500 MegaWatts project for Nizamabad

The state government has decided to set up a 500 MW thermal power plant in Nizamabad district.

The plant will require 2.6 million tonnes of coal per year and the government had approached the Singareni Collieries Company and Western Coal Fields to sanction coal linkage.

The generation corporation (Genco) will not be able to set up the project unless coal linkage is sanctioned.

The minister for energy, Mr Mohammed Shabber Ali, said that the project would be completed in 39 months once the coal linkage was settled. He was replying to the MLC, Mr Venkat Rama Reddy, in the AP Legislative Council during the question hour.

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Soren is Cheif Minister, finally

JMM chief Shibu Soren was sworn in as chief minister of Jharkhand along with 11 ministers by governor Syed Sibtey Razi on Wednesday.

This is the second innings for Mr Soren who had earlier become the chief minister for just nine days from March 2 to March 11 in , 2005 when he failed to prove the majority in the House. His acid test on the floor of the House this time is on September 1.

The MLAs who took oath of office include Sudhir Mahto, Nalin Soren, Dulal Bhuyan from the JMM, Bandhu Tirkey, Joba Manjhi from the United Goan Democratic Party, Kamlesh Singh from NCP, Enos Ekka from Jharkhand Party, and Aparna Sengupta from the Forward Bloc.

Among the Independents who have been included in the Cabinet are Stephen Marandi, Harinarain Rai and Bhanu Pratap Sahi.

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Tunnels reveal Hitler’s vision

Three vast tunnels were opened under central Berlin this month, giving a glimpse of Adolf Hitler’s megalomaniac vision of a new architectural centre for the capital of Nazi Germany.

The 16-metre (50-foot) deep tunnels were constructed in 1938 as part of an underground transport network beneath a series of bombastic buildings designed by Nazi architect Albert Speer, including the biggest domed hall the world had ever seen.

The overground plans, never completed because of World War II, included boulevards, squares and huge buildings, such as an arch dwarfing the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, and the 290-metre high Great Hall, with room for 180,000 people. Hitler called the concept, a symbol of the power of the Third Reich, “Berlin — the capital of the world” but in recent times it has come to be known as “Germania.” The tunnels, between 90 and 220 metres long lying beneath the Tiergarten park, would have accommodated roads and a railway line.

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State to sell movie tickets

The government is planning to set up a centralised online ticket booking system for cinema theatres to prevent tax evasion and black marketing.

A committee headed by information and public relations special commissioner, Mr C. Paradhasarthi, has been formed to work out its modalities.

Mr A. Amarnath Reddy, CEO of Institute of Electronics Governance, and Mr T. Jay Raj Singh, deputy secretary of the home department, are members.

The government envisages a system in which moviegoers can book tickets at selected theatres through telephone, Internet or kiosks.

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City rebounds, fear not a factor

Life has changed in the city a year after the bomb blasts that killed 43 persons at Gokul Chat and Lumbini Park, and yet not quite.

Security gadgets have been fitted at most outlets, guards take the trouble of frisking people. Public announcements ask the people to report suspicious objects to the police.

The city has not allowed that to cramp its style. People are out on the streets, and in larger numbers. Tourists are flocking popular places, including those where the terrorists struck last year.

Says, Mr K.T. Nath, a regular at Gokul Chat where 32 people were killed in the blast, “We don’t fear the blasts any more. I am a Hyderabadi and proud to be one. No terrorist can break the peace-loving attitude of the Hyderabadis.”

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Chief Minister halts land acquisition

The Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, on Tuesday directed officials not to acquire land for infrastructure projects unless there was dire need to do so.

The Chief Minister instructed the East Godavari and Visakhapatnam district collectors to immediately withdraw prohibitory orders imposed on land transactions in several mandals falling in the proposed Petroleum, Chemicals and Petrochemical Investment Region (PCPIR).

He said there was no need to issue such orders when the government was not acquiring land for the PCPIR.

Dr Reddy is also believed to have asked officials to put on hold land acquisition for the Visakhapatnam international airport till defence authorities cleared the project. With regard to minor airports in the districts, he said a firm no to land acquisition at this stage.

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We are Pakistanis: Geelani

Hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani demanded the merger of Jammu and Kashmir with Pakistan, as leaders of the moderate Hurriyat faction spoke about independence and a dialogue over the state.

This has triggered a leadership and ideological clash in the Valley.

Tens of thousands of Kashmiris marched towards the United Nations office here amid heavy security, demanding UN intervention to solve the Kashmir dispute.

Demonstrators shouting “We want freedom”, “Aiy zaalimo, aiy kaafiro, Kashmir hamara chhod do (Tyrants and oppressors, leave our Kashmir).

Mr Geelani said there was “no solution to the Kashmir issue other than merger with Pakistan”.

“We are Pakistanis and Pakistan is us because we are tied with the country through Islam,” he said, as the crowd chanted along with him: “Hum Pakistani hain, Pakistan hamara hai, (We are Pakistanis, Pakistan is ours).”

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49 babies die in All India Institute of Medical Sciences trials

As many as 49 babies have died during clinical trials at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) during the last two-and-a-half years, the reply to a Right to Information (RTI) query has revealed.

The AIIMS paediatrics department conducted 42 sets of trials on 4,142 babies — 2,728 of them below the age of one — since January 1, 2006.

“A total of 49 deaths corresponding to 1.18 per cent mortality among the enrolled patients were recorded in the studies. These include deaths both in the control and intervention groups, as per the designs of individual studies,” the reply says.

The reasons for the babies’ deaths, their ages or their gender are not mentioned in the reply — since these were not sought by the applicant, Mr Rahul Verma, founder of the NGO, Uday Foundation for Congenital Defects and Rare Blood Groups.

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Seat delimitation groups Muslim-dominated mandals - Muslim vote gets punch

The delimitation process has made Muslims a dominant force in 15 Lok Sabha seats of the state and a deciding factor in 40 Assembly constituencies.

In the redrawn electoral map of the state, Muslims along with Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes will decide winners in 107 out of 294 Assembly seats and 22 out of 42 Lok Sabha constituences.

Constituencies have been revamped by the Delimitation Commission in such a way that adjoining Muslim-dominated mandals were merged.

While Hyderabad LS seat is on top with 70 per cent Muslim voters, Nandyal in Kurnool district stood second with 17.77 per cent.

Rajampet and Kadapa, in the Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy’s native Kadapa district have 15 per cent Muslim voters.

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Not content with gold, Phelps stalks Spitz

Three finals, three gold medals, three world records. Michael Phelps is not just going for Mark Spitz’s record of seven golds, he seems intent on winning all his races in world-record time, as Spitz did in 1972.

Phelps won the 200-metre freestyle on Tuesday morning at the Water Cube, obliterating the field and his year-old world record in the process. He was timed in 1 minute 42.96 seconds, 0.90 of a second better than his previous personal best. Park TaeHwan was second, in 1:44.85, and Phelps’s teammate, Peter Vanderkaay, the top qualifier in the semifinals, was third in 1:45.14.

It was Phelps’s 17th victory in 19 finals in the event since his third-place showing at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. One of Phelps’s two defeats came to Peter Vanderkaay in April, but the world was not watching then. When the pressure is on, Phelps seems to turn it on. He smashed his world record in the 400m individual medley on Sunday and set an American record on his lead off 100m in the Americans’ 4x100 freestyle relay on Monday.

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Bindra Shoots Gold: Just One In A Billion

Abhinav Bindra won India’s first-ever individual Olympic gold medal when he claimed the men’s 10m air rifle shooting title in Beijing Monday.

Bindra, 25, a businessman from Chandigarh, followed his world championship title two years ago to finally win a landmark gold medal for India.

Speaking to this newspaper from Beijing, Bindra said, “Life cannot get better than this. I’m thrilled about winning the gold... It’s very difficult to describe how I feel because the winning moment is yet to sink in. I guess it was my day today.” Dedicating his victory to family and fellow Indians, Bindra said: “I know my country was yearning for this medal a very long time. After missing a medal at Athens by a whisker, I knew I had to win here.”

On his performance: “After having qualified fourth for the final, I knew I had to go all out... My start wasn’t impressive, but things started looking up soon.” In his moment of glory, Bindra added: “This is just the beginning... I want to win more Olympic medals.

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Russia seizes region as Georgians flee

Russian troops took Tskhinvali, capital of the separatist Georgian region of South Ossetia, on Sunday after a three-day battle as Georgian forces retreated and the Tbilisi government offered a ceasefire and talks.

Georgia’s foreign ministry said it told Russia on Sunday evening it was ready “to immediately start negotiations” on a ceasefire.

Russia poured troops and tanks across its southern border into Georgia and bombed Georgian targets after Tbilisi attempted to retake South on Ossetia, a small pro-Russian province which broke away from Georgia in the 1990s.

In a possible opening of a second front, Georgia accused Russia of starting military operations earlier pn Sunday in Abkhazia, another separatist region of Georgia. Moscow denied involvement.

The crisis has alarmed the United States, Georgia’s mainally, and unnerved investors in Russia, who sold stocks and the rouble heavily Friday.

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Olympic in China, Games in Pakistan

This 2,000-year old capital city, eager to present its ultra-modern look to the world, is all dressed up for China’s long-awaited coming-out party: The 29th Olympic Games that kick off with a gala opening Friday.

But in a largely atheist society, all eyes are heavenward as meteorologists say there are possibilities of rain on Friday.

A cloud cover hangs like a pall over this city even as more than 200 special and chartered flights land at Beijing’s Capital International Airport, bringing in the last of the Olympic participants and guests, and the talk everywhere is whether it will rain.

“The weather during the opening ceremony would be favourable,” Chinese met spokesperson Yu Xinwen was quoted as saying. In almost the same breath, he added the city might witness scattered showers or thunderstorms.

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Centre offers talks

The all party meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at his residence here on Wednesday over the continuing violence in the Jammu region decided to initiate immediate direct talks with the protesters.

The violence has been raging all over Jammu for the past month after the state government cancelled its decision to hand over 100 acres of land to the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board.

While the government has appealed for peace, BJP president Rajnath Singh stood his ground and reiterated his party’s demands: that the state’s new governor, Mr N.N. Vohra be recalled, the land in question be handed over to the shrine board; and that the government hold immediate talks with the Shri Amarnath Sangarsh Samiti.

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Yadavs in deal to help UPA

The Congress Party is all set to launch its Yadav brigade to politically consolidate the United Progressive Alliance’s backward votebank ahead of general elections expected next year. This became evident on Monday as Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav and railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav were seen on a single platform.

To add to this combine and to make it more potent, Lok Janshakti Party Chief Ram Vilas Paswan, once an archrival of the Rashtriya Janata Dal chief, made it possible for the two Yadavs to come together.

The reunion of the OBC and dalit forces was actually propelled by the recent Lok Sabha trust vote and the consequent “cash-for-vote” controversy, in which the Opposition BJP accused Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh of bribing its MPs to vote in favour of the Manmohan Singh government.

In an attempt to come clean over the controversy, Mr Paswan hosted a press conference at which leaders of both the SP and RJD came together to screen a “sting operation” tape, suggesting that the “vote-forcash” scandal was stagemanaged by the BJP itself.

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145 Pilgrims dead

More than 145 Hindu and Sikh worshippers, including at least 42 young children and 50 women, were killed following a stampede at the Naina Devi shrine in Himachal Pradesh’s Bilaspur district.

The tragedy occurred early on Sunday morning when rumours of a “landslide and falling rocks” set off a commotion in a 30,000-strong crowd of pilgrims who had gathered around the mountaintop shrine for the Shravan Ashtami Mela.

Witnesses said panicked devotees began running down the stone stairway while others were making their way up to the temple.

Many were literally crushed to death in the resulting stampede. Dozens of others fell over the side of the mountain when the precariously-constructed system of railings along the stairway collapsed, giving way at a number of places because

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31 killed in train fire

In one of the worst fire disasters in railway history, 31 passengers were charred to death and dozens of others were injured when a blaze broke out in Kakinada-bound Gautami Express in the early hours of Friday.

Only two bodies have been identified so far. The rest were reduced to ashes and will be identified using DNA finger-printing techniques.

Forensic experts and railway officials could estimate the death toll only by counting the skulls. Most of the victims reportedly belonged to East and West Godavari districts.

The mishap occurred at around 1.30 am soon after the train had crossed the K.Samudram station on the Warangal-Khammam section, about 150 km from Hyderabad.

Fire broke out in the 3-tier sleeper coach S-10, apparently because of a short circuit, and spread to four other bogies within minutes.

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Chhota Dawood role suspected

Intelligence agencies, including the Research and Analysis Wing, strongly suspect the involvement of Chhota Dawood and Ahmedabad-born Rasool Khan Yakoob Khan Pathan in the serial bomb blasts in Gujarat and Bengaluru.

Chhota Dawood, who is operating from Peshawar in Pakistan, and Rasool reportedly founded the Indian Mujahideen, which has claimed responsibility for the Gujarat, Jaipur and Uttar Pradesh blasts. The two men are reportedly in touch with India’s most wanted fugitive, Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar, and work under his instructions and that of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency.

“The three of them have taken over the responsibility of executing terror attacks in India. They recruit batches of 100 to 200 young Indian men and send them to Bangladesh via West Bengal. After training in Bangladesh, they are taken to Pakistan and Pakistan occupied Kashmir for intensive training and sent back to India with specific tasks,” official sources said.

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