Nepal plane crash

A small plane owned by a private company crashed in northwest Nepal on Monday, killing 15 people including 13 Indians, an official said.

The Dornier aircraft owned by private Agni Air company was carrying 18 passengers and a crew of three on a flight from the resort town of Pokhara to Jomsom when it crashed while landing at the mountain airstrip.

"Among those killed are 13 Indians and two Nepalis," Kathmandu airport official Mahesh Shrestha said.

Six survivors had been taken to a hospital in Pokhara and the condition of at least one of them is critical, he said.

Two Danish tourists were among those rescued.

Jomsom, about 125 km (79 miles) northwest of Kathmandu, is a gateway for trekking in the region where Mount Annapurna, the world's 10th highest mountain, is located.

In September last year, 19 people returning after viewing Mount Everest were killed when their plane crashed in bad weather near Kathmandu.

It was not immediately clear what caused Monday's crash.

Nepal is home to eight of the world's 14 highest mountain peaks, including Mount Everest.

Tens of thousands of hikers and foreign tourists go to Mount Everest and other trekking routes to see the lofty Himalayan peaks every year.

Tourism, a key source of earning for impoverished Nepal, accounts for nearly four percent of the gross domestic product and employs tens of thousands of people.

Anna Hazare breaks silence, says no rift in team

As fresh cracks appeared in Team Anna after the expulsion of a Muslim leader, Anna Hazare on Monday said there was no rift in the group over the "leakage" of information or yoga guru Ramdev.

In his first reaction after the expulsion of Mufti Shameem Kazmi after he was allegedly found recording the proceedings of Core Committee meeting in Noida in UP, Hazare said that there is no fallout over the issue.

"There is no rift. What rift are you talking about? A team member who leaked information yesterday, there was a problem. People in our team had asked why he did so. So he said he would not come back," he told reporters.

"If there was a rift, they would have been fighting and there is no fallout," Hazare said. Kazmi has claimed he quit the camp as the group was turning anti-Muslim.

Hazare also said there were no differences in the team over the participation of Ramdev in the anti-corruption movement. "Right now, for over a month, I will tour Maharashtra. He has our support in his campaign against black money and we have his support on Jan Lokpal. We are all fighting together on tackling corruption," he said. He said during the all-India tour, he and Ramdev will share stage wherever they meet. However, he said, there will be no joint tour.

His comments came amid growing unease in Team Anna over the "one-up manship" of Ramdev, with whom they had stitched an alliance to fight for the cause. There were discussions on Team Anna's association with Ramdev, whom a section of the activists' believe has a "credibility crisis" due to allegations levelled against the yoga guru.

At the meeting on Sunday, it was reiterated that there will not be a joint campaign with Ramdev but the two sides will extend support to each other in the fight against corruption.

Team Anna member and lawyer Prashant Bhushan said, "We have begun a movement against corruption and on that pretext, Ramdev supports us but we have no common platform or any consensus.

"We do have a consensus regarding these issues and common concerns regarding the country," he said.

4-year-old Saudi boy kills father over PlayStation

Riyadh:  An angry four-year-old Saudi boy shot and killed his father for refusing to buy him a PlayStation, Saudi media reported on Monday.

The Asharq daily, citing police in the southern Jizan area, said the child, aged four years and seven months, grabbed his father's pistol and shot him in the head.

According to the newspaper, the child had asked his father to buy him a PlayStation and the shooting took place after the man returned home without the desired object.

As he was undressing, the man put the weapon down, which the child then grabbed and fired at him from close range.

Rupee falls below 52

The rupee fell below 52 versus the dollar to a new three-month low, though traders have not yet seen clear signs of intervention.

The cross is testing resistance at 52.12, the 61.8% retracement of the December-February falls, with a convincing and sustained breach opening up the next resistance level at 52.95-00, the 76.4% retracement.

Traders have been warning USD/INR is at risk of testing its mid-December record highs of 54.30, given the slew of domestic negatives and global economic woes.

USD/INR was last trading at 52.09/10 to the dollar after hitting a new three-month low of 52.20 in opening trade. It closed at 52.14/15 on Thursday.

Attention fliers: Pay higher airport fee from May 1

Air travelers in India will have to shell out more to fly within and out of India from May 1. Airport charges are set to rise, with the Airport Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) revising development charges for the Mumbai airport.

The regulator has allowed Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) to charge a development fee for a period of 23 months. Domestic fliers will have to pay Rs 100 and international travelers Rs 600 towards airport development charges.

The charges will be in effect from May 1, 2012 till the end of April 2014.

The hike as proposed to fund a gap of Rs 876 crore. Sources told CNBC-TV18 that the regulator will consider cost escalation of Rs 12,380 crore only after audit. It will take review the rates and tenure of development levy post the cost audit.

The Mumbai airport came up for modernization in 2006, and was overhauled by the GVK Group-led consortium in partnership with the Airports Authority of India. The initial cost of the project was Rs 5800 crore, but due to time and cost over-runs, the final bill came to around Rs.9,800 crore. 

GVK, the operator of the airport is also facing problems rehabilitating slum-dwellers displaced for the project.  In December last year, it had sought two plots for rehabilitating around 80,000 project-affected people (PAP). But Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan turned down the demand for the plots, one at Santa Cruz belonging to the Mumbai University and the other at Kanjur Marg ear-marked for a dumping ground.