Will shoot policemen if they continue to harass BJP workers, warns BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj

BJP's loudmouth MP from Unnao Sakshi Maharaj, who has courted several controversies in past, has now threatened to shoot cops if they continue to harass his supporters and party workers.

According to Aaj Tak, Sakshi Maharaj has said that if UP policemen continued to threaten his party workers in Mainpuri they will be gunned down.

The controversial BJP MP issued the statement a day after visiting the house of Maidan Singh, BJP vice president of the Mainpuri district, who is being allegedly harassed by the local policemen.

Addressing his supporters, Sakshi Maharaj accused the Samajawadi Party government led by Akhilesh Yadav of failing to control the rising lawlessness in Uttar Pradesh and encouraging anti-social elements.

The Unnao MP said the local policemen have misbehaved with Maidan Singh's two daughters and entered his house without lady constables. Sorce:http://zeenews.india.com

Uttarakhand High Court Chief Justic KM Joseph, who quashed President's rule, transferred

The Uttarakhand High Court 's Chief Justice KM Joseph , who presided over the bench which quashed President's rule in the state, has been transferred to the Anhdra Pradesh High Court.

Dilip B Bhosale, the acting Chief Justice of the Hyderabad High Court, has been appointed as the Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court.

The 57-year-old Joseph took charge of the Uttarakhand High Court in 2014. He passed out of the Government Law College in Ernakulam and enrolled himself as an advocate in Delhi in 1982. He practised in Kerala as well.

Last month, a bench of Uttarakhand High Court, presided over by Joseph, had quashed the Centre's decision to impose President's rule in the state.

Uttarakhand crisis: SC grants Centre time till May 6 to clear stand on holding floor test


Uttarakhand crisis: SC grants Centre time till May 6 to clear stand on holding floor test

In his judgement, which admonished the NDA government, Justice Joseph has said that the Centre should act 'impartial'.

However, the ruling was stayed by the Supreme Court. Source: http://zeenews.india.com

Halliburton, Baker Hughes to scrap controversial merger

Halliburton Co. HAL, +0.66%   and Baker Hughes Inc. BHI, +1.04%   called off their merger, once valued at nearly $35 billion, which encountered opposition on several continents from regulators who claimed that it would hurt competition in the oil-field services business.

The deal to combine the world’s second- and third-largest oil-field services firms after Schlumberger Ltd. SLB, +0.70%   appeared troubled since April 6, when the Justice Department filed a lawsuit to block it. The merger also had encountered opposition from regulators in Europe.

Fire at Coxheath scrapyard near Sydney burns hundreds of cars

Cape Breton firefighters say 60 vehicles were fully engulfed by flames in a pile of 500 cars at a scrapyard just outside Sydney, N.S. Tuesday night.

More than 60 firefighters led by the Coxheath Volunteer Fire Department responded to the fire. 

Reports of the fire came around 7:15 p.m. and the Cape Breton Regional Municipality said firefighters are expected remain on scene into the early hours of Wednesday morning.

The CBC's Gary Mansfield reports there was no water supply on hand so fire crews brought in water trucks.

A crane was at the scene to lift the vehicles out of the way, which were stacked several cars high. The fire was isolated to one area of the scrapyard and fire crews worked to keep it from spreading. 

View scrap dealer Mumbai

Fire at Coxheath scrapyard near Sydney burns hundreds of cars

Cape Breton firefighters say 60 vehicles were fully engulfed by flames in a pile of 500 cars at a scrapyard just outside Sydney, N.S. Tuesday night.

More than 60 firefighters led by the Coxheath Volunteer Fire Department responded to the fire. 

Reports of the fire came around 7:15 p.m. and the Cape Breton Regional Municipality said firefighters are expected remain on scene into the early hours of Wednesday morning.

The CBC's Gary Mansfield reports there was no water supply on hand so fire crews brought in water trucks.

A crane was at the scene to lift the vehicles out of the way, which were stacked several cars high. The fire was isolated to one area of the scrapyard and fire crews worked to keep it from spreading. 

View scrap dealer Mumbai

Turkey's ruling party denies plans to scrap secularism

rkey's Islamic-rooted ruling party has denied it has plans to change the nation's secular constitution into a religious one.

The statement from senior party officials on Tuesday came a day after parliamentary speaker Ismail Kahraman said majority-Muslim Turkey should have a religious constitution. His comments have led to fears that Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu's party — which is drafting a new constitution— plans to scrap Turkey's secular system.

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Ministers abandon plan to scrap farm animal welfare codes

Ministers have backed down on plans to repeal farm animal welfare codes, abandoning their move to put the poultry industry in charge of the guidance on chickens that was scheduled to come into force this month.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs released a statement confirming the U-turn, saying the decision was taken “in light of views raised”.

The move to scrap the official code on farming chickens for meat and breeding was revealed last month by the Guardian, prompting an outcry from animal charities and opposition parties.

The change in favour of an “industry-led” guidance, which was to be written and supervised by the British Poultry Council, was part of the deregulatory agenda being led by Liz Truss, the environment secretary.

Other sectors that were to get control of their own guidance in future included the cattle, sheep and pig farming industries.

But a Defra spokesman said on Thursday: “We have the highest standards of animal welfare in the world, and no changes have been proposed to the legislation upholding them. We want to draw more closely on the expertise of the farming industry to ensure our welfare codes reflect the very latest scientific and veterinary developments.


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“In light of views raised, we have given the matter further consideration and believe we can achieve this objective by retaining the existing statutory codes. The work of the farming industry has been invaluable and we will continue to work with them to ensure our guidance is updated to best help them to comply with our high welfare standards.”

Concerns that welfare standards could be weakened had been raised by the RSCPA and Compassion in World Farming as well as by Labour, which this week called for an urgent parliamentary debate on the changes.

Kerry McCarthy, the shadow environment secretary, wrote to Truss on Wednesday, saying: “Abolishing statutory animal welfare codes flies in the face of common sense and risks a return to dangerous days in Britain when animal welfare standards were lax and food scares were rife.