Excellent news analysis website

February 18, A man with a country made pistol and catridges was arrested by the police shortly before the election rally by the Congress president Sonia Gandhi in Almora, after an allert across the state in the runup the february 21 Assembly elections in Uttarakhand.

Almora’s Superintendent of police Satish Kumar Shukla said that Kedar Singh was arrested by the police when he was trying to enter into the venue of the election rally in Almora which was addressed by the Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

A red alert was sounded across Uttarakhand, particularly in Haldwani and Dehra Dun, where Gandhi is to address election rallies to drum up support for the state’s ruling Congress. Satish Kumar Shukla said that Singh was being interrogated for further details. He said that the initial reports suggested that Singh was mentally upset for sometime.

Police sources said Singh had hidden the pistol in his pocket and two catridges in his gloves. But when he was trying to enter into the venue of the election rally, he was caught by the policemen. Singh has hidden the pistol in his pocket. They also said that two catridges were also found from his gloves later.

Singh told to the police that he bought the pistol for Rs.3000 but never used it. Security around the venues for other election rallies to be addressed by Gandhi was tightened with dog squads and anti-terrorist squads, sources said.

February 18, At least 56 people were killed and 127 people were injured in the twin car bomb explotion in an outdoor market in Baghdad since US and Iraqi forces began a major security posh around the capital.

The car bomb exploded in the mostly Shiite area of New Baghdad marked the first major response by militants to he sweep launched last week and a sobering reminder of the huge challenges facing any efforts to rattle the well armed factions.

The injured people in the car bomb explotion were admitted in the two city hospitals. An official in the hospital in baghdad said that the emergency room had received 42 corpses and was treating 83 seriously wounded people including women and children. He said that the team had seen many dead and seriously wounded people following the vehicle explosive blasts.

A large plume of smoke could be seen appearing over the Baghdad district after the car bomb blast. A security official said that in a seperate attack in nearby Sadr city, a suicide car bomber attacked a checkpoint mounted by Iraqi police commandos.

Vehicle explosives attacks in east Baghdad are the hallmark of Sunni extremists targetting Shia civilians in the Iraqi capital’s vicious sectarian war. At least 79 people were killed in similar attacks on last Monday in Market areas of Baghdad.

February 16, The State may soon have a technology evaluation cell. This technology evaluation cell will help new industrial players and those in the services sector.

R.Rajagopalan, Secretary, Environment and Forests Deparment in Chennai said that the technology evaluation cell was likely to be constituted with not only the government personnel but also with members from the academic, Pollution Control Board, industry representatives and probably even the voluntary agencies.

Rajagopalan said that the technology evaluation cell would not only help speed up the process of investments, but also ensure issues pertaining to Safety, Health and Environment (SHE). He added that with the technology appraisal table, new entrants could pick off the shelf what suits them best and avoid making wrong choices which are happening now.

He added that the government had been doing a lot towads protecting natural resources. He said that Rs.1000 crore had been spent in Chennai for water conservation and repletion in the last ten years. He also said that they were not going to be apologetic about the technology evaluation anymore nor should people look at SHE as something to be circumvented by cutting corners.

Rajagopalan said that the issues related to starting up and running an environment friendly company need to be addressed. The CII awards were also given by the secretary based on their presentation.

Chairman of the award committee and Executive Director, Ashok Leyland V.R.Pappu, Deputy Director of CII J.Chandrasekar, and Director, CLRI, S.Rajamani, also spoke.