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| Punjab DySP arrested on graft charges MOGA, Dec 28: The Punjab Vigilance sleuths today claimed to have arrested state Deputy Superintendent of Police on.....more Aftershocks
on the CHENNAI, Dec 28: Much to the relief of the fear-stricken people living in coastal areas of Tamil Nadu, the Indian. ....more Maharashtra
Govt CHENNAI, Dec 28: Conveying his deep sense of grief over the colossal loss of lives and property in coastal areas of.......more NEW DELHI, Dec 28: Count your bites, not calories is the new mantra to weight loss....more |
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Fog returns, seven trains cancelled, mercury falls in Delhi NEW DELHI, Dec 28: After two clear days, fog returned to the capital this morning forcing cancellation of seven trains......more Asia
earthquake, SINGAPORE, Dec 28: The death toll from a magnitude 9.0 earthquake near Indonesia....more 2002 riots
haunted a AHMEDABAD, Dec 28: Although the year gone by was largely peaceful in Gujarat......more IAf
station carnic: A CAR NICOBAR, Dec 28: Completely ravaged concrete buildings, uprooted trees.....more |
Punjab DySP arrested on graft charges MOGA, Dec 28: The Punjab Vigilance sleuths today claimed to have arrested state Deputy Superintendent of Police on graft charges. The DySP Sukhdev Singh Chhina, posted at Zira, was allegedly demanding Rs. 20,000 for favouring a person in taking possession of a piece of land. A trap was laid at the residence of the DSP who was arrested last night allegedly along with the bribed money, Vigilance Bureau spokesman said. During the search, the Vigilance sleuths recovered 78 bottles of English wine, 50 grams of contra band opium, four kg of poppy husk and Rs. 3 lakh in cash, he added.(PTI) |
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Aftershocks on the decline, says IMD CHENNAI, Dec 28: Much to the relief of the fear-stricken people living in coastal areas of Tamil Nadu, the Indian Meteorological Department today said the aftershocks of the Tsunamis, generated due to under-sea earthquakes near Sumatra island on December 26, were on the decline and unlikely to create sonic waves. A special bulletin issued by the Department here said the aftershocks were on the declines. "The aftershocks are of magnitude 5 to 5.5 which are unlikely to generate Tsunamis," it added. The bulletin said that "in view of the Tsunamis generated due to under-sea earthquakes near Sumatra island region on Sunday last, residents of the low-lying coastal areas were advised to stay away from the vulnerable areas for 48 hours from the morning of December 26. However, the sea is likely to be moderate and the fishermen were advised not to venture into the sea using small boats for the next 24 hours, the bulletin added. (UNI) |
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Maharashtra Govt offers will help to TN CHENNAI, Dec 28: Conveying his deep sense of grief over the colossal loss of lives and property in coastal areas of Tamil Nadu due to the Tsunami that struck on Sunday last, Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh has offered all help and relief to the state. "It is an unprecedented human tragedy, the enormity of which is very difficult to comprehend for all of us", he said in a letter to his Tamil Nadu counterpart, Jayalalithaa. According to an official press release, Deshmukh told Jayalalithaa it was a humanitarian challenge, which "we must meet forthwith", and "we are keen to offer our help and assistance, wherever required". The Maharashtra Chief Minister said his Government was ready to provide relief assistance to the affected population, deploy medical teams, wherever required. A large number of NGOs in Maharashtra were also ready to participate in rescue and relief operations, which "can be very useful", he said, adding the resources would be conveyed immediately. Recalling the earthquake that struck latur a decade ago, when support was received from all over the country, Deshmukh said "the people of Maharashtra will also show the same spontaneity and generosity in helping their fellow-citizens". As a state, "we remain firm and united behind you in all your efforts to help the people". Meanwhile, Karnataka Chief Minister Dharam Singh has offered to make a contribution of Rs two crore for relief and rehabilitation of the affected victims of the state. He and his cabinet colleagues will meet Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa tomorrow and present the cheque in person. Singh spoke to Jayalalithaa over phone yesterday to express his grief and shock over the sudden calamity, causing unprecedented havoc and loss of lives. Orissa Chief Minister Navin Patnaik rang up Jayalalithaa yesterday to convey his deep sense of grief and sorrow over the colossal loss of human lives and property and assured all assistance, including supply of medicines and services of medical staff to assist in the relief operations. The Chief Justice of the Madras High Court, Markandey Katju, spoke to Jayalalithaa yesterday to thank for the very prompt action taken to rescue hundreds of persons, including the Supreme Court Judge, G P Mathur, who were stranded on the Vivekananda rock at Kanniyakumari on that fateful day. (PTI) NEW DELHI, Dec 28: Count your bites, not calories is the new mantra to weight loss. "Forget counting calories. Don’t bother calculating fat or carbohydrate grams, either. If you want to lose weight, just count the number of times your fork goes to your mouth -and keep that count under 70 a day to lose big," says a new "bite diet" plan , the brainchild of Miami nutritionist Meredith Luce and New York Pilate’s instructor Joan Breibart. "You can chow down on a variety of foods, spread out in three regular meals - and one smaller meal - a day, with no more than 18 bites per meal," says Breibart. Also, this has to be completely balanced diet, which is very intrinsic to weight loss, the two researchers say in a report on a medical website. While counting calories is important, Breibart believes the real key to weight loss lies in retraining the stomach to be satisfied with less food - and part of the success of the ‘bite’ diet is that it teaches us how to do just that. However, the diet plan has drawn flak from some American diet experts who see the potential for trouble when the consumers take the ‘bite’ philosphy into their own hands. Agrees Meenakshi Saran, a dietician at the G M Modi hospital. The bites can be big or small. Moreover, it is difficult to count each bite you eat, she says. "A person can still decide on the amount. While dieting, people generally consume less portions, but it is very difficult to count bites," says Saran. However, Dr P K Chowbey, obesity management expert at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital says, the catch lies in "having the feeling that the stomach is full." "Some people take more time to finish their meal while others in very less time. But a person is satisfied only when the stomach sends the signal to the brain... The time varies in each case, according to the eating time habit," says Dr Chowbey. He says all these diet plans can just help the people who are slightly overweight. They are not for morbid obese. For them the solution lies in gastric surgery, which the size of the stomach is reduced so that a person even when he eats less feels full. As of today, there are more that 23 per cent morbid obese in urban india, while 40 per cent of Indians can be categorised as overweight, he says adding "the need is to create awareness about healthy eating habits, growing lifestyle diseases and how obesity is a great health risk." (PTI) |
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IAf station carnic: A scene of Tsunami fury CAR NICOBAR, Dec 28: Completely ravaged concrete buildings, uprooted trees, cracks on the runway, a tilted ATC tower and an open gate to nowhere. No, this is not a scene from a war theatre. This is what remains of this strategic IAF air base, called ‘Air Force Station Carnic’, that bore the brunt of Sunday’s tidal waves which ploughed through it, tearing apart whatever came its way and washing away whatever was left behind. The toll at this base, which was hit by the ‘biblical’ wall of water, was 27 confirmed dead and over 80 IAF personnel and their family members missing, with officials saying there was almost no possibility of their survival now. On the bright Sunday morning as the rumblings of what was feld as tremors began and the buildings shook as if the earth was splitting up, people ran out of their houses. But outside, they saw the sea swelling like a monster. "It was a wall of water, 10 to 15 metres high, rushing towards us at a very high speed," said base Commander Group Captain V V Bandopadhyay. The speed was later estimated at between 500 to 800 kms per hour. The water crashed onto the land and surged ahead. The crowd of IAF personnel, their family members ran towards the airport. "Head for the middle-mark of the runway (the highest point on the island)," Bandopadhyay shouted to the people fleeing away from the watery villain. He took some women and children in his car, but before he could get any further, the approaching tide overtook him. Bandopadhyay then asked the children and women to get off the car and run. That was his last instruction before he was swept off his feet by the water and lost consciousness. He woke up to find most of his known faces missing. Those who had not come out of their houses, which were slammed by the tidal waves, were washed away by the angry sea. It spared no one — children or their mothers, the aged or the youth. Not a single pucca building was standing, when this reporter visited the scene of devastation. The sea had not only gobbled up the once beautiful Golden Beach, it ran through the air force base, its runway till the other end. A fuel tanker truck was lifted by the waves from one side of the runway and thrown across to the other side. After Bandopadhyay recieved Air Chief Marshal S Krishnaswamy, who visited the place yesterday along with VVIPs UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, an emotionally charged Air Chief said "in my 34 years of service, I have never seen an IAF base commander recieving his chief dressed in a vest, pyjamas and chappal. He (Bandopadhyay) has nothing left". The scene was no different in the civilian areas of Car Nicobar. All the five tribal villages were washed away. The survivors had taken shelter in the dense rain forests, under banana plantations and coconut trees. Among the confirmed dead was Car Nicobar’s Chief Judicial Magistrate S K Joshi, the Island’s deputy Commissioner G C Joshi said. As most of the Nicobari and Shompen tribals are Christians, they had celebrated Christmas a day before. The next day, they had lost everything. This correspondent saw some decomposed bodies lying on the beaches, the passage to which were blocked by fallen trees and electric poles. Hundreds of non-tribals, primarily settlers from Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal, had taken shelter in the open area outside a school building in the heart of the island, Gandhi circle. Everyone wanted drinking water, food, medicines and electricity, in that order of priority. While officials said the total toll in Car Nicobar islands, considering that all the five villages and the IAF base, had been destroyed, could be between 2,500 and 3,000. The locals claimed it could even be eight to ten thousand. However, it was difficult to confirm the figures at this stage, as the total population of this island was over 25,000, spread all over the dense rain forests and jungles and beaches. (PTI) |
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Doctors oppose lethal injection in cases of death penalty BHUBANESWAR, Dec 28: Doctors from across the country today vehemently opposed the Centre’s proposal to replace hanging by the neck in case of death penalty with lethal injection saying it was against the hypocratic oath for a medico to take life. The strong opposition to the recommendation by the Law Commission came during the Central Council meet of the 69th annual conference of Indian Medical Association (IMA) underway here. "The Law Commission has observed that hanging by neck is brutal and should be replaced by the more sophisticated lethal injection. This is against the oath that doctors take before being inducted into the service — that they will strive only to save lives," Dr Vinay Aggarwal, secretary general of IMA said. The recommendation had caused confusion in the medical fraternity with its ‘obvious contradiction’ of the basic nature of professional duties expected of doctors, he said. IMA national president Sudipto Roy said the association had written to the Union Law Ministry on its resentment over the issue. "No doctor would be willing to inject a lethal dose to anybody, even if the person is facing a death penalty for the most heinous of crimes," he said. Aggarwal said the recurring debate on Euthanasia or mercy killing had also figured at the meet being attended by over 1100 delegates. "The recent case in Hyderabad, where a terminally ill patient’s plea for mercy killing was turned down by the Supreme Court has triggered fresh debate on the issue. The IMA feels that instead of trying to legalise Euthanasia, the country should strive to create better care services for the terminally ill," he said. Pointing out that Euthanasia had been legalised in Netherlands and Belgium, he said the conditions in those countries were different from India. "In countries which have legalised Euthanasia, the state has created infrastructure and enough services for the terminally ill to sustain a painless life till the end. For a country like India where primary healthcare is in the doldrums, Euthanasia is certianly not a topic to be debated," he added. (PTI) My senior would not have done it, says Vijayendra KANCHEEPURAM, Dec 28: In his first public comment on the arrest of his senior in a murder case, Kanchi junior Sankaracharya Vijayendra Saraswathi today said he told the special police that Jayendra Saraswathi "would not have done this (conspiring to eliminate Sankararaman)". "I told them that he (Jayendra Saraswathi) would not have done this," Vijyendra Saraswathi told the media in his first ever interaction since the arrest of his senior on November 11 in the case. He was addressing the media in the mutt premises on his return from the special police headquarters, where he was questioned for three hours today. Vijayendra Saraswathi also said he told the police, in response to a question, the senior Seer had advised him not to visit him at Vellore prison. "They asked me about my plans to meet the Acharya at the prison. I told them that I had informed him (Jayendra Saraswathi) about my plans to call on him and that I was asked not to come now. I will go (to meet him) when he permits me," he said. Mutt advocates, who accompanied the junior Seer, said the questions asked by the police were general in nature. (PTI) NLFT rebels gun down 16 soldiers in Tripura AGARTALA, Dec 28: In one of the bloodiest militant strikes in recent years, the banned National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) guerrillas massacred 17 people, including 16 Territorial Army soldiers, and injured two others at Dangabari in south Tripura district today. The ultras also took away 16 sophisticated weapons and two wireless sets from the slain jawans before fleeing the spot, 135 km from here. Police said here the jawans were escorting the Border Road Organisations (BRO) labourers in two vehicles when the armed insurgents opend fire from their automatic rifles from a hill top, killing 15 jawans, including the two drivers, on the spot. Three soldiers were seriously injured in the early morning attack that occurred at 0800 hrs. One of them succumbed to injuries on way to hospital. The two vehicles in which the security forces were travelling were badly damaged under the impact of powerful grenades exploded by the rebels. One tribal villager passing by the area, was also shot dead in the attack taking the toll to 17. The BRO is constructing an alternative highway to connect south Tripura and Dhalai districts through the interior areas of Amarpur Sub-Division and the workers were working in the insurgency-dominated area under security cover. The extremists took away one Light Machine Gun (LMG), 15 AK series rifles, two wireless sets and a huge cache of ammunition. The injured were airlifted to the military hospital in Silchar in Assam. Additional Director General of Police Pranay Sahaya, Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) A K Sukhla and additional security forces have rushed to the spot and a massive combing operation has been launched. Today’s attack was one of the biggest attacks by the insurgents security forces in this north-eastern state. The last major strike by the NLFT militants was on the Tripura State Rifles jawans at Hirapur in west Tripura in August 2002 in which 21 soldiers were gunned down. With today’s incident, over 46 security personnel, mostly para-military soldiers, were killed by tribal guerillas this year while 36 security men were killed by militants last year. Today’s attacks raises fears that the tribal guerrillas with the help of other militants of the region are regrouping ahead of the upcoming election to the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council. It is felt that the rebels might unleash violence at a time when the Government in signing agreements with militants and large number of ulras who are surrendering.(UNI) Filling HC vacancies, judicial reforms given top billing NEW DELHI, Dec 28: With over 20 million cases pending in courts across India, a priority of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance Government was to fill 222 judicial vacancies it inherited in mid-2004. Efforts to tackle communal violence, give daughters equal rights to ancestral property, turn Tehelka probe over to investigators and scrap controversial anti-Terrorism law were among Law and Justice Ministry’s other priorities, a year-end Government review recalled. India’s 21 High Courts have an approved strength of 719, but only 489 judges were in place in High Courts by the end of June 2004, the statement said. Experts have long attributed the high pendency to the shortage of judges in India. The Law Commission of India held as early as 1987 that considering population the number of judges in the country was among the lowest in the world. The country’s senior and subordinate judiciaries between them have about 13,000 officers dispensing justice at District, State and National levels. They include Munsifs, Sub-Judges, Civil Judges, Judicial Magistrates and District Magistrates, Session Judges and High Court and Supreme Court Justices and the Chief Justice of India. The judges to population ratio in India was placed by the commission at 10.5 per million people as against 50.9 in Britain, 57.7 in Australia, 75.2 in Canada, and 107 in the United States. Observing that India was persisting in a pattern of conscious judicial understaffing followed by the British rulers in keeping with their colonial interests, the Law Commission recommended a nearly five fold increase, raising the judiciary strength to 50 per million people. While no such increase has been effected, experts point out that even the existing strength has not been filled, hence the priority accorded by Law and Justice Minister Hans Raj Bhardwaj to appointing judges. The statement said that during the last six months as many as 79 judges were appointed in various High Courts and the Government "hopes to fill the remaining 143 vacancies by the end of 2005." This may also provide a backdrop to advice rendered by Chief Justice of India R C Lahoti to High Court Chief Justices to look out for competent women lawyers in their courts to elevate them as judges. Noting that judicial reforms being essentially a management exercise, the statement said the Government "has pledged to pool all its resources to streamline the system." The Government also decided to give priority to upgrading infrastructural facilities by making more funds available for building court rooms and appointment of additional staff. Bhardwaj has insisted that the increased funding should continue for six years to overcome problems plaguing the subordinate judiciary, the statement said. It also cited steps taken to "drastically" cut delays in High Courts and Lower Courts. With three million cases pending in 21 High Courts alone, the Government and the Supreme Court jointly launched a drive to speed up disposal of cases. Steps were taken to introduce computers and internet system in almost all the courts to ease updating of records and facilitate intra-court and inter-court communication. In October, the Law and Justice Ministry convened a conference of High Court Chief Justices and States Chief Ministers on improving the functioning of the system. It was addressed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Justice Lahoti. The last meet was held 13 years ago. Recalling that the UPA’s Common Minimum Programme pledge to preserve, protect and promote social harmony and enforce the law without fear or favour, the statement cited the Government steps to enact a model comprehensive law to deal with communal violence. It said states were being encouraged to adopt that law for generating faith and confidence in minority communities. The Government also decided to set up an administrative reforms commission to prepare a detailed blueprint for revamping the public administration system and pledged to enact into law the Lok Pal bill. Elaborate discussions have taken place on whether to bring the president and the Prime Minister within the ambit of this law. In moves to remove gender discrimination, the Government introduced in Parliament the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Bill 2004 and prevention of Child Marriage Bill 2004. The proposed law would give equal right to daughters in ancestral property, the statement said. Another commitment the Government kept, it pointed out, was the abolition of the prevention of Terrorism Act, 2002 and the passasge by Parliament of the Unlawful Activities (prevention) Act, 2004 strengthening the 1967 law. An ongoing probe into the Tehelka affair was given a new direction by dissolving the Phukan Commission and turning the tapes and other matgerials over to the Central Bureau of Investigation. The Government also "initiated action for proper functioning" of the legal service authorities which exist in almost all states. (UNI) |
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