News Wrap: Kingfisher in major trouble, violence continues in Syria

Kingfisher Airlines, cancelled 30 flights today — some passengers have been offered a full refund. They admitted that the real reason for the cancellation of their flights was the attachment of their bank accounts by the IT department. In a statement the company also said that they were presently in talks with the tax department about a pay back plan and the eventual unfreezing of the accounts. They have ruled out a government bail-out. Listen to a more detailed account and a round-up from Shereen Bhan from CNBC-TV18 in our bulletin.

Almost a week after two Indian fishermen were killed in firing from a cargo ship off Kerala’s coast, the two Italian Naval guards were produced at the House of Magistrate in Kollam.  Political parties were seen protesting outside the Magistrate’s residence. Italian lawyers have said that they will invoke the UN law and ask for diplomatic immunity for the two arrested naval personnel.

Pakistan’s has come up with homegrown version of the iPad with some help from China. It’s a venture that bundles together Pakistani engineering and Chinese hardware. The PACPAD tablet as it’s called will hopefully boost Pakistan’s struggling economy. The device which runs on Android 2.3 is priced around $200, it’s less than half the price of Apple or Samsung devices and cheaper than other low-end Chinese tablets on the market.

In world news, the violence in Syria shows no sign of ending. Nick Paton Walsh of the CNN, has more in our bulletin.

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In sport, India and France will face off in the men’s hockey Olympic qualifiers on Tuesday to go clear on top after the two teams enjoyed a rest day on Monday having won both their matches comfortably so far. India’s quest for an Olympic comeback begins now. The hosts have played two of the weakest teams in the tournament so far but this match may prove to be tough.

Sachin Tendulkar is likely to go for a precautionary MRI scan on Monday after he was hit on his head by a sharply lifting delivery from Brett Lee while batting in the tri-series match against Australia here.

Finally scientists have created what they claim is the world’s smallest transistor, using a single phosphorus atom. An international team at the University of New South Wales, Purdue University and the University of Melbourne, has described the smallest transistor ever built in the Nature Nanotechnology journal.