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NCP meeting on Congress offer doesn't materialise

       New Delhi: The 10-day long deadlock over the Maharashtra chief ministership issue continued even today, even as the NCP meeting on the Congress offer, which was scheduled to be held here today at the residence of NCP chief Sharad Pawar failed to materialize. "There is no meeting. The situation is as it was yesterday," Union minister and NCP's negotiator on the issue Praful Patel said. The Congress had offered two additional berths and two posts of Deputy Chief Minister in Maharashtra, and the NCP Chief had called a meeting of senior party leaders to discuss the same, but as he was busy at official meetings at Krishi Bhawan the meeting couldn't start. Meanwhile, Congress President Sonia Gandhi has renewed consultations with senior leaders to resolve the issue. She had a meeting with Pranab Mukherjee, the chief negotiator for the Congress, Ahmed Patel, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Arjun Singh and Margaret Alva, to find a way to end the stalemate.

Three rocket launchers recovered in Meerut (Go To Top)

        Meerut: Police in India's northern Meerut city on Monday (October 25) recovered 32 rockets, some of them live, and three rocket launchers dumped in a deserted spot outside the city. Villagers informed the police of some suspicious objects and squads reached the site where the scrap explosives, including live shells, were found. Scrap explosives have been recovered frequently across northern and western India since the September 30 blast at a scrap factory in neighbouring Ghaziabad city killed 10 workers and injured 15 others. Police said they have cordoned off the area and are searching for more explosives."At this moment prima facie it appears that somebody has dumped them. The water level has gone down. We are cordoning off the area and then we will call bomb disposal squad and register the case under the Explosives Act," said Anju Gupta, Senior Superintendent of Police, Meerut. "I was passing by when I saw there were some iron rods lying. Me and my friend suspected something wrong. So we took them to the police station," said Urvesh Kumar, a villager. India has banned scrap imports from war zones in the wake of last month's accidental blast and said it would allow scrap imports only in shredded form. India has a prolific recycling industry that imports large amounts of scrap metal to make items such as automobile parts and pots and pans. In 2002, India imported steel from the World Trade Centre in New York, destroyed in the Sept. 11 attacks.

BDR, BSF exchange gunfire by Nazrul Islam (Go To Top)

       Dhaka: Border guards of Bangladesh and India traded heavy gunfire across the border on Monday night over push-in of some 'Bengali-speaking Indian nationals' at different points in the northern Tetulia frontier. Villagers in Banglabund areas say panic gripped along the borders as the Bangladesh Rifles and Border Security Force traded over 1,000 bullets overnight. No casualties were, however, reporters until Tuesday evening. Officials at the Bangladesh rifles claimed that they foiled a number of push-in bids by the Indian guards at 15 border points. However, a correspondent in Panchagar district reported that nine Indian Muslims, including two women and four children were forcibly pushed through the Rawshanpur border of Tetulia early Tuesday. BDR commander Lt Col ABM Asaduzzaman and deputy commander Major Khizir Khan admitted the exchange of fire. Tension mounted in the bordering district as the BSF reportedly gathered in small groups all along the border of the district to push into Bangladesh. They were kept under the open sky in an inhuman condition. Both the sides have agreed to hold a flag meeting at sector commander level on October 28 at Banglabund zero point.

SC clears Bhopal victims' dues plan (Go To Top)

        New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday approved an action plan to distribute compensation to the Bhopal gas leak victims, from November 15. In December 1984, tonnes of toxic gas leaked from U.S.-based Union Carbide's plant in the central Indian city of Bhopal, killing thousands of people almost immediately and injuring tens of thousands. The Welfare Commissioner had submitted a plan to distribute Rs. 1567 crores among 572,000 survivors of the worst industrial tragedey in 1984. "Court has given a direction to the welfare Commissioner that by 15th November dispersion of the compensation should be started. Welfare Commissioner has decided that if somebody has already received Rs. 15,000 then they should be given an additional Rs. 25,000. This is the process," Suhasin A Qadir, Counsel for the gas victims said. The court agreed with the Welfare Commissioner's decision to keep aside Rs. 60 crores for payment to victims whose claims were still in various stages of adjudication. The victims' associations welcomed the court's decision.

       "The decision which the Supreme Court has taken today for the gas victims regarding the compensation money is very good. We are all very happy," said Bal Krishna Namdeo, president of one of the gas victims' association. Union Carbide, now owned by Dow Chemical Co., paid 470 million dollars in compensation to residents in 1989, but only some of that amount has been distributed due to legal and bureaucratic tangles over categorisation and the genuineness of claims. At the time of the settlement with Union Carbide, it was estimated around 3,000 people had died and 102,000 were ill as a result of the deadly methyl isocyanate gas leaking into the air. But the Supreme Court in July ordered the disbursement of the remaining Rs. 15.03 billion compensation given in 1989 and also accepted the latest government figures that around 15,000 had died and over 550,000 victims were eligible for compensation due to exposure-related illnesses. In a verdict in 1991, the Supreme Court said if the extent of the tragedy -- and number of victims -- was found to be more than initially estimated, the Indian government would make good the shortfall in compensation.

Somnath to meet PM, Congress leaders (Go To Top)

       New Delhi: Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee will meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other top congress leaders, including Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Leader of the Lok Sabha Pranab Mukherjee and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad today to discuss the issue of smooth functioning in the Parliament. According to the sources, the Speaker wants to ensure that the Lower House functions smoothly in the coming winter session and for that he will try to evolve a consensus on the issue. He is expected to discuss with them issues that would be taken up by the Opposition, followed by a meeting with the Leader of the Opposition L.K. Advani and other BJP leaders on October 28. "These two separate meetings are being held with the two major political parties so that a consensus is evolved ahead of the November 23 meeting and thus ensure that the winter session slated for 23 days from December 01 goes off smoothly," said the sources.

Faulty voting machines to decide US president (Go To Top)

       London: If you thought voting machines were a menace only during the Indian elections, think again, as a new survey by Time magazine has revealed that almost half of the American population is worried that faulty voting machines could be the ones deciding their next president and not them. According to the Mirror, 48 percent of the voters said that a technical problem could mean that the winner of the Nov 2 elections might not be the one with maximum votes. Voters fear that this election might be a repeat of the previous elections when thousands of votes were rendered useless because they were not punched properly on the old machines and in a lot of cases machines failed to correctly punch a hole next to the name on ballot cards. Much akin to India, American voters also count distribution of alcohol and pre-election violence as common election time problems. Although the government has equipped voting booths with touch screens to do away with the problems, voters are also scared that if the system collapses their votes will be lost forever. The survey revealed that 58 per cent people think that the courts might have to intervene to decide the result, and forty percent voters fear that judges might not get it right either.

Steps to protect UK Parliament from terrorist attack (Go To Top)

       London: The Houses of Parliament are to be protected from terrorist attack by electric fences, roadblocks and a boom barrage in the Thames, according to a leaked report. The long-awaited document from the security service and police, running to 250 pages including an appendix, details how the Palace of Westminster is to be turned into a fortress within months. According to a 'Sunday Times' report, the recommendations from MI5 and the Metropolitan police have already been endorsed in private by the Commons and Lords joint committee on security. But the disclosure of the contents of the confidential document is likely to fuel a power struggle over who will take command in the event of a terrorist emergency at Westminster - the so-called "men in tights", such as the sergeant at arms and Black Rod, or a new outside security expert.

        The report was commissioned by Michael Martin, Speaker of the House of Commons, after confidential security briefings that Al- Qaeda terrorists have parliament in their sights and may have visited Westminster to look at vulnerable points. Martin has kept the report locked in his office and has shown it in confidence to only a dozen MPs and peers. Pressure for prompt action to tighten security has grown after pro-hunting campaigners invaded the Commons chamber last month, the powder bomb attack by divorced fathers on Tony Blair at prime minister's questions, and the scaling of the Big Ben tower by Greenpeace protesters. Peter Hain, leader of the Commons, has said that the "horrifying reality" was that each protest could have been an attack by a suicide bomber. Speculation earlier this year that the report would recommend building a concrete wall around parliament and a bomb-proof screen on the Commons terrace proved unfounded.

       The final report, delivered to the Speaker this month, recommends: (1) The installation of electric fencing around the Palace of Westminster. This "electrical protection" should cover parts of the building that are accessible to the public, particularly the clock tower that the Greenpeace protesters managed to scale within minutes, leaving the police powerless to get them down. (2) Road closures around Parliament Square with rising bollards to protect against truck bombs. Making the whole square pedestrian-only was originally considered. MI5 has warned that there is a danger that if a truck bomb hit the base of the clock tower it could topple over and crush the Commons chamber. (3) A boom barrage extending a third of the way across the Thames to protect against terrorists loading a barge full of explosives and ramming it into the side of the Commons. (4) CCTV cameras in all corners and corridors of the Commons to prevent incidents such as the invasion by the pro-hunting protesters. They were suspected of changing out of their disguises in a committee room, a ploy that could have been caught on monitored cameras. (5) All 14,000 pass-holders, including every MP, minister and the prime minister, must wear their photographic identity pass at all times. Visitors are already being issued with black "V" badges. (6) Car parking restrictions outside parliament, including clearing the peers' car park in front of the House of Lords. (7) A permanent bullet-proof screen in the Commons chamber would cover the whole public gallery, including the front three rows where peers can sit. The screen, which is to be installed next summer, will also be made to look "more aesthetic". (8) A security co-ordinator for parliament as a whole to be appointed, who would oversee both the Commons and the Lords for the first time. In the past the traditional ex-army officers - the "men in tights" - from the different houses have run their own operations.