17 new Rajya Sabha members sworn in

      New Delhi: Union Law Minister H R Bhardwaj, Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman K Rahman Khan and former Lok Sabha Speaker Manohar Joshi were among the 17 newly-elected members to the Upper House who took oath as Rajya Sabha members today. Bhardwaj took oath in English while Khan took oath in Urdu. Both are the leaders of Congress while S S Ahluwalia and Shree Gopal Vyas, both from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took oath in Sanskrit. Others in the list who were administered the oath by Chairman Bhairon Singh Shekhawat were Saman Pathak of Communist Party of India - Marxist (CPI-M) who took oath in Nepali while Joshi of Shiv Sena took oath in Marathi. Others sworn in were G Sanjeeva Reddy, P S Rashtrapal Mabel Rebello (all Congress), Mahendra Prasad (Janata Dal - United), Rajeev Chandrasekhar (Independent), Balihari and Munkad Ali (both Bahujan Samajwadi Party), Mahmood Madani (Rashtriya Lok Dal), Moinul Hassan Ahmed and Tapan Kumar Sen (both CPI-M) and Vinay Katiyar (BJP). Union Ministers Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi and Suresh Pachauri were also present at the swearing-in ceremony. The ceremony was held in the office of the Rajya Sabha Chairman Bhairon Singh Shekhawat.

Concern over Google Earth images (Go To Top)

      New Delhi: Chief of the Army Staff General JJ Singh has said that the Google Earth was posing a threat to India's security. Addressing a news conference, General Singh said that pictures of a key airbase in New Delhi was posing a threat to the country's security and countries must join hands to stop such open access to their installations. General Singh said the pictures gave broad but high-resolution layouts of New Delhi's International Airport, which also has the Palam Air Force base, giving a fairly simple advantage to anyone plotting an air attack. "Yes, to some extent anything which is appearing on the google.com on this site which is an image of a sensitive installation, it does give its layout in broad parameters. So for it being targeted from the air becomes simpler than what has been in the past. So to an extent it does give an advantage to someone who has access to Google pictures," said General Singh. Google Earth also reportedly has images of India's topline Sukhoi fighter jets at their base in Pune. Last month, the search engine also put up satellite images of important air bases across north India on its website www.earth.google.com. The high-resolution satellite images include those of airfields in Chandigarh, Ambala, Amritsar, Avantipura (Jammu and Kashmir), Srinagar and Leh. In several of the images, various types of aircraft can be clearly seen parked in the airfields.

     What could probably be more alarming to the defence forces - particularly the Indian Air Force - is the fact that while the website carries images of Pakistani air bases in Sargodha and Lahore too, these are grainy in comparison to the crystal clarity of the Indian images. The Pakistani images are of such inferior quality that even their contours aren't clearly visible. Only the Rawalpindi airfield, also home to an international airport, is clearly visible and various military aircraft can be seen parked on the tarmac. In the case of Chandigarh, an IL-76 transport aircraft is seen parked in the airfield along with several AN-32 transport planes and an MI-26 helicopter. Many AN-32 aircraft can also be seen lined up at another end. According to IAF officers, the detailed images could help enemy forces get clues to the number of aircraft in serviceable condition by the manner in which they're parked. The headquarters of the Army's Western Command in Chandimandir is also clearly visible.

     This isn't the first time Google has posted such sensitive images. Some months back, it had put up images of Indian ships and naval assets under construction, provoking a response from President APJ Abdul Kalam, who had termed it a serious matter. Other countries too, like Australia, China and Thailand, have already objected to Google's use of photographs of sensitive installations. The Indian Army has taken steps to counter the Google fallout as under the country's latest army doctrine a strategy has been laid out for such cases of satellite monitoring. But General Singh called for global efforts against such blatant infringement on their security rights. "I think it has to be a universal effect it can't be just one or two countries, it has to be...because it affects everybody. So it needs a concerted effort of all countries to see how to regulate this kind of capability that Google has given," he said. Until recently such key images would have been available to a handful of governments and NASA but with Google Earth bringing anything and everything from a monuments to a car parked in a street outside one's house, many sensitive installations are just a click away. In 2005, operators of Australia's nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights had reportedly called up the heads of Google to censure its publication of photographs of the site warning the images could be used by terrorists. Google Earth however, colours and blurs the White House and several other Washington buildings.

CBI told to further probe AIIMS case (Go To Top)

       New Delhi: The Supreme Court today asked the Central Bureau of Investigation to further investigate and file a report by April 13 into the alleged malpractices adopted by the students appearing in the All India Post-Graduate Medical Entrance Examination 2006 conducted by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. The Supreme Court bench of Justices K G Balakrishnan and P P Naolekar, observed that the evidence provided by the Centre for cancellation of examination was not sufficient to make a decision. The Centre had sought permission to cancel the examination. Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramanian submitted before the bench that the Government wanted to cancel the examination in the larger public interest and to maintain the sanctity of one of the most prestigious examinations. The bench said that the CBI probe report of Delhi and Chennai indicting 22 students for indulging in unfair practices was not sufficient and directed the CBI to probe all the centres where the examination was held. The petition was filed by the twelve students successful in the examination, seeking the court's directions to the authorities not to cancel the result of the examination. The petitioners in their plea said that the admissions of those students found guilty during CBI investigations may be cancelled but other innocent students should not be made to suffer. The Bench will consider the report on April 13.

      More than 57,000 doctors wrote the exam - one of the toughest in India - in January. The CBI has arrested seven persons for their alleged involvement in the high tech paper leak case. Among the arrested there are four qualified doctors and one Head of the Department (Commerce) at prestigious Madras Presidency College in Chennai. On March 30, CBI conducted country-wide raids at more than 41 places across Uttar Pradesh, Pondicherry, Tamil Nadu and Delhi. During preliminary enquiry, it was found that out of the 1,006 seats, 424 candidates had been selected from Chennai centre alone. Also, in the list of first 100 candidates, 37 figured from the Chennai Centre. As per the investigations, a group of doctors organised the whole thing in which the question papers from the examination hall were taken out and answers sent through SMS to the candidates, who were carrying mobile phones in the examination centres. Revealing the modus operandi, a CBI official had said the accused doctors had scanned the entire question paper with the help of DocuPens, which is compact enough to carry into examination hall and convenient enough to scan a full page in just four seconds. Further searches and subsequent examination of the suspected doctors revealed that they had collected from Rs two lakhs to Rs 10 lakhs from each candidate.

Reliance plea for stay on airport rejected (Go To Top)

       New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Monday declined a Reliance Airport Developers' plea for a stay on the proposed transfer of ownership of Delhi and Mumbai airports by the Airports Authority of India to winning bidders -- GMR-Fraport and GVK-ACS. A division bench headed by Justice Thirath Thakur refused to entertain the plea made by Anil Ambani-owned Reliance group saying that any action taken in this regard would be subject to the court's final decision on the tender controversy. On March 22, the court had heard the arguments of the petitioner, the Government and the winning bidders. Reliance-ADA had challenged the Government's decision to award the Delhi and Mumbai airport modernisation projects to GMR and GVK, respectively. The Government already has started work on upgrading two other metro airports, also through the JV route involving private sector developers. The Airports Authority of India (AAI) is expected to sign the operation, management and development agreement (OMDA) with its private joint venture partners this week. The OMDA is the mother document, under which AAI grants the right to undertake functions, including operations, maintenance, development, design, construction and management to the joint venture companies. It is for an initial term of 30 years, extendable by as many years.

Pak knew of 9/11 beforehand (Go To Top)

       New Delhi: Top commanders of the Pakistan military establishment knew in advance about the Al Qaeda's plans to attack the United States in September 2001, claims a former senior Indian Government official. B Raman, a former Additional Secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat, claims that there are at least 220 references on Pakistan's involvement with Jihadi terrorists, including those associated with the Al Qaeda, in a report prepared by a U.S. National Commission which enquired into the 9/11 terrorist strikes across the United States. The 9/11 Commission's report, though comprehensive, has two important omissions. First, it has failed to go into the circumstances surrounding the kidnapping and brutal murder American journalist Daniel Pearl in Karachi in 2002. An in-depth enquiry into this murder was necessary in order to establish the pre-9/11 links of some of the Pakistani Generals with Al Qaeda and the Taliban and their frantic post-9/11 attempts to cover them up. It is the fear that these links might be exposed by Pearl's enquiries, which led to his kidnapping and murder. The second relates to an assessment prepared by some members of the research staff of the commission on the events preceding 9/11 after scrutinising the records of the intelligence agencies, including the interrogation report of Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, a Pakistani, who orchestrated the 9/11 terrorist strikes on behalf of Osama bin Laden from his (Khalid's) hide-out in Karachi. Coupled with this revelation is another startling report that claims that the Pakistan Embassy in Washington paid out huge bribes to the National Commission through its American lobbyists. The bribes were allegedly paid to fudge the report and exclude some findings damaging to Pakistan.

     The Friday Times, a prestigious weekly of Lahore, which carried the intriguing report, said it is based on a testimony given by a Pakistan Foreign Service officer to the Public Accounts Committee of the Pakistan National Assembly. The diplomat has been identified as Sadiq. In spite of these references, Raman says that the National Commission has recommended long-term engagement with Pakistan in order to win the so-called war against terrorism. "Foreign Secretary Riaz Mohammad Khan and Special Secretary Sher Afghan were present at the meeting when an FO (Foreign Office) official, Sadiq, who was part of the secret negotiations with members of the US inquiry team and has just returned from Washington after completing a three-year tenure at the Pakistan Embassy, revealed that a lot of money had been spent to silence the members of the Inquiry Commission and induce them to go soft on Pakistan," says the Friday Times. According to Sadiq, "dramatic changes were made in the final draft of the Inquiry Commission report after Pakistani lobbyists arranged meetings with members of the commission and convinced them to remove anti-Pakistan findings." Pakistan, according to The Friday Times, won over the sympathies of 75 US Congressmen as part of its strategy to guard the interests of Pakistan in the United States.

Yuvraj's ton help India beat England (Go To Top)

      Margao (Goa): A blistering century coming out from the willow of Yuvraj Singh and consistent wicket taking habit of Irfan Pathan paved India's 49 runs victory over the visiting English team to give India a lead of 3-0 in the ODI series. The day belonged to southpaw Yuvraj who in his man of match winning performance blasted the English attack and scored 103 runs in mere 76 balls that included ten fours and three sixes. Played in the serene locales of sun basked Goa, the Indian team led by Rahul Dravid yet again pulled the shrug under their opponent feet after the initial hiccups, to set a huge target of 295 runs for the English team. Chasing a formidable target, English batsmen went out cheaply with the first wicket falling of Anderew Strauss when only 8 runs were on the scoreboard. Pathan, the dangerous man for England scalped top three batsmen; Strauss, Ian Blackwell, Owais Shah with English total meandering on just 47 runs. Followed by this was the falling of next three wickets in quick succession with two being caught and other a pity run out.

     England's standing Captain Andrew Flintoff's dismissal followed by Vikram Solanki's one took away the match miles away from England with their score standing at 100 for six. It was a great fight back effort of Paul Collingwood that help England loose in a much honourable way. His 93 runs helped England to cross 200 runs mark. Post Collingwood, the match remained a mere formality as the run rate soared to 12 runs per over and Ajit Agarkar performed the final rituals by scalping the tail end. Earlier in the day, India won the toss, and elected to bat first. With no international match played this season on the green cover of the Nehru stadium here, the openers Dravid and Virendra Sehwag faced difficulties with ball not jumping high enough. Sehwag was first to go. He was bowled by James Anderson as he was struggling to get his bat connected to the ball. Dravid ably assisted by Pathan, posted a 78 runs partnership before being bowled by Collingwood, this one from outside off after he had scored 46 runs. With the quick pace Mohd Kaif came to crease he returned back to pavilion with the same pace as he was out for duck on a Plunkett's delivery. Technicalities seemed to be laid at rest as Yuvraj came out of the shell and hitherto started a blitzkrieg of sorts and Suresh Raina came in handy too. The duo pulled out India after the top order disappointed the nation once again. With today's victory India will be facing England in Kochi. India is already leading by 3-0 in the seven match ODI series.

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