Showing posts with label breaking news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label breaking news. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Man found in suitcase trying to escape from prison by her girl friend.

CHETUMAL, Mexico (AP) — Police say a woman was caught trying to sneak her common-law-husband out of a Mexican prison in a suitcase following a conjugal visit.

A spokesman for police in the Caribbean state of Quintana Roo says staff at the prison in Chetumal noticed that the woman seemed nervous and was pulling a black, wheeled suitcase that looked bulky.

Spokesman Gerardo Campos said Monday that prison guards checked the bag of 19-year-old Maria del Mar Arjona and found inmate Juan Ramirez Tijerina curled up inside in the fetal position.

Ramirez is serving a 20-year sentence for a 2007 conviction for illegal weapons possession.

Arjona was arrested and charges are pending.


In this photo taken Saturday, July 2, 2011, prison inmate Juan Ramirez Tijerina is curled inside a suitcase after he tried to escape from prison with the help of his girlfriend following a conjugal visit in Chetumal, Mexico. Ramirez is serving a 20-year sentence for a 2007 conviction for illegal weapons possession. His girlfriend was arrested and charges are pending. (AP Photo/SIPSE)

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Three blasts in Mumbai


Three near-simultaneous explosions rocked Mumbai at rush-hour on Wednesday, killing at least 21 people and injuring 141 in what the government said appeared to be another terrorist strike in the city hit by a major attack nearly three years ago.

Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan said the latest attack killed 20 people, and home minister P Chidambaram said the toll was likely to rise.

Television footage showed dozens of police officials, several of them armed, at the sites of the explosion and at least one car with its windows shattered. A photograph showed victims of a blast at the Zaveri Bazaar crowding into the back of a cargo truck to be taken to a hospital.

Because of the close timing of the string of explosions, ``we infer that this was a coordinated attack by terrorists,'' home minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said.

One blast hit the crowded neighborhood of Dadar in central Mumbai. The others were at the Zaveri Bazaar, which is a famed jewelry market, and the busy business district of Opera House, both in southern Mumbai and several miles (kilometers) apart, police said.

All three blasts happened from 6:50pm. to 7pm., when all the neighborhoods would have been packed with office workers and commuters.

The 2008 attack killed 166 people and was blamed on Pakistan-based militant groups. Tensions escalated between the countries and peace talks were suspended. The talks recently resumed.

Soon after Wednesday's blasts were reported, Pakistan's government expressed distress on the loss of lives and injuries.

The blasts would mark the first major attack on Mumbai since the November 2008 violence, when 10 terrorists laid siege to the city for 60 hours, targeting two luxury hotels, a Jewish center and a busy train station. There was no immediate indication that Wednesday's blasts were part of a prolonged siege.

Mumbai has been on edge since then. In December, authorities deployed extra police on city streets after receiving intelligence that a Pakistan-based militant group was planning an attack over New Year's weekend. Police conducted house-to-house searches in some neighborhoods for four men who authorities believe entered the city to carry out a terrorist attack, and computer-aided photographs of the four suspects were released.

In March 2010, Mumbai police said they prevented a major terrorist strike after they arrested two Indian men, who, police said, were preparing to hit several targets in the city. Then in September, police issued a terror alert for the city during a popular Hindu festival.

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Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Infy's own social network

Infosys Limited may not be your friendliest neighbour or the most employee-friendly IT company around. But they sure are making amends.

'Infy Bubble', their recently launched internal social networking site is supposedly a platform for disgruntled Infoscions to vent on. The site mirrors Facebook and allows employees to connect across borders with colleagues as well as bicker about anything they want, said Nandita Gurjar, Vice President and Group Head, Human Resources, Infosys Limited.

She added that the site doesn't encourage personal attacks but it does welcome negative feedback about their bosses and peers. The site also allows them to share photographs and other stuff just like they do on Facebook, thus giving them a platform to engage themselves with other employees.

This is one of the internal PR exercises Infosys is conscientiously indulging in to salvage their image. The company has been battling severe criticism and high attrition rates lately.

And, despite rising wages hurting the IT bellwhether's profit margins, it isn't stopping its hiring momentum. Infosys that plans to hire 12,000 employees this quarter has already added 9,992 employees this year.

When asked if this would further affect their revenues, the management strongly responded by saying that they are going as per their yearly target of 45,000 new additions. With the improving business sentiment and revival in IT spends , IT firms are stepping up hiring to meet demand for their services.

The company today posted a 15.72 per cent jump in consolidated net profit to Rs 1,722 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, 2011. During the first quarter, Infosys and its subsidiaries saw over 7,000 employees leaving.

As we know, with increased hiring comes a high rate of attrition. But the company isn't really worried about it. Gurjar says, "This is the quarter when we normally expect employees to go for higher studies. 30% of the employees who have quit cited this reason."

She says, the company can't stop employees from pursuing higher studies. However, they are pondering on how to get them back with acquired skill sets. Gurjar says, "95% of the employees who quit to pursue higher studies actually want to come back. But since we have a structured process they have to undergo the complete interview cycle in the campuses. So may be in the near future we might have a policy where an employee can come back after getting MBA degrees or something else without getting into the complete interview cycle.".

But there is an interesting bit of information that Gurjar revealed. "34% per cent of our total employee workforce is woman. So in this quarter 32% of the woman employees who quit didn't cite any reason for quitting the job. They just wanted to take a break. Now this is something that we want to review."

While they ponder on what's working and what's not, the company is also planning an Infosys radio service through which the management will regularly interact with the employees. Looks like the company is engaging in some serious PR exercises with employees to build a few bridges. But will it curtail attrition? In true Infosys management lingo, "We might have to wait for the next quarter" for an answer.


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Thursday, June 09, 2011

TEEN AGE BOY WAS KILLED IN KARRACHI

Karachi: Pakistani authorities are investigating a video that appears to show paramilitary forces shooting to death an unarmed teenage boy in the southern port city of Karachi, officials said Thursday.

The video aired repeatedly on TV, sparking another controversy for the Pakistani military, which is still reeling from criticism following the U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden last month.

Pakistani security forces are often accused of using excessive force and abusing ordinary citizens.

A spokesman for the paramilitary Rangers claimed its forces detained 18-year-old Afsar Shah because he was attempting to rob people in a park in Karachi on Wednesday. He said a gun was recovered from Shah and he was shot because he was reaching for a Ranger's rifle.Shah's brother, Salik, a local crime reporter, denied his brother was a robber and accused the Rangers of shooting an innocent person.

"It seems to be a case of routine high-handedness of the Rangers," Salik Shah said. "They misuse their powers by shooting on sight."
"The Rangers have no authority to kill any unarmed individual and they can fire only in self-defence," he said. "On completion of the inquiry, all those found responsible will be given strict punishment."

SOURCE:timesofindia.com


Friday, May 27, 2011

Tornados hit Oklahoma

Tornado disastersAt least six people were killed and many were injured by tornados at Oklahoma and Kansas City that began last Tuesday which forced offices and schools to close early. Residents should take tornado warnings and reports very seriously said Mary Fallin Governor of Oklahoma. NWS warned during the storm that it’s an extremely dangerous and life-threatening situation.

The citizens of Oklahoma City knew that the tornadoes were coming. About 1,200 people were packed in a shelter in Newcastle, a community near Oklahoma City, during the storm, said Oklahoma City Manager Nick Nazar. The city has been struck by more tornadoes than any other city in the United States. People were expecting for the worst to happen after the disastrous twister outbreak in the South that had a death toll of more than 300 people and last Sunday’s storm that left 122 people dead in Joplin.

The Oklahoma tornadoes were weaker than the other tornadoes but up-to-the-minute reporting of the developing weather system kept the people informed of the danger. Television networks had their helicopters broadcast live footages when the storm approached the city with a population of 1.2 million.

Monday, May 09, 2011

Tropical storm Aere kills 15 in Philippines


Fifteen people were killed and nearly 70,000 people were forced from their homes as tropical storm Aere pummelled the Philippines

The death toll from Aere, which hit on Sunday, jumped from nine, with six more people reported killed in floods, landslides and road accidents, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Centre said. However, after two days of heavy rains across the main island of Luzon, the storm had weakened and was exiting the northern Philippines this morning, according to the national weather bureau.

"The storm is moving away from the country in a north, northeast direction,adding it was expected to move close to Japan's south-west coast by Thursday. It said Aere's maximum sustained winds had fallen to 65km/h, from 85km/h on Sunday. The disaster agency said that nearly 70,000 people had been forced to leave their storm-hit homes on Luzon, and the initial estimate of damages to the farming sector was more than $US2.7 million.

Sunday, May 08, 2011

Osama had some sort of support network in Pakistan: Obama


Osama bin Laden, who lived in a compound in Abbottabad for six years, had "some kind of support" infrastructure inside Pakistan and this aspect needs to be investigated, US President Barack Obama has said. His comments came as his top security advisor said there was no evidence so far that the Pakistan Government knew about the al Qaeda chief`s presence in the country.

"We think that there had to be some sort of support network for bin Laden inside of Pakistan," obama said. The US called on government of Pakistan to conduct an investigation into how Osama was able to live so long in a military cantonment area of Pakistan, in an affluent suburb of Islamabad. We don`t know whether there might have been some people inside of [Pakistan`s] government, people outside of government, and that`s something that we have to investigate and, more importantly, the Pakistani government has to investigate," Obama said.

Thursday, May 05, 2011

Al-Qaida aspired to attack US train on 11/9/2011


Al-Qaida considered attacking U.S. trains on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, according to an initial look at DVDs, computers and other documents seized at the raid on Osama bin Laden's home.

The information about a possible train plot is the first intelligence revealed from the trove of material found in the attack on bin Laden's compound. Officials said they found what they call "aspirational" items — things al-Qaida operatives were interested in trying to make happen. A government advisory obtained by NBC News and sent Tuesday to the rail industry said that as far back as February 2010, al-Qaida was contemplating "an operation against trains at an unspecified location in the United States on the 10th anniversary" of the 9/11 attacks.

One option, the advisory said, was trying to tip a train by tampering with the rails so that the train would fall off the track at either a valley or on a bridge. Such an attempt would probably only work once, the material in bin Laden's house said, because tilting or tampering with the rails would be spotted, the advisory said. Other material mentions a desire to target big mass-transit hubs, an interest long understood because of the history of al-Qaida attacks on rail targets in Spain, the United Kingdom and India.

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Wednesday, May 04, 2011

Arunachal CM’s body recovered, Union Cabinet to meet today


After a five-day long intense search, the Army with the help of locals, recovered the body of Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu from a place between Kyela and Lobothang in the mountainous region of the state on Thursday morning.

Confirming the development, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram informed newsmen that Union Cabinet is all set to meet in New Delhi at 11.30 am today to discuss the current political situation in the state and to possibly elect a new leader.

“The body of Arunachal Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu and four others have been recovered and the government is making all necessary arrangements to bring the bodies to Tawang,”. The meeting is expected to be attended by central ministers – V Narayanaswamy, Mukul Wasnik, and Bijoy Krishna Handique. Two senior All India Congress Committee leaders would also attend the meeting.

Tuesday, May 03, 2011

Pakistan's president denies harboring bin Laden



Pakistan's president starved of proposals his country's security forces may have wrapped in cotton wool Osama bin Laden previous to he was killed by American forces, and said their collaboration with the United States helped locate the world's most wanted man.

Asif Ali Zardari said, though, that Monday's operation in opposition to bin Laden was not conducted with Pakistani forces — confirms accounts by U.S. officials that Islamabad was not involved in the raid and did not even know in relation to it until it was over.

His comments in a Washington Post view piece Monday were Pakistan's first official retort to the doubts by U.S. lawmakers and other critics, which could further sour relations stuck between Islamabad and Washington at a crucial point in the war in Afghanistan.

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Al Qaeda No.2 Zawahri most likely to succeed bin Laden


Egyptian born doctor and medical doctor Ayman al-Zawahri is al Qaeda's second-in-command probable to do well Osama bin Laden subsequent his killing in a firefight with U.S. forces in Pakistan. Zawahri has been the brains at the back bin Laden and his al Qaeda network, and at times its most public face, continually disapproving the United States and its allies in video messages.

In the latest monitored by the SITE astuteness Group last month, he urged Muslims to fight NATO and American forces in Libya. "I want to direct the awareness of our Muslim brothers in Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and the rest of the Muslim countries, that if the Americans and the NATO forces enter Libya then their neighbors in Egypt and Tunisia and Algeria and the rest of the Muslim countries should rise up and fight both the private army of Gaddafi and the rest of NATO," Zawahri said.

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Sunday, May 01, 2011

Osama bin Laden, the face of terror, killed in Pakistan


The most prominent face of terror in America and beyond, Osama Bin Laden, has been killed in Pakistan, U.S. officials said Sunday night. Bin Laden was the leader of al Qaeda, the terrorist network behind the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. U.S. officials said that their forces have the body of bin Laden.

The enormity of the destruction -- the World Trade Center's towers devastated by two hijacked airplanes, the Pentagon partially destroyed by a third hijacked jetliner, a fourth flight crashed in rural Pennsylvania, and more than 3,000 people killed -- gave bin Laden a global presence.

The Saudi-born zealot commanded an organization run like a rogue multinational firm, experts said, with subsidiaries operating secretly in dozens of countries, plotting terror, raising money and recruiting young Muslim men -- even boys -- from many nations to its training camps in Afghanistan.

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Friday, April 29, 2011

Rescue efforts transition to recovery in hard-hit Alabama


Hopes of finding trapped survivors dwindled Friday evening in Alabama, the epicenter of storms that obliterated neighborhoods and towns and claimed scores of lives across the South. Gov. Robert Bentley, speaking in Birmingham, said the long road to recovery will now begin. "We've gotten past the rescue stage," Bentley said. "We have begun the recovery stage."

Earlier Friday, President Barack Obama toured rubble-strewn neighborhoods in Tuscaloosa, declaring the devastation brought by a series of powerful storms and tornadoes was beyond anything he had ever seen. The storms killed at least 326 people in six states and left entire neighborhoods in ruins. Obama promised expedited federal aid to states affected by the tornadoes.

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Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Indonesia Earthquakes Kill 3, Cause Panic


A series of powerful earthquakes rattled Indonesia on Wednesday, killing three people, triggering landslides and demolishing dozens of homes. A tsunami warning sent panicked residents fleeing buildings to high ground. The 7.0 magnitude quake was centered 18 miles beneath the ocean floor and 125 miles off the northern coast of Papua province, the U.S. Geological Survey said. It was accompanied by a series of strong aftershocks, the highest measuring 6.4.

More than 20 houses collapsed in Serui, a town in Yapen district, sparking fires in at least seven places, said police spokesman Lt. Col. Wachjono, who like many Indonesians uses only one name. Two bodies were pulled from beneath the rubble. "Police and rescuers are still searching for other victims in remote areas," he said. Hundreds of people ran out of their homes, said Yan Pieter Yarangga, a resident from the town of Biak. Fearing a tsunami, people fled beaches and some raced for high ground. "I ran too, I was afraid there would be a second quake," he said.

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Sunday, April 24, 2011

Japan launches massive search for missing tsunami victims


Some 25,000 Japanese troops are fanning out on the wreckage-strewn northeastern coast Monday in a massive search for thousands of bodies still missing from last month's earthquake and tsunami. Backed by dozens of boats and aircraft, the soldiers are scouring the region for remains swept to sea or buried under masses of rubble.

The operation is the third intensive military search for bodies since the disaster that killed up to 26,000 people. Some 12,000 remain missing and are believed dead. Monday's search is an all-out effort to recover any remains for their families. The soldiers are combing through the rubble and navy boats and divers are searching the waters up to 12 miles (20 kilometers) off the coast.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Japan approves $45bn quake Budget


JAPAN says it will extend an evacuation zone around the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, while announcing a $A45 billion reconstruction budget for areas devastated by the earthquake and tsunami. It is the first special Budget approved by Prime Minister Naoto Kan's cabinet since the March 11 twin disasters in northeast Japan.

The Budget, announced today, will cover restoration work such as clearing massive amounts of rubble and building temporary housing for thousands of homeless people. The Government says it is also planning to widen the evacuation zone around the nuclear plant, which has been leaking radiation since being severely damaged by the magnitude 9.0 magnitude quake and tsunami.

The Government said today, six weeks after the country's worst post-war disaster, it would extend the evacuation zone to areas beyond the 20-kilometre no-go zone where radiation levels had been rising.


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Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Chopper crashes in Arunachal, 17 feared dead


Seventeen persons were feared killed when a Pawans Hans helicopter with 23 people on board caught fire and crashed into a gorge while landing in Tawang town in Arunachal Pradesh on Tuesday. Tawang District Commissioner G Padu said 17 of those on board were 'presumed dead', while six were rescued. The helicopter, which had taken off from Guwahati at 1315 hrs, crashed near the helipad on a hilltop in Tawang town falling from a height of 15 metre into the gorge, Pawan Hans sources said. The helicopter had 18 passengers on board, including two children. The five-member crew included Captain Barun Gupta and Captain Tiwari.

Monday, April 18, 2011

Robots report high radiation levels in damaged reactors


Remote-controlled robots and workers controlling them have recorded high levels of radiation inside and around two reactor buildings at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, safety officials said Monday.

The U.S.-built robot probes measured radiation doses as high as 57 millisieverts inside the housing for reactor No. 3 and up to 49 millisieverts inside the No. 1 reactor building, Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency reported. Levels found between the double doors of the airlocks of the reactor buildings were much higher -- 270 millisieverts in the case of reactor No. 1 and 170 millsieverts in No. 3, the agency said.

By comparison, the average resident of an industrialized country receives a dose of about 3 millisieverts per year. Emergency standards for plant workers battling the month-old nuclear disaster limit their annual exposure to 250 millisieverts, while a CT scan produces just under 7 and a chest X-ray delivers a one-time dose of about .05 millisieverts.



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Friday, April 15, 2011

Strong quake shakes buildings in Japan’s capital


A strong earthquake of magnitude 5.8 hit central Japan on Saturday morning, according to the US Geological Survey. The quake, which shook buildings in Tokyo, struck at 11:19 am (0219 GMT), 83 kilometres (52 miles) north of the capital and at a depth of 20 kilometres, the USGS said.

Operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said the tremor did not disrupt the emergency crews who are working around the clock to cool crippled reactors at a nuclear plant hit by a devastating earthquake and tsunami last month. That earthquake - the biggest ever recorded in Japan -- struck on March 11, triggering a huge tsunami and leaving 13,591 people dead, with another 14,497 still unaccounted for.

Tens of thousands of people lost their homes, while many others were forced to evacuate after a series of explosions at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant sent radiation spewing into the air.

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Thursday, April 14, 2011

Mohandas Pai, Infosys Technologies' HR director resigns from board


Infosys' director incharge, Human Resource and Administration, Mohandas Pai resigned on Friday from the board of the company with effect from June 11, 2011. Infosys' board of directors will meet on April 30 to finalise plans for the company's leadership as chairman NR Narayan Murthy retires in August 2011.

Former Microsoft India head, Ravi Venkatesan was appointed as additional director on the board. In the middle of its biggest management transition ever since Infosys was founded, the company is aiming for a larger share of revenue from retail, banking and healthcare customers by shifting the roles of leaders handling multiple business units.

Pai had been in a finance role as Chief Financial Officer of Infosys since 1994, and later took responsibility for the critical functions of human resources and education. He is also a well-known public face and has been part of various committees such as the Kelkar committee for reforming direct taxes and is currently on the SEBI board.


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