MINISTER OFFERS 42 CRORES TO TIRUPATI

TIRUPATI: Karnataka tourism minister and Bellary mine baron Gali Janardhan Reddy will probably be better known for something else: with an offering of a diamond-studded crown worth Rs 42 crore, he became the biggest donor to Lord Venkateswara at Tirupati since the Vijayanagara kings 400 years ago.

The 20-kg stunner was a thanksgiving gesture, the minister said. Sources added that 32kg of `aparanji (pure)' gold went into its making, besides 70,000 diamonds weighing 4,000 carats. The 2.5-ft crown has a huge 890-carat emerald from Africa engraved in the centre which alone costs around Rs 10 crore.

The crown will be placed the Lord's idol during Abhishekam seva on Friday morning. It was earlier kept in the Vaibhavotsava Mandapam in Tirumala and special pujas were performed. After a ritual called Sahasra Deepalankara seva, it was taken around on a procession along with the deity, Lord Malayappa Swamy. Around 7pm, the crown was taken inside the sanctum sanctorum.

Keertilal Jewellers of Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu took nine months to fashion the crown.

There are no records of more expensive donations to the temple and Gali's donation is considered as the costliest gift offered to the Lord after the Vijayanagara kings in the 16th century. The Vijayanagara kings ruled from Hampi not far from modern day Bellary.

With this offering, the total number of crowns placed with the Lord has gone up to seven. This precious crown has been added to the jewel treasury of Lord which holds over 11 tonnes of gold ornaments and vessels.

``I am in this position only with the blessings of Lord Venkateswara. This is only a small offering to the Lord. I believe in Madhava seva (service to the Lord),'' said Gali, who owns several iron ore mines.
The minister said his Brahmani Steels, once it starts operation, would employ 25,000 people. ``This I consider as manava seva (service to mankind),'' he said. Andhra Pradesh chief minister YSR Reddy's son Jagan has a large stake in Brahmani Steel that is coming up in the Andhra chief minister's home district.

SLUMDOG STAR KID GETS NEW HOME ..BUT WITH A RIDER

Mumbai: The makers of the hit movie Slumdog Millionaire have bought a new home for one of the two child stars discovered in Mumbai's slums.

Both children lost their homes last month when authorities demolished parts of their slum.
The purchase of a 250-square-foot (23-square-meter) one-bedroom apartment for the family of Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail, 10, was completed Monday, said Nirja Mattoo, who helps oversee the Jai Ho trust set up by the filmmakers to help Azharuddin and his 9-year-old co-star Rubina Ali.
"They can move in," Mattoo told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
"I'm just waiting for their consent."

Ownership of the tiny apartment, which cost about 25 lakh Indian rupees ($50,000), will be transferred from the trust to Azharuddin when he turns 18, provided he completes school, Mattoo said.
"He has to complete an education. We are very clear about that," she said. She declined to say what would happen to the property if he does not finish school.
The apartment is located in Santa Cruz West, a suburb of Mumbai just north of the slum where the two children now live.
Mattoo said the trust is actively looking for a new home for Rubina.

The government has also started the process of giving both children apartments, and the family of Azharuddin, known as Azhar, hopes to get both, his mother said.
"After Azhar is grown up, he can stay in one," said Shameem Ismail. "Me and my husband can stay in the other. Both houses are small."
On Tuesday, Azhar's family toured the apartment the government has offered them in Malvani, on the northern outskirts of Mumbai. Ismail described the flat as "small but good."
"The only problem is it's far away from Azhar's school," she said. Azhar said he likes both houses.
"I'll take my friends to visit," he said, squatting with two friends in front of his shanty roasting jackfruit seeds in a fire built from old newspapers and sticks. The boys said they'd miss him.

PRABHAKARAN WAS TORTURED BEFORE BEING KILLED, SAYS REPORT

New Delhi: Tamil Tigers leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was tortured by the Sri Lankan military before being killed, a leading human rights body said in a report released on Wednesday.
The University Teachers for Human Rights (UTHR) quoted high-level military sources as saying that Prabhakaran was tortured in the presence of "a Tamil government politician and a general".

The torture, it said, took place probably at the headquarters of the army's 53 Division, which battled the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) before crushing it last month.

"Several army sources have said that Prabhakaran's (younger) 12-year-old son Balachandran was killed after capture. Our (sources) said that he was killed in front of his father," said UTHR, which has always been critical of excesses both by the military and the LTTE.

"These sources added that this information is correct unless officers at the highest level are fibbing to one another.

"Our sources in addition to several others have said that all the LTTE persons remaining in the NFZ (No Fire Zone) were massacred," it added in a 48-page report, an advance copy of which was made available to IANS.

Sri Lanka announced on May 18 that Prabhakaran, founder leader of the LTTE, was killed in a lonely coastal stretch in the northeastern district of Mullaitivu where the Tigers had massed their forces before going down.

His body was put on display, placed on a stretcher, the back of the head blown off.

Sri Lankan minister Vinayagamurthy Muralitharan alias Karuna, a former confidant of Prabhakaran, had said that the LTTE chief was shot dead with 18 of his guards.

Prabhakaran's death marked the end of the LTTE's dragging conflict that claimed 90,000 lives since 1983.

UTHR said: "Information seeping into the public domain from within the army points to capture or surrender, but the official responses dismissing this are a rehash of stories that public no longer finds credible. It is left to an impartial enquiry to answer this and related questions."

UTHR pointed out that the government was evasive about the fate of Prabhakaran's wife Mathivathani.

It quotes a brigadier as saying: "We had to look for Prabhakaran's body because the world was interested in seeing it. But the body of his wife is not of any importance to us."

The UTHR report said: "That would be the fate of the unknown hundreds of civilians and militants killed in those last days (of fighting)."

According to the report, among the LTTE leaders who surrendered to the army included Baby Subramaniam, a member of the group since 1976 and one of Prabhakaran's oldest associates.

Others reportedly now in government custody included former eastern province political leader Karikalan, former spokesman Yogaratnam Yogi, former head of the LTTE international secretariat Lawrence Thilakar, political advisor V. Balakumar, Jaffna leader Ilamparithi and Trincomalee political leader Elilan.

QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY confers HONORARY DOCTORATE ON KALAM

LONDON: Internationally-renowned space scientist and former President A P J Abdul Kalam was conferred with honorary Doctorate of Laws by Queen's University Belfast, a prominent varsity based in Northern Ireland.
Dr Kalam, who is popularly known as India's 'missile man', received the honour at a special ceremony last evening from Vice Chancellor of the University Professor Peter Gregson for "distinction in public service."

The ceremony was the latest development in QUB's growing connections with India, where the university has recently forged several dynamic academic partnerships.

Gregson said: "Through Dr Kalam's outstanding abilities as a world statesman, scientist, educator and visionary, he has inspired millions in his native India and around the world.

"It is a significant honour for Queen's to host this visit from the former leader of one of the world's most thriving and exciting countries. A number of distinguished Indian institutions hold a special place within the Queen's family of academic partners and Dr Kalam's visit is a tangible example of the educational, research, business and cultural links between India and Northern Ireland."

Queen's has produced the world's first low-cost technology to provide arsenic-free water to people in India and has been selected by the British Council to provide groundwater management training in regions polluted by arsenic.

As part of its Centenary celebrations last year, the university launched its Queen's-India Lecture Series. Lord Diljit Rana, India's Honorary Consul to Northern Ireland, and Northern Ireland's Minister for Employment and Learning, Sir Reg Empey were present on the occasion.

A former Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, Dr Kalam is also an award-winning aerospace engineer who played a leading role in many of India's most recent technological breakthroughs, including the landing of India's first unmanned lunar spacecraft in November last year.

In 2007, he was awarded the prestigious King Charles II medal of the Royal Society and in April this year he became the first Asian to receive the Hoover Medal, America's top engineering prize.

Sir Reg Empey, Minister for Employment and Learning, said: "The conferment of an honorary degree on Dr Abdul Kalam, a pre-eminent scientist and a widely respected former President, reflects the breadth and depth of the collaborations between Queen's University and India.

"My department strongly supports the collaborations being forged in seeking to further strengthen the vital bridge between India and Northern Ireland."

QUB's links with India include student exchanges between the School of English and Hyderabad University under the Prime Ministers Initiative and a research partnership with the National Institute of Immunology, Delhi which focuses on cancer biology and is supported by the Ministry of Biotechnology.

In 2008, QUB opened the East India Water Research Centre in partnership with Bengal Engineering and Science University and India's Institute of Environmental Management and Studies.

SEARCH FOR MURDER ACCUSSED "ON"

CHENNAI: Police have intensified the search for the accused in the murder of G. Suresh Kumar, a gold jewellery commission agent, whose body parts were found in three different places in the city on Sunday. The head of the victim is yet to be found.Commissioner of Police T. Rajendran said that the police had a couple of leads that they were pursuing. The way the murder had been committed had made the police suspect that the motive could be more personal and not just mere business rivalry.

Referring to two other unsolved murder cases in the K.K. Nagar and Ashok Nagar areas Mr. Rajendran told media persons that the police were close to solving one of the cases. He said details would be made public in the next 10 days.

In one of the incidents, a motorcycle-borne two-member gang attacked a 55-year-old man, D. Sankaran in K.K. Nagar in the first week of May. The victim died on the spot.

In another case, a retired government official, his wife and their maid were found murdered in their residence in Ashok Nagar recently.

To a question on the effectiveness of night patrolling he said, some of the police force had been withdrawn to oversee the law and order following the agitation over Sri Lankan Tamil issue but now the force was being brought back to take up patrolling.

A New report says, suresh kumar was probably murdered for a lump of 30 lakh worth gold, that was given to suresh kumar by his friend as a part of their business. kundas from south india may be involved inthe case, a report suggest.

HATS OFF CHENNAI POLICE, TEMPLE ROBBERY CASE -A SUCCESS

“Prem Singh, the watchman who is among the nine persons absconding, was also wanted in a robbery case in Mumbai”

Six persons, all of them Nepal nationals, were arrested and remanded to custody on Sunday in connection with the murder of a priest and robbery in a Jain temple in Sowcarpet on May 28. Police are searching for nine other persons.
Four of the six arrested, including a woman, were said to be ‘receivers’ of the stolen property. A total of 9.225 kg of gold items, worth about Rs.1.20 crore, was recovered from them.
Commissioner of Police T. Rajendran, who briefed mediapersons on Monday, said that all those involved in the crime were related to one another. The man who plotted the crime, a resident of Phoolwari village in Kailali district of Nepal, is absconding.
Police said Bhadur Singh alias Kallani Bahadur had been appointed watchman at the temple around two-and-half years ago. On May 12 he left for Nepal, stating that a relative was ill. He recommended Prem Singh, a person from his village, for the post. On the day of the incident, 11 persons entered the temple at different points in time just before it was closed for the day. While nine of the accused hid in the watchman’s room inside the temple, two others stood guard outside the temple.
Around 1 a.m., the accused attacked and tied up the priests, Himmatmal and Bharat Singh, who were sleeping on the first floor, broke open the store room and stole the jewellery. They returned to the watchman’s room and divided the booty into three parts.
While Himmatmal died following the attack, Mr. Bharat Singh raised an alarm by knocking on the wooden door, which awakened his mother and nephew living on the ground floor. On hearing the alarm, the gang fled leaving behind a part of the jewellery.Breakthrough
Police said a breakthrough was achieved when they arrested Ram Singh alias Ram Bahadhur Kohli and Suraj at the Rasappa Chetty Street-Walltax Road junction on Sunday.
Based on the information given by them, the police apprehended Ram Singh’s wife Seethadevi, Sher Bahadur, Ramesh and Amar from Semmenchery in Thoraipakkam.
Interrogation of the arrested persons revealed that Bahadur had conspired to steal the jewellery for nearly six months and had introduced several of his relatives to businessmen in the area and in other parts of the city.
The city police formed nine special teams that have been sent to Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Nepal, Mr. Rajendran added.
Efforts are on to arrest Bahadur with the aid of the Indian embassy in Nepal.
Police believe that the arrest of the others would provide them information about the rest of the stolen valuables.
The Commissioner said that Prem Singh, the watchman who is among the nine persons absconding, was also wanted in a robbery case in Mumbai.

SOME ATTACKS ON INDIANS ARE RACIAL, AUSSIE COP ADMITS

SYDNEY: The police chief of Australia's Victoria state on Tuesday admitted that some of the attacks on Indian students in this country are "racially motivated" - as maintained by the victims of a series of crimes.

The southeastern state' chief commissioner of police Simon Overland told the media in Victoria's capital Melbourne that some of the robbery attacks are "racially motivated" and others are "opportunistic". "Whatever the motivation, they (the attacks) are not okay. violence is not okay, being robbed is not okay," he said. He also said that there is no place for racism in the community, according to the transcript of Overland's informal meet and greet with 50 members of Melbourne's multilingual media. In the past one month, there have been at least 11 attacks on Indian students, leading to an outrage in India. Representatives of about 90,000 Indians studying here took out a protest march in Sydney on Sunday. Asked if police used excessive force in breaking up a protest by Indian students in Melbourne last weekend, Overland said he watched from the police operations centre and believed that what he saw was entirely appropriate. He said there was some force used after the students were given the opportunity for the last time to leave the traffic intersection and they refused to do so. He said students were moved on because the intersection needed to be cleared for peak-hour traffic. Asked why students were asked to "move on", Overland said they had made their point. Overland said police have been working on the issue of violence for 18 months with Indian students and universities, and are aware that this is a problem. Police in Victoria are taking various initiatives to strengthen ties with culturally diverse communities, including Indians, he said. "There is a shared responsibility between police and the media to provide important messages to the public and to have an open dialogue to understand where the other is coming from, and finding suitable solutions to problems," Overland said. Earlier, Overland wrote in the Herald Sun: "Some of these crimes are racially motivated; however I also believe that many of the robberies and other crimes of violence are simply opportunistic." He also urged the Indian community to continue to work with police to find an effective and sustainable solution to the series of crimes. According to Victoria police officials, in 2007-08, there were 36,765 victims of crimes such as robberies and assaults in the state, of which 24,260 were Caucasian victims and 1,447 victims were people of Indian origin. Police say 30% of assaults in Melbourne's western suburbs are against Indians, and it is a disproportionate figure in a city of nearly four million people.