Security
for Bollywood director Madhur Bhandarkar
by Seema
Mumbai:
The Mumbai police on Thursday provided security cover to
filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar who had sought for it following
an allegation that aspiring actress Priti Jain had given
a contract to kill him. "Mumbai police have accepted my
request and have provided security from today," Bhandarkar
said. On September 10, Mumbai Police had arrested Preeti
after questioning her for about five hours in connection
with a plot to eliminate film director Bhandarkar. The arrest
was ordered after investigations revealed that Jain tried
to hire Arun Gawli, a former underworld leader, to kill
Bhandarkar. Gawli, a member of the Maharashtra State Assembly,
had later confirmed that Jain had been trying to meet him.
According to the police, the matter was revealed to them
by advocate Bagawe, who is considered to be very close to
Gawli. Bagawe had alleged that Jain had paid Rs 70,000 (1,595
dollars) 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.
King
Gyanendra appears in Kathmandu streets (Go
To Top)
Kathmandu:
Nepal's King Gyanendra of Nepal has met ordinary people
on the streets here, for the first time since staging a
royal coup in February. According to the BBC, large crowds
greeted the 58-year-old monarch. Many said they wanted an
end to 10 years of Maoist insurgency. The Sources said Kathmandu
has been the scene in recent weeks of rallies calling for
the restoration of democracy. The king says the coup was
needed because the previous government was not dealing with
the insurgency. The king walked past people who lined up
in their thousands to greet him in Lalitpur district, adjacent
to Kathmandu. "This is the first time I have seen him so
close. He is so humble and down to earth, unlike what we
have been reading about him," farmer Kanchi Maharjan told
foreign news agency. The king's visit was part of a continuing
royal tour across Nepal.
Nepal
announces elections in two years (Go
To Top)
United
Nations: Facing intense pressure at home and abroad
to restore democracy, Nepal has said that it will hold "open
and free" municipal elections in April next year and national
parliamentary elections within two years, reports The News.
"The King Gyanendra is determined to re-energize multiparty
democratic institutions by restoring sustainable peace and
making democracy meaningful, cultured and refined," Nepal's
Foreign Minister Ramesh Nath Pandey said in the UN General
Assembly. "To this end, we will be holding municipal elections
by April 2006, to be followed by national elections to parliament
within two years," Pandey said asserting the King's commitment
to multiparty democracy was "unfliching and total".
BSE
sensex down by three per cent after tax raids (Go
To Top)
Mumbai:
The Stock Exchange Mumbai (BSE) Ltd 30- share index
fell more than three per cent on Thursday after the news
that tax officials had raided some brokers in Ahmedabad
and Rajkot. The BSE's 30-share index ended 3.1 percent down
at 8,221.64 point. The market had fallen earlier in the
day after the authorities had tightened trading rules, cut
daily price bands and increased surveillance to head off
a possible speculative bubble as the market leapt some 21
per cent in three months. Ganesh Shanbag, analysts with
the Bombay-based SMS Financial Services, said the correction
was expected and healthy for the market in the long run.
"I think the Finance Ministry and the concerned people are
also seriously looking at the way the market has moved in
the last couple of weeks, in the frantic sessions that it
has actually gone up. So, now I think there are corrective
steps that have been brought in to check volatility and
over leverage on bank funding and things of that sort. I
think it's good and healthy for the market in the long run,"
he said. Meanwhile, stock exchange officials have issued
advertisements in newspapers asking investors to be cautious,
and media reports said the Securities and Exchange Board
was monitoring heavy volumes in low-value stocks. Analysts
expect the market to remain jittery and move in a narrow
range until fresh triggers come in.
Did
Warne's marathon sex session cost Aussies the Ashes? (Go
To Top)
Sydney:
Australian leg spinner Shane Warne getting out for a
duck in his first innings of the fifth and final Test, may
just have been because he was too tired after a marathon
sex session with his new girlfriend Julia Reynolds a night
before the innings, the blonde has revealed. And Warne's
getting out for a duck off the very first delivery he faced,
caught by England captain Vaughan off Flintoff may just
have cost Australia the Ashes. 'The Sun' further said that
losing his wicket so cheaply earned Warne a rollicking from
his captain, Ricky Ponting, but sexed-up Shane (36) appeared
not to care when he went and met Julia for his "second"
innings in bed that same night. In his career spanning nearly
a decade, the leg spinner has been surrounded with controversies,
most of them related to his sexcapades with various women
in England, Australia and South Africa. Ahead of this year's
Ashes series, British tabloids like The Sun and The Mirror
exposed Warne's sexual antics in the months of May and June,
which eventually led his wife of ten years, Simone to separate
from him at the end of June. The Warnes have three kids.
Kolkata
High Court stalls BCCI annual general meeting (Go
To Top)
by Ajitha Menon
Kolkata:
The Kolkata High Court today stayed the two-day annual
general body meeting of the Board of Control for Cricket
in India (BCCI) till the completion of hearing on a petition
seeking appointment of an observer for the Cricket Board's
election. Justice Soumitra Sen who took up the matter at
12 p.m.,directed that the the AGM should not be held till
the completion of the hearing. An application for recalling
of Wednesday's order of appointing S C Sen, the retired
Supreme Court judge, as an observer was filed before the
court today. The BCCI AGM was supposed to start at 12.30
p.m. The Netaji Sporting Club of Chennai which moved the
petition is seeking a panel of three observers for the election.
Meanwhile, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Dr. Farooq
Abdullah, who is also the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association's
representative today filed the nomination papers for Sharad
Pawar as a contestant for the post of BCCI president. Since
it is the turn of the North to elect the new president,
the Maratha strongman had to get nominated from Jammu and
Kashmir in order to contest the election against incumbent
president Ranbir Singh Mahendra, who is contesting the seat
for his second term. Speculations were rife on whether Pawar
would contest or not. It was late on Wednesday night, after
an extended meeting between Abdullah, former BCCI chief
I S Bindra and Pawar himself that a final decision was arrived
at.
Pawar
had last year contested from Punjab when Bindra had proposed
his nomination, but lost the acrimonious election with the
then president Dalmija casting his vote in favour of Mahendra.
This time, all the representatives have arrived excepting
Goa, which is considered to be a Pawar loyalist. Meawhile,
the Madras High Court has dismissed an appeal by Netaji
Cricket Club for the installing of a neutral election commissioner
thus clearing the ways for the elections to be held. In
its petition, the club had sought a declaration that candidates,
who were nominees of an eligible zone or nominees of members
of an eligible zone are entitled to contest for various
posts to the BCCI's managing committee at its AGM. It also
sought a direction to Cricket Assocition Bengal CAB President
Jagmohan Dalmiya, his men or agents, not to interfere in
any manner in the conduct of the BCCI elections. The Club
prayed for a permanent injunction to restrain BCCI, TNCA,
board president Mahendra and Dalmiya from in any way interfering
with the right of the nominee of the eligible zone to contest
for various posts of the managing committee. It also sought
to restrain them from disqualifying the eligible nominee
of eligible zones or persons proposed by any member of eligible
zones from contesting for posts of managing committee and
the post of BCCI President.
BCCI's
AGM adjourned amidst uproar by members (Go
To Top)
Kolkata:
The Board of Control for Cricket in India's Annual General
Meeting was adjourned indefinitely on Thursday, after the
Board refused to start the meeting unless all court procedures
are over. The day also witnessed a lot of drama staged by
different members of the cricket board present there. The
rival group, led by Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar,
expressed its unhappiness over the development, and said
that it would challenge the decision of postponement of
the meeting. Former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir
and President of the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association
Dr Farooq Abdullah, who proposed Pawar's candidature for
the presidency earlier in the day, said former BCCI president
Jagmohan Dalmiya-led group's compromise formula that current
president Ranbir Singh Mahendra be allowed to continue for
another year is not feasible. Earlier, in the wake of a
slew of court cases, the BCCI's AGM was convened twice and
adjourned both times within a couple of minutes. Meanwhile,
there was much uproar during the proceedings of the meeting.
Where a section called the meeting unconstitutional because
it lacked the presence of Court's designated two observers.
It all started with Lalit Modi, the President of Rajasthan
Cricket Association, and Board of Control for Cricket in
India (BCCI) President, Ranbir Singh Mahendra, engaging
in a verbal duel over some issue. As a result, Mahendra
called for the adjournment of the meeting. This step was
opposed by the other factions who were there for the AGM
of the (BCCI). They termed the adjournment "unconstitutional".
Actually, it was Lalit Modi, who had filed an application
with the Kolkata High Court for the appointment of three
observers Coming out of the 'meeting', S.S.Bindra blamed
the electronic media for telecasting an erroneous report
which said the AGM had taken place.
