NRI woman gets 33 yrs for killing daughters

An Indian-origin woman who stabbed her two teenage daughters to death at her house in Cambridgeshire was on Tuesday sentenced to 33 years in prison after she was found guilty of the murders.

Rekha Kumari-Baker, 41, admitted to the killings, but denied murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility. Davina Baker, 16, and Jasmine Baker, 13, were killed with a kitchen knife in a frenzied attack in 2007.

Earlier, a jury at Cambridge Crown Court took 30 minutes to reach a verdict of guilty on both counts of murder.

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China strikes back on Arunachal

Barely weeks after it failed in its attempt to block Asian Development Bank (ADB) funds to a project in Arunachal Pradesh, China has successfully struck back.

Last month, in a development New Delhi has been quiet about, China won a vote on a “disclosure agreement,” which prevents ADB from formally acknowledging Arunachal Pradesh as part of India. (A disclosure agreement is a formal notification of a project once it’s approved by the ADB Board).

On June 16, India had successfully isolated China the entire ADB Board except Beijing had voted in India’s favour and secured approval for its $2.9-billion country plan.

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Government finds out: 25,000 Chinese entered India on business visas but are in unskilled jobs

In a massive screening exercise of Chinese working on Indian projects, the government has identified close to 25,000 such workers who are on business visas but have been doing unskilled and semi-skilled jobs. A deadline of September 30 has been set for these workers to either return or apply for a legitimate employment visa.

To avoid further confusion in future, the Home Ministry, in a meeting with industry representatives, made it clear that no Indian company has the right to enter into an obligation in a contract with a Chinese company for bringing labour from there. The government is of the view that this involves sovereign issues and no entity, private or public, can insert this on its own in a commercial contract.

As a result, Chinese companies are now complaining because labour was one key advantageous segment for them in every bid and allowed them to offer lower costs compared to competitors.

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Separate wards, staff in Maharashtra private hospitals

As the swine flu toll in India rose to four on Sunday, the central government announced major policy decisions in the battle against the global pandemic.

Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has asked the government of Maharashtra — where three of the deaths have occurred — to make it mandatory for all major private hospitals to isolate wards and designate and train staff to handle cases of H1N1 infection.

All big hospitals both private and government in Pune, Satara and Mumbai are required, with immediate effect, to assign separate halls or wards and special OPDs for patients suspected to have swine flu.

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Gujarat, Andhra chosen as sites for United States nuclear reactors

Days before US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrives In India on her first official visit after taking charge, India is learnt to have firmed up a site each in Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh that will be dedicated for the first US nuclear reactors after the nuclear deal.

While this has already been indicated to Washington, sources said, a formal announcement could happen during Clinton’s visit.

The identification of the sites flows from a commitment India had given, through a letter of intent under the nuclear deal, which commits India to purchase 10,000 MW from US nuclear companies and mark “at least two sites” for this purpose.

Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh were the two states that offered sites for this and have now been approved.

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Team India failed unit test

Their first match on this trip, the warm-up against New Zealand, India lost by nine runs, their last game of the campaign, against South Africa, they lost by 12. As a team though, they have taken more steps back in the last two weeks than those numbers suggest.

Of all the hits that MS Dhoni and his team have taken over the fortnight, this one probably hurt the most. Losing to South Africa on a turner (the track was more Kanpur than Trent Bridge), chasing an extremely chaseable 130 at that, definitely ticks the box marked embarrassing.

For the last three days, the Indian camp has been answering questions on what went wrong.

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Lashkar-e-Toiba founder set free, Pakistan Prime Minister invokes Kashmir word again

Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, who founded the Lashkar-e-Toiba which carried out the Mumbai terror attacks, was today set free by the Lahore High Court, triggering an angry response from India which accused Pakistan of not being serious about fighting terror.

Hours later, Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, in a strident anti-India statement, asked “occupying forces” in Jammu and Kashmir to stop “repression”. He said the “indigenous uprising” in J&K ignited by the Amarnath shrine issue last year had added “another sad chapter to the sufferings of the Kashmiri people.”

In New Delhi, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon too was present at the meeting where they were said to have discussed options India could exercise to put pressure on Pakistan following the release of Saeed.

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India, Pakistan rivals but they trained, helped us fight Tigers: Lanka Army

Behind the success of the Sri Lankan army’s operations against the Tamil Tigers — troops searching for LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran breached two rebel defence fortifications in the no-fire zone — is an interesting little detail of Indo-Pak cooperation against terror. Separately but consistently, the two countries have trained and equipped the Lankan army to prepare and fight its only enemy, the LTTE.

The Sri Lankan army says the reason for its success is that “we didn’t reduce the momentum”, planned the entire operation in advance and employed innovative counter-insurgency tactics to confront the Tigers.

“I got training in both India and Pakistan. Both have been helping us a lot,” said Brigadier Udaya Nanayakara, now the military spokesman. “We send our officers regularly to India and Pakistan for specialised training. I did four courses in India and three in Pakistan. The last time, I trained in Secunderabad.

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Russians want another 700 million dollars for Gorshkov

Just as India grudgingly prepared itself to re-negotiate with Russia on its demand to more than double the original cost for aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov, Moscow has conveyed another shocker to New Delhi that the deal will cost another $700 million.

This makes the deal worth $2.9 billion, which is almost thrice the original amount agreed upon when the agreement was first reached on January 29, 2004 by the NDA Government for $974 million. While India did expect cost-escalation to the tune of $350-400 million in the course of refurbishing the old ship, Russia stunned India by proposing a $1.2 billion hike in November 2007 that pushed up the cost to $2.2 billion.

It took several rounds of official-level talks and then the visit by Defence Minister A K Antony to Moscow for the UPA government to consider Russia’s request. Finally, the Cabinet Committee on Security gave its approval in December, around the time Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was visiting India, to renegotiate the Gorshkov deal in view of the cost escalation.

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Ties very good, let’s do better: Prime Minister to Obama

US President-elect Barack Obama has described the India-US strategic relationship as a “very important partnership”, and said his administration would like to work with New Delhi on all important global issues.

Obama called Prime Minister Manmohan Singh this morning, the PMO said. The PM had earlier clarified that Obama and he had been unable to talk because of scheduling constraints.

The PM congratulated Obama warmly and said that his “historic victory was a source of inspiration for oppressed people all over the world”, a PMO statement said. Obama “praised the Prime Minister’s contribution to the progress of India both as Minister of Finance earlier and now as Prime Minister”. Singh told Obama that “relations between India and the United States were very good, but we cannot be satisfied with the status quo”.

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Sri Lankan President to visit India on November 12

Pressure from key UPA ally, DMK, to act on the Sri Lanka situation may have eased for the time being, but India will get Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa as a visitor by mid-November.

It is learnt that Rajapaksa has confirmed his participation at the BIMSTEC summit on November 13. He is expected to arrive late on November 12.

BIMSTEC is a trade grouping of seven countries in the region around Bay of Bengal, which includes Bangladesh, Thailand, Bhutan, Nepal, Myanmar, besides India and Sri Lanka.

The Lankan President’s one on-one meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is being worked upon by the diplomats of both sides, on the sidelines of the summit, which is likely to be attended by heads of other countries as well.

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Terrorists are at work in Jammu and Kashmir, India is not a threat: Zardari

Declaring that India is not a “threat” to his country, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has described the militants operating in Jammu and Kashmir as “terrorists”, the first such admission by any top Pakistani leader.

“India has never been a threat to Pakistan. I, for one, and our democratic government is not scared of Indian influence abroad,” Zardari told The Wall Street Journal in an interview.

He spoke of the militant groups operating in Kashmir as “terrorists,” the paper said noting that former President Pervez Musharraf would more likely have called them “freedom fighters.”

Indicating a major shift in Pakistan’s well known position, Zardari had, as chief of Pakistan People’s Party, said in March that the ties between two countries should not be held “hostage” to the Kashmir issue, which should be left for future generations to decide, raising hackles at home.

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United States House clears nuclear deal, Prime Minister says happy but wait for final outcome

India and US are now just one step away from closing a 38-month Herculean effort to have a civilian nuclear cooperation agreement between the two countries after the House of Representatives cleared the agreement with a two-thirds majority late Saturday night. The pact now rolls over to the Senate where a senator backed by five others has moved an “on hold” anonymous motion that has got the Senate leadership back on its toes to have it passed early next week.

Singh, meanwhile, is all set to preside over the signing of a similar agreement with France as Department of Atomic Energy head Anil Kakodkar joined his delegation in France. The two countries will also sign a path-breaking space launch agreement, where medium-weight French satellites will be launched by the PSLV.

The news of the House approval — 298 votes in favour, 117 opposed — broke minutes before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was to address the Indian community, setting the stage for his speech in which he thanked the US Administration for their efforts. Later, on his way to Marseille for the Indo-EU summit, Singh gave his first reactions. “I have just heard that the House has passed the Bill which will now go to the US Senate.

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India bans Chinese dairy products

The Commerce Ministry on Thursday imposed a ban on the import of Chinese dairy products after these items were found contaminated with melamine that killed children in China recently.

The ban, which comes into immediate effect for three months until further orders, follows the Union Health Ministry’s letter to the Customs Department and Commerce Ministry in this regard.

“We had asked the Customs Department and the Commerce Ministry to look into the milk products which are imported from China, as Chinese milk powder, sweets and chocolates containing milk are seen in the market,” said a senior official in the Health Ministry.

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Sleepless in Vienna: China threatens to leave for home, US works into the night

With Austria and Ireland still holding out and the Chinese delegation threatening to leave for Beijing, tough negotiations were on late into the night at the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group in Vienna to forge a consensus to end India’s three and a half decades of nuclear isolation.

A new NSG draft was in the works and had been sent to Washington for clearance although India made it clear that there was almost no scope to revise the draft in substantive terms.

The Chinese, sources said, objected to what they called was the manner in which matters were being pushed on an issue they said involved the future of the global non-proliferation regime.

Well aware of the stakes in the Indo-US nuclear deal — and the tight Congressional calendar ahead — the “highest levels” in Washington got in touch with their counterparts in Beijing to get China to stay on by including it in the consultative process.

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As loan waiver gets official, little cheer in suicide zone

In the heart of Vidharbha’s suicide country, Sumitra Pandurang Surpam and Asha Lakde have similar stories to tell. Their husbands committed suicide early this year after crops failed and debts mounted. Sumitra is not eligible for the loan waiver while Asha is but it is not making much of a difference to either.

Sumitra, 40, has little idea about the buzz of karjamafi (loan-waiver) that is all around her. The day after the government’s deadline to banks to waive off nearly Rs 71,000 crore loans to small and marginal farmers across India ended, she knows it does not benefit her but she is not bothered.

Luck has hardly been on her side ever since her husband Pandurang consumed poison on April 1, 2008. Sumitra, a Kolam tribal, had no courage to do farming after having seen her husband’s disastrous experience. So, she left her Kochi village to shift to stay in her parents’ house in Wagda village, about 13 km away. “I did not want to stay on in that village any longer, neither did my children. So rather than till my own land, I chose to be a labourer,” she says.

From the three non-irrigated acres they have at Kochi village in Ghatanji tehsil, Pandurang could reap just four quintal of cotton and 50 kg of pulses last year. With an institutional loan of Rs 25,000, taken after the eligibility deadline of March 31, 2007, and a private loan worth about 30,000, he had lost the will and the courage to live.

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Malaysia probes charge its players tanked India match

Unnamed Malaysian hockey players have been accused by their own governing body of fixing a match against India in the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup at Ipoh last month.

The Malaysian Hockey Federation (MHF) has lodged a police complaint after Malay Mail published a report that several players had placed online bets on Malaysia losing the last round-robin game against India on May 17. India won the match 2-1 on their way to the final of the tournament where they lost to Argentina. Since October 2003, India have played Malaysia ten times, winning seven matches and drawing one.

The Malay Mail report has also been taken note of by the International Hockey Federation (FIH).

The Indians have strongly denied any involvement of their players in the alleged match fixing episode. Mohammad Aslam, convenor of the Indian Olympic Association ad-hoc committee running Indian hockey, said it was Malaysia’s internal matter.

“As far as we are concerned, neither our players nor our officials are involved. Our boys won the game playing good hockey. The allegations are against the Malaysian players and their federation has ordered a probe,” Aslam told The Indian Express from Hyderabad where India is preparing for the Asia Cup junior hockey tournament.

Indian coach A K Bansal said he felt the Malaysians had “played their hearts out” in the match. “From what I recall, the body language of the Malaysian players didn’t indicate that they were playing to lose the match. We dominated the proceedings and were leading 2-0 before conceding a late penalty-corner goal when the match was almost over,” Bansal said.

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Northernmost settlement to get a new resident - India

Three decades after it set up base in Antarctica, India will have a home on the other extreme of the globe when a permanent research station is inaugurated in the Arctic later this month.

This research station is being set up tantalisingly close to the North Pole, at Ny-Alesund, on the west coast of Spitsbergen, the largest island in the Svalbard archipelago of Norway. Just 1,200 km from the North Pole, Ny-Alesund is the northernmost permanent human settlement on the globe, comprising scientists carrying out research in one of the most pristine environments on earth.

The research base, which will be inaugurated by Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal during an international symposium being organised in Ny-Alesund from June 30 to July 2, is being set up by the Goa-based National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research (NCOAR).

India’s research team will carry out a number of experiments in the region, most notably on issues related to climate change.

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Research and Analysis Wing ‘censures’ Jt Secy for letting wife work with World Bank ‘without approval’

The Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India’s external intelligence agency, has “censured” a senior official for alleged “breach of discipline” after he let his wife continue working for World Bank despite being asked not to do so.

The censure came after an inquiry by RAW alleged that Jayadev Ranade, a joint secretary in the organization, was guilty of breach of discipline while holding a sensitive position. Following the censure, Ranade has applied for voluntary retirement from RAW. His case is being processed.

As per the inquiry, sources said, Jayadev was posted in Washington on a three-year tenure beginning 2001. His wife Vinita was employed with the World Bank on a short-term contract in Washington. RAW rules require its officials to take the consent of the organization before allowing their spouses to take any employment outside the country. While RAW permitted Vinita to work till June 2004, it refused permission for further extension of contract on the grounds that since Jayadev’s tenure was ending later that year and he was coming back to India, his wife could not be allowed to stay back in Washington.

Sources said that according to the inquiry, despite this refusal, Vinita renewed her contract. While she did come back to India with her husband in November 2004, she sought permission in the first quarter of 2005 to travel to the US to complete some unfinished work in Washington. That permission was turned down.

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Is it end-deal?

What the Congress kept delaying finally happened today: its moment of reckoning has come, after the Left made it clear it would not let the Government go to Vienna to confirm the safeguards agreement, the key first piece in the operationalisation of the Indo-US nuclear deal.

The party’s top brass went into a huddle at 10, Janpath faced with perhaps the toughest choice since they took charge four years ago: give in to the Left and freeze the Indo-US nuclear deal to keep the government alive and a line with the Left open in an election year or seize the historic opportunity and stamp the party’s commitment to the “national interest.”

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who spoke to Congress President Sonia Gandhi on the phone, was learnt to have argued in favour of going ahead with the deal after the Left issued a statement that it was of the “firm opinion” that “the government should not proceed to seek approval of the text of the India-specific safeguards agreement from the Board of Directors of the IAEA.”

This Left statement came a few hours after the government deferred today’s UPA-Left meeting to June 25 as External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s discussions with CPM general secretary Prakash Karat on Monday and Tuesday failed to make any headway. The Left also said it did not get the full text of the agreement.

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Saved from rot, 150-year-old Dabhol dhow will sail to America 1

A 150 year old Indian dhow, rescued by an American from the shores of Dabhol in Ratnagiri (Maharashtra) where it had been left to rot, will soon set out on an astounding voyage.

Malgawan the sail boat will journey from India to the US, covering a distance of 7,318 nautical miles or 13,553 km. A similar voyage from the opposite direction by the Indian Navy, which brought the USS 77enton (now lNS Jalashwa) from the US to India in 2007, took 35 days, 18 knots being the average speed.

Manpawan, a cargo sail boat dating back to 1861, has been restored and conserved by 76 year old Neil Bruder of Michigan. He chanced upon Manpawan in the mid-1990s when he came to Dabhol to work as a bulldozer operator, employed by Bechtel Corporation for the Enron power project.

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It was like living in hell... I had left it to destiny

Two families are celebrating Eid today in India, it's festive time," said a jubilant Munir Ahmed Nasib at his Mumbai residence as news came of the release of his son-in-law Naeem Sarang Mohammed after 28 days in the custody of kidnappers in Afghanistan.

Naeem, an officer with HEB International logistics contracted to supply logistics to Afghan police training camps, and 55-year-old Gurong Karna Bahadur were kidnapped by unknown militants while they were travelling in western Adraskan district bordering Iran on April 21. Their Afghan driver was later let off by the abductors.

Naeem is among the 30 Indian employees in the firm, all holding top managerial positions. Bahadur worked in the catering department.

Describing his ordeal while speaking to The Indian Express over phone, Naeem said: "It was like living in hell...


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Post-Fidel Cuba sending biggest team with a shopping list

As President Raul Castro's Cuba allows computers and cellphones as it steps towards economic reforms, the biggest-ever Cuban trade delegation will be landing in India next week to talk business and strike deals to buy computers, television sets, refrigerators, medicines and food.

The delegation is likely to meet Commerce minister Kamal Nath, Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar and Minister of State (ExternalAffairs) Anand Sharma in the government and representatives of the Tata group, Exim Bank, CII, ITPO, State Trading Corporation and members of trade organisations during its 10-day visit.

Led by Cuba's Deputy Foreign Trade Minister Eduardo Antonio Escandell Amador, the 26-member delegation will comprise officials and business leaders from Cuba. Cuba's ambassador to India, Miguel Angel Ramirez Ramos, told The Indian Express, "This is the largest business delegation from Cuba in the history of India- Cuba relations, coming from both government and private sectors, which is coming here to look for business partners and suppliers of a whole range of products. Time is ripe for bilateral ties and trade to take a leap."

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Egg on both UPA and Left faces as NAM and Iran slam nuclear deal

In a severe embarrassment, ironically for both the UPA government and its Left allies although for quite the opposite reasons - the Non-Aligned Movement countries which are signatories to the Non-Proliferation Treaty have called for "complete prohibition" of any kind of nuclear cooperation with countries that have not acceded to the NPT Iran, too, has jumped in, making this part of a formal proposal and calling all NPT members for an endorsement.

At the ongoing meeting of the preparatory committee for the 2010 NPT Review Conference in Geneva, Indonesia, making a statement last week on behalf of NAM countries that have signed the NPT stated: "Without exception, there should also be a complete prohibition of the transfer of all nuclear-related equipment, information, material and facilities, resources or devices and the extension of assistance in the nuclear, scientific and technological fields to states, which are not parties to the NPT."

Going beyond this, the statement reads: "The recent developments, in particular the nuclear cooperation agreement signed by a NWS (Nuclear Weapon State) with a non-party to the NPT is a matter of great concern."

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On bumpy nuclear-deal road, UPA switches on Left indicator

A Head of a Left-UPA meeting on the nuclear deal that coincides with sessions of the IAEA Board of Govenors and the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the Government is clearly trying to signal to its Left allies that it has not, as they have accused, bartered away its "independent foreign policy."

That signal is not so subtly couched in a series of carefully chosen steps which today included an unusually strong rebuff to Washington for commenting on the April 29 visit of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. And the cancellation of a joint media interaction on Konkan 2008, the Indo-UK joint naval exercise that gets underway the same day Ahmadinejad is in India. Significantly, USS Cole is in Indian waters as an observer.

"India and Iran are ancient civilizations whose relations span centuries.Both nations are perfectly capable of managing all aspects of their relationship with the appropriate degree of care and attention...Neither country needs any guidance on the future conduct of bilateral relations as both countries believe that engagement and dialogue alone lead to peace," said the MEA spokesperson in response to queries on remarks made in Washington last evening.

During the daily press interaction, US Department of State spokesperson, asked about Ahmadinejad's visit to India, said: "We would hope that the Indian Government or any government that was engaging with the Iranians, including with President Ahmadinejad, would call on him to meet the requirements that the Security Council and the international community has placed on him in terms of suspending their uranium enrichment activities and complying with the other requirements regarding their nuclear programme.

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Government taking no Tibet chance, seals torch route for 5 hrs

The Olympic torch landed in Delhi late tonight for the India leg of the relay tomorrow. Hours earlier, the Union Home Ministry issued strict security guidelines which includes sealing all government buildings overlooking the Rajpath. The Ministry issued instructions stating that "all windows and doors" of these buildings should be closed from 1 pm to 6 pm tomorrow, and visitors barred.

In measures in line with those seen during the Republic Day parade, rooftops and balconies of these buildings will be secured, open only to security personnel.

The Olympic torch relay is planned along a 2.3 km route, from the main gate of the Rashtrapati Bhawan to India Gate, between 3 pm and 6 pm. In keeping with concerns expressed by the Chinese, the Ministry has come out with a comprehensive checklist that it hopes will keep potential Tibetan protesters at bay.

The measures, reviewed at a meeting chaired by Union Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta, includes a multi-layered security along the torch route that will involve thousands of military, paramilitary and police personnel. Crack commandos will form the inner cordon.

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Aboard Maitree Express, history overcomes geography

There were few dry eyes as the Maitree Express entered Bangladesh on a scorching Poila Baisakh afternoon on Monday, 43 years after the last train from India chugged down this route. Cheers went up inside the compartments as hundreds of onlookers lined up on both sides of the tracks broke into applause.

The loudspeaker at the minimalist platform blared greetings and the travellers were showered with petals and greeted with bouquets of Rajanigandha (tuberoses) as they made their way into the Customs building at Darshana.

Seven hours earlier, around 7.15 am, the Maitree Express had started from Kolkata, five minutes behind schedule. Almost simultaneously from Dhaka's Cantonment station, a train had left for Kolkata.

The rail service between Kolkata and Dhaka was snapped during the Indo-Pak war in1965, when Bangladesh was part of Pakistan. However, in 1996, India and Bangladesh resumed a direct bus service.

Despite the high security, including security personnel moving with sniffer dogs, the excitement within the Maitree Express compartments was palpable.

The only dampener perhaps was the half empty coaches. The lack of a public campaign meant that the historic maiden run had only 65 passengers in a train for 368.More than half the seats were occupied by media persons.

Just before Gede, the last station on the Indian side, there was a minor hiccup when there was a protest by a local group near Aranghata.Barely had this been left be- hind when the confusion over paper work at Gede rattled passengers. While some were quick to predict that the new service was bound to fail at this rate, others were more generous. "It is just the beginning, hopefully things will get better with time," said one passenger.

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There's a burden on my conscience but we can afford to dream

As the Chief Minister of Delhi, I am often asked about my perception of the capital and my vision for this city. Delhi stands atop many layers of history and each layer has witnessed many struggles that brought about equivalent changes.Diplomatic struggles to overcome it; bloody battles to subjugate it; bloodless struggles to win over the heart of the city. Of all the struggles that challenge the status quo, democratic battles are the most challenging.They are dynamic.These battles bring a silent change.Above all, they include the people over whom battles are fought precluding none.

The tenure of our Congress Government is in its tenth year, at the end of which we shall go back to the people to be able to seek once again from the city the courage to dream and the mandate to realise those dreams.

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China opens air space for Jet flight to San Francisco

Chinese and Indian civil aviation authorities on Wednesday met here to resolve their differences over fifth freedom rights in their air bilateral agreement and it is learnt that the former has, after a lot of persuasion, agreed to allow San Francisco as a ‘beyond point' for India. Fifth freedom rights refer to the right to carry passengers from one's own country to a second country, and from there to a third country. So, with San Francisco agreed upon as a ‘beyond point' by China, an Indian airline can fly to China and from there to San Francisco. This is good news for private airline Jet Airways which has been keenly waiting to service destinations on the US west coast.

Meanwhile, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has shot off a notice to Chinese cargo carrier Great Wall Airline to submit its documents for security clearance at the earliest. India had permitted Great Wall Airlines earlier this year to fly to Mumbai and Chennai besides Delhi, despite security concerns by the National Security Council secretariat and other agencies.

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Pak ready to lower transit fee for Iran gas to India

Ministers had expressed their keenness to put the pipeline project on stream as negotiations between the three countries have been stalled because of differences between Islamabad and New Delhi over transport and transit fee to be charged from India.

The trilateral has to be preceded by the bilateral meeting, but three fixtures were deferred due to the political conditions in Pakistan.

At the fourth bilateral in February 2007, Pakistan sought $1.57 per million British thermal unit (mBTU) for supply of gas over 1,035 km pipeline it would lay in Pakistan. India, using estimates prepared by consultant Gaffney Cline & Associates, offered a transmission charge of $0.69 per mBtu.

As for the transit fee, Pakistan wants it pegged at 10 per cent of the delivered price of gas to India which says it would pay 5 per..

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Image and Article source: Indian Express
Article taken from the issue: 4 Feb 2008