India
grants consular access to Pakistan to meet prisoners
New
Delhi: India on Tuesday granted consular access to Pakistan
observers to meet their prisoners lodged in a New Delhi
jail, a day after the two countries exchanged civilian prisoners
to nudge forward their slow-moving peace process. The four-member
delegation met prisoners at Tihar jail where they were expected
to confirm the identity of their nationals. New Delhi has
said once the identity is confirmed, the jailed men will
be repatriated. Some of the prisoners have been serving
for over 15 years in various Indian jails. Pakistan and
India routinely arrest each other's nationals who stray
into either country's territory. On Monday, Pakistan released
435 Indians and New Delhi has reciprocated the gesture by
releasing 152 Pakistanis, who crossed over on foot through
the border post Wagah. The Indian Foreign Ministry has said
there are many more Pakistani prisoners in Indian jails
than the number being released there, but did not give a
figure. Meanwhile, Hindi film songs and home-made sweets
welcomed a released Indian civilian Bharat Bhushan, who
served several months in Pakistan's jail. Bhushan, an unemployed
youth from northern Ludhiana city was duped by agents who
promised him a job in Europe, which ultimately landed him
in prison. The rivals, who have fought three wars and came
close to a fourth in 2002, have steadily improved their
relations since a peace process was relaunched early last
year.
EC
issues notice to Pawar for violating model code in Bihar
(Go
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Patna:
The Election Commission on Tuesday said that it has
served a notice to Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar
for violating the model code of conduct in Bihar, by announcing
the opening of sick sugar mills and payment of arrears to
cane farmers in the state. BB Tandon, the Chief Election
Commissioner today said that following this, the Commission
has issued a notice to Pawar, asking him to explain his
conduct by September 16, as well as give reasons as to why
no action should be initiated against him. Earlier, Pawar
had on September 8 reportedly announced the reopening of
closed and sick sugar mills in Bihar and payment of arrears
to sugarcane growers within three months. He has made the
announcement at a sugar factory at Motipur in the state's
Muzaffarpur district in the presence of union ministers
Raghuvansh Prasad Singh and Akhilesh Prasad Singh. Tandon,
who arrived here on way to Munger, Bhagalpur and Purnea
for reviewing the preparedness for the Assembly elections
said that after going through reports it seemed that Pawar
had violated the model code of conduct.
Prime
accused in Satyendra Dubey murder case escapes (Go
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Patna:
The prime accused in the murder of National Highway
Authority of India (NHAI) engineer Satyendra Dubey, Mantu
Kumar has escaped from Patna's high-security Beur Jail.
Kumar is said to have escaped from the premises housing
the court of the Additional District Judge along with three
others. Police said that raids are being carried out at
different places in Patna district and other parts of Bihar
in a bid to recapture him. Dubey was engaged in a project
with the highway authorities. He was attacked after he wrote
to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee about corruption
taking place in the golden quadrilateral project two years
ago. The Central Bureau of Investigation had submitted a
chargesheet on September 3, 2004 accusing four persons of
having murdered Dubey while looting his belongings when
he was returning to his residence after alighting from a
train at Gaya station on November 27, 2003. Charges were
framed against Mantu Kumar, Uday Kumar, Pinku Ravidas and
Shravan Kumar under sections of Indian Penal Code and the
Arms Act by Additional District and SessionsJudge J M Sharma
in January 2005. Before his unexpected assassination, Dubey
had written a letter to the Prime Minister's Office about
wrongdoings in the Golden Quadrilateral, which was at that
time one of Vajpayee's pet projects. The letter was received
by the Prime Minister's Office on November 12, 2003 He had
also then explicitly requested that his identity be kept
a secret, but careless PMO officials passed the letter among
bureaucrats. The 1994 IIT graduate was subsequently killed
by vested interests.
Clemency
for Sarabjit remote: Kasuri (Go
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New
York: Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri
has told a private New York television channel here that
the chances of converting Indian Sarabjit Singh's death
sentence to life imprisonment are remote, as the entire
legal process has been followed before his conviction by
the Supreme Court. Kasuri said the death sentence was passed
on Sarabjit in a case that was 15 years old. "This case
is not only related with spying, but terrorism too,'' he
added. Kasuri said legal experts have two views in such
cases. First, to approach the president with mercy petition
and second, there is a provision of converting death penalty
to a lifer through the court. He said in Islamic law there
is a provision of converting the capital punishment into
life imprisonment, but it is mandatory that the convict
be pardoned in public by a relative of the victim. Stating
that Sarabjit issue has become a trial case for Pakistan,
Kasuri said that after such a long hearing in Pakistan,
a person has been sentenced to death and the chances of
converting it into a lifer are less.
Manmohan
to meet Bush in New York (Go
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by I. Ramamohan Rao
New
York: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is expected
to arrive here shortly after 3 p.m. local time, will meet
US President George W Bush at 6: 45 p.m. The meeting is
scheduled to take place at Bush's request. This will be
the second meeting between the two leaders in less than
two months after India and US signed a historic strategic
partnership deal in Washington during Singh's visit between
July 16 and 20. The deal entailed the transfer of nuclear
technology by US to India, for civilian purposes, including
supply of nuclear fuel to Indian reactors. They are likely
to review progress on the agreement and expected to take
further steps towards ensuring its implementation.
Police
stop-and-search Asians in London (Go
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London:
Following the 7/7 London bombings, the British administration
had issued orders authorising the anti- terrorist police
to "stop-and-search" blacks and Asians as `terror suspects'.
The order has infuriated the communities to the extent that
civil liberties campaigners and black groups have urged
the Commission for Racial Equality to investigate into the
`discriminatory' orders. The order says that terrorist suspects
are of "Asian, West Indian and east African origin", even
as traffic officers patrolling the Tube and train networks
were told not to "use stereotypical images of terrorists
when deciding whether or not to use their powers of stop
and search." Transport police should aim to "prevent and
deter access by terrorist suspects to the transport infrastructure",
including the Tube, it says adding "police supervisors must
ensure that officers make maximum use of Section 44 of the
Terrorism Act 2000 search powers in a targeted approach
against individuals who match the target profile, which
is males aged between 18-30 years, who may be of any racial
background." The order has re-ignited the row over "racial
profiling" by the British police and revived concerns that
a disproportionately high number of black and Asian people
are stopped and searched, without reasonable grounds for
suspicion.
England's
Ashes win leaves bookies 3 mln pounds poorer (Go
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London:
As the English team took away the Ashes on Monday afternoon,
bookies were left licking nearly three million pounds worth
of pounds. According to The Mirror, punters gambled 50million
pounds over the Test series that concluded at The Oval on
Monday afternoon. The final day of the last Test alone drew
one million pounds worth of bets, the paper added. It quoted
`Ladbrokes' spokesman Warren Lush as saying: "We've been
hit for a six by England's win. The industry has paid out
over three million pounds. After Vaughan's men lost the
first Test at Lord's, we'd all but written off their chances.
But, we got bowled over by people who believed that England
could bounce back and are now stumping up Ashes cash across
the land."
