Nasheman

India's largest selling Urdu weekly, now also in English

You are here: Home / 2015 / Archives for December 2015

Archives for December 2015

“I want to make a personal comeback, not just a professional one”: Nadeem Saifi

by

Nadeem-Saifi

Music Composer Nadeem Saifi, who has been living in Dubai & London since the past many years, is making his comeback to Bollywood with the upcoming film Ishq Forever and Nadeem claimed that he wants to make a comeback in the personal sense too.

When asked about making a comeback, Nadeem averred, “I am making a comeback as a composer to Bollywood with Ishq Forever, but at the same time, I also want to make a comeback in the real sense as well. I have been away from India since many years and I miss my country, where I have got so much love, affection & respect. Maybe, someday, it will be possible for me to come to India.”

The trailer of Ishq Forever starring Krishna Chaturvedi, Ruhi Singh, Lisa Ray & Jaaved Jafferi was launched recently by director Sameer Sippy & producer Shabeer Boxwala along with the film’s team and Bollywood actor Arjun Rampal.

Nadeem, who made his debut as a composer in 1979 with a Bhojpuri film titled ‘Dangal’, has a record of 1000 back to back super hit songs.

DDCA official sought sex for selection: Kejriwal

by

Arvind Kejriwal

New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday accused Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) official of asking for sex in return for selection of cricketers.

“A senior journalist came to me and said his wife was asked to come for sex in return for selection of his son in the cricket team,” Kejriwal told NDTV.

He did not name the journalist.

Kejriwal also said that “apart from the financial irregularities, there were other major wrong things happening including the sex racket”.

He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should decide “whether to make DDCA inquiry null and void to protect (Finance Minister) Arun Jaitley”.

(Agencies)

SC upholds Kerala’s liquor policy; bars only in 5-star hotels

by

Actor Mohanlal advertises for a brand of whisky in Kerala.

Actor Mohanlal advertises for a brand of whisky in Kerala.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the Kerala government’s liquor policy restricting service and consumption of liquor at bars in five star hotels only.

An apex court bench comprising Justice Vikramjit Sen and Justice Shiva Kirti Singh in their judgement pronounced on Tuesday said that petitions challenging the Kerala liquor policy are dismissed and the Kerala High Court judgement sustaining the liquor policy is upheld.

The liquor policy, upheld by the apex court, allows service of liquor at bars in five star hotels only. Under the policy, the sale and consumption of liquor at the bars in hotels below five star is prohibited.

The Kerala government hailed the Supreme Court’s verdict that not only upheld the Kerala High Court’s verdict but also the Oommen Chandy government’s liquor policy.

“We are happy that the Supreme Court’s division bench has upheld our decision. From now on, we will be going ahead very strongly with our anti-liquor campaign programmes as we want this habit to be removed from our society,” Kerala’s Excise Minister K. Babu told reporters just after the apex court’s verdict on Tuesday.

In March this year the Kerala High Court upheld the state’s new liquor policy and dismissed a petition of the Kerala Bar Hotel Owners Association. Following this, the hotel association, led by its president Raj Kumar Unni, approached the apex court against this verdict.

From April 1, only 27 five-star hotels were serving liquor and with Tuesday’s verdict, the status quo would be maintained.

Reacting to the new development, Unni said the government will now decide how and what to do next. “Yes, we will seek legal advice on how to move forward,” said Unni.

Bar owner Elegant Binoy told reporters that the latest verdict is not the end of the world for the bar association.

“What must be noticed is that the liquor policy of the state is an annual exercise and there are just three more months for this policy. From April 1, 2016, there has to be a new policy, so we will wait and see, and before that we also will sit down and discuss what other legal recourse is there before us,” said Binoy.

In August 2014 the Chandy-led Kerala government announced, as part of its new liquor policy, that it was deciding to go in for total prohibition in 10 years and had issued a notice for closure to all the 710 bars, including the 418 ones that had not opened since April 1 that year.

Liquor, however, will be available through 305 retail liquor shops owned by the Kerala government. And, here too, 10 percent of these shops would be closed down every October, the new policy statement anno0unced. By now 78 shops have already downed their shutters.

With assembly polls round the corner, all eyes are on the Left opposition as to what would be its liquor policy, as the apex court on Tuesday pointed out it is the decision of the state government to formulate its own policy.

(IANS)

14-year-old girl gang-raped by armymen on Howrah-Amritsar Express

by

rape

Ranchi: A group of inebriated army men allegedly gang-raped a 14-year-old girl on board the Howrah-Amritsar Express after forcing her to drink alcohol, police said on Monday.

Sources said the girl, a resident of Kolkata, boarded the Punjab-bound train at Howrah on Sunday but entered the coach reserved for army personnel by mistake.

One of the jawans got her drunk and two others then raped her when she went to the bathroom.

Social workers found her unconscious on the train when it stopped in Jharkhand’s Madhupur station.

“We have arrested one Mandreesh Tripathi who had offered liquor to the minor,” said Madhupur GRP’s officer in-charge, Arjun Tiwari. Sources said Tripathi has confessed he forced the minor to drink.

The girl was in shock and needed counselling.

(Agencies)

 

Illegal mining: Lokayukta raids Janardhan Reddy’s home, office

by

Janardhan Reddy

Bengaluru: Karnataka Lokayukta Police on Tuesday raided mining baron and former Bharatiya Janata Party minister Janardhan Reddy’s home and office.

The raids are conducted simultaneously in at least seven places in Bellary and Bengaluru.

A disproportionate assets case has been registered against Reddy.

Meanwhile, office of Obalapuram Mining Corporation is also being raided.

Janardhan Reddy has been under investigation by both Lokayukta and CBI over his mining deals and the illegal mining activity carried out when BJP was ruling Karnataka between 2008 and 2013.

Reddy spent over two years in jail and has been out on bail.

(Agencies)

Ramdev likely to skip JNU visit, varsity stands by invitation

by

DRDO-Ramdev

New Delhi: Yoga guru Ramdev today indicated that he would skip his visit to Jawaharlal Nehru University where he was invited to deliver a keynote address even as the varsity rejected demand of a student group to withdraw the invitation.

“Me or my office has not confirmed for any talk or event at JNU. I would have surely gone to JNU if time allowed to have candid, scientific & logical discussion, even with my ideological adversaries. I will love to talk to students & faculty at JNU, whenever its possible in near future,” he said in a series of tweets.

While the varsity administration maintained that it has not heard of any denial or acceptance of the invitation from Ramdev, it clarified that it stands by the invitation.

“The invitation to Ramdev was extended due to the quality work he has done in the field of Yoga. The administration has no agenda to support any political affiliations. Students have a right to register their protest but we stand by the invite extended to him,” said JNU Professor G N Jha, member of the organising committee.

Terming the move a “silent right-wing onslaught” on the university , Jawaharlal Nehru Students Union (JNUSU) had yesterday demanded that the authorities withdraw their invitation to the yoga guru to attend the ’22nd International Congress of Vedanta’ or face protests.

The three-day convention– organised by the university’s Special Center for Sanskrit Studies in collaboration with the Institute of Advanced Sciences, Dartmouth, USA and the Center for Indic Studies, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth — began here on December 27.

Ramdev has been invited to deliver the key-note address on December 30.

(PTI)

More than 100,000 flee devastating floods in South America

by

Up to 160,000 displaced following El Niño pummels Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina, Brazil for nearly 10 days

A man wades through floodwater in Paraguay. (Photo: AP)

A man wades through floodwater in Paraguay. (Photo: AP)

by Nadia Prupis, Common Dreams

More than 100,000 people have been evacuated throughout the bordering areas of Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, and Brazil as severe flooding continued to batter the South American region this weekend.

According to new figures released Sunday by the Municipal Emergencies office, as many as 160,000 people have had to flee their homes due to the flooding that began December 18—a devastating result of this season’s El Niño storms.

Many of those impacted are low-income families living along the River Paraguay.

“[The flooding] was directly influenced by the El Niño phenomenon which has intensified the frequency and intensity of rains,” the office said.

As the United Nations weather agency, the World Meteorological Organization, warned last month, this year’s storm season is the worst in more than 15 years, and is likely to bring yet more flooding and droughts to the tropics and subtropics.

The flooding in South America follows recent severe storms in Yemen andMexico. In October, after Hurricane Patricia made landfall in Puerto Vallarta and Manzanillo and forced the evacuation of 50,000 people, meteorologist Eric Holthaus wrote at Slate that, due to climate change, it was “exactly the kind of terrifying storm we can expect to see more frequently in the decades to come.”

Paraguay has been the hardest hit, with an estimated 100,000 displaced, while 20,000 have been left homeless in Argentina and 9,000 in Uruguay. At least eight people have been killed across the region, according to local media.

Paraguay’s emergencies office also said the river is likely to rise in the coming days and may not subside until January.

Paraguay has reportedly declared a state of emergency in Asuncion. In Argentina on Sunday, Corrientes governor Ricardo Colombi said “the consequences [of the flooding] will be serious.”

Iraqi army declares Ramadi ‘liberated’ from ISIL

by

Troops raise Iraqi flag over recaptured central government complex but fighting for full control of city continues.

The Iraqi military says it has liberated the city of Ramadi from ISIL [Reuters]

The Iraqi military says it has liberated the city of Ramadi from ISIL [Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Iraqi forces claimed victory over the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Ramadi as clearing operations were under way to flush out the armed group’s remaining fighters in the key city.

“Yes, the city of Ramadi has been liberated,” Brigadier General Yahya Rasool said in a televised statement on Monday, a day after the army took control of the key government compound in Ramadi’s Al Huz neighbourhood.

“The Iraqi counter-terrorism forces have raised the Iraqi flag over the government complex in Anbar,” Rasool added, saying the fighting will continue until the whole city is liberated.

“This is a new chapter in the history of the country.”

‘Long war’

Ramadi, the capital of the Anbar province, fell to ISIL in May in an embarrassing setback for Iraqi forces.

Analysts say recapturing the provincial capital, which is just 100km west of Baghdad, could deprive ISIL of its biggest prize of 2015.

“By controlling the complex this means that we have defeated them in Ramadi,” said Sabah al-Numani, a spokesman for government forces.

“The next step is to clear pockets that could exist here or there in the city.”

Mark Kimmitt, a former US assistant secretary of political and military affairs, said recapturing Ramadi was just a small part of defeating ISIL

“The Iraqi army has improved but to take Ramadi is going to take thousands and thousands of soldiers, and one question is whether those soldiers are ready at this point,” Kimmitt told Al Jazeera.

“It could well be that next year by this time that ISIS is pushed out of Iraq and Iraq has restored its borders, but anybody that thinks that is the beginning of the end of ISIS I think doesn’t understand that ISIS has truly metastatised inside the region,” he added.

“We are going to be fighting this long war for a generation.”

First major victory

US Army Col Steve Warren congratulated Iraqi forces for its recent gains.

“We congratulate the Iraqi security forces for their continued success against ISIL in Ramadi. The clearance of the government centre is a significant accomplishment and is the result of many months of hard work,” Warren said in a statement.

If the recapture of Ramadi is confirmed, it will be the first major city seized from ISIL by Iraq’s military, which in past battles against the armed group had operated mainly in a supporting role alongside Iran-backed Shia militias.

The militias were held back from the battlefield in Ramadi this time to avoid antagonising the mainly Sunni population.

The government has said the next target after Ramadi will be the northern city of Mosul – by far the largest population centre controlled by ISIL in either Iraq or Syria.

Won’t apologise to Jaitley: Kejriwal

by

arvind-kejriwal

New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday said he will not apologise to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley over the DDCA row, and added that the Bharatiya Janata Party was “begging” for it.

“BJP almost begging me for an apology. Sorry. I won’t oblige them. Let Jaitley-ji be cross-examined in defamation cases. Let truth prevail,” Kejriwal tweeted.

Earlier on Sunday, the Bharatiya Janata Party sought an apology from Kejriwal, saying that Jaitley was not named in the report of the committee appointed by his government to probe alleged financial irregularities in the Delhi and Districts Cricket Association (DDCA).

“No clean chit ever given by any Delhi government probe. That report confirmed several instances of wrong-doings but did not fix responsibility,” Kejriwal said.

“It didn’t mention anyone’s name and recommended (an) enquiry commission to fix responsibility, which we have done now.”

Earlier in the day, former solicitor general Gopal Subramaniam agreed to chair the Commission of Inquiry to probe alleged financial irregularities in Delhi’s cricket body.

Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said that although the report on the DDCA did not name anyone, it certainly did not give a clean cheat to Jaitley who headed the board for over 13 years till 2013.

“The report has not named anyone in the corruption in DDCA. Then who has done corruption, ghosts,” Sisodia asked.

An atmosphere was being created that Jaitley has been given clean cheat in the matter but the fact is that the commission of inquiry has not even started the probe, he said.

(Agencies)

Rahul Gandhi to be away in Europe for ‘few days’

by

Rahul-Gandhi

New Delhi: Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi today said he will be travelling to Europe for a “few days”, the first time that he has gone public about a trip abroad.

Gandhi, whose foreign trips in the past have led to intense speculation, took to Twitter to announce this.

“I will be traveling to Europe for a few days. A very Happy New Year to everyone,” he said.

“Hope the new year brings much joy and happiness to you and everyone close to you!,” he wished.

Gandhi had been out of the country during New Year on some occasions in the past as well.

His last two trips abroad were much talked about. His around two-month sabbatical after an AICC session in February this year to reflect upon the party’s debacle in Delhi elections and deliberate on a future course for Congress had led to BJP taking potshots at him.

There was a political controversy even over his September visit to Aspen, US to attend a conference.

This is the first time that Gandhi has taken to Twitter to make public his plan to travel abroad.

The party has not assigned any reason for his visit.

When the BJP raised questions about the Congress claim of Gandhi attending the conference in Aspen, the Congress vice president’s office had uploaded photographs of the same on Twitter to counter the attack.

(Agencies)

KNOW US

GET INVOLVED

PROMOTE

Archives