Amar
Singh dares Congress to withdraw support from UP govt.
New
Delhi: Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh
today dared the Congress to withdraw its support from the
UP government. He said if the Congress had complaints against
his party then it was free to withdraw its support from
the Mulayam Singh government in the state. "We are capable
to run the state government on their own. We want to tell
the Congress leadership that our government in UP is not
dependent on them. We are not surviving on their crutches.
They can withdraw support whenever they may please," he
told reporters in the Capital. He also charged Congress
with targeting SP leaders and tapping their phones. Amar
Singh also alleged that the common minimum programme of
the ruling party at the Centre (read Congress) had failed
both on political and governance fronts. On the forthcoming
Assembly polls in Bihar, he said his party would contest
the state elections with "full strength". Rubbishing speculation
about SP and BJP coming closer, he said the party had been
accused of this (heaving a truck with the BJP) even earlier,
and it was both unfounded and politically motivated. "We
have been accused of hobnobbing with BSP, this time its
BJP. People forget it was our party that defeated the communal
BJP and we won 40 seats in Lok Sabha polls. Even in the
recent by- elections people gave us overwhelming mandate
while the Congress could not save its deposit," the SP leader
added. On the Left's cold shouldering the SP proposal to
form a Third Front, Singh said they have not at least ruled
it out and will be formed when the right time comes.
Pak
spy nabbed in Amritsar (Go
To Top)
Amritsar:
The Amritsar police today claimed to have arrested a
Pakistan spy trying to gather information about the Indian
Army and the Indian Air Force (IAF) bases in Punjab. He
was arrested in Amritsar. Rashid Masih alias Sunny, the
Pakistani national, was nabbed by CBI sleuths from a cyber
cafi from the city's main university premises. Masih was
allegedly sending scanned copies of information about an
army cantonment on the city's outskirts. Masih, who was
masquerading as a student, said he had been trained by a
defence personnel in Lahore. "I am from Sialkot in Pakistan.
A Lahore-based army person who sent me here to pass on information
about the Indian army trained me. My real name is Rashid
Masih," he said. Masih said he had allegedly entered India
through neighbouring Bangladesh in February this year. The
accused is alleged to have links with Pakistan's Inter Services
Intelligence. (ISI). "This man was passing secret information
of Army Brigade and Air force. We have recovered photographs,
e-mails and other details from him. We are carrying on investigations
as to how long he as been associated with this sort of spying,"
Salwinder Singh, chief of the special team, which tracked
the spy said.
EC
directs RJD to remove hoardings before Dec 30 (Go
To Top)
New
Delhi: The Election Commission (EC) today directed the
RJD and other parties to remove before December 30 all hoardings,
banners and posters put up across Bihar, especially Patna,
ahead of the forthcoming Assembly polls. The order came
after the EC took a serious note of defacement of Patna
ahead of RJD rally, which was scheduled for December 23.
The rally was, however, postponed by the RJD keeping in
view the EC's strong exception. The Commission also directed
the State Chief Secretary to fix penalty for violation and
recover the same from the concerned political parties. The
Commission arrived at these decisions while acting on a
report prepared by EC Advisor K.J. Rao on the violation
of model code of conduct by RJD. Rao had submitted the report
yesterday. The Chief Secretary has also been asked to obtain
the explanations of the officers responsible and forward
the same to the Commission by January 5.
Asteroid
could hit the earth by 2009 (Go
To Top)
London:
A massive asteroid heading for Earth has a 1-in-300
chance of smashing into the planet in 2029, according to
researchers. According to the Sun, the space rock is believed
to be more than 1,300ft long and was only rediscovered recently
by astronomers who first spotted it in June. However, the
threat is likely to be eliminated once astronomers work
out its orbit. "In the unlikely event that it did hit, it
would be quite serious. We're talking either a tsunami if
it hit in the ocean, which would be likely, or significant
ground damage," NASA chief Donald Yeomans said.
India
lose by 15 runs to Bangladesh (Go
To Top)
Dhaka:
Bangladesh today pulled off a major upset when they
beat India by 15 runs in the second One Day International
at the Bangabandhu Stadium in Dhaka. The win is Bangladesh's
sixth win in a one day internationals and is also their
first ODI win at home and comes in their 100th one day international.
Mashrafe Mortaza, who contributed a valuable unbeaten 31
and also returned bowling figures of 2 for 36, was awarded
the Man of the Match. Earlier, Bangladesh elected to bat
and put on 229 for 9 in their 50 overs thanks to a brilliant
67 from Aftab Ahmed. India who had rested Sachin Tendulkar,
Irfan Pathan, Rahul Dravid and Harbahajan Singh for this
game were dismissed for 214. The only bright spots for India
were S Sriram who made 55 and Mohammad Kaif who made 50.
The three-match series is now tied at one win a piece with
the third and final one dayer in Dhaka on Monday.
