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  01 MAIN
   
   
  02 TRADE & ECONOMY
   
   
  03 INVESTMENT UPDATE
   
   
  04 NEWSMAKERS
   
   
  05 INFOTECH
   
   
  06 CULTURE
   
   
  07 TRAVEL
   
   
  08 CALENDAR
   

   
  HIGHLIGHTS
   
 

Approval to Posco SEZ in Orissa
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  Festive Season in India
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  West Bengal
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PM attends NAM Summit

 
   
 
     
  Prime Minister of India Dr Manmohan Singh paid an official visit to Brazil from September 11 to 14, 2006. The Prime Minister also attended the 14th NAM Summit held in Havana, Cuba from September 11-16, 2006. The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is made up of 116 developing countries and aims to represent the political, economic and cultural interests of the developing world. The NAM traces its origins to a meeting in 1955 of 29 Asian and African countries at which heads of state discussed common concerns, including colonialism and the influence of the West.
The two-day NAM summit adopted the Havana Declaration and the “final document” urging countries to refrain from extending political, diplomatic, moral or material support to terrorism under the UN Charter. The final document expressed concern that terrorist groups, including former Taliban, were regrouping in southern and eastern parts of Afghanistan. The efforts of international community to fight terrorism were being undermined by support, protection and shelter that these forces of destabilisation continued to receive, it said.
» Highlights on page 4
 
     
     
     
 

MOS for Non-Conventional Energy Sources visits Australia

 
   
  Honourable Minister of State for Non-Conventional Energy Sources of India, Mr. Vilas Muttemwar, visited Adelaide (South Australia) on 18-20 September to attend the Global Wind Power 2006 Conference.  Hon. MOS addressed the Conference on 20 September.   
   
 
         
During the visit he met Hon. Premier of South Australia Mr. Mike Rann, Hon. Minister for Energy of South Australia Mr. Patrick Conlon and Hon. Minister for Energy of Victoria Mr. Theo Theophanous. 

Hon. MOS also visited wind and solar power facilities. Honourable Minister of State, in his address highlighted
  the progress made by India in wind power generation. 

He said that India already had installed wind power capacity of 8000 MW, and proposed to increase it to 15000 MW.  Indian companies were now manufacturing wind power equipment.  MOS also mentioned that a special economic
  zone is being set up in India for the renewable energy sector. 

He also spoke about progress in India in other areas of renewable energy such as solar, nuclear, biogas fuel etc.  He invited Australian companies to consider investments in India in the renewable energy sector.
 
     
 
         
         
 
  New Foreign Secretary
Mr. Shivshankar Menon has taken over as the new Foreign Secretary of India on 1 October.  He has served as Ambassador in Israel, High Commissioner in Sri Lanka, Ambassador in China, and High Commissioner in Pakistan.  He has also served in Austria and Japan.
 
         
         
 

  Pakistan's ISI behind blasts: Police

Claiming to have cracked the July 11 serial blasts in Mumbai trains, Mumbai Police said that Pakistan's ISI was the ‘mastermind’ behind the terror attacks carried out by Lashkar-e-Toiba with help from SIMI activists.


Addressing a press conference, Mumbai Police Commissioner A N Roy said that out of the 15 people arrested in connection with the blasts the ‘direct role’ of 12 people has been established.

Out of them, 11 are Pakistanis, who had arrived in India in batches, Roy said.

The conspiracy was hatched in Mumbai and adjoining areas after taking training in Bahawalpur in Pakistan, he said.

The Commissioner said the main players behind the blasts are Faizal Sheikh, Kamaluddin Ansari, Ehtasham Siddiqui, general secretary of SIMI, Maharashtra.

Two of the Pakistanis had come through Nepal reaching Mumbai around May 25. The second group had come via Bangladesh after spending some time in Kolkata while another separate group of four people had come through the Gujarat
 

border. Roy said they were kept in separate places in Mumbai. Faizal Sheikh, a local, had arranged rented houses for them one in Malad and four in Bandra in Mumbai.

About 15 to 20 KG of RDX was used in the blasts which was brought from Pakistan by one Ehsanullah. Ammonium Nitrate which was mixed with RDX was provided by local groups. The bombs were put together in the Chembur area by one Mohammad Ali around July 8 to 10.
Roy said the bombs were kept in Faizal's home in Bandra from where they were transported to the Railway Stations in taxis. The bombs were kept in eight pressure cookers of five litre capacity which were bought from two shops.

Each bomb contained two to 2.5 kg of RDX and 3.5 to four KG of ammonium nitrate. The pressure cookers were kept inside bags which were in turn camouflaged in things like newspapers and umbrellas, he said. Roy said teams of two people each in a combination of a Pakistani and an Indian took the bombs in taxis and placed them in the trains.

All the bombs were fitted with quartz timers and the suspects left the trains before the bombs were set to go off.

He said Saleem, a Pakistani from Lahore, had died in the blasts carried out in Khar and Bandra section.

 

Of the seven Indians suspected to be involved in the blasts four have been arrested. They are Faizal Sheikh, Kamaluddin Ansari, Ehtashan Siddiqui and Naved.

A hunt is on for three other Indians suspected to have been involved in the blasts.

Roy said the accused had purchased eight pressure cookers and used seven for triggering blasts. "It was a professional, precise and well-planned operation," he said. He said the first clue received by the police was a phone call made from Navi Mumbai to a place along the Indo-Nepal border.

Following this piece of information, police arrested prime suspect Kamaluddin Ansari from Madhubani in Bihar.

He said all the arrested were trained in Pakistan and knew how to dodge interrogators.

The Commissioner said the narco-analysis tests conducted on the arrested persons also helped in tying several loose ends.
Faizal Sheikh told police he had received around Rs 60 lakh from Pakistan during the last few years. Police recovered 26,000 Riyals from his house, which he received from one Rizwan Devra, an ISI operative living in Saudi Arabia, Roy said.

 



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