LONDON: Hit by organizational delays and controversies, the formal countdown to the 2010 Commonwealth Games began on Thursday with the launch of Commonwealth Games Queen's baton relay, which saw India's President Pratibha Patil making history by becoming the first Head of a State to attend such a ceremony.
The brief ceremony, held at the majestic Buckingham Palace showcased India's rich tradition through a cultural show before Queen Elizabeth II handed over the glittering baton to Patil amidst thunderous applause.
The Queen placed her message into the baton after receiving it from Commonwealth Games Federation Michael Fennell as a host of dignitaries watched the proceedings beamed live in India.
President Patil passed on the baton to Sports Minister of India MS Gill, who handed it over to Organising Committee Chairman Suresh Kalmadi.
From Kalmadi baton reached the hands of first baton-bearer Abhinav Bindra, India's only Olympic Gold medallist.
With Indian music playing in the background air rifle shooter Bindra began the relay-run and handed over the baton to legendary middle-distance runner Lord Sebastian Coe, waiting just outside the gates of the Palace.
Coe is also Chairman of the Organising Committee of the 2012 London Olympics.
The baton passed through the hands of legendary cricketer Kapil Dev, the most successful female tennis player Sania Mirza, flying sikh Milkha Singh, Olympic bronze medal winners -- boxer Vijender Singh and wrestler Sushil Kumar -- and England's first Sikh cricketer Monty Panesar among other Indian sports personalities.
The Queen's Baton for the 2010 Commonwealth Games is a delicate mix of aesthetics and technology with an in-built location tracking system and a camera capable of sending images to the Games website.
After travelling to different member countries of the Commonwealth, the Baton will enter India through Wagah Border along Pakistan, 100 days before the start of the Games.
It will then be taken to all state capitals of the country before reaching the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Delhi for the opening ceremony of the Games on October 3, 2010.
Earlier, dance, dresses and drums from different parts of India virtually turned the majestic Victoria Memorial into a mini-India at the start of relay.
A bunch of British students joined the celebrations chanting the Sanskrit verses from ancient Rig Veda.
As the sanskrit prayers speaking of unity and humanity of these students from St James school reverberated in the forecourt of the Buckingham Palace, the crowd joined in with encouraging cheers and claps for their effort.
The students provided perfect icing on the function by performing Indian classical dance forms Bharatnatyam, Kuchipudi and folk dances like Bhangra and Dandia in front of Queen Elizabeth II and President Pratibha Patil.
Rajdhani hijack: Maoists, PCPA not named in FIR
NEW DELHI: In what is being seen as a move to shield the Maoists, there is no mention of the Maoists or even the People's Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCPA)in the FIR that was lodged against the hijackers of the Rajdhani Express by the Railway authorities, in the Rajdhani hostage case.
Questions are now being raised over why Mamata Banerjee's railways ministry has not mentioned the PCPA or the Maoists' in the FIR.
This new information comes to light despite the Maoists and the PCPA claiming responsibility for the hijack of the Rajdhani.
The FIR was lodged with the Jhargram GRP.
According to "normal procedure" the railways on Thurday filed an FIR against "unknown persons" for holding up the train, "heckling passengers" and preventing staff from "discharging their duties for a long time".
Although some known faces of the People's Committee Against Police Atrocities, including Santosh Patra, were among the crowd, a railway official was quoted by sources saying "Who will identify them? We do not know any of them?"
Maoists have no link with Trinamool, other parties: Ksihenji
The CPI (Maoist) on Thursday rubbished charges levelled by the CPM that Trinamool Congress was patronising Maoists, saying the Left party was trying to keep itself afloat by making such allegations.
"There is no need for us to have the CPM or the Trinamool Congress as allies," Maoist leader Kishenji said on CPM's allegations that the outfit was protected by TC.
"It is not only Sitaram Yechury, but all top CPM leaders have lost touch with the people and are trying to create a sensation," Kishneji said.
On the CPM's contention that Trinamool leader and Union minister of state Sisir Adhikari had prior knowledge of the attack on the Delhi-bound Rajdhani Express on October 27 in West Midnapore district, Kishenji claimed that even he was not aware of it.
"I don't know who had prior information about the Rajdhani Express blockade. Even I didn't have any information about it. The tribals blocked the train during a bandh called by them. This is normal," he said.
"When all parties have the democratic right to protest and call bandhs, why not tribals?" he asked.
Rajdhani hostage saga: Motive still a mystery
KOLKATA: The Bhubaneswar-New Delhi Rajdhani Express taken hostage by armed tribals at Banstala Halt Station near Jhargram on Tuesday was no mere blockade. It was rather a pre-planned move by Maoists using the People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCPA) at the front. The move has laid bare that PCPA’s links with Maoists, which is why Maoist squads took position amid the neighbouring Panisole forests to protect the agitators on the railway tracks.
Villagers smelt a rat when an elephant herd came out of the forests some days ago and entered the Jhargram town. The local belief is that these huge mammals can’t stay inside the forests in the event of any movement of alien creatures.
They could be right given the date and timing of the siege. Maoist leader Kishanji had scripted the strike in a bid to demoralise the security forces who were conducting raids in the villages of West Midnapore, soon after they had to give a safe passage to Kishanji and his armed squad during the release of Sankrail police officer Atindranath Datta held hostage by Maoists. Mark the timing.
The “blockade” was planned on a day when a sizeable section of the district police had fanned out along the 7km stretch from Panskura in East Midnapore to Chowringhee, the gateway to Midnapore town, to oversee the route by which chief secretary Asok Mohan Chakrabarti, director general of police Bhupinder Singh, and five other senior IAS officers were coming to Midnapore from Kolkata. A huge police force was also deployed to escort the convoy from Chowringhee to Midnapore town.
PCPA supporters gathered at the railway tracks minutes before the Rajdhani Express was about to arrive. Strangely, no one in the district administration had an inkling of this impromptu blockade. And more the high-profile train chugged in without any RPF inside compartments. The Maoist script was perfect till then. They got the mileage they wanted.
Confusion began after the agitators were at bay over their future course. PCPA leader Santosh Patra went on air making incoherent claims. On one occasion, he said that agitators would release the train by the next day, and then made amends to the release plan saying they would release the driver by 5pm, and finally claimed that no one was taken hostage. Later, Patra said that they wanted railway minister Mamata Banerjee to come to the spot.
Pak charges on Taliban funding far-fetched and false: PM
Srinagar:Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday strongly rejected Pakistan’s charge that India was funding Taliban, saying it was “far-fetched and far from truth” and those levelling such allegations “know it jolly well”.
Singh described as “totally false” the allegation made by Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik that India was fomenting unrest within that country through steps such as funding Taliban based along the border with Afghanistan.
“I think nothing can be far-fetched, far from truth. We are the victims of terrorism, aided and abetted from Pakistani side.
“Therefore, my simple answer that both the references to Balochistan and what has been said with regard to India funding Taliban are totally false,” he said during a press conference after his two-day visit to Kashmir.
PM said that what was alleged about India’s role in Balochistan has no basis and those who are levelling false charges “know it jolly well”.
“The same applies to the latest statement of an important minister (Malik) accusing India of financing Taliban,” the Prime Minister said.
Indian Business News
Washington: The US economy grew in the third quarter for the first time in a year, beating market expectations, as consumer spending and new home-building rebounded, signaling the end of the worst recession in 70 years.
The Commerce Department, in its first estimate of third-quarter gross domestic product on Thursday, said the economy grew at a 3.5 per cent annual rate, the fastest pace since the third quarter of 2007, after contracting 0.7 per cent in the April-June period.
The growth pace in GDP, which measures total goods and services output within US borders, was above market expectations for a 3.3 per cent rate. The economy last grew in the second quarter of 2008.
"Better than expected GDP is confirming that the Great Recession has ended," said Kevin Flanagan, fixed-income strategist for Global Wealth Management at Morgan Stanley in Purchase, New York.
"The question going forward is, is this more of a statistical recovery or are we going to get some meaningful momentum on a sustained basis."
US stock index futures prices rose after the economic data. The dollar rose against the yen, and US government debt prices extended their decline on the better-than-expected reports.
Recessions in the United States are dated by the National Bureau of Economic Research and the private-sector group often takes months to make determinations. The economy slipped into recession at the end of 2007 and has been in the worst downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
The third-quarter recovery was generally broad-based, with solid gains in consumer spending, exports and home construction.
Air India to pay salaries by Oct 31
Mumbai/New Delhi:With an impending stir threat by its pilots, Air India is likely to pay the September salaries of its employees in two days and incentives and allowances by November 10, airline sources said on Thursday.
Talks were held with banks and financial institutions for working capital loans to arrange the amount for payment of salaries, productivity-linked incentives (PLIs) and flying allowances to the employees including pilots, they said.
Sources also said the management of the cash-strapped airline was making all efforts to pay the dues of the employees very soon, including the salaries by October 31 and PLI and allowances by November 10.
Talks with the banks were initiated after negotiations between executive pilots and their other colleagues in Mumbai over the past few days.
As the negotiations failed to yield any result, the executive pilots as well as the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) threatened "industrial action" if the issue was not resolved soon.
Indian Sports News|Sports News
London: The formal countdown to next year's Delhi Commonwealth Games began today with the ceremonial Queen's Baton relay, which saw Queen Elizabeth II handing over the glittering baton to India's President Pratibha Patil in London.
Before the Queen placed her message to the baton and passed it on Patil to mark the beginning of a year-long relay, a cultural show in sync with India's rich tradition was organised at the majestic Buckingham Palace.
The message was engraved onto a miniature 18-carat gold leaf that is symbolic of the ancient Indian palm leaf patras. It is for the first time that the Head of a State attended the traditional ceremony and received the baton from the Queen.
Commonwealth Games Federation Michael Fennell presented the baton to the Queen.
President Patil passed on the baton to Indian Sports Minister M S Gill, who handed it over to Organising Committee Chairman Suresh Kalmadi.
From Kalmadi baton reached the hands of first baton bearer Abhinav Bindra, India's only Olympic Gold medallist.
I am not finished yet, insists Lee
New Delhi: The wear and tear of the last 10 years have taken a toll on Brett Lee's body but the Australian pace spearhead has no plans of cutting down on any formats of the game to prolong his career.
Lee said the focus now is to get his place back in the Australian Test squad but he was not planning to sacrifice ODIs or Twenty20 to achieve that.
"To constantly bowl 150 kmph for 10-15 years will obviously result in injuries but I am not finished yet. I am feeling fresh and still have lot more years of cricket left. I still love the game and have passion for the game," Lee said here today.
"Any opportunity to play for your country is something special and as bowler I am certainly not complaining. I love to play all formats of the game. I love Twenty20, it is exciting but I am hungry as ever to get back in the Test team," he added.
The 33-year-old pacer said the injury sustained during the first ODI against India in Vadodara was unfortunate and he was hoping for a commendable performance in rest of the seven-match series to earn his place back in the Test side. He also ruled out suggestions that playing in the Champions League just before the bilateral series had anything to do with his injury.
"I don't think my injury has anything to do with Champions League. I wanted to play as much as possible, especially after bowling in the nets throughout the Ashes.
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