Income crown for Indians in SA

Durban (PTI): Indians have edged past other communities in South Africa in terms of household income because of the importance given to education, thus making them the most successful in the new democracy, a survey has found.

The household income of Indians in at least five provinces ? Limpopo, North West, Northern Cape, Eastern Cape and Western ? has overtaken other communities, the study conducted by Global Insight Southern Africa said.

However, the situation has not changed significantly in Kwazulu-Natal and Gauteng, two provinces where people of Indian origin predominate.

The research shows that between 1996 and 2003, dramatic changes have taken place in household incomes of all communities.

African households have had an increase of 71 per cent with an average annual income of Rand 45 513; blacks by 81 per cent to R 76 322; Indians by 79 per cent to R 148 822; and whites by 56 per cent to R 196 000.

The figures dispelled old notions of wealth distribution, director of the study, Frans Cronje, said. ?This shows us that slowly but surely, the inequality between groups is starting to decline. The image of the rich-white, poor-black South Africa is perhaps not perfectly accurate.?

Bhujbal gets terror-case call

Mumbai (PTI): A special court has asked Maharashtra PWD minister Chhagan Bhujbal, former city police commissioner M.N. Singh and two other top police officers to appear as defence witnesses on a plea by suspected terrorist Mohammad Afroz despite stiff opposition from the prosecution.

Afroz had urged the court to examine Bhujbal and others as witnesses as they had sanctioned his prosecution.

The court also issued on Friday a bailable warrant against Pradip Sawant, suspended deputy commissioner of police, asking him to appear on February 18 as defence witness to tender evidence in Afroz?s case. Sawant had failed to appear on two earlier occasions.

Afroz was arrested on October 2, 2002, on the charge of waging war against the nation. According to police, he was part of al Qaida group, which had planned to blow up the Parliament House in Delhi, the House of Commons in the UK and the Rialto tower in Australia. He was booked under the anti-terror act but the charge was later dropped. He is now being tried under the IPC.

28 die as bus falls in gorge

Udhampur (PTI): Twenty-eight people were killed and 29 injured when a bus in which they were travelling fell into a gorge in Udhampur district. The bus was on its way to Udhampur town from Ramnagar when it skidded off the road and fell into the 300-ft gorge at Barman around 11.45 am, official sources said.

Pakistanis held

Ahmedabad (PTI): Five Pakistani nationals who had illegally entered Indian waters have been arrested by the coast guard. The Pakistanis, claiming to be fishermen, were detained last Friday and their boats seized at least eight nautical miles into Indian territorial waters off the Okha coast in Jamnagar district, official sources said.

Mishap toll rises

Nagpur (PTI): The toll in Thursday?s passenger train mishap at Kanhan rose to 57 with two persons succumbing at the Government Medical College hospital on Saturday. A train had crashed into a tractor-trolley carrying members of a marriage party, about 30 km from here on Thursday. Sixteen injured persons are being treated at the government hospital and the Indira Gandhi Medical College hospital, police added.

Loot on train

Sonepat (PTI): Five youths looted four passengers travelling on a Delhi-bound passenger train between Samalkha and Bodhwal Majri railway stations about 35 km from here on Saturday night. According to the passengers, the youths, armed with pistols and other weapons, got down from the running train at Bodhwal Majri after looting cash and valuables.

Medha case

Mumbai (PTI): A case has been filed against social activist Medha Patkar for illegal assembly and pulling down cement posts and barbed wires erected by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation to fence an area cleared after demolition. Patkar, along with members of some voluntary organisations, was protesting the demolition of slums at Rafiq Nagar in north-east Mumbai.

The latest uses of mapping technologies in disaster management and areas like defence, industrial planning and urban development will be discussed at the Map India, 2005 conference beginning in New Delhi from Monday.