Hyderabad: Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Monday accused the Telangana government of failing to fulfil the aspirations of people with the requirement of water, funds and jobs not being provided to them so far even as the state witnessed suicides of 8,000 farmers since 2014 when the party came to power.
Attacking the BRS government in a public meeting here, she alleged that only those who are close to the ruling party are getting jobs, water and funds.
“(Around) 8,000 farmers committed suicide from 2014. Every day on an average approximately three farmers committed suicide,” she charged.
Referring to Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s regime, she said the dispensation thinks that Telangana is their “jagir (estate) and they are the new Jagirdars (estate owning class)”.
At the event, the Congress released ‘Youth Declaration’, a commitment to the youth of Telangana, if the party comes to power in the state, in the presence of Vadra.
Greater Noida: The body of notorious gangster Anil Dujana a.k.a. Anil Nagar — killed during an encounter, was brought on Friday to his native village Dujana in Gautam Buddh Nagar district.
A huge crowd of people was witnessed in Dujana village after the gangster’s body reached there.
As a preventive measure, a large number of police personnel, including women cops were deployed at Dujana village.
Dujana, whose name featured in the list of 65 ‘most criminals’ was killed on Thursday in Meerut during an encounter by the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force.
The post-mortem, conducted in Meerut, was videographed.
The body was taken to the village by his elder brother, Bhopal Nagar.
His wife, Pooja, lost consciousness on noticing her husband’s dead body.
Anil Dujana was placed in the high security barracks of Ayodhya jail for 10 months.
According to the villagers, Anil Dujana had not come to his village for many years, and his house was also locked.
After his death, the villagers went to the house, broke the lock and cleaned it.
Mumbai: A medical professional on Friday became the 35th witness to turn hostile in the 2008 Malegaon blast case trial.
The witness had told the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of Maharashtra Police that he had attended a meeting in Bhopal in April 2008 where some of the accused including Lt Colonel Prasad Purohit were present.
At this meeting of the Abhinav Bharat organisation, Purohit “discussed about Guerrilla War and taking action against Muslims,” as per the statement recorded by the ATS which probed the case initially.
Pragya Singh Thakur, another accused who is now the BJP MP from Bhopal, stated at the meeting that some persons were ready for this work, the witness had allegedly told the ATS.
He had, purportedly, also said that he was associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
But in his statement to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) which took over the case later, he denied having made these statements.
When the ATS was recording his statement, he was under extreme pressure as his name appeared in the media often and his wife was suffering from cancer, he told the NIA.
On Friday, the witness failed to recognise the accused who were present in the court, and denied giving any statement to either the ATS or NIA.
The court then declared him as hostile.
Six people were killed and more than 100 injured on September 29, 2008, when an explosive device strapped to a motorcycle went off near a mosque in Malegaon town in north Maharashtra, some 200 km from Mumbai.
A total of seven accused including Thakur and Colonel Prasad Purohit are facing trial in the case. All of them are out on bail.
Hyderabad: The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) Hyderabad has issued an orange alert for Hyderabad and other districts of Telangana due to intense rainfall and hailstorm expected on April 27, 2023. After a day’s break, the city is expected to experience heavy rainfall accompanied by gusty winds and hailstorms towards the evening or night.
According to the IMD Hyderabad, all six zones in Hyderabad, namely Charminar, Khairatabad, Kukatpally, LB Nagar, Secunderabad, and Serilingampally, are likely to experience a generally cloudy sky with light to moderate rainfall or thundershowers.
SEVERE CONVERGENCE IN NORTH TS
After a day break, today POWERFUL RAINS will be back in many parts of North, Central TS with HAILSTORMS at few places. Main action during late evening – early morning ⚠️
Neighbouring districts of Hyderabad to witness heavy rainfall, hailstorm
Apart from Hyderabad, other districts of Telangana, including Adilabad, Komaram Bheem Asifabad, Mancherial, Nirmal, Nizamabad, Jagityal, Rajanna Sirsilla, Karimnagar, Siddipet, Rangareddy, Medchal Malkajigiri, Vikarabad, Sangareddy, Medak, Kamareddy, and Mahabubnagar, are also expected to witness thunderstorms accompanied by lightning, hailstorm, and gusty winds with heavy rainfall.
The Telangana State Development Planning Society (TSDPS) has also forecasted light to moderate rainfall in the city today.
However, there will not be a significant difference in temperature in Hyderabad, with the maximum temperature expected to be in the range of 36-40 degrees Celsius.
Power cut, heavy traffic during rainfall
Though rainfall in Hyderabad brings respite from the summer heat, it also possesses a lot of challenges, especially when it comes to power cuts and heavy traffic.
As electrical infrastructure in the city is not always able to handle the heavy rainfall, outages take place that can last for hours.
Another problem that arises during rainfall in Hyderabad is heavy traffic. The city’s roads are often clogged with vehicles, and the situation worsens when it rains. The traffic snarls can cause long delays, making it difficult for people to reach their destinations on time.
In view of the forecast made by both IMD Hyderabad and TSDPS, residents are advised to stay alert and take necessary precautions to avoid any unforeseen situations. It is recommended to avoid traveling during the heavy downpour and stay indoors if possible.
Carroll will be cross-examined by Trump’s attorneys. It wasn’t clear Wednesday afternoon when that questioning would begin.
In much of her initial testimony, Carroll, 79, was matter-of-fact, but when one of her lawyers, Mike Ferrara, asked her about the moment Trump allegedly inserted his penis into Carroll, she stammered, took a lengthy pause and began to cry. “I….I…I tried. I…,” she said, before pausing. “When you asked me what I did in that moment, I always think back to why I walked in there to get myself in that situation,” she said, crying. “But I did get out.”
Carroll, a longtime advice columnist for Elle magazine, testified that she and Trump had met years before the alleged incident, and she liked him. “I thought he was well-known, a raconteur, man-about-town,” she said. “Well-liked.” Asked if she thought he was attractive, she said yes.
According to Carroll, she bumped into Trump at the door to Bergdorf’s, and he asked her to help him pick out a gift. “Oh, I was delighted,” she recalled. “Well, it was such a funny New York scene. I’m a born advice columnist. I love to give advice, and here was Donald Trump asking me to give advice about buying a present.”
Carroll has said she does not remember the exact date but believes it was in late 1995 or early 1996. A lawyer for Trump tried to use the lack of a date to undermine her account in his opening statement on Tuesday.
But in her testimony Wednesday, Carroll provided a detailed account of what she says happened that day. She and Trump browsed the store, she said, and eventually made their way up the escalator to the lingerie department on the sixth floor. The tone of their conversation was “very joshing” and light-hearted, Carroll testified, and the two teased each other about which one should try on a lace bodysuit. “I was flirting the whole time, probably,” she said.
Trump took her by the arm and led her to a dressing room, she said. Asked if she ever thought about saying no, she replied that “it didn’t occur to me.”
“The door was open and that open door has plagued me for years, because I just walked into it. Just walked in,” she said, as though in disbelief.
Carroll said it took her a moment to register that their cheerful encounter had taken a turn.
“He immediately shut the door and shoved me up against the wall,” she testified. “And shoved me so hard my head banged. I was extremely confused and suddenly realizing that what I thought was happening was not happening.”
She testified that she didn’t call for help or yell. “This is going to sound odd: I didn’t want to make a scene,” she said. “I didn’t want to make him angry at me. This started out as something fun and light and comedic and something to tell people you were having dinner with, and it suddenly turned absolutely dark.”
At the time, Carroll said, she was 5’9” and about 120 pounds and was wearing 4-inch heels, making her approximately Trump’s height but about 100 pounds lighter. “His head was beside mine, breathing,” she said.
“His whole weight came against my chest and held me up there. And he leaned down and pulled down my tights,” she said. “I was pushing him back,” she said, holding up her hands to demonstrate.
Carroll said she was “stamping and trying to wriggle out from under him.”
“But he had pulled down my tights and his fingers went into my vagina and it was extremely painful,” she said. “Extremely painful, because he put his hand inside me and curved his fingers. As I’m sitting here today I can still feel it,” she said, her voice cracking.
“Then what happened?” her lawyer, Ferrara, asked. “Then he inserted his penis,” she said, and the alleged assault lasted a few minutes. “I had so much adrenaline pouring through me at this time, I can’t recall if I said anything.”
After pushing Trump off of her, she said, Carroll fled the store and ran out onto Fifth Avenue.
“Sitting here today, how do you feel about going into that dressing room?” Ferrara asked.
“It was very stupid,” Carroll said. “It changed…” she paused. “I know people have been through a lot worse than this, but it had…it left me, it left me unable to ever have a romantic life again.”
Carroll said she immediately called one friend, Lisa Birnbach, and the next day told another friend, Carol Martin. She said she never told anyone else until she went public with her account in 2019.
Asked if she was afraid of how others would react, she said she wasn’t. “No, I knew how others would react,” she said. “Women who are raped are looked at as soiled goods. They’re looked at as less.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Srinagar, Apr 21: A massive gathering of devotees was witnessed in Srinagar’s Hazratbal Dargah shrine and the historic Jamia Masjid on the last Friday of the holy month Ramadan.
Reports reaching the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) said that nearly 50,000 devotees offered congregational Friday prayers at the historic Jamia Masjid, which remained closed for the prayers last Friday.
The biggest congregation was, however, witnessed at Hazratbal shrines where the devotees from different parts of the Valley participated in the Friday prayers, where the holy relic of the Prophet (SAW) was displayed during which emotional scenes were witnessed all around.
Large congregations were also witnessed in others Masjids and shrines including Masjid Jamiat-e-Ahlehadith, Gawkadal; Asar-e-Sharif, Janab Sahib Soura Asar-e-Sharif Shehri Kalashpora Ziarat-e-Makhdoom Sahib, Khanqah-e-Mualla and different Imambaras.
The biggest congregational prayers were also witnessed at several other shrines in different districts, including Chararisharief in Budgam, Khiram Sirhama & Hazratbal Kabamarg in Anantnag district, Shrines of Hazrat Sultan-ul-Arifeen and Sheikh Hamzah Makhdoom Sahib (RA) located in Ahm-e-Sharief and Gundpora-Rampora, respectively, in Bandipora district and other Masjids as well.
During the special prayers, the religious clerics threw light on the teachings of Islam.
Special arrangements were put in place including sanitation, lightening, traffic management, transport and relevant things for the devotees, officials said.
“We had also established a control room at Dargah Hazratbal where thousands of devotees are expected to gather for Friday congregational prayers and to have a glimpse of the holy relic,” officials said.
The authorities had also pressed buses into service to ferry devotees to and from Hazratbal Dargah.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson of the Anjuman Auqaf Jamia Masjid, said that on the occasion of Last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan, thousands of men, women and young people performed Friday prayer at the historical Jama Masjid Srinagar by prostrating themselves before the Almighty Allah, doing Tauba-Wa-Istighfaar – repenting over their sins and seeking forgiveness from their Lord.
However, the people were once again disappointed over the absence of their beloved leader Mirwaiz-e-Kashmir Dr Moulvi Muhammad Umar Farooq who is under house detention for the last nearly four years due to which the Mimbar and Mihraab of the grand mosque continue to remain silent, the statement said.
He conveyed the Eid-ul-Fitr message of the detained Mirwaiz-e-Kashmir to the people in a huge public gathering and appealed to them to celebrate Eid with simplicity according to Islamic teachings. They were urged to remember the poor, needy, backward and disadvantaged people of society in the festivities.
Anjuman expressed strong resentment against the continuous illegal and arbitrary detention of Mirwaiz –e-Kashmir and said the authorities should change their dictatorial attitude and release him before Eid
On the occasion, the people raised their voices for the immediate and unconditional release of Mirwaiz-e-Kashmir.
Meanwhile, the Anjuman said that the Eid prayers are going to be offered after three years at Jama Masjid Srinagar inshallah and according to the programme, the Eid prayer will be offered at 09:00 am, In Sha Allah.
The people were urged to come before time and show Islamic unity and discipline on the occasion—(KNO)
Srinagar, Apr 20 Jammu and Kashmir’s Grand Mufti Nasir-ul Islam Thursday said that no witness from any part of the J&K was received about moon sighting and hence a consensus was reached that the Eid-ul-Fitr will be celebrated on Saturday.
“No evidence or any witness was received from any part of J&K about the sighting of the moon. Hence, Eid-ul-Fitr will be celebrated on Saturday,” Grand Mufti told news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO).
He said the decision to announce Eid-ul-Fitr on Saturday was taken after consensus with the Ulema from Kashmir and Jammu region respectively that include head of Mutahida Majlis-e-Ulema (MMU) Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, patron of Darul Uloom Rahimiya Bandipora, Moulana Rehmatullah Qasimi, also from Darul Uloom Bandipora Mufti Nazir Ahmed Qasmi, Mufti Muzaffar, Mufti Abdur Raheem via Baramulla. Khateeb at the shrine of Hazrat Naqshband Sahab (RA) Prof Muhammad Tayib Kamili , Chairman Karwani-e-Islami Ghulam Rasool Hami, from Sautul Awliya Fayaz Ahmed Rizvi, Shia Scholars Aga Syed Al Hassan Mosvi, Aga Syed Haadi and Masoor Abbas Ansari, Muhammad Yaseen Kirmani, Gen Sec Muslim Personal Law Board, Mufti Himayon, Shabir Ahmed Geelani, Abdur Hameed Nayeemi, Moulana Younus and Abdur Rehman Ashrafi from Qazigund. From Jammu, Ulema’s who were part of the consensus include Mufti Nazir Ahmed, Mufti Shabir Ahmed Noori, Qari Ali Hussain, Haji Muhammad Shafi Nasri, Mufti Liyqat Ali Rajouri, Master Ashraf from Kathua, Moulana Muzaffar Hussian Rizvi from Jammu, Moulana Shafi Rizvi from Samba, Mufti Muhammad Iqbal from Poonch, Hafiz Syed Yasir from Udhampur, Bashir Ahmed Qadri and Reasi and Haji Muhammad Tariq from Jammu—(KNO)
Recognizing Sumrall’s prominence within the Jan. 6 community, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jordan Konig pressed the witness to identify others who went into the Capitol but had not yet been charged — raising the prospect that a truthful answer might incriminate his acquaintances or associates. After initially beginning to answer the question, Sumrall appeared to grow agitated.
Alberts’ attorney Roger Roots quickly objected, prompting U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Cooper to recess the trial and debate the issue. After jurors left the room, Cooper professed to being blindsided by the line of questioning, calling it “unorthodox” and a “fairly unique situation.” He asked prosecutors to give him a heads-up next time if they planned to go that route.
Roots fumed that the line of questioning was a bid by prosecutors to turn Sumrall into a “cheese-eating rat” and “a snitch on the stand.” He accused prosecutors of “pretending they’re the FBI” and attempting to humiliate Sumrall in front of the jury.
“This is so outrageous,” Roots said.
Konig said Sumrall’s refusal to answer the question spoke to his credibility as a defense witness — proving that he was unwilling to testify in any way that would be harmful to a Jan. 6 defendant. His “ties to the Jan. 6 community,” Konig said, are proof of his bias that jurors should be permitted to consider.
He also cited two recent criminal tax cases in which prosecutors were permitted to cross-examine witnesses. In a 2019 case in Colorado, a federal judge ordered a defendant to respond to prosecutors’ request that he identify other people who refused to pay their taxes. The same year, in a federal criminal tax case in Nevada, prosecutors asked the defendant to identify other tax scofflaws — including one who happened to be in the room at the time of the testimony.
Cooper, though, did not permit prosecutors to go as far. He said he would permit Sumrall to decline to answer the question and would not order him to name names. Prosecutors agreed this was an acceptable outcome because jurors would still see that Sumrall had refused to identify people who might be implicated in Jan. 6 wrongdoing. When the jury returned, Cooper informed them of his decision.
Alberts called Sumrall in part because Sumrall was on Capitol grounds Jan. 6 filming the events. The defense contended that Sumrall’s video showed the thin police presence as pro-Trump protesters arrived at the Capitol and ultimately surged past several layers of barricades.
During their cross-examination, prosecutors highlighted Sumrall’s extensive commentary in support of Jan. 6 defendants, his help in fundraising for the legal defense of some of the most notorious perpetrators on that day — including one of Roots’ other clients, Dominic Pezzola, who is facing seditious conspiracy charges in a trial two floors away — and his sympathy for the “cause” that Jan. 6 rioters espoused that day.
They also emphasized that Sumrall had claimed “99 percent” of Jan. 6 defendants should not have been charged.
Sumrall was the final defense witness in the case, which now heads to closing arguments and jury deliberations.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Minutes later, the police line collapsed and Alberts rushed with the crowd to the foot of the Capitol. There, he confronted police officers, calling them “domestic terrorists” for refusing to permit Trump supporters to “overthrow the government,” which he characterized as a patriotic duty. He meandered the exterior of the building for hours before hurling more invective — and a water bottle — at officers trying to clear the mob from the Capitol’s Upper West Terrace plaza.
“It was wrong,” Alberts acknowledged in federal District Court in D.C. “I shouldn’t have done it.”
And as he told a jury on Monday, the entire time he was at the Capitol, he was armed with a concealed firearm and 25 rounds of ammunition, including hollow-point bullets.
It was a remarkable turn on the witness stand for Alberts, whose story remains relatively unknown despite his prolonged and notable role in the arc of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. The early drive up the west side stairs of the Capitol by Alberts, Reffitt and others led to a lengthy standoff with the police. Other rioters — those who would ultimately smash their way into the building — used that standoff to amass underneath nearby scaffolding meant for Joe Biden’s inaugural stage. Within minutes, they would make their charge through police lines and into the building.
Few rioters spent the amount of time Alberts did at the Capitol on Jan. 6. Although he didn’t go inside, he remained in sensitive locations where police struggled to contain the crowd — and he repeatedly ratcheted up tension between the crowd and the officers.
And equally few rioters have attempted to tell their story to a jury under oath, particularly in a case with an extraordinary amount of video evidence documenting Alberts’ alleged crimes. Jurors are expected to get the case on Tuesday or Wednesday, with a verdict likely later this week.
To hear Alberts tell it, his entire day on Jan. 6 was a hapless accident — a mix of bad timing, attempts at heroic intervention to protect pro-Trump protesters and a rising fury at police for overzealous crowd-control tactics.
Alberts said he had intended to listen to Trump’s speech but became distracted by an unattended backpack, which he helped remove to a safe distance from the crowd. (The backpack, prosecutors would later elicit, contained nothing dangerous.) From there, Alberts said, he saw other protesters streaming toward the Capitol and decided to follow suit. When he arrived, he witnessed at least one member of the crowd experience a medical episode and helped police keep the sidewalk clear to permit the man to be evacuated from the scene.
Alberts said his alarm over this episode heightened his concern when he arrived at the base of the west side steps of the Capitol and saw police firing less-lethal munitions at the crowd. In his view, he said, their actions were unjustified and he decided he would climb the stairs toward the police line to help shield other members of the crowd from the police.
“Somebody had to put a stop to it,” he testified on Monday, adding that he was willing to ”take damage to prevent more people from getting harmed or hurt.”
On his way up the stairs, Alberts encountered Reffitt, who was doubled over after being sprayed by police. (Last year, Reffitt became the first Jan. 6 defendant to go before a jury, which found him guilty of numerous felony counts. He’s currently serving a sentence of seven and a half years.)
Alberts said he became instantly fixated on Reffitt and concerned that the man might fall off the elevated railing he was perched on. Though he tried to get Reffitt to descend the staircase to safety, Reffitt continued to urge the crowd onward, Alberts recalled, saying Reffitt shouted, “Forward!” Suddenly, Alberts said, someone placed the large wooden pallet at his feet.
Alberts said he picked it up to “dispose of” the object, but was met with a hail of crowd-control munitions, so instead he used it as a shield to protect himself as he advanced toward the firing officers.
Alberts described his rhetoric toward police that day as “hyperbolic” and ill-advised, informed more by his fury at the officers’ treatment of the crowd than a desire to topple the government.
“I was angry,” Alberts said.
But prosecutors pressed him repeatedly to explain why, if his actions were as innocent as he described, he lingered on Capitol grounds for hours after it became clear that police had wanted him to leave.
Prosecutors appeared stunned by Alberts’ explanations for his protracted presence at the Capitol. Alberts repeatedly said he was there to make his voice heard, and insisted that the police were trying to stifle the protests happening outside the building. He said he never intended to resist or obstruct police activity or the session of Congress that was happening inside the Capitol.
But Assistant U.S. Attorney Jordan Konig pressed him on why he ignored so many obvious signs that officers were trying to get him and other rioters to leave. And Konig reminded jurors over and over again that concealed on Alberts’ right side was a handgun. Notably, Reffitt was convicted last year for crimes that included carrying a handgun on Capitol grounds — meaning two of the first rioters to square off with police had concealed firearms.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Hyderabad: Are you an astrophile residing in Hyderabad and eagerly waiting for the first solar eclipse of 2023? If yes, you might be wondering if the eclipse will be visible from Hyderabad.
According to the data from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the first solar eclipse of 2023 will occur on April 20, 2023. The eclipse will be visible from South East Asia, East Indies, Australia, the Philippines, New Zealand, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea. Unfortunately, Hyderabad is not on the list of places where the eclipse will be visible.
However, the eclipse is going to be a hybrid solar eclipse, which means that some places will witness a total solar eclipse, whereas others will see an annular eclipse. So, if you are an astrophile residing near the places where the eclipse will be visible, you can witness this celestial event.
Hyderabad witnessed partial solar eclipse last year
Last year, Hyderabad witnessed a partial solar eclipse on October 25, 2022. Many astrophiles who were eagerly waiting for the event headed to the Birla Planetarium in Hyderabad to enjoy the celestial event.
At Birla Planetarium, a telescope projected an image of the partial solar eclipse on the screen. A telescope with solar filters was also arranged for those who wanted to watch directly.
Besides the partial solar eclipse, Hyderabad also witnessed a partial lunar eclipse recently.
Solar vs Lunar Eclipse
Lunar eclipses, like solar eclipses, occur due to the rotation of the Earth around the Sun and the Moon around the Earth. Due to the rotation, at some point, Sun, Moon, and Earth come in a linear configuration. Because of it, either the Sun or the Moon becomes invisible from the Earth.
In a solar eclipse, the Sun becomes invisible because its rays will not reach the Earth as they will be blocked by the Moon. In contrast, in a lunar eclipse, Sun rays will not reach the Moon as they will be blocked by the Earth.
