Honda workers seek Sonia's intervention

    New Delhi: A group of injured workers of the Honda Motorcycles and Scooters Private Limited (HMSI) today met Congress and UPA chief Sonia Gandhi here to apprise her of the situation following the brutal police action on hundreds of demonstrating employees of the company earlier this week in Gurgaon. They alleged that on Monday the Gurgaon police bet them mercilessly while they were staging a "peaceful demonstration". Accompanied by a few of their union leaders, the workers requested Sonia to take personal interest in the case to assure that they would get due justice. They also sought her intervention to find a solution to the worker-management conflict. Later, HMSI trade union leaders said that Sonia assured them of all possible help.

Gurgaon incident throws a spanner in Congress-Left relations (Go To Top)

     Kolkata: The brutal police action against the demonstrating workers of the Honda Motorcycles and Scooters India at Gurgaon in Haryana has not only thrown a spanner in the Congress' attempts to improve bilateral relations with the left parties but also offered the latter a golden opportunity to consolidate their support-base in the Hindi heartland. The police lathicharge, which left scores of workers seriously injured, has also sparked an unannounced competition between the CPI and the CPI(M) to resort to militant stirs in Haryana and Rajasthan respectively. While the CPI's labour arm AITUC has been at the forefront of the workers' movement at Gurgaon, the CPI(M)'s peasant wing is contemplating a similar stir in support of Rajasthan's peasants who have been agitating against inadequate supply of power and irrigation water. The Congress-led Centre is yet to evolve an effective strategy to keep the major Left Front partners in good humour since their support is crucial for its survival. According to informed sources, the Congress-led UPA Government has been caught between two fires in the wake of the Gurgaon incident. The Centre can not afford to angatonise the Japanese who provided finance to build the concern. Nor can the Congress- led government ignore the left parties' grievances over trade union matters affecting the workers. While the Japanese feel the workers' stir threatens to create "a negative impression" about India among the foreign investors, the leftists are not prepared to give up their struggle to realise "the just demands of the working class." There is no doubt that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will have to resort to some tight rope-walking to resolve the issue which is threatening to snow- ball into a major bilateral problem between the ruling Congress and the leftists. The CPI(M) leadership, however, has been somewhat taken aback by the militancy shown by the AITUC led by its general secretary and CPI MP Gurudas Dasgupta.

     Anxious to remain in the political limelight after the Gurgaon incident, the Marxists have served an ultimatum on the Basundhara Raje government of Rajasthan, prompting the latter to send PWD minister Raghavendra Singh to talk to CPI(M) politburo member Sitaram Yechuri in Delhi on the peasants' demands. In Bengal the CPI(M) has taken the initiative to observe tomorrow as a "Protest Day" to condemn "the Gurgaon brutality" despite the left trade unions' earlier decision to observe August 1 as "an all-India Protest Day." The Bengal Marxists are also somewhat uncertain about the possible fallout of the Gurgaon developments on the state's industrial scenario. Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has been advocating cooperation between the industrial workers and management to ensure industrial peace and attract foreign investment. This was apparent from the role he played for ending the fortnight-long strike by tea garden workers in an amicable manner. However, the state CITU leaders do not always see eye-to- eye with Bhattacharjee and industry minister Nirupam Sen on trade union matters, often leading to suspension of work and eventual closure of factories. Informed sources said the Gurgaon incident has led to a hardening of the left parties' determination to oppose the Centre's proposed labour reforms.

Sacred fire ritual in Agra for country's peace (Go To Top)

     Agra: Bajarang Dal and VHP memebers today held a fire ritual seeking divine intervention for those who lost their lives in the recent flood and militancy attacks. Prayers were organised for the people who were killed in flood affected areas like Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, and Mumbai where daily life has been affected badly by heavy rain showers. Apart from floods and rains, prayers were also dedicated to the people who lost their lives in militancy attacks and bomb blasts "For almost past one and a half month, there have been mishappenings in the country. Thousands of people lost their lives in floods, landslides, bomb blasts, militancy attacks, stampede. So today we are gathered here to pay tribute to all of them who lost their lives," said Shyam Badorai, a Bajrang Dal leader. Bomb blasts, heavy rainfalls, flood, stampedes have engulfed the country for almost past one and a half month. Bajarang Dal and VHP memebers believe by chanting hymns, the people would see the right path to alleviate suffering.

Army sentry shot at in Delhi Cantt (Go To Top)

     New Delhi: An army sentry was today shot at in the Delhi Cantonement area. Army officials when contacted confirmed the incident, but added, they were still awaiting further details. An army spokesperson said that some miscreants were attempting to pass through an army area not open to the general public. It was then that the sentry on duty, stopped them, upon which, the miscreants turned back, shot him and fled from the scene. The sentry got wounded in the attack. The incident happened at around 4: 00 pm The spokesman also allayed fears that the attack was part of a larger raid on some army or defence installation in the Delhi Cantonement area.

7/7 mastermind nabbed in Zambia (Go To Top)

      London: Haroon Rashid Aswat, the man believed to be the mastermind behind the 7/7 London bomb attacks has been arrested by authorities in Zambia. Officials said that as many as twenty calls were made from his mobile to two of the four suicide bombers, in the days before the attacks on the three Tubes and one bus, that left 56 dead besides leaving several others injured. The Sun said that the 30-year-old Aswat was believed to have slipped into the UK through Felixstowe, Suffolk, two weeks before the attacks and flown out from Heathrow hours before the explosions. Interestingly Aswat grew up in Dewsbury, West Yorks, the same area where London suicide bomber Mohammed Sidique Khan lived. Aswat had left for Afghanistan and then slipped into Pakistan, where he became a trusted aide of Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden. Aswat was also accused of setting up an Al-Qaeda training camp in Oregon in 1999.

'Mars Express' discovers water ice on the Red Planet (Go To Top)

     Paris: The European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft has shot photographs of Mars showing a crater near the planet's north pole, full of water ice. The High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board the shuttle, obtained the images during orbit 1343. The ESA said that the unnamed impact crater is located on Vastitas Borealis, a broad plain that covers much of Mars's far northern latitudes, at approximately 70.50 North and 1030 East. Thirty- five kilometres wide, the crater has a maximum depth of approximately two kilometres beneath the crater rim. Also the centre of the crater is covered with residual water ice, which due to the low temperature and pressure do not allow any sublimation of the water ice. Experts have also ruled out the possibility of the substance as frozen carbon dioxide, as carbon dioxide had already disappeared from the north polar cap at the time the image was taken.

Sensex scales new peak closes at all-time high at 7635 (Go To Top)

     Mumbai: Bulls have continued its unabated run as sensex today crossed 7700 level before ending the day at yet all time high of 7635.42. After dipping sharply to 7545.79 during morning trading, the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) benchmark 30-share index bounced back and touched a new intra-trade high of 7708.59 before ending the day at 7635.42 as against Wednesday's close of 7605.03, registering a net rise of 30.39 points or 0.40 per cent. On the last day of the week the sensex created a record of sorts by climbing to new peaks for the five straight trading sessions. It gained by 331 points or 4.53 per cent in the same period. However, the National Stock Exchange (NSE) Nifty closed in the red. It closed six points down at 2,312. ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, Bharti Tele and L&T were the major gainers while Ranbaxy, HDFC Bank, ONGC, Satyam and TCS pulled down the indices. In view of the Wednesday's fire on the platform of Oil and Natural Gas Company Ltd (ONGC), the company witnessed a volatile activity. The scrip fluctuated in a range of Rs 947.90 and Rs 880.50 before closing at Rs 938.45 from last close of Rs 966.20. The BSE-200 Index and the Dollex-200, however, were quoted down at 978.28 and 374.51 at close compared to previous close of 982.51 and 375.87 respectively. The BSE-500 Index moved down by 14.66 points to 3124.78 from previous close of 3139.44 but the Dollex-30 ended up at 1441.41 from 1434.68.

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