Briefly Nation

Judges of the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday had to sit in the lounge as doors of the court rooms and their chambers were locked.

Staff on strike,Calcutta HC paralysed

KOLKATA: Judges of the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday had to sit in the lounge as doors of the court rooms and their chambers were locked with employees going on an indefinite strike demanding a pay hike. Thousands of litigants are set to suffer as cases will not be heard till the strike is called off. The employees have been demanding immediate pay revision,claiming that despite Central and state government implementing pay commission recommendations,they are yet to get any hike.

CBI opposes Amit Shahs bail plea

AHMEDABAD: The CBI on Wednesday opposed the bail plea of Amit Shah in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case,saying that the security of witnesses in the case would be threatened if the former Gujarat minister is released. Shah was the mastermind of the conspiracy leading to the encounter of Sohrabuddin and he has been striking terror in the minds of witnesses,which has been revealed in their statements to CBI, senior counsel of the Central agency K T S Tulsi submitted in the court.

School damaged in blast,none injured

GURGAON: Five rooms of a residential school at Bhadas village near Nuh in Mewat district were damaged after an unexplained blast at 10.30 pm on Wednesday. Mewat SP Yogendra Nehra confirmed the incident and said no casualties have been reported so far. A police team is now at the spot and investigations are on,he added.

15 baby crocodiles found dead in zoo

CHANDIGARH: As many as 15 baby crocodiles were found dead in the Chhatbir Zoological Park in Patiala district of Punjab,officials said here Wednesday. The baby crocodiles had gone missing from the park one after another after their birth on June 7. Officials found their bodies on Monday. The cause behind their deaths is being investigated.

3 Ganesh laddoos fetch Rs 14.70 lakh

HYDERABAD: Three Ganesh laddoos fetched Rs 14.70 lakh during an auction by three different mandapas on the 11th day of the Ganesh festival on Wednesday. The highest auction for a laddoo was at Ameerpet where it fetched a record sum of Rs 6.5 lakh. The famous Balapur Ganesh laddoo was bought for Rs 5.35 lakh,and another for Rs 2.85 lakh at Ramnagar locality in the city here.

New York institute award for Sibal

NEW YORK: HRD Minister Kapil Sibal was on Wednesday conferred with the Stephen P Duggan award for Mutual Understanding by the Institute of International Education in New York. The award is named after the institutes first president,a professor of diplomatic history,who alongwith Nobel laureates Elihu Root and Nicholas Murray Butler founded the IIE.