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Another Indian student attacked in Melbourne Sydney:
A day after a cab driver, hailing from Hyderabad, was reportedly bashed up
by an Australian, another Indian student was on Tuesday attacked by a group of
males in Frankston in Melbourne who stopped him and demanded money and cigarettes
despite Australian Government’s promise to take strict action against those who
attack Indians. The seventh victim in a month's time, Nardeep Singh, a nursing
student at Chisholm College, was slashed with a stanley knife carried by one of
the group, a spokeswoman for Victoria Police said. The latest attack has been
widely reported in India, naming the victim as Nardeep Singh, The Sydney Morning
Herald reported. Police said the attack happened at 1.30 night as Singh was leaving
the college. Five males confronted him as he crossed the car park. Singh, a non-smoker,
did not handover his money or cigarettes as they demanded, and was slashed across
the chest with the stanley knife. Police said his injury was minor and he did
not need hospital treatment. Singh has been in Australia for just two months.
The victim is from Ludhiana in Punjab. Manmohan
Singh calls up Australian PM over racist attacks Top New
Delhi: Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on Tuesday spoke to his Australian
counterpart Kevin Rudd to express concern over hate crimes against Indian students
there. After six racial attacks against Indians in Australia, the Indian government
has taken up the issue at the highest level. The issue has also created ripples
in the Australian Parliament, where Prime Minister Rudd has reassured New Delhi
that Australia isn't a racist nation, and promised that the culprits behind the
attacks on Indian students are brought to book. External Affairs Minister SM Krishna
has confirmed that Dr. Singh expressed his displeasure to Kevin Rudd. Talking
to a private TV channel, Krishna said, that the Indian mission in Australia has
been asked to be in close touch with the student community so that any such incident
would be immediately brought to the notice of the Australian government. The attacks
have been occurring for more than a year but came into focus last weekend when
a student named Sravan Kumar Theerthala was left fighting for his life after being
stabbed with a screwdriver. Australian Police have repeatedly denied that racial
hatred was a factor in the attacks by contending that Indian students were often
simply in the wrong time at the wrong place as they travelled home late at night
with items such as mobile phones and IPods. Meira
Kumar files nomination for LS Speaker's post Top New
Delhi: Senior Congress leader Meira Kumar filed her nomination for the post
of Lok Sabha Speaker on Tuesday. Kumar was nominated for the post by the UPA Government
on Monday. On the same day, she resigned as the Union Minister for Water Resources.
If elected, Kumar will be the country's first woman Speaker. Kumar hails from
the Dalit community and is better known as the daughter of former Deputy Prime
Minister Babu Jagjivan Ram. Born in Patna in 1945, she is law graduate and holds
a Masters in English literature. She joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1973
and served at the embassies in Spain, United Kingdom and Mauritius. Kumar was
elected from Bijnor in Uttar Pradesh in 1985. She became Member of Parliament
in the 11th and 12th Lok Sabha by contesting from Delhi's Karol Bagh constituency.
In 1999, she lost her seat, but was re-elected by a record majority from Sasaram
in Bihar in 2004. In 2004, she was inducted into the first Manmohan Singh cabinet,
as Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment. On May 29, 2009, she assumed charge
as the Union Minister for Water Resources in the newly elected UPA Government.
She is married to Manjul Kumar, a Supreme Court lawyer. The couple have three
married children. BJP
nominates Dalit leader Kariya Munda for LS Deputy Speaker's post Top New
Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday decided to nominate Kariya Munda
for the post of Deputy Speaker in the Lok Sabha. Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitely
disclosed this here. Kariya Munda, a tribal leader, has been a six-time Member
of Parliament from Jharkhand. He was a Cabinet Minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led
National Democratic Alliance government at the centre. Born in 1936, Munda, a
post graduate, was born in the Ranchi District of Bihar, now State capital of
Jharkhand. He has been elected to Lok Sabha for many terms from tribal constituency
of Khunti. On the sidelines of reports from the Congress Party proposing the name
of Dalit leader Meira Kumar for the Lok Sabha Speaker's post, the nomination of
Kariya Muna, who is also a tribal leader, is being seen as a masterstroke.
Narayanan, Nair to continue in office
Top
New Delhi: National
Security Adviser (NSA) M K Narayanan and Prime Minister's principal secretary
T K A Nair will continue in office till further orders. PMO sources on Tuesday
said that the decision to keep Narayanan and Nair on board stemmed from a desire
to ensure "continuity" and oversee proper implementation of the UPA Government's
flagships projects. Last week, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh had asked both
to continue in their posts, which were co-terminus with that of the Prime Minister.
Narayanan was appointed as NSA on January 25, 2005, three weeks after the former
NSA, J N Dixit died on January 3, 2005. He offered to resign on November 30, 2008
over the attacks in Mumbai that killed nearly 200 people, but his resignation
was not accepted by the Prime Minister. T K A Nair was appointed principal secretary
to the Prime Minister in 2004. An Indian Administrative Service officer who retired
in 1997, Nair was secretary to the then prime minister I K Gujral. Nair, who belonged
to the Punjab cadre, was also chief secretary to the Punjab Government.
Kasab's lawyer to be paid Rs 50,000 per
month Top Mumbai:
Maharashtra Government will be paying a whopping Rs 2,500 per day to senior lawyer
Abbas Kazmi, who is representing Amir Azmal Kasab, the lone surviving terrorist
of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. Thus, the case, which is heard five days a week,
Monday to Friday, will enrich the senior lawyer with Rs. 50,000 per month. Looking
into the sensitive nature of the case, special sessions judge M.L. Tahilyani had
appointed Kazmi, a lawyer of 20 years standing, to defend Kasab after the court
was informed that there was no response from Pakistani authorities to Kasab's
request for a lawyer from Pakistan. As per the law, the court appointed lawyer
is paid Rs.900 for the entire case, but looking at the nature of this case, Judge
M L Tahaliyani had requested the government to fix reasonable fee to be paid to
him for defending Kasab. India:
Arrest, release of Lashkar chief Saeed an eyewash Top New
Delhi: Sources in the Indian Government reacted with dismay on hearing the
news of the Lahore High Court ending the house arrest of Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jamaat-ud
Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed on Tuesday. Most of them described Saeed's arrest by the
Pakistani authorities for his role in the Mumbai terror attacks of November 2008
as an eyewash. They said that the high court's view that there was just not enough
evidence to continue the detention of Saeed certified that similar arrests made
in the past have also ended in similar releases. They said the Lahore High Court
order showed that Pakistan is back to backing terrorism from its soil again, despite
the evidence supplied by New Delhi indicating Saeed's clear role in 26/11. An
official reaction from the Ministry of External Affairs is expected later in the
day. |
