Saturday, August 22, 2009

Afghan polling 'marked by fraud'

A
leading group of election observers say there was widespread voting fraud and intimidation during Thursday's presidential election in Afghanitan.

Stuffed ballot boxes, illiterate voters being told who to vote for and biased officials were cited by Afghanistan's Free and Fair Election Foundation.

However EU monitors said that despite widespread intimidation and violence, the vote was generally good and fair.

There have been rival claims of victory but no winner has been announced.

The chief EU observer said it was still early days in assessing the election.


The Free and Fair Election Foundation's provisional report also details accounts of multiple voting, underage voting and election officials being ejected from polling stations by representatives of candidates
The group said militants had sliced a finger off two voters in southern Kandahar province.

"Our observers saw two voters whose fingers, with the ink [a fraud prevention measure], was cut off in Kandahar. This was on election day," the foundation's chairman Nader Nadery was quoted as saying.

Threats of violence against voters came from local powerbrokers, the Taliban and rival political camps according to the foundation, which sent about 7,000 observers around the country.

Election officials have estimated turnout at between 40 and 50% which, if confirmed, would be well down on the 70% who voted in the first presidential election, in 2004.

Thursday's voting passed off relatively peacefully amid threats of Taliban attacks. The EU election observer mission said the election was well organised and was a victory for the Afghan people.

As official returns are collated, the leading contenders have said they will not incite street protests if they lose.

The incumbent Hamid Karzai and his main rival Abdullah Abdullah gave the assurance to the US special envoy to the region, Richard Holbrooke.

Both men have claimed victory. Pre-election opinion polls suggested Hamid Karzai was leading the field of candidates but might face a run-off with Mr Abdullah.

Partial, preliminary results are expected on Tuesday and final results are due to be released in September.

If neither candidate wins an outright majority of 50%, then the vote goes to a second round in October.

One of the other 31 contenders and the deputy speaker of the lower house of parliament, Mirwais Yassini, told the BBC he believes both main camps practised widespread electoral fraud.

He has lodged 31 complaints with Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission (IEC).

BJP says Jaswant is lying; but will he 'reveal' more?

A
day after Jaswant Singh said he had withheld the truth on Kandahar to protect Advani, and that Advani knew he was on the plane to Kandahar the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) reacted.

Party general secretary Venkaiah Naidu questioned how anyone could believe what Jaswant is saying now on the issue, when he has himself admitted he did not tell the whole truth earlier.

"These are issues of the past. Mr Jaswant Singh himself told yesterday he did not speak truth then, so how can we rely on his statements now?" said Naidu.

The BJP has slammed Jaswant's remarks against Advani as nothing more than a lie.

In an interview to NDTV, Jaswant said he had withheld the complete truth about the Kandahar hijacking episode, and that Advani, who was the Home Minister then, knew Jaswant was accompanying the three terrorists to Kandahar.

Barkha Dutt: You're today saying that L K Advani knew that you were going to go?

Jaswant Singh: Yes, I went and told him what do you want me to now say Advaniji?

Barkha Dutt: So what did he say?

Jaswant Singh: He said you should say whatever you want to. I didn't.

Barkha Dutt: but then during the election campaign, you didn't actually reveal this.

Jaswant Singh: No I didn't. I tried to cover for him. I treated it as my continuing sense of commitment and loyalty.

Barkha Dutt: This is a serious thing you're saying that you tried to cover for L K Advani on the Kandahar issue.

Jaswant Singh: I did, I did.

That's not all. In another interview to NDTV, Jaswant said that during the Gujarat riots, the then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was so upset that he even contemplated resignation.

"I didn't know what had happened, but as I was summoned, I went and I was told to take care as he was resigning. I went in, he pulled a piece of paper and started writing with his hand. I held his hand, he looked at me severely. Questioned what I was doing and I asked him not to do what he was doing. Somehow I persuaded him," said Jaswant.

But the BJP now claims that's not true, though it admits Vajpayee was very disturbed during the Gujarat riots.

"I was BJP president at that time. Vajpayee was very disturbed but did not contemplate resignation," said Naidu.

The BJP may be dismissing Jaswant's latest remarks, but the Congress says it's shocking.

"It's an absolutely shocking revelation that has been made by Mr Jaswant Singh. A lot of extremely unsavoury and unpleasant details are coming out that are being washed by the BJP in public," said Congress leader Jayanthi Natarajan.

But the question that many are asking is - does Jaswant Singh have more to reveal in the days to come?

Tiger cage row: CZA gives clean chit to minister

T
he Central Zoo Authority (CZA) has given clean chit to Maharashtra agriculture minister Balasaheb Thorat, who was accused of breaking wildlife rules and entering a tiger's cage at the Maharajbagh Zoo at Nagpur.

The CZA had rejected the report by the Nagpur Zoo giving the minister a clean chit and had decided to probe the matter itself.

According to sources, veterinary doctor S S Bawaskar in his report had said that "There was no violation of rules involved in the case as there was no teasing".

"Agriculture Minister Balasaheb Thorat had gone inside the zoo in his capacity as the pro-chancellor of the Agriculture University which is running the zoo," the report said.

After the incident was reported, Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh had said that action will be taken against the Minister depending on the report to be submitted by CZA. So, Saturday's decision has come as a relief for Thorat.

Thorat was filmed last week stroking a tiger cub in the zoo as his armed security guards and the city Congress president Jaiprakash Gupta looked on.

According to provisions of Wildlife Protection Act, only zoo personnel are authorised to enter animal enclosures. Any person who puts a protected animal in jeopardy can be given a maximum imprisonment of seven years.

Blood racket busted in Lucknow, 6 held

S
ix people were arrested after a fake blood racket was busted by the Lucknow police on Saturday. The police suspect that blood from animals could have been mixed with human blood.

The packets of blood were never tested for HIV and could be adulterated. The gang was supplying these packets for the last one year to the entire city.

Those desperate for blood were charged Rs 1400 for every unit. And what's worrying is that this blood has been sold to more than one lakh people in the city.

About 80 packets of blood and plasma were recovered by the police. These packets have also been stamped by the seal of the medical college, raising suspicions that even doctors could be involved in this racket.

"We have been doing this business since 2005," said Deepak Pandey, one of the accused.

"The fact that some white collar people are involved in the misdeed. We are investigating," said Paresh Pandey, SP City.

The police have sent these samples for testing to verify if the blood is indeed adulterated. But what's perhaps most worrying is that much of it is still available in the markets waiting to be bought.

New terminal at Delhi airport washed away

The departure lounge of what is supposed to be Delhi's pride, the domestic airport's new terminal 1D, washed away after just one hour of heavy rain on Friday. This led to chaos and delays.

Just a month ago, this was the condition of the same departure lounge after a downpour.

Obviously no lessons learnt after last month's deluge. And 12 hours after Friday's deluge work is still on to repair the damage.

This has raised questions about Rs 500 crore Delhi Airport Modernisation project, which was handed over to Delhi International Airport Limited -- a joint venture between GMR and Frankfurt Airport. But the consortium maintains that rain was accompanied by winds that were too strong.

The government, however, is not buying this argument. They say the new modernised airport was built to weather even earthquakes and cyclones and have now threatened action.

NDTV has learnt that the government is angry since this is the second such incident in a month. A recurrence of what happened last month means that the problem was never really fixed. Though the government did not ask for an explanation then, there are fears that the new terminals may have been opened for use in a hurry.

"Changes are all cosmetic. My worry is that on the old building they've just put up glass and made it fancier. That doesn't make it strong," said a passenger.

With an eye on the Commonwealth Games next year many new services have been introduced here. But more than fancy umbrellas, what the airport urgently needs is an all weather terminal.

HINI virus: 3 more die, death toll crosses 50 mark

N
ew Delhi, Aug 22 (PTI) Three more persons, including one in worst-hit Pune, succumbed to the swine flu today, pushing the country-wide fatalities from the HINI pandemic to 51.

A death each occurred in Pune, Tamil Nadu and Goa with four more testing positive for the virus in Assam even as close to 2,600 patients were undergoing treatment across the country.

With a 60-year-old man succumbing to the disease in Pune in Maharashtra, the city recorded its 20th swine flu death.

All educational institutions in Pune, which reported its first fatality on August three, had been shut for the past one week to prevent the spread of the infection.

The flu claimed its third victim in Tamil Nadu when a 45-year-old man died at the government hospital in Chennai.

Union Home Secretary takes stock of Manipur situation

Union Home Secretary GK Pillai, accompanied by joint secretary in charge of the northeast Navin Verma arrived in Imphal today to review the law and order situation of Manipur. Union Home Secretary GK Pillai, along with the Joint Secretary, northeast Nabin Verma arrived in Imphal on Friday morning. While speaking to NE TV, the Union Home Secretary said he is in Manipur to attend a developmental seminar to be held in Moirang in Bishnupur District. After this, he will call on the chief minister and review the law and order situation in the State. Lately, there has been a beeline of Central officials visiting Manipur. While a DoNER team led by its Secretary, Jarnail Singh landed in Imphal yesterday and reviewed the Non Lapsable Central Pool Resource Projects undertaken in Manipur at the Old secretariat In Imphal, another central Planning team led by Deputy Advisor along with Union Joint Secretary of Agriculture Dillip Rath also came to Imphal to assess the drought situation in the State. Meanwhile, a low-intensity bomb exploded at the gate of Chamber of Commerce Hospital located in the busy Thangal Bazar in Imphal on Friday morning before the Union Home Secretary’s arrival.

NSCN-(IM) denies link with HuJI; asks Rio to "substantiate" claim

R
io’s statement has evoked strong reaction among the NSCN factions. NSCN-IM was quick to react and asked the Chief Minister to substantiate his allegations. Reacting to chief minister's allegation that there was strong possibility of Islamic extremists establishing "sleeper cells" in the State with the help of active NSCN (IM) members, the NSCN (IM) in a statement issued by its Joint Council of Steering Committee and Cabinet rejected charges of any link with Islamic terror outfits like the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami (HuJI) or with other criminal elements suspected to be having links with terrorist organizations. The statement demanded chief minister Neiphiu Rio to substantiate his allegations that the NSCN (IM) is "maintaining direct or indirect links with extremist groups such as Harkat-ul-Jehadi-Islami (HuJI) and other criminal elements suspected to be having links with terrorist organizations. Rio is answerable to the people/nation and NSCN, the authentic political organization of the Nagas," the statement said while terming Rio's statement as malicious and shocking to all the Nagas beyond imagination. NSCN will not allow anyone in any position to go scot free when he deliberately chooses to go headlong to defile the political image of NSCN; it said adding it has been observed that Mr. Rio has taken the path to take pot-shots against NSCN. And it is a big challenge to the Naga nation. NSCN feels that his nonsensical utterance is too outrageous to forbear with. On the influx of foreign nationals into Nagaland state, the NSCN (IM) said it is the work of politicians. It is the politicians who brought them from somewhere to make their vote bank in the elections. Naga people are aware that those foreigners brought along with them the seed of foreign culture and terrorism.

Rio reiterates presence of 'Muslim elements' within Naga groups

Raking up a controversy in the state by alleging NSCN-HuJI links and evoking strong reaction from the Naga outfit, Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphio Rio has gone ahead to reiterated the presence of Muslim elements in different Naga factions…something that NSCN-IM has vehemently denied and demanded Rio to substantiate his allegations. Speaking during the recent Chief Ministers’ Conference on Internal Security in New Delhi, Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio had raked up a fresh controversy in the state when he had stated that NSCN factions have links with jehadi outfits like Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami (HuJI) or with other criminal elements suspected to be having links with terrorist organizations. Speaking to NETV exclusively at Dimapur airport soon after his arrival from New Delhi Thursday evening, Neiphiu Rio defended himself saying the centre had reiterated the presence of Muslim elements in different Naga factions. Rio said there was nothing to hide about the facts and reports. Rio expressed grave concern over the changing demographic pattern of the state due to illegal Bangladeshi infiltration, arms smuggling and muslim elements working with the region's underground outfits. Defending his state against allegations by other states especially Assam that Nagas were creating problems, Rio also blamed several other militant organizations for the tension between states. Rio has claimed that despite all the internal and external security problems, his state has fared much better than neighbouring Assam and Manipur.

AGP shifts meeting venue to luxurious resort; leaders fall short of expectation of party workers

A
GP leaders have been sitting in a closed door extended steering committee meeting at luxurious Green Wood Resort in Khanapar in Guwahati from Thursday night. But there is no outcome. It seems they are now trying to avoid wrath of grassroot workers for which they shifted the meeting from Ambari headquarter to a luxurious hotel at Khanapara. Leaders of Asom Gana Parishad are now busy at luxurious Green Wood Resort located at Khanapara in the capital city. They are holding an extended steering committee from Thursday night. Do you think that they will resolve all problems of the state after coming out of this luxurious hotel? The people will not forget that these leaders have failed to bring fruits to the people in their 10 years regime. Now they have been sitting in opposition for the past eight years. it is believed that the leaders now took shelter at the luxurious resort to avoid the wrath of the people. They do not have the moral courage to face their grassroot workers also. The promises they have made to strengthen the party in the last eight years have not come into reality. The party has to suffer debacles after debackle in many elections, which clearly stated that the people have no confidence on the party. Once the party had been recognized as the pioneer of the younger generation. But there is nothing new with president Chandra Mohan Patowary’s promises. Leaders of the regional party noe turned into power hungry politicians. One after another has to leave the party leadership due to internecine rift among the leaders. Such politicians within the party has insulted the grassroot workers iof the party. The revamp of the party is now confined on meetings, seminars It is noticed that the party leaders never come up with people- oriented issues. Will the AGP be relevant for the younger generation tomorrow?

Bengal industrialists in race to praise Mamata

K
OLKATA - Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee, known for leading agitations against the Tata Group’s small car project in Singur and a special economic zone in Nandigram, was lavishly praised by West Bengal industrialists at a meeting here.

“We have confidence (that) under your leadership we can contribute meaningfully to India’s development,” RPG Enterprises vice-chairman Sanjiv Goenka said at an interaction here Friday.

“Congratulations for initiating path-breaking measures for modernising the railways with a human face,” was what Harshpati Singhania, president of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), had to say about the railways minister.

Singur and Nandigram, which saw Banerjee lead strident protests against land acquisition for industries, seemed like fairy tales as industrialists vied with one another to laud Banerjee. There was not a word about the widespread criticism earlier, that her agitations were scaring investors away from West Bengal.

“The meeting was outstanding. The industry is very positive about this meeting,” Sanjay Budhia, managing director of Patton International Ltd, said afterwards.

The sentiment was echoed by Sandipan Chakravortty, ex-deputy chairman of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Tata Ryerson Ltd managing director.

“There is a sea change in her attitude. Her body language, words everything has changed. She has rekindled the flame of industrialisation with lots of good words,” he said.

Banerjee said she would meet industry barons every three months.

Ramesh Maheswari, president and CEO of Texmaco LtdM said: “It was her first interaction after she became the railways minister and she has her agenda to shed the anti-industry image and she has succeeded in that.”

A year ago on Aug 19, 2008, Banerjee had met chamber captains on the Singur issue, but she had then made clear her pro-farmer and anti-land acquisition stand.

Following Banerjee’s party Trinamool Congress’ persistent anti-industry and pro-farmer stand, Tata Motors left Singur, 40 km from here, and relocated the small car project to Sanand in Gujarat.

Tamil Chini bhai bhai

Imagine 400 Chinese students in one Tamil Nadu University, all adapting to the local culture. A new age `Nalanda` in Vellore is attracting thousands of foreign students, mainly from China
.

Most of them are here to study Commerce and Computer Science. Says Dr G Viswanathan chancellor VIT: " We are signing an MoU with Indian IT majors that want to recruit Chinese graduates educated in India for their operations in China."

While the University has a separate mess serving authentic Chinese food cooked by a chef from Beijing and with ingredients imported from there. The campus witnesses a marriage of cultures. Some Chinese students have even become fans of Tamil superstar Rajinikanth!

VIT pro chancellor Sekar Viswanathan adds: "Students from rural areas in India get to interact with students from Beijing and Shangai. It was great to see Chinese students wearing dhoties and singing Pongalo Pongal. Some even rode a bullock cart!``

Huang Jiaqi, a Chinese student, says: "I love Indian food like dosas and rotis."

`` I would love to get a job in India. As for studying here, it`s great because software and engineering areas are very good here," says Sun Wei, another student.

Vellore district's mini China town is a direct result of the Sino-Indian technology and education alliance.

Mumbai TV actress arrested for abusing 10-year-old maid

M
umbai, Aug 22 (ANI): TV actress Urvashi Dhanorkar was arrested here today for physically abusing her 10-year-old maid.

She has been booked under the Juvenile Justice Act and the Child Labour Act.
The actress arrested after medical reports confirmed that Urvashi was responsible for physically abusing her domestic help.

The girl was brought from Amravati to Mumbai in pretext of adoption and education. She was brutally punched in her eye and was left with black and bruised marks, besides burns on her forearms.

When she was rescued by her neighbours last night, the girl''s eyes was closed due to severe injuries.

Urvashi will be produced before a court later today. (ANI)