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Malegaon blasts: Dayanand Pandey arrested in Lucknow
Lucknow, Nov 13 (PTI) Self-claimed religious leader Dayanand Pandey, who is allegedly involved in the Malegaon blast, was arrested here after questioning by a joint team of Maharashtra Police and central security agencies and will be produced before a Nashik court within three days.
"Dayanand Pandey alias Sudhakar Dwivedi was formally arrested after he was detained by the team of Maharashtra ATS with the help of Uttar Pradesh police in Kanpur district," Additional Director General (Law and Order) Brijlal said.
He was produced today before magistrate Mukesh Kumar, who gave him transit remand for three days. The Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) team will produce him before a Nashik court by November 16.
Pandey, head of Sharda Sarvagya Peeth in Jammu, was picked up by the ATS yesterday and was quizzed on charges of murder, conspiracy and various sections of the Explosives Act.
The J-K police is also trying to ascertain Pandey's role in the agitation over the Amarnath land transfer issue. PTI
Inflation dips sharply to 8.98 pc on cheaper fuel
New Delhi, Nov 13 (PTI) The wholesale price index rate fell sharply to 8.98 per cent for the week ended November 1 on account of declining prices of fuel and manufactured goods.
The rate came down by 1.74 percentage points from 10.72 per cent in the previous week.
The rate was 3.35 per cent a year ago.
The prices of commodities which have declined during the week include fuel items like naphtha, jet fuel, furnace oil and light diesel oil. PTI
EC appoints four poll observers for Baramulla
Srinagar, Nov 13 (PTI) Four observers have been appointed by the Election Commission for the seven assembly constituencies in Baramulla district of Jammu and Kashmir going to polls in the fourth phase on December seven.
S J Hyder has been appointed observer for Uri constituency, Sudhi Ranjan Mohanty for Rafiabad and Sopore constituencies, Benhur Mahesh Dutt Ekka for Sangrama and Baramulla segments and Tom Jos for Pattan and Gulmarg seats, an official spokesman said here today.
The four observers will be arriving here soon, he said.
These observers will be staying at Rest House NHPC Gingal Uri, Dak Bungalow Sopore, Dak Bungalow Baramulla and Dak Bungalow Tangmarg respectively.
Meanwhile, District Election Officer Baramulla Baseer Ahmad Khan has deployed four liaison officers with the observers to tie-up all the arrangements with them. PTI
Dhoni expects smooth transition from Test to ODI mode
S S Ramaswamy
Rajkot, Nov 13 (PTI) Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni reckons switching from Test to one-day cricket mode in just three days' time would be the major challenge when the hosts take on England in first of the seven ODIs here tomorrow.
"It's never easy when you play back-to-back international series. We had three days' time to switch over from five-day to one-day series. It's quite tough but then as an international cricketer you are supposed to play and adapt," said the wicket keeper-batsman ahead of the first of seven ODIs here.
Dhoni, however, expects a smooth transition because half of the players in the ODI squad did not play in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test series against Australia.
"One of the good things is that half the side hasn't played the Test series. It's good right now. But I have played Test cricket as well as one-day series, it is quite difficult to switch over to one-day mode but as I said we are international cricketers. We are professionals," he said.
Looking ahead, Dhoni said even if India didn't take an early lead in the series, the hosts should remain optimistic.
"If we lose a few games, we shouldn't be feel so low. We will win some and lose some but we will always have to be positive frame of mind," he said.
The Indian skipper felt that the wicket looked on the softer side and could help the seam bowlers in the morning.
"The wicket is quite soft right now. They are rolling the wicket, at the same time there's a bit of grass on it. So in the morning there will be assistance for fast bowlers. It doesn't look it will break. It's all predictions, you will know only when you play," he said. PTI
Pietersen backs his bowlers to deliver the goods against India
S S Ramaswamy Rajkot, Nov 13 (PTI) Ryan Sidebottom's absence notwithstanding, England captain Kevin Pietersen believes his bowling attack is capable of delivering the goods against the strong Indian batting line-up in the first of seven One-Day Internationals here tomorrow.
"This is the most stable attack, since Steve Harmison and Andrew Flintoff have come back into the team. Then, we have (Stuart) Broad, (James) Anderson and Samit Patel who have been bowling brilliantly," Pietersen said.
"I think our bowling has been the best in the last month or so and if we can bat well, it will be a good match," he said ahead of the first one-dayer at the Madhavrao Scindia ground here.
He also justified the inclusion of Ravi Bopara in the playing XI ahead of Luke Wright.
"It's unfortunate for Luke because he's done nothing wrong to be honest but Ravi Bopara is better on these wickets," he said.
The gangling batsman also hoped that the return of seniors like Flintoff and Harmison would lend the side the necessary experience in the upcoming battles.
"Our senior players Freddie and Steve have come back and they are very experienced campaigners with 10 years of international cricket behind them. (Paul) Collingwood too has been around for a while and there a few youngsters who are being talked about in terms of delegating responsibilities.
"The team is raring to go and that's been our recipe for success. Like we have been against South Africa, the guys have been fantastic here, they've taken on this really really well so it's nice for me as a captain," he said. PTI
Spare Ponting, urges Steve Waugh
Melbourne, Nov 13 (PTI) Former Australia skipper Steve Waugh today said captaining the national team is no kid's play and people should stop bashing Ricky Ponting for the series defeat against India.
"Until you become captain of the Australian cricket team you don't really understand the demands," Waugh wrote in 'The Daily Telegraph'.
"Sometimes issues linger and people won't move on, but if you are leader people expect you to do so. Ricky Ponting will do that next week. Let's allow him to get on with it and not dwell on what might have been," Waugh went on to suggest.
The former captain didn't gloss over the fact that Ponting erred in Nagpur by focussing more on reviving a sluggish over-rate to escape a possible ban, than going for a series-equalling win.
"What has shocked many was that we went against our instincts and let the match meander by being concerned about over rates until the chance had vapourised.
"If Ricky's tactics worked he would have been labelled a genius by killing two birds with one stone but in hindsight they probably killed Australia's chance to square the series, which would have been a tremendous achievement," Waugh said.
He, however, asserted that captain's is a complicated job and cited his experience to buttress his point.
"At various times for me it meant being a psychologist, adviser, mate, mentor, mediator, selector, advocate, mouthpiece and politician.
"...When I was captain there were about fifty press conferences per year, endless meetings with Board officials, match referees and various administrators, selection hook-ups, speeches at team functions and working with the coach and senior players on game plans and tactics," he recalled. PTI
British Telecom announces 10,000 offshore job cuts
London, Nov 13 (PTI) British Telecom, which has a large offshore presence in India, today announced plans to cut 10,000 jobs by March 2009 after its pre-tax profits slumped by 11 per cent in the first six months of the current year.
The cuts will mainly affect agency and contract staff and offshore workers, the company said. This is expected to include job losses in the company's operations in India. BT has a global workforce of 160,000.
Latest figures show that British unemployment has hit an 11-year high of 1.82 million during the three months to September and is forecast to peak at 3.3 million by 2011.
BT said that most of the job losses would be among contract, agency and offshore workers. Sub-contractors and other indirect employees would also lose their jobs, the group said.
Ian Livingston, chief executive of BT, described the action BT was taking as "decisive". BT said the move was aimed at reducing its dependence on consultants and contractors. About 4,000 of the job losses will be direct BT staff, the remaining 6,000 will be from related employees.
BT admitted that its performance was "disappointing" and the results in its struggling Global Services division were "simply not good enough", where earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation fell by 36 per cent to 119 million. PTI
Indian aid to reach Lanka this weekend
T V Sriram
Colombo, Nov 13 (PTI) A consignment of 1,680 tonnes of food and relief material from India is expected to reach the Sri Lanka this weekend as part of humanitarian aid for thousands of civilian Tamils caught in the war between the LTTE and the island nation's Army.
The Indian humanitarian assistance would be the first of its kind in nearly two decades, though New Delhi provided medical and other assistance to Sri Lanka after the 2004 devastating tsunami that killed thousands of people.
"A sum of 1,680 tonnes of relief is being dispatched from India after proper checking and inspection and is expected to reach Sri Lanka by this week end," an official said.
The aid comes as international agencies grapple to provide food an estimated two lakh Tamil civilians who are displaced due to the offensive against LTTE by the Lankan Army.
Sri Lanka had accepted India's offer to send relief material to the affected civilians in the north of the island during a meeting between External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Basil Rajapaksa, Special Adviser to President Mahinda Rajapaksa, in October.
It was also decided at that time that the Tamil Nadu government will also mobilise relief material to the affected civilians.
The worst hit is Kilinochchi, where the Sri Lankan troops have reportedly captured several areas in the LTTE stronghold leaving hundreds of civilians displaced.
According to the Government Agent (GA) in Kilinochchi, the total number of IDPs in the district continues to increase following ongoing confrontations in Poonakary division as well as aerial bombardments recently reported in Paranthan. PTI
Inflation foxes Govt economists, again!
New Delhi, Nov 13 (PTI) Inflation has not only burdened the common man but foxed economists and policy planners with its erratic movement. Whenever they predicted a downslide, it has jupmed or vice versa.
This has made our economists sound like a church choir, whose lyrics made little sense.
All senior economists in the government felt that the wholesale price index-based inflation would continue to be in double digits till early 2009, but the rate of rising prices for the week ending November 1 dropped hurriedly to 8.98 per cent.
This is what senior economists have had to say on inflation and how the rate of prices have risen or fallen: June 5, 2008: Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said, "It would be lower than the current level four months down... The direct effect of what has just been done (petroleum price hike) will probably be about 0.5%..." Inflation for the week ending June 7 shot up to 11.05 per cent from 8.75 per cent a week ago, within days of government increasing the prices of a litre of petrol and diesel by Rs 5 and Rs 3, respectively and cooking gas by Rs 50 per cylinder.
August 13, 2008: Former chairman of Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council C Rangarajan said, "For some more time inflation can increase. It could touch 13 per cent... But by December it will start declining and is likely to moderate to 8-9 per cent by March 2009." Inflation inched up to 12.82 per cent for the week ending August 16, but never touched 13 per cent. PTI
White House hopes G-20 will arrive at agreement on crisis
Washington, Nov 13 (PTI) Reaffirming its commitment to market principles and liberalisation, the US today said that it expects a "thorough" discussion on the financial crisis and hoped world leaders will arrive at an agreement on reforms to stabilise the global markets when they meet here this weekend.
"This will be the first step that the G-20 has met at leader level. We expect a thorough discussion, of causes, of actions, near-term actions to be taken, longer-term actions to be considered, and, importantly, agreement on fundamental principles for reform.
"So I would say we are expecting an important and vigorous discussion with some quite concrete results," Special Assistant to US President for International Economic Affairs Dan Price told reporters.
"This is the first in a series and there will be further meetings, not only to review the decisions that may be taken at this meeting, but also to follow up and receive recommendations on areas where further work has been tasked," Price said.
Leaders from the G-20 including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, will converge here on Friday for the two-day discussions to discuss ways to overcome the financial downturn.
"There are a number of areas where important work could be done in the near term. We believe that leaders will want to come to some agreement on those areas of near-term work, put in some timeframes, and then be in a position to see where we are on achieving those by the time of the next meeting," Price said at the White House briefing. PTI
No danger to health of financial sector in BIMSTEC, says PM
New Delhi, Nov 13 (PTI) Ahead of his departure for the G-20 meeting in Washington to discuss the global financial crisis, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said that financial institutions in the BIMSTEC region are safe.
"There is no danger to the health of the financial system in the BIMSTEC region (comprising India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Thailand)," Singh said while addressing a press conference at the end of the BIMSTEC summit here.
Referring to the banks in India, he said they were well regulated and adequately capitalised.
However, he added that because of the slowdown in the developed countries as a result of the financial turmoil, the growth rates in the developing nations might be affected.
Singh, who is leaving for Washington this evening along with Finance Minister P Chidambaram, said that the G-20 should do everything to ensure that the Millenium Development Goals (MDG) are not adversely affected.
BIMSTEC, which stands for the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-sectoral Technical and Economic Co-operation, is a grouping of seven countries -- India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan. PTI
India focus at 2009 Spanish Art fair
New Delhi, Nov 13 (PTI) In a sign of the growing popularity of Indian art, leading artists and top galleries from the country have been invited to showcase their works at ARCOmadrid, the prestigious international Contemporary Art Fair of Spain.
The annual fair, which is among the best-known in Europe and a big social event bringing together galleries, artists, collectors, curators, musuem directors and experts worldwide, will host India under its Panorama section, which features art from guest countries.
"Arco is one of the four main fairs in contemporary art worldwide. We chose India to be the focus this year because it is a fascinating country with a rich heritage and has been highlight at various important events like the fashion scene in Paris and the Frankfurt Book Fair," Luis Eduardo Cortes, chairman of IFEMA, the trade fair Institution in Madrid told PTI.
"Also Indian contemporary art is still to be discovered in Spain and we wanted to give young artists a chance to showcase their work to the world," he said.
A selection of 13 galleries by curator Bose Krishnamachari will bring to the fair the recent works of 50 contemporary artists of the Indian scene including stalwarts such as M F Husain, Tyeb Mehta and Subodh Gupta.
Along with established artists younger creators such as pianted Anandajit Ray, sculptor chintan Upadhyay, video artist Manjunath Kamathand multi-disciplinary creator Riyas Komu would offer comprehensive insight into the current art scene in India. PTI
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1 U.S. $ = 49.500 INR
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1 Canadian $ = 40.164 INR
1 Singapore $ = 32.742 INR
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1 Euro = 62.018 INR
1 Qatar Rial = 13.591 INR
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