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Militants kill 10 in Rajouri district

     Srinagar: Ten members of two families were killed by a group of militants in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir early on Monday morning. According to the police, the militants entered the residence of Munshi Ram in Kandi village of Budhal tehsil, had food with them, and then mercilessly slit their throats. Two of the dead have been identified as Munshi Ram and his son Kala Chand, they said. After escaping from the scene, the militants went to Mohra Gabbar village in the same tehsil, barged into the house of one Kartar Singh and killed five persons and injured another. Police and security forces have rushed to the two villages. They are likely to launch an operation to track down the militants responsible for the ghastly incident.

Five villagers killed, 70 houses burnt in Assam village (Go To Top)

     Diphu (Assam): Unknown gunmen in Kheroni village in Assam killed five villagers and ablaze nearly 70 houses on early Monday morning. After the incident, the district administration set up relief camps in which over 10,000 people were reported to have taken refuge. Meanwhile, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi rushed to the spot immediately to take stock of the situation in the affected areas in Kheroni village which is about 12 km from Diphu in Karbi Anglong district of Assam. However, the exact number of casualty and other details related to the incident were not known as yet.

Mumbai bus operators on strike  (Go To Top)
by Sushil Pareek

     Mumbai: Mumbai's private bus operators have begun a day-long strike to highlight their various demands, including removal of toll tax and diesel tax. A Maharashtra State Truck Tempo Tanker and Bus Transport Federation release said that it has decided to support the shutdown, but will not join the strike. Private bus operators staged sit-down demonstrations outside the Regional Transport offices in each district and the Transport Commissioner's office in Mumbai. Their demands include reduction in diesel tax and withdrawal of the toll tax until the roads are repaired. Besides this, their other demand includes removal of a steep hike of 100 per cent in the tax levied on them. The school buses and the vehicles ferrying office-goers to their destinations also remained off the roads in the city.

Journalist Chanchal Sarkar mourned (Go To Top)

     New Delhi: Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting and Culture, Jaipal Reddy, on Monday condoled the passing away of veteran journalist Chanchal Sarkar. "I am shocked to learn about the passing away of the veteran journalist Chanchal Sarkar. I deeply regret his demise and express my heart felt condolences to the bereaved family," Reddy said in his condolence message. A founder director of the Press Institute of India, Sarkar was a recipient of the prestigious Nieman Fellowship of the Harvard University. He was a development journalist par excellence and passionately worked for people oriented communication. His original insights into the developmental issues were widely acknowledged. His columns, which appeared in almost all newspapers, were appreciated for their in-depth and incisive treatment of the issues. A member of the Akash Bharati Committee, Chanchal Sarkar also made notable contribution in examining the autonomy for Doordarshan and All India Radio.'

20 feature, 15 non-feature films for IFFI 2005 (Go To Top)

     New Delhi: Twenty feature and 15 non-feature Indian Panorama films will be screened at this year's India International Film Festival (IIFI) to be held in Goa. The films to be screened were selected and announced by juries appointed separately for the two categories. A report on the selections was given to the Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting, S. Jaipal Reddy on Monday. Official sources said that the two juries assessed 82 feature films and 147 non-feature films over a period of 17 days. The Indian Panorama section is an integral part of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI). The feature films jury was headed by noted filmmaker M.S. Sathyu and had its members Biplab Roychaudhury, Dr. R K Verma, Shalini Shah, Roja Ramani and C P Padmakumar. The non-feature films jury was headed by veteran film director Aribam Shyam Sharma and had its members Arun Chaddha, Sanjivan Lal, MC Raja Narayanan, and M A Rahman. The Indian Panorama section of the IFFI-2005, to be held in Goa this year from November 24 to December 4, 2005 will open with Daivanamathil (Malayalam) directed by Jayaraj, while the opening film of the non-feature section would be The Jaws of Death directed by Gautam Saikia. The juries have also decided that Perumazhakkalam (Malayalam) directed by Kamal and Iqbal (Hindi) directed by Nagesh Kukunoor will represent India in the Competition section of the 36th International Film Festival of India.

Gold prices touch all-time high at Rs 6905 (Go To Top)

     Mumbai: The increased demand due to heavy festive and upcoming wedding seasons coupled with firm overseas advises have pushed the gold price at an all time high at Rs 6905 per 10 gram on the bullion market here on Monday. Standard gold (99.5 purity) started trading at an all time high at Rs 6905 per 10 grams as against the Friday's close of Rs 6895. Pure gold (99.9 purity) was also quoted at an all-time high of Rs 6940 at the opening session. Silver also zoomed by Rs 100 per kilo to resume at Rs 11,625 on frantic buying ahead of the festival and wedding seasons. In the international market, gold for December delivery contract rallied to $476.10 an ounce on the New York Exchange on Friday on heavy speculative buying, dealers said. According to the dealers, the stockists and local jewellers were the major buyers in the bullion market as they are speculating good demand for the precious metals in view of the heavy wedding and festive seasons ahead when gold and silver jewellery are in keen demand.

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