Tagore's Nobel prize medal stolen
Kolkata:
The Nobel prize medal awarded to Indian poet-laureate
Rabindra Nath Tagore has been stolen from the Vishwa Bharati
University museum in Shantiniketan. Talking to reporters
here, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee
said the theft was detected this morning when the university
reopened after a day's break. He also said that a watch,
a bangle, some important citations and rare paintings and
other priceless artefacts belonging to the poet were also
missing.
According
to reports available, the theft was committed while the
fifth and final one-day international between Pakistan and
India at Lahore's Gaddafi Stadium was on. University authorities
closed the gates of Uttarayan to the general public and
senior police officials along with Vice- Chancellor Dr Sujit
Kumar Bose were taking stock of the situation.
Madhumani
surrenders; in judicial remand (Go
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Lucknow:
Madhumani Tripathi, wife of jailed Samajwadi Party legislator
and former state Minister Amarmani Tripathi, on Thursday
surrendered before the Special CBI court here. Madhumani
accompanied by her lawyer Vijay Vikram turned up at the
Special CBI special court around 1530 hrs. Rejecting the
CBI's plea for a five-day police remand, CBI Special Judge
Digvijay Nath sent her to 15 days' judicial custody. The
judge also rejected a CBI request to interrogate her. The
CBI had claimed that since she had been evading arrest it
was necessary to interrogate her. Earlier, she had applied
for three weeks' time to surrender, but the Lucknow Bench
of the Allahabad High Court had turned down her plea. The
CBI court had already issued non-bailable warrant against
her, since she was one of the prime accused in the murder
of city poet Madhumita Shukla. Madhumita was shot dead at
her Paper Mill Colony residence here on May 9 last year.
Centre
to release more J-K political prisoners (Go
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New
Delhi: The Government has decided to release a number
of political prisoners in Jammu and Kashmir after the second
round of talks between the Centre and a moderate faction
of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) that will
take place in New Delhi on March 27. Highly placed sources
in New Delhi said today that after the first round of talks
held on January 22 the government had released 69 detenus
from the jails in Jammu and Kashmir. Forty-three of these
detenus were released on the recommendation of the joint
screening committee of the government of India and the state
government and the rest were released by the state government.
One of the primary demands of the Hurriyat has been to release
all political prisoners and to set up mechanisms that will
protect the human rights of the people in Jammu and Kashmir.
Official sources said that both the recommendations were
being reviewed by the government and in the first instance,
a number of detenus will be released shortly after March
27, which will be a major step towards consolidation of
the dialogue process with the Hurriyat.
Surface-to-air
missile Trishul testfired (Go
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Balasore:
Indigenously built India's most sophisticated short-range
surface-to-air missile Trishul was successfully testfired
from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipore-on-sea,
about 15 kms from here, on Thursday. The missile, especially
designed for sea skimming exercise for the Indian navy,
was testfired from a mobile launcher at 1450 hrs, ITR sources
said. Trishul was one of the five missiles under various
stages of development by the Defence Research Development
Organisation and part of the integrated guided missile development
programme. Launched in 1983, the missile can be used by
all the three wings of defence. ITR sources said the solid
fuel propelled missile has a battle role for all the three
forces with a range from 300 metres to 9 kms. The three
metre-long missile, sources said, moves at a supersonic
speed and has a command line of flight guidance system.
It also has a very sensitive radar altimeter and could skim
over the sea at a very low altitude.
Four
ISI agents sentenced to death (Go
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Bhuj
(Gujarat): A local court in Bhuj district of Gujarat
on Thursday sentenced four alleged Pakistani ISI agents
to death by hanging for their role in smuggling explosives
in 1999. Fast Track Court Judge V M Choudhary, however,
acquitted 23 co- accused in the case for want of adequate
evidence. They are all local residents.
Bush
waives post-October 99 sanctions on Pakistan (Go
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Washington:
After granting Pakistan major non-NATO ally status last
week, the Bush Administration has extended further largesse
to Islamabad by waiving aside sanctions that Washington
had imposed in 1999 in the wake of the Kargil War and the
military coup staged by Pervez Musharraf. In a statement,
US President George W. Bush was quoted by the News as saying
that the lifting of the sanctions would facilitate the transition
to democratic rule in Pakistan and was important to U.S.
efforts to fight international terrorism.
