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PM leaves for Germany

     New Delhi: Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh embarked on a five-day visit to Germany and Uzbekistan on Saturday afternoon to take forward its bilateral ties with both the countries. The visit to Germany is aimed to continue the momentum of existing political, economic, trade and commercial consultations, as Germany is an important strategic partner of India, and also, a key member of the Group of Four (India, Germany, Japan and Brazil) that was actively involved in the reform process of the United Nations. On April 24, Dr. Singh will inaugurate the Hannover Technology Fair in Germany along with the German Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel. This would be the second time that India has been invited to participate in this fair-- the first being in 1984. This time, however, the participation would be on a much larger scale than what it was 22 years ago.

     The Fair, which is widely recognised as the world's largest and most important technology event, is the single biggest brand- building exercise for Indian manufacturing, engineering and related technologies. At Hannover, India will organize a business event on each day of the fair for which it has taken 11,500 sqm of space, the largest ever by a Partner Country. Nearly 320 Indian companies, including Bharat Forge, Reliance, Ashok Leyland and other organisations, large as well as Small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and five State Governments are participating in the fair.

76 pc polling in Bengal, 65 in Kerala (Go To Top)
by Ajitha Menon/K.Ashik

      Kolkata/Thiruvananthapuram: An estimated 76 per cent of the total 1.13 crore electorate in West Bengal cast their ballots in the second phase of state assembly elections for 66 seats, the Election Commission said on Saturday. It said that polling was peaceful in the Districts of East Midnapore, Howrah, Hooghly and Nadia where long queues of voters were seen after 5:00 p.m. East Midnapore recorded 60 per cent polling, it was 70 per cent in Howrah, 65 per cent in Nadia and 61 per cent in Hooghly. Polling, which started on a dull note, picked up as the day advanced and in many polling stations women outnumbered men. In Kerala too, elections ended peacefully with an estimated 65 per cent of voters exercising their franchise in 59 Assembly constituencies covering six southern districts of the state. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, nine of his cabinet colleagues and some top LDF leaders are the prominent candidates whose fate will be decided in the first phase. Polling began on a dull note in the morning but gained some momentum by noon in Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Alappuzha, Pathanamthitta, Kottayam and Idukki districts that went to the polls. The voter turnout was not very impressive in urban areas, but some segments like Puthupally, where Chandy is contesting, witnessed brisk turn out of about 70 per cent. Barring minor disputes between rival sides in some booths, no incidents were reported from anywhere, police said. Though a total of 409 candidates were in the fray, the main fight is between the UDF-DIC(K) alliance and the CPI-M led LDF. BJP had also put up its candidates in majority of the seats in the region. Some 25,000 police personnel and 25 companies from the neighbouring states were deployed to ensure polling went offf peacefully. Digital cameras were installed in sensitive booths. The second phase of polling covering Ernakulam, Thrissur, Palakkad,Malappuram, Kozhikode and Wayanad will be held on April 29 while Kannur and Kasargode districts will go to the polls in the final phase on May 3.

Murdered Jessica Lal's father dead (Go To Top)

      Gurgaon: Slain ramp model Jessica Lal's father Ajit Lal passed away at a private hospital here on Friday night after a prolonged illness. Lal, 76, was admitted to Kalyani Hospital late last month where he was being treated for a brain stroke, hospital sources said. A stroke in late 2002 had affected his memory. He had been keeping ill health since 2000 when his wife passed away apparently under shock of the April 1999 murder of her daughter Jessica at a party in South Delhi. Jessica was killed on April 19, 1999 allegedly by Manu Sharma, the son of Haryana politician Venod Sharma, at Tamrind Court Restaurant after she refused to serve liquor to him.

Navy patrol vessel sinks off Goa (Go To Top)

      New Delhi/Panaji: Indian Navy's INS Prahar, a 450 tonnes patrol vessel sank off the coast on Friday midnight, 35 kilometres south of Goa. The ship was commanded by Lt. Cdr Yogesh Tripathi. The incident occurred when the M V Rajiv Gandhi, a container carrier of the Shipping Corporation of India, collided with the INS Prahar 35 kilometres west of Goa. No casualty has been reported. Seventy-three crew members of the patrol vessel were rescued. Six naval and two coast guard ships, one Dornier aircraft, two naval helicopters and merchant vessels were deployed for search and rescue operations. The cause of the accident is not yet known and a board of enquiry has been established to investigate into the matter.

AIADMK ropes in stars for campaign (Go To Top)

     Chennai: The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) is trying to give some glamorous touch to its party by bringing in film actors for campaigning for the forthcoming assembly elections in Tamil Nadu. After actress Simran, it was now turn for the comedian twin bothers-- Mahadevan and Sagadevan-- to campaign for AIADMK supremo J Jayalalitha against the Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam (DMK) chief, M. Karunanidhi. Listing various achievements of AIADMK, the Tamil film actors appealed the electorate to vote for AIADMK. "We are doing political campaign in favour to Amma Jayalalithaa and also asking vote for the 'two leaf', the party symbol. We went to many places in Tamil Nadu to campaign for the party," said Mahadevan. "We are canvassing for two leaf party symbol. Jayalaithaa also solved water problems and has announced 10 kg rice free to the public, book for students. She is distributing free cycle for the school students and if she comes back to power, she will work for the betterment of people," said Sangadevan. Recently, politics and celluloid is being seen as inseparable during election times. Many political parties are roping in popular actors to add glamour and colour to their campaign for the by-elections. DMK-led front is the main rival of the ruling AIADMK-led People's Democratic Front in the State. Polling for 234 constituencies in Tamil Nadu is scheduled to be held on May 8.