Following the riots which took place after the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992, the then BJP government in the state was dismissed along with the party governments in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh.

“I don’t think that communal situation like 1992 will occur in Madhya Pradesh post Ayodhya verdict, but we are not taking any chances and police is maintaining a tight vigil in the state,” Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Uma Shankar Gupta said on Friday.

“We have requested for the deployment of over 50 companies of Rapid Action Force (RAF) and Special Armed Force (SAF) in the state for maintaining law and order,” Gupta said.

“We have directed officials to deploy entire police force in the field including those who were not doing field duties at present and also called the 100 per cent Home Guard jawans in the state for maintaining communal harmony at any cost,” he said.

The Minister claimed that even though there are remote chances of communal disturbance, anybody found indulging in such activities will be firmly dealt with.

Search operation and arrest of history-sheeters and anti-social elements is already going on for ensuring peace in the state, the Minister said.

“We are also in constant touch with the public leaders, people’s representatives and other important persons of the society to maintaining peace in the state,” Gupta said.

The government has already taken the meeting of senior officials including zonal IGs, SSPs, Commissioners and Collectors through video-conferencing on Ayodhya judgement and its possible fallouts, officials said.

The police has been instructed to show zero tolerance towards the elements attempting to disturb the communal harmony post verdict, they added.

# posted by faburous @ 3:59 AM 0 comments

Amidst reports of a meeting between People’s Democratic Party (PDP) patron Mufti Mohammed Sayeed and Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh on Tuesday night that raised speculation over new political realignment in Jammu and Kashmir, All-India Congress Committee general secretary Rahul Gandhi today said Chief Minister Omar Abdullah “needs time and support“.

Addressing a press conference here, he also ruled out his intervention in affairs of Jammu and Kashmir and refused to comment on demands for withdrawal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from the state.

“The government has supported Omar Abdullah. National Conference is the party in power. He is a youngster. Kashmir is a difficult place. Omar is doing a tough job and he should be given time and support,” Mr. Gandhi told a press conference when asked whether Mr. Omar had failed.

Replying to questions on Kashmir and Mr. Abdullah, he said the Congress was supporting him and he is the leader of the NC.

“It is their decision to run Kashmir. They are in a partnership,” he said.

“I think we have to give him support. Kashmir is a sensitive job. We have to give him time and support,” Mr. Gandhi said.

He corrected a questioner to say that he did not say that the Kashmir situation was critical.

In the midst of the ongoing unrest in Kashmir, Mufti had a meeting with Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday night which led to speculation that the two parties could revive their alliance to form a government in Kashmir.

To a question on AFSPA, Gandhi said he would “defer to the Prime Minister on the subject. I would say the Prime Minister has knowledge on the subject. I would lower my head.

The Prime Minister has more knowledge on the subject“.

He said, “It is a complex issue and he would not like to say whether he wanted it or did not want. It would be unfair on my part to do so irresponsible“.

“It is for senior people like the Prime Minister to comment on that. For me to say I am for or against would be unfair or irresponsible,” Mr. Gandhi told a questioner.

When asked to comment on PDP president Mehbooba Mufti requesting his intervention in the Kashmir problem, Mr. Gandhi said, “Kashmir is not a part time problem, it is a full time problem.”

He also had a tongue in cheek that he was being offered new jobs

“If I were to get into it, I would have to give full time to it. There are many other leaders who want to give me a job. The way I have been brought up is to carry out my responsibility. I am doing a job now. It is a full time responsibility (as a leader of the Youth Congress). I have to finish it.

“Somebody wants me to take up Commonwealth Games organising job. They are others who can do it. I don’t want to look to move from one problem to another. They are others who can handle Kashmir.

“I will go to Jammu and Kashmir as my drive is to go to every party of India to bring the youth into the political system. It’s a full time responsibility to bring youngsters in politics,” Mr. Gandhi said.

Naxal issue

Noting that Naxalism was a result of complex set of circumstances, the Congress leader said political connectivity should be ensured to bring Naxals into the mainstream.

“Poverty is certainly one thing and in this country we have to ensure political connectivity so that the people can be part of the national political mainstream and efforts should be directed towards that,” Mr. Gandhi told a press conference here.

“If we give them political connectivity, they will be able to join the mainstream,” he said.

Asked if Naxals wanted to join the Youth Congress during the membership drive, he replied, “All are welcome except criminals and fundamentalists. If it is a Naxal who has killed 50 people, he is a criminal. So you get my point.

“The difference between me and the Maoists is that I don’t kill people, but the Maoists do,” he said.

To a question, Mr. Gandhi disagreed with the view that Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee had sided openly with the Maoists.

“To say that Mamata Banerjee has openly sided with the Maoists is wrong. She has struggled a lot in Bengal for a long time. And, we respect her for that,” he said.

# posted by faburous @ 2:20 AM 0 comments

Pakistan's former military ruler Pervez Musharraf has said he is forming a new party to return to active politics in the next election scheduled for 2013 and take his country forward on a "correct" democratic path.

"Two hundred per cent, I will participate in the next election," Musharraf, who has been living outside Pakistan since April last year, told BBC.

Asked about his plans for the next elections in Pakistan, he said he would be "standing for a party that I'll create."

Musharraf said he would stand for a seat in the next Parliament and that he hopes to become either Prime Minister or President.

"I can't be sure of becoming President again but I believe there is a good chance of my winning," he said.

"I do intend creating a new party because I think a time has come in Pakistan when we need to introduce a new political culture, a culture which can take Pakistan forward on a correct democratic path and not an artificial, make-believe democratic path," he added.

# posted by faburous @ 11:39 PM 0 comments

Boston: With a net worth of USD 62 billion, Indian business tycoon Mukesh Ambani would be he richest man on earth in 2014, according to a forecast issued by the prestigious Forbes magazine.

"One of the predictions is that Reliance Industries' chief Ambani, who currently has a net worth of 29 billion dollars, pips the world's richest man Mexican businessman Carlos Slim to top Forbes' rich list in 2014," it said.

Ambani's net worth swells to USD 62 billion while Slim is "hit hard by Mexican political, financial chaos," according to the prediction by Forbes.

53-year-old Ambani currently ranks fourth on Forbes' list of the world's billionaires.

Labels: Mukesh Ambani will be the world's richest man by 2014: Forbes

# posted by faburous @ 9:43 AM 0 comments

At least 17 people have died in a suicide car bombing at a market in Russia's North Caucasus region.

The bomber drove his car into a market square in the city of Vladikavkaz, southern Russia, before detonating the explosives.

Labels: Suicide Bomber Strikes At Russian Market

# posted by faburous @ 12:04 AM 0 comments

The Praja Rajyam party chief and megastar Chiranjeevi finds his urge to get back to the silver screen irresistible. He announced on Wednesday that he would stage a comeback to Tollywood soon. Of course, it’s not a surprise as his son Ramcharan, a few days ago, indicated that Chiranjeevi would act in films again.

Chiranjeevi said his next film would be a typical mass film with all the ingredients like his previous films. Specialty is that “I prefer my next film should be on the lines of my earlier films like Tagore and Stalin. They had a strong social message. So, this ensuing film of mine too should be so. It should entertain the masses like a pucca commercial film and at the same time produce a powerful message,” he revealed his thoughts in chitchat with the media in Hyderabad.

It is apparent that Chiranjeevi wants his reentry into films not as the result of his personal interest, but as the result of a mass hysteria and demand from his stupendous fan base in the state. His brothers – Nagababu and Pawan Kalyan – who campaigned for Praja Rajyam party actively, later turned even more active in films, and showed little concern for the party, which slipped into a third position in the 2009 assembly elections. Chiranjeevi too is wading through a tough time in politics with lack of organization in the party.

Sources said that Chiranjeevi has director Shankar in mind when he spoke of his next film. There is a strong possibility that the megastar’s venture would be with Shankar in the first quarter of 2010.

Chiranjeevi's last film was Shankardada Zindabad, released in 2007, and it turned out to be a dud. However, the megastar made a passing appearance in a song for his son Ramcharan’s industry blockbuster Maghadheera in 2009.

# posted by faburous @ 3:38 AM 0 comments

The powerful earthquake that smashed buildings, cracked roads and twisted rail lines around the New Zealand city of Christchurch also ripped a new fault line in the Earth's surface, a geologist said Sunday.

At least 500 buildings, including 90 in the downtown area, have been designated as destroyed by the 7.1-magnitude quake that struck at 4:35 a.m. Saturday near the South Island city of 400,000 people. Most other buildings sustained only minor damage.

Only two serious injuries were reported from the quake as chimneys and walls of older buildings were reduced to rubble and crumbled to the ground. Prime Minister John Key said it was a miracle no one was killed.

Part of the reason the city escaped major injuries was because the quake happened before dawn, Key said.

“If this had happened five hours earlier or five hours later (when many more people were in the city), there would have been absolute carnage in terms of human life,” he told TV One News Sunday.

The quake cut power across the region, blocked roads with debris, and disrupted gas and water supplies, but Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker said services were being restored Sunday.

Power was back to 90 per cent of the city and water supply had resumed for all but 15 to 20 per cent of residents, he said. Portable toilets have been provided and tanks of fresh water placed around the city for residents.

Mr. Parker said it would take a long time to fully fix some core services such as water and sewage. “Our first priority is just people,” he said. “That's our worry.”

Up to 90 extra police officers were flown into Christchurch to help, and troops were likely to join the recovery effort on Monday, he said.

As the recovery work gathered pace, forecasters warned strong winds would buffet the area, creating problems with flying debris.

WeatherWatch forecaster Philip Duncan said gale force winds of 65 kilometres per hour and stronger “could cause serious issues for trees and buildings that were weakened in (Saturday's) huge earthquake.”

Specialist engineering teams began assessing damage to all central city buildings on Sunday, said Paul Burns of the city's search and rescue service. Officials said schools across the region would remain closed for the next two days to allow time to check whether they were safe.

Canterbury University geology professor Mark Quigley said what “looks to us that it could be a new fault” had ripped across the ground and pushed some surface areas up. The quake was caused by the ongoing collision between the Pacific and Australian tectonic plates, said Mr. Quigley, who is leading a team trying to pin down the source of the quake.

“One side of the earth has lurched to the right ... up to 3.5 meters and in some places been thrust up,” Mr. Quigley told National Radio.

“The long linear fracture on the earth's surface does things like break apart houses, break apart roads. We went and saw two houses that were completely snapped in half by the earthquake,” he said.

Roger Bates, whose dairy farm at Darfield was close to the quake's epicentre 30 kilometres west of Christchurch, said the new fault line had ripped up the surface of his land.

“The whole dairy farm is like the sea now, with real (soil) waves right across the dairy farm. We don't have physical holes (but) where the fault goes through it's been raised a metre or metre and a half,” he told National Radio.

“Trouble is, I've lost two metres of land off my boundary,” he added.

Experts said the low number of injuries in the powerful quake also reflects the country's strict building codes.

“Thank God for earthquake strengthening 10 years ago,” the Anglican dean of Christchurch, the Reverend Peter Beck, told TV One News on Sunday.

Euan Smith, professor of geophysics at Victoria University, speculated that the very soft soils of Christchurch had “acted like a shock absorber over a short period ... doing less damage to smaller buildings.”

Prime Minister John Key, who flew to Christchurch to inspect the damage, said the city “looks like something off a movie set,” with wrecked buildings, buckled roads, broken water mains and sewage systems and some flooding caused by broken water pipes.

Scientists from GNS Science began installing 40 portable seismographs in the region Sunday to record seismic data from the continuing stream of aftershocks. More than 60 had been recorded by mid-afternoon Sunday.

Seismologists study aftershock sequences to help learn more about the mechanics of the main quake, and to check whether stress in the earth's crust has been transferred to other faults in the region.

New Zealand sits above an area where two tectonic plates collide. The country records more than 14,000 earthquakes a year — but only about 150 are felt by residents. Fewer than 10 a year do any damage.

New Zealand's last major earthquake registered magnitude 7.8 and hit South Island's Fiordland region on July 16, 2009, moving the southern tip of the country 30 centimeters closer to Australia, seismologist Ken Gledhill said at the time.

# posted by faburous @ 11:29 PM 0 comments

The process of raising it to the surface was to be painstaking because engineers want to make sure not to damage or drop the contraption. The blowout preventer wasn’t expected to reach the surface until Saturday, at which point government investigators will take possession of it.

A BP spokesman said in an e—mail to The Associated Press that the 50—foot (15—meter), 300—ton device was detached from the wellhead at 2-20 p.m EDT (1820 GMT).

Earlier in the day, a vessel had latched onto the equipment to raise it from a mile beneath the sea.

Undersea video showed the device suspended in the water. A crane on the Helix Q4000 was being used for the task.

The blowout preventer is considered a key piece of evidence in the spill investigation. Investigators will examine it and hope to gain insight into why the device failed to prevent the spill. Late Friday, the government said another blowout preventer had successfully been placed on the blown—out well.

The April 20 explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon killed 11 workers and led to 206 million gallons of oil spewing from BP’s undersea well.

Investigators know the explosion was triggered by a bubble of methane gas that escaped from the well and shot up the drill column, expanding quickly as it burst through several seals and barriers before igniting.

But they don’t know exactly how or why the gas escaped. And they don’t know why the blowout preventer didn’t seal the well pipe at the sea bottom after the eruption, as it was supposed to. While the device didn’t close - or may have closed partially - hearings have produced no clear picture of why it didn’t plug the well.

Lawyers will be watching closely, as hundreds of lawsuits have been filed over the oil spill. Future liabilities faced by a number of corporations could be riding on what the analysis of the blowout preventer shows.

The raising of the blowout preventer followed Thursday’s removal of a temporary cap that stopped oil from gushing into the Gulf in mid-July. No more oil was expected to leak into the sea, but crews were standing by with collection vessels just in case.

The government wanted to replace the failed blowout preventer first to deal with any pressure that is caused when a relief well BP has been drilling intersects the blown—out well.

Once that intersection occurs sometime after Monday, BP is expected to use mud and cement to plug the blown—out well for good from the bottom.

# posted by faburous @ 11:13 PM 0 comments

Ashok Leyland shares hit 1-year high

Ashok Leyland, the Hinduja Group flagship company, surged over 2 per cent to hit a year high on BSE in early trade, a day after the bus maker reported robust vehicle sales for August.

Shares of the company gained 2.41 per cent to touch a 52-week high of Rs 76.30 on the Bombay Stock Exchange. The scrip witnessed a similar upmove on the National Stcok Exchange and rose 2.35 per cent to Rs 76.20 in the morning trade.

On Thursay, Ashok Leyland posted a 56.35 per cent jump in commercial vehicle sales at 7,480 units in August compared to 4,784 units in the same month last year.

Other counters in the auto sector were also trading in the positive terrain, led by the country's largest two-wheeler maker Hero Honda.

Hero Honda rose by 1.76 while Mahindra & Mahindra gained 1.74 per cent on BSE.

Among other gainerShares of the company gained 2.41 per cent to touch a 52-week high of Rs 76.30 on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The scrip witnessed a similar upmove on the National Stock Exchange and rose 2.35 per cent to Rs 76.20 in the morning trade.

On Thursday, Ashok Leyland posted a 56.35 per cent jump in commercial vehicle sales at 7,480 units in August compared to 4,784 units in the same month last year.

Other counters in the auto sector were also trading in the positive terrain, led by the country's largest

two-wheeler maker Hero Honda.

Hero Honda rose by 1.76 while Mahindra & Mahindra gained 1.74 per cent on BSE.

# posted by faburous @ 12:16 AM 0 comments

After Modi, Maya accuses govt of misusing CBI

Mayawati questioned how CBI takes cognisance of theIncome tax report in case of leaders like Samajwadi Party's Mulayam Singh Yadav and RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav but when it comes to her it was trying to "frame" her in the DA case, BSP sources said.

These comments come in the backdrop of CBI telling the Supreme Court that it had gathered "credible evidence" to prosecute Mayawati in the DA case.

Besides this, the Chief Minister has already set her eyes on the upcoming assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh in 2012.

She has cautioned BSP workers against any design or conspiracy by political opponents through several tactics like sting operations ahead of the polls.

Mayawati has also asked them to apprise the general public against any such move, sources said.

# posted by faburous @ 12:07 AM 0 comments