Top News Headlines of 18 February 2014
- British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor has won Best Actor at the Bafta’s for his role as Solomon Northup in Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave.
- South Africa recalled hard-hitting all-rounder Albie Morkel on Monday in their squad for the World Twenty20 in Bangladesh starting next month.
- There was panic in the city’s northeast community after word spread on Monday that a ‘panchayat’ in south Delhi’s Munirka village had decided to evict all tenants from northeastern India.
- Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Monday presented the interim budget for the fiscal year 2014-15 to cover expenditure until the government’s term ends in May.
- In a last-ditch gambit to woo the defence community of 14 lakh serving and over 25 lakh retired military personnel, the government has yanked the long-demanded, much-promised but never-implemented one-rank, one-pension (OROP) rabbit out of its hat in the run-up to general elections.
- Gurgaon expressway’s worst traffic bottleneck the Delhi border toll plaza is set to be scrapped this week, with the present operator and the lead banker signing the last settlement deals on Monday.
- Seasoned spinner Abdur Razzak and young batsman Sabbir Rahman were on Monday named in Bangladesh’s squad for the World T20 which the country hosts from March 16.
- The Centre on Monday moved the Supreme Court requesting lifting of stay on implementation of 4.5% sub quota for Muslims, to be carved out from the 27% OBC quota, for admissions to central educational institutions and jobs.
- Unhappy with the Centre’s decision to impose President’s rule in Delhi, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is exploring legal options to challenge it.
- Tehelka founder-editor Tarun Tejpal was on Monday charged under the stringent post-Nirbhaya anti-rape law for allegedly sexually assaulting a journalist working for his magazine.
- Three people were arrested at Indira Gandhi International Airport for trying to smuggle about 4kg of gold worth Rs 1 crore on Sunday.
- Expelled Aam Aadmi Party MLA Vinod Kumar Binny on Monday moved the Delhi high court challenging the view taken by the speaker of Delhi assembly that Binny, despite his expulsion,remained an AAP member and would be bound by a party whip.
- Two women were killed and a man was injured when a three-storey building in the Sadar Bazar area collapsed on Monday. The old structure was being used as a go down.
- The coal ministry has accepted the recommendation of an inter-ministerial group and issued formal letters for deal locating 29 blocks on grounds of squatting, including those given to Essar Power, Hindalco, Tata Power and Jindal Steel and Power Ltd.
- Around 100 nilgai have died in Agras Saurai region after allegedly drinking the highly contaminated water from the Karvan river.
- The Congress Election Committee (CEC) headed by AICC president Sonia Gandhi has re-nominated all nine sitting MPs from Karnataka besides finalizing the name of Nandan Nilekani for Bangalore South.
- The Indian Newspaper Society on Monday expressed concern that the Arunachal Times had been forced to suspend publication following intimidation tactics by a students group, the Students Union Movement of Arunachal (SUMA).
- Kingfisher Airlines (KFA) CEO Sanjay Aggarwal has resigned and now the groundedsince-October-2012 airline has no non-UB Group person in its management as all the professionals hired from outside have quit.