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Tendulkar undergoes hand surgery

          Baltimore, Apr 30: Master blaster Sachin Tendulkar got his left hand surgery done successfully here on Wednesday. He was operated upon at Sinai Hospital by orthopaedic surgeons Dror Paley and Steven Friedman, noted specialists in hand surgery. The world's number one batsman got his ring finger injured while catching the ball during a match in November. The 30-year-old is scheduled to return home on Thursday.

'Lathi Rally': BJP man lynched, RJD leader gunned down

          Patna, Apr 30: A BJP worker was killed in Patna on Wednesday as violent clashes broke out between activists of the BJP and the ruling RJD. Police said Satyanarayan Sinha was attacked along with other BJP activists on the outskirts of Patna by RJD workers, who also torched vehicles and damaged property. Sunil Kumar, Senior Superintendent of Police, said the activists also fired at the police personnel present there.

          On Tuesday night, an RJD leader, Raj Kumar Yadav, who had come here to take part in the party's 'lathi rally' at Gandhi Maidan, was gunned down by unidentified persons. The slain leader was said to be a close aide of former MLA Ranvir Yadav.

           "Today (April 30) in the morning there were clashes and exchange of firing between activists of the two parties resulting in the killing of Satyanarayan Sinha. The activists torched several vehicles and fired at us and also threw stones," he said. Kumar, however, claimed the situation was now under control.

           Thousands of RJD supporters, coming from various parts of the state, had gathered in Patna to participate in a rally called by party chief Laloo Prasad Yadav. Yadav had called for a staff-wielding rally to give a fitting answer to the BJP and its hardline Hindu affiliates that brandished tridents. "They (BJP) want to rule over the whole country and that is why we have organised this rally. They won elections in Gujarat by instigating communal clashes. We will not allow them to do the same here," Rabri Devi, Yadav's wife and Chief Minister of the state, said while addressing the charged-up crowd. At least 1000 people, mainly Muslims, were killed in widespread riots in February last year in Gujarat. General Secretary of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) Praveen Togadia was arrested in Rajasthan earlier this month for defying a ban on distributing Trishuls (Tridents). Togadia had distributed tridents to nearly 3,000 activists.

           Laloo Yadav had called for the use of "staffs" to take on the "trident" wave. Meanwhile, life in Patna came to a standstill. Public transport and facilities were hijacked for the rally. Schools in the city have been closed for two days and examinations were also postponed. Traffic was disrupted during the day.

China, Hong Kong register 18 more Sars deaths (Go To Top)

          Beijing, Apr 30: China on Wednesday reported 11 new Sars fatalities and Hong Kong seven more deaths raising the Sars death toll to 159 and 157, respectively. In China, there were 166 new cases of infection, raising the total to 3,460, the Health Ministry said. Nine of the new deaths were in Beijing. One death was reported in the eastern port city of Tianjin and other in the northern region of Inner Mongolia. Beijing accounted for 101 of the newly reported infections, raising the Chinese capital's total to 1,448 cases.

           In Hong Kong, the number of new cases has stayed in the tens, health officials said. There were 17 new cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome reported in Hong Kong over the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 1,589. Experts have said the number seems to be coming down, although it has remained in the double digits every day. Another 32 people have recovered and been discharged from hospitals, for a total of 791.

          Meanwhile, India reported its 10th Sars case, of a truck driver who returned from Singapore last week.

Sars less infectious in children (Go To Top)

          Hong Kong, Apr 30: The severe acute respiratory syndrome does not seem to be as frightening in young children as in adults. A preliminary analysis in Hong Kong has revealed that the disease appears to be less infectious in kids than in adults and teenagers. The finding is supported by the observation that not one of the 333 people killed so far by Sars has been a child, according to a report in New Scientist.

          The study of 10 Hong Kong children showed that kids under the age of eight suffered far milder symptoms than teenagers and adults. Paediatrician Tai Fai Fok, who led the research at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said, "While this is a reassuring sign, we should not be complacent". Fok, with colleagues at Hong Kong's Prince of Wales and Princess Margaret hospitals, observed children admitted to the hospitals between 13 and 18 March. They discovered the two distinct patterns of disease, the report said. The five teenage patients had symptoms similar to Sars in adults - muscle pains, malaise, chill and rigour. However, the younger children had mainly coughs and runny noses with no muscle pains or chills. Furthermore, four of the five teenagers needed ventilatory support compared with none of the younger children. The observations also suggest that children with Sars are less infectious. Eight of the 10 had been attending school when they developed symptoms but none of their classmates contracted the virus, the report added.

           Fok suggests two possible reasons as to why the Sars virus causes a milder illness in young children. "They tend to have all kinds of viral infections. Antibodies may cross-react with the Sars virus giving some kind of protection", he noted. The second hypothesis is that the children were spared because their immune systems are still only developing. "In adults much of the lung damage in Sars is due to the body's own immune reaction to the virus", Fok added.

Saddam going to address nation, claims a group (Go To Top)

          Dubai, Apr 30: President Saddam Hussein is alive and will deliver an address to the Iraqis within 72 hours. This was announced by a group calling itself Iraqi Resistance and Liberation in a letter published by the London-based Arabic newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi, according to News24.com. Saddam "has come across evidence that some Iraqi officials had long been involved with American and British intelligence," the letter reportedly added. Al-Quds al-Arabi is edited by Abdul Bari Atwan, a Palestinian known for his pro-Saddam sympathies.

Inspection at Pak fertiliser plant for chemical arms (Go To Top)

          Karachi, Apr 30: Inspectors of the Organisation for the Probihition of Chemical Weapons, of which Pakistan is a member, have started checking at a fertilizer plant in Karachi to find out if there are chemical arms. This is the first such inspection in the country. The experts arrived at the FFC Jordan Fertilizer Company located in the eastern zone of the city near Port Qasim on Tuesday amid tight security and started operation. Workers of the factory, gathered outside the plant, were denied entrance prior to the inspection as a security measure.

           A Pakistani official, Brigadier Tipu Sultan, who accompanyied the arms inspectors, told the reporters gathered at the site that Pakistan did not possess any sort of chemical weapons, saying the inspection was "providing lawful security" to Pakistan against hostile neighbours. "Pakistan has got no chemical weapons. You know chemical weapons have been a reality in the sub-continent. Our neighbour has it, " said Sultan who is a foreign office spokesman.

Graft case filed against ex-judge (Go To Top)

          New Delhi, Apr 30: The Central Bureau Of Investigation on Wednesday registered a case of corruption against former High Court judge Shameet Mukherjee and other lawyers after conducting raids at their residences. Speaking to the press, Ashwani Kumar, Joint Director, CBI, said, "Nobody has been arrested so far. Investigation is going on. Right now it is a case of illegal gratification. The issue is related to the proposed widening of Aruna Asaf Ali Road which did not take place. According to the DDA Resolution 1995, whatever investigation had to be carried out was not completed. Several encroachments were made on the road." The CBI registered a case under the Prevention of Corruption Act and abuse of official position against the former judge. The CBI sleuths carried out searches at the residence of Mukherjee and a dozen other places believed to be belonging to some lawyers and private persons. The CBI has registered a case of corruption against Subhash Sharma, IAS, Dharamvir Khattar, Vinod Khatri and Ashok Kapoor. Searches in a total of 11 premises were conducted in the morning. Two locker keys have been seized from Shameet Mukherjee's premises.

           Mukherjee, whose name got thick in this controversy, submitted his resignation on March 31 but cited health of his wife as the reason for the decision. Later, the former High Court judge made an unsuccessful attempt to withdraw his resignation.

India re-elected to UN rights panel (Go To Top)

          New York, Apr 30: India again grabbed a berth on the 53- member United Nations Commission on Human Rights, it was reported on Wednesday. Others elected from the Asian group included Saudi Arabia, Bhutan and Nepal. Thailand was eliminated, whereas North Korea, Cambodia and Vietnam withdrew before from the race. Britain, Italy and the Netherlands were elected from among Western nations while Portugal was eliminated. Among those re- elected from east European states were Russia and Hungary. Egypt, South Africa, Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Mauritania were elected from the African group. Based in Geneva, the Commission has mandate to promote universal enjoyment of human rights. But, lately the Commission came under severe criticism for the fact that some nations having questionable human rights record have found a berth in the Commission.

Basu worried over party infighting (Go To Top)
-by Gautam Ghosh

          Kolkata, Apr 30: Former West Bengal chief minister and veteran CPI(M) politburo member Jyoti Basu is considerably worried about his party's growing infighting as well as its estranged relationship with other major Left Front partners on the eve of the panchayat polls. The veteran Marxist, who used to be the CPI(M)'s star campaigner in earlier elections, has not been involved in the party's electioneering in a big way this time as the Alimuddin Street bigwigs are anxious to project chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

           Basu, who has been quite unsparing in his criticism of the Trinamul Congress-BJP combine, however, is not happy over the steady erosion in the Left Front's unity after his retirement from active politics. His assertion about the party losing control over the workers at the grassroots level has only vindicated the other Left Front partners' charge that the pre-poll clashes among them in the districts are largely due to the state CPI(M) leaders' failure to discipline their cadre. The deterioration of the CPI(M)'s relationship with the Left Front constituents actually began after the demise of state CPI(M) secretary Promode Dasgupta back in 1982. Basu, however, succeeded in maintaining a working relationship with the Front partners during his tenure as the chief minister.

          However, with his replacement by Bhattacharjee and Anil Biswas' appointment as the state CPI(M) secretary the ties between the Marxists and their coalition partners turned from bad to worse. The CPI(M)'s failure to gain absolute majority in the last Assembly polls and its dependence on other Left Front constituents to run the ruling coalition and the government, however, apparently prompted the party to encroach into their strongholds and thereby monopolise political power in rural Bengal.

          The on-going clashes between the CPI(M) on the one hand and the RSP and the Forward Bloc on the other are the natural outcome of this trend in left politics, according to political observers here. A major reason for the increasing infighting in the district units of the CPI(M) on the eve of the rural polls is the party's decision not to nominate primary and secondary school teachers who had toiled hard to strengthen the CPI(M)'s support base in rural Bengal and ensure the party's victory in the last panchayat elections.

          These school teachers are today an aggrieved lot for quite a few other reasons. The state government's failure to ensure timely payment of monthly salaries to these teachers and pension for the retired ones has only added to their discontent. The Alimuddin Street mandarins began to suspect their loyalty when they protested against the state government's decision to ban private tuition and ultimately decided to select candidates from the new generation which has little political education and prefers to use strong-arm tactic to win polls. It is therefore not at all surprising that thousands of school teachers have filed nominations in the three-tier rural polls scheduled for May 11 as independents against the Marxists.

          One of the factors, which is, however, going to help the CPI(M) in the panchayat polls is the Congress' tacit understanding with it in many areas. PCC president Pranab Mukherjee not only kept quiet in the Rajya Sabha during a discussion on the "CPI(M)'s pre-election terror in West Bengal," but has declined to back Trinamul Congress chairperson Mamata Banerjee's demand for imposition of President's rule in the state to ensure a free and fair election. Congress chief whip Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi too played the same role in the Lok Sabha and made Ms Banerjee's dissociation from the NDA a pre-condition to support her "campaign against the CPI(M)'s terror."

          The harassment of Biswanath Chowdhury, a Cabinet minister belonging to the RSP in the hands of some CPI(M) supporters at Hilli in north Bengal last week and Basu's consequent critical observation about the party workers' conduct, have encouraged Ms Banerjee to reiterate her call to the aggrieved Front partners to part company with the Marxists. The Trinamul Congress leader's repeated calls to the RSP and the Forward Bloc to quit the Left Front and join a broad-based anti- CPI(M) front under her leadership has naturally kept them on the wrong foot.

          According to political analysts, Ms Banerjee has kept her party's door open to all the disgruntled political forces with an eye on the next year's Lok Sabha polls. She feels she has largely succeeded in "exposing the CPI(M)'s terror on the eve of the rural polls" and hopes to capitalise on it during the Lok Sabha elections.