Indian ‘dead’

Krishnagar, Aug. 7: Foreign ministry officials today told the family of Biplab Biswas, one of four Indians kidnapped from a Sudan oil field this May, he was “most probably dead”.

His mother Kanak said the officials, who visited the family in Nadia, “told us Biplab was seen by some local tribes in Sudan being beheaded and buried”. But they said the death could not be declared officially as the body was yet to be found, Biplab’s uncle Sukumar added.

M. Khan, CEO of the oil company Petro Energy that employed Biplab, said from Khartoum that Indian ambassador Deepak Vohra gave him the same news tonight.

NY hunt

New York (PTI): Police have launched a hunt for a man of Indian-origin who allegedly stabbed his mother-in-law fatally during a quarrel. Harpal Hira, 34, had also stabbed his estranged wife Ritika but she is in a stable condition.

Scarlett mom

Panaji (PTI): Fiona MacKeown, mother of murdered British teenager Scarlett Keeling, has put off her visit to India till a court gives its observations on an NGO petition alleging she neglected her child. She was to to depose before the CBI.