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40 CCTVs in Red Fort for I-Day celebrations
This Independence Day, 40 CCTVs will keep a hawk-eye vigil on the historic Red Fortwhere Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will unfurl the tricolour.
While 10 CCTVs will be installed in and around the 17th century Mughal monument covering up to three km, 30 willbe installed to cover a 4-km stretch from Shanti Van to the Red Fort police post.
According to a senior police official, the 10 CCTVs will cover the area where VIPs will sit, the passage and the area surrounding the monument. The CCTVs will be installed byAugust 10 and they will be there till August 15.
“This is not an unprecedented step. These steps are taken as such occasions are always the target of terrorists. We should not be caught napping,” the official said.
However, he said, the security measures will be more tighter in the wake of terror attacks in Mumbai which claimed over 180 lives.
A ground-to-air security apparatus will be put in place for the Independence Day celebrations besides making the Red Fort area a no-fly zone.
Personnel from Delhi Police and paramilitary forces will be deployed around the Red Fort, from where Singh willaddress the nation for the sixth successive year.
suresh
Octuplets’ mom says plans documentary series
New York: An American mother of newborn octuplets says she will do a documentary series following her babies until they are 18 years old, but the production company says it is still in “exclusive negotiations” for the deal.
Nadya Suleman, who gave birth to six boys and two girls in Los Angeles on January 26, said she would allow a television crew to film her family six times a year. The babies are only the second known set of octuplets born alive in the United States.
“It is official. I’m going to be doing a show, but it’s not a reality show,” Suleman told Life & Style magazine, adding that the series would be made by the British arm of independent production company Eyeworks.
“What I’m doing with this TV show is basically creating documentaries about the lives of my children. It’s going to be an ongoing thing, and it will follow them from now until they are 18,” she said.
Suleman said the show would be aired in Britain and then possibly the United States.
But Eyeworks Chief Executive Officer Reinout Oerlemans said in a statement on Wednesday that the company was still in “exclusive negotiations” with Suleman for “an unscripted format following the life of Nadya and her children.”
“Nadya’s story is a very unique and exciting one that needs to be told in the right manner,” Oerlemans said. “We are confident that we are the right party to tell their story around the world.”
Suleman became a lightning rod for public ridicule after it was learned that she was a divorced, jobless mother of six living with her parents on government assistance when she became pregnant with octuplets through in vitro fertilization.
Suleman — nicknamed “Octomom” in the U.S. media — has since moved into a new home with her children and the last of the octuplets was released from the hospital this week.
The Smoking Gun website, http://www.thesmokinggun.com, reported on Wednesday that Suleman has applied to trademark the name “Octomom.” It posted online an application said to be made by Suleman to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Maoist violence kills six in Chhattisgarh
Raipur, April 16 : Five polling officials were killed in a landmine blast in Chhattisgarh’s Rajnandgaon district while a security personnel was shot dead in the Maoist stronghold of Dantewada as the state went to polls for its 11 parliamentary seats Thursday.
Police said five members of a zonal reserve polling team members were killed in a landmine blast detonated by Maoists in Rajnandgaon district, 125 km from here.
In the second incident, a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) trooper was killed in Maroki village in Dantewada, about 480 km from here, in an exchange of bullets with guerrillas.
Polling starts for 124 LS seats on moderate note, 11 killed
New Delhi, Apr 16 (UNI) Barring stray incidents of violence in naxal-affected areas of Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Orissa, polling began on a peaceful note for 124 Lok Sabha seats in 15 States and two Union territories with a moderate to brisk turnout of voters.
At least eleven people, mostly security personnel, were killed in Jharkhand and Bihar. Naxal attack reports were coming from Orissa too where several polling booths in the sensitive Malkangiri district were attacked and set ablaze by naxalites.
Polling began on a moderate note in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Northeast States, Uttar Pradesh and several other places.
In their bid to disrupt polling in Jharkhand, Maoists struck today killing at least nine people including seven BSF personnel and two civilians and injuring seven other jawans setting off a landmine explosion in Hesla forest area under Chandwa police station in Latehar.
In Gaya district of Bihar, Maoist guerillas went on a rampage, killing two policemen and injuring three, including a woman constable, in a daring attack on a polling booth under Aurangabad constituency in south Bihar.
According to police, despite the presence of adequate security personnel, a group of about 20 armed ultras raided polling booth number 244 at Sindupur village under Bankebazar police station, surrounded by forest, and shot dead one policeman and injured four others guarding the booth. Later, one policeman succumbed to his wounds.
As a result, polling remained suspended in the booth for sometime after the attack at around 0900 hrs.
Before fleeing, the extremists looted four rifles and several rounds of live cartridges from the security personnel.
They also decamped with Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) from the booth resulting in the suspension of polling.
In Orissa, polling was repoprted peaceful in many ares barring Malkangiri district, where the extremists attacked the polling booths and burnt the EVM machines.
Polling was also reported peaceful in the strife-torn Kandhmal district, where the authorities had taken extra precautions and deployed nearly 19 companies of para-military forces and two companies of the rapid action force to ensure free and fair poll.
Official sources said except in Malkangiri, Koraput, Rayagada and Nabarangpur districts, where the voters got panicky following the naxalite poll boycott threat, polling had picked up in rest of the districts in Southern and Western Orissa, where the voters were seen lined up before the polling booths.
Notwithstanding the naxalite threat, people in a large number in Kandhmal had arrived at the polling booths to cast their ballots.
‘Fourth Front’ will play spoilers for some main contestants: Pranab
Jangipur (Murshidabad):
Not ruling out taking its support again to form the government at the Centre after the Lok Sabha elections, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee has said that the ‘Fourth Front’ comprising SP, LJP and RJD would split secular votes.
They would play spoilers for the main contestants where they are not serious contenders, he said.
“They will clearly waste votes. That is their main objective,” the Congress leader said in an interview.
When asked to comment on reports that in the post-poll situation, the Congress might take their support, he said, “I do not know. It will depend on numbers. After all democracy is a game of numbers. What I can say is, we will get adequate number of seats. I can’t predict. We are fighting to win the elections.”
“Congress is contesting in enough constituencies to get adequate number of seats along with all the partners with whom we have seat sharing-arrangements like the Trinamool Congress in Bengal, NCP in Maharashtra, DMK in Tamil Nadu and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha led by Shibu Soren.
Pantaloon to realign companies, raise Rs1,500 cr in 2 months
Mumbai: Kishore Biyani’s Pantaloon Retail India intends to complete in the next two months legalities for its ambitious plans of raising Rs1,500 crore and realignment of group companies for expansion.
“Two months time is a good estimate (for the proposal’s completion),” a company source said here.
The Board of Directors of the BSE-listed firm met here yesterday and approved raising Rs367 crore through preferential allotment of shares and warrants.
It is believed that Future Group is in talks with Carlyle, Bain Capital, Blackstone, Kohlberg Kravis & Roberts for private equity funding of about Rs1,100-1,200 crore.
“We are looking to raise funds independently without diluting any stake,” the source said, without giving details.
In a major realignment exercise, the board proposed to rechristen Pantaloon Retail India (PRIL) as Future Market & Consumer Goods (FMCG), which will be the holding company for its multiple subsidiaries.
It is believed that Big Bazaar and Food Bazaar (its value retail segments) may be hived off into a separate entity called Future Value Retail, if they find a suitable partner.
“The proposed company – FMCG Ltd – will be the holding company for our two main subsidiaries, which will be created to focus on fashion and retail,” Future Group founder and CEO Kishore Biyani told PTI.
Existing companies like Future Capital Holdings, Future Media and Future Logistics will come under FMCG Ltd.
“No new subsidiaries (apart from fashion and retail) are being created,” the source said.
Pantaloon Retail India will sell 11 million shares at Rs183 — the firm’s closing price on last Thursday — for raising Rs201 crore, the company said in an emailed statement.
Another 4.1 million shares will be sold at the same price to Dharmayug Investments Ltd to bring in Rs75 crore.
Shares of PRIL yesterday closed at Rs184.70, higher by 8.04% over the previous close on the Bombay Stock Exchange.
‘There could soon be an Indian Taliban’
Ahmed Rashid, one of the world’s foremost experts on the Taliban [Images], has predicted that with the resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan, there could very well be an Indian Taliban in the near future.
Rashid exhorted India and Pakistan to resurrect their dialogue and cooperate in fighting terrorism and extremism together because if Pakistan fails to counter the sustained onslaught of the Taliban, New Delhi [Images] could be faced with a Taliban government as its neighbour.
“If you think infiltration into Kashmir is bad now, wait until the Taliban become your neighbour. Then you will see real infiltration not only into Kashmir, but into India proper.”
Rashid, who was speaking at the Woman’s National Democratic Club in Washington, DC, in a discussion and book-signing of his most recent book Descent into Chaos: US Policy and the Failure of National Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia, under the aegis of the Asia Society, said, “In 2001, we expected after the US attack (in the aftermath of 9/11) that the Taliban, Al Qaeda [Images], would be on the ropes, if not wiped out.”
“Today, we have the Taliban as a role model for an entire region. We have not only the Afghan Taliban, today, we have the Pakistani Taliban, Central Asian, and very soon you may have the Indian Taliban. You may have the Taliban stretching into the Caucasus and even into the Middle East,” he told the gathering.
Rashid, who first wrote the seminal book on the Taliban, reiterated that “it’s become a role model for extremism, it is backed financially by Al Qaeda, and it’s extremely dangerous. It is now controlling something like a quarter of Afghanistan and large tracts of northern Pakistan and they are coming now down into Punjab and Pakistan is faced with a very, very serious threat.”
The Pakistani military, he added, “unfortunately, even today, remains in a state of denial about the threat that it faces in the country. It remains in a state of denial over the Taliban who are encroaching in Pakistan with even more power and tactics. It remains in denial about the other extremist groups who’ve been active in other parts of Pakistan — in the south and the center of the country. It also remains in denial of the desperate means that the military needs to be re-aligning itself on a much more modern counter-insurgency strategy that it has so far applied in its action with the Taliban.”
Rashid said the situation in Pakistan “is very dire,” and that currently “there is a fragmentation in the leadership. There is no demonstrated leadership, either being shown by the politicians or being shown by the army right now.”
With regard to the Obama [Images] administration’s new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, particularly its regional approach, the Pakistani author and journalist argued, “The problem is all of the six neighbours have bilateral problems with each other and you cannot get them to agree on stabilising Afghanistan, unless you initiate a diplomatic process to get them to talk to each other about their bilateral issues.”
Rashid said it was a no-brainer that “the biggest problem here is India and Pakistan,” both of whom “are unfortunately now involved in a deep rivalry in Afghanistan.”
“I call Kabul the new Kashmir in a way,” he said, and noted that “Pakistan believes that the Indian presence in Afghanistan is undermining the western border of Pakistan and that the Afghan government is too close to India. There is a litany of complaints here. And, this is all being affected by the Americans, by the US military and the Indian-Afghan alliance is part of a US plan to help destabilise Pakistan.”
Rashid said, “This is the kind of conspiracy theory which is very prevalent in the military, the bureaucracy, in government circles, within the elite in Pakistan.”
“I certainly don’t agree with that and Afghanistan is today a sovereign State and it has a right to have relations with every country in the world and no other country can dictate that you can’t have relations with so and so and so and so.”
But, Rashid asserted, that “at the same time, the Indians need to be much more flexible than they have been.”
He acknowledged that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh [Images] “has been very patient so far with the kind of strings of bomb blasts that had happened in India even before Mumbai [Images]. Mumbai was perhaps the icing on the cake and perhaps with elections looming, the Congress government couldn’t really take it anymore.”
“Anyway, the net result has been a total breakdown in relations, but I really think, a start should be made in trying to get India and Pakistan to discuss Afghanistan and to put an end to this covert war that both sides are mounting from Afghanistan or in Afghanistan, and the bad blood that exists between both countries and are threatened by the Taliban.”
Rashid warned that if India doesn’t let Pakistan “off the hook here,” and doesn’t help Pakistan out in this regard, India would be faced with two threats in the near future. India would be “faced with an Indian Taliban. We already have Indian Islamic extremist groups working in India, and secondly, if Pakistan slides even further, India will be sharing a border with the Taliban. You will not be sharing a border with the Pakistan state. You will be sharing a border with a Pakistan northwest frontier province that has fallen to the Taliban and even parts of Punjab fallen to the Taliban and then what are you going to do?”
“There is a real need for India to assess its national security needs and to understand that it is threatened by this,” Rashid said. “It may be, for someone living in Kolkata or someone living in Madras, it may be an existential threat. But, it is very real and the kind of mayhem that was wracked in Mumbai recently is an example of what some of these groups are capable of doing.”
High security around special court ahead of Kasab trial
Mumbai: A thick security blanket has been thrown in and around a special court where the trial of Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving gunman in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack case, and two other accused is likely to begin on Wednesday.
As many as 500 police personnel were deployed on the road leading to the special court set up inside Arthur Road Jail in central Mumbai. One side of the road was closed to traffic. Security personnel in plainclothes were seen moving around the court.
Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel, who are also guarding Kasab in the jail, patrolled around the area near the court premises. Media persons were checked multiple times prior to entering the court and were not allowed to carry anything on their person, including notepads and pens.
A separate enclosure has been created for media vehicles some distance away from the court. No vehicle parking was allowed anywhere around the court. A special vehicle obtained by the Mumbai Police to scan for explosives has also been pressed into service around the court.
Kasab’s mother coming to Mumbai, India asks Pak to act
Police personnel, on duty since 6 am, were seen sending away curious onlookers and pedestrians who stopped by to see the security convoys of special judge M L Tahilyani and public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam entering the court.
Police have issued passes for media persons guards and lawyers for their entry into the court. Special security arrangement has also been made inside the court. A bomb-proof passage has been created to transport Kasab from his prison cell to the special court.
Besides Kasab, two other arrested accused in the terror attack case, Faheem Ansari and Sabauddin Ahmed, are facing trial.
Kasab would appear in person for the first time before the court. Earlier, he had appeared in the court through video conference. The special court is also expected to decide on an application challenging the appointment of advocate Anjali Waghmare to represent Kasab in the case. The application has been filed by an advocate, K N Lam.
Waghmare, appointed by the court to defend Kasab, is mired in a controversy, which seems to put her in a tight spot in the wake of allegations that she had first accepted brief of a witness in this case before deciding to defend the Pakistani national.
India test fires nuclear capable Prithvi missile
Balasore, April 15 : India Wednesday test fired the nuclear capable surface to surface Prithvi-II missile from a test range in Orissa, defence sources said.
The missile, tested from the Integrated Test Range of Chandipur in Balasore district at 10.21 a.m., has a range of about 350 km, officials said.
Prithvi is India’s first indigenously built ballistic missile. It is one of five missiles being developed under India’s Integrated Missile Development Programme.
Prithvi has a range of 150-250 km and is capable of carrying a payload of between 500 kg and one tonne, including nuclear weapons. Two versions of the missile have already been deployed with the army and air force.
Tech Mahindra raises $55 mln via comm paper – sources
MUMBAI (Reuters) – Software services group Tech Mahindra, which is waiting for regulatory approval to buy Satyam Computer Services, has raised 2.75 billion rupees ($55 million) via short-term debt, two sources said.
The one-year commercial paper carries a coupon rate of 8.50 percent, the sources told Reuters.
Tech Mahindra has also raised 6 billion rupees ($120 million) this week through the sale of bonds.
Kotak Mahindra Bank was sole arranger to the issues.
Tech Mahindra will pay $351 million for a 31 percent preferential allotment of new shares in Satyam and will make an open offer for a further 20 percent of the fraud-hit company at a cost of up to around $225 million.
Second verdict in Nithari case expected today
The second Nithari verdict is expected on Wednesday at a special CBI court in Ghaziabad.Wednesday’s verdict is linked to the murder of 8-year-old Aarti who was allegedly kidnapped, attacked and killed by Surinder Koli. Koli is the domestic help of Moninder Singh Pander a businessman based in Noida. Pander is not an accused in this case as he had established that he was not present in Nithari when the murder is supposed to have taken place. While Surinder Koli has been charged in 16 cases, Pander has been charged in 6 crimes following directions by the CBI court to file charges against him. The CBI still has to file chargesheet in 3 cases. Both men have already been convicted and sentenced to death for the murder or Rimpa Halder, another minor whose remains had been found near the house the two men were staying at. On April 1, 2009, a court in Ghaziabad had said that it will give its verdict in the second trial in the Nithari killings case on April 15.
Markets want clear time-limit for fiscal stimulus
LONDON (Reuters) – Financial markets want a clear time-limit for any tax cuts or extra spending pledges in the pre-budget report on Monday.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been saying for weeks that higher government borrowing to support the economy is the best way to brace the country against a sharp slowdown.
Economists expect any stimulus package to inject at least 15 billion pounds into the economy, in line with a likely European Commission call for stimulus equivalent to 1 percent of GDP. The IMF has called for 2 percent.
But the government will have to present clear plans for how it will rein back spending or raise taxes once the worst of the crisis is over, or sterling risks weakening further and the interest it pays on new debt may rise.
“A large fiscal expansion that is not accompanied by a robust and credible framework for medium term fiscal discipline can get a punishing response from the markets. The risk premia on UK assets could widen, yields jump higher and sterling depreciates sharply,” said Amit Kara, an economist at UBS.
The economic slowdown and existing government finance pledges mean the IMF forecasts that Britain will run a budget deficit of over 3 percent this year and over 4 percent in 2009, more than any G7 country apart from the United States.
Demand at government gilt auctions has sagged in recent months as borrowing racks up to fund the recapitalisation of high-street banks, and sterling has fallen by almost a quarter on a trade-weighted basis since the start of the year.
Wipro board allots equity shares
The administrative committee of Wipro`s board of directors resolved to issue and allot 32,700 equity shares of Rs 2 each pursuant to exercise of the stock options by the eligible employees under the Wipro Restricted Stock Unit Plan 2004.
Wipro, headquartered in Bangalore was established in 1946. It is a leading provider of IT solutions for customers across Americas, Europe, Asia, Australia and the Middle East.
Wipro provides comprehensive research and development services, IT solutions and services, including systems integration, information systems outsourcing, package implementation, software application development and maintenance services to corporations globally.
Shares of the company gained Rs 10.2, or 4.64%, to settle at Rs 230. The total volume of shares traded was 324,966 at the BSE (Friday).
Killer of Indian American CEO arrested
, California: Jing Hua Wu, who gunned down Sid Agrawal, the Indian American CEO of a semi-conductor company, along with two of his top officials Friday afternoon, was arrested by the Santa Clara Police Saturday.
Jing, 47, now facing triple homicide charge, was arrested by the police Saturday morning outside a business in Mountain View, the neighborhood where the assailant apparently lived. He was let go by the company Friday morning, which the police suspects could have been the main reason for this shooting spree at the office of SiPort Inc in Santa Clara.
Santa Clara Police chief Steve Lodge said the assailant was unarmed and made no resistance at the time of arrest. The arrest followed a massive manhunt launched by the police soon after the shootout Friday afternoon. Following his arrest, Jing was interrogated by police. No details were however available immediately.
The police said Jing has been arrested on charges of killing three top officials of SiPort Inc.
Sid Agrawal, 56, an electrical engineering graduate from IIT Kanpur, was the CEO and director of the company. The other two victims identified by the police included Marilyn Lewis, 67, company’s head of human resources and Brian Pugh, 47, vice president (operations) of the company.
Addressing a press conference after the arrest, Santa Clara Police Chief conceded that the shooting spree has caused “genuine fear in the community”. With global economic meltdown, a lot of people in Silicon Valley are facing job cuts.
India’s growth to be hit, PM suggests measures to tackle crisis
Washington, Nov 16 (UNI) Saying that the growth of the Indian economy is expected to slow down to between 7 and 7.5 per cent this fiscal due to the global financial crisis, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made a host of suggestions to prevent such a crisis in future and protect developing countries from the present turmoil, including the World Bank Group and Regional Development Banks providing an additional 50 billion dollars per year to support infrastructure projects in developing countries.
”This window (for infrastructure projects) can be wound down once normalcy returns to global capital flows,” Dr Singh said in his address to the Summit of the Heads of Governments of the G-20 countries.
The theme of the Summit is ”Financial Markets and the World Economy.” The other suggestions made by the Prime Minister in this regard are reforming the global financial architecture to prevent similar crisis in future, governments of industrialised counties intervening to ensure that private flows to developing countries are not affected, replenishing the resources of the IMF, governance reforms of the Fund, developed counties providing expanded export credit on reasonable terms to poor countries and ensuring that the Doha Round is completed.
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