507 carat white diamond found

Mining group Petra Diamonds has discovered a 507.55 carat white diamond at South Africa's Cullinan mine, one of the largest high-quality rough diamonds ever found, the firm said on Tuesday.

"This spectacular gemstone was recovered on Thursday and is currently with experts for analysis," said a statement released by the London-listed company which operates mainly in Africa.

Initial examinations of the diamond, which weighs just over 100 grams, have shown it to be of exceptional colour and clarity. The diamond is undergoing colour grading, but is believed to be a rare Type II diamond,

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AI crisis grows, to hit more flights

The spectre of massive nationwide cancellation of flights looms large over state-owned carrier Air India, with the airline saying Monday it was assessing how many flights it could operate in the coming days in view of the escalating pilots' strike. However, both Air India and the civil aviation ministry declared there was no possibility of a lockout, and denied earlier reports that it would suspend all its operations from midnight on Monday.

Confusion prevailed over the airline's flight schedules for Tuesday. While Air India sources said up to 21 domestic flights (IC-code) could be operated from New Delhi on Tuesday, the airline's call centre was saying all domestic flights (IC-code) and some international flights (AI-code) could be cancelled on Tuesday. The call centre has, meanwhile, stopped accepting all bookings on domestic flights "till further notice".

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Moon probe's before death gasp: Water

Mankind's 40 year search for water on the moon has finally ended, and India's lunar spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 helped achieve the breakthrough.

In back-to-back pronouncements in Bengaluru and Washington DC on Thursday, both the Indian Space Research Organisation and America's Nasa said the US moon mineralogy mapper, one of the 11 instruments on board Chandrayaan-1, found water on earth's only natural satellite.

Over the past four decades, space agencies have sent several probes, a dozen American astronauts have walked on the moon, but it was not until Chandrayaan-1 that the presence of water was finally confirmed.

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Chief: Indian Air Force strength just 1/3rd of China's

Air Chief Marshal P.V. Naik on Wednesday said the Indian Air Force's aircraft strength was "inadequate", just "onethird" the size of China's, and that it was therefore going in for more acquisitions.

Air Chief Marshal Naik downplayed reports of Chinese air incursions along the Line of Actual Control. "As far as the Air Force is concerned there are no incursions anywhere," he said. "Our present aircraft strength is inadequate. We have one-third of the Chinese numbers. And that is why we are going for more," he said, echoing recently retired Navy Chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta's concern that the country has neither the capability nor the intention to match China force for force.

"The government of India is doing a lot to augment Air Force capability," the IAF Chief told reporters at the South-Western Air Command HQ.

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Sibal tells Indian Institutes of Technology professor to drop fast, no to pleas

Taking a tough stance against the faculty members of the Indian Institutes of Technology who had on Monday announced a day-long nationwide protest hunger strike on Thursday demanding a better pay package and more functional autonomy for their premier institutes, human resources development minister Kapil Sibal said Tuesday that their behaviour was unbecoming for professors of the elite institutions.

"It is not proper for professors of elite institutions to resort to hunger strikes. We always dream that the IITs should produce Nobel laureates. We do not expect our prospective Nobel laureates to go on hunger strike. They should be hungry for knowledge," he said.

"We are not averse to meeting anybody. We are averse to the procedure adopted by the faculty of talking to us through the media. They just cannot announce a hunger strike and (then) ask for a meeting," Mr Sibal said

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One of my best matches: Somdev

The victorious eam came home to a heroes' welcome here on Monday afternoon. Recalling his marathon 3-6, 6-7 (37), 7-6 (7-5), 6-2, 6-4 win over South Africa's Rik De Voest, Somdev Devvarman said, "The win was important for us and the credit goes to all my team members.

"Rik was playing well and put a lot of pressure on me. But after I bounced back in the third set, I didn't want to lose momentum. The fourth set went my way and after that I didn't look back."

Somdev lost 20 breakpoints out of 27 in the tie but rated Sunday's reverse singles as one of the best he had ever played.

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A website offers emails from the grave

The fear of dying suddenly, without the chance to mend wrongs or say goodbye, has prompted an Australian entrepreneur to start a website where people can contact loved ones from beyond the grave.

Peter Ingram, a security systems retailer, watched as within just two weeks of being diagnosed with a brain tumour an aunt lost her ability to speak, write, or even smile.

She was 100 per cent conscious and able to understand what was happening around her, but remained silent until her death, taking her secrets, thanks and regrets to the grave.

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Writer Meenakshi Mukherjee dead

Eminent writer and Sahitya Akademi winner Meenakshi Mukherjee died here Wednesday.

She was 72. Mukherjee, a professor at the University of Hyderabad, fainted and collapsed at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) here while preparing to board a flight to New Delhi, where she was to release one of her books.

"She was travelling alone and was to board an Indigo Airlines flight to Delhi. She fainted at Gate 22 and was rushed to Apollo Medical Centre at the airport, where she was declared dead," an airport spokesman said. Her relatives, who came to see her off, were still at the airport when she collapsed and was rushed to the medical centre, he said.

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Oz mob of 70 attacks 3 Indians

After a brief lull in attacks on Indians in Australia, three members of the community were "brutally bashed" by a group of 70 young people, including several women, who were attending a birthday party at a bar after making racist remarks against the trio.

Sukhdip Singh, 26, who arrived here a month ago on a spouse visa, his brother Gurdeep Singh and uncle Mukhtair Singh were attacked while playing pool at a bar in the suburb of Epping. "At around 11'o clock my brother-in-law Sukhdip was playing pool along with family members when they were attacked by around 70 locals attending a party," Onkar Singh, a relative of the victims, said. "They were playing quietly and trying to avoid trouble even after these locals tried to provoke them," he added.

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Bharatiya Janata Party wrests 5 bypoll seats

Modi magic resurfaced in Gujarat with the BJP shocking the Congress by walking away with five of the seven Assembly seats to which byelections were held.

The byelection victories have boosted the BJP's morale as well as reinstated Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi as the indisputable party satrap in Gujarat. Mr Modi has claimed this is a "trailer" of what is going to unfold in Maharashtra next month.

"We are not a party where one chief minister will claim credit for this. We are a party where lakhs of grassroots workers sweat it out and bring us this victory," Mr Modi said at a victory meet in Dehgam Monday night.

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Obama aides at Dharamsala

Senior Obama administration officials held talks with top members of the Tibetan government in-exile at its headquarters at Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh, on Sunday, ahead of what is being described as a "significant" meeting with the Dalai Lama on Monday.

A three-member White House team led by senior presidential adviser Valerie Jarrett, which arrived on a special chartered flight at Kangra's Gaggal airstrip on Saturday afternoon, held meetings on Sunday with Tibetan "prime minister" Samdhong Rinpoche and the Dalai Lama's special envoy, Lodi Gyari.

While officials have not disclosed any details about the closed-door meetings, sources said the "discussions possibly included the possibility of reopening the Tibet-China dialogue in preparation for the US delegation's meeting with.

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Just 29 of 66,000 Pakistan applicants interviewed

Despite a "rigorous new system" for immigration control being in place, British officials have questioned face-to face only 29 out of 66,000 visa applicants from Pakistan in the last one year.

The visa checks on immigrants from Pakistan have been condemned as a "sham", a Daily Mail report said on Thursday citing the latest statistics. The Home Office set up the `hub and spoke' scheme in 2008 to prevent terrorists, extremists, illegals and criminals from entering the UK. But though the new system was operating since last October, data has revealed that just one in a thousand of those granted visas was "quizzed face to face". Figures showed that just 29 out of 66,000 applicants were interviewed by officials, the report said. The Opposition Tories said the statistics were proof that Britain's immigration controls are "wholly inadequate".

"Gordon Brown and MI5 boss Jonathan Evans have stated publicly that militants from Pakistan are the biggest terrorist threat to Britain and the country is classified as a `high risk' for visas by the home office,"the Mail noted.

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Pakistan gave Iran nuke aid: AQ

Rogue Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan, father of its nuclear weapons, now admits Islamabad had helped with Iran's nuclear programme.

Mr Khan told Pakistan's Aaj TV in an interview that he and other senior Pakistani officials guided Iran to a network of suppliers to advance its covert nuclear programme years ago.

They were also instrumental in Tehran's covert purchases of equipment through Pakistan's Dubai suppliers, he said, in the first admission of official Pakistani support for Iran's nuclear ambitions.

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Jet pilots threaten 24 more hours of agony

Flight operations of Jet Airways were crippled on Tuesday by a "wildcat strike" resorted to by 363 pilots, resulting in a total of 184 flights (both domestic and international) being cancelled by Tuesday evening and 13,000 passengers being affected. But, more worryingly, Jet Airways pilots late on Tuesday evening indicated they would go ahead with their mass sick leave for another 24 hours even as the airline announced the cancellation of 31 more flights on Wednesday.

The airline's pilots are demanding the reinstatement of two colleagues sacked more than a month ago with pilots saying the two were sacked for daring to form a new union, the National Aviators' Guild, which was registered recently as a trade union.

Jet Airways also confirmed it had sacked two more pilots on Tuesday for "indiscipline". "Jet Airways has a commitment to its passengers and to maintaining its operations and services.

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UAE plane held with arms for China

A UAE Air Force plane has been grounded at Kolkata airport from Sunday evening following the discovery of a large cache of undeclared arms and ammunition on board, and was not allowed to resume its flight even 24 hours later. The interrogation of the pilot and eight crew members continued, both at the airport and the hotel where they have been put up.

The military transport Hercules C-130 aircraft, flying from Abu Dhabi to Hanyang in China, landed at Kolkata airport to refuel on Sunday evening. The customs authorities refused to give it clearance after finding discrepancies in the declarations filed by the aircraft captain and the UAE Air Force.

In an earlier declaration filed with Air Headquarters in New Delhi, the UAE Air Force had said that the aircraft, flying through Indian airspace on its way to Hanyang, would not carry any arms or ammunition, said Wing Commander Mahesh Upasani, defence ministry spokesman in Kolkata.

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Congress warns Andhra leaders

The Congress high command on Sunday sent a tough message to Andhra Pradesh party leaders through AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh as the clamour grew for Kadapa MP Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, son of late chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, to be made chief minister.

Party sources said the high command would not be intimidated by the pressure tactics of state leaders into making any rash decision. They said there was no change in its stand, and the succession issue would be discussed only after the seven-day period of mourning for YSR is over.

In Hyderabad, meanwhile, on the advice of the state advocate-general, Andhra Pradesh governor N.D.Tiwari on Sunday directed all ministers in the YSR government to take the oath of office and secrecy again, a procedure that was swiftly completed.

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141 die for Y S Rajasekhar Reddy grief

In an unprecedented show of love for any politician in the history of modern Andhra Pradesh, at least 141 people have died (including suicides) because they were unable to bear the trauma of the loss of their leader, Dr Y.S.Rajasekhar Reddy.

One hundred and fifteen people died of cardiac failure and another 26 committed suicide after the chief minister died in a tragic helicopter crash deep in the Nallamali jungle.

While 42 people died on the first day (Thursday) soon after news of YSR's death reached them, the toll went up to 141 on Friday as many could not bear the shock of their leader's demise.

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India Mourns Y S Rajasekhar Reddy

Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy was found dead on Thursday along with four other occupants of the state government helicopter which flew into a hillock in the thick forests of the Nallamalai Hills in Kurnool district in inclement weather.

YSR's body, badly charred in the fire after the crash on Wednesday forenoon, was winched into an IAF helicopter and brought to Hyderabad, where it lay in state at his camp office at Begumpet in the heart of the city.

Thousands of people joined the cortege as it drove from the airport to the camp office. Tens of thousands of people, rich and poor alike, queued up to pay tribute to their leader, who was known as a champion of the poor.

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YSR copter vanishes over Andhra forest

Unprecedented air, and and satellite search operations were launched on Wednesday to locate Andhra Pradesh chief minster Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy and others who were n a helicopter that went missing on Wednesday morning. There was no word on the where abouts, or what had happened to the helicopter, till the time of going to press.

The CM had taken off from Begumpet airport at 8.35 am to go to Chittoor to launch his Rachabanda programme to talk to drought affected farmers and quell their fears. The CM was accompanied by his special secretary, Dr Subrahmanyam, his personal security officer, Mr Wesley, and two pilots.

Dr Reddy's helicopter pilot, Group Captain Bhatia, an Indian Air Force pilot on deputation to the state government, last contacted air traffic control (ATC) at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at 9.12 pm and did not report any emergency. Group Captain Bhatia did not put out any emer gency or distress call.

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Merkel: Germany caused endless suffering in World War II

Officials from across the Europe and the US gathered in northern Poland on Tuesday to mark the outbreak of World War II 70 years ago, in a ceremony bringing together former foes and friends to pay tribute to the tens of millions killed in the conflict.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin representatives of the two countries that invaded Poland in September 1939, starting the war -were to take part in the commemoration later in the day.

Merkel told Germany's ARD television on Tuesday that her country would never forget the "causes and effects" of the war. "Germany trig gered the World War II," she said.

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