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Rs 100 billion Air India expansion plan New Delhi, Nov 8: The Air India board has given the nod to acquire 28 new aircraft as part of the fleet expansion at a cost of about Rs 100 billion. Air India would acquire 10 long range and 18 short range aircraft, AI's Director, Public Relations, Jeetendra Bhargava, told newsmen after the meeting here on Saturday. The long range aircraft are Airbus 340 while the 18 others are Boeing 737-800, he said. The new aircraft would be acquired over a period of five years. Religious fervour marks Guru Nanak day Amritsar, Nov 8: Thousands of Sikhs visited holy shrines across the country on the occasion of the 534th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, founder of Sikhism. Devotees in Amritsar paid obeisance at the world famous Golden temple. In New Delhi, Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani alongwith his family members offered prayers at the famous Rakab Ganj shrine. The day is also celebrated as "Prakash Divas", an equivalent of Diwali or festival of lights. (See also Religion) Thousands of Kashmiri youth turn up for army recruitment Kupwara (J-K), Nov 8: Thousands of young Kashmiris are turning up for an army recruitment drive in Kupwara region of Jammu and Kashmir. This is for the first time that such a drive is launched in Kupwara, 30 km from Srinagar. The recruits will be absorbed in the territorial army being raised under the Central government to wean them away from militancy. The territorial army will serve as a second line of defence and over 1500 posts are being filled. Most of the young recruits said the recruitment drive has come as a boon. The Indian army, which has been battling Islamic separatists in Kashmir since 1989 when an armed rebellion broke out, hopes to address the rampant unemployment in the region through such recruitment drives. More than 40,000 people, including soldiers and militants, have been killed in the revolt. The Himalayan region remains one of the least developed as investors and tourists, the mainstay of the economy, shy away due to the revolt. Al Qaeda now targets US nukes (Go To Top) New York, Nov 8: The United States has received intelligence reports that Al Qaeda may be planning to hijack cargo planes and crash them into nuclear plants and other critical infrastructure. The US also shut its missions in Saudi Arabia on Saturday for an undetermined period. In Afghanistan, officials warned journalists to be careful as there were reports that Taliban were looking out for American media persons. Homeland Security Department officials said the most imminent threats were aimed at US targets overseas but the possibility of attacks on American soil could not be ruled out. The threat was similar to the September 11, 2001 attacks in which 19 al Qaeda operatives had hijacked four planes, crashed them two into the twin towers of the World Trade Centre and one into Pentagon in Washington. Hackers in demand to rig polling by EVMs (Go To Top) Gwalior, Nov 8: Computer professionals in Gwalior have complained to authorities that unscrupulous candidates are approaching them to rig elections by hacking Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). Prabhakar Sharma, a computer engineer, on Saturday presented to the media a copy of a letter he received seeking to break into the EVMs chip coding so as to alter the results in favour of a party or candidate. Sharma said it was technically feasible. "Any electronic equipment or any kind of computer related or chip related equipments can be programmed in any manner. Now EVMs have some hardware parts and also some software parts. So if the software part can be changed by any means then anything is possible, or if the chip where the software is stored is altogether changed." While police are trying to ascertain the authenticity of the letter and verify whether its sender is genuine or a fake, local authorities ruled out the kind of hacking many Indian websites have been defaced with. "Voting Machines can never be hacked because the machine is not connected to any computer and the machine in itself is tamper proof," said T. Dharmarao, district collector of Gwalior. Dharmarao also ruled out possibility of any foul play with the machines. The EVMs are properly sealed by Election Commission's officials after the instruments are released by engineers with batteries installed for remote regions lacking electricity or unreliable power supplies. The machines are kept under strict custody of armed guards, escorted to polling booths under tight security and kept under strict observation until counting is over. Tamil Nadu Speaker's action against Hindu editors draws flak (Go To Top) New Delhi, Nov 8: Journalists in the Capital on Saturday staged a demonstration to protest against the sentencing of six scribes and an Opposition legislator by the Speaker of the Tamil Nadu Assembly for "breach of privilege" of the House. Police in Tamil Nadu on Friday raided the premises of the Hindu newspaper in Chennai to execute the orders of the Speaker to place the seven accused in simple imprisonment for 20 to 30 days for contempt of the House. The accused journalists of the Hindu newspaper were sentenced by the House committee for a comment which appeared in the 125-year- old daily in April. The state is led by Jayaram Jayalalitha of the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) party which has an overwhelming majority in the House. The Opposition Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) legislator Parithi Ilamvazhuthi was arrested amidst protests on Friday after the House sitting for allegedly intimidating another legislator D Kumaradoss on January 31. In New Delhi, the protestors burnt the effigy of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalitha outside the Press Club of India, the apex body of Indian mediapersons. Hindu's editor N Ram has said they would go in appeal to the courts against the sentence. Meanwhile, The Bharatiya Janata Party termed the sentence as an assault on freedom of the press. The Congress party also called it an arbitrary decision. Kolkatans celebrate Mother's beatification (Go To Top) Kolkata, Nov 8: Thousands of people in Kolkata performed prayers on Saturday to celebrate Mother Teresa's beatification. Special prayer ceremonies were held in a college in the city where the Mother spent her life, helping the poor and the needy. The hour-long ceremony was conducted by Archbishop of Kolkata. Sister Nirmala, head of Missionaries of Charity, the order founded by the Blessed Mother Teresa, hoped the procedure of declaring Mother Teresa a Saint would soon be completed. "Yes, there is every possibility that she will be declared Saint very fast. Yes, it is possible, only one miracle is necessary," she said. C.M.Paul, a priest, said Saturday's ceremony was identical to that of the Vatican during Mother's beatification. Mother Teresa, who died in 1997 at age 87, spent decades serving the sick and destitute in Kolkata where she is still much loved. Her work won her the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. Pope John Paul beatified the world's most famous Catholic sister on October 19 putting her on the threshold of sainthood in record speed. Beatification is the last step before sainthood. The 83-year-old Polish Pope, suffering from Parkinson's disease which is taking an increasingly visible toll on his health, so admired the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize winner that he bent Vatican rules to rush her towards sainthood. Before beatification the Church requires proof a candidate performed one miracle. Proof of a second one is needed before canonisation as a saint. Born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in Macedonia on August 27, 1910, Mother Teresa was sent to India in 1928 as a young Sister of Loreto, an Irish community of nuns with a mission in Kolkata. She taught in the order's schools for two decades before leaving to devote herself to work in Kolkata's notorious slums. She launched her Missionaries of Charity order in 1950 with only 12 nuns. It has grown to 4,500 sisters in 133 countries running homes, schools and hospices for the poor and dying. Tea estate mayhem
has Bengal Front worried (Go
To Top) Kolkata, Nov 8: The mayhem at the Dalgaon tea estate in Jalpaiguri district of north Bengal on Thursday in which 19 CITU supporters were burnt alive by a rival gang has brought to the surface the growing criminalisation of politics under the Left Front rule. The ghastly incident reminds one of the Chhota Angaria massacre in which several Trinamul Congress workers were similarly burnt to death at the behest of some local Marxists. The only difference between the two massacres is that while the Chhota Angaria incident was the outcome of a planned attack by some CPI(M) activists, the Dalgaon mayhem was the result of the CPI(M)'s inner-party squabbles. Police said the deceased included a number of local criminals who had gathered at Lohar's residence with arms in anticipation of an imminent attack from rival CITU supporters. Lohar somehow managed to escape after the mob set his house on fire, killing 19 persons on the spot. According to informed sources, the violence at Dalgaon was triggered by public anger against local CITU leader Tarakeswar Lohar who allegedly often engaged his musclemen to extort money from tea garden workers and used his personal political clout to fill up vacancies in the tea estate, disregarding the claims of local youths. The incident, sources said, was the spontaneous outburst of the local people against Lohar's style of functioning and the mafia raj established by him apparently with the blessings of the district CPI(M) leadership. The state CPI(M) leaders have naturally been caught on the wrong foot by the dangerous outcome of the CITU's infighting at the tea estate. Both chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and state party secretary Anil Biswas have denied any political connotation behind the massacre in an attempt to cover up the labour wing's organisational lapses. Both of them, however, are hard put to it to explain why neither the district nor the state leadership took disciplinary steps against Lohar even after receiving a number of complaints from local CITU workers. The Dalgaon episode has not only badly shaken the Marxists in north Bengal but also prompted other Left Front partners to demand a high-level probe and urge the state government to take specific measures to improve the lot of the tea garden workers. The UTUC, RSP's labour wing, has alleged that the CPI(M) never cared to take action against Lohar despite repeated complaints against him. The CPI's trade union wing, AITUC, has also called for a judicial inquiry into the incident. The CPI(ML-Liberation) has detected in the massacre the "spontaneous outburst of the local people against the CITU leader's systematic exploitation of their impoverishment." The Forward Bloc, a major Left Front partner, however, has taken a serious view of the mayhem and apprehends similar "people's outbursts" in other tea estates of north Bengal. India hopes to host the 2010 Commonwealth Games (Go To Top) New Delhi, Nov 8: More than five decades after giving birth to the Asian Games, New Delhi is once again searching for international sporting recognition - something India says is long overdue. This time India's sprawling capital city is in direct competition with another venue with a slice of sporting history as it bids to host the 2010 Commonwealth Games. "I think our chances are good and we are not leaving anything to chance. I think we will come back with the 2010 Commonwealth bid," Suresh Kalmadi, Indian Olympic Association's President told reporters in New Delhi on Saturday. "New Frontiers, New Friendships" urge the posters on lamp-posts as Delhi attempts to push its claims over Canada's Hamilton, the venue in 1930 of the inaugural British Empire Games which subsequently became the modern Commonwealth Games. IOA officials say New Delhi, having staged the Asian Games in 1951 and again in 1982, can put on a perfect show if it becomes only the second Asian country to stage the Games, after Malaysia in 1998. Kalmadi said the opportunity of hosting the games should be given to India considering a huge Ccommonwealth population lives here. "We have never hosted a Commonwealth Games, Canada has hosted the Commonwealth Games four times. It has to want new horizons and new frontiers." Hockey captain Tirkey gets a hero's welcome on return home (Go To Top) Bhubaneshwar, Nov 8: Indian hockey team captain Dilip Tirkey made a triumphant homecoming after his side won the gold medal in the recent Afro-Asian games. Tirkey, who arrived in Bhubaneshwar on Saturday, said he missed the presence of veteran Dhanraj Pillai, who otherwise leads the team. "Dhanraj (Pillai), (Baljit Singh) Saini were not in this tournament and we felt their loss...there is less experience in the team but our juniors also played very well and you can see the results," Tirkey said. Both Pillai and Saini did not play for the team in the first Afro-Asian Games held in Hyderabad. No reason was cited for their exclusion from the Games which figured India's traditional rivals Pakistan, but sports commentators said they were advised to take rest for the Athens Olympics in 2004 while scouting for fresh blood. India beat Pakistan in the Afro-Asian Games hockey tournament to win the medal. It was a repeat of the Asia Cup final at Kuala Lumpur.
Blaine to `dive to death' (Go To Top) New York, Nov 8: As if spending 44 days encased in a box above London's River Thames wasn't enough, U.S. illusionist David Blaine is already looking forward to his next stunt. The 30-year-old New Yorker will be `diving to death' from a helicopter. "The whole time I was in that box, I wrote down a whole list of what I need to do and the next thing I'm going to do is a crazy one," IMDb.com quoted him as saying. "It has to do with a helicopter and me falling from a helicopter into a river, and it's called Dive Of Death, and it's going to be from such a tremendous height that there's only a couple of people who have lived from that height, falling into water - because when you fall at that height it's like hitting pavement." "There will be no dummy. I'm going to learn how to hit water from a tremendous height, not the full height, but like 110 feet. It can be done but it can go terribly wrong, like everything I do," added Blaine. Douglas feels 'humiliated' over poor damages payout (Go To Top) London, Nov 8: A 14,600 dollar damages award has humiliated Catherine Zeta Jones and Michael Douglas over sneak photos of their wedding, a fraction of the 600,000 dollar the Hollywood couple demanded from Hello! magazine. The payout was revealed in the High Court in London recently after a month-long hearing earlier this year. It will not even cover their first-class flights from Los Angeles, at about 8,500 dollars each, reports the Sun. Catherine, 34, told the court she felt 'violated' after snatched photos of their 2000 wedding were published in Hello! magazine. She and Michael, 59, had sold exclusive rights to Hello! rival OK! for 1 million dollars. A judge ruled Hello! was wrong to publish the snaps but threw out their invasion of privacy claim. Now, they have received just 3,750 dollars each for distress. The balance is to cover expenses. The judge ordered Hello! to pay OK! more than 1 million dollar damages. Douglas could even end up massive loser when later on he has to pay court costs estimated at 4 million dollars. They donated their damages to charity. Mrs Eminem is on the run... (Go To Top) Washington, Nov 8: Kimberly Mathers is a wanted woman. Rapper Eminem's ex-wife has been issued warrants, after she failed to turn up at two separate court dates. A report in Eonline quoted her attorney Michael Smith saying that there has been no information from Kimberly for a week. The last time he spoke to Kimberly was on Oct. 30 and "she was in great spirits," he added. "Everyone is concerned. Nobody knows where she is," Smith said, adding this was the longest his client had done the vanishing act! Meanwhile, the rapper himself has been awarded temporary custody of the couple's seven-year old daughter, Hailie Jade. "A decision was made by the court, Marshall was given full temporary custody of his daughter, Hailie," Eminem's attorney, Harvey Hauer was quoted as saying. "The order speaks for itself," Eminem's publicist said, while speaking of Mathers' legal woes. On Thursday, after she failed to show up for an arraignment on charges of maintaining a drug den, 37th District Judge John Chmura issued a bench warrant for Kimberly's arrest. The charges stem from a Sept. 29 raid when cops in Warren, Michigan, answering a noise complaint, busted up a party at a hotel room she had rented where illegal substances were found. 'Aguilera's a bitch!': Pink (Go To Top) London, Nov 8: The war of the babes seems to be getting bitter! Pink used the MTV Awards to aim a ballistic one at blonde Christina Aguilera, branding her a "bitch". According to a report in British tabloid 'Sun', the wild rocker told show producers that she would not land up on stage, if hostess Christina mentioned her name, making it impossible for her rival to introduce her. "If that bitch mentions my name once I'm not going on stage - and I'm not kidding," Pink was overheard screaming at aides. The fallout between the pair spilled over at the after-show party with Pink jazzing off as soon as Christina arrived. During the show itself, organisers had to haul in Radio 1 DJ Trevor Nelson to do a voiceover introducing the pop rocker to close the two-hour music extravaganza. "Pink was adamant Christina should not mention her name or she would upset the whole show by not coming out to perform at the end. It might sound like a silly threat but, believe me, Pink has the courage of her convictions," sources at music label BMG said. The pair have not communicated ever since their fall-out while recording Lady Marmalade, featured on the Moulin Rouge movie soundtrack. Diana report pure conjecture: Bryan Adams (Go To Top) Washington, Nov 8: Rocker Bryan Adams has dismissed reports of romancing Princess Diana, insisting his ex-girlfriend's comments are "pure conjecture". According to a report in website IMDB.com, Cecile Thomsen claims the Canadian singing star enjoyed a fling with Diana a year before her fatal Paris car crash in 1997. The Danish model and actress called it quits with the singer last year, after a 12-year long association with the rocker and claims the affair was at its peak in 1996, after Diana's divorce from Prince Charles. However, the "Summer of 69" singer adamantly denies the accusations. "Miss Thomsen doesn't know anything about my friendship with Diana. These reports are pure conjecture and supposition," the rocker said. Despite his denial, Adams has made no secret of his infatuation with the late royal, and cemented his feelings for her on the B- side to his chart-topping 1985 single Heaven, on a track called "Diana." He sang, "The first time I saw you. I knew right then and there that I had to make you mine, the day that he married you, I nearly lost my mind." Recently, the 44-year old became the target of speculation after Diana's former butler Paul Burrell claimed the Princess had nine suitors after her divorce, including a Hollywood actor, a novelist, a sportsman, a politician, a lawyer, and entrepreneur, a billionaire, a surgeon and a musician! -ANI |