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New Delhi, July 22 (IANS) Bookies continued to bet on the Manmohan Singh government winning the trust vote, despite the dramatic development Tuesday where three opposition MPs flashed wads of currency notes in parliament alleging it was a bribe given to them to go against their party&#39s position.

Bookies who spoke to IANS said they were offering just Rs.1.12 for each rupee placed on the government winning the trust vote, whereas those who were gambling on a victory for the opposition, would get Rs.1.16 for every rupee.

Just three days ago, the money offered for an opposition victory was sharply higher at Rs.2.90 for every rupee placed as a bet, and just Rs.1.38 on every rupee placed for the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government to win the trust vote.

But while the odds favouring the government came down Tuesday morning, it did not change after three members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alleged they had received money from the ruling coalition to vote in favour of the confidence motion.

&#39For us, it only shows the desperation of the opposition. We are still offering 12 paise on Re.1 for UPA win, and 16 paise for a defeat,&#39 a Delhi-based bookmaker told IANS on condition of anonymity, as betting is illegal in the country.

Sunday saw the odds against the government further shorten to 23 paise for a government win although the odds for a government defeat remained the same. This meant as D-Day was nearing, bookies were getting more and more convinced that the government would survive the trust vote.

But Monday saw an interesting development.

The odds on a government defeat which had remained consistently high till then came down sharply.

&#39It&#39s almost evens-stevens now as we are offering 23 paise on the rupee for a government win and 25 paise on a government defeat,&#39 said a leading bookmaker based in Chhattisgarh capital of Raipur Monday.

&#39With media reports about MPs switching over from one side to another, the bookies are confused. They are finding it difficult to take a call. Around 52 percent of a total of about 92,000 bookies believe the Manmohan Singh government has an edge,&#39 he said.

The bookie, along with two others, are credited as big bulls or satta kings, and command the western and central India betting market with a chain of about 18,000 collection centres.

While estimates about the total volume of betting on this event varied, the Delhi-based bookie said &#39betting volumes have crossed Rs.20 billion ($500 million) on a national level&#39.

New Delhi, July 22 (IANS) Faggan Singh Kulaste, one of the three BJP MPs alleging they were offered bribes to support the government and offering tapes of a sting operation as proof, has himself been stung in a television channel&#39s undercover operation before.

In December 2005, the STAR News aired footage, titled &#39Operation Chakravyuh&#39, purportedly showing parliamentarians discussing kickbacks to release officials funds for developing their constituencies.

The channel claimed its reporters were able to obtain assurances from seven MPs that they would provide money from the MPs Local Area Development (MPLAD) scheme to fake NGOs for a &#39commission&#39.

Three of the MPs were from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and one each from the Congress, Samajwadi Party, bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Rashtriya Kranti Dal.

Among the MPs accused of seeking money was Faggan Singh Kulaste of the BJP (Mandla-Madhya Pradesh in the Lok Sabha).

According to the channel, funding of Rs.1 million was sought from Kulaste, a former central minister of state for tribal and parliamentary affairs, and the commission was fixed at 30 percent.

In March 2006, Kulaste, along with three other MPs, won reprieve when the parliamentary privileges committee gave them the benefit of doubt and recommended they be reprimanded and suspended for a week till the end of first leg of the budget session.

The committee headed by V. Kishore Chandra S. Deo noted that the conduct of none of the four members &#39was above board and they need to be handed out appropriate punishment&#39. But it gave them the benefit of doubt to them saying the &#39improper conduct&#39 on their part &#39did not strictly speaking relate to their parliamentary duties and none of the members was actually shown as accepting the money&#39.

Surat, July 22 (IANS) Doctors at the New Civil Hospital here Tuesday closed all the out patient departments as part of their protest to demand a Gujarat-wide common entrance examinations for postgraduate courses.

The doctors, who are pursuing their internship, burnt an effigy in the hospital complex and raised slogans against the state government on the third day of their agitation.

The police intervened and dispersed the agitating doctors.

The doctors are agitating for the past three days to protest against what they call the &#39unlawful&#39 admission system for postgraduate courses. They want a common admission system for the entire state and demanded that no institution must conduct its independent exams.

They submitted a memorandum to the collector, performed a &#39havan&#39 and raised slogans against the administrators.

Hundreds of patients were left in the lurch and had to leave without treatment.

New Delhi, July 22 (IANS) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Fagan Singh Kulaste Tuesday alleged that Ahmed Patel of the Congress party and Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh were involved in trying to bribe him and two other BJP MPs to abstain from the trust vote in parliament.

&#39We (Kulaste, Ashok Argal and Mahavir Bhagora) were told that a meeting was to be held at Le Meridien Hotel with Ahmed Patel last night (Monday night).

&#39Patel (political secretary to COngress president Sonia Gandhi) came to our house last night to ask us to abstain from voting. We told him that whatever has to be said should be said by Amar Singh. This morning we spoke to Amar Singh on phone. Ahmed Patel said &#39You have to abstain, we&#39ll give you Rs.1 crore as token money and the rest later.

&#39The money was to be given at 4, Ferozeshah Road. A man came and gave Rs.1 crore and openly said Amar Singh has sent it. The man made us talk to Amar Singh, who asked us, &#39Have you got the money. We will give the rest later&#39.&#39

Amar Singh, sharply rebutting the allegations, told media persons: &#39Din bhar janata aati hai. Din bhar taanta rahta hai. Koi saboot hai kya? (The whole day people keep coming to my house. There is a crowd the whole day. Is there any proof?&#39

&#39I am not such a fool to play my cards so openly,&#39 he said

Islamabad, July 22 (DPA) Unidentified assailants gunned down a senior bodyguard of Pakistan&#39s slain former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and her widower Asif Ali Zardari in the port city of Karachi on Tuesday, officials said.

Gunmen lying in wait attacked Khalid Shahenshah&#39s pick-up truck as he drove close to his residence in an upmarket neighbourhood of Karachi.

Shahenshah sustained multiple bullet wounds and died in a hospital, said Ejaz Durrani, a spokesman for Bhutto&#39s Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).

Television footage showed at least three bullet holes in the vehicle&#39s windshield.

Police have launched an investigation into the incident, which the party officials termed &#39a target killing.&#39

Shahenshah was among the bodyguards assigned to provide security cover to Zardari, who had taken over the reins of the PPP.

He was also part of a party security squad that was protecting Bhutto when she was killed in a suicide gun and bomb attack in the garrison town of Rawalpinidi Dec 27.

New Delhi, July 22 (IANS) While there may not be many precedents of MPs displaying currency notes right in parliament alleging they were offered bribes, there have been countless cases the world over of cash changing hands, allegedly or otherwise, to make or break governments.

It was only last month that British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was battling the charge of entering into a &#39deal&#39 with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) or Labour rebels to secure the vote that saved him from a humiliating defeat over his plans to detain terror suspects for up to 42 days.

His controversial measure was approved by the House of Commons by just nine votes thanks to the support of the nine DUP MPs.

In Canada, the Conservative party was accused of offering bribes to independent MP Chuck Cadman in exchange for his vote to topple the minority Liberal government in May 2005.

Two party operatives offered Cadman, who had terminal cancer, a million-dollar life insurance policy, according to Tom Zytaruk&#39s book &#39Like A Rock: The Chuck Cadman Story&#39 which created a furore in Canada.

Earlier this year, Indonesia&#39s anti-corruption watchdog arrested an MP allegedly carrying wads of cash. House of Representatives lawmaker Bulyan Royan was arrested with $74,657 worth of euros and US currency.

According to media reports at the time, Royan was suspected of accepting bribes in connection with a parliamentary decision to allow the purchase of patrol ships for the transport ministry.

In 2006, as the Czech election led to a stalemate, there were allegations of cash changing hands. Social Democrat MP Pavel Ploc, a former Olympic medallist, told the media he had been approached by two men and offered equivalent of $226,000 to switch sides.

Britain had a precursor to India&#39s cash-for-query scam of December 2005. In October 1994, The Guardian newspaper alleged that London&#39s most successful parliamentary lobbyist, Ian Greer of Ian Greer Associates, had bribed two Conservative MPs to ask parliamentary questions on behalf of the controversial Egyptian owner of Harrods department store, Mohamed Al-Fayed.

Then there are instances of cross-border bribery charges too.

Late Benazir Bhutto, as Pakistan prime minister, was accused of bribing a British MP of the Labour party. In exchange for up to 300,000 pounds, the MP was expected to lobby for Pakistan in Britain on the Kashmir issue.

Hyderabad, July 22 (IANS) GVK Biosciences, a leading contract research organization, Tuesday announced the appointment of Tarun Khanna, a Harvard Business School (HBS) professor, to its board of directors.

Khanna is the Jorge Paulo Lemann professor at the HBS, where he has been a member of the strategy group since 1993, said a company statement here.

Serving on the advisory boards of several multinational and emerging market companies in the financial services, automotive, life sciences and agribusiness sectors, Khanna has experience in a wide variety of industries.

He was nominated a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2007.

&#39We are very excited that Tarun has joined our board of directors. His vast experience in global strategy and understanding of the emerging markets will facilitate GVK Bio to grow to the next level,&#39 said D.S.Brar, chairman of GVK Biosciences.

&#39I am pleased to join the GVK Biosciences board of directors at this exciting time of the company and industry and I look forward to this association,&#39 said Khanna.

GVK Biosciences delivers integrated research services to big pharma and biotech companies globally. The company has more than 1,300 employees in its facilities in Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai and Gurgaon.

New Delhi, July 22 (IANS) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati Tuesday asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to resign over allegations that three opposition MPs were bribed to abstain during a trust vote moved by him to prove his majority in parliament.

New Delhi, July 22 (IANS) Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee adjourned the house for 30 minutes within two minutes of its reconvening at 6 p.m. Tuesday.

Chatterjee said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would reply to the debate on his confidence motion at 6.30 p.m. and the trust vote would be taken at 7.15 p.m.

In his brief announcement, the speaker referred to the bribery allegations levelled by three Bharatiya Janata Party MPs that had led to an uproar and the earlier adjournment. He promised to investigate the matter and take stern action, but the unruly scenes continued and he was forced to adjourn the house again.

New Delhi, July 22 (IANS) The Supreme Court Tuesday acceded to Hindu seer from Kancheepuram Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati&#39s plea to let the Puducherry government appoint a public prosecutor to hold the trial against him for allegedly murdering a temple manager in 2004.

Acceding to the Shankaracharya&#39s plea, a bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan asked the Puducherry government to appoint the public prosecutor for prosecuting the pontiff as the trial had been shifted earlier from Tamil Nadu to Puducherry on an apex court&#39s order.

The ruling came on a lawsuit by Jayendra Saraswati challenging the appointment of a public prosecutor by the Tamil Nadu government for holding the trial against him in the murder case at Puducherry.

The spiritual guru had contended that as the trial in the case was transferred to Puducherry, the Tamil Nadu Government has no authority to appoint its public prosecutor.

He had also sought the apex court ruling on the question as to which state should be vested with the power of appeal against the order of the trial court.

The Tamil Nadu government had appointed the public prosecutor in the case maintaining that Section 24 of the Criminal Procedure Code provides exclusive right to a state for appointing its own public prosecutor and hence Shankaracharya&#39s plea should be dismissed.

The Shankaracharya was arrested Nov 14, 2004 by the Tamil Nadu police in Andhra Pradesh&#39s Mahboobnagar district for allegedly murdering A. Sankararaman, manager of Kancheepuram&#39s Sri Vardaraja Perumal Temple, Sept 3, 2004.

Following a petition filed by Jayendra Saraswati, the Supreme Court Oct 26, 2005 had shifted the trial against the seer from the Principal Sessions Court, Chengalpattu in Tamil Nadu, to the District and Sessions Court, Puducherry.

The apex court May 2, 2006 had also suspended the trial before the sessions court, Puducherry after the seer opposed the Tamil Nadu government&#39s decision to appoint its own public prosecutor for the trial.

Chennai, July 22 (IANS) Music and entertainment majors Sony BMG and Moser Baer have inked a major deal by buying three Tamil under-production ventures, publicists said here Tuesday.

The buying of the movies - &#39Raman Thediya Seethai&#39, &#39Puthiya Vaarpugal&#39 and &#39Poo&#39 - scheduled for release from August onwards, is the beginning of a great alliance, Moser Baer chief executive officer G. Dhananjayan said.

&#39This strategic tie-up between two companies that believe in developing the Tamil music market is an important step - ably justified by the singular success of Kamal Hassan starrer Dasavatharam&#39s record-breaking sales,&#39 added Sridhar Subramaniam, the head of Sony BMG, during an interaction with the press.

Though the details of the deal were not disclosed, the total outlay for the company&#39s operations in south India is in the region of over Rs.250 million during the next two quarters, sources said.

The Rs.39 billion Moser Baer has diversified into various IT products and services including computer hardware, movies, downloads, software etc.

New Delhi, June 1 (ANI): Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, on Sunday condemned moves to brand the Muslim community as &#39terrorists&#39 in the wake of the recent spurt in terror activities in India.

Inaugurating the &#39Global Conference on Terrorism&#39 here, he said that it was wrong to brand Muslims as terrorists because of the views and deeds of a few mischievous people.

Some mischievous people and their deeds generalize whole religion. Because of these incidents, it creates impression that Muslims are militants. It is wrong. I&#39m Buddhist but I am defending Islam, he said.

He is expected to visit Jama Masjid (Mosque) today for the first time.

India has suffered a wave of militant attacks in recent years, with targets ranging from mosques; temples to trains but few groups came forward to claim responsibility for the attacks.

Islamist militant groups in Pakistan and Bangladesh who aim to spread hatred between Muslims and Hindus and damage fragile peace process between New Delhi and Islamabad, are often blamed for the bomb attacks in India. (ANI)

Prague, May 28 (Xinhua) The Czech Republic, France and Sweden have agreed on a joint 18-month programme for European Union (EU) presidency, senior officials of the three countries said.

In general terms, the programme defines the route on which the EU will embark between this July and the end of 2009, during which France, the Czech Republic and Sweden will hold the EU presidency, officials said Tuesday.

An important issue of all three presidencies would be energy and climate, they said.

Swedish EU Minister Cecilia Malmstroem said the presidencies would emphasise a competitive economy, migration policy, relations between neighbours and the EU as a global power.

Sweden is to reach a joint EU position on climate before a conference in Copenhagen and find agreement with China and the US on the issue.

Czech Deputy Prime Minister for EU Affairs Alexandr Vondra said the programme should focus on reforms as well as continuity in the EU.

He said the energy strategy plan is to be completed during the Czech EU presidency.

&#39Today&#39s symbolical expression of an agreement on the joint document is proof that our cooperation is very good and bears joint fruit,&#39 Vondra said, adding that by the time of Czech EU presidency in the first six months of 2009, the strategic energy plan would have to be completed.

The joint 18-month document consists of two main parts of the &#39strategic framework&#39 and an operational programme, which includes the majority of the document and is divided into 17 chapters.

They include the development of the EU, the energy and climate policies, growth and employment, general economic issues, competitiveness, gender equality, research and innovations, health and consumers, culture, sustainable development, environment, transport, agriculture and fishing, besides others.

Garching (Germany), May 28 (DPA) Scientists in Germany who devised a way to hook up two powerful telescopes in stereo have observed for the first time the details of a star outside our Milky Way galaxy.

They trained the two telescopes on a red supergiant named WOH G64 in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a neighbouring galaxy. WOH is about 2,000 times larger than the sun and is 163,000 light years away.

Keiichi Ohnaka of the Max Planck Radio-Astronomy Institute in Bonn led the research, which is described in a new science article Tuesday.

He and his team worked with the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Garching, a suburb of Munich, remotely using the ESO telescope complex, which is built on a desert mountain in Chile.

They used two eight-metre reflector scopes to create a virtual 60-metre telescope.

The observations show the ageing star blowing much of its substance into space. It has lost 40 percent of its original mass already, developing a shroud of dust around it. An explosion as a supernova is inevitable.

The article appears in Astronomy & Astrophysics.

London, May 28 (IANS) Upcoming British singer Leona Lewis has sparked rumours that she is set to marry her boyfriend Lou Al-Chamaa after she was spotted with a diamond ring on the engagement finger.

New-magazine.co.uk reports that Lewis was seen wearing the ring at a London club recently. Last week too she was spotted with the ring on the David Letterman show in New York.

The 23-year-old had earlier denied that she is engaged, saying, I&#39m too young to talk about marriage and kids just yet.

Lewis met Al-Chamaa when she was 11 and they live together. She is doing well professionally and recently hit the top spot in both the singles and albums charts in the US. She has also appeared on some reputed shows in the US.