IAF confirms death of Mirage pilot

      New Delhi: The Indian Air Force on Wednesday confirmed the death of Flight Lt. Neehar Gururani, the pilot of the Mirage fighter aircraft, which crashed near the Gwalior airbase late on Tuesday night. Giving details, an IAF spokesman said that the the ill-fated Mirage fighter had taken off from Gwalior airbase at 8.30 p.m. on a night exercise sortie and lost radar and radio contact with ground 15 minutes after take off. The damaged plane was found 50 kms north east of the Gwalior airbase. The dead pilot's was also retrieved and brought back to the base. The Air Force has ordered a court of inquiry into the cause of the crash. This is the fourth crash involving a Mirage 2000 fighter aircraft. These aircraft were inducted into the air force in 1987 and have had a much more cleaner flight safety records than other fighters. Flight Lt. Gururani is the son of Air Marshal S Gururani, who retired recently as Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief IAF Maintenance Command.

PM to go to J and K (Go To Top)

      New Delhi: Quashing rumours that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had cancelled his two-day visit to to Jammu and Kashmir on November 17 and 18, his media adviser, Sanjay Baru, on Wednesday dismissed the report as "totally false". "The report is totally false and there is no change in Prime Minister's programme", Baru said.

Kids want cracker-free Diwali (Go To Top)

      New Delhi: School children from across the country have joined hands for a cracker free Diwali. Shouting slogans "Say no to crackers", the young environmentalists lined up on the streets in the Capital to form a human chain and urged parents and children to have a joyous but safe Diwali. According to rough estimate, Indians blow up about 50 million dollars worth of crackers during the festival, causing thousands of fires and leaving the air four times more polluted than a normal clear day. Various organisations have been running massive campaigns targeting school children, who are amongst the largest consumers. Rohini and Shubh, both 15-year old, said firecrackers not only increased pollution levels but were a serious health hazard. "If the school children are aware and they ask their parents not to buy crackers, they would agree to it. So, I think it is very important to be aware. It will help not only patients suffering from Asthma but also others. We really hope that it that this Diwali would be cracker free. We are looking forward for everybody's co-operation," said Rohini Khanna. "I am going to celebrate this Diwali by not bursting crackers. I am going to burn green crackers if I do burst crackers. We have stuck posters and have been interacting with the children to create awareness," added Shubh Mitra, another student.

Pak bans 11 Jihadi outfits as image building exercise (Go To Top)

      Lahore: The Pakistan government has as part of its image building exercise banned as 11 jihadi outfits from holding public gatherings and issuing public statements. According to the Daily Times, the conglomeration by the name of Muttahida Mahaaz Council (MMC) an alliance of 11 groups,including Hizbul Mujahideen, Hizbullah, Jamiatul Mujahideen, Muslim Janbaz Force, Hizbul Momenin, Al Fatah, Al Umer, Tehreekul Mujahiden, Tehreekul Jihad, Al Jihad and Al Barq, among others, all active in Kashmir has been advised against attending or holding public gatherings, meetings, rallies or congregations. As per the report the group has been restrained from voicing utterances on Kashmir as some "irresponsible statements" made by the group earlier had apparently landed the Pakistan government in a soup before the international community. The MMC too has taken a very serious view of Islamabad's diktat and adopted a resolution, putting in effect a system disallowing any jihadi outfit from holding gatherings. It's believed that the chief of Hizbul Mujahiden, Syed Salahuddin, also chose not to attend the Jammat-e-Islami annual congregation at Azakhel Park, Nowshshra, in the first week of October, following MMC's resolutions.

East Bengal lifts 117th Durand Cup (Go To Top)

      New Delhi: East Bengal beat Mohun Bagan 2-1 to lift the 117th Durand Cup football tournament here on Wednesday afternoon. Chandas Das emerged the hero of the team, scoring in the 24th and 92nd minute of the match. For Mohun Bagan, Noel Wilson scored in the 76th minute. The two teams last met in a Durand final in 1994, when Mohun Bagan beat East Bengal 1-0, thanks to a Jo Paul Anchery goal. Wednesday's match was the 11th time that the two teams clashed in a Durand final. With today's win, East Bengal registered its fifth victory. Mohun Bagan has won the title four times. Both teams have shared the trophy on two separate occasions.

Mauritius to crackdown on Indian black money (Go To Top)
by N Bhadran Nair

      New Delhi: Mauritius will no longer be a safe haven for parking black money from India, said its Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Regional Cooperation Jayen Cuttaree here on Wednesday. Cuttaree said his country has put in place financial regulations compatiable with all the international guidelines to make it a clean offshore for investment. "There have been in the past some concerns expressed about that. We ae now fully compatiable with all the international guidelines at the level of OECD to make it a clean offshore," Cuttaree told ANI in an exclusive interview.

       "We want to develop ourselves into a financial centre so it is in our interest to see that our reputation stays good. We ourselves, more than anybody else, realise that we need to have a clean centre, which we have today," he added. Investigations by Indian regulators into the stock market crash in 2000 had revealed that Indian businesses had been trading in their own shares through the vehicle of overseas corporate bodies (OCBs) set up in Mauritius. By definition, OCBs include overseas companies, partnership firms, trusts, societies and other corporate bodies owned either directly or indirectly to the extent of at least 60 per cent by NRIs. These private outfits are virtually unregulated either by Indian authorities or by authorities of the foreign lands where they are registered. Some of these OCBs were used to funnel anonymous funds parked abroad back into the stock market.