Karnataka Chief Minister says he won’t allow pub culture, his daughter disagrees

HOURS after Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa said he “won’t allow pub culture” in the state, one of his daughters Umadevi said: “It’s for women to decide if they would like to visit pubs or any other public place, and that government, politicians or outfits like the Sri Rama Sene cannot restrict their movements”.

“If she is an adult woman, it’s for her to take a call on whether to go to a pub or not. If she is not an adult, the issue is then essentially between the child and her parents. There is no role for anyone else in this,” Umadevi told The Indian Express.

Umadevi, who runs Candor Business Solutions Pvt Ltd, a BPO in Bangalore, said “individual freedoms” cannot be regulated and agreed that Bangalore is also known for, among other things, its pubs. “

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Egypt attacks Iran, allies in Arab world

Egypt aired its grievances against Iran, the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas and the Lebanese Shi’ite group Hezbollah, saying they worked together in the fighting over Gaza to provoke conflict in West Asia.

“(They tried) to turn the region to confrontation in the interest of Iran, which is trying to use its cards to escape Western pressure... on the nuclear file,” Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said in an interview with Orbit satellite channel broadcast on Wednesday.

Aboul Gheit also said that Egypt undermined Qatar’s attempts to arrange a formal Arab summit on Gaza earlier this month, arguing that it would have damaged “joint Arab action”.

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Heroin pushed by IPS officer has Pak markings:Anti Terrorism Squad

In a new twist to the alleged heroin racket run by former zonal director of the Narcotics Control Bureau Saji Mohan, who was arrested by the Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) on Saturday, the IPS officer has reportedly told ATS investigators that consignments of heroin sourced from Pakistan were delivered to his house in Chandigarh by a smuggler operating on the Jammu and Kashmir border.

According to the ATS, the seized packets of “high-grade” white heroin bear Pak markings like ‘555’ and ‘B52.’ The ATS recovered an additional 25 kg of heroin — its first haul was of 13.85 kg — from a rented apartment in Naigaon on Monday.

Mohan, a 1995 batch IPS officer, was recently posted as the Deputy Director of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in Kochi, and was with NCB in Chandigarh from Feb 2007 to Dec 2008.It was around this period that he also handled NCB’s Srinagar office.

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Deoband intervenes: Muslims can do yoga

When clerics in Malaysia banned Muslims from practising yoga, they started a heated debate in the Islamic world. But Islamic scholars in India, including those at the Darul Uloom Deoband, say they do not find anything objectionable in Muslims practising yoga. Chanting mantras like Om that have religious connotation, they add, is not necessary for yoga and Muslims can replace them with verses from the Quran or references to Allah.

“Yoga is a good form of exercise. If some words, which are supposed to be chanted while performing it, have religious connotations, then Muslims need not utter those. They can instead recite verses from the Quran or praise Allah or remain silent,” Maulana Abdul Khaliq Madrasi, deputy vice chancellor of the Darul Uloom, told The Indian Express.

He said he discussed the issue with yoga experts and they told him that reciting ‘Om’ or any other mantra was not compulsory for practising yoga.

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Underlining ‘moral high ground,’ Obama signs Gitmo shutdown

Saying that “our ideals give us the strength and moral high ground” to combat terrorism, US President Barack Obama today signed executive orders effectively ending the Central Intelligence Agency’s secret interrogation program, directing the closing of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp within a year and setting up a sweeping, high-level review of the best way to hold and question terrorist suspects in the future.

The prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba — where prisoners have been detained for years without charge, some subjected to interrogation that human rights groups say amounted to torture — had damaged America’s moral standing in the world.

“We intend to win this fight,” Obama said, “We are going to win it on our own terms.”

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A 10-ball night, but only one couple mattered

In Obama's neighbourhood on Tuesday night, Mary J Blige couldn’t stop the tears up onstage. Stevie Wonder was on the keyboard. And when the new President mixed with the crowd, ABC cut to commercial.

Even with those mystery moments, it was a glittering start to a 10-ball night, a night when it didn’t seem to matter that the temperature was less than 28 degrees and the wind was cutting through the thickest overcoats.

Obama launched it with the Neighborhood Ball at the Walter E Washington Convention Center, a party where the new President and the first lady shared the stage for their first dance with Beyonce. Obama, confronted with one of the entertainment world’s hottest babes, kept his eyes on the first lady, Michelle Obama.

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Ashok Chakra for only two from Mumbai Police: Karkare and Omble

The UPA government has decided to restrict the Ashok Chakra for those who died in the Mumbai terror attacks to ATS chief Hemant Karkare and ASI Tukaram Omble.

On the night of November 26, Omble took the bullets but held on to the gun which led to the capture of terrorist Ajmal Amir Kasab at Girgaum Chowpatty while Karkare was killed in the line of duty at Cama Hospital.

Though the Maharashtra government had recom mended that all 16 policemen who died in the attacks be awarded the country’s highest peacetime gallantry award, the Centre decided to award it to two with Kirti Chakra for six, including Ashok Kamte, Vijay Salaskar and Shashank Shinde, and police gallantry medals for the rest.

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Balloon-mounted radars from Israel to help Navy monitor the coastline

The Indian Navy is set to acquire two aerostat radars from Israel to fill vital gaps in the coastal security setup in the aftermath of the Mumbai attack. This is the first time the Navy will operate the balloon-mounted air defence radars that have a detection range of over 500 km and can track low-flying aircraft.

The Navy has also started price negotiations to purchase close to 300 missiles for its Barak ship air defence systems after it was given the go-ahead to deal with Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defence Systems Ltd that has been under the CBI scanner for alleged kick backs during the NDA regime.

Sources said the Navy will shortly sign a deal to acquire two EL/M-2083 Aerostat radars, which are already in service with the air force, from Israel. While the acquisition was on the Navy’s shopping list for a long time, it was accelerated by the government after the Mumbai attack.

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Hamas declares a week’s ceasefire

Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups in Gaza announced an immediate, week-long ceasefire in the conflict with Israel on Sunday, about 12 hours after an Israeli unilateral ceasefire went into effect.

The Palestinian groups said that they would give Israeli troops a week to leave Gaza. Hamas leaders outside Gaza had previously said the group would continue fighting so long as Israeli troops remained on the ground.

The ceasefire announcement, coming after 22 days of war that killed more than 1,200 Palestinians and 13 Israelis, was confirmed by the Palestinian groups’ exiled leaders meeting in Damascus.It came after Egypt held talks with Hamas representatives, and as European and Arab leaders gathered in Egypt for a summit meeting designed to turn the fragile truce into a more durable arrangement.

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Maya turns 53 ‘quietly’

No cake to cut, no candles to be blown out, no grand celebration either. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati decided to keep her 53rd birthday a low-key affair, but announced three populist schemes for the state, with an eye on the next Lok Sabha elections.

The schemes include a fixed deposit of Rs 20,000 in the name of each girl child born on or after the Chief Minister’s birthday in a BPL family this year, Rs 25,000 each for poor family girls studying in class XI and XII, and ownership rights to squatters on government lands. Together, these schemes would cost the state exchequer over Rs 2,750 crore.

Mayawati also announced 97 other schemes which, put together, would cost around Rs 750 crore. These included laying the foundation of 10 bridges and 26 roads, dedication of 31 bridges to the people of the state, construction of hostels for SC/ST girls and boys in Noida and Greater Noida, and reduction of VAT on 200 items.

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Jodhaa, A Wednesday sweep Mumbai off its feet on a starry night

The readers of Screen chose Akshay Kumar, but Akki chose Aamir Khan. The readers chose Aishwarya Rai, but Ash chose the entire crew of Jodhaa Akbar. The presentation of the Best Actor in Popular Category (Male and Female) Awards — selected through a system of SMS and email voting by Screen readers — produced heartwarming displays of genuine humility in starry Bollywood on Wednesday evening.

“According to me, the best actor is Aamir Khan for Ghajini. This is for you Aamir, from me and the people,” Akshay Kumar said in a passionate and touchingly modest speech after being chosen for the Best Actor in Popular Category (Male) Award for Singh is Kinng at the Nokia 15th Annual Star Screen Awards. Akshay left the Award statuette on the podium.

Aishwarya Rai, winner of the Best Actor in Popular Category (Female) Award, said she would accept, but only on behalf of the entire crew of Jodhaa Akbar.

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To tide over crisis, new Satyam board looks to clients, govt for immediate help

Moving swiftly on the day it took charge of fraud-hit Satyam Computer Services, its new board today announced that the top management would be changed and all efforts made to address the prime concern of liquidity, including asking main clients to make advance payments.

Announcing the decisions taken at the meeting of the three-member board constituted by the government, member Deepak Parekh, chairman of HDFC, said the government had agreed to provide temporary liquidity to Satyam. He said a new CEO and CFO would be appointed, while the government would fill vacancies on the board that would elect a chairman.

In New Delhi, SEBI chairman C B Bhave met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and is believed to have briefed him about the latest developments on Satyam. Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said the government will consider a package for helping Satyam.

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Indian Space Research Organisation calls meet to analyse Chandrayaan data

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is likely to report some significant new information about the evolution and composition of the moon when it reveals the first results of the data being sent by Chandrayaan-I at the end of this month.

ISRO has called a meeting of all the scientific teams associated with Chandrayaan, including those from countries which have put their payloads on the Indian mission, on January 29 to assess and review the data being received from the spacecraft.

Project director Mylswamy Annadurai said the command centre in Bangalore had been receiving a wealth of data ever since the spacecraft went into the mission mode last month, a lot of which was of the kind that had never been seen before.

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Sanjay Dutt as Lucknow MP: Amar proposes, but Supreme Court yet to dispose

The Samajwadi Party (SP) has announced it will field actor Sanjay Dutt for the Lucknow Lok Sabha seat. However, whether Dutt actually contests will depend on the view the Supreme Court takes of his appeal against his conviction and six-year jail term for illegal possession of an AK-56 rifle and a 9 mm pistol.

The Supreme Court had on August 20, 2007 stayed the operation of the sentence, and granted Dutt interim bail. The final order is pending.

Lucknow is represented in the current Lok Sabha by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Announcing Dutt’s candidature, SP general secretary Amar Singh said the movie star would seek the court’s per mission to contest.

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Oil strike, Day 1: No one blinks, refineries crippled

Officers of government-owned oil and gas companies went on an indefinite strike in defiance of court orders Wednesday, provoking the Petroleum Ministry to threaten the leaders of the agitation with dismissal. Several members of the Oil Sector Officers Association (OSOA) have already been suspended or arrested.

A last-ditch compromise effort failed after the OSOA refused to talk until the ministry had revoked the suspension of 250 officers and released two arrested ONGC officers. The ministry did not accept the OSOA’s terms.

“They have informed us that next step is termination (orders) which they will start issuing from tomorrow,” OSOA president Amit Kumar said.

The strike resulted in the country losing close to Rs 7,000 crore today as crude oil and natural gas output crashed, processing was crippled at four refineries, and gas supply to fertilizer and power units along the Hazira-Bijapur-Jagdishpur (HBJ) pipeline was turned off.

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Former Patna District Magistrate Gautam Goswami dies at 41

Gautam Goswami, a former poster-boy of the civil services who fell from grace with the Bihar flood relief scam, died of pancreatic cancer at a private nursing home here on Tuesday. Goswami was 41. He is survived by his wife Dr Anuradha Goswami and their two children.

Goswami had shot into the limelight when, as District Magistrate in 2004, he asked senior BJP leader and the then Deputy PM L K Advani to leave the dias during an election meeting at Patna midway for canvassing beyond the prescribed time limit set by the EC.

Later, that year, Time magazine picked him as one of its Asian Heroes. “As the District Magistrate in Patna, Goswami coordinated a massive relief effort that involved the Indian Government, Army and international aid agencies. At 4:30 each morning, Goswami was at Patna’s airport hangar, seeing off helicopters loaded with food, drinking water, tents and medical supplies, then he made sure truck convoys headed off to areas that could be reached by land,” wrote Aravind Adiga, then the magazine’s India correspondent, in a special issue.

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Lost in 2002 riots, boy visits ‘home’ after seven years

Nine year old Muzaffar alias Vivek, who was brought up by Hindu parents after he went missing from the Gulbarg Society in Meghani nagar seven years ago during the riots,paida visit to his biological parents on Sunday. Although the meeting lasted for only an hour, it felt like a lifetime to his parents, mother Jebunissa and father Mohammed Salim Sheikh.

Jebunissa, a resident of Arsh Colony in Vatva, told The Indian Express: “We were awaiting this day.We have waited for it for seven long years. When my son went missing in 2002, I had pledged a visit to Ajmer Sharif dargah once we found him.Although I always thought that it will never be fulfilled,now I am quite confident that we will get our son back, especially after the High Court’s order and Muzaffar’s home coming.”

Almost all the residents of Arsh Colony gathered at Sheikh’s home and celebrated the occasion by beating drums and distributing sweets.

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Campaign on to save Bhopal’s lake

Badee Jheel, a picturesque water body that draws large number of people and also provides drinking water to nearly half the city, is fast drying up. From a once sprawling spread of 31 sq km, the Upper Lake has shrunk to less than nine sq km. This year the region received little over half its average rainfall, exposing stark patches in the lake that seems to be expanding every day.

The state Government on Sunday began a public campaign ‘Apna Sarovar Apni Dharohar Bada Taal Sarakshan Abhiyan’ to increase the lake’s capacity. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, whose official bungalow overlooks the 11th century lake, led the Shramdaan along with wife Sadhna Singh. He promised additional water supply from the Narmada by September. The campaign will go on till June 30 with voluntary organisations taking part in it. On Sunday, students, bankers and industrialists were among those who turned up at the campaign.

The Government had issued an appeal asking people, including bird watchers who frequent the lake, to contribute towards the campaign. With the monsoon nearly six months away, the administration has already started rationing water supply to the lake.

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Alarm bells: Uttar Pradesh goes on the great wild (goose) tiger chase

When a tiger walks over 400 kilometres, it’s bound to make news. But when the combined strength of Wildlife Institute of India (WII) scientists, a 10 member tiger tracking team, four elephants, a vet and a tiger tranquilising team, along with all of the Uttar Pradesh Forest Department fail to catch the tiger—that too for over a month— it’s quite a story.

The UP Forest Department is on the trail of a strayed man-killing tiger, in a chase which is unlike any India has seen before. As many as six Divisional Forest Officers from different districts—Pilibhit, Shahjahanpur, Lakhimpur Kheri, Sitapur, Lucknow and Barabanki—have failed to catch the tiger, which strayed out from Pilibhit on November 5. Now, the WII team has wrapped up and gone back, leaving the Forest Department with the responsibility of trapping the tiger.

But this is no ordinary tiger. Apart from being a lost animal, it is also now a politicised tiger. After the tiger killed a young boy in the first week of December between Barabanki and Lucknow, (it is also suspected of injuring people around Pilibhit) the Forest Department declared that it was a ‘maneater’ and the Barabanki District magistrate KR Nayak announced a cash reward for anyone who would kill the tiger.

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Sainik Samachar turns 100

Sainik Samachar, the journal of the Indian armed forces, will celebrate its centenary on Friday with the launch a coffee table book, Soldering On, which chronicles the history of the defence forces over the past 100 years. The book will be released by Defence Minister A K Antony.

The coffee table book, being brought out by the Directorate of Public Relations, is a compilation of articles published in the magazine in the last 100 years on the defining moments of the nation. The book will contain rare pictures taken by the Photo Division, under the Ministry, which have never been published in the past.

The journal started its journey as a 16-page Urdu weekly on January 2, 1909, to provide Army personnel “a summary of news with a military bias”. The English edition made its debut in 1923 and the publication reached its peak during World War II when an overseas edition was brought out from Cairo for the benefit of Indian troops deployed in far-off the atres and its circulation touched three lakh copies.

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