News and Events - AUGUST 2009

[I-G]

BJP MLA gets bail in Kandhamal riot case Bhubaneswar, July 04: A local court in Kandhamal today granted 15-day conditional bail to BJP MLA Manoj Pradhan, one of the prime accused in last year's communal riot in the tribal dominated district.

Pradhan, languishing in jail ever since he was arrested in October, 2008 on charges of murder, riot, arson and other crimes, was elected to Orissa assembly from G Udaygiri segment in recent polls.

The court granted bail to the MLA on the basis of a Orissa High Court order. Pradhan had earlier moved the High Court seeking bail to be able to take oath as a member of the legislative assembly.

Though Pradhan was given bail, he could not be released from jail today due to procedural delay. He is facing seven murder cases, six relating to house torching and an attempt to murder case.

"Pradhan has been granted bail for 15 days. He is likely to take oath as MLA either on Monday or Tuesday," state BJP president Suresh Pujari told a news agency.
BJP MLA gets bail in Kandhamal riot case

 

[I-G]

Deadly bus fire 'set by arsonist' in China

Page last updated at 08:37 GMT, Friday, 3 July 2009 09:37 UK


Deadly bus fire 'set by arsonist'


A fire on a bus in China that killed 27 people and injured more than 70 last month is thought to have been caused by a suicidal arsonist, police have said.

The crowded bus caught fire in the morning rush-hour on 5 June in the south-western city of Chengdu.

Police said they thought a 62-year-old unemployed man burnt to death at the back of the bus after lighting the fire, state media reported.

The man had threatened to commit suicide, police said.

The man, named as Zhang Yunliang, made the threat after his family reduced the amount of financial support they gave him, Xinhua news agency reported.

The fire began as the bus travelled into central Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province.

Witnesses said it only took a few minutes for the bus to become completely engulfed by flames.

Several days after the incident, officials investigating its cause said they believed petrol carried by a passenger was to blame for the fire.

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Deadly bus fire 'set by arsonist'

 

[Daredevil]

50,000 CCTVs to keep eye on security in Mumbai

50,000 CCTVs to keep eye on security in Mumbai

Sat, Jul 4

Mumbai, July 4 (IANS) In the aftermath of the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai, the Indian Merchants Chamber (IMC) plans to install 50,000 'electronic eyes' to monitor the city as part of a unique security blanket for the country's commercial capital, an official said here Saturday.

A preliminary report on the proposed Rs.5 billion project has already been prepared and submitted to Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok S. Chavan Friday, according to IMC Chief Adviser P.N. Mogre.

'The chief minister was highly impressed by the project and has called for implementing it on war-footing. We are hopeful that the project should get underway after monsoon, or by Diwali,' Mogre told IANS.

To begin with, the plan envisages installing 5,000 closed circuit television cameras (CCTVs) all over Mumbai, comprising nearly 2,250 km of roads.

The remaining about 45,000 CCTV cameras would be installed at strategic locations in various phases, he said.

Apart from keeping an eye on the city round the clock, the project would have multiple advantages for other concerned agencies like the police and civic bodies, Mogre said.

Chavan, who watched a presentation on the proposal along with Home Minister Jayant Patil, top civil and police officials, immediately set up an eight-member committee to fine-tune the project, examine its financial viability and related issues.

He has asked the committee to submit its report within a fortnight, according to Mogre.

The meeting agreed that the proposal would not only help minimise the recurrence of events like 26/11 terror attacks, but they could also be used to enhance the efficiency of traffic flow throughout the city, keep track of criminal activities or major emergencies.

'If select video feed from such cameras were shared with the city's public on a subscription basis, it could be used over time to recover the huge infrastructure costs of the project,' Mogre added.

Explaining the features of the project, he said that initially up to 5,000 cameras would be installed on street light poles or other suitable mounts around the city.

These would be connected to a Central Data Centre with fibre-optic cables for receiving the video feeds round the clock.

Besides, independent agencies would have their own command and control centres, which would be funded as part of the main project and continuously monitor their requirements.

In order to recover costs, the IMC plans to sell video feeds with the citizens as subscribers (mainly traffic-related feeds), insurance companies, TV channels, other concerned agencies to generate revenue and reduce dependence on capital infusion, estimated at Rs.1 billion, every few years.

On its part, the official authorities could help by using these traffic feeds to impose fines on people for traffic violations, the proceeds of which could be shared with IMC, Mogre said.

He said that among the aspects that the committee could examine would be placing similar cameras on the entire fleet of BEST public buses, the 300 trains that ply on the Mumbai suburban railway network, and the 100 railway stations in the city.

 

[indian_sukhoi]

Keep an CCTV cameras around wont solve the problem. Mumbai already has these kind of cameras but half of them wont work because of many reasons. Now how do they think of solving these problem????

I really doubt their serviceability and uses. Whether they be maintained or not. Most of cameras will be damaging because lack of maintenance, season and other stuff


Still, Iam glad to see them taking some kind of steps then nothing.

He said that among the aspects that the committee could examine would be placing similar cameras on the entire fleet of BEST public buses, the 300 trains that ply on the Mumbai suburban railway network, and the 100 railway stations in the city.

This is the main part comes in. CCTV camera coverage wont be useful in crowded Mumbai railway and buses network.It has one of the highest passenger densities of any urban railway system in the world.
Mumbai is aint any london or paris where we can keep electronic eye to monitor thousands of people going through these transports.

Its Hard to monitor these areas which is Overcrowding. It will be a living Nightmare

 

[1.44]

Chinese Consider Bid for Repsol Assets

Chinese Consider Bid for Repsol Assets
​

China National Petroleum Corp. is considering a bid for some of the Argentine assets of Spanish oil company Repsol YPF SA alongside other potential deals in South America, according to a person familiar with the matter, signaling continuing Chinese interest in the world's natural resources.

The person didn't say how much CNPC might bid for the assets, or what stake or assets the company might be seeking in Repsol's Argentine YPF unit. A CNPC spokesman said he had no information on the issue.
On Thursday, Repsol said it had received proposals but no firm offers from companies interested in a stake in YPF. It didn't disclose details. Repsol Chairman Antonio Brufau last week said the company currently isn't in any concrete negotiations to sell a stake in YPF. He reiterated that Repsol would still like to carry out an initial public offering of part of YPF or find new partners for the unit but needs to wait for a better moment.

Should a bid materialize, it would represent the latest example of interest from a Chinese oil company in South America's energy deposits. In May, officials at France's Total SA said they were in talks with CNPC about the possibility of working together on a heavy-oil project in Venezuela's Orinoco region, though nothing binding had been confirmed.

Russia's OAO Lukoil and China Petrochemical Corp., or Sinopec, late last year and early this year had shown interest in buying a stake in Repsol itself, but early talks likely stalled on price issues and a resistance by Spain's government to sell a large chunk to foreign state-owned firms or companies from countries with doubtful democratic credentials.

The interest from the Chinese company, the parent company of Hong Kong- and Shanghai-listed PetroChina Co., marks resource-hungry China's interest in securing supplies for energy and raw materials to feeds its fast-growing economy. Chinese policy makers have pushed executives at state-run companies to make resource deals a priority, even as they have grown skeptical of deals in the financial sector and other industries.
China's oil majors have responded. Recent deals include the purchase last week by China Petrochemical Corp., the Chinese state oil company also known as Sinopec Group, of oil explorer Addax Petroleum Corp. for $7.2 billion and CNPC's purchase of Kazakh oil producer MangistauMunaiGas jointly with Kazakhstan's state-owned KazMunaiGas for $3.3 billion. Chinese officials have also unveiled oil-for-loans agreements in Russia and Brazil.

However, analysts say the window of opportunity for the best overseas deals is closing.

The global credit crisis and economic slump dried up credit and drove down oil demand. The resulting drop in oil prices to about $40 a barrel from nearly $150 a barrel at the height of the oil boom left fewer places for oil companies to turn to and drove down corporate valuations. But oil in recent weeks has traded at nearly $70 a barrel and credit markets have improved, making many companies less willing to sell out.

Argentina's Grupo Petersen bought a 14.9% stake in YPF from Repsol in February 2008 for $2.24 billion. The deal included a buy option for an additional 10% stake in YPF.

Repsol's production has declined for years, in part because of its maturing fields in Argentina. Its combined oil and natural gas output in the first quarter fell 4.9% from a year earlier to 918,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day.

YPF's operating profit last year fell 5.6% to €1.16 billion compared with a year ago, representing about 23% of the overall company's operating results from its reported segments.

Repsol is being advised on YPF by U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
CNPC Mulls Bid For Repsol Assets - WSJ.com

 

[I-G]

Violence erupts in China's Xinjiang region; 2 killed
5 Jul 2009, 2016 hrs IST, AFP



BEIJING: Police rushed on Sunday to restore order in the northwestern Chinese city of Urumqi where an unknown number of people attacked passers-by and torched vehicles, state media reported.

The state news agency Xinhua said the violence erupted on Sunday afternoon in the capital of the restive Xinjiang Uighur autonomous region.

Xinjiang is home to about eight million Uighurs, a Turkic ethnic group, and many members of the mainly Muslim community say they have suffered political and religious persecution for decades.

A Uighur activist in Japan said 1,000 Chinese police confronted some 3,000 Uighur demonstrators in Urumqi, the capital of western Xinjiang region, on Sunday in a clash that left two people dead.

The head of the Japan Uighur Association, Ilham Mahmut, said that he had also heard that at least 300 people had been arrested, citing Internet communications from China.

"At 5pm local time about 3,000 Uighur people gathered in Urumqi and demonstrated and about 1,000 Chinese police confronted them, and I heard that two Uighur people are already dead," Mahmut said.

"The Chinese police tried to disband the demonstration and they used electric cattle prods and they fired guns into the air as warning shots. As we speak about 300 Uighur people have been already arrested and I've heard two people died because Chinese police used electric cattle prods."

He added that demonstrators were regrouping to continue their protest.

"About 400 people are trying to resume the demonstration," he said.

He said the tensions were sparked by a recent violent dispute at a toy factory between Chinese and Uighurs sparked by a rumour that Uighurs had abused a Chinese woman.

Violence erupts in China's Xinjiang region; 2 killed - China - World - The Times of India

 

[I-G]

Blast in ordnance factories in Singrauli, scores injured

Blast in ordnance factories in Singrauli, scores injured
Zeenews Bureau

Singrauli, July 05: A blast in ordnance factories in Singrauli has injured around a 100 people though there are no reports of casualties. Many more are reportedly trapped in the debris. The blast occurred in 4 of the factories located there.

Unconfirmed reports indicate that the blast may have been caused due to the leakage of gas.
Blast in ordnance factories in Singrauli, scores injured

 

[Pintu]

Five killed, 100 injured in explosions in MP industrial area- Hindustan Times

Five killed, 100 injured in explosions in MP industrial area

Press Trust Of India
Singrauli (MP), July 05, 2009
First Published: 21:56 IST(5/7/2009)
Last Updated: 23:06 IST(5/7/2009)

At least five people were killed and 100 injured in explosions in two private factories manufacturing explosives used for mining activities in the Bairhan Industrial Area in Singrauli in Madhya Pradesh on Sunday evening.

Police said the first explosion occurred in the Ideal Explosives Industries around 6.30 pm. The explosion had its impact in the neighbouring Rajasthan Explosives Private Limited as well.

Singrauli District Magistrate T Narihari said five bodies have been recovered from the site. It was not immediately known what caused the explosion.

Officials feared that at least 25 people may still be trapped in the debris nearly four hours after the explosions. Of the 100 injured, 80 people have been shifted to nearby hospitals, they said.

The explosion was so severe that both the factories were reduced to rubble, eyewitnesses said.

Relief and rescue operations have commenced in the Industrial Area.

Narihari said explosives manufactured from chemicals brought to the factories are used for maining activities in the nearby coalfields. The factories are legal and operate in the industrial area in a cluster, he said.

According to reports, ammonium nitrate gas was leaking from the site of the accident. Electricity also went off at the Bairhan industrial area.

 

[Pintu]

I pray before almighty that the soul of the victim should rest in peace, and the family of the victim shall get mental strength to overcome the trauma and hard situation.

 

[I-G]

30 feared killed, 100 hurt in explosions in MP
5 Jul 2009, 2147 hrs IST, PTI


SINGRAULI: At least 30 persons were feared killed and another 100 injured in explosions in two factories of the Bairhan Industrial Area. Police said the first explosion occurred in the Ideal Explosives Industries.

This triggered an explosion in the neighbouring Rajasthan Explosives Private Limited as well. "The explosions were so severe that both the factories were reduced to rubble under which 30 people were feared dead," they said. Relief and rescue operations are on in the Industrial Area and officials say the death toll may mount.

30 feared killed, 100 hurt in explosions in MP - India - The Times of India

 

[I-G]

Dehradun encounter: Eight police officials removed

Dehra Dun, July 05: Dehradun SSP Amit Sinha was among eight police officials removed on Sunday following the controversy over the killing of an MBA graduate in an alleged fake encounter here on July 3.

Sinha, who had been strongly defending the encounter, was attached to the Police Headquarters, Uttarakhand Chief Minister R P Nishank told reporters here.

Apart from Sinha seven other officials including Sub-Inspector G D Bhatt were also removed and sent to police lines, he said.

Bhatt had alleged that the encounter took place after Ranbir Singh snatched his revolver and beat him up in the posh Dalanwala area.

Eight police officials removed in Uttarakhand

 

[Sridhar]

Afghanistan shortlists 5 Indian firms for developing Hajigak mines

Afghanistan shortlists 5 Indian firms for developing Hajigak mines news
04 July 2009

War-torn Afghanistan is now on the move to exploit its natural resources, and has shortlisted seven companies, including five Indian firms, for developing the 1.8 billion tonne Hajigak iron ore deposit.

According to a statement issued by Hafizullah Afzaly, executive officer of the project management unit at the Afghan ministry of mines, Vedanta group's Sesa Goa, Essar Minerals, Ispat Industries, JSW Steel and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam have been short listed by the government.

The other two are China's MCC and Tuwairqi Steel Mills of Pakistan.

The Indian minig giants are attracted to Afghanistan because of its high quality coal and cheap cost of exploration. Moreover, rhe proximity to Afghanistan to India will cut transport costs. However, according to some experts, security of the personnel involved in the action may be a big issue for the companies.

Last year a suicide car bomb exploded outside the Indian Embassy in central Kabul, killing at least 41 people and injuring scores of others.

However, minister Mohammad Ibrahim Adel said that the security situation has improved and urged foreign firms to invest in the sector

domain-b.com : Afghanistan shortlists 5 Indian firms for developing Hajigak mines

 

[ZOOM]

I am highly worried about security situation in Afganistan, since despite minister Mohammad Ibrahim Adel's assurance to provide full security cover cannot provide Indian migrants a full security cover. Since most of this Indian steel companies don't even get basic security cover in India itself and often require to shut their operations because of constant Naxalite attacks. It is a good opportunity for India to flex its muscles and send some troop in war torn country, so that it can atleast provide basic security cover for Indian steel giants operation.

 

[I-G]

China state media says 140 killed in riots in west
BEIJING (AP): Chinese state media says that 140 people have been killed and more than 800 hurt in violence in the country's western Xinjiang region.

The official Xinhua News Agency did not immediately give any other details Monday on the number of deaths, but said the death toll ``was still climbing.'' It earlier reported that four people had been killed in violence after protesters from a Muslim ethnic group rioted Sunday in the region's capital Urumqi, overturning barricades, attacking bystanders and clashing with police.

The protesters were demanding an investigation into a fight between Uighurs and Han Chinese workers at a southern China factory last month that state media said left two people dead.

The Hindu News Update Service

 

[I-G]

8 killed in blasts in two M.P. factories

Singrauli (M.P.): At least eight persons were killed and 40 injured in blasts in two private factories manufacturing explosives used for coal mining in the Bairhan Industrial Area here on Sunday.

Police said the first explosion occurred in Ideal Explosives Industries around 6.30 p.m. The impact was felt in the neighbouring Rajasthan Explosives Private Limited as well.

Superintendent of Police (Singrauli) Anurag told PTI over the phone that eight persons were killed and about 40 others were injured. Earlier reports said 100 persons were injured.

Officials feared that at least 20 to 25 persons may still be trapped in the debris, nearly five hours after the explosions. The injured have been shifted to nearby hospitals, they said.

The explosion was so severe that both factories were reduced to rubble, eyewitnesses said.

Relief and rescue operations have commenced in the Industrial Area.

Singrauli District Magistrate T. Narihari said explosives manufactured from chemicals brought to the factories are used for mining in nearby coalfields. The factories are legal and operate in the industrial area in a cluster, he said. According to reports, ammonium nitrate gas was leaking from the accident site. Electricity went off at the Bairhan Industrial Area. — PTI

The Hindu : Front Page : 8 killed in blasts in two M.P. factories

 

[ZOOM]

What kind of a Military Explosives were stored in this Ordance factories?

Has Fire Brigade manage to bring Blaze under control?

 

[EnlightenedMonk]

May their souls rest in peace...

 

[I-G]

What kind of a Military Explosives were stored in this Ordance factories?

Has Fire Brigade manage to bring Blaze under control?

two private factories manufacturing explosives used for mining activities in the Bairhan Industrial Area in Singrauli in Madhya Pradesh

 

[Antimony]

This is worse thasn BS.

They are adults, right???(((

 

[I-G]

Sarabjit's lawyer to file fresh mercy plea before President Zaedari
6 Jul 2009, 1807 hrs IST, TNN



LAHORE: Indian death row prisoner Sarabjit Singh's lawyer will file a fresh mercy petition before Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday in the wake of the Supreme Court dismissing his appeal against the capital punishment.

Owais Sheikh, the new counsel for Sarabjit, said the petition seeking clemency for the Indian national will include a letter addressed to Zardari by the condemned man.

"I will file the mercy petition on Wednesday. I have also sought a meeting with the President so I can take up the matter with him personally," Sheikh said today, shortly after meeting Sarabjit at Kot Lakhpat jail here.

Sheikh said the petition will include a letter from Sarabjit in which he has asked the President to pardon him on humanitarian grounds so that he could live the rest of his life with his family in India.

Noting that he had already spent nearly 19 years in prison, Sarabjit said in the letter that Islam taught its followers to forgive instead of taking revenge.

Sheikh said Sarabjit had called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take up his case with the Pakistan government. Sarabjit also urged the Indian government to treat all Pakistani prisoners in a humane manner and free them expeditiously, he added.

Sarabjit's lawyer to file fresh mercy plea before President Zaedari - India - The Times of India