Gurgaon, August 10
A girl student of Government Model Senior Secondary School in Nathupur village near Gurgaon was admitted to a hospital in an unconscious state after she was allegedly beaten up mercilessly by a teacher. The teacher had beaten her with a stick.

Preeti Yadav, a class VIII student allegedly had not completed her Sanskrit homework. When questioned by her teacher Sandeep Kumar, she was not able to reply. As a result, she was brutally beaten her up on stomach and back with a stick in the classroom.

DLA Phase III SHO Vijay Kumar informed that a case has been registered against the teacher and the statements of the students of the class are being recorded. Kumar said that according to the statements of the students Preeti had fainted yesterday as there was no electricity in the class. They said the teacher had only asked her about the homework, but denied of her being beaten up by the teacher.

Kumar said that Preeti is admitted to the hospital. He added that action would be taken against the teacher only after the completion of investigation.

Noida, August 10
A cop was injured critically yesterday when a bikerider assaulted him after the cop asked him to show documents of the vehicle.

During a vehicle check on Thursday after-noon, a bikerider pounced upon a cop who had only demanded to see the documents of his bike. The cop was so savagely beaten-up that he had to be rushed to Kailash hospital in a serious condition.

The fleeing youth was eventually arrested by the police and booked for a murderous attack on a public servant on duty and for disrupting government work.

SI Ramesh Chander, cops Bhagwati and Rameshwer Prasad were checking vehicle near Cambridge school on Thursday afternoon. Bike rider Ashok Awana was waived to stop, but when he allegedly did not stop SI Ramesh Chander came in the way. At this, Ashok allegedly tried to trample him under his bike. The cops then stopped him and asked for the bike documents.

The biker Ashok taking an offence to being asked to produce the paper allegedly slapped cop Rameshwer Prasad. When Rameshwer tried to hit Ashok with a lathi, later snatched the lathi from the cop and struck him twice strong blows on his head.

SI Ramesh Chander and cop Bhagwati then over powered the fleeing bikerider and arrested him and rushed Rameshwer to Kailash hospital in a serious condition. The doctors said Rameshwer's condition was quite critical.

New Delhi, August 10
Former deputy Prime Minister L. K. Advani today alleged that the Congress was blemishing the country’s honour by disregarding the Constitution and by damaging democracy.

"We should thank the judiciary for it has corrected every evil deed of the UPA government. BJP hopes that the Supreme Court will pronounce the right decision in the Goa case also", he remarked while addressing a gathering at Jantar Mantar in protest against the decision of the speaker of the Goa legislative assembly for not allowing three legislators to vote in the assembly organised by the Goa Democratic Alliance and BJP Delhi Pradesh today. Majority of Goa legislators witnessed the protest.

Advani added that India's prestige had increased globally because of its strong democracy and the status of a nuclear power that it acquired during the NDA's rule by carrying out a nuclear test in Pokhran.

He questioned the President, Prime Minister and Congress president Sonia Gandhi about the reason behind judiciary's intervention in the undemocratic and anti-constitutional actions of the UPA government.

BJP national president Rajnath Singh termed it to be an irony that the majority of legislators, who are responsible for running the government, are demonstrating on the roads of Delhi today while, the minority is running the government due to the tactics of the Congress.

"The BJP, NDA and the Goa Democratic Alliance will fight from the Parliament to streets against this anti-democratic and anti-constitutional deed of the Congress. We trust the judiciary that democracy will win and the majority of legislators shall get justice", said Singh.

Singh remarked that Congress' character had been of a dictator. Whenever it gets an opportunity, it shows despotic character and tries to grab power, said he. JD (U) president Sharad Yadav said that whenever Congress comes to power, the governor and speaker of the legislative assembly selected by the party indulge in political gimmicks.

He announced of raising the Goa issue in the Parliament. He said he would carry this quest to the Parliament, streets and the court. Other senior leaders of the NDA also spoke on the occasion.

Noida, August 10
A youth crossing the Expressway was crushed when a Maruti car hit him. The victim breathed his last in a hospital.

Near Eldeco in Sector-93, the Maruti Zen car had hit the youth, Laxmi. He was rushed to a hospital where he succumbed to his injuries. A report was lodged in Noida Phase-II police station by Uma Kant, a Delhi resident.

In another accident case, one person was seriously injured when his motorcycle collided with a truck in Sector-41 Noida.

Anurag Gupta was on his way to his office in Greater Noida.

He was admitted to nearby Goodwill hospital.

New Delhi, August 10
The Delhi Police commissioner Y. S. Dadwal has issued a circular to all the police stations warning that the Station House Officers (SHO) would be held equally responsible if any corrupt official was caught in their respective police stations.

Stressing on the importance of closer monitoring of the activities of the staff, the police commissioner said that such cases were usually the result of laxity on the part of superior officers.

The circular was issued apparently after a sub-inspector of the Delhi Police posted at Paschim Vihar police station was caught by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) sleuths while reportedly accepting a bribe of Rs 25,000 from the relative of a suspect in an auto-theft case on Wednesday.

The CBI had also claimed that apart from the money, six country-made pistols and some amount of narcotics were also seized from the errant police officer.

The new police commissioner has reiterated his stand, which is zero tolerance to corruption in the force.

As a first step, he has started making surprise checks on police stations at odd hours.

New Delhi, August 10
A 60-year-old Tamil businessman suffering from terminal liver disease has become the first in South Asia to undergo two simultaneous liver transplants at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital here.

KP Appu Chettiar who weighed 80 kg got a fresh lease of life after receiving a part each of two livers, one from his nephew Arul Kumar and the other from his nephew's wife, Priya. He is reporting to be doing fine after his discharge from the hospital on July 29.

The hospital team claims to be the fourth in the world to have successfully performed this complex procedure.

Dr A. S. Soin, Head of Liver Transplantation at the hospital who led a team comprising 40 surgeons, anaesthetists and Operation Theatre staff for the 14 hour long surgery told mediapersons here, "When Mr Chettiar came to us, he did not have a twin liver transplant in mind. Of the four volunteers for liver donation from his family, two were ruled out due to blood group mismatch and fatty liver. The other two (Arul and Priya) were suitable on all other counts except they were small built. Neither of them would be able to safely donate enough liver for Mr Chettiar. In the interest of donor safety, we did not want to take a substantial part of the liver from one donor. We chose instead to take half the liver each from two donors."

Dr Soin said that so far only three centres in the world have attempted double liver transplant. These include Centres in Germany, Korea and Turkey. After Dr Soin decided to do this challenging procedure, he was fortunate to get an opportunity to discuss the case with surgeons from Korea during the Brazil

World Congress of Liver Transplantation. "That discussion certainly helped me." Dr Samiran Nundy, Head of Surgical Gastroentrology at Ganga Ram hospital, said that this case would give hope to many overweight persons suffering from terminal liver disease who had been denied living donor liver transplantation due to liver size mismatch between the donor and the recipient. "It is a major technical feat, it would be double encouraging to the organ donation movement if the same procedure could be done using cadaver organs."

Dr S. Saigal, liver transplant physician, said that the first challenge for the team was to treat the patient's septecemia and kidney derangement to enable him withstand a liver transplant. "He spent four weeks in the Intensive Care Unit and another five weeks in the ward before we gave him the go-ahead for transplant."

Dr B.K. Rao, Chairman, Board of Management, said that this landmark operation also marked the 150th liver transplant in Ganga Ram hospital.

Doctors at Ganga Ram said that Chettiar had been ill for two years. He was in and out of hospital for the last six months due to repeated infection, blood vomitting and build up of excessive water in his abdomen. He was told by doctors in Chennai and Salem that he would not survive beyond a few weeks unless he had a liver transplant.

The patient's son, Dr Jaipal, said that they made inquiries about liver transplant from Global Hospital, Hyderabad and Christian Medical College, Vellore. "Both hospitals said that they were doing only cadaver liver transplants." Dr Jaipal who transported his father to Ganga Ram hospital in an air ambulance in a critical semi-coma state with multiple organ dysfunction and septecemia said that there was gradual improvement in his condition.

New Delhi, August 10
Acting as perfect samaritans actor Naseeruddin Shah and Ratna Pathak Shah visited 18 terminally ill cancer patients at the day care centre in Cancer Support, an NGO providing palliative care across Delhi and Gurgaon.

They are here to raise funds to support the NGO by staging the play 'Dear Liar' on Saturday. Naseer said, "I often feel, as actors we are over-paid and over-privileged. At times it is difficult to justify one's existence. I feel privileged to do something for these cancer patients. I believe it to be the only cure for my pains." He promised to do his best for these cancer patients, who need palliative care rather then medical help.

"We have to meet patients to help them to live in peace for the rest of their lives. We are ready to serve them," said his wife Ratna Pathak Shah. She added, "We need to provide spiritual, emotional and psychological support to them. They are aware of the fact that they cannot be treated, as most of them are terminally ill. I believe each one of us have a great responsibility towards these patients."

CanSupport is an organisation being run by Harmala Gupta, who herself survived cancer and provides home based palliative care, counseling and other forms of support to more than 200 patients and their families.

A perfect example of CanSupport's work is Gita's (name changed) story. Gita, a 25-year-old woman, who was looked after by the CanSupport home care team last year and showed tremendous grit during her last stage. She was diagnosed with carcinoma of cervix while she was in the eighth month of her pregnancy. She delivered a caesarian boy.

Her husband a security guard’s monthly income was not enough to sustain the family. Due to all these Gita did not report back to the hospital for the treatment, as asked.

Four months later, she decided to see an oncologist as she developed a severe backache and complained of bleeding. Subsequently, she received palliative radiotherapy and was referred to the palliative care clinic at the Institute of Rotary Cancer Hospital for getting treated.

It was here that she came in contact with the CanSupport home care team. Over the next two months, CanSupport's home care team was successful in relieving Gita's physical agony and other symptoms associated with the terminal stage of cancer. She was given medicines and supplements free of cost.

New Delhi, August 10
The Delhi High Court today asked Vikas Yadav, the prime accused in the Nitish Katara murder case, to produce all his defense witnesses before the trial court by September 20.

Justice V.B. Gupta gave the last chance to Yadav and allowed his petition seeking a direction to the trial judge to let him produce his witnesses.

Yadav has sought permission to produce a total of 40 witnesses to depose in his favour to counter the allegations of prosecution that he along with his cousin was involved in the five-year-old murder case.

The trial court has so far examined 15 such witnesses and dropped 23 of them. It also disallowed two others, after they failed to appear before the court on several specified hearings.

Justice Gupta also asked Vikas' counsel to complete depositions of two witnesses- Sandeep Mishra, an Allahabad-based advocate and Ranbir Singh by August 20, as they were disallowed earlier by the trial court.

The court was hearing the petition filed by Yadav, challenging the trial court's order on July 17 declining examination of 23 defense witnesses in the case.

Delhi Police counsel Mukta Gupta opposed his petition and contended that defense had been adopting delaying tactics, due to which trial court had decided to drop the witnesses.

"Since May 15, whenever the matter was listed for defense witnesses' deposition, they have sought adjournments on one ground or the other," she said. Moreover, the petitioner also alleged that the trial judge did not provide him a fair chance to put forward his defense in the case.

On the intervening night of February 16 and 17 in 2002, Nitish Katara, son of a former IAS officer was allegedly murdered after being kidnapped by Vikas and his cousin Vishal Yadav, who were against his growing proximity with their sister Bharti Yadav.

New Delhi, August 10
Chairman of the Federation of Indian Export and Organisations (FIEOs) Dr R. K. Dhawan said here at a felicitation ceremony organised by FIEO yesterday that during his previous tenure as Lt Governor of Delhi, Tejendra Khanna facilitated in allotting land for the construction of a building for the FIEOs to promote export activities in the Capital.

Dr Dhawan elaborated that such kind of help to the exporting community reflected the interest of the pragmatic statesman in the overall growth of the state through the promotion of global trade. He added that Khanna had supported the promotion of international trade of the country, while he was the commerce secretary.

Dr Dhawan also highlighted the problems of exporters to Khanna and requested for the exemption of VAT for Delhi-based exporters. He also suggested of having an export complex in the heart of city on the lines of Delhi emporium, so that exporters could display their products to tourists who come to Delhi.

President of FIEO G. K. Gupta extended a warm welcome to Khanna and pointed out that the era of international trade liberalisation began during his tenure as the chief controller of imports and exports and continued further during his stint as the commerce secretary to the Central government.

Gupta added that Khanna brought a paradigm shift in the understanding of international trade in the Indian context. The size and thickness of today's foreign trade policy is a reflection of it, he pointed out.

Khanna assured to look into the issues that were highlighted for the promotion of exports from Delhi. He said that exporters need to be quality conscious as the world is a global market and buyers are willing to pay premium for the quality products, as it will lead to repeat orders. He said that efforts are on to make Delhi a world class hi-tech city. He informed that strict measures are being taken against law evaders.

New Delhi, August 10
Raj Kumar, a 44-year-old Delhi Police constable, was killed when his motorcycle skidded and fell on the Keshopura Canal Road in Tilak Nagar area last night.

The police said that the constable was deployed as a Personal Security Officer to the director of the Central Bureau of Investigation.

The accident occurred while Raj Kumar was returning to the Madi Pur police post where he was staying.

At about 5 pm, five students of the same school - Karan, Gajender, Joginder, Bhuwan and Kartik Gupta - came from Sector-36 in a car and forced Mohit into the car which security guards at sector gate had seen.

The guard informed the police, which advised them to keep the gate sector barrier down. Soon, the police reached the sector gate and arrested the errant five students.

New Delhi, August 10
Suspended BJP MP Babubhai Katara, facing charges in a human trafficking case, has again been denied bail by a court here on the ground that the alleged offence was grave as it had been committed by a parliamentarian.

Additional chief metropolitan magistrate A K Kuhar refrained from releasing Katara, who had applied bail for the fourth time in the case, saying that the offence allegedly committed by Katara had become grave as he was a sitting Parliamentarian.

In his bail application, Katara pleaded that he could not hamper with the investigation in the case as the police had already filed the chargesheet.

Katara further said that he had already spent more than 90 days in custody since his arrest on April 18 from IGI airport here.

The MP was apprehended while he was trying to fly with one woman, Paramjeet Kaur, along with a teenaged boy to Toronto in Canada on diplomatic passports of his wife and son.

The court is likely to decide today the bail applications of four other accused in the case.

New Delhi, August 10
The steady increase of migrant population in Delhi has strained health services in the Capital. There is an urgent need to augment the services.

Lt. Governor and president of the state branch of Indian Red Cross Society, Tejendra Khanna, said this receiving an Omni Van Ambulance at a function at Raj Niwas here today. Vice- president of the branch, Uma Khanna, received the ambulance on behalf of the Delhi Red Cross (DRC).

Also present on the occasion were Donor Trustee, Narain Dharmarth Aushdhalaya Trust, Vijay Bhushan, commissioner and principal secretary, revenue, Rakesh Behari, honorary secretary, DRC, Lt. Col. (Retd.) Krishan Gulati and Dr.Amla Rama Rao.

The Lt. Governor exhorted people to come forward and relate to the society's endeavours. He said coordinated efforts with the NGOs as well as governmental agencies would get positive results in awakening the community on important issues like healthcare, AIDS prevention, education, and sanitation.

Khanna said that, when people are approached with and made aware of a noble cause, they almost always, extend helping hand to promote the cause.

The Lt. Governor said the ambulance would form part of the St. John Ambulance fleet, which are used for carrying patients to hospitals in emergency situations.

He said this ambulance would benefit the people of East Delhi where the DRC was already running a modern well-equipped, state of the art 100 -bed hospital in Seelampur. Khanna asked the DRC to gear up for the Commonwealth Games 2010.

New Delhi, August 10
After two days of relatively pleasant weather, hot and humid conditions today returned to the National Capital Territory of Delhi with the mercury rising to 37 degree Celsius, three degrees above normal.

After a cloudy day yesterday, it was a bright sunny day. Bright sunlight, coupled with a high humidity level of close to 80 per cent, left Delhiites sweltering under the acute hot and humid conditions.

The maximum temperature rose to 37 degree Celsius, from yesterday's 35.3 degree Celsius.

The minimum temperature was also recorded at 27.4 degree Celsius, one degree above normal.

There could, however, be some relief from the humidity towards the weekend with the weathermen forecasting some rainfall in the Capital. The Met office has forecast warm and humid conditions during the next 24 hours.

They have also forecast a partly cloudy sky with possibility of rain or thundershowers in a few areas.

New Delhi, August 10
Since January 1, 2003, Ludovic Hubler, a 29-year-old Frenchman, has been hitchhiking around the world.

After more than four-and-a-half-year with his thumb up along 145,000 kilometres of European, African, American, Australian and Asian roads, he has now arrived in New Delhi.

The highlights of his trip, which have been presented on 36 TV stations and hundreds of newspapers around the world, include hitchhiking across 1,5000 kilometers of the Sahara desert, crossing the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans on sailing boats (working as a crew member), a ride to Antarctica on an ice-breaker! and the crossing of guerilla-infested Colombia.

In addition, Ludovic is involved in a 'mentoring' project with French children victims of cancer. His objective is to share his experience on a daily basis with kids who can't move out of their bed by sending them photos, emails and by having web cam discussions via messenger and another with a French child victim of cancer before he left from France.

In order to share this unique, inspiring and fascinating story, Ludovic frequently talks to schools, universities, French alliances, Rotary clubs and libraries.

During his lectures, Ludovic explains how he came to realise this childhood dream, tells amazing stories about the different countries he has visited and share his reflections on a variety of issues from globalisation and environmental issues to more personal reflections and lessons learned on the road.

"Hitchhiking is the best school of life. I like to consider this tour of the world like my own Phd but there is no teacher or classroom, my teachers are the drivers and the people I meet around the world," said Ludovic, who graduated with a Master of Science in Management from the Business School of Strasbourg, France in June 2002.