News | News Headlines | World News | Breaking News | News Updates

Colombia asks Spain to Deport fugitive lawmaker

2007-02-27T05:28:00.000-08:00

Colombia asked Spain to deport a fugitive congressman who is wanted for possible links with illegal paramilitaries in a widening scandal involving allies of President Alvaro Uribe.

Eight pro-Uribe lawmakers have been jailed and other army officers, governors and congressmen are under investigation for their suspected ties to paramilitaries, who are accused of atrocities during their dirty war against a rebel insurgency.

Bogota has asked Spanish authorities to send back Rep Jorge Luis Caballero who was among a group of lawmakers ordered detained by the Supreme Court on February 15 as part of its probe into the scandal.

''The foreign ministry has information he is in Spain and Colombia has presented a request to the government that he be deported back to our country,'' Deputy Foreign Minister Camilo Reyes told reporters yesterday.

The scandal intensified just weeks before US President George W Bush was scheduled to visit Uribe, Washington's closest ally in Latin America and a linchpin for US counter-narcotics initiatives in the region.

The Bush administration wants Congress to approve another 3.9 billion dollars in anti-drug aid to Colombia, but some of the Democrats who now control the Congress are concerned about how deeply paramilitary influence burrows into the Uribe administration.

Colombia's Foreign Minister Maria Consuelo Araujo resigned last week after her brother, a senator, was jailed and prosecutors considered investigating her father. Uribe's former security chief was also arrested on charges he aided paramilitaries.

The lawmakers are facing charges they aided, financed or organized illegal armed groups often in exchange for benefiting from paramilitary intimidation and influence at the ballot box.

The paramilitaries were set up in the 1980s by rich landowners to protect themselves from rebels, but more than 30,000 militia fighters have given up their arms in a peace deal with Uribe in exchange for short prison terms.

More evidence of water on Planet Mars

2007-02-15T22:39:00.000-08:00

New images of a craggy, fissure-filled canyon on Mars provide evidence of long-term underground water flows that may have provided a suitable environment for microbial life, scientists said.

''If there are any sort of fossils, these would be good places to look,'' the University of Arizona's Chris Okubo said in a telephone interview yesterday.

While previous NASA probes have found evidence of past and even present-day water on Mars, scientists previously had few clues if the water existed long enough for life to evolve.

The new findings show light-colored features cutting across dark bands in an area known as Candor Chasma. Okubo and his colleagues believe they are looking at places where rock has been chemically altered by water flowing across the fractures.

''Fluids apparently resided within rock long enough to allow geochemical processes to occur,'' Okubo said. ''That's typically very slow.'' In addition, the rock was once underground, providing a safe haven for any microbes from radiation and atmospheric hazards.

''These areas are very good for being an oasis for any sort of biologic activity,'' Okubo said.
Similar terrain exists on Earth, such as in the Colorado plateau.

''It was sort of surprising to see these images from Mars because it's almost exactly like what we see in the field,'' Okubo said.

Scientists say the fractures, which are several hundred yards (meters) long and about four yards (meters) wide, likely existed before any pools of water seeped underground.

''The fractures then acted as nice conduits for the fluids to flow underground, like pipes,'' Okubo said. ''What we're seeing now is an exposure of bedrock that was buried at several kilometers (miles) depth at the time the fluids were present.'' Images of Candor Chasma, one of several large canyons that are part of Mars' sprawling Valles Marineris, were taken during tests last fall of NASA's new Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The pictures show fractures stretching hundreds of yards (meters) across bedrock.

Similar features have been found by the Mars rover Opportunity, which currently is perched at the rim of a large crater known as Victoria Crater. Scientists are considering dispatching the rover into the crater for a closer look. The rover already has found evidence of a one-time salty shallow ocean at its landing site.

The discovery was described Friday's issue of the journal Science and at the American Association for the Advancement of Science's annual meeting in San Francisco.

India ready for Cricket World Cup 2007

2007-02-13T04:12:00.000-08:00

India's cricket selectors picked Virender Sehwag for the World Cup despite the aggressive batsman being woefully out of touch in the run-up to the showpiece event. Sehwag was selected despite scoring just 273 in his last 15 one-dayers, including an unimpressive 19 off 23 balls in the five-run defeat against Sri Lanka on Sunday.

He is the only Indian to compile a triple-century in Test cricket, was favoured for his career record of 4,775 runs from 165 one-dayers with seven centuries. He is also off-spin bowler with 71 one-day wickets, giving Dravid an option of an additional spinner.

Rahul Dravid will captain India with senior pro Sachin Tendulkar, set for his fifth World Cup, appointed the deputy ahead of former skipper Sourav Ganguly.

The selectors also included the injured duo of seamer Irfan Pathan and batsman Yuvraj Singh in the 15-man squad, confident they will recover in time before the World Cup opens in the Caribbean on March 13.

Coach Greg Chappell and Dravid joined the five-man selection committee, headed by former Test captain Dilip Vengsarkar, in choosing a squad that has a good blend of experience and youth.

Six players -- Robin Uthappa, Dinesh Karthick, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Irfan Pathan, Shanthakumaran Sreesanth and Munaf Patel -- will be playing in their first World Cup.

But the remaining nine -- Dravid, Tendulkar, Ganguly, Sehwag, Yuvraj, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Ajit Agarkar and Zaheer Khan -- were part of the 2003 squad in South Africa that made the final.

Yuvraj (back injury) and Pathan (sore shoulder) were picked after team physiotherapist John Gloster said he was confident both will be fit before the team departed for the Caribbean on February 28.

India are drawn with Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and first-timers Bermuda in group B of the preliminary league. The top two will advance to the second round.

India's World Cup squad:

Rahul Dravid (capt), Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Robin Uthappa, Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag, Dinesh Karthick, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Irfan Pathan, Ajit Agarkar, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, Munaf Patel.

Samuels in match-fixing scandal

2007-02-08T02:44:00.000-08:00

Indian police stunned the cricket world late Wednesday when they accused West Indian all-rounder Marlon Samuels of dealing with an illegal bookmaker during a recent One-day series in India.

Indian cricket board vice-president Shashank Manohar said the report from the police in central Nagpur, where the alleged incident took place, had been passed on to the International Cricket Council (ICC).

"The ICC and its anti-corruption unit will deal with what is obviously a very serious accusation," Manohar told reporters. "It concerns a foreign player. The Indian board can't take any action."
There was no immediate reaction from the Dubai-based offices of the ICC, but Samuels, 26, denied any wrongdoing.

"I don't do such things man," Thursday's Times of India quoted Samuels as saying. "I have not done anything wrong. The West Indies Cricketers' Association will take up the matter if necessary."

Amitesh Kumar, deputy police commissioner of Nagpur, said Samuels released important team information to the bookmaker during the first One-day international, citing tapped telephone conversations between the pair.

Kumar told reporters on Wednesday that Samuels had five conversations with the bookmaker, identified in the calls as Mukesh Kochar, although there was no evidence money had changed hands.

India won the match against the West Indies on January 21 by 14 runs.
"We have recorded information that Samuels leaked important team information to Kochar from his hotel room in five telephone calls on January 20 and 21," Kumar said.

"We do not have evidence if any financial commitment was made. All I will say is the link between the player and the bookie is a violation of the ICC Code of Conduct for players."

Blair says won't quit before funding probe ends

2007-02-02T06:38:00.001-08:00

British Prime Minister Tony Blair today said it would be wrong for him to leave office before a police investigation into political party funding ends. ''I don't think that's the right way to do it and I think it would be particularly wrong to do it before the inquiry has even run its course and come to any conclusions. So you'll have to put up with me for a bit longer,'' he told BBC Radio.Blair has been questioned twice as a witness in his Downing Street office by police probing allegations that titles were granted by political parties in exchange for funding in an investigation overshadowing the premier's last months in the office.

Tata Steel bids for Corus acquisition

2007-02-02T06:25:00.000-08:00

Jan 31 2007 : Tata Steel is set to become the world's fifth-biggest steelmaker after winning a bid battle for Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus Group by agreeing to pay 6.2 billion pounds ($12 billion).
Britain's Takeover Panel said in an e-mailed statement that after an auction Tata Steel had agreed to offer Corus investors 608 pence per share in cash, topping a final bid of 603 pence from Brazilian Companhia Siderurgica Nacional (CSN).

Both offers were right at the top end of what analysts had thought possible and will now be put to Corus investors, who have no reason not to accept the higher price.
Corus was not immediately available for comment.
The auction process, following a takeover tussle that began in earnest when Tata Steel offered 455 pence per share on Oct.

20, started at the close of trading in London on Tuesday when Corus shares ended 0.5 percent higher at 563 pence. CSN and Tata Steel were keen to buy Corus to become significant players in the consolidating steel industry, where Dutch-based Mittal Steel last year bought Luxembourg's Arcelor to create the world's biggest steelmaker, Arcelor Mittal.
The 608 pence Tata Steel is set to pay values Corus at around seven times its forecast earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for 2006, well above the multiple Mittal Steel paid for Arcelor which was 4.6 times historic EBITDA.

Ahead of the auction, called last week by the Takeover Panel to bring the bid battle to an end, CSN had the upper hand after it had made a bid worth 4.9 billion pounds ($9.6 billion) or 515 pence per share, accepted by Corus on Dec. 11, hours after it had accepted a 500 pence offer from Tata Steel.

The battle pushed Corus's share price to seven-year highs and pitted 70-year-old Tata group chairman Ratan Tata, from one of India's best-known business families, against Benjamin Steinbruch who at 52 is one of Brazil's most famous executives as chief executive and main owner of CSN.

Ratan Tata has transformed the once-staid Tata group since taking over as chairman in 1991. He has cut the number of companies in the group from over 300, and acquired new businesses with growth potential.

Tata Steel has spent more than $400 million in recent years to buy Singapore's NatSteel and Thailand's Millennium Steel, and other group companies have also made acquisitions outside India.

On Oct 17 2006 Tata Steel announced that it had made a ten billion dollars acquisition offer to Corus Group Plc, the largest steel maker of the UK.

In a statement, the company said it had made an ''indicative non -binding offer to acquire 100 per cent equity'' in Corus Group Plc and discussions in this regard were on with the Borad and Management of the UK company.

India won ODI series

2007-02-02T06:08:00.000-08:00

Jan 31, 2007 : Sachin Tendulkar hit his 41st one-day century as India beat West Indies by 160 runs to clinch the series 3-1. West Indies, who won the toss, were bowled out for 181 in the 42nd over, Marlon Samuels top-scoring with 55. The tourists on 65-3 in the 15th over, but a 65-run stand between Samuels and Denesh Ramdin (40) saved some face for them. Earlier man of the match and man of the series Tendulkar scored his 41st ton with a single in the last ball of the Indian innings as 107 runs flowed in the last 10 overs. Dhoni was not out on 40 in 20 balls, with 1 four and 3 sixes. Ganguly (68) and Uthappa (28) gave India a quickfire start, with a 47 run partnership in 6.3 overs. Dravid (78) was instrumental in two century partnerships, one with Ganguly and another with Sachin.

Get the score card

Huge mudflow inevitable from volcano lake

2007-01-30T00:49:00.000-08:00

A crater lake on a New Zealand volcano used as a backdrop in the ''Lord of the Rings'' films is on the verge of collapsing and could send a torrent of muddy water down the mountain in coming weeks, media reported today.

Melting snow on Mount Ruapehu has filled the lake to within 1.5 metres of its lip, according to the New Zealand Herald newspaper.

The 2,797-metre volcano is the highest mountain in the North Island and home to two commercial ski fields.

Scientists say a lahar, or mudflow composed of volcanic material and water, is inevitable as warm summer weather causes the snow to melt and fill the lake.

''It is still expected the earliest the dam might start collapsing to create a lahar down the Whangaehu River is February/March,'' the Herald quoted a Department of Conservation official as saying.

On December 24, 1953, a lahar rushing down the Whangaehu River destroyed a railway bridge, causing a packed passenger train to plunge into the river, killing 151 people on board.

Since then, a barrier of boulders and gravel has been built to divert any lahar flowing into the river. No major towns would be in its path.

Mount Ruapehu, which last erupted in 1995 and 1996, creating the present crater dam, is in Tongariro National Park, where Peter Jackson filmed some scenes for his ''Lord of the Rings''.

Hillary Rodham Clinton

2007-01-29T04:38:00.000-08:00

The former first lady acknowledged her plans to take the first step of forming a presidential exploratory committee.

"I'm not just starting a campaign, though. I'm beginning a conversation with you, with America," Clinton says in her web message. She announced that she will be holding live, on-line video conferences with Americans starting Monday.

"Let's talk about how to bring the right end to the war in Iraq, and to restore respect for America around the world," she said.

Clinton's announcement, days after Sen. Barack Obama shook up the contest race with his bid to become the first black president, establishes the most diverse political field ever.

Clinton is considered the front-runner, with Obama and 2004 vice presidential nominee John Edwards as other top contenders. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who would be the first Hispanic president, intends to announce his plans on Sunday. Other Democrats seeking the highest office in the land include Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio). Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) is expected to formally announce his candidacy soon.

With millions in the bank, a vast network of supporters and top status in nearly every poll of

Democratic contenders, Clinton is undertaking the most viable effort by a female candidate to capture the White House. Her creation of a presidential exploratory committee allows her to raise money for the campaign; she already has lined up campaign staff. She is the first presidential spouse to pursue the office; her husband, Bill, served two terms in the White House from 1993-2001.

A polarizing figure since she burst onto the national scene during her husband's first presidential campaign, Clinton engenders strong opinions among voters, who either revere or revile her but rarely are ambivalent.

She often is compared to her husband and found lacking in his natural charisma. Others have criticized her for being overly cautious and calculating when so many voters say they crave authenticity. Many Democrats, eager to reclaim the White House after eight years of President Bush, fret that she carries too much baggage from her husband's scandal-plagued presidency to win a general election.

Attack on Nithari Killers

2007-01-29T04:16:00.000-08:00

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday produced Moninder Singh Pandher and Surendra Koli, prime accused in the Nithari serial killings, in a special court here.

The duo was severely beaten up by a group of lawyers and public in the premises of the court here, where they were produced by the CBI. Some lawyers caught Pandher by his hair and repeatedly punched him on his face and rained blows on him. Unable to withstand the attack, the businessman became unconscious and fell to the ground.

The policemen surrounding them had a tough time controlling the angry crowd. The CBI has registered 19 cases against them. Uttar Pradesh Police had on December 29 recovered skulls and human remains from a drain behind Pandher's D-5, Sector 31 residence in Noida, unearthing the serial killings of children and women allegedly killed by him and his domestic help Koli.

Asked if the lawyers claimed to have been named in the case were absconding, SP (city) Govind Agarwal said: "Well, not really. We have obtained lots of TV news footage and newspaper photos for identifying many more individuals guilty of thrashing Pandher and even roughing up policemen. Stern action will be taken." from Times Of India

Reality Show Winners

2007-01-29T02:43:00.000-08:00

Actor Rahul Roy has won Big Boss, one of India's biggest reality shows. Model Carol Gracias and Bhojpuri actor Ravi Kishen were the last to be evicted.
All former contestants came together to celebrate the occasion. Rahul Roy walked away with Rs 50 lakh prize money after three months in the house.

Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty stormed to victory on Britain's ''Celebrity Big Brother'' after her treatment on the television show sparked fears of racist bullying that escalated into an international row.

Shetty, whose victory will be seen as a triumph for racial equality in Britain and India, beat 13 other contestants, including those who were accused of tormenting her.

But the 31-year-old was quick to play down allegations that she had been the victim of racial abuse on the show, unaware the spat had already drawn tens of thousands of complaints, dominated headlines and even prompted a sponsor to pull out.

''Things happen and people make mistakes and we are all human beings and we are all fallible,'' said Shetty after emerging victorious from the specially-designed Big Brother House, where she had been cooped up for 26 days under 24-hour surveillance.

''I know one thing for sure, Jade really didn't mean to be racist,'' she said, referring to shamed television star Jade Goody who was a central figure in the furore.

''I really don't want to leave England putting anyone in trouble,'' added Shetty in an interview on Channel 4, which broadcasts the controversial series .

Monica Lewinsky hunting job in London

2007-01-22T05:32:00.000-08:00

Monica Lewinsky, the lady who landed former US President Bill Clinton in a famous political sex scandal in 1998, is now hunting for a job in London.

33-years-old Lewinsky graduated from the London School of Economics last month.

In 1998, the US House of Representatives impeached Clinton on charges of lying to a federal grand jury and obstructing justice to conceal his affair with Lewinsky.

Bangalore violence

2007-01-22T05:26:00.000-08:00

Night curfew was clamped in part of the City even as a 12 year-old boy was killed in police firing and more than 30 people injured in fresh violence that broke out during a 'Shobha Yatra' taken out by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) on 21st January 2007.

The curfew, clamped as precautionary measure, would be in force till morning in Bharatinagar area and depending upon the situation decision would be taken to withdraw.

Police said the boy was killed at Kamaraj road when the police opened fire after lobbing of tear gas shells and lathi charge was proved to be futile to disperse the mob which indulged in torching vehicles besides pelting stones on roadside shops.

More than 40 vehicles including buses, autorickshaws and two wheelers were damaged and torched and scores of shops were damaged in stone pelting.

More than 30 people, including six police personnel, who were injured in violence were admitted to various Hospitals.More than 300 people were taken into custody in connection with the violence.

In other two areas Shivajinagar and Halasur police limits Prohibitory Orders under section 144 were clamped. Large scale violence broke out during 'Shobha Yatra' taken out by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad activists.

No fresh incidents of violence was reported last night in the trouble hit areas where night curfew had been clamped.

Additional Police Commissioner Bipin Gopalakrishna said the curfew in Shivajinagar, Bharatinagar and Halsur, Tannery Road, K G Halli and Thimmaiah Road last night, was relaxed in the morning.

India wins first ODI by 14 runs

2007-01-22T05:18:00.000-08:00

India were indebted to Sourav Ganguly for posting their highest total against the West Indies as the left-handed opener celebrated his comeback with a superb 98.The former Indian captain, playing his first one-dayer in 16 months, hammered three sixes and 11 fours in his 110-ball knock to help the hosts surpass their previous best total of 325-5 against the West Indies.

However, West Indies opening batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul smashed a robust century, but failed to stop India from posting a thrilling 14-run win in the first one-day international here.

The left-hander cracked an unbeaten 149 for his fifth one-day hundred before the West Indies were restricted to 324-8 in reply to India's challenging total of 338-3 on a batting pitch.

The 32-year-old Chanderpaul threatened to ruin Ganguly's day with a gem of an innings, which came off 136 balls with the help of three sixes and 16 fours. He was named man of the match.

Sania Mirza crashes out of Australian Open

2007-01-18T02:09:00.000-08:00

Sania Mirza could not rein in the string of unforced errors and her serve also let her down as the Hyderabadi ace crashed out of the Australian Open singles event following a 3-6, 2-6 second round loss to Japan's Aiko Nakamura here today.

The Indian was erratic throughout, committing 26 double faults in all, as Nakamura outplayed her in just over an hour to set up a third round clash with Swiss Martina Hingis.

Sania thus failed to better her 2005 show at the Melbourne Park, where she had reached the third round before losing to eventual champion Serena Williams.

Nakamura, it seemed, had learnt her lessons from the 2005 loss to Sania in the Japan Open, the only face-off between the two players before today's match, and was clearly the more disciplined, breaking the Indian thrice in the opening set.

Sania also managed to convert the two break points that came her way but never looked to be in her elements and committed 12 unforced errors compared to Nakamura's six to surrender the first set in just 33 minutes.

The second set followed almost the same script and Nakamura gave no chance to the world number 53, breaking her twice. The Hyderabadi star wasted two break points and served poorly, committing three double faults apart from 14 unforced errors to bow out of the first Grand Slam of the year.

Sania later admitted that she was not in her best form and blamed poor serve and the inability to land the trademark forehands for the straight set loss.

Indonesian Jet Crash

2007-01-17T06:27:00.000-08:00

Bad weather is more likely than a mid-air explosion to have caused the disappearance of an Indonesian passenger plane that vanished more than two weeks ago with 102 people aboard, an aviation investigator said today.

Frans Wenas, head of a government team investigating the case, said aircraft overstress or bad weather, or a combination of both, could have caused the accident.

''The aircraft may have run into an uncontrollable weather situation which got it in an unusual position,'' said Wenas, an investigator from the National Transport Safety Commission.

The airliner may have disintegrated on impact with the sea or due to underwater pressure, he added.

There had been suggestions the 17-year-old aircraft, which vanished from radar screens on New Year's Day, had exploded in mid air, but a study of pieces of the airliner found so far indicated this was probably not the case, he said.

''Looking at the pieces that we have found and where they were located, there are no indications that the plane exploded in the air,'' Wenas said by telephone, adding that the debris recovered showed no signs of burning or of an explosion.

After finding no trace of the plane for more than a week, a fisherman found the tail stabiliser of the Boeing last Tuesday snared in his nets off Lojie Beach on the west coast of Sulawesi island.

No bodies or survivors have been found.

Other small pieces of wreckage have been found in the past few days floating in the sea or washed up on beaches in the area.

Air Marshal Eddy Suyanto, the head of the search mission, said on Monday that a fuel spill in the sea spotted by a search aircraft and believed to be from the doomed jet could provide a new clue.

But the slick rescue workers had not been able to locate the spill when they tried to go to the area to get a sample, officials said.

Fragments of human hair and scalp that might come from passengers were found on Sunday and had been sent for DNA testing. The process could take two or three days.

Suyanto said previously that, considering that parts of the plane found so far were mostly small, a body was unlikely to have survived the disaster in one piece.

Indonesian navy ships assisted by a US oceanographic ship have also been trying to locate the missing plane's fuselage, which could still house the flight recorder that could provide clues to explain the disaster.

The flight recorder is set up to give off a signal for 30 days to aid detection, but it is likely to be very hard to locate in waters as deep as 1,700 metres in the area.

The plane was heading from Surabaya in East Java to Manado in northern Sulawesi when it vanished in bad weather. The plane made no distress call, although the pilot had reported concerns over crosswinds.

Sidhu sent to Patiala jail

2007-01-11T05:08:00.000-08:00

Cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu has sent to Patiala jail. He was the former BJP MP.Last month, Sidhu was given a three-year jail sentence by the Punjab and Haryana High court after he was convicted in a Patiala road rage case in 1988, in which a person had died.

He has surrendered in keeping with a legal provision by which an appelant has to surrender in the original court's jurisdiction before the Supreme Court can take up his appeal.

Postmortem identifies 3 missing children

2007-01-11T05:05:00.000-08:00

Three of the four highly decomposed bodies found in an abandoned rice sheller of former Congress MP Jagmeet Singh Brar last night, were today identified as those of children of the migrant Bawaria families who had been reported missing for almost two months.

Speaking to UNI, IG Bathinda Range Mr V K Bhawra, said three of the children were identified as Ashki (9), Ratni (13) and one boy Satbir (10) after the post mortem carried out at the Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital at Faridkot this morning.

The fourth highly decomposed body could not be identified. As the bodies were half-burnt, the identification was extremely difficult, he said.

Mr Bhawra said a BDR was entered by the police on the complaint of the parents and the missing report was flashed on the local TV Channels and newspapers.

Some people, including a woman belonging to Bawaria tribe hailing from Rajasthan, named by the missing children's families were questioned by the police after raids carried out throughout last night and in the day, he said.

However, nobody has been arrested so far, Mr Bhawra said.

The bodies of children with their hands tied were found by a police patrol party from the deserted rice sheller, which had not been in operation since the last few years. The patrol party had gone to the godown to make arrangements for the stay of police personnel during the coming 'Maghi' mela here.

The incident, coming close on the heels of Noida's Nithari serial killings, has sent shockwaves in the state poised for assembly polls next month.

The firebrand Congress campaigner, Mr Brar, when contacted stated that the rice mill owned by his family, had been closed for the last five years. He said the matter be thoroughly investigated adding that he would fully cooperate with the police.

Commenting on the political ramifications of the matter, Mr Brar admitted he even had rivals within the Congress party itself and stressed that he would like the truth to come out.

He alone to blame for mistakes

2007-01-11T05:02:00.000-08:00

President George W Bush told Americans today ''where mistakes have been made in Iraq, the responsibility rests with me,'' as he unveiled a new war plan that includes an infusion of more than 20,000 extra US troops.

In a remarks prepared for a televised prime time speech, Bush also said the United States would hold the Iraqi government to certain ''benchmarks,'' including passage of oil-sharing legislation, reconstruction and job projects and political reforms. But he set no timetable for achieving these goals.

9/11 hijacker friend to be sentenced

2007-01-08T05:53:00.000-08:00

A German court on Monday will sentence a Moroccan friend of the September 11 hijackers who was found guilty last year of being an accessory to mass murder, the court said today.

Mounir El Motassadeq, a member of a group of radical Arab students in Hamburg who organised the 2001 attacks in which nearly 3,000 people died, faces up to 15 years in prison.

Germany's top appeals court in Karlsruhe had in November found Motassadeq guilty of abetting the murder of 246 passengers and crew who died on four planes that crashed on September 11, 2001.

Lawyers for the Moroccan had demanded the suspension of the first hearing in Hamburg today, at which Motassadeq was present. His lawyer accused the court of being unconstitutional because it was set up specifically for the hearing.

''We are dealing with an extraordinary court which has been formed exclusively for El Motassadeq,'' Ladislav Anisic told German broadcaster N24.

''What is happening here goes against our constitution.'' Motassadeq, 32, is one of only two people convicted of involvement in the September 11 attacks.

The other is Zacarias Moussaoui, a French citizen of Moroccan descent who was sentenced to life imprisonment by a US court in May 2006.

Last November's decision overturned a 2005 ruling which convicted him of belonging to a terrorist organisation while clearing him of abetting mass murder.

Motassadeq's lawyers insist he knew nothing about the plot to fly hijacked planes into the New York and Washington targets.

CBI probe and Forensic tests for Noida killing

2007-01-08T05:30:00.000-08:00

Stating that Uttar Pradesh government had ultimately bowed to public pressure by agreeing on a CBI probe into the killing of innumerable children at Nithari village in Noida, the BJP today said the investigation should start immediately.

The two accused of Nithari killings, Moninder Singh Pandher and Surinder Koli were put through various psychological tests today at the Forensic Science Laboratory here.

Noida Deputy SP Dinesh Yadav, who accompanied the accused from Delhi, told newspersons near the FSL that they had requested the officials here to conduct three tests -- narco-analysis, lie-detector and brain mapping -- in order to probe the missing gaps.

''The tests are part of the investigations, and are being done on court orders,'' Mr Yadav said.
Asked about the possibility of a link to organ trade, the DSP said, ''The case would be probed from every possible angle.'' Refusing to to give a time-frame for completion of the tests, the FSL Director said it could take at least three to four days. ''It depends on the personality and the mental status of the accused.

They are human beings, nothing can be fixed. But it might take three to four days,'' he added.
He said the FSL here was recognized as number one in the country and declared as the national resource centre by the Centre.

''The laboratory has various facilities in narco-analysis, psychological profiling, and lie-detection, among others, of international standards,'' the Director said.

Several important cases like the Madhumita murder case, Anara CD analysis, Telgi case, and others were brought here for investigations.

Violence in Nandigram, West Bengal

2007-01-08T04:10:00.000-08:00

The situation in Nandigram, West Bengal that witnessed a mob violence on Wednesday, remained under control even though tension simmered as villagers put up barricades to cut-off the area from rest of the state, official sources said today.

Home Secretary Prasad Ranjan Ray said the situation in Nandigram, in East Midnapore district, was under control but tension still prevailed in the area.

A large contingent of police had been posted in the area after the mob fury in which 20 people, including 14 cops, were injured following a reported government move for acquisition of 22,500 acres of land for two proposed Special Economic Zones (SEZs) by the Indonesian Salim Group.
The incident took place even before the political situation in Singur over the land acquisition by Tatas cooled down.

However, the state government denied having issued any notification for land takeover in the area saying the violence was ''deliberate'' and it was made to happen on the basis of a rumour.

ULFA strikes Assam

2007-01-08T02:23:00.000-08:00

Separatist militants gunned down 10 people in two attacks in restive Assam on Sunday, bringing the death toll in a wave of rebel violence since Friday night to 67, police said.

Hundreds of soldiers and police raided insurgent hideouts in jungles of the northeastern state after two days of coordinated rebel strikes.

Police blamed the attacks on the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), which has been fighting for the independence of Assamese people in a conflict that began almost three decades ago and has killed thousands of people.

"We are going all out against the ULFA," Tarun Gogoi, Assam's chief minister, told Reuters.

"Massive combing operations have started and additional troops are being rushed to the affected areas."

Rebel attacks have increased since September after the ULFA and New Delhi called off peace talks and government troops ended a truce. Since then, the rebels have bombed crowded markets and railway stations, killing dozens of civilians.

The weekend wave of violence started late on Friday with the gunning down of 48 labourers and traders. An explosion on Saturday killed seven people, including four policemen.

The attacks continued on Sunday with the rebels killing 12 people, including nine labourers at a brick kiln and two supporters of the ruling Congress party in the oil- and tea producing state, police said.

Security officials said the attackers had fled to the mountains of neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh.

Last week the ULFA warned non-Assamese businessmen and labourers of dire consequences if they continued to live in Assam, accusing New Delhi of flooding the state with outsiders to reduce the indigenous Assamese population to a minority.

German population goes down

2007-01-08T01:23:00.000-08:00

Germany, with one of the lowest birth rates in Europe, suffered another drop in population last year as deaths outpaced births and the number of immigrants declined again, the Federal Statistics Office said today.

The population fell by about 150,000 in 2006 to 82.31 million after declining by 144,000 in 2005 to 82.44 million, the office said. The drop in 2006 marked the third time in the last quarter century that Germany's net population shrunk.

The office estimated the number of births in 2006 had fallen to between 670,000 and 680,000, a record low since measuring began in 1946. That was also down from 686,000 in 2005. The number of deaths was steady at between 820,000 and 830,000.

Fewer immigrants came to Germany in 2006 and more Germans left their country. The net gain in immigration versus emigration was down to about 20,000 to 30,000 in 2006 from a net gain of 79,000 in 2005.

Germany's population has been shrinking for more than 30 years and there are 3.3 million fewer Germans than in 1972.

Economists have warned that unless Germany's demographic trend is reversed, Europe's largest economy will go into terminal decline, with pensions and healthcare costs soaring as the average age gets higher and higher.

The government introduced subsidies to working mothers in January with the hope it would raise the birth rate.

Woman kills self, two mentally retarded children

2007-01-07T23:36:00.000-08:00

The wife of a Jamshedpur-based industrialist killed herself and her two mentally retarded children by driving her car into a ravine at Daravali in Mulshi taluka of Sutarwadi village, 30 km from here.

The deceased, Neha Khatan (36), drove her car with her children Nipun (12) and Chahat (3) directly into the valley. The car caught fire, killing all three occupants instantly, police said adding the bodies were beyond recognition. The identity of the deceased was established through the number-plate of the car.

The police said the incident occurred last evening. Initially, the police believed it was a case of accident. However, they recovered three suicide notes written by the deceased for her husband, who owns a factory in Bhosari industrial area in Jamshedpur and her parents in which she stated that she was committing suicide out of depression.

In her note, she said she wanted her husband to remarry and that she had another five-year old daughter Janhavi, who was normal.

Police have registered a case of suicide and murder, sources added.

Inquiry for Saddam execution recording

2007-01-05T06:07:00.000-08:00

United States President George W Bush has told Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki that he supports the investigation to find out the person responsible for taunting Saddam Hussein and recording his execution on a cell-phone camera.

White House spokesman Tony Snow who gave this information yesterday said ''He (Bush) expressed that it was the right thing to do to investigate the taping and behavior at the execution of Saddam Hussein. And the prime minister agreed, and said the political parties were pained at the filming and the release, and they are taking a look at punishing those responsible.'' According to a report from Baghdad, Iraqi authorities are questioning at least two guards suspected of involvement in the taunting and filming.

President Bush and Prime Minister Maliki spoke for nearly two hours and also discussed options for the proposed new US Iraq policy which the President prefers to call a new way forward.

Snow says both men define winning the same way, the establishment of an Iraqi government that can sustain, govern and defend itself.

He is expected to announce that new way forward in a nationwide address sometime at the end of this month.

President Kalam gives assent to Reservation Bill

2007-01-04T06:36:00.000-08:00

President A P J Abdul Kalam has given assent to the 'Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Bill, 2006, paving the way for starting implementation of the reservation policy from the 2007 academic session.

The Act provides for reservation in admission of students belonging to the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) to certain Central Educational Institutions established, maintained or aided by the Central Government.

The provision of the Act, inter-alia will not apply to (i) a Central Educational Institution established in tribal areas referred to in the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution, (ii) the institutions of excellence, research institutions, institutions of national and strategic importance specified in the Schedule to this Act, and (iii) the Minority Educational Institutions referred to in clause (1) of article 30 of the Constitution.

Lathicharge on irate villagers - Noida

2007-01-03T04:53:00.000-08:00

On January 1st 2007, Police claimed to have recovered arms and chemicals from the residence of the accused in the serial killing of children and women in Sector 31 Nithari village here.
Searches carried out Dec 31st, 2006 at the house of Mohinder Singh Pandher led to the recovery of a rifle, a revolver and some chemicals, said a police official.

''Some pornographic CDs and literature were also found during the overnight search operation.'' Blood stains were also found at two places inside the palatial house of Pandher (60), a manufacturer and supplier of earth movers and bulldozers, said the official adding that the chemical and samples of blood stains sent for forensic examination.

Meanwhile, on Sunday (Dec 31st, 20060) police resorted to lathicharge on irate villagers in Nithari village who pelted stones on forces deployed there after they tried to enter the 'killer house' at about 1500 hrs by breaking the barricading put there. The mob also vandalised Noida medical centre and broke a few ambulances.

In wake of mounting agitation against the brutal killings, the State government has announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh for the victims' families. The state government had ordered a high-level inquiry into the incident, fixing the responsibility of those guilty of laxity in conducting investigations, which would submit its reports in three days.

Former UP chief minister and Bahujan Samajwadi chief Mayawati visited the Nithari village and demanded a CBI inquiry into the incident. "We will also write a letter to UP Governor. We also request Central Government to impose President's rule in the state,” she said.

Surendra was arrested on Friday and he allegedly confessed to sexually abusing and murdering at least seven children after police found the skeletons following a tipoff. The remains of the children were found buried in plastic bags behind a water tank in the house of a businessman for whom Kohli worked in Noida.

The businessman, Mohinder Singh, and a medical store owner were also arrested, but police have refused to say whether they had any direct involvement in the killings. The police say after the bodies, many of them in parts, were found, the alleged killer, a domestic servant at the house, confessed to luring at least seven children to the home and killing them.

Serial Killing in Noida

2007-01-03T04:26:00.000-08:00

The police here have arrested a serial killer and later dug out skeletal remains of several children from a 'nullah' in Nithari village area of the city.

City SSP R K S Rathore told UNI that a mobile was seized from the possession of the arrested accused -- 30-year-old Surender.

A sack containing clothes and slippers of children was also recovered from the place where the killer resided, said Superintendent of Police Soumitra Yadav adding that the entire 'nullah' was being searched.

Police also said that during interrogation, the accused admitted to raping and later killing several girls found missing from the area earlier. He later threw their bodies in the 'nullah'.

Meanwhile, a huge crowd gathered at the 'site' where police were digging out skeletons from the 'nullah' after news spread that the killer involved in the killing of several children had been arrested.

As many as 38 children have been missing in the last one-and-a-half years from the area.
The police has dug up the lawns of the 'killer house' in Nithari village as part of continuing efforts to probe the serial killings of women and children at the place. However, ''nothing suspicious'' was found in the night-long digging of the non built-up area at 'D-5 Nithari Gaon' in Noida's Sector 31, according to top police sources.

''Though nothing concrete has been found in the digging, the final word would be out only after laboratory tests are conducted on the unearthed substances.'' The digging was undertaken to find out if some bodies had been buried inside the house as well, the sources added.

Meanwhile, several members of the victims' families today met the two-member enquiry panel and asked for ''liberal assistance'' to begin life anew. They demanded that at least one member of each affected family be given a government job and a 25 sq metre plot for building a house.

Speaking to the affected families, after visiting the 'killer house' in Nithari Village this afternoon, Mr Katiyar empathised with them and regretted that a'' pittance'' was announced as compensation by the state government.

''At least Rs ten lakh should be given to all those who had suffered for so long at the hands of the killer,'' he said.

Reactions on Saddam execution

2007-01-02T06:58:00.000-08:00

Leftist parties and Muslims today held demonstrations across Madhya Pradesh dubbing as 'barbaric'' the hanging of former Iraq President Saddam Hussain and burnt US President George Bush in effigy. Police was alerted across the state to keept strict vigil to avert any untoward incident, particularly in view of the Id-ul-Zuha festival on Monday, Inspector General of Police Ashok Soni said.

In the Muslim-dominated Itwara area in the state capital, CPI workers and a group of Muslims held demonstrations separately and burnt effigies of the US President.

At Neemuch town in western Madhya Pradesh, the Centre of Indian Trade Unions, currently
holding its state convention, adopted a resolution condemning the 'barbaric' incident terming it as a frontal attack on the judiciary and sovereignity.

''It showed the extent to which US could go to monopolise on petroleum and other resources across the world'', CITU state General Secretary Badal Saroj said and urged other trade unions to stage protests against American criminal misadventures.

The CITU workers also took out a rally that culminated into a public meeting. CITU National Secretary and former CPI(M) MP Dipankar Mukherjee, in his address, urged the Indian government to take a stern stand against the US onslaught on secular Iraq, a traditional ally of India.

Reports from different districts said Muslims held protests against Saddam's hanging on the eve of Bakrid.

The leader of Russian ultranationalist Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) Vladimir Zhirinovsky today led a protest rally outside the Iraqi Embassy in central Moscow, to protest former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's execution. ''Dozens of protesters gathered in front of the Iraqi Embassy building, all of them LDPR members,'' a police spokesman told mediapersons.

He said the rally was not sanctioned by the city authorities and it was peaceful and no one was detained. Thirteen State Duma (Lower House of Parliament) members also participated in the rally. The protesters carried flags with the party's symbols and several posters.

Addressing the protesters, Mr Zhirinovsky said Saddam's execution would result in the most negative consequences, since it would stir up another outburst of anti-American sentiments all over the world, particularly in Muslim countries.

Muslims may take it as an attack against the Islamic world, he added.

Saddam Hussein executed

2007-01-02T06:43:00.000-08:00

US-backed Iraqi television station Al Hurra said Saddam Hussein had been executed by hanging shortly before 6 a.m.(0830 hrs IST) on Dec 30th 2006.

The former Iraqi president ousted in April 2003 by a US-led invasion was convicted last month of crimes against humanity over the killings of 148 Shi'ite villagers from Dujail after a failed assassination bid in 1982.

An appeals court upheld the death penalty on Tuesday. Iraq's government has kept details of its plans to conduct the execution completely secret amid concerns it could spark a violent backlash from his former supporters.

Arabic satellite channel Arabiya said Saddam Hussein's half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti and former judge Awad al-Bander were also executed by hanging today. Four car bombs targeting Shi'ites in Baghdad and a town south of the capital killed more than 70 people, hours after Saddam Hussein was hanged amid fears of revenge by his Sunni Arab supporters.

In Baghdad, three car bombs exploded in quick succession in the mainly Shi'ite neighbourhood of Hurriya, killing 36 people and wounding 77, an Interior Ministry source said. Police in Kufa, near the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf, said 36 people were killed and 58 wounded by the car bomb at a market packed with shoppers ahead of the week-long Eid al-Adha holiday.

They said a mob killed a man they accused of planting the bomb in the town about 160 km south of Baghdad. The attacks came the same day as Saddam was hanged for crimes against humanity, prompting fears of a violent backlash by his supporters among his fellow Sunni Arabs.
While the attacks may have been a swift response to the execution, such bombings are common in a country where at least 100 people die on average every day in bombings, mortar attacks and death squad killings. Though today's bombings may have been planned independently of the execution.

They were typical of the cycle of sectarian violence that is driving both Shi'ites, Sunni Arabs and others from their homes, increasingly dividing Baghdad and surrounding areas on sectarian grounds. Bombs frequently provoke reprisals from militias, whose practice is to kidnap, torture and shoot their victims, leaving the bodies dumped in places where they will intimidate.

A formerly mixed neighbourhood, Hurriya, where the three car bombs struck on Saturday, has become increasingly dominated by Shi'ites as Sunni Arabs have been driven out by threats and attacks.

Saddam's execution was welcome by Shi'ites and Kurds, who were oppressed under his rule, but many in the once dominant Sunni Arab minority were angry and all sides feared it could spark even more violence.

Key powers work on final touches to Iran draft

2006-12-22T05:44:00.000-08:00

In last minute negotiations, six key nations scrambled yesterday to reach agreement on a draft resolution imposing sanctions on Iran before a UN Security Council vote Europeans have scheduled for tomorrow.

The resolution demands Tehran end all uranium enrichment work, which can produce fuel for nuclear power plants as well as for bombs, and halt research and development that can make or deliver atomic weapons.

To this end, the measure bans imports and exports of dangerous materials and technology relating to uranium enrichment, reprocessing and heavy-water reactors, as well as ballistic missile delivery systems.

But Russia still wants some changes and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice indicated Washington might offer some also. ''There are some changes that are still to be made to that draft,'' she said of the measure drawn up by Britain, France and Germany.

''We are very supportive of the European Union draft,'' Rice said in Washington but added: ''It's no secret we would have preferred to have this earlier had we been the lone drafter, and of course there might have been other things in it.'' Rice spoke as ambassadors from the United States, Russia, China, Germany, Britain and France held negotiations on Thursday afternoon in New York to decide on the final draft.

In a concession to Russia yesterday, the Europeans deleted a mandatory travel ban and instead told nations to notify a Security Council sanctions panel should any of 12 Iranians involved in the country's nuclear and missile programmes transit through their countries. Their names are on a list attached to the resolution.
The draft also imposes an assets freeze on the 12 people as well as 11 organisations associated with nuclear programmes.

They include the country's atomic energy agency and organizations dealing with Iran's centrifuge programs, its heavy-water research reactor being built at Arak and a pilot uranium enrichment plant at Natanz.

UNANIMOUS VOTE?

The resolution is a reaction to Iran's failure to comply with an August 31 UN deadline to suspend uranium enrichment work and resume negotiations and has been the subject of talks among senior government officials from the six powers since then.
Iran says it is pursuing nuclear power for peaceful means while the West suspects its research is a cover for bomb-making.

The drafters are hoping for a 15-0 vote but the ambassador of Qatar, the only Arab member of the Security Council, said he was still awaiting instructions. ''We are not in favour of any outcome (imposing) sanctions,'' Nasser Abdulaziz al-Nasser told reporters. ''We have to encourage Iran in a positive manner.'' He said the resolution would not stop Iran from pursing its nuclear programme but might encourage it to pull out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the world's key atomic arms pact.

The resolution is under Article 41 of Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which makes enforcement mandatory but restricts action to non-military measures.

Honda Motor to produce small car

2006-12-21T04:37:00.000-08:00

Honda Motor Company today said it would introduce a small-size vehicle in India and construct a second automobile plant with an aim to produce and sell more than 150,000 units of automobiles in India by the end of 2010.

Mr Takeo Fukui, President & CEO, Honda Motor Company, in his year-end address in Tokyo today, announced a series of initiatives and expansion plans for Honda operations in Japan and across the world.

With reference to the Indian automobile operations, Mr Fukui also said, ''Annual automobile production capacity in India will be doubled to 100,000 units by the end of 2007'', said a Honda press release. The expansion to 100,000 units at Honda Siel Cars India's Greater Noida plant has already begun and is progressing as per schedule.

In his speech he said, Honda would further accelerate its effort to strengthen the core characteristics that make Honda unique in each business area in order to continue creating new value and providing products and services which are beyond customers' expectations.

Dwelling on Honda's estimated worldwide sales for the year 2006, he said, Honda globally expects to achieve all-time record sales in all three product areas. Motorcycles at 12.7 million units (up 3 per cent from 2005), while Automobiles at 3.55 million units (up 5 per cent from 2005) and Power Products at 6.4 million units (up 15 per cent from 2005).

Asia region's -- excluding Japan & China operations -- 2006 automobile sales forecast was 320,000 units (up 4 per cent from 2005, an all-time record for the 4th consecutive year) Asia's 2007 automobile sales plan: 360,000 units (up 13 per cent from 2006). For the motorcycle business, Honda expanded motorcycle production capacity in India, the Philippines and Pakistan in 2006, and also announced further capacity expansion in India and Vietnam in 2007, the release said.

India wins the first Test Match

2006-12-19T01:38:00.000-08:00

Leg-spinner Anil Kumble took three wickets as India completed an historic triumph by beating South Africa by 123 runs on the fourth day of the first Test against South Africa at the Wanderers Stadium.

A defiant 97 by Ashwell Prince could not prevent India from achieving their first Test win in three tours of South Africa here on Monday.

Prince and Shaun Pollock, virtually the only South Africans who shone in the match, put on 67 for the seventh wicket, their team's highest partnership of either innings, to delay India's victory celebrations.

The stand was ended by Kumble, who bowled Pollock for 40. Kumble then trapped Andre Nel leg before before bowling Prince when the left-hander went down the pitch and misjudged the flight. Kumble took three for 54.

George Bush signed nuclear agreement

2006-12-19T01:26:00.000-08:00

Dec 18, 2006, President George W Bush today signed into law the legislation that gives effect to the India-US Civil nuclear agreement, lifting the three-decade-old ban on the export of American nuclear fuel and technology to India.

Several Congressmen and members of the Indian-American community attended the brief signing ceremony at the White House. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was also present.

President Bush, in a brief speech, said the agreement would strengthen the partnership between India and the United States. The relationship had never been more vital, he said.

He said it would help India meet the challenge on the energy front at a time when its economy is on the fast track.

President Bush called Prime Minister Manmohan Singh a trustworthy man and a friend and praised his leadership on this issue.

The legislation is formally called the Henry J Hyde United States- India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act of 2006, named after the outgoing Republican chairman of the House foreign relations committee Henry Hyde. The Republican Congressman retired this month after a long spell in the House.

Supporters of the measure say it would help cement the emerging strategic alliance between the two democracies.

Virtual space travel by Google

2006-12-19T01:25:00.000-08:00

Web surfers may soon be able to explore the canyons of Mars and experience a virtual flight over the surface of the moon thanks to a deal announced yesterday between Web search company Google Inc and the NASA Ames Research Centre.

The Space Act Agreement is the first in a series of collaborations between the Mountain View, California-based Internet company and the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

NASA and Google said they will work together on a wide range of technical problems and will make NASA's space exploration work, much of which is currently scattered across the Web, more accessible to the public.

One project would let viewers see details of Mars and Earth's moon in a format similar to satellite picture views of the world made popular by applications such as Google Earth.

Eventually, they aim to offer real-time weather visualisation and forecasting, high-resolution 3-D maps of the moon and Mars and real-time tracking of the International Space Station and the space shuttle from the screen of any computer with Internet access, they said in a statement.

Google and NASA first partnered last year to build a new campus at NASA's research centre in Silicon Valley. The deal called for Google to develop up to 1 million square feet (93,000 square metre) of real estate within the Moffett Field research park.

Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Manu Sharma convicted for Jessica murder case

2006-12-19T00:58:00.000-08:00

Setting aside his acquittal by the trial court, the Delhi High court today convicted Manu Sharma for murdering model Jessica Lall more than seven and a half years ago.

Besides, co-accused Vikas Yadav and Amardeep Singh were held guilty of destroying evidence.
All the three were directed to be taken into custody forthwith.

A Division Bench headed by Justice R S Sodhi and Justice P K Bhasin called ''positively perverse'' the judgment of the trial court acquitting Manu Sharma on February 21 this year.
They severely criticised the judge of the trial court for making an immature assessment of the material on record, which is self-contradictory, based on misreading of material.

The judges agreed with CBI counsel Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium that the trial court wrongly believed a case of the prosecution that two shots had been fired by two people from as many different pistols even as it was never the case of the prosecution.

The court disdainfully dismissed the two-gun theory, bolstered by senior counsel Ram Jethmalani trying to make Jessica, the victim, look like an accused provoking a tall Sikh man into firing a shot.

''Much was sought to be made of the report of the ballistic expert, Roop Singh, saying the empty cartridges recovered from the place of occurrence appear to have been fired from two weapons. His report cannot be relied upon, not evidenced under the law laid down by Code of Criminal Procedure,'' the judges said.

Second opinion of another ballistic expert, Prem Sagar Manocha, categorically stating it impossible to say whether the cartridges have been fired from two different weapons was also doubted by the judges, calling him unreliable.

''The two-weapon theory appears to be concoction of the defence and a manipulation of evidence, in particular of Shyan Munshi who for the first time in court introduced such a theory,'' the judgement said.

The Bench said the trial court had also erred in holding the three witnesses hostile. The trial court grossly erred in manner of appreciation of testimonies of the witnesses, the judges added.
The trial court arrived at a factually wrong finding, not borne out from the evidence on record to the effect that she thought that he had fired a shot at Jessica Lall and that she was not an eye witness, said the judges.

The court set aside the defence argument that Bina Ramani, owner of the Tamarind Cafe, where Jessica was killed on April 29, 1999, and a prime witness, had been under constant pressure from the police to toe their version.

The judges further showered praise on Ms Ramani, calling her, ''the only brave person present in that party to muster courage to face the shooter while others claiming to be socialites did not have the courage to raise a little finger to apprehend the culprit whom Bina was chasing and shouting that he had shot Jessica.'' The recovery of a Tata Safari from Noida further helped the court hold Manu guilty. Manu's allegation of being falsely implicated under a political design didn't convince the court wondering as to why on earth every body would conspire against him. More so, when Manu had not been able to name the politican he considered to be behind the scheme.

Another nailing evidence against Manu was the recovery of two empty cartridges from the place of crime that matched with the mutilated lead bullet recovered from the skull of Jessica. The court said Manu could not produce either a licensed pistol or 25 rounds to prove the prosecution wrong.

A hearing on the quantum of sentence has been posted for December 20.

December 20th, 2006 (Wednesday): Delhi high court sentenced manu sharma to life imprisonment in jessica lall murder case.

Delhi high court also sentenced vikas yadav and tony gill to four years rigorous imprisonment.

Lalu-Rabri are accquited of charges

2006-12-18T23:26:00.000-08:00

In the much-awaited judgment on the Disproportionate Asset case, the CBI special court today acquitted Railway Minister Lalu Prasad and his wife Rabri Devi, observing that the prosecution had failed to prove its charges.
In his voluminous judgment running into over 150 pages, special judge Munilal Paswan said the prosecution had failed to prove its allegations in the DA case.

The court said the judgement was mainly based on the findings of Income Tax Apellate Tribunal (ITAT) and the tax returns of the VIP couple were accepted by the ITAT. The judgment was also based on the findings of the Supreme Court in the writ petition filed by Lallan Singh, alleging tampering of trial evidence in the DA case by Mr Prasad.

NKorea nuclear plans hurt its people

2006-12-18T05:52:00.000-08:00

North Korea should spend its limited resources on its people rather than developing nuclear weapons, a United Nations envoy for human rights in the communist state said today.

''The military-first policy, particularly this expenditure on arms and nuclear proliferation in the DPRK (North Korea), is regrettable because the money should be spent on human development,'' Vitit Muntarbhorn, a UN special rapporteur, told reporters in the South Korean capital.

He was speaking as international negotiations resumed in Beijing to try to end North Korea's nuclear weapons programme. Pyongyang carried out its first atomic test in October.
Muntarbhorn urged North Korean authorities to stop punishing citizens who have been forced to return to the reclusive state.

Aid groups say tens, perhaps hundreds, of thousands of North Koreans have sought asylum abroad, mostly by fleeing across the northern border into China.

A food shortage brought about by July flooding could increase the flow of refugees, they added.
''It doesn't take much to instruct their officials not to punish those who are sent back to their country of origin. It would nurture political capital for them,'' Muntarbhorn said.
Washington and rights groups have accused North Korea of imprisoning, torturing and executing those who try to flee abroad and are then sent back. Muntarbhorn, a law professor in Thailand, has been in South Korea since last week interviewing North Korean refugees resettled in the South.

He pressed North Korea to allow him to visit the country, to return to bilateral talks with the South and to address the problem of missing Japanese and South Koreans believed to have been abducted by Pyongyang.

Muntarbhorn is to submit a report on human rights in North Korea to the United Nations early next year.

Navjot Singh Sidhu challenges HC order in SC

2006-12-15T01:08:00.000-08:00

Former BJP MP from Amritsar Navjot Singh Sidhu and Rupinder Singh Sandhu, convicted a long with him in a road rage case, have filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against Punjab and Haryana High Court judgement sentencing them to three years imprisonment.

The Appellants who filed the petition yesterday, have contended the incident took place in 1988 and the High Court should not have reversed the order of acquittal as there is a long gap of 18 years without there being any compelling circumstances.

The appeal is likely to come up for hearing in January as the High Court has granted him time till January 31, for approaching the Supreme Court for getting a stay against his conviction and sentence.

The High Court has suspended their sentence till that date, and if the two failed to get the stay till that time, then both will have to surrender and go to jail.
The family members of Gurnam Singh have also said publicly that they would file an appeal against the High Court judgement to get the sentence enhanced.

AIIMS RDA on hunger strike

2006-12-15T01:05:00.000-08:00

As soon as the Lok Sabha passed the controversial OBC reservation bill, twelve members of the AIIMS Resident Doctors' Association (RDA) went on flash hunger strike in protest.
However, services in the world renowned healthcare institution will not be affected and the doctors will continue to work. The angered doctors accused the government of ''betraying'' them and failing to secure the interest of the masses.

''The Government had assured us that the interest of the masses will not be compromised.... But neither recommendations of Moilly Committee have been included nor our demands considered,'' RDA member Dr Binod Patra said.

The Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Bill, 2006, provides for 27 per cent quota for OBC students in elite educational institutions maintained and aided by the Central Government.

He said the Government did not even wait for courts to pronounce their verdict on the contentious issue. ''When the matter is subjudice what was the hurry to rush the bill. We are not against any section or society but only want merit to be given priority,'' he added.

The AIIMS RDA is holding talks with other organisations and colleges for support on the strike. It will hold its General Body Meeting (GBM) tomorrow to decide the future course of action.
The AIIMS RDA, under the banner of Youth for Equality, had started and spearheaded the anti-quota agitation since May.

The doctors have appealed the public to support the anti-quota agitation.
In the Lok Sabha, Union Human Resource and Development Minister Arjun Singh said a separate Bill was under preparation to provide reservation in unaided educational institutions also.

''The Bill is consistent with Constitutional provisions and will meet the goal of equity and social justice,'' he added.

The government would take further steps to provide reservation in private institutions of higher learning only after taking all political parties into confidence.

Oceans may rise upto 140 cms by 2100 for warming

2006-12-15T00:44:00.000-08:00

The world's oceans may rise up to 140 cms by 2100 due to global warming, a faster than expected increase that could threaten low-lying coasts from Florida to Bangladesh, a researcher said.

''The possibility of a faster sea level rise needs to be considered when planning adaptation measures such as coastal defences,'' Stefan Rahmstorf of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research wrote in the journal Science.

His study, based on air temperatures and past sea level changes rather than computer models, suggested seas could rise by 50-140 cms by 2100, well above the 9-88 cms projected by the scientific panel that advises the United Nations. A rise of one metre might swamp low-lying Pacific islands such as Tuvalu, flood large areas of Bangladesh or Florida and threaten cities from New York to Buenos Aires.

''The computer models underestimate the sea level rise that has already occurred,'' Rahmstorf told Reuters of a rise of about 20 cms since 1900. ''There are aspects of the physics we don't understand very well.'' Sea level changes hinge on poorly understood factors such as the pace of the melt of glaciers and of ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica. Water also expands as it gets warmer but the rate of penetration of heat to the depths is uncertain.

''My main conclusion is not that my forecast is better but that the uncertainty is much larger because of the different results you get with reasonable methods,'' he said.

Almost all climate scientists reckon the world is warming because of emissions of greenhouse gases from human use of fossil fuels in factories, power plants and cars. Rising temperatures could bring more droughts, floods and heatwaves. Tides Rahmstorf likened his approach to predicting the height of tides along a coast, largely based on past observations.

He said seas were 120 metres below present levels during the last Ice Age 20,000 years ago and 25-35 metres higher than the present in the Pliocene epoch 3 million years ago. In the Ice Age temperatures were 4-7 Celsius cooler than today and 2-3 C warmer in the Pliocene. That suggested sea levels change 10-30 metres per rise or fall per degree Celsius over thousands of years.

The UN climate panel has projected temperatures will rise by 1.4-5.8C by 2100, mainly because of human influences. ''Sea level is a very slow component of the climate system so what we see by the year 2100 is just a small percentage of the total we are causing,'' Rahmstorf said.

There was still time for the world to cut greenhouse gas emissions but he said the slow pace of U.N. talks on extending the UN's Kyoto Protocol beyond 2012 ''gives you the impression that governments are not very well aware of how urgent the whole problem has become''. Coastal cities in the North Atlantic -- from New York to London -- could be especially vulnerable because a possible slowdown of ocean currents could also raise sea levels in the North Atlantic and lower them in the southern hemisphere.

''Any time you change ocean currents you change the sea surface...if you slow down the North Atlantic current you get a rise in the North Atlantic,'' Rahmstorf said.

Updates on Princess Diana

2006-12-14T06:23:00.000-08:00

A three-year police inquiry into the death of Princess Diana will issue its long-awaited report Thursday amid hopes it would finally halt the speculation about her fatal Paris car crash in 1997. John Stevens, the former head of London's Metropolitan Police, led the investigation of the deaths of Diana, 36, and her companion, Dodi Fayed, 42. They were killed along with chauffeur Henri Paul when their Mercedes crashed in the Pont d'Alma tunnel in Paris on Aug. 31, 1997, while the couple were being chased by media photographers.

Rumors and conspiracy theories continue to swirl around Diana's death, despite a French judge's 1999 ruling that the crash was an accident. An investigation later concluded that Paul had been drinking and was driving at high speed.

Stevens and the Metropolitan Police have refused to discuss the findings of his inquiry, although it is widely expected to conclude that Diana's death was an accident and that Paul was drunk.

from :Wjla.com

Rajya Sabha discuss labour strike

2006-12-14T06:18:00.000-08:00

The Rajya Sabha will have a discussion on the nation-wide strike called by the Left trade unions against the industrial policy of the UPA government today.

The demand to discuss the issue was made by Left members in the House as soon as it assembled for the day.

However, Chairman Bhairon Singh Shekhawat said they could raise the issue during the Zero Hour, to which the members agreed.

Trade Union strike paralyses life in Bengal

2006-12-14T06:17:00.000-08:00

The 24-hour nationwide strike began in West Bengal this morning, paralysing normal life.

Official sources said no untoward incident had so far been reported from anywhere in the state and the strike was peaceful. All shops and markets, educational institutions and commercial establishments remained closed, while factories, coal mines and tea gardens recorded negligible attendance.

No vehicle rolled out on the street and train services from Howrah and Sealdah were severely affected. No flights had taken off from Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport so far since morning following cancellation by authorities.

However, near normal functioning was reported from the state's IT hub in Salt Lake Sector Five as the authorities had made prior arrangements for overnight stay of the employees.

The strike was called by the National Platform of Mass Organisations (NPMO), a combine of 56 mass organisations in protest against the "anti-people" policies of the UPA Government and pressing for a 16-point charter of demands.

CPI(M)'s frontal wing CITU, a major constituent of the NPMO, worked overtime to make the strike a success with support from the Left Front Government. CITU, however, had claimed that no force would be used to ensure the strike's success by obstructing anybody from joining duty. But UNI car was stopped on the VIP road and the driver was heckled. Police had to intervene to bring the situation under control.

Though Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee ordered all arrangements to ensure that willing people could go to their work places, transport workers in the Government and private did not join duty making it impossible for anybody.

Five killed in Infosys campus

2006-12-13T04:23:00.000-08:00

Five labourers were killed and five others injured in a mishap in the campus of Information Technology bellwether Infosys while they were working on a repair of a portion of building here this morning.

City Police Commissioner N Achuta Rao, who visited the spot, talking to newsmen, said the mishap occured when the centring structures and huge glass panes came down on the workers engaged in building work below. The deceased belonged to Raichur district, he added.

He said five labourers, who sustained injured, were rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment immediately.

Police lathicharge students in Lucknow

2006-12-12T04:48:00.000-08:00

The Vice Chancellor of Lucknow University, along with some principals of seven/eight colleges is going to meet the Governor regarding violence on campus.

The students are protesting against Lucknow University's new code of conduct.

Based on recommendations made by the Lyngdoh Committee, the code now bars leaders who are over age or have criminal records from contesting in students' polls.

And it hasn't gone down well with the student leaders. On Thursday, they once again turned violent but this time the violence spilled onto Lucknow's main shopping campus Hazratganj.

Security to criminals

The police also had to lathicharge to disperse the angry mob. This time the victims are pedestrians and traders, who were caught in the crossfire as the police tried to push the hooliganism back on to the campus.

While the violence and commotion continued in Lucknow University, Governor of Utttar Pradesh TV Rajeshwar seems to have found a voice in the Vice Chancellor, who now says that the state government is wrong in providing state security to criminal students.

But the Vice Chancellor is optimistic. Armed with the Lyngdoh recommendations, he says the university can now systematically demolish the power the student leaders wield.

Sourav Ganguly returns with 83

2006-12-08T05:42:00.000-08:00

Sourav Ganguly made a triumphant return to the Indian cricket team when he and Irfan Pathan rescued the tourists from a pace barrage by the Rest of South Africa team.

Ganguly made 83 and fellow left-hander Pathan went on to score an unbeaten 111 as the Indians recovered from 69 for five to reach 316 for seven at the end of the first day of a four-day match on Thursday.

Ganguly, 34, who had not played for India since a series against Pakistan in February, came in at 37 for three while fast bowler Morne Morkel was causing havoc among the Indian batsmen.

Morkel, who finished the day with four for 74, took all his wickets before lunch after the Indians were sent in to bat by the Rest's captain, Jacques Rudolph.

India, battered by South Africa pace when they lost a one-day series 4-0, looked headed for humiliation in their only warm-up match ahead of the first Test starting in Johannesburg next Friday.

Second Indian origin girl in space

2006-12-08T00:22:00.000-08:00

Houston, May 4 Nasa has picked Indian-American Sunita Williams nee Pandya as part of the 14th international space station crew, Indian-origin astronaut Sunita Williams has been appointed along with two others as part of the replacement crew for the six-month-long International Space Station Expedition to be carried out in September this year.

Sunita's selection caps the prospects, which began in 2003 when she was selected by the National Aeronautics and Space Agency as a backup crew member for one of its missions to the space station orbiting about 240 miles above Earth.

She is the second astronaut of Indian origin after Kalpana Chawla, whose space odyssey had a tragic end on February 1, 2003, when space shuttle Columbia exploded over Texas during re-entry. The US-born Sunita Williams will serve as a flight engineer for the six-month mission, Nasa announced on Tuesday.

Her colleagues on the expedition will be Nasa astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, who will be the commander and the station science officer, and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin, who will serve as flight engineer and Soyuz commander.

Nasa's long expected announcement concerning Sunita Williams comes just ahead of the visit to India this week of Nasa administrator Michael Griffin to finalise American participation on India's unmanned Chandrayaan moon mission.

Griffin is expected to sign a MoU with ISRO for placing American scientific instruments in Chadrayaan-I on its scheduled 2008 launch. According to Nasa's biography of Sunita, she has a US Navy background. A graduate of Florida Institute of Technology, she received her commission as an Ensign in the US Navy from the US Naval Academy in May 1987. She was designated a Naval Aviator in 1989, and graduated from the Naval Test Pilot School in 1993.

She was later assigned to Helicopter Combat Support Squadron 8 in Norfolk, Virginia, and made overseas deployments to the Mediterranean, Red Sea and the Persian Gulf in support of Operation Desert Shield.

She was selected for the astronaut programme by Nasa in June 1998, in part because of her extensive experience on more than 30 different aircraft. She has since been an "Astronaut Candidate" under training waiting for her space flight assignment which Nasa announced on Tuesday. Sunita, who was born in Ohio (Kalpana Chawla was born in Karnal, Haryana), is married to physicist-turned-US deputy marshall, Michael J Williams.

She is the daughter of Deepak Pandya, an India-born physician who migrated to US in the 1960s and now works at a veterans hospital. Her mother Ursaline, a home-maker, is an American of Slavic descent.

In a previously published interview, she described her father as a traditional Hindu and therefore a vegetarian. "My mother would cook two different meals each day one Indian and one meat and potatoes so I got to eat a little bit of both and a good variety.

I still like spicier food," she recalled, speaking of her fondness for samosas. About her father, she said, "He was orphaned and so is very accepting of others' goals and trying new things."

NASA calls off space shuttle launch

2006-12-07T23:23:00.000-08:00

NASA postponed space shuttle Discovery's liftoff on Thursday night because of thick, low clouds at the Florida launch site.

The next opportunity for flight is at 9:13 p.m. on Friday (0213 GMT on Saturday), but meteorologists were forecasting a 90 percent chance of another delay due to high winds stirred by a cold front pushing through central Florida.

"We gave it the best shot and did not get clear," said NASA launch director Mike Leinbach.
Replied Discovery commander Mark Polansky, "Try not to be too disappointed and we will be ready to support the next time we get a chance."

NASA is hoping to launch its third mission in six months and get a jump on the looming deadline to finish International Space Station assembly before the shuttle fleet is retired in 2010. The launch will be NASA's first in darkness since before the 2003 Columbia disaster. Managers recently lifted the ban on night launches, imposed to ensure cameras had good lighting to spot any debris falling off the shuttle's fuel tank.

Debris damaged Columbia, triggering the breakup of the ship and the death of its seven astronauts as it re-entered Earth's atmosphere.

On the last flight, astronauts delivered new solar arrays to provide power for additional modules scheduled to be installed next year. The tricky task of wiring the arrays into the station's power grid falls to Discovery's crew. At least 14 more missions are needed to finish the $100 billion outpost. Discovery's flight is scheduled to last 12 days.

In addition to Polansky, the five-man, two-woman crew consists of Sweden's first astronaut, Christer Fuglesang, pilot William Oefelein, flight engineer Robert Curbeam and mission specialists Nicholas Patrick, Joan Higginbotham and Sunita Williams.

Only Polansky and Curbeam have made previous spaceflights.

from yahoo news

Shibu Soren gets life imprisonment

2006-12-06T06:32:00.000-08:00

A Special CBI court today sentenced former Union Minister Shibu Soren to life imprisonment in the Shashinath Jha murder case.

Special CBI judge B R Kedia also asked the JMM chief to cough up Rs five lakh as compensation for Jha's family. Shashinath Jha was murdered in 1994 by Nandkishore Mehta on Shibu's instructions. The court also handed down life imprisonment to four other convicts, including Mehta, in the case. The court had held Soren guilty of Jha's murder on November 28.

The four other convicts were also asked to pay Rs 25,000 each as fine to the court. Soren is to pay Rs two lakh each as compensation to Jha's daughters, Preeti and Babita, besides Rs one lakh to his mother Priyambada Devi. Describing the sentence as unfair, Shibu's son Hemand Soren told sources that they would appeal against the sentence when they read the entire judgement.
He also added that Shibu would not resign from the Lok Sabha.

Defending Shibu, noted criminal lawyer R K Anand had pleaded before the court to take a lenient view while handing down the quantum of the sentence. His argument centered around Shibu's political career. Soren is ''good enough to earn probation'', he said.

Soren had to resign from the Union Cabinet after the CBI court held him guilty of conspiring to murder Jha. Shibu played a central role in the design blurring the distinction between a principal agent and a conspirator, CBI counsel A K Singh argued citing the judgments in the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's murder and the Parliament attack cases.

The conspirators were given the same sentence as the actual perpetrators in both cases, according to the CBI.

The CBI alleged that Soren deprived Jha of customary last rites.
Jha's corpse had been thrown to dogs.

One of the convicts, Nandkishore Mehta, earned himself a JMM ticket to contest the assembly elections by killing Jha on Soren's instructions.

One of the reasons behind the murder, the CBI said, was that Soren and Jha fell out over sharing the kick-offs offered by the Congress to bail out the P V Narasimha Rao-led government during the no-trust vote in the Lok Sabha.

News Updates from India

2006-12-04T04:47:00.000-08:00

Kolkata : West Bengal Assembly has passed a Bill banning handpulled rickshaws.The decision, as in the past, has raised fears of unemployment for the poorest of the poor.The Bill is likely to affect the migrant labourers in Kolkata, who survived on the rickshaws - a century old transport.There are 5,937 hand pulled rickshaws in the city. The government has promised alternative livelihood for the rickshaw pullers.

Delhi : An Indian Airlines flight IC 402 overshot the tarmac at Delhi airport Sunday night, eyewitness Rakesh Vaid told NDTV. All the 320 passengers on the flight from Kolkata disembarked safely. Emergency services including fire fighting trucks and ambulances scrambled to the aircraft as the incident took place at 11 pm.

source NDTV

Life loss in US Winter storm

2006-12-04T04:38:00.000-08:00

Temperatures stayed below freezing as hundreds of thousands waited for their electricity to be restored after a devastating winter storm that has been blamed for at least 19 deaths across the US.

In the latest incidents, icy weather contributed to the deaths of four St. Louis residents. Two men died of suspected carbon monoxide poisoning after they tried to keep warm by burning coal on their stove.

One man was found dead in his yard from possible hypothermia and an elderly man was found dead at the bottom of his home's stairs. "This is not over. As long as the power is still out, there are still people at risk," said St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay.

Temperatures barely rose to minus-6 Celsius on Sunday. City officials encouraged people to stay at temporary shelters, rather than try to tough it out in residences without power.
The storm was blamed for at least 15 other deaths as it spread ice and deep snow from Texas to Michigan and then blew through the Northeast.

Thousands of travelers were stranded by canceled flights, highways clogged by abandoned vehicles and stalled trains.

source NDTV

Ghaziabad ashram girls rescued

2006-12-04T04:37:00.000-08:00

The Supreme Court has ordered special protection for 47 girls, after a Swami is accused of sexually abusing some of them at their orphanage near Delhi.
The children were rescued and sent to a safe shelter in Mathura after an undercover NDTV reporter discovered the abuse.

The court on Monday also sought a report from the District Magistrate of Mathura on the current status of the children.

The court said no one should meet them without the permission of the magistrate.
Baba Balnath who ran the orphanage in Ghaziabad has been placed in judicial custody for two weeks.

Sanjay Dutt in court

2006-12-01T04:05:00.000-08:00

Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt, convicted for possessing illegal weapons, urged an Indian court on Thursday to be lenient in sentencing him, saying he had obeyed all the conditions of his bail so far. Dutt's plea came two days after he was cleared of charges of conspiracy in a series of bomb blasts in Mumbai that killed 257 people in 1993.

Lawyers say his firearms offence could still carry a sentence of up to 10 years in jail. He has already served more than a year in prison during investigations.

"He pleaded before the court that he had not violated any condition, nor committed any crime during the bail period," public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam told Reuters. "He said therefore he should be shown leniency." The court gave Dutt until December 19 to surrender after the actor sought time to sort out his personal and film commitments.

Dutt also requested the court to allow him to go abroad in connection with the work of a cancer trust started by his father, a former film star and federal minister who died last year.

"He told the court 'I love my nation. India is my country'," Nikam said quoting the burly actor, one of the most sought after in Bollywood after his film, "Lage Raho Munnabhai," (Carry on Munnabhai), became the biggest hit of 2006.

The court, which is expected to begin sentencing the accused in the case next month, made no comment on Dutt's plea but asked him to surrender by December 19.

Sidhu found guilty for murder case

2006-12-01T03:17:00.000-08:00

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Friday convicted cricketer-turned-MP Navjot Singh Sidhu for causing the death of a Patiala resident following a scuffle in 1988.

A division bench, comprising Justices Mehtab Singh Gill and Baldev Singh, overturned his earlier acquittal by a lower court and found 43-year-old Sidhu guilty of culpable homicide, not amounting to murder, for the death of Gurnam Singh.

Gurnam Singh died on December 27, 1988 after Sidhu and his associate had allegedly beaten him at a Patiala market following a dispute. Gurman Singh had actually died of a heart attack on the spot after the incident.

The court will decide on the quantum of punishment for Sidhu on Wednesday, December 6.

Sidhu, who was in Parliament in Delhi when the verdict was pronounced and soon announced his intention to resign from Lok Sabha where he represents Amritsar.

In a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, he said he was seeking permission of his party leaders to resign from the Lok Sabha maintianing that he always stood for truth and moral grounds.

Under Section 304 of IPC, the maximum sentence could be imprisonment for up to 10 years.

Sourav Ganguly returns to team India

2006-12-01T03:10:00.000-08:00

Former India skipper Sourav Ganguly got a chance to extend his international career when he was named in a 16-man squad for an upcoming three-Test series in South Africa.

Ganguly's career seemed to be over after a row with coach Greg Chappell last year, when he was sacked as captain before being axed from both the Test and One-day squads.

The stylish 34-year-old batsman played his last Test against Pakistan in Karachi in February this year and his last One-dayer was against New Zealand at Harare in September 2005.
A brittle batting display by India in the ongoing five-match One-day series in South Africa, which they trail 3-0 after four matches, led the selectors to plump for the experienced left-hander.

"We decided to go with Ganguly's experience because our batting has failed in One-dayers. The youngsters have not been able to adjust to the bouncy wickets in South Africa," said chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar on Thursday.

Ganguly, who has scored 5,221 runs in 88 Tests, said he was hoping to put his experience to good use in South Africa.

"I am happy to be back but it is always a challenge playing in Tests, whether it is your first or 100th. As the tour will go on, players will get used to the bouncy pitches," he said.
"We have done well on bouncy tracks in Australia in the past and it is pretty much the same group of players and I am sure they will do well. It is just a matter of adjusting."

Quake hits Sumatra island and Typhoon in Philippines

2006-12-01T02:53:00.000-08:00

Philippines : Typhoon Durian killed 146 people in the central Philippines after high winds and rain triggered deadly mudslides, the head of the Philippine Red Cross said today.
Mud and rocks covered two villages close to Mount Mayon, around 322 km south of Manila. At least five other villages were also hit, officials said.

Sumatra island : A moderate intensity earthquake of magnitude 6.4 on Richter scale today hit the northern part of Indonesia's Sumatra island at 0928 hrs IST, an India Meteorological Department report said.
The quake hit at 0928 hrs IST and was epicentred at a latitude of 03.7 degree north and a longitude of 99.5 degree east, according to the IMD report.

Bangla Bandh begins

2006-12-01T02:49:00.000-08:00

Trinamool Congress sponsored 12-hour Bangla bandh began at 0600 hours today amid heavy security cover to prevent any untoward incident.

There has been a mixed reaction to the bandh till now. While reports of some disruption and violence have filtered in from different parts of the state, the situation has been peaceful on the whole.

Deputy Commissioner (Headquarters) Pradip Chatterjee told UNI, " We have deployed 5000 police personnel in different parts of the city to prevent any untoward incidents." Besides this seven wireless vans, 25 Heavy Duty vehicles are also on the patrol, he said. "18 mobile escorts have been kept at different parts of the to escort the cars going to the IT sector. besides this 100 plus pickets have been put up at differnt parts of the city," he said.

He also made it clear that instructions have been given to arrest any individual or group trying to disrupt traffic using force. Meanwhile, reports coming in from different part state that train services have been partially affected on Sealdah, Budgebudge and Dankuni section of eastern Railway.

Trinamool Congress Bhatpara MLA Arjun Singh has been arrested for trying to disrupt traffic. In Asansol five Trinamool activists have been arrested. A Congress Zilla Committee President's car has been damaged by CPI(M) activists in Cooch Behar, sources said.

Meanwhile, a heavy deployment of police has been made at Singur and fencing of the land to be given to Tata Motors have started from Khaserberia region.

Section 144 is still clamped in the region. The bandh has been called to portest against the "illegal arrest" and police atrocities on party supremo Mamata Banerjee.

Addressing a press conference in the Trinamool Congress room in the state Assembly last evening, Ms Banerjee said the Congress and a number of other smaller Opposition parties were extending support to the bandh. "Our bandh is against police torture, barbarism and the fascist activities of the Left Front Government," she said after her party MLAs went berserk in the Assembly lobby.

Former Indian Cricketer Hanumant Singh died

2006-11-30T01:24:00.001-08:00

Former Test player Hanumant Singh passed away this morning in Breach Candy hospital here, after battling with dengue for over a month.

He was 67 and is survived by his wife and son.

He had scored a century on debut for India and had represented the country in 14 Test matches. After retirement Singh was the National Selector as well as a Coach at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore. He also became a respected ICC Match Referee.

Parliament adjourned over Shibu Soren issue

2006-11-30T01:17:00.000-08:00

Amid noisy scenes, Parliament was was adjourned till 1200 hrs over the Shibu Soren issue.

As soon as the Lok Sabha assembled, Leader of the Opposition L K Advani wanted to make a statement on the issue of former Union Minister and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha president Shibu Soren, who was convicted yesterday in a murder case.

However, Speaker Somnath Chatterje did not allow Mr Advani to speak at that time but assured him time at 1200 hrs. Angry BJP and NDA members were on their feet, disrupting the proceedings of the House.

The NDA was supported by Samajwadi Party members on the issue. As the Speaker remained firm on his stand, the NDA members started raising slogans asking the Prime Minister to apologise. Intervening in the issue, Parliamentary Affairs Minister P R Dasmunsi said the manner in which the Opposition wanted to raise the issue was not acceptable.

The Speaker said he has not even received a notice on the issue and in order to pacify the agitated BJP members, even read out a letter written by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee requesting him that disruption of the question hour should not be allowed.

Howver, the BJP and NDA members became more agitated and raised slogans.

Mr Dasmunshi said ''this only shows that the BJP has even disowned their own leader and that is the reason Mr Vajpayee had not even come to the House.'' The Speaker said that it was due to such scenes that a foreign coach had made a remark on Parliamentarians. He then adourned the House at 1125 hrs till 1200 hrs.

Similar scenes were witnessed in the Rajya Sabha with Leader of the Opposition Jaswant Singh demanding that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh make a statement on the issue.

Home Minister Shivraj Patil wanted to make a statement on the issue but Mr Singh said only the Prime Minister should do so. Chairman Bhairon Singh Shekhawat then adjourned the Upper House at 1145 hrs till 1200 hrs.

from Oneindia

Shibu Soren resigns

2006-11-30T01:10:00.000-08:00

Jharkhand Chief Minister Shibu Soren resigned on Friday night after he failed to obtain a vote of confidence in the assembly as directed by the Supreme Court.

Raj Bhavan spokesman A N Jha told rediff.com over phone from Ranchi that Soren put in his resignation papers at around 2300 hours.

The Centre asked Soren to resign after a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs convened by Prime Minsiter Manmohan Singh.

Singh was said to be upset over the political developments in Jharkhand and held consultations with allies on the matter.

Ahead of the meeting, he held a round of discussions with Leftist leaders Harkishen Singh Surjeet, Prakash Karat and Abani Roy and spoke to Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Lalu Prasad and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader M Karunanidhi over telephone.

After the meeting, Home Minister Shivraj Patil said Soren should resign and the possibilities of installing an alternative government should be explored.

The new government should be asked to seek the vote of confidence in three-four days, he said.

Patil said constitutional propriety demanded that the incumbent government should resign. He said Singh and his government were determined to see that the Constitution was followed in letter and spirit.

China mine bosses jailed after blast

2006-11-30T01:07:00.000-08:00

A Chinese court jailed two managers of a state-owned coal mine today for negligence two years after a gas explosion killed 166 miners, Xinhua news agency said.

The blast, one of the worst in China in decades, hit the Chenjiashan coal mine in Tongchuan in the northwestern province of Shaanxi just days after the pit had caught fire. Mine manager Liu Shuangming was jailed for five and a half years and his deputy and chief engineer, Wang Youjun, was jailed for five years, Xinhua said.

''After the fire was put out, (they) ordered the miners to risk their lives resuming production without sufficient safety measures,'' Xinhua said. ''Their action was extremely outrageous.'' China has the world's deadliest coal mining industry with fatal accidents almost on a daily basis as safety regulations are ignored and production is pushed beyond limits in the rush for profit.

Four coal mine accidents killed at least 88 people across the country just over the weekend. Nearly 6,000 coal miners died in about 3,300 floods, blasts and other accidents in 2005, and the death toll for the first 10 months of 2006 stood at 3,726.

Officials say small and privately run coal mines that fall short of safety standards account for most of the casualties, but large state-owned mines report the higher death tolls. A gas blast in a state coal mine killed 214 in the northeastern province of Liaoning in February 2005, while 171 died in a similar accident in Heilongjiang province last November.

U Turn to Nitish Katara murder case

2006-11-30T01:03:00.000-08:00

Bharati Yadav, sister of prime accused Vikas Yadav in the Nitish Katara kidnapping-cum-murder case, told the Ghaziabad police today that Nitish was just a friend at the management institute and there was ``no affair'' between them. The police, who had already summoned Bharati, today recorded her statement following the directions of the Delhi High Court issued yesterday in the matter.

``She told us that she just happened to know Nitish as he was a classmate at the management institute,'' said the Deputy Inspector-General (Meerut Range), Arun Kumar. He, however, maintained that her statement would not deter the police from proving their case in court. ``It is her statement but we have other evidence and facts in support of our case,'' he said

In a significant development, while Bharati did not approach the police earlier, she appeared before a television channel and was interviewed by a national daily on Friday in which she summarily denied having had any relationship with Nitish. The police have been saying that kidnapping and murder of Nitish was the result of Vikas Yadav taking objection to the affair of his sister and Nitish. Vikas' father D.P Yadav, a Rajya Sabha MP, has been claiming that his son was being framed as part of a political conspiracy.

Reacting to the statements attributed to Bharati, Ms. Neelam Katara, mother of Nitish, said it was clear from the interview that she had been forced to say things which she might have not wanted to. ``It has not come as a surprise to us. Her father was present when the interviews were being taken and this makes her statements understandable,'' she said. ``I have said what I had to. It is for the other agencies to decide how authentic Bharati's statements are,'' she added.

Interestingly, the interviews were arranged by D.P Yadav after the Delhi High Court had directed the Ghaziabad police to get Bharati's statement recorded by today. Counsel for Vikas Yadav had told the court that it was the police which was not recording Bharati's statement, though she was ready.

Bharati's refusal to acknowledge her relationship with Nitish has come at a time when the accused have reportedly confessed -- during the 24-hour police remand which ended yesterday -- to have kidnapped and murdered Nitish in the early hours of February 17. At the instance of the accused, police have also recovered the weapon of offence, a hammer, and Nitish's wrist watch from the place where the charred body, believed to be that of Nitish, was found from Khurja.

Meanwhile, the Ghaziabad police have filed a revision petition in the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate in Ghaziabad seeking a 10-day remand for the accused in order to effect recoveries, particularly the vehicle used in the incident. The matter will be taken up by the court on Monday.

The police have said in the application that the vehicle, which was supposed to be in Alwar was not found there and now could be in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana or Punjab.

from hinduonnet

South Korea suspected second bird flu case

2006-11-28T04:59:00.000-08:00

South Korea farm ministry said today it had found a second suspected case of highly pathogenic bird flu at a poultry farm, after confirming on Saturday it had its first outbreak in three years of the H5N1 strain.

The ministry said the second suspected case was at a poultry farm near where the first case had been found and they are checking to see if the virus has spread through the country.
South Korea has nearly completed culling all 236,000 poultry within a 500 metre (1,640-ft) radius of a farm in North Cholla province about 170 km (100 miles) south from Seoul where officials said the H5N1 avian influenza strain had been detected.

Bomb hoax in Sealdah, west bengal

2006-11-28T04:57:00.000-08:00

A hoax call of planting a bomb inside a coach of Sealdah bound Teesta-Torsha express delayed about one departure of the train this morning, Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) officials said.
A phone call to railway officials at Alipurduar station in neighbouring Jaipaiguri district forced the railwaymen to call police and bomb squads, who made a through search of the coaches but found no explosives.

This delayed the departure of the 3142 Dn Teesta-Torsha train for an hour from its originiating station, Alipurduar.

Last week unidentified terrorist group detonated a powerful bomb at a local train at Belacoba station in Jalpaiguri in which eight people were killed and many inujred.

Netaji case

2006-11-27T22:06:00.000-08:00

In a new twist to the enduring enigma of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s “disappearance’’, one of the witnesses appearing before the one-man Mukherjee Commission investigating the mystery today claimed that Netaji and monk Bhagwanji, he met in the seventies in Uttar Pradesh, were the same person.

Appearing before Justice M.K. Mukherjee’s single Bench here, Bijoy Kumar Nag claimed that he had met Bhagwanji between 1970 and 1975 at Raja Maidan in Purani Basti and between 1976 and 1977 at Brahmakunda in Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh. Justice Mukherjee said that the witness claimed that whatever Bhagwanji uttered about his early life to Mr Nag and his associates complied with Netaji’s life.

Further, Bhagwanji spoke about issues regarding certain people which were exclusively known and confirmed by those people only, claimed the witness, who is the publisher of “Jayshri”, which had brought out several books on Netaji’s life.

Gold hallmarking to be made mandatory

2006-11-27T06:05:00.000-08:00

Hallmarking on gold jewellery shall be made mandatory from January 1, 2008 by the government, Mr Y P Singh, Additional Director General, Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) said today.

Addressing a seminar on hallmarking of gold/silver jewellery, organized by BIS here, he informed that in order to promote gold hallmarking among consumers and bring more jewellers under assaying ambit, BIS is planning to spread its network of assaying and hallmarking centres in the country. Thirty five additional assaying centres will be set up by March next year, he added.

The government shall be giving one time financial incentive of 15 per cent of the cost of machinery and equipments subject to maximum of Rs 15 lakhs per centre for hallmarking, he added.

Mr Singh informed that according to an estimate there are more than three lakh jewellery retailers, manufacturers and over 100 large-scale units manufacturing jewellery in the country. He informed that BIS had conducted a market survey on 120 samples drawn from eight cities, which revealed failure of 88 per cent samples with average purity shortage of 11 per cent.

Another market survey revealed that more than 90 per cent samples failed against the purity declared as wide as 44.66 per cent and average shortage of 13.5 per cent . In Chandigarh, all the 10 samples drawn failed with maximum shortage in purity of 18.71 per cent and average shortage of 10.4 per cent.

Mr Singh said that uptil October 31 this year, 2,708 gold hallmarking licenses had been issued by BIS in the country. About 162 lakh pieces of gold, silver and artefacts had been hallmarked uptil October this year.

Suicide bomber kills 2 NATO soldiers

2006-11-27T06:04:00.000-08:00

A suicide bomber killed two NATO soldiers in an attack on an alliance convoy in Afghanistan's southern city of Kandahar today, a NATO spokesman said.

The spokesman, speaking in Kandahar, could not give the nationalities but Canadians form the bulk of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kandahar.

''Two ISAF soldiers were killed by suicide attack this morning,'' the spokesman said.

Civilians in the areas said NATO forces sealed off the site of the attack, which happened on a road where several governmental buildings are located. They said the suicide bomber ploughed into the convoy in a car.

Flames and smoke rose from one of the vehicles and a NATO helicopter hovered overhead, the witnesses said.

The attack comes a day before a NATO summit in the Latvian capital Riga which is likely to be dominated by the tough mission in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan is going through its bloodiest period since U S-led coalition forces overthrew the Taliban's radical Islamic government in 2001.

Shahrukh Khan to host KBC

2006-11-27T05:52:00.000-08:00

The 'Baadshah' of Bollywood Shahrukh Khan is all set to once again step in the shoes of Superstar Amitabh Bachchan after Farhan Akhtar's 'Don'.

Shahrukh is to host the new edition of the popular game show 'Kaun Banega Crorepati', to be aired soon on Star Plus, sources in the channel said.

The sources said the hosting of the KBC, the most popular game show on Indian television till date, by Shahrukh Khan was primarily aimed at reaching out to the "below 35" age group, which today comprise two thirds of the population of India.

Considering that Shah Rukh Khan today commands a huge following among the youngsters in the country, the Channel as well as the producers of ther KBC feel that in his new role of host, the Bollywood 'Baadshah' would help draw to the programme viewership from a whole new set of audiences.

''Kaun Banega Crorepati" has redefined television viewing in India.
KBC is very close to our hearts as it laid the foundation for Star Plus unprecedented domination over the last 6 years. With the Next Gen avatar of KBC with Shah Rukh Khan as its host, we promise to engage and deliver to our audiences a whole new entertainment experience,''Sameer Nair, CEO, STAR Entertainment India, said.

Ms Shailaja Kejriwal, senior creative director of Star India, told UNI that Shah Rukh has been signed for two seasons of KBC of 52 episodes each.

''Star India has signed a 5 year contract with Celador for Kaun Banega Crorepati which gives us a continuing license to run the show for the next five years. Of this, we have already entered into a contract with Shahrukh to host the show for the next two years,''Ms Kejriwal told UNI.
Ms Kejriwal said the replacement of Amitabh Bachchan with Shahrukh Khan as host for the new edition of the KBC came about after Mr Bachchan expressed his disinclination to host the show.
''The channel had approached Mr Bachchan for resumption of the show, but he expressed his disinclination to do the show. While there is no denying that he was instrumental in the show becoming the most popular game show on Indian television, it is time to move on and who better than Shah Rukh Khan to fill his shoes. AFter all, he is the 'Badshah' of Bollywood today,''she said.
Sources said the channel had been in talks with Shah Rukh Khan for over a month now and he expressed his willingness to do the show.

The launching of the new edition of KBC comes almost an year after the show's second season - 'KBC Dwitiya' was pulled off air following Mr Bachchan's illness in November last year and the bank of episodes was exhausted. Speaking to UNI, Mr Siddharth Basu said the contestants who could not make it to the show because it had to be taken off air following Mr Bachchan's illness will get a chance to play with Shah Rukh Khan in the new edition.

Ms Shailaja Kejriwal, senior creative director of Star India, told UNI that Shah Rukh has been signed for two seasons of KBC of 52 episodes each.

Replying to a question on why the host was replaced, Ms Kejriwal said the channel had approached Mr Bachchan for resumption of the show, but he declined.
''So, we went ahead and signed Shah Rukh,'' she said.

Katara case: Bharti Yadav back in India

2006-11-27T05:30:00.000-08:00

The trial in the four-and-a-half- year-old Nitish Katara murder case is set to take a decisive turn with the arrival of prime witness Bharti Yadav back in India after a protracted legal wrangle.

However, mystery shrouded the return of Bharti, daughter of Uttar Pradesh politician D P Yadav, from London on Friday with her family and the police maintaining a complete silence about her whereabouts.

"I can confirm that she is in India. But I would not be able to tell you where exactly she is. I have not spoken to her so far. She will depose on November 29 as scheduled," her advocate S C Buttan told.

Speculation is rife that she is putting up in a farmhouse in Chattarpur locality of South Delhi, but Delhi Police have refused to confirm or deny.

Meanwhile, Nitish's mother Neelam Katara said Bharti's deposition was "important to take the case to its logical conclusion as she can throw useful light into the happenings of that fateful day."

"I expect her to speak the truth. She saw Nitish going with her brothers," Neelam told here when asked whether she expected her to speak against her family in the controversial case.

Neelam said she had met Bharti twice and spoke to her over phone before the murder of her son. "Even after Nitish went missing, she was the person who told me to file a complaint against her brothers."

Bharti is set to depose before a court here on November 29 and media have been barred from the hearing of her testimony.

The court had allowed her plea for in-camera proceedings of her testimony, but rejected the demand that main complainant Neelam Katara should not be allowed to be present during her deposition.

from Time of India

Katara case : Bharati on November 27

2006-11-27T05:18:00.000-08:00

Bharati Yadav, sister of Vikas Yadav who is accused in the Nitish Katara murder case, has moved the trial court to arrange for video-conferencing to testify from London where she is studying.

In an application moved before additional sessions judge J. M. Malik, Bharati said her university had denied her leave as examinations were starting in December and studies are in full swing. "The university has declined to grant leave. Therefore, realising the importance of the matter, I may be permitted to depose through video-conferencing," she said.

The court listed the application for hearing on November 27.

Earlier, Bharati had requested the court to send her to-and-fro airfare so that she could come to Delhi to depose before it. The court had then said she could collect the fare from the Uttar Pradesh government after she turned up at the court to testify.

Bharati is a key witness in the case, as Katara was murdered on February 16 2002.

Katara was a Delhi-based businessman and studied in the same college as Bharati.

On the fateful day, Katara, who was sitting with Bharati at a friend's wedding in Ghaziabad, was allegedly taken out from the banquet hall by Vikas and Vishal on some pretext.

From there, he was kidnapped and then killed. His charred body was found a few days later on the roadside at Khurja in Uttar Pradesh.

from yahoo news

Jordanian King and Queen to visit India

2006-11-22T05:56:00.000-08:00

Jordanian King Abdullah II Bin El Hussein will visit India from November 30 to December one, an External Affairs Ministry spokesman said.

The King, accompanied by Queen Rania El Abdullah, will be on their first State visit to India.

The visit is taking place at the invitation of President A P J Abdul Kalam.

HIV infection on rise in all regions

2006-11-22T05:51:00.000-08:00

HIV infection is rising in every region of the world and most worryingly in countries like Uganda and Thailand, which had been heralded as success stories in the fight against AIDS, the United Nations has said.

Nearly 40 million adults and children are infected worldwide.

The most striking increases in new cases are in east Asia and in eastern Europe/central Asia, mainly due to drug use and unsafe sex, UNAIDS and the World Health Organisation said yesterday.

Somebody is infected with the deadly HIV virus every 8 seconds, equivalent to 11,000 infections worldwide every day, while another 8,000 infected people die, the two agencies said in a joint annual report ''2006 AIDS Epidemic Update''.

''Evidence shows again that the global epidemic is growing in all areas,'' Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS, told a news conference.

''Perhaps of even greater concern to me is the fact that in some countries that had known real results in the fight against AIDS -- Uganda and some western countries -- we see an increase in infection rates.'' Some 4.3 million people across the globe became infected with HIV this year, with a heavy concentration among young people, bringing the total number to an estimated 39.5 million.

Sub-Saharan Africa, which recorded 2.8 million new infections, still bears the brunt of the AIDS scourge, with 24.7 million people living with HIV, according to the report.

Of the 2.9 million global deaths from AIDS last year -- which Piot said was the highest number recorded -- 2.1 million occurred in Africa, the core area of the 25-year-old epidemic.

Fire accidents in world

2006-11-22T05:39:00.000-08:00

At least nine people were killed and 12 critically injured in a devastating fire that broke out at an illegal leather factory at Topsia in the Eastern fringes of the metro late last night.

According to official sources the fire broke out at around 0230 hours in the night and quickly engulfed the factory that was on the second floor of the building. To make matters worse, in the chaos that resulted, the keys to the only exit was lost.

It was only after the fire brigade arrived at around 0400 hours that the door was pulled down and the rest rescued. Official sources said that nine people had died, that included women working in the factory, and 12 were battling for life at National Medical College Hospital with 90 per cent burn injuries.

Another story, Polish officials said today they feared the worst as rescuers battled to reach 15 miners trapped in a deep coal mine after an explosion that killed at least eight others.

More than 70 rescuers worked through the night and tried to pump air into a tunnel to help them overcome ''hell'' conditions in the mine beneath the town of Ruda Slaska, about 300 km southwest of the capital Warsaw, after yesterday's blast.

A spokesman for the state-run Kompania Weglowa coal group said it could take several hours to ventilate the underground area and that it was impossible to say if the rescuers would reach the 15 in time. Seven badly burned bodies have been hauled from the mine, and an eighth miner has been confirmed dead.

''The rescuers have reached the eighth man but were forced to withdraw due to the threat the methane will explode again,'' said Madej. ''Ventilating the shaft may last up to 8-9 hours. It is difficult to say what barriers we will meet (after that).'' Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski flew to the mine to watch rescue efforts and promised help for the families of the miners.

The Halemba mine is one of the oldest in Poland and has been in operation since 1957.

Rahul Mahajan denies beating wife Shweta

2006-11-22T05:19:00.000-08:00

Rahul Mahajan, son of late BJP leader Pramod Mahajan, is again in the news. His two-and-half month marriage with Shweta was on the rocks after allegations of his relentless physical and verbal abuse' of her, a charge both have strongly denied. Mid-Day daily reported on Monday that Rahul had regularly beaten and thrashed former pilot Shweta whom he had married after his father's death and in the midst of a legal battle over drug abuse.

The story was accompanied by a photograph which showed that Shweta showing a bruise on her right arm.

Denying the report, Mahajan said, "this is totally baseless. We are both shocked at this news report. In fact, this is invasion of privacy. They are not even bothered to take our reaction before making these allegations."

Shweta, who was in Dehradun said over the telephone that "all these allegations are totally baseless. I sustained some bruises when I was trying to ride a bicycle and fell down. Please respect our privacy. Our viist to Dehradun should not be linked to any possibility of marital discord. “It is a planned holiday to my parents house in Doon. My parents are arranging a party to celebrate my marriage on Saturday and Rahul is also taking part in the party. My purpose is also to assist my parents in the arrangements".

She said her family is annoyed with the newspaper report. Shweta's parents denied any rift between her and Rahul and said the couple had talked to each other.

On the accompanying photograph in media which showed Shweta with bruised hand, Rahul said, "photographs like this can be doctored using all kinds of software. This is not true. Our family has been constantly hit by some crises in the last few months but we will face it."

UK urges more tax on biofuels

2006-11-20T03:16:00.000-08:00

Britain has fallen far behind its own target for increasing biofuel usage, and the government should consider extra tax incentives to encourage uptake of the renewable energy source, a parliamentary report said today.

The report by the House of Lords, the British parliament's upper chamber, supported promoting biofuel for vehicles as an alternative to petroleum in the fight against global warming.
''Increasing Europe's use of biofuels has a significant role to play in dealing with this problem,'' said Lord Renton of Mount Harry, chairman of the Lords' European Union Committee, which published the report.

Britain's goal is to have 5 per cent of road fuels come from renewable sources by 2010. That policy, known as the Road Transport Fuel Obligation, called for a 2 per cent usage rate by now but the actual current figure stands at only 0.3 per cent.

The Lords committee also said there was a pressing need to assess the full environmental impact of using biofuels and called for mandatory EU-wide biofuel certification to that end.
It pointed to the paradoxical practice of destroying the Brazilian rainforest to clear ground for planting biofuel crops, a process which on balance may produce more of the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions believed to cause global warming.

Brazilian bioethanol makes up 80 per cent of all the biofuel used in Britain, according to Blooming Futures, a biofuel advocacy group. ''If CO2 saving is the primary goal, it is clearly illogical to use biofuels which have caused the emission of more greenhouse gases by their production than are saved by their consumption'', the Lords report said.

Matt Bulba of Blooming Futures said the voluntary certification scheme in force in Britain does not require oil firms to specify the source of their biofuels.
The Department of Transport welcomed the report and said it was trying to promote biofuel usage.

''That's why we've introduced the first Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation, predicted to save 1 million tonnes of carbon a year by 2010,'' it said in a statement. ''The UK is developing a robust carbon assurance scheme to ensure that the Obligation promotes the use of environmentally sustainable biofuels,'' it added..

108 gold coins garland for Lord Balaji

2006-11-20T03:06:00.000-08:00

A devotee today donated garland of gold coins worth Rs 16 lakh to the deity of Sri Padmavathi Ammavaru Temple at Tiruchanoor near here.

The garland, made of 108 gold coins, weighing 1658 grams, was handed over by the devotee, who declined to reveal the identity, to TTD Chairman Karunakar Reddy in the presence of TTD Executive Officer A P V N Sarma.

The garland would adorn Goddess Sri Padmavathi when the idol would be taken out in a procession on a decorated ''Simha Vahanam'' this evening

Beijing plans world's longest subway

2006-11-20T03:01:00.000-08:00

The Chinese capital Beijing could have 561 kilometres of subway by 2020 and would supplant London as having the world's longest transit system, the official China Daily reported today. The network, which would stretch to 19 lines, will reach every major corner of the city, though the plans are still subject to government approval, the newspaper said.

Cities around China are spending billions of dollars building new subways or upgrading existing systems to try to beat the often chronic traffic jams that have come with years of booming economic growth.

Beijing's four metro lines carry 1.5 million people a day, and another three lines will enter service in time for the 2008 Olympic Games, the newspaper added.
By comparison, the London Underground's network is 408 kilometres with 11 lines that carry more than three million people a day.

No price tag was given for the Beijing expansion, but the city is spending some 40 billion dollars to improve infrastructure including road and rail links for the Olympics. Beijing is also considering building six underground highways running north-south and east-west to lighten pressure on its overburdened ring roads, the Xinhua news agency added, though some experts have opposed the plan due to safety concerns.

Naresh Gupta accepts ransom paid

2006-11-20T02:53:00.000-08:00

Putting an end to the various contradicting stories of the Anant kidnapping case, Adobe (India) CEO Naresh Gupta today said he had ''paid'' a ransom of 50 lakhs for the safe return of his son, and the police had been duly informed of the fact.

Mr Gupta, while revealing the fact in a press conference -- witnessed by senior police officials of Uttar Pradesh -- here today said police played a major role in the demanding situation and, that unless for the joint effort of the UP police and the STF, his son would have not returned safely.
Mr Gupta also dislosed that he had contacted an America-based kidnapping expert in this regard and a senior Asian expert was also roped in to solve the matter, as his primary objective was the safe return of his son.

''Both the experts came to the conclusion that the abductors were not professional and so could harm the child. They asked us to abide by what they were saying,'' Mr Gupta said.
His telephonic conversation with kidnappers and his laptop details corroborated his statement that kidnappers had asked a member of Guptas' family to board the Paschim Express at the Nizamuddin Railway Station with the desired amount. As the train does not stop at the station, the person boarded Dehradun Express. The abductors stayed in touch with him and asked him to drop the money at a place nearby Mathura, which was then collected by them.

Meanwhile, prime accused in the case Dev alias Chhatrapal Singh was arrested here today. from 'Pushta Nallah' area between Sector 14 and 15.

Police sources said here, Chattarpal Singh was arrested this afternoon from a ''hide out.'' Pawan and Vijay Singh Chauhan, who runs a travel agency in Noida, are the other accused still at large.Chattarpal Singh is the sibling of Jitendra, who was arrested soon after Anant appeared at his house under mysterious circumstances. Both Jitendra and Chattarpal help their father run a Mother Dairy booth in sector 15 A of Noida, opposite the Guptas' house.On Friday night, police had recovered Rs 50 lakh from a person arrested in connection with the kidnapping of the son of Adobe India's CEO.The money was found in Belana village of Kakod in Uttar Pradesh's Bulandshahar district after police interrogated Jitendra, who allegedly kidnapped three-year-old Anant Gupta on Monday from outside his home.

Kidnapped son rescued

2006-11-17T00:55:00.000-08:00

The Uttar Pradesh police on Friday rescued Adobe CEO's kidnapped three-year-old son from the Noida-Bulandshahr border. Anant Gupta has now been handed over to his parents and is back home. His father Naresh Gupta, CEO of Adobe India, said his son was "hale and hearty". Details regarding his rescue are still awaited.

Mexico Aztec god carving

2006-11-16T23:05:00.000-08:00

Archeologists say a giant, ornate carving of an Aztec god recently unveiled in downtown Mexico City could be a massive headstone in honor of one of the civilization's last rulers.
Scientists say the 12.4 ton stone cutting, which is covered with a vast, heavily detailed full-body engraving of earth god Tlaltecuhtli, is one of the most important Aztec finds ever.

The 11-foot long monolith was first made public in October. It is broken into several pieces but otherwise in excellent condition, archeologists said. They have spent weeks scraping dirt and debris from the piece and now say it may be the headstone of Ahuizotl, the eighth Aztec ruler, whose successor Moctezuma II governed at the start of the Spanish conquest of Mexico.

The headstone is decorated with the carved image of a deity with a giant male head ringed by masses of curly hair and a sharp extended tongue representing a stream of blood.
Skulls and crossed bones surround the body, as well as a rabbit and several dots thought to be a time stamp dating the sculpture to 1502.

The Aztecs, a warlike and deeply religious people who built numerous monumental works including towering pyramids, ruled an empire encompassing much of modern-day central Mexico until they were overthrown by the Spanish in 1521.

The piece was found in the ruins of Mexico City's Templo Mayor, an Aztec temple used for human sacrifice and now steps from choking traffic in the city's Spanish colonial center.
Spanish conquerors built a new city from the rubble of Tenochtitlan, the sprawling Aztec capital they found built on largely man-made islands amid a lake in the Valley of Mexico.

3 year old Anant in dacoit Jagjivan's clutches?

2006-11-16T04:17:00.000-08:00

Police were exercising caution and additional force deployed in the Chambal ravines following reports that Adobe India CEO Naresh Gupta's abducted son has reached the cultches of dreaded dacoit Jagjivan Parihar.

Bastar Range Inspector General of Police D C Sagar said Noida and Etawah police were being contacted to ascertain on what basis the suspicion was expressed. Three-year-old Anant was on way to his school with his maid when two persons arrived on a motorcycle and abducted him from outside his residence in posh Sector 15 A of Noida, a satellite township of New Delhi.

The abductors have allegedly handed over Anant to Parihar, who carries a reward of Rs 5.15 lakh on his head. A ransom of Rs one crore has been demanded for his release.
''On receving information on these lines, more than a dozen police teams were immediately deployed in the Chambal ravines. Besides, searching was being carried out at suspected places in the ravines,'' Superintendent of Police Rajababu Singh said.

Bush promises to get India-US nuke deal

2006-11-16T04:10:00.000-08:00

On November 9th 2006, US President George W Bush resolved to get Congressional approval for the India-US civilian nuclear agreement, which awaits the Senate's endorsement, notwithstanding the electoral reverses suffered by the Republican Party.
Addressing a press conference at the White House yesterday after the big Democrat victory, Mr Bush, however, said he was not certain whether the deal would figure in the agenda of the session of the outgoing Senate.

The House of Representatives had approved the measure in July last with certain amendments.
Though there is a strong lobby against the deal in the United States as in India for different reasons, according to observers, the House of Representatives' new composition would not have any effect on it.

An overwhelming majority of the members in the two houses of the Congress will still remain the same. For example, the 100-member Senate will have only six new faces, even if the withheld result of the disputed Virginia state goes in favour of the Democratic Party. Mr Biden, who was first elected to the United States Senate in 1972 at the age of 29, is recognised as one of the country's most powerful and influential voices on foreign relations.
Similarly, Democratic Congressman Tom Lantos of California is likely to chair the new House Committee on International Relations in place of Republican Party's Henry Hyde.

Mr Lantos too is an ardent supporter of the agreement. In fact, in May, he favoured a legislative compromise to ''keep the momentum for this important agreement moving forward.'' He had gone on record to say that ''the Indian Government needs reassurance that the Congress is supportive. It needs the confidence that we will adopt the necessary legislation in order to negotiate the final details of this agreement with the United States.'' His draft legislation emphasises the importance of deepening India-US bilateral relationship and welcomes the India-US Joint Statement of July 18, 2006, as well as the agreement reached on March 2, 2006 to expand peaceful nuclear cooperation between the two countries.

Therefore, the Congress changing hands is hardly going to have any impact on the fate of the agreement. What matters most is the timing of its figuring on the Senate agenda and whether the amendments that are likely to be tagged on to the agreement, would be acceptable to India.
A clearer picture would emerge when the outgoing Senate returns for its lame duck session next week.

Meanwhile, the Coalition for Partnership with India, a support group, in a statement recognised that many legislative initiatives might be affected by the change in the structure of the Congress, ''We are optimistic that the India bill will weather the shift in political climate.'' It recalls that Democratic leader in the present Senate Harry Reid and its majority leader Bill Frist (Republican) have each stated publicly their desire to pass the agreement during the lame duck session.

It said the broad, bipartisan support for the measure is evidenced by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's 16-2 vote to approve it. When the bill comes to the Senate floor, most experts believe it will win by a margin similar to the landslide House vote of 359-68, it said.

Iran vice-president replaced after budget dispute

2006-11-16T04:07:00.000-08:00

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has replaced one of Iran's vice-presidents after a dispute over the national budget allocating body, an Iranian news agency said today,.

The Iranian press had previously reported that the outgoing vice-president, Farhad Rahbar, was critical of Ahmadinejad's move to restructure the budget body, but Rahbar himself denied that.

Ahmadinejad last month put the provincial offices of the Management and Planning Organisation (MPO) under the control of government-appointed governors, prompting fears that budget spending would be overly politicised.

As MPO head, Vice-President Rahbar had said he did not oppose the change but was quoted in state media as saying the plan should undergo ''more expert studies''.

Previously, the provincial budget offices had answered directly to the MPO. Although the MPO's chief is appointed by the president, the national body has a reputation for being staffed with technocrats concerned with Iran's long-term development needs.

Opposition politicians and press said giving provincial governors more budget powers would shift the focus to short-term political interests.

''I, herewith, appoint you as the vice president and the head of the MPO,'' Ahmadinejad wrote in a letter to the new head, Amir Mansour Borqei, Iran's ISNA reported. The president did not give a reason for the change, but thanked Rahbar for his work. ISNA said Borqei, 49, previously worked in the Energy Ministry and attended the same university as the president.

Ahmadinejad's economic management, particularly his government's failure to rein in rising prices, has come in for increasing criticism in the press and among lawmakers. The president, who swept to office in 2005 with promises to spread out Iran's oil wealth more fairly, has said the media has exaggerated the price rises.

Iran holds local council elections in cities and throughout the provinces in December -- the first national vote since Ahmadinejad won the presidency.

Bengalooru Habba from Dec 3 to 10

2006-11-16T04:04:00.000-08:00

Cultural extravaganza was in store at the eagerly-awaited 'Bengalooru Habba', to be held in the Garden City from December three to ten.

Cultural programmes, including classical music, dance, lecture demonstrations for western music, besides food festival and sports would be held in various parts of the city.

As a prelude to the main events, an awareness programme for students across 15 schools and colleges would be held from tomorrow to November 30. Besides, street theatre performances for social issue campaigns would be held across the city in malls and shopping complexes, parks and residential areas and other public places.

Upcoming artistes from reputed art schools would perform 'Live Art' under the Bengalooru Habba umbrella at important public places, besides performing 'Street Magic' throughout the city.

Many agencies, including Government tourism department and private companies, have come forward to sponsor the event. Bengalooru Habba, which had received great support from the people over the last three years, would showcase the State's culture and art in keeping with the spirit of Suvarna Karnataka this year.

Canadian tourist arrested

2006-11-16T04:03:00.000-08:00

A Singapore court has penalised a 53-year-old Canadian tourist for raising a false alarm about an Air India plane 'going to crash', according to a local media report today.
Nanda Sudhir Kumar was charged with having given a false tip-off to the police about a 'very bad guy' on board an Air India flight, which was headed for a crash, from a public phone at Singapore's Changi Airport last Monday.

Anna Nicole's son died

2006-11-15T01:57:00.000-08:00

Anna Nicole Smith's 20-year-old son died of a “massive heart attack” while visiting his mother and newborn sister in their hospital room over the weekend, according to media reports. Daniel Smith had flown to the Bahamas on Saturday to join his mother and was in her hospital room Sunday when he suddenly collapsed.

Son of CEO, Adobe India abducted

2006-11-14T01:48:00.000-08:00

A three-year-old son of the Managing Director of a software multi-national was kidnapped by two motorcycle-borne youths in Sector 15 area of Noida on yesterday (13th Nov 2006) morning.

Anant, whose father Naresh Gupta is the Managing Director of Adobe India rpt Adobe India, was abducted at about 0815 hrs while he was on his way to school from his Sector 15-A residence, said the police.

A student of 'Lotus Valley School', Anant was with his maid when two youth riding on a motorcycle 'snatched' him from the maid's hand and fled the scene.

A case of abduction has been registered at Sector 20 police station and sleuths questioned the maid.

Search is on to arrest the culprits, police added.

India, Pak Foreign Secretary talks

2006-11-14T01:46:00.000-08:00

Kickstarting the fourth round of the Composite Dialogue Process (CDP), India and Pakistan began their Foreign Secretary-level talks here this morning to narrow down differences on a host of issues includng terrorism.

Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon met his Pakistani conterpart Riaz Mohammad Khan at the majestic Hyderabad House and shook hands before they moved in to begin two days of hectic deliberations.

The two sides are expected to give shape to the point Mechanism on Terrorism which was proposed at the meeting between Prime Ministyer Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf at Havana on the sidelines onthe NAM Summit in September.

The proposed Joint Mechanism on Terror is likely to be given shape at the talks which are being held after a gap of nearly one year. Terrorism will be the main focus of the talks which will also review the progress on the three rounds of the Composite Dialogue Process (CDP) held so far.

Siachen and Sir Creek issues could also come up although no concrete progress is expected. The talks which were to be held in July, were put on hold after the 7/11 Mumbai bomb blasts. The Pakistan Foreign Secretary, leading a nine-member team, arrived here from Lahore last evening for the talks.

Immediately after his arival at the airport, he said he was looking forward to ''very constructive discussions.'' Sources said the Pakistan Foreign Secretary will also call on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

Bush to visit Singapore

2006-11-13T05:35:00.000-08:00

United States President George W. Bush will make a two-day official visit to Singapore from November 16, it was announced here today.

Singapore is his first stop in the region en route to Vietnam for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders Meeting. This will be President Bush's second official visit to Singapore. His previous visit was in 2003, said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. President Bush will be accompanied by First Lady Laura Bush and key U.S. government officials.

During his visit, President Bush will call on Acting President J Y Pillay and meet with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and other Cabinet Ministers. President Bush will also be delivering a speech in Singapore.

Virus

2006-11-10T05:41:00.000-08:00

Google accidentally sent out an email that has Kama Sutra worm to 50,000 members of the Google Video Blog. “On Tuesday evening, three posts were made to the Google Video Blog-group that should not have been posted,” Google said in a statement. “Some of these posts may have contained a virus called W32/Kapser.A@mm– a mass mailing worm. If you think you have downloaded this virus from the group or an e-mail message, we recommend you run your antivirus program to remove it.” Security expert says that it happens. An infected email being sent out. It happens. Okay…

United States Politics

2006-11-10T04:12:00.000-08:00

The 2008 White House race opens in a political landscape transformed by Tuesday's election, with resurgent Democrats seeing new opportunities and wounded Republicans pointing fingers and counting casualties.

Some potential White House contenders, including Democratic Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts and Republican Sens. George Allen of Virginia and Bill Frist of Tennessee, suffered setbacks that likely took them out of contention. Democrats solidified support in the Northeast and Midwest, continued their growth in the West and picked up governors' offices in battleground states like Ohio and Colorado that could give them an advantage in 2008.

''Rather than being beleaguered and lost, we have a national victory in all parts of the country and go into this two-year cycle with more momentum than we've had in 14 years,'' said Simon Rosenberg, president of NDN, a centrist Democratic group.

Republicans bickered over what caused the voter anger at President George W Bush and Republican leadership that cost them control of Congress. Some questioned whether the party could be successful with a message crafted primarily for core conservative supporters.
''The Republican Party will have to decide whether they want to win in 2008 or whether they are willing to impale themselves on the point of doctrinaire conservatism,'' Republican consultant Rich Galen said.

But conservative leaders said Republican leaders in Congress needed to return to the ideas that first helped them win government control.

Bombs hit eight car showrooms

2006-11-10T04:05:00.000-08:00

Bombs hit eight car and motorcycle showrooms in Thailand's rebellious Muslim south almost simultaneously today, wounding nine people, despite post-coup government gestures to encourage peace, police said. Police said they had been on the alert for attacks in Yala a day after Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont visited the city.

''We knew they were going to do these, but we didn't expect the showrooms to be the target,'' Yala police chief Major General Paitoon Chuchaiya told Reuters by telephone. The bombs, all timed to explode around midday, were hidden in brand new cars by militants posing as potential customers, Paitoon said.

''We are confident salespeople at these showrooms must have seen those bombers and can give us useful information to find them,'' Paitoon said. The worst of the nine wounded was a woman who worked at one of the motorcycle shops. She lost her left hand and suffered head wounds, hospital staff said.

More than 1,700 people have been killed in almost three years of separatist insurgency in the region where 80 percent of the people are Muslim and speak a Malay dialect. The attacks came a day after Surayud went to a Yala school founded by an insurgent leader to appeal for an end to the violence, reinforcing his policy U-turn from elected predecessor Thaksin Shinawatra's hardline approach to the insurgency.

France tests new nuclear missile

2006-11-10T04:02:00.000-08:00

France test-launched a new generation of intercontinental ballistic missiles for the first time today, eyewitnesses at the launch site said.

The M51 missile has a range of 6,000 km 50 per cent further than that of the missile currently in service. Developed by European aerospace giant EADS , the M51 will also be able to carry a heavier load than the M45 it will replace, and be armed with up to six warheads.
It was fired from the CELM test site at Biscarrosse, about 70 km from the southwestern city of Bordeaux.

The missile rose straight into the sky with a low roar before arching westwards over the Atlantic Ocean, leaving a trail of white smoke in its wake. Defence Ministry officials were not immediately available for comment on the launch and it was not clear whether the test had been completely successful. A heavy police presence was in place around the missile testing centre to prevent disruption of the launch by environmentalist groups.

The submarine-launched missile is due to come into service around 2010. Its enhanced accuracy is designed to reduce ''collateral damage'', according to the defence ministry.

Ambani Group launched biggest FM Radio channel

2006-11-09T03:17:00.000-08:00

Today Anil Dheerubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) has launched the biggest FM Radio channel of India , Big FM 92.7 which will work with a common frequency of 92.7 over 45 stations. As per Tarun Katial , COO Adlabs Radio , the total estimation of the project Big FM 92.7 is Rs.400 Crores.Initially in the first phase Big Fm will cover Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, BAngalore and will soon cover other big cities of India.

Amitabh Bachchan has been appointed as Brand Ambassador of Big Fm 92.7. This is the biggest ever Fm channel in India , is starting in 6 metro cities and soon will cover other parts of the country.The Overall human force in Adlabs Radio will be around 1500 across India, the RJ's have already been appointed with thorough consideration and Big Fm 92.7 is gonna be a one of its kind with largest coverage ever.

Australia wins ICC Champions Trophy

2006-11-06T05:14:00.000-08:00

Damien Martyn and man of the match Shane Watson stitched together an unbeaten-103 run partnership to take Australia to their first Champions Trophy win with an eight wicket victory over West Indies at the Brabourne stadium here today.

Australia were set a revised target of 116 runs in 35 overs after a two-hour rain delay by the West Indies. Martyn and Watson batted sensibly after the world Champions found themselves in early trouble at 13 for two. However, they secovered to compelete the chose in 28.1 overs and make 116 for two, to win by eight wickets with 6.5 overs to spare.

Saddam's Defence

2006-11-06T05:00:00.000-08:00

Saddam Hussein's defence team said his conviction today for crimes against humanity and the death sentence passed on him were illegal and political.

''This is a mockery of justice and a judgement that comes from a sham and illegal court created by the US occupation that cannot ever provide a fair trial,'' lawyer Bushra al-Khalil told Reuters in Amman, where the defence team is based.

Two other senior aides, including his half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti, will hang like the former president if their automatic appeals fail.

Former vice-president Taha Yassin Ramadan was sentenced to life in prison by the US-backed Iraqi High Tribunal, and three minor Baath party officials received long sentences.

Another defence lawyer who attended the proceedings today said the verdict was a foregone conclusion by a court that had condemned Saddam even before sentencing him.

''The verdict was prepared in advance and is to market the US elections for Bush ... it's the first court in which the verdict is read without the reasons for the conviction,'' Wadoud Fawzi Shams Eddin told Reuters by telephone from Baghdad.

''In any case, this court is illegal ... what can you expect from an illegal creature of the occupation that not only created it but controlled it and announced the convictions and death sentences.''

Saddam Hussein to be hanged till death

2006-11-06T04:49:00.000-08:00

A US-backed Iraqi court today sentenced toppled leader Saddam Hussein to death by hanging for crimes against humanity.The ousted president, visibly shaken, shouted out ''Allahu Akbar!'' (God is Greatest) and ''Long live the nation!''.The Iraqi High Tribunal also handed down death sentences to former revolutionary chief judge Awad Hamed al-Bander and Saddam's half brother and former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti. Former Iraqi vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan was sentenced to life in prison.The charges stemmed from the killing of 148 Shi'ite men in Dujail after an assassination attempt against Saddam in 1982.

A death sentence or life imprisonment generates an automatic appeal, delaying any execution by months at least. Saddam has said he wants to face a military firing squad, not the hangman.

PM to lay foundation stone for auto R&D centre

2006-11-03T06:25:00.000-08:00

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will lay the foundation stone for the Rs 400 crore National Automotive Testing and Research and Development Infrastructure project at Oragadam near Sriperumbudur, about 45 km from here, tomorrow.

Oragadam, a remote area near the temple town, will turn into a auto hub when Dr Singh lays the foundation stone for the prestigious project in the presence of Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi.

The project is coming up at the industrial estate being exclusively developed by the state-owned SIPCOT in an area of over 2000 acre for automobile and ancillary units.

It was during the inaugural function of the Sethusamudram Project in Madurai on July two, 2005, that Dr Singh, in the presence of Ms Gandhi and Mr Karunanidhi, announced that the project would be established at a cost of Rs 400 crore in Oragadam.

The state government had earmarked an extent of about 300 acre in the SPICOT estate for establishing the project.

Dr Singh, in the presence of Ms Gandhi, Mr Karunanidhi and Union Minister for Communication and Information Technology Dayanidhi Maran, will also inaugurate Flextronics at Sriperumbudur. The Nasdaq-listed Flextronics had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the state government to build an industrial park at Sriperumbudur in an area of 250 acre.

The company has proposed to begin printed circuit board assembly operations initially and after a couple of months, the plant would see end-products rollout. Products to be manufactured included mobile phone handsets, telecom infrastructure equipment like base stations and set-top boxes for the direct-to-home TV services market.

It would have the capacity to make two million mobile phone handsets a month. Currently, the company's Pondicherry facility had the capacity to produce 500,000 handsets. Its Bangalore plant focused on telecom infrastructure equipment, company sources said.

Flextronics would employ about 1,500 people in its new plant on 10 acre of the total 250 acre in the initial phase, they said.