BHOPAL: Bhartiya Janshakti Party president Uma Bharti has said that she is ready to own responsibility for the demolition of the disputed Babri mosque at Ayodhya and has no problem even if she is hanged on the issue.
Reacting to the submission of the Liberhan Commission report on the demolition of the mosque, Bharti told reporters at her residence "like a good commander, I am ready to own the responsibility of the Babri masjid's demolition and I have no problem even if I will be hanged on the issue."
"The report which was submitted to the Prime Minister after 17 years of the constitution of the Commission is an attempt to appease Muslim community," the former MP chief minister said.
"The UPA government led by Congress was unable to find a single person responsible for the massacre of 20,000 Sikhs at the behest of Congress after the death of the former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi," she alleged.
"By doing so they deliberately wanted to term us culprits with an intention to divide Hindus and Muslims for political gains," the former firebrand BJP leader said.
She also appealed to the BJP leaders not to apologise for the demolition of Babri mosque as they themselves invited large number of people at Ayodhya for starting the 'Karseva'.
'Excessive protests' by BJP shows guilty mind: Cong
New Delhi:Congress on Tuesday said "excessive protests" by BJP even before contents of the Liberhan Commission report are out show a "guilty mind". "Excessive protests by the BJP in advance reflects a guilty mind," party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said reacting to BJP's statements after the Liberhan Commission probing the Babri mosque demolition in 1992 submitted its report to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday.
Senior party leader and AICC in-charge for Uttar Pradesh Digivjay Singh said that there was a conspiracy to bring down the Babari mosque and the entire world has seen who all were involved. "Government will place the report before the people. A conspiracy was hatched... the entire world has seen on television that BJP leaders were involved...What is there to prove," Singh said and took names of BJP leaders Uma Bharti, Vinay Katiyar, Murli Manohar Joshi and Lal Krishna Advani and Kalyan Singh as those accused in the case. Singh alleged that the entire emotion (leading to the demolition of the mosque) was whipped up by Advani's Rathyatra. Singh said that the then UP Chief Minister Kalyan Singh has already got punishment from the Supreme Court and he had also apologised for it. "Advani ji claims that he was shedding tears when the mosque was demolished but the BJP leaders say that it is a matter of pride for them. This is double-faced character of BJP," Singh added.
Another party spokesperson Manish Tewari said that the Government will take appropriate action on the report of the Commission. "The Commission has submitted its report. Government will now study the report and take appropriate action," party spokesman Manish Tewari said. He added that the Government will "apply its mind" and come to "appropriate conclusions". Welcoming the submission of the Commission report, another party leader Shakeel Ahmed said, "the country will come to know the truth behind the incident of the mosque demolition when the government takes the next step".
Yemeni plane crashes in Indian Ocean, 153 on board
MORONI: An airliner with 153 people on board belonging to Yemeni state carrier Yemenia crashed into choppy seas as it came in to land on the Yemeni plane crash archipelago of Comoros on Tuesday, officials said.
"The plane has crashed and we still don't know exactly where. We think it's in the area of Mitsamiouli. There were 153 passengers on board," Comoros vice-president Idi Nadhoim said from the airport at the main island's capital Moroni.
A Paris airport spokeswoman said a Yemenia flight left Paris on Monday morning before landing in Yemen and then taking off for Moroni.
Ibrahim Kassim, a representative from regional air security body ASECNA, said the plane had probably come down 5 to 10 km (3 to 6 miles) from the coast, and civilian and military boats had been mobilised to start searching.
"We think the crash is somewhere along its landing approach," Kassim said. "The weather is really not very favourable. The sea is very rough."
ASECNA -- the Agency for Aviation Security and Navigation in Africa and Madagascar -- covers Francophone Africa. The town of Mitsamiouli is on the main island Grande Comore. "There is a crash, there is a crash in the sea," said an unnamed official who answered the phone in the Yemenia office in Moroni. He declined further comment. An airline official in Yemen declined to comment.
COMING TO LAND
Interior minister Hamid Bourhane said the army had sent small speedboats to an area between the village of Ntsaoueni and the airport.
"At the moment we don't have any information about whether there are any survivors," he said. A medical worker in Mitsamiouli said he had been called in. "They have just called me to come to the hospital. They said a plane had crashed," he said.
A United Nations official at the airport, who declined to be named, said the control tower had received notification the plane was coming into land, and then lost contact with it. Yemenia, which is 51% owned by the Yemeni government and 49% owned by the Saudi Arabian government, flies to Moroni, according to flight schedules
on its website. Yemenia's fleet includes two Airbus 330-200s, four Airbus 310-300s and four Boeing 737-800s, according to the site.
The Comoros covers three small volcanic islands, Grande Comore, Anjouan and Moheli, in the Mozambique channel, 300 km (190 miles) northwest of Madagascar and a similar distance east of the African mainland. A hijacked Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 767 crashed into the sea off the Comoros islands in 1996, killing 125 of 175 passengers and crew.
Toddler rescued from Yemenia plane crash
SAN'A, Yemen:A toddler has been rescued alive from the Airbus 310 that crashed off Indian Ocean island with 153 people on board early Tuesday as it tried to land during heavy wind on the island nation of Comoros, a Yemeni aviation official said.
Bodies were spotted floating off the coast and a Comoros police official said three had been recovered so far.
Yemeni civil aviation deputy chief Mohammed Abdul Qader said there were 142 passengers and a crew of 11 Yemenis on board when the plane, which had set off from the Yemeni capital of San'a, went down before landing in Moroni, on the main island of Grand Comore.
The majority of the passengers were from the Comoros islands, returning home from Paris, he said. Those on board included families with children and there were at least three babies on board, he added.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said in a statement that 66 of the passengers were French. He said French aviation and naval support was heading to help in search operations at the Comoros government's request.
Abdul Qader, the Yemeni official, said bodies have been spotted floating off the archipelago and that a rescue and search effort was under way. He said Yemeni, French and Comoron officials were coordinating to investigate the plane crash.
"They spotted an oil spill 16 or 17 miles in the Ocean off the (Moroni) airport," Abdul Qader said, adding that three Comoron boats are searching for the debris and bodies. "The wind speed was 61 kilometers per hour as the plane was landing."
TRAI issues draft for Mobile Number Portability
New Delhi:Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) issued draft regulations for introduction of mobile number portability (MNP) in the country.
The draft regulations describe the rights, obligations and duties of both the telecom operators (donor and recipient) for the "porting" (changing) of mobile number, TRAI said in a statement.
MNP allows a user to change his/her telecom operator without changing the mobile phone number. The draft suggests that a mobile subscriber shall be eligible to make a request for "porting" (changing) his mobile number upon expiry of a period of ninety days from the date of activation of his present mobile connection.
The recipient operator, within five days of receiving a written request, has to carry out subscriber verification according to the guidelines for acquiring a new user.
Upon verification, the request is to be forwarded to the donor operator (to whose network such mobile subscriber number currently belongs) for seeking its clearance.
Upon receipt of the porting request, the donor operator shall verify and communicate the details to the MNP service provider within two working days.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had issued guidelines for MNP service license in August last year and its envisaged geographical division of the country into two Number Portability Zones, each consisting of 11 licensed service areas.
Subsequently, one MNP service provider in each zone was selected -- Syniverse Technologies (in north and western India) and MNP Interconnection Telecom Solutions (for east and southern India). The licenses were granted in March this year.
The MNP service provider would be responsible for establishing, operating and maintaining the MNP Clearing House and the Number Portability Database.
Adobe in one-week US shut down
SAN FRANCISCO: Adobe Inc, the world’s biggest maker of graphic-design software, shut down North American operations this week, part of a plan to cut operating costs as the recession crimps sales.
Adobe told employees in March it would impose one-week closures in the second, third and fourth quarters, and asked staff to take paid vacation time, the company said today.
“These are in addition to the normal holiday shutdown” between Christmas and New Year’s Day, San Jose, California-based Adobe said in an e-mail.
The company has frozen salaries, trimmed bonuses and variable compensation plans, and curbed travel expenses, Chief Executive Officer Mark Garrett said in an April interview. In December, the company fired about 8 percent of the workforce to help rein in costs during the economic slump.
Second-quarter sales fell 21 percent as customers held off upgrading to the latest version of Adobe’s Creative Suite programs, which account for about 60 percent of revenue. Sales in Europe trailed expectations, the company said on a June 16 conference call.
Adobe advanced 62 cents to $28.62 at 4 p.m. New York time on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The shares have gained 34 percent this year.
Worldwide spending on information-technology products will shrink 9 percent this year as the economy contracts, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
British bank Lloyds says it is cutting 2,100 more jobs
London:Britain's state-controlled Lloyds Banking Group said on Tuesday that it would cut 2,100 more jobs over the next three years as the embattled company seeks to streamline its operations.
"LBG is announcing today a number of organisational changes within its group operations and wholesale divisions," it said in a statement.
"These changes follow careful and detailed reviews by the group and will result in the bringing together of a number of functions."
Lloyds, which is 43-per cent owned by the government after a huge bailout, added that it has already cut 700 roles "through the natural attrition process" and the release of contract and agency workers.
"Following these changes, up to approximately 2,100 roles will be affected over the next three years. This number is mitigated by the creation of approximately 350 new roles in the wholesale division."
According to trade union estimates, the bank has now slashed around 7,000 jobs since its creation in January, when Lloyds TSB bought rival lender HBOS in a government-brokered deal.
Indian Sports News|Sports News|Wimbledon News
Fedex eases into quarters, Murray sweats it out
London:Heatwave conditions heralded the start of Wimbledon's second week on Monday as the surviving 32 men and women in the singles draws chased quarter-finals slots. With the mercury shooting past 30 degrees as Elena Dementieva polished off fellow Russian Elena Vesnina to become the first player into the last eight, fans grabbing spots near Henman Hill's huge video screen in advance of the Andy Murray show later sizzled in the sunshine.
Defending women's champion Venus Williams, looking for a third consecutive title here, was able to conserve vital energy, the American third seed strolling through to the quarters when tearful Serbian opponent Ana Ivanovic retired after losing the first set 6-1. Like the third round of a golf major, nicknamed moving day, when the top players begin to rise up the leaderboard, Wimbledon's second Monday is traditionally the moment when the main title contenders turn it up a notch.
Men's favorite Roger Federer, seeking to reclaim the title he has won five times, has not been absent from the second week of Wimbledon since 2002, the year before his domination of the grasscourt slam began. Federer, on course for a record 15th grand slam title, was scheduled first on Center Court for his fourth-round match against Robin Soderling, the Swede he beat in the French Open final earlier this month. At times during the first week Federer appeared to be playing exhibition tennis, so untroubled was his progress, Soderling's grass scorching serve and the baking temperatures should make the cool-as-a-cucumber Swiss break sweat.
Murray puts faith in coach's superstition to win Wimbledon title
London:Andy Murray's coaching team are leaving nothing to chance in his quest to become the first British player since Fred Perry in 1936 to win the men's singles title at Wimbledon. The Scot on Sunday revealed the superstitions of his coach that dictate the court on which he practices at the All England Club.
The world No3, who faces the No19 seed, Stanislas Wawrinka, in the fourth round on Monday, exuded such confidence during the first week that it is hard to imagine his coach, Miles Maclagan, seeing the need for lucky charms or favoured routines. But Murray said the man he hired in 2007 to replace Brad Gilbert was “a bit weird". "My coach is very superstitious so I just go along with his stuff," Murray told channelbee.com. "He always wants me to practice on a specific court, Court Three, before my first match. If I am playing at 2pm, then he will make me practice in the same place I practiced the day before. He's a bit weird like that."
Having beaten Robert Kendrick, Ernests Gulbis and Viktor Troicki in the opening week, the 22-year-old will be third on Centre Court today to face the Swiss Wawrinka, a man he has beaten four times in seven matches but has never played on grass. "There is quite a lot of psychology in tennis but you will rarely see it. John McEnroe has said that he used psychology as a sort of tactic. I wish there was more of it going on, as it makes it more interesting to watch,” said Murray.
Michael Vaughan retires, leaves a rich legacy behind
Edgbaston:Tired of battling poor form and a nagging knee injury, England's most successful Test captain Michael Vaughan announced his retirement from all forms of professional cricket with immediate effect.
"After a great deal of consideration, I've decided that now is the right time to retire from cricket," the 34-year-old Yorkshire batsman said in a statement.
Vaughan departs leaving a rich legacy, having won 26 of the 51 Test matches he was in charge of. His achievements include leading England to their first Ashes victory against Australia in 18 years in 2005, something he described as the defining moment of his captaincy.
"I'd like to wish Andrew Strauss and the current England team success in this Ashes series. I know they have the drive, ambition and abilities to repeat the success from 2005. Winning that series was most definitely the highpoint of my career," said Vaughan, whose exit was just a matter of time after the right-hander was excluded from England's pre-Ashes squad.
Vaughan said time was ripe to leave the scene and pave way for the youngsters. "It has been an enormous privilege to have played for and captained my country and this is one of the hardest decisions I have had to make.”
"Having played almost non-stop for sixteen seasons, I feel that the time is right for the focus to shift to the next generation," Vaughan said.
"We have some fantastic talent coming through the English counties and, with the next Ashes series upon us, now is the time for the younger players to rise to the challenge of building on the success achieved in English cricket in the last few years," he added.
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