New Delhi, May 16: States neighbouring Jaipur have been asked to follow the trail of the leads so far been unearthed by the Rajasthan police and Central security agencies in the investigation of the serial blasts in the Pink City. Delhi and Uttar Pradesh have intensified vigil along the borders and are interrogating persons as well as criminals lodged in state jails in UP to elicit information which could help in the investigations.

The Delhi police, late on Thursday night, picked up two persons, one of those believed to be an Afghan, on the basis of information given to the police through a phone call. DCP (East) Ajay Chowdhary told this newspaper that the persons were picked up from East Delhi localities after the police received a phone call saying that these persons resembled the blast suspects whose sketches were released by the Rajasthan police. However, the police confessed that nothing substantial was found during the interrogation and the persons have been let off. "No incriminating information was found during the interrogation of these persons. They have been released," said Mr Chowdhary.

Police sources said that on receiving one phone call, the police zeroed in on house No. D-41 in one locality in East Delhi, but found it locked. Sources said that the occupant of the house was later called to the police station where he was questioned. In a separate incident, the police questioned another person whose face had similarities with that of one of the suspect sketches, sources said. However, with the probe resulting in a nought, no persons were detained.

Meanwhile, sources said that some terrorists lodged in state jails in UP, including in Lucknow, were being interrogated by the local police to get any information which might help in the blast probe. The special task force of the UP police is also in Jaipur to assist the Rajasthan police in investigation of the case.

Birmingham, May 16: Twentyfour-year-old Nagraj Kumar Nalloori, who has been charged by the West Midlands police with fellow student Samrajyo Jyothirmai Vempala’s murder, was presented at the Birmingham crown court on Friday, and the judge remanded him to custody till July 25.

His lawyers did not file a bail application on Friday as had been expected. They did not say when the bail plea would be filed and only confirmed that it would be "filed in due course." They also did not say if the bail plea would be filed on or before July 25, the date of the next hearing of the case. The hearing, which lasted barely eight minutes on Friday morning, started with Nalloori, who was wearing a white shirt and blue jeans, identifying himself to the judge, Mr Coulson. Prosecutor Sara Pratt presented a case timeline to the judge, which he approved.

According to the timeline, the police will finish its paperwork by July 11 and the plea and case management hearing of the case will be held on July 25. Normally the time between a preliminary hearing and a plea and management hearing is six weeks. However, in this case the period has been extended to eight weeks to allow time for evidence and other related issues.

Nalloori, who had been hospitalised for a day before his arrest for Samrajyo’s murder, still had bandages on his throat and his wrists. The inquest into the murder of 23-year-old Samrajyo at Handsworth, a suburb of Birmingham, has not started as yet. On Thursday, a preliminary hearing was started at the coroner’s court in Birmingham.

Chandigarh, May 16: Thoroughly disillusioned after witnessing widespread violence against his partymen during the recent panchayat polls in Punjab, a Congress legislator has written to chief minister Parkash Singh Badal saying that history will remember him as a "Hitler" or a "Pol Pot."

Jasbir Singh Khangura, who gave up a prosperous life in Britain to return and break (for the first time) the Akali stranglehold over the constituency of Qila Raipur in last year’s Assembly elections, warns Mr Badal that "history will not be kind to you."

Comparing the octogenarian chief minister’s political career to that of Punjab’s first CM, the late Pratap Singh Kairon, who passed away 44 years ago, Mr Khangura has said: "In 44 years’ time, if at all you are remembered, it will be as the first CM who truly criminalised Punjab politics with a law and order machinery more akin to Hitler’s SS or Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge and as a CM who undermined every institution of the state."

Referring to the violence during the recent panchayat polls, he says: "Surely the violence perpetrated against Congress workers and leaders is merely a tool to create a fear psychosis within your own party to ensure a smooth transition of power to your son."

Insisting that the ruling party was engaged in gaining control over all private transport and local cable TV networks in the state, the Congress MLA promises Mr Badal that he will never be able to buy people’s hearts and minds.

"Let there be no delusion: the myth of your current popularity will be fully exposed in the forthcoming parliamentary elections, when Punjabis will vote as decisively against your ruling alliance as they did in 1998." Mr Khangura, an NRI himself warned the chief minister saying "no NRI would ever be willing to invest in Punjab under the current circumstances."

New Delhi, May 16: The CBI on Friday informed the Delhi high court that no evidence of payment of kick-backs in the Scorpene submarine deal was found after conducting the preliminary investigation.  "No case is made out in the deal. Nothing was found about the Scorpene submarine deal kickback," advocate Mukta Gupta contended before a bench comprising Justices T.S. Thakur and Siddharth Mridul.

Mr Gupta further pleaded that in view of findings of the investigation, the PIL seeking a full-fledged inquiry into the deal should be dismissed. "Writ petition for registration of FIR cannot be entertained and one has to file a complaint before the magistrate," she said. (PTI)

Hyderabad, May 16: For the second successive year, a candidate from the state has come on top in the civil services examination. Dr Adapa Karthik, 27, an MBBS graduate and an IPS probationer from Khammam, is now undergoing training at Sardar Vallabhai National Police Academy.

Karthik had got the 148the rank in the 2006 civil services exam but came on top this time. He was in his hometown Khammam when the results were announced. Last year, it was Revu Muthyala Raju, an IPS probationer of SVNPA, who secured the first rank. "I was an average student in school and college and it is only through hard work that I have achieved this," said Karthik. He also attributed his success to the support of Mr Srihari, his brother in-law.

"He stood by me during all troubles," said Karthik. "Though many people encouraged me to join IPS when I got 66th rank in UPSC in 2004, Srihari encouraged me to persist till I achieved my goal." When asked why he preferred more IAS than IPS, he said that an IAS officer could serve people more. "I want to work in backward regions of Bihar, Jharkhand and northeastern states," he said. "This is an academic achievement. I would be really happy if I get congratulated after 30 years of service."

Karthik studied in VVC Public School in Khammam and did his MBBS from the prestigious Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences in Wardha of Maharastra.  After that, he worked as lecturer in Evolution Education Institute in New Delhi and underwent IAS coaching in Vaajiram and Ravi Institute in Delhi

Guwahati, May 16: The terror attacks of DHD rebels in Assam’s North Cachar Hills district continued, with militants killing another person on the outskirts of Haflong on Friday morning.  With this, the overall death toll in DHD-related killing of civilians has gone up to 52 since January this year.

The police said Mr R.T. Roia, the president of the top body of Blate community, was killed by the ultras on Friday.  Meanwhile, the Northeast Frontier Railway, unable to prevent the increasing attacks on the railway personnel, evacuated its personnel and their families posted between Lumding and Harangajao railway stations of the district.

The North Frontier Railway spokesman said that there are 21 stations between these two places and about 170 families had been evacuated by two special trains on Thursday.  He said, "The families are staying in makeshift camps at Lumding as the railway service has been completely suspended in the area."

New Delhi, May 16: India and China will review their bilateral ties when external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee travels to Beijing in June. The visit is being described here as part of the ongoing bilateral exchanges between the two countries.

In July, Mr Pranab Mukherjee will be headed to Tehran for the India-Iran joint commission meeting. He is likely to discuss the prospects of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Iran at an early but mutually convenient date. The India-Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline project, the LNG (liquefied natural gas) deal and the Iranian nuclear issue will figure in Mr Mukherjee’s talks in Tehran, where he is likely to take part in a Non-Aligned Movement ministerial conference as well.

A source at the Chinese embassy in New Delhi told this newspaper that Chinese foreign minister Yang Jeichi could be expected to visit India in the second half of this year to continue the bilateral discussions. Beijing looks forward to an early visit to China by President Pratibha Devisingh Patil, possibly in 2009, the source added. Mr Mukherjee and his Chinese counterpart, Mr Yang Jeichi, met in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg this week where they participated in the annual meting of foreign ministers from Russia, India and China.

The Chinese minister, who held an hour-long meeting with Mr Mukherjee on the sidelines of the trilateral meeting in Yekaterinburg, said that Sino-Indian relations are becoming "increasingly close".

Mr Yang hoped Mr Mukherjee’s visit to China next month will give a boost to further development of ties in the spirit of "Shared Vision of the 21st Century" signed by Chinese President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in January this year.

The minister thanked India for ensuring the security and smooth relay of the Olympic torch here last month. Mr Mukherjee, in turn, said India had merely fulfilled its international obligations by ensuring the smooth passage of the Olympic torch. India considered Tibet as an integral part of China, he added.

According to another source tracking India’s engagement of China, nothing substantial can be expected from Mr Mukherjee’s talks with his Chinese counterpart in Beijing; it will at best serve both sides to "remain engaged". The source said the boundary question has been put on the backburner because "China is not in a position to repeat old offers and India is not in a position to make any new offer."

It is also because China keeps changing its position on the boundary dispute.

According to the source, the trilateral meeting in Yekaterinburg signals the desire of India and China to coordinate their stand on the Group of Eight (G-8). India and China are two of five "outreach" countries invited to the G-8 summits.

In a joint statement issued after the trilateral meeting, Russia and China welcomed "India’s aspirations for playing an enhanced role as an observer state within the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Cooperation) framework."

In the joint statement the three ministers reaffirmed their countries’ common desire to expand multifaceted cooperation with the Central Asian countries and to identify various forms of trilateral interaction.

The ministers from Russia and China reiterated that their countries attach importance to the status of India in international affairs, and understand and support India’s aspirations to play a greater role in the United Nations.

Kolkata, May 16: Twelve persons died after a devastating fire broke out at Ready-made Centre, one of the largest garments shop in in Sodepur, in North Kolkata. At least, 30 others, including six fire-fighters were grievously injured. Instead of receiving burn injuries, all the victims were asphyxiated to death after they were trapped in the three-storied building which had no emergency door.

"None of the victims received burn injuries. All had died due to suffocation," confirmed DIG Presidency Range, Somen Mitra. Preliminary investigation suggests that while using a gas-cutter during some renovation work, a fire spark fell on the carpet that instantly caught fire. Moreover, unaware of the fire safety norms, the shutters were down. "The showroom people misguided us. First, they pulled down the shutter, next they told that there was no one on the other side of the shutter. It was this shutter that had trapped the people inside who were ultimately suffocated," alleged a senior fire department officer.

Meanwhile on reaching the spot, superintendent of police, North 24 Parganas, Supratim Sarkar said, "The case will be investigated. Forensic tests will be carried out to find out the cause of the fire." State minister for fire and emergency services, Pratim Chatterjee also confirmed that forensic tests will be conducted.

Sources revealed that at 12.10 pm, locals at Sodepur saw fumes coming out of the three-storied building. Shrieks from inside followed next. In no time, the fire department was informed and initially four fire-tenders rushed to the spot.

However, by then, the majority of the damage was done. On entering the building, the fire fighters had found people lying unconscious. All of them were rescued. Meanwhile, three of them, including a woman were declared brought dead on being taken to a local hospital. The rest were rushed to Panihati State General Hospital, Balaram Seva Pratishthan, Ghola Hospital, SSKM and R.G. Kar Hospital, where later nine more persons succumbed to their injuries. Later, three more fire tenders were pressed into action which brought the fire under control by 1.45 pm.

Official sources informed that at the time of the accident, there were 25 employees and at least 100 customers inside the building. However, as soon as the first floor where renovation work was going on caught fire, people started running around in panic.

Kolkata, May 16: Gauri Naskar, wife of RSP leader and state irrigation minister Subhas Naskar’s nephew Susanta, succumbed to her injuries at SSKM Hospital here on Friday. She had received over 80 per cent burn injuries in an explosion at Mr Naskar’s ancestral house at Kumrokhali village in Basanti area in South 24 Parganas.

Gauri was rushed to the hospital from the violence-hit Basanti on Thursday evening and was admitted at the burn ward for treatment. The hospital authorities had declared that her condition was "too critical". Her battle for life ended couple of hours later.

"Naskar, in her late thirties, died around 12.50 am on Friday. We have kept her body at the hospital’s morgue for the post-mortem," medical superintendent-cum-vice-principal of the hospital, Ashok Kumar Ghosh said. After the post-mortem, her body was taken to the Keoratala burning ghat where it was cremated in the afternoon. State secretariat members of RSP — Subhas Naskar, Amar Chowdhury and Gita Sengupta — were present at the funeral. The RSP has alleged that the CPI(M)’s "motorcycle-brigade" had bombed her house, in which she was burnt fatally. The CPI(M), however, claimed that the bombs were stockpiled in the house and exploded. A pall of gloom descended on Gauri’s village and tension prevailed in Basanti even on Friday. Apprehending trouble, police forces were deployed in the area. "The BSF and the state police have carried out route marches in the trouble-torn areas. Family members of the deceased said that they would lodge a complaint," SP South 24 Parganas, Praveen Kumar said.

Meanwhile, a high-level team of the state CID and Central Forensic Science Laboratory have started their probe. "Our team visited the spot on Thursday. On Friday, a team collected samples there," special IG (CID), Neerajnayan Pandey said.

Kolkata, May 16: Finally, the CPI(M)’s main trouble-shooter, Jyoti Basu has to step in to stem the fissures within the Left Front which came to the fore after the Basanti face-off. Acting on the nonagenarian patriarch’s advice, CPI(M) state secretary Biman Bose on Friday, held talks with the leaders of the major allies to placate the disgruntled partners over the Basanti flare-up.

Reacting on the bloodbath at Basanti, Mr Basu made no bones about the fact that the unity among the Left Front partners has deteriorated over the past one year. He said, "The coalition should be built afresh." Although Mr Basu’s comment has sent ripples in the Left circles, the disgruntled RSP leaders have accepted Mr Basu’s statement on the Left Front. "What Mr Basu has said is true. We fully accept his view. The Left Front needs to be rebuilt afresh. It is becoming impossible to continue with a hegemonistic party, moving far from Leftist ideology," RSP central secretariat member, Manoj Bhattacharya said. Mr Bhattacharya, obviously, referred to the big brother party. Sensing that the growing discord might lead to further dissensions in the Front, Mr Bose has started a damage-control measure. In a back-to-back bilateral talks with the CPI and RSP leaders, Mr Bose has tried to convey a message that "even the CPI(M) will not hesitate to take stern action against its errant cadres." Mr Bose said to the leaders of the CPI Manju Kumar Majumdar and Nando Gopal Bhattacharjee, "Our party cannot also avoid responsibility to tame the workers who fight each other in the districts." Later, in a telephonic conversation, Mr Bose also assured RSP state secretary Debabrata Bandopadhyay that the CPI(M) will now take care to end the in-fighting of the Front partners. He, however, exhorted the Front leaders to come out from the "petty politics" of the blocks.

Srinagar, May 16: In a bizarre development, Jammu and Kashmir finance minister Tariq Hameed Karra, who is known for setting off controversies, on Friday accused the state Vigilance Organisation (VO) of deliberately working against the interests of predominantly Muslim Kashmir Valley.

"It is resorting to premeditated moves to sabotage development works in the Valley," he said in a statement here.

Mr Karra, who is a senior leader of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), a major partner in the Congress-led ruling coalition, taking a strong exception to the VO’s reported move of creating "unnecessary impediments" in the ongoing four-laning work of the Qamarwari-Narbal patch of Srinagar-Muzafarabad Road said, "It is ironic that the Vigilance Organisation has been consistently not only targeting the employees of a particular region and religion, but has even now started singularly meddling in the developmental projects being executed in the Kashmir Valley, with the obvious ulterior motive of preventing any infrastructural development in the region." He added saying that "Such highhandedness of the VO is fraught with serious political implications and no conscientious politician from the region can be a mute spectator to this discriminatory selective-targeting tactics of the Organisation."

The minister expressed dismay over what he alleged are VO’s repeated attempts to stall the work on widening of Qamarwari-Narbal Road, by questioning the integrity of the decisions taken by the high-level committee headed by the divisional commissioner Kashmir that has worked out the compensatory mechanism for the inhabitants affected by the road-widening. Accusing the VO of having donned the role of an extra-constitutional authority, Mr Karra said, "Even the selection of officers for various posts is now being reportedly done on the recommendations and behest of the organisation and the recent selection of around a dozen new members of the Services Selection Recruitment Board, heavily tilted towards a particular region, is a case in point."

New Delhi, May 16: Doordarshan and All India Radio (AIR) employees have threatened to launch a four-day-long stir beginning on May 19 to press their demand that Prasar Bharati employees and assets be retained with the government. The stir will be in the form of "work to rule" and may affect the functioning of DD and AIR, given that both have a staff shortage.

The Prasar Bharati employees stir is being spearheaded by the National Federation of Akashvani and Doordarshan Employees (NFADE). The Federation itself is an umbrella organisation with 21 smaller staff associations comprising various DD and AIR employees as its members. The Federation has claimed that the nearly 40,000 Prasar Bharati employees will be participating in the "work to rule" agitation. This may affect the working of both DD and AIR as they are short-staffed. The shortage is estimated to be nearly 8,000 employees in Prasar Bharati. For, there have not been any recruitment in the organisation for many years now.

Prasar Bharati sources told this newspaper that it has sought permission from the government to hire people for at least 2,700 "critical" posts in DD and AIR. A proposal regarding the proposed recruitment was sent to the Union ministry of information and broadcasting in April 2007.

The employees are concerned that the group of ministers (GoM) looking into various issues concerning the public broadcaster, are yet to decide on their demand that employees and assets be retained by the government. In the last meeting of the GoM, held in early April, yet another crucial issue — financial and capital restructuring of Prasar Bharati — was discussed. NFADE, however, feels that the deliberating on merely capital restructuring without discussing assets is not in consonance with the assurance given to them earlier.

Lucknow, May 16: For those who get running water at the turn of a knob in their houses, this may sound somewhat outlandish, even bizarre. Hundreds of young men are being forced to lead a bachelor’s life and hundreds of young girls prefer being "sold" outside the state rather than marry in their own state and the villain in this situation is water.

Marriages are being cancelled, postponed and called-off at the last minute in the Bundelkhand region due to paucity of water. Om Prakash Tiwari, a timber merchant in Banda, called-off his second daughter’s wedding, scheduled to be held on Sunday, because he had no water to satiate the thirst of the baraatis.

"I frantically begged for water tankers but the municipal office refused to give me one. They said that they had no tankers for such occasions and all tankers had been kept in reserve for VIP visits. The wells in and around my house (on the outskirts of Banda) have dried up and even the taps remain dry during the day. The groom’s father had said that there would be over a hundred baraatis at the wedding and then I would have had my own guests too. I had no means to provide water to the guests so I decided to call-off the wedding at the last minute," said the distraught father.

Prakash Pasi, a peon in a private bank in Jalaun district, also cancelled his daughter’s wedding this month for very "watery" reasons.  "My daughter was to marry in Geenj village near Shankargarh in Allahabad when one of my uncles informed me that the village faces an acute water problem. The women there have to walk six kilometres every morning, throughout the year, to bring water. My daughter said that she would not be able to cope with such a situation and after much deliberation, we cancelled the wedding," he said.

Srinagar, May 16: The Army on Friday claimed that yet another infiltration bid from across the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district was foiled by the troops by killing a militant. In a separate incident, the BSF said that it seized heroin worth Rs 60 crores and Rs 16,000,00 in fake currency, which was being smuggled into their side of the international border in the state’s Ranbir Singh Pora sector.

The latest infiltration bid was made in Poonch’s Tarkundi, Balakote areas during the intervening night of May 15 and 16, Army spokesperson in Jammu, Lt. Col. S.D. Goswami said. He added that the soldiers from the Gorkha Rifles guarding the LoC in the area on seeing a group of militants trying to sneak into their side of the de-facto border asked them to surrender but instead they opened fire. In the retaliatory fire one militant, later identified as Abu Saqlain, was killed, he said.

Meanwhile, BSF said that it seized Rs 60 crores worth heroin and fake Indian currency of Rs 1.6 from a group of smugglers along the international border in Ranbir Singh Pora on Saturday. "When the group sneaking into our territory was asked to surrender, it while taking the advantage of darkness fled back into the Pakistani territory leaving behind the consignment," a BSF official said.