Rahul won’t be PM nominee but will lead congress campaign for 2014
Rahul Gandhi will not be Congress party's nominee for Prime Ministership in the April-May Lok Sabha polls but will lead the election campaign, the party announced today putting at rest all speculation about his role.
The decision was taken at the two-hour meeting of the extended Congress Working Committee brushing aside an overwhelming demand for anointing him the PM nominee ahead of the polls.
Addressing those who voiced the clamour for declaration of Rahul as PM candidate, Congress President Sonia Gandhi said there is no tradition in the party to declare a PM candidate before polls.
The demand for Rahul to be made PM candidate was raised by Kerala PCC chief Ramesh Chennithala and got instant support from a host of leaders including B K Hari Prasad, Gurudas Kamat, Ghulam Nabi Azad and youth Congress chief Rajiv Satav.
Soon after the CWC meeting began, Chennithala made a strong pitch to declare Rahul Gandhi as PM candidate saying "time has now come to do it" and reasoned this will enthuse the youth and will be beneficial for Congress in the changed demographic scenario.
As the leaders made a common chorus to name Rahul as PM pick, Sonia Gandhi intervened saying why should the party name a PM candidate before polls when there is no such precedent.
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Titanic II all set to sail
NEW YORK: Second time lucky? An Australian billionaire has unveiled the blueprints for a successor ship to the doomed ocean liner Titanic, saying that the nostalgic trans-Atlantic voyage could set sail in 2016.
"The Titanic was the ship of dreams. Titanic II is the ship where dreams will come true," Clive Palmer said on Tuesday at the Intrepid, Sea, Air & Space Museum, where he showed off the blueprints.
He said its maiden voyage will trace the trans-Atlantic crossing of the Titanic and could take place in 2016. Palmer said construction is scheduled to start soon in China, the New York Post reported.
Palmer plans to build Titanic II, a cruise ship that will be a near-replica of the luxurious liner that hit an iceberg and sank in the Atlantic on its maiden voyage to New York in 1912. More than 1,500 people perished on the vessel but Palmer insists he's not tempting fate this time around.
This Titanic will have enough lifeboats, Palmer said. But while the builders of the original Titanic said it was designed to be unsinkable, Palmer wouldn't repeat that boast. "Anything will sink if you put a hole in it," Palmer said. "I think it would be very cavalier to say it".
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Suchitra Sen passes away
Legendary Bengali actor Suchitra Sen who was undergoing treatment at a private health facility in the city died in Kolkata on Friday morning.
She was 82 and is survived by daughter Moon Moon Sen and grand daughters Raima and Riya Sen.
She suffered a massive heart attack on Friday morning and died at 8.25 a.m., doctors attending her said.
Suchitra Sen was admitted to Belle Vue Clinic in southern parts of the city on December 23, with chest infection. A seven member medical board, headed by doctor Subrata Maitra, was treating her over the past three weeks as her condition fluctuated between critical and stable.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who was in regular touch with doctors visited the hospital after hearing about her death. Ms. Banerjee said she was a “legendary figure” who could stay away from public eye for over thirty years when many carve for it.
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Jaipur Literature Festival begins today
The seventh edition of the popular Jaipur Literature Festival, beginning at Diggi Palace here on Friday, will feature as many as 240 speakers, including two Nobel laureates — Amartya Sen and Harold Varmus — who will engage in conversations on a wide range of subjects.
The biggest annual literary event in Asia is expected to receive about 2 lakh literature lovers from across the country and abroad. The five-day festival, representing 14 Indian languages, will conclude on January 21.
The speakers include author Jonathan Franzen, poet and lyricist Javed Akhtar, author Jhumpa Lahiri, feminist and journalist Gloria Steinem, author Shashi Tharoor, poet Ashok Vajpeyi, Urdu poet S.R. Faruqi, writer Ved Mehta, writer and scholar Reza Aslan, author Samantha Shannon, literary critic and activist Ganesh Devy, author and film director M. T. Vasudevan Nair, playwright Mahesh Dattani, and author Narendra Kohli.
Besides an increased capacity this year, the open-to-all festival site will have a new venue dedicated to children and youngsters. Festival co-director Namita Gokhale said here on Thursday that the JLF would pay tribute to several themes such as “endangered languages” which will deal with the challenges of linguistic diversity, and “crime and punishment” which will look at accountability and culpability.
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Afghanistan's First Female Police Chief Start Job
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — She wears a black headscarf instead of a cap. But otherwise Col. Jamila Bayaz looks like any other district police chief in Afghanistan as she reviews checkpoints in the center of Kabul.
Bayaz, 50, is the first woman to be promoted to run an entire district — the highest front-line appointment for an Afghan policewoman. With just two days on the job, she said she feels up to the challenge despite the threat as policewomen are among the Taliban's top targets.
"I work day and night," she said as she walked through a money exchange bazaar that lies at the heart of Kabul's District 1. "I am ready to serve, I am not scared nor am I afraid."
Women have made much progress since the days of Taliban rule, when they were forced to cover their heads and faces with burqas and banned from going to school or outdoors without a male relative as an escort. They have greater access to education, health care and the workplace but still face widespread discrimination, domestic abuse and militant attacks in this ultraconservative Islamic society.
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Ex-world cycling champ Ballan banned 2 years
Former world champion cyclist Alessandro Ballan was banned for two years on Friday for blood doping.
The Italian Olympic Committee’s anti-doping court announced the decision after Ballan was indicted on doping charges by a general court in Mantova for alleged team-wide drug use by the Lampre team.
Ballan won the road race at the 2008 worlds in Varese.
CONI’s anti-doping prosecutor maintained that Ballan resorted to blood doping in Montichiari in 2009.
Ballan said in a hearing on Thursday that he used banned drugs to treat an illness.
Ballan is banned to Jan. 16, 2016, and the suspension thus could end the 34-year-old rider’s career.
Also, Mantova pharmacist Guido Nigrelli was banned for life from sports activity and physician Fiorenzo Egeo Bonazzi was banned for four years.
Ballan already served two temporary suspensions from the BMC squad during the Mantova court case, which is still proceeding.
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Yushi, Taiwanese poet awarded Thiruvalluvar award
Taiwanese poet Yushi was today presented the Thiruvalluvar award by the Tamil Nadu government on the occasion of 'Thiruvalluvar Day'.
The award was given to him in recognition of his contribution to the Tamil language, officials said.
State Finance Minister O Panneerselvam presented the award, a gold medal and a cheque of Rs one lakh to Yuhsi at a function in the city, they said.
The other awards - Periyar Award, Ambedkar Award, Perarignar Anna Award, Kamarajar Award, Bharathiar Award, Bharathidasan Award, Thiru Vi Ka award and KAP Viswanatham Award would be presented to Tamil scholars on January 26 during the Republic Day celebrations, following their request to get the honour from the Chief Minister directly.
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