BANGALORE, Oct 29 (Agencies): The fourth orbit-raising maneuver of Chandrayaan-1 was carried out today which took the lunar spacecraft closer to the moon, the Indian Space Research Organisation said here.
During this operation at 0738 hours, the spacecraft's 440 Newton liquid engine was fired for about three minutes, the Bangalore-headquartered space agency said in a statement.
"With this, Chandrayaan-1 entered into a more elliptical orbit whose apogee (farthest point to earth) lies at 2,67,000 km while the perigee (nearest point to earth) lies at 465 km.
Thus, Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft's present orbit extends more than half the way to the moon," ISRO said.
In this orbit, the spacecraft takes about six days to go round the earth once.
The health of the spacecraft is being continuously monitored from the Spacecraft Control Centre at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) here with support from Indian Deep Space Network antennas at Byalalu near here.
ISRO said all systems on board the spacecraft are performing normally.
One more orbit raising maneuver is scheduled to send the spacecraft to the vicinity of the moon at a distance of about 3,84, 000 km from the earth, it said.
We'll probe 'scams' in Delhi Govt: Malhotra NEW DELHI, Oct 29 (Agencies): As he braces up to bring his party back to power in Delhi after 10 years, BJP's Chief Ministerial candidate V K Malhotra is preparing a "chargesheet" against the Sheila Dikshit dispensation and vows to order inquiries into the "scams", if voted to power.
Malhotra has alleged that a number of "scandals", including one to the tune of Rs 12,500 crore in power department, had taken place during the Congress rule in the national capital and said that these needed to be probed.
He, however, ruled out any witch-hunting.
The 77-year-old BJP leader said in an interview that his party would highlight these "scams" and "failures" of the Dikshit government besides raising the issue of terrorism during campaigning for the November 29 elections.
Alleging that there was a "scam" of about Rs 12,500 crore in the power department, Malhotra said if BJP is voted to power, his government will order a CBI probe into it.
"The Comptroller Auditor General's report said there was a scam of Rs 12,500 crore (in power department).
Delhi Government's Public Accounts Committee also said there was a scam.
The PAC report was tabled in the Assembly.
The House unanimously passed a resolution that the case should be given to CBI.
(But) it was not given to CBI.
So we will send it to CBI," he said.
Delay in FIR no ground to disbelieve prosecution version: SC NEW DELHI, Oct 29 (Agencies): The Supreme Court has said that delay in registration of FIR cannot be a ground for disbelieving the prosecution's version, and it has to be considered in the context of other evidence marshaled against the accused persons.
"Delay in receipt of the FIR and the connected documents in all cases cannot be a factor corroding the credibility of the prosecution version," a bench of Justices Arijit Pasayat and Mukundakam Sharma observed.
The apex court passed the observation while dismissing an appeal filed by the Tamil Nadu Government against the acquittal order passed by the Madras High Court against six persons in a murder case.
In all, 16 persons had faced trial, of whom one died during trial and another is absconding.
The sessions judge convicted six of the accused N Rajamanickam and others while acquitting the rest of the accused.
Family members of the deceased and the State filed criminal revision petitions before the high court challenging the acquittal of the accused, while the convicts filed their appeal challenging the convictions.
The High Court acquitted all the convicted persons on the premise that certain vital factors rendered the prosecution version improbable.
The factors included delay in registration of the FIR and no official explanation for injuries suffered by the accused in the clash.
The High Court was of the view that evidence produced by the prosecution witnesses lacked credibility and cogency.
Aggrieved by the High Court's order, the State and the complainant preferred appeals in the apex court.
The apex court on perusal of the records said the High Court had rightly rejected the "artificiality" of the evidence produced by the prosecution witness.
It agreed with the high court view that no explanation was given for the injuries suffered by the accused.
"The combined effect of these factors certainly deserved consideration and according to us, the High Court has rightly emphasised on them to hold that the prosecution has not been able to establish the accusations.
"Singularly, the factors may not have adverse effect on the prosecution version.
But when a combined effect of the factors noted by the High Court are taken into consideration, the inevitable conclusion is that these are cases where no interference is called for.
The appeals are accordingly dismissed," the bench added.
Stop attacks on North Indians, Maya asks Centre NEW DELHI, Oct 29 (Agencies): In the wake of killing of a youth hailing from Uttar Pradesh in Mumbai, Chief Minister Mayawati asked the Centre and Maharashtra government to take immediate action to stop attacks on North Indians, saying they have 'failed' to prevent such incidents.
"The Centre and Maharashtra government should initiate immediate measures to check attack on North Indians in Maharashtra," Mayawati said in a letter shot off to the Union government and Maharashtra Chief Minister.
Terming the attacks as 'unfortunate', the Chief Minister said that both Centre and Maharashtra government have failed to check such 'unconstitutional acts'.
Mayawati also announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakhs for the family of the victim, Dharam Dev, who hailed from Sant Kabir Nagar district of the state.
She also directed the district administration to provide all possible help to the family.
No fuel price cut for now: Oil Ministry NEW DELHI, Oct 29 (Agencies): Government is not considering reduction in prices of petrol, diesel and domestic LPG despite crude falling to its lowest-level in 15 months as prices have to stablise at this level to wipe out the current revenue losses on fuel sales, an oil ministry official said.
"There is no proposal to reduce fuel prices.
We have to watch (the) situation for a few more weeks," said S Sundareshan, Additional Secretary in the Oil Ministry here.
The basket of crude India buys yesterday averaged at USD 56.72 per barrel, a level at which state-run Bharat Petroleum, Indian Oil and Hindustan Petroleum would break even if global prices were to stabilise for a month.
"Price reduction cannot be on the basis of price of one or two days.
Yesterday it was at USD 56, today it has gone up (again) by two dollars.
We need prices to stabilise before we can think of a price reduction," he said.
The three firms, which in April-September reported a Rs 92,853 crore revenue loss (audited figure) on sale of petrol, diesel, LPG and kerosene, are likely to post bad results when they report on quartely earnings over the next two days.
"Prices need to stabilise for four weeks (at current level) for us to consider a price cut," Sundareshan said.
A sharp depreciation in the value of Indian rupee against the US dollar has wiped away some of the gains from falling international crude oil prices.
The three firms were to break even on fuel sales at USD 67 per barrel crude oil when one USD was equivalent to 41 Indian rupees.
However, with rupee at the 50 mark, the break even point has now shifted to USD 57 per barrel.
Retailers sell petrol at a loss of Rs 2.85 a litre, diesel at Rs 7.26, kerosene at Rs 29.19 per litre and domestic LPG at a loss of Rs 333 per cylinder.
