1400 HRS

16th February, 2013

THE HEADLINES

• In Assam, counting for Panchayat poll is on.

• Curfew lifted from all major towns in the Kashmir valley.

• Prime Minister expresses concern on large number of pending cases in trials courts; Urges legal fraternity to find ways for faster disposal of cases.

• Second Meeting of the India-Bangladesh Joint Consultative Commission to take place in Dhaka this afternoon to discuss issues of mutual concern.

• Serena Williams is the new World Number one women's Tennis player; Takes on Maria Sharapova in semifinals of the Qatar Open.

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In Assam, curfew continues at South Salmara area in Dhubri district for the second day today. No untoward incident has been reported. The Deputy Commissioner of Dhubri district said that a strict vigil is being maintained after a mob clashed with security forces yesterday. Two columns of the army are staging a flag march. The condition of the injured persons has improved. 18 security personnel and two civilians were injured a and three persons killed when security forces opened fire as local people attacked security forces during counting of panchayat vote at Hatsingimari.

Meanwhile, counting of the panchayat poll is on. Our correspondent reports that ruling Congress party has performed well in the Panchayat elections;

Congress dominated in most of the districts in panchayat poll. Congress has shown good results particularly in Upper and Central Assam. The ruling party has won 246 seats so far out 420 in Zila Parishad seat. The All India United Democratic Front,AIUDF emerged as the second largest party with 70 seats. Asom Gana Parishad won 25 seats while BJP managed to win 12 seats .

Final results are likely to be declared by later this evening. Congress is also surging ahead in Anchalik panchayat,Gaon Panchayat President and Goan Panchayat member seat. Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi expressed his thanks to voters for electing Congress candidates in panchayat poll." Manas Pratim Sarma/Air News/ Guwahati.

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In another incident, unidentified miscreants kidnapped Power grid engineer Chintala Paidi Raju last night from Baksa district. The Deputy Commissioner of Baksa said that the engineer hailing from Andhra Pradesh, was kidnapped by four miscreants at gun point. A massive search operation is on to rescue the 28 year old engineer safely.

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In Kashmir valley curfew has been lifted from all the major towns since this morning. No untoward incident has been reported from any part of the valley today. Public and private transport is back on the roads. The police is keeping strict vigil in sensitive areas of the valley. Curfew was clamped in all ten districts of Kashmir region last saturday in the wake of the hanging of Afzal Guru in Tihar jail.

Meanwhile, internet and mobile services have been restored in the valley after remaining suspended for a week.

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The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh has expressed concern over the large number of pending cases in the judiciary, especially in the trial courts. Inaugurating the golden jubilee celebrations of the Bar Council of India in New Delhi today, Dr.Singh asked the legal fraternity to find ways and means for faster disposal of cases.

"An obvious area of concern is the large number of cases pending in courts especially in trial courts. I would urge the whole of the legal fraternity to pool their knowledge, wisdom and experience to find ways and means to tackle this problem."

Dr.Singh said the UPA government is firmly committed to take all necessary steps for building a strong and efficient justice delivery system. Dr.Singh also sought the support of the legal fraternity in the implementation of government schemes to legally empower the poor and marginalised sections of society. He asked the Bar Council to assist in providing free legal aid to economically weaker section.

"It is of critical importance that the Bench and the Bar work together in ensuring the rule of law in our country and in furthering our Constitutional objectives. Unless this happens, we cannot succeed substantially in providing speedy and affordable justice to millions of our country men, especially those who belong to the poor and weaker sections of our society."

Dr. Singh added that the effectiveness of the Bar councils is a factor in determining the strength and quality of our justice delivery system.

The Prime Minister urged the advocates to adapt themselves to the rapid changes and equip themselves adequately to deal with legal requirements of globalisation and international law. Dr. Singh pointed out that there is an increase of International Patent Rights litigations and disputes over bilateral investment protection agreements have also begun to come to courts.

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Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde has said that the government is committed to put in place a stringent law to curb crime against women. Speaking at the 66th Raising Day Parade function of Delhi Police in New Delhi this morning, Mr Shinde assured the force to provide all possible support for better policing. He said Delhi Police should create an environment to instill confidence among the people so that they can freely approach the concerned police stations for help during need and distress. He informed that his Ministry has sanctioned a proposal of providing additional 370 PCR vans to Delhi Police for strengthening the security system in the city.

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In Kerala, Dharamarajan, the third accused in the Suryanelli case was remanded by the Special Court in Kottayam this morning. He had been absconding after jumping bail and was arrested from Sagar in Shimoga district of Karanataka yesterday by a special team of the Kerala Police.

Dharmarajan was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Special Court in Kottayam in connection with the case, but the Kerala High Court reduced the sentence to five years. The Supreme Court had recently set aside the High Court order,which reduced his sentence and acquitted 35 others in the case.

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The government is not averse to a Joint Parliamentary Committee, JPC, probe in the Italian VVIP helicopter deal following allegations of 362 crore rupees kickbacks. In an interview to a private TV channel, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath said that there needs to be a consensus in Parliament on the steps to be taken.

Law Minister Ashwani Kumar had earlier said that suitable action will be taken after obtaining evidence from Italy on alleged kickbacks in 3600 crore rupee defence deal.

Meanwhile, the Government has initiated action to scrap the deal for purchase of 12 VVIP helicopters from Italian firm Agusta Westland. The Defence Ministry has issued a show cause notice to Agusta Westland asking it to explain within seven days the bribery allegations and also why the deal should not be scrapped. The CBI has, meanwhile, begun probe into the allegations of kickbacks and is rushing a team to Italy in this connection.

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Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde has said that the government is committed to put in place a stringent law to curb crime against women. Speaking at the 66th Raising Day Parade function of Delhi Police in New Delhi this morning, Mr Shinde assured the force to provide all possible supports for better policing. He said Delhi Police should create an environment to instill confidence among the people so that they can freely approach the concerned police stations for help during need and distress. He informed that his Ministry has sanctioned a proposal of providing additional 370 PCR vans to Delhi Police for strengthening security system in the city.

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Tamil Nadu Fisheries Minister Jayapal today gave compensation of three lakh rupees each to the family of two farmers who committed suicide because of crop loss at Nagapattinam. Samba cultivation on 40,000 hectares, constituting one-third of the total cultivation of the crop in the district, was totally affected because of lack of water. Meanwhile, the drought affected farmers are urging the state government to disburse the announced 15,000 rupees per acre compensation without any further delay.

Our correspondent reports that the level of Mettur Dam was 29.80 feet today against its full capacity of 120 feet. The inflow has increased to 1,614 cusecs and 500 cusecs of water was released for drinking water purposes.

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In Kerala, Dharamarajan, the third accused in the Suryanelli case was remanded by the Special Court in Kottayam this morning. He had been absconding after jumping bail and was arrested from Sagar in Shimoga district of Karanataka yesterday by a special team of the Kerala Police.

Dharmarajan was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Special Court in Kottayam in connection with the case, but the Kerala High Court reduced the sentence to five years. The Supreme Court had recently set aside the High Court order,which reduced his sentence and acquitted 35 others in the case.

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National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, has issued notices to Maharashtra DGP and Superintendent of Police Ahmednagar over an incident of an 18-year- old girl and her fiancee being allegedly beaten up by a senior police officer when they went to register an FIR. The rights body has taken suo motu cognisance of a media report alleging that the girl and her fiancee were beaten with a belt by the officer in Ahmednagar when they had gone to lodge an FIR about her abduction and that she being dumped at a brothel from where she was rescued on 5th of last month. An NHRC release said the report, if true, raises a serious issue of human rights violation and asked the officials to submit reports within four weeks. It has also directed the senior police officials to inform as to why the FIR was not registered immediately after rescuing the victim on 5th January.

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The Second Meeting of the India-Bangladesh Joint Consultative Commission is set to take place in Dhaka today afternoon. Minister for External Affairs Salman Khurshid who arrived in Bangladesh capital this morning will be leading the Indian delegation at the meeting while the Bangladesh Delegation will be led the country's Foreign Minister Dr.Dipu Moni. More from our correspondent;

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The India-Bangladesh Joint Consultative Commission is an inter-ministerial body of the two countries headed by the Minister of External Affairs of India and Foreign Minister of Bangladesh. The Commission was established under the Framework Agreement on Cooperation for Development signed by the Prime Ministers of the two countries in September 2011. The Joint Consultative Commission will also the review progress in various sectors of the bilateral relationship, identify thrust areas and give directions for further growth of the bilateral partnership. During the visit, the two sides are also likely to exchange strip maps as part of the agreement signed to resolve land boundary issues and sign some MOU's which relate to the construction of rail link between Akhuara and Agartala, setting up a think tank and an amendment to the agreement on avoidance of double taxation." C.Senthil Rajan/Air News/ Dhaka.

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A journalist in Sri Lanka, famous for his investigative stories, has been shot and seriously injured at his home near the capital Colombo. The Reporter, Faraz Shauketaly, who works for a privately owned Sunday newspaper underwent surgery in a hospital following the incident. His newspaper is critical of the government and its editor was shot dead four years ago.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has ordered an immediate investigation by Inspector General of Police into the incident.

Earlier in January 2009, the editor of the Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickramatunga, was shot dead near his office.

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A bi-partisan group of US lawmakers have introduced a new bill in the Congress to create more than 125,000 new visas to attract global talents to America. The bill is aimed at targeting highly skilled talents from India and China.

The bill envisages creation of a new set of conditional visas for 75,000 immigrant entrepreneurs and 50,000 foreign graduate students from science technology, engineering and maths streams.

The bill, which has been welcomed by the White House, has the support of top US companies and organisations .

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In Uttar Pradesh, widespread rain across the state has disrupted the normal life. Our correspondent reports that Incessant rain is still occurring in several districts of eastern UP.

"The met office says that the western disturbances over bay of Bengal has triggered the rain. One to three centimetres of rainfall has been recorded in various districts of Gorakhpur, Basti, Varanasi and Azamgarh divisions. Muzaffarnagar in western UP and Jalaun, Banda and Hamirpur in Bundelkhand have also experienced mild rain. The rain is said to be beneficial for wheat but the crops of pulses and oilseed have got damaged due to incessant rain in eastern UP and Bundelkhand. Met office has predicted more rain during next twenty four hours." Salman Haider/ AIR news/ Gorakhpur.

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Rain and snowfall have brought down temperature in Jammu and Kashmir substantially. 

Snowfall has badly affected normal life in Himachal Pradesh. 

In Delhi, overnight rains added to the winter chill this morning. The Met office forecasts rain and thunderstorm in the day at some places. The Met department has also predicted light rain for tomorrow.

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Overnight rains added to the winter chill in the capital this morning. Though the minimum temperature rose three notches above normal at 13.7 degrees Celsius, cold winds accompanied by rain maintained the chill in the air. India Meteorological Department said that 15.4 mm rain was recorded in Delhi till 8.30 AM. The Met office forecasts rain and thunderstorm in the day at some places. The Met department has also predicted light rain for tomorrow.

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The  US has warned North Korea against another nuclear test as being reported in the media. The White House Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest said in Washington that it would have damaging consequences for North Korea causing further isolateion with terrible impact on its people.

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The African state of  Gabon has decided to suspend the sale of large-calibre arms and ammunitions to stem elephant poaching in the country. Last week, a study showed that in Gabon, which hosts more than half of Africa's forest elephants, at least 20,000 elephants have been killed by poachers for their ivory during the last decade.

According to the World Wildlife Fund, some of the money raised through the illegal poaching in Africa is used to finance armed groups. Trade in elephant ivory has been outlawed since 1989.

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Mexico will slaughter about half a million chicken over bird flu after an outbreak of H7N3 influenza in the central state of Guanajuato. Officials said preventive measures have been launched to find out if the disease has spread elsewhere.

Last year, a bird flu outbreak in the western state of Jalisco forced farmers to slaughter 22 million hens, sparking an egg crisis in Mexico, the world's top per capita consumer of eggs.

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The playing control team in charge of the second Test between South Africa and Pakistan in Cape Town has admitted that a mistake had been made when Jacques Kallis was given out.

Kallis was given out caught at short leg off spinner Saeed Ajmal by umpire Steve Davis but the batsman immediately sought a review. Agencies report that the sequence of events after that was not clear but after numerous replays, which showed the ball had not touched Kallis' bat, the star home batsman was given out leg before wicket.

The International Cricket Council issued a statement from Dubai acknowledging that "an honest error" had been made.

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The social networking site, Facebook says it has been the victim of a series of sophisticated attacks by a hacking group. Facebook said, the hackers used a previously unknown loophole to break into their system. But, there was no evidence personal data have been compromised. Twitter recently admitted, it had been hacked and that a quarter of a million users might have been affected.

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Serena Williams has been crowned as the new World number one women’s tennis player . The 31 year old American beat Czech Republic’s Petra Kvitova 6-3,3-6,7-5 to reach the Semifinals of Qatar Open Tennis Championship in Doha on her way to regain the number one spot after a gap of two and a half years. Serena takes on the defending champion Maria Sharapova in the Semifinals today. Sharapova cruised into the Semi finals defeating Samantha Stosur 6-2,6-4. In the other Semifinal, World Number two Victoria Azarenka plays the 4th seed Agniezska Radawanska . Azarenka beat Sarra Errani 6-2,6-2 on her way to the last four while Radawanska defeated Caroline Wozniacki 6-2,7-5.