Newsreel: 13.04.03

• US Marines topple a huge statue of Saddam Hussein in the heart of Baghdad as Iraqis celebrate the humiliating collapse of his 24-year...

• US Marines topple a huge statue of Saddam Hussein in the heart of Baghdad as Iraqis celebrate the humiliating collapse of his 24-year rule. Cheering ecstatically, a crowd of Iraqis dance and trample on the fallen six-metre high metal statue in contempt for the man who had held them in fear for so long.

In scenes recalling the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall, Iraqis hack at the statue’s marble plinth with a sledgehammer. There was no word on the fate of Saddam or his sons, targeted by US planes that bombed a western residential area of the city. Saddam, who led Iraq through three wars and decades of suffering after taking power in 1979, had vowed to crush a US and British invasion launched three weeks ago to overthrow him.

But his forces offered little resistance as US troops thrust through this sprawling city of five million, amid chaotic scenes of rejoicing, looting and gunfire.

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• On the homefront, responding to the Iraq war, MPs grope for words. To resolve the deadlock between the government (which wanted to ‘deplore’ the US-led attack on Iraq) and the Opposition (which wanted to ‘condemn’ it), the language chosen for the resolution is Hindi and word which saved the day, ninda.

• The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) orders the opening of the Bhojshala/ Kamal Maula mosque complex in Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh for Hindus on every Tuesday. Stating that law and order is a matter of state subject, the order from ASI Director-General Gauri Chatterjee, it is learnt, is a reiteration of Culture and Tourism Minister Jagmohan’s statement of Feb 26, wherein the Minister had said while Muslims could offer their prayers on Fridays, Hindus should be allowed access to the shrine on Tuesdays.

• DALAL Street witnesses a blood bath as infotech stocks, led by Infosys Technologies, falls like nine-pins on nervous selling triggered by disappointing earnings guidance issued by the technology bellwether. Market capitalisation or total value of all listed shares falls by a whopping Rs 19,200 crore to Rs 548,660 crore in a day. The market cap of Infosys alone tanks by Rs 7,373 crore.

• After missing out on the earlier proposed deadline of April, the empowered committee of state finance ministers decides to implement value added tax from June 1. Sixteen States, accounting for 75 per cent of India’s trade and industry, have agreed on the new time table. Chairman of the committee, Asim Dasgupta says more States would join the list before June. Dasgupta says all States would put in place VAT within third quarter of the current fiscal.

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• THE Government decides to set up a new pension dispensation in the country that will be applicable to all new entrants into government service except for the armed forces. A second tier of pension funds which would be applicable to people working in the unorganised sector or even the self-employed, but without any financial support from the Government, has also been envisaged.

• DOPING in sports in the country rears its head again, this time in a big way, when 22 National Games participants tests positive for drugs and rower Lakshman Singh, who won a bronze at the Games, is banned for life. The rower’s test report confirms he had used a banned substance, Nandrolone, at the National Games held in Hyderabad. Both his samples tested positive. In the case of the others — these include 12 medal winners apart from Lakshman — names have been withheld until April 23 when results of the second samples will be known.

• AIR-India and Indian Airlines are off the disinvestment hook and the Shipping Corporation of India sale has been pushed to April, 2004, leaving only a handful of second-rung public sector companies on the Ministry of Disinvestment’s chopping block. The latest selling list include Instrumentation Control Valves Ltd, Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilisers, Hindustan Cables Ltd, and ITDC’s properties at Jaipur, Patna, Bhubaneswar and Jammu.