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Geelani denied permission to Sonia invites alliance partners to dinner PM under no pressure
to quit: Congress
Shankaracharya moves another plea for bail
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Mid-Day denies
doctoring pictures of Kareena, Shahid
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India to take up fugitive issue with Pak
HC stays termination of 133 AAI employees
Fastest court verdict!
Summons issued to Surjeet in Kher case
Sex clip scandal: police remand
for IIT student
Sikhs protest against write-up in magazine
Four Nigerians held in ‘black dollar’ scam
Laloo-Paswan spat issue closed: PM
HC seeks report on summons to Advani
Actor Laxmikant Berde dead
Jammu Tawi Express returns Top cop punished Auto-disable syringe launched
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Geelani denied permission to leave for Haj
New Delhi, December 16 “The government has for the fifth time not allowed me and my wife to undertake the Haj pilgrimage despite completing all the formalities. This is an immoral and inhuman act,’’ Mr Geelani told UNI here. The firebrand separatist leader said he had regularly been applying for permission since 2000 but he was always refused permission. “The government is not allowing me and my wife to perform our religious duties. The authorities in Srinagar are not even citing any reason. It is very unfortunate,’’ said Mr Geelani, who is admitted to Ganga Ram Hospital here. The Centre has denied permission to Kashmiri separatist leaders to travel abroad, saying they might engage in anti-India activities. However, moderate Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Omar Farooq has been allowed to travel abroad from time to time. In September, he was issued country-specific documents and allowed to visit Saudi Arabia, the US and the UK. During the visit, the Mirwaiz met Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf in Amsterdam en route to the US. Last week, the Mirwaiz and another moderate Hurriyat leader, Abdul Gani Bhat, attended an intra-Kashmir conference, organised by Nobel Prize winner NGO Pugwash, in Kathmandu, Nepal. Earlier also the founder Hurriyat chairman was granted permission to perform ‘’Umrah’’ and travel to Denmark to attend a peace conference. Meanwhile, Mr Geelani is scheduled to undergo surgery for removing gallbladder stone at the hospital tomorrow. — UNI
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Notice to Centre on Haj subsidy
Jaipur, December 16 |
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Sonia invites alliance partners to dinner New Delhi, December 16 Tonight, she invited UPA alliance partners for a meal with the guest list including Rail Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav and his friend-turned-foe Steel Minister Ram Vilas Paswan. As in the case of party MPs, the spouses of the allies were also invited. These were the first informal interactions which Ms Gandhi held with her party colleagues and the UPA partners after the Congress-led Government assumed office in May. And with the festive season just round the corner, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s wife Gursharan Kaur has also decided to do her bit. She is hosting a dinner on December 20 only for the spouses of party MPs as well as the women MPs and ministers. “The special women night out is essentially Gursharan Kaur’s idea... even the Prime Minister is unlikely to be present on the occasion,” commented a Congress minister. Although the dinners hosted by Ms Gandhi were basically social occasions, these were not without political overtones. With Ms Gandhi playing the gracious hostess, the idea was to dispel any notions about a rift within the ruling coalition and also to present a united front. This is especially so in view of the recent public spat between Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav and Mr Paswan and the tensions between the Congress and the NCP after the Maharashtra elections. Today, however, they were all present at Ms Gandhi’s dinner. NCP leaders Sharad Pawar and Praful Patel as well as Mr Yadav and Mr Paswan were among the guests. Congress leaders said yesterday’s dinner was an informal occasion with Ms Gandhi chatting to all those present, making pointed enquiries from the MPs and ministers who did not bring their wives. She took special care to receive and see off Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and specifically asked her political secrtary Ahmed Patel to look
after him. Her son, Rahul Gandhi, dressed in a suit, was also present but his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was not around. The atmosphere was fairly relaxed with lots of light-hearted banter and jokes doing the rounds. Spotting R.K.Dhawan in a group, Ms Gandhi recalled how he was among the first to receive her when she landed in India in the sixties. Mr Dhawan, on his part, recounted how her parents had presented him with a leather jacket for which Gandhi had personally paid the customs duty. At another point when a guest recalled how her intervention as leader of opposition on unemployment had rattled the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Ms Gandhi merely smiled but apparently got Rahul Gandhi quite curious about the incident. She then recounted the episode when he asked her pointedly about it. When conversation turned to how Water Resources Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi was ever ready to launch an onslaught on the NDA when they were in the Opposition, Ms Gandhi replied laughingly, “Please don’t encourage him... he is in the government now”. |
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Sonia removed as trustee of IGNCA
New Delhi, December 16 In all, 21 trustees have been removed in the reconstitution, Mr S. Jaipal Reddy said in a written reply. The new trustees are Adoor
Gopalakrishnan, Salman Haider, R. Narasimhan, Mrinal Sen, A.
Ramachandran, Ratan Tata, Urban Development and Information and Broadcasting Minister and IGNCA Member Secretary.
— UNI |
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PM under no pressure
to quit: Congress New Delhi, December 16 Describing these reports as “farfetched”, Congress spokesperson Anand Sharma said: “We rubbish these reports.” The report, published in a section of the press said the Prime Minister had offered to step down as he was upset over the conduct of certain ministers in his government. “I do not know from where you got this information. We function in a parliamentary democracy. Prime Minister is an institution and not an individual and resign. It is farfetched. We rubbish it as it deserves”, party spokesman Anand Sharma told reporters. The Congress spokesman pointed out that the UPA was a coalition government. It was purely democratic for the allies to express their views and opinions. Disagreement, he said, must not be seen as a conflict. “The PM is managing all the contradictions. He is not under stress,” he added. He said the
Congress, as leader of the UPA coalition, treats all allies with respect and takes their viewpoint seriously. Alleging that the BJP treated its allies as “servile subordinates”, he said that the Congress, being a “true democrat”, treated its allies with respect. Mr Sharma also played down external affairs minister K. Natwar Singh’s remarks on India’s nuclear policy, saying the Prime Minister has already made a statement on this issue in the Rajya Sabha and that was the “last word”. |
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Shankaracharya moves another plea for bail
New Delhi, December 16 The pontiff, whose petition in the Shankar Raman murder case, is listed for hearing tomorrow by the apex court, today filed a special leave petition (SLP) against the December 10 order of the Chennai Sessions Court, denying him bail in the second case too. Shankaracharya, in this case has approached the Supreme Court directly for bail, bypassing the Madras High Court, which had dismissed his petition in the Shankar Raman Murder case. His counsel Krishna Kumar filed the petition in the apex court registry this afternoon. According to the Tamil Nadu Police, a murderous attack was made on the life of Radhakrishanan and his family members in 2002 by some "unknown assailants". |
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Vijay Divas Celebrated
New Delhi, December 16 The day marks India’s victory over the Pakistani forces in the now Bangladesh. The Indian armed forces commemorate the day when in 1971 Lt-Gen AAK Niazi, GoC-in-C, East Pakistan, and his 91,000-strong Army surrendered to Lt -Gen JS Aurora, GoC-in-C, Eastern Command of the Indian Army. In Delhi, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Minister of State for Defence Production BK Handique, Army Chief Gen NC Vij, Navy Chief Admiral Arun Prakash and Vice Chief of the Air Staff Air Marshal SP Tyagi laid wreaths at the Amar Jawan Jyoti at India Gate. Reports of celebrations marking the day were received from elsewhere in the country also where wreaths were laid at martyrs’ memorials.
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India to take up fugitive issue with Pak
New Delhi, December 16 Responding to supplementaries during the question hour, Minister of State for External Affairs E. Ahamed said 15 of those named in the list of fugitives had Interpol Red Corner notices against them. He said Pakistan had not responded positively to the demand. Mr Ahamed said the list of 25 fugitives included the names of 20 given by India earlier. He said Pakistan had maintained the persons named in the list were not living in that country and Islamabad had not provided any asylum to them. He said the list could not be made public in the national interest. To another query, Mr Ahamed said Pakistan had so far not responded positively to India's suggestion for an extradition treaty. He said India had made the request several times after the Mumbai blasts, hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane to Kandahar and the terrorist attack on Parliament, but there had been no response from Islamabad.
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HC stays termination of 133 AAI employees
New Delhi, December 16 Justice Manmohan Sarin stayed the AAI's November 30 termination order, which said the action had been taken as the persons had been appointed on ad hoc basis without following the recruitment rules. The employees had approached the court challenging the AAI order alleging that axe had fallen on them as most of them had been appointed between October 1998 to June 2003 and the action "smacked of political vendetta" as persons appointed prior to October 1998 on similar basis have been spared. The affected persons had been serving in different capacities for varying periods commencing from 1994. The AAI said appointments, made on the basis of "recommendations of the minister concerned," were irregular as the vacancies against which they had been taken were never notified or published. The appointments were made in violation of the Employment Exchanges (Compulsory Notification of Vacancies) Act 1959, as applications were neither invited not received from any employment exchange, it added. "Some of the petitioners were average and did not even possess the requisite qualifications. No test or selection was done at the entry point," the AAI claimed. On the other hand the employees said they had been working for a long time and it was not the case that they had been rendered surplus. They were being terminated for no fault of theirs and in violation of the General Conditions of Service and Remuneration of Employees Regulation 2003, and the Industrial Disputes Act, it was added. It was claimed that their services had been regularised, after a number of them qualified the typing and other tests, and they had been treated as regular employees receiving pay revisions and given House Building Advance and other allowances. — UNI
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Fastest court verdict!
Chennai, December 16 Vaira Kannan, the owner of an aluminum factory here, was to get married on November 3 and threw a bachelor’s party at a wedding hall the proceeding day. His friend, Balaji, and some of Kannan’s employees were enjoying a drink when a scuffle broke following an argument on a trivial issue. The four employees beat Balaji unconscious, who succumbed to his injuries the next day. Justice delayed is justice denied is a well known saying in judicial circles but the fast-track court judge here, Mr K. Asokan, pronounced the verdict today within just 44 days. According to Public Prosecutor Jothi Mani “Today’s judgement is the first case to be completed in 44 days in India.” He said he did not know of any case of this nature where the trial was completed in such a short period of time. The four accused, Gajendran, Yoganathan, Suresh and Selvam, were sentenced to seven years’ rigorous imprisonment under Section, IPC (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), and fined Rs 2,000 each. The police arrested the four men when they found out Balaji was having a drink with them and filed the charge sheet within 15 days.
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Summons issued to Surjeet in Kher case
Mumbai, December 16 The summons comes one day after the court verified Kher's complaint. In his suit Kher contended that Mr Surjeet had defamed him by calling him an RSS man who saffronised the Censor Board in his capacity as its Chairman. Shortly after Mr Surjeet's article appeared in the CPM mouthpiece, People's Democracy, Kher was sacked as the chairman of the Central Board of Film Certification. Kher said he was an artist and did not belong to any party or ideology. Falsely linking him with any political organisation was a blot on his career, the actor. |
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Sex clip scandal: police remand
for IIT student
New Delhi, December 16 Metropolitan Magistrate Dig Vinay Singh remanded him after the police claimed that it needed to interrogate him to ascertain where he had procured the media clip from and if anyone else was involved in its transmission. The police claimed while seeking his remand that Raj, a student of geophysics at IIT Kharagpur, had posted the sexually explicit two-minute clip involving two students of Delhi Public School for sale on the website of portal Bazee.com. The police further said that some persons had even purchased the clip and financial transactions to the tune of Rs 17,800 were traced to Raj's account. The transactions had to be analysed to ascertain whether they related to sale of the DPS clip, they added. The police also claimed that besides this clip, the accuse had been selling other pornographic literature also through the Internet. Raj has been arrested under Section 67 of Information Technology Act dealing with publication and transmission of obscene material through electronic means and under Sections 292 and 294 (dealing with sale of obscene books and obscene acts) of the Indian Penal Code. |
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Sikhs protest against write-up in magazine
New Delhi, December 16 "We will hold widespread protests and are taking legal action against the Femina magazine for running this blasphemous article that we believe is a covert attempt to influence the young minds of the Sikh community to revolt against the faith," Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) general secretary Ravinder Singh Khurana said at a press conference here. He said Sikh leaders would also move the Press Council of India to protest against the write-up titled "Fake Hair for Stupid Sardarnis". Mr Khurana said the article had severely hurt the sensibilities of the followers of Sikhism that attaches great significance to uncut hair, one of the faith's five Ks. He said the popular soap opera “Des Mein Nikla Hoga Chand” showed a Sikh with a flowing beard performing a fire ritual in utter disregard of the religion's founding principles. Stating that performing a fire ritual is an act prohibited in Sikhism, he said the serial makers should tender an unconditional apology.
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Four Nigerians held in ‘black dollar’ scam
New Delhi, December 16 The accused persons who were arrested have been identified as Francis, Davis, Dennis and Felix. The police also recovered fake black dollars worth Rs 3.75 crore. |
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Laloo-Paswan spat issue closed: PM
New Delhi, December 16 "Both the ministers have made statements in Parliament denying having made allegations against each other. In the light of their clarification the issue should be treated as settled," Prime Minister said in the Rajya Sabha. The statement from the Prime Minister came when senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj sought a clarification from him reminding that the issue was raised by the Leader of the Opposition Jaswant Singh a few days ago. She said it involved collective responsibility of the government. |
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HC seeks report on summons to Advani Lucknow, December 16 Mr Justice M.A. Khan sought the report from its office after the accused persons neither appeared in person nor any lawyer represented them in today’s hearing. The court fixed January 18 for further hearing of the matter. The court had on November 2 had admitted for hearing the CBI’s revision petition challenging the lower court order of May 4, 2001, by which it had dropped proceedings against Mr Advani, Mr M.M. Joshi, Ms Uma Bharti and a few others. — PTI
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Actor Laxmikant Berde dead
Mumbai, December 16 “He had been ailing for three months and had been undergoing dialysis for a considerable time. However, his condition deteriorated early this morning and he passed away at his suburban home”, the sources told PTI. The actor, who brought a smile to the lips of scores of cinegoers with his flair for comedy, had won critical acclaim for his role in Marathi film “Ek Hota Vidushak”, directed by Jabbar Patel. His role as a good-hearted friend of actor Salman Khan, who helps unite hearts in Hindi film “Maine Pyar Kiya” or as the supportive companion again in the film “Hum Aapke Hain Kaun” endeared him to many. Berde is survived by his second wife, actress and producer Priya Arun, a son and a daughter. His first wife, Ruhi, had died sometime back. His funeral was attended by several artistes from the Marathi and Hindi film industry.
— PTI |
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Jammu Tawi Express returns
Ahmedabad, December 16 Family members, relatives and friends of passengers aboard the Jammu-Tawi Express, heaved a sigh of relief when the train finally arrived, 24 hours behind schedule. The train, after detachment of its mangled coach, left for Ahmedabad, about four hours after the accident. Meanwhile, the helpline and desk, set up at the railway station, continued to operate today.
— UNI |
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Top cop punished
Mumbai, December 16 Sources said Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister R. R. Patil issued the orders in Nagpur where the State Assembly is now in session. Mr Gupta was asked to go on on leave for 32 days during which period his charge would be held by the Joint Commissioner of Police (State Intelligence), Mr V. D. Mishra.
— TNS |
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Mid-Day denies
doctoring pictures of Kareena, Shahid
Mumbai, December 16 The city-based tabloid Mid-Day had yesterday splashed pictures of Kareena smooching Shahid Kapur in a suburban restaurant. In a point-by-point response to the notice, the publication said “the material in question is not a series of pictures but a video clip shot on a mobile phone”.
— PTI |
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Auto-disable syringe launched New Delhi, December 16 Speaking at the launch of auto-disable syringe here, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Panabaka Lakshmi said in accordance with the policy recommended by the WHO and Unicef, the government had decided to stop the reuse of syringes. Only auto-disable syringes to administer vaccinations in the country’s universal immunisation programmes will be used, she said.
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