Newsreel 09.05.04

• Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was issued summons by a local court in civil suits seeking compensation for families of two Brit...

• Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was issued summons by a local court in civil suits seeking compensation for families of two Britons killed in the post-Godhra riots. In further indictment of his government’s role in the riots, the Supreme Court said its efforts to try and stall the retrial of the Best Bakery case in Maharashtra showed it had ‘‘sympathies more for the accused than the victims’’.

• In the best endorsement Indian drug manufacturers could have, a three-year study of AIDS drugs, involving 1,147 patients, published in the current issue of the New England Journal of Medicine has said that the three-in-one pill made by Indian companies — Ranbaxy and Cipla — is ‘‘better for new patients than any of those sold or planned by Western drug companies’’.

• As expected, the V K Shunglu Committee set up to study the financial requirements of the IIMs has backed the fee cut mooted by Union HRD Ministry. And in fact, has gone one step further recommending that the three leading IIMs at Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Kolkata are rich enough to sustain themselves without charging any fee at all.

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• It was not a good week for the Bush Government, which fumbled for explanations after photographs of American soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib found their way into the media. While the world expressed outrage, President Bush chastised Defense Secretary Donald H Rumsfeld for his handling of the controversy. Rumsfeld went before the Congress and apologised, also said there were more such photos, videos.

• Iraq was a cause of concern for New Delhi too, though for a different reason. After reports of two Indians, who went to work as service personnel at US bases in Iraq, being killed, New Delhi asked the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad and the US military liasion office in Jordan to verify reports about Indian nationals being forced to work in American establishments in Iraq against their will. The deaths come amid concern in New Delhi over reports that at least 1,500 ex-servicemen were hired out to Iraq by private security agencies in the country.

• Dhanraj Pillay’s dream of playing his fourth Olympics received a shot in the arm with IHF KPS Gill saying that the star forward was being ‘preserved’ for the Games. In other sports news, Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Muralitharan broke Courtney Walsh’s Test record of number of wickets by notching up his 520th