CHENNAI: AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa threatened to sue Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi, seeking Rs one crore as damages if he did not apologise for his remarks that her party might have “instigated” the recent violence in Dr Ambedkar Law college here, which left three students injured.

In a legal notice sent to Karunanidhi through her lawyer, Jayalalithaa said AIADMK had never instigated anyone to indulge in violence and charged Karunanidhi with making a false accusation against her party.

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US-based Technosoft Global Services on Wednesday opened its new facility in Chennai at DLF IT Park at Manapakkam in the presence of the Consul General of the U.S. in Chennai, Andrew Simkin. The company has proposed to invest around $4million (around Rs 19 crore) in the facility. This is Technosoft’s third facility in the country and second in Chennai. The company also has a facility in Bangalore.

Speaking to reporters, Radhakrishnan Gurusamy, chairman, Technosoft Corporation, said of the proposed amount, the company had already invested around $2 million (around Rs 7 crore).

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COIMBATORE: India must persuade Sri Lanka to announce soon equal rights for Tamils on its soil, even as it carries out military action against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Bharatiya Janata Party State president L. Ganesan told press persons here on Wednesday.

“We cannot accept Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s stand that the rights issue will be dealt with only on completion of the military offensive against the LTTE. We cannot trust the present Sri Lankan Government. It is not doing anything to win over the Tamils. But, a situation is being created where they are forced to look towards the LTTE for a solution,” Mr. Ganesan said.

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VELLORE: The Ministry of Railways has taken an ‘in-principle’ decision to operate bullet trains in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Punjab, which have expressed willingness, according to R. Velu, Union Minister of State for Railways.

New facility: R. Velu, Minister of State for Railways (third from right) and Durai Murugan, PWD Minister (second from right), inaugurating the ROB in Pallikonda-Palamaner Road near the Gudiyatham Railway Station on Tuesday. M.P. Saminathan, Minister for Highways and Minor Ports (fourth from right), K. Allaudin, Principal Secretary, Highways and Minor Ports and Vellore Collector C. Rajendran are in the picture.

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SALEM: “The difference between a good and a bad touch should be understood. A bad touch which makes you feel confused and uncomfortable should be discouraged and parents should be informed about it”.

This was the basic objective that was highlighted in the awareness campaign against child abuse organised jointly by Salem City Ladies Circle No.42 and Tulir, Chennai to mark the World Day for Prevention of Child Abuse here on Wednesday.

Collector J. Chandrakumar having a look at the posters on child abuse at an awareness campaign in Salem on Wednesday.

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CHENNAI: A 70-year-old woman who survived an accident was run over by an MTC bus near Teynampet on Wednesday morning, even as she was getting up from the road after she was hit by a two-wheeler.

The deceased, later identified as Ranganayagi, was working as a house maid. She was first knocked down by a two-wheeler when she tried to cross the road. She suffered minor injuries and was trying to get up from the road when an MTC bus hit her and ran over her, killing her on the spot.

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CHENNAI: Senior citizens longing for companionship in their old age and those forced to live in poorly equipped and ill ventilated old age homes now have help on hand as the Tamil Nadu government plans to set up an ‘eco-friendly’ village for them on the outskirts of the city.

The proposed village, to come up on 10 acres of land at Thundalakazhani, is estimated to cost around Rs 4.7 crore. It will be modelled along the lines of the ‘Tamaraikulam,’ a village for senior citizens set up by Helpage India at Cuddalore, official sources said.

About 160 senior citizens will be housed in duplex residential blocks in this village, four to each block. The village will have all amenities like banks, ATMs, salons, shops, recreation club, medicare unit and a yoga and meditation centre. An open space is also proposed, where they can move about freely.

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LONDON: British consular officials across the world are wrongly approving nearly 300,000 visas to visit Britain every year.

The revelation, which was made during a presentation to the Home Affairs Committee here, has sparked a round of criticism of the Labour government’s immigration policy.

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CHENNAI: As the world debates ways and means to curb child sexual abuse on Wednesday, the World Day for Prevention of Child Abuse, the evil may be spreading with impunity in Chennai’s backyard, Mahabalipuram.

What’s more appalling, orphanages, where children are supposed to feel safe, could be turning into hotbeds of child sexual abuse.

An investigation by Times of India has revealed that orphanages - an unusually large number of them for such a small town - are flouting rules to roll out bed, breakfast and more to foreigners, some of whom could be what the world now scornfully calls ‘travelling child sex offenders’.

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CHENNAI: Bomb threats at three schools and one college in the city kept the police on their toes on Tuesday.
Though police conducted thorough checks in the schools, anxious parents took their children back home, forcing the school authorities to declare a holiday.

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