NEW DELHI: Russia, a partner in Kudankulam nuclear plant project, supported Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's statement that three NGOs opposing the project in Tamil Nadu, have been found to have used foreign funds.
According to reports, Russian ambassador to India Alexander M Kadakin said

that Russia stands vindicated as they had been suspecting it all along because it was very strange that six months after Fukushima tragedy, all of a sudden the NGOs raised their voice against the most secure and the best station in the world.

Minister of state in the prime minister's office V  Narayanasamy said on Friday the three NGOs' licences had been cancelled, although he did not divulge the names of the organisations.

The Kudankulam power station in Tamil Nadu was slated to be commissioned last year, but work on the project had to be halted over local protests on safety grounds. The minister said a home ministry probe was started after reports that some NGOs were spending money received from the United States and the Scandinavian countries on the agitation. "When the protests were growing, we decided to see who was funding them."

SYDNEY: Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Saturday denied the reports of rift between him and Virendra Sehwag. Dhoni sparked a debate in the media last week by saying the rotation policy for the openers was introduced because they are slow fielders. Sehwag hit back saying this was how they had been playing for 10 years. Gambhir had also criticised Dhoni for not finishing matches quickly.

On Friday, Team India had sent its media manager, GS Walia, to tell the cricket world there was no rift between Dhoni and seniors Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar and Gautam Gambhir.

MUMBAI: Airport operations at both runways of the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai will remain closed for five hours on Saturday. Operations will be closed between 11:30 am to 4:30 pm due to installation of rapid exit taxiway lights
Flights or passengers are not likely to be affected, as airlines had been informed about this closure three months in advance. Similar closure will take place on two other Saturdays in March.