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Sonia was fully briefed on Iraq visit: Natwar

       New Delhi: Maintaining that he had done nothing wrong in Iraq's Oil-for-Food programme scam, suspended Congress leader K. Natwar Singh today said that he had gone to that country as a member of Congress delegation, and on his return, he had briefed party chief Sonia Gandhi about all the discussions that were held there. Addressing a press conference for the first time after his privilege motion notice against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over the leakage of Pathak committee report was rejected in Parliament, Natwar said that neither he nor Sonia has said anything against each other in the wake of the report. "Till now, in her generousity and kindness, Sonia Gandhi has said nothing against me. And neither have I said anything against her," he said. Contrary to the Volcker Report, which named Natwar and the Congress party as the non-contractual beneficiaries of the UN Oil-for-Food programme, he said: "During my entire stay in Baghdad, there were no discussion or talks with regard to food or oil. There was no mention of any form of receipts or vouchers". Natwar, who called himself a "committed Nehruite," went on to say that he never asked for any favours for himself or his son Jagat Singh. "No illegality was committed whether Indian or internationally during that visit," said the suspended leader. Claiming that Pathak Commission had completely absolved him and Jagat in the report, Natwar said that there were lots of loopholes in the Volcker report and Volcker had not produced any evidence of financial gains against him or his son Jagat. "Volcker has accepted that he had to change certain phrases and sentences in his report in order to shield UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and his son Kojo," he added.

Privilege motion against PM rejected (Go To Top)

       New Delhi: The Lok Sabha on Friday rejected a privilege motion notice against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, which was sent by suspended Congress leader K Natwar Singh and some other Opposition leaders over the leakage of Pathak committee report. While rejecting it, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee said: "I hold that no breach of privilege or contempt of the House has been occasioned by the leakage of the contents of the report. I, therefore, disallow the notices of question of privilege". Chatterjee further expressed the expectation that the government would look into the matter in-depth and investigate it before finally taking any action. A privilege motion was moved against Dr. Singh on August 6. The notice relates to leakage of the Justice R S Pathak Commission report before it was tabled in Parliament. It was sent to the House Secretariat just a day ahead of the expected tabling of the report in Parliament. The privilege notices were given by BJP deputy leader V K Malhotra and party leaders Sontosh Gangwar and B C Khanduri. The list also includes Braja Kishore Tripathy (Biju Janata Dal), Prabhunath Singh and George Fernandes (Janta Dal-United), Sukhdev Singh Libra, Shiromani Akali Dal, and Mohan Singh of Samajwadi Party.

     Earlier, a privilege motion notice was rejected by Rajya Sabha Chairman Bhairon Singh Shekhawat on Thursday. Rejecting the notice, Shekhawat told the Rajya Sabha: "Past precedents in similar cases also lead me to reach the decision that this matter does not constitute any breach of privilege of the House," adding, "The notice is not admissible". Natwar had alleged that the report of the Justice R S Pathak Inquiry Authority was leaked to the media soon after it was submitted to the Prime Minister, and by doing so, the Prime Minister had breached the privilege given to him.

Natwar attends Rajya Sabha (Go To Top)

      New Delhi: A day after the Rajya Sabha rejected his privilege motion notice against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, suspended Congress leader K.Natwar Singh on Friday attended the proceedings in the Upper House. Natwar reached the House before the proceedings started this morning, and occupied a seat next to Agriculture Minister Sharad Yadav and Fertiliser Minister Ram Vilas Paswan. Interestingly, the former External Affairs Minister did not utter a single word during Question Hour. However, he thumped the desk when Minister for Agro and Rural Industries Mahavir Prasad was replying to supplementaries. The Congress suspended Natwar on August 8 from the primary membership of the party and issued a show cause notice after being indicted by the Justice Pathak Inquiry Authority in the UN's oil-for-food programme scam in Iraq. The Pathak inquiry committee, probing Natwar and Congress' involvement in the oil-for-food scam since December 2005, found the leader and his son Jagat Singh, an MLA from Rajasthan, as having misused their positions in the Congress party to get the oil contracts for some people close to them. The Congress party, however, was exonerated. According to earlier Volcker Committee's findings, Natwar and Congress were non-contractual beneficiaries in the oil-for-food programme during the Saddam Hussain regime in 2001.

178 Aurangabad villages flooded (Go To Top)

       Aurangabad: The release of two lakh cusecs of water from the Gayakwadi Dam has led to the flooding of 178 villages in Maharashtra's Aurangabad District and nearby low-lying areas. Hundreds of people have been marooned and are struggling for both food and water. Maharashtra chief minister of the state Vilas Rao Deshmukh has announced a relief package of Rs 1000 per person will in addition to 20 kgs of rice and kerosene oil. "The package that we decided is rupees 1000 per head and up to rupees 5000 for a family. We will also distribute 20 kgs of rice and 10 litres of kerosene immediately. We will also visit the areas and conduct an on the spot survey so as to see the number of houses damaged, so that we can take necessary compensation," said Vilas Rao Deshmukh, Chief Minister of Maharashtra. Around 90 percent of the town was submerged and people were seen wading through waist-high water and vehicles almost totally merged. Phone lines were down, train services to Surat suspended and there was an acute shortage of drinking water. Full-scale relief operations would begin once water levels receded.

'Dawood had a major role in '93 blasts' (Go To Top)

       Lucknow: Incarcerated gangster Babloo Srivastava has claimed that underworld don Dawood Ibrahim played a vital role in the 1993 Mumbai blasts, and said, that the sentencing of the accused will greatly affect the Ibrahim gang's confidence. Talking to reporters after a TADA court hearing in Lucknow 's Qaisar Bagh area, Srivastava said that the court should judiciously apply its mind when passing sentence on the accused. "It was a serious case. There were a plethora of inquiries, witnesses and hearings in this case. There are people who were convicted in this case, who are out on bail and some are in the lock. Whosoever is accused, will face punishment," said Babloo Srivastava. Babloo also said that he had no connection with Fazal-ur-Rahman, another criminal, who has recently arrested. According to him, the the 1993 Mumbai blasts took place because of the negligence of excise department's officials. Babloo, who is all set to write a book titled 'Babloo's Unfulfilled Dreams', could contain information about his relationship with Dawood Ibrahim.

FICCI upset over ban on cold drinks (Go To Top)

      New Delhi: The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) expressed its unhappiness over Kerala Government's ban on cold drinks alleging it did not follow due procedure. The Secretary General of FICCI, Amit Mitra, at a press conference said that the action taken by the Government of Kerala of banning the cold drinks was not taken after following the due process and it has violated a joint Parliament report. He further added, "Banning a product without suspension notice, without an opportunity to a given company in any sector to explain their position is very dangerous because it will hamper the future investments as well."

Not Indian, but an African body lands

       Gorakhpur: It was adding salt to a festering wound as far as the family of Subodh Tripathi was concerned. After receiving a coffin supposedly carrying the dead body of their son, Tripathi's family was shocked to see the body of an African woman instead. "We were informed on the 23rd that Subodh had expired. His friend informed us. We got in touch with the embassy in Delhi. They took their own time and finally we came to know that his body had arrived, which we got from Delhi.But after opening the coffin we found the body of an unknown African lady," said a weeping Shivanand Tripathi, Subodh's brother. Family members said that this official apathy had pained them no end. They said that the police on being informed about the matter immediately returned the body back to the embassy. "We instantly returned the body to the particular place we had brought it from. Because we felt that even the person's relatives might be in search of the body like we are searching ours," said S B S Rangarao, District Magistrate. Subodh Tripathi was an employee of a shipping company based in Dubai and was recently posted to Iran. The cause of his death is yet to be ascertained. Meanwhile, the Ministry of External Affairs has said that it took immediate steps insofar as alerting the Indian Embassy in Tehran was concerned about the mishap. An official spokesman of the ministry said that Tiwari's company,M/s Ali Hamid Siddiqui Shipping Company Khor, Dubai, had informed that Subodh had been killed in an accident on July21, and had made arrangements for the body to be flown back to India by Iran Air flight no. 810 to Mumbai and onward to Delhi by Indian Airlines Flight that reached on August 8 at 8 p.m. He said that when the Government was informed about the wrong body being delivered, it had requested the embassy in Tehran to take up the matter strongly with the shipping company and ask it to arrange to send Tiwari's body immediately. "Our embassy has informed that the body of Subodh Kumar Tiwari has been located and arrangements are being made to send it to India," the spokesman said.

Katara murder: Vikas's bail plea rejected

       New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Friday rejected the bail plea of Vikas Yadav, the prime accused in the Nitish Katara murder case. The bail plea was dismissed by Justice A K Sikri on the grounds that Yadav may destroy evidences and threaten witnesses related to the case after getting the bail. On July 29, a public prosecutor had told the Delhi High Court that the External Affairs Ministry has confirmed the address in Britain given in the fax by Bharti Yadav, another important witness in the murder case. He had also told that the signature in the fax, sent to the court from London where Bharti is supposedly staying since July 2003, did not match her original signature. Vikas Yadav and Vishal Yadav, the brother and cousin of Bharti, are facing trial in the case for allegedly kidnapping and murdering Nitish Katara on the intervening night of February 16- 17, 2002, from Ghaziabad where Nitish had gone to attend a marriage party.

Sharif, Pak Opp. leader to form alliance (Go To Top)

      London: Former Pakistan premier Nawaz Sharif and the country's Leader of Opposition, Maulana Fazalur Rehman have reportedly agreed that a grand alliance should be formed in order to launch a joint movement against the Shaukat Aziz government. The duo decided this at a one-to-one meeting here. A comprehensive policy has also been chalked out in this regard which will be acted upon shortly, they said in a joint press conference after the meeting held at the PML-N international secretariat. The pivotal point of the meeting was the formation of grand alliance, which was desired by both sides, The Nation quoted Sharif as saying. The nation would be made aware of the perturbing and the most aggravated situation of the country, he said and added that the government should resign on the steel mill scandal. "President was giving shelter to Shaukat Aziz and his cabinet because all of them are part-takers in the scandals," he further said. On the occasion, Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman said that the overall situation of the country had been discussed in his meeting with Sharif, and that both of them had agreed to carry on a joint struggle for the restoration of the democracy and constitution in Pakistan, thus to proceed jointly. He said that no trust motion was a part of the political and democratic process which would mean that the present government had failed in its policies to serve the country and the nation. He also said that there was no advancement on the part of this government in the areas of the restoration of the constitution, stability of the democracy and the formation of a free and autonomous election commission.

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