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Centre has begun action on troops cut: Mufti claims
Srinagar, Apr 26 (PTI) Claiming that Centre has initiated action on his party's demand for reduction of troops and vacation of orchards and civilian properties by security forces, PDP patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed today said the process has to be expanded and given momentum on the ground.
"The process has to expand and gather momentum on the ground as such measures are now certainly unavoidable. The fundamental input for transforming the state's future scenario is that the people must get the relief and associate with the peace process," Sayeed said addressing a public meeting at Kokernag, 80km from here.
Sayeed cautioned against any complacency in handling the situation at the "decisive" phase of the state's history saying circumstances demand "spirited and futuristic initiatives for the ultimate settlement of the problem".
"Any move to hold back the process at this crucial juncture could have terrible consequences for the state and the region," he said and asked India and Pakistan to move ahead with determination and political courage to resolve the Kashmir issue once for all.
The cost of not doing so would be enormous for both the countries, the former Chief Minister added.
He claimed the central government has initiated action on his party's demand for reduction of troops and vacation of orchards and civilian properties by security forces. PTI
BJP may expel Katara, Koli sparks suspicion
New Delhi, Apr 26 (PTI) The BJP is almost certain to expel its suspended MP Babubhai Katara arrested in connection with the human trafficking case, a senior party leader indicated today.
The party has also asked its Rajasthan MP Ramswaroop Koli, whose name figured during investigations, to produce his passport to establish his claims that he never travelled abroad.
"It's a matter of time. The party has taken a very, very serious note of his (Katara's) act," the leader, who did not want to be named, said. "The party believes there should be exemplary action." Also, the leader said the BJP has found unconvincing the claims of Koli that he has never used his passport.
"There could be something wrong. We asked for his passport to support his claims. But he said he was not able to find it. It's something strange," the leader said.
In the thick of campaign for the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, the saffron party ordered Katara's suspension immediately.
At an all-party meeting with Speaker Somnath Chatterjee yesterday, the BJP, however, pleaded for fair-play rules in Parliament while dealing with MPs facing trial, saying ethics committees should be handed over all such cases together. PTI
CPI asks UPA parties to ponder continuing support to govt
New Delhi, Apr 26 (PTI) In a warning to the ruling UPA coalition, CPI today asked other Left and other supporting parties to consider why they should continue their support as the policies of the government were "only benefitting" the rich and not the majority of the people.
Calling Finance Minister P Chidambaram "Mister Failure", party leader Gurudas Dasgupta said "for three months, his prescription (to bring down prices) has failed".
"CPI calls upon Left and democratic parties supporting the government to consider what is the point in continuing to extend support to the government. It is a non-performing one which is working hard to provide benefits to Indian and foreign corporates", he told reporters here.
He said the Congress allies and UPA supporting parties should come out of the syndrome that BJP should not be allowed to return to power and continue supporting the coaltion.
"The BJP is regrouping only because of the policies being pursued by the government", he maintained.
Asked why his party was not taking the lead in withdrawing support to the government, Dasgupta said "we cannot take a stand single-handedly. We are raising a debate amongst the Left parties and others who are supporting the UPA. We are asking them to make up their mind".
Quoting Union Minister Mani Shankar Aiyer as saying that the 9.2 per cent growth of the economy was only for 0.02 per cent of the people, Dasgupta said "he is a Cabinet Minister. These are the contradictions of the government". PTI
Tendulkar playing for wrong reasons : Chappell
New Delhi, Apr 26 (PTI) Ian Chappell, who received considerable flak in India when he suggested recently that Sachin Tendulkar should retire, has said that the Indian master batsman was now playing the game for "wrong reasons".
Players should be in the game to win but Tendulkar is now playing for wrong reasons, the former Australian captain said on Sony Max TV during the coverage of the second semi-final of the World Cup between Australia and South Africa last night.
Answering questions about when great players should retire, the blunt Australian said cricketers should call it a day when fans ask, "why" and not "when".
He pointed out that another great batsman of this era Brian Lara had announced his retirement. So had two of Australia's greatest bowlers Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath, both of whom had still a great deal of cricket left in them.
In Chappell's view, great batsmen should not be seen struggling to make runs or great bowlers struggling to take wickets in the autumn of their career.
In a newspaper column last month, Chappell had written that during the last three or four years, Tendulkar had been a shadow of his former self.
It was for Tendulkar to take the call and decide his future plans, Chappell said standing by his earlier statement that if the Indian player looked into the mirror and asked if he should retire, the answer would be in the affirmative. PTI
2011 World Cup could be reduced by a week: Speed
Melbourne, Apr 26 (PTI) Taking note of the widespread criticism of the the long drawn out schedule of the 2007 World Cup, International Cricket Council Chief Executive Malcolm Speed has said it could be reduced to 40 days in the next edition to be held in the sub-continent.
"I think next time we will stick with the 16-team format but I would hope we can shave a week from the tournament," Speed was quoted as saying by 'The Australian'.
"This year, we lost two days because of Easter. The West Indian countries are strongly Christian and they did not want us to play on Good Friday. I can see the tournament coming back to 40 days, which is just about right," he added.
Speed, however, said the longer duration of the tournament was good for the publicity of the game.
"I think it is a positive for the game that cricket is on the back pages while the World Cup is on rather than have an abbreviated schedule," he said.
The ICC Chief said he was disappointed with "far too much negative comment which is ill-informed".
"One of the other negatives is that we have not had a great number of memorable matches. Of the 20 I have been to, I can think of four of five really good games, five were not too bad and a lot of others were no-contests," he said.
Speed also admitted that the ouster of India and Pakistan was a big blow to the tournament.
"A huge blow... We have seen matches where we expected India to be playing Pakistan and they were not there, so it has taken some of the shine off the World Cup, without in any way denigrating the great efforts of Ireland and Bangladesh." PTI
South Africa choke, Australia advance to final
Gros Islet (St. Lucia), April 26 (PTI) Australia stormed into their fourth successive World Cup final as South Africa failed to break the semifinal jinx and crashed to a 7-wicket loss here on Wednesday.
The South Africans lived up to the label of world cricket's chokers as they, electing to bat on a true wicket, suffered a spectacular top order collapse and were bowled out for a meagre 149.
Glenn McGrath's accuracy and Shaun Tait's blistering pace unhinged the South African batting which failed to recover after being reduced to 27 for five in the 10th over at Beausejour stadium.
McGrath kept up his prolific form to claim 3-18, putting him at the top of the tournament's bowling chart with tally of 25, while Tait overcame initial waywardness to return with 4-39.
Only Justin Kemp showed some resistance against the irrepressible Aussie bowlers, remaining unbeaten on 49.
Herschelle Gibbs (37) dared to take on the arch-rivals with some boldness and his 60-run stand with Kemp for the sixth wicket was the only phase of positivism shown by South Africans.
The reigning champions faced few hiccups while romping home with more than 18 overs to spare, extending their unbeaten run in the World Cup to 28 matches.
Matthew Hayden anchored with a watchful 41 and Michael Clarke providing the finishing touches with an unbeaten 60. PTI
SC gives Maharashtra nod for Bhabli project
New Delhi, Apr 26 (PTI) The Supreme Court today permitted Maharashtra to go ahead with the construction of the Bhabli barrage across river Godavari which is being opposed by neighbouring Andhra Pradesh.
A three member bench of Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan, Justice R V Raveendran and Justice D K Jain, however, directed Maharashtra not to open the crest gate of the barrage until further orders.
The Bench also ruled that Maharashtra shall not claim any equities for construction of the project until disposal of the suit.
The Apex court passed the interim order on a suit filed by Andhra Pradesh challenging construction of the barrage on the ground that it would adversely affect the interest of at least five villages in the perennially drought prone Telengana region.
Besides the Andhra Pradesh government, a number of MP's, MLA's and political leaders of the TRS (Telengana Rashtra Samithi) have impleaded themselves in the suit against Maharashtra. PTI
Reliance Life Sciences ties up with US-based MPM Capital
Mumbai, Apr 26 (PTI) Adding a new dimension to its business, the Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Life Sciences today announced its partnership with US-based global investment management firm, MPM Capital LP.
The partnership entails Reliance Life Sciences (RLS) becoming a strategic partner in MPM Capital's newest fund, MPM BioVentures IV, which has a corpus of USD 650-million.
RLS will be a substantial investor in the fund besides acting as a strategic partner with the right to tap innovations in life sciences in the companies that the fund would be investing in.
Reliance Life Sciences' President and CEO K V Subramaniam said RLS would be investing a substantial double-digit million dollar amount in this fund.
MPM Capital expects the BioVentures IV fund to invest in select emerging life-sciences companies.
The US-based company is focussed solely on life-sciences investing and has offices in Boston, San Francisco and New York.
RLS also announced the expansion of its clinical research services to the US by incorporation of a subsidiary as a US entity in Delaware.
The new US entity has been formed to become the headquarters of the life sciences services business of Reliance in the US, "as 50 per cent of market for this business is presently in the US," Subramaniam said. PTI
RIL oil find in Krishna Godavari basin holds 140 million barrels
New Delhi, Apr 26 (PTI) Reliance Industries's oil find in its prolific KG-D6 block in Krishna Godavari basin off the east coast holds an estimated 140 million barrels of oil reserves.
The consortium of Reliance Industries and Niko Resources of Canada discovered oil in the block KG-DWN-98/3, home to world's largest gas find of the year 2002, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dinsha Patel said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha here.
"In this Block, 140 million barrels of oil have been estimated," he said.
Company officials said Reliance aims to being crude oil production of 40,000 barrels per day from the block by first quarter of 2008.
A floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel will be installed by October 2008, to boost output to 50,000 barrels per day.
Reliance has till date made more than a dozen gas discoveries in KG-D6 and put combined reserves in the block at around 50 Trillion cubic feet (Tcf). Gas production is targeted around July 2008. PTI
Hasina prepares to return home, demands early polls
H S Rao London, April 26 (PTI) As she prepared to return home, former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has demanded early elections which her Awami League party will fight to establish a secular democracy, rejecting "any kind of extremism".
The 60-year-old daughter of Bangladesh's founder leader Sheikh Mujibur Rehman attributed yesterday's decision of the military-backed caretaker government to lift the ban on her entry to the " tremendous national and international pressure". She had been prevented from boarding a British Airways flight from London to Dhaka on Sunday last at the instance of the Bangladesh government.
"t is the pressure of the people at home and the role of media at home and abroad that forced them(caretaker government). There was tremendous national and international pressure and because of the pressure they had to withdraw(the ban)," she said.
Hasina also said it was her will-power and determination to return to her motherland which prevailed upon the caretaker government to reverse its decision. "They thought I will wilt under pressure but they were mistaken," said Hasina, who had faced a grenade attack on her life.
The Awami League Chief, during whose tenure as Prime Minister between 1996 to 2001 the Indo-Bangladesh treaty for sharing of the Ganges river waters was signed, disclosed that External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee had spoken to her over phone. The Indian High Commissioner to the U.K Kamalesh Sharma had also met her.
About her political beliefs, Hasina said "We believe in secular democracy and we do not encourage any kind of extremism. Rather we are victims of terrorism. 21,000 of my people were killed and more than one lakh women including six-year-old girls raped. I survived a grenade attack in which 24 people were killed." PTI
Bhutto says deal with Musharraf good for Pakistan
Islamabad, Apr 26 (PTI) Coming close to admitting to a deal with President Pervez Musharraf, former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has said such an agreement could hurt her credibility, but was essential for the restoration of democracy in her country.
In an interaction with students at the London School of Economics, yesterday, Bhutto said that her political credibility would suffer if she entered into an agreement with Musharraf at this stage, but added that such a deal "would be good for the country's democratic, constitutional and development interests as well as to prevent the country from falling into extremist hands", newspapers reported today.
This was perhaps the closest she came to admitting that she was entering into a deal with Musharraf. One of her top Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leaders Amin Fahim who was involved in the negotiations with Musarraf's confidantes had said Bhutto would not endorse Musharraf as Chief of Army and would resist his re-election in uniform.
However, it is yet to be decided whether she could support Musharraf as civilian President.
In her interaction with LSE students yesterday, during which apparently came under intense questioning on various issues related to Pakistan, Bhutto also accepted for the first time that she as Prime Minister in 1990s committed a blunder by supporting Taliban.
She said at that time she had thought the Taliban to be a peaceful and stabilising alternative to warring Mujahideen factions. PTI
Top LTTE leader arrested in US for raising money for Tigers
Colombo, Apr 26 (PTI) A top LTTE leader in United States has been arrested for raising funds to support terror activities back home.
Karunakaran Kandasamy, also known as Karuna, was arrested in Queens, New York, yesterday, the US embassy here said.
"The arrest is the latest in ongoing investigation of the terrorist group's reliance on individuals in the US as a major source for money, arms, and military technology," the embassy said in a statement.
The arrest was part of a US crackdown against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) which is a designated terrorist organisation since October 1997.
Over 20 US police and investigative units were involved in the arrest and investigations while several unnamed foreign governments also helped, the statement said.
"Karuna hasn't merely supported the Tamil Tigers' cause, he orchestrated US support," Mark J Mershon, Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York, said.
According to the complaint against Karuna, the LTTE relies on sympathetic Tamil expatriates residing in the US, Canada, Britain, Australia, France, and several other countries to raise and launder money, smuggle arms, explosives, equipment, and technology into LTTE-controlled territory, obtain intelligence about the Sri Lankan government and spread propaganda. PTI
War planes hit Tiger territory
Colombo, Apr 26 (PTI) Sri Lankan military jets pounded suspected Tamil Tiger locations in the island's north, defence officials said today.
The aircraft bombed locations where Tiger leaders meet in the Kilinochchi district, the military officials said, but gave no details of the casualties.
For their part, the Tigers said a residential area had been hit by 12 bombs and that two civilians sustained injuries.
The air raids came a day after both sides claimed heavy casualties against each other in a ground battle further south in the Mannar district. PTI
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