Over 33 killed, 20 injured in Pakistan earthquake
Over 30 people were killed and over 20 injured after an earthquake measuring 7.7 on the Richter scale hit parts of Pakistan on Tuesday afternoon. Awaran district, located 645 km away from Balochistan's capital Quetta, was the worst hit area where 30 people were killed and a dozen others injured in the earthquake, Xinhua reported citing officials. Abur Rasheed Baloch, district commissioner of Awaran said the area suffered heavy losses as many houses collapsed and rescue personnel had...

Nairobi mall attack toll rises to 59
The toll in the terror attack at an upscale shopping mall in Kenya's capital Nairobi Saturday has risen to 59, Kenya's Cabinet Secretary Joseph Ole Lenku said Sunday. President Uhuru Kenyatta said the killed included some of his family members. Lenku, who is in charge of the country's internal security, said the operation was "delicate" as the attackers were still holding hostages in the mall, Xinhua reported. He made the remarks after the standoff between...

Scene from hell as terrorists hit Nairobi mall
The terrorists who attacked the Westgate shopping mall in Kenya's capital Nairobi Saturday seemed to have taken lessons from a first rate action movie, given the magnitude of human casualty, panic and general malaise. Heavily armed assailants stormed into Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi at noon and rained terror on shoppers, workers and onlookers, Xinhua reported. Eye witnesses told journalists that the well-coordinated terrorist attack was carried out by about 10 hooded...

PM to focus on communal violence at NIC meet Monday
Incidents of communal violence would be high on the agenda of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh when he addresses the National Integration Council meeting here Monday, informed sources said.   The meeting, coming against the backdrop of the Sep 7 riots in Muzaffarnagar of western Uttar Pradesh which left over 40 dead and thousands displaced, will discuss ways to curb hate propaganda and deal with incidents of communal violence. The security of women and weaker sections of...

Idukki dam will not to be opened for three days
The Idukki dam will not be opened for three days as the rains slackened off in the catchment areas of the dam, KSEB Chief Engineer K.K Karuppankutty told reporters here on Sunday. “A decision on opening the dam will be taken after assessing rains in the next three days,” he said. Water level in Kerala’s largest reservoir now stands at 2,401.7 feet against the full reservoir level of 2,403 ft. With the water level in Idukki dam rising close to the full...

Pakistan Suicide Bombs Kill 60 During Church Service in Peshawar
Two suicide bombers killed at least 60 people in an attack during a church service in Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar, according to police and a city commissioner. The attackers detonated explosives inside the church while as many as 600 people listened to a sermon, Zaheer ul Islam, Peshawar’s deputy commissioner, told state-run Pakistan TV. Doctors at Lady Reading Hospital were treating 110 injured churchgoers, Shiraz Afridi, director of emergency services, said by...

WSJ reports BlackBerry may lay off up to 40% of its employees
In line with yesterday’s WSJ report, BlackBerry announced that it will cut 4,500 jobs as part of a plan to reduce its operating expenditures over the next year. Furthermore, the struggling Canadian company is expected to post a loss of almost $1 billion in the fiscal Q2 of 2014. The eye-watering loss is a result of lackluster sales of the BlackBerry Z10 smartphone. The company will take a hit against inventory and supply commitments involving the failed smartphone. Going forward...

Anti-nuclear energy activists attack PM
The People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) Thursday came down heavily on Prime Minster Manmohan Singh for "neglecting the legal interests and nuclear safety of Indians" to help American companies to set up mega nuclear power plants in Gujarat. In a statement, PMANE, which is fighting against the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KNPP) in Tamil Nadu, said: "In a characteristically bizarre, brazen and shameless manner, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has dodged...

Kerala to tie up with Railways to develop suburban corridor
The UDF government in Kerala has decided to tie up with Railways to develop a Rs 3500-crore high-speed suburban corridor stretching some 100 km north of the state capital. The state cabinet today cleared the proposal chalked out during discussions with senior officials of Railways and Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC), Chief Minister Oommen Chandy told reporters on Friday. A special purpose vehicle (SPV) would be formed for implementation of the project and MRVC would be...

Home, auto loans to get costlier as RBI hikes key rate
Home, auto and other loans are set to become costlier as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday unexpectedly hiked its key policy interest rate by 0.25 per cent, saying inflation remains worrisome. In his first monetary policy review after taking charge at Mint Street on September 4, RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, however, partially rolled back the measures taken by his predecessor D Subbarao. The central bank increased the repurchase or repo rate by 0.25 per cent to 7.5 per cent....

RBI raises interest rates, sensex down over 500 points
 A hawkish RBI on Friday unexpectedly raised the policy rate by 25 basis points as it kept its focus on controlling inflation, which it felt would be above the expected levels in the current fiscal. RBI governor Raghuram Rajan in his maiden policy review, however, eased liquidity though a reduction in the marginal standing facility rate, at which banks borrow from the central bank, to 9.5 per cent. The repo rate or the short-term lending rate has been increased by 25 basis...

Government to pump more money into KSRTC
The KSRTC, which is facing a financial crisis, is to receive a capital injection of Rs 10 crores from the government. The emergency fund is to be provided by the government to help the corporation run its services for a week. The government made the move as the financial crisis in the corporation attained serious proportions. The cabinet, which approved the emergency funding, also approved a move to let out diesel pumps in 67 depots of the corporation to the Civil Supplies...

Congress President Sonia Gandhi to visit Kerala on September 29
 Congress President Sonia Gandhi will embark on a two-day visit to Kerala from September 29, where she is scheduled to inaugurate the campus of Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Development Studies, set up by the Kerala unit of the party. Ms Gandhi had planned to visit the state earlier this month but it was postponed as she went to the United States for medical treatment. Her visit assumes significance as she is expected to have discussions with senior state leaders in view of...

Veteran CPI leader Veliyam Bhargavan passes away
Veteran CPI leader Veliyam Bhargavan, 85, died on Wednesday. Bhargavan, who was undergoing treatment at the Medical College hospital following respiratory illness, suffered a cardiac arrest in the morning and the death was confirmed around 1.30 pm. Bhargavan, who had served as the state secretary of CPI, had kept away from active politics for the last two years owing to ill health. From 1998 to 2010, he had led the state CPI and during those years he had tried to ensure unity between...

Kerala state road transport corporation may cut low-floor bus service
The low-floor A/C and non-A/C buses run by the Kerala state road transport corporation (KSRTC) may disappear from the city streets after the agency failed to generate profit from the service introduced three years ago. The transport agency has been forced to cut expenditure following Supreme Court's order that oil companies were not bound to grant subsidy to KSRTC. According to KSRTC officials, most of the A/C and non-A/C buses have not generated profit and the chances of...

Labour reined in, Metro declared disruption-free project
In a decision that may put labour problems plaguing the Kochi Metro project to rest, a meeting of all stakeholders declared the Metro rail a disruption-free project. In the remaining 993 days left to complete the project, neither the Metro's contractors nor its labourers will indulge in any act that may bring the Rs 5,180 crore project to a halt. A two-tier system will be put in place to address labour issues that have risen at construction sites of Kochi Metro. In case of a...

Pak keen to have comprehensive dialogue with India, Nawaz
Asserting that people had given him the mandate to improve ties with neighbours, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has said Pakistan is keen to have a comprehensive dialogue with India for the resolution of all issues including Kashmir. Sharif said he is committed to a "serious sustained and constructive engagement" with India that must include the issue of Jammu and Kashmir. Describing the recent tension at the LoC as matter of concern, he said Pakistan will respond to the...

Police threatened while taking statement: Sreesanth
The tainted cricketer, S Sreesanth, in his letter to BCCI has revealed that Police threatend him while taking his statement in IPL spot-fixing scandal. In his letter, Sreesanth denounced the police report, saying that it was prepared based on guesses and hearsays and he expressed his keen interest to play for the country in future. He also wrote that he hadn't done anything offensive to cricket and had undergone six surgeries so far to come out of injuiries.

KSRTC cancels 2,225 services
In order to resolve the dilemma caused by supreme court's verdict insisting to stop diesel subsidy by oil companies, the KSRTC cut down 2,-225 schedules from Tuesday. As part of this, services which generate revenue below 7000 rupees per day will be stopped. However, it will not affect the  Jantam services of KSRTC.   On Monday, the apex court ruled that no subsidy be provided to the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) from Monday onwards. In...

RBI tightens norms for lending against gold jewellery
Seeking to keep demand of gold under check, the Reserve Bank of India has tightened norms for loans against pledge of gold jewellery. "In order to standardise the valuation and make it more transparent to the borrower, it has been decided that gold jewellery accepted as collateral will have to be valued at the average of the closing price of 22 carat gold for the preceding 30 days as quoted by the Bombay Bullion Association (BBA)," RBI said in a notification. Currently,...

Bangladesh SC hands down death penalty to top Jamaat leader
Bangladesh Supreme Court on Tuesday handed down death penalty to fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami stalwart Abdul Quader Mollah for 1971 war crimes, revising a special tribunal verdict which had sentenced him to life imprisonment. "He is being handed down the capital punishment," said Chief Justice M Muzammel Hossain, as the apex court reviewed the first ever case of the "crimes against humanity" during the 1971 liberation war against Pakistan. Mollah, 65, the...

Shooting spree at Washington naval base leaves 13 dead
A US naval reservist launched out a shooting rampage on a base in the heart of Washington on Monday, killing 13 people and exchanging fire with police before losing his own life. Police identified the alleged shooter as 34-year-old Aaron Alexis, of Forth Worth, Texas, who served full-time in the Navy from 2007 to 2011, the the FBI and Pentagon said. The FBI appealed to the public for information on the suspect, who reportedly had once been arrested but not charged in Texas for...

Sreesanth gets support from KCA
Kerala Cricket Association (KCA) treasurer T R Balakrishnan has said that KCA will help cricketer Sreesanth to overcome his life ban. "BCCI will have to re evaluate its decision. Sreesanth will get justice from court," he said here on Monday. Rebecca John, lawyer of the tainted pacer had challenged the BCCI's decision in court and said that it was "completely against the principles of natural justice". Sreesanth was banned for life by the BCCI after...

Kerala celebrates Onam
Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 16 (IANS) Kerala Monday celebrated Onam with the traditional 'Onam Sadhya', a rich and delicious platter of 26 food items. Monday also marks Thiru Onam, the most important day in the Onam week. The practise of making the traditional Onam Sadhya has virtually vanished in many homes. Many preferred to enjoy the holiday visiting places. Hotels and catering establishments had a roaring business, and said they were finding it difficult to meet orders for...

Now LK Advani lauds Narendra Modi
 Veteran BJP leader L.K. Advani Monday showered praise on the party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi - along with the Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh chief ministers. "Modi was the first leader who has taken development into rural areas of Gujarat. He played a big role in developing Gujarat from where I have been elected an MP," Advani said here to wild clapping. Advani was speaking after dedicating a 500 MW thermal power plant in the Bharatiya Janata...

Muzaffarnagar killers must be punished: PM
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday described the recent communal riots in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar as a “big tragedy” and promised “strictest punishment” to the perpetrators of the conflagration. “I am here to share your pain,” a grim-faced Singh told people displaced by the violence, during his visit to a refugee camp in Bassi Kalan village, 30 km from here. Singh, who reached Muzaffarnagar along with Congress president Sonia...

Sreesanth ban 'against principles of natural justice'
 Sreesanth's legal counsel has called the life ban imposed by the BCCI "bizarre", against the principles of natural justice and unlikely to stand legal scrutiny, and said the player would challenge the ban in court once he received a copy of the order. A day after Sreesanth was handed the ban by the BCCI's disciplinary committee, his counsel Rebecca John said the biggest flaw was the report drew heavily on the police findings in the criminal case, which itself is yet...

Pakistan violates ceasefire again
Pakistani troops on Sunday fired at Indian positions in Mendhar sector along the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir, police said. "Around 6.30 am, Pakistani troops fired at Pilli and Noal posts in Dari Dabsi area of the LoC in Mendhar sector," police sources told IANS. The Pakistan army used automatics and light weapons and the Indian side retaliated the fire. Pakistan violates ceasefire again Pakistan violates ceasefire again Till last reports came in,...

India successfully test fires nuclear-capable Agni V long range missile
India on Sunday successfully test fired Agni V from Wheeler Island, the country's most potent nuclear capable ballistic missile. The long range missile can carry nuclear warheads and is capable of reaching deep into China and as far as Europe. Only the UN Security Council permanent members - China, France, Russia, the United States and Britain - have such long-range weapons. The three stage, solid propellant missile was test-fired from a mobile launcher from the launch complex-4 of the...

Shun anti-India attitude: Modi tell Pakistan
BJP's prime ministerial candidate and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi Sunday told Pakistan to shun its anti-India attitude and stop backing terrorism against India. In his first rally after being chosen the prime ministerial candidate Friday, Modi told a massive rally of ex-soldiers in this Haryana town that promoting gun culture had done Pakistan no good over the last 60 years. "The rulers in Pakistan should resolve that they will not allow terrorists to (operate) in...