Amarnath land row protests shift to Delhi

NEW DELHI: Shifting the scene to the capital, members of the Shri Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti (SASS) Thursday courted arrest here to protest the revocation of land allotted to the shrine board managing the pilgrimage to the shrine in the Kashmir valley।

Amongst those arrested were Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Praveen Togadia and three Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislators in the Delhi assembly O।P. Babbar, Jagdish Mukhi and H.S. Bali.

Members of the SASS, a conglomerate of various organisations spearheading the protests in Jammu, marched to the offices of the deputy commissioners of police (DCP) in six places at 9।30 a.m.

“Over 7,000 members of the Samiti courted arrest under the All India Jail Bharo (fill-the-jails) agitation,” SASS spokesperson Vinod Bansal told IANS।

The genesis of the trouble lies in the Jammu and Kashmir government's decision in May to allot 40 hectares of land to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board that manages the annual pilgrimage to the high altitude shrine dedicated to Lord Shiva। The decision led to massive protests in the Muslim-dominated Kashmir valley. Its revocation July 1 ignited a counter agitation in the Hindu majority Jammu region.

The trouble has continued to snowball since with shutdowns, curfew and violent clashes that have polarised Jammu against Kashmir।

The death toll in the state in the waves of protests and counter-protests now stands at around 40.

HC convicts advocates Anand, Khan in BMW expose case

New Delhi (PTI): The Delhi High Court today convicted senior advocates -- R K Anand and I U Khan -- in the BMW expose case for obstructing administration of justice।

"They are senior advocates and they did not tender either conditional or unconditional apology for their conduct in the BMW case," a Division Bench of Justices Manmohan Sarin and Madan B Lokur said, in their 112-page verdict in the contempt case relating to the expose।

Recommending that they be stripped of their designation of senior advocate, the court asked them not to appear in the Delhi High Court and its subordinate courts for the next four months as punishment।

The Bench also imposed a fine of Rs 2,000 on each of them and rapped them for their "irresponsible" behaviour, saying "we are not dealing with young lawyers। Both are seasoned lawyers and such conduct was not expected of them."

Meanwhile, the court recommended that amicus curiae Arvind Nigam, who assisted the court in the over year-long trial, be designated as a senior advocate।

During the proceedings, Anand was conspicuous by his absence while Khan was present in the court।

Both Anand and Khan were accused of obstructing the administration of justice by allegedly influencing a witness Sunil Kulkarni in the sensational nine-year-old BMW hit-and-run case।

Anand, the defence counsel and Khan, the prosecutor, were shown as colluding with the witness in an NDTV sting operation last year।

The court on May 31 last year had taken suo motu cognisance of the sting operation showing Anand, in collusion with Khan, allegedly offering money to Kulkarni to depose in favour of Sanjeev Nanda, the prime accused in the hit-and-run case।

Nanda, the grandson of retired Naval chief S M Nanda, is accused of mowing down six persons, including three policemen, with his BMW car on January 10, 1999.

Nokia touch screen phone by year end

Delhi, August 20 2008 :Setting at rest speculations, cell phone major Nokia has confirmed it will launch a full touch screen handset by the end of this year।

'We have been working on the Series 60 platform for touch screen user interface and a mobile device is expected to be launched by the year-end,' Devinder Kishore, Nokia India's marketing director, told IANS।

The Nokia full touch screen phone, codenamed the 'Tube' was also featured in the latest Batman movie 'The Dark Knight' and will be Nokia's second full touch screen device, the first of which was launched in 2003 but was later discontinued।

The past year has seen cell phone majors such as Samsung and LG debuting their full touch screen mobile phones in the market after the success of the Apple iPhone।

It is widely anticipated that Research in Motion (RIM) - the makers of Blackberry - are also working on a full touch screen phone, codenamed 'Blackberry Thunder'।

Nokia first unveiled the touch screen S60 interface last October।

'The new software would allow licensees to develop devices with a variety of input methods, such as touch screen with traditional keypad, QWERTY keyboard, or standalone touch screen, supporting both finger or stylus optimised input,' a Nokia statement had then stated।

Mobile phone maker Symbian Ltd, in which Nokia held a majority stake till a few months ago, has developed the S60 platform।

The Finnish giant announced the acquisition of the remaining 52 percent stake in Symbian in June this year from Sony Ericsson, Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson, Panasonic and Siemens।

'With the acquisition of Symbian, we will be able to offer our customers more innovative products and the latest technology,' Kishore said।

On being asked about the Apple's OS X, the fastest growing mobile operating system, Kishore said: 'Symbian is the largest mobile phone software developer globally and it is up to our customers to decide how popular and accepted our software is।'

OS X recently displaced Microsoft Windows for mobiles as the number three mobile phone operating system after Symbian and Blackberry।

Google, which some time back announced the Open Handset Alliance (OHA), is also working on a mobile OS - Android, based on the Linux platform।

Kishore said the Nokia Music store, which the company launched last year, will be opened in India by the year-end।

'The music store is doing well in the UK and we hope the success will be matched when it is launched in India,' he said.

The show must go on!

Death is serious business। But in a society as self-obsessed as ours it often becomes a Woody Allen comedy. So last week, while the rest of the country was busy celebrating Independence Day, I was at a funeral.

As I walked into an apartment of wailing women and mourning men, it only took minutes for the entire façade to peel away and reveal the true emotions of those sitting around a dead man with cotton stuffed into his nostrils…

It all begins when a series of phone calls spoils the sleep of over two dozen relatives who are informed about the tragedy। “If only this had happened two days later,” thinks the dead man’s cousin. “I’ve guests at home today!” Elsewhere, the dead man’s estranged sister turns to her husband with a single drop of tear in her right eye. “Do I really have to come?” the husband asks. “Can’t I just show my face at the condolence meeting?” An hour later she is in designer mourning clothes but aghast to see her husband in a multi-coloured shirt. She snaps, “How many times have I told you to buy a white shirt for such occasions?”

As everyone sits around the dead body on display in the living room, there is an air of impatience as the mourners check their watch, fiddle with their phones and ask in hushed whispers: “Who are we waiting for?” Men are sitting in one corner and women in another, with the dead body sandwiched between the two genders। There are husbands trying to make eye contact with their wives on the other side in an effort to ask with a raised eyebrow: “What’s the delay?”

Soon news trickles that the hospital has goofed up with the paper work and the crematorium is refusing to proceed with the funeral unless someone tracks down the errant doctor and do the needful correction। “It’s going to take another hour,” text messages one of the wives to her husband who’s got two tickets for the noon show.

More text messages fly between the men and the women on either side of the dead body: “What do you want for dinner tonight?” another bored housewife texts her husband.

Official: 149 dead in Madrid plane crash

MADRID (AP): A Spanish airliner bound for the Canary Islands crashed and broke into pieces Wednesday while trying to take off from Madrid's Barajas airport, killing 149 people on board, officials said।

There were only 26 survivors in the mid-afternoon crash, a Spanish emergency official said।

A police officer said the bodies were so hot that police could barely touch them and told El Pais newspaper the shattered wreckage bore no resemblance to a plane।

Dozens of ambulances rushed to the site as columns of smoke billowed from the wreckage। The prime minister broke off his vacation in southern Spain and rushed back to Madrid, heading straight for the airport.

``I have never seen anything like this in my life,'' ambulance driver Luis Ferreras was quoted as saying by El Pais।

A Spanish emergency rescue official said only 26 people survived the crash and the rest of those aboard were given up for dead। The official with the SAMUR municipal rescue service gave the toll after touring the site of the crash. He spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of department rules that barred him from giving his name.

Spanair Flight JK5022 _ bound for Las Palmas during the height of Europe's summer vacation season _ sped off the end of the runway, crashed and broke into pieces, reports said।

Spanair spokesman Sergio Allard told a news conference the plane was carrying 175 people and the cause of the crash was not immediately known।

El Pais said the plane's takeoff had been an hour late because of technical problems। It eventually managed to get slightly off the ground but crashed near the end of the runway, El Pais said, quoting an employee of the national airport authority AENA.

Helicopters and fire trucks dumped water on the plane, which ended up in a wooded area at the end of the runway at Terminal 4।

A makeshift morgue was set up at the city's main convention center, officials said।

The plane was an Boeing MD-82 on a codeshare flight with Lufthansa's LH255, Spanair said। Departures from Madrid's airport were suspended for several hours but later resumed.

Boeing spokesman Jim Proulx said the company would send at least one person to assist in the investigation of the crash as soon as it receives an invitation from Spanish authorities।

``We stand ready to provide technical assistance,'' he said, reading from a prepared statement.

Police rope in students to prise out terrorists

Pune, August 19 20008 : In the backdrop of recent serial blasts in Bangalore and Ahmedabad, the Pune police's special branch has decided to rope in over 3 lakh students across 200 educational institutions in the city to tip them off on terrorism and related activities।

To ensure that the mission is successful, Pune Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh inaugurated Mission Mrutyunjay, at Yashwantrao Chavan Auditorium in Kothrud yesterday। More than 300 school and college principals participated।

Explaining the gravity of the situation, Singh said, "The terror elements often work in disguise। They change names and function as commoners. I appeal to the citizens that to immediately approach the police, if they come across any suspicious person or activity."

PMC Commissioner, Paravinsingh Pardeshi, and Divisional Commissioner Nitin Karir were also present।

Singh said, "Mrutyunjay will comprise 35-40 students in each group।"

He informed that each group would include the principal, PT and NCC instructors, while the Indian Army will impart basic training to the students। He said, "The Southern command chief will train the groups on how to handle emergency situations." Singh said, "There are 300 SIMI activists operating in the city. Kashmiri terrorists have also secured admissions in colleges at Bangalore and Naxalites in colleges at Nagpur."

Pune being an educational and IT hub, is home to thousands of foreign students, giving rise to drug trafficking and other anti-social activities. Singh said, "People should procure every detail of foreign students, before renting out flats to them."

Anil Ambani group launches direct-to-home TV service

Mumbai, August 19 20008 : Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group launched its direct-to-home (DTH) television broadcasting service here Tuesday under the 'Reliance Big TV' banner with a bouquet of 202 channels for customers across India।

The service, starting Rs.1,490, which includes a three-month subscription, will be available from some 100,000 outlets in 6,500 towns in the country. The group has also set up a customer service cell that can handle over 50,000 calls a day.

'With the launch of Big TV DTH, we aim to accelerate the growth momentum and enhance the value of many million shareholders of Reliance Communications,' chairman Anil Ambani said।

'The huge potential of a quality and value-offering in the home entertainment service market offers us a unique opportunity to tap the strengths and synergies of telecom and entertainment sectors embedded within Reliance ADA Group।'

Some of its competitors include Dish TV, TataSky and Sun Direct TV.