A fresh avalanche hit Kashmir Valley on Tuesday, killing an army jawan in Kupwara district, a day after 17 armymen met a similar fate during a winter warfare training exercise.

The avalanche hit Tangdhar, 145 km from here, around 0345 hours trapping 14 army personnel, a defence spokesman said. All the 14 army personnel were extricated from the deep snow but one of them died later.

A massive avalanche had slammed the popular ski resort of Gulmarg on Monday, killing 17 soldiers and injuring an equal number when the troops were in the midst of a winter warfare training on steep slopes about 70km from here.

The avalanche came hurtling down on the 60-strong combat troops as they were scaling the icy walls of high-altitude Khilanmarg peak in near zero visibility.
 

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She's known for making tough decisions, but US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has divulged that she is still trying to decide what to wear to daughter Chelsea's wedding later this year. 'Well, if you don't tell anybody... we're still looking," she told CNN's State of the Union talkshow yesterday.

 
Mother of the bride: Hillary Clinton with Chelsea.  

"I don't have a dress yet, no, and Chelsea doesn't either. But we're working on it," added Clinton. Chelsea Clinton (29) announced her engagement to investment banker Marc Mezvinsky in an e-mail to friends in November. "We wanted to wish everyone a belated Happy Thanksgiving! We also wanted to share that we are engaged!" she wrote.

Clinton pronounced herself "very proud" to be the mother of the bride, but admitted planning the wedding was almost as tough as Middle East peace talks. "I'd probably call it a draw about now," she laughed. 
 

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Hours after India proposed dates for Foreign Secretary-level talks, Pakistan has claimed that it was New Delhi which had blinked not Islamabad.

Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that it was India which had talked about breaking their relationship with us and their turning their back on us. "But two days ago, India has approached and said they want to sit and talk to us and want to resume their relationship with us," Qureshi told a public meeting in Multan in Punjab on Sunday.

"Pakistan hasn't knelt... It didn't kneel. Pakistan held its ground," the Pakistan Foreign Minister indulging in rhetorics as a build up to the talks has started.

Qureshi said that Pakistan would present its case before India claiming "our case is strong. It's not weak, whether it be Kashmir or water or any other issue." "Pakistan has a clear stance regarding every issue be it Kashmir or the water issue and we would not step back from their stance," he said.

Under the composite dialogue eight issues including Jammu and Kashmir and terrorism were discussed in four rounds of talks before it was paused in November 2008 in the wake of Mumbai attacks.
 

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Two people were killed and more dead and injured were expected after a gas-fired power plant in the north-eastern US state of Connecticut exploded on Sunday, media reports said.

The explosion occurred while there were about 100 people inside who were said to be testing some recently-completed upgrades to the facility, the Danbury News-Times reported online.

Dozens of ambulances and two medevac helicopters responded to the scene in the town of Middletown, about 150 km north-east of New York City. An estimated 100 firefighters had brought the flames under control by 1:30 pm, the Hartford Courant reported.

Medical rescue personnel told the Courant that at least four of the 100 in the plant were critically injured, another four were injured, in addition to the two dead at the Kleen Energy Systems plant.

The company could not be reached for comment.

Middletown deputy fire marshal Al Santostefano told the Courant it was "possible that there might be people trapped in the rubble". Rescue crews were in search and rescue mode by 1 pm on Sunday and were trying to see if there are any survivors.

"There are bodies everywhere," a witness was quoted as saying.

The local television station WQAD said that the blast was so powerful that people felt it 20 km away, many thinking that an earthquake had struck.

The facility appeared to be a gas-fired power plant belonging to the Kleen Energy Systems company. A large amount of gas was believed to be in storage at the site.

The site's main building was levelled by the explosion, early eyewitness reports said.

Television images from a distance showed black smoke rising from the site.

The Danbury News-Times cited one eyewitness as saying the blast created a "massive ball of fire 40 to 50 feet into the air".

State police fire and explosive investigators were looking into the cause of the fire.
 

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India on Sunday successfully tested its indigenous long-range nuclear-capable Agni-III missile, catapulting the country into a select group of nations that have intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM)-capability, defence sources said.

The 3,000-km range missile, which is capable of carrying warheads weighing up to 1.5 tonnes, was tested from the Inner Wheeler Island at Dhamra, a launch site in Bhadrak district, about 200 km from Orissa capital Bhubaneswar, at 10.46 a.m.

"The test was successful," defence ministry spokesman Sitanshu Kar said.

This is the fourth test of the missile. The first test, from the same defence base on July 9, 2006, was unsuccessful. The second stage of the rocket had failed to separate from the missile quickly enough and the missile had fallen short of its target.

The DRDO-developed missile was tested again on April 12, 2007, and May 9, 2008, respectively and both the tests were successful.

Agni-III, one of the Agni series missiles, is a two-stage solid propellant missile with a length of 17 mt, diameter 2 mt and launch weight of 50 tonnes.

While Agni-I is a 750-800 km short-range missile, Agni-II has a range of more than 1,500 km. Both have already been inducted into the armed forces.
 

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Suspected Maoists blew away a portion of railway tracks in the wee hours on Monday near here causing derailment of a goods train and disruption of train services on the Howrah-Mumbai route.

A portion of the railway track at a place between Bhalulata and Jareikela, about 30 km from here, was blown up by suspected Maoists at 1:00 am leading to derailment of two wagons of a goods train, Rourkela railway station manager SK Panda said. However, there have been no reports of injury or casualty in the incident.

Following the blast, all trains on the Howrah-Mumbai route have been held up at different stations, Panda said, adding that explosives might also have been planted on the up-line of the route.

Maoists had yesterday called a 72-hour bandh in Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh to protest against a proposed all-out offensive Operation Green Hunt against them by the Centre.
 

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Former Haryana director general of police SPS Rathore, who is convicted in the Ruchika Girhotra molestation case, was suddenly attacked on Monday with a sharp-edged knife by a youth as he came out of the district court complex here in Sector 17.

The youth was immediately nabbed by police personnel and lawyers accompanying Rathore.

Rathore received a cut on his right cheek and blood, which started coming out of it, was seen falling on his jacket. He was immediately taken away by some lawyers for treatment.

A three-day continuous hearing of the Ruchika Girhotra molestation case started in-camera at the district and sessions court here following Rathore's appeal against his conviction.

The court is hearing two matters, one related to the appeal filed by Rathore against his conviction for molestation by a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special court and second, the application moved by CBI seeking enhancement of Rathore's sentence from six months to two years of rigorous imprisonment.

The CBI special court held Rathore guilty December 21 for molesting 15-year-old Ruchika, a budding tennis player, in Panchkula town August 12, 1990.

He was sentenced to six months' rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs 1,000 in the 19-year-old molestation case. Rathore was granted bail immediately after his conviction.
 

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Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar Sunday met Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray to urge him not to oppose the participation of Australian cricketers in the forthcoming Indian Premier League (IPL).

Specially flying down to Mumbai from Aurangabad, Pawar called on Thackeray at the latter's residence Matoshri, where they were closeted for over two hours.

While Pawar was accompanied by Indian cricket board chief Shashank Manohar, Thackeray was joined by son Uddhav who drove down from Pune for the meeting.

Over a fortnight ago, the Shiv Sena had made it clear that it would not permit Australian players to play in Maharashtra for the ongoing attacks on Indians in that country.

Though Pawar declined to comment about the meeting, there were indications that the mission may have failed to bear the desired results.

Interacting with mediapersons, Manohar said that "we presented our viewpoint before Thackeray on this critical issue".

"We also explained to them the format of the IPL teams and matches and how there were one or two Australian players in each team. He agreed to consider the issue in a couple of days," Manohar said.

The IPL will also make a presentation on the issue before Thackeray, after which he would clarify whether the Sena would permit the Australians to take part.

Earlier Sunday, addressing a Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) conclave in Aurangabad, Pawar had said that sports and politics must not be mixed and also announced his plans to meet Thackeray over the issue.

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Raipur, Feb 6 (IANS) :

B.L. Agrawal, an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer in Chhattisgarh, has been found to have at least 220 bank accounts and assets worth millions of rupees, official sources said Saturday after the income tax department raided his residence here. 

IT officials searched the residence of the state agriculture secretary as well as business establishments of his close relatives Thursday.
On Friday, the officials similarly raided his chartered account Sunil Agrawal's house and came across documents suggesting that the IAS officer had amassed assets disproportionate to his known income.

The officer had at least 220 bank accounts, several of them opened on fake names and addresses, and a few in the names of his domestic helps.
Efforts by IANS to contact B.L. Agrawal failed. A man who answered his mobile telephone said that Agrawal was "busy in a meeting".
Income tax department sources said they were analysing documents and papers they seized. Some documents suggest he might be involved in hawala transactions, the sources said.

Chhattisgarh's Bharatiya Janata Party government is waiting a final report from the IT department about Agrawal's assets to initiate action against him, official sources said.

Houses of government officials and businessmen in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh were raided Thursday and Friday to unearth unaccounted income. 

Bangalore, Feb 6 (PTI) :Chaos, anger, repartees and some scientific reasoning marked the seventh public hearing on Bt Brinjal here today with Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh facing attacks from groups supporting and opposing the crop variety, prompting him to hit back at them.   
 
The minister, at the receiving end with NGOS, farmers, doctors and scientists making out a case for and against commercialisation of Bt Brinjal, countered some detractors, shouting "I will not listen to you".

The three-and-half-hour debate saw the minister lose his cool when he was accused by one of the participants of being an "agent" of biotech firm Monsanto.

"I am not a Monsanto agent", a livid Ramesh snapped. "You need help", he said apparently indicating that the participant was mentally unsound.
As the debate here saw decibel levels rise, the Minister tried to use his authority to bring in some discipline and some time turned to humour to calm down an agitated voice.

"This not the Parliament", he told a participant who tried to yell to be heard above the din and spoke out of turn.

"They must stop telecasting parliamentary proceedings... This is highly infectious," Ramesh said even as the participants yelled to have their voices heard.

To an allegation that he was in the loop of the pro-GM lobby and a gazette notification proved it, he yelled, "I will not tolerate wild allegations". An angry Ramesh made frantic calls to his department to have some clarity on the notification.

Dismissing as far-fetched the conspiracy angle of his involvement, Ramesh said the gazette only stated that the listed commodities could be exported without permission from the National Bio Diversity Authorities and was in no way connected to GM crops.

However, he said he would look into the notification and would withdraw it if it was in any way found to be connected to genetically modified crops.
He said "false rumours" were being spread and the actual issue was being hijacked by throwing in "conspiracy angles". "I want scientific contributions, not political contributions", he admonished a member trying to make a point.

Despite being booed as being "Hitler-like" when he refused to hear some of the points, he said he had been "patient" and had been "fair and democratic" while eliciting opinions.

When a scientist stated that when farmers had accepted mobile and other technology why were they refusing to accept BT Brinjal, he told him: "I am sorry a scientist has spoken so. I apologise to all of you. Science should not teach you arrogance. I am trying to find a middle path between anti-democratic nature of NGOs and arrogance of scientist," he said amid applause.

The debate also took a linguistic turn when a group objected to a scientist airing his views in English and not Tamil, raising a counter-protest from Kannadigas.

Former prime minister Deve Gowda, who was also present at the meeting, praised Ramesh for holding the public consultation and raised doubts over safety of GM crops and whom it would benefit.

While some farmers during the debate argued that introduction of BT brinjal would impact lifespan and would result in multinationals monopolising the scenario, others said it would help in doubling yield and economic gains.

Some of the scientists questioned the long term implication and expressed fears of contamination through cross pollination, others clearly questioned why India was being used for experimentation.

Ramesh, who had earlier said that a decision on introduction of BT brinjal would be taken by February 10, said it would attempt to balance science and community. "I cannot ignore public opinion. I have to walk a line between science and society."

Asserting that there was no pressure on him, he said the decision would be fair one. "It might make 50 per cent happy, 50 per cent unhappy. It is not going to be an easy decision to take. It will set the pattern for future decisions for food crops, so I have to be careful."

He said he had received letters from the chief ministers of West Bengal, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh opposing Bt Brinjal. The Tamil Nadu chief secretary had orally communicated similar view, he said, adding that he is was yet to hear from Maharashtra, Punjab and Gujarat.

Ramesh said he so far had seven consultations with 8,000 people, received letters and written to various scientists, governments, farmers, NGOs and other organisations.

Slogans raised
Hundreds of angry protesters today raised slogans and waved placards here as Union Environment Minister M Jairam Ramesh commenced a national consultation, the last in the series, on the controversial move to introduce Bt Brinjal.
Farmers, NGO's and members of various organisations condemned the move to introduce Bt Brinjal, carrying placards with slogans like "we don't need Bt Brinjal."

The consultation witnessed some angry farmers arguing that introduction of Bt Brinjal was not safe, as research conducted in the field was still insufficient. Seed owners would not end up being farmers, but multinationals, they said.
A huge posse of police personnel was deployed, even as protesters raised slogans while the debate was on.
Today's meeting here is the last in a series of nationwide public consultation meetings on Bt Brinjal, in which groups, NGOs, technologists and others would air their views.

Ramesh has already stated that a final decision on commercial introduction of Bt brinjal would be taken by February 10.