Quicktakes

Mahajan quits

NEW DELHI: BJP leader Pramod Mahajan has resigned as Political Adviser to Prime Minister AB Vajpayee following the party’s decision to field him for the June 18 Rajya Sabha biennial election from Maharashtra.

Train derailed

GUWAHATI: At least two people were killed and 22 injured, four of them seriously, when seven coaches of the Guwahati-bound Siffung passenger train jumped tracks near Tarang bridgebetween Kokrajhar and Salakathi stations of Northeast Frontier Railway in Assam on Monday. One person died on the spot, another later, an NF Railway spokesman said. The derailment took place owing to removal of fish plates by Bodo militants.

Indian evacuees

NEW DELHI: The Indian Government has made all arrangements for the evacuation of Indian nationals wishing to leave Eritrea and a chartered plane from Asmara would arrive in Mumbai early on Tuesday, an External Affairs Ministry spokesman has said. All Indian nationals are safe in Asmara and not affected by the civil war between Ethiopia and Eritrea, he said.

BARC homepage

MUMBAI: Bhabha Atomic Energy Research Centre (BARC), India’s premier nuclear establishment, has withdrawn its homepage from internet service following the controversy of online pirates breaking into its computer network after the nuclear tests, sources said.

Prisoners escape

MUZAFFARPUR (BIHAR): Eleven undertrials, including some alleged hard-core criminalsand these involved in murder cases, escaped from the civil court premises here Monday. Police Superintendent (In charge) Babu Lal Ram said the undertrials fled from the court’s bathroom and the police party escorting them failed to trace them.

Body recovered

MUMBAI: A naval helicopter fished out the body of a woman from rough seas off Marine Drive in the City. The body was spotted floating around 12.30 Monday afternoon. The body was flown to Naval helicopter base I N S Kunjali. The dead body was identified as Maya Jayantilal Thakkar, 29, a resident of Bhayander.