Somali militants call famine tag propaganda, says banned groups not welcome

MOGADISHU, Somalia — A spokesman for Somalia’s most dangerous militant group says it won’t allow banned aid workers into the areas it controls.

Sheik Ali Mohamud Rage is calling the U.N.’s declaration of famine in parts of Somalia politically motivated and pure propaganda.

Tens of thousands of hungry Somalis have fled on foot to neighboring Kenya.

A prolonged drought turned into famine in part because neither the Somali government or aid agencies can fully operate in areas of southern Somalia controlled by the group al-Shabab.

The U.S. agreed to allow emergency aid to be spent in areas controlled by al-Shabab so long as the militants didn’t disrupt distribution efforts. But the al-Shabab spokesman said late Thursday aid workers were still banned.

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Google Plus steadily gaining ground in social networking space

Google's latest offering ' Google Plus' is steadily gaining ground in the social networking space, so far dominated by Facebook , with the internet giant's social network attracting about 20 million visitors in the initial three weeks and nearly half of these visitors hailing from US and India .

According to estimates by research firm ComScore, Google Plus had 19.93 million unique visitors between June 29 and July 19 period.

The top two countries in this estimate are the US and India. Of the 19.93 million visitors, 5.31 million were from the US and 2.85 million from India.

Another 0.87 million users came from the UK, 0.71 million from Germany and 0.50 million from France.

"I have never seen anything grow this quickly," vice president of industry analysis at ComScore Andrew Lipsman said.

 

Google Plus, launched on June 28, is Google's answer to rival Facebook.

It lets users post photos, messages, comments and other content from a selected groups of friends.

The service was started as a field trial and the project is by invitation only, which means people can join only if a current member invites them.

Eventually, Google plans to incorporate features of Google Plus in its other services, such as its YouTube video site.

Google CEO Larry Page had last week said that Google Plus had more than 10 million users.

Page said there are "more opportunities for Google today than ever before".

 

 

 

It will be some time before Google catches up with Facebook's scale of more than 750 million users. The other popular micro-blogging site Twitter has more than 200 million registered accounts.

Through 'Google Plus', the internet giant aims to garner a share in the lucrative social networking space that has so far been dominated by the Mark Zuckerberg led popular site.

The service has features like 'Circles', 'Sparks', 'Hangouts' and 'mobile'.

Through Circles, Google targets Facebook's features in which a user's information is shared by default with a large number of his or her friends including their work colleagues and acquaintances, rather than only their close personal friends.

Its "Huddle" feature lets users send text messages to several different people at once, known as group texting.

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TRS to approach NHRC against AP govt in youth suicide case

Claiming that the Andhra Pradesh government insulted the youth from Telangana who allegedly committed suicide in Delhi over the separate statehood cause, TRS on Friday said it will complain about the matter to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).

“The martyr Yadi Reddy was insulted as his 'antima yatra' (last journey) was not allowed to be conducted in Hyderabad. Media persons and common people were arrested (when the body arrived at the airport). The behaviour of officials of Andhra Bhavan in Delhi also amounted to insulting him. We will complain to the National Human Rights Commission over this,” TRS MLA and party president K Chandrasekhar Rao's son K T Rama Rao told reporters.

Expressing regret over the attack on an official of Andhra Bhavan by TRS MLA T Harish Rao on Thursday, he said the incident need not be exaggerated as it occurred out of anger and anguish.

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SC dismisses plea, won't stay probe into Jagan's assets

In a setback to former Congress leader Jagan Mohan Reddy, the Supreme Court on Friday refused to stay an Andhra Pradesh High Court order for a preliminary CBI enquiry to ascertain if he owns assets disproportionate to his income. A bench of justices Dalveer Bhandari and Deepak Verma dismissed Reddy's plea refusing to interfere with the high court's order.

The bench said "at this stage" no interference is required into the high court order as it is only a preliminary enquiry and the high court can refuse to proceed against him if nothing substantial comes out against him in the probe.
The bench, however, asked the high court to give a copy of the CBI probe report to Jagan if it decides to proceed against him on the basis of the agency's findings.

The bench turned down the plea of senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, who appearing for Jagan, tried to convince the court that there is nothing against the politician and there is a political rivalry behind this.

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CPI(M) seeks Yeddyurappa’s resignation

Seeking the resignation of Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Friday asked the Bharatiya Janata Party to take “full responsibility” for installing a government backed by the mining mafia.

“The BJP leadership cannot prevaricate in this matter any more. It must own up full responsibility for instituting a government in Karnataka which is riddled with the mining mafia and those patronising them,” the party Polit Bureau said in a statement in New Delhi.

The statement said Karnataka Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde has named the Chief Minister as being involved in wrongdoing and this had been confirmed by him even though the report has not yet been officially released.
“With this indictment, Yeddyurappa has no other option but to resign from office. After the report is submitted, all those named for wrongdoing should be prosecuted under the law,” the CPI(M) said.
Senior party leader Sitaram Yechury had on Thursday said, “We hope the BJP will take this decision (to ask Yedyurappa to quit) because otherwise its credibility in the fight against corruption is also very severely compromised.”
Communist Party of India national secretary D. Raja has also demanded Mr. Yeddyurappa’s resignation saying corruption charges were being “levelled continuously against him for a long time. Now the Lokayukta indictment has come.”
He criticised the BJP for “crying hoarse on corruption and raising issues like the scams relating to 2G spectrum allocation and Commonwealth Games, but remaining silent on corruption in Karnataka“.
“This is height of hypocrisy and shows BJP’s shameless double standards,” Mr. Raja said.

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Indian MP Amar Singh questioned over 'vote buying'

Indian police are questioning an MP in connection with the alleged buying of votes during a 2008 vote of confidence.

Amar Singh is accused of offering to bribe opposition MPs to abstain from the vote. He denies the allegation.
India's Congress party-led government survived the vote over a controversial civilian nuclear deal with the US.
If the vote had been lost, India would have faced early elections. The government has been beset by corruption scandals in recent months.
Earlier this week, Delhi police arrested two people in connection with what has come to be knows as the "cash-for-votes" scandal.
Mr Singh's former aide Sanjeev Saxena was arrested on Sunday, while Sohail Hindustani, a political activist, was held on Wednesday.
Mr Singh is a member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian parliament.
He was the general secretary of the regional Samajwadi Party in 2008 and is accused of offering money to win over three members of the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) during the vote of confidence.
He has consistently denied the charge.
Earlier this month, India's Supreme Court criticised the Delhi police for carrying out a "shoddy probe" into the scandal.
In July 2008 two days of parliamentary debate on the nuclear accord ended in uproar with allegations of vote buying.
BJP members waved wads of currency notes in the air, alleging that they had been offered bribes to abstain.
India's media was awash with reports of alleged defections and desertions among MPs ahead of the vote.
The opposition claimed that a news channel had secretly recorded the alleged bribe taking. The channel handed over the tapes to parliament Speaker Somnath Chatterjee for investigation.

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I-T raids offices, homes of Malayalam film stars

CHENNAI: Income tax sleuths have raided the houses, offices and hotels of Malayalam film stars Mammootty and Mohanlal.The searches started at 6.30am on Friday morning.

The taxmen have reportedly seized several documents. Officia

l sources report that the team has also found an elephant tusk from Mohanlal's Kochi residence.Sources said that the raid is still on at 18 different places including the houses of Mammooty and Mohanlal in Chennai, Kochi and Trivandrum besides the hotels and offices owned by them in Banglore. Residence of Mohanlal's close aid Antony Perumbavoor is also being raided, said the official.
Mohanlal is reportedly in Madurai for the shooting of his new movie.

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Another MP names Amar Singh in cash for votes scam

Another MP on Tuesday (July 19) implicated Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh in the cash for votes scam.

Speaking to TIMES NOW today, Former BJP MP Ashok Argal said, "I have no problem if i am questioned by Delhi police in the cash for vote case. Even if I have to go to jail, I shall happily go in the pursuit of truth. In fact no police officer ever came to investigate this case in the last 3 years."
When asked whether Sanjeev Saxena, who was once considered close to Amar Singh knew the SP leader Argal said, "Sanjeev Saxena and Amar Singh are known to each other. I met both of them at Amar Singh's residence. Sanjeev Saxena has also said that the amount given to us was brought from Amar Singh's residence. Call records show they are related. It will all be clear in investigations."
Argal added, "I am not a beneficiary of this cash for vote scam. I just spoke the truth. And I am not afraid."
Meanwhile, former BJP MP Mahavir Bhagora has claimed that Sanjiv Saxena tried to bribe him during the cash for votes scandal adding to Amar Singh's troubles.

Allegations were levelled by then BJP MPs Ashok Argal, Faggan Singh Kulaste and Mahavir Bhagora that Saxena had delivered Rs one crore in cash to them at the 4 Ferozshah Road residence of Ashok Argal to vote in favour of government.

The crime branch submitted two out of three BJP MPs -- Faggan Singh Kulaste and Mahavir Bhagora -- have stated that on July 22, 2008, Saxena delivered money to them and third MP Ashok Argal at the latter's residence in Delhi.
Kulaste has alleged Saxena was introduced to him and Argal by Amar Singh as his secretary on July 22, 2008, according to the prosecution.
The case was registered in 2009 on the recommendation of the Parliamentary Committee.
Saxena has been booked for various offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act, police said.

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Mumbai blasts figure high in India-U.S. talks

The July 13 bomb blasts in Mumbai figured very high in the India-U.S. strategic dialogue in New Delhi on Tuesday between visiting U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her counterpart External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna.

Mr. Krishna mentioned the terror attack, in which 19 people have been killed, in his opening remarks at the delegation-level talks and said India appreciated the solidarity shown by her and the U.S. government.
The dialogue is aimed at providing an opportunity to take stock of the progress in bilateral relations and cooperation and to hold consultations on global and regional issues of interest, besides charting out a short to medium-term road map of cooperation in priority sectors for the two governments.
Coming less than a week after the Mumbai blasts, discussions on security challenges in the region are expected to be high on the agenda with the U.S. asserting that they are “committed to this important relationship with India with regard to cooperation in counter-terrorism and security concerns and we will be as responsive as we can be.”
Ms. Clinton, who is accompanied by 25-member delegation including top security officials in the U.S. administration, will travel to Chennai on Wednesday.
Ahead of the delegation-level talks, Mr. Krishna and Ms. Clinton had a restricted meeting for nearly an hour.
While Mr. Krishna is accompanied by Deputy-Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Sam Pitroda, Advisor to the Prime Minister and other senior officials, Ms. Clinton’s delegation includes Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and Assistant to President on Science and Technology John Holdren.
Before the strategic dialogue, Ms. Clinton had a breakfast meeting with National Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon.
On her part, Ms. Clinton assured full U.S. support to New Delhi’s efforts to protect itself from terror attacks.
“Before I go further, however, I want to express our sympathy and outrage over the terrorist attack in Mumbai last week. The U.S. condemns this attack in the strongest possible terms. We send our deepest condolences to the families of the victims.
“And we pledge our support to the Indian government, however we can in protecting its cities and citizens from future harm. We are allies in the fight against violent extremist networks. And homeland security is a high priority and a source of increasing partnership,” she said while noting that these were the reasons why the two countries signed the Counter terrorism Cooperative Initiative.
Observing that U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano came to New Delhi to launch the first-ever U.S.-India Homeland Security Dialogue, to bring order and urgency to our shared efforts, Ms. Clinton said, “The events in Mumbai have driven home how important it is that we get results“.
Asserting that the “stakes are high”, she said, “So it is critical that this dialogue leads to concrete and coordinated steps that each of our governments take to produce real results that make a difference in our people’s lives.”

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SC pulls up Delhi Police for Ramdev crackdown

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has pulled up Delhi Police for the midnight crackdown on Baba Ramdev and his supporters at the Ramlila ground here last month.

The apex court has asked Delhi Police to explain what provoked it to use teargas and baton-charge in the closed enclosure on people who were sleeping.

The apex court has asked Delhi Police to furnish the footage of June 4 crackdown.
Baba Ramdev's counsel Ram Jethmalani requested the court to issue notice to home minister P Chidambaram. The court will take up this plea during the next hearing on July 25.
According to agencies, the apex court also pulled up the police for not registering FIR against its officials on complaint of Ramdev's followers.
 The Delhi Police has justified its actions on the ground that permission was given to Baba Ramdev to use the Ramlila Ground for a yoga camp and not for any other purpose.

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SRK becomes a millionaire

Soon after Priyanka Chopra, it is Shah Rukh Khan's turn to touch the one million followers mark on twitter. The actor thanked his fans and celebrated it by watching Bambi with his daughter.

'Celebrating the million mark by watching Bambi with my daughter. Feeling the warmth...thanx all. Love u,' he tweeted.

Shah Rukh Khan is the second Bollywood celebrity to achieve one million mark and the fourth Indian after actress Priyanka Chopra, politician Shashi Tharoor and cricketer Sachin Tendulkar.

Meanwhile, SRK is enjoying his holiday in Denhag, Holland. 'too much fun in denhag. lovely people. i just want to kow..do u get a chicken hangover. had chicken sandwich in the airline lounge...chicken curry back stage...chicken tikka for dinner. will i wake up with an eggache??? Coffee on the terrace in Denhag, saw beauty around me early morning. Felt nice.. Bak to london today,' he added later, and posted a picture of himself (left).

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India lose points, but hang on to number one spot

India maintained their number one status in the latest International Cricket Council Test Rankings but lost a couple of rating points after drawing two matches in their 1-0 series triumph over a lower-ranked West Indies.

India now have 126 points while the seventh-placed West Indies (88) have gained two rating points despite losing the three-match series which concluded on Sunday.
South Africa (117) is the second-placed team, followed by England (116).
Among the players, Harbhajan Singh has moved one place to seventh. The offie took 11 wickets and interestingly replaced teammate and Man-of-the series Ishant Sharma , who had an impressive tally of 22 wickets in three matches.
The off-spinner took six wickets in the final Test and in the process passed the 400-wicket mark.
Praveen Kumar broke into the top 50 for the first time. The medium-pace bowler from Uttar Pradesh walked away with four wickets in the final Test and is now ranked 42nd.
West Indies fast bowler Fidel Edwards achieved his career-best ranking 16th, a gain of two places. He holds the 16th place jointly with South Africa spinner Paul Harris.
The top three remain unchanged with Dale Steyn of South Africa still leading the way ahead of England’s Graeme Swann in second position and James Anderson in third.
Among the batsmen, West Indies’ Shivnarine Chanderpaul rose to seventh following his match-saving 116 not out in the second innings at Roseau.
The top five remain unchanged with Jacques Kallis of South Africa still leading the way ahead of India’s Sachin Tendulkar in second position. Virender Sehwag , Gautam Gambhir and Tendulkar, who did not play in the West Indies series, have fallen back because a player loses one per cent of his ratings points for every Test he misses.
There was no change in the top five of the player rankings for Test all-rounders with Kallis leading the way, followed by New Zealand’s Daniel Vettori.

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Sonia meets PM, no word on Cabinet reshuffle

 NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi held consultations on Monday giving further grist to the speculation mill over a possible reshuffle of the Union Cabinet.

However, the much-awaited cabinet reshuffle will not be undertaken today as expected.

There has been no official word on when exactly the Prime Minister would carry out changes in his Cabinet.

Meanwhile, this is the fourth meeting of the two leaders in recent days amid indications are that the reshuffle would take place any time this week.

The talk in party circles is that if the exercise was 'more fundamental', then there would be several changes in the Cabinet at the middle level.

About 10 to 12 ministers including new entrants from Trinamool Congress and Congress are likely to be involved in the reshuffle.

Sources said that Trinamool Congress Chief Whip in the Lok Sabha Sudip Bandhyopadhyay may get a berth and could be inducted as minister of state, possibly in the finance ministry in charge of Revenue.

There is also speculation that incumbent minister of state finance in-charge of revenue SS Palanimanickam may be upgraded to Cabinet rank in the wake of resignations by his DMK colleagues A Raja and Dayanidhi Maran from the Cabinet.

The talk in Trinamool Congress is that Mamata Banerjee could entrust senior leader Dinesh Trivedi with the railways portfolio she vacated after becoming West Bengal chief minister.

DMK may opt for the upgrade in view of the fact that it is said to be not in a mood to name new entrants into the government at this juncture when two of its ministers had to resign under a cloud and party chief Karunanidhi's daughter Kanimozhi is in jail.

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We respect the sentiments of Telangana people: Jagan

Facing the heat over statehood demand, YSR Congress president Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy on Saturday said his outfit “respects the sentiment” of Telangana people and demanded that the Centre immediately take a “right decision” on the contentious issue.

“We respect the sentiments of Telangana people but we are neither in a position to grant statehood or block it.

“It is for the central government to take a right decision that will not harm the interests of the people of different regions (of Andhra Pradesh),” Mr. Jagan said, delivering the valedictory address at the two-day plenary of his new party at Rajiv Knowledge Valley this afternoon.

By spelling out his stand, though in a rather ambiguous manner, Mr. Jagan tried to buy peace with the pro-Telangana forces as he faced a lot of antagonism in the region ever since he held aloft a placard in support of a unified state in Lok Sabha when he was a Congress MP in 2010.

He was prevented from conducting his ‘Odarpu yatra’ in Warangal district, the hotbed of Telangana agitation, till he came out with a clear view on the statehood demand.

The MP—elect lashed out at the central government for “playing with the lives of people of Andhra Pradesh” for many years now on the vexatious statehood issue.

“AP is in total chaos... people are ending lives...properties are getting damaged. The Government is solely responsible for this. It should stop playing this game at once and take a right decision that does not harm the interests of people of different regions and lead to further acrimony,” Mr. Jagan demanded.

By giving a veiled indication that he might support bifurcation of the state if the situation demanded, Mr. Jagan is looking for a window of opportunity to step into the region and possibly widen his base.

In fact, political leaders of various hues in the region had been waiting for Mr. Jagan to clear his stance on the Telangana issue.

Terming the Telangana issue a “very sensitive and complex” one, Mr. Jagan accused the Congress and the Telugu Desam Party of “flip-flops” on it.

“On December 9, 2009, Sonia Gandhi announced a rather favourable stand on Telangana but TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu took a U turn the very next day despite promising in his party’s election manifesto to work for creation of a separate state.

“Now, everybody wants to know our stand on this issue but we are not in a position to influence anybody on this. In fact, nobody will invite us to express our view but as a responsible party we have to spell out our stand,” the YSR Congress chief said.

Though some leaders within his party suggested that they too constitute a committee to mull over the issue, he did not want to drag his feet, Mr. Jagan said.

Earlier in the day, Mr. Jagan faced the Telangana heat on the second day of his party’s plenary session even as the newly-formed outfit sought steer clear of the contentious issue by pushing the blame on to the ruling Congress for the current imbroglio.

Chaos reigned at the plenary as YSR Congress workers from Telangana and Andhra-Rayalaseema regions held aloft placards and raised slogans for and against the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.

Party leaders had a tough time pacifying the slogan0shouting workers.

Those from Telangana demanded that Mr. Jagan immediately announce the YSR Congress’ stand on the separate state demand.

Congress MLA from Telangana region Konda Surekha blamed her party for the current impasse.

“When he was alive, one party blamed then Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy for blocking the formation of Telangana state. Now that YSR is no more, what is preventing Telangana state from becoming a reality,” she questioned, in an oblique reference to the separatist Telangana Rashtra Samiti.

Appealing to everyone to respect the sentiments of Telangana people, Ms. Surekha said the entire country was eagerly awaiting Jagan’s word on the statehood issue and concluded her speech with the ‘Jai Telangana’ slogan.

Another Congress MLA Adinarayana Reddy from Kadapa district maintained that they still supported a unified Andhra Pradesh but blamed his party for compounding the crisis over the statehood issue.

Former Congress MLA Bajireddi Govardhan accused the Congress of betraying the people of Telangana on the creation of a separate state.

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