Edusat working properly

Chennai: The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) has said that India?s first satellite dedicated to education, ?Edusat?, launched successfully on Monday by a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-F01) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, about 100 km north of Chennai, is doing well, reports our special correspondent.

?All the systems on board the satellite are functioning normally,? Isro said in a press release issued on Tuesday. The ?solar panels? of the satellite were deployed soon after its injection into orbit, Isro said.

t 7:48 am on Tuesday, the first orbit manoeuvre of Edusat was successfully carried out by commanding the satellite from the ?Master Control Facility? at Hassan in Karnataka, the release said.

With this operation, the satellite?s perigee (nearest point from the earth) has been raised from 181 km, at the time of its injection into a geosynchronous transfer orbit on Monday evening, to 8800 km, the release said. The apogee (the farthest point from earth) remained at 36,000 km, Isro said. The satellite ?is now orbiting the earth once every 13 hours and 25 minutes?, the ISRO release added.

Siachen major objects to jury

Jodhpur (PTI): Major Surinder Singh, charged with enacting fake killings on the Siachen glacier, raised objections on Tuesday against the general court martial (GCM) jury soon after it began proceedings against him in the case and demanded a probe by an independent agency.

?I object to the entire jury, including its presiding officer, because all its members were under the influence of the convening authority ? GOC of desert core G.S. Jamwal ? as all of them have been selected from desert core itself,? Singh told the general court martial on the opening day of the trial.

?Army chief Gen. N.C. Vij wants to punish me, which is evident from the fact that I have been made an accused in the case whereas I was the complainant,? he alleged. ?I have no expectation of justice from the army. Therefore, the case should be probed by an independent agency like CBI or by a retired judge or officials of navy or air force,? he said.

Referring to a 1982 Supreme Court observation in a judgment on constitution of general court martial, Singh said: ?Since members of the jury in GCM depended on the convening authority for their future promotions and postings, they could not go against wishes of higher officers and, therefore, could not act freely.?

Judge gets more security

Pune (PTI): Security for S.M. Shembole, judge of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime (MCOCA) special court, who is hearing the multi-crore fake stamp paper case, has been tightened following a claim by prime accused Abdul Karim Telgi?s advocate Abdul Rehman, official sources said.

Rehman claimed last week that a conspiracy was being hatched to kill Shembole at the behest of former Mumbai police commissioner R.S. Sharma, an accused in the case.

Red tide recedes

Kochi (PTI): Kerala fisheries minister Dominic Presentation said on Tuesday that the ?red tide? phenomenon and the stench in the coastal areas of the Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram districts had almost receded. The minister told reporters that fish from these areas was now fit for consumption.

Cop gets bail

Mumbai (PTI): A local court on Tuesday granted interim anticipatory bail till September 29 to assistant police inspector Sachin Vaze, charged with killing Ghatkopar blast accused Khwaja Yunus. Sessions judge U.D. Malavankar restrained police from arresting Vaze, who had filed an anticipatory bail following the filing of a fresh chargesheet in the case on September 16.

Poems by convict

Chennai (PTI): A prisoner in the death row in Salem Central Jail has released an anthology of poems penned by him in prison during the past few years. The anthology, ?Sirai Muthukkal 3450? (pearls from prison) contains his poems on various national and international issues like the Iraq war and personalities like LTTE chief Prabhakaran and US President George Bush.

Dowry killing

Muzaffarnagar (PTI): A 35-year-old woman was allegedly burnt alive at Sainpur village in the district by her in-laws for not bringing enough dowry, police said here on Tuesday. The charred body of the woman was recovered from her house on Monday.

Maria of Virginia in the US met Sheikh Azhar Quereshi, a jawan of Madhya Pradesh Special Armed Forces, on the Net over a year ago and has arrived in Bhopal to marry him.