26/11 dossier: Pak accepts India's charges

Highlights of the press conference:

Three boats were used for the attack, they have been identified.

The other boats were repainted and ‘Mashallah’ was inscribed on it.

India's evidence is credible: Rehman.

We have asked 30 questions to India in our reply: Rehman

Indian High Commissioner briefed in Pakistan: Rehman.

26/11 links with Spain, Austria and Italy also established: Rehman

Six people are under our custody: Rehman

26/11 links with Spain, Austria and Italy also established.

We have requested India to bring to our notice if there is an Indian who is involved in 26/11.

Some of the accused are linked to Lashkar-e-Toiba

Pakistan wants Ajmal Kasab's statement made in court. It also wants to know how some SIM cards were procured in India, says Rehman.

Nine accused have been named in the FIR of whom six have been arrested.

New Delhi: Pakistan on Thursday responded to India's 26/11 dossier.

Pakistan has lodged an FIR in connection with the Mumbai terror attacks, Interior Ministry Chief Rehman Malik said in a press conference.

Malik also accepted that some part of conspiracy related to the Mumbai attacks was planned in Pakistan.

Three persons have been named in the FIR lodged under the Anti-Terrorism Act. The FIR number is 01/2009 and it was lodged in the Special Investigating Unit in Samba.
Hamad Ameen Sadiq, who facilitated money transfer for the terrorist attack in Mumbai and is the main operative, has also been arrested.

Some bank details too have been zeroed in on. FIA has been able to get the hideout in Karachi and the nearby areas.

Rehman appeased the Indians saying, “People of India, we are with you and with the international community who are against terror attacks. However, we will be requesting some additional response from the Indian Government to strengthen our prosecution.”

Pakistani national Javed Iqbal, who acquired the VoIP phones for Mumbai attackers in Spain, has also been arrested. Rehman even confirmed that the terrorists had bought five SIM cards.

In brief

There are three vital leads in the case - Hamid, the shop from where the boat engine was bought and the bank from where they financed their conspiracy.

After UP, now Andhra MLAs on the rampage

HYDERABAD: A day after MLAs in Uttar Pradesh disrupted the assembly session on Tuesday, pandemonium broke out in the Andhra Pradesh state 

MLAs on the rampage in Andhra Pradesh assembly (Times Now) More Pictures

assembly on Wednesday when a major row broke out between chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and leader of the opposition, TDP's Chandrababu Naidu. 

Reddy challenged Naidu and said he would complain to agencies, if the latter found fault with the companies that were run by his son Y S Jaganmohan Reddy. The Andhra chief minister lashed out at Naidu for casting aspersions on his character and accusing him and his family of being complicit in the Satyam scandal, due to their alleged proximity with the IT firm’s disgraced ex-chief, Ramalinga Raju. 

Reddy also alleged that Heritage Foods, a company promoted by Naidu's family, sold Rs 60 crore worth of land for a mere Rs 3 crore to a subsidiary  Heritage Infra, thereby causing heavy loss to the shareholders. 

Eventually pandemonium broke out in the assembly following which the house was adjourned twice, TV channel Times Now reported. 

Assembly affairs minister Rosaiah introduced motion of suspension of opposition members, following which Speaker Suresh Reddy suspended 55 members. Members, however, refused to leave the House and marshals had to pull the members out of House. In the ensuing scuffle, one TDP MLA P Keshav was injured. 

The Andhra CM had said on Tuesday that there was "nothing amiss" in the companies run by his son and challenged leader of opposition N Chandrababu Naidu to lodge a "complaint" against them if he finds any fault. 

"There is nothing amiss in the affairs of either Sandur Power Company or other subsidiaries floated by my son Jaganmohan Reddy and business partners," the chief minister had said, reacting to the allegations leveled by Naidu during the course of the debate on the Satyam scandal in the assembly. 

He said, "If there is anything wrong, you can approach the proper agencies with your complaint". What's wrong in it? If shares of Sakshi newspaper, floated by Jagan were sold at a higher price than the face value," Reddy added.

UPA Minister charged in murder case

New Delhi: In an embarrassment to the UPA Government, Union Small Scale Industries Minister Mahavir Prasad has been charged with abettment to murder.

The Uttar Pradesh Police has registered a case against him and two others in Gorakhpur.
Prasad, a Congress MP, has been charged of involvement in the murder of one Ramprakat Singh, who was killed over a property dispute on January 28, 2008.

Using his influence, the minister allegedly got a case of accident registered against the two main suspects instead of a murder case.

This was challenged in the Allahabad High Court by the family of the victim.
On the basis of the High Court direction the police has now named Prasad a co-accused.

Who is Mahavir Prasad?

He was elected to the Lok Sabha from Bansgaon in Gorakhpur in 2004.

He has been an MP thrice before, first being elected to the Lok Sabha in 1980.

He has served as a Union Minister of State for Railways and also Mines in previous Congress governments.

He was also the Governor of Haryana from 1995 to 2000.

Pathan brothers' blitz powers India win

Seems it was a brothers' day out on Tuesday. After Michael and David Hussey scripted Australia's win against New Zealand, India's Pathan brothers -Yusuf and Irfan - snatched a 3-wicket win from Sri Lankan jaws in the one-off T20 match.

Chasing 172 runs, Pathan brothers combined after India were reeling at 115 for 7. They added unbeaten 59 runs in just 4.1 overs with Irfan contributing 33 runs and Yusuf adding 22 runs. Apart from their batting excellence, the brothers shone with the ball as well. Yusuf picked two wickets and Irfan took one. And the elder brother was rightly chosen the 'Man of the Match'.

Dawood's men hired to kill Qasab, claim Mumbai cops

Mumbai: In an ironic turn of events, the only terrorist of 26/11 captured alive is now facing a death threat from the Dawood gang, apparently a hit ordered by terrorist groups, who fear he is India's most valuable piece of evidence.

The Mumbai police is now increasing security for him, the police also said the chargesheet against Qasab will be filed on February 24; up to 11 countries are also filing charges against him for the killings of their citizens.

Mumbai police says that terror groups in Pakistan may have hired the D-company to kill Qasab in order to eliminate the only living link of the 26//11 attacks to Pakistan.

This information is based on intelligence inputs received in January. It even came up in a meeting with the Union Home Minister on how to strengthen Qasab's security.

Obama: Afghanistan Policies Under Review

President Barack Obama is reviewing U.S. policies in Afghanistan, where he says efforts to build democracy are not going as well as those in Iraq. As VOA's Kent Klein reports from the White House, Mr. Obama also addressed the al-Qaida and Taliban threat in Afghanistan and Pakistan, during his first news conference since taking office. President Obama calls the situation in Afghanistan a "big challenge," and says progress toward democracy there is lagging behind that in Iraq.

• He said, "We just saw an election in Iraq that went relatively peacefully and you get a sense that the political system is now functioning in a meaningful way. You do not see that yet in Afghanistan. They have got elections coming up, but, effectively, the national government seems very detached from what is going on in the surrounding community."
  

'Terrorist Safe-Havens Must Go':

In a nationally televised news conference, the president also said terrorist safe havens along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border must be eliminated. As part of his review, he says he will assess American and multinational diplomatic, economic and military efforts to cooperate toward that end.

• The president said, "In addition, you have got the Taliban and al-Qaida operating in the FATA (Federally Administered Areas of Pakistan) and these border regions between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and what we have not seen is the kind of concerted effort to root out those safe havens that would ultimately make our mission successful."
  

Al Qaeda's chilling threat to India

Al Qaeda's Mustafa Abu al-Yazid :A top al-Qaida commander, who was reported killed in a US drone strike last year, has appeared in a video warning India of more Mumbai-style terror attacks if it tried to attack Pakistan.

"India should know that it will have to pay a heavy price if it attacks Pakistan," Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, believed to be al-Qaida's military commander in Afghanistan and ranked behind No 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri, said in a 20-minute video in Arabic received by BBC.

Yazid, who the Pakistani military said may have been killed in fighting last August in the Bajaur tribal region, said: "The Mujahideen will sunder your armies into the ground, like they did to the Russians in Afghanistan.

"They will target your economic centres and raze them to the ground." Yazid denounced the ban on militant groups in Pakistan following the Mumbai attacks and asked the people of Pakistan to rise up and overthrow the government and President Asif Ali Zardari, the BBC reported.

The al-Qaida leader is said to have been involved in a number of terror attacks, including last year's Danish embassy bombings, in Pakistan and had claimed the responsibility of assassinating former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

He was last heard in August 2008 when he confirmed the death of al-Qaida chemical-weapons expert Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar.

Satyam's Raju gets special facilities in jail

Hyderabad: Satyam Computer Services Ltd's disgraced founder B Ramalinga Raju has been living the life of an ordinary inmate since his arrest on January 9.
Ramalinga Raju has been eating watery dal and rice and sharing toilets with other prisoners.
But now Nampally Criminal Court in Hyderabad has granted him special status allowing him access to facilities that go beyond basic necessities.
So after spending almost a month in Hyderabad's Chanchalguda Jail, Ramalinga Raju finally has something to feel relieved about.
He will now not have to share prison space with petty thieves and ordinary prisoners.
Raju will now be entitled to an individual cell and can also have access to fruits, biscuits and other food items brought by his family.
Raju will also be allowed to read newspapers and books of his choice. His individual cell will be furnished with a cot, mattress, a table, a chair and also have a separate bathroom.
Though Andhra Pradesh Prison Rule does allow allotment of special status to any accused from a respectable educational background and of a certain economic status, the jail superintendent confirmed that it was the first time in 20 years that the status has been awarded to an undertrail.

Major collision averted at Mumbai airport

A collision between an Air India passenger aircraft and an Air force helicopter was narrowly averted at the Mumbai airport on Monday morning.
An Air India domestic flight IC 866 to Delhi with 150 passengers was cleared by Mumbai's Air Traffic Control for take-off.
As the Air India plane reached the runway and was about to give full throttle, the Air Traffic Control informed the pilot about the Air Force helicopters, which were part of President Pratibha Patil's convoy, were about to land.
The ATC asked the pilot to abort the take-off. The pilot then applied the brakes on the aircraft. Almost at the same time, the three helicopters landed.
The tyres of the plane were changed after the wear and tear caused by the plane braking at the last moment. The plane took off after the tyres were changed.
Later, a statement was issued by the Rashtrapati Bhawan saying, "We took off in the Presidential chopper at 9:30 am from Mumbai. We did not see anything amiss. We landed in Gondia at the right time. The President is fine and going about her work.
"We have no idea whether anything was amiss in the schedule of the chopper or whether there was a near disaster. It certainly didn't seem like it," the statement added.

Slumdog does it again, wins 7 BAFTA awards

London: Slumdog Millionaire yet again emerged as the winner. This time it bagged seven BAFTA awards. The movie was nominated in 11 categories.
This inspiring coming-of-age drama of a Mumbai slum kid won Best Film, Best Director for Danny Boyle and Best Music for India's very own A R Rahman.
Its other successes included Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Cinematography and also Best Sound for Indian sound designer Resul Pookutty.
“Slumdog Millionaire has been nominated for 11 BAFTA awards and we hope to bag all of them,” said actor Anil Kapoor before going for the award ceremony.

India VS Srilanka.

Srilanka won the match.