Modi greets Japan, Abe in Japanese
New Delhi: Two days before he flies to Tokyo, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Thursday greeted his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe and saluted the Japanese people — in a series of tweets in Japanese. Saying he was keenly looking forward to the Aug 30-Sep 3 trip, Modi underlined that “the Japan visit (was) an opportunity to take our ties to a new level and increase cooperation in various fields”. The visit “will boost relations between our two nations”. Modi said it would be his first bilateral trip as prime minister “outside the subcontinent. I was to visit (Japan) in early July but could not due to parliament session. “I will visit Tokyo and Kyoto and will interact with all sections of the Japanese society from students, political leaders to captains of industry.” Modi said he was “particularly excited to meet Abe. I deeply respect his leadership and enjoy a warm relationship with him from previous meetings. “The scale of innovation and level of precision among the people of Japan is admirable. Both our nations can learn a lot from each other. An official communique said Modi tweeted in Japanese “to talk to the people of Japan directly in Japanese. (IANS)
Rajnath refuses to pinpoint blame about ‘rumours’ on son
Lucknow: Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday refused to point fingers as to who could be behind “rumours” of his son being ticked off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for an alleged “misconduct”, which have been denied by the PMO. “You are investigative journalist and you should find out who is the rumour monger,” was his curt reply to queries by reporters on whether he suspected any person or leader to be behind the “rumours”. Singh had yesterday asserted that he would quit politics if even “prima facie” it is proved that any of his family member had been involved in any misconduct following reports which claimed that his son Pankaj had been ticked off by the Prime Minister for an alleged “misconduct”. The Prime Minister’s Office too had reacted sharply saying, “The reports are plain lies, motivated and constitute a malicious attempt at character assassination and tarnishing the image of the Government.” “Those indulging in such rumour-mongering are damaging the interest of the nation. These reports are extremely hurtful, ” the PMO had said. (PTI)
58-yr-old woman raped, murdered
Muzaffarnagar: A 58-year-old woman was allegedly raped and strangulated to death by unidentified miscreants here, police said on Thursday. The woman was living alone in a house of a person who was displaced during Muzaffarnagar riots last year at Kutba village, police said, adding, the incident took place on Wednesday. The body has been sent for post-mortem and the investigation in the case is on, they added. (PTI)
Saradha scam: CBI raids several locations in Kolkata
Kolkata: Probing the multi-crore rupee Saradha scam, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Thursday raided several places here, including the offices of city businessman Sandhir Agarwal. Now in CBI custody, Agarwal, accused of extorting crores of rupees from Saradha promoter and scam kingpin Sudipta Sen, was arrested Aug 24. CBI sleuths also searched the residence of a former East Bengal Football Club official and questioned his widow. Another club official, Debabrata Sarkar, has already been arrested. Meanwhile, city entrepreneur and the chairman of the now-defunct Xenitis Group, Santanu Ghosh arrived at the CBI officer for his questioning for the second consecutive day. Ghosh along with Assam-based businessman Rajesh Bajaj were interrogated by the agency Wednesday. Ghosh, said to have made several business transactions with the tainted group, was arrested in June by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. He was granted bail Aug 25 by a city court after the ED failed to submit a charge sheet. A host of high profile names including West Bengal minister Shyamapada Mukherjee, actress and film maker Aparna Sen, Trinamool Congress MP Ahmed Hassan Imran, and former IPS officer Rajat Majumdar have been grilled by the CBI or the ED in the scam.(IANS)
India’s Mars Orbiter completes 90 percent of its journey
Chennai: India’s Mars Orbiter spacecraft has completed 90 percent of its journey to the red planet while scientists are gearing up to meet the challenge of restarting the onboard liquid fuel engine, an official said Thursday. “The spacecraft has completed 90 percent of its journey to Mars. On Sep 14, its trajectory would be corrected,” a senior official of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), told IANS. According to him, on Sep 24, the spacecraft is slated to enter into the Mars orbit. On Sep 24, the manoeuvring of the spacecraft will begin around 7.30 a.m. The spacecraft’s speed will be reduced from the current velocity so that the Mars Orbiter enters into the orbit. The official said restarting the onboard liquid fuel engine will be a challenging task as it was dormant for nearly 300 days “However, necessary redundancy and other measures have been incorporated in the spacecraft design and we hope, not to face much problem in starting the engines,” he said. (IANS)