Bollywood, Kolkata and Kerala, even five from Hollywood who were part of a unit that created the original sets of the movie To give the sets a "real" touch, the Mumbai-based event management company hired for the event imported .

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Miffed Kamal Haasan rejects festival tribute

2009-11-17T11:14:00.001+05:30

There will be no golden jubilee tribute to actor Kamal Haasan at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) at Goa.

The IFFI, scheduled between November 23 and December 3, has a special segment `Golden Jubilee in Indian Cinema' where thespians Sharmila Tagore, Asha Parekh and Soumitro Chatterjee will be honoured. Three films of each will be screened in `tribute'.

Haasan fans will instead, have to make do with a `Retrospective' in Delhi later this year.

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Early Oscar for Hollywood legend Lauren Bacall

2009-11-16T13:15:00.000+05:30

Oscars of the awards season late Saturday, honouring screen acting legend Lauren Bacall with a statuette for her life's work in film.

"I can't believe it!" Bacall gushed, as she was awarded the Governor's Award at a ceremony that offered a foretaste of Oscar glitter and glamour.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences also honoured director Roger Corman, cinematographer Gordon Willis and producer John Calley at the ceremony attended by an array of Hollywood luminaries from George Lucas to Quentin Tarantino.

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Dawood joins Osama on Forbes power list

2009-11-13T11:07:00.000+05:30

ndia's most wanted criminal is among the most powerful people in the world, according to Forbes.

Dawood Ibrahim is at 50 on the magazine's annual rankings that US President Barack Obama tops.

"... as boss of D-Company, reputedly oversees international drug trafficking, counterfeiting, weapons smuggling. Suspected al Qaeda associate; US declares him global terrorist, UN tried to freeze his assets," Forbes writes of Dawood (53).

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Phyan storms in, and out

2009-11-12T10:16:00.000+05:30

Wednesday was a lucky day for Mumbai.

Cyclone Phyan gave the city a miss but ravaged the Konkan coast, western Maharashtra and Marthwada before heading towards Gujarat.

According to official information, four deaths have been reported while 37 fishing boats and 200 fishermen are missing.

The worst hit was the Ratnagiri coast in the Konkan region where 19 boats with 150 fishermen are missing. AlUsmani, a fishing boat, capsised near the Dapoli coast here.

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No going back on Vande Mataram fatwa, says Darul

2009-11-11T11:17:00.000+05:30

Islamic seminary Darul Uloom on Tuesday said it had no plans to reverse its 12year-old fatwa or edict, decreeing national song Vande Mataram as un-Islamic, a day after Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar claimed top clerics at the Muslim school had "softened" their stand on the issue.

"Contrary to claims that we have changed our view, we clarify that there is no change in our stand on Vande Mataram," Darul Uloom vice-rector Abdul Khaleque Madrasi told HT.

Darul Uloom in western Uttar Pradesh's Deoband wields considerable influence over India's majority Sunni Muslims, who account for over 90 per cent of the country's more than 130 million Muslims.

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Win boosts Australia's World Cup prospects

2009-11-10T10:52:00.001+05:30

Apart from the ODI winners' trophy, Ricky Ponting will also return home with some confidence in the ability of his players to perform in Indian conditions.

The celebratory beer on Sunday evening might have tasted sweet at times because Australia will be back in the subcontinent to defend the World Cup in 2011.

As it is, a number of Australian players are getting exposed these days to the pitches, grounds, noise at the venues on match days and the climate of India thanks to T20 tournaments.

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20 years on, Berlin celebrates fall of the Wall

2009-11-09T10:34:00.000+05:30

Beneath an autumn sky not so much grey as bleached of colour, in temperatures close to freezing, thousands of people, from the elderly and the ill to babies in strollers, gathered on Sunday at the Brandenburg Gate the structure that stands at the border of what used to be east and west Berlin.

This site, resonant with history and memory, will host from 7 p.m. on Monday (11.30 p.m. IST) the piece de resistance of the celebrations of the 20th anniversary of the collapse of the Wall -an event that on November 9, 1989, changed forever not just Germany, but Europe and the world.

A million people are expected for Monday's event, and on the afternoon before, there's barely standing space around the Gate. Berlin is treating the celebrations the Festival of Freedom as its own mega carnival. And everyone is invited.

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Wanted: Kindred spirit for the great Tendulkar

2009-11-07T10:50:00.002+05:30

This was one of Sachin Tendulkar's best and, in many ways, the saddest innings. How could the Gods allow this; how could his mates not be inspired when thousands in stands and millions on telly were ready to step on the field and bat for him? This isn't time to coldly dissect the game. Instead, the storywriters must pick up their pens; the film-makers get behind their cameras; the playwrights roll out musicals in an ode to this heroism in an era when vested interests, thuggery and betrayals dominate our lives. It was as if Tendulkar wanted to cover up for all the mess of his mates: dropped catches, ordinary bowling and batting.

It's miraculous how his genius survived the mediocrity around him. Dare one club the timidity of some of his team mates, with the ingenuity of this champion. This stuff was beyond mortals; don't forget he is 36. After yesterday it was as if he is 16 going on 17.

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Sachin amazing feat in defeat

2009-11-06T11:05:00.000+05:30

For a team which couldn't chase 250 in perfect batting conditions about 72 hours ago, getting 100 more even on a batting beauty seemed too tall a task. So what if bowling was reduced to an exercise in futility and Australia were without all first-choice bowlers.

The target still looked Himalayan because more than 350 in a winning cause batting second has happened just once in an ODI, three years ago in Johannesburg. With nearly everything favouring an Australian win halfway through the fifth ODI, the cricket god turned his head towards this game. And the one blessed almost proved that wonders aren't restricted to the Wanderers only.

In an unforeseen twist to the script made possible by a sublime batting display that only a genius is capable of, Sachin Tendulkar almost single-handedly undid the brilliant job done by Australia's batsmen.

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An English village that only Google maps can see

2009-11-05T10:42:00.002+05:30

The world's eyes are focused on a small village called Argleton near Ormskirk, Lancashire, north west England. Camera crews have been dispatched. "Argleton" is fast becoming a popular hashtag on Twitter. There is even talk of merchandising opportunities.

The reason for all the interest is simple: Argleton doesn't actually exist. It is a phantom village that appears on Google Maps. You can search online for Argleton's local weather forecast, property prices (not much for sale at the moment) or for the number of a local plumber, but in reality the village's coordinates point to little more than a muddy field.

However, just a few hundred metres away stands the very real village of Aughton.

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Internet could run out of web addresses next year

2009-11-04T10:51:00.000+05:30

The world could well run out of Internet addresses next year, unless urgent action is taken to switch to a new generation of net addresses, the European Commission has warned.

According to the commission, businesses urgently need to upgrade to Internet protocol version six or IPv6, a new version of the Internet's addressing protocol, which will hugely increase the number of available addresses.

The IPv6 system has been ready for over a decade and is providing 340 trillion, trillion, trillionwebaddresses.But,notmany companies are actually ready to migrate to the new platform.

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Common Admission Test 2009 will offer 560 extra Indian Institutes of Management seats

2009-11-03T09:24:00.002+05:30

There will be 560 more seats on offer for students taking the common admission test (CAT) for entry to the Indian Institutes of Management this year.

Human resource development ministry sources said the CAT committee for 2009 had been asked to include these additional seats.

The cabinet had cleared the setting up of four new IIMs n Tiruchirappalli (Tamil Nadu), Ranchi (Jharkhand), Raipur (Chhattisgarh) and Rohtak (Haryana) in August.

But the institutes are yet to be established.

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Aamir for Kiran Bedi as watchdog body head

2009-11-02T10:11:00.000+05:30

Kiran Bedi, retired director general of police and Magsaysay award winner, should be made the new chief information commissioner, a number of well-known personalities have said in letters sent to the prime minister.

Heading the list is actor Aamir Khan, along with Magsaysay award winners Sandeep Pande and Arvind Kejriwal, apart from other noted social activists like Anna Hazare.

The position fell vacant after Wajahat Habibullah resigned on October 21 to take charge of the newly formed Jammu and Kashmir Information Commission.

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Huge blaze in Jaipur oil depot

2009-10-30T10:31:00.000+05:30

At least five people were killed and over 100 injured when a ferocious blaze, with flames leaping up to the height of three or four-storeyed buildings, engulfed an Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) depot at Sitapura Industrial Area, 16 kilometers south of Jaipur, on Thursday night.

The fire, beginning with an explosion at around 7.30 p.m., reportedly due to a leaking pipeline, spread to at least 12 oil tanks in the vicinity, the police said.

"Around 80 injured people have been admitted to hospital," said Kanhaiya Lal, Assistant Director General (Crime).

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Prime Minister reaches out to Jammu & Kashmir, Pak

2009-10-29T10:31:00.000+05:30

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday reached out to separatists in Jammu & Kashmir and made a renewed effort to resume talks with Pakistan, but with a caveat -- Islamabad must rein in anti-India terror groups operating from its soil.

Separatists would also have to abjure violence, Singh said, as he inaugurated a 18-kilometre rail link to strengthen connectivity within the Kashmir valley.

"I appeal to Pakistan to strengthen the hand of friendship we have extended. It is in the interest of people of both nations," Singh said.

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Rajdhani held hostage in Naxal land

2009-10-28T09:50:00.000+05:30

The Bhubaneswar-New Delhi Rajdhani Express slowed down and stopped at Banstala, near Kharagpur, at 2.35 pm on Tuesday. About 300 flag-waving activists, armed with axes, swords, bows and arrows surrounded it. They had placed wooden logs across the tracks.

Activists of the Maoist-backed People's Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCPA), pelted stones at the train, breaking some glass windows and injuring at least one passenger.

They next abducted the train's driver K. Anand Rao and his assistant K.G. Rao, assaulted some passengers, and finally called up the office of the railway manager at Kharagpur, 145 km east of Kolkata. The driver and his assistant were released five hours later.

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Same pollution norms for home and factory soon

2009-10-27T10:21:00.000+05:30

By end 2009, India will set a uniform limit for pollution across the country, making no distinction between industrial and residential areas, sources in the ministry of environment and forests said.

At present, for instance, the amount of `Respirable, Suspended Particulate Matter' (RSPM), a major pollutant, allowed in industrial areas is 120 unit grams per cubic metre (ug/m3), while the maximum tolerated in non-industrial ones is only 60 ug/m3.

"When air quality norms were first notified in 1994 most industrial areas were far away from residential areas," said a top ministry official. "With both industrial and residential areas expanding, this is no longer the case. There cannot be two different air quality standards for citizens living side by side."

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`Dalai Lama honoured guest'

2009-10-26T10:29:00.001+05:30

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday described Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama as India's "honoured guest", and said India and China agreed that they had an obligation to maintain peace and tranquility along the border.

Singh met his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao on the sidelines of the 10th Asean (Association of South East Asian Nations) summit at this Thai resort twice on Saturday.

Addressing a news conference on Sunday, the Prime Minister was asked if China had raised the issue of the Dalai Lama's forthcoming visit to Arunachal Pradesh. "No they did not.

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Congress beats divided Opposition...

2009-10-23T14:20:00.002+05:30

The Congress did not win as much as the opposition parties lost. But it has the mandate now to push ahead with its agenda on education, climate change and disinvestments.

The first round of assembly elections after the 15th general elections in May endorsed the Congress and showed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the principal opposition, continuing its downward slide.

The Congress is set to retain power in all three states that voted on October 13 -- sweeping Arunachal Pradesh, narrowly winning Maharashtra in alliance with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and roping in independents to hold on to Haryana, having failed to win a majority on its own.

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Mathura train collision kills 22

2009-10-22T09:59:00.002+05:30

At least 22 people were killed mostly women and children and about 40 injured when a train rammed into another near Mathura in Uttar Pradesh, about 150 km southeast of Delhi, on Wednesday.

Both trains were Delhi-bound. At 4.30 a.m., the Mewar Express came to a halt after a chain was pulled. Forty-five minutes later, the Goa Express, coming from behind at full throttle, rammed into its brake van and general compartment for ladies and disabled persons.

Later, it emerged three policemen from Rajasthan had pulled the chain to catch a prisoner, who had tried to escape.

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Educated youth drive crime in Noida

2009-10-21T10:06:00.000+05:30

Across the lanes and streets of Noida and Greater Noida, the police are facing a new menace: youth in the 1825 age group, belonging to middle-income-group families and armed with crude weapons and professional degrees.

Unlike professional criminals, these troublemakers "rob, snatch and con to fund their high-roller lifestyle", said Deputy Superintendent of Police Rajiv Narayan Mishra.

"Since last October, about 75 per cent of petty street crimes in Noida and Greater Noida -such as robbing and snatching of wallets -- has been done by first-time offenders," he said

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Indian Institute of Technology entrance exam bar to be raised

2009-10-20T10:11:00.002+05:30

Students aspiring for the IITs will have to take their Class XII boards a lot more seriously now. They may have to score substantially more than 60 per cent to qualify to take the entrance test.

"A qualifying mark of 60 per cent is not enough," said Human Resource Development minister Kapil Sibal on Monday, announcing a plan to raise the qualifying percentage from the current 60 per cent.

"It should be 75 or 80 percent," Sibal said after a meeting with the IIT council, the apex decision-making body for the elite engineering institutes.

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