Lucknow:
Incarcerated criminal Babloo Srivastava on Friday said
that he was ready to dispose before any investigating agency
in connection with the 1991 Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
Talking to the media during his appearence in a court here,
Babloo reasserted that some Congressmen were behind the
assassination of the former prime minister in Sriperumbedur,
Tamil Nadu. He said he would reveal the names only an authorised
investigating agency like the Jain Comission probing the
killing of the former Prime Minister or the CBI. Earlier,
Babloo had made a startling disclosure that controversial
Godman Chandraswami rejoiced when he was informed of Rajiv
Gandhi's death. A law graduate from Lucknow University,
Babloo claimed he had stayed with Chandraswami throughout
the day when Rajiv Gandhi was killed. He claimed that the
tantrik talked to several Congress leaders over the phone
on the same day and later held a meeting with industrialists,
where the issue of who would become the next Prime Minister
was discussed.
Amritsar
in cold wave grip (Go
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by Ravinder Singh Robin
Amritsar:
A thick layer of fog in Amritsar has thrown life in
the holy city completely out of gear. The bone-chilling
temperature have not only affected the public, but also
hampered the movement of trains, buses and flights. The
delivery of essential commodities has also been severely
affected. In the mornings, milk and vegetables arrive late
in the city from villages as milkmen and farmers are unable
to deliver on time. Ravinder Singh ,a milkman, says he was
unable to keep his supplies on time due to fear of any mishap
while going to the city. "Visibility is at a severe low
beacause of the fog. Because of fog we are facing difficulties.There
are increased chances of accidents," said Ravinder Singh,a
milkman. Sukhdev Singh, a farmer, said that he was apprehensive
about losing his crop due to the cold, and added, that a
major part of it has already been destroyed. "I am feeling
very cold. Vehicles are moving slowly. The rainfall is not
good for our crops," Sukhdev said. The cold hasn't spared
Amritsar's tiny tots. Gurdeep Singh, a young student who
was shivering in the cold while going to school on rickshaw
innocently suggested that schools should observe holidays
on foggy days or begin studies after noon. "When we go to
school in the morning,its very foggy. We face difficulties
to go to school, its very cold. We do not want to go to
school," he said. Visibility remains low and the chilly
winds have forced the people to remain indoors.
Purnia
district administration officials raid district jail (Go
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Patna:
Purnia district administration officials raided the
district jail today and seized five mobiles, three colour
televisions and Rs. 70,000 from there. Out of the Rs.70,000,
approximately Rs.50,000 was seized from the cell occupied
by North Bihar Liberation Army chief Shankar Singh. The
Patna High Court recently ordered a thorough search of various
jails in the state, including the offices of prison officials.
To check the growing menace created by criminals from behind
the bars the court had asked raiding parties to seize prohibited
articles like mobile phones from prison inmates. Mobile
phones, knives, ganja, cell phone chargers, liquor bottles,
tobacco, cigarette packets and other prohibited items were
seized from jails across Bihar during surprise raids early
this month. The raids were conducted as part of a crackdown
on kidnapping-extortion rackets being run by criminals from
jails.
Narasimha
Rao's body lies in state at Congress HQ (Go
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New
Delhi: The mortal remains of former Prime Minister PV
Narasimha Rao, who died at the age of 83 at the All India
Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on Thursday, is lying
in state at the headquarters of the All India Congress Committee
(AICC) at 24 Akbar Road to enable party leaders and workers
to pay their last respects. The state funeral and cremation
will take place in Hyderabad on December 25 at 3.30 p.m.,
Congress sources said. Cutting across party lines, politicians
and the public were seen arriving at the Congress party
headquarters on Friday to commiserate with the family members
of the departed leaders. Eulogies from across the country
and from world capitals have also started coming in after
hearing the news of Rao's death from a cardiac arrest. The
US has also condoled the former Prime Minister's death,
saying India had lost an important figure, who initiated
major economic reforms in the country and was instrumental
in ushering in a new era of Indo-US relations. Born in Hyderabad
in 1921, Rao was the first Prime Minister outside the Nehru-Gandhi
family to complete a full five-year term in office between
1991 and 1996. After Rajiv Gandhi`s assassination in 1991,
Rao, a politician with more than six decades of experience,
was chosen to lead the Congress party, and when Congress
won a plurality in Parliament later that year Rao became
Prime Minister.
CPI-M
readmits ailing Nripen Chakraborty (Go
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by
Pinaki Das
Agartala
(Tripura): Expelled CPM politburo member and former
Tripura Chief Minister Nripen Chakraborty has been re- inducted
in the party after nine years. The ailing Communist leader
was expelled on April 13, 1995 for his open criticism of
the then CPM led Left Front government of West Bengal and
the state's then Chief Minister Jyoti Basu, whom he referred
to as the fountain of corruption. The readmission of Nripen
Chakraborty was cleared by the apex body of the CPM in consultation
with the state committee of Tripura, in view of his record
of long service to the Communist movement, said Gautam Das,
a spokesman of the Tripura unit of the CPI-M. Das said that
it was the first time in Indian Communist history that any
expelled person had been readmitted to the party without
any appeal from that person to return back. Nripen Chakraborty,
an Economics Honors graduate of Dhaka University, pioneered
the Communist movement in Tripura.He started his political
career in Agartala in August 1950. He was the state's chief
minister from January 1978 to February 1988. Chakraborty
is currently admitted to Kolkata's SSKM Hospital and his
medical condition is stated to be serious.
Two
soldiers convicted for planning attack on Musharraf (Go
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Islamabad:
Two soldiers have been convicted for conspiring a murderous
attack on President Musharraf. According to The News, one
soldier was awarded the death penalty while the second one
has been awarded 10 years imprisonment. Investigations are
also being carried out against some other individuals. These
two soldiers were involved in the attack against the President
on 14th December in Rawalpindi.
AQ
Khan, a very serious and dangerous proliferator: Powell
(Go
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Washington:
Outgoing U S Secretary of State Colin Powell believes
that Pakistanin nuclear scientist A Q Khan was a "very dangerous
proliferator" of nuclear technology, and it was a relief
to him as well as the rest of the world that he had been
exposed and incarcerated in time. "He was a very serious
proliferator. He was very dangerous to the world in that
he was doing this not for ideological purposes. The total
range of his motivation I'm not sure I understand, but some
of it was for financing. I mean, he was making money on
this deal. He was living very well. And he was a serial
proliferator for many years," Powell was quoted as telling
the Christian Science Monitor in an interview. He further
went on to claim that Khan played into the hands of Washington
and President Pervez Musharraf by going public with his
shenanigans from the end of 2002 and right up to his arrest
in January 2004. "His (Khan's) activities became more public
over the last year and a half, it was not easy for him to
hide. It was easier for us to approach the Pakistanis and
say to them, look, this is what we know," the Dawn quoted
Powell as saying.
Powell
said that in late January or February 2003, he telephoned
President Musharraf and told him: "We know so much about
this that we're going to go public with it, and within a
few weeks, okay? And you need to deal with this before you
have to deal with it publicly. "And that's what President
Musharraf did. The next thing we knew, A.Q. Khan had been
put in custody." Powell also declared Musharraf as being
absolutely in the dark about the controversy, adding that
he certainly did not feel that the Pakistani president was
an accessory in the scam. "I have no reason to believe that.
I have no evidence to that," Powell said when he was asked
whether he thought Musharraf was involved in any way. He
also expressed confidence about Pakistan's efforts to catch
Osama bin Laden and other Al Qaeda leaders.
