Bangalore airport has no power, flights return

Hundreds of passengers were put to inconvenience due to a blackout at the HAL airport here on Tuesday. Three flights could not land as the runway lights went off for a few seconds forcing two flights to redirect to Chennai and one to Hyderabad.

A Kingfisher (414) flight from Chennai was to land at the airport at around 8.15 pm on Tuesday. However, the pilot couldn't see the runway lights and he circled around the city for almost five minutes. Later, he could see the runway lights but couldn't land as the weather was bad. He had to redirect the flight to Chennai.

According to officials at the airport, the blackout lasted for only a few seconds and the power was restored in seven seconds, which is the time for their backup to switch on.

"There have been earlier incidents when power has gone off and the flights have been forced to circle around, but a backup facility switches on the lights in seven seconds.

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Indian Space Research Organisations cores a Perfect 10, man in space within 7 years

The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), which on Monday enabled India to join the list of countries that had placed multiple satellites into orbit using a single launch vehicle, is now aiming to send an Indian to space in seven years' time and join the leaders in manned space missions.

Speaking to reporters after the successful launch of Cartosat-2A, the Indian Mini-Satellite (IMS) and other eight "nano" satellites using the PSLV-C9 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre here, a jubilant Isro chairman, Mr G. Madhavan Nair, said: "India, having achieved leadership in space technology, cannot be left behind in manned missions. Space is the next frontier for Isro. A manned mission is essential for us," he said.

Apart from the US, Russia and China, who have the resources for this, and Europe and Japan, also expected to join in manned missions, Mr Nair said the Geo-Synchronous Launch Vehicle (GSLV) had the power to put a two-member crew into space. He said the Union government would soon accord the go ahead signal in the next six months for the manned mission.

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King Katich Reigns Supreme

The Aussies have been in a league of their own in the on going Indian Premier League with unmatched power hitting and a great sense of occasion. Sunday was the turn of Simon Katich to come to the party.

Katich's blistering 52-ball 75 (11x4, 1x6) and Yuvraj's cameo (40, 29; 3x4, 2x6) propelled Kings XI to their second consecutive victory at home, thrashing Delhi Daredevils by four wickets at the PCA Stadium here on Sunday. Chasing Delhi's 158/8, the hosts replied with 162/6 thanks to the Aussie southpaw's assault. Katich, who came into the side as a last-minute replacement for James Hopes, was particularly severe on Mohammed Asif who gave away 32 runs in his four overs. He smashed three consecutive fours off the bowler in the fourth over as he raced to 50 in just 32 balls.

The skipper took charge after the Aussie's dismissal, ensuring the hosts did not have last minute problems during the chase handing the Daredevils, arguably the strongest contenders of the title, their first defeat of the tournament.

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Land grab FIR on minister's son

The war bet ween the BSP and the Congress seems to be intensifying with the Mayawati government registering a case of land-grabbing against Siddhartha Jaiswal, son of Union minister of state for home Sriprakash Jaiswal, in Kanpur.

Mr Siddhartha Jaiswal told reporters on Thursday that the cases against him were "baseless and politically motivated."

The Kanpur Development Authority (KDA) on Wednesday registered as many as 18 cases in various police stations of Kanpur against influential persons who have illegally grabbed land owned by the government.

Eight cases have been registered at the Chakeri police station, five at the Naubasta police station, two each at Maharajpur and Kalyanpur and one at the Bidhnoo police station.

The case against Mr Siddhartha Jaiswal has been registered at the Chakeri police station.

Chakeri's station house officer, Mr Krishna Govind Sharma, said: "Eleven people have been booked in the eight cases registered here.

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Please get my son back

"I want my son back. Please bring him back," are the only words that Chand Sultan, Naeem's 58-year-old mother has been repeating in a heartbreaking and endless refrain for the past 24 hours. Her youngest son Sarang Mohammad Naeem, 38, an electrical engineer working with a private company in Afghanistan, was abducted while travelling in Herat province on Monday night.

Chand Sultan was the first person in the family to hear the news about her son's abduction and also the last person to speak to Naeem just five hours before he was kidnapped by armed gunmen when he was travelling in a taxi to the district of Adraskan, bordering Iran.

[Speaking from Kabul, Afghan foreign office spokesperson Sultan Ahmed Baheen said on Wednesday that Afghan President Hamid Karzai had appealed to the tribal elders of Adraskan to find the missing men, including Naeem's Nepalese companion. He said that they had repeatedly advised foreign workers travelling out of Kabul to ensure they had adequate protection and not to travel without armed guards.] Naeem had telephoned his mother at around 5.30 pm on Monday evening and had told her that he was really missing his one-and-a-half year-old son and was desperate to see him.

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Indian kidnapped by militants in Afghan

Armed gunmen on Monday abducted an Indian national from Herat province of Afghanistan.Sarang Mohammad Naeem, who works for a private company, and another unidentified man were abducted as they were travelling in a taxi to the district of Adraskan, bordering Iran.

Naeem's abduction is the third incident this year of attacks involving Indians in Afghanistan. It comes less than a fortnight after suicide bombers blew themselves up in Nimroz province, killing two Indians, both Border Roads Organisation (BRO) personnel, and injuring five other Indians and two Afghans.

New Delhi has expressed concern over the incident. "We have received with concern reports that an Indian national, Mr Sarang Mohammad Naeem, working with a private company in Afghanistan, was abducted in Herat province last night," read a statement issued by the ministry of external affairs in New Delhi.

"The Afghan government authorities are investigating the matter but he (Sarang Mohammad Naeem) remains untraced till now. We are keeping a close watch on further developments concerning this incident," the statement added. The Indian embassy in Kabul is monitoring the situation.

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Blame game on at Eden

Under fire from all quarters, Eden Gardens curator Kalyan Mitra apologised to the Knight Riders team management, but even that might not be enough to save his job. Team Kolkata owner Shah Rukh Khan is learnt to have made up his mind to hire an overseas curator to prepare pitches for the forth coming Indian Premier League matches here. West Bengal sports minister Subhas Chakraborty has, meanwhile, ordered an inquiry into Sunday's mismanagement at Eden Gardens and threatened that if things were not reworked and set in order, the April 29 match here against the Mumbai Indians might be postponed.

"The curator came to our dressing room after the match and apologised. He assured us that from the next match at Eden, wickets will be ‘very good'," said Ricky Ponting, adding: "We were shocked at the nature of the pitch.Hopefully we will get a better wicket for the next match."

The Australian star, however, refused to blame the wicket for his poor form. "Twenty20 is a hit or miss game. I didn't get runs in first two matches. Maybe from the next match I will find form," he said.

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World's smallest transistor is created

Scientists in Britain have created the world's smallest transistor from the thinnest material known - the transistor is one atom thick and ten atoms wide.

The scientists at the University of Manchester used graphene, the first known one-atom-thick material that can be viewed as a plane of atoms pulled out from graphite, to create the transistor.

Dr Kostya Novoselov and Prof. Andre Geim from the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Manchester have shown how graphene can be carved into tiny electronic circuits, with individual transistors having a size not much larger than that of a molecule, according to their study published in the latest issue of the journal Science.

The smaller the size of their transistors the better they perform, the Manchester researchers said.

Transistors made of graphene, which was discovered by Prof. Geim and his colleagues four years ago, are better than the ones based on silicon technology as they show advantages and good performance at sizes below 10 nanometres - the miniaturisation limit at which the silicon technology is predicted to fail.

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‘Little Tibet' torch brighter

Statistics can be deceptive, but in a country where there are only about 140 police personnel per one lakh of population, an estimated 17,000 security personnel on Thursday guarded the Beijing Olympics torch to ensure its smooth passage through India.

The majestic Rajpath witnessed unprecedented security for a symbolic event, which was smooth and incident free although Tibet supporters held demonstrations here since early Thursday morning, including taking out a parallel torch relay to protest against Chinese repression in Tibet.

The relay passed off uneventfully but left in its wake barricaded roads, massive traffic jams and grumbling commuters trying their best to get home in a city paralysed. A two-km radius around India Gate was blocked to traffic with several rings of security sealing the area.

The Olympic torch relay ran into more trouble with ace shooter Jaspal Rana and musician Ayaan Ali Bangash pulling out barely a few hours before the event, citing personal reasons. The two were part of the official list of torch-bearers announced by the Indian Olympic Association. Their withdrawals came a day after Sachin Tendulkar and Sunil Gavaskar gave the relay a miss.

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41 kids die as bus plunges into canal

At least 44 people, including 41 children, were killed when a bus carrying school children fell into a Narmada canal at Bodeli in Gujarat's Baroda district on Wednesday morning.Thirty-two of the victims were girls. Driver Madhusudan Baria's carelessness is being cited as the main reason for the tragic accident. Worse, eyewitnesses claim that government help to rescue the children came in very late, and the crane to remove the bus reached the spot nearly three hours after the accident.

Four children, however, were able to miraculously swim out of the canal by jumping out of the bus window soon after it plunged into the water. Most of the students belonged to poor tribal families and were the first generation to attend school.

The driver's body is yet to be recovered from the canal. After 12 hours of rescue work, at least a dozen and a half bodies were yet to be recovered at the time of filing this report.

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Mumbai sees world's biggest rent rise

Mumbai, often termed as the financial capital of the country, has become the biggest riser when it comes to industrial property rentals, according to "Industrial Spaces Across the World 2008", a Cushman & Wakefield report. Mumbai recorded the highest increase in rental values in a single year, at 94.44 per cent, and leaped 11 positions to be the 26th most expensive industrial location in the world, according to the same report.

"It also recorded the highest percentage growth in rental values in one year, at 94 per cent over a single year. New Delhi (IMT Manesar) also accounted for the sixth highest percentage growth in rental values in a single year, with a growth of approximately 30 per cent. Mumbai commanded a rental value of $10.88/sq.ft./year (approximately Rs 428.78/sq.ft./year) in December 2007 as against $5.6/sq.ft./year (Rs 221.02/sq.ft./year) in January 2007," said a release from Cushman & Wakefield India.

The release also quoted Sanjay Dutt, joint managing director of Cushman & Wakefield India, as saying: "High levels of owner occupancy in Mumbai have led to a shortage of product at a time when demand is being stimulated by India's strong economic growth.This in turn has increased rents. With a shortage of space in the city, many occupiers are locating in industrial parks in the outskirts, in particular as the infrastructure improves and with the introduction of state incentives. In Chennai, locations such as Sriperumbudur, and in NCR, Manesar and Greater Noida, have seen a similar shift towards development in peripheral locations."

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Delhi forced to do U-turn on Maoists

On Sunday afternoon Mr Shiv Shankar Mukherjee drove out from the gates of the Indian embassy at Lainchaur in Kathmandu and headed straight to Maoist leader Prachanda's residence at Nayabazar. The Indian ambassador went there, of course, to congratulate the Maoist leader on his party's stunning performance in the recently concluded Constituent Assembly elections, but for Nepal watchers it heralded a major shift in New Delhi's dealings with the Maoists.

Lainchaur is only a few kilometers away from Nayabazar, but the Indian ambassador had not made the journey before. At least not since October 31, 2006, when he made his first, much-publicised, direct contact with Pushpa Kamal Dahal, alias Prachanda, and his deputy Baburam Bhattarai at the Indian embassy.Prachanda drew flak from certain quarters for visiting the Indian embassy regularly. In that sense, Sunday's meeting was a departure, and its significance was not lost on Nepal watchers.

Dr Ajai Sahni of the New Delhi-based Institute for Conflict Management is least surprised by the recent turn of events. The Maoist victory in the Constituent Assembly elections, he said, is a "delayed consequence of our own actions in the last one and a half years," he told this newspaper on Monday. "We engineered the Maoists to come to power, we emasculated the political parties by pushing them into a grouping with a rampant power like the Maoists,"

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Devotees flock to see Ram marry Sita

Lakhs of devotees from various states will congregate in Bhadrachalam for the auspicious Sita Ram kalyanam (holy marriage)which is to be held on the occasion of Ramnavami on Monday.

The divine marriage of Lord Ram and Sita is one among the many unique facets of the shrine at Bhadrachalam.

In other temples, Lord Ram is usually depicted as wielding a bow in one hand and an arrow in the other hand.But in Bhadrachalam temple, he appears in the four-handed form and is called Chaturbhuja Ram. The deity is seen as holding his famous kodanda bow and arrow in two of his hands and the shankha and chakra in his other two hands.

This divine image is meant to stress the fact that Lord Ram is an avatar of Lord Vishnu, the four-handed preserver of the world.

And when the Lord gets married to his divine consort Sita on the auspicious day, it moves devotees to high ecstasy.

"Every year, the number of devotees increase," says C.Venkatanagabhushanam, a merchant of Bhadrachalam, who has witnessed the kalyanam more than 20 times.

The devotees also treasure the Mutyala Talambralu, made with pearls, rice, pasupu and kunkum on the Kalyanam day.

It is prepared by the married women known amidst chanting of slokas from the Vedas.

Many who are unable to visit the temple to participate in the kalyanam get the Mutyala Talambralu from others and keep it in the puja rooms in their houses.

"Adi Sankara too visited Bhadrachalam and praised Lord Ram in Sanskrit verses," says the temple sthannacharulu, Mr K.E.Talasai.

Local people are fond of reciting the story of Bhakta Ramadasu, a great devotee of Lord Ram, who took the lead in constructing the temple, a holy site for the devotees. It was Pokala Dammakka, a tribal woman living in Bhadrireddypalem, who found the idols of Lord Ram, Lakshmana and Sita on a hillock and inspired Ramadasu to construct a temple.

There is still a stone carving depicting Dammakka worshipping the images of the Lord and his consort at the temple.

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Shah Jahan's gold dagger is sold for £1.7m

Mughal emperor Shah Jahan's golden crusted dagger was sold on Thursday for £1,700,000 at Bonhams' Indian and Islamic sale in London.

However, the auction house did not reveal the identity of the buyer.

The 16-inch dagger, which was part of the Islamic and Indian art and artefact's owned by the late Belgian textile businessman Jacques Desenfans, was expected to sell for between £300,000 and £500,000, according to a pre-sale estimate.

The whole Desenfans collection finally sold for just under £3 million. Desenfans collected Islamic, Indian and Southeast Asian arms and armour, early pottery and works of art for over 50 years.

The inscription in nasta'liq script on the blade is the most detailed of all the inscriptions found on any of the known group of Shah Jahan's personal objects. It has the emperor's name, his title, and the place and date of the dagger's manufacture.

The blade also depicts the parasol, an emblem found on blades from the imperial army and those of princes, which signified the dome of heaven, and which when carried above the head of a ruler symbolised his exalted state and his role between God and more ordinary mortals.

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Entertainment Special Economic Zone planned in big way for Mumbai

While the proposed entertainment special economic zone at Gorai in Borivali might be a tough proposition. Thanks to strident opposition from the locals and Nandigram making SEZ an unpleasant word, the Maharashtra tourism development coproration has gone ahead and done the next best thing.

It has opened up four plots of land in the Manori-Gorai belt measuring a total of 45 lakhs square metres in a bid to make the pristine stretch of beaches and mangroves one of the largest entertainment hubs in the country.

The MTDC on Wednesday asked firms to come up with offers for a 30-year lease to develop top-end tourism projects on the plots. According to the MTDC, the projects they have in mind are ones connected to a marina, Big Wheel, mangrove parks, theme parks, spas, a golf course, and hotels and any other entertainment-tourism related venture.

The four plots opened up are a 2,97,346-square metres plot, titled Open Land Manori 1, a 28,85,900-square-metres plot, titled Open Land Manori 2, a 5,21,342square-metres plot, titled Open Land Gorai 1, and a 10,60,996 -square-metres, titled Open Land Gorai 3.

Talking to this newspaper, senior manager Hemant Phadke, land and estate, MTDC, said, "These plots were lying vacant for the past 20 years and they belong to the MTDC. So we decided on this project."

The MTDC officials emphasised that this project had nothing to with the earlier government's announcement of setting up a tourism SEZ on the GoraiUttan belt of Borivali.

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Sachin to join in Olympic torch run in Delhi

Amid growing concerns over safety of the Olympic torch relay here, the Indian Olympic Association announced on Monday that master blaster Sachin Tendulkar will carry the flame at the April 17 run.

IOA president Suresh Kalmadi confirmed Tendulkar's participation in the relay, which has witnessed protests by pro-Tibet supporters worldwide.

Tendulkar's consent for the relay comes just days after national football captain Baichung Bhutia refused to be take part in the event to show his solidarity with pro-Tibet activists. His refusal sparked off a debate, with many sports persons also disinclined to participate in the India leg of the Olympic torch relay.

Kalmadi said Tendulkar himself wanted to be part of it. "Sachin Tendulkar called up this morning and asked if we would like him to carry the torch. It's a matter of great pride that the torch will pass through India.

There is a big rush among sports persons to be part of it," Kalmadi said in a press release. Tendulkar will share the honour with the likes of tennis player Leander Paes, Bollywood actors Saif Ali Khan and Soha Ali Khan, former Olympian Milkha Singh and golfer Jyoti Randhawa, among others.

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Burney sees merit in Sarabjit kin story

Signalling what may be a softening of stance on the death penalty awarded to alleged Indian saboteur Sarabjit Singh, Pakistan's former federal human rights minister Ansar Burney said here on Friday that the man on death row in Lahore's Kot Lakhpat Jail could well be a victim of mistaken identity.

In Chandigarh as part of a fourday visit to Punjab (India) on a personal invitation from chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, the former minister said: "Prima facie his (Sarabjit's) case appears to be that of mistaken identity."

Mr Burney had travelled to Bhikiwind town shortly after his arrival on Wednesday evening, where Sarabjit's family gave him various documents, including a copy of the police first information report when the prisoner went missing some 18 years ago, his ration card, a copy of the voters' list, his bank passbook, driving licence and a video recording of Pakistani national Salim Shaukat, who had in an interview with a private TV network admitted that he was forced to give witness against Sarabjit.

Sarajit's older sister Dalbir Kaur, who sought the former minister's "protection" by tying a rakhi on his wrist, recounted in detail how her brother was in fact innocent and was paying for crimes allegedly commit ted by one Manjit Singh, whose was named in police files after the 1990 bomb attacks in Multan and Lahore.

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Kandahar was rush job

India might have taken too hasty a decision in the Kandahar hijack case in December 1999 and freed the three dreaded terrorists to secure the release of 161 passengers and crew on Flight IC-814. Intelligence sources have said that Indian officials had ideally wanted to continue the negotiations with the Kandahar hijackers and gain the upper hand, but in a bid to meet a certain deadline and save itself from international scrutiny the then NDA government decided to end negotiations with the hijackers and give in to their demand. Intelligence officials also say that then Union home minister L.K. Advani was unhappy with the decision to release the terrorists in exchange for the IC-814 passengers.

Speaking to this newspaper, former Intelligence Bureau special director Ajit Kumar Doval, who was in Kandahar from December 26 to December 31, 1999, when then external affairs minister Jaswant Singh reached there to work out a deal with the hijackers, said that when in a span of just six days the "number of prisoners (whose release the hijackers were demanding) was brought down from 36 to three by the government", there was the "possibility of hundred per cent success if negotiations were continued" and international pressure built up simultaneously on the Taliban government in Afghanistan, which had been providing "ground support" to the hijackers.

"However, there was a constraint of time, and public pressure was building up. Hence a final decision had to be taken by the government," said Mr Doval. These revelations hold significance in the context of the continuing Congress-BJP sparring over the 1999 incident, particularly since Mr L.K. Advani claimed during the release of his autobiography My Country, My Life that he was not aware of Mr Jaswant Singh's trip to Kandahar with the three released terrorists to bring the IC-814 passengers home.

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Akhtar to challenge Pakistan Cricket Board ban in court Pakistan

With the government firmly behind him, Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar said on Wednesday that he would challenge the five year ban slapped on him by the Pakistan Cricket Board in court.

"I will challenge it before the Board the lower courts and if needed (I will go to the) the Supreme Court," Akhtar told reporters here minutes after Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani ordered an inquiry into the harsh "PCB decision".

The Prime Minister and several of his cabinet members were furious on the decision announced by the PCB chief on Tuesday which effectively ends Shoaib's international career.

The government, according to official sources may sack the PCB chief when a report is submitted to the PM on the issue.

The fast bowler said that he had been "victimised" by the PCB. Akhtar also urged fans to remain calm and not to damage public property after several dozen supporters gathered in the capital to protest on Wednesday, a day after the ban was announced.

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IIT fees may be doubled to Rs 50,000

The IITs seem to be headed in the same direction as the IIMs, which recently announced a steep hike in their fees. It is learnt that the IITs have sent to the Union HRD ministry a proposal that doubles students' fees. The current fee is around Rs 25,000 per annum. An IIT student may now have to shell out Rs 50,000 per year. Studying at the country's premier technology institutes, the IITs, may become more costly. For like the IIIMs, which recently announced a steep hike in their fees, the IITs too now seem to be headed in the same direction. It is learnt that the IITs too have drawn up a proposal which will double the fee for students and sent it to the Union ministry of human resource development. It means that from the current fee of around Rs 25,000 per annum, he or she may have to shell out Rs 50,000 per year.

If it is any matter of consolation for students, even after the increase, the fee will be far less than the hike effected by the country's leading management institutes, the IIMs. In recent days, the IIMs have announced huge increases in their fees for those wanting to pursue their post-graduate diploma in business administration.

The IITs are taking the plea that they need to hike the fee in order to meet their rising expenses and to improve their financial health. In the past, the IIT directors who head these institutions have often complained that they do not have enough money to even pay the salaries of their staff. Or for the upkeep of their infrastructure.

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Rahul ready to go to jail in Uttar Pradesh, says Sonia

Congress president Sonia Gandhi has said that unless Congress workers in Uttar Pradesh were prepared to go to jail, a change in this state would not be possible.

"The day Congress workers decide to go to jail, I will also come here. If need be, Rahul will also go to jail with them," she said while addressing the concluding session of the two day general body meeting of the UP Congress.

The Congress president said the UPA government at the Centre had given several thousand crores of rupees to the UP government under various schemes and it was up to Congress workers in the state to ensure that it was being properly used for the benefit of the people. "The need of the hour is agitation and struggle.

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