New Delhi, March 09 — Civil aviation minister Praful Patel said Air India is expected to incur losses this fiscal year of around $1.8 billion (Rs.5,400 crore). He also added that in few more coming years the trend is likely to continue.

Patel told the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, “The trend of losses is likely to continue for a few more years,” but he did not mentioned when Air India would start making profits.

Air India is the national carrier and is run by the National Aviation Co. of India Ltd (NACIL).

He showed the expected losses of the carrier will be about $1.8 billion (Rs.5,400 crore) in 2009-10 and this will mount to more than $2.64 billion (Rs.13,174 crore) in three straight fiscals. In 2007-08 Air India incurred a loss of $445.2 million (Rs.2,226.16 crore) and in 2008-09 it was $1.11 billion (Rs.5,548 crore).

The minister also said, “The airline has initiated action as part of the turnaround plan and is focusing on fleet and manpower rationalisation, route profitability, and structural changes. These plan envisages benefits of $382.2 million (Rs.1911 crore) for the current financial year.”

He added that the outstanding fuel dues of Air India till January end was $348.2 million (Rs.1741 crore).

Last month the government approved $160 million (Rs.800 crore) equity infusion for Air India in two instalments to overcome the cash flow problem and finance fleet acquisition plans.

Jakarta, March 09 — Indonesia’s most wanted Jemaah Islamiyah militant group leader Dulmatin was killed on Tuesday by the anti-terror forces of the country during a raid on the outskirts of the capital said police.

There were too much of gunfire heard when the Indonesian police raided a two storey shop-house in Pamulang city west of the capital at around 1100 am (0400 GMT),

Witnesses told to the local television that they saw a body bag being carried by an ambulance after the gunfight was over. The eyewitness also added that two people were arrested.

Tito Karnavian, anti-terror police chief, had confirmed that the killed man was linked to a militant group in the Aceh province in north of the island of Sumatra.

He said to the reporters, “Yes he is the culprit, the one that sent people to Aceh. He’s a big name.”

According to a police source, the man killed was believed to be Dulmatin, who was one of the most wanted leaders of the Jemaah Islamiyah militant group.

However, no official confirmation has yet come on the identity of the killed.

Dulmatin is accused of helping the militant group in planing and carrying out the Bali bombings in 2002 in which 202 people were killed, and most of them were foreign tourists.

Washington, March 09 — The CIA warned India and Brazil on Tuesday of “emerging threats” from the Taliban and al-Qaida.

Leon Panetta, the CIA Director, said that spy agency of US spy has a “fundamental duty to provide warning and prevent surprise.” He adds that it also refers to the “emerging threats” to countries like India and Brazil. This indicates the need for cooperation growth between India and US on intelligence sharing.

He claimed that intense operations have put top leaders of Taliban and al-Qaida under extreme pressure and “many of them are on the run.”

Panetta added further, “Our counter-terrorism operation have put put top al-Qaida leaders under intense pressure and much of their network has been disrupted.”

The Director mentioned that efforts of America in Pakistan as well as in Afghanistan were aimed to hit the control and command centres of the al-Qaida.

His claim comes as the Pakistani army with the support of CIA have captured Mulla Abdul Ghani Baradar, the outfits Nos 2, and some other top Taliban commanders.

Panetta was addressing at the University of Oklahoma and he did not refer the drone attacks, which believed to be launched from the Pak soil.

He said that the US was at war with the al-Qaida and also to its affiliated terrorist organisations. According to the top spy of America, operations in the Pakistan tribal areas has killed over half of al-Qaida’s top 20 commanders.

In less than three years the US drone attacks have claimed to have killed over 600 Taliban and al-Qaida militants.

ICC president David Morgan presented Kapil Dev with a commemorative cap at the ceremony in Dubai on Monday. Former West Indies captain Clive Lloyd and other ICC officials were present there.

“I am proud and happy to have been inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame and it’s amazing to think that I have been picked as one of the greats of Indian cricket,” Kapil said.

Kapil Dev accumulated 687 international wickets in 131 Test matches and 225 ODIs in a career that spanned over 16 years (1978-1994). He is best known for leading India to victory in the 1983 World Cup.

New Delhi, March 09 — After hiccups the controversial and historical Women’s Reservation Bill passed in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday ensuring 33% reservation to women citizen in the Parliament as well as in the state assemblies.

There were repeated disruptions and too much opposition in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday evening.

Arun Jaitley of BJP, Brinda Karat of CPI-M, Satish Mishra of BSP and Jayanthi Natarajan of Congress spoke for the bill in the debate in the evening.

Arun Jaitley opened the debate and said that his party “unequivocally” supported the bill. He also added further, the privilege of supporting the Women’s Bill had been diluted by “some of the most shameful incidents in India’s parliamentary history”.

Brinda Karat voicing in support of the bill said that women’s reservation in parliament and state assemblies would change the “culture of the country because women today are still caught in a culture prison. In the name of tradition, stereotypes are imposed and we have to fight these every day”.

Addressing to the concerns that the Women’s Bill would benefit to limited sections, Karat said, “The women’s reservation bill will ensure that women of Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, Other Backward Classes, poor women and Muslim women would benefit from it.”

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said, “A celebration of our culture. Women’s Bill not anti-SC or ST.”

New Delhi, March 9 – Firm on their decision, the Yadav trio put their all efforts to deter women reservation bill to pass, asking Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh to call an all-party meeting to evolve a consensus.

Samajwadi party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav and JD(U) president Sharad Pawar have met prime minister at his resident, the day after the bill was stalled in the parliament caused unwarranted hullabaloo.

“We have asked the Prime Minister to defer the bill. We have also requested him to call an all-party meeting on the issue. He listened to us patiently,” Prasad told reporters after the 45-minute meeting.

However, Sharad Yadav had cleared the water by saying his party was not against the women reservation but only wanted a fair deal where the real and needy section got selected.Toe the line with Mr. Yadav, Bihar Chief Minister who recently awarded as Politician of the Year, reflected his apprehension about the bill if it would have been passed in the present form.

“We expressed our views, our pain particularly for Muslim, backward and dalit women. These communities comprise 80 per cent of the population. We thank him for inviting us,” he said.

Sharply ducked the question of Dr. Singh assurance, the three Yadav refused to comment on whether Prime Minister had given any assurance to them on their demand.

Akon sang his ever popular song ‘Smack That’ which is said to be Bollywood superstar’s favourite song, and SRK was seen dancing with him.

“My kids love him, I love him. I want you all to give him the biggest welcome into the country that anyone has ever had,” said SRK.

While Juhi Chawla and Sourav Ganguly amongst other prominent personalities were spotted in the party, SRK’s good friend Farah Khan was missing.

The buzz is that Farah Khan is not in good terms with Gauri and Shah Rukh and Gauri had intentionally excluded her from the party list.

Chennai, March 8 – Perhaps not in the history of India, any disciple has presented such gurudakshina to his master. The self styled God man Swami Paramahamsa Nityananda’s former disciple, Nitya Dharmananda alias Lenin Karuppan claimed to conduct the sting operation to unmasked the normal man behind the spiritual disguise. The videos showed Nityanand in compromising positions with actress Ranjitha. According to Dharmananda the former actress was a disciple of Nityananda and acted as personal attendant during the day’s long visit to his ashram.

In a shocking revelation, Dharmananda charged that Nityananda had illegitimate relationships with other actresses too. The disciple, Nithya Premananda, alias Lenin Karuppan, now admitted that he leaked out the tape and wanted police security because he feared of his life from Nityananda’s disciples.

He said he was shocked and aroused doubts about Swami when heard about the death of a devotee from Canada at the ashram and another attempted suicide. Dharmananda is also said to have handed over to the police two CDs believed to contain Nityanand’s dalliance with other tinseltown beauties.

The former Nityanand disciple said he had joined the godman’s staff as a driver. He went on to become Nityanand’s trusted lieutenant and settled down in the Bangalore ashram in 2006. He had free access to the godman’s private rooms and he said he made the tapes December last.

“Sensing I had done a sting operation, Nityanand and ashram functionaries threatened me on February 18 during a visit to Salem. I escaped,” Dharmananda said. He has sought police protection.

In the meantime, Nityanand asked his devotee not to carried away by the false tapes and said all these are conspiracy to defame him.

Securing a spot in the elite list of drivers by itself is a great achievement, but Karun Chandhok doesn’t have enough time to sit back and celebrate. The 2010 season of Formula 1 kicks off on March 12^thin Bahrain, just two weeks after his deal was signed with Hispania Racing. Bahrain Grand Prix will also mark the return of Michael Schumacher, the most skilled and the most feared driver of our times.

It is going to be very challenging for Chandhok in Bahrain as his team is still struggling to put the car together, leaving him no time for practice and testing. Going to a Grand Prix with a totally untested car is something that would bother even the best driver on earth.

“Well, the first race will just be like a test session. I must say Colin (team principal of Hispania) works more hours than most people I know and he has done an amazing job to get Dallara, Cosworth and all the people involved in work like mad and get the car ready for Bahrain.”, Chandhok said.

The Chennai lad seems to be taking everything in the right spirit and he is not expecting anything big in the initial stages.

“There will be problems. Even the established top teams have problems in the shakedowns and our shakedown will be FP1 (free practice) on Friday but we have to stay optimistic and battle through the first few races before we start to see some fruitful results. Early on, it will be very hard to get reliability as the other teams have done 8,000-10,000 km of testing and we haven’t even started the engines.”, he said.

The former GP2 driver believes that the first few races are just about finishing, getting reliability and gaining testing mileage, before aiming for something big.

“Hopefully by Barcelona we can start to fight to be the best of the new teams and by the end of the year start to mix with the likes of Torro Rosso”.

New Delhi, March 08 — Terror alert has been issued for for Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata on Monday by home ministry saying these three cities could be on the target of terrorists.

Based on information collected from suspected Indian Mujahideen terrorist Salman Ahmed during interrogation, Home Ministry had asked the Maharashtra, Karnataka and West Bengal governments for taking possible steps to foil any bid by terrorists to strike the cities.

Home Ministry official said, “We are not taking any chances on whatever information we have received. So, we have alerted the concerned state governments to take all necessary security measures immediately.”

Salman Ahmed was the suspect of being involved in the serial blasts in Varanasi, Ahmedabad and Gorakhpur. During interrogation he also confessed that terror bases has been set up with the name “Karachi Project” in Karachi, Dubai, Kathmandu and a few other places in Middle East by the Indian Mujahideen.

The official also said, “He also confessed before the interrogators that IM cadres go to Pakistan either taking the route of Nepal or Bangladesh for training and he had returned from Pakistan only in January last.”