Lucknow and Brisbane to become sister cities

August 23rd, 2009 NEW DELHI - Delhi is the highest municipal solid waste producer in the country followed by Mumbai, according to a survey by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). Delhi produces 6,800 tonnes of solid waste a day, while Mumbai generates 6,500 tonnes, the FICCI survey said.

July 3rd, 2009 LUCKNOW - With five stations in the state slated to be upgraded to global standards in Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee's budget Friday, people in Uttar Pradesh are delighted but want a deadline to be set for the job. Though it is not known what exactly global facilities would entail, amongst the 50 stations to be made world class are Lucknow, Kanpur, Varanasi, Agra Cantonment and Mathura.

June 29th, 2009 LUCKNOW - A youth in an Uttar Pradesh village killed his 15-year-old sister after the girl turned down a marriage proposal, citing that she was not physically and mentally prepared for the marriage, police said Monday. Rajaram, an 18-year-old resident of Dalpur village in Sitapur district, attacked his sister with a sickle late Sunday after she refused to marry a youth of the same village, Superintendent of Police Pritender Singh told reporters.

June 24th, 2009 NICOSIA - Flydubai, the recently established low-cost airline, on Wednesday announced its plans to start flights to Lucknow, Coimbatore and Chandigarh cities of India in July, offering low fares to serve expatriate Indians in the UAE and to people flying to the region for business or pleasure. The flights to Uttar Pradesh's Lucknow city will start from July 13 and Tamil Nadu's Coimbatore city on July 14, and to Chandigarh on July 23.

June 16th, 2009 LUCKNOW - A man in an Uttar Pradesh village Tuesday killed three of his relatives, including his pregnant sister-in-law, over a land dispute, police said. Ram Awtar barged into his brother's home in Mankipurwa village in Kanpur Dehat (rural) district, and attacked his brother, his pregnant sister-in-law and nephew with an axe, killing all three, additional superintendent of police (Kanpur Dehat) Kamleshwari Devi told IANS over telephone.

June 15th, 2009 LUCKNOW - An Uttar Pradesh woman has alleged that a minister in the Mayawati government had stolen her new born son from a hospital six years ago. Pramila Sharma of Deoria district was here Monday for a DNA test to substantiate her claim that the six-year-old son of Religious Endowment Minister Rajesh Tripathi was actually hers.

June 10th, 2009 LUCKNOW - Low-cost carrier IndiGo will start operations in Uttar Pradesh July 5 with daily flights from Lucknow to Bangalore, Mumbai, Kolkata, New Delhi and Patna. "We have been eyeing Lucknow for a while," IndiGo president Aditya Ghosh said at a media briefing here.

April 9th, 2009 LUCKNOW - Congress' Uttar Pradesh unit chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi Thursday filed her nomination from the Lucknow parliamentary constituency as the party candidate. 'I am confident of a record win and am here to save the legacy and culture of Lucknow,' Joshi said before leaving the party's headquarters to file her nomination papers at around 11 a.m.

April 7th, 2009 LUCKNOW - Florists in Lucknow are flooded with orders for flowers from various political parties on the eve of elections. The shopkeepers and wholesalers are a happy lot as they are receiving orders for bouquets, garlands and loose flowers in big quantities.

March 24th, 2009 MUMBAI - Sanjay Dutt took some time out from campaigning for the Lok Sabha polls in Lucknow to fly to Mumbai and shoot a song for Soham Shah's 'Luck'. Taking a short break from shooting the song Dutt said: 'This is a commitment I had to fulfil.

March 16th, 2009 LUCKNOW - Bollywood actor and Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate from Lucknow Sanjay Dutt on Sunday delivered his first political speech and promised to work for the betterment of the city. "I am with you.

February 28th, 2009 CHANDIGARH - Waitakere in New Zealand and Amritsar have been declared 'sister cities'. In an agreement signed here Friday, Punjab and New Zealand decided to promote 'cultural and knowledge exchange between the two cities'.

January 16th, 2009 LUCKNOW - The Congress and the Samajwadi Party may patch up after all if film star Sanjay Dutt's remarks on Congress leader Digvijay Singh are anything to go by. 'I am grateful to Digvijay Singh for issuing a statement that he does not consider me a terrorist,' Dutt told a press briefing here Saturday along with Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and general secretary Amar Singh.

January 10th, 2009 SYDNEY - Novak Djokovic blames his new racquet for his form slump. The World No.3, who is not in best of form to defend his Australian Open title, has been criticised for excess golf and partying for his loss of form.

December 24th, 2008 BRISBANE - Controversial Australian teenager Bernard Tomic has been handed a holiday gift by officials at the new Brisbane International event. The tournament has assured the Australian Open junior champion of a place in the main draw of the joint ATP-WTA affair starting next weekend.