Indians killed

Washington, Aug. 10 (PTI): Five Indian software professionals, all from Hyderabad, died when their car hit a tractor-trailer and burst into flames in Oklahoma today, police said.

The car, after hitting the tractor-trailer, went down an embankment and burst into flames. All five were killed on the spot. They have been identified as Jaswanth Reddy Subbayyagari, Phanindra Gade, Anurag Anthati, Srinivas Ravi and Venkat, the Telugu Association of North America said, quoting a friend of one of those who died in the accident.

Rain rescue

Dehra Dun (PTI): Defence helicopters on Friday rescued nearly 60 people, mostly pilgrims to Gangotri shrine, from the Harsil area of flood-hit Uttarkashi district in Uttarakhand.

Airline fine

New Delhi (PTI): A consumer forum has directed Biman Bangladesh Airlines Ltd to pay Rs 41,000 to a passenger for loss of his LCD TV in transit from Thailand. The forum held the airline guilty of rendering deficient service and asked it to pay the fine.

Officer notice

Bhopal (PTI): The government has issued a showcause notice to an IAS officer for allegedly violating service rules. The notice states that Ramesh Thete while speaking to the media recently had levelled several charges against the state government and Lokayukta leader P.P Naolekar.

Navy budget

New Delhi (PTI): The Indian Navy is in the process of getting a new fully automatic financial information system for better management of its budget. The system will provide a platform to bring together all organisations involved in budgetary estimation, allocation and expenditure of public money, officials said.

Cricket bat

Srinagar (PTI): A common facility centre for cricket bat manufacturing units has started functioning in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district two months ahead of schedule, an official spokesperson said. Bat clefts are being seasoned and dried at the centre in the shortest possible time to facilitate more production of bats.