China to crush freedom-seeking Tibetans

"China must resolutely crush the Tibet independence forces' conspiracy and sabotaging activities," the People's Daily, the official mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC), said in its commentary on Saturday, effectively rejecting growing calls from the West for China to hold dialogue with the Dalai Lama to end the crackdown on agitators.
Brushing aside calls for dialogue with the Dalai Lama, China has vowed to "crush" the "Tibet independence forces" as it raised to 19 the death toll in riots that rocked Lhasa last week during the most virulent anti-China protests in two decades
"We must see through the secessionist forces' evil intentions" and maintain stability and protect people's "fundamental interests", the commentary said.

China Amass troops into Tibet

Thousands of soldiers were seen in Lhasa on Thursday amid reports of a huge military build-up as China admitted for the first time it had shot Tibetan protesters.
State-controlled Xinhua news agency reported four people were shot and wounded last weekend by police in a Tibetan area of southwestern China, as the Dalai Lama expressed fears the crackdown on unrest had caused many casualties.
Long military convoys were on the move in Tibet while troops also poured into nearby provinces after a week of violence directed against China's rule of the Himalayan region, witnesses, activist groups and media reports said.
"We saw a big convoy of military vehicles with troops in the back," German journalist Georg Blume said from the Tibetan capital Lhasa early on Thursday.
"One convoy was about two kilometres (1.2 miles) long and contained about 200 trucks. Each had 30 soldiers on board so that's about 6,000 military personnel in one convoy."

Quit smoking Ramadoss Advices Buddha

Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss now has a word of advice for West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya -'no smoking please'.

"He (Bhattacharya) is a leader and leaders should be an example for others. He a senior person and does not need my advise (to quit smoking)," Ramadoss said.
A known chain smoker, Bhattacharya reportedly smokes in the privacy of his chamber despite a ban on smoking in the writer's building.
Ramadoss said, "70.2% of men in West Bengal use tobacco products.
Ramadoss also cautioned the northeastern states which have the highest number of smokers in the country.

Telugu star Shoban Babu Passes away

Popular Telugu cine hero Shobhan Babu, who reigned supreme in the Telugu film industry for decades along with the two stalwarts NTR and A Nageswara Rao, died of cardiac arrest at the Apollo Hospital here on Thursday.
The 71-year-old handsome yesteryear hero was rushed to the hospital as he collapsed and started bleeding through his nose while practicing yoga, his daily routine in the morning, according to his family sources.
Doctors who attended on him at the hospital declared him dead. He is survived by his wife, one son and three daughters.
After voluntarily announcing retirement from the films, he was away to tinsel world for the last 13 years. He is said to be a successful name in Chennai’s real estate business since he left the Telugu cinema.

Mixed reaction by Asian Market to US

Asian markets ended mixed Thursday, rebounding from early lows that came after another steep loss on Wall Street and amid persistent worry over the likely impact of a U.S. recession.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 3.5 percent at 21,108.20, after dropping as much as 4.4 percent in morning trading.
In mainland China, the recovery was more dramatic: The Shanghai Composite Index closed 1.1 percent higher at 3,804.10 after having plunged 6.5 percent in morning trade to hit its lowest level since June.
But trading was subdued without the lead of Asia's largest bourse in Tokyo due to a national holiday in Japan. Financial markets were also closed in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan and the Philippines.

Investors continue to worry about the world's financial system and the state of the U.S. economy, a vital export market for Asian companies.

Set Back for Lallu

In a setback to Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and his wife and former chief minister Rabri Devi, the Patna high court on Thursday admitted for hearing the appeal by Bihar government challenging their acquittal in a disproportionate assets case, an off-shoot of the multi-crore rupees fodder scam.
Justice R K Dutta, who had on February 18 reserved the order on conclusion of arguments on the admissibility of the state government's appeal, admitted it for hearing and called for documents from the special CBI court which had acquitted the duo.

Arguing on behalf of the duo, who had contested the state government's competence to move an appeal against the acquittal, noted criminal lawyer Ram Jethmalani had on January 28 described the National Democratic Alliance government's appeal as having arisen "unquestionably out of political vendetta".
Senior Supreme Court lawyer and state counsel Surendra Singh had, however, countered the charge, saying the trial court had not relied on evidences produced by the prosecution (CBI) in support of the DA case against the duo.

BJP is no longer untouchable for Muslims'

n an attempt to bring Muslims into its fold ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, a brain storming session of senior saffron party leaders would be held at Hyderabad next month to chalk out a comprehensive strategy.
"BJP is no longer untouchable for Muslims and they will have no problems under the leadership of L K Advani," senior BJP leader and party's national president of the minority cell Shahnawaz Hussain said.

He said a three-day meeting of senior leaders of the party would be held at Hyderabad from April 3 in which a comprehensive strategy would be chalked out to bring the Muslims into the party fold.
Although Hussain remained non-committal when asked whether the saffron party would field more Muslim candidates in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls, he did say that "religion will not come in the way of ablity to win".

Hold talks with Dalai Lama, US to China

The Bush administration on Thursday asked Beijing to hold dialogue with the Dalai Lama to resolve many of the outstanding issues and not for the independence of Tibet.

"I think one of the things that is clear is that the Dalai Lama is not calling for independence for Tibet. He is calling for engagement with Chinese officials in dialogue. And we support that call. We very much want to see the Chinese speak with the Dalai Lama or his representatives to try and resolve many of these outstanding issues," Deputy Spokesman of the US State Department Tom Casey said.

Inzamam shocked at Darrell Hair recall

Former Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq, who was at the helm of the Oval fiasco, has expressed "shock" over the reinstatement of umpire Darrell Hair by the ICC and asked the Cricket Board to further review the issue.
"It has come as a shocker to me. Especially, after all that happened in the Oval Test and afterwards. What more proof they required (that) Hair was not fit to stand in international matches?" Inzamam said over phone.

Inzamam, currently playing in the Indian Cricket League, felt the Pakistan board needed to learn something from the way the Indian board backed its players on contentious issues and take a stronger stand on the issue.

Protest Over Tibet Spreads

Activist groups also released photos on Tuesday of eight dead Tibetans they said had been killed by Chinese forces at a protest in Sichuan province, saying it was proof of the brutal methods being used to quell the unrest
tibetans shout slogans during a protest against the crackdown in Tibet, in front of the E.U headquarters in Brussels March 18, 2008.

SAIL official shot dead in Noida

A senior official of Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) was shot dead by unidentified assailants in sector 62 in Noida on Tuesday.
The motorcycle-borne assailants allegedly shot dead R K Anand, Deputy Manager, SAIL, who was going to his office in a car.
Anand died on way to hospital. Police has launched a manhunt for the assailants who were in the age group of 25-30 years.

India urges Pakistan to grant clemency to Sarabjit

On demand that Sarabjit Singh be saved from the gallows in Pakistan, the Government of India on Tuesday asked Islamabad to grant clemency to the Indian national on humanitarian grounds.

Making a suo motu statement in the Lok Sabha in the wake of media reports that 'death warrant' has been issued against Sarabjit Singh, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said the government has no formal intimation from the Pakistan government about it and New Delhi has sought details from Islamabad in this regard.
"According to press reports, the black warrant has been issued and the sentence will be carried out on April one," Mukherjee said about Sarabjit, who is facing death sentence for allegedly carrying out bomb blasts in Pakistan in 1990.

Markets Trade firm..on Fed cuts

The markets are trading firm at the higher level on buying seen in scrips across sectors. After the Fed cut discount rate by 75 bps markets across globe have rallied. All BSE indices are trading higher. Power, banking, telecom and capital goods stocks are the star performers.

Market breadth is very positive, NSE advance:decline ratio of 13:1. Midcap and small cap stocks have seen strong bounce back. BSE Midcap index is up over 3% and smallcap index is up nearly 3%.

Bankex is up over 5% followed by realty up 5%, capital goods and power index up over 3.5%.
At 11.20 hrs IST, the Sensex is up 503.72 points at 15336.18, and the Nifty up at 4654.70.
About 1787 shares have advanced, 1191 shares declined, and 80 shares are unchanged.
JP Associates up over 7.8% followed by ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank up over 6%. SBI, Bharti Airtel, PNB, Tata Power, SAIL, L&T, RPL and RNRL were the major gainers.
In the global markets Asian markets were trading firm. Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 3.61%, Japan's Nikkei gained 3.23%. Yesterday, Wall Street ran up their biggest one-day gains in more than five years following that interest rate cut. The rally was led by financials.

Tamil Actor Raghuvaran Dead

With his actress wife Rohini and Son Nandha
Raghuvaran (60) the noted character actor of Tamil cinema passed away early this morning at a private hospital in Chetpet, Chennai, due to a cardiac arrest. The actor was married to actress Rohini, but the marriage failed and they went through a messy divorce. The couple has an 8-year-old son Nanda.
Raghuvaran's claim to fame was his stylized way of acting and his dialogue delivery. He had a huge following among the masses. He stole the thunder whenever he played the villain with the swagger and with the way he drawled on his dialogues. Right from his first film Ezhavathu Manithan(1982), he created his own acting style.

Volatile Indian Market closes flat

The market had a flattish morning, but recovery by Asian markets, positive opening for European markets and good advance tax numbers pulled it higher in the afternoon. Higher levels were not sustainable, as the market gave in to selling pressure and often kept slipping into the negative terrain. Experts said traders were cautious ahead of the US Fed announcement on interest rates that will come in tonight. Therefore they were selling at every rally.

Sensex closed at 14,833, up 23 points from the previous close. Nifty shut shop at 4533, up 29 points. Banking stocks witnessed some selling pressure through the day, but it were metal stocks that got beaten up towards the end of the trading session. Biggest losers on the Sensex include Tata Steel, JP Associates and HDFC, while gainers include DLF, HUL and Ranbaxy.

Fed to cut rates again

The Federal Reserve is expected to aggressively lower interest rates in its intensified battle against the credit crisis and spreading economic weakness. The question is whether all of the effort will turn the tide.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues have already been working overtime, employing a variety of novel approaches to keep the economy out of a recession or at least moderate the impact of any downturn.
More relief is expected Tuesday when the central bank is expected to cut a key interest rate by between one-half and a full percentage point.

Man auctions his life in Australia

Ian Usher, 44,from Perth in Western Australia state told Australian television on Tuesday said he was auctioning his life as "a package" with his house in Perth valued at around A$420,000 ($385,000).
"Hi there, my name is Ian Usher, and I have had enough of my life! I don't want it any more! You can have it if you like!," reads his Web site www.alife4sale.com, which has a link to eBay for bidders.
Usher said his life auction, which starts on June 22, included not only his house, a car, a motorbike, a jet ski and a spa, but also an introduction to "great friends" and a job at a rug shop in Perth for a trial two-week period.
"When it's over, I will just walk out the front door, take my wallet, my passport and start a new life," he said.

Tibet rioters trying to wreck Olympics

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao accused the Dalai Lama of orchestrating riots in Tibet in which dozens may have died and said his followers were trying to "incite sabotage" of Beijing's August Olympic Games
And a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman went as far as saying the Dalai Lama should face trial.

Premier Wen defended the crackdown on Lhasa, capital of the predominantly Buddhist Himalayan region, after last week's protests, and on neighboring Chinese provinces where copycat rioting by Tibetans erupted over the weekend

Sensex recovers

After a very volatile session from the morning sensex is gathering courage after seeing A gap-up opening for European markets. Sensex is currently trading above the 15,000 mark, at 15,066, up 256 points from the previous close. Nifty is at 4586, up 83 points. But BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices are trading 1.1% and 2.2% lower respectively. Capital goods, power, oil & gas stocks are attracting buying interest, while some consumer durables and metal stocks are still being dumped.

Mayawati blames Sonia for price rise

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Monday blamed the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government for the increase in prices of essential commodities and said the common man was the worst-affected.
Firing another arrow at the Central government, the Chief Minister said the fact that the rate of inflation had gone up to 5.11 per cent was indicative of the Centre’s failure to arrest the galloping prices.
Ms. Mayawati said the State government was making all possible efforts to check the prices.
The Chief Minister said the increase in the the prices of petrol by Rs.2 a litre and of diesel by Rs.1 a litre had resulted in the increase in transportation cost.

BJP should face polls on loan waiver issue: Chidambaram

Hitting back at the Opposition for its charges that the farm loan waiver was a fraudulent propaganda and the budget was communal, the government on on Monday dared BJP to face the electorate on those planks and win.

Rejecting BJP leader Arun Shourie's allegations during the budget debate, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said in his reply in the Rajya Sabha that the government would provide resources to flagship programmes like loan waiver and National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.

He said if what Shourie was saying was correct, then he should take the campaign against loan waiver and NREGA to constituencies and see if he could win.

Indian squad for SA Tests

Indian selectors named a 14-man squad on Monday for the first two Tests of the three-match series against touring South Africa starting later this month.
The first Test will be played in Chennai from March 26 to 30 and the second Test in Ahmedabad from April 3 to 7.

Leg-spinner Piyush Chawla was named as a stop gap for Harbhajan Singh who will undergo a fitness test on March 21.

KUMBLE'S TEAM
Wasim Jaffer , Virender Sehwag , Rahul Dravid , Sachin Tendulkar , Saurav Ganguly, V.V.S.Laxman, Yuvraj Singh , Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wicketkeeper), Irfan Pathan, Anil Kumble (captain), Harbhajan Singh, Murali Kartik , Sreesanth , R.P Singh.

Indian Stock Market crashes by 1000 points

India's main stock index fell 6.13 percent on Monday mostly due to panic selling, tailing a global equities rout, with index heavyweights ICICI Bank and Reliance Industries leading the losses.
The benchmark 30-issue BSE index ended down 951 points at 14,809, with all its components losing ground.
The broader 50-issue NSE index Nifty lost 5.4 percent to 4,503.

Probe sought into purchase of US Navy ship

Members belonging to two main Communist parties on Monday demanded a probe into the purchase of United States Navy's ship USS Trenton by India in view of objections raised by the comptroller and auditor general of India.

Raising the issue in the Lok Sabha during Zero hour, Gurudas Dasgupta of the Communist Party of India dubbed the purchase of the US vessel an irresponsible, anti-national and uneconomic corrupt deal and wondered if it was a political deal to get closer to the United States.

Sensex nose dives below 15000

SENSEX 14,922.76 -837.76 -5.32
MIDCAP 6,222.08 -361.37 -5.49
SMLCAP 7,622.06 -457.44 -5.66
BSE-500 5,919.01 -341.83 -5.46
1 hour before market close

No damage control in force, market is falling freely in Dalal street much to Agony of retailers and small time Investors.Will someone come and stall this fall or we heading for a catastrophe???

Waive loans of fishermen

AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalithaa on Saturday urged the Central government to immediately waive the loans availed of by fishermen affected by the tsunami and provide subsidy to those fishermen who were yet to get the loans.


In a statement issued here on Saturday, Jayalalithaa said the AIADMK regime had initiated a number of measures for the rehabilitation of the fishermen severely affected by the tsunami attack in 2004.

UPA-Left to meet today on nuclear deal

The crucial meeting of the UPA-Left committee on the Indo-US nuclear deal will be held here on Monday where the government is expected to hand over the Left leaders copies of the draft India-specific safeguards agreement it has reached with the IAEA.


The Government is also likely to brief them on the over three-month long negotiations it held with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on the safeguards agreement.

The meeting comes in the backdrop of major Left parties asserting that they would withdraw support to the Congress-led government if it went ahead with the nuclear deal with the US. However, the Left parties have been saying that they would not be responsible if the government falls.

Markets Tumble

The Asian markets tumble on emergency Fed steps. The Indian market sees a gap down opening. Nifty opens 150 points down and Sensex 600 points down. Sensex is currently trading at 15149, down 610 points. Nifty is trading at 4589, down 156 points from the previous close.