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Official stomps out of Siachen meeting: Report Human Trafficking Wedding: ‘Humiliated’ father disowns Arun Nayar
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Jemima-Grant romance back on track Gunman kills 9 soldiers No deal in offing with
Musharraf, says Benazir CJ Suspension
German, S African nationals found dead People’s war to
continue: Prachanda Indo-Australian drug syndicate busted UAE airline bans gels in hand
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Official
stomps out of Siachen meeting: Report
Islamabad, April 8 “It is not true. I was present in the talks and have not noticed any such walkout,” a senior Indian official, who attended the two-day talks that concluded yesterday without making any headway, told PTI here while reacting to a report in Pakistan daily The Nation. Rasool, the newly appointed Defence Secretary who was leading the Pakistani delegation, angrily came out of the meeting an hour after the resumption of talks and went straight to his room, Pakistani officials were quoted as saying. His Indian counterpart Shekkhar Dutt soon followed him and had a 40-minute meeting over there. Despite this, results of the meeting remained “inconclusive”, the daily said. Rasool is the first civilian bureaucrat to have been made Defence Secretary, a post hitherto held by military or former military officials. Pakistan officials blamed the failure on “inflexible and stubborn” attitude of the Indian delegation, according to reports in the local media. The Indian officials too appeared disappointed. As the meeting was held close on the heels of talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistan counterpart Shaukat Aziz on the sidelines of the SAARC summit in New Delhi on April 4, there was considerable optimism on the Indian side.
— PTI
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Indian-origin couple convicted
London, April 8 Rani Paul Kashyap, 44, and her husband Joginder, 51, were convicted in the Stafford Crown Court last week of conspiracy of facilitating the commission of a breach of immigration law between February 2003 and March 2005.The Tamworth-based couple will be sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court in May, according to a report in the Birmingham Evening Mail. Mark Wall, prosecuting lawyer, said the couple masterminded a plot to run the racket from their legitimate Sonia and Sunny Entertainments business in Birmingham. He said the company was set up to supply Indian entertainers to people in this country. Wall said: “The prosecution did not think this business was entirely bogus because they quite legitimately provided entertainers on a regular basis.” But the company was used in part as a front to help people come into this country who were not genuine entertainers. The way they tried to persuade the authorities they were genuine people was to provide genuine dates in Britain along with documents. Wall said: “But many of these bookings for these bogus entertainers were forged to mislead the authorities. They applied for group work permits and supported people who applied to the British High Commission in New Delhi. Once they had visas and work permits they were able to come to this country and many of those people just disappeared. Most of the concerts did not take place because they were bogus. The prosecution cannot say, but there is a fair inference you can draw by the fact that they would have been paid for their services and salted money away. It was a conspiracy and a plan by the Kashyaps to get people into the UK from India who should never have been allowed in.” Meanwhile, immigration officers raided four restaurants in Falmouth and escorted six persons in handcuffs for questioning. The raids on Asha India, Gurkha, Bangkok House and Balti Indian were carried out after a tip-off that there might be illegal immigrants working there. A spokesman said the raids had been intelligence led. “We can confirm that the Border and Immigration Agency with support of the police conducted an operation in the Falmouth area on March 31. This operation is consistent with the Border and Immigration Agency’s commitment to target illegal working and intelligence-led operations are conducted every day of the week across the country to detect and remove those people who have breached immigration laws. The government has made it clear that it will take a robust approach to removing people from the country where they have no legal right to be here. We seek, where possible, to remove from the UK any individual found to be knowingly working without leave to remain or working in breach of their conditions of entry. This includes illegal workers.” — IANS
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Wedding: ‘Humiliated’ father disowns Arun Nayar
While the media had jostled to get a peek into the celebrations in Jodhpur last month, the couple had sold exclusive rights to Hello! magazine for a cool £ 2 million. Now it has emerged that an unseemly wrestling match broke out in the middle of the sacred Hindu ceremony — to the astonishment of the 200 guests and Vinod Nayar was ejected from his own son Arun’s wedding, The Mail said. According to the report, 66-year-old Vinod has reacted with fury, disowning his two sons, saying they were complicit in his humiliation. But the real target of his anger, the person he blames for this shameful turn of events, is none other than Hurley. And it is the result, he said, of her obsessive appetite for lucrative
publicity. “I believe it was expressly done on Elizabeth’s orders,” he said adding, the couple was openly reluctant to invite Nayar’s Indian family. “May be they didn’t really want my side of the family there. They didn’t even have the manners to invite my 87-year-old mother. “I have totally disowned them (his sons). I want nothing more to do with them or their wives..., It was important for her (Hurley) to get celebrity faces there. That’s what the Hello! deal was about. She was fulfilling her contractual obligation,” Vinod said. “My wife and I were publicly humiliated and treated like social outcasts for the sake of a £ 2 million magazine deal. We were pushed into the background like poor relations,” Vinod said. He said he considered it an insult that “she wasn’t wearing the £ 35,000 diamond and ruby necklace I offered as a wedding gift. “But the most offensive and hurtful thing was to be denied, in the presence of all those people, the opportunity to accept her formally into the family, as is the Indian custom. This is not the behaviour of a woman with integrity and honour.”
— PTI
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Jemima-Grant romance back on track
London, April 8 Despite announcing they had split earlier this year after they dated for three years, the couple have held a series of secret meetings in an attempt to get their liaison back on track, The Mail on Sunday reported. Last week the pair were pictured enjoying a two-hour lunch together at Seafood restaurant in London. Friends of the 46-year-old actor said he is desperate to win Jemima (33), back and has not ruled out a re
conciliation. “Hugh is hoping it’s a matter of when they will get back together, not if. He still cares for Jemima very deeply and misses her a lot,” a friend of Grant said. “Jemima loves Grant but she has had her fingers burnt and has said she is not rushing into anything,” the friend said. The tabloid quoted friends saying that Grant was practically living at Jemima’s 18 million pounds townhouse last year with her two sons from her marriage to But despite rumours of an engagement, Jemima dumped Hugh in Februrary after apparently telling him to commit to her otherwise it was over. The couple are known to have rowed about Hugh’s work commitments and his close friendship with his ex-girlfriend Liz
hurley, now married to Arun Nayar. — PTI
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Gunman kills 9 soldiers
Manila, April 8 A soldier and the wife of one of the victims were also wounded in the shoot-out. “There was a firefight, an exchange of gunfire. When the battalion commander reinforced the area after it was reported to him, they were also fired upon,” Torres said, adding that the camp was without electricity during the attack.
— Reuters
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No deal in offing with Musharraf, says Benazir
Islamabad, April 8 Bhutto, who lives in self exile in Dubai, held a surprise meeting with Sharif there yesterday and discussed the political situation in Pakistan, the media here During the meeting, Bhutto assured Sharif that no deal between her Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and Musharraf was in the offing and that only routine talks were being conducted with government emissaries. Their meeting follows remarks by Railway Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed that talks between Musharraf's confidants and Bhutto aimed at a rapprochement had entered the "semi-finals". The government had also recently disbanded a special anti-corruption cell dealing with cases against Bhutto and her husband Asif Ali Zardari. However, Ahmed said that though the cell had been disbanded, the National Accountability Bureau probing corruption cases against Bhutto had not closed any case against her or any other politician. The leaders of Bhutto's PPP and Sharif's PML-N parties, meanwhile, played down their sudden meeting in Dubai as saying that Sharif had gone there to see the baby of his daughter and Bhutto dropped by to meet him.
— PTI
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CJ Suspension
Islamabad, April 8 Though a Presidential spokesman has denied these rumours as baseless, the body language of Aziz, his series of meetings with Musharraf and the ruling PML-Q President Shujaat Hussain after his return from New Delhi, where he had gone to attend the SAARC summit, on April 6 sparked off speculation that the President may have decided to make him the "scapegoat" for the action against Chief Justice Iftikhar M. Chaudhry. The options being explored by Musahrraf to prevent the public protest over Chaudhry's suspension from snowballing included a major shake-up in the government — possibly the resignation of Aziz admitting that he wrongly advised the President on the issue and thus directly taking responsibility and reinstating the Chief Justice, officials were quoted as saying by Dawn daily.
— PTI
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German, S African nationals found dead
Karachi, April 8 Fritz Walter, 57, was an engineer and his body found by the police in his hotel room in a main commercial area of the city. The hotel management had called the police when he didn't come out of his room for the three days. He said the German had come on March 28 to Karachi to work on a biscuit factory plant. Meanwhile, in the North West Frontier province police found the body of a South African national in a plastic bag in Peshawar today. Police officer Behroze Khan said the man was identified as Kenneth Scott Andrew of Durban. According to the passport found on him, he was 26-year-old. — PTI
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People’s war to continue: Prachanda Kathmandu, April 8 "People’s War would continue as per the Mao’s principle which believes that struggle does not end after assuming power,” he said addressing a gathering of pro-Maoist intellectuals here. CPN (Maoist) would not abandon the long-term people's war strategy despite joining the government, he asserted. The Maoist leader said his party had abandoned violence and joined the government to take forward the peace process in collaboration with the Seven-Party Alliance. He also accused “foreign powers” of conspiring against the Constituent Assembly polls. The foreign powers are trying to defame the CPN-Maoists, Prachanda said adding they were trying to create obstacles on way to holding the Constituent Assembly polls. Nepal could lead the world revolution, he claimed adding only the form of struggle has changed. — PTI
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Indo-Australian drug syndicate busted Sydney, April 8 Two Melbourne men have been reported to be in the police custody for importing a chemical, which is used in manufacturing illicit drugs. “This amount of precursors could potentially have made nearly 90 kg of speed with an approximate street value of more than $10 million,” AFP assistant commissioner Tim Morris said. The seizure of phenylacetic acid is stated to be the largest in the Australian history. The bust is second in such police raids in the last few weeks involving Australian authorities and Indian shipments.
— UNI
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UAE airline bans gels in hand luggage
Dubai, April 8 This restriction will apply to all fluids as well as aerosol sprays and creams, Emirates Today reported.As carry-on duty-free items could be confiscated during transit desk security checks, Dubai Duty Free has introduced a service that allows passengers to have goods placed in the aircraft hold at the departure gate.
— UNI
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London, April 8