There has been yet another attack on an Indian in Australia.
29-year-old Jaspreet Singh was set ablaze by a group of four attackers in Melbourne on Saturday, a week after a student from the country was stabbed to death amid a slew of assaults on the community in Australia. (Read: Indian youth fatally stabbed in Australia)
Jaspreet, who suffered 20 per cent burns including on his arms, chest and face, was admitted to Royal Melbourne hospital after he was attacked shortly before 2 am local time (0730 HRS IST) in Melbourne's Essendon area.
Jaspreet and his wife left a dinner party in Essendon, in the city's northwest, between 1.30 am and 2 am and drove to their nearby home in Grice Crescent. He dropped his wife at home and had gone to park his car when he was attacked, local media reported.
Popular micro-blogging site Twitter is expanding headcount and has many openings for software engineers.
Twitter is looking to hire people for as many as 27 key positions in the company, which had started operating from a garage in 2006.
Twitter has sprang on popularity charts with a number of celebrities, including Britney Spears, India's Shah Rukh Khan and US daily The New York Times using the service and scores of people using it for dissemination of information.
It is looking for people in areas right from software engineering to product and technical operations; administrative department to managing media services to take the company to the next level of growth.
"We are a hard-working team looking for a few key people to help take us to the next level," Twitter said on its website.
The company, as per information available with its website in April last year, has about 120 employees.
Twitter offers micro-blogging which allows users to send short text messages, among others, on various multimedia platforms.
"The main challenge is that an agreement by 29 countries needs to be converted into one by 194 countries," said Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh.
With the Copenhagen Accord setting a January 31 deadline for the nations to specify 2020 emission targets and other steps, India will hold discussion with other BASIC group members comprising China, South Africa and Brazil in New Delhi on their climate strategy.
“I have invited my counterparts in the BASIC group to attend a meeting in New Delhi in the third week of January before everyone finalises the entry into the appendix (Accord),” Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said.
“The main challenge is that an agreement by 29 countries needs to be converted into one by 194 countries,” Mr. Ramesh pointed amid environmentalists’ demand not to endorse the Accord which they have termed “flawed” and “meaningless.”
While 194 countries, including the US, China and India, at the two-week UN summit in the Danish Capital last month took note of the Copenhagen deal, they were given until January 31 to list actions and targets to curb greenhouse gases causing global warming.
India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni once again came hard on his bowlers for their lacklustre display in the ongoing cricket tri-series here and said the bowling department need to improve their performance by leaps and bounds in his side desire to be the numero uno ODI team.
Dhoni praised the batters of his team for their good showing but asked his bowlers to pull up their socks in India want to be consistent this year.
“If we want to be in the number one spot, if we want to be consistent then we need to improve our performance in all departments, especially bowling. I want the bowlers to deliver when needed,” Dhoni said.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday expressed the hope that Indians living abroad would be able to vote in the next general elections.
Responding to the frequent plea for voting rights to non-resident Indians (NRIs), most recently by members of his Global Advisory Council of Overseas Indians, Dr. Singh termed the desire legitimate.
“We are working on this issue and I sincerely hope that they will get a chance to vote by the time of the next regular general elections. In fact, I would go a step further and ask why more overseas Indians should not return home to join politics and public life as they are increasingly doing in business and academia,” he said inaugurating the Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas here.
Dr. Singh also took on board several familiar grievances expressed by NRIs, including the slow pace of decision-making, and reminded them of their obligations to the motherland.
Taking a dig at overseas Indians being not only good savers but also “somewhat conservative investors,” Dr. Singh said they should move away from parking their savings in bank deposits. “Foreign direct investment in India by overseas Indians is low and far short of potential. I would urge overseas Indians to take a careful look at long-term investment opportunities now on the horizon in our country.”
core group, which met on Friday on the Telangana issue, has unanimously said that the 'promised' committee on Telangana will have to wait till normalcy returns to Andhra Pradesh.
Sources said that unless law and order situation was under control and there is normalcy, there is no question of appointing a committee. Though the core group agreed on the need for a mechanism for further consultations on the issue of a separate state of Telangana.
The Centre has been mulling the idea of setting up a committee to hold consultations with all stakeholders.
The all-party meeting on Telangana convened by Home
Minister P Chidambaram on January 5 ended with leaders appealing for maintaining peace, harmony and law and order in Andhra Pradesh.
Four rockets were fired from across the Pakistan border on Saturday. Two rockets landed near Border Security Force (BSF) post at Wagah. Other two landed in a field.
In retaliation, the BSF also fired back. The paramilitary force has lodged protest at flag meeting.
SRINAGAR, India (AFP) - Plans for the first major New Year's Eve celebrations in violence-wracked Indian Kashmir for 20 years have triggered protests from hardliners who object to the "anti-Islamic" partying.
War-weary locals are set to enjoy some of the first major New Year's events since an anti-India insurgency broke out in the snow-capped Himalayan region 20 years ago.
Hotels plan to lay on dinners and dances and there will be parties in the region's ski resort of Gulmarg in a further sign of life returning to normal as violence wanes.
Indian Kashmir's leading woman separatist and anti-vice campaigner took aim at party organisers and urged residents to shun events that could expose them to "obscenity and immorality."
"People should refrain from attending such functions," Aasiya Andrabi said in a statement.
Andrabi, who heads Dukhtaran-e-Milat or Daughters of Faith, has been jailed in the past for her anti-vice campaign, which includes preventing couples from dating or celebrating Valentine's Day.
"We are fighting for freedom and it demands character building rather than enjoying the anti-Islamic celebrations," she said.
Mushtaq Chaya, a local hotel owner who is organising a dinner and dance, says Kashmiris should be free to enjoy themselves.
"Why should Kashmiris see New Year celebrations of other states and countries on TV only? We want them to be part of the celebrations," he said.
Hardline Muslim militants frequently targeted cinema halls, video parlours and liquor shops across the region during the height of the insurgency.
Andrabi, who served a two-year jail term in the mid-1990s for helping Muslim rebels, has in the past smeared black paint on racy Bollywood film posters and demanded women veil themselves fully.
More than 47,000 people have been killed in Indian Kashmir since 1989 when Islamic militants rose in revolt against New Delhi's rule. India accuses Pakistan of arming and training the rebels, a charge Islamabad denies.
A policeman, R Vetrivel, in Tamil Nadu lies on the road begging for help. The 44-year-old's legs have been chopped off by gangsters.
A government convoy passes by this part of Tirunelvelli. It includes two ministers - for Sports and Health - in the Tamil Nadu government. The convoy stops. Neither of the ministers step out of their cars. With them are bureaucrats - a Collector and a Health Secretary.
The Collector, M Jayaraman, finally gets out of his car after dithering for eight minutes. But nobody offers to take the wounded inspector to hospital. Finally, the Collector phones for an ambulance. It doesn't arrive.
Twenty minutes later, the cop is placed in one of the cars (the ministers still don't offer theirs). The policeman dies en route to the hospital.
