Baghdad: A truck bomb exploded across the street from Iraq's Foreign Ministry near the Green Zone Wednesday, knocking out concrete slabs and windows and leaving a mass of charred cars outside as a wave of explosions around Baghdad killed at least 86 people.
It was the deadliest apparently coordinated attack in Iraq so far this year and marked a major challenge to Iraqi control of Baghdad.
A steady escalation of attacks following the June 30 withdrawal of US troops from urban areas has heightened fears that government troops are not ready to provide security.
Iraqi officials blamed al-Qaida in Iraq and other Sunni insurgents, echoing U.S. military warnings that the militant group is trying to provoke new bloodshed to undermine public trust in the Shiite-led Iraqi government.
"The terrorists are trying to rekindle the cycle of violence of previous years by creating an atmosphere of tension among the Iraqi people," Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said in a statement. "Our security forces must be more alert and firm. Also, the political groups must unite."
Sunni and Shiite extremists remain active in Iraq and the US military has detected some political violence ahead of next year's national elections. But truck bombs and suicide attacks bear the hallmarks of al-Qaida in Iraq.
The most devastating strike blackened the facade of the Foreign Ministry, killing at least 59 people and wounding 250, according to police and hospital officials. Rescue workers dug through rubble and debris near the ministry, which is adjacent to the Green Zone, the most heavily protected part of the capital.
Swine flu cases climb to 2,242 in the country
NEW DELHI: Swine flu continued to spread in the country with 216 people testing positive for the deadly virus, taking the total number of those afflicted with the pandemic to 2,242.
Mumbai (48) and Pune (36) topped the list of cases followed by Chennai (30) and Delhi (25).
The other cases were from Bangalore (17), Nagpur (13), Coimbatore (9), Dhule (5), Gurgaon, Nashik, Latur, Aurangabad, Rajkot (three each), Naned, Ratnagiri, Beed, Surat (two each) and Ahmednagar, Kholapur, Satara, Diburgarh, Jamnagar, Vadodara, Ahmedabad, Daman, Mangalore and Buldan (one each).
Out of the 25 cases reported from Delhi, only three cases have foreign travel history.
"11,724 persons have been tested so far out of which 2,242 are positive for swine flu. Of the 2242 positive cases, 758 have been discharged," a Health Ministry official said.
Why is BJP reacting in such a manner, wonders Jaswant
Shimla: After his expulsion from the BJP in a rather unceremonious manner, the 71-year old Jaswant Singh said on Wednesday that if Congress had reacted angrily, it would have been "understandable" but "why is BJP reacting in such a manner?"
The BJP veteran, who had been Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, said his "biggest worry and concern was that he was expelled just because he had written a book."
"I think, in Indian polity and political parties, if aspects like thinking, introspection, discussion, reading and writing end, it will not be in the interest of the country," he said.
Contending that similar things were happening in BJP, he suggested that it would hurt the party.
To a question on "lack of internal democracy" in BJP, Jaswant Singh said "some in party feel that there is a great deal of selectivity in the party... It is not right to be selective in addressing the questions of dissent and discussion."
Jaswant, however, evaded a reply when asked whether the party had been harsh in his case for praising Jinnah in comparison to Advani, in whose case such comments were forgotten even though he still had not apologised.
Recalling that he was among the first lot of BJP leaders who were given positions of responsibility in the party by Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani, Jaswant Singh said "I am of course saddened by the way I have been expelled after having worked for the party with dedication for 30 years. I have served the party to the best of my ability," he said.
PM’s new Mission on pulses, oilseeds: bust hoarders
New Delhi: With the Congress Working Committee asking the government to take proactive steps for controlling prices and action against hoarders, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh favoured a new Mission mode for increasing pulses and oilseeds production to hold the price line.
Singh made the statement at a meeting of the Congress Working Committee convened to discuss the drought situation and its impact on prices.
"The PM accepted that the situation (drought) was bad but said efforts are also being made to meet the situation with equal efficiency", AICC general secretary Janardan Dwivedi told reporters after the three hour long meeting.
Expressing concern over the price situation, the Prime Minister said the country may have to have a new Mission for raising the production of pulses and oilseeds. He expressed the hope that the situation would improve quickly.
Late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had adopted a Mission mode approach in various sectors including pulses, oilseeds and telecom.
The Prime Minister's remarks came close on the heels of Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who presided over the meet, wondering why the retail prices of essential commodities have risen when the wholesale price index was showing a downward trend and the inflation was down, party sources said.
The sources said the meeting saw Home Minister P Chidambaram strongly advocating the need for the Centre intervening in the de-hoarding operations to check blackmarketing and artificial scarcity.
Senior leader Arjun Singh supported him but the general view was that the states, which have been charged with that responsibility, should take action on this count.
Docs relating to Shastri’s death cannot be disclosed: PMO
The Prime Minister’s Office has turned down the plea for making public the ‘only’ document pertaining to the mysterious death of former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri in Tashkent in 1966.
The PMO has, however, specified no reason for its non- disclosure while citing the confidentiality clause under the RTI Act.
The case relating to disclosure of records pertaining to the death of Shastri will now come up in appeal before the Central Information Commission, which will take a decision on the confidentiality issue.
Earlier, the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO), while rejecting an RTI application relating to Shastri’s death, had accepted that the PMO has one document on it but turned down the plea to make it public, citing the confidentiality clause under the Act.
The RTI applicant Anuj Dhar, author of a book, ‘CIA’s Eye on South Asia’, had then filed an appeal with the First Appellate Authority in PMO against the decision of the CPIO.
“I appreciate the point made by you in favour of transparency. However, on perusal of document in question and after giving the matter a careful consideration, I am satisfied that exemption sought under Section 8 (1)(a) has been invoked rightly,” Vini Mahajan, Joint Secretary in PMO said while rejecting the appeal.
Indian Business News
Infosys has bid for over 10 govt deals
Bangalore : Infosys Technologies, India's second-largest IT services exporter, has bid for more than 10 large government projects in India, an official said, as part of a drive to lower its dependence on the US market.
Infosys, which gets more than half its revenue from the United States, plans to generate $1 billion worth of business from the domestic market in 2-3 years from "insignificant" level now, the head of its India business unit, said.
"There are large opportunities in India. So we are definitely going to go after these kinds of businesses very aggressively in India," Binod Rangadore said in an interview. "We have a very healthy pipeline right now."
Outsourcing firms such as Infosys and bigger rival Tata Consultancy Services are tapping new markets such as India, China, Japan and countries in Europe to beat a recession in the United States.
The Indian firms face competition from big global players such as IBM Inc, Hewlett-Packard, and Accenture that have raided their home turf as they look for growth outside their mature markets.
Sensex sheds 1.5 pct, closes below 15k
Mumbai:Equities fell 1.5 per cent on Wednesday as jitters over below-normal rainfall hurting economic growth, weak US housing data and tepid overseas markets drained investor confidence.
A stocks slump in China also put the spotlight on pricey valuations and raised doubts about whether shares had run up too fast this year.
Leading lender State Bank of India, energy giant Reliance Industries and outsourcer Infosys Technologies led the losses.
Glenmark Pharmaceuticals plummeted as much as 17.4 per cent to its lowest in more than a month after the company and partner Forest Laboratories said their lung drug failed in a mid-stage trial.
The stock later pared some losses to end down 14.7 per cent at Rs 223.20.
Some analysts say there is still enough liquidity flowing into the market to support shares, and long-term investors will look to buy on dips.
The market is still moving sideways, and there may not be a significant fall immediately, Avinash Gupta, assistant vice president of equity research at Bonanza Portfolio Ltd, said.
People are expecting the economy to improve by the third quarter, but even then if it doesn't there will be a selloff.
The 30-share BSE index ended down 225.62 points at 14,809.64, with 27 stocks declining, after falling as much as 2.3 per cent during trade.
The benchmark had risen 1.7 per cent on Tuesday, after dropping 4.1 per cent to its lowest close in a month in the previous session.
Yesterday, the market bounced only because we had a huge fall on Monday. Today, I am not surprised the market is resuming its downward slide because valuations are still stretched, Gajendra Nagpal, chief executive of Unicon Financial, said.
Indian Sports News
Galle Test: Kiwis regroup after Samaraweera century
Galle (Sri Lanka): Sri Lanka's Thilan Samaraweera hit a solid 159 before skipper Daniel Vettori inspired a New Zealand comeback in the first cricket Test in Galle on Wednesday.
Samaraweera's third Test century this year after two monumental double centuries in Pakistan in February helped Sri Lanka pile up 452 in their first innings by tea on the rain-curtailed second day.
The Black Caps responded bravely to the challenge by going to stumps at 87-2, with left-handed opener Tim McIntosh unbeaten on 36 and nightwatchman Jeetan Patel on six.
Martin Guptill and McIntosh raced to an opening stand of 45 in 10 overs before Guptill dragged a ball from Thilan Thushara on to his wicket after making 24.
Ajantha Mendis then bowled Daniel Flynn for 14, but Patel and McIntosh saw out the day with New Zealand still needing 166 runs to avoid the follow-on on a good batting strip.
Sri Lanka appeared to be running away with the match before the experienced Vettori stepped in to stage a New Zealand revival.
The left-arm spinner grabbed four wickets as Sri Lanka, 386-4 at one stage, lost six batsmen for 66 runs -- the last four for eight runs -- in a dramatic post-lunch session.
Vettori finished with 4-78 to take his career tally to 297 wickets and now needs just three more to become only the ninth player in Test history to achieve the double of 3,000 runs and 300 wickets.
Just 13 overs were bowled in the morning session after heavy rain delayed the start by two hours, and Sri Lanka moved from their overnight score of 293-3 to 328-4 by lunch.
Dhoni, Yuvraj lead ICC ODI batsmen ranking
DUBAI: Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni continued to top the One-day batsmen chart with his deputy Yuvraj Singh occupying the second position in the latest ICC ODI Player Rankings released on Wednesday.
Apart from Dhoni and Yuvraj, Delhi dasher Virender Sehwag, at the seventh spot, is the other Indian to feature in the top 10 batsmen list.
Master blaster Sachin Tendulkar and Gautam Gambhir are at the 14th and 17th spot respectively in the chart.
However, no Indian features among top 10 ODI bowlers with left-arm pacer Zaheer Khan languishing at the 17th spot in the list which is being headed by Sri Lankan Nuwan Kulasekara, followed by Kyle Mills and Daniel Vettori of New Zealand.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hasan continued to top the ODI all-rounders table, followed by England's Andrew Flintoff in the second spot and Kiwi Jacob Oram at the third position.
India also managed to hold on to their second best ODI team status with 126 rating points.
South Africa tops the table with a point lead over India, while World Champions Australia is lying third with 119 points.
India lose Nehru Cup opener against Lebanon 0-1
NEW DELHI: Defending champions India conceded an early goal and then failed to convert the chances that came their way to go down 0-1 against Lebanon in the opening match of the Nehru Cup football tournament on Wednesday.
It was a disappointing start for India, who were looking for their second consecutive title after 2007, as they were done in by a fifth minute strike by Lebanon defender Ali Al Saad who drilled in a powerful free kick into Indian goal from near the 'D' circle.
India thus failed to take revenge on their opponents who had won once and drawn another in their last two meetings, in the World Cup qualifiers in 2007.
Playing their first international match since January 14, the home team dominated for most part of the match except for the first 15 minutes in front of a large home crowd who filled more than half of Ambedkar Stadium under floodlights.
Lebanon, who were playing without their four regular national players, got their first opportunity as early as in the fourth minute, from a move initiated by striker Mahmoud El Ali.
El Ali's strike partner Mohammad Ghaddar collected the ball and sent a low cross from the right only to find Ali Hamam's left footer blocked by an Indian defender in front of goal.
Next minute, central defender Ali Al Saad fired home from just near the 'D' which gave the Indian goalkeeper Subrata Paul no chance. Anwar had brought down a Lebanon player to concede the free kick.
India came close to scoring three minutes later but NS Manju's cross from the left just missed the outstretched legs of captain Bhaichung Bhutia.
After the goal advantage, Lebanon tried to slow down the game but India did not give them respite and kept the ball in the opposition half.
At the half-hour mark, India were denied an equaliser by Lebanon defender Ali Hamam who cleared a Sushil Kumar's powerful header off a Dias corner near the goalpost.
Four minutes before half time, India got another chance but NP Pradeep's header from a Steven Dias free kick missed the target by inches.
Just at the stroke of half time Sushil's shot from top of box was tipped off by an alert Lebanon goalkeeper Lary Mehanna.
India coach Bob Houghton surprised everybody by bringing in Sunil Chhetri, who was doubtful for the tournament due to an ankle injury, in place of Sushil Singh.
Chhetri made some dangerous moves combining with Bhutia but failed to find the equaliser. Surkumar set up a nice floater in the 57th minute for Chhetri but the India striker headed over the bar.
In the 66th minute, Bhutia was down inside the box and claimed a penalty but instead the India captain was shown the yellow card by the referee apparently for falling down himself.
India pressed for the equaliser with incessant attacks but failed to hit the Lebanese net much to the disappointment of Indian fans.
India play Kyrgyzstan in their second round-robin match on August 22.
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