Preeti
Jain sent to five-day police custody
Mumbai:
A special court today remanded model Preeti Jain to
five-day police custody in connection with giving `supari`
(contract) to an associate of don-turned-politician Arun
Gawli to kill Bollywood director Madhukar Bhandarkar. Gawli's
aide Naresh Pardesi, who was arrested for allegedly hatching
a criminal conspiracy with Jain, was also sent to police
custody. The police questioned Preeti, who had earlier taken
Bhandarkar to court on a sexual harassment charge, for five
hours on Saturday. Her arrest was ordered after investigations
revealed that she tried to hire Gawli to kill Bhandarkar.
Gawli, an MLA from Chinchpokli seat in central Mumbai, has
confirmed that Jain tried to meet him. "Preeti Jain came
to meet me and said somebody had taken 50,000 rupees from
her and was not even answering her phone calls. My PA told
me about this and I advised that she should contact the
police. After that I do not know what the police have done,"
Gawli said on Saturday. Gawli also denied knowing Pardesi,
and said, "there are many people who meet me every day,
and the man could be one of them". According to the police,
the matter was revealed to them by advocate Bagawe, who
is considered to be very close to Gawli, earlier this week.
Bagawe alleged that Jain had paid Rs 70,000 as part payment
to one of Gawli's aides in the last two months in order
to eliminate Bhandarkar. Jain came into limelight in July
2004, when she alleged that the filmmaker had sexually exploited
her in return of the promises to give her a break in his
films. She filed a case against Bhandarkar alleging that
the director had even promised to marry her. However, the
court acquitted Bhandarkar after a thorough scrutiny of
the case.
Cancer
wiping out flourishing Punjab village (Go
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Unkalia (Punjab): Residents of a once flourishing village
in Punjab have appealed for help as an unusually high incidence
of cancer has left over 25 dead in two years. Twenty villagers
are still battling the deadly disease, which has afflicted
more men than women in Unkalia, around 25 kilometres from
Mansa district, a village of about 5,000 people. Villagers
say lung and throat cancer and leukemia are the most prevalent.
Locals say there is a pattern to the deaths and suspect
contaminated water as the main cause of the disease. The
village is almost entirely dependent on ground water, which
the locals say has either been affected by pesticides or
some unknown cause. "It has all happened because of the
water. The water here is so dirty, that even animals don't
like to drink it. But what to do? We have no choice. That's
why people are dying here. There was only one earning member
in my family, he also left us because of the disease," said
Tarsem Kaur, whose husband died of throat cancer last year.
Though a recent study of the water by a medical team from
Chandigarh confirmed the presence of DDT, a widely used
pesticide, they have not arrived at any firm conclusion
that the disease is caused by contaminated ground water
used for drinking. An estimated 700,000 new cancer cases
are reported in India annually and over 350,000 people die
of it every year. Lung cancer, leukemia or blood cancer
and breast cancer are the common forms afflicting people.
Bhikhiwind
protests Musharraf's statement (Go
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by Ravinder Singh Robin
Bhikhiwind
(Punjab): Residents of Bhikhiwind village in Punjab
took to the streets on Sunday to protest against Pakistan
President Pervez Musharraf's charge that Sarabjit Singh,
the Indian sentenced to death in Pakistan, was a terrorist
and was involved in the bomb blasts in that country in 1990.
Sporting black ribbons and carrying placards, the villagers
of Bhikhiwind led by Sarabjit's family marched through the
streets condemning Musharraf's statement. Dalbir Kaur, Sarabjit's
sister, Sukhpreet Kaur, his wife and his two daughters Swapandeep
Kaur and Poonam along with local SAD and BJP leaders including
Jagrup Singh Marhimegha, Charanjit Gill , Sadanand Chopra
participated in the demonstration that pleaded Sarabjits
innocence. They said, after backtracking of two eye witnesses
of bomb blast case for which Sarabjit Singh is being accused,
the Pakistan government should realize Sarabjits innocence
and set him free.
Exiled
Tibetans vote for their 14th Parliament (Go
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Mcleodganj
(Himachal Pradesh): Thousands of Tibetans living in-exile
in Dharamsala, on Sunday cast their votes for electing the
14th Assembly of Tibetan People's Deputies (ATPD) to form
a new Tibetan Government in exile. ATPD or the Tibetan parliament,
is the highest elected legislative organ of the Tibetans-in-
exile. Voters gathered to exercise their franchise in the
preliminary round of the elections for the 43 seats of the
46, consisting of ten members each from three provinces,
two members from the religious sect, another three from
Europe and one from America. The remaining three are nominated
by the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader. The elections
will be held in two rounds with those candidates securing
33 percent of votes in the preliminary round advancing to
the second. Members of the ATPD are directly elected by
the people every five years with around 82,000 Tibetan voters
registered in India, Nepal, Bhutan, Europe and North America.
The Tibetan people, both inside and outside Tibet, consider
the government-in-exile to be the sole legitimate government
of Tibet. An estimated 134,000 Tibetans live in exile, the
majority of them in India and Nepal. The Buddhist spiritual
leader, the Dalai Lama set up his seat of power in Dharamsala
after he along with his followers fled to India in 1959,
nine years after China occupied Tibet. The Dalai Lama has
been campaigning for greater autonomy for Tibet.
Manmohan
Singh arrives in Paris (Go
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by I.Ramamohan Rao
Paris:
Pleasant weather preceded by a short drizzle greeted
Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh as he arrived in
Paris on Sunday evening following an eight-hour long flight
from New Delhi. The Prime Minister was given a warm ceremonial
welcome and a guard of honour at the Orly Airport at the
start of his hectic two-day state visit to the French capital.
He was received by French Defence Minister Michele Allint
Marie and other senior French administration officials.
Earlier, addressing a 30-minute-long press conference onboard
Air India One, the Prime Minister said that Iran should
stick to its IAEA commitments over which there should not
be any ambiguity. He also expressed his views on a wide
range of issues, including his forthcoming dinner meeting
with Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, the Kashmir issue,
the Sarabjit Singh issue, UN reforms and the recent US dig
on the international community that enough was not being
done to rein in Iran on the nuclear front. A large part
of the press conference, however, dwelled on the Iran nuclear
issue. The Prime Minister said that as far as the criticism
of New Delhi by certain U.S.Congressmen was concerned with
regard to India's policy on Iran and the possible repurcussions
thereof on Indo- U.S.ties, especially on the civilian nuclear
front, the Indian Government was of the firm view it had
arrived at a certain bilateral understanding with the Bush
Administration on areas where both countries could cooperate
effectively.
Beauty
parlours turning brothels in Ranchi (Go
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Ranchi:
Ranchi is emerging as a favourite place for flesh traders
as many of the beauty parlours are being used for prostitution
these days. On Monday (September 5), the police arrested
six girls and four customers during a raid on three beauty
parlours situated at the highways. Following a tip off police
raided these parlours after months of surveillance. The
police had arrested few more people including women in a
similar raid conducted recently. "We were waiting on 'Booti
Morh' and raided all the three parlours simultaneously and
found some women in compromising situation. We arrested
them", says Suma Gupta, City Superintendent of Police, Ranchi.
The arrested women belong to Orissa and West Bengal. These
girls, coming from lower middle-class families, were lured
by these parlours. According to police officials, all the
three raided parlours are situated on the highway where
customers, mostly truck-drivers, become an easy prey. All
the arrested individuals have been held in Sadar Police
Station for further interrogation.
Pakistan
releases 371 Indian fishermen from jails (Go
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Karachi:
Three hundred and seventy one Indian fishermen who were
languishing in jails in the southern port city of Karachi,
have been released. They will be handed over to the India
on September 12 at the Wagah border, said Pakistani officials.
India will also reciprocate the gesture and release 101
Pakistani civilians prisoners and 51 fishermen on Monday.
These actions are being taken in pursuance of the decision
taken at the second round of the Home Secretary level talks
between the two countries in New Delhi last month. In a
move, which is expected to carry forward the peace process
between the two countries, Pakistan will release 61 more
prisoners in the coming few days. Salahuddin Haider, a spokesman
for the Government of the southern coastal province of Sindh,
said 371 of the 435 civilian detainees were fishermen. Shabbir
Hussain, an Indian Muslim fisherman from the western city
of Jam Nagar said that he had been impatiently waiting for
his release as he was the only bread earner of his family.
"I feel happy on my release. I am also glad that relations
between Indian and Pakistan are improving. Now I am returning
home where I will be able to earn some money for my family.
There was no one to feed my family for eleven months," he
said. Kamlesh, another Indian prisoner pleaded both Indian
and Pakistani governments to settle the early release of
the prisoners on both sides. "We have been in prison for
a long time, Pakistanis have also languished in Indian prisons
for a long time. I request both the governments to kindly
make arrangements for early release of the prisoners on
both sides," he said. Earlier on Friday, in a press briefing,
the Home Ministry had said that the Centre had agreed to
provide consular access from September 12 to 27 to all Pakistani
civil prisoners who are undergoing sentence or are under
trial and lodged in different jails in India. During the
Home Secretary level talks, both sides had agreed to implement
the decision arrived at by the foreign Secretaries in December
2004 on prisoners issue. They had reiterated their commitment
to provide immediate notification of arrest made by either
side. An agreement was also met to provide consular access
to all person within three months of arrest, and release
prisoners immediately after completion of sentence and nationality
verification.
Anju
Bobby George is back home after grand performance in Monaco
(Go
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New
Delhi: India's ace long-jumper Anju Bobby George arrived
in New Delhi on Sunday, after winning the long jump silver
medal in the World Athletic Final Championship at Stade
Louis II in Monaco on Friday. The 28 year-old, who qualified
for the tournament at the very last minute following a gold
medal at the Asian Championships in South Korea last week,
managed a jump measuring 6.75 m. Russia's world number one
Tatyana Kotova won the gold medal with a leap of 6.83 metres
while American Grace Upshaw snatched the bronze with a jump
of 6.67 metres. Incidentally, Kotova's leap was the same
as Anju's career-best performance, which came last year
at the Athens Olympics. Although Anju began on a disappointing
note as she fouled her first two jumps, she succeeded in
her third attempt after coming up with the big leap. "We
are always looking for the first position, so next year,
we will try hard for it. With so many big competitions are
coming up like Commonwealth Games, World Cup, Indoor Championships,
we are always looking for a 7 meter jump," she told reporters
at the international airport in New Delhi. The current season
has not been the best for the lanky South Indian long-jumper,
who had finished fifth at the World Athletics Championships
in Helsinki last month with her season's best jump of 6.66m.
Anju, the first Indian to win a medal at the 2003 World
Championships in Paris, had finished outside the medals
bracket at the meets in Stockholm and Doha earlier this
year. While at last year's World Athletic Final Championship,
Anju had finished fourth with a leap of 6.61m. In the latest
rankings, the Russian trio of Tatiana Kotova, Irina Simagina
and Tatyana Lebedeva hold on to the first three spots. Helsinki
gold medallist Tiana Madison of the United States and her
compatriot Grace Upshaw occupy the next two places.
