S P O T L I G H T

Meira Kumar quits Congress
NEW DELHI, Feb 2 (PTI) — Senior Congress leader and CWC member Meira Kumar tonight resigned from the party, accusing its leadership of deviating from its principles and becoming “directionless.” In a one-line letter to Congress President Sonia Gandhi, she said she was resigning from the CWC as well as the party’s primary membership with immediate effect, party sources said. The sources said she was “sulking” ever since she was removed from the post of the AICC General Secretary a few months ago. She was also trying for a Rajya Sabha berth from Delhi but failed, they added. A confidante of former party President Sitaram Kesri, she was currently the Chairperson of the AICC’s Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe Department. She was elected to the Lok Sabha from Delhi’s Karol Bagh constituency twice but lost to BJP’s Anita Arya in the 1999 elections.

DD employees
SRINAGAR, Feb 2 (UNI) — Two Doordarshan employees and a police guard were killed and two injured when gunmen fired upon their vehicle at Tatu ground Batmaloo here tonight. Official sources said the gunmen fired upon a Doordarshan vehicle killing two employees, including a driver, and a police guard and injuring another employee and guard. The injured were admitted to SHMS Hospital.

Asian lawyer
LONDON, Feb 2 (PTI) — An Asian lawyer has been awarded £ 30,000 as damages by a British industrial tribunal after it upheld her claim that she had been discriminated against on ground of race. Maria Bamieh, 40, had claimed that a culture of racism prevented her from being promoted within the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) where she had put in 12 years’ service.