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The bag, hauled out of the sea off the coast of Ofunato city, was raised by a trawler on October 8.
According to local officials, it may have been swept out to sea by the March 11 tsunami, the Japan Times reports.
The bag contained nothing that
would help to identify the owner, the officials said.
The cash will go to the person who found it if the owner doesn”t come forward, the officials added. (ANI)
PRAGUE, April 2 (Reuters) – Czech power group CEZ (CEZPsp.PR) said on Friday it would restart the third unit at its Dukovany nuclear power plant over the weekend after a regular re-fuelling.
Utilities
CEZ added it would again shut units 3 and 4 at the plant in late October for 25 days.
(Reporting by Jason Hovet)
New Delhi/ Faizabad/Allahabad, Sept 19 (ANI): The nine-day ‘Navratri’ festival began across India with religious fervour on Saturday.
Thousands of devotees queued up at various temples dedicated to Goddess Durga.
In New Delhi, devotees converged at Jhandewalan to offer prayers prior to dawn and observed fast throughout the day.
“We observe fast on the first day of Navratri. On the first day, we pray for the whole day and meditate on Goddess Durga,” said Madan Gehlot, a devotee.
Meanwhile, at Faizabad in Uttar Pradesh, people made a beeline to the temple of Goddess Badi Devkali.
The devotees believe their wishes are fulfilled if they pray to Goddess Badi Devkali during the festival.
“People believe that coming here redeems them from their sins. Since the Goddess Devkali is the deity of Lord Rama’s dynasty, her significance is all the more. That’s why people come here to offer prayers to the Goddess,” said Poonam, a devotee.
Earlier on Friday, a day prior to the commencement of Dusshera, a unique annual horse procession was taken out through the streets of Allahabad.
The belief is that the horse representing sage Vyasa would relate the Ramayana.
Musical bands led the attractively decorated white horse procession organised by a leading Ram Lila committee of the city.
“Legend says that when Maharishi Valmiki narrated the story of Lord Rama to Luv and Kush then this horse standing next to them also listened to the story. The horse in the form of sage Vyasa tells the story of Rama to people during the Navratri celebrations,” said Ajay Kumar Shukla, secretary, Ramlila Committee.
“Naaratri”, which literally means nine nights, is observed twice a year.
The festival lasts for nine days in honour of nine manifestations of Durga, goddess of power, and fall in the months of April-May and September-October.
It is believed that during the Navratri, Goddess Durga descends on earth to rid it of the demons and blesses her devotees with happiness and prosperity. (ANI)
London, September 19 (ANI): Two separate lunar missions have found evidence which indicates that the polar regions of the moon are chock full of water-altered minerals.
According to a report in Nature News, early results from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), launched on June 18, are offering a wide array of watery signals.
The Moon, in fact, has water in all sorts of places: not just locked up in minerals, but scattered throughout the broken-up surface, and, potentially, in blocks or sheets of ice at depth.
“We are on the verge of a renaissance in our thinking about the poles of the Moon, including how water ice gets there,” said Anthony Colaprete, principal investigator for the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS), which on October 9, will slam into a polar crater with the intention of ploughing up a plume of water ice for many telescopic eyes to see.
The initial LRO results confirm what was long suspected as a way for ice to stay trapped on the Moon for billions of years.
A thermal mapping instrument showed that permanently shadowed regions within deep polar craters are as cold as 35o Kelvin (-238o Celsius).
Project scientist Richard Vondrak said that they are the coldest spots in the Solar System – even colder than the surface of Pluto.
Variations in the flux of neutrons suggests variability in water content among craters.
But, the surprise comes from a different instrument on LRO, which counts slow-moving neutrons as a way of measuring hydrogen abundance in the top metre or so of the surface.
This hydrogen is often interpreted as a proxy for water ice, although it could also be molecular hydrogen or hydrogen trapped in other molecules.
The LRO instrument has already found a significant excess of hydrogen at the poles.
But, with added resolution, it is seeing surprising variability within the polar regions. Some of the craters appear enriched in hydrogen. Others are not.
Stranger still, some areas outside the crater walls, which were thought to get too hot for water to linger, show an excess of hydrogen.
Vondrak said this shows that the water could have arrived more recently, or that it can persist if buried as impacts till the lunar soil.
If the LCROSS impact spews up ice, it will eliminate the last vestiges of doubt about water on the Moon.
It could also start a new hunt: to find a record of impact events, such as water-rich comet strikes, that put the ice there in the first place. (ANI)
New Delhi, Sep 19 (ANI): The crucial meeting of the Congress Party and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leaders will be held here on Saturday to give the final shape to the seat sharing agreement for next month’s Maharashtra Assembly polls.
The Election Commission issued notification for the assembly polls in Maharashtra, which is to be held on October 13.
On Thursday it was reported that both parties had broadly agreed to a formula of 174: 114 seats for the Congress and the NCP respectively.
The Maharashtra Assembly has 298 constituencies.
Poll management leaders of both the Congress and the NCP met their respective party chiefs on Friday after three days of negotiations.
They had earlier held a series of discussions in Mumbai to give final shape to the seat sharing process.
If the current formula gets the stamp of approval of both parties then the NCP would settle for ten seats less than what it contested the last time.
Meanwhile the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – Shiv Sena alliance settled on a seat sharing, for 119 for the BJP and 169 seats for Shiv Sena (ANI)
London, Sept 19 (ANI): Fascinating letters written by Lawrence of Arabia have been found years after they were thought to have been burned on a fire.
In the letters, the hero of the Arab revolt in the First World War talks about his love of motorcycles, which led to his death in a road accident in 1935, reports The Telegraph.
Speaking about one of his machines, he wrote: “It’s a heavenly bike, goes like smoke and is as smooth as milk to ride.”
The correspondence – found when an envelope fell out of an old book – will be auctioned on October 1 in Dorchester, Dorset, and could fetch more than 10,000 pounds.
Dorset historian Rodney Legg, who has written numerous books on Lawrence, said: “It’s mysterious how Lawrence managed to balance his finances. He sometimes spent lavishly and at other times wrote letters to friends proclaiming poverty.
“So anything that throws light on the relationship with his banker is quite revealing.” (ANI)
New Delhi, Sep.18 (ANI): Recognizing the enormous potential of Information Technology in acting as a catalyst for the Tier – II growth of Suburban India, The Government of Himachal Pradesh (GoHP) is moving to produce an IT friendly business landscape.
To close the technological gap and nab the marquee, various initiatives are being put in place by the GoHP. Tax Breaks, Exemption from various duties and levies and imports are certain defined benefits for the industry to set base at Himachal Pradesh.
The IT Park cum Township falls will come up in Solan District of Solan, about 20 kilometres from Shimla.
The total area of the project is 64.73 acres. The site is located at a distance of four kilometers from Kiarighat. Kiarighat is on Chandigarh – Shimla highway (NH-22) on midway between Solan and Shimla at an approximately equal distance of 23 kilometres.
Conceptualized as an Integrated Development – offering both residential and commercial options, the project’s developmental contours will include built-up IT space of 1.1 million square feet. Built to suit plots for IT in 9.5 acres of land, a township for of 1.31 million square feet, a project cost of 408 crore rupees.
Commercially structured on the Public Private Partnership format. The developer shall be responsible for designing,financing, constructing, operating, maintaining and development of the IT Park cum Township at Waknaghat.
The implementing agency will be the Department of Information Technology, Government of Himachal Pradesh.
To promote the project and the township, an investor Meet will be held in Delhi on September 23. A visit to the site will be organised on September 30, while a pre-bid meeting will be held on October 3, 2009.
The last date for submission of proposal is October 26. (ANI)
New Delhi, Sep. 18 (ANI): Expressing dissatisfaction over the Mayawati Government’s plea, the Supreme Court on Friday extended the stay order on its earlier ruling for stoppage of work at Kanshi Ram Memorial Sthal in Lucknow.
“The affidavit is not satisfactory. The question here has many, many burning issues,” it observed during a brief hearing in the case,” a Bench comprising Justices B N Agrawal and Aftab Alam noted.t said the question was whether one could spend so much of money from the state or public exchequer for the purpose.
“Suppose today the legislature decides that 80 per cent of budgetary allocation should be spent on such works of memorials and statues…is it not justiciable,” the Bench asked.
“Serious questions arise in this petition…the cabinet and the legislature have to act under the Constitution,” the Bench added.
The next hearing in the case is on October 5th, and the parties are asked to file their responses to the affidavit by September 29th.
In a detailed affidavit filed in response to the show cause notice issued on September 11, the state government had claimed it had the highest regard for the apex court and that it believed in carrying out its directions in “letter and spirit.”
On September 8, the apex court had ruled that no further construction activities should take place at the memorials which have cost the exchequer 2,600 crore rupees.
However, media reports said construction activities were going on in full swing despite the court’s directive, following which the bench had issued a show cause notice. (ANI)
New Delhi, Sep. 18 (ANI): The process for forthcoming Assembly elections in Maharashtra, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh will begin formally with the issuance of notification on Friday.
The prospective candidates would be able to file their nomination papers till September 25.
The prospective candidates can file nomination papers to the Returning Officer or to the Assistant Returning Officer from Friday till September 25.
The assembly elections in three states are expected to be a litmus test for all major parties after the Lok Sabha elections.
The vote-counting will take place on October 22.
It is notable that all the three states that are ruled by Congress, which shares power in Maharashtra with NCP as a major coalition partner.
Maharashtra has a 288-member Assembly, Haryana a 90-member House and Arunachal Pradesh Assembly has 60 members.
There are 2,061 polling stations in Arunachal Pradesh, 12,894 in Haryana and 82,028 in Maharashtra. (ANI)
Islamabad, Sep.17 (ANI): The Pakistan government is considering commuting death sentences, but such a step may not help the cause of Sarabjeet Singh, the Indian inmate who has been awarded a death sentence by a Lahore anti-terrorism court in October 1991.
Interior Advisor Rehman Malik said the government has sent a draft to the law division seeking legal opinion on the proposal to commute death sentences.
Rehman, however, said that even if the proposal is accepted there would be no mercy for terrorists.
“They (terrorists) will have to face the death penalty,” The Dawn quoted Malik, as saying.
According to an estimate there are 7000 death inmates in Pakistan at present.
Pakistan security agencies have maintained that Singh had admitted that he was sent to Pakistan to carry out serial bomb blasts in Lahore, Faislabad, and Kasur, and was trained by the Indian Army, and the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).
Singh was awarded the death sentence by a Lahore anti-terrorism court in October 1991.
He challenged the verdict in the Supreme Court, however, the apex court quashed his appeal in September, 2005, saying that the review petition was not filed within the time period as mentioned in the law.
In March 2006, a two member Supreme Court bench dismissed Singh’s petition against his conviction in the Lahore’s Yakki Gate bomb blast in 1990.
Singh has been languishing in Pakistan jails for the last 28 years, as Pakistan has stonewalled release even on humanitarian grounds, despite continuous efforts by Indian diplomatic channels. (ANI)
Tehran, Sep. 18 (ANI): Even as a secret IAEA report revealed that Iran is capable of making a nuclear bomb and is developing a missile system to carry an atomic warhead, Iranian officials have reiterated claims that the Islamic nation’s nuclear program is intended for peaceful purposes.
Fox News quoted Iran’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, as saying that Iran is sincere in wanting to negotiate with the West.
He added that Western countries should “read between the lines” about Iran’s intentions.
Although the prospects of finding anything between the lines were almost nil after the surfacing of the IAEA report, but Soltanieh insisted that discussions with the West would be a “real, new window of opportunity.”
The secret U.N. watchdog report, titled “Possible Military Dimension of Iran’s Nuclear Program,” concludes:
*Iran worked on developing a chamber inside a ballistic missile capable of housing a warhead payload “that is quite likely to be nuclear.”
*Iran engaged in “probable testing” of explosives commonly used to detonate a nuclear warhead – a method known as a “full-scale hemispherical explosively driven shock system.”
*Iran worked on developing a system “for initiating a hemispherical high explosive charge” of the kind used to help spark a nuclear blast.
“Iran has sufficient information to be able to design and produce a workable implosion nuclear device (an atomic bomb) based on HEU (highly enriched uranium) as the fission fuel,” The agency assessed.
On October 1, Iran is scheduled to meet with the U.S. and five other world powers seeking curbs on its atomic activities for the first time in more than a year.
However, Tehran says it is not prepared to discuss its nuclear activities. (ANI)
Rome, Sep. 18 (ANI): Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi would be forced to resign if laws providing him immunity are overturned by the Constitutional Court next month, his lawyers have admitted.
“If the Constitutional Court, which begins its deliberations on October 6, overturns the law there would be damage to the functions of an elected official, which could not be carried out”, Times Online quoted Glauco Nori, a state lawyer for the prime minister’s office, as saying.
The move could cause “irreparable damage” and lead to the Prime Minister’s resignation, he added.
After coming to power for the third time in 2008, Berlusconi pushed the law through Parliament, which gives immunity to the offices of Prime Minister, President and the Speakers of both houses of parliament from court trials, which was dubbed
As being “tailor-made” to shield Berlusconi from corruption charges, by the opposition, the report said.
At the time when legislation was passed, Berlusconi was being prosecuted for allegedly giving a 600,000-dollar bribe to British lawyer David Mills to provide false testimony on his behalf in corruption trials in the 1990s, it added.
Berlusconi’s trial was suspended but Mills was sentenced to 41/2 years in jail.
According to the report, the Milan prosecutor’s office had recently submitted its own memorandum to the court, challenging the immunity law as violating the principle that all citizens are equal before the law.
If the immunity law is struck off next month, corruption charges against Berlusconi are likely to be revived.
According to reports, magistrates in Milan and Palermo are also investigating Berlusconi’s suspected links to the Mafia in the 1990s. (ANI)
Katra, Sept 18 (ANI): Security has been beefed up at the famous Vaishno Devi Temple near Jammu ahead of the nine-day “Navratri” festival.
Paramilitary and police personnel are patrolling and frisking people at important points in Katra, which is thronged by thousands of devotees every year, especially during Navratri.
The nine-day Navratri festival will begin from Saturday and the authorities claim to be in full control of the situation.
“There is much fanfare in Katra during Navratra festival and the inflow of tourists also rises manifold during those days. We have made proper security arrangements. We have taken the help of the CRPF. This time, we also have one contingent of Haryana police,” said Ashok Sharma, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP).
The devotees making their way to the shrine were also put through rigorous checking, a routine, exercised with extra care, considering the sensitive nature of the shrine and keeping recent threats in mind.
The devotees complied without complaining.
“There was not much trouble during the security check. We were checked several times but we did not face any problem. It was all done very safely,” said Vijay Kumar, a devotee.
‘Navratri’, which literally means nine nights, is observed twice a year.
The festival lasts for nine days in honour of nine manifestations of Durga, goddess of power ,and fall in the months of April-May and September-October.
It is believed that during the Navratri, Goddess Durga descends on earth to rid it of the demons and blesses her devotees with happiness and prosperity. (ANI)
New York, September 17 (ANI): Megan Fox, 23, has revealed how she once threatened to kill her on-off boyfriend Brian Austin Green in a fit of anger.
“My temper is ridiculously bad,” the New York Post quoted her as having told Rolling Stone magazine for its October issue.
“I’ve had to say to Brian, ‘You have to go and stop talking to me, because I’m going to kill you. I’m going to stab you with something, please leave.’
“I’d never own a gun for that reason. I wouldn’t shoot to kill. But I would shoot him in the leg, for sure,” she added. (ANI)
London, Sep 16 (ANI): It seems that Robbie Williams is shifting bag and baggage to Australia, all thanks to his ladylove Ayda Field.
The singer has revealed that he is searching for a farm or beachfront retreat Down Under because of his girlfriend.
Robbie divulged the details in an interview on Australia’s biggest breakfast radio show on station 2DayFM, which is being guest-hosted by Dannii Minogue.
The ‘Feel’ singer-who is making a storming comeback with new single ‘Bodies’, out on October 12-even quizzed the Aussie beauty about dealing with jetlag.
“Ayda told me she had kind of a psychic feeling she’d end up in Australia,” The Sun quoted Rob as saying.
“I’m thinking of coming down there. I have been looking for places out in the outback, maybe a farm,” he added.
Robbie has recently moved back to Blighty, and the dodgy climate is already forcing him into Aussie estate agencies. (ANI)
Srinagar, Sep 16 (ANI): The Wildlife Institute of India (WII) is hosting a five day global meeting of the deer experts here-from October 9 to discuss conservation plans for the Hangul, which is also known as Kashmir Stag.
The meeting is also expected to chalk out a long-term effective management plan for the conservation of Hangul habitat.
Hangul is one of the endangered species of the world and has been listed in the Red Data Book of International Union of Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
According to WII Director P.R. Sharma the experts would share their knowledge in the management and conservation of endangered deer species in general and Red deer and its subspecies such as Hangul in particular in the meeting.
Conservationists from Russia, East Tibet, Middle East, Afghanistan and China will deliberate on issues threatening the existence of the species and formulate strategies, take effective relocation and recovery plan at the meet.
The conference would help the Indian conservationists to enhance and updating scientific knowledge on globally successful species recovery, conservation programmes and aspects of deer ecology, Sinha said.
That the meet is being held in Srinagar itself mirrors the government’s concern to urgently save the Hangul, one of the four easternmost subspecies of Red deer that is endemic to Kashmir mountains in Jammu and Kashmir.
The population the Hangul, which is one of the four easternmost subspecies of Red deer, has declined from an estimated 2000 individuals in 1947 to about 170-200 individuals in recent years, due to poaching, excessive grazing of livestock, forest fires.
Deer are important part of woodland ecosystems and their effects are vital to the survival of plants and animals that depend on open woodlands. Their low numbers and restricted range is of great ecological concern amongst the conservationists throughout the world. (ANI)
Karachi, Sep.14 (ANI): Former Pakistan cricket captain Javed Miandad said Monday Pakistan is blessed with the best bowling attack in the world and can beat any team provided the squad overcomes its batting problems.
“I think Pakistan has one of the best bowling attacks in the world and if they improve their batting they can win the Champions Trophy,” The Nation quoted Miandad, who has coached Pakistan in three previous stints in the past, as saying.
He was made a consultant after the team’s batting failure in Sri Lanka last month where they lost the Test series 2-0 and one-day series 3-2.
Pakistan face a stern test at the Champions Trophy from September 21-October 5, where they meet the West Indies, Australia and India in Group A. (ANI)
New Delhi, Sep.14 (ANI): Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Monday rebutted criticism of her government’s efforts on preparations for the Commonwealth Games to be held in the national capitalext year.
Reacting to Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) president Mike Fennell’s concerns about the organizing committee’s ability to deliver, Dikshit said that she had not received or read Fennell’s letter to Suresh Kalmadi, but was confident that the games preparations are going as per schedule.
Dikshit’s reaction came a day after Fennell sought Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s intervention to expedite preparations for the 2010 event.
In his letter to the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee (CWOGC), a furious Fennell asked Kalmadi to arrange a meeting with Prime Minister Singh next month.
“Our main concern relates to the capacity of the Organising Committee to deliver operationally. Preparations for the Games are significantly behind, so much so that the Commonwealth Games Federation is extremely worried about the Organising Committee’s ability to deliver the games to any comparable standard to that of the last two editions of the Games in Manchester and Melbourne,” Fennell wrote in his letter
Fennell claimed that the vast majority of functional areas were considerably behind schedule and that an overhaul in the management culture and operation of the organising committee was needed, else the Games “will fail from an operational perspective”.
“With only a year to run until the Games, I feel I must personally brief the Prime Minister of India on the lack of preparations and to seek his input in developing an appropriate recovery plan. I have asked the Chairman of the Organising Committee to facilitate such a meeting on my return to Delhi in early October for our General Assembly,” he said. (ANI)
Lahore, Sep 14 (ANI): Pakistan Cricket Board chief Ijaz Butt has said that he has had constructive talks with Emirates Cricket Board officials about holding a proposed ODI series against New Zealand there later this year.
Butt, who is in London, said that he would officially announce the venues for the four One-day Internationals and two Twenty20 matches on Monday after returning home.
“The venues, 90 per cent, would be Abu Dhabi and Dubai once again,” The News quoted Butt, as saying.
New Zealand has refused to tour Pakistan for the scheduled series in October this year because of the volatile security situation in the country.
However, it has agreed to play the matches at neutral venues and host the three Tests in New Zealand in November-December.
Pakistan has already played a one-day series with Australia in Abu Dhabi and Dubai in April-May this year.
Butt visit to the Emirates came after differences erupted over the hosting fees being demanded by the Abu Dhabi and Dubai cricket bodies.
After meeting with the Emirates board officials, Butt travelled to London where he held two rounds of talks with Giles Clarke who heads the Wales and English cricket Board and also leads the special task force of the International Cricket Council formed to explore possibilities for resumption of international cricket in Pakistan. (ANI)
Islamabad, Sep 14 (ANI): Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has said that US President Barack Obama is “powerless” to stop the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a transcript of a tape released by the terrorist organization’s media wing.
Al Qaeda’s As-Sahab Media released a video featuring a still image of Osama and audio statement entitled “A statement to the American people,” said the organisation IntelCenter.
SITE Intelligence Group, a terrorist-monitoring firm that translated the address, says Osama blames the wars on the “pro-Israel lobby” and corporate interests.
IntelCenter, another company that monitors terrorist propaganda, reports that the 11-minute video is an address to the American people, two days after the eighth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
The group described the release as an address to the American public. Osama usually releases a statement around September or October each year, The Times reports.
In his last previous known message in June, Osama said US President Barack Obama had planted the seeds of “revenge and hatred” towards the United States in the Muslim world and warned of decades of conflict to come.
That audiotape aired on Qatar’s Al-Jazeera news channel less than an hour after Obama landed in Saudi Arabia.
Obama “has followed the steps of his predecessor in antagonizing Muslims… and laying the foundation for long wars,” Osama said in the June release, referring to deadly clashes in Pakistan between the US-backed government and Islamist militants.
“He gave his orders to (Pakistani President Asif Ali) Zardari and his army to prevent the people of Swat from applying Sharia (Islamic) law,” he said.
“Obama and his administration have sowed new seeds of hatred against America. Let the American people prepare to harvest the crops of what the leaders of the White House plant in the next years and decades,” said the Al-Qaeda leader. (ANI)
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