An evening well spent

UN chief hails G8 leaders’ understanding on Syria

United Nations: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon Tuesday welcomed the understanding reached on Syria by leaders of the Group of Eight (G-8) industrial nations. Ban welcomed the commitment to bring the Syrian sides to the negotiating table, saying that he stands ready to convene the Geneva Conference on Syria as soon as possible to help [...]

Modi meets Advani to get backing for new role

New Delhi: Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi Tuesday met L.K. Advani to get the BJP patriarch’s backing for his new role as head of the BJP’s campaign committee, an elevation that has split the NDA. He also discussed with senior leaders the strategy for the five assembly elections scheduled this year-end as well as the [...]

Obama defends surveillance of American communications

Washington: As the US whistleblower accused President Barack Obama of worsening “abusive” practices, Obama defended extensive surveillance of US communications, saying it had disrupted multiple terrorist plots and had adequate checks and balances. Reacting to Edward Snowden’s charges that expanded surveillance programmes instead of curtailing them as he promised as a candidate, he asserted that [...]

Top revenge

Andhra Pradesh tops in revenge murders over illicit affairs according to the National Crime Records Bureau statistics. The motive for 445 murders, reported in the State last year, was revenge on cheating partners or their paramours. This amounts to 16 per cent of the murder cases registered here. While the motive for 317 murder cases [...]

Rain, rain, don’t go away

Don’t blame the weather for your gloominess. Good rainfall last week and the forecast of further rains due to an active South-West monsoon prompts farmers to sow crops in 50,000 hectares more than last year in Andhra Pradesh. The acreage is expected to increase 25-30 per cent over the normal area of 81.12 lakh hectares, [...]

The man who took a ‘stand’ at Taksim Square

A man stood still in Istanbul’s Taksim Square: silent, staring straight ahead, he had not moved for hours. His peaceful action, on the square that police cleared of protesters on Saturday and where the Turkish authorities have banned gatherings, was a new form of protest. He arrived Monday evening as night was falling and took [...]

Some hard lessons for the BJP

As a conscious citizen watching the unfolding of the soap from Bihar, I am constrained to do some hard talk because all these worthies are playing with my life and my children’s. You may well ask how. Because what is happening is not an internal matter of a party or a Front but dividing the nation on communal lines more acutely than they did in the past. And communal venom has no anti-venom. It is deadly.

Corporal punishment in AP schools

The Public Interest Litigation filed in the Andhra Pradesh (AP) High Court on Saturday challenging the inaction of the State government in preventing ‘corporal punishment’ to children in schools calls for attention. Mohammed Shahbaz Ahmed Khan, a City resident, moved the PIL contending that as per the United Nations’ convention, the State was required to [...]