Digest of domestic news for the week Jan 8- Jan 15, 2010

Saturday

Guwahati/New Delhi: Opposition parties slam asbizarre, flawed and a cover-up exercise Telecom Minister KapilSibal''s stand that there was no loss at all on account of thecontroversial 2G spectrum allocation after debunking CAGestimates of a Rs 1.76 lakh crore loss.

Patna: Under attack from the Opposition for allegedlyinfluencing the probe into the murder of Purnia MLA RajKishore Keshri, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modiurged Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to order a CBI inquiry intothe case.

Sunday

New Delhi: Highlighting India''s economic resilience,President Pratibha Patil invites the Indian diaspora to sharetheir skills and finances in diverse sectors in the countryincluding education and health and help it build a betterfuture and ensure inclusive growth.

New Delhi: The CBI has registers a preliminary enquiry(PE) to probe the role of certain public sector banks,including the State Bank of India, for providing loans tocertain companies who were allocated the 2G Spectrum in2007-08 including Uninor and STel.

Monday

Bangalore: India joins a select group of nationsmanufacturing warplanes with the home-grown Light CombatAircraft ''Tejas'' moving a step closer to its induction intothe Indian Air Force after getting its Initial OperationalClearance (IOC) here.

New Delhi: Against the backdrop of fresh Chineseincursion in Demchok in Ladakh, Army chief V K Singh says thearea where the incident took place was out of bounds for anyconstruction work but "unfortunately" such activities werebeing pushed by "some people" for local gains.

Tuesday

New Delhi: The 44 deemed universities under cloud overlacking appropriate academic infrastructure get an assurancefrom the Centre in the Supreme Court that it would given theman opportunity to explain their case.

New Delhi: The editor of leading medical journalLancet apologises for the naming of an antibiotic resistantsuperbug after the Indian capital, saying it was an error.

Wednesday

Itanagar: In a departure from past practice, China hasbegun issuing visas to residents of Arunachal Pradesh, overwhich it lays claim, but they are stapled to passports as inthe case of people from Jammu and Kashmir. MORE PTI

New Delhi: In an unprecedented development, the Chiefs of Army and Air Force appear before the Parliament''s PublicAccounts Committee in connection with alleged irregularitiesin defence-run canteens and were told to overhaul the systemwhich was promised.

Thursday

Kolkata/New Delhi: Unabated political violence in WestBengal today came into sharp focus ahead of assembly pollswith Governor M K Narayanan asking top state governmentofficials to take immediate steps for mainintaing law andorder and the Election Commission deciding to send a team ofsenior police officers to assess the situation.

Mumbai: In a fresh development in the 2006 Malegaonblast probe, a special court grants permission to CBI forreinvestigating the case in wake of "confession" statementsmade by Swami Aseemanand linking Hindu groups to terror acts.

Friday

Idukki (Ker): At least 90 pilgrims returning fromSabarimala Ayyappa temple are killed and about 100 injuredtonight when a jeep ploughed through the devotees in a narrowforest stretch at Pullumedu in Idukki district of Kerala,triggering a stampede.

Chandigarh: There has been a "large reduction" in thenumber of Indian students going to Australia, its HighCommissioner Peter Varghese said but claimed that it was notdue to the spate of racial attacks against the communitythere. PTI