Indian News Headlines..(16/10/08)

Hannah Foster's last words with killer played in court

A London court has heard the last words of British student Hannah Foster, raped and murdered in March 2003, during the course of the trial of the alleged murderer, India-born Maninder Pal Singh Kohli. Hannah's parents, Hilary, 51, and Trevor, 57, and her sister, Sarah, 20, left the public gallery of the Winchester Crown court while the tape was played on Wednesday. Accused Kohli listened to the recording of the two voices on headphones, according to The Guardian.

Hannah's conversation with the person who kidnapped her as she was walking to her home in Southampton was recorded when she secretly called the emergency services number 999. The high school A-level student perhaps thought someone answering the phone would hear their conversation and try to rescue her. Unfortunately for her, the emergency service has a system which disconnects unanswered calls. Her call was disconnected after 50 seconds, but her conversation with the kidnapper during that time went on record. During the 999 call, Hannah answers a man's questions, apparently from a moving vehicle.

A man can be heard asking the student: "You belong this country?" "Yeah," responded Hannah. "England," said the male voice. "Yeah I'm English. Yeah. My name [...] My name is Sarah," she answered. The court earlier heard that Sarah is the name of Hannah's sister.

India Post, Reliance Money deal to sell gold

India Post has tied up with Reliance Money and World Gold Council to sell gold coins through its post office network across the country.

The pilot project has been launched on Wednesday and it will make gold coins available across 100 post offices in four states — Delhi, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat. However going forward it would be available for sale at all the 155,000 post offices across the country.

Obama not McCain hogs most headlines

Republican presidential contender John McCain had to work extra hard for media coverage over the last week amid an international, headline-stealing whirlwind tour by his Democratic rival Barack Obama.

Some of McCain's manoeuvres have included slamming Obama's Iraq policy and lack of military experience, hinting that he may announce his vice presidential pick and mocking the media's wall-to-wall coverage of Obama's trip to the Middle East and Europe.

McCain has continued a series of townhall meetings across the US, talking up the economy and energy and promising not to leave Iraq until the US can proclaim victory in the five-year-old war.