Confusion prevails over Andhra CM's missing chopper

HYDERABAD: Confusion prevails over Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy’s missing helicopter. The CM’s whereabouts are still
unknown.

The chief minister’s chopper has been missing since 9.35am.

Andhra Pradesh finance minister A Rosaiah, during a press conference, said no contact has been established with the chief minister’s chopper. Search and rescue operations are still on, he said. The state is coordinating with central agencies in Delhi to locate the CM’s chopper. The PM’s office is also in touch with the state government. Several helicopters- Indian Air Force, state govt and private helicopters, are involved in search operations, he added.

The state govt’s spokesperson added, "It is possible that because of the strong winds and heavy rains, it is possible it may have landed in some unfamiliar area. If you land in an unfamiliar forest area, getting out will be very difficult."

The state government has appealed to people for help and asked them to get in touch with the nearest police station if they have any information.

Just a short while ago (3.10pm), Karnool SP B L Meena, had, however, told The Times of India that the chief minister’s chopper had been located and a police team was going to escort him back to Hyderabad. The chopper had landed in Pamalupudu village in Karnool district, the SP said.

After the Andhra government’s press conference, TOI tried to contact the Karnool SP, but in vain.

Minister for civil aviation Praful Patel had also said Reddy’s helicopter had been located.

The CM left Hyderabad on a chopper at 8.35am this morning for Chittoor accompanied by his secretary and chief security officer but after 9.35am radio contact was lost with the government helicopter. This was when the chopper entered the thickly forested, Naxalite-infested Nallamalla hill range where it was raining heavily and visibility was extremely poor. The chief minister is on the hit-list of the Naxalites.

Source::Times of India

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Rain washes out second England-Australia T20

MANCHESTER: Rain washed out the second and final Twenty20 international between England and Australia without a ball being bowled at Old Trafford
Twenty20 International

on Tuesday.

It meant the series ended 0-0 after Sunday's opener at Lancashire headquarters also finished as a no-result wash-out.

Heavy overnight
rain, and fresh downpours on Tuesday, had left the outfield saturated ahead of the start of what should have been a day/night fixture.

Umpires Peter Hartley and Nigel Llong held an inspection at the scheduled local start time of 7pm (1800GMT), and looked again 45 minutes later, but ultimately decided conditions were so bad there was no prospect of even a five overs per side match, the minimum length required to produce a positive result.

Rain washed out the first Twenty20 at Old Trafford here on Sunday with England four for two in 1.1 overs in reply to Australia's 145 for four.

This T20 series followed on from the Ashes Test campaign which England won 2-1 with two draws.

After this match, England and Australia face each other in a seven-match one-day international series starting at the Oval on Friday.

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India beat Syria to lift Nehru Cup

NEW DELHI
: Defending champions India beat Syria 5-4 in the penalty shootouts to lift their second successive Nehru Cup title at the Ambedkar
Nehru Cup

Stadium on Monday.

Goal-keeper Subroto Paul, who saved three penalties to become India’s saviour, was awarded the man of the match.

Climax scored the first goal for India in the penalty shootouts. Renedy took the second penalty and missed as he hit the pole. India goal-keeper paul revived the home team's hopes as he stopped the second penalty diving to his left. Sunil Chhetri again gave India the lead by scoring in the third penalty. Again Indian goal-keeper stopped the Syrian penalty to retain the lead. Mehraj missed the penalty would have given India the title. Syria again levelled again by scoring in the fourth penalty. Sukumar Singh again scored to give India the lead.

Before the penalty shootouts, India were granted a free kick because of a foul committed on Indian captain Bhaichung Bhutia in the 114th minute in the extra-time and Renedy didn't let the opportunity go waste as his kick swung from right to left to beat the Syrian captain and goalkeeper.

But Syria scored the equaliser in the dying minutes to dash India's hopes and the final went into penalty shootouts.

Coach Bob Houghton's decision to rest key players in the last inconsequential league match against the same opponents paid dividends as the senior players came afresh for the final encounter of the five-nation football tournament.

It was a heated, tensed and keenly contested encounter in which the referee had to intervene many times to calm down the players. Indian captain Bhaichung Bhutia was handed yellow card in the first half of the game. However, the first half ended without a goal.

India were awarded a free kick soon after the commencement of the second half when skipper Bhutia was fouled. But the free kick taken by Steven Dias was stopped by the Syrian goal-keeper.

The heat was not limited to just the players. The Syrian coach Fajer Ebrahim lost his cool in the 60th minute when two off-sides were given against his team in quick succession. He got into an argument with the linesman and that led to India coach Bob Houghton gesturing towards the Syrian camp while pointing his fingers and saying something.

In 89th minute when an off-side was again given against Syria, a frustrated Ebrahim argued with the linesman again. This time Haughton was only staring at him without saying anything.

In the extra time, a support staff of Syria was sent off for arguing with the linesman following an ugly incident in which Bhutia was tackled from behind by a Syrian player which led to some pushing and shoving.

The highly contested match was watched by Bollywood star Salman Khan and AIFF acting president and Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel and Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports M S Gill.

Two years ago at the Ambedkar Stadium, the home team had beaten the Syrians in front of a 20,000-strong crowd to win their maiden Nehru Cup title.

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Sharapova returns to US Open with easy victory

NEW YORK: After missing last year's US Open
with a shoulder injury, former champion Maria Sharapova returned to the spotlight with an impressive
Maria Sharapova

6-3, 6-0 victory over Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria on Tuesday.

Sharapova's game was as glittery as her black-and-silver dress and matching headwrap, an outfit she described as a tribute to New York's skyline.

Several hours after Russian compatriot Dinara Safina came perilously close to becoming the first No. 1-seeded woman to lose in this major tournament's first round, 2006 champion Sharapova gave a much stronger performance.

The three-time Grand Slam title winner produced 29 winners - a whopping 23 more than her 98th-ranked opponent.

Sharapova showed no signs of the shoulder tear that forced her to have surgery in October and kept her off the tour for nearly 10 months.

"This is a Grand Slam. You've got to get going from the first match," Sharapova said. "After being gone, this is what it's all about."

In addition to tennis skills and grit that once placed her No. 1 in the rankings, Sharapova always has placed an emphasis on fashion. On this night, her black dress carried bold, metallic accents that would gain her entry into even the trendiest of New York clubs. She paired it with a matching, '60s-style silver headband.

As often happens with Sharapova, the post-match, on-court interview dealt as much with her getup as her game. "It's always 50-50: You never know when people are going to like it or not," Sharapova told the crowd.

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Paes-Dlouhy reach US Open second round

NEW DELHI: India's Leander Paes and his Czech partner Lukas Dlouhy sailed into the second round of the US Open
men's doubles event with a win
Untitled-1.jpg
over Romanian pair of Victor Hanescue and Grabriel Trifu in first round.

The fourth seeded Indo-Czech pair defeated their rivals 7-6 (11), 7-6 (4).

Montreal Masters winners Mahesh Bhupathi and Bahmaian Knowles are yet to open their campaign against American James Cerretani and Lovro Zovko of Croatia.

Earlier, on Monday, Somdev Devvarman and Sania Mirza
notched up a rare double for India at the US Open by advancing to the second round of the season's last Grand Slam with contrasting opening wins at the Flushing Meadows.

While Sania opened with a roller-coaster 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 win over Olga Govortsova of Belarus in women's singles, qualifier Somdev got the better of Portugal's Frederico Gil 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 in the men's competition.

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BCCI to reconsider IMG axe

New Delhi

Sept. 1: The decision to snap ties with event management company IMG has split the Indian cricket board right down the middle.
“The (BCCI) secretary’s letter does not mean that we have totally severed ties with the IMG. We are willing to settle and reconsider... it is quite possible that we could still retain their services for next year,” Indian Premier League governing council member Niranjan Shah told this newspaper on Tuesday, in a climbdown from the board’s earlier stand.
Shah’s statement is crucial considering just days earlier, his colleague and BCCI secretary N. Srinivasan had shot off a letter to IMG vice-president Andrew Wildblood explaining that the company’s fees for conducting and managing the IPL-2 in South Africa was “disproportionate to the service rendered”.
The issue will be discussed in greater detail at the IPL governing council meeting in Mumbai on Wednesday, but it is evident that Srinivasan finds himself alienated on the issue.
A board administrative source said that the BCCI had no option but to kiss and make up with the international event management company.
“We have been approached by other Indian companies like Globosport and Wizcraft, but they too know they cannot organise events of such magnitude as efficiently as IMG. In fact, they conceptualised the South Africa edition in just 22 days,” the source said.
IMG played a key role in putting together IPL-2 and implementing it, including drafting the Indian and foreign players’ contracts, putting the logistics in place and managing the day-to-day running of the tournament.
The BCCI claimed to have paid IMG Rs 42.92 crores for the inaugural IPL edition, with the fee for the second edition said to be around Rs 33 crores.
One of the major reasons for BCCI’s climbdown is the legal implications it could face if the company decides to take the Board to court.
Since the IMG’s initial contract, which was signed in September 2007, stipulates a commission-based payment of 10 per cent of the board’s revenue — subsequently negotiated to a fixed retainer payment — the IMG can contest BCCI’s ‘unilateral’ termination of contract.
Srinivasan, on the day, continued to stick to his stand. Told about Shah’s comments, the Chennai Super Kings owner said; “I’m just following the decision of the working committee. I don’t have any personal agenda.”
Many insiders, on the contrary, feel that the issue is more to do with the power struggle within the board and less due to money.
The development over the past few days is being interpreted as an attempt to clip IPL chairman Lalit Modi’s wings —largely instrumental in roping in the services of IMG for the first two editions of the cash-rich event — and conduct and control of the league.

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US Open: Sania, Somdev advance

New York, Sept. 1: Somdev Devvarman and Sania Mirza notched up a rare double for India at the US Open by advancing to the second round of the season’s last Grand Slam with contrasting opening wins at the Flushing Meadows hardcourts here.
While Sania opened with a roller-coaster 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 win over Olga Govortsova of Belarus in women’s singles, qualifier Somdev got the better of Portugal’s Frederico Gil 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 in the men’s competition.
The 162nd-ranked Somdev will take on German 23rd seed Philipp Kohlschreiber, who defeated Italy’s Andreas Seppi 6-0, 6-4, 6-4 in the second round.
The 74th-ranked Sania also has a tough match at hand against old nemesis Italian 10th seed Flavia Pennetta.
“I’m really happy we have two players in the second roun of a Grand Slam. Things are looking up,” Sania said after her win.
Somdev, meanwhile, said the scoreline might show a straight-set win but he had to toil hard on the court.
“I really dug in there, didn’t get tight. I competed well. That’s what gets you through those tough ones — the way you compete,” he said.
Somdev played a solid service game in the contest which lasted more than two hours, breaking his rival seven times.
“I don’t want to jinx myself but I feel good about where I am. I’ve had a couple of quality wins. It gives me a lot of confidence and belief that I can come out and compete with anyone. My game is up there with the rest,” he said.
Sania, on the other hand, had to fight it out harder but was helped by her opponent’s weak serve and unforced errors.
The Indian ace broke her rival seven times and served marginally better to come through in the match that lasted close to two hours.
“The toughest thing is to get that first win under your belt. Under the circumstances I’m just happy I can come through that match and get off to a good start. To me it has already been successful,” said the ace tennis player.

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Exports drop 28% in July

New Delhi, Sept. 1: India’s exports dropped 28.4 per cent in July, the tenth straight month to record a fall, even as the Planning Commission saw a recovery next year when demand returns in rich nations.
The only solace in July was that imports too fell 37.1 per cent, narrowing the trade deficit to $5.99 billion or nearly half from $12.15 billion a year ago.
Merchandise exports was $13.62 billion in the month under review as demand continued to remain depressed, but the Planning Commission on Tuesday said exports would pick up after 2010 when developed markets return to positive growth.
“Exports would also recover as industrialised countries return to positive growth of one per cent in 2010 with further acceleration in 2011”, it said.
But to prop up the sector, the government in its new foreign trade policy has announced sops for trade with new markets in Latin America and Africa, which by and large remained insulated from the global crisis.
India’s imports fell sharply by 37.1 per cent in July to $19.62 from $31.18 billion a year ago, largely thanks to a drop in crude oil prices. “The imports declined mainly due to the price effect as oil prices are about 50 per cent cheaper than last year,” the Crisil principal economist, Mr D.K. Joshi, said.
The Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) president, Mr A. Sakthivel, said the declining trend is likely to continue for some more months.
“The negative trend (of exports) will continue for a few more months,” Mr Sakthivel said, expressing pessimism that $170 billion exports for this fiscal is also difficult to achieve.
India has set a target of $200 billion for 2010-11.
“It is very difficult to achieve the exports target of 2010-11 as the demand in the developed markets is still weak,” an international trade expert with Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), Mr R.M. Joshi, said.
While the country’s oil imports declined by 55.5 per cent to $5.63 billion from $12.67 in July 2008, non-oil imports were down by 24.5 per cent to $13.98 billion in July 2009 from $18.51 billion in the same period last year.
During April-July 2009-10, exports contracted to $49.65 billion from $75.28 billion. Oil imports in the period dipped by 48 per cent to $21.96 billion from 42.21 billion in April-July 2008-09.
Non-oil imports in the first four months of this financial year declined by 23.7 per cent to $56.60 from $74.16 in the
corresponding period last year.

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IL&FS plans to revive Maytas Infra

Hyderabad
Sept. 1: Mumbai-based IL&FS Ltd, the new promoter of Maytas Infra, hopes to revive the cash-crunched Hyderabad infrastructure firm in one year.
“The company (Maytas) is still moving through a very difficult period and probably it may take a year if not more to restore stability in its operations,” the IL&FS chairman, Mr Ravi Parthasarathy, said. He said they have to overnight pumped in Rs 50 crore to kickstart operations.
The four nominees of IL&FS, who would join the Maytas board, are Mr Parthasarathy, CEO and MD, Mr Hari Sankaran, the deputy MD, Mr Arun Saha, and transportation networks president, Mr Karunakaran Ramchand.
IL&FS, which was authorised by the Company Law Board to take over Maytas Infra’s management, has acquired 88,89,500 shares (15.1 per cent) that were pledged by Maytas Infra as a guarantee against the Rs 100 crore loan taken by two Ramalinga Raju’s front companies Naryandari Greenfields Pvt Ltd and Harangi Agro Farms Pvt Ltd. At the current market price of Rs 118.4 a share, the purchased shareholding is worth Rs 105.25 crore.
With this transaction, IL&FS’s stake in Maytas has reached 29.6 per cent, triggering the open offer norms. Apart from acquiring the remaining 7.5 per cent pledged shares, IL&FS has to buy an additional 20 per cent of shares from the open market. “The procedure for an open offer would commence in the next 2-3 days,” he said.
He said capital infusion is the number one priority and they may opt for QIP in the next fiscal.

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Tata dumps call pulse rate

Chennai/Hyderabad

Sept. 1: Potentially triggering a price war among Indian telecom companies, Tata Teleservices on Tuesday introduced a fixed charge plan, where customers are charged on the basis of the number of calls they make rather than the time they talk.
In the new ‘Pay-Per-Call’ plan, the company’s pre-paid CDMA subscribers will be charged Re 1 for all local calls and Rs 3 for long distance calls, regardless of the duration.
Tata Teleservices and Indicom subscribers could shift to the new plan by paying Rs 30 monthly. The call rates would apply on mobile to landline and to calls made to other networks. The plan also offers subsidised rate for SMSes at Re 0.50, for both local and national SMS.
“Pay-per-call will change the pricing paradigm in the telecom space and endless talks does not mean the caller will misuse the facility as there will be monitoring of the calling pattern of subscribes once any abuse of the scheme is noticed,” said the Tata Teleservices managing director, Mr Anil Sardana.
Though the plan has no pulse rate for 15 days, the company would impose a cap on the call duration, if required, after studying the pattern during this period.
In Hyderabad, Mr S. Ramakrishna, the regional COO, AP and Orissa circles, Tata Teleservices, said the Pay Per Call plan is initially being introduced on the pre-paid platform. The service is available on all new Tata Indicom connections.
The company expects volumes to make up for the loss of average revenue per user in this plan. Tata Teleservices’ CDMA service is pan-India presence with a subscriber base of around four crore.
Sources, however, said that the company will restrict the per call duration to 10 minutes.

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'New Taliban chief Hakimullah is dead'

Islamabad

Sept. 1: New Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) commander Hakimullah Mehsud is also dead, a media report said.
“Hakimullah is dead. The interview given to BBC in the name of Hakimullah was actually the voice of his brother,” a Pakistani television channel reported.
“The motive behind hiding the news of Hakimullah’s death was to save banned TTP from conflicts,” the report said quoting unnamed sources.
During the nomination of Baithullah Mehsud’ s successor, fierce clash had been reported between two faction of Taliban groups. The sources said that Hakimullah Mehsud and Mufti Wali-ur-Rehman were killed during that clash and the Taliban concealed this information.
“When the meeting of the, Shoora (advisory body) of TTP was going on in South Waziristan for the nomination of Baithullah Mehsud’s successor, Mufti Wali-ur-Rehman and Hakimullah Mehsud exchanged hot words with each other, that later turned into cross-firing against each other. 4 people, including Hakimullah and Mufti Wali-ur-Rehman, were killed in the cross firing,” the channel reported.
Meanwhile, more than 100 Taliban fighters surrendered to the Army on Friday in Pakistan’s restive Swat valley while troops killed two rebels and captured 19 others during search and clearance operations across the Malakand division in the country’s northwest. A total of 105 militants surrendered to the Army in Kabal sub-division of Swat, officials said.
Also, government forces destroyed four militant bases and killed 40 insurgents Tuesday in a new offensive near Pakistan's famed Khyber Pass, the main route for supplies to US and Nato troops in Afghanistan, authorities said. The offensive follows a suicide blast in the region last week that killed 19 police officers at a key border crossing.
Source:: DECCAN CHRONICLE

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Jon gets 59 years for abuse

Los Angeles, Sept. 1: Celebrity Indian-American fashion designer Anand Jon Alexander was sentenced on Monday to a minimum of 59 years in prison by a court here for preying upon seven young aspiring models and sexually assaulting them.
Rejecting Jon’s motions for a fresh trial, Los Angeles superior court judge David Wesley ruled that there were no new grounds for granting such a motion.
Jon, 35, who acted as his own attorney, showed no reaction as the judge pronounced the verdict. He was convicted in November on 16 counts, including rape, sexual battery and lewd acts on a child.

Jon’s family says he is a victim of US mistrial
Chennai, Sept.1: Celebrity fashion designer Anand Jon Alexander’s 59-year jail sentence for sexual assault has come as a huge shock to his extended family that was gearing up to celebrate Onam.
Jon is the nephew of Prabha Yesudas, wife of legendary singer K.J. Yesudas.
Upon hearing the news, she said, “We are deeply shocked. He is like my own son and what has happened with him is unfair. I cannot talk more about it as it upsets me deeply.”
The fashion fraternity was taken aback by the news and feels that a fair trial is necessary to get to the truth.
Sanjana, Anand’s sister and fashion designer, who has been campaigning for a just trial for her brother, felt let down by the decision.
She said, “It is the ultimate travesty of justice. Anand was not even given an opportunity to prove his innocence.
“Just because we are Indians, the minorities in Amercia, we are being vicitmised. My mother who is in LA collapsed when she heard about this.”
“The judge absolutely refused to hear what Anand had to say. The polygraph test, the medical test – everything proved him innocent, but yet the judgment went against him.”
Sanjana says his close friends betrayed him. “I have known these models so well and many of them even had travelled with me to India,” she said.
“When it came to money they all showed their true colours,” she said.

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Top Baloch leader's killing sparks riots

ISLAMABAD/LAHORE: A leading Baloch nationalist leader was found dead more than a week after he was abducted by armed men, triggering violent
protests in Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province that claimed at least two lives.

The body of Balochistan National Movement leader Rasool Baksh Mengal, which was found hanging from a tree in Lasbela district of Balochistan on Monday, bore marks of torture, reports said.

Mengal, a well-known human rights activist, was abducted by unidentified men on August 23. Mengal's son had accused intelligence agencies of abducting him.

Two persons of Punjabi-origin were killed as violence broke out in various Baloch-dominated districts last evening after Mengal's body was found. Protesters set fire to banks and government offices in Maskhy area.

Meanwhile, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) on Tuesday accused intelligence agencies of being behind the murder and abduction of Mengal.

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Sujana says it inflated figures

Hyderabad
Sept. 1: The Sujana group companies — Sujana Metal Products Limited and Sujana Universal Limited — have admitted that they had presented boosted turnover figures to secure bank loans. This confession was made by the two public listed companies to strengthen their plea for exemption from paying tax on their second sales, which they said were merely “notional transactions”. The Sujana group is owned by Mr Y.S. Chowdary.

SMPL and SUL showed a turnover of about Rs 1,500 crore for the financial year 2004-2005. Now the group says these figures were boosted. In the three subsequent financial years the two companies showed a turnover of Rs 6,300 crore. When the tax authorities issued notices for payment of tax for these years, Sujana presented the same argument of notional transactions.

Inquiries by this correspondent revealed that the companies, in separate replies to the show-cause notices issued by the CTD, said: “We are constrained to admit that the purchases as well as our sales are notional and transacted for the purpose of securing book turnover for maintaining working results and to boost up the turnover of the company.”

They went on to add, “We are recording transactions of purchases and sales without actually receiving or dispatching goods.” When contacted, Sujana group said it had submitted replies to the show-cause notice. It, however, revealed only a portion of the content of the letter the full text of which is available with the newspaper.

Also, the SMPL director Mr S. Hanumantha Rao in an affidavit in the High Court (WP No 17663 of 2005) said “the transactions are nominal transactions without their (there) being a transfer of goods.” But the Sujana group said the observation was made in a different connotation to substantiate its stand with regard to levy of tax on second sales.

A confidential note circulated at the Regional Economic Intelligence Council in its meeting on August 17, 2009, mentioned the notional sales and boosting up of turnovers by the Sujana group companies.

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City collapses under rains

Hyderabad

Sept. 1: Four buildings including a dilapidated government maternity outpatient block collapsed on Tuesday following heavy rain on Monday. Water continued to stagnate on the roads, slowing down vehicular traffic on arterial routes.
Contributing to the chaos was 28.4 mm of rain that fell up to 8.30 pm on Tuesday.
Though no casualties were reported, the outpatient block of the government maternity hospital in Sanjeev Reddy Nagar. Dr Sridevi of the hospital said they do not admit patients but would refer them to Nilou-fer Hospital after check up.
Three small houses collapsed in Addagutta in Secunderabad. Rain water entered houses at Sindhi Colony and Bapubagh as the Picket nala was overflowing.
The Shaikpet nala overflowed and water entered houses at Indiramma Nagar and NTR Nagar.
Traffic came to a halt between Jubilee Hills check post and the Punjagutta Smashana Vatika road due to water stagnation. The central emergency cell of the GHMC received complaints of rain water stagnation on main roads at Oliphanta bridge, MG Road Paradise, Malakpet-Chaderghat road, IBP Petrol Bunk at Begumpet, Narayanguda, Mahmoodguda apart from other areas.
Power supply was disrupted in several areas following heavy rain. Officials of Central Discom said supply was restored all over the city by 9 pm.
Elsewhere, the Hyderabad district collector, Mr Navin Mittal, said Rs 1 lakh ex-gratia was being given to the family of Mujeeb, who died due to electrocution following heavy rain on Sunday.
He announced compensation for damage due to Sunday’s rain: Rs 5,000 for damage to utensils, clothes and damaged houses. The compensation was Rs 6,000 for fully damaged houses.

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6-yr-old punished for wetting bed at orphanage

Thiruvananthapuram: A six-year-old girl inmate of an orphanage near here suffered burns on her chest and arms allegedly after the staff of the institution applied a hot iron bar on her as "punishment for wetting the bed at night."
Police has registered a case against the staff based on a complaint from the child's mother.
The incident came to light when the child's mother came to take her home for Onam festival vacation, police said.
On questioning the child about the burns, she said orphanage authorities punished her for wetting the bed.
However, authorities at the St Joseph Sai Matha Orphanage near Vattiyurkavu here, denied the allegation and said burns were caused after hot tea fell on her, police said.

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Pak nationals may be training Somali pirates

There are growing concerns about possible links between pirates and terrorist groups after authorities confirmed the first case of alleged
Pakistani involvement with Somalian pirates.

Investigations into the hijacking of a Russian warship in April by Somali pirates show that Pakistani nationals played an important role in the hijack. 12 Pakistanis had been apprehended along with the Somali pirates. Pakistan has so far not launched a probe into the Russian allegations and claimed that 12 men were fishermen.

Authorities have confirmed the first case of alleged Pakistani involvement with Somali pirates in a revelation that has raised concerns about a possible link between piracy and suspected terrorist groups.

On April 28, a Russian warship apprehended 12 Pak nationals - along with Somali pirates - for attempting to attack a tanker off Somalias coast.

Investigations pointed to Pakistani nationals having played a 'lead' role. Their nationality was confirmed through identity cards and evidence was handed over on May 8 to MSS Rehmat, a Pakistan Maritime Security Agency ship, 12 miles of Gwadar.

Pak first claimed that these men were fishermen but three months on, there is no word on the probe.

The incident occurred when Russian warship Admiral Panteleyev received a distress call 120 km east of Somalias coast from a tanker Bulwai Bank, registered in Antigua, en route to Singapore. The tanker was under attack from Somali pirates. Russian commandos intervened and foiled the attempt. They found that the pirates speedboats were being guided from another mother vessel.

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Paras returns to Nepal amid fake currency 'link' reports

KATHMANDU: It has been a tumultuous homecoming for Nepal’s self-exiled former crown prince Paras, who returned home to Kathmandu Monday to find
himself in the thick of reports in the Indian media claiming he was part of a fake currency
racket run by underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.

The 38-year-old, who was originally expected to arrive in Kathmandu Friday, however returned to Nepal Monday amidst fast-flying allegations in India that three people, arrested in India with fake Indian currency, had disclosed links with Nepal’s former royal family.

However, the ponytailed former prince kept a low profile with the Nepali media ignoring his return as it had ignored his departure. The tabloids however have been speculating on the reason for his frequent trips to Nepal since his exit in high dudgeon last year after monarchy was formally abolished and his father, deposed king Gyanendra, was ordered to vacate the royal palace. Since Nepal became a republic last year, Paras has been living in Singapore, where he claims to be doing his own grocery shopping and cooking and thriving on it.

There have been reports of marital discord between Paras, known to be headstrong with a violent temper and fondness for partying, drinks and women and his wife, the former crown princess Himani. Though she had followed him to Singapore with their three children and enrolled them in schools there, she had returned to Kathmandu with the children after some time. Paras claims to be keen on founding a political party in Nepal and contesting elections.

While there was no immediate reaction from the former royals to the reports in the Indian media , Gyanendra’s aides however expressed outrage, calling them baseless propaganda. Royalists said that in the past too, Nepal’s royal family had been wrongly blamed for trouble in India, including the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, which, India's Research and Analysis Wing had said could have been funded by the then Nepali queen Aishwarya.

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70th anniversay of World War II outbreak

GDANSK: European leaders remembered the victims of World War II Tuesday at ceremonies marking the start of the conflict 70 years ago, as the
countries involved disputed its historical legacy.

Veterans of the war joined Poland's leaders for a ceremony in the port of Gdansk - the site of the first battle on September 1, 1939, when a German ship opened fire on a Polish base.

"We are here to remember who in that war was the aggressor and who was the victim, for without an honest memory neither Europe, nor Poland, nor the world will ever live in security," said Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

Events marking history's bloodiest conflict began at 4:45 am (0245 GMT) on the Westerplatte peninsula near Gdansk, the site of the base.

The Polish army, outnumbered by more than two to one, surrendered on October 6 and a brutal Nazi occupation began. Almost six million Polish citizens perished in the war, half of them Jewish.

Bogdan Kolodziejski, who was 10 when the war started and became a resistance courier, was one of those at the ceremony.

"I've never forgotten the day the Germans marched into Warsaw, singing at the top of their voices," he said.

Further events were scheduled throughout the day at Westerplatte, with German Chancellor Merkel and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin due to attend.

Ahead of her departure, Merkel had underlined Germany's responsibility.

"Germany attacked Poland, Germany started World War II. We caused unending suffering in the world. Sixty million dead ... was the result," Merkel said on German television.

But she also said that the post-war expulsion of more than 12 million Germans from Eastern Europe was an injustice that also had to be recognised.

That was unlikely to go down well in Poland, which in 1945 gained former German territory in the west to compensate for the land seized by the Soviet Union in the east.

Warsaw has protested that a planned memorial in Berlin for the expelled Germans could overshadow the suffering of the Nazis' victims, including the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust.

Putin's visit will also be closely watched by Poles, especially given the renewed attempts by Russia to justify the August 23, 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.

Under the terms of that agreement, Germany and the Soviet Union carved up Poland between them at the start of the war.

Putin, who met with Tusk Tuesday, avoided the issue of the Red Army invasion of September 17, 1939.

But he told reporters that Russia disliked "persistent attempts" to pin all the blame on the pact.

"There were a huge number of mistakes made by many sides. All these actions together allowed the massive aggression by Nazi Germany," he said.

He pointed to the Munich agreement of 1938 where Britain and France let Germany annex a slice of Czechoslovakia.

Britain and France, bound to Poland by military pacts, declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939, each pulling their vast empires into the conflict.

For Russia, what is known as the "Great Patriotic War" started on June 22, 1941 when the Nazis tore up their non-aggression pact and invaded.

Suddenly the Soviet forces, from having been the occupiers of part of Poland, found themselves fighting against a common enemy.

"We always viewed the Poles as brothers in arms in the common victory," said Putin.

But earlier Tuesday Polish President Lech Kaczynski said the Soviets had "stuck a knife in the back of Poland".

Tusk said Poles would never forget that. Around 8.6 million Soviet soldiers and 27-28 million civilians were killed in the war, which ended with Germany's crushing defeat in 1945.

Accusations by a top Russian foreign intelligence officer at a press conference in Moscow Tuesday were not likely to improve relations between the two countries.

Major General Lev Sotskov of the Russian foreign intelligence service (SVR) produced documents he claimed showed that Poland had been excessively close to the Nazis ahead of World War II.

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USAID offices closed down in Islamabad following threat calls

ISLAMABAD: US authorities have closed all USAID offices in the Pakistani capital after officials of the organisation received threats from
unidentified persons.

American authorities decided to close the offices after two USAID officials received threats on the phone, a TV news channel reported.

The US authorities also suggested that USAID officials should put in place extra security measures. Pakistanis working for the agency, which has a sizeable presence in the country, were directed to work from home.

The US embassy is perhaps the most highly guarded diplomatic mission in Islamabad. Following recent threats from the Taliban, other foreign organisations, including the United Nations, have increased security at their offices across Pakistan.

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LK gets mouthful from RSS

New Delhi
Sept. 1: While the RSS is pressuring the Leader of the Opposition, Mr L.K. Advani to quit his post, its mouthpiece Panchajanya delivered another body blow. In its latest issue, the RSS’ Hindi mouthpiece published an article saying it was a “mistake to project Advani as the party’s prime ministerial candidate”.
The article “Galat ranniti, dukhad parinam (Wrong strategy, disastrous outcome)” took a jab at Mr Advani, by revealing that “while Atal Behari Vajpayee’s horoscope predicted that he would become Prime Minister, Advani’s stars never gave such indications”. It also targeted Mr Advani’s close aides, particularly Mr Sudheendra Kulkarni, who recently quit BJP.

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Sethna slams APJ, wants more n-tests

New Delhi, Sept. 1: Homi Sethna, a former top atomic boss, on Tuesday waded into the 1998 Pokhran row when he backed ex-DRDO scientist K. Santhanam’s assessment that the nuclear test was not a full success and slammed former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam for rubbishing the claim.
“I fully support Santhanam and I stand by his statement that India needs more nuke tests to be conducted,” Sethna, the guiding force behind India’s first nuclear test in 1974, said.
Kalam, was heading the Defence Research and Development Organisation at the time of the 1998 nuclear tests when Santhanam was coordinating Pokhran-II. Sethna, now in his eighties, suggested that Kalam was not a qualified authority to rubbish his former colleague’s claim.
Simultaneously, another former chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) P.K. Iyengar alleged that the 1998 tests were done in haste at the bidding of the then government. A BJP-led NDA government headed by Atal Behari Vajpayee had just assumed office when India conducted the tests.
The comments by Sethna, who was the AEC chairman in 1974 came notwithstanding Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Kalam setting at rest the controversy over the 1998 nuclear tests.
Kalam said the only thermonuclear device (hydrogen bomb) tested produced the “desired yield”.
But Sethna said “Kalam is not a scientist and Santhanam is a physicist and he knows what he is talking. What does Kalam understand about physics? He can say anything as he is the President and politician.”
“What Santhanam said was absolutely correct,” Sethna added.
“What did he (Kalam) know about extracting, making explosive grade? He didn’t know a thing. By being President he appears to wear the stature. He relied on atomic energy to gain additional stature,” said Sethna.
“I don’t like politicians to interfere specially lay politicians to interfere any more,” Sethna said.

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Somnath asked to clarify remark

New Delhi

Sept. 1: A blame game has begun within the Left parties over the cash-for-vote scam. A day after former Lok Sabha Speaker, Mr Somnath Chatterjee, told this newspaper that there were rumours that the “Left” knew something was going to happen to disrupt the trust-vote motion in Parliament on July 22, 2008, CPI(M) allies demanded that Mr Chatterjee should categorically mention the name of the particular party within the Left.
“He (Mr Chatterjee) is a very responsible person. If he is saying something, he must be categorical about it,” the CPI national secretary, Mr D. Raja said.
He wanted the former Speaker to identify the particular party within the Left which he believes was aware of the Opposition BJP’s attempt to disrupt the trust-vote proceedings. “The Left comprises of four different parties,” he said. Mr Raja claimed that the “CPI was unaware of it”.
Echoing a similar view, the RSP leader, Ms Abani Roy, said, “I do not think it was known to the Left parties as a whole. If he is mentioning a particular someone, he must give the name.” Mr Roy has submitted his resignation to the RSP and is awaiting the decision of his party.
Mr Raja said that the former Lok Sabha Speaker is not holding any constitutional post now and “must clarify what he meant by the Left”. To a news channel, Mr Raja said, “A person of his stature must disclose what he heard and should be categorical about it.”

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CBI for change in emigration policy

New Delhi
Sept. 1: The CBI in a note to the Centre has requested to bring drastic changes in policy, including “removal of agent system” for issuing emigration clearances, to curb “organised corruption” in the Protectorate of Emigrants offices in the country.
India’s premier investigating agency, which is investing several corruption cases of the POE offices, has come to the conclusion that a “full-fledged” industry of forging travel documents to get emigration clearances is thriving in the country. The agency has recently sent a note to the Centre suggesting major changes in the existing system of issuing emigration clearances.
The note, which in possession of this newspaper, says, “Travel agents and other racketeers have created an industry of forging travel documents in connivance with the POE officials. Officials of the Protectorate of Emigrants are well aware with the fact, who demand bribes for issuing emigration clearances on the basis of such forged documents. Innocent labourers seeking employment abroad are left with no option but to indulge in criminal act of submitting forged documents.”
The note further says, “Most of the applicants in POE offices are labourers seeking employment in Gulf countries, Saudi Arabia and other West Asian countries. According to the existing policy, certain documents from the prospective employer are a must for emigration clearance. The purpose is to make sure that the emigrant labourer is not cheated by recruitment agencies by ensuring documentation from the employer.” Contrary to that, hardly any employer in Saudi Arabia, Gulf or other countries in West Asia ever give such documents, says the note.
“Recently, more than 100 fake stamps were recovered when the CBI started investigation in connection with a corruption case in Chennai POE office. Similar evidence of large scale forgery industry is seen in cases registered in Hyderabad, Chandigarh and Thiruvananthapuram”, said the note, adding that the system of involving middlemen or agents should be removed. Some of the POE offices in the country issue at least 300 emigration clearances everyday on the basis of forged documents and the bribe money involved ranges to the tune of Rs 3 lakhs approximately everyday, says the note.
According to the note, “hawala” channels are used to send the bribe amount to the native places of the POE officials.

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Dead men tell a tale of job scam

Visakhapatnam
Sept. 1: The dead do not disappear. They return and work amongst us and even draw wages. This is something that will be vouched for by corrupt officials of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. Sunkara Appa Rao of Reddipalle panchayat and Kothana Ramu of Koyyapeta died long ago but are still being paid for NREGS work.

They are given company by two other dead persons, Mallu Appalanaidu and Mallu Chinappalaswamy, who are also wage-drawing workers in records. Jankala Krishna and Jankala Sanyasi are convicts in jail now. But they too are employed as per NREGS records.

These are just some instances of the massive irregularities and corruption in the much-touted NREGS scheme in Vizag district.

Rural job officials thrive on benami names

Visakhapatnam, Sept. 1: Large-scale corruption has plagued the much-touted National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme as even employed persons apart apart from the dead are shown to be working and drawing money as per its records.

Village resource persons show the name of Boni Suryanarayana who is working in the mandal office and Jankala Erri Naidu who is working as gangman in the railways as NREGS workers. Even a list collected from one mandal in the district has the names of dead persons and convicted prisoners and indicates embezzlement of Rs 3.5 lakh. Arguably, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Similar irregularities have come to light from various parts of the state in social audit conducted recently. The Anantapur district water management authority project director, Mr. L. Murali, disclosed that corrupt officials had drawn money after including names of employees and students in the muster rolls.

In Kurnool district, social audit officials found huge misappropriation of funds in Devanakonda mandal where lakhs of rupees were swallowed by officials. In Adilabad too, field level staff drew wages under fictitious names without doing works, tampering the muster rolls. Genuine labourers did not get wages though funds were withdrawn. Mr Ramlal, a field assistant of Balapala in Kuravi mandal of Warangal, was suspended for drawing money through accounts he created in post offices in fictitious names.

Four field assistants were also suspended in Kothur and Tallasankisa in Dornakal for misappropriating funds by creating fake post office accounts in the names of labourers. Similarly, in Chittoor district, lower rung staff had resorted to misusing the funds by registering names of dead persons. One such incident was reported from Diguvapalle village. Social audit officials were also surprised to find that some of the labourers mentioned in the muster rolls in Musalikunta village of the district did not exist at all. “We are taking steps to recover the amount from the officials. We have collected Rs 4 crore and suspended 2,407 personnel,” said the minister, Mr Vatti Vasanth Kumar.

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Wrongly jailed for 10 yrs, man gets Rs 1L

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Tuesday asked the Maharashtra government to pay Rs 1 lakh as compensation to a 40-year-old man who languished in
prison for over 10 years for a crime he didn't commit.

Malegoan resident Bapu Mali was in jail for five years as an undertrial battling rape and murder charges. Even after the trial court acquitted him, Mali spent five more years in prison as he didn't pay the bail amount when his case went into appeal.

"This is a sorry state of affairs," a division bench of Justice Bilal Nazki and Justice A R Joshi said, while upholding the trial court order acquitting Mali. "Not only the prosecuting agency but also the courts are involved (for Mali languishing in jail). This is a reflection on our own system which needs to be corrected."

The court, in its order, also framed guidelines for the trial courts in such cases and said that the sessions judge who didn't comply with the rules will be liable for departmental inquiry and even contempt of court. "A person who is acquitted should not remain in jail even for an (extra) day," said the judges.

"But many poor persons are unable to furnish the bail amount and remain in jail," advocate Yug Chaudhry, who was appointed as an amicus curiae (friend of the court) said. The HC asked the sessions judges to release such accused on bail or a personal bond; and, in case the sessions court decides to send the accused back to jail, the judge has to furnish the information to the HC.

TOI, in its edition dated August 17, 2009 reported the case of the 35-year-old man who was in prison for over five years despite being acquitted of the criminal charges against him. The court had directed the state to pay him Rs 10,000 as compensation. Subsequently, the HC asked the state to find out if there were other such prisoners and Mali's case came to light.

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Healthcare workers will be first in line for swine flu vaccine

NEW DELHI: India will vaccinate 20 lakh healthcare and emergency services personnel against the deadly H1N1 virus by the end of January using an
imported swine flu vaccine.

The health ministry has set aside Rs 100 crore as an interim budget to purchase these vaccines from any one of the four international manufacturers — Novartis, GSK, Sanofi Pasteur and Baxter — whose candidates are presently undergoing human trials.

However, India has one clear condition — the vaccine would have to undergo safety and efficacy trials on the Indian population before being used in the country.

According to experts, the vaccine may behave differently in Indians in comparison to people of other nationalities and may cause serious side effects like paralysis, urticaria and toxic reactions. Refusing to accept data from the trials conducted in foreign countries, ICMR director general Dr V M Katoch wrote to all four companies making it clear that even if it was not a largescale trial, the companies would have to atleast undertake a two-month bridge study on around 500 healthy volunteers.

Novartis and GSK have agreed to initiate a bridge study in India while the other two are yet to get back.

The global vaccines are expected to be available by October-end. It will then undergo a two-month bridge study in India. If found to be safe and efficacious in the Indian population, the two-dose vaccine, expected to cost around Rs 500 per dose, will be imported for frontline health workers dealing with H1N1 cases.

India’s indigenous vaccine being developed by Serum Institute, Bharat Biotech and Panacea Biotech is expected to be ready by April. The Indian vaccine will then be picked up by the government at a much cheaper price to vaccinate other high risk groups like children younger than five years old, people suffering from chronic health disorders and pregnant women.

Speaking to TOI, Dr Katoch said, "India can’t use a new vaccine against a completely novel virus without being sure that it is safe and effective for the Indian population. Till now, two of the foreign companies have agreed to carry out bridge studies in India. If all four companies carry out the study and their vaccines prove safe, we will then buy from whoever gives us the cheapest price. To start with, we will use it on healthcare workers for which we would require around 40 lakh doses of the imported vaccine."

According to director general of health services Dr R K Srivastava, countries like UK, France and US have booked vaccines from these international manufacturers under an advance purchase agreement. This is because the candidate vaccines have been tried on their population which isn’t the case with India.

An official said, "Even though these companies knew that most of their vaccines will be purchased by developing countries like India and China, they didn’t conduct trials here."

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Pakistan rapidly ramping up India-specific nuclear arsenal

WASHINGTON: Pakistan's rapidly ramped up nuclear arsenal is now 70-90 strong with increasingly sophisticated bomb designs and smart delivery
systems aimed primarily at India, two US researchers have said, even as Islamabad is running from pillar to post seeking foreign aid to stem an economic collapse.

In a paper written for the Bulletin for Atomic Scientists, Robert Norris of the Natural Resources Defense Council and Hans Kristensen of the Federation of American Scientists say Pakistan is "busily enhancing its capabilities across the board," with new nuclear-capable ballistic missiles being readied for deployment, and two nuclear capable cruise missiles under development.

Two new plutonium production reactors and a second chemical separation facility also are under construction.

The paper essentially upgrades Pakistan's nuclear arsenal both quantitatively (from 60 weapons last year to 70-90 now) and qualitatively -- from uranium-base to being plutonium-centric.

"The fact that they are preparing nuclear-capable cruise missiles suggests their scientists have been able to miniaturize nuclear warheads by using plutonium," Kristensen told ToI. "They are shifting their nuclear base from uranium to plutonium...in a sense, they are turning a chapter."

Plutonium-based warheads are lighter and easier to handle, a better fit for nimble cruise missiles. India's nuclear arsenal is largely plutonium-based.

Kristensen said Pakistan's weapons and deliver-systems can be assumed to be India-specific because Islamabad "has not declared any other adversary." The United States has been expressing concern to Pakistan about its accelerated program and urging it hold back, but there does not appear to be any concerted effort from Washington to influence Pakistan's decisions, he added.

Pakistan is an economically desperate situation and running from pillar to post for foreign aid, including beseeching the so-called Friends of Democratic Pakistan on a monthly basis for financial support to stave off a collapse. But that does not seem to have impacted the multi-billion dollar ramping up of its nuclear arsenal in the absence of any US effort to leverage the economic handle it has on Islamabad.

Islamabad, on its part, uses its role as a so-called ally in the war against extremists to keep expanding its nuclear program by implicitly threatening to cease helping the US – a nightmare scenario for Washington since most of teh supplies to its forces in Afghanistan goes through Pakistan.

"Both countries have a trump card to play. We have not heard any any descriptions about how they play it out," Kristensen said.

In their paper, Kristensen and Norris say Pakistan is improving its weapon designs, moving beyond its first-generation nuclear weapons that relied on Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU). After pursuing plutonium-based designs for more than a decade, Islamabad appears to have mastered the technology.

Central to that effort, the paper says, is the 40–50-megawatt heavy water Khushab plutonium production reactor, which was completed in 1998 and is located at Joharabad in the Khushab district of Punjab. Six surface-to-air missile batteries surround the site to protect against air strikes. Norris and Kristensen say as a sign of its confidence in its plutonium designs, Pakistan is building two additional heavy water reactors at the Khushab site, which will more than triple the country's plutonium production.

Explaining the changing nature of the Pak arsenal, they say all of these efforts suggest that Pakistan is preparing to increase and enhance its nuclear forces. In particular, the new facilities provide the Pakistani military with several options: fabricating weapons that use plutonium cores; mixing plutonium with HEU to make composite cores; and/or using tritium to "boost" warheads' yield.

Without referencing the recent controversy in India about the success or otherwise of its thermo-nuclear test in 1998 (now dubbed the sizzle vs fizzle debate), the paper says "absent a successful full-scale thermonuclear test (by Pakistan), it is premature to suggest that Pakistan is producing two-stage thermonuclear weapons" – in other words, it has yet to acquire a Hydrogen Bomb.

But, they say, the types of facilities under construction suggest that Pakistan has decided to supplement and perhaps replace its heavy uranium-based weapons with smaller, lighter plutonium-based designs that could be delivered further by ballistic missiles than its current warheads and that could be used in cruise missiles.

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