Babri mosque case: verdict to come out on Sep. 24

Paramilitary forces have been deployed at various sensitive areas after a special meeting was called in provincial capital Lucknow on Tuesday (September 14) to heighten security all over the state.
With less than a week to go for the verdict on the Babri mosque demolition case, security has been beefed up in Ayodhya city of northern Indias Uttar Pradesh state.
The Allahabad High Court is expected to pronounce on September 24 its judgment on the title suits for the disputed site in Ayodhya town where Hindu fanatics demolished the Babri mosque on December 6, 1992.
SSP Ayodhya, A.K Rathor said, We are enhancing the security arrangements. We have the force ready with us. The CRPF (Central Reserve Security Force), PAC (Provincial Armed Constabulary), Civil Police, are being deployed, and with the help of the people, we have conducted meetings, the people have cooperated, there is a good security arrangement and harmony.

15 injured in southern Iran quake: reports

TEHRAN: A 5.8 magnitude earthquake struck southern Iran, injuring 15 people and damaging residential buildings in four villages near the town of Lamerd, state media reported Wednesday.

State news agency reported the tremor was followed by nine aftershocks, and was also felt on the Gulf island of Kish but gave no further details.

The quake damaged 30 percent of buildings in the four villages, on the border of the southern provinces of Fars and Hormuzdan, state television reported on its website. It cited a Red Crescent official as saying that, 15 people were injured.

The US Geological Survey said the moderate 5.8 quake jolted Iran”s southern coast late Tuesday.

The tremor struck at 1938 GMT some 160 kilometres (100 miles) south of Jahrom and 975 kilometres (610 miles) southeast of the capital Tehran, at a depth of 10 kilometres, it said.

Two killed in attack on Russian power station

MOSCOW: Two security guards were killed in a suspected “terrorist act” when an explosion struck a hydroelectric power station in the Kabardino-Balkaria region of Russia”s North Caucasus on Wednesday, officials said.

A powerful blast ripped through part of the Baksanskayaplant, Rushydro , Russia”s largest hydroelectric power producer which runs the station, said in a statement. Media quoted Emergencies Ministry workers as saying it took almost three hours to contain a fire that followed the blast.

“According to preliminary information, a terrorist act was the cause of the explosion and of the fire. Two guards died, two other people have been taken to hospital,” Rushydro said. Media quoted security sources as saying the two guards had been killed in a shootout with rebels. Rushydro said power supplies to consumers had not been interrupted.

Wars raised terror threat to UK: Ex-MI5 chief

LONDON: The invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan led to a huge surge in the terrorist threat to the United Kingdom, the former head of MI5 said.

Giving evidence to the official inquiry into the war, Baroness Manningham-Buller said the service struggled to cope with the number of plots in the aftermath of the invasion in 2003.

She added: “Our involvement in Iraq radicalised a whole generation of young people not a whole generation, a few among a generation who saw our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan as being an attack on Islam.”

She said many UK-born individuals were attracted to the ideology of al Qaeda after the invasion and added that the number of Britons who became involved in terrorist plots took MI5 by surprise.

Manningham-Buller said the toppling of Saddam Hussein had enabled al Qaeda to establish a foothold in Iraq which it had never managed before.

Manningham-Buller said there was clear evidence that Britain’s involvement in the Iraq war was a motivating factor in terrorist attacks on the UK.

Manningham-Buller said MI5 was given a budget increase after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the US and again in 2002, but still needed far greater resources as a result of the Iraq invasion.

She suggested that the threat to the UK might have been reduced if there had been better plans for post-invasion Iraq.

India clamps curfew in occupied Kashmir

SRINAGAR: In occupied Kashmir, curfew and restrictions were imposed at many places across the Kashmir Valley, today, to prevent protests against Indian state terrorism and continued killing of civilians by Indian paramilitary troopers in the territory.

Curfew has been imposed in Srinagar, Sopore and Baramulla, while restrictions and shutdown in other cities and town of the occupied territory. “The restrictions are also being strictly enforced in Batmallo and Shaheedgunj areas of Srinagar city,” said a police officer.

The forum patronised by senior Kashmiri Hurriyet leader, Syed Ali Gilani called for sit-ins and protests across the Kashmir Valley demanding the release of hundreds of illegally detained Hurriyet leaders and activists, including ailing leader, Syed Ali Gilani. The protests are part of the ‘ Go India go and Quit Kashmir’ programme.

Educational institutions, shops, post offices, banks, public transport and other business establishments were closed in areas under restrictions and curfew.

Police and Central Reserve Police Force troopers have been deployed in the areas under curfew and official restrictions to disallow any pedestrian and traffic movement there.

The valley has been under curfew and restrictions for more than a month due to killing of civilians including young boys and a girl by police and paramilitary forces indiscriminate firings since June 11.

Troops martyr 3 innocent youths in IHK

SRINAGAR: In occupied Kashmir, Indian troops in their fresh act of state terrorism, martyred three more Kashmiri youths in Baramulla and Doda districts on Friday.

Indian troops, during siege and search operations, killed two youths and destroyed a residential house at Poshnag in Kreeri area of Baramulla while10-Rashtriya Rifles and 33 Battalion of Central Reserve Police Force killed the 42 years old, Abdul Qayoom Wani at Behota in Marmat area of the district.

Meanwhile, three persons were killed and 30 others were injured in separate road mishaps at different places in Jammu division.

Suspected rebels kill 4 Indian soldiers

CALCUTTA: Suspected Maoist rebels blew up a paramilitary vehicle using a land mine in eastern India on Wednesday, killing four soldiers and wounding another two, police said.

The soldiers belonging to the Central Reserve Police force were ambushed in West Midnapore district, nearly 110 miles (175kilometers) west of Calcutta, the capital of West Bengal state, said Zulfikar Hassan, an inspector-general of police.

The attack came a day after India”s home minister offered to begin peace talks with Maoist rebels, but only if they halt all attacks for 72 hours.

Yasin staging hunger strike against death penalty row

SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Yasin Malik is staging a hunger strike against the death penalty awarded to three people, including two Kashmiris, by an Indian court in a fabricated case.

In addition, veteran Kashmiri Hurriyet leader Syed Ali Gilani also expressed concern over the death penalty and described it against the law and justice.

Gilani, while addressing a news conference in Srinagar, today, said that the trial in the case was not fair and the verdict was a conspiracy against the Kashmiris.

The veteran Kashmiri Hurriyet leader said that protest demonstrations would be held on every Friday against the court decision.

He maintained that the sacrifices of Kashmiri martyrs wouldn’t be allowed to go waste and the liberation movement would be taken to its logical end, despite all odds.

Dozens of people were injured in police actions during protest demonstrations against the killing by Indian troops of an owner of a cable network in Sopore town.

The APHC spokesman, Jammu and Kashmir Tehreek-e-Hurriyet, Peoples League, Muslim Khawateen Markaz, Jamat-e-Islami and Reporters Without Borders have strongly condemned, in their statements, the assault on a media reporter, Gowher Butt by Indian policemen on Monday in Srinagar.

Senior Vice Chairman of JKLF-R, Javed Ahmad Mir, while talking to media persons after his release from Baramulla Jail expressed serious concern over the arrest of hundreds of youth in Srinagar and other towns.

An Indian trooper of Central Reserve Police Force was found dead under mysterious circumstances at a transit camp near the Jammu railway station.

Five passengers including a couple and a two-year-old boy were killed while 45 others were injured in a bus accident at Patyari Bridge in Udhampur district.

Manmohan rejects Chidambaram”s resignation

NEW DELHI: The Indian Home Minister, P Chidambaram, says he accepts “full responsibility” for India”s worst-ever Naxal attack on Monday, in which 76 Indian soldiers were killed in Chhattisgarh. Sources say that earlier this week, Chidambaram also wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and offered to resign over the massacre.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has rejected the resignation, according to reports.

“I have been asked directly but not indirectly where does the buck stop for what happened in Dantewada. There is no hesitation in saying that the buck stops at my desk. I accept full responsibility for what happened in Dantewada,” he said on Friday at a function to honour Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawans.

He added, “Immediately after my return from Chhattisgarh I called the PM and gave it in writing that I take full responsibility of what happened.

Government sources say that there”s no question of the Home Minister”s offer to resign being accepted.

xbox live update

Victims of Call of Duty crash get Xbox Live credit of about 90 cents
Gamers who bought the bug-inducing downloadable content (DLC) pack for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on the Xbox 360 have been credited with 7 free days of Xbox Live Gold.

When Microsoft posted the enhanced game update to the Xbox Live Marketplace on March 30, it made a fatal error by making the download available before the Call of Duty game itself was updated to accept the download.

As a result, the game crashed for hours for people who legitimately purchased the content, while Microsoft struggled to fix the problem that it had apparently never dealt with before.
On Monday, reports surfaced that people who purchased the DLC pack on that first day received an e-mail from Microsoft that read as follows:

“To thank you for your loyalty to Xbox LIVE and for buying the Modern Warfare 2 Stimulus Package on day 1, we will extend your Gold membership for 7 days of adrenaline-pumping action with your friends on LIVE. Your account will be updated on May 1.”

Of course, the e-mail stops short of apologizing or even acknowledging the problem. And that free 7 days is worth less than $1, so it’s not exactly a big consolation to those who were afflicted by Microsoft’s blunder. But it’s something.

The game update, called “Stimulus Package,” now works without a hitch and costs 1200 Microsoft Points ($15). The PS3 version of Modern Warfare 2 will also receive the pack, but only after Xbox gets it exclusively for a few months.

Next Page »