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Anna Hazare begins indefinite fast at Jantar Mantar

NEW DELHI: Ignoring an appeal from his close aides, Anna Hazare on Sunday joined three of his team members in their indefinite fast here after his four-day ultimatum to the government to concede to his demands on Lokpal Bill found no response. 

Hazare, who had been sitting on a dharna along with his three fasting colleagues for the past four days, reached Jantar Mantar here in the morning to slogans of 'Bharat Mata ki Jai', 'Vande Mataram' and 'Inquilab Zindabad'. 

"My team had told me not to fast citing health reasons. When over 400 people are on fast, I cannot ignore them and not be on fast. Yesterday also my team appealed to me not to fast but I am sitting on fast from now. I consider I have your permission," Hazare said addressing the gathering at the venue. 

Even after Hazare announced his decision, some of those who were fasting appealed to him not to fast again, saying his life is valuable and his leadership is needed. Hazare then picked up the microphone and said, "Till we get Jan Lokpal, the countrymen will not allow me to die." 

The 74-year-old activist had asked the government to concede to his demands on Lokpal Bill by Saturday or else he would go on fast. 

His close aide Arvind Kejriwal had on Saturday made a public appeal to Hazare not to fast citing his health. 

This is the fourth indefinite fast by Hazare since April last year. The April fast was followed by one in Ramlila Maidan here in August and in Mumbai in December. 

In between, he had single-day fasts in Delhi thrice -- in June and December last year and March this year. 

Hazare had on Saturday attacked Congress and BJP, saying the country's future does not lie safe in their hands and talked about the need for a political alternative in the 2014 elections, during which he will campaign for those with clean background selected by the people. 

He had, however, declared he will not contest elections or form a party. — PTI

'Mystery woman' at India's Olympic parade identified

Indian women’s archery team bows out of Olympics

LONDON: The Indian women’s archery team was off target in crunch situations as it lost to Denmark by a point in a see-saw pre-quarterfinal battle at the Lord’s Cricket Ground in London on Sunday. 

The trio of world number one Deepika Kumari, Bombayla Devi and Chekrovolu Swuro lost 210-211 to the Danish team, comprising Louise Laursen, Maja Jager and Carina Christiansen. 

Even though the Indians hit more perfect 10s than their rivals, the Danish saved their best for key moments in which the Indians seemed to wilt under pressure. 

The Danes hit the bulls’ eye thrice compared to just once by the Indians, who were hampered by Deepika’s indifferent form. 

Bombayla, however, seemed in good touch and kept the team in the hunt till the end, getting most of the 10s — including 3 in a row, but Swuro fired a poor 5 and then a 6 to let the team down. 

The Indians managed to win the first and the last sets, but the Danes held the overall lead. 

Earlier, the men’s team had crashed out at the pre-quarterfinal stage on Saturday after losing to Japan. 

The archers now have to look forward to the individual events starting Monday. — PTI

Vijender cruises into pre-quarter finals

LONDON: India’s top boxer Vijender Singh kept his reputation as a strong medal contender intact by sailing into the middleweight (75kg) pre-quarterfinals in the Olympics with a comfortable win over Kazakhstan’s Danabek Sukhanov in London. 

The 26-year-old Beijing Games bronze-medallist was a trifle cautious in the first round, preferring to gauge his opponent’s strategy but opened up subsequently to carve out a comfortable 14-10 verdict late Saturday night. 

“I am delighted to make it through to the next round, he was a tough opponent and now its on to the next challenge,” Vijender said. 

“I want to go home with a different coloured medal this time,” he added. 

The Haryana boxer was tactically superior to his opponent and also put his reach to good use to keep him on course for a second Olympic medal. 

Although he was generally defensive in the first round, Vijender did unleash a few of his trademark straight punches to take the honours with a 5-4 margin. 

Vijender, who also won a gold medal in the Commonwealth Championship, had a decisive edge in the first round. 

He put up a more dominating show in the second round which he clinched with a 4-3 verdict and consolidated his position in the third and final round to eventually emerge victorious without really being under any serious pressure. 

The Kazakh did manage to score points against the Indian but never really looked like springing a major surprise. 

Vijender will now take on Terrell Gausha of the U.S. in the pre-quarters on August 2, 2012. 

Gausha got the better of Andranik Hukobyan of Armenia in the opening round with referee stopping contest. — PTI

No fresh clash, curfew relaxed in Kokrajhar

Kokrajhar (Assam): The situation in the strife-torn lower Assam districts is limping back to normal with authorities relaxing curfew in the worst-hit Kokrajhar district on Sunday.

The indefinite curfew clamped in Kokrajhar has been relaxed for the day while night curfew between 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. will continue in the other affected districts, official sources said.

The official death toll remained at 53 and there was no report of any fresh incident of violence. Kokrajhar, Chirang and Dhubri districts are the worst hit among five affected districts, the two others being Bongaigaon and Baksa in the clashes.

More than three lakh people have been affected in the violence that went on for eight days and most of them are sheltered in relief camps.

With law and order situation improving, the district administrations are taking measures to persuade victims to return to their homes.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday visited Kokrajhar and announced a Rs 300-crore rehabilitation package and declared that a probe will be held to ascertain the cause of the clashes. — PTI

Supersonic missile BrahMos test-fired from Odisha

BALASORE, Odisha: India on Sunday test-fired BrahMos supersonic cruise missile as part of a user trial by the Army from a test range at Chandipur off Odisha. 

The missile, which has a flight range of up to 290 km, is capable of carrying a conventional warhead of 300 kg. 

“The cruise missile was test-fired from a ground mobile launcher from the launch complex-3 at about 10.30 a.m. and all data are being retrieved for analysis,” defence sources said. 

The cruise missile, a surface-to-surface Army version, was test-fired as part of user trial by the Army, they said. 

The two-stage missile, the first one being solid and the second one ramjet liquid propellant, has already been inducted into the Army and Navy, and the Air Force version is in final stage of trial, a defence official said. 

While induction of the first version of Brahmos missile system in the Indian Navy commenced from 2005 with INS Rajput, it is now fully operational with two regiments of the Army. 

The air launch version and the submarine launch version of the missile system are in progress, he said. 

The Army has so far placed orders for the Brahmos missile to be deployed by three regiments of the Army and two of them have already been inducted operationally. 

The Defence Ministry has also given a go-ahead to Army to induct a third regiment equipped with the missile system to be deployed in Arunachal Pradesh. 

Brahmos Aerospace, an Indo-Russian joint venture company, is also working to develop the air as well as the submarine launch version of the missile system and work on the project is in progress. 

The last trial was conducted on March 28, 2012 from the same base and it was successful. — PTI