Lebanon's opposition March 14 bloc had called for the government, which includes ministers from the militant group Hezbollah, to resign after a Beirut bomb attack on Friday killed a prominent Lebanese intelligence official opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
"In response to the Prime Minister's suggestion to submit name for the proposed reshuffle, I have recommended the name of Tariq Anwar on behalf our party," he told reporters.
Pawar said the number of ministerial berths for NCP in the UPA government would remain the same, as per statistical formula applicable to coalition partners.
"I have suggested the name of Tariq Anwar and not Supriya Sule (Pawar's daughter)," he quipped.
Anwar may replace MoS Agatha Sangma, whose father P A Sangma quit the NCP to fight the recent presidential election going against the stand of Pawar, who had declared support to Pranab Mukherjee of Congress.
The Union Agriculture Minister, who earlier addressed a state-level convention of NCP, also said that his party was prepared to face the mid-term poll as a fallout of political instability.
"The situation is such that we may not have to wait till 2014 for next elections," he added.
To a query, Pawar said he did not think Congress leader Rahul Gandhi would join the Union Cabinet.
Addressing the party delegates, Pawar defended the controversial Lavasa project saying it was in keeping with the policies of Maharashtra government.
He regretted what he called "an atmosphere of negativity" created in the country saying that it could harm the system of parliamentary democracy.
On the proposed white paper on irrigation by the Maharashtra government, he said the document should present "objective realities" in respect of irrigation situation in the state.
The NCP president reiterated that he would not fight the next general election, but added that he would continue to lead and work for the party.
He refuted a suggestion that his nephew and former Maharashtra minister Ajit Pawar, who resigned following charges of irrigation scam, was "isolated", saying that Ajit was still the leader of NCP legislature party.
NIA, which had quizzed him for his alleged involvement in a conspiracy by LeT to carry out terror strikes across the country, told special CBI Judge Talwant Singh at the Patiala House court here that he was not required for further custodial interrogation.
After Jundal was sent to judicial custody till November 3 by the Special court, the Gujarat ATS appeared before chief metropolitan magistrate Vidya Parkash at the Tis Hazari court and informed about his alleged involvement in the 2006 train blast case in Ahmedabad.
The Gujarat ATS informed about the development in the NIA case and said that since he was no more required by the NIA, Jundal's custody be given to it for the Karanawati Express blast case.
The Gujarat ATS had already moved an application in this regard in July this year.
Jundal, who was arrested on June 21 by the Delhi Police, was interrogated at length by its special cell. Later, he was in the custody of Mumbai police for his alleged involvement in 26/11 mayhem and other terror related cases in Maharashtra.
He was handed over to NIA after Mumbai police had also told the court that they had completed his interrogation.
Army chief bribe offer: CBI books Tejinder Singh
NEW DELHI: The CBI on Saturday registered a case against Lt Gen (retd) Tejinder Singh for allegedly making a bribe offer to former Army chief V K Singh to clear a tranche of "substandard" Tatra-BEML vehicles and carried out searches at seven places here and in Mumbai.
The agency's move comes after nearly six months of preliminary enquiry in which it gathered enough prima-facie evidence to register a case against Tejinder Singh under relevant sections of Prevention of Corruption Act, CBI sources said.
The messages sent to Tejinder Singh seeking his reactions remained unanswered, they said.
After registering a case under section 12 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, the agency carried out searches at the premises of Vectra Chairman Ravinder Rishi, also a director in Tatra Sipox UK which supplied all terrain trucks to BEML for supplying to army, and Singh here, they said.
They said agency also carried searches in Mumbai and Noida at offices of Vectra and its officials.
After getting a formal complaint from Army chief, CBI had initiated a preliminary enquiry in April this year.
The then Army chief had alleged that Tejinder Singh offered him a bribe of Rs 14 crore, a matter he had reported to Defence Minister A K Antony, to clear purchase of nearly 1,676 high mobility Tatra BEML trucks in September 2010.
Tejinder Singh had refuted the allegations and also slapped a defamation case against Gen Singh.
As part of the Preliminary Enquiry, CBI has looked into the alleged relationship Tejinder Singh enjoyed with the Vectra group which purportedly prompted him to make the offer to the then Army Chief, the sources said.
The agency has examined Singh during enquiry for his alleged relations with arms dealers including Rishi.
Rishi is already an accused in connection with a separate case relating to irregularities in the supply of Tatra BEML trucks to army.
The NIA stated this before Special CBI Judge Talwant Singh when Jundal was produced before the court after expiry of NIA's remand which was granted on October 8.
The court sent Jundal to judicial custody till November 3 accepting the NIA's submission that he was not required for further custodial interrogation.
The NIA had earlier sought Jundal's custody in connection with an FIR registered earlier this year following unearthing of a Lashkar-e-Toiba's (LeT) conspiracy for terror strikes across the country. The designated NIA court had also issued production warrants against Jundal.
Jundal had earlier claimed before the court that he was "tortured" physically and mentally during the probe by various agencies since his arrest in June this year.
He had said that he had already disclosed the facts which were within his knowledge to the other probe agencies.
Jundal had earlier been handed over to ATS Mumbai after the Delhi Police had said that he was no longer required to be interrogated by it in the Jama Masjid attack case.
Mumbai ATS had wanted him in connection with the 2006 Aurangabad arms haul case, the 26/11 Mumbai mayhem, the 2010 German bakery blast and the Nasik Academy attack.
Jundal was brought back to Delhi by Mumbai ATS which had produced him before a magisterial court here on October 4.
The Delhi police had earlier filed a charge sheet against Jundal accusing him of being involved in terror activities across India to avenge atrocities against Muslims,particularly those committed during 2002 Gujarat riots.
The charge sheet filed by the Special Cell of Delhi Police in the court of chief metropolitan magistrate Vidya Prakash, had said that Jundal disclosed that he along with LeT chief Zaki-ur-Rehman alias Lakhvi, monitored the 26/11 attacks from a control room set up in Malir in Karachi, Pakistan.
The charge sheet said after being apprehended from the IGI airport on June 21 this year, Jundal, during questioning, admitted to his involvement in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack.
The Delhi Police had said this in a supplementary charge sheet in the Jama Masjid blast case in which 11 alleged members of terror outfit Indian Mujahideen (IM) were charge sheeted earlier.
The payment mechanism is aimed at checking corruption and pilferage in the social sector schemes that seek to promote financial inclusion.
The launch of the scheme by the Prime Minister coincides with the second anniversary of Aadhaar project, which is being implemented by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).
In the last two years, the UIDAI has generated over 20 crore Aadhaar numbers. The 21st crore Aadhaar number will be handed over to the resident by Singh at a function at Dudu tomorrow.
The UPA government is making this a big event as its top brass including chairperson Sonia Gandhi, finance minister P Chidambaram, chief minister of Rajasthan Ashok Gehlot, Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, minister of state for communications Sachin Pilot and planning minister Ashwani Kumar, will attend the meet.
"This is very significant thing and it will help reducing wastage, fraud and corruption," UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani told reporters here.
Use of Aadhaar-based delivery mechanism will improve compliance management, reduce leakages and increase efficiency and accountability of the government's social sector schemes, he said.
"The government is rolling out Aadhaar enabled service delivery initiative in 51 districts across the country. It will be used for making pension payments, MNREGA payments, PDS distribution, scholarship payments etc," a statement said.
If the demand is not accepted by December 15, panchayats would be forced to start an agitation, a Khap spokesman said.
The first protest would be at Rohtak on December 16, he added.
Representatives of 32 different Khaps today participated in the meeting, presided over by panchayat leader Nafe Singh Nain.
The Mahapanchayat by a resolution demanded that Jats be given reservation in government jobs by December 15.
"It's a smear campaign of (Prem Kumar) Dhumal, Arun Jaitely and Anurag Thakur to malign my image in the run-up to the polls," he told reporters here. Elections to the state assembly are slated for November 4.
"The election should be fought on the issue of development," the Himachal Pradesh Congress committee chief said, adding that since his adversaries chose to defame him, he would pay them back in their own coin.
Some media reports have alleged that as the chief minister from 2003-07, Virbhadra Singh favoured his brother-in-law Arun Sen by granting him permission to sell land to realtor DLF in violation of laws.
The Bharatiya Janata Party earlier attacked the Congress leader on Ispat Industries payoff scam, wherein a diary entry of Rs.2.28 crore was marked against the name "VBS" during the period when he was the steel minister in the central government.
The results of the elections will be declared Dec 20.
He said efforts are being made to commission the first unit at the earliest.
The commissioning of the first unit of the project was originally scheduled for December last year.
Speaking at the fourth Nuclear Conclave organised by India Energy Forum here, Narayanasamy said "vested interests" are spreading canards about the project, but the government and the Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) have reached out to the protesting people.
"The issues raised by them have been addressed comprehensively. The Tamil Nadu State expert committee concluded that the plant is safe. Work is now in full swing and all efforts are being made to commission the first unit at earliest," he said.
Allaying safety concerns, he said the nuclear plant has a seven-layer safety system. "I have visited the plant several times and am fully satisfied about all safety aspects."
He said that after completion of seven new projects under construction, the country will have 10,080 MW of nuclear capacity by 2017.
The minister also said that the winter session of parliament is expected to take up the Nuclear Safety Regulatory Authority Bill.
On the Kudankulam reactors 3 and 4, Narayanasamy said the government was talking to the Russians about certain issues on which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had sought legal opinion.
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court allowed Prakash Jha to release his film " Chakravyuh" featuring a controversial song that mentions Tata, Birla and Bata with a condition that a disclaimer would be shown on-screen during the airing of the song.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir said that an audio disclaimer would also be aired before the song is played on radio and also cautioned the filmmaker to be "careful" in future for not hurting sentiments of other people.
The court passed the order on a petition filed by leading shoe manufacturing company Bata alleging the song is defamatory in nature and projects the company in bad light.
The company approached the apex court after the Delhi high court had allowed release of the film with the controversial song.
"The lyrics in the song are offending and would cause serious harm to the firm's reputation and goodwill," senior advocate Ranjit Kumar, appearing for Bata, contended, adding that song says that "the company exploits the poor and suck them to make profits."
He contended that the company operates in 46 countries and the song would damage its image globally.
The bench, however, was not satisfied and allowed release of the film with disclaimer that the song is not meant to show any disrespect to the people whose names are mentioned in it.
"Chakravyuh" is scheduled for released on Dusserhara (October 24). Its popular number on "mehngai" mentions various leading industrialists including Bata. The song talks about the skyrocketing prices and unequal distribution of wealth in society.
It was also brought to the notice of the apex court that other corporate house Birla also filed a case against Jha in Calcutta high court which also allowed release of the film with disclaimer.
Himachal Congress chief Virbhadra Singh and leader of the opposition Vidya Stokes will try their luck from Shimla (Rural) and Theog constituencies respectively.
Ministers Mohinder Singh, Narinder Bragta and Khimi Ram, state BJP head Satpal Singh Satti and former HPCC head Kaul Singh Thakur were among 237 aspirants who entered the race on Thursday for the 68-seat House.
A number of BJP and Congress rebels also filed their nominations.
Mohinder Singh entered the fray from Dharampur seat, Bragta from Jubbal-Kotkhai, Khimi from Kullu, Satti from Una and Thakur from Drang.
Former parliamentary secretary and BJP rebel Chet Ram threw his hat into the ring from Kinnaur (ST) seat as Himachal Lokhit Party nominee.
NEW DELHI: Former Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar today said he had favoured the entry fee for 2G spectrum allocation to be Rs 35,000 crore, about 21 times the amount on which the allocation was made, so that the government could earn more revenue.
Deposing before the Joint Parliamentary Committee examining 2G spectrum scam, Chandrasekhar said he had recommended the amount in a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2007.
Chandrasekhar, who was the Cabinet Secretary between June 2007 to June 2011, said the Prime Minister had asked him to look into the issue of financial implications with regard to the recommendations of TRAI on allocation of 2G spectrum.
In his response on November 26, 2007, Chandrasekhar suggested that if entry fee or revenue sharing or spectrum fee are changed then it could bring more revenue to the government, sources said.
He also suggested that the entry fee, which was Rs 1658 crore, should be hiked to Rs 35000 crore, the sources said.
The former top bureaucrat said since the Department of Telecommunications was administrative ministry on the issue, it was upto it to take a decision based on existing policy.
At the same time, he insisted that the fee, on which the allocations were made, did not amount to any loss.
On the controversial March 25, 2011 note which suggested that the then Finance Minister P Chidambaram could have insisted on auction, Chandrasekhar told the JPC that the note was entirely an internal document of the Finance Ministry.
"It was not expected that there would be any inputs from the Cabinet Secretariat... I never asked for or saw the note prepared in the matter by the Ministry of Finance since I considered it be an internal note of that Ministry," he told the committee in a written submission.
"The amount was being carried in the cash van of Checkmate security agency. However, the official of the agency accompanying the van could not produce adequate documents to support his case," Mehsana District Collector Rajkumar Beniwal said.
"The money was withdrawn from ICICI Bank in Ahmedabad and was being taken to its various branches," he said.
On Tuesday, the EC squad had seized unaccountable money to the tune of Rs 5 lakh from the director of Agriculture Producers Marketing Committee (APMC) at Khedbrehma in Sabarkantha district and Rs 70 lakh from Vijapur taluka on Himmatnagar-Mehsana Road on Monday, sources said.
The Election Commission is maintaining strict vigilance in all the 182 constituencies in the state ahead of Assembly elections slated for December 13 and 17.
SRINAGAR: Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani on Thursday reiterated his threat to launch a mass agitation, after the forthcoming Eid, against the state government's road connectivity project for the Hindu religious shrine, Amarnath cave in the Himalayas in south Kashmir.
Geelani alleged that the construction of a metalled road for pilgrims and concrete structures on the Amarnath pilgrimage route was being proposed on prohibited forest area.
Addressing a press conference at his residence here, the firebrand Islamist said that the government's plan was adverse to environment.
He demanded: " (a) No road should be constructed (b) yatra (pilgrimage) should be reduced to 15 days period besides limited number of yatris should allowed to undertake the pilgrimage (c) yatra should be conducted by the local kashmiri pundits (d) abolish amaranth shrine board (e) non-state subjects should not be allowed to interfere in the conduct of the yatra."
Geelani said that he had warned the state government on September 2, to give up the plan.
"Though two state ministers promised that no road will be constructed up to Amarnath cave. But in a recent meeting with governor N N Vohra, chief minister Omar Abdullah has agreed to implement the supreme court direction on the road connectivity to the cave," the separatist said.
"We have investigated and inspected and found that the state government has already started the construction of the road up to the cave. And the construction material has already been taken to the site," Geelani said.
He accused the ruling National Conference led coalition government for "acting on the dictates of the central government and implementing its political agenda with its eyes shut."
BEIJING: Chinese officials undergo intensive tutorials about the evils of corruption and as many as 700,000 are given anti-corruption lessons each year, Xinhua reported on Thursday.
This education is given through lectures, case studies and visits to historic areas, as well as attendance at court trials and talks with people who have been imprisoned for corruption.
The country presently has 56 provincial-level anti-corruption education centres and 350 prefecture-level centres nationwide, according to a statement from the Communist Party of China (CPC).
China's central commission for discipline inspection (CCDI) and the Ministry of Supervision (MOS) designated the first group of 50 national education centres to establish a culture of integrity and a clean government in 2010.
The US court of appeals for the District of Columbia circuit ruled Salim Hamdan's offence did not constitute a war crime.
The court's judge Brett Kavanaugh said it could not support a conviction as supporting terrorism was not categorised as a war crime at the time of the actions for which Hamdan was convicted from 1996 to 2001.
"If the government wanted to charge Hamdan with aiding and abetting terrorism or some other war crime that was sufficiently rooted in the international law of war at the time of Hamdan's conduct, it should have done so," the BBC quoted the judge, as saying.
Hamdan had been the first Guantanamo detainee to be sentenced by a US military commission when he was given a 66-month jail term in August 2008.
The former driver, who is reportedly in his mid-40s, was freed in 2009 because he had already spent seven years in US custody after being captured and detained in Afghanistan in November 2001.
French diplomat accused of raping daughter gets bail
Allowing Mazurier's bail plea, Justice H N Nagamohan Das said there was a delay in lodging the complaint and sought to know the reason for it as, though the incident was reported to have taken place on June 13, 2012, it was filed by Pascal's wife Suja Jones only the next day.
The court said there were no eyewitnesses to the incident.
Mazurier was granted bail on the condition that he furnish a personal bond of Rs one lakh with two local solvent sureties for the like sum.
The court also asked him to surrender his passport with the jurisdictional magistrate, not to leave the jurisdiction of the court without prior permission and in no manner tamper with the prosecution witnesses.
Mazurier, consular attache to the consulate general of France, was arrested on June 19 following a complaint by his wife, a native of Kerala, alleging that he had raped their three-and-a-half year old daughter.
A fast track court had earlier rejected the bail plea of Mazurier, who was charge sheeted on September 17 under Section 376 of IPC for allegedly raping his minor daughter.
Mumbai and New Delhi figure among 95 world cities identified by the United Nations as those moving towards prosperity.
NEW DELHI: Mumbai and New Delhi figure among 95 world cities identified by the United Nations as those moving towards prosperity, but the two Indian metropolis are just "half-way" to achieving it with the reasons being poor infrastructure and environment conditions among others.
'State of the World's Cities' report by the UN Habitat analyses the prosperity of the cities on various counts like productivity, quality of life, infrastructure, environment and equity and on all these five categories, the Indian cities are rated just above Dhaka, Kathmandu and Kampala.
The report, released here today, places Mumbai at the 52nd position and New Delhi at 58th among the world cities, though two Chinese cities -- Shanghai and Beijing -- figure much above.
"Two Indian cities come under the Group 4 and they are in the medium level (of prosperity). Prosperity is not just the economic prosperity, but the kind of infrastructure and the quality of life in the city. Both the cities have been penalised for poor environment conditions, especially New Delhi," Edvardo Lopez Moreno, Chief Researcher of the report, told a press conference here.
The UN diplomat said the two Indian cities are "half-way to prosperity" and stressed "political and technical" interference to relatively improve conditions in both cities.
However, the report also praises the IT revolution that Bangalore has been able to achieve and calls Hyderabad as the pharmaceutical capital of India.
Austrian capital Vienna tops the list of 95 cities, followed by New York, Toronto, London and Stockholm. While Mumbai has been given an overall rating of 0.694, Delhi received 0.635 followed closely by Dhaka (0.633) and Kathmandu (0.598).
Population growth in North American cities was the slowest of all those in the developed world between 2005 and 2010, particularly in the United States (one per cent on average).
"Asian cities have strongly invested in infrastructure development in the last few decades, achieving nearly universal provision of water, electricity and mobile telephone services," it said.
The report also mentions India's Golden Quadrilateral motorway to connect the country's largest cities - Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai.
"In emerging economies like Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and the Russian Federation, fact cities must realise that equity has a significant impact on economic performance, since the greater the degree of equity, the greater the chances of a fuller, more efficient use of available resources, including skills and creative talent," the report said.
The lowest levels of infrastructure provision are to be found in urban Africa (average water and sanitation coverage is 89 and 69 per cent respectively; electricity: 69 per cent; paved roads: 28 per cent; fixed telephone lines: 4 per cent; mobile telephones 57 per cent and and Internet connectivity: and 10 per cent).
On ICTs in Asian cities, it said Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai - feature mobile telephone connection rates of 138 per cent, 112 per cent, 102 per cent and 143 per cent respectively.
SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah on Wednesday said Pakistan should stop ceasefire violations along the Line of Control (LoC) as retaliation from the Indian side could lead to an unending exchange of fire between the sides.
"I request them (Pakistan) to respect the ceasefire. We also have guns and mortars. If we also start firing, where will this stop?" Omar told reporters on the sidelines of a function at Kashmir University here.
Omar said the intentions of people across the LoC do not seem to be good.
"When the ceasefire was going good, what is the need for violating it? Is it an attempt to increase infiltration or is part of attempts to internationalise the Kashmir issue as was done recently?" he asked.
He said only innocent people suffer due to the violation of ceasefire, "Three innocent persons were targeted without any reason."
Pakistani troops had yesterday resorted to unprovoked firing and shelling in Uri sector near the LoC in Baramulla district of Kashmir. Three persons including two teenagers were killed in the incident.
He also said the provisions of 73rd Amendment of the Constitution, which relates to village level institutions, can be incorporated in the J&K Panchayati Raj Act.
JALANDHAR: After allegations of quid pro quo against Robert Vadra leveled by Arvind Kedjriwal now INLD chief and former Haryana chief minister Om Parkash Chautala sought to drag Rahul Gandhi's name also in the controversy alleging that Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi and Vadra were hand in glove in purchasing the chunks of land in Haryana much below the market price and wrongly mentioning collector rate below the actutal rate fixed by the government to evade stamp duty.
He has claimed that while getting registered the sale deeds in their names in district Palwal of Haryana the collector rate was mentioned 1.5 lakhs while actually it was Rs six lakhs per acre actual collector rate fixed by the government. The former Hyaryana CM demanded judicial probe into shady land deals issue by a Supreme Court judge.
Producing copies of the sale deeds in favour of Rahul Gandhi and Vadra in a press conference here on Wednesday evening, Chautala alleged that Vadra even purchased land from dalits which they were allotted in 1981 after Consolidation and law provided that this land could be transferred only to a dalit.
According to the sale deed Rahul purchased 51 kanaal 13 marla (around 6.5 acres) land in village Mauja Hassanpur, Tehsil Hodal, district Faridabad (now district Palwal) from one H L Pahwa, resident of DLF Gurgaon, on March 3, 2008 in Rs 26.47 lakhs and collector rate has been mentioned as 1.5 lakhs per acre. However Chautala said that at that time the market price was around Rs 30-35 lakhs and even collector rate was Rs six lakhs. "The present market value of the land is around Rs 40-45 lakhs," Chautala claimed while adding that by under stating the collector rate Rahul even evaded stamp duty.
In this case Lalit Nagar, who contested the last Haryana election on Congress ticket from a constituency of district Palwal but lost, is witness of the registration of sale deed.
Producing copy of another sale deed Chautala alleged that in the same village Vadra's company also purchased 72 kanaal (around nine acres) at the same price from the same person at the same price on the same day in the presence of same witness Nagar.
"In the same village Vadra's companies purchased around 30 acres from Dalit families which was legally wrong as the land allotted to Dalits after land consolidation in 1981 could be transferred only toa Dalit," Chautala said. He said that in the same village Vadra's companies purchased total around 74 acre land. Out of total eight land deals in year 2008 and 2009 in the village in seven cases land price was shown to be paid at Rs two lakhs or even less, Chautala said while the collector rate was Rs eight lakhs per acre.
The former Haryana CM went on to allege that if a fair and deeper probe would be conducted then it would come out that Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's kin own thousands of acres of land in five districts Gurgaon, Palwal, Faridabad, Jhajjar and Mewat.
Fire breaks out at power sub station in Delhi
NEW DELHI: A fire broke out in a power sub station in southeast Delhi on Thursday afternoon, fire brigade officials said. The blaze was reported from the 220 KV sub station located near Crown Plaza in Okhla at around 2:40 pm.
Twelve fire tenders have been rushed to the spot.
The fire brigade said they are still trying to put off the fire though it has been brought under control. No one has been injured in the incident.
Large parts of south Delhi are presently powerless but fire distribution companies have assured quick action.
Fire breaks out at power sub station in Delhi
NEW DELHI: A fire broke out in a power sub station in southeast Delhi on Thursday afternoon, fire brigade officials said. The blaze was reported from the 220 KV sub station located near Crown Plaza in Okhla at around 2:40 pm.
Twelve fire tenders have been rushed to the spot.
The fire brigade said they are still trying to put off the fire though it has been brought under control. No one has been injured in the incident.
Large parts of south Delhi are presently powerless but fire distribution companies have assured quick action.
LONDON: A leading British daily today suggested that Britain and other countries, who have decided to engage with Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, should "make it clear that rehabilitation is not licence for the type of supremacist inspired nationalism that fuelled the 2002 massacres".
In a strongly-worded editorial, The Financial Times said "The timing (of Britain's decision to engage with Modi) is, however, highly questionable. It comes as Gujarat prepares for elections in December which Mr Modi is expected to win.
"His majority could be enhanced by his new-found international acceptance. Recognition may also boost his chances for India's national elections in 2014, where he is being cited as a possible prime minister.
"Mr Modi is now a far more serious contender than he would have been had he still been shunned internationally".
In the editorial headlined 'Gujarat's Shame, Rehabilitation does not absolve Modi's government', the newspaper said "Modi, chief minister of Gujarat, is one of India's most dynamic and business-friendly states. But for 10 years he has also been an international outcast as the Hindu nationalist leader of a regional government accused of complicity in riots which killed an estimated 2,000 Muslims".
The paper noted that Modi has never expressed any remorse or apologised for the killings.
NEW DELHI: Air fares out of Delhi and Mumbai would become cheaper with the government today deciding to abolish airport development fee (ADF) at the two airports from January 1 and directing state-run Airports Authority of India (AAI) to infuse more equity in both the joint ventures.
Currently, the ADF is charged at the rate of Rs 200 per domestic and Rs 1,300 per international passenger at Delhi Airport and Rs 100 and Rs 600 respectively at Mumbai.
Civil aviation minister Ajit Singh directed Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) and Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) to abolish ADF at the two airports from January 1 next year and accordingly submit proposals to Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA), an official spokesperson said.
The move came days after the civil aviation ministry directed AAI not to pursue its proposal to levy ADF at Chennai and Kolkata Airports, which are being modernised now.
While ADF is levied to meet cash flow requirements before completion of an airport upgrade project, UDF is charged for using the completed facility. At present, ADF is levied at private-led Delhi and Mumbai airports, among others.
Once ADF is abolished, the expected financing gap for MIAL would be about Rs 4,200 crore and for DIAL about Rs 1,175 crore.
The minister simultaneously asked AAI to infuse additional equity of approximately Rs 288 crore in MIAL and Rs 102 crore in DIAL, against its 26 per cent share in the equity of both the joint ventures.
The balance in financing gap would have to be met by the airport operators through infusion of their share of equity, the spokesperson said.
Fresh proposal regarding equity infusion by AAI would be submitted to AERA soon, official sources said.
The official spokesperson said the move was aimed at making air travel affordable and ADF could be abolished if the prevailing funding gaps of MIAL and DIAL were met by equity infusion and proportionate raising of loans by the airport promoters, including the AAI.
AERA, which is in the process of determining ADF and Aeronautical Tariff for the Mumbai airport, has asked the AAI to what extend could it inject additional equity into the project.
The AERA would now determine only the User Development Fee (UDF) and other tariffs like landing, parking and navigation charges.
When ADF was levied at Mumbai and Delhi Airports, AAI had said it was not in a position to contribute more equity in view of its critical financial condition.
The public sector airports body had last year sought government's permission to raise resources through the issuance of infrastructure bonds to modernise 35 non-metro airports, but the government did not allow it.
The Kolkata and and Chennai airports are also being modernised and upgraded solely by the AAI, which had sought AERA's approval for the levy of development fee at both these airports.
The modernisation and expansion of Kolkata and Chennai airports, being undertaken by AAI, costs Rs 2,325 crore and Rs 2,015 crore respectively.
BANGALORE: The BJP has sent a strong message to former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa that it is ready to action him by expelling his close and former Union minister V Dhananjay Kumar on charges of anti-party activities.
Giving a double blow to Yeddyurappa, who has announced to quit the party very soon, the BJP high command has also asked its state unit not to worry about exit of former chief minister, besides expelling Kumar.
The action on Kumar, who was a cabinet minister in Vajpayee government, comes a day after state BJP president K S Eshwarappa met party's national president Nitin Gadkari in New Delhi. Gadkari is said to have asked Eshwarappa and party not to break heads over Yeddyurappa's imminent exit.
"He (Kumar) has been expelled on anti-party activities," Raghunath Rao Malkapure, chairman, disciplinary committee of state BJP, told TOI. The former Union minister was served show-cause notice last week following his outburst on party leaders. Last month, he was stripped from state representative to Delhi post after reports of being "ineffective and non-performer".
While he was asked to reply within seven days, Kumar on Tuesday blasted Eshwarappa, chief minister Jagadish Shettar, former CM D V Sadananda Gowda, party's national general secretary H N Ananth Kumar and senior leader Santhosh. "Instead of controlling mob near Mandya that had blocked Bangalore-Mysore highway, Shettar had put additional security to his residence," Kumar said.
Continuing to attack, he alleged that Ananth Kumar has role in multi-crore housing scam, Eshwarappa is brimming with inflated ego and Santhosh is involved in making money while appointing heads to board and corporations and official postings. However, Malkapure denied the allegations.
Even as Kumar's expulsion order was made public, Yeddyurappa dared the party to take similar action against him. When asked to react on Gowda statement, who on Monday said BJP will not lose anything if Yeddyurappa quits the party, the former CM sarcastically said let Goddess Chamundi punish the evil and protect the good people.
Meanwhile Gadkari has asked Eshwarappa to continue as state BJP president till assembly elections are completed next year. Eshwarappa had offered to resign as deputy chief minister's most as he had expressed his inability to head the party and manage revenue and rural development portfolios. However, Gadkari is said to have rejected it and asked him to continue in all the posts.
The party has decided to face elections under collective leadership involving Shettar (Lingayat), Eshwarappa (Kuruba), Kumar (Brahmin), R Ashoka (Vokkaliga) and Govind M Karjol (Dalit).
Terming it "violation of human rights of the mentally ill person", the commission asked the state chief secretary and the district magistrate of Jagatsinghpur to submit a report within four weeks.
"The commission has observed that the content of press report, if true, raise a serious issue of violation of human rights of the mentally ill person," a NHRC statement said.
Commission's special rapporteur Damodar Sarangi forwarded the media report about 27-year-old Sanjaya Gudiya of village Kiyada of Jagatsinghpur district allegedly chained by his parents for last 20 years.
According to the report, Gudiya is mentally ill and his parents were unable to provide medical treatment to their son.
The PIL has been filed by social activist Nutan Thakur in which she has demanded registration of a case on the basis of the charges levelled against the Zakir Hussain Trust run by Khurshid and his wife Louise. In the PIL, Thakur expressed doubt over free and fair inquiry into the allegations under present political circumstances, hence she has asked the court to supervise the probe. The PIL admitted and will be heard on October 17.
The PIL was filed even as the EOW began its probe into the alleged misappropriation of funds by Dr. Zakir Hussain Memorial Trust. The agency has started collecting documents at various levels, including state, divisional and district headquarters as a part of the investigation. Four teams, three under the Kanpur sector and one under the Meerut sector, have been constituted for probe in 17 districts where irregularities are suspected. Significantly, the order of probe was issued on July 3 but EOW has reacted now when the matter has snowballed into huge controversy.
Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav hit out at India Against Corruption (IAC) activist Arvind Kejriwal for raising questions over a free and fair probe into the case.
"So, how can we comment before the investigations are complete, and how can one say the inquiry is fair or not before the report is made public?" Akhilesh Yadav said.
He said that the investigation in connection with this case began when the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) government was in power in the state and SP government has continued the inquiry.
NEW DELHI: Backing Salman Khurshid, two senior Union ministers on Monday said there was no question of the law minister being isolated within the government following allegations of misappropriation of funds by an NGO headed by him.
"There is no question of isolation or not backing (Khurshid)," information and broadcasting minister Ambika Soni told reporters here after a meeting of the Group of Ministers on Media.
Khurshid, who also attended the meeting, refused to answer any questions and left waving a thumbs up sign to waiting reporters.
"There is no question of distancing. He (Khurshid) has made it clear that there is nothing wrong. There is no question of distancing (from him)," health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said.
Soni said she had nothing more to add to what Khurshid had said at a press conference yesterday.
Social justice minister Mukul Wasnik had made a statement on the Dr Zakir Hussain Memorial Trust and the state funds it has been receiving since 2003, she said.
"As far as recent issues are concerned, an investigation is being conducted by the Uttar Pradesh government," Soni said.
She appeared to brush aside activist-turned-politician Arvind Kejriwal's latest set of allegations against Khurshid.
"I cannot take on all the questions Kejriwal is making round the clock. He has been making quite a few charges and changing the charges by the hour," Soni said.
Soni also indicated that the charges made by Kejriwal were non-serious and were not backed by evidence.
"It depends on what inquiry you are talking about. If people having sit-ins suddenly start making charges, there must be some proof of it, some gravitas," she said when it was pointed that that Congress too had demanded resignations of BJP ministers facing inquiries.
Soni said that the Uttar Pradesh government was conducting a probe into the issue and the Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment was abreast of the developments.
Soni said Khurshid has a reputation which was something to be proud of and has a legacy which most would like to have.
"He himself has come clean and decided to take the legal course forward. So, when a person is not afraid of anything,he has all the answers to all the charges being made. He has said that now his lawyers will take care of the rest," Soni said.
The GoM also discussed the Supreme Court's refusal to stay the government's decision to allow FDI in retail.
Soni said government's programmes on sensitising the people of its decisions would continue.
The I&B minister said the issue related to a PIL against use of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi's pictures in government advertisements was also discussed.
The issue is expected to come up for hearing in a court on October 18 and the government has kept all the documents in this regard ready for submission in court, she said.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences cited the two economists for "the theory of stable allocations and the practice of market design".
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences cited the two economists for "the theory of stable allocations and the practice of market design".
Roth, 60, is a professor at Harvard University in Boston. Shapley, 89, is a professor emeritus at University of California Los Angeles.
"This year's prize concerns a central economic problem: how to match different agents as well as possible," the academy said.
Shapley made early theoretical contributions to the field of study, and Roth took it further by applying it to the market for US doctors.
"Even though these two researchers worked independently of one another, the combination of Shapley's basic theory and Roth's empirical investigations, experiments and practical design has generated a flourishing field of research and improved the performance of many markets," the academy said.
The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was the last of the 2012 Nobel awards to be announced.
It's not technically a Nobel Prize, because unlike the five other awards it wasn't established in the will of Alfred Nobel, a Swedish industrialist also known for inventing dynamite.
The economics prize was created by the Swedish central bank in Nobel's memory in 1968, and has been handed out with the other prizes ever since. Each award is worth 8 million Swedish kronor, or about $1.2 million.
Last year's economics prize went to US economists Thomas Sargent and Christopher Sims for describing the cause-and-effect relationship between the economy and government policy.
The 2012 Nobel Prizes in medicine, physics chemistry and literature and the Nobel Peace Prize were announced last week. All awards will be handed out on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death in 1896.
HYDERABAD: In the premise of the PM's Hyderabad visit, the warring Telangana protagonists are mending fences and TJAC chairman M Kodandaram and TRS chief K Chandrashekrara Rao spoke over phone, on Sunday, for the first time after they had fallen apart following differences over organizing Telangana agitation. And the sources said the two leaders would meet recently to chalk out further course action, while they agreed upon staging a token protest on Tuesday on the arrival of Manmohan Singh.
A highly placed source in Telangan Political Joint Action Committee (T-JAC) said Kodandarama and KCR had almost patch up and they had to meet on Sunday, but the meeting didn't happen because of the demise of a KCR's relative.
"The differences have been ironed out and it is decided to take forward the movement under KCR's leadership. Kodandaram had called him and the two discussed about the token protest on the PM's visit, while the long term plans are to be planned in an official meeting," said the source.
According to KCR's plan, the Telangana protagonists including TRS leaders and TJAC activists will watch the UPA government till last week of October as the TRS president is said to have expecting the reshuffle of the union cabinet around that time and a forward movement on Telangana following the exercise.
"We are expecting a positive dynamics towards the end of this month, if it is otherwise we launch a massive agitation," said B Vinod Kumar, a politburo member of TRS.
As November 1 happens to be the state formation day of AP, apart from observing a black day, the TRS is planning to re-launch the T-movement in the month of November and steering committee is expected to be convened in the presence of KCR prior to it.
On his part, Kodandaram said, "We are united and we will put an united fight to realize Telangana as the union government is not honest on the issue. The government has gone back on its promise and we have to fight it out."
On Tuesday's protest, he said black balloons would be released on air as a mark of protest against the prime minister's procrastination on Telangana. While the TJAC activists will release the balloons at India Park, the TRS MLAs will stage a sit-in at the venue.
NEW DELHI: Cooperation in combating terror, repatriation of ULFA leader Anup Chetia and early conclusion of an extradition treaty will top the agenda at the two-day India-Bangladesh Home Secretary-level talks in Dhaka from tomorrow.
Home Secretary R K Singh will also discuss with his Bangladeshi counterpart Manjur Hussain issues related to infiltration, smuggling of goods and human trafficking, official sources said.
During his visit, Singh will also travel to Akhaura located along the border with Tripura before returning to Dhaka for continuing his dialogue with the Bangladeshi delegation.
At Akhaura, both the sides will review the work of the construction of a new Land Customs Station (LCS) which is being set up by India.
Both the sides will also discuss issues related to smuggling of narcotics, identification of vulnerable illegal crossing spots along the border and progress of confidence building measures between the border guarding forces and civilian authorities of the two countries.
A meeting of Joint Working Group at the level of officials was held today to do spadework for the secretary- level talks.
NEW DELHI: Cooperation in combating terror, repatriation of ULFA leader Anup Chetia and early conclusion of an extradition treaty will top the agenda at the two-day India-Bangladesh Home Secretary-level talks in Dhaka from tomorrow.
Home Secretary R K Singh will also discuss with his Bangladeshi counterpart Manjur Hussain issues related to infiltration, smuggling of goods and human trafficking, official sources said.
During his visit, Singh will also travel to Akhaura located along the border with Tripura before returning to Dhaka for continuing his dialogue with the Bangladeshi delegation.
At Akhaura, both the sides will review the work of the construction of a new Land Customs Station (LCS) which is being set up by India.
Both the sides will also discuss issues related to smuggling of narcotics, identification of vulnerable illegal crossing spots along the border and progress of confidence building measures between the border guarding forces and civilian authorities of the two countries.
A meeting of Joint Working Group at the level of officials was held today to do spadework for the secretary- level talks.
A squad of 241 'black cat' troopers and support staff, deployed at the newly created hub in the western metropolis to enable the commandos to take swift counter-terror and counter- hijack missions, has been left with no choice but to occupy "semi-permanent and pre-fabricated" accomodation in the same complex, officials said.
The Mumbai National Security Guard (NSG) hub is located in Marol in suburban Andheri on a 23-acre land given by the Maharashtra government for stationing the crack commandos.
"The commandos are back to square one as the building has been declared unsafe for living following the appearance of big cracks. They are now living in semi-permanent structures even as they have to stay continuously alert to undertake any operation anytime," they said.
The building, which has developed cracks, was meant for housing, training and other operational requirements of NSG commandos. The facility was inaugurated in February this year by then Home Minister P Chidambaram, three years after the hub was conceived in the aftermath of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks of 2008.
The NSG headquarters here, according to the officials, has now rushed to Mumbai a team of engineers drawn from IIT- Roorkee, architectural experts and force officials to study the 'big cracks' that developed soon after its inauguration earlier this year.
The attack happened in a remote village called Dogo Dawa, in Kaduna state, said Abdullahi Muhammad, the traditional ruler and councillor of Birnin Gwari, a local government area next door to the village.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. Like much of northern Nigeria, Kaduna is plagued by an insurgency led by radical Islamist sect Boko Haram. They usually attack security forces, government officials or Christians, but have hit Muslim clerics and mosques in the past, especially ones that do not follow their hardline brand of Islam.
Kaduna also lies close to Nigeria's volatile "Middle Belt", where Nigeria's mostly Muslim north and largely Christian south meet, and where tensions over land and ethnicity often erupt into violence.
But Abdulladhi said the attack was most likely carried out by a local criminal gang.
"We are suspecting a reprisal attack by gangs of armed robbers who lost some of their members after a recent exchange of fire with the villagers and the vigilantes," he said.
"The village had been terrorized by an armed group operating from camps in the forest. These armed men mostly attack villages and motorists along the busy Kaduna to Lagos highway."
The state police commissioner Olufemi Adenaike confirmed the incident, but said he could not yet confirm the death toll.
The Islamist insurgency in northern Nigeria and weapons flooding in from its neighbours on the threshold of the Sahara have aggravated levels of violence in the region. Armed robberies and local disputes degenerating into deadly shootouts are increasingly common across the impoverished north.
"There is a possibility of the rebels attacking security forces to prove their strength. Therefore, we have sounded a security alert to all our forces. But we are ready to meet any eventuality," Imphal West district police chief Konsam Jayanta Singh told IANS.
The Coordination Committee - an umbrella grouping of seven major separatist outfits in Manipur - fighting for an independent state for the majority Meitei community in the state, has called for an 18-hour general strike starting from Oct 14 midnight. The outfits are protesting the erstwhile princely state of Manipur's merger agreement with the Indian Union 63 years ago.
Manipur joined the Union of India in October 1949 after a merger agreement was signed between the government of India and the then Maharaja of Manipur Sep 21, 1949, which came into force from Oct 15, 1949.
More than 5,000 security personnel, including from Manipur Police, the army, Assam Rifles and other central paramilitary forces, have been pressed into service to thwart any untoward incident during the general strike.
In the last few months, rebel groups have triggered over 20 improvised explosive device (IED) blasts, killing and injuring security forces and civilians.
There are more than 20 rebel armies active in Manipur, a state bordering Myanmar, with demands ranging from secession to greater autonomy.
