To a question on whether the issues NCP had with Congress had been settled, Pawar said his party wanted allies to have a say in parliamentary committees and other appointments. "Congress, being the single largest party, will get substantial representation, but allies too should be considered. Tariq Anwar and Praful Patel will hold talks in this matter with the Congress leaders," he added.

In Mumbai, NCP wanted better co-ordination among ministries and wanted no delay in clearance of pending files. Similarly, NCP view should be taken into consideration in appointments of IAS and IPS officers, he added.

"We have identified a Fly-By-Wire problem with the aircraft. It is a design issue and we have taken it up with the designing agency," he told reporters on the sidelines of a function held to mark Golden Jubilee celebrations of Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC) here. 

Referring to the December 13, 2011 crash of a Sukhoi-30 MKI fighter aircraft near here, the Air Chief said that more checks were being implemented to ensure that such incidents do not happen again.

On opening the parcel, he found the bombs attached to a battery and informed police. The bombs were "sophisticated", police said, adding, bomb squad personnel defused them. A top police official said Umar had many enemies in other terror outfits. He is being questioned to trace the boy's identity, police sources said. 

According to 'The Age', the 27-year-old youth hailing from Box Hill, on the condition of anonymity, said he was confronted by three men and two women on July 8 evening while walking back from work with a friend.   

The victim, who did not want to disclose his nationality, said the attackers swore and racially abused the pair before surrounding them. The accounting student has been living in Australia for three-and-a-half years.   

He said the group had pointed at him and his friend while they were in a 7/11 store moments before the attack.

The court said Major (Retd) Lalit Balhara and his second wife Preeti Balhara are "highly educated and knew the distinction between right and wrong, lawful and unlawful" and yet they "systematically and with meticulously" continued with the crime. 

While sentencing them, Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Virender Bhat rejected their plea for leniency for release on grounds of probation. "In my opinion, aggravating factors noted herein above far outweigh the mitigating factors put forward by the counsel for the convicts. 

The convicts do not deserve to be released on probation nor are they entitled to any kind of leniency or elemency. They deserve a harsh punishment," the judge said. "The convicts did not commit crime on the spur of moment but continued doing so systematically and with meticulous planning. Dangerous injuries, both physical as well neurodevelopemental, were suffered by the victim and the injuries required extensive treatment.

The health department was working in 303 relief camps in the four affected districts and so far blood tests of 8102 refugees have been conducted with over hundred of them testing positive for malaria, Sarma told reporters here. Altogether 117 doctors, including 30 deputed by the central government, have so far treated 93,789 patients in the camps with 47 cases referred to hospitals, he said. 

The doctors treated 14,944 patients for diarrhoea, 3,374 for dysentery, 23,088 fever, 22 for injury not related to riots and 35,982 for various other reasons. There were 4828 pregnant women and 8,076 children in the camps, Sarma said. The department was taking all measures to ensure that an epidemic did not break out in the camps.

"We are concentrating on providing hygienic conditions in the camps," he added. 

Sudan and South Sudan have hammered out a deal on how to share their oil wealth, one of a series of disputes that brought the rivals to the brink of all-out war earlier this year.

"The parties have agreed on all of the financial arrangements regarding oil, so that's done," African Union mediator Thabo Mbeki said early today after talks in the Ethiopian capital.

The two countries had faced an August 2 deadline set by the United Nations to resolve their differences on oil and borders, and Mbeki said they would meet next month to try to find a compromise on the disputed region of Abyei.

Mbeki said a timetable would now be drawn up for the resumption of oil production and exports, which are vital to the economies of both deeply impoverished countries. 

"What will remain, given that there is an agreement, is to then discuss the next steps as to when the oil companies should be asked to prepare for resumption of production and export," he said.

Three large Russian warships, carrying over 260 marines, are heading for the Syrian port of Tartus, a day after UN Envoy to Syria Kofi Annan quit his role as mediator and called for Syrian President Basshar al-Assad to step down.

 

According to Gulf News, the move signalled a growing unease of Syrias staunchest ally, Russia, who believes that the Assad regime is sinking fast.

 

However, Russia has denied the claims, and the Russian Defence Ministry said that there were no plans for the vessels to dock in the war-torn country.

 

Violence has spiralled out of control in recent weeks as the Syrian army struggles to regain territory lost to the rebels, while protesters in Aleppo took to the streets yesterday, demanding the death of Assad, the report said.

 

Earlier, Russia's UN envoy Vitaly Churkin reportedly rejected a resolution passed by the UN General Assembly on Syria, calling it 'one-sided' and claimed that the draft showed "blatant support for the armed opposition"

Floods which hit parts of North Korea in recent weeks killed 169 people and left 400 missing, the state news agency said today, sharply updating earlier casualty figures.

Floods and heavy rain between late June and the end of July also made 212,200 people homeless and washed away or inundated 65,280 hectares (161,200 acres) of cropland, it said.

More than 8,600 houses were destroyed and another 43,770 swamped, and more than 1,400 schools, hospitals and factories collapsed, the agency said.

Official media had previously reported 119 deaths, with 84,000 people made homeless and 45,370 hectares of farmland damaged.

Ten people were killed and 53 are missing in flash floods in Uttarakhand. Cloud burst was also reported in three places - one in Chamoli district and two in Uttarkashi district.

Flash floods and landslides caused by torrential rains have flattened homes and left many pilgrims stranded in the state.

Water level of Bhagirathi and Ganga rivers is also on the rise. The Uttarakhand government has issued red alert in areas along Ganga.

The Garhwal region has been affected the most. Nearly 30 homes have been washed away in the floods after the Gangotri bridge collapsed. Three jawans of fire services were also killed in Gangotri following heavy rains.

Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna was monitoring the situation and has asked the concerned authorities to launch rescue and relief operation in the disaster-hit areas. Indo-Tibetan Broder Police (ITBP) and Army jawans have been called in for rescue operations. The Chardham Yatra has also been suspended in Uttarakhand.

The Indian Olympic Association has also came out in support of Boxer Vikas Krishnan, who was ousted from the Olympics after the International Boxing Association overturned the result of his pre-quarterfinal bout following a review, and condemned the decision of AIBA.

"IOA condemns this decision. This result should be strongly taken up by the Indian contingent and unitedly protested and reviewed," IOA vice-President Tarlochan Singh said.

"There are four different judges and they make their separate decisions. It is baffling why did none of them objected to this. Four people have given verdicts and it is wrong for USA to appeal after the decision has been given," he added.

Vikas' father Krishan Kumar said: "It is totally wrong. I had a word with him after he was declared a winner and then we went to sleep. It is only in the morning that we saw that the decision has been overturned.

"The officials of the Indian team they should protest against this decision and he should be reinstated. If this is not protested, it will affect the moral of the boxers. I also want to request Sports Minister Ajay Maken to take it up with USA and help it to be overturned," he added.

The World Food Programme has said it is sending a first shipment of emergency food aid to flood-hit areas of North Korea, where torrential rain has killed scores of people and inundated cropland. 

The assistance will provide victims with an initial ration of 400 grams (14 ounces) of maize a day for 14 days, the UN body said in a statement posted on its website.

It said a UN mission that travelled to flood-hit regions earlier in the week found considerable damage to maize, soybean and rice fields. 

The country struggles to feed its people even in normal times and suffered a famine in the 1990s that killed hundreds of thousands. The UN mission said immediate food aid was needed for residents of the worst-hit counties, Anju and Songchon in South Pyongan province and Chonnae in Kangwon province. It also stressed that tens of thousands of families urgently need clean drinking water to prevent disease.

Beleaguered UK security firm G4S is facing further embarrassment after it emerged that one of its guards had been charged with making a bomb threat at an Olympic venue.

 

Police at the ExCel Centre held Thomas Hall last month after allegedly putting up a message about a bomb a week before the Olympics opening ceremony.

 

The student was arrested on July 20 on suspicion of communicating a bomb hoax and criminal damage at the Olympic venue, which is hosting boxing, fencing, judo, taekwondo, table tennis, weightlifting, and wrestling events.

 

Hall, who comes from Norwich, was recruited to work for G4S by Bridging the Gap, a scheme to recruit 3,300 students as part of the security workforce, was later remanded into custody after being charged by police.

 

Hall will appear before Thames Magistrates Court later this month.

 

"Thomas Hall, 20, from Norwich, appeared in custody at Thames Magistrates Court on Monday 23 July charged with communicating a bomb hoax contrary to Section 51 of the Criminal Law Act 1977," The Daily Mail quoted a Metropolitan Police spokesman, as saying.

A Pakistani military court has reportedly convicted five senior officers over links with a banned group.

 

The organisation they were linked with has not been revealed, but the officials have in the past identified it as Hizb ut-Tahrir, a British-based Islamic group.

 

According to the BBC, the most senior of the five, Brig Ali Khan, was handed a five-year prison sentence.

 

The others received sentences of 18 months to three years, the report said.

 

Brig Khan was arrested following the killing of Osama Bin Laden in a CIA raid in Pakistan last year.

 

He was initially charged with conspiring to overthrow the civilian government, but some charges were later dropped.

Stunned by Vikas Krishan's ouster from the Olympic Games following a reversal of decision by the International Boxing Association, Indian Chef-de-Mission P K Muralidharan Raja has said the country's contingent will not take AIBA's decision lying down even though it has "limited options" in the matter.

In a stunning reversal of fortunes, Vikas (69kg) was ousted after AIBA overturned the result of his pre-quarterfinal bout, that he had won, following a review. 

The 20-year-old had won 13-11 over Errol Spence in a thrilling contest last night but following an appeal by his rival's team management, the AIBA awarded the bout 15-13 to the American citing the fouls committee by the Indian which were not noticed by the referee.

Raja, also the Indian Boxing Federation's Secretary General, said the team will not accept the decision. 

"I will be meeting the Indian boxing team at 10:00 am (2:30pm IST) and then we will decide the future course of action," Raja told PTI.

"The decision has been overturned but it's not as if we cannot do anything about it," he insisted.

The UN General Assembly has overwhelmingly adopted a Saudi-drafted resolution on Syria that denounced the escalating violence in the country and demanded a political transition, a voting in which India was among 31 nations that abstained.

The symbolic UN General Assembly resolution, which expressed "grave concern" at the escalating violence in Syria, got 133 votes in favour in the 193-member body on Friday.

India abstained from voting after the Saudi-drafted text referred to calls for President Bashar Al Assad to step down and asked UN states to severe diplomatic relations with the troubled nation. 

The resolution, which is not legally binding and is of a moral nature, also demanded that the country lockdown its chemical and biological weapons.

In his explanation of vote on the resolution, India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Hardeep Singh Puri said the resolution makes specific reference to the July 22 resolution of the League of Arab States which "openly called for President Assad to step down from power and for other UN members to severe diplomatic relations and contacts with Syria." 

He said while India does not hold any brief for any particular Syrian leader, it could not welcome the League's resolution.

Jaafari, whose daughter is said to have advised President Bashar al-Assad on handling the western media, has become the international face of the Syrian government as it faces mounting international condemnation over the country's bloody conflict.

The report provided to The Associated Press on Friday reveals new details about the conduct of servicemen during the prostitution scandal that engulfed both military and Secret Service personnel who guard the president. Nine servicemen have been punished so far.

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