After Mahi, youth dies in Howrah falling into well

Rescuers today pulled out the body of the youth who fell into a well in West Bengal's Howrah district, more than 10 and half hours after he fell into the well.

Rausan Ali Mondal, a mason by profession, slipped and fell into the 30-feet deep well at Eksara village in Howrah district at around 3.30 PM yesterday, hours after rescuers pulled out the body of four-year-old Mahi from a deep borewll in Haryana where she was trapped for the last four days.

West Bengal Disaster Management and Fire Services minister Javed Khan, who supervised the operations, said some local well diggers alongwith disaster management and Fire Brigade personnel pulled out the body from the well at around 2.10 AM and rushed to Howrah State General Hospital where doctors declared the youth 'brought dead'. The minister said a postmortem would be carried out.

Khan said the rescue team had taken the help of close circuit cameras and advice of metro engineers to locate the body in the narrow well. The Fire minister dismissed complaints of late response by fire brigade personnel and the disaster management team in reaching the spot after the incident.

"No it (late response) is not true. It is the creation of the media. The fire brigade personnel reached the spot within 15 to 20 minutes after the distress call received from the Howrah district administration at 04.35 PM," Khan told reporters.

Rupee moves towards 57/$

Indian equity benchmarks pared half of their losses due to buying interest in heavyweights at lower levels. The Indian rupee has fallen quite sharply since yesterday that was down 49 paise to 56.79 as against the US dollar.

The BSE benchmark fell 94.78 points to 16,937.78 and the NSE benchmark slipped 31 points to 5,134. Asian markets remained lower in the range of 0.5-2%, but Nikkei showed smart recovery to trade flat.

Cement stocks too huge knock today after the Competition Commission of India slammed with more than Rs 6,000 crore fine on 11 cement companies. ACC, Ambuja Cements, Jaiprakash Associates, Grasim, Ultratech Cement, Madras Cement and India Cement were down 1.5-3.5%.

Oil & gas producers Reliance Industries and ONGC dropped 1.2% and 0.6%, respectively, but oil marketing companies like BPCL, HPCL and IOC gained 0.8-1.6% due to sharp fall in crude oil prices since yesterday. WTI crude fell well below USD 80 a barrel after weak economic data that was down over 4%.

Infosys, country's second largest software services exporter went down 1.4% whereas rival TCS rose 0.5%.

India's largest lenders State Bank of India, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank were down over 0.6% after the rating agency Moody’s downgraded 15 biggest global banks by 1-3 notches.

Among metals stocks, Tata Steel, Sterlite Industries and Hindalco Industries tanked 1.5% as copper slipped nearly 3% on the LME yesterday.

Top commercial vehicle maker Tata Motors fell 1% whereas M&M, Maruti and Hero Motocorp were up 0.6-1%.

Defensives like HUL and ITC were marginally higher. Drug producer Cipla outperformed, rising 2%.

Even the market breadth improved, though declining shares outnumbered advancing by 627 to 499 on the National Stock Exchange.

Rupee hits another low; sinks to 57 against US dollar

Continuing its falling streak for the fifth straight day today, the rupee hit yet another record low of 57, down 0.7 paise 1.24% on sustained capital outflows and strong demand from oil importers for the American currency.

Dollar also gained against euro and other currencies in the overseas forex markets amid global economic growth concerns, Moody's downgrade of world's 15 biggest banks and mounting worries over euro-zone debt troubles including the size of a bailout needed to save Spain's banking sector.

Besides, weak India stock markets also put pressure on the rupee, forex dealers said.

Yesterday, the rupee had ended lower by 15 paise at 56.30, after touching a record low of 56.57 against the dollar yesterday.

After opening lower at Rs 56.80, rupee recovered partially to 56.76 before slipping again to surpass all previous records to trade at new low of 56.99 against the dollar, down 69 paise over yesterday's close.

Forex dealers said intervention by the RBI and dollar selling by exporters, however, limited the losses.

Meanwhile, the BSE benchmark Sensex was down 81.78 points, or 0.48 per cent to 16,950.78 at 1115 hrs on selling by foreign funds.

दिल्लीवासियों के लिए राहत की खबर, शाम में हो सकती है बारिश

नई दिल्ली: दिल्ली में शुक्रवार सुबह से ही गर्मी ने अपना असर दिखाना शुरू कर दिया। राष्ट्रीय राजधानी का तापमान सामान्य से पांच डिग्री अधिक 32.8 डिग्री सेल्सियस दर्ज किया गया।

हालांकि मौसम विभाग के पूर्वानुमान के अनुसार शाम को गरज के साथ छींटे पड़ने से कुछ राहत मिल सकती है। भारत मौसम विभाग (आईएमडी) के एक अधिकारी ने बताया, दिन में आंशिक बादल छाए रह सकते हैं, लेकिन शाम और रात को शहर के कुछ हिस्सों में बारिश की संभावना है।

अधिकतम तापमान 43 डिग्री सेल्सियस के आसपास रहने की उम्मीद है। सबुह 8:30 बजे वातावरण में 44 प्रतिशत आर्द्रता दर्ज की गई। गौरतलब है कि गुरुवार को राजधानी का अधिकतम तापमान सामान्य से पांच डिग्री अधिक 43.6 डिग्री और न्यूनतम तापमान सामान्य से छह डिग्री ज्यादा 33.6 डिग्री सेल्सियस दर्ज किया गया था।

Arrest warrant for Makhdoom Shahabuddin, Pakistan PM nominee selected by Asif Ali Zardari

Islamabad: Pakistan's ruling party chose outgoing Textiles Minister Makhdoom Shahabuddin as its candidate for Prime Minister on Thursday, moving quickly to quell fears of a government showdown with the judiciary after former PM Yousuf Raza Gilani was ousted by the Supreme Court for contempt of court, a presidential spokesman said.

But in a sign that his nomination - and indeed his premiership if elected by lawmakers - might not be smooth, Pakistani television stations said an anti-narcotics court judge in the northern city of Rawalpindi had issued on the same day an arrest warrant for Shahabuddin, citing his alleged role in scandal involving the import of a drug that can be used to make methamphetamine. It was not immediately possible to independently confirm the development.

Shahabuddin, who is considered a Pakistan People's Party loyalist, filed his nomination papers at parliament. The PPP's coalition has a majority in the house.


Yousuf Raza Gilani was dismissed by the Supreme Court on Tuesday for contempt of court for failing to initiate a corruption case against President Asif Ali Zardari, the head of the PPP. That was the climax of a bruising power struggle between the government and activist judges. PPP politicians almost immediately began to circulate Shahabuddin's name as a replacement.

The next prime minister will likely also face the same order from the Supreme Court to investigate Zardari, meaning political instability will continue until the government's term ends in March 2013. The Gilani government has been widely criticized for exacerbating or doing nothing to address the massive economic and security challenges in the country.

Speaking to reporters after filing his papers, Shahabuddin was asked about the reported arrest warrant. He replied quoting a line from a poem about not being afraid of "hostile winds." It's unclear whether the development could derail his nomination. Legal cases are routinely filed against Pakistani politicians by rivals as a means of weakening them. Often, the cases drag on in the courts for years, and the politician's career is unhindered.

Shahabuddin was health minister when the scandal broke, to which Gilani's son has also been linked. It revolves around two Pakistani pharmaceutical companies that allegedly used political connections to obtain huge amounts of ephedrine in 2010. They are suspected of diverting it to people in the drug trade who could have used it to make methamphetamines worth billions of dollars. The companies have denied any wrongdoing, as has Gilani's son.

Stability in Pakistan is seen as vital to American goals of withdrawing from Afghanistan in 2014 and long-term victory against international jihadist terrorism. But relations between Washington and Islamabad are strained over a host of issues, including blocked war supply lines to Afghanistan and Pakistan's alleged support for the Afghan Taliban.

The dismissal of Gilani has made it more likely that polls will now be held before next year, possibly as early as November. Elections in Pakistan must be held under a supposedly neutral caretaker government in place three months before polling day, meaning the current government could be dissolved as early as August.

Shahabuddin, 65, comes from a wealthy, landowning family based in the central Pakistani district of Rahim Yar Khan.

His father had served as minister in the cabinets of two Pakistani governments. He also served as minister for finance and health in the current government.