KANDAHAR: A big blast near Pakistani Consulate in southern Afghanistan city of Kandahar jolted the town on Sunday morning. It was unclear what caused the blast.

KANDAHAR: A big blast near Pakistani Consulate in southern Afghanistan city of Kandahar jolted the town on Sunday morning. It was unclear what caused the blast.
“No casualties reported in the incident,” security sources said.
The explosion close to Pakistan mission in the eastern part of the city came after a series of overnight attacks by Taliban that killed some 35 people in various parts of Kandahar, the expected next target of a NATO-led offensive.
The governor of Afghanistan’s Kandahar province is demanding more troops to provide security after 12 explosions in the largest southern city killed dozens of people.
Gov. Turyakai Wesa says he is talking to the central government in Kabul about getting Afghan military reinforcements following the coordinated attacks that killed at least 33 people, including 10 attending a wedding. He told reporters Sunday that he also wants to coordinate with NATO forces to improve security.
Wesa said the attacks wounded at least 53. Kandahar is the spiritual birthplace of the Taliban insurgency and the next target of NATO and Afghan forces after a major push to take another militant stronghold in next-door Helmand province.

The attack on Sri Lankan team last year deprived Pakistan of the privilege to host the Cricket World Cup 2011, also making the local playgrounds await holding of international games.
Even after lapse of a year, police is still clueless as neither anyone convicted nor any action has been taken in this regard. In the attack on the SL team a dozen gunmen attacked the team bus with rifles, grenades and pistols, wounding six players, a British coach and a Pakistani umpire and killing seven policemen.
Since the attack, two assailants have been arrested, one was shot and killed while one of the facilitators was identified and is in prison and four others are still at large. The attackers ambushed the Sri Lankan team’s convoy on Liberty Roundabout on March 3, 2009 and fired AK-47s and rockets and hurled grenades at the team’s bus. The attackers fled after a 25-minute crossfire with police. On the day of the attack, 1,500 policemen had been deputed on The Mall in front of the Punjab Assembly, the Governor’s House and the Chief Minister’s Secretariat.

A landslide in eastern Uganda has killed at least 80 people and villagers are digging with bare hands and simple tools in the hope of finding survivors, a government minister and Ugandan media said on Tuesday.
Ugandan media said the landslide engulfed a village in the eastern Bududa district on the foothills of Mt Elgon on Monday night after a seven-hour downpour. Tarsis Kabwegyere, Minister for Disaster Preparedness and Refugees, put the death toll at around 80 people with up to 300 feared buried. He also expected rains to intensify in the region. The local tv channel showed mud and wattle houses flattened by viscous earth and wailing villagers piling bodies on a grassy compound. Kabwegyere said a government response team was on the ground with food and the Red Cross had sent doctors. Police and volunteers were also helping in the rescue. Parts of Uganda and neighbouring Kenya have had sustained rain for much of the past two months, which is usually a dry period between rainy seasons. Local MP David Wakikoona told that the villagers had told him about 100 to 150 people were at a trading centre when huge rocks slid down the hillsides, transported by mud. Only eight people were known to have survived so far, he said. They periodically scrambled to safer ground, fearing more mudslides, when rumbling was heard from the top of the hills. In the eastern Bududa landslide, a health centre was buried along with a nurse and three support staff, he told parliament. He said three villages with more than 3,000 residents were badly hit. The hamlets cling to isolated mountainsides with no proper road access, making rescue efforts difficult. Nearly 24 hours after the tragedy, earth movers and other equipment that could bolster rescue efforts were unable to reach the area, he said.

Latets Updates News;Sex Scandal Video of Paramahamsa Nithyananda with a tamil actress was shown in special flash news telecasted on Sun News Channel. The Video is creating waves since Paramahamsa Nithyananda is one of the famous spiritual icons of South India.

Paramahamsa Nithyananda is a spiritual and mystic guru. He was born on January 1, 1978 in Tamil Nadu, India and took the path of self-realisation with a natural passion for the Truth. He experimented with yoga, tantra, vedanta and other Eastern metaphysical sciences, from the age of 32.

He is the founder of Dhyanapeetam, a worldwide movement for meditation and healing. The foundation has its spiritual headquarters in Bengaluru (Bangalore),India.

Rebel Without a Cause is a 1955 film directed by Nicholas Ray that tells the story of a rebellious teenager played by James Dean, who comes to a town, meets a girl, disobeys his parents, and defies the local high school bullies. It was an attempt to portray the moral decay of American youth, critique parental style, and exploit the differences between generations. The title is adopted from psychiatrist Robert M. Lindner’s 1944 book, Rebel Without A Cause: The Hypnoanalysis of a Criminal Psychopath. The film itself, however, does not reference Lindner’s book in any way. In 1990, Rebel Without a Cause was added to the preserved films of the United States Library of Congress’s National Film Registry as being deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”

The film had its opening on 27 October 1955, almost one month after James Dean’s fatal car crash.

PATNA: Police say suspected Maoist have killed nine people in an attack on a rural village in the eastern Indian state of Bihar.

Anand Shanker, the director-general of police, says the attack occurred early Thursday in Kasari, a village nearly 125 miles (200kilometers) southeast of Patna, the capital of Bihar state.

Shanker told foreign news agency that the assailants set on fire nearly 30 mud huts with thatched roofs, burning to death a family of four.

Fiver others were killed when suspected rebels fired indiscriminately at the villagers, he said.

The rebels have fought for more than three decades, demanding land and jobs for the poor. They frequently target police and government officials, whom they accuse of colluding with landlords and rich farmers to exploit the poor.

The Indian Defence Ministry has on Friday announced to appoint Lt General Vijay Kumar Singh as India’s next Chief of Army Staff. At present, Lt General Vijay Kumar Singh has been serving as commander-in-chief of the Eastern Army Command. He will succeed incumbent army chief General Deepak Kapoor in the office on March 31.
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has taken decision in this regard on Thursday. Lt Gen Vijay Kumar Singh has been honoured with AVSM and YSM. He was commissioned in 2 Rajput (Kali Chindi) on June 14 1970.
He was commissioned in 2 Rajput (Kali Chindi) on June 14 1970. He assumed command of Eastern Command as the 30th Army Commander on March 01, 2008. The General is a third generation Rajput officer. Singh was awarded Yudh Seva Medal. He has vast operational experience in Counter Insurgency Operations, Line of Control and High Altitude environment.

Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram said that it would take another two to three years to curb the Maoist menace.
He expressed concern over the situation in the Maoist infested areas in the eastern region and said that despite the deployment of the paramilitary forces, the State governments have failed to contain the movement of the Maoists.
“It will take around two to three years to contain Maoist menace. What we are doing now is to get out of the mode of denial and engage Maoists and take resolute measures to tackle the menace of Maoists. That has just begun. It will take two to three years to contain the Maoists,” said Chidambaram.

MEERUT : The Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor on Wednesday went on the defensive on the Sukhna land scam asking the media not to prejudge senior army officers.

Interacting with the media here, General Kapoor said: “Its premature to jump into any conclusions just yet, so don’t pass any judgement on senior army officers.”

General Kapoor’s statement came a day after the Eastern Command urged the media to maintain restraint.

“The Court of Inquiry is still going and the report is awaited. My action will be determined by the CoI report,” General Kapoor added.

“We need to be just and fair for the image of the army,” he said.

On Tuesday, Army’s Eastern Command had appealed to the media to exercise restraint in reporting on the Sukna Land issue, involving some officers.

In a statement, the Eastern Army Command said: “Certain media reports have appeared regarding ongoing Court of Inquiry in Sukhna Land issue of Eastern Command. Since the Court of Inquiry is still in progress and not finalized, therefore speculative comments/interferences at this stage about the guilt of an individual is not appropriate.”

The statement further went on to say; “It should also be understood that it amounts to character assassination of senior army officers. Premature trials and verdicts by the responsible media should be avoided.”

The statement by the Eastern Army Command came days after a court of inquiry reportedly revealed that it found clinching proof against four serving Generals in connection with the Sukna land scam.

Earlier, a section of the media reported that the CoI has indicted Military Secretary Lt. Gen. Avadesh Prakash and Deputy Army Chief-designate Lt Gen P K Rath for their role in issuing a no objection certificate to a private establishment that falsely claimed to be establishing an affiliate of the famous Ajmer-based Mayo College on land adjacent to the Sukhna military station in Darjeeling.

Lt Gen Avadesh Prakash is one of the top eight Principal Staff Officers at the Army headquarters acting as advisors to Army chief General Deepak Kapoor. As Military Secretary, is responsible for the promotion and postings of officers.

Lt-Gen P K Rath was commander of the crucial 33 Corps based in Darjeeling district of West Bengal, under which the Sukna military station comes, when the alleged land scam took place.

The defence ministry has cancelled the appointment of Lt. Gen. Rath as the new Deputy Army Chief (Information Systems and Training).

Lt Gen Rath’s, former deputy, Lt. Gen. Ramesh Halgali is currently commanding the 11 Corps at Jalandhar. The Commission of Inquiry has also apparently indicted some other officers in the ‘chain in command’.

Sources at the Army headquarters have revealed that evidence is still being collected to try some senior officers for gross improprieties and irregularities through a court-martial.

Defence minister A K Antony has warned the Army that such cases “not only damage the Indian Army’s image” but also “adversely affect the ability of senior officers to measure up to the expectations of the men they lead.”

India test nuclear-capable missile, BHUBANESWAR: India carried out its first nighttime test of a medium-range missile on Monday, a defense ministry official said.

The surface-to-surface ‘Agni-II’ (Fire) missile — with a range of up to 2,000 kilometers — can carry both conventional and nuclear warheads weighing up to 1,000 kilograms, the official said on condition of anonymity in line with ministry rules.

The missile was fired from Wheelers Island in the eastern state of Orissa, the official said. India’s previous missile tests have been done during the day.

Monday’s test is unlikely to aggravate tensions between India and Pakistan as they routinely test-fire missiles. Both usually notify each other ahead of the launches, however, it was not immediately known whether New Delhi informed Islamabad about Monday’s test.