Taj General Manager’s wife, 2 sons die

The wife and the two sons of Taj Mahal Hotel’s general manager Karambir Kang were killed in the terrorist attack on the hotel. A relative of the Kangs family, which is from Mohali near Chandigarh, said while Karambir Kang was not in the hotel on Wednesday night, his wife Neeti and sons Uday (14) and Samar (5) were killed in the terrorist strike.

The three deceased were residing in the accommodation provided to them at the hotel and became targets of the terrorist bullets, a relative of the Kangs family told reporters in Mohali.

Two MPs — Lal Mani Prasad and Jaisingrao Gaikwad Patil — who were at the Taj hotel are safe in their rooms, said Parliament member N.N. Krishnadas who was himself rescued from there by commandos on Thursday.

“They are safe at their hotel rooms,” Mr Krishnadas, an MP of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) from Kerala, said. “They are expected to join us after the entire operation is over,” he added.

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Film to be made on Meerut double murder

The Meerut double murder case that involves a former beauty contest winner, Priyanka, and her friend, Anju, as accused, is now preparing to come alive on the silver screen.

According to sources, at least two Bollywood producers have contacted Priyanka’s relatives, expressing a keen desire to translate this sensational case on to the big screen.

It may be recalled that Priyanka and Anju were arrested in Meerut on November 17 after they were found to be prima facie guilty of murdering the former’s parents on November 10.

“We do not know their credentials or background but two producers have contacted us for permission to put this case on celluloid. We are in a dilemma because we do not know whether we have the authority to give any such permission.

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7/11 accused detained in United Kingdom

Rahil Sheikh, who the police alleges routed hawala funds to the perpetrators of the July 11, 2006 serial train blasts in Mumbai and is an absconding co-accused in the case, was arrested by the UK police at Birmingham International Airport as a red corner notice was pending against him. The UK police has asked Interpol in India to send the details of the case, along with those of his alleged role, in order to initiate the extradition process.

“We have received a letter from Interpol in Delhi to send across the information about the serial blasts case and Rahil’s role. We have contacted the AntiTerrorism Squad (ATS), which has filed the chargesheet in the case,” said Mr Rakesh Maria, Mumbai joint commissioner of police, crime.

According to him, Rahil was detained at Birmingham airport by immigration officials as a red corner notice was pending against him. Originally from Naya Nagar in Mira Road, Thane, he had worked for six months with Oracle India in Bengaluru in 2004.

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Jackson, Bahrain prince settle case

American pop star Michael Jackson avoided giving testimony in London high court on Monday afternoon as he reached an out-of-court settlement with a Bahraini prince in a breach of contract case. Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Khalifa, who is second son of Bahrain’s King, had filed a £4.7-million breach of contract lawsuit against Jackson in London and has asked the pop star to repay several advances given to him.

Fifty-year-old Michael Jackson was expected to give evidence at the trial at the Royal Courts of Justice on Monday afternoon.

The trial had commenced on November 17 before Justice Sweeney at the Royal Courts of Justice and was expected to last for 8 to 10 days.

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Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam morale plunges as it loses 2 bases

Advancing Sri Lankan troops have intensified the battle near the LTTE-controlled headquarters of Kilinochchi amidst fierce resistance by the Tamil Tigers and are now consolidating their position near Mannar, officials said on Sunday.

Sri Lanka Army offensive divisions in the Wanni theatre of operations are now marching towards the Kilinochchi built up in three frontiers, defence sources said.

They said Army Task Force 1 and 57 Division have launched attacks at the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam held earth bund on the outskirts of Kilinochchi.

According to the latest reports, pitched battles are going on in the north of Adampan, South of Adampan and Therumurikandi areas near Mannar since early on Sunday morning.

Army Task Force 1 launched a pre-dawn offensive targeting LTTE defence in the North of Adampan area.

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Pak inmate freed after 20 years jail

Suhail Shahzad, perhaps the longest serving Pakistani inmate in an Indian jail, stepped out of Jaipur Central Jail after 20 years.

“Suhail spent 20 precious years of his life in Indian jails. He was the longest serving Pakistani prisoner here. Both countries should address the or deals of such innocent people,” said People’s Union for Civil Liberties’ Kavita Srivastava. Suhail was arrested by the Haryana police on March 25, 1988 and a local court sentenced him to three years in jail on May 7, 1990. He was handed over to the Rajasthan police on February 28, 1991 after serving his jail term. The Rajasthan police booked him under the Foreigners Act but a court acquitted him in 1994. He was again booked in another case. Suhail was acquitted in the second case after a 14-year trial.

He was again detained under Section 109 of the CrPC and subsequently detained under the National Security Act.

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Soldiers buried in avalanche near Line of Control

Snow avalanches buried alive seven Army personnel, including two officers, and three local porters in the Gurez area close to the Line of Control Tuesday, officials here said Wednesday.

They said the soldiers were out searching for three locals working as Army porters after they went missing earlier Tuesday. The porters too are believed to have been buried under the avalanche. The bodies of two soldiers have been retrieved, while a hunt is on for the others.

The Kashmir Valley and some neighbouring Himalayan areas received heavy snowfall last week. Fresh snow and rains are expected from Wednesday night, when the region will be hit by the western disturbances from the Arabian Sea.

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Industry: Give cheaper credit

Industry leaders on Tuesday called upon the government to provide cheaper credit to consumers to boost demand rather than asking it to cut prices.

Real estate giant DLF’s CFO Ramesh Sanka told this newspaper that the sale of new properties had virtually stopped. “Whatever prices had gone up have come down crashing, now there is no scope to cut prices,” he said.

DLF chairman K.P. Singh asked the government to slash interest rates to stimulate growth. “Home mortgage loans should be brought down to 7 per cent. The demand is low because loans right now have an interest rate of 12 per cent,” Mr Singh said. Real estate prices, he said, were already down, and will come down further.

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Divorce rule change is put on hold

The law ministry has put on indefinite hold plans to draw up legislation based on the Law Commission’s recent recommendation that the registration of marriages and divorces be made compulsory. The government, it is learnt, fears this might affect the Congress’ electoral prospects as this was a “sensitive” issue and might be “misunderstood” by the minorities as a step on the way to enactment of a uniform civil code.

“Bringing in such a law would mean that the personal laws of all communities would need to be changed. Just months ahead of general elections, the party doesn’t want to send a wrong signal to the leaderships of various communities,” sources said.

The Law Commission had in a report submitted last month to law and justice minister H.R. Bhardwaj said registration of marriages and divorces should be made compulsory. Law secretary T.K. Vishwanathan said, meanwhile, that the proposal by the Law Commission was under the ministry’s consideration.

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Ship with 18 Indians freed

The hijacked ship MT Stolt Valor and its crew, including 18 Indians, were set free on Sunday after two months in captivity by Somali pirates, who were reportedly paid a ransom which may have been to the tune of $2.5 million.

The Hong Kong-registered oil and chemical tanker was hijacked on September 15 this year by Somali pirates about 38 nautical miles off the coast of Yemen in the Gulf of Aden. The pirates then took the ship to a Somali port. There are 22 crew members on board, comprising 18 Indians, two Filipinos, a Bangladeshi and a Russian.

The news of the ship’s release was greeted with relief and jubilation by relatives of the crew members. The ship has now reportedly set sail for Mumbai. The release of the ship on payment of ransom was confirmed by the National Union of Seafarers of India.

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Big shots play mindgames

The India-England cricket series began on a bitter note as members of the two camps were involved in a petty quarrel during practice on Thursday, the eve of the first ODI at the Madhavrao Scindia Cricket Ground here.

Irritated and partly intimidated by balls being hit by Indians consistently landing in their part of the ground, amidst warning screams of “Watch it!”, the English players did not return them in the most courteous manner.

Virender Sehwag and Mahendra Singh Dhoni were unleashing the big strokes in the Indian nets, about 60 metres away from the ones being used by the English. As the bombardment continued, an annoyed Andrew Flintoff walked up wielding his bat and gesticulated wildly as he picked an argument with Indian bowling coach and former player Venkatesh Prasad.

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Anti-Terrorist Squad men nab Mahant in Uttar Pradesh for Malegaon

A Maharashtra ATS team Wednesday detained Mahant Amritanand, aka Dayanand Pandey, “peethadeeshwar” of Jammu’s Sharda Sarvagya Peeth, over the Malegaon blasts.

He was picked up from Kanpur’s Rawatpur area on Wednesday afternoon by a joint Mumbai ATS Lucknow police team. UP’s ADG (law and order) Brijlal told reporters the ATS team had reached Lucknow late Tuesday evening with an order from Nashik’s chief judicial magistrate.

He is wanted for questioning under various IPC sections as well as the Explosives Act. He has also been named as an accused under the Prevention of Unlawful Activities Act 1967. He is being taken for interrogation to Lucknow, where he is likely to be produced before a magistrate for transit remand, and taken to Mumbai for questioning by the ATS.

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Burma blogger gets 20 years in prison

A popular Burma blogger arrested after massive anti-junta protests in 2007 has been jailed for 20 years at Rangoon’s notorious Insein Prison, an Opposition spokesperson said on Tuesday.

Nay Phone Latt, 28, a former member of detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s Opposition party, was sentenced on Monday along with poet Saw Wai, who is accused of penning a secret anti-junta message in one of his works.

Four members of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) were also given unspecified jail terms on Monday. “Nay Phone Latt was once an NLD youth member, but he left the party when he was arrested. He was sentenced to twenty years imprisonment,” NLD spokesperson Nyan Win said.

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2,000 year old gold earring excavated in Jerusalem

The Israel antiquities authority says archaeologists have discovered a 2,000-year-old gold earring beneath a parking lot next to the walls of Jerusalem’s old city.

The authority says the earring is inlaid with pearls and emeralds and was made around the time of Christ, between the first century BC and the beginning of the fourth century AD.

In a statement released on Monday the authority said the “astonishingly well preserved” piece was discovered during excavation of the ruins of a building from the Byzantine period, dating from around the fifth century, AD.

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Woman journalist freed in Afghan

A Canadian woman journalist, who was abducted on October 12 in Afghanistan, has been released by her captors, media reports said here on Sunday.

Mellissa Fung, a reporter with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), was kidnapped from a refugee camp outside Kabul where she had gone to interview displaced people. To deny her abductors media propaganda and not let the incident escalate into a major crisis, the CBC had requested a news blackout by media outlets.

The Canadian Press said the Canadian and Afghan authorities secured Ms Mellissa’s release by negotiating with her captors through tribal elders.

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More Army officers may face Anti-Terrorist Squad questioning

After the arrest of Lt.Col. P.S. Purohit, more serving officers of the Indian Army could face questioning by Maharashtra’s anti-terrorist squad in connection with the Malegaon bomb blast conspiracy case. Till late Thursday evening, sources in the military insisted the Army was yet to get any request from the Mumbai ATS to question more serving officers. But speculation was rife that it was only a matter of time before it did so.

This indicates that suspicions exist of a wider conspiracy by right-wingers within the Army. With the Intelligence Bureau also probing the case, the Army’s own Military Intelligence may also conduct an investigation on whether the Malegaon blast conspiracy involves more serving officers.

This is all the more so as Lt. Col. P.S. Purohit is himself a military intelligence officer. The Mumbai ATS and IB investigation may also soon focus on Lt. Col. Purohit’s close friends in the Army, to see if they had any inkling of the alleged terror conspiracy.

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B.R. Chopra dead

Legendary film maker B.R. Chopra, older brother of Yash and doyen of Bollywood’s Chopra clan, passed away at 8.15 am Wednesday at his Juhu residence here after a long illness. He was 94.

He is survived by filmmaker son Ravi Chopra and daughters Shashi and Neena. The cremation took place at 4.30 pm at the Vile Parle crematorium here Wednesday evening.

A recipient of the 30th Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1998, Chopra directed his first film Afsana in 1951. He went on to establish his banner B.R. Films in 1956, and made a series of successful films like Naya Daur, Gumrah, Humraaz, Sadhna, Kanoon, Dhool Ka Phool (in which he established younger brother Yash Chopra as an independent director), Dhundh and Insaaf ka Tarazoo. His last film as a director was Nikah.

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United Kingdom marriage visa age raised to 21

Britain on Tuesday announced that its decision to increase the age at which someone can apply for a marriage visa from 18 years to 21 years will be implemented from November 27.

The age for marriage visas was raised in summer as part of a crackdown on forced marriage. “Both par ties in a marriage will have to be 21 years old before a marriage visa can be issued,” the home office said on Tuesday.

Thirty per cent of the cases dealt with by the government’s forced marriage unit involved victims aged between 18 years and 21 years and new provisions were introduced specifically to address this problem. The ministry will also revoke the right to stay in the UK where there is evidence that the marriage route has been abused. “It is important that we protect vulnerable young people and this measure will help avoid exploitation,” border and immigration minister Phil Woolas said.

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Haryana’s Bhiwani Erupts in Outrage: Cops kill man by ‘mistake’

The police in Haryana’s Bhiwani district allegedly “deliberately” gunned down a young college student because they “mistook” him for a wanted criminal. Kuldeep Singh, 22, a final-year student of Bhiwani’s Vaish College, was chased and shot in the head by a police party who spotted him and his friends returning from a party late Sunday night. The party, tragically, was to celebrate Kuldeep’s wedding, due to take place soon.

Enraged over this police high-handedness and brutality, relatives and scores of Kuldeep’s college mates came out on the streets of Bhiwani town demanding the immediate arrest of the guilty policemen. They set fire to a number of vehicles parked outside Bhiwani’s central police station, and rained bricks and stones at the hugely-outnumbered police force. The crowd dispersed only after armed police units arrived on the scene.

Tension spread across the district, and several student groups and other organisations have vociferously demanded action against the police.

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Buddhadeb and Paswan escape big mine blast

West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Union steel, chemicals and fertilisers minister Ram Vilas Paswan narrowly escaped a landmine explosion at Baruahati in Maoist-infested West Midnapore district on Sunday afternoon.

The explosion, allegedly by Maoist outfits, has exposed the failure of the West Bengal police and its intelligence wing in ensuring foolproof security for VIPs. Six policemen travelling in the Union minister’s pilot car were injured in the explosion. Two of them were admitted to Kolkata’s AMRI Hospital Sunday evening.

“It is a serious incident. Two policemen are in critical condition,” the chief minister said.

The explosion took place when the pilot vehicle (WB-62-5647) in Mr Paswan’s convoy was passing the Kalaichandi canal area at around 2 pm. “The four-wheeler was tossed in the air by the impact and left mangled.

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Bill to make education a right cleared

In a bid to demonstrate its commitment to social sector as well as financial reforms, with elections now just months away, the UPA government late Thursday night cleared a long-delayed bill making education for children up to the age of 14 a fundamental right, and also decided to raise the cap on foreign direct investment in private insurance firms to 49 per cent.

Announcing these decisions on Friday, finance minister P. Chidambram said the Cabinet had cleared the Right to Education Bill, which promises free and compulsory education for children between 6 and 14. “The bill has been considered at several levels by the Group of Ministers. The Cabinet has approved the text of the bill,” Mr Chidambram said, adding that the HRD ministry would release the text after consulting the Election Commission in view of imminent Assembly elections in some states.

On insurance, Mr Chidambram said a comprehensive bill amending various laws in this sector would be introduced. It would, among other things, seek an upward revision of the FDI cap from the existing 26 per cent to 49 per cent in case of private insurance companies.

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