Two days after aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) suspended the flying licence of Vijay Mallya-promoted Kingfisher Airlines (KFA), the cash-strapped carrier will make a last attempt to convince its 4000 striking employees to return to work on Monday.

It is believed that the KFA management is slated to meet the staff in Mumbai on Monday to find a solution to the 20-day strike that entirely crippled its operations.

The debt-ridden airline is facing a salary backlog of seven months and the employees have been seeking payments of all pending dues.

If talks fail on Monday, striking employees will launch a nationwide protest and try and confront Chairman Vijay Mallya at the F1 track in Greater Noida, where the races begin on October 26, said sources.

The average monthly wage bill of the airline is said to be around Rs 21 crore. The employees went on a flash strike October 1 demanding payment of their salaries by October 5, which have been pending since March.

The airline had the lowest market share in September, which stood at 3.5 percent. The airline has a total debt of Rs 7,000 crore from a consortium of banks.

Also, bankers are scheduled to hold a meeting Monday to decide on the fate of their exposure to Kingfisher Airlines. If they decide on writing off bad debt owed by the airline, it may have a negative impact on their quarterly performance and will also affect the scrip price in the equities market.

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Seeking re-election, President Barack Obama is preparing to clash with his Republican rival Mitt Romney over foreign policy issues like Libya, Iran's nuclear weapons programme, China and situation in the Af-Pak region in their last US presidential debate before the polls.

Unlike the second debate in New York wherein the questions were asked by a select group of audience, at Boca Raton in Florida, the moderator Bob Schieffer of CBS news would be asking questions in a structured format.     

If the second debate is of any indication, which was won by Obama, millions of Americans watching it live on their television screens on Tuesday are expected to see a heated exchange of words between the two leaders; especially on key foreign policy issues like Libya, in particular the terrorist attack on US Consulate in Benghazi, the Iranian nuclear weapons program, China and the situation in Af-Pak region.

The European financial crisis, the administration's "reset" strategy with Russia, the US relationship with emerging powers such as India and Brazil, might also jump in during the 90-minute prime-time debate.

Obama, 51, who is spending time in the picturesque resort of Camp David preparing for the presidential debate, is expected to list some of his key achievements of his foreign policy including the killing of Osama bin Laden, the al Qeada leader and end of war in Iraq and attack his Republican challenger on his inexperience on the foreign policy front.

Romney, 65, on the other hand is expected to corner Obama on the terrorist attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi that killed its Ambassador to Libya, the rise of China, the reset-policy with Russia, the nuclear programme of Iran and the perceived differences with Israel.

Political analysts today expected the third debate to be a "hard-fought" discussion, with Obama hoping to reverse the recent trend showing the polls heading positively towards Romney.

Meanwhile, the latest poll conducted jointly by The Wall Street Journal and the NBC News channel revealed that Obama and Romney are in a dead heat two week ahead of the November 6 presidential elections.

"Among likely voters, the candidates are now tied, 47 percent to 47 percent, in a race that appears on track to be one of the closest in US history," the newspaper said.

"Mr Romney has pulled abreast of the president for the first time all year in the Journal poll, erasing a three-point lead among likely voters that Mr Obama had in late September and a five-point lead earlier that month.

"Mr Romney's surge followed his strong debate performance in Denver early this month and a contentious second debate with Mr Obama last week," the daily said.

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Sky marshals, deployed on civilian aircraft to counter hijack or hostage situations, have been armed with modern 'dum dum' bullets that burst inside the body of an attacker instead of passing through and hitting any passenger or puncturing the plane's body.

The bullets, whose peculiar name originated from the first such ammunition developed by the British near the 'Dum Dum' military base in Kolkata in pre-independent India, are authorised to be fired only by special forces commandos the world over to avoid collateral damage in such an operation.   
This type of ammunition is prohibited for any other use under an international convention. The country's specialised counter-terror and counter- hijack commando force, the NSG, has decided to include this ammunition in its armoury following 2008 Mumbai terror attacks where it had to undertake close-quarter combat in populated areas like 5-star hotels.

Sources said these bullets, which are being imported, are made to disintegrate inside the body of the attacker and result in either killing or severely immobilising him.

"The bullets have been imported from a friendly country," the sources said without disclosing the name of the country citing security reasons.

The National Security Guard (NSG) deploys a specific number of sky marshals on-board aircraft flying on select routes and is the federal contingency response force for any terrorist or hostage like crisis.   

The 'black cat' commandos are now equipped to use these bullets both for counter-hijack and counter-terror operations and their standard weapons like MP5 assault rifles and Glock pistols are compatible with it.

Experts said these bullets prevent collateral damage as unlike normal bullet, they do not escape out of the attacker's body or punch a hole in an airborne aircraft which can cause a disaster.

"A sky marshal or a commando is trained to be a sharp marksman. Despite his hitting the terrorist accurately, there is a fear that a civilian present next to him may get hit or the aeroplane suffers damage. "The special bullets give the commandos an edge and confidence to operate better," Special Forces (SF) experts said.

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Crisis-hit Kingfisher airline on Friday replied to aviation regulator DGCA's show cause notice on suspension of its licence and extended the lockout, which it had declared till October 20, till October 23.

The airline expressed the hope that it would be able to resume operations, after DGCA approves its resumption plan, from November 6.

"We have on Friday replied to the show cause notice issued by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA)," an airline official told media.

The resumption plan would be submitted after the issues were sorted out, the official said.

Kingfisher pilots and engineers have gone on strike from September 30 to protest against non-payment of salary since March, badly crippling the airline's operation.

The DGCA issued show cause notice, on October 5, to the liquor baron Vijay Mallya-owned airline asking why its flying licence should not be suspended or cancelled as it was not adhering to its flight schedule and "abruptly cancelling its flights time and again during the last 10 months", causing great inconvenience to the travelling public.

The DGCA had given the airline a 15-day time to reply to its notice, which was to expire on October 20.

Kingfisher had declared a lockout on September 28 till October 4 following the strike by the airline's engineers and pilots, cancelling its entire flight schedule, and extended it till October 12 later. It was again extended till October 20.

"Kingfisher Airlines Ltd has extended the partial lockout until October 23. Currently, we anticipate resuming operations on November 6, subject to our resumption plan being reviewed and approved by the DGCA," Kingfisher spokesperson said in a statement.

In a bid to resolve the deadlock, the airline management held a meeting with the agitating employees in Mumbai on October 17, which bore no result.

However, the spokesperson said, "We had a positive meeting with employee representatives on October 17 and are hopeful of reaching common ground when we meet again next week."

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Citing uncertainty in global economic scenario, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the government's endeavour to achieve 8 percent annual growth will not be an easy task, even though it is not unattainable.

At the Combined Commanders' Conference here, Singh said India needs an aggregate growth rate of 8 percent per annum to create new job opportunities for more than 10 million persons who are going to enter the labour force each year.

"This is not going to be an easy task, given the international economic environment. However, it is not unattainable if we make determined efforts to increase our investment rate to 37-38 percent as was the case three years ago," Singh said.

While India has confronted persistent challenges on the external front, Singh said the global economic recovery has failed to materialise.

"The continuing uncertainty and weaknesses in the Eurozone economies have hobbled the pace of growth, including in Asian economies. Inevitably, India too has had to deal with the fallout of slowing growth, falling exports and expanding deficits," the Prime Minister said.

India's economic growth slowed to a 5.5 percent in the first quarter of 2012-13 from 8 percent in the year-ago period. While exports are on decline since May (till August), the fiscal deficit has touched 66 percent of the budgeted Rs 4.12 lakh crore in first five months of the financial year.

The Prime Minister stressed on the need to create an environment conducive for increased investment and savings rates, paying particular attention to investment in infrastructure sectors.

Singh further said, "as India grows, so will the responsibilities associated with protecting our new-found equities."

For example, Singh said, an expansion of the country's exports and a diversification of their destinations will call for equal measures to protect them from threats such as piracy.

The security of India's sea lanes would be equally vital in ensuring the country's energy security and access to other vital natural resources, he added.

"Indian expatriates and our overseas investments, already present around the globe, are also going to be in need of assurances regarding their well-being. Security, therefore, will remain a pre-eminent and key pillar of our national strength," Singh added.

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Paying homage to soldiers who fought in the 1962 Indo-China war, Defence Minister AK Antony on Saturday ruled out any possibility of the repeat of the war and said armed forces were confident of protecting the country against any such threat.

This is the first time that the Indian defence establishment has honoured the dead and participants of the 1962 war officially.

"I would like to assure the nation that India of today is not the India of 1962. Over the years, successive governments learning lessons from the past strengthened our capabilities and modernised our armed forces... we are confident armed forces will be able to protect the border in event of any threat," he said on the sidelines of an event to honour the soldiers of the 1962 war on its 50th anniversary.

The Defence Minister was asked to assess the threat from China and India's preparation to tackle it.

In the war, India suffered defeat at the hands of the Chinese Army which went to capture large portion of Indian territory.

The Defence Minister, who along with Minister of State for Defence M M Pallam Raju, Marshal of the Air Force Arjan Singh and the three services chiefs paid homage to the 1962 war heroes and laid wreaths at Amar Jawan Jyoti, said successive governments have learnt lessons from the war and strengthened military capabilities and developed infrastructure.

"We will vigorously continue to strengthen our capabilities," the Defence Minister said.

Antony also noted that India was holding dialogue with China to find a solution to the long-pending border dispute and has established a mechanism to "immediately settle" any tensions on the border.

Asked why did it take 50 years for the Government to honour the soldiers and martyrs of the 1962 war, the Defence Minister said, "Nothing changed. This is the 50th year and we thought this is the time the whole nation must pay our homage to the officers and jawans who lost lives to protect our border."

Asked about criticism that the military leadership was not much involved in 1962 and the lessons learnt from it, Antony said, "The major lesson is that we have to strengthen our armed forces to protect our borders. That we are doing and now we are in a position to involve armed forces, intelligence agencies and all those involved in the protection of national security that process is much more strong."

Asked when will the Government take a decision on the Henderson Brookes report on the 1962 war, the Defence Minister said, "Let me take a decision."

He said all issues relating to setting up of the national war memorial at India Gate have been sorted out and it was in the final stages of being cleared by the Government.

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A 10-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a youth in Sahraoj village, police said On Friday.
  
The incident took place on Thursday when one Umesh Chauhan (20) took the girl to the fields and raped, they said.
  
Later, when family members came to know about it they registered an FIR in this connection.
  
The accused was later arrested by the police.

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Indore bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court asked Central Bureau of Investigation to probe the Treasure Island scam case, involving former Chief Minister Digvijay Singh, and report back within six months.

The order was passed by the division bench of Justices PK Jaisawal and Moolchand Garg, said advocate Dr Manohar Dalal, counsel for petitioner Mahesh Garg.

According to advocate Dalal, the HC asked the CBI to probe, among other things, the "roles of senior officials, the then Chief Minister, and Chief Secretary, and environment minister".

Social activist Garg had filed a complaint with the state Economic Offences Wing in 2009 in this regard. The EOW filed FIR against Entertainment World Developers Pvt Ltd, which constructed `Treasure Island' mall on the MG road here, in a joint venture with  Madhya Pradesh Housing Board in 2002.

The allegation was that the mall was illegally built on a residential plot of one lakh square feet, with undue concessions from the state government.

EOW conducted probe against twelve accused, including Digvijay Singh, former Chief Secretary A V Singh, former MP Housing Board Chairman Chandra Prabha Shekhar, former Principal Secretary U K Samant and developers Prem Kalani, Manish Kalani, and Padma Kalani.

It later filed closure report, giving clean chit to Digvijay Singh, while saying there was a case against six others including the developers.

When contacted, Superintendent of Police, EOW, Manoj Singh and Additional Advocate General Manoj Diwevedi said they had not received the judgement copy, and could not comment on it.

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Upset at Indian cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar getting the Order of Australia, former batsman Matthew Hayden said the honour should be "exclusive" to his countrymen.

"Now, if Sachin was living in Australia -- give him the Prime Minister's gong I reckon -- but the reality of it is he's living in India," Hayden told a radio show.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced the honour for Tendulkar during a recent visit to India.

Hayden, who is also a former recipient of the title, said only Australians should be conferred with such awards as they are about national honour.

"I think it should be exclusive to Australians...I'm not so sure. There's things that are sacred amongst our country," Hayden said.

"I kind of understand the point of the fact that he has been such an iconic figure here in Australia and there's an enormous population of Indians that are working here and living here very happily and in harmony with Australia that have naturalised and I think that's a great part of our country, how multi-cultural that we are," he explained.

Tendulkar is only the second Indian after former attorney general Soli Sorabjee to get the honour.

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As a petition accusing Rahul Gandhi of having illegally confined a girl was dismissed by Supreme Court, CBI is likely to send a Letters Rogatory to a foreign country seeking legal help suspecting a conspiracy to malign his image was hatched there.

The agency is likely to send the judicial request to the country seeking its help in the investigation and to track the culprits behind the email, the sources said without divulging the name of the country.

Highly placed CBI sources said the LRs were likely to be sent soon.

Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a petition against Gandhi and slapped costs of Rs 10 lakh, including Rs 5 lakh on an ex-SP MLA, who had filed it for damaging his image.

The Apex Court also directed the CBI to continue its probe against the petitioner ex-Samajwadi Party MLA Kishore Samrite and other persons who are involved in filing of the petition and asked it to submit a report within six months.

Samrite filed his plea on the basis of the email which relied on reports carried by some websites, the agency sources added.

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