NEW DELHI: Interpol on Wednesday issued Red Corner Notice against a Lashker-e-Taiba terrorist wanted in connection with Mumbai terror strikes in November last year.
The Interpol issued notice against Abu Hamza, accused of motivating and training the 10 terrorists sent to Mumbai for carrying out the terror strike.
Ajmal Iman Kasab, the lone arrested terrorist in the attack, had revealed the names of his Pakistani handlers, including Abu Hamza, Abu Jindal, Abu Qama and Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, who saw them off when they boarded a ship at Karachi.
Hamza had advised them on how to go about the terror attacks, how to place bomb in a taxi and how the 10-member terrorist team should go about their mission.
The Interpol had last night issued Red Corner Notices against Lashkar-e-Taiba founder chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed and mastermind of Mumbai terror strike Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi.
The Red Corner notice was issued against Saeed (59) and Lakhvi (48) after a Mumbai court issued a non-bailable warrant against the two for their role in the attacks in the country's financial hub. Saeed was earlier on the United Nations Global Watch list.
CBI spokesman said Blue Corner notices were issued against 19 people including Col R Sadat Ullah, believed to be a Pakistani army personnel.
Through this, India has sought additional information about their identity or activities in relation to a crime from Interpol Member countries.
Salman Khan may buy IPL franchise
MUMBAI: Bollywood action hero Salman Khan is the latest cine star to join the Indian Premier League (IPL) gravy train and has expressed interest Salman Khan in buying a team.
Salman met IPL chairman and commissioner Lalit Modi on Wednesday and was briefed about the nitty-grittes of buying an IPL franchise.
The fourth season of the IPL in 2011 will see two new teams and they would be up for grabs through a bidding process later this year.
Modi said Salman is interested in buying an IPL team.
"He has been interested to buy a team for quite some time," Modi added.
"Today we had a brief meeting and I explained him how to go about with the task. I can assure you that Salman is not the only star who is thinking to buy a team. I have had around 28 queries and the list will surely go up," he said.
IPL vice-president Niranjan Shah said that Salman is a serious buyer and will bid for one of the two new teams.
"Salman is a serious buyer and is contemplating to buy an IPL team. He came along with couple of his friends and was briefed by Lalit on the procedure to buy IPL franchise," said Shah.
Shah went on to add that cities like Ahmedabad, Nagpur and Vishakhaptanam are in fray to be the hometown for new teams.
"It will be an open tender process and the city that gets the highest bidder will be the new IPL team," he said.
IPL franchise in the 2011 season may cost over $200-300 million.
Bollywood stars like Shah Rukh Khan and Juhi Chawla are the co-owners of Kolkata Knight Riders while Preity Zinta is also a joint owner of Kings XI Punjab. Shilpa Shetty and her boyfriend Raj Kundra also bought some stakes in Rajasthan Royals.
Sources also indicated that Sanjay Dutt, Ajay Devgan, Mohanlal and Priyadarshan were also interested in owning IPL teams.
Tenders for the new teams will be out in November-December 2009 and bidding will be done by January 2010.
India disappointed over latest Pak claim on Indian dossier
New Delhi:India expressed disappointment over Pakistan's continued claim that it was not being given evidence about involvement of Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed in Mumbai terror attacks and said the material given to Islamabad was "more than enough" to arrest him.
"I was disappointed when I heard him (Pakistan's Interior Minister Rahman Malik) say that evidence was still not being presented to Pakistan and what is worse when he said we (Islamabad) are not responsible if something happens in the future," Home Minister P Chidambaram told reporters in New Delhi.
He said if Pakistan government consulted any lawyer, he would advise them that "the evidence given in the series of dossiers is more than enough to arrest Hafiz Saeed, for example, to set up Special Investigation Team, and if they follow all the leads given in these dossiers and bring charges against him."
Chidambaram termed as "not very encouraging" the comments made by Malik.
"I am very surprised," he said adding "such statement is not at all expected from such a responsible minister of a government which is being forced to concede that the attack was planned in Pakistan soil and executed by Pakistani citizens."
Chidambaram said "we will also share as I believe we have shared the last dossier with the countries, whose nationals were killed in Mumbai, last time and we will urge them to build pressure on Pakistan."
"The last dossier which was handed over to Pakistan a few days ago has been shared with about 15 or 16 countries," the Minister said.
Jaswant attacks BJP, compares it to Ku Klux Klan
New Delhi:Jaswant Singh on Wednesday took his attack on BJP a step further by likening it to the violent white American group Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and suggested that L K Advani was surrounded by a coterie. Why had he been unceremoniously expelled from the party a week ago, the former External Affairs Minister was asked.
"Please don't ask me. I am outside the magic circle of advisers or thinkers. Because, I am not from the RSS, is that why? So are we a political party? Is the BJP becoming some kind of an Indian version of Ku Klux Klan?" he shot back during an interview to PTI here. KKK, widely known as The Klan, is the name of several past and present hate group organisations in the US, whose aim was to protect and further the rights of white Americans by intimidation.
Asked what he meant by reference to KKK, he said, "You know what the Klan means. You don't ask me about this." Expressing reluctance to analyse why Advani was rejected by the people for the post of Prime Minister, Singh nevertheless said it was for the BJP veteran to reflect on this.
"It would be impertinent and perhaps, to a degree also, I would be commenting on my past 30 years with him if I commented on his characteristics, political or personal," he said.
Asked if Advani was surrounded by a coterie, Singh countered, "Does he run a coterie or does the coterie run him."
Singh, who did not share a warm relationship with the Sangh, said the BJP should reflect on its relationship with the RSS and be "mature enough to cut the umbilical cord".
Indian Business News
AI asks employees to accept salary cuts
New Delhi: Faced with a grim scenario, Air India management has asked its employees to consider the financial crisis facing the company and accept proposals to cut wages and other costs in order to avoid job losses.
The views were expressed by Air India CMD Arvind Jadhav at his meetings with leaders of 14 unions till late Tuesday night, where he is understood to have articulated various scenarios which could arise if costs were not managed well.
Airline officials said Jadhav also told the union leaders that if the losses continued, the company would have to prune its operations which could lead to lay-offs and retrenchments.
However, the officials categorically denied any move for a lockout or referring the company to the Board for Industrial Finance and Reconstruction, saying at no stage of these discussions were any such references made.
While the airline management announced timely payment of salaries to its employees, it said determined efforts would be made to overcome the liquidity crunch and cut down costs, particularly in areas like rentals for leased aircraft, jet fuel, navigation charges and interest payments on fleet renewal.
Jet fuel costs amount to almost 40 per cent of the total operational costs of the carrier, which is followed by expenses on salaries, wages and various allowances including productivity-linked incentives.
It is understood that during the talks, the airline management proposed to merge PLI with the basic pay of various section of employees and match them with the scales and allowances recommended by the Sixth Pay Commission and in accordance with the Department of Public Enterprises guidelines.
Infosys, Wipro bag 5-yr deals from BP
Mumbai: Infosys Technologies Ltd, India's No.2 software exporter, said on Wednesday it has got a five-year applications and outsourcing deal from oil and gas firm BP.
No financial details were available.
Under the terms of the deal, the Indian outsourcer will operate a large portion of BP's business systems.
Wipro said on Wednesday it has entered into a five-year agreement with oil and gas firm BP to provide IT applications development and maintenance services for its fuels and corporate businesses globally.
Indian Sports News|Sports News
Dravid foresees Test no. 1 spot changing hands more often
LONDON: The one-team domination in Test cricket has ended with Australia's decline, feels veteran Indian batsman Rahul Dravid, who foresees the number one spot changing hands every few months between India, Sri Lanka and South Africa.
"I don't think you'll see one team dominating like Australia did, at least not in the immediate future," Dravid said.
"There are three or four teams that are evenly matched and you could see the number one spot change hands a few times in the next couple of years," the 36-year-old, who makes a comeback to the Indian One-day side after two years, added.
Asked whether India would also face the transitional crisis that the Australians are battling once the likes of Sachin Tendulkar retire, Dravid said it would boil down to how well the Indian pace bowling attack shapes up.
"We've got a great blend of experienced cricketers, and promising talent coming through. We've done really well over the past couple of years and if we can keep a core group of fast bowlers fit enough to support the spinners then we have as good a chance as anyone," he told 'The Guardian'.
"When Australia dominated, it was the bowling of (Glenn) McGrath and (Shane) Warne that was the key and I believe that England won Ashes series because they had the more balanced bowling attack. We certainly have that balance, and so do Sri Lanka and South Africa. I think the bowling strength will determine which team gets to top," he added.
On his assessment of the Ashes that England won 2-1, Dravid said the series never looked one-sided and could have gone either way.
"I always expected it to be close, and it was. But England won the moments that mattered, and over the course of the five Tests, I'd say that they just about edged it," he said.
Sri Lanka makes solid start on Vettori's big day
Colombo: New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori became only the eighth player in history to achieve the double of 3,000 runs and 300 wickets as Sri Lanka made a steady start in the second cricket Test on Wednesday.
The left-arm spinner, who has scored 3,329 runs, claimed his 300th wicket when he dismissed his Sri Lankan counterpart Kumar Sangakkara in the afternoon session of the first day's play.
Sangakkara, former captain Mahela Jayawardene and Thilan Samaraweera scored half-centuries as Sri Lanka went to stumps at 262-3 on a firm wicket that Vettori said "looked like a road" at the toss.
Jayawardene was unbeaten on 79 and Samaraweera was on 78, having shared a fourth-wicket stand of 147 after tight bowling by the Black Caps had kept the Sri Lankans on a tight leash.
When play began 30 minutes late due to a wet outfield, Sri Lanka plodded to 146-3 by tea before Jayawardene and Samaraweera caned the second new ball in the final session to boost the total.
Vettori, 30, joined a select band of all-rounders that includes Kapil Dev of India, Ian Botham of England, Richard Hadlee of New Zealand, Imran Khan of Pakistan, Shane Warne of Australia, Shaun Pollock of South Africa and Sri Lankan Chaminda Vaas.
Vettori is already the most successful left-arm spinner in history, having surpassed Englishman Derek Underwood's tally of 297 wickets in the first Test in Galle last week.
Vettori, who began the match with 298 wickets, had left-handed opener Tharanga Paranavitana (19) edging his second delivery to Ross Taylor in the slips.
Indian boxers hope to break World Championship duck
NEW DELHI: Hoping to end their medal drought and impress franchisees of next year's World Series of Boxing, an eight-member Indian contingent leaves Wednesday night for the 15th World Championships scheduled from September 1-12 in Milan, Italy.
Olympic bronze medalist Vijender Singh and assistant coach Jaidev Bisht stayed back and would leave on the night of August 29 after receiving the Khel Ratna and the Dronacharya award respectively from the President.
"The World Championships is going to be tougher than the Olympics. But this is as strong a team as can be prepared and hopefully it would deliver," said chief Gurbax Singh Sandhu ahead of the team's departure.
Indian Boxing Federation Secretary General P K Muralidharan Raja said the other motivation for the Indian pugilists would be the presence of World Series of Boxing (WSB) franchisees.
"WSB franchisees will also be there to pick their boxers and hopefully our boys would be able to impress them," Raja said.
India has never won a medal at the event with the best being quarterfinal appearances by the likes of Olympian A L Lakra, who was the only one to make the last-eight stage in the previous edition of the championships in Chicago a couple of years ago.
"The expectations are going to be sky high after the way Indian boxers have performed in the past two years, especially the Beijing Olympics," admitted Vijender, who goes into the tournament as world number two.
"The pressure would be there but we can cope with it," he added.
Akhil Kumar, who missed the event in 2007 is all set for his official debut in the featherweight (57kg) division but far from being nervous, he exuded confidence of making a mark.
"I am completely fit and though it would be the first time I compete in the feather weight division, I am sure that I can do well," he said.
The championships feature 750 pugilists and it would take at least four bouts before a boxer gets to the medal round.
"It is going to be really tough. Three rounds of three minutes each which tests endurance, add to this the European scoring system, in which judges don't give points unless the punch is hard enough to cause a thud. It will be quite a challenge," Akhil said.
18-year-old T Nanao Singh, a world youth champion, who won a silver medal in his very first senior event -- the Asian Championships in China -- is confident that he would end India's medal drought at the event.
"I have won a medal in every international competition that I have competed in and I am sure I can keep the record intact," he said.
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