2100 HRS

16th April, 2013

THE HEADLINES

• At least 45 people killed and over 800 injured in a major earthquake inIran; Jolts felt in Delhi and several other cities.

• Supreme Court dismisses petitions by five convicts of the 1993 Mumbai blasts case, seeking review of its verdict.

• Former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's candidature rejected in all four Parliamentary constituencies.

• Sensex gains 387 points, its biggest single-day gain in seven months; Gold further crashes 1160 rupees per ten grams; Rupee consolidates 48 paise to 54.14 against dollar.

• And boxer Vijender Singh tests negative for banned substances.

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At least 45 people have been killed and around 800 injured in a major earthquake that jolted south-eastern Sistan and Baluchistan provinces of Iran today. Initial reports said, the magnitude of the earthquake was 7.5 on Richter scale and its epicenter was somewhere near Iran-Pakistan border. Iran has announced the state of emergency in quake hit regions of Sistan Baluchistan province. We have a report from our West Asia Correspondent:

The earthquake, jolted several Iranian cities at 3.14 pm local time and was followed by a series of aftershocks. Its epicenter was near the cities of Khash and Saravan in Sistan and Baluchestan province. Iran's only nuclear power plant at Bushehr was unaffected by the quake. Iranian Red Crescent's Mahmoud Mozaffar told that rescue and evaluation teams have been rushed to the affected area. This is the second earthquake in Iran in four days. Iranis prone to quakes as it lies along the geographical fault lines. Tremors were felt in the gulf region half an hour after the quake in Iran. In Dubai, residents panicked and rushed out to nearby open places for safety. Officials ordered evacuations from all the tall buildings including the world's tallest tower, the 828 meter Burz Khalifa. Atul Tiwary, AIR News ,Dubai

Many cities and adjoining areas in Pakistan also experienced powerful tremors of the earthquake. At least 26 persons have been killed and several injured in Baluchistanprovince.

Delhi as well as the National Capital Region also experienced mild tremors this evening which lasted for few seconds. Reports of mild tremors were also received from Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Jaipur and western parts of Rajasthan.

In Gujarat, tremors shook Ahmedabad city and many other parts of Kutch and southern parts of the state. However, there are no reports of any loss of life or damage to property from any part of the affected areas in the country.

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The Supreme Court today dismissed petitions by five convicts of the 1993 Mumbai blasts case seeking review of its verdict. A Bench of Justices P Sathasivam and B S Chauhanthe said, there was no merit in the review petitions. The review petition was filed by Zaibunisa Anwar Kazi, Kersi Bapuji Adajania, Yusuf Khan, Ranjit Kumar Singh and Altaf Ali Sayed whose conviction was upheld by the apex court on March 21.

Earlier, the apex court also turned down the plea of Kazi and two other convicts Issaq Mohd Hajwane and Shariff Abdul Gafoor Parker, seeking extension of time to surrender on the ground that their clemency pleas are pending before President Pranab Mukherjee.

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Fifteen Maoists have been killed in an encounter with security forces in Chhattisgarh. The fierce encounter between the Maoists and security forces took place in Kanchal forest in tribal Bijapur district in Bastar region. The encounter which began early morning, lasted for over three hours, leading to the killings of rebels and injuring several other Maoist cadres. Quoting sources, our Raipur Correspondent reports that the bodies of the slain rebels have been recovered and police suspect there could be top Maoist leaders among the dead. Arms and ammunitions were also recovered from the spot.

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Congress has rejected BJP's demand of resignation of Law Minister Ashwani Kumar over allegation of interference in CBI's probe into alleged irregularities in coal block allocation. Replying to a question in New Delhi today, party spokesperson Rashid Alvi said, there is no question of any resignation. He said that the agency works independently. Mr. Alvi said the Supreme Court has asked CBI to file an affidavit in the case and after the affidavit, the truth will come out.

Meanwhile, the CBI today clarified that it will strictly abide by the directions of the Supreme court and is not under any pressure from any quarters on the contents or nature of the affidavit on Coal block allocations probe.

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Daring BJP to withdraw support to it in Bihar, JD(U) today said it had not stopped the saffron party on its support to them as it was free to take a Decision. Spokesman Shivanand Tiwari told reporters that BJP should respect its allies instead of humiliating them.

The JD(U) leader said, his party only reiterated its old stand as what kind of person should occupy a responsible post like that of Prime Minister.

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The Election Commission of India has announced alternative documents for the voters who do not possess Electronic Photo identity card. The Chief Electoral Officer, Anil Kumar Jha said, 23 documents can be used for identity during voting.

351 nominations were filed today, taking the total nominations filed to 2001. Tomorrow is the last day to file nominations. Mr.Jha informed that the Commission has cleared the names of over 20 lakh voters for inclusion in the electoral roll.

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Condemning the outrageous bomb attacks in Boston, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today wrote to US President Barack Obama expressing solidarity and highlighting the lurking threat both the countries face from terrorism. Dr Singh said that he was deeply shocked and saddened by the terrorist attack in Bostonyesterday. Dr. Singh said that the people of India joined him in condemning the attack in the strongest terms.

At the same time, the Prime Minister added that it redoubles the resolve of the two countries to defeat terrorism and to defend and uphold the values that define our nations and offered full support to the US in the investigations into the attack.

At least three persons were killed and more than 140 injured in two blasts near the finish line of the annual Boston marathon yesterday. 140 persons have sustained injuries. Nearly 27000 people were participating in the marathon.

The US President, Mr Barrack Obama, in a televised address, vowed to bring those behind the attack to justice.

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Quashing his political ambitions, a Pakistani election tribunal today barred former military dictator Pervez Musharraf from running for Parliament in the only constituency where his nomination papers for the May 11 general elections had been accepted.

Musharraf, 69, had plans to contest polls in four Parliamentary seats in Chitral,Karachi, Kasur and Islamabad. Earlier in the day, two other election tribunals barred Musharraf from contesting polls from constituencies in Islamabad and Kasur inPunjab province.

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The President, Pranab Mukherjee today laid the foundation stone of the SikkimUniversity campus at Manan Kendra in Gangtok. Speaking on the occasion, the President said that the education is the finest product of human civilisation. He called upon the authorities, students and faculty of Sikkim University to play a leading role in taking the university into the ranks of the best in the world.

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Vice President, Mohd. Hamid Ansari today visited Nurek dam located in Khaltonprovince of Tajikistan. He was given warm welcome by the Governor Ghayabullo Saidovich Avzalov. The dam built on Vakhsh river, also known as Surkhob is one the tallest dams in the world.

Our correspondent reports that before leaving for Delhi tomorrow, the Vice President will visit Tajik Technical University and see the modern engineering workshop set up Hindustan Machine Tools Limited.

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AND NOW NEWS FROM THE BUSINESS WORLD

Rising for the second straight session, the Sensex at the Bombay Stock Exchange shot up 387 points, or 2.1 percent--its biggest single-day gain in seven months---to close at 18,745, today. The Sensex rose on hopes of aggressive rate cuts by the Reserve Bank, and likely relief on the Current Account Deficit front due to falling gold and crude oil prices. The Nifty spurted 121 points, to 5,689. The rupee strengthened a hefty 48 paise, to a one-month high of 54.14 against the dollar. Falling for the third straight day, gold tumbled 1,160 rupees, to 26,440 rupees per ten grams in Delhi, on cues from the global markets. Silver plunged 1,875 rupees, to 46,125 rupees per kilo. And Brent crude oil futures dropped below 100 dollars a barrel for the first time in 9 months. Pradeep Kumar, AIR News

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In its second successful attempt within less than a fortnight to stop the anti-national elements from smuggling narcotics and fake Indian currency notes (FICN) in Punjab from across the border, Border Security Force has seized 18 packets of Heroin and 4.87 lakh FICN in Ferozepur sector,early, today morning. The FICNs are in 1000 rupees denomination notes. The cost of the Heroin is said to be 90 crore rupees in the international market.

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The Election Commission has cautioned Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil for his provocative remarks made in poll-bound Karnataka on 7th of this month. In its order the Commission asked him to be careful and not to repeat such instances in future. The EC had earlier issued a notice to Mr. Patil on his remarks and asked him to submit a reply till 13th of this month. Going through his reply, the Commission observed that Mr. Patil's speech was highly provocative in a surcharged election atmosphere and was violation of the Model code of conduct in force.

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Minister for Human Resource Development, Dr.M Mangapati Pallam Raju today laid the foundation of IIT Jodhpur. Minister of Culture, Chandresh Katoch was also present on this occasion. Mr Pallam Raju said that institutions like IIT should work for betterment of society.

On this occasion, Mr Pallam Raju presented awards to 11 groups of IIT students for their commendable research work.

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The fourth Clean Energy Ministerial begins in New Delhi tomorrow to accelerate global transition to a clean energy economy. Our Correspondent reports, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will address the international meet on India's clean energy initiatives and the road map ahead.

The Delhi Clean Energy ministerial will deliberate on evolving ways to reduce the costs of solar photovoltaics panels, adoption of clean vehicle technologies, power markets in emerging economies and also financing and policy measures on generating renewable energy. The innovation showcase pavilion that opened this evening has on display innovative products and services to accelerate the global deployment of clean energy. Role of Women in Clean Energy Innovations also find prominence in the discussions. MADAN KUMAR, AIR NEWS, DELHI.

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Sports Ministry today said that Olympic medalist Boxer Vijender Singh's dope test is negative for banned substances. An official release said that a full menu test was conducted on them which included testing for psychotropic substances. Tests were carried out on their blood and urine samples. Singh along with four others were put out of competition test for allegedly using banned substances. Vijender’s name had cropped up in a massive drug haul estimated at around 130 crore rupees in Punjablast month.

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Indian junior boxers have made a resounding start to their campaign at the ASBC Asian Confederation Junior Boxing Championships. On the opening day at Shymkent in Kazakhstan today, Prayag Chauhan and Aditya Maan made it to the medal rounds in 66kg class. The two entered the semi-finals after defeating their respective rivals.

In the light welter weight division, Pradeep also assured himself of a bronze medal after securing a direct entry into the semi-finals by virtue of a bye.

Overall, out of the five junior Indian pugilists who took to the rings on day one, four advanced to the next stage in their respective weight categories.

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In the IPL match at Mohali today, Kings Eleven Punjab beat Kolkata Knight Riders by a narrow margin of four runs. Set to score 158 runs for a win, the Kolkata team made 153 for nine in their twenty overs. Earlier, put in to bat, Kings Eleven Punjab made 157 for 9 in the stipulated twenty overs.