Indian SC judgement on lawmakers: Govt likely to consult parties

SC judgement on lawmakers: Govt likely to consult parties

     Government is likely to consult
political parties before firming up its response on the
Supreme Court judgement on disqualification of lawmakers.
    Government's legal arm, the Law Ministry, is going
through the fine print of the order, parts of which have
apparently not gone down well with political parties.
    Sources said the next step of the government would depend
on the response of the political parties which are likely to
be consulted in the coming days.
    The focus of the study is the part of the verdict which
seeks to remove the discrimination between an ordinary
individual and an elected lawmaker who enjoys protection under
the Representation of the People's Act.
    The sources said political parties, who have been guarded
in their response, may suggest moving a larger bench of the
apex court or even taking a legislative route to overturn the
judgement.
    "It is a 41-page verdict. We need to study it...people
who will implement it and people who will come under its
purview also need to study it," Information and Broadcasting
Minister Manish Tewari said here.
    He said in his personal opinion, "prima facie, no one
should have objection" to the verdict.
    Commenting on the contention that cases could be filed
out of political rivalry, Tewari opined that any judgement by
a court comes after a trial process. "If the court reaches a
conclusion, it should be respected."

Chinese trio held by Indian troops near Line of Actual Control--carrying political maps in Arabic language

Chinese trio held by Indian troops near Line of Actual Control

After dealing with the PLA

incursion last month, army personnel have now apprehended

three persons of Chinese origin along the Line of Actual

Control (LAC) carrying political maps in Arabic language in

the same area.

          The three men, identified as Adil, Salamo and Abdul

Khaliq, were nabbed inside the Indian territory on June 12

near Sultanchku and it took nearly 10 days for the authorities

to make them give their name, official sources said.

          All the three men are Sunni Muslims aged between 18 and

23 with fair complexion but their language was not

comprehensible, they said.

            The three men -- one of whom is one-eyed -- were at

present in the custody at Murgo post and efforts were on to

comprehend their language which did not have any similarity

with either Chinese or Balti spoken in Pakistan-occupied-

Kashmir's Baltistan.

            It was also not clear where from they had come as the

nearest habitation across the LAC was in North of Karakoram

range. Authorities are working on the possibility that they

could have entered through either Raki Nallah, Jeevan Nallah

or North of Daulat Beig Oldie, where Indian and Chinese troops

had a face-off for nearly 21 days from April 15 to May five.

            The three men, who are well built, cannot be interrogated

until they are brought to Leh town where translators could be

used to understand their language, the sources said.

            There was a possibility that the language could be

Yarkandi spoken in Xinjiang province, close to Pakistan-

occupied-Kashmir and touches DBO tip in north of Ladakh. The

area has a huge Uyghur population.

            Both summer and winter road connectivity to this post

were cut off due to bad weather in Ladakh region this year.

Now the authorities have sought permission to airlift the trio

to Ladakh for a detailed questioning.

Chinese daily blames British for confusion over Aksai Chin--Confusion over Aksai Chin, the area occupied by China during 1962 war with India, was created by colonial British rulers

Chinese daily blames British for confusion over Aksai Chin
Confusion over Aksai Chin, the area
occupied by China during 1962 war with India, was created by
colonial British rulers who have never presented it to Chinese
governments in the past, an article in an official daily here
said today.
    "India's claim to Aksai Chin is mainly based on the
Johnson Line proposed in 1865. Aksai Chin was put inside
Kashmir in the proposal. However, the line was never presented
to the Chinese government and was severely criticised for its
gross inaccuracies by the British government, which had
dominant colonial power in India at that time," an article in
the Global Times said today.
    From the 1950s, India started establishing outposts in
the area, having set up 43 in its heyday in the border regions
of Xinjiang and Tibet, it said.
    The site of the latest standoff, referred to as the
Depsang Valley, is called Tiannan River Valley by the Chinese.
    It is located in the western sector of Aksai Chin, which
is largely a vast high-altitude desert covering an area of
about 37,000 square km, the article, a compilation of views of
Indian and Chinese analysts on the recent stand off, said.
    Aksai Chin is also one of the two main disputed border
areas over which China and India fought the 1962 war.
    The area is administered by China as part of Hotan county
in the Hotan prefecture of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous
Region. India regards Aksai Chin as a part of the Ladakh
district, it said.
    Although China dismantled the Indian outposts after the
1962 war and has since reinforced its actual control of the
area, Indian troops continue to patrol the area, it said.
    A Chinese analyst Hu Shisheng, an expert on South Asia
research at the China Institute of Contemporary International
Relations refuted the perception that India is getting closer
to Japan, Vietnam, Korea and Myanmar apprehending aggressive
moves by China.
    India is unlikely to become an ally with countries
involved in territorial disputes with China, Hu said.
    "Only if India maintains its strategic independence can
it maximize gains from its relations with other countries," he
said.

IPL Cricket match fixing case--How Delhi Police stumbled upon spot-fixing in IPL

IPL Cricket match fixing case--How Delhi Police stumbled upon spot-fixing in IPL

           It all started with a probe into a

case related to organised crime when an alert official of

Delhi Police's Special Cell heard an unusual conversation

about giving signals at the cricket ground.

          This generated some interest in the official who, after

informing his seniors, began finding as to who has to give

signals and why.

          After monitoring a phone call, the investigation had

virtually turned pan-India with some of the bookies based in

Gujarat and Mumbai.

          After stumbling upon the "accidental" call, the Delhi

Police's Special Cell, which recently had Madan Mohan Oberoi

as its Joint Commissioner after completing his tenure with

CBI, began monitoring all the phones linked to one call.

          And as time passed by, the Delhi Police sensed it was a

sensational case.

            Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar was personally

monitoring the case almost on a daily basis and had

coordinated with police forces of other states as well so that

there is no faux pas.

            And finally after recording over 100s of hours of

conversations, Delhi Police decided to crack the whip by

arresting 14 people including three players of Rajasthan

Royals -- S Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan.

            Meanwhile, the case for which the monitoring was being

done is still under investigation.

No LPG to houses with multiple-connections from Jun 1

No LPG to houses with multiple-connections from Jun 1
 Cooking gas or LPG supplies to
households having unverified multiple connections will stop
from June 1, state-owned oil firms announced today.
     The three state-owned fuel retailers have been "directed
to stop supplies of LPG refills to households having multiple-
connections for which no KYC (Know Your Customer) details have
been received, with effect from June 1," a statement issued by
Indian Oil Corp, the nation's largest oil firm, said.
     No transactions, including delivery of non-subsidised
cylinders, will be permitted in such cases once such
connections have been blocked.
     IOC said all multiple LPG connection holders have been
identified and intimated. All three firms, IOC, Hindustan
Petroleum (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum (BPCL) are sharing data
on LPG customers.
     Customers whose name figure on the list of multiple
connection holders need to submit their KYC details along with
proof of identity and proof of address immediately to their
LPG distributors to continue receiving uninterrupted quota of
subsidised cylinders, IOC said.
     Other customers whose names do not appear in the list
need not submit their KYC details as of now.
     "The oil companies are advising all multiple-connection
holders to submit their KYC details, pertaining to the LPG
connection they wish to retain, immediately to their LPG
distributors," the statement said adding customers have been
advised to surrender excess or multiple connections.
     Though the deadline for submission of KYC was December
31, 2012, KYCs are being accepted and LPG connections are
being regularised for supply of subsidised cylinders till
date, it added.

Sun blasts out three flares in 24 hours

Sun blasts out three flares in 24 hours

          Solar flare bonanza! The Sun has

emitted the third significant solar flare within 24 hours, the

strongest X-class flare this year so far.

          The flare, classified as an X3.2 flare, surpassed in

strength the two flares that occurred earlier in the 24-hour

period.

          The flare was also associated with a coronal mass

ejection, or CME. However, CME was not Earth-directed.

          Experimental NASA research models show that the CME left

the Sun at approximately  2,253 km per second, which is

particularly fast for a CME.

            The models suggest that it will catch up to the two CMEs

associated with the earlier flares. The merged cloud of solar

material will pass by the Spitzer spacecraft and may give a

glancing blow to the STEREO-B and Epoxi spacecraft.

            Their mission operators have been notified. If warranted,

operators can put spacecraft into safe mode to protect the

instruments from solar material.

            The X2.8-class flare was also associated with a coronal

mass ejection, or CME, another solar phenomenon that can send

billions of tons of solar particles into space, which can

potentially affect electronic systems in satellites and on the

ground.

            The second-strongest was an X5.4 event on March 7, 2012.

The strongest was an X6.9 on August 9, 2011.

            Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful

radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth's atmosphere

to physically affect humans on the ground, however - when

intense enough - they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer

where GPS and communications signals travel.

            This disrupts the radio signals for as long as the flare

is ongoing - the radio blackout associated with this flare has

since subsided.

Intellectual imprisonment---China tightens grip on discourse, ideology--frozen the microblog accounts of intellectuals

China tightens grip on discourse, ideology

 Chinese authorities have shut down
or frozen the microblog accounts of several prominent liberal
intellectuals and harassed rights lawyers lobbying against
unofficial "black jails," underlining the determination of the
country's new leadership to control dissent even as it vows to
root out corruption.
    The moves over the last few days occurred around the time
officials announced that a senior official was being
investigated for graft, months after a prominent journalist
accused him of wrongdoing.
    The probe against Liu Tienan, deputy chairman of China's
economic planning agency, was heralded by the Chinese press as
proof that the battle against corruption is best fought when
authorities allow public participation.
    "The authorities and the people combined their strengths
in this case, and it is an encouragement to the public's power
in fighting corruption," said a state-run daily, the Beijing
News, in a commentary.
    But in other instances, the authoritarian government has
shown an unwavering intent to clamp down on anyone who seeks
to publicly pressure it into social or political change. The
message appears to be that if any reform is on the agenda, the
Communist Party will push it through on its own terms.
    "The controls are tighter than ever," said Li Cheng, an
expert on China's elite politics at the Washington-based
Brookings Institution. "The challenges are greater, so the
suppression is escalating."
    Small groups of activists have been detained in Beijing
and other cities for holding banners calling for officials to
publicly declare their assets a key anti-graft measure that
the government has been reluctant to implement.
    One activist, Liu Ping, has been accused of inciting
subversion, a vaguely worded charge frequently used to
suppress dissidents.
    Authorities are also maintaining a years-long effort to
quash legal activism.
    On Monday, several rights lawyers attempting to visit one
of China's unofficial detention centers also known as "black
jails" in the southwestern city of Ziyang were beaten by
unidentified men, said Beijing attorney Li Heping, who was
contacted by one of the lawyers.
    The efforts to police discourse are also being ramped up
in the Chinese blogosphere, where users often challenge the
government's version of events and its control over
information.
    Over the weekend, authorities apparently removed all
microblog accounts belonging to the writer Hao Qun, better
known by his pen name Murong Xuecun, from four different
sites. His subsequent efforts to set up new accounts have been
blocked, he said.