PTI
Jakarta/Singapore: The tail section of the AirAsia flight that went down more than a week ago was found on Wednesday in the Java Sea, raising hopes that the plane’s black boxes might soon be recovered to determine the cause of the mysterious crash.
“We have found the tail that has been our main target today,” Bambang Soelistyo, the head of Indonesia’s search and rescue told reporters in Jakarta as the search operation entered its 11th day. The tail is the section where the black boxes are located.
The black boxes are often considered the key piece of evidence when it comes to investigating a commercial plane disaster. They provide valuable information, from a plane’s air speed to the position of the landing gear, to pilot communications. Soelistyo said divers were preparing to go back underwater in the same area, which is in one of the priority zones where search efforts have been focused.
Searchers have been scouring the choppy waters of the Java Sea for remains from the commercial jet since it lost contact on December 28 with 162 people on board. AirAsia group chief executive Tony Fernandes confirmed the announcement in a post on his Twitter account.
“I am led to believe the tail section has been found. If right part of tail section then the black box should be there,” he tweeted. “We need to find all parts soon so we can find all [our] guests to ease the pain of our families. That still is our priority.”
Flight QZ8501 plunged into the water off Borneo island about 40 minutes into a two-hour flight from Indonesia’s second-biggest city Surabaya en route to Singapore. No survivors have been found.
Forty bodies have been recovered so far but authorities believe most of the passengers could still be inside the main body of the plan. The search area was widened on Wednesday with the establishment of two new sectors, said Chief of the Malaysian Navy Abdul Aziz Jaafar.
Underwater current was still strong of around 4-5 knots and the visibility was still limited for the sea divers on Tuesday to identify more findings from the seabed where the plane crashed.
At the weekend search officials said sonar had detected what they thought were five large parts of the plane, but strong currents and rough seas would not allow divers to confirm they were from the AirAsia flight. The cause of the crash is not know, but the plane was flying through stormy weather at the time and had requested permission to change course.
Indonesian aviation officials have said that AirAsia did not have permission to fly the Surabaya-Singapore route on the day of the crash.
10 college students and a forest guard were killed and 30 others injured when a state-run bus in which they were travelling fell into a gorge in Andhra Pradesh’s Anantapur district today. The incident occurred at around 8:30 AM near Penukonda town in the district where a road was under repair. The state government has ordered an inquiry.
Over 40 persons were travelling in the Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) bus which was going to Penukonda from Madakasira in the district, Anantapur District Superintendent of Police Rajsekhar Babu said. “The deceased include nine boys and a girl student besides a forest guard,” Babu, told PTI
CBI may send a team to get Jagtar Singh Tara, an accused in the assassination of the then Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh in 1995, from Thailand where he has been arrested by authorities of that country.
According to CBI, Tara, 37, was directly involved in the assassination of Beant Singh as he had purchased the car which was used to kill Singh in the Chandigarh secretariat using a humam bomb.
The conspiracy of all the accused was unearthed when a car painter Balwinder Singh identified the vehicle used in the blast by the terrorists as he had painted it.
Beant Singh was assassinated in a bomb blast at the secretariat complex in Chandigarh on August 31, 1995 by Babbar Khalsa International terrorists. The blast had claimed the lives of 17 others including three commandos.
Thirteen people were named as accused in the case, out of whom nine were arrested, three were at large and the suicide bomber, Dilawar Singh, died during the explosion.
Tara, who along with two other terrorists, had fled from high-security Burail Jail in Chandigarh by digging a 110-feet tunnel from his barrack in January 2004, was apprehended in Thailand yesterday.
According to Thai authorities, Tara entered Thailand as Gurmeet Singh in October and was arrested in the eastern Province of Chon Buri on Monday.
A team of Chon Buri Provincial police and soldiers raided a house on Soi Mabyailia in Tambon Nong Phreu in Bang Lamung district and arrested Gurmeet Singh, one of six militants convicted for the 1995 blast.
Officers also arrested Pakistan national Ali Alat, 48, the owner of the house. Alat said he was not aware of Gurmeet Singh’s criminal background.
The Indian government had been in touch with Thai authorities to nab Jagtar Tara Singh who had been hiding in Thailand for months and probably under another identity.
Maharashtra government increases 2015 ‘ready reckoner’ rates
UAE-based non-resident Indians (NRIs), who plan to buy a property in Mumbai, will now have to shell out more money in taxes this year because the Maharashtra government has increased 2015 ‘ready reckoner’ rates.
The hike, effective January 1, 2015, ranges between 15 and 40 per cent and makes buying property far more costly for the common man.
Ready reckoner rates, which are mandatory for the state government to be released at the beginning of the year, are used to calculate the market value of properties for paying stamp duty, registration charges, value added tax, sales tax. These rates are different from market rates.
Upscale residential localities such as Worli and Bandra-Kurla Complex are among places where rates have been increased by 30 to 40 per cent, The Times of India reported.
Rates in suburbs such as Goregaon, Borivali, Malad, Chembur, Ghatkopar and Vikhroli have also increased.
While the average hike across the city is between 15 per cent and 20 per cent for 2015, the highest increase is about 40 per cent. On an average, the hike in the past two years has been 13 per cent only, the newspaper said.
A survey carried out by Sumansa Exhibitions, the organizers of the Indian Property Show, in December 2014 found majority of NRIs favouring Mumbai as the most popular property investment destination.
“Its sad to know that the ready rates have gone up. I am going to pay more for my property purchase this year… well for us (NRIs) the rupee weakening is already a bonus and so it will offset some of the cost. The rate increase isn’t likely to change my decision,” Sai Pandare, an account with a Dubai-based firm, told Emirates 24|7.
S Maheshwari, who already owns a one-bed house in Borivali, says: “The rates have shot up and I believe that they will be revised soon. The government cannot tax people to fill their coffers. I will wait and see for some months and then take a decision on whether to buy in Mumbai or some other Indian city.”
A weakening rupee helps NRIs to buy a property in India at approximately 10 to 20 per cent (depending on the currency rate) cheaper. On Sunday, one dirham was fetching Rs17.22.
Washington: Amidst simmering tension between India and Pakistan after shelling across the border, the United States has said it encourages dialogue between the two South Asian neighbours.
“We certainly support dialogue between the countries. There have been some steps over the past year, that you know, where there have been more positive exchanges. Obviously, there’s more work that needs to be done,” US State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki said yesterday.
Psaki was responding to questions on flare up in tension between the two countries after cross border shelling.
“Our thoughts would go out to the families of any lives who have been lost. We certainly remain concerned and watch over tensions along the border, and we encourage dialogue between the countries,” she said.
PTI
Days of fighting between Burundi troops and rebels who entered the Central African country killed 97 people, mostly rebels, Burundi’s government said Monday.
Army spokesman Col. Gaspard Baratuza said that 95 of those killed were members of a rebel group that entered Burundi from bordering Congo. Nine rebels were also arrested from the group that is yet to be identified, he said.
Two government soldiers had also been killed in the fighting that started a week ago some 60 kilometers northwest of the capital, Bujumbura, Baratuza said.
“We decided to bury the dead rebels in the gardens of residents of the area to avoid a human catastrophe such as diseases and the stench that comes from the dead bodies but we are looking at how their remains can be moved,” the military official said.
Burundi’s government released information about the fighting after a civil society organization in Burundi accused government forces of quickly burying the bodies to avoid scrutiny from rights groups saying the government executed the rebels after they surrendered.
Vital Nshimirimana, the head of the local civil society platform Forum Pour le Renforcement de la Societe Civile (FORSC), called for investigations into reports that the army violated the rights of those caught.
Col Baratuza denied the accusations.
“No one was killed after surrendering or after being arrested,” he said.
Between 180 to 200 rebels were thought to have crossed from Eastern Congo into Burundi where they launched the attack, he said.
Eastern Congo is home to a myriad of armed groups and militias.
In 2009, the government signed a peace agreement with Burundi’s last rebel group, raising hopes of a return to a more durable peace.
The attack in Burundi comes ahead of a crucial presidential and parliamentary vote scheduled for May and June. The tiny nation is still on a recovery path after more than a decade of civil war that underscored long-standing ethnic tensions between the country’s Hutu and Tutsi people.
New Delhi: Self-styled ‘godman’ Asaram, who is in jail since his arrest in August, 2013 in a rape case, does not need any surgery and his aliments can be managed through medicines, a report submitted by a panel of AIIMS doctors to the Supreme Court said on Monday.
A bench of justices TS Thakur and Adarsh Kumar Goel, referring to the findings of the panel, said, “the opinion of half-a-dozen doctors of AIIMS is that at present, any surgical intervention is not required. He can be treated in OPD. Now what remains?”
Senior advocate Salman Khurshid, appearing for Asaram, however, sought some time to go through the report.
The bench then fixed the matter on 20 January for hearing and asked its Registry to supply the copies of the report to the parties, including the accused.
It also asked the counsel for Asaram to ensure that the expenses incurred by the Rajasthan police in getting him examined at AIIMS here are paid.
Earlier, the jailed ‘godman’ was brought to Delhi by the Rajasthan police to undergo various tests at AIIMS to ascertain veracity of his claim that he was unwell and be granted bail on medical ground.
During the previous hearing, the bench had said that there was no medical urgency to grant bail to him and he cannot be given special treatment.
It had refused to pass any order on how 72-year-old Asaram is to be brought from Jodhpur jail to the national capital, saying that it is for the state government to decide on it.
The apex court had on October 15 directed AIIMS Director to set up a medical board to review medical reports and if required clinically examine Asaram to ascertain whether interim bail should be granted to him in the Jodhpur rape case.
Charges have been framed against Asaram for rape, criminal conspiracy and other offences by a Jodhpur court in connection with alleged sexual exploitation of a minor girl in his ashram in Jodhpur.
The District and Sessions Court had retained all the charges slapped by the police, except Section 26 of Juvenile Justice Act related to child labour against Asaram and his aides and co-accused Sanchita Gupta alias Shilpi and Sharad Chandra.
Charges have been framed under sections 342 (wrongful confinement), 354A (sexual harassment), 370(4) (trafficking), 376(2)f (rape on a woman when she is under twelve years of age), 506 (criminal intimidation), 509/34 and 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy).
KISHANGANJ ( BIHAR): Police today recovered 30 bombs from a village pond in Kishanganj district after local residents informed about them. The recovered bombs were kept in a sack and dumped in a pond at Matiari village under Pothia police station of the district, police said. The bombs somehow became loose and surfaced on the water. “The recovered bombs were country-made but powerful ones. They had become inactive after being in water for a long time. It seems crimina .. Read more at:
PTI
Delhi will be developed into a “global city” and the country’s first ‘smart city’ will be set up here to decongest the national capital and facilitate it with all modern amenities, Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said here today.
“We want to make Delhi a truly global city, having all latest and modern amenities and facilities that any other global city like London or San Francisco has. We want to have world-class entertainment venues like Disneyland or Universal Studios here,” Naidu said.
The Narendra Modi-led NDA government has planned to set up 100 ‘smart cities’ and Naidu said that the first such city will come up in the national capital.
“Delhi is the heart of India and the first smart city would come up here. The city of Barcelona in Spain has also promised technological support to us in our effort in this direction,” he said.
“I saw the city of Barcelona, and apart from modern buildings, they have also preserved their old architecture. We also want to preserve our traditional architecture, that India is so richly endowed with, even as we embrace modernity,” he added.
The Minister was speaking at a function organised by DDA at its headquarters here to officially kick-start the allotment process of its ‘Housing Scheme 2014’
Naidu handed over allotment letters to the first few successful applicants.
Talking about the ‘smart city’ initiative further, he said the focus would be to build global educational and health institutes and entertainment facilities.
“We also want to liberalise the industrial estate policy.
An industrial space may not necessarily contain factories, but showrooms also. A committee will be formed to look into this issue as well,” the Minister said.
DDA’s Vice-Chairman Balvinder Kumar in a media briefing yesterday had outlined the plans for the ‘smart city’ in the capital.
The ‘smart city’ will be a complete sub-city, which would be located in an area of 20-24 hectares, zoned out of Dwarka, Rohini and Narela, and will be equipped with latest technologies and waste-management techniques.
“The smart city will have a world-class infrastructure, 24-hour power supply, complete wi-fi connectivity, and will employ green technology and latest water conservation techniques like rain-harvesting and waste management techniques, among other facilities,” Kumar said.
Outlining the achievements of the government in the financial sector, Naidu said, “As per the PM’s vision of ending financial untouchability, we have opened 10 crore new bank accounts in the last nine weeks under the Prime Minister Jan Dhan Yojana.”
PTI..
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