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Headlines
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News:
90 per cent turnout in Presidential poll
Jammu attack was "pure terrorism" says Advani
Govt drafts bill to keep criminals out of House, but leaves back door open
Omar Sheikh sentenced to death, remains defiant
Pakistan to hold ten-day war games fromTuesday
China offers cooperation in easing Indo-Pak tension
Laden alive, planning new attacks - German Intelligence Chief
UK, India to adopt joint approach at Mexico WTO meeting
SriLankan Airlines starts direct flights to Bangalore
Rupee ends sharply lower against US Dollar
Stocks get severe beating on global weakness
Yuvraj returning home due to a finger injury
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Markets:
Sensex: 3278.71, -27.12
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Forex, Metals and
Weather below
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News
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90 per cent turnout in Presidential poll
New Delhi,Monday, July 15, 2002: An estimated 90 per cent of MPs and MLAs across the country Monday cast votes in the Presidential election with victory of missile man A P J Abdul Kalam a foregone conclusion in a battle in which the arithmetic is heavily stacked against Left parties' nominee and INA veteran Lakshmi Sahgal.
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, his Cabinet colleagues and Leader of the Opposition Sonia Gandhi cast their votes in the Parliament House where Kalam, sponsored by NDA and backed by most opposition parties, made a brief appearance.
MDMK General Secretary and Lok Sabha member Vaiko, arrested under POTA, cast his ballot at Tamil Nadu Assembly secretariat in Chennai where he was taken from Vellore central prison, about 140 km from the state capital, amidst tight security following clearance by Madras High Court on a petition from him.
The six-hour polling began on a brisk note at 1000 hours and by forenoon nearly 65 per cent of the votes were cast across the country. By the time polling closed, the turnout was 90 per cent, Rajya Sabha Secretary General R C Tripathi, who is the Returning Officer, told mediapersons.
The electoral college for the Presidential poll consists of 4896 members--776 MPs and 4120 MLAs. Of them, 735 members of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha exercised franchise.
Tripathi said 13 MPs--10 from Lok Sabha and 3 from Rajya Sabha-could not cast their votes for various reasons.
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Jammu attack was "pure terrorism" says Advani
New Delhi,Monday, July 15, 2002: Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani today described the Qasim Nagar massacre of 28 slum dwellers in Jammu as "pure terrorism" and said it was aimed at creating communal divide.
"The incident in Jammu was pure terrorism. They (terrorists) had no other objective but to kill. They wanted to create a communal divide. We are analysing that," Advani said at a function to mark former Union Minister Madan Lal Khurana's taking over as the Delhi BJP President.
Advani said the country was facing "grave challenges" and needed a "strong party and a strong Government."
He said after the debacle in the last round of elections to four Assembly states, there was a "feel depressed factor" among the party cadres and even among the top leadership and then it was resolved to revamp the party.
The recent revamp and reshuffle in the party and the Government, he said, has created a "feel good factor" across the country.
The Deputy Premier said the decision by former Rural Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu and former Law Minister Arun Jaitley to quit the Government and accept party work as also the smooth takeover in the party's city unit indicated that BJP was a "party with a difference".
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Govt drafts bill to keep criminals out of House, but leaves back door open
New Delhi, July 15: In a major electoral reforms move, a bill to bar people against whom charges have been framed by courts in two separate cases of heinous crime from contesting elections has been drafted by the government.
The measure also dispenses with the elaborate 40-page affidavit prepared by the Election Commission for seeking details of criminal antecedents of candidates and instead prescribe two-page format.
The new format will also not seek the educational qualification of the candidates. Under the present electoral laws, a person is disqualified from contesting elections if he is convicted in any case for more than two years.
The bill prepared keeping in mind the objectives behind Supreme Court directives on electoral reforms has been sent to all political parties on Monday by Law Minister Jana Krishnamurthy seeking their response latest by July 21.
After receiving their responses, any change in the draft bill for amending the representation of the People's Act would be decided in an all-party meeting. The bill drafted under the supervision of Law Minister Jana Krishnamurthy and his deputy Ravi Shankar Prasad describes heinous crimes included murder, treason, kidnapping for ransom, rape, dacoity, dacoity with murder, drug smuggling, causing death by terrorist act.
The draft bill section 8-B(1) read as "a person against whom charges have been framed in two separate criminal proceedings concerning heinous offences by a court of competent jurisdiction, at least six months prior to the date on which his nomination paper has been delivered under sub-section (1) of section 33, shall be disqualified till his acquittal or discharge in any such proceeding."
However, if the proceedings of the trial in heinous crimes have been stayed by the higher courts, it would not be taken as a disqualification for the candidate. Moreover, the draft bill provides for post-election disqualification of elected candidates if it was found that the candidate had concealed information.
Regarding right to information of the electorate, the bill said, "A candidate shall, apart from any information which he is required to furnish, under this act or the rules made thereunder, in his nomination paper... Shall also furnish the information as to whether he is accused of any offence punishable with imprisonment for two or more years in a pending case in which charge has been framed."
While failure to give information about charges framed in heinous crimes would attract an imprisonment of three years with fine, the failure to furnish details of other cases would attract an imprisonment of six months.
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Omar Sheikh sentenced to death, remains defiant
Hyderabad (Pakistan),Monday, July 15, 2002: Founder of Jaish-e- Mohammed (JeM) militant outfit Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who was released by India in exchange of passengers of a hijacked Indian Airlines plane in December 1999, was Monday sentenced to death by hanging by a Pakistani court for kidnapping and killing of American journalist Daniel Pearl.
British-born 27-year-old Omar Sheikh, whose three accomplices were awarded life imprisonment by Judge Ali Ashraf Shah in the heavily fortified makeshift court in the jail here, reacted defiantly to the verdict saying he would retaliate against the authorities for "arranging" the sentence.
Britain, which welcomed the conviction, however, said it did not approve the death penalty as its position on capital punishment was well known.
After a three-month trial, the anti-terrorism court judge found Omar Sheikh, Salman Saquib, Fahad Nasim and Sheikh Adil guilty of killing Pearl, 38, Mumbai-based South Asia correspondent for Wall Street Journal.
JeM, which was founded by Omar Sheikh along with Masood Azhar, was involved in the October 31 attack on Jammu and Kashmir assembly as well as the audacious suicide attack on Indian Parliament on December 13.
Omar Sheikh's lawyers said they would appeal against the ruling in the Sindh High Court and the Supreme Court if necessary before the sentence is carried out.
In a message read out by his lawyer, Omar Sheikh said, "We shall see who will die first. Either I or the authorities who have arranged the death sentence for me".
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Pakistan to hold ten-day war games fromTuesday
Islamabad,Monday, July 15, 2002: Pakistan's defence forces will hold war games from tomorrow to test its plans and capability against any external aggression.
The ten-day exercise, 'Sabit Qadam Two', is being held at the National Defence College here as armed forces continue to upgrade and develop their ability to defend the country against any aggression, Defence spokesman Maj Gen Rashid Qureshi said.
"The war game is designed to put to test our plans and capability," he said. The Army, Navy, the Air Force and the Strategic Plans Division will take part in the exercise.
With India amassing troops, Pakistan has to carry out selected mobilisation at the barest minimum cost and without disrupting the normal economic activity, Director-General, Military Operations, Maj Gen Ashfaq Kiyani said.
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China offers cooperation in easing Indo-Pak tension
Beijing,Monday, July 15, 2002: China Monday said it will cooperate with the international community in easing tensions between India and Pakistan.
"China is ready to cooperate with the international community, including Britain, in relaxing the tension in South Asia," Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan told visiting British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw during official talks here.
Tang briefed Straw, who is to visit New Delhi and Islamabad later this week, on China's stand on the Indo-Pak stand-off, official sources said.
They also discussed political, trade and cultural ties and international issues of common concern, the sources said.
Straw, on his first visit to China, also called on President Jiang Zemin, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Jiang said China had always treated its relations with Britain from a strategic viewpoint and added that as permanent members of the UN Security Council, the two countries should strengthen dialogue and cooperation to maintain international and regional peace and stability.
China and Britain celebrated the 30th anniversary of the establishment of full diplomatic relations this year. The Chinese Premier said there has been all-round development in Sino-British ties following the settlement of the issue of Hong Kong.
Bilateral relations are better than at any time in history in terms of both breadth and depth and China is satisfied with this, Jiang said.
Straw said he hoped to step up cooperation with China in various fields. He said the British were more interested in learning about China and was keen on enhancing friendship between the two countries.
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Laden alive, planning new attacks - German Intelligence Chief
London,Monday, July 15, 2002: Osama bin Laden is alive and plannng new attacks, according to a German intelligence chief.
"Given the information we have, we are convinced that bin Laden is still alive and is planning new attacks," August Hanning, President of Germany's foreign intelligence agency BND, told Welam Sonntag newspaper. "He is still the figurehead of al-Qaeda, but doesn't appear to move around very much," Hanning said according to a report in The Independent here today, quoted to the German newspaper.
Hanning said an estimated 5,000 al-Qaeda operatives remained in Afghanistan and Pakistan, while others had returned to their countries of origin to plan new attacks.
"They will do all they can to strike again. We have to be prepared for that," he said.
Hanning's remarks follow claims from al-Qaeda last week that bin laden and the leader of the Taliban, Mullah Mohammed Omar, were alive and well and planning new attacks.
Bin Laden's spokesman, Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, was quoted last week in the Algerian Arabic-language newspaper El Youm as saying the group would soon strike US targets in America and abroad.
Another man, claiming to be an al-Qaeda spokesman told the Middle East Broadcasting Centre: "We are attempting to expand the frontline. It will be a war of killings, a war (against) businesses, which will hit the enemy where he does not expect".
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UK, India to adopt joint approach at Mexico WTO meeting
London,Monday, July 15, 2002: Britain and India Monday decided to form a Joint Working Group to draw up a common approach at the next World Trade Organisation meeting in Mexico.
This was decided at one-day Conference of Confederation of British Industries (CBI) and Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) chaired by the British Minister for Trade, Baroness Symons.
Briefing reporters after the meeting, Digby Jones, CBI Director-General and Ashok Soota, CII President, said the conference also recommended that the bilateral trade be doubled from the current five billion pounds to 10 billion pounds in the next five years.
To achieve the ambitious objective, the conference made a series of recommendations, including reducing regulations and cutting red-tape in both countries, conducting negotiations on WTO in a spirit of compromise and improving the infrastructure particularly in the field of transport.
The next WTO ministerial meeting is slated to be held in Mexico from September 14, 2003.
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SriLankan Airlines starts direct flights to Bangalore
Bangalore,Monday, July 15, 2002: SriLankan Airlines today launched its direct flights to Colombo from here and said it was looking at Bodh Gaya in Bihar, Kochi and Hyderabad for similar services.
Sri Lanka's Tourism Minister Gamini Lokuge told reporters here that from India, they were mainly targetting leisure travellers and information technology traffic to Colombo.
"Similarly from Colombo, we are hoping to attract approximately 100 passengers a week to Bangalore on Sri Lankan flights every Monday, Thursday and Saturday", he said.
The Airlines reckons that 1000-plus devotees of Sri Sathya Sai Baba come to Bangalore every month to visit Whitefield on the city outskirts and Puttaparthi, near here, in Andhra Pradesh, the abode of the Godman, according to the Airlines' Head of Commercial, G T Jeyaseelan.
In addition, some 500 Sri Lankan students are studying in Bangalore, an Airlines official said.
SriLankan Airlines currently operates 12 flights a week to Chennai, three flights a week each to New Delhi and Mumbai, five flights a week to Tiruchirappalli and daily flights to Thiruvananthapuram.
Chairman of the Airlines, Daya Pelpola, said the Airlines has proposed to launch their services to Bodh Gaya in Bihar in November and Kochi and Hyderabad next year. Services to Bodh Gaya depended on completion of the airport there, while the ones to Kochi and Hyderabad "is a matter for the two governments to discuss", Jayaseelan said.
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Rupee ends sharply lower against US Dollar
Mumbai,Monday, July 15, 2002: Heavy all-round dollar demand drove the Rupee sharply lower against the US currency today following concerns of renewed border tensions after the terrorist strike in Jammu on Saturday.
In fairly active trade at the Interbank foreign exchange (forex) market, the rupee closed at Rs 48.8350/8450 per dollar, a whopping seven paise decline from last Friday's finish of Rs 48.7700/7750.
It opened distinctly weak at Rs 48.80/81 per dollar.
Nervousness gripped the (forex) spot trade from the onset of business with panic operators rushing to cover short dollar positions on fears of renewed cross border tensions after militants massacred 27 people in Jammu.
The rupee dipped to 48.83/84 and then to 48.8450/8550, before the slide was halted on dollar-sales by state-run banks in the afternoon, resulting in the rupee partially rebounding to Rs 48.8350/8450 at close, dealers said.
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Bimal Jalan's statement that there was no pressure on bonds and currency markets from the Jammu attack also helped the rupee stabilise, they added.
The rupee had recently climbed to 3-1/2 month peaks against the US currency, backed by strong exporter dollar sales and foreign fund inflows, deriving firm support from a distinctly weak dollar in overseas trade.
The US Dollar today touched 10-months lows against the Japanese currency at 116.42 yen.
Traders expect the rupee to bounce back tomorrow, as the fundamentals remain strong for the currency.
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Stocks get severe beating on global weakness
Mumbai,Monday, July 15, 2002: Equities got a severe beating and key heavyweights dropped sharply pushing the sensex down by 27 points at close on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today in the wake of all-round selling triggered partly by a major terrorist stike in Jammu last Saturday.
The sentiment was adversely affected by the continued weak trend in global markets.
Depicting fresh stocks slide, the BSE Benchmark-30 share Index which opened marginally lower at 3302.64, later met with strong resistance and dipped to the intra-day low at 3258.72 before ending at 3278.71 as against last Friday's close of 3305.83, netting a fall of 27.12 points or 0.82 per cent.
The broad-based BSE-100 Index moved down by 11.55 points to 1648.97 from previous close of 1160.52.
Attributing the sell-off that was mostly by speculators and public investors to the first major terrorist strike in recent weeks, in which 28 persons were killed in Kashmir as also to stocks meltdown on Wall Street and Asian markets, stocks brokers said last week's fall by a whopping 695 points in the Dow Jones Industrial Average seemed to be the main cause of concern.
Selling was more pronounced in New economy stocks like Zee Telefilms, Infosys Technologies, Satyam Computers and many second-line IT counters as well as cyclicals like HLL, Telco, Tisco, ACC and Bajaj Auto.
In the South East Asian markets, the Nikkei and Hang Seng fell sharply by 226.30 points and 66.64 points at close.
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Yuvraj returning home due to a finger injury
London,Monday, July 15, 2002: A finger injury to Yuvraj Singh has put paid to the explosive batsman's prospects of playing in the Test series against England and the youngster is returning home Tuesday.
Yuvraj, who was tipped to be included in the Test side alongwith Mohammad Kaif after their impressive performances in the just concluded one-day series, has chipped a bone in the little finger of his left hand which will take at least three weeks to heal, Indian team's communication manager Amrit Mathur said Monday. It was, however, not immediately clear whether the Punjab batsman would join the side after recovering from the injury. Yuvraj, who hurt himself while fielding in the final of the NatWest Trophy at Lord's on Saturday, did not let the injury deter him from making a quickfire 69 off 63 balls. The left-hander did not figure in the 16-member Indian Test squad which will play a five-match series with England starting on July 25. But his splendid performance in the series prompted the Cricket Board to call an emergency meeting of Selection Committee in Kolkata tomorrow to consider including him, as well as Kaif, in the Test side. Kaif and Dinesh Mongia, the third player who was to fly back home after the tri-nation series, will stay back pending the decision of the Selection Committee. Obviously unaware of the injury to Yuvraj, Selection Committee chairman Chandu Borde said in Pune today that both Yuvraj and Kaif were likely to be included in Test squad.
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Markets
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Sensex: 3278.71, -27.12
The sensex closed at 3278.71, down 27.12
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Forex
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1 U.S. $ = 48.75 INR
1 Japanese Yen = 0.42 INR
1 British Pound = 76.30 INR
1 Canadian $ = 31.79 INR
1 Singapore $ = 28.03 INR
1 UAE Dirham = 13.27 INR
1 Saudi Arabian Riyal = 13.00 INR
1 Euro = 48.89 INR
1 Qatar Rial = 13.39 INR
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Metals
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Weather
| Temperature : 84 F / 29 C
HeatIndex : 96 F / 35 C
Humidity : 84%
Dew Point : 79 F / 26 C
Wind : NW at 9 mph / 14.5 km/h
Wind Gust -
Pressure : 29.74 in / 1007 hPa (Steady)
Conditions : Haze
Visibility -
Clouds : Scattered Clouds(SCT): 2000 ft / 611 m
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NetGeek posts a very informative write-up on the controversy surrounding Vande Mataram
'Make Peace, not War' - a seminar organised by Pakistan India Peoples' Forum for Peace and Democracy on Saturday June 8, 2002 at Press Club, at 3.00 pm opposite BMC Head quarters, VT, Mumbai 400 001. (via nukkad)
Atul Dwivedi posts a terrifying picture of the consequences of a nuclear war on the subcontinent.
V.K.Venugopal, an ex-bureaucrat, suggests a few electoral reforms (on nukkad)
Arya tries to reconcile his many roles: so many of me? (via nukkad)
2002 SSC results to be declared on June 10. We will post more details as they are available. (Thanks to Mr. Ramesh Kapadia for the information)
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