AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

        Britain considered abandoning its nuclear deterrent as it cast around for ways to raise money during a humiliating economic crisis 30 years ago, newly declassified papers revealed Friday. In 1976, the value of the pound sterling against the dollar began to slide which led Ministers to ask the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a loan in September. A 3.9-billion-dollar package was eventually agreed, but the image of Britain going 'cap in hand' to the IMF did lasting damage to the kingdom's image around the world. Officials and politicians considered several courses of action to ease the economic pressure, according to papers released by the National Archives in London, under rules which allow them to be made public after 30 years. Wise move, isn't it?

        Oil prices eased in Asian trade Friday, the last trading day of the year, as the market dismissed a sharp drop in US crude stockpiles, dealers said. At 9.49 am (local time) New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in February, was 20 cents lower at 60.33 dollars a barrel from 60.53 dollars in late US trade. Brent North Sea crude for February declined 18 cents to 60.49 dollars. The fall in prices came despite a US Department of Energy (DoE) report Thursday which said crude oil stockpiles slid 8.1 million barrels to 321 million in the week ended 22 December. The drawdown was much steeper than the 2.5-million-barrel decline analysts expected. Fluctuation in oil prices is inevitable.

        The Finnish Presidency of the EU Friday restated its opposition to the execution of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, after speculation in Iraq that Saddam's death penalty could be carried out imminently. Saddam, his half brother Barzan al-Tikriti and Awad Ahmed al-Bandar al-Sadun, a former chief judge of the revolutionary court, were sentenced to death by hanging by the Iraqi High Tribunal for the massacre of 148 Shiite villagers from Dujail north of Baghdad after an assassination attempt there against the Iraqi leader in 1982. The court on 26 December rejected their appeals against their conviction and ordered the executions be carried out. However, the Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was hanged Saturday, State- run Iraqiya television reported. 'The execution of Saddam Hussein is complete,' the channel said in a text headline broadcast against a background of Koranic verses. US big brother attitude proved again.

        The Supreme Court has held that a convict cannot get relief by approaching the higher courts in a separate appeal requesting for concurrent running of sentences if he had been sentenced for two or more offences. The case involves a Syndicate bank employee in Andhra

        Pradesh, sentenced twice within a month for two separate offences of forgery by a Special Judge of CBI Court in year 1997. The convict appealed to the High Court and then the Supreme Court but got no relief and his appeal was dismissed. During the hearing on his petition he did not request for concurrent running of sentences. Then he filed a separate application before the High Court praying that the sentences imposed on him be directed to run concurrently, which was rejected by the court. Right judgement delivered.

        Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, who ended her 25-day fast late Thursday night, is under treatment in the intensive care unit of a hospital in Kolkata as her heart and pulse rates are low. Banerjee was under treatment to correct her dehydration, hypoglycaeamia and other nutritional deficiencies, Kakoli Ghoshdastidar, a doctor attending on her, told press on Friday morning. 'She is on oxygen unit and intravenous fluid correction,' she said. Investigation was being carried out to ascertain

        whether any of her vital organs had failed or not, she said. Anxious party supporters gathered outside the south Kolkata nursing home to know about the health condition of Banerjee. Banerjee called off her hunger strike on the Singur issue following personal appeals by President A P J Abdul Kalam and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Mamata is elated by this.

        As 15 skulls and body parts were recovered from Nithari area where children were believed to have been sexually abused before being murdered, police on Saturday claimed that the factory owner in whose house the recovery was made has confessed to being aware of the crime. Interrogation of the factory owner Mohinder Singh Pandher and his domestic help Satish alias Surender has revealed that his servant had committed the crime with his consent and knowledge, SSP R K S Rathore told Press. He said so far 15 skulls and other skeleton parts have been found in the excavation near Singh's house in Sector 31 of this industrial town in Western Uttar Pradesh. He said some of the clothes and other belongings found after the digging yesterday have been identified by the parents of some of the missing children. The servant should be dealt with severely.

        Bharathiar University in Coimbatore would confer the title 'Bharathiar Tamil Semmal' (scholar) on Tamilnadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi for his efforts in getting classical language status to Tamil. The title would be conferred during a function on 24 February, as part of the Silver Jubilee celebrations of the university, its Vice-Chancellor Thiruvasagam, informed the Senate meeting Friday. President A P J Abdul Kalam has been invited to participate in the function, he said. Select poems of Subramanya Bharathi would be translated and published in English, Thiruvasagam said adding that more focus would be given to songs on women's rights and national integration. Members of the late poet's family would be honoured on the occasion and the Postal Department would release a special cover in honour of the university, he said. No doubt he is a scholar in Tamil.

        The MDMK, which has four members in the Lok Sabha, on Friday suffered a vertical split with the dissident leaders expelling party chief Vaiko from the primary membership of the party. The general council meeting in Salem on Friday, called by dissident leaders L Ganesan and Gingee N Ramachandran, who had been stripped off their party posts as presidium chairman and deputy general secretary respectively by Vaiko recently, passed a resolution expelling Vaiko from the party. Vaiko has the support of two MPs - C Krishnan from Pollachi and V Ravichandran from Sivakasi. L Ganesan from Tiruchi and Ramachandran from Vandavasi are the other two members of the MDMK parliamentary party. The dissidents also decided not to have any truck with the AIADMK. The meeting also revoked Vaiko's decision to remove Ganesan and Ramachandran from their party posts, saying the decision was against party constitution. Headache starts for V Gopalsamy.

        The Tamilnadu Civil Supplies Corporation (TNCSC) has proposed to open more than 200 Direct Purchase Centres (DPCs) in the second week of next month for procuring the samba paddy from the farmers in the Cauvery delta region of Nagapattinam district. A senior official of the TNCSC said here on Thursday that the harvest of samba paddy would commence before the ensuing Pongal festival and pointed out that the DPCs would be opened in a phased manner in various parts of the district depending on the arrival of paddy. He said that the TNCSC had procured about 80,000 tonnes of paddy during the kuruvai season this year through the 125 DPCs and purchased the paddy with moisture content upto 22 per cent subject to a cut in the price if the moisture content exceeded 17 per cent. Farmers are to be extended a helping hand.

        Buoyancy in revenue collections notwithstanding, the country's fiscal deficit during April-November 2006 touched 72.8 per cent of the total budget target for the entire financial year. The Centre's fiscal deficit grew to Rs 1,08,201 crore during April-November 2006-07. The budget estimate for this fiscal is Rs 1,48,686 crore, according to the data released by the Controller General of Accounts today. Revenue deficit was more pronounced at Rs 84,483 crore in the first eight months of this financial year, accounting for almost the entire of the budget target of Rs 84,727 crore. Against budgetary targets, the Centre's fiscal deficit so

        far in 2006-07 is slightly less compared to 74.7 per cent in the corresponding period last year, while revenue deficit was much larger compared to 91.5 per cent a year ago. The deficits increased primarily on account of rise in non-plan expenditure. According to the data, the Government's total expenditure stood at Rs 3,36,539 crore, 59.7 per cent of the budget estimate of Rs 5,63,991 crore against 57 per cent last year.

        Shane Warne was handed the perfect send off by his home fans in Melbourne as the Australian spin king picked up the man-of-the-match award in the comprehensive rout against England last week.

        Warne, who was appearing at the MCG for the last time before his retirement from international cricket, picked up seven wickets in the match - including the 700th victim of his career - and scored an unbeaten 40 as Australia won by an innings and 99 runs.

        And Warne, who was carried around the ground on the shoulders of Matthew Hayden and Andrew Symonds at the end of the match, was delighted to bow out of Melbourne on a high.

        'I thought it was an amazing Test match. The build-up to this Test match, the hype for the series has just been fantastic. But I think in this Test match, we showed our class in tough situations.'

        Workers of Chennai Airport Friday sought the intervention of Chief Minister M Karunanidhi over the move to privatise the airport, 'under the guise of modernisation'. CITU president M K Pandey told reporters after attending a meeting of the Airports Authorities of India employees forum, that the workers had already met Karunanidhi and urged him to stall the move to privatise the airport, the first in the country to receive the ISO certificate. The Tamilnadu government, Pandey said, should refuse to cooperate with the Centre over privatisation move, he said. CPI leader A B Bardhan and party MP Appadurai are among others who attended the conference. Is public sector not capable of modernising?

        The mystery behind the abduction and murder of 11-year-old boy Aravind here on 26 December, was unravelled Friday with three juveniles 'confessing' to police that they killed the boy to get money for celebrating the New Year and for purchasing a mobile phone. The juveniles, in the age group of 15 to 17, told police during interrogation that the murder was unintentional. Chennai Police Commissioner Letika Saran, announcing the breakthrough in the case which had sent shock waves throughout the State, told reporters that the trio had befriended Aravind

        while playing cricket in their locality. As part of their plan, they first took him to a house under their custody. When the boy started crying and insisted that he be taken back home, they 'caught him by the throat,' in an attempt to silence him and when his cries did not subside, they hit him four times on the head with a brick, Saran said. Gilli film-style.

        The Tamilnadu government has constituted a committee to draw up a programme to celebrate the completion of 2,550 years of the Buddha attaining 'nirvana'. The 24-member committee headed by State Finance Minister K Anbazhagan includes Ministers Parithi Ilavazhudhi, K Ponmudi and Thangam Thennarasu. Chief Secretary L K Tripathi, Congress leader in the Assembly D Sudarsanam, PMK leader G K Mani, CPI leader R Nallakannu and Dravidar Kazhagam president K Veeramani are also members of the committee, a government order said. Tamilnadu Government goes 'Buddham saranam gachami' way.