Latest News

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• NASA delays Glory launch
• One with opposition on black money issue: PM
• India ‘sincerely’ hopes for peace with Pakistan: PM
• World Cup: Dhaka keeps vigil on cricket bookies
• Government to provide up to 100,000 jobs in Kashmir: PM
• Indian bank clocks 120 percent growth in Trinidad and Tobago
• Problems exist, but look at telecom growth: PM
• No babies for Kim Kardashian in near future
• I Didn’t live life in right way for politics: Clooney
• Inflation will be controlled by March: PM

NASA delays Glory launch Posted: 24 Feb 2011 12:21 AM PST NASA announced Wednesday that it has postponed the launch of its earth-orbiting Glory Mission spacecraft due to technical problems, Xinhua reported. During the final 15 minutes before Wednesday’s scheduled launch at 5.09 a.m. from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base, the vehicle interface control console, a ground interface with Orbital Sciences’ Taurus XL rocket, gave an unexpected reading, NASA said in a press release. The cause and potential effect of the reading was not fully understood, the release said. With a 48-second available launch window, there was insufficient time to analyze the issue causing the launch to be postponed, NASA said. It said members of the Taurus team are troubleshooting the issue. The next launch attempt is no earlier than Thursday, Feb 24, at 5.09 a.m., it said. Glory will send back data to help scientists improve their ability to predict Earth’s future environment and to distinguish human-induced climate change from natural climate variability, NASA scientists said. The $434-million mission is managed by the NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.

One with opposition on black money issue: PM Posted: 24 Feb 2011 12:18 AM PST Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Thursday his government shared the opposition’s views on getting back the black money stashed by some Indians in foreign banks. “We are one with the opposition that everything should be done to bring back black money stashed abroad,” Manmohan Singh told the Lok Sabha while replying to the debate on the motion of thanks on the president’s address. He said the government would “sit together” with all political parties to “seek their help and see how the black money problem can be dealt with”. “All constructive suggestions will be considered,” he said. The prime minister said the accumulation of black money was not the product of the last four-five years but “has been there for long years”.

India ‘sincerely’ hopes for peace with Pakistan: PM Posted: 24 Feb 2011 12:12 AM PST Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Thursday said his government was willing to resolve all issues with Pakistan. “We are willing to resolve all outstanding issues with Pakistan… We sincerely hope Pakistan will grasp our hand of friendship,” Manmohan Singh said in the Lok Sabha while replying to the debate on the motion of thanks to the president’s address.

World Cup: Dhaka keeps vigil on cricket bookies Posted: 24 Feb 2011 12:08 AM PST World Cup co-host Bangladesh has said it is keeping a vigil on international cricket bookies to ensure that they do not try to establish contacts with players and officials. Travel papers of visitors are being closely checked to look for 25 bookies whose list has been supplied by the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) to the home ministry, state minister for home Shamsul Haque Tuku said Wednesday. The minister said that the BCB had provided the list along with their photographs and passport details received from the International Cricket Council. “We are alert to them. Steps have been taken to bar the crime racket in reaching the captain, players or officials of any cricket teams. It is also been taken care of so that they cannot get any important information on any team,” Tuku was quoted as saying by New Age newspaper Thursday. Kamal Uddin Ahmed, joint secretary (political) of the home ministry, said they have asked the immigration authorities to examine the travel documents of all foreigners to find out whether any bookie has arrived. The Daily Star quoted an unnamed source at the home ministry as saying that all the bookies are foreign nationals, but the official declined to give their details. World Cup is being held from Feb 19 to April 2. It is being hosted by Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka.

Government to provide up to 100,000 jobs in Kashmir: PM Posted: 24 Feb 2011 12:03 AM PST Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Thursday said his government was working to provide 50,000-100,000 jobs to the youths of troubled Jammu and Kashmir. This, he added, would change their “mental makeup and mindset”. “We will do everything to strengthen the hands of the state government to provide a fairer deal to the youths of Jammu and Kashmir and provide 50,000 to one lakh jobs to Kashmiris,” Manmohan Singh said, replying to the debate on the motion of thanks on the president’s address. “It will change the mental makeup and mindset of youth of Kashmir,” the prime minister said. He said the central government has formed a panel of experts, headed by former Reserve Bank of India governor C. Rangarajan, for a job plan in the employment-starved state. The panel will file its report soon, he said. The state, Manmohan Singh stressed, had passed through a difficult time particularly last summer. “But since then, the situation has improved.” This summer, he hoped, “we will be vigilant enough” to ensure it doesn’t happen again. The prime minister said the government “will give no quarters to secessionists” in the state but asked political parties to “not disturb the peaceful atmosphere in Jammu and Kashmir”.

Indian bank clocks 120 percent growth in Trinidad and Tobago Posted: 23 Feb 2011 11:57 PM PST India’s Bank of Baroda has recorded a whopping 120 percent growth in credit in Trinidad and Tobago. The bank also recorded a 75 percent growth in total business in a matter of ten months of the current financial year, Yesh Pal Chhabra, managing director, told IANS. Chhabra, who took over the reins of the Bank of Baroda operations from Kishore Karat last June, said that its Chaguanas and San Fernando branches were responsible for this rapid growth. He said that the bank’s innovative strategies had made a difference in its operations, and one of them is to restructure its system of loans payment where it gives customers more time to repay loans. The Bank of Baroda is the first Indian bank here and its customer base represents the multi-cultural and multi-ethnic composition of this country’s 1.3 million people, of which 44 percent are of Indian origin whose forefathers came here between 1845 and 1917 to work on the sugar plantations. “Our marketing style is different. We like to personalise our business with our clients and we are very receptive to their needs,” Chhabra said. “Our bank can play a role in designing appropriate schemes to improve the environment for lending to small and medium businesses,” he added. Bank of Baroda now has a customer base of 5,000 clients since it began operations here in 2007. Chhabra said that Minister of Finance Winston Dookeran and Minister of Trade and Industry Stephen Cadiz were keen to resolve many issues facing the economy. “The 2010-11 budget was prepared well, focusing on areas of concern to the people. Bank of Baroda has expertise in lending to the agriculture sector, as well as some small business and industry. We are ready to extend our support to the government in all such matters and can provide details of many lending schemes for promoting agricultural activities in Trinidad and Tobago,” Chhabra told IANS. He suggested that the Trinidad and Tobago government should establish a recovery agency to assist banks with default loans as many banks have experienced an increase of non-performing loans from one percent of their total loan performance to four percent. “To help satisfy all parties, the government can act as a security mechanism in retrieving default payments while charging a one percent fee for recovery,” the bank official said. The Bank of Baroda, which has a tagline as India’s international bank, has a presence in 26 countries with 3,287 branches and 40,000 employees supported by 37 million customers. Chhabra said that the bank has plans to open 900 more branches in India, the US, Canada, Suriname and New Zealand.

Problems exist, but look at telecom growth: PM Posted: 23 Feb 2011 11:55 PM PST Telecom growth should not be overlooked, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, under attack for alleged irregularities in the 2G spectrum allocation, said Thursday while stressing that “if there is a scam, it must be dealt with”. “People talk of scams. And if there is a scam, it must be dealt with but we must also not overlook the fact of the telecom growth,” Manmohan Singh said in the Lok Sabha, replying to a debate on the motion of thanks to the president’s address. He said tele-density in India had witnessed tremendous growth over the years. “If you look at the figures, in March 2004 the tele-density in rural areas was 1.55 percent and in urban areas it was 20.5 percent. Total tele-density in India in March 2004 was 7.7 percent,” he said. He claimed that the figures in December 2010 show that the rural tele-density had increased to 31.18 percent and in urban areas it was 47 percent. “The total tele-density has gone to 66 percent,” he said. He said this was made possible through the national telecom policy of not auctioning the telephony spectrums. “There is nothing wrong in the telecom policy (of issuing the spectrum licenses on the first come first serve basis). Our government has continued the same path and that policy has paid rich dividends,” he said. In the backdrop of the 2G scam, the prime minister said he was being asked about the concerns and problems in the telecom sector. “My respectful answer to that is that when I look at the telecom policy, the ministry had decided not to go in for auction for level playing field and we should continue this path … Telecom must become accessible,” he said, admitting that there were problems. “These problems are now being looked into by the JPC (joint parliamentary committee), PAC (public accounts committee) and the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation). Our government will fully cooperate with all these agencies to ensure truth comes out,” he said.

No babies for Kim Kardashian in near future Posted: 23 Feb 2011 11:48 PM PST Socialite Kim Kardashian has no plans to enter motherhood anytime soon. Kardashian, 30, is smitten by NBA star Kris Humphries, reports people.com. “I think I haven’t found one thing wrong with him, let’s just put it like that,” she said. Asked about having kids, she added: “Not anytime soon. But I never know what the future holds.”

I Didn’t live life in right way for politics: Clooney Posted: 23 Feb 2011 11:28 PM PST Actor George Clooney has no plans to join politics and says his life is too colourful to have him elected as a politician. “I didn’t live my life in the right way for politics, you know. I (expletive) too many chicks and did too many drugs, and that’s the truth,” Clooney told Newsweek weekly magazine. Clooney also said that politicians should just be open about their past indiscretions and then get on with governing, reports people.com. A savvy political figure “would start from the beginning by saying, ‘I did it all. I drank the bong water. Now let’s talk about issues. That’s gonna be my campaign slogan: ‘I drank the bong water.’” Clooney adds he would rather focus his star power on raising awareness around certain issues – such as the war in Sudan.

Inflation will be controlled by March: PM Posted: 23 Feb 2011 11:22 PM PST Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Thursday said the “government stands committed” to curbing inflation. “By the end of this fiscal year, inflation will be controlled. I expect the situation to improve,” Manmohan Singh told the Lok Sabha, replying to a debate on the motion of thanks to the president’s address.

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