NEW DELHI: With former External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh creating a row with his comments about Sonia Gandhi, the Congress president on Thursday said that she will come out with her own book, which will reveal the “truth”.

“I will write my own book and then you will come to know everything ... the only way truth will come out is if I write ... I am serious about it and I will be writing,” she told reporters in Parliament House.

Gandhi was reacting to a question about the row triggered by the autobiography of Natwar Singh, which, he says, has given details about the reasons for her refusal to take up the Prime Minister’s post in 2004.

Insisting that she was not hurt, Gandhi said that she had seen worse things like her husband Rajiv Gandhi being assassinated and her mother-in law Indira Gandhi riddled with bullets.

“I am far from getting hurt from these things. These things do not affect me,” she said.

Singh had claimed that it was not Gandhi’s “inner voice” that prevented her from taking up the Prime Minister’s post, as she had stated at that time, but the opposition from her son Rahul Gandhi who was afraid she would be killed like his father and grandmother if she accepted the post.

Singh (83), an estranged Gandhi family friend, had quit the Congress in 2008 after he had to resign from the UPA-I Government in 2005 in the wake of the Iraqi food-for-oil scam.

The book titled “One Life is Not Enough: An Autobiography” is due to be released soon.

Singh also endorsed the claim of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Media Adviser Sanjaya Baru that important government files were taken to Sonia by Pulok Chatterjee, who was in PMO, saying any question of protest over this did not arise as she was the “foremost” leader.

The Congress had on Wednesday slammed Singh over the remarks, alleging that they were aimed at shoring up the sales of his new book and were politically motivated. — PTI

PUNE: The death toll in the landslide at Malin village near here rose to 30 on Thursday even as rescue workers resumed operations, which were hampered during the night due to rains and poor visibility.

As many as 44 houses were crushed in Malin village, situated in Ambegaon taluka, some 120 kms from the district headquarters here in Western Maharashtra, by the massive landslide that occurred yesterday morning trapping about 160 people under the debris after large parts of a hillside collapsed on them.

According to National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) officials, 28 bodies have been recovered so far from under the debris by NDRF jawans, who also saved eight injured persons pulling them out alive.

Intermittent rains and slushy terrain were affecting the rescue work, district officials said.

Meanwhile, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has left for the mishap site this morning after an overnight halt at Pune, city police control room said.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan visited the mishap site last night and reviewed rescue operations, appealing to people not to crowd the village as it could affect the ongoing work.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had yesterday condoled the loss of lives in the tragedy and asked Singh to rush to Pune to take stock of the situation.

Earth-moving machinery has been pressed into service but the rescuers are moving slowly to avoid causing harm to the possible survivors, Pune Collector Saurav Rao had earlier said, adding the operation to clear the rubble was on. — Agencies

Dehradun: Five persons were killed in their sleep and a man was critically injured when a cloudburst hit Netad village in Tehri district in the wee hours today.

The cloudburst occurred in Jakhnali area of Ghansali tehsil of the district swelling the Ruis canal which brought tonnes of mud and slush to Netad village with tremendous force flattening the houses, Tehri District Disaster Management Officer Ashish Semwal said.

12 houses were completely destroyed and three families living in them were affected.

District administration reached the spot hours after the incident this morning and a search operation was launched.

Five bodies have been recovered from under the rubble of the houses and rescue operations are on to find out if any more persons are still trapped, Semwal said, adding a man with critical injuries was also rescued.

Governor Aziz Qureshi and Chief Minister Harish Rawat have expressed grief over those killed in the incident.

Pradesh Congress Committee President Kishore Upadhyay and Cabinet Minister Harak Singh Rawat have left for Tehri to take stock of the situation. — PTI

NEW DELHI: Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag, whose appointment as Army Chief had kicked up a row, today took over as the head of the 1.3 million strong force succeeding Gen Bikram Singh.

Gen Suhag assumed charge after his predecessor handed over to him the Chief of Army Staff baton in his South Block office here.

The new Chief takes over at a time when the force is facing challenges of modernsation in its artillery, infantry and air defence arms and is also preparing itself for facing a possible multi-front war.

59-year-old Suhag, a Gurkha officer who had participated in the 1987 Indian Peace-Keeping Force (IPKF) operation in Sri Lanka, was till now the Vice-Chief of Army Staff.

He will have a tenure of 30 months as the 26th Army Chief.

Suhag was made the Vice-Chief of Army Staff in December last year. Before that, he was the Eastern Army Commander from June 16, 2012.

He was at the centre of a controversy triggered by 'discipline and vigilance' ban imposed on him by the then Army Chief Gen V K Singh in connection with an intelligence operation in Assam earlier.

The ban on Suhag, the then 3 Corps Commander, was lifted soon after Gen Bikram Singh took over in May 2012.

The BJP had questioned the hurry in making the appointment and insisted that the matter be left to the next government.

However, soon after the NDA government took over, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley had said the new dispensation will continue with the appointment made during the UPA rule. — PTI

Four killed, 15 injured in Udhampur road accident 

JAMMU: At least four people were killed and 15 injured in a road accident in Udhampur district of Jammu region late Wednesday.

According to police, a passenger bus went out of driver's control in Udhampur's Pancheri area, and plunged into a deep gorge.

"The ill-fated bus was going to Khor Gali village from Udhampur town when the accident occurred at Pancheri. Police rescue parties were immediately rushed to the spot. Darkness hampered the rescue operation in the mountainous terrain.

"Four passengers died on the spot while 15 others were injured. The injured have been shifted to hospital for treatment", a senior police officer told IANS. — IANS

Southampton: A listless India crashed to a humiliating 266-run defeat against England in the third cricket Test after an abject batting surrender allowed the hosts to level the five-match series 1-1 here today.

Needing to bat out the whole day with six wickets in hand in order to save the match, Indian batting crumbled in the first session itself getting bundled out for a meagre 178 in 66.4 overs in a completely lopsided contest at the Ageas Bowl.

It was one of the biggest defeats for India in terms of runs on English soil but not their worst, having lost a Test match by a mammoth 319 runs in Nottingham during the last tour in 2011.

For England, the victory meant an end to a winless streak of 10 Test matches starting from the Ashes Down Under.

To add insult to the injury, it was part-time off-spinner Moeen Ali, who bamboozled the lower-oder batsmen with his career-best haul of 6 for 67 in 20.4 overs.

Pacer Jimmy Anderson provided the first breakthrough in the morning when he had Rohit Sharma (6) nibbling at an away-going delivery to be caught by wicketkeeper Jos Buttler.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni (6) couldn't replicate the resilience of the first innings as he was again a victim of an outswinger, edging to the keeper.

While Ajinkya Rahane waged a lone battle at the other end, he could do little as he saw wickets falling like nine pins at the other end.

Moeen, then got into the action as he got the ball to turn and jump from the rough as well as bowling the classical off-breaks. He cleaned up Ravindra Jadeja (15) with a delivery that pitched on the rough and came in to hit the off-stump.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar got out to a bat-pad catch with a delivery that spun in after pitching. His maiden 'five-for' was completed when a typical off-break cleaned up Mohammed Shami.

Rahane duly got his second half-century of the match hitting a brilliant square drive off Chris Woakes with No 11 Pankaj Singh for company.

Pankaj was finally cleaned up by Moeen for his sixth scalp as he played inside the line.

The two teams will now travel to Manchester for the fourth cricket Test to be played from August 7 at the Old Trafford. — PTI

GLASGOW: Indian boxers Pinki Jangra, L. Sarita Devi, Devendro Singh, Mandeep Jangra and Vijender Singh reached the semi-finals of the Commonwealth Games in their respective categories.

However, Amritpreet Singh bit the dust as he lost the men's 91 kg quarter-final bout to local pugilist Stephen Lavelle. The judges found the Scot to be better in all the three rounds to win with a scoreline of 29:28, 30:27 and 30:27.

Pinki started the proceedings with a dominating 4:0 win over Papua New Guinea's Jacquiline Wangi in the women's 48-51 kg quarterfinal. She will now face Northern Ireland's Michaela Walsh in the semis on Friday.

Sarita followed it up with a win in the women's 57-60 kg quarterfinal over Welsh Charlene Jones. Though the Welsh girl won the first round on points, Sarita came back well to win the next three rounds of two minutes each to clinch the contest 3:1.

The Indian will play her last four bout on Friday against Mozambique's Maria Machongua.

Attacking Manipuri boxer Devendro then won his men's 49 kg last-eight bout, defeating Scottish Aqeel Ahmed 3:0. The 22-year-old notched up perfect scores of 30 from the judges in the last two rounds.

Devendro will face Welsh Ashley Williams in the semis on Friday.

Mandeep Jangra was lucky to not even fight in the men's 69 kg quarterfinal as his Australian opponent Daniel Lewis gave him a walkover due to medical reasons. The Haryana pugilist will next take on Northern Ireland's Steven Donnelly.

To finish the day, Indian Olympic bronze medallist Vijender Singh also won his men's 75 kg quarterfinal bout against Aaron Prince of Trinidad and Tobago 3:0.

The losing semifinalists in the discipline are assured of a bronze medal as the winners proceed to the gold medal final match. — Agencies

GLASGOW: After a day of highs, there was disappointment in store for Indian wrestlers as they only garnered four silver medals and a bronze in the 2014 Commonwealth Games at the SECC Hall on Wednesday.

Bajrang, Lalita, Sakshi Malik and Satywart Kadian lost their final bouts to settle for the silver medal while Navjot Kaur clinched the bronze medal after she won the play-off match.

This comes after a stunning show by the Indian wrestlers on Tuesday when they won three gold medals and a silver. Two-time Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar, Amit Kumar, and Vinesh Phogat had bagged gold medals and Rajeev Tomar settled for the silver.

India's tally from wrestling now stands at nine medals - three Gold, five Silver and a Bronze. It have now slipped to the second position after Canada in the wrestling competition. Canada have a total of eight medals - five gold and three bronze. 

The first medal of the day came from Lalita, who lost her women's freestyle 53 kg final to Nigeria's Odunayo Adekuoroye.

Odunayo completely dominated Lalita and took just 31 seconds to seal the gold medal. The Nigerian managed to pin down the Indian and raced away with the win.

Next up was Bajrang, who went down 1-12 to Canada's David Tremblay in the men's freestyle 61 kg final. Tremblay took just 84 seconds to beat Bajrang 12-1 in the first period. The Canadian was declared the winner on account of technical superiority.

Sakshi also had to endure an embarrassing loss to to Nigeria's Aminat Adeniyi and settle for the silver medal in the women's freestyle 58 kg final.

Aminat completely dominated Sakshi and took a lead of 10-0 in two minutes 24 seconds when the match had to be stopped on grounds of technical superiority.

Kadian fought well but gave it away in the end to to Canada's Arjun Gill and got the silver in the men's freestyle 97 kg final.

Both the wrestlers were tied at 4-4 after the end of the bout but Gill was declared the winner since he had a take down.

Kadian had won his Round of 16 and quarter-final comprehensively and then went on to defeat England's Leon Rattigan 8-4 in the semi-final.

Navjot won the bronze medal beating Scotland's Sarah Jones in the bronze medal play-off in the women's freestyle event.

Navjot, 24, won 13-0 against the 31-year-old Sarah. Navjot was leading 9-0 when she pinned down Sarah in her last move to clinch four points and bagged the match on account of technical superiority.

With only four contestants in the women's freestyle 69 kg event, Navjot started directly in the semis but lost 0-10 to Dori Yeats of Canada.

Earlier, Bajrang too had easy outings in his first two bouts and then defeated Nigeria's Amas Daniel 5-2 in the last four clash of the men's freestyle 61 kg category. 

Among the women, Sakshi and Lalita started directly in the quarter-finals with both coming out on top.

In the freestyle 53 kg semi-final, Lalita thrashed local girl Shannon Hawke 4-0 while Sakshi defeated Braxton Stone 8-5 in the freesytle 58 kg last four clash.- IANS