north east online - north east india news: Sep 9, 2009

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

No breakthrough in Jet Airways management, pilot talks

M
umbai, Sep.9 (ANI): Senior Jet Airways officials on Wednesday said that talks with the striking pilots were still on and there was no breakthrough as yet.

A total of 186 flights -- 154 domestic and 32 international -- had been cancelled or affected throughout its network, the officials said, adding that 432 of the 760 pilots were on strike.

Airline chairman Naresh Goyal met Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Praful Patel and briefed him about the crisis. Goyal is likely to appeal to the Government to step in to resolve the crisis, though Patel refused to comment when asked what was being down to end the stalemate.

Reiterating that the striking pilots have caused huge inconvenience to traveling passengers, the Chief Operating Officer Captain Hameed Ali said Jet Airways was grateful that other airlines had stepped in with timely assistance. They also confirmed that they have set up a crisis management center to help passengers board flights to various destinations.

Their comments and apologies came as passengers were left stranded yet again for a second day in a row.

The Aviators'' Guild pilots have said they are standing firm on their demand to reinstate the sacked pilots and added that they are willing to sit across the table for talks - but will not dissolve the union.

The management is reportedly refusing to give into their demands. Sending out a strong message yesterday, Jet Airways sacked some more pilots for their coordinated sick-out following it up with 5 more sackings this morning.

However Girish Kaushik, President of Jet’s newly formed union of pilots said the management must reinstate the pilots that have been sacked.

“We have no demands. Just take the six people back – and they have now increased the number. We are helpless. This problem cannot be one sided. It takes two hands to clap. We have extended our hand. I expect the management to extend its hand and solve the problem,” he said on Wednesday.

Practically all Jet flight routes have being hurt today with cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and other metros also seeing some of the most cancellations.

Jet Airways Chief Naresh Goyal has said the airline is trying their best to make sure that passengers are put on alternative flights.

“We are willing to sit with them (pilots) and to follow certain guidelines and rules and not create inconvenience to customers and passengers,” Goyal told a private television channel.

Jet Airways yesterday suspended all its flights between the UAE and India after almost half of its pilots did not report for duties.

About 13,000 passengers were affected, the airline said. (ANI)

Production begins on China’s jumbo jet

H
ONG KONG - China’s largest domestically-produced jumbo jet made its international debut at Asia’s biggest air show in Hong Kong Tuesday.

The single-aisle C919 is a jetliner with up to 200 seats that could boost the country’s fledgling aviation industry to compete with Western rivals like Boeing Co. and Airbus SAS.

Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) designed the C919.

The plane is scheduled to take its maiden voyage in 2014 before being delivered to buyers in 2016, the China Daily quoted Wang Wenbin, an official of the COMAC, as saying.

Work on the prototype began last week, he said.

The project is a major first step by China toward the production of commercial planes, along with the research and technology capabilities for its fast-growing domestic market rather than relying on foreign companies. It would also pave the way for international expansion.

The C919 is designed for short- to medium-range hauls up to 5,555 km, and can seat as many as 200 depending on the configuration.

COMAC is currently in talks with major engine suppliers, including General Electric, Rolls Royce and United Technologies Corp’s Pratt and Whitney, a senior executive of the firm said at the Asian Aerospace International Expo and Congress in Hong Kong Tuesday. (ANI)

Flash floods immerse Istanbul highway; 14 reportedly killed; dozens stranded

I
STANBUL, Turkey — Flash floods gushed across an Istanbul arterial road on Wednesday, killing 14 people and stranding dozens in their vehicles, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported.

As waters rose more than a meter (3 feet) high in the city’s Ikitelli district, motorists climbed on roofs of their vehicles waiting to be rescued. The floods occurred in the early hours as people began making their way to work, washing over a main road linking the city to an industrial area, an airport and a highway to Greece.

Istanbul firefighters recovered seven bodies at a truck parking lot in Ikitelli, Anatolia reported, citing firefighters and other officials. Television footage showed trucks crushed against each other.

Seven other bodies were recovered outside a textiles factory in the nearby district of Halkali, Anatolia and other news reports said. Anatolia said the victims — all factory workers — were swept away by gushing waters as they left a van that had just brought them to work. NTV television showed seven bodies covered in white sheets, placed in a row.

There was no immediate official confirmation of the deaths, which would raise the overall toll in floods that have hit parts of northwestern Turkey since late Monday to at least 22.

The heavy rains caused two Istanbul streams to swell and overflow, also inundating dozens of homes and workplaces.

Rapid population growth — fueled by decades of emigration from Turkey’s impoverished rural regions — has meant that the metropolis of some 15 million has developed without adequate infrastructure and poor city planning.

“We are saddened by the loss of lives. There are still some people missing and we are searching for them,” said Procurement Minister Mustafa Demir. “There is huge damage to infrastructure.”

“We need to be more careful when designing infrastructure and cities,” he said.

Hikmet Cakmak, Istanbul’s deputy governor, described the scene at Ikitelli as a “disaster” and said four helicopters and eight boats were sent to help the stranded motorists.

Private Dogan news agency footage showed a man stranded atop an overturned van, then letting himself go in the water and swimming toward four men who catch him and help him out of the flood.

Television showed rescuers in an inflatable boat assisting another man stranded inside a van. A military helicopter lifted around 10 people from the top of a roof.

Authorities blocked off roads leading to the highway and people were being advised to avoid traveling in the area.

Waters receded in parts of Ikitelli later on Wednesday leaving a trail of mud.

Meteorologists said the rainfall that hit Istanbul’s Catalca suburb — where two people died on Tuesday — was the worst in 80 years. Six people were also swept away by floods in Saray, in Tekirdag province. Istanbul Gov. Muammer Guler said eight other people were missing.

More rains were forecast for northwestern Turkey on Thursday.

Seven Assam students suspended for ragging, assaulting teacher

G
UWAHATI: Seven students from colleges in Assam's Dibrugarh town have been suspended on charges of ragging and assaulting teachers, officials
said Wednesday.

The action has been taken against four postgraduate students of Dibrugarh University and three undergraduate students from the Assam Medical College in Dibrugarh.

The four students from Dibrugarh University were suspended for two semesters for allegedly assaulting some junior boarders of the hostel.

"The action was taken based on a complaint by some junior boarders that they were physically and mentally tortured by seniors at their hostel. A five-member committee formed to inquire into the incident found them guilty," Dibrugarh University Registrar Pradip Kumar Bhuyan said.

The Assam Medical College late Tuesday expelled three of its undergraduate students from the hostel for allegedly assaulting a teacher last week.

The incident took place outside the college campus around midnight on Sep 2.

"Apart from expelling the three students from the hostel, we have also debarred the students from attending classes for six months and imposed a fine of Rs.20, 000 each," principal and chief superintendent of the Assam Medical College T.R. Borbora said.

Last month, Dibrugarh University had expelled one postgraduate student and penalised eight more to varying degrees, including cash penalties.

The tough action was initiated following written complaints against the nine students to the vice chancellor by junior students alleging "mental torture" bordering on obscenity.

NYT reporter freed in raid; 1 Brit commando killed

K
ABUL -British commandos freed a New York Times reporter early Wednesday from Taliban captives who kidnapped him over the weekend in northern Afghanistan, but one of the commandos and a Times translator were killed in the rescue, officials said.
Reporter Stephen Farrell was taken hostage along with his translator in the northern province of Kunduz on Saturday. German commanders had ordered U.S. jets to drop bombs on two hijacked fuel tankers, causing a number of civilian casualties, and reporters traveled to the area to cover the story.
Two military officials told The Associated Press that one British commando died during the early morning raid. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the death had not been officially announced.
The Times reported that Farrell's Afghan translator, Sultan Munadi, also was killed.
Afghan officials over the weekend said about 70 people died when U.S. jets dropped two bombs on the tankers, igniting them in a massive explosion. There were reports that villagers who had come to collect fuel from the tankers were among the dead, and Farrell wanted to interview villagers.
The Times kept the kidnappings quiet out of concern for the men's safety, and other media outlets, including The Associated Press, did not report the abductions following a request from the Times.
A story posted on the Times' Web site quoted Farrell saying he had been "extracted" by a commando raid carried out by "a lot of soldiers" in a firefight.
Mohammad Sami Yowar, a spokesman for the Kunduz governor, said British Special Forces dropped down from helicopters early Wednesday onto the house where the two were being kept, and a gunbattle ensued.
A Taliban commander who was in the house was killed, along with the owner of the house and a woman who was inside, Yowar said. He said Sultan was killed in the midst of the firefight.
Farrell, a dual Irish-British citizen, told the Times that he saw Munadi step forward shouting "Journalist! Journalist!" but he then fell in a volley of bullets. Farrell said he did not know if the shots came from militants or the rescuing forces.
Moments later, Farrell said he heard British voices and shouted, "British hostage!" The British voices told him to come over. As he did, Mr. Farrell said he saw Mr. Munadi.
Munadi, in his early 30s, was employed by The New York Times starting in 2002, according to his colleagues. He left the company a few years later to work for a local radio station.
He left Afghanistan last year to study for a master's degree in Germany. He came back to Kabul last month for a holiday and to see his family, and agreed to accompany Farrell to Kunduz on a freelance basis. He was married and had two young sons.
U.S. military spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Christine Sidenstricker confirmed the operation by NATO and Afghan forces, but did not provide further details.
Farrell, 46, is a dual British-Irish national who joined the Times in 2007 in Baghdad. He has covered both the Afghan and Iraq conflicts for the paper. He told the paper that he was not hurt in the rescue operation.
Farrell was the second Times journalist to be kidnapped in Afghanistan in a year.
In June, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter David Rohde and his Afghan colleague Tahir Ludin escaped from their Taliban captors in northwestern Pakistan. They had been abducted Nov. 10 south of the Afghan capital of Kabul and were moved across the border.

Moblies, digital cameras to feature in new WPI list

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ew Delhi, Sep. 8 (ANI): Moblie phones and digital cameras are among the 300 new items, which would figure in the new Wholesale Price Index (WPI).

Over 30 items would be taken off the new inflation series, which is expected to be out by December.

"Existing series has many obsolete items. They will not figure in the new series. There will be 25-30 articles which you will not see in the new index we are compiling," an official said.

Most of the addition would be in the manufacturing products category and the primary items, which consist of food grains and milk, would remain unchanged, the official added.

There could be minor changes in the fuel, power light and lubricant group.

With the addition of new items, data reporting would be more representative and give a better picture of the price situation, he said.

The base year for the new index will be 2004-05 while the WPI is presently calculated on 1993-94 base.

The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), which brings out the inflation data, has started a trial run of the new index and data is being collected.

In the trail index, data for 1,100 items are being collected, which would be eventually consolidated to about 700 articles, the official said.

In the existing series, the weight of primary articles is 22.02 per cent while manufactured products contribute 63.75 per cent. The weight of fuel, power, light and lubricants in the index is about 14 per cent. (ANI)

Pak facing existential threat from western border, not India : Gates

W
ashington, Sep.9 (ANI): US Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said Pakistan has realized that the Taliban and other extremists based in the western tribal area of the country pose the real existential threat to it rather than India.

In an interview with a private television channel, Gates said Pakistan has acknowledged that the real threat to its existence come from the extremists based in the lawless tribal areas along the Afghan border and not from India.

“Pakistan faces a lot of problems right now. I think they have always thought of India as the existential threat to Pakistan, but I think they are beginning to understand that the extremists in the ungoverned spaces in their west have become an existential threat,” Gates said.

He said Washington wants Islamabad to take hard action against the Taliban and other extremist outfits having their base inside its territory.

Gates said the Obama Administration is ready to provide all help and encourage Pakistan to act sincerely against the banned outfits.

“Pakistan will be encouraged to take action in some of its ungoverned spaces in the western part of the country, where the Taliban and al-Qaida have taken sanctuary,” The News quoted Gates, as saying.

He highlighted that the situation in western Pakistan went out of hand due to withdrawal of the security forces from the region.

“Now, the Pakistanis are back in the fight. They have been an important source of support for us. Almost all of our supplies, about 80 percent of our dry cargo, moves through Pakistan to Afghanistan, and they have helped provide protection for the convoys,” Gates added. (ANI)

Army major, two militants killed in Poonch

J
ammu, Sep 9 (ANI): At least two militants and an army major were killed in an encounter on Wednesday when security personnel foiled an infiltration bid in Jammu and Kashmir''s in Poonch district.

According to sources, the incident occurred when troops observed movement of a group of armed terrorists along the LoC in Sonagali area of Mendhar sub-sector.

The militants opened fire on the troops and the army personnel retaliated in which the two infiltrators and the army officer were killed. (ANI)

Jet Airways deadlock continues, flights cancelled

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ew Delhi, Sep 9 (ANI): Jet Airways flights were cancelled for a second consecutive day on Wednesday following a row between the airline management and its pilots over the sacking of two of their senior colleagues.

The management has sacked five more pilots, bringing the total number of those fired to ten.
However, the striking pilots are seeking a compromise formula, as a meeting will be held between them and Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal.

Earlier, Goyal said inconvenienced passengers were being accommodated on other foreign and domestic airlines in the country.

"We are trying our best, we are transferring passengers to a lot of domestic carriers in India, and lot of foreign airlines in India so that we minimise the inconvenience to customers... We are willing to sit with them (pilots) and to follow certain guidelines and rules and not create inconvenience to customers and passengers," Goyal told TIMES NOW.

Jet Airways had also sought the Directorate General of Civil Aviation''s (DGCA) intervention to resolve the crisis. Last month, Jet Airways had terminated the services of two of its senior most pilots, saying their services were not required after both formed a trade union body within the company.

A conciliatory meeting was called on August 31 between the Jet Airways management and the union, which claims to have representation of over 650 pilots. Jet Airways has 1000 pilots on its rolls.

Meanwhile, Air India has come to the rescue of the Indian cricket team scheduled to go to Colombo today by a Jet Airways flight for the tri-nation one-day series.

Air India will fly a special plane to carry the Indian cricket team to Colombo. The plane will take off from Chennai and go to Bangalore to take Indian captain M S Dhoni and leg spinner Harbhajan Singh before finally leaving for Colombo. (ANI)

Chidambaram meets FBI, New York Police officials, gets anti-terrorism tips

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ew York/Washington, Sep.9 (ANI): India''s Home Minister P. Chidambaram on Tuesday, was briefed by officials from FBI, intelligence and security agencies and the New York Police about the measures being taken by them to prevent a Mumbai-type terrorist attack.

From walking at the Penn Station, to a briefing by the New York Police, which had made several changes in its counter-terrorism measures post the 26/11 attacks, Chidambaram and his team of officials got to know what a mega city like New York can do to protect itself from terrorists without inconveniencing its residents.

Chidambaram was also informed about the coast guard facility at Staten Island. It was an important aspect of his trip given that the terrorists who attacked Mumbai on November 26 last year entered Mumbai through the sea route.

Within hours of his landing in New York, Chidambaram visited the Joint Terror Task Force Centre of the FBI where he was given an exclusive briefing by the New York Police Department.

Before leaving New York City for Washington by train, Chidambaram was briefed about security of the Mass Transport System at the Penn station.

In Washington, Chidambaram will meet with top Obama Administration officials, heads of intelligence and security agencies and influential lawmakers over the next three days.

Apart from discussing the 26/11 dossiers that India has submitted to Pakistan, Chidambaram will also discuss issues related to combating financing of terrorism and steps which will need to be taken in this regard as well as with regard to prevention of money laundering.

Ways to strengthen Indo-US anti-terrorism cooperation are among the issues likely to figure prominently in the talks on Wednesday and Thursday.

Chidambaram will meet his counterpart Janet Napolitano; Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Attorney General Eric H Holder.

The Home Minister is also scheduled to meet the top US intelligence and security officials, including FBI Director Robert Mueller and Director of National Intelligence Dennis C Blair; besides meeting National Security Adviser, Gen (Retd) James Jones at the White House. A tour of the National Counter-terrorism Centre in Virginia is also on his itinerary.

Besides meeting experts and think-tanks'' members, Chidambaram is expected to hold talks with key US lawmakers, including Senator Joe Lieberman, Chairman, Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee; and Congressman Sylvester Reyes, Chairman, House Select Committee on Intelligence. (ANI)

Massive fire destroys property worth crore

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roperty worth crore of rupee were destroyed in a massive fire that broke out in densely populated Nigam basti near Basar in Arunachal Pradesh's West Siang district.

There was, however, no human casualty in the blaze that reduced to ashes 108 houses along with personal belongings and roasted alive 200 cattle yesterday, district police superintendent Tusar Taba told PTI on Tuesday.

The cause of the fire is yet to be known.

The fire broke out at 12 noon and spread rapidly due to the prevailing scorching heat. The villagers could do little to combat it in the absence of fire tender.

The district administration rushed fire engines from district headquarters at Aalo but it took around two and half hours to cover the 51 km distance. The fire engines arrived after the raging fire was doused being cut off by natural fire line, he said.

The victims have been rehabilated in a government school and tents erected by the Indo Tibetan Border Police. They are being provided with food and other relief materials, he said.

A committee was constituted to assess the damages and its report would be submitted within two days, district administration sources said.

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