2100 HRS. 

11-02-2013

THE HEADLINES:

• Afzal Guru's execution not a political decision , says Home Minister.
• Railways and Uttar Pradesh government order two seperate inquiries into the causes of stampede at Allahabad Railway Station; Centre to move more trains to clear Kumbh rush.
• Himachal Pradesh unit of Congress Party expells 24 party leaders, including four former MLAs for anti party activities ;four Block Congress Committees also dissolved.
• President asks State Governors to work towards improving security and welfare of women.
• Pope Benedict the XVIth to resign on the 28th of this month due to age and health problems.

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Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde today said that the execution of the 2001 Parliament attack mastermind Mohammed Afzal Guru was not a political decision. He said everything has been followed in accordance with the rules and the jail manual in the hanging of Afzal Guru.

Yeh bada sensitive mamla tha, government had to be very careful on this. It is not a political decision according to the law government has taken the decision.

Mr Shinde was replying to questions at his monthly press conference in New Delhi. He said a message was conveyed to the family of Afzal Guru in Srinagar through speed post by the jail authorities. The Home Minister said that he had also conveyed the same to the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minisher Omar Abdulla on Friday night. Replying to a question, the Home Minister said the government can consider a request for allowing the family members of Afzal Guru to visit his burial ground in Tihar jail. Mr Shinde said the government has to maintain secrecy on sensitive issues .

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The Ministry of Railways and the Uttar Pradesh government have set up two separate inquiry committees to probe the Allahabad railway station stampede which claimed the lives of 36 Kumbh pilgrims . Talking to media persons this evening at Allahabad, the Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal said that a three member committee chaired by the additional member traffic of the Railway Board has been set up to probe the incident. Mr. Bansal said entry of pilgrims from both sides of the railway station was the main reason for the stampede. The Minister said that the Prime Minister and the Railways have announced financial assistance to the victims separately. He said two lakh rupees will be provided for the next of kin of each deceased and 50 thousand rupees to every injured person from the Prime Minister Relief fund. The Minister also said his ministry will be providing one lakh rupees to the next of kin of the deceased, 50 thousand rupees to the seriously injured and 25 thousand rupees to the pilgrims who received minor injuries. Mr Bansal said that the Government is moving more trains to Allahabad to clear the Kumbh rush.

We are trying to bring in more and more of the trains from wherever possible subject to foreseen that people don't object to it from elsewhere, where the journey's have been booked much in advance.

Our Allahabad correspondent reports that the state government has also constituted a high-level probe but refused to set up a judicial probe into the tragedy.The state government also announced financial relief for those affected.

"The Uttar Pradesh government has enhanced financial assistance to the injured from one lakh to two lakhs rupees. The government has said that the Chairman Board of Revenue has been asked to complete the probe within one month and make suggestions to the government to check such incidents in future. The DGP has announced that a probe will also be conducted into the death of two pilgrims in the Mela area on Mauni Amawasya bathing day. With Shariq Noor this is Sunil Shukla AIR News Allahabad. "

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In Himachal Pradesh, the Congress Party today expelled two dozen party leaders for anti party activities for contesting state assembly elections against official nominees last year. The expelled leaders include four former Congress MLAs.State president Thakur Sukhwinder Singh announced this at a press conference in Shimla.He also dissolved four block Congress committee units of Una, Bangana, Siraj and Paonta Sahib with immediate effect.

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In Tripura with less than 24 hours to go for Campaigning to come to an end, political parties are on their last minute campaigning trail to woo the voters. All the major political parties today organised election rallies with their star campaigners.

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President Pranab Mukherjee has asked the governors to work towards improving the security and welfare of women in the states. Addressing the 44th conference of governors at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi today, he said there is a pressing need to bring about a change in the mindset of the society so that women are treated with dignity and respect. Stating that promoting access to higher education should be the effort of all governors who are also university chancellors , Mr. Mukherjee called upon them to address faculty shortage, improve quality of research and inspire a culture of innovation.

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A Delhi court today directed the Police to lodge an FIR against Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray for allegedly branding Muslims from north India as insurgents and threatening them to throw out of the state.Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's order came on a complaint by an advocate who referred to a rally in Mumbai, addressed by Thackeray. The complainant in his petition said that Raj Thackeray allegedly targeted Muslims and immigrants from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in his speeches in the rally.

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In Kashmir, the curfew remained in force for the third consecutive day today in all the major towns of the valley. According to police, the situation remained by and large peaceful barring stray incidents of stone pelting in Bandipura and Baramullah districts.

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The Reserve Bank of India - RBI has permitted banks to open Non-Resident Ordinary Rupee - NRO accounts of Bangladeshi nationals without its prior approval. In a notification issued from Mumbai today, the RBI has clarified that the banks, however, must satisfy themselves that the individual holds a valid visa and a valid residential permit. The RBI has also said that banks must maintain a record of the accounts opened by individual(s) of Bangladesh nationality and details of such accounts shall be forwarded to their head office on a quarterly basis. The RBI, has however clarified that opening of accounts by entities of Bangladeshi ownership shall continue to require RBI’s prior approval.

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The Supreme Court today said that unsuccessful bidders and telecom companies which opted out of participating in the first round of the fresh auction for 2G spectrum following cancellation of their licences by last year's order would not be allowed to continue their service. The apex court asked the government to take a position on the issue. The Apex court also made it clear that those telecom companies which continued with their operations after the February 2, 2012, verdict will have to make payment on the basis of the reserved price fixed for the fresh auction. It said auction will have to be done for all those licences for the 2G spectrum for which letters of intent were issued on January 10, 2008 and were quashed by the apex court's February 2, 2012 judgement.

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Falling for the eighth straight session, the Sensex at the Bombay Stock Exchange lost 24 points, or 0.1 percent, to close at this year's low of 19,461, today. This is the longest losing streak for the Sensex since May 2011. The Nifty at the National Stock Exchange fell 6 points, to 5,898. Falling for the fourth straight day, the rupee lost 35 paise, to end at a nearly two-week low of 53.85 against the dollar.Gold declined 50 rupees, to 31,000 rupees per ten grams in Delhi. But silver rose 215 rupees, to 58,865 rupees per kilo.And Brent crude oil futures dropped below 119 dollars a barrel, but remained near a 9-month high, while US crude fell 9 cents, to 95.63 dollars a barrel. Pradeep Kumar, AIR News.

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The MCX Stock Exchange began trading in equities and equity derivatives, today. The MCX Stock Exchange, or MCX-SX has now become the third full-fledged equity bourse, after the BSE and the NSE, in the country. The bourse was formally launched by Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Saturday.The MCX-SX benchmark index, christened the SX40, and akin to the Sensex and the Nifty, is a free-float based index of large-cap and liquid stocks, representing diverse sectors. It's base value will be 10,000, with a base date of 31 March 2010.

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The government has once again urged all tax payers to disclose their true income and pay taxes that are due within the current financial year. The Directorate of Systems of the Income Tax Department has undertaken a business intelligence project to identifiy PAN holders who have not filed income tax return. A Finance Ministry statement said a nodal cell has been set up for follow-up action and to track return filing and tax payment of the target segment.

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A 40-year -old man has been killed and a child injured in unprovoked firing in a case of ceasefire violation by suspected Bangladeshi border guards force personnel in North Bengal. A Border Security Force (BSF) spokesperson said, the incident occurred around 9.30 in the morning in North Dinajpur area West Bengal. After the incident, the BSF demanded a Flag meeting with its Bangladesh counterparts. BSF Additional Director General (East) B.D. Sharma said that an IG rank officer has been sent for the Flag meeting.

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Kicking-off the first phase of the American pull-out from Afghanistan, the US has started using Pakistani land routes to withdraw its military hardware from Afghanistan, with 50 shipping containers moved over the weekend. The first convoy of containers with military gear crossed the Torkham border check post in northwest Pakistan.Pakistan had closed the route for nearly seven months after a cross-border NATO air strike killed 24 of its soldiers in November 2011.The route was reopened after the US apologised for the deaths.

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Pope Benedict the XVIth has announced that he will resign on February the 28th, the first pontiff to do so in nearly 600 years. The decision sets the stage for a conclave to elect a new pope before the end of March.The 85-year-old Pope announced his decision during a meeting of Vatican cardinals this morning,saying he was doing so because of advanced age and diminishing strength.

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At least 10 members of a Guinean military delegation died when their plane crashed in Liberia. According to reports, the plane was carrying delegates to Liberia's annual Armed Forces Day . No-one is said to have survived, but it is not clear how many people were on board.

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In Syria, opposition activists claim that the rebels have seized control of the largest dam in Syria along the Euphrates river in the northern province of Raqa. The hydraulic dam, which generates 880 megawatts of power was dubbed Al-Thawra or revolution dam for the 1966 military coup that brought President Assad’s father to power.

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More than 220,000 homes and businesses remain without power as the U.S. Northeast and Canada dug out from a blizzard that dumped up to 3 feet of snow on the most densely populated part of the region. The death toll has risen to 15.Eleven deaths were reported in the U.S. and four from Canad.

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Sitar legend Ravi Shankar was posthumously awarded the best world music album trophy at the 55th Grammys, pipping his own daughter Anoushka, a day after being honoured with a Lifetime Achievement award by The Recording Academy.Anoushka recieved the best world music album Grammy for her father at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.