Army chief has lost mental balance: Tejinder Singh

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Sat, 26 May 2012

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23:43 Army chief has lost mental balance: Tejinder Singh

Reacting to General V K Singh's assertion in an interview to CNN-IBN that he was offered a bribe in the Tatra-BEML deal, Lt General (retd) Tejinder Singh hit back, saying that the Army chief had lost his mental balance. "No offer of bribe was made. Why did the Army chief not make a complaint to the police?" Lt Gen Tejinder Singh asked.

He added, "When bribe is offered, it's the bounden duty of any public servant to report the matter to the police under section 39 of the CrPC. Gen VK Singh cannot abdicate his responsibility and if that happens, the buck will stop at the Prime Minister. No offer of a bribe was made to Gen VK Singh. These allegations are being made to serve Gen Singh's vested interests and the facts will come out during the course of the trial."

General VK Singh had even gone to the extent of calling Lt Gen Tejinder Singh a man with a devious mind.

23:27 India boy cracks 350-yr-old Newton puzzles

A 16-year-old Indian-origin 'genius' from Germany has managed to crack puzzles that had baffled the world of Maths for more than 350 years.

Shouryya Ray, from Dresden, has solved two fundamental particle dynamics theories which physicists have previously been able to calculate only by using powerful computers.

Shouryya has been hailed a genius after working out the problems set by Sir Isaac Newton. His solutions mean that scientists can now calculate the flight path of a thrown ball and then predict how it will hit and bounce off a wall, the Daily Mail reported.

External Affairs Minister S M Krishna writes to Team Anna member Arrvid Kejriwal, calls graft charges baseless. "I will file defamatory case against Kejriwal,' he said.

Team Anna today clubbed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee with 13 other Cabinet Ministers, whom they accused of corruption.

Besides Dr Singh and Mukherjee, the ministers against whom the Team Anna has demanded probe by an independent Special Investigation Team include P Chidambaram, Sharad Pawar, S M Krishna, Kamal Nath, S M Krishna, Praful Patel, Vilasrao Deshmukh, Virbhadra Singh, Kapil Sibal, Salman Khurshid, G K Vasan, Farooq Abdullah, M Alagiri and Sushil Kumar Shinde.

21:43 CBI seeks copy of army chief's TV interview

The Central Bureau of Investigation has sought from a TV news channel a copy of Army Chief Gen V K Singh's interview in connection with its probe regarding his allegations that he was offered a bribe of Rs 14 crore by a retired senior army officer.

CBI sources said they will analyse any additional information given by the Chief during the interview to Times Now channel.

The agency, which has registered a preliminary enquiry case in connection with the alleged bribe offer, is still looking for some "reliable" evidence to convert it into a regular FIR. CBI sources declined to disclose what information they were looking for in the media interview

Amidst the charge that he was trying to block the promotion of a Lieutenant General, to whom he has issued a show cause notice, Army Chief General VK Singh said that there was no vendetta against Lt Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag.

Speaking to CNN-IBN, General VK Singh said it was not right to discuss the notice in public. Gen Singh said, "It is morally unacceptable to publicise the notice. Why did the notice find its way into public?"

Gen Singh had issued the notice to the 3 Corps Commander, Lt Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag, on May 19 for a failed intelligence operation by the 3 Corps Intelligence and Surveillance Unit in Jorhat in Assam.

19:23 Jethmalani slams BJP in a letter to Gadkari

Rajya Sabha member of Parliament Ram Jethmalani on Bharatiya Janata Party ticket slammed the party on Saturday.

In a letter to party president Nitin Gadkari he, said, "I presume you are concerned about the sickness of our party which registers no response to even greater sickness of the ruling party (the Congress). The nation is not wrong in thinking there are skeletons in BJP's cupboard."

"Nation wants feverish action. What does it get instead? Tongue-tied leaders busy pulling down one another and creating unmistakable impression that they are suffering from inexplicable inertia and paralysis," Jethmalani says in the letter.

Jethmalani skipped the two-day BJP national executive, which was held in Mumbai. The letter was written a day before the BJP meet began.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday lead a protest march in Kolkata against steep hike in price of petrol. She is marching from her Assembly constituency of Jadavpur to Hazra in south Kolkata.

Her close aide and Union Railway Minister Mukul Roy did his bit on Thursday, participating in a Trinamool Congress protest in the city.

Banerjee vocally protested when the hike of Rs. 6.28 plus taxes was announced on Wednesday. "We cannot accept the petrol price hike," she said.

The government, she added, should not have allowed such an economic situation to come.

17:53 If Obama can become prez, I can too: Sangma

Former Lok Sabha Speaker P A Sangma, who is considered an underdog in the Presidential race, today pinned his hopes on the "big number of hidden votes".

"We have (the case of) Barack Obama...Nobody thought a black man would ever occupy the White House. If a black man can become the President of America, why can't an Adivasi become the President of India," said the NCP leader, whose party has refused to back him for the Presidential race.

Interacting with the members of the Indian Women's Press Corp, Sangma said he "hopes" that a consensus would evolve on his candidature as "neither the UPA nor the NDA has numbers ... Besides there are a big number of hidden votes, you never know."

17:51 DMK faction wants to pull ministers out of UPA

From a correspondent in Delhi: One section of the DMK wants to pull out its Union ministers from the UPA Cabinet. The internal family fight in the party led by M Karunanidhi is at its peak right now.

16:13 Pak may import diesel, furnace oil from India

The Pakistan government is considering a proposal to meet its needs for diesel and furnace oil from India as imports from the neighbouring country will cost 30 per cent less than those from Gulf countries, a media report said today.

"We are in deficit and will take up the issue of diesel and furnace oil import with an Indian team scheduled to meet with us in Islamabad on Monday," Petroleum Minister Asim Hussain told The Express Tribune.

Hussain said Pakistan is a major importer of diesel and furnace oil and the two products could be purchased from India at cheaper rates.

"We are interested in fulfilling our total requirements of diesel and furnace oil through imports from India," he said.

16:12 SRK pleads guilty in smoking case

Pleading guilty, actor Shahrukh Khan today sought exemption from personal appearance in a Jaipur court in a case related to smoking in public at a local stadium during an IPL match and expressed his willingness to pay fine.

Khan, co-owner of Kolkata Knight Riders, was summoned by the court of the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate on a complaint that he was seen smoking on April 8 during a match between his team and Rajasthan Royals.

Khan's counsel V R Bajva represented him in the ACJM court and pleaded guilty on his behalf.

He said the matter was a "petty affair" and moved an application seeking exemption from personal presence of his client in the case, but the same was objected to by the counsel of the petitioner.

After hearing both the sides, Magistrate Shilpa Sameer posted the matter for June 21. Khan is not required to remain present for the next hearing.

The two infants, Abhigyan and Aishwaya, brought to Burdwan, West Bengal from Norway after a prolonged custody battle, are again in the midst of a row with their mother and paternal grandfather lodging complaints against each other with the police.

Demanding security, Ajay Bhattacharya, the paternal grandfather of the children, lodged a FIR with the Kulti police station in Burdwan district on Friday, alleging that the mother Sagarika Bhattacharya barged into their house with outsiders and threatened them.

Sagarika had earlier lodged a FIR against Ajay Bhattacharya, her father-in-law, on Thursday at the same police station alleging that she was prevented from meeting her children.

The national executive meeting of the BJP, held in Mumbai, has made it amply clear that no important decisions can be taken in the party by sidelining Narendra Modi, Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray said today.

"Modi's consent had to be obtained to pave way for Nitin Gadkari's second term as BJP chief and for that, Sanjay Joshi had to be made the sacrificial lamb," Thackeray said.

"The BJP had to accept Modi's condition that Joshi had to be shown the door if it wanted the Gujarat chief minister to attend the meeting," the Sena chief said.

So far, the only claimant in BJP for the prime minister's post was senior leader L K Advani, Thackeray said.

"In the new script, several new heroes have stepped forward from the wing. Media says that besides Advani, the list now includes Gadkari, Modi, Sushma Swaraj and ArunJaitley," he said.

Voicing alarm over the high level of violence and bombings in Syria, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has said that "established terrorist groups" are suspected in many deadly attacks in the country, where the overall situation remains "extremely serious".

Ban briefed the 15-nation UN Security Council about the over year-long crisis in Syria in his periodic report as mandated by a UNSC resolution.

Expressing concern over the increase in the number of bombings in Syria, particularly in the cities of Damascus, Hama, Aleppo, Idlib and Deir al-Zor, the UN chief said, "Thesophistication and size of the bombs point to a high level of expertise, which may indicate the involvement of established terrorist groups."

Rohit Shekhar, who has claims that he is the biological son of Congress leader N D Tiwari, and his mother Ujjawala Sharma gave blood samples in the Delhi high court for the paternity case.

Tiwari, 86, was on Thursday directed by the Supreme Court to give his blood sample for the paternity suit.

12:47 Surface-to-air Akash missile test fired

Two days after its successful trial, India today again test-fired the indigenously developed surface-to-air Akash missile from the test range at Chandipur near Balasore.

"The user specific trial, which formed part of the country's routine air defence exercises, was conducted from the ITR," said a Defence Research Development Organisation official associated with the Akash missile project.

To re-validate the technology and operational efficacy of the anti-aircraft missile, defence forces conducted the trial with logistic support provided by the ITR.

12:28 Dimple Yadav to contest Kannauj LS by-poll

Dimple Yadav, wife of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, will contest the Kannauj Lok Sabha by-election as a Samajwadi Party candidate.

"As per the wish of the party workers, the central parliamentary board of the party has decided that Dimple Yadav will contest the by-election for Kannauj seat," SP national general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav told reporters.

Akhilesh Yadav had contested from the Firozabad and Kannauj seat in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls and won from both places. He subsequently gave up the Firozabad seat to retain Kannauj.

Dimple had contested the Firozabad by-election in 2009, but lost to Congress candidate Raj Babbar.

12:27 Finally, some good news for Jagan!

Vicky Nanjappa reports: Eleven MLAs from the Congress and the Telugu Desam Party have expressed their willingness to quit their respective parties and join Jagan Mohan Reddy's YSR Congress, say sources close to the leader.

On Friday, Congress MLA A Nani had openly supported YSR Congress chief Jagan.Today, Congress leader Ranga Rao from Bobili constituency announced his decision to quit the Congress and join Jagan.

He is likely to formally join the YSR Congress by Saturday evening.

The Indian Embassy in Washington has sought details from the United States government on the issue of deportation of the Indian-American orphan Kairi Abha Shepherd, saying her case deserves to be treated with utmost sensitivity and compassion.

"Her case deserves to be treated with the utmost sensitivity and compassion, keeping in mind the humanitarian dimension and tenets of universally accepted human rights," Indian Embassy spokesman Virander Paul said in a statement.

"The Embassy has seen reports concerning Kairi Shepherd, and has requested the US authorities for facts on this matter," the spokesman said referring to the media reports appearing in both India and the US.

Shepherd, 30, faces prospect of being deported to India from the United States, where she has lived after she was adopted by an Utah woman when she was just three months old.

Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund has urged Greeks to pay their taxes, saying she is more concerned about sub-Saharan Africans in poverty than Greeks hit by the economic crisis.

Lagarde told the Guardian newspaper in an interview published online on Friday, "As far as Athens is concerned, I also think about all those people who are trying to escape tax all the time. All these people in Greece who are trying to escape tax."

The IMF managing director said Greeks should "help themselves collectively" by "all paying their tax", adding that she thought "equally" about those deprived of public services by the crisis and those involved in tax avoidance.

Caught in a fifth straight year of recession, Greece is struggling to apply a tough austerity overhaul in return for EU-IMF loans, but has already made drastic cuts to public services.

Hitting out at FIFA's medical advisers, Prince Ali of Jordan said he was disturbed by their tests which could prevent Muslim women football players from wearing headscarves to respect their cultural tradition.

The FIFA board member said he was "quite shocked" to hear its medical advisers describe two scarf designs as a danger to health.

"I'm usually not very emotional but I was very disturbed by the comment," said Prince Ali, who has pushed efforts to reverse a FIFA ban on headscarves imposed for safety reasons in 2007.

Prince Ali won praise from FIFA's rules-making body after presenting his case in March. The panel, known as IFAB, said it intended to approve the scarves for use but asked for a final medical opinion ahead of a scheduled July 5 meeting in Zurich.

However, FIFA's medical committee chairman Michel D'Hooghe said on Thursday that female players wearing the scarves could sustain head and neck injuries, or overheat.

02:12 US: FBI agents battle gunman with 15 hostages

Police and FBI agents in the midwestern US state of Indiana have surrounded a building where a gunman has taken hostages, fired shots and refused to surrender, officials and media reports said.

The standoff started at 10:05 am (1505 GMT) in the city of Valparaiso, in the northwest of the state, when a man was seen entering a real estate office with a gun. Reports said he was holding as many as 15 hostages.

The Valparaiso Police Department said there was a brief exchange of gunfire between armed officers and the gunman, but they did not believe anyone had been wounded.

"The gunman is still inside the building with employees from the business," the department said in a statement.

"Numerous individuals from inside the building have been released. At this time police do not believe anybody inside the building has been injured."

B-town celebrities were in full attendance at the 40th birthday party of filmmaker Karan Johar.

Ace fashion designer Manish Malhotra, who had organised the birthday party, was present at the Taj Lands End hotel since morning.

Birthday boy Karan Johar made a splashing entry in a black suit, white shirt, with shimmery bow, teamed up with a white rose in his pocket.

Those who attended the birthday party included Shahrukh Khan with wife Gauri, Priyanka Chopra, Hrithik Roshan with wife Suzzane, Anil Kapoor, sisters Kareena and Karisma Kapoor.

Rani Mukherjee, Vidya Balan with beau Siddharth Roy Kapoor, Yash Chopra, jaya bachchan, Sanjay Dutt with wife Manyata, Aamir Khan with wife Kiran, sisters Kajol and Tanisha, Akshay Kumar, Anil Ambani with wife Tina, Shabana Azmi, Juhi Chawla, Bipasha Basu, Sonakshi Sinha, Kangana Ranuat, Asin also attended the bash.

Naris Fakhri, Maliaka Arora Khan and Amrita Arora, Imran Khan, Ashutosh Gowarikar, Anushka Sharma,Dia Mirza, Neetu Singh with husband Rishi Kapoor, real life couple Soha Ali Khan and Kunal Khemu, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Raveena Tandon, Sonali Bendre, Farhan Akhtar were among others.

More than 70 people were killed across Syria, monitors said, as tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets and tanks were deployed in the country's second largest city.

The latest flare-up of violence came as Kofi Annan, the UN-Arab League envoy to Syria who brokered a repeatedly-violated ceasefire last month, finalised plans to return to Damascus.

Diplomats in Geneva said the former UN secretary general would visit the Syrian capital early next week.

More than 50 civilians, including 13 children, were killed in army shelling of Houla, a town in the central province of Homs, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

00:51 Pak SC sacks senior PPP leader from parliament

Pakistan Supreme Court has suspended senior Pakistan People's Party leader Farahnaz Ispahani's membership of parliament on the ground that she possesses dual Pakistani and American citizenship and barred her from attending parliamentary sessions.

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry issued the order suspending Ispahani's membership of the National Assembly or lower house of parliament while hearing a petition challenging the dual nationality of several lawmakers, including Interior Minister Rehman Malik.

The bench said Ispahani's suspension would be valid till it gives its final order in the case.

The bench observed that Ispahani's reply stated that she was naturally born citizen of Pakistan and also possessed US citizenship by virtue of the permission granted by the Citizenship Act of 1951 and the Constitution of Pakistan.

00:46 Top headlines this hour:

IPL: Vijay hits fastest ton as Chennai thrash Delhi to enter final

Petrol price: Govt to wait and watch before any rollback

UP officials scan for a slum to be shown to Bill Gates

Advani, Sushma skip BJP rally in Mumbai

Thackeray to Congress: 'Sasti daaru mehenga tel'

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