Hyderabad, Dec 03: The former Cabinet Secretary T.R. Prasad, the former Director of IIT, Delhi and Madras, V.S. Raju and the former Dean of the Indian School of Business (ISB) M. Rammohan Rao have been named by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) for the first time in the Rs. 11,000 crore fraud in Satyam Computers.
New Delhi, Dec 03: Two suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba militants, who were believed to have been behind the 2005 attack at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore, have been arrested from the India-Bangladesh border in Meghalaya.
Nazir and Shafas were handed over by Bangladesh Rifles to the Border Security Force (BSF) after intelligence was shared about their presence in Bangladesh, official sources said.
Union Home Secretary G.K. Pillai said: “We’re trying to find out their antecedents and links and their activities.” The two were being questioned.
New Delhi, Dec 03: The Centre announced on Wednesday its intention to draw down a “significant number of battalions” from Jammu & Kashmir and reiterated its commitment to hold “quiet talks with all Kashmiri groups” far away from the media.
Speaking on two occasions in the Rajya Sabha, once while replying to a short duration discussion on internal security and earlier during Question Hour, Union Home Minister P. Chidamabaram said he would not specify the number of battalions that would be pulled out from the State.
Kolkata, Dec 03: The three-member Central team that had come here to discuss the law and order situation in West Bengal left the city on Wednesday after talks spreading over two days with State and district officials and without visiting any of the “affected areas” as sought for by the the Opposition party, the Trinamool.
Chicago, Dec 03: A Chicago court has adjourned the hearing on the bail application of Tahawwur Hussain Rana, one of the two LeT operatives nabbed by FBI in October on charges of plotting a major terror attack against India, till December 15.
US Magistrate Judge Nan Nolan heard the case of 48-year-old Rana, a Pakistan-born US-based Canadian citizen, and said she wanted to take time to review the evidences that the prosecution will give her, including the five-hour long video of Rana’s statement to the FBI agents after his arrest.
United Nations, Dec 03: With the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference less than a week away, global leaders are urging Governments to meet the biggest challenge this generation faces by paving a way for a legally binding agreement.
Speaking from Capetown, Nobel laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu, known for battling against apartheid, said the stakes for humanity were too high for the international community to fail at Copenhagen.
“The final measure of a generation’s courage is the memory of what they have done,” Tutu said in a video-message.
Bhopal, Dec 03: This January, 25 years after the Bhopal gas tragedy, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) invited research to study the effects of methyl isocyanate (MIC) poisoning. After 11 months, ICMR has received only two proposals. A disappointed Council has now decided to keep the ‘call for research proposals’ open till it gets some noteworthy submissions.
New Delhi, December 02: Gold prices today touched a new peak at Rs 18,400 per ten gram in the national capital gaining Rs 430 in the opening trade on heavy buying for the marriage season amid firming global cues.
Gold gained Rs 430 to trade at Rs 18,400 per ten gram in the first few minutes of trading as jewellery fabricators indulged in creating fresh positions following a constant raise in its prices at overseas front.
The precious metal, which normally move in tandem with international trend, remained on an uptrend and set record high levels in each session, marketmen said.
New Delhi, December 02: Three persons have been critically injured after a car hit them near Golf Links here, police said today.
Twenty-year-old driver of the car, Nishant Jain, was arrested in this connection.
He was returning after meeting a friend last night, when he lost control over the vehicle and the accident occurred.
The car first rammed into a divider and hit them.
Jain is the son of a business man residing at Safdurjung Enclave, police said.
The injured were identified as Vikrant, Sanjay and Sita Ram.
–Agencies
Chennai, December 02: The Madras High Court has directed the Tamil Nadu police to take suitable action against two police officials, including a woman police inspector, for arresting a man in violation of a court direction.
Justice T Sudanthiram directed city Police Commissioner to inquire into the matter and take suitable action against the woman police inspector attached to an All Womens’ Police Station and an Assistant Commissioner of Police for arresting one Sivaraman, recently married, facing charges of ill-treating his wife among other things.
Hyderabad, December 02: Andhra Pradesh Government today held talks with TRS President K Chandrasekhar Rao for ending his fast-unto-death, demanding a separate Telangana state.
Labour Minister R Venkata Reddy, who was sent as an emissary of the government, met Rao at the government hospital at Khammam tonight and appealed him to end his fast.
New Delhi, November 02: TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu today called upon farmers to “assert” their rights like they did during the agitation against the sugar cane pricing policy recently to “make the Government listen to them”.
“Lakhs and lakhs of farmers assembled in Delhi against the sugarcane ordinance which led the Government to scrap it. This is the only way to revolt and this is the only way to make Government listen,” Naidu said at a farmers convention here.
Patna, December 02: A Maoist rebel was arrested Wednesday for the killings of 10 policemen in Bihar’s Nawada district February this year, police said.
Nero Ravi Das, the main accused in the policemen’s killings, is also wanted in other criminal cases.
Ten policemen, including a police station chief, were killed Feb 9 when suspected Maoist guerrillas attacked a police team visiting Mahulitand village in Nawada district.
The state government had announced a compensation of Rs.2 million each for the families of the policemen killed in that Maoist attack.
–Agencies
New Delhi, December 02: The Delhi High Court Wednesday took note of the increasing number of undertrials languishing in Tihar jail and pulled up the Delhi Legal Services Authority (DLSA) for having inefficient lawyers on its panel who never visit jails.
Johar Bahru, December 02: India’s Saina Nehwal lost her opening round match to Malaysian Mew Choo Wong at the World Super series Masters Final badminton here Wednesday.
Saina, who has got the top billing in the tournament after the pull out by top players, went down 13-21, 21-13, 14-21 in a tough Group A encounter.
Saina will now have to win both her Group matches against Porntip Buranaprasertsuk of Thailand and Canadian Charmaine Reid to make it to the semifinal.
Panaji, December 02: A Russian woman tourist has accused a Goan politician of attempting to rape her.
According to a complaint filed at the Colva police station Wednesday, the Russian, 25, said that John Fernandes, an aspiring politician from a regional political party, tried to rape her after offering her a lift in his car Tuesday night.
“We have booked an attempt to rape case against Fernandes. We have not been able to trace him yet. Investigations are on,” an official at the Colva police station said.
Kolkata, December 02: With cervical cancer the second most common cancer among women worldwide, Nobel laureate in medicine Harald zur Hausen Wednesday said here that the cost of vaccination in India should undergo drastic reduction to make this life-saving vaccine available to a maximum number of people.
New Delhi, December 02: The state-run oil explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) and its partners have signed two agreements with Iranian authorities to develop gas fields in that country.
The agreements were signed during Iranian Deputy Oil Minister Seifollah Jashnsaz’s India visit Dec 1.
After two days of “intense negotiations” two strategic agreements were signed, the company said in a statement, adding that it would get at least six million tonnes LNG (liquefied natural gas) per annum from Iran.
New Delhi, December 02: All new schools and universities that will be established in the country will be disable friendly, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said Wednesday.
“All new schools and universities from here on have to be disable friendly. They will be absolute access in educational institutions,” Sibal said on the sidelines of a book launch here.
“We will see how appropriate access is provided to these people in existing universities,” he said.
The minister said his ministry would appoint a committee on measures needed to be taken for inclusive education.
New Delhi, December 02: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Wednesday said his daughter was his inspiration to try and improve the preservation of historical monuments.
Speaking at the Central Advisory Board of Archaeology, Manmohan Singh said his daughter Upinder Singh was highly impressed with the US’ management of historical sites.
New Delhi, December 02: Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal Wednesday said the government is in talks with Unique Identification Authority chief Nandan Nilekani to map disabled children in the country to record their educational growth.
“We are talking to Nandan about it. If we can map these differently-abled people, then their educational growth can also be recorded,” Sibal said here.
Tehran, December 02: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says Iran will enrich its uranium to a higher level in direct contravention to an international call to halt the process.
Ahmadinejad expressed frustration with negotiations over a UN-backed deal to swap Iran’s low-enriched uranium for higher-enriched fuel rods to power its medical research reactor.
He told a crowd of thousands today in the southern city of Isfahan that Iran “will produce 20 per cent” enriched uranium and “anything it needs” for its nuclear programme.
Mumbai, December 02: Defence lawyer K P Pawar, appointed to defend surviving Pakistani gunman Ajmal Kasab in the 26/11 terror attack case, today sought to cross examine a total of 91 witnesses out of the 340, whom the prosecution claimed were of formal nature.
The prosecution had submitted the affidavits of 340 witnesses, divided into 12 categories which included claimants of the dead bodies, inquest panch witnesses, injured persons who were not eye-witnesses, carriers of seized materials to forensic lab among others.
Ahmedabad, December 02:The first computer-based Common Admission Test (CAT) across the country’s 104 centres remained largely hassle free today on the fifth day barring the two labs which remained closed as declared earlier, IIMA officials said here.
“We have been told by Prometric, the agency conducting the test on behalf of all IIMs, that tests were hassle free today at all centres,” CAT convener Satish Deodhar told PTI.
“Barring the two labs which remained closed, as declared yesterday, test went on smoothly,” he said.
Hyderabad, December 02: Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) activists Wednesday set ablaze Congress party leader and former union minister Renuka Chowdhry’s office in Khammam town, about 200 km from here.
The door and windows of the office were damaged when TRS workers torched the office after throwing petrol on it, police said. TRS wants to break away from Andhra Pradesh and form a separate Telangana state.
A group of TRS workers fled after setting the office on fire. Acting swiftly, security personnel brought the fire under control.