Bombay high court dismisses Adarsh plea against defence minister

MUMBAI: Justice Roshan Dalvi of the Bombay high court on Friday dismissed an application made by the controversial Adarsh cooperative housing society against the land title suit filed by the ministry of defence over the plot on which the 31 storeyed residential tower was constructed.

The society had filed a notice of motion for rejection of a complaint filed by the MoD. Adarsh society which was represented by law firm Vidhi argued that only the defence estate officer (DEO) can file a suit on behalf of the MoD. The society relied on general governor council's order and an order dating back to 1930 passed by the government of India.

The society also relied on military land manual to argue that only the DEO was authorised to file and conduct a suit in court on behalf of the MoD.

The defence ministry countered as refuted every submission made by the society and argued that the ministry is empowered to file a land title suit without routing it through a DEO.

The HC after hearing both sides rejected the society's plea.

The state government had set up a two member judicial panel to probe the irregularities in passing the society plans and to determine the land ownership issue. It had held that the land belonged to the state, not the defence ministry. The ministry claims that the land is theirs and not the state's.

The society with its 103 flats is facing and involved in a series of litigation and 13 persons including its secretary and former state chief minister are facing criminal prosecution by the Central Bureau of Investigation for criminal conspiracy and under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The Maharashtra governor last year did not give the permission to prosecute Chavan and the CBI's plea to drop his name as an accused is pending in the high court.

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Countries searching for flight MH370 will meet to decide on next step

KUALA LUMPUR: Senior officials from Malaysia, Australia and China will meet early next week to decide on the next step in the search for the Malaysia Airlines jet, while expressing confidence on Friday that the hunt was on the right track despite no wreckage being found so far.

Malaysian defense minister Hishammuddin Hussein said that the challenges were huge but he told reporters, "I believe we will find MH370 sooner or later."

Hishammuddin said he will travel to Canberra for the meeting on Monday on the approach forward regarding deployment of assets, engagement with victims' families and expert and technical advice.

An unmanned sub continued to scan the Indian Ocean floor off western Australia where sounds consistent with a plane's black box were detected in early April. Additional equipment is expected to be brought in within the next few weeks to scour an expanded underwater area. The aerial search for surface debris ended this week.

Angus Houston, the Australian head of the search operation, said he was confident the wreckage was in that area based on the most promising leads. He said, however, that the chance of the U.S. Navy's Bluefin 21 robotic sub finding the wreckage are "probability ... lower than it was when we started the search."

Houston said the ministerial meeting was crucial to "formalize the way ahead to ensure the search continues with urgency and that it doesn't stop at any stage."

He said that the search could take another eight to 12 months but "we are totally committed to find MH370."

Houston also said that Bangladeshi ships, including a vessel fitted with sonar equipment, had so far found nothing in the northern Bay of Bengal, where a resource survey company, Australia-based GeoResonance Pty Ltd., had claimed it found possible plane wreckage.

According to Hishammuddin, Malaysia was still considering whether to hire private deep sea vessels to search the Bay of Bengal area as it could distract the main search and cost involved would be high.

The Malaysian Boeing 777 disappeared March 8 with 239 people on board while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

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Three dead, 13 missing in collapse of mine in Colombia

SANTANDER DE QUILICHAO (Colombia): A collapse at one of Colombia's many unlicensed mines has killed three people and left another 13 missing under tons of mud and rock, rescue officials said.

As anguished relatives looked on from behind a security perimeter 24 hours after the tragedy in western Colombia, six backhoes clawed at the earth to try to get to the missing.

Both men and women are among the missing, said Alexander Sanchez of the Red Cross in western Cauca state yesterday, who revised the initial missing toll of 30.

"It will be hard to find survivors," Sanchez said. Cauca police said three bodies had been pulled from the earth.

The number of missing could rise because so far it is based on reports from relatives and others may not yet have come forward.

Luz Holanda Nazarin, whose nephew was among the missing, said she had given up hope.

"Not even God knows where they are," said Nazarin, 50. Rescue workers were waiting for the heavy machinery to remove enough mud to send in sniffer dogs. But they said lots of earth still had to go before they could do this.

Cauca state firefighters chief Victor Claros said the accident happened at a mine outside the city of Santander de Quilichao, where independent mine workers were digging for gold without a license.

Colombia has more than 14,000 mines, more than half of which operate without proper permits, officials said. The government even has confiscated heavy excavation equipment at some illegal sites.

It was the second mining accident in Colombia in less than a week.

Last Saturday in the northwestern department of Antioquia, four miners died from inhaling toxic gas in an unlicensed mine.

The owners of the mine in the new accident, rather than use their own equipment to try rescue the missing, hid it to keep it from being seized because the mine has no permit, Mining and Energy Minister Amylkar Acosta said.

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Coal scam: CBI starts second round of Parakh's questioning

NEW DELHI: CBI on Friday started second round of questioning of former coal secretary PC Parakh in connection with alleged irregularities in allocation of Talabira-II coal block to Hindalco in 2005.

Parakh was examined for nearly eight hours yesterday during which he was given number of queries relating to allocation process and reasons for changing his screening committee decision which had rejected Hindalco's application.

After examination, when he was asked whether he was satisfied with the questioning process, as he had alleged in his book that on previous instances inspector-level officers with no experience of policy formulations were involved in his examination, Parakh had said he was satisfied.

"The whole idea of the questioning is to understand. I am in the process of making them understand. They have a point of view. I am trying to put my point of view," he had said.

Parakh was questioned by a team led by a superintendent of police (SP) level officer, which was monitored by a joint director and he was given access to all documents related to the case, sources said.

69-year-old Parakh, who retired as coal secretary in December 2005, has been accused in a CBI FIR of abusing his official position to grant a coal block to Hindalco, an Aditya Birla Group company.

CBI had last year registered a case against Parakh, Birla and unnamed officials of Hindalco and the coal ministry.

Birla and Hindalco have denied allegations of irregularities.

The agency has alleged that during 2005, these persons had entered into a criminal conspiracy and the then public servant (Parakh) abused his position and showed undue favour to the Odisha-based industry in allocation of Talabira II and Talabira III coal blocks.

CBI has also quizzed former minister of state for coal Dasari Narayan Rao and the Prime Minister's advisor TKA Nair in the case.

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SIT reopens Muzaffarnagar gang-rape case after SC directive

MUZAFFARNAGAR: The Special Investigation Team (SIT), probing the Muzaffarnagar riot cases, has reopened a gang-rape case of Phugana village in the district, following a directive by the Supreme Court.

Appearing before a woman magistrate on Thursday, the gang rape victim recorded her statement and admitted of being gang raped by five men in Phugana village.

According to SIT officials, a final report was filed by the SIT on the basis of the victim's earlier statement where she had turned hostile.

The case has been reopened on the directive of the Supreme Court, which had ordered that statement of victims in all gang-rape cases in Phugana village be recorded again before a woman magistrate, SIT sources said.

Five persons are accused of allegedly gang raping a 30-year-old woman in Phugana village during communal riots in Muzaffaranagar and its adjoining districts last year.

SIT officials further added that the victim had admitted that she had given the first statement under pressure and that the accused men had threatened her of dire consequences if she admitted of being raped.

The victim's family was displaced from Phugana and rehabilitated in Loee village in the district.

Police had registered six separate gang-rape cases against 27 people in Phugana village in September last year.

SIT had found 22 persons involved in five cases. Two accused have been arrested by the police, while 20 are still at large.

Meanwhile, a local court has initiated attachment proceedings against 20 absconding accused.

Around 60 people died and thousands were displaced from their homes in last year's communal violence in Muzaffarnagar and neighbouring villages of Western Uttar Pradesh.

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6.0-magnitude quake strikes off eastern Indonesia: USGS

JAKARTA: A strong 6.0-magnitude earthquake jolted parts of eastern Indonesia on Friday, the US Geological Survey reported, but local officials said there was no risk of a tsunami.

The quake struck at 4:43 pm local time (0843 GMT), 70 kilometres (43 miles) south-southeast of Namela in the Maluku chain of islands at a depth of 54 kilometres, the USGS said.

"The quake's epicentre was in the sea and was mildly felt in the cities of Ambon, Namlea and Namrole," Tri Handayani, an official from Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency, told AFP, adding that there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.

She said there was no risk of a tsunami. Indonesia sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire" where tectonic plates collide, causing frequent seismic and volcanic activity.

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Muzaffarnagar riots: Four accused arrested, property of two others attached

MUZAFFARNAGAR: Four persons accused in the riots here have been arrested while properties of two absconding accused have been attached, police said on Thursday.

Ompal, Sachin, Lala and Bala — accused of murder and rioting in Bahawdi village during last year's violence in the district — were arrested in Bahawdi village in the district yesterday, they said.

Meanwhile, properties of two other accused in Bahawdi village violence case, who are absconding, have been attached.

On the direction of a local court, immovable property of the accused Jaspal and Satinder have been attached, the police said.

Notably, scores of riots accused in various cases of last year's violence in villages Bahawdi, Phugana, Kutba and Mohammadpur are still at large and court has initiated attachment proceedings against them.

About 62 persons died and 93 injured while several others were displaced in the riots that broke out in Muzaffarnagar district in August last year.

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Computer glitch at California air traffic control centre disrupts US flights

LOS ANGELES: A computer glitch at a California air traffic control center disrupted flights in the United States for about an hour on Wednesday, authorities said.

Shortly after 2100 GMT, the US Federal Aviation Administration ordered the halting of departures from and to the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and all other airports in southern California.

"The FAA's Los Angeles Center air traffic control facility experienced technical issues and stopped accepting additional flights into the airspace managed by the facility for about an hour," the FAA said in a statement.

"Some flights were diverted and the agency issued a nationwide groundstop for flights heading into the airspace managed by the center."

The groundstop was lifted shortly before 2230 GMT but significant delays were expected to last for some time, especially in Los Angeles and San Diego.

Roughly 10 aircraft bound for Los Angeles were rerouted, airport authorities said, while about 30 planes were kept from taking off due to the technical issue.

Some passengers already on board grounded flights were allowed to disembark while the problem was taken care of.

LAX is the third busiest airport in the United States and hosted more than 66 million passengers in 2013, according to official figures.

Some East Coast airports such as Washington's Dulles International also saw delays Wednesday due to wet weather.

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May Day clashes expected in Istanbul

ISTANBUL: Thousands of demonstrators are gathering in Istanbul in observance of May Day, with many pledging to defy a government ban on protests in the central Taksim Square.

Demonstrators are massing at different spots throughout the city, as well as in other cities in Turkey. In Istanbul, clashes are expected with protesters determined to mark International Workers' Day in Taksim, the city's most iconic square.

Before being declared a national holiday in 2009, May 1 was a day of conflict that often led to violence across Turkey.

Taksim carries significant importance for May Day, which is also known as Labor Day. In 1977, 34 people were killed in the square when shots were fired into the crowd from a nearby building.

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Rs 4.52 crore cash, liquor seized during election checks

RAJAHMUNDRY (AP): Cash over Rs 4.5 crore and liquor have been seized as a part of election raids in various parts of East Godavari district.

"So far, Rs 4,52,90,000 cash, liquor and other material have been seized from various persons as part of election raids in the district. The raids are continuing in the district, and police squads have intensified checking of vehicles at various check posts," East Godavari District Collector Neetu Prasad said in a statement.

Prasad advised people to carry proof while carrying huge amounts.

She said 4,056 polling stations will be set up in the district for the Lok Sabha election in three constituencies — Amalapuram, Rajahmundry and Kakinada and 19 assembly seats to be held on May 7.

There are 37,98,181 voters in the district, she said adding that 18,200 employees have exercised their franchise through 'postal ballot' in the three parliamentary constituencies, as they are appointed on election duty in several parts of the district.

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