Webinfosys's Entertainment News : BJP wants nuclear deal to be renegotiated

Seeking to quell reports that the party may cosy up to government on the Indo-US nuclear deal, BJP on Wednesday made it clear that the accord should be renegotiated and not hustled through as it "compromises" with the country's long-term strategic programmes.

After a meeting of its core group, attended by top leaders including L K Advani and BJP chief Rajnath Singh, the party said it was opposed to the deal and accused the government of making a "significant strategic blunder" by turning it into a kind of an icon of India's relations with the US.

The statement issued by Advani, Singh and Jaswant Singh assumes significance in the context of media reports that the BJP was diluting its opposition and may not be averse to supporting the deal as the party was not ideologically opposed to the US unlike the Leftists.

The statement also noted that over the last few days former American Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, US Ambassador to India David Mulford, National Security Advisor M K Narayanan and Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Anil Kakodkar had met the three leaders and were told of the BJP's position.

Back To Index Page

Webinfosys's Local News : 'AIIMS being run by coterie of junior doctors'

NEW DELHI: Continuing his attack on AIIMS Director P Venugopal, Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss on Wednesday said the premier institute was being run by a "coterie of junior doctors" and its head was not a good administrator.

"Venugopal is a very good doctor, but administration wise he has no clue about what is happening in AIIMS," Ramadoss told reporters here.

"It (AIIMS) is being run by a coterie of junior doctors and sometimes even Venugopal is under pressure," he said.

Asserting that the government has taken a slew of steps for the betterment of the institute, he said, "we have almost doubled the allocation for AIIMS to Rs 500 crore".

"My only issue is that they have frequent strikes," Ramadoss said.

Venugopal has been involved in a tug of war with the health minister. The recent spat was over the AIIMS convocation when the minister signed the certificates of doctors only after court intervention.

Back To Index Page

Webinfosys's Local News : Militants make fresh gains in northwest Pakistan

PESHAWAR: Islamic militants have seized more than two-thirds of a key tourist valley in northwest Pakistan, despite a state of Emergency imposed to tackle extremism, police and residents said on Wednesday.

Dozens of paramilitary troops and police surrendered their weapons to militants and retreated from the mountain town of Kalam in the Swat Valley - dubbed Pakistan's Switzerland - early Wednesday, a police official said.

Announcements about the advance were made on a pirate FM radio station run by cleric Mullah Fazlullah, as militants hoisted their party flag on police stations and government buildings, and distributed sweets.

President Pervez Musharraf declared an Emergency on Saturday, saying it was necessary to tackle Al-Qaida and pro-Taliban rebels.

He also cited repeated interference in government by a hostile judiciary. The militants' advance into Swat was one of the key factors, indicating that rebels are branching out into new areas from their traditional base in the troubled tribal belt that borders Afghanistan.

The government moved 2,500 troops into Swat last week to counter Fazlullah, who is also known as "Mullah Radio" for his speeches on his private radio station, in which he calls for a holy war on authorities.

Officially, more than 150 militants have been killed in clashes with security forces in the past week. But the militants have hit back in recent days.

Before taking Kalam, which lies at the end of the valley, they captured the town of Bahrain, a strategic town poised over the raging Swat river, having seized the town of Madyan later on Tuesday, officials and residents said.

"There was no fighting, police had already vacated their post in Bahrain, and later retreated to Kalam when they came to know the militants were heading towards their police station," the police official said.

But Fazlullah's aide, Maulana Shah Dauran, said in a radio address that militants also took control of a paramilitary base in Kalam manned by a platoon.

Some 40 Frontier Corps soldiers had left the paramilitary base before the militants arrived, residents said.
Residents said some 150 turbaned militants were roaming through Kalam, chanting Allah-o-Akbar (God is greatest) and hoisting their black and white flags on key government buildings.

One flag stood atop a state guesthouse for important visitors, they said. There was no comment from the administration in Mingora, the main town in Swat valley, and top officials in Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province.

An official privately admitted the militants were in control of around 70 percent of the valley's 94-kilometre (60-mile) stretch from Sangota to Kalam.

The government hold was confined to Mingora and the nearby town of Saidu Sharif, which has the valley's lone airport, the official said.

Analysts say the militants' advance mirrors a Taliban style march seen in neighbouring Afghanistan in 1994-1996. The Taliban was ousted by a US-led invasion in 2001. Taliban militants in Afghanistan have also staged wildfire raids on a series of districts in recent weeks, although they have been quickly pushed out again by Afghan government forces.

Back To Index Page

Webinfosys's Local News : Bar raided in suburban Mumbai, 29 girls arrested

MUMBAI: Twenty nine girls were arrested for allegedly making obscene gestures at patrons inside a bar in a North West suburb in the wee hours on Wednesday, police said.

Acting on a tip-off, officials from the Social Service Branch (SSB) raided a bar in suburban Kandivali at 0030 hours and arrested the girls along with 11 orchestra singers, a hotel manager and an owner.

"The girls were not dancing but were making obscene gestures at customers by coming close to them or from a distance. Action has been taken against the orchestra singers as the bar did not have an orchestra license," said a senior officer.

The manager of the bar has been identified as Suresh Shetty while the owner is Harish Shetty. "We are on the lookout for one Darshansingh Bhatia, who is also an owner," the officer said, adding the SSB also seized Rs 2.5 lakh cash during the raid.

Under the law, girls can only work as waiters serving food and liquor till 2130 hours inside a bar but in this case, they were found making obscene gestures, the officer added.

Back To Index Page

Webinfosys's Local News : Quake gives festive city jitters

AHMEDABAD/RAJKOT: The festive mood took a beating on Monday with two temblors, measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale shaking up Junagadh at 5.58 am and 3.08 pm, the second of which rocked Amdavadis too. The epicentre was in Khakhrawada village of Talala taluka in Junagadh district. The temblors also shook up Saurashtra and Surat.

Panic spread in certain areas of Ahmedabad in the afternoon after people who watched windows rattle, vessels fall off the shelves and the ground rumble beneath their feet, realised it was a tremor.

Heavy rainfall activating the fractured Deccan basalt rocks in Saurashtra was the main reason behind the two temblors in Talala taluka. Sources in the Institute of Seismological Research (ISR), Gandhinagar, said, “Nearly 80 per cent of Saurashtra is covered by Deccan basalt rock. This was the main reason for the past tremors too.”
Reports from Junagadh said a 78-year-old woman died due to head injuries and three others sustained minor injuries in Hiranvel village of Talala taluka where nearly 50 houses were damaged. The huts in three other villages — Sasan, Amrutvel and Chitrad — too have suffered cracks.

While 5.1 magnitude was reported by United States Geological Survey (USGS) Eathquake Hazards Program, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) mentioned the earthquakes were of 4.9 and 4.8 magnitude, respectively.

People in Veraval, Rajkot, Bagasara, Amreli, Maliya, Sasan Gir area, Gondal, Jetpur and Visavadar reported tremors. Also people living in Surat and Ahmedabad too felt the tremors in the afternoon.

Chief conservator of forest (Sasan Gir) Bharat Pathak, who is at present in Rajasthan, told TOI over phone that he had inquired about the wildlife in Gir and no untoward incident has been reported from there as per the preliminary reports.

Back To Index Page

Webinfosys's Local News : Plane has a close shave in Bangalore

BANGALORE: About 150 passengers on board a Mumbai-Bangalore Kingfisher flight had a narrow escape when their descending craft suddenly veered back, pulled up into the skies with a sudden roar after the craft spotted another plane on the runway where it was to touch down.

The incident, which took place around 1.30 pm on Saturday in Bangalore, is an eerie replay of the Oct 19 near-miss when a pilot coming into Mumbai saw a craft on the same runway on which he was to land.

HR consultant Augustine Raj, who was on the Bangalore-bound Kingfisher flight (IT-105), said, "My heart started pounding fast and I could hear screams from co-passengers."

The aircraft was descending at about 200 kmph. When the pilot was bringing it to the landing level, he suddenly saw an aircraft on the runway and aborted the landing. Then he did a turnabout, started ascending very sharply with the engines roaring full thrust. After hovering for ten minutes, the pilot told the passengers on the public address system that he had to lift the aircraft back into the air because there was an aircraft taking off from the runway he was to land on. The badly shaken passengers landed safely 20 minutes later.

Back To Index Page