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Sunday, May 22, 2011

Lokpal Bill: Civil society members to ask for speedy drafting

May 23 , 2011
New Delhi: Civil society members are expected to make a strong pitch for speeding up the process to draft the Lokpal Bill when they meet the representatives of the government on Monday. 

The fourth meeting of the team led by Anna Hazare is expected to ask the ministerial team led by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to call at least three meetings every week to complete the drafting process by the June 30 deadline set in the gazette notification issued by the government.
At the third meeting of the Joint Drafting Committee on Lokpal Bill, there was a general agreement on seven of the 34 points submitted by the civil society members. 

There was agreement on empowering the Lokpal to initiate a suo motu probe into the allegations of corruption against ministers, MPs and senior bureaucrats. 

Currently, a minister can be prosecuted only after sanction from the Prime Minister. Lok Sabha Speaker or Rajya Sabha Chairman has to give the nod in case of action against MPs.

Former Union minister Shanti Bhushan, a member of Hazare's team and co-chair of the Committee, in a letter to Mukherjee last week had suggested that government first present its views on all the remaining points and possible solutions on issues on which there were divergent views. 

Inclusion of Prime Minister and judiciary in the ambit of the Lokpal was a sticking point in the previous meeting and the issue was flagged for broader discussion at Monday’s meeting. 

The setting up of the panel was a key demand of Hazare and his supporters as part of their agitation for strong measures to tackle corruption in government and public life. 

The Committee is chaired by Mukherjee and has Union ministers Sibal, Veerappa Moily, Salman Khurshid and P Chidambaram as members. Besides Shanti Bhushan, the civil society members are Karnataka Lokayukta Santosh Hegde, Prashant Bhushan, Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal. 

Tamil Nadu minister dies in road accident

May 23 , 2011
Tiruchirapalli: N Mariyam Pichai, Tamil Nadu's Minister for Environment and Pollution Control and Minorities Welfare, died in a road accident near here on Monday morning, officials said. 

Pichai, 60, was travelling to Chennai, around 330 km from here, to be sworn in as the Member of the state Assembly later in the day.
According to state government officials, Pichai was sitting next to his driver in the car which hit a truck from behind while trying to overtake it around 7.00 am. 

Minister for Sports and Youth Welfare NR Sivapathi, who was travelling behind the car, informed officials about the accident. 

Officials said that seven people were travelling in Pichai's car and all others suffered minor injuries.  
Pichai defeated DMK's KN Nehru in the recently concluded Assembly Elections. 

He is survived by his wife and three children.

Bhutan King Pips India’s ‘Crown Prince’

May 23 , 2011
wept along by the gawping interest in the British royal wedding, India Real Time couldn’t help but speculate about a bride for India’s own “crown prince,” prime-minister-in-waiting Rahul Gandhi. Turns out, though, the next royal wedding in South Asia will be a little further east (unless Mr. Gandhi makes an announcement between now and October).
Bhutan’s 31-year-old monarch, King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, livened up the new session of the Bhutanese Parliament, which opened Friday, by announcing that he would get married in less than six months.
“As king, it is now time for me to marry,” he announced at the end of his address to Parliament, according to Bhutan’s official newspaper Kuensel. “After much thought, I have decided that the wedding shall be later this year.” This came as a relief for many in Bhutan—where the royal family is revered—who were worried that the king had not yet married at his age.
The bride, Jetsun Pema, is a decade younger than her husband-to-be, and is studying at Regents College in London. The paper said she has traveled with the king around the country in recent months.
“To me, she is the one,” said the king, in what appeared to be a joking reference to the fact his father, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, who abdicated in favor of the young king in 2006, married four sisters.
The king made his first public appearance with his fiancée after the announcement on Friday night in Thimphu’s India House, where Her Majesty Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck, one of the four queen mothers though not the king’s biological mother, kicked off the Mountain Echoes literary festival with a speech.
The couple wore traditional robes, which all Bhutanese are legally obligated to wear during working hours. The king was wearing a gho, a knee-length robe wrapped around the waist, and his fiancée a kira, a full-length cloth skirt, with a light pink silk blouse.
The royal couple shook hands with all the guests at the venue, who included many of the country’s top dignitaries and the host, India’s Ambassador to Bhutan, Pavan Varma. Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck said she was thrilled about the engagement and that she couldn’t have picked a better girl herself.
By Sunday, most shopkeepers had already prominently displayed framed pictures of the royal couple in their shops.
The young king is widely beloved and has presided over the continued democratization of the country, begun by his father, including landmark first elections in the mountain kingdom in 2008. In Bhutan he’s officially dubbed “the people’s king,”, though in Thailand, the press apparently nicknamed him “Prince Charming” after a 2006 visit.
Still, royal or not, the announcement of the Bhutanese king’s wedding plans were accompanied by the sorts of remarks that besiege most newlyweds in this part of the world—and that were remarkably absent, to South Asian eyes at any rate, from the WillKat wedding.
According to Kuensel, the chairperson of the upper house of Parliament, Namgay Penjore, said that in a year from now the people of Bhutan would expect an heir from the royal couple.
That’s what we’d call royal pressure.

Bihar panchayat poll candidate kills self after defeat

May 23 , 2011
Patna: Upset over her defeat in the panchayat polls, a 35-year-old woman hanged herself in her home in Gaya district of Bihar, police said on Monday. 

Meera Devi, a two time panchayat chief of Kormathu village, committed suicide on Sunday after she failed to retain her post. 

"She was upset after her defeat in the polls. She locked herself up and ended her life," a police officer at the Belaganj police station said. It is the first such case in Bihar when a candidate has committed suicide after losing in the panchatyat polls.

The panchayat polls began on April 20 and will end on May 28, by when a total of 262,000 panchayat members will be elected. 


SI chief went to China post Osama killing?

May 23 , 2011
New Delhi: Inter-Services Intelligence chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha went secretly to China days after the killing of al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden by US forces in Abbottabad on May 02, a report said on Monday. 

The report in a leading Indian daily indicates the amount to which Islamabad depends upon its “all-weather friend” Beijing to manage the situation that arose in the wake of the killing of bin Laden. 
There were reports about Pasha going to an undisclosed location and even Washington after al Qaeda chief’s killing, but no details were revealed ever. 
According to the report, Pasha had gone to Beijing before the debate in Pakistan’s National Assembly on the presence of bin Laden near Islamabad and the unilateral action taken by the US to target him. 

The report also added that the aim of Pasha’s Beijing visit was to outline a common line on the stance to be taken in the National Assembly. 

Notably, China has repeatedly acknowledged Pakistan’s “outstanding” contribution in combating terrorism, adding the international community should respect its sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence. 

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani has just concluded his four-day trip to China. 
 



Ash cloud from Icelandic volcano approaching UK

May 23 , 2011

Ash from an erupting Icelandic volcano is getting closer to the UK and is expected to reach northern Scotland by tomorrow as there is no sign of winds that might sweep it away, experts said.
The ash is spreading towards the UK in a giant crescent shape with the horns pointing south, which will approach the eastern edge of Ireland and enter northern Russia by the end of today.
Airspace over Iceland - an important section of transatlantic routes - and the country's main airport are likely to remain closed for the rest of Monday as conditions failed to improve overnight.
Grimsvoetn, Iceland’s most active volcano at the heart of its biggest glacier, began erupting late on Saturday, sending a plume of smoke and ash 12miles high.
So much ash was blasted into the sky that it blocked out the sun and covered nearby villages and farms.
By yesterday, the ash had reached the capital Reykjavik, nearly 250m to the west, and all the country’s airspace was closing down.

Nifty slips below 5450; Sesa Goa, IDFC, HDFC down

May 23 ,2011

MUMBAI: Indian markets were witnessing profit booking as sentiments turned bearish globally on concerns of global economic recovery. Banks, metals and auto stocks led the decline while FMCG space showed some resistance. 

"Things have turned a little sour for world equity markets in May. Investors seem to have taken the old axiom of 'sell in May and go away' seriously; and they have been lucky so far. India has been no exception with the key indices on a mostly downward spiral. The slide is likely to persist at least at the start of the last week of the month. 

The US and European stocks slid amid lingering worries over the precarious fiscal conditions of Greece and other peripheral eurozone nations. The dollar has advanced while the euro has hit a record low versus the Swiss franc. Asian stock markets are down 1-2% this morning. Crude oil is hovering around $100 a barrel mark. 

Indian markets did recover some ground late last week, but the overall outlook remains murky. Things could get volatile in view of the F&O expiry on Thursday. The near-term sentiment will hinge on global cues and results of a few top companies. The onset of monsoon will be another key event to keep an eye on," said IIFL report. 

At 9:45 am; National Stock Exchange's Nifty was at 5432.25, up 54.10 points or 0.99 per cent. The broader index touched a high of 5456.70 and low of 5417 in trade so far. 

Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensex was at 18159.68, down 166.41points or 0.91 per cent. The 30-share index hit a high of 18269.06 and low of 18106.99 in early trade. 

BSE Midcap Index slipped 0.55 per cent and BSE Smallcap Index moved up 0.42 per cent lower. 

Amongst sectoral indices, BSE Bankex was down 1.53 per cent, BSE Metal Index moved 1.46 per cent lower and BSE Auto Index slipped 1.29 per cent. BSE FMCG Index was up 0.37 per cent. 

Sesa Goa (-3.74%), IDFC (-2.51%), HDFC (-2.25%) Tata Motors (-2.13%) and Kotak Bank (-2.13%) were the top Nifty losers. 

GAIL (0.96%), ITC (0.91%), BHEL (0.71%), Bharti Airtel (0.16%) and Siemens (0.05%) were amongst the major gainers. 

Market breadth was negative on the NSE with 1051 declines as compared to 649 advances. 

Meanwhile, Asian markets were witnessing some selling pressure. Nikkei 225 was down 1.34 per cent, Hange Seng fell 1.74 per cent and Taiwan Weighted slipped 1.31 per cent.

Arms recovered near CPM office in Bengal

May 23 , 2011

Kolkata/Midnapore:  A rifle that had the arsenal number of a weapon missing from Silda after Maoist attack on Eastern Frontier Rifles (EFR) camp was part of a huge cache of arms recovered by police near a CPM party office in West Midnapore on Sunday prompting the CID to probe whether there is any CPM link to the massacre of 24 jawans.

"Among the arms recovered from Enayatpur is an INSAS rifle whose arsenal number matches that of a rifle missing from the Silda camp since the attack. So the ADG CID has been asked to take a relook at the case and see if there is a CPI-M connection to the attack," state DGP Naparajit Mukherjee told newsmen in Kolkata.

As many as 24 EFR jawans and a civilian were killed in the Maoist attack last year.

Mukherjee also said that in another haul, 58 pairs of camouflage uniforms, used by the security forces, were seized from the CPM office at Singda More under Patashpur police station of East Midnapore district.
"The seizure was made after breaking the lock of the office. A case has been registered by the East Midnapore district police superintendent and the culprits will be arrested soon," he said.

Mukherjee said the possibility of a CPM link to the Maoist attack would be looked into also because Shilda and its adjoining areas were under the party's dominance.

He said that besides the INSAS rifle, the haul from under a mound of hay in Enayatpur comprised one AK-56 rifle, eight .315 rifles, a US-made 30.06 rifle, one .375 rifle, 22 pipe guns and 136 rounds of ammunition.

The arms, wrapped in plastic, were spotted by villagers who informed the police. Three days ago, 17 rifles were seized from the same party office at Enayatpur, police said.

In reply to a question, Mukherjee said that in the event of any concrete proof of a CPM connection to the Shilda attack, those responsible would be arrested.

Besides the haul at Enayatpur, about 5 km from West Midnapore district headquarters town, 15 .315 rifles, three long-range country-made arms, a long range cannon and 490 crackers were recovered from a field at Kesasole, also under Kotwali police station in West Midnapore, he said.

Two muskets and 200 rounds of 12 bore ammunition were seized from a field at Khamar under Rajarhat New Town police station in North 24-Parganas district, Mukerjee said.


Pak PM Yousuf Gilani condemns Karachi terror attack

May 23 ,2011

Islamabad:  Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has strongly condemned the terrorist attack on Karachi naval base, saying such "cowardly acts of terror could not deter the commitment of the government and people of Pakistan to fight terrorism".

Gilani spoke to Interior Minister Malik and was constantly in touch with the three service chiefs regarding the incident, an official statement said.

Suspected militants stormed a naval base in Karachi late on Sunday night, rocking one of the nation's heavily guarded military installations with fiery explosions. The attack, which comes just three weeks after the death of Osama bin Laden, left at least 10 people dead.

The unilateral American raid that killed bin Laden had triggered a strong backlash against Washington, as well as rare domestic criticism against the armed forces for failing to detect or prevent the operation.

The attackers also blew up a P-3C Orion aircraft in one of the most brazen attacks in years. 

US 'would repeat Bin Laden raid'

May 23 , 2011

US President Barack Obama has said he would order a similar operation to that which killed Osama Bin Laden if another militant leader was found in Pakistan.
He said the US was mindful of Pakistani sovereignty but said the US could not allow "active plans to come to fruition without us taking some action".
The killing of Bin Laden by US forces in a Pakistani garrison town on 2 May strained ties between the two allies.
President Obama was speaking to the BBC ahead of a European visit.
Asked what he would do if one of al-Qaeda's top leaders, or the Taliban leader Mullah Omar, was tracked down to a location in Pakistan or another sovereign territory, he said the US would take unilateral action if required.
"Our job is to secure the United States," he told the BBC's Andrew Marr during a wide-ranging interview.
"We are very respectful of the sovereignty of Pakistan. But we cannot allow someone who is actively planning to kill our people or our allies' people."We can't allow those kind of active plans to come to fruition without us taking some action."

CBSE results for Class XII declared

May 23 , 2011

NEW DELHI: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) declared the results of the Senior School Certificate Examination (Class XII) on Monday. 

As usual schools have put up the results, but candidates can also view their results on the internet. In addition, they can access their results through the interactive voice response system (IVRS) or short message services (SMS). The results for the Patna region will be declared on May 27, Friday. 

Candidates can access their result on their email by registering themselves on the websites -http://www.results.nic.in/ www.cbseresults.nic.inand www.cbse.nic.in 

Results can be accessed through the IVRS of the National Informatics Centre at 30 paise per minute on 24357270 by local subscribers of Delhi and on 011-24357270 by subscribers in other parts of the country. Candidates can also access their results via SMS for 50 paise only. 

This year, 7,69,929 candidates registered for the exams conducted for three streams - an increase of 9.2% in comparison to 2010. 

Meanwhile, CBSE will start its second-phase (post-result) counselling from Monday and it will continue till June 6. 

This year, a total of 36 principals, trained counsellors from CBSE-affiliated government and private schools and a few psychologists will participate in tele-counselling and address psychological problems of the students. 

Thirty-two of them are available in India, and four stay in Dubai, Doha Qatar and Kuwait

Students can dial a toll-free number - 1800 11 7002 - from any part of the country which will give centralized access to the CBSE helpline.

Karunanidhi to meet daughter Kanimozhi at Tihar Jail today

May 23 , 2011

New Delhi:  DMK Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi, who is expected to move the Delhi High Court for bail in the 2G case today, will have a special visitor at Tihar Jail, where she has been lodged since Friday.

Her 87-year-old father, DMK chief M Karunanidhi, is flying down to meet his youngest child. He will be in Delhi by 11 am but is expected to meet Kanimozhi at Tihar Jail, in the Superintendent's office, at around 5 pm today.

Karunanidhi's older son and Union minister MK Alagiri will accompany him to Delhi. His younger son, MK Stalin, is also likely to reach Delhi in the evening. 

Kanimozhi was arrested on Friday after her bail plea was dismissed by a special Delhi court. She has been named a co-accused in the 2G case by the CBI. She will be brought to court on Monday for the daily hearing in the case.  

After being arrested on Friday and spending her first night in jail, a stoic Kanimozhi had appeared in court on Saturday morning along with others accused in the case. She managed a smile as she met her husband and greeted party workers waiting outside the court for her. Her mother, Rajathi Ammal, however, had broken down. Surrounded by many party workers, the two then sat together in the court, holding hands.

"I'm ok. Have to now deal with whatever comes my way," Kanimozhi told NDTV in court on Saturday. 

Kanimozhi has been chargesheeted by the CBI for allegedly conspiring with former Telecom Minister A Raja and accepting a R
s.
 214-crore bribe via Kalaignar TV. Raja, a DMK MP and a Dalit leader, has been in Tihar Jail since February for allegedly planning and executing the 2G scam when he was Telecom Minister in 2008. A company that he favoured allegedly sent him the massive bribe.

The bail plea of Kalaignar TV Managing Director Sharath Kumar was also rejected by Special CBI Judge OP Saini on Friday. He too was taken to jail. Kanimozhi and Kumar hold 20 per cent stake each in Kalaignar TV, while former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi's wife and Kanimozhi's step mother Dayalu Ammal holds 60 per cent share.

Justice Saini said bail had been dismissed due to the magnitude of the crime and given the seriousness of the allegations, he was unable to show any consideration to her being a woman. Kanimozhi's lawyer had argued that she should be given reprieve on the grounds that she was a woman and mother to a young child. Bail has not been granted to any of the accused in the case. 

Kanimozhi is lodged in jail number 6 (women's cell) and ward number 8 in Tihar Jail. Her new neighbours include Madhuri Gupta - a former Indian diplomat charged with spying for Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Sharda Jain, a murder accused.

Battle with militants rages on at Pakistan's naval base

May 23 , 2011

An overnight battle with militants at Pakistan's naval aviation base erupted again after dawn on Monday, with blasts ringing out and choppers hovering overhead as security forces launched a counter-offensive.
"The operation still continues. It is not over yet," said one security official, eight hours after a group of up to 15 militants stormed the installation with guns and grenades, killing at least five people and blowing up a military aircraft. More than 30 troops entered the PNS Mehran base in the southern city of Karachi as the battle resumed and eight blasts were heard in the space of 30 minutes.
Eleven people were wounded in the attack on one of the country's most heavily guarded military installations, where jet fuel tanks appeared to have caught fire and exploded. "They were carrying guns, rocket-propelled grenades (RPG) and hand grenades. They hit the aircraft with an RPG," Navy spokeperson Commander Salman Ali said earlier. It was not immediately clear who was behind the raid. But Taliban militants, who have vowed to avenge the killing of Osama bin Laden by US special forces, have carried out several attacks since the al Qaeda leaders' death on May 2.
The assault started at approximately 10:30 p.m. on Sunday. The dead included one sailor, three firefighters and an Army ranger, Yasir said. The Karachi attack evoked memories of an assault on Pakistan's army headquarters in the town of Rawalpindi in 2009, and revived concerns that even the most well-guarded installations in the country remain vulnerable to militants.
A spokesperson said one P-3C Orion, a maritime patrol aircraft, had been destroyed and that intermittent gunfire was continuing.Interior Minister Rehman Malik said earlier the militants had attacked from the rear of the base. "We have been able to confine them to one building and an operation is underway either to kill or capture them."
Media reports said the attackers had made their way in through a sewer line, but that was not confirmed. The military's goal is to capture as many of the attackers alive as possible, Pakistan television reported. Pakistani military and paramilitary reinforcements poured in after the attack began, with four vehicles carrying about 10 troops each moving into the base.
Prime Minister Yusaf Raza Gilani condemned the attack. "Such a cowardly act of terror could not deter the commitment of the government and people of Pakistan to fight terrorism," Gilani said in a statement.
Pakistan has faced a wave of bombings and gun assaults over the last few years, some of them claimed by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), or Pakistani Taliban. Others have been blamed on al Qaeda-linked militant groups once nurtured by the Pakistani military which have since slipped out of control.
The discovery that Laden was living in the garrison town of Abbottabad, not far from the Pakistan Military Academy, has revived suspicions that militants may be receiving help from some people within the security establishment.
Pakistan and the United States say the senior leadership in the country did not know Laden was in Abbottabad. Washington sees nuclear-armed Pakistan as a key, if troubled, ally in the region essential to its attempts to root out militant forces in neighbouring Afghanistan. "We condemn the attack and our sympathies are with the families of those injured or killed," the White House in Washington said in a statement.
On April 28, suspected militants detonated a roadside bomb in Karachi, killing four members of the navy, the third attack on the navy in a week. The attack came two days after two bombs hit buses carrying navy personnel, killing four people and wounding 56. Taliban insurgents took responsibility for the twin attacks.

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