Hyderabad, Dec 29 (ANI): As many as 13 people were killed and seven others were injured when the vehicle they were travelling in collided with a lorry in Andhra Pradesh's Nellore District on Saturday.

Members of a marriage party were travelling in a sports utility vehicle to Buchireddypalem in Nellore District from Jammaladarga at Nandyal in Kurnool District when their vehicle collided with the lorry at Marripadu village, police said.

All the 13 deceased, including six women and three children, belonged to the same family. While 12 died on the spot, one person succumbed to his injuries.

The injured have been admitted to hospitals in Nellore. (ANI)
- AY

Hyderabad, Dec 28 (ANI): Andhra Pradesh Assembly Congress Legislator P Janardhan Reddy, died of cardiac arrest here today.

Reddy, 59, was a legislator from Hyderabad's Khairatabad constituency.

He suffered severe heart attack when he arrived at a party meeting in Secunderabad. He was rushed to a super-speciality hospital, where he breathed his last.

He has been elected to the State Assembly in 1978, 1985, 1989, 1994 and 2004.

Reddy served as the Minister for Labour in the earlier Congress Government (1989-94) in the state. (ANI)
- AY

Kurnool (Andhra Pradesh), Dec 24 (ANI): The body of one of the two Indian students, killed in an apartment on the Louisiana State University campus, was brought to his native Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh on Sunday.

Relatives of Chandrasekhar Reddy Komma blamed the Central and Andhra Pradesh Governments for not doing enough to put pressure on the American authorities to book the culprits.

"The Central or the State Governments, what action have they taken? Till today, they have not announced anything. What happened to the culprits, what incident had taken place at that place?," said Reddy's brother-in-law Srinivasan.

Early investigations have indicated that the deaths came about due to home invasion.

Foreign exchange Ph.D students Reddy and Kiran Kumar Allam were found shot dead on December 13 at the Edward Gay apartments near the LSU band practice field.

The shooting occurred at the Edward Gay apartments near the Louisiana State University band practice field and Governor-elect Bobby Jindal's transition office. (ANI)
- AY

Hyderabad, Dec 20(ANI): Junior doctors in Andhra Pradesh have called off their strike after the State Government by imposed Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA).

The doctors went on strike after some of them were attacked by relatives of a patient and activists of the Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) which is led by MLA Afsar Khan,on December 2.

Senior doctors had resumed work after the government brought out an ordinance that addressed their demand for security in hospitals. Their junior colleagues,however, continued the protest.

Earlier, a Division Bench of the High Court comprising acting Chief Justice Bilal Nazki and Justice Ramesh Ranganathan recorded an undertaking given by the junior doctors that they were calling off their 12-day-old strike and posted the case for adjudication to a later date.

The boycott of emergency services by junior doctors at Niloufer and Osmania General Hospitals and elective duties at other Government hospitals had paralysed medical services in Hyderabad and Secunderabad. (ANI)
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-AA

Labels: Health

Hyderabad,Dec 20,(ANI):Underworld don Abu Salem was remanded to judicial custody till January 3 by a Hyderabad court today in connection with a fake passport case.
Salem, who was brought to Hyderabad from Mumbai on a prisoner transit warrant, was produced before a special judge, who sent him to 14 days judicial custody.

As the  special CBI court judge was on leave,Salem was produced before another special judge to facilitate the speedy trial of a case involving embezzlement of scholarship grantsfrom the Andhra Pradesh social welfare department.

Salem was presented before the court at Nampally amidst tight security.

The CBI had filed an application before the special judge, seeking his custody in the fake passport case.Salem, who is also wanted in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts case, was then taken to Mumbai,where he is facing trial in a TADA court.(ANI)
--MP

New Delhi, Dec 20 (ANI): President Pratibha Devisingh Patil will pay an official visit to Andhra Pradesh from December 21 to January 6.

On Friday, President Patil will visit Puducherry where she will attend the inaugural function of the 34th Jawahar Lal Nehru National Science Exhibition for Children-2007.

The President will also visit the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Auroville on Saturday.

During her visit, President will tour the Andaman and Nicobar Islands from December 26 to 28 where she will be visit the rehabilitation work sites in the Tsunami affected areas and interact with the islanders.

In Hyderabad, she will attend various programmes organised by the State Government and the Ministry of Defence, including Defence Research Establishments and the Air Force Training Institute. (ANI)
--MP

PV: There was an interesting discussion on why Megastar Chiranjeevi had chosen, of all, Maxivision chairman Dr Kasu Prasad Reddy to leak the information about his plan to enter politics. According to sources, Dr Prasad Reddy was a great fan of  Allu Ramalingaiah, who is incidentally father-in-law of Chiranjeevi. A big portraint of this late adorns the wall of Dr Prasad Reddy's living room. So, when Chiranjeevi happened to visit Dr Reddy's hospital one day for an eye check-up, he was very impressed by the latter's admiration towards his father-in-law. Since then, both of them have been very good friends and Dr Reddy was helping Chiranjeevi in his eye-bank activities. It was Dr Reddy, who has been the source of inspiration for Chiranjeevi to think about launching a new political party. But when it started taking the caste colour, Chiranjeevi had to step in and issue a statement asking his fans to maintain restraint, till he formally makes a statement.

Kurnool, Dec 15 (ANI): Grief-stricken relatives and friends of an Indian Ph.D student murdered on the campus of Louisiana State University in the United States have expressed shock and horror over the killing.

Two foreign exchange Ph.D students  - - Chandrasekhar Reddy Komma and Kiran Kumar Allam, both from Andhra Pradesh, were killed late on Thursday night.

The shooting occurred at the Edward Gay apartments near the Louisiana State University band practice field and Governor-elect Bobby Jindal's transition office.

Family members and close friends of Chandrasekhar Reddy said they have received no official information till now.

"He studied his MBA in college. We do not have any other information. He's got a wife, but no children. They got married in February," said Reddy, an uncle.

Subhan, a friend of the victim, said, the news came as a shock to everyone back home.

"We don't have any information from the officials. The only information is from television. We are shocked. We have no clue what happened there," he said.

While Reddy's parents have not been told the news, as they are heart patients, his brothers and sisters will be leaving for the US.

Early investigations indicated that the deaths came about as a result of a home invasion and police are hunting for suspects. (ANI)

- AY

Hyderabad, Dec 13 (ANI): Hours after case was filed against Sania Mirza for trespassing into Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad to shoot for an advertisement, the tennis player tendered an apology for hurting religious sentiments.

The ad shoot in the historic mosque provoked angry reactions from locals, some clerics and Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) activists. The protestors said the tennis player has hurt religious sentiments by shooting in the mosque ''without permission.''

The city police also filed a case against the advertisement agency involved in the shoot.

The Minority Welfare Department had filed a complaint with the police that Mirza, along with the agency's crew had entered the mosque on December 10 without prior permission from the authorities.

In e-mail to Hyderabad Police Commissioner, Mirza apologised for shooting a commercial at the 17th century mosque. She also apologised to the Imam of the mosque. (ANI)
--MP

Visakhapatnam, Dec 9 (ANI): An economic blockade called by Maoists in Andhra Pradesh has evoked little response as life carried on peacefully, police said.

"The last two days of the formation week of People's Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) were declared as economic blockade by the CPI Maoists. We have seen that there has been no such effect in common life and the area has been peaceful," said Akun Sabarwal, Superintendent of Police, Visakhapatnam District.

C H Srikanth, a special officer said that security has been beefed up and combing operations are being carried out to wipe out the Maoists from the area.

"The police are continuously in touch with tribals, and they are conducting operations with the help of the tribals," Srikanth said.

Since December 2, spates of attacks and encounters have taken place between the Maoists and the police.

So far, three Maoists rebels were killed and one police constable was wounded in two separate incidents.

According to reports, Internet is said to be helping the Net-savvy Maoists to know the technicalities to manufacture rockets as well as rocket launchers.

Maoists used the first such rocket during their attack on Durgi Police Station of Guntur and Mannanur of Mehboobnagar district in Andhra Pradesh on July 3, 2005. (ANI)
--MP

Hyderabad, Dec 8 (ANI-Business Wire India): Vitesse Semiconductor Corporation has announced plans to significantly increase its presence in Hyderabad, where it currently manages a design-development center.

The company announced plans to increase investment in this design center by over 100 percent per year over the next three years.

Vitesse acquired the ASIC design center from Adaptec, Inc. several years ago for the development of Raid-on-Chip processors for storage applications.

More recently, the Design Center has been focused on developing products for the emerging high-performance Ethernet Networking applications.

India Design Center director Ravi Pattisam commented: "We are very pleased to announce our expansion plans for the India Design Center. We have critical technical expertise in Enterprise and Carrier Networking that will allow Vitesse to deploy more products into this fast-growing market segment. We are excited to be a strategic part of Vitesse's future growth. Our expertise will provide low-cost development capability, as well as round the clock resources to improve time-critical development schedules."

The India Design Center has deployed several multi-million gate integrated circuit products in a variety of technologies, including a Raid-on-Chip processor for the Storage market, as well as a recently announced highly-integrated Gigabit Ethernet MAC controller for Carrier and Enterprise Networking. (ANI)
--MP

Hyderabad, Dec 8 (ANI): Around 7000 AIDS and HIV positive people gathered here for a mega-event to mark World AIDS week. 

Women, men and children affected by the fatal disease came together for the "Be Bold Campaign", which is a follow up of last year's programme organised by the state's Aids Control Society. 

G. Ashok Kumar, Project Director of the Andhra Pradesh AIDS Control Society (APACS) said such events boost the people's confidence. 

"We had a big campaign called "Be Bold". This was primarily intended to transform the awareness generated into action. Last year we had a get together of about 3800 positive people in this very same place, and we found that after they left this place they had a tremendous self-confidence boost, which they got from here," he added. 

Knowledge about the illness is still scant, and most Indians who test positive for the virus do not know about the pitfalls that lead to contracting the disease, its incidence and cure. 

Bhanu Kumar, a counsellor, said: "There are games for children and they are telling us what we do not know about AIDS". 

Lack of awareness and a widespread stigma have contributed to the paranoia surrounding the virus in India. HIV patients are meted out rude treatment and are often looked down upon. 

AIDS has acquired the status of endemic in India -- where over 2.5 million people are thought to be living with HIV/AIDS -- and putting millions of more lives at risk. 

According to the latest UN figures on AIDS, the global prevalence of HIV AIDS has levelled off in part due to effective HIV programs. Still, in 2007, there are 33.2 million people infected with the disease -- about 30.8 million adults and 2.5 million children. 

Latest figures show 2.5 million people have become newly infected and 2.1 million people will die of AIDS related causes in 2007. (ANI) -AJ

Hyderabad, Dec 6 (ANI/Business Wire India): US-based Cornell University in association with Sathguru will conduct food executive program for senior and middle management professionals to enhance their business leadership and competitiveness.

The program will focus on

-- Understanding Global best practices in Food Marketing, Supply Chain and Retailing.

-- Understanding strategic issues in retailing.

-- Learning the intricacies of Food Merchandising and its effective use.

-- New trends and Innovation in supply chain management.

-- Knowing the global Customer Management practices. Analyzing consumer trend and behavior proactively.

-- Getting to know on the strategic importance of Food Safety.

-- Case study analysis and Simulation Group Exercises will provide global exposure and stimulate critical thinking and discussion.

The residential program will be delivered at Taj Residency in Aurangabad from January 27 till February 1, 2008. Participants will earn a Cornell certificate on completion of the course.

Sathguru Management Consultants Pvt. Ltd is among the leading consulting firms in Asian region with significant focus for providing policy advocacy, technology transfer and enterprise development and research management services. (ANI)

- AY

Hyderabad, Dec 4 (ANI): Junior doctor's at Hyderabad's Niloufer Hospital continued with their flash strike for the third consecutive day in protest over an Andhra Pradesh legislature's alleged misbehavior. 

The Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) MLA Afsar Khan, allegedly attacked medicos a second time after Sunday.

The strike has reportedly put enormous pressure on senior doctors, some of whom have expressing solidarity with their junior doctors.

"We are trying to cope with the work and trying to rescue our junior colleagues," said V. Janaki, a senior doctor.

Striking doctors claimed that incidents of misbehaviour are on the increase and demanded that the government provide them with adequate security.

A six-year-old boy, Niranjan, who was born with three legs, is awaiting treatment at the hospital.

"This is a rare case. There is an attempt to form two limbs. There are two sets of limbs because of incomplete duplication, the boy has two pelvis, three legs, four feet," said Dr. Narendra Kumar.

Niranjan's parents are anxious to have him treated at the earliest. (ANI)
--MP

Hyderabad, Dec 3 (ANI): The protests by medicos in Hyderabad against the alleged misbehaviour by a legislator continued on Monday with junior doctors of Niloufer Hospital going on a flash strike. 

An MLA belonging to the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) Afsar Khan allegedly attacked the medicos second time after the Sunday incident when the legislator had attacked the doctors on duty. 

Khan and his accomplices have alleged that the doctors delayed in giving treatment to a child belonging to a MIM activist that led to the child's death.  

The child's father, Junaid and his relatives reportedly created a ruckus in the hospital leading to their arrests. 

Monday's strike has hit the services at the hospital. However, official sources have refuted reports that six children have died because of the strike. 

Meanwhile, to overcome the situation, the State Health Minister Aruna Kumari said that the help of doctors from other hospitals have been sought to maintain services at the Niloufer Hospital. 

"I held talks with the junior doctors and I ordered an enquiry by the joint collector into the incident since it involves Speaker's consent to arrest the MLA," said Kumari. 

The superintendent of Niloufer hospital Narasimha Rao described the incident as a case of misunderstanding between the doctors and the relatives of the baby patient. 

"We used to get 100 to 120 admissions everyday. That day also we got 70 cases and in one case the patient was brought dead, and its unfortunate that the relatives psychological phobia led to the incident," said Rao.  

The striking doctors have alleged that the incidents of misbehaviour are on increase and there is no security provided by the government. (ANI) -AJ