Laxmi Pandit returns Miss India World title

         Mumbai: Amidst controversy over whether the Miss India -World is a Ms or Mrs, Laxmi Pandit has decided to return her title to the organisers. Quoting personal reasons, an official spokesperson said, "Lakshmi has decided to return the title on her own. She does not want to jeopardise her chances at the Miss World pageant by representing the country with a tainted image and wants it all on a clean slate." The decision on who will take over the Miss India-World title will be taken in a few days. Until then, Second Runners-Up Sayali Bhagat continues to hold the Miss India-Earth title. The rules of the Pond's Femina Miss India contest stipulate that contestants should be single. However, media reports had revealed that Pandit had rented a flat with model Siddharth Mishra in a housing cooperative society in Malad. The couple had told the neighbours, the landlady, and the Malad police that they were married, even signing a lease agreement jointly.

Indian rupee soars to 47-month peak (Go To Top)

         Mumbai: The Indian rupee rose nearly one percent against the dollar to hit a 47-month closing high on Wednesday as the central bank limited its intervention in the face of surging foreign investment inflows. The rupee closed at 43.6500/7000 per dollar, notching an 8.7 percent appreciation in 2003/04 (April-March). It last closed higher at 43.6775/6825 on May 9, 2000. The rupee, which had previously closed at 44.07/08, hit a session peak of 43.35 before retreating slightly on corporate demand and a brief bout of central bank intervention. Moses Hoarding, financial analyst and executive Vice President of Indusind bank, said the markets were caught unawares by the rupee's knee-jerk appreciation on Wednesday.

Tohra critical, being flown to Delhi (Go To Top)

          Amritsar: Ailing Akali leader and Chief of Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee Gurcharan Singh Tohra, is being shifted to a Delhi hospital for advanced treatment. Tohra, who was in a serious condition after suffering a massive heart attack on Thursday, was being flown to the Capital for treatment. He was likely to be admitted in a super specialty hospital in Delhi.

Indo-Pak nuke CBM, Kashmir talks in June: Aziz (Go To Top)

          New Delhi: Foreign Secretaries of Pakistan and India will hold talks on Kashmir and for putting a series of nuclear-related confidence-building measures in place when they meet in June, disclosed Pakistan's High Commissioner to India Aziz Ahmad Khan. Speaking at the Asian Institute of Transport Development here, he was quoted by the News as saying that the technical-level discussion between the two countries on six other issues - Siachen, Wullar Barrage, terrorism and drug trafficking, Sir Creek and friendly exchange and economic cooperation would take place in July. "This will be followed by a meeting between the foreign ministers of the two countries in August this year to review the progress of the composite dialogue," he added.

Delhi's Metro extended to Rithala (Go To Top)

          New Delhi: The Metro was today extended to Rithala in north-west Delhi with the opening up of the 8.9 km long Inderlok-Rithala section. The new fares, decided at the meeting of the Board of Directors of the Delhi Metro yesterday, also came into effect from Wednesday. The fares on new secrion range from Rs.6 to Rs.14. However, Smart Card owners will get a ten per cent discount. With the opening of the new section, line 1 of the first phase of the Metro project has been completed. The line, from Shahdara to Rithala, consists of 18 stations covering a distance of 21 km. The Inderlok-Rithala section has eight stations-- Kanhaiya Nagar, Keshav Puram, Netaji Subhash Place, Kohat Enclave, Pitam Pura, Rohini (East), Rohini (West) and Rithala. The section is fully elevated with the Metro Rail running 12 metres above the ground level.

SC endorses ban on Togadia's entry into Karnataka (Go To Top)

          New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday overruled a Karnataka High Court order to lift a ban on the entry of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Praveen Togadia into Mangalore in February, 2003 to attend a Hindu moot. ''We are unable to approve the High Court order in this case. The executive order passed by the local administration was not supposed to be interfered by the High Court,'' Mr. Justices Doraiswamy Raju and Arijit Pasayat observed. Togadia had appealed before the High Court challenging the ban order and the High Court in its February 13, 2000 order had set aside the ban order saying the ADM did not have power to issue such an order.

War literature seized from Maoist hideout (Go To Top)

          Siliguri: Police in West Bengal, bordering Nepal, seized a huge quantity of communication equipment and warfare literature from a Nepalese Maoist hideout. The seizure came after police netted a top guerrilla leader of the Nepal Maoist Party, spearheading the rebellion in the Himalayan kingdom, from a tea garden in the Darjeeling-Siliguri region. Based on the interrogation of the rebels, police conducted raids at various other places in the region recovering the huge cache. "We have recovered computers, floppies, compact discs and a lot of literature, one binocular, one antenna with some transmission devices and some shock giving instruments, some telephones, lot of maps and a lot of literature on warfare, how to conduct warfare," Rajiv Mishra, superintendent of police, said, on Tuesday. The Maoists have been fighting to set up a communist republic in the Hindu nation wedged between India and China. Nearly 9,000 people have been killed in the insurgency since it began in 1996. Nepalese troops earlier this month began a fierce battle with the rebels in a remote mountain area.

40 kg RDX seized from village near Srinagar (Go To Top)

          Srinagar: Security officials in Kashmir on Wednesday recovered about 40 kg of deadly explosives from a remote village. The paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) along with the police seized the Research Developed Explosive (RDX) in a search operation conducted in Nowhata village, some 50 km from Srinagar.

Dalai Lama transfers powers to 'parliament' (Go To Top)

          Dharamshala: The Tibetan parliament-in-exile on has approved a seven-point agenda recommended by their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, to transfer his powers to the parliament or the Assembly of Tibetan People's Deputies (ATPD). The resolution on the approval of the seven-point agenda was introduced in the Assembly in September last year and finally adopted with amendments on Tuesday. Deputies of the Tibetan Parliament-in-exile said the new move would empower them just like any other parliament in the world. The democratisation process was initiated in 2001 when the prime minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile was elected directly by the people. The 46-member Assembly is currently holding its budget session in Dharamshala, headquarters of the Dalai Lama. The Tibetan Parliament has heavily borrowed from Indian Constitution and Parliament. It is a one-house Parliament which meets twice a year for about a fortnight each. The life of Parliament is five years.

          It was in January 1960, the Dalai Lama advised his followers in exile to elect their representatives on the basis of three each from those who had come from the three Tibetan regions. The first elected representative body in Tibet's history, designated the Commission of Tibetan People's Deputies, met on September 2, 1960. The day is observed by the exile community as the "Democracy Day." Chinese troops imposed Communist rule on Tibet in 1950 and the Dalai Lama fled nine years later after a failed uprising against them. China claims Tibet as part of its territory and accuses the religious leader of separatist activities. The Dalai Lama's envoys recently visited China as part of a contact-building process that began in 2002 when the Tibetan god-king's envoys visited China in the first direct contact between them since 1993. The ageing Dalai Lama, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, reiterated he was not seeking independence for Tibet but greater autonomy for the region.

'People missing in north-east since Bhutan crackdown ' (Go To Top)

          New Delhi: Indian human rights activists on Wednesday demanded to know the whereabouts of at least 18 people who went missing during Bhutan's crackdown on anti-India guerrillas late last year. Activists of the North-East Coordination on Human Rights, holding banners and placards, took out a demonstration here to draw attention to their cause. The forum said it would submit a memorandum to the Bhutanese embassy to trace the people missing since the Himalayan kingdom's royal army launched operations in December. More than 190 people were killed and some 500 Indian rebels belonging to United Liberation Front of Asom and National Democratic Front of Bodoland surrendered to authorities during the month-long operation. The human rights group said most of the innocent citizens were picked up by the Indian army from remote villages as it lay siege on the border.