Ladakh standoff ends as Chinese agree to pull out

Ladakh standoff ends as Chinese agree to pull out Khurshid, Li Visits To Go Ahead Indrani Bagchi & Rajat Pandit TNN  New Delhi: After a tense face-off for a couple of weeks, Chinese troops have decided to withdraw from Indian territory in Depsang plains in northern Ladakh. This will pave the way for foreign minister Salman Khurshid’s visit to Beijing on May 9 and Chinese premier Li Keqiang’s India visit on May 20.     While the official line is that both armies have withdrawn to their previous positions, it’s unclear why the Indian army would have to move back since it is very much within Indian territory. In fact, in his statement to a parliament committee, the ministry of defence had clarified that Chinese troops had come 19km inside Indian territory.     Both sides held the fourth and fifth flag meetings between local commanders over the weekend, amid the faint possibility of a resolution to the continuing standoff in the Depsang Bulge area.     The first three flag meetings, on April 18, 23 and 30, at Spanggur Gap between the Daulat Beg Oldi and Chushul sectors had failed to break the deadlock.  BACK TO PRE-APRIL 15 POSITIONS  Indian troops had set up some tents on Chinese side as a retaliatory measure. Those will be taken down Troops on both sides will move back to pre-April 15 positions Indian govt will wait to verify Chinese withdrawal on the ground before making an announcement Both govts expected to make simultaneous statements on Monday Foreign minister Salman Khurshid’s visit to Beijing on May 9 and the Chinese premier’s India visit on May 20 to go ahead UPA changes stance under pressure  New Delhi: It is unclear whether India made any concessions to the Chinese or whether the withdrawal was unconditional.     A tense stand-off finally came to an end as the Chinese agreed to withdraw their troops from Ladakh, where they had intruded 19km deep into Indian territory. The Indian government had been reluctant to take a strong line with the Chinese for what was a national security scare. It is only under intense public and political pressure that the UPA government finally took a hard line.     The Chinese had been insisting that India dismantle its security and monitoring posts built in Chumar and other areas. India had resisted this because Chumar is considered to have strategic significance, particularly since Indian soldiers can monitor troop movements across the Line of Actual Control from there.     Before the news of the troops withdrawing was announced, some sources had said India might agree to remove some of the structures as “a face saver’’ to enable the Chinese troops to withdraw to their pre-April 15 positions. Analysts said if the Indian government had indeed agreed to make a deal with the Chinese, this kind of incursion wouldbe repeated over and over again.     The Chinese intransigence had created a political problem with memories of the 1962 war and India’s humiliating defeat by China playing in everyone’s minds. Both the ruling Congress party and the opposition had asked for Khurshid’s visit to be cancelled after Chinese troops refused to withdraw despite three flag meetings with the Indian side. The Chinese action caught India by surprise in mid-April. The Indian government tried hard to rationalize the incursion, with the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh describing it as “localized problem” and Khurshid as mere “acne”. The Indian reaction was seen to be late, inadequate and appeared to be glossing over the importance of the Chinese action. MHA, MoD lock horns over ITBP  New Delhi:The 20-day military standoff with China in Ladakh has triggered an escalating turf war between the home ministry (MHA) and the defence ministry (MoD), much like the 26/11 terror strikes in Mumbai provoked a blame game among different maritime security and intelligence agencies.     The Army, backed by the MoD, has now taken to strongly reiterating its decade-long demand for the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) to be placed under its “operational command and control’’ for “better and coordinated border management’’ along the 4,057-km Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China.     Having taken up the jurisdiction matter with national security advisor Shivshankar Menon, in the wake of recommendations by the recent Naresh Chandra taskforce on national security, the MoD-Army combine want “an early decision’’ by the Cabinet Committee on Security to resolve the imbroglio.     MHA, however, has once again dismissed the Army’s case, holding that it will not get control over ITBP come what may. The ITBP, one of the seven central armed police forces (CAPF) under the MHA, mans the LAC along the Tibet Autonomous Region with around 17 battalions. The Army is positioned in “depth’’ for support with some 23 battalions. TNN

Now, yet another scam rocks Cong-led UPA II

Now, yet another scam rocks Cong-led UPA II Cong Caught In A Bind Over Bansal’s Fate Neeraj Chauhan & Mahendra Singh TNN  New Delhi: Railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal on Saturday washed his hands of his nephew and key political aide, arrested for taking bribes for fixing a key appointment in the Railway Board. But Bansal failed to secure an “all clear” from the Congress leadership reeling under a spateof scams and controversies.      Bansal told both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi that he never let Vijay Singla, his sister’s son who minds the minister’s political andbusinessinterestsin his hometown Chandigarh, influence his official decisions. The nephew and others have been accused of corruption for allegedly seeking bribes from Railway Board member Mahesh Kumar for fixing appointments through the minister.     However, Congress’s core group, which discussed the fallout of the latest corruption scandal to hit the UPA, deferred a decision on his continuation in the Cabinet, signaling it was not ready to give the minister the benefit of doubt yet.Thecore group willmeet again on Sunday.     There was no confirmation of reports Bansal had offered to resign even as he proclaimed himself innocent.Deferring thedecision is significant because Congress general secretary Janardan Dwivedi had in the afternoon cited the minister’s defence to dismiss Opposition’s demand for his resignation.     The indecision, viewed against the backdrop of the perception of Bansal being a “clean person” who was PM’s personal choice for the crucial infrastructure ministry, suggested that the decision will be shapedby thelarger contextwhere scandals and allegations of corruption against UPA functionaries have dented the image of the coalition. The embarrassment comes as the fate of another Punjab Congressman, law minister Ashwani Kumar, appeared to be hanging by a slender thread. ‘Sleuths tapped rly official’s phone for 3 months’  New Delhi: Congress leaders grappled with the new crisis even as CBI’s dragnet closed in on Bansal, with sources revealing the agency might seek clarifications from the minister himself, his two sons Amit and Manish, and at least one more nephew in connection with the bribery case.     The Opposition cited this to argue that Bansal was culpable “not just morally but even criminally”, while demanding his dismissal.     Garg has already been named in the FIR CBI filed on Friday evening alleging that Mahesh Kumar, Member (Staff) of the Railway Board, agreed to pay Rs 10 crore for an appointment as Member (Electrical) on the Board. The money, which was to go to Singla through a Chandigarh-based railway contractor Sandeep Goel, was to be raised by a group of fellow businessmen dealing with train equipment who were promised business from railways by Kumar. As per the understanding, Kumar was to pay half of the agreed amount upfront before the appointment and the rest after his appointment as Member( Electrical). Kumar could not get the post of his choice, and was appointed as Member (Staff) instead.     He was unhappy but Goel and others asked him to be patient and wait for the elevation of the current Member (Electrical) Kulbhushan as the Chairman of the Board after the retirement of the incumbent Vinay Mittal in June.     Kumar agreed but wanted to continue as General Manager of Western Railways while being on the Board. Goel accepted the demand in return for an additional Rs 2 crore in bribe. CBI on Friday recovered Rs 90 lakh, allegedly the first installment of the transaction, and has arrested Singla and others.     Appointments of Chairperson of the Board, its members (who are equivalent in rank to Union secretary) and general managers of railways are handled directly by the rail minister. Although the final approval rests with the Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC), the panel usually goes by recommendations of the minister.     Although Singla is known in Chandigarh as Bansal’s confidant, the rail minister denied the charge of any wrongdoing. He said he had no knowledge of the deal that Singla and others were negotiating with Mahesh Kumar, who was placed under suspension on Saturday evening. “Though a close relative, he or any other relative of mine does not and cannot meddle in my official functions or influence my decisions.”     However, sources said that CBI is proceeding on the assumption that it was impossible for Mahesh Kumar to have agreed to pay such a hefty sum unless he was confident about Singla’s ability to leverage his family ties and get him the job.     Official sources said they had been tapping Mahesh Kumar’s phone for three months and had traced several of his calls to Bansal’s family members.     Two Delhi-based businessmen, Samir Sandhir and Rahul Yadav, Faridabad-based businessman Sushil Daga and Bansal’s relative Ajay Garg have been named in the FIR along with the arrested persons, Mahesh Kumar, Singla, Chandigarh based businessman Sandeep Goel and Narayan Rao Manjunath of Bangalore, allegedly the main financier.

New influenza strain created in Chinese lab?

New influenza strain created in Chinese lab? Experts Say Bird Flu Virus Mixed With Human Variant Poses Danger Steve Connor      Senior scientists have criticized the “appalling irresponsibility” of researchers in China who have deliberately created new strains of influenza virus in a veterinary laboratory. They warned there is a danger that the new viral strains created by mixing bird-flu virus with human influenza could escape from the laboratory to cause a global pandemic killing millions of people.     Lord May of Oxford, a former government chief scientist and past president of the Royal Society, denounced the study published on Friday in the journal Science as doing nothing to further the understanding and prevention of flu pandemics.     “They claim they are doing this to help develop vaccines and such like. In fact the real reason is that they are driven by blind ambition with no common sense whatsoever,” Lord May said.     “The record of containment in labs like this is not reassuring. They are taking it upon themselves to create human-to-human transmission of very dangerous viruses. It’s appallingly irresponsible,” he said. The controversial study into viral mixing was carried out by a team led by professor Hualan Chen, director of China’s National Avian Influenza Reference Laboratory at Harbin Veterinary Research Institute. Chen and her colleagues deliberately mixed the H5N1 bird-flu virus, which is highly lethal but not easily transmitted between people, with a 2009 strain of H1N1 flu virus, which is very infectious to humans.     When flu viruses come together by infecting the same cell they can swap genetic material and produce “hybrids” through the re-assortment of genes. The researchers were trying to emulate what happens in nature when animals such as pigs are co-infected with two different strains of virus, Chen said.     “The studies demonstrated that H5N1 viruses have the potential to acquire mammalian transmissibility by re-assortment with the human influenza viruses. This tells us that attention should be paid to monitor the emergence of such virus in nature to prevent a possible pandemic caused by H5N1 virus,” she said. THE INDEPENDENT

B’lore blast: Two more held in TN

B’lore blast: Two more held in TN TIMES NEWS NETWORK  Bangalore: Two more men “suspected to have handled or possessed” the explosives used in the bomb blast on Temple Street, Malleswaram on April 17, were arrested by Tamil Nadu police in Coimbatore.     Valayal Hakeem and Asghar Ali, the two arrested, will be remanded to Bangalore police custody by a court in Tamil Nadu. Thursday’s arrests take the total number of suspects arrested in the case to six.     Addressing the media on Friday, Bangalore city police commissioner Raghavendra Auradkar announced that the two men were arrested in a joint operation by the city and Tamil Nadu police. “The two suspects, Valayal Hakeem and Asghar Ali were already in the custody of Coimbatore police for alleged possession of explosives,” he said. Auradkar said police are yet to come across the duo’s role with any outfits. He said the police have a “fair picture” of the conspiracy after the interrogation of the suspects.

Net addiction drives city youth into danger zone

Hyderabad: The recurring theme in the jokes of many sitcoms about modern couples is the man preferring to spend time with his beloved gadgets than his better half, and if experts are to be believed, this particular scene has been coming to life in several city homes and the ensuing reality is far from funny. 
    With internet addiction disorder fast gaining global acknowledgment as a serious psychiatric condition and the American Psychiatric Association (APA) calling it a “mental condition warranting further research” in a draft report to be published globally next week, Hyderabad doctors said the city too has not been spared of this dangerous trend.
    Doctors said an increasing number of couples seeking counseling due to internet addiction are something to be worried about. “Young people in the 20-30 age group seeking help to get rid of net addiction has become a common trend now,” said Dr M Phani Prashant, consultant psychiatrist at Care Hospital.
    “The problem results in one not being able to provide physical and emotional support to the other.” One such case is of 25-year-old Pooja Ramesh, a finance professional who was all set to tie the knot this month with her fiancé of six months, till she realized that his virtual networking addiction was becoming too difficult to handle.Internet obsession puts careers on the line 
Hyderabad: “Initially, it didn’t bother me much and I let it go thinking that it was a stress buster for him. However, when it reached a point that most of his waking hours were spent gaming or chatting on Facebook or even compulsively tweeting, I realized that there was aserious problem,” says Pooja.
    Pooja has now put the wedding on hold for the next couple of months, till her ‘would-be’ is freed of his addiction.
    In another such case from the city, Ashirwad M, an architect, had a bad experience with one of her friends because of the latter’s obsession with the internet. “For the past few months, every time I met my friend, she was constantly on her phone posting on social networking sites. Even after my persuasion, she could not manage to keep her hands off her phone. I have been avoiding making plans with her since then,” Ashirwad said.
    The APA paper, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) says that people with this condition endanger their academic pursuits or careers because of their obsession with online, specifically in gaming activities, and much of this literature stems from addiction from Asian countries and centres on young males.
    City psychiatrists also warned against this addiction among children. “Often underlying anxiety and depression can push a child to the virtual world, thus alienating himself further from his family and friends,” says Dr Ashok Alimchandani, senior consultant psychiatrist at Apollo Hospital, Jubilee Hills. In such cases, he said parents should monitor the child’s internet activities and unusually long hours must call for counselling.