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40 feared drowned in Andhra boat mishap

          Hyderabad, Nov 10: At least 40 labourers were feared drowned when a boat carrying them capsized in the Godavari river in East Godavari district early on Monday. Police said that about 45 labourers in search of job were crossing the river in a country-made boat when the mishap occurred near Ramchandrapuram. Rescue and search operations have been launched, and so far, three bodies have been recovered.

SC reprieve to Tamil Nadu journalists

          New Delhi, Nov 10: The Supreme Court on Monday stayed the execution of the arrest warrants against the publisher and four journalists of the Hindu daily and one from a Tamil regional daily. Last week, Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker K Kalimuthu had ordered the arrest of editor N Ravi, executive editor Malini Parthasarathy, publisher S Rangarajan, chief of bureau V Jayant and special correspondent Radha Venkatesan, of the Hindu, and Murasoli editor S. Selvam on alleged charges of breach of privilege and gross contempt. Kalimuthu had issued the order in connection with an editorial based on an article written by Jayant and Venkatesan. The Murasoli had later reproduced the article. Subsequently, the journalists filed a petition in the apex court challenging the Assembly's decision to jail them for 15 days. While staying the arrests, a Supreme Court bench comprising Judge Y.J. Sabbarwal and S.P. Sinha issued notices to the Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker, Assembly Secretary, Tamil Nadu Director-General of Police and Chennai police commissioner, besides two other officials of the state government to explain why such a step had been taken. The bench has fixed the next date of hearing in the matter after three weeks.

Stir threat by Congress over PSU 'bribe scandal'

          New Delhi, Nov 10: The Congress on Monday threatened to launch a nation-wide stir to force the Government to disclose the names of the six Union ministers alleged to have asked for "bribe and undue favours" from the chiefs of some public sector undertakings (PSUs). "If the Prime Minister does not disclose their names by November 14, the party's top leader along with Working Committee members will go to President APJ Adbul Kalam," AICC general secretary Ambika Sonia told reporters here. Expressing "anger and anguish" over the reports, she said that it was "distressing" that on the one hand ministers were taking "bribe from the PSUs while on the other they were being sold on the plea that they were sick". Terming as "extremely shameful" the alleged acts of the ministers, she said, "Let this ruling party be exposed before the people of the country," she said. When pressed to disclose their names, she said, "I know as much as you know from reports. It is for the Prime Minister to disclose their names".

14 days remand for Madhumita's 'killer' (Go To Top)

          Lucknow, Nov 10: A CBI court on Monday remanded Prakash Chander Pandey, the alleged killer of poetess Madhumita Shukla, to 14 days judicial custody. The court also accepted CBI plea and granted police remand till November 20 of another accused Santosh Rai alias Satya Prakash, who was earlier sent to judicial custody till November 21. Santosh Rai and another accused in the case, Rohit Chaturvedi, both first cousins of Amarmani Tripathi who is in jail in connection with the murder six months back, were arrested by the CBI here last week. While Rai was lodged in Barabanki jail, Chaturvedi was sent to police custody till November 19.

Daler bail hearing adjourned (Go To Top)

         Chandigarh, Nov 10: The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Monday adjourned till November 13 the hearing of the anticipatory bail application of Punjabi pop singer Daler Mehndi accused in an alleged case of human trafficking. Justice Virender Singh adjourned the bail plea in two cases - of cheating and threatening an assistant sub-inspector through his secretary - with a direction to the petitioner's counsel to place on record the copy of the Delhi High Court order of November 3 rejecting extension of his interim anticipatory bail plea.

Stamp paper scam tapes arrive (Go To Top)

          Mumbai, Nov 10: Audio tapes of the main accused in a multi-million dollar government revenue stamp papers scam would be examined by investigators on Tuesday, prosecution lawyer said on Monday. Prosecution lawyer Majid Memon said Karnataka police came to Mumbai to deliver tapes which are being cited as crucial evidence against Abdul Karim Telgi. "We wanted to check whether Karnataka government had either moved Supreme Court against the decision or had tried to take an extension on producing the cassettes before the court. But we found out that no such request was made. We now hope that all the 56 cassettes will be produced before SIT (Special Investigation Team) chief S.S.Puri and tomorrow these cassettes will be examined," Memon told reporters. A verdict on the tapes is awaited on Wednesday. The contents of the tapes were not made public due to the nature of the case which has engulfed several high-ranking police officials in Mumbai. Shridhar Vagal, Inspector General of Maharashtra Police, is accused of sheltering Telgi. Mumbai police commissioner R.S Sharma has also been questioned over his alleged dereliction of duty in supervising the inititial phase of investigation into the scam.

India wants Sri Lankan peace process to continue (Go To Top)

          New Delhi, Nov 10: India on Monday reiterated its stance that it wanted the Sri Lankan peace process to continue though the situation was "not an easy one". India's comments come amid speculation that the island nation's feuding president and prime minister could meet for the first time since the crisis erupted a week ago. The two could meet as early as Tuesday after President Chandrika Kumaratunga extended an invitation to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to discuss her proposal for a government of national unity. Indian foregin secretary Kanwal Sibal told reporters in New Delhi that the Sri Lankan government and the opposition should work jointly to address the challengess posed by the Tamil rebels.

          "What everybody wants is peace and stability in Sri Lanka and the preservation of the peace process and the promotion of the peace process in the best manner possible. And the best manner possible is that, if there is unity on Sinhalese side, with the Sinhala groups working together which means the government and the opposition. There are proposals made by the LTTE, they do present certain challenges to the Sri Lankan government and those have to be addressed," Sibal said. Sibal added that New Delhi was closely monitoring the situation in the island nation. "All in all, situation is not an easy one. We are looking at it closely we are following the developments, but with the ardent wish that the crisis should be contained and there should be dialogue between the respective parties and some kind of a constitutional solution should be found which will then enable peace process to resume," Sibal added.

Pak students with terror links held in Malaysia (Go To Top)

          Kuala Lumpur, Nov 10: Malaysia has detained 13 Muslim students under a tough security law because they are suspected to have links to terror groups, the News quoted a top police official as saying on Monday. Mohamed Bakri Omar, police chief, said the 13 were arrested by police under the Internal Security Act (ISA) when they arrived from Pakistan in a special aircraft. The students who were studying at two institutions in Karachi, were previously detained by Pakistan authorities for alleged involvement with terror groups. "Their detention is under the ISA because they are believed to be involved in militant activities," Mohamed Bakri was quoted as saying by Bernama news agency.

Swiss President Pascal Couchepin is here (Go To Top)

          New Delhi, Nov 10: Swiss President Pascal Couchepin was accorded a ceremonial welcome at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Monday. He was received by President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. Couchepin, on a week-long visit to India, emphasised the importance of India in maintaining peace and stability in the world. The President of one of world's richest countries said Switzerland and India can share views and concerns on global issues such as the WTO. President Kalam will host a banquet in honour of the visiting dignitary. Couchepin, who has already been to Mumbai and Bangalore, is also expected to hold talks with Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani and External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha. The visit, aimed mainly at consolidating bilateral relations in economic and trade areas, has been clouded by last month's rape of a Swiss diplomat in New Delhi.

'Pay-by-Touch' system to revolutionise retail payments (Go To Top)

          Sydney, Nov 10: The fact that no two people have the same fingerprints is set to revolutionise the retail world with the use of pay-by-touch technology. American inventors have developed a machine, which records a customer's fingerprint, with all its unique arches, loops and whorls. A customer presses his finger to a special electronic scanner linked with their credit or debit card account, and the bill is paid. According to Sun-Herald, a supermarket in Seattle already has in place the technology developed by San Francisco-based Solidus Networks Inc.

         The west Seattle store says the pay-by-touch system has speeded up customer time at the checkout and reduced credit card fraud and hopes to cut its bank transactions fees in half. Fast food giant McDonald's is testing the technology in California and Blockbuster video is using the machines in Texas and New York. It reported a 34 per cent reduction time in serving individual customers. ReTech Global, an electronics company servicing the Australian supermarket industry, has been holding talks with the Pay-by-Touch company in the US about the possibility of testing the technology. Pay-by-Touch spokesman Pete Bartolik said it promotes the technology as a "fast, free, secure way to pay". The company's chief executive Craig Ramsey said the system would revolutionise the checkout lane the way ATMs revolutionised banking. The machine scans the fingerprint, storing 15 separate identifying features as an antilogarithm. It then links that numerical sequence to the customer's credit or debit card.

Bottomlines

Aguilera's bald patch! (Go To Top)

          Sydney, Nov10: Pop star Christina Aguilera has treated her blonde mane to such an overdose of chemical treatment over the past few years that she is now suffering from bald patches. The Daily Mail has claimed that while dining recently in Los Angeles with friends, the "Dirrty" singer failed to cover a patch of her scalp that clearly showed her hair roots. Trichologist Philip Kingsley, author of the Hair Bible, told the newspaper: "Hair extensions often cause bald patches where they have gripped the scalp. Having tight plaits - or dreadlocks - also causes problems, often leading to bald patches called traction alopecia." The feisty singer since the release of her self-titled debut album in 1999 has been blonde, pale, tanned, skinny, pierced, half naked, grungy, preppy, dreadlocked, brunette, and sometimes all of the above. The worst dressed female as labeled by 'People' magazine has a huge fan following and won the Best Female Artist award at MTV awards last week beating pop stars like Kylie and Beyonce.

Mrs Beckham 'bares all' to boost sales! (Go To Top)

          London, Nov 10: Victoria Beckham is determined to go to any length to boost her not-so-rocking musical career by canning a steamy telly-docu of her life, which has set television companies wrangling over the rights to the footage. According to the Sun, Posh is optimistic that screening the bare-it-all show will boost sales of her album, which will hit the stores early next year. Apparently, according to her friends, Posh is aware that she booms on the boob tube and is confident of deriving maximum benefit to shift more copies of her disc. Cameras have been tailing Victoria, her friends and family around the world for eight months and sources opine the footage is "extremely personal" and will blow viewers away. "The recordings are dynamite. Victoria knows she is seen as some over-privileged, sour-faced prima donna but that's not the case. On telly, she is funny and down to earth. If people see her in a positive light there's a good chance she'll have more success as a solo star," a friend was quoted as saying. Last year, Posh had won over critics with an 80-minute ITV1 docusoap called "Being Victoria Beckham", where she let cameras into her homes to film her son Brooklyn and was praised for her honesty in talking about her being over-exposed.

Justin 'to take break from music to do acting'  (Go To Top)

          New York, Nov 10: American pop star Justin Timberlake has had enough of music and is now setting his eyes on tinsel town. "There's many scripts that come through. It's just for that step I think I'd need a little time," ratethemusic.com quoted the 22-year-old "NSync" frontman as saying. "I'd have to take a break from music for a minute to do acting because I feel a little ignorant to the art," he added. Justin, who recently took home three gongs at the MTV Europe Music Awards in Edinburgh, Scotland, is currently dating actress Cameron Diaz, 30.

Matrix makes history! (Go To Top)

          Washington, Nov 10: The "Matrix Revolutions" has made history by having the biggest global film opening of all time, according to Warners. The last of the Matrix trilogy has topped the American box office ratings and returns, grossing an amazing 204 million dollars in worldwide sales in its first weekend. The film debuted on a record 18,000 screens in 96 countries, beating "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers", which took about 188 million dollars worldwide in its first five days in December 2002. Despite negative critical responses to the convoluted plot, ratethemusic.com says this makes the Keanu Reeves starring sci-fi trilogy one of the biggest franchises in movie history.

Age gap between Demi, Ashton 'becoming a problem' (Go To Top)

          London, Nov 10: All's not well between Hollywood siren Demi Moore and her toyboy lover Ashton Kutcher. "The age gap is becoming a problem. He wants to be out there and she's more reflective," the Daily Star quoted a source, as saying. Ashton, 25, is also jealous of his 40-year-old girlfriend's ex-hubby, actor Bruce Willis. "I overheard him asking her how she's kept a close bond with Bruce - her reply didn't go down very well." "She said besides the three children (daughters), she and Bruce have many shared experiences and are closer in age so have the same era to look back on," added the source.

-ANI

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