PUNE: The Pune crime branch on Monday claimed to have solved four cases of highway robberies with the arrest of a gang of five suspects, from whom stolen goods worth Rs 45,500 were recovered.

The suspects were identified as Babalu alias Bhushan Hari Lohkare (23) of Wadgaon Budruk, Raja Namdeo Kokate (24) of Welhe, Vikas Subhash Bansode (20) and Anand Nagnath Rajguru (22) both of Panmala, Sinhagad road, and Vaibhav Ashok Bansode (23) of Janata Vasahat, Parvati. Led by inspector Sunil Pawar (unit IV) of crime branch, the police team arrested the suspects acting on a tip-off.

PUNE: A new framework being developed by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune, will help forecast the climate change better and provide scientific inputs for policy and decision making.

"The Earth System Modelling is a comprehensive and integrated framework being developed under the Ministry of Earth Sciences for climate variability prediction. It will be ready in three years. We have started collecting data on the ocean - atmosphere and other components will be added to it,'' said Prof B N Goswami, director of IITM.

PUNE: Protesting against the ink-throwing incident on city mayor on Monday, the Pune Municipal Corporation Workers Union went on a strike on Tuesday, but called it off within two hours after the intervention of municipal commissioner Mahesh Zagade and mayor Mohansingh Rajpal.

A group of people had thrown black ink on the mayor's car on Monday to protest against his recent statement regarding the shifting of Dadoji Konddeo's statue from Lal Mahal.

PUNE -- A group of youths, allegedly members of Hindu fundamentalist organization PPS, threw black paint at Pune's first Sikh mayor as he left the civic headquarters on Monday evening.

The attack on Mohan Singh Rajpal happened after a row erupted over the possible removal of a statue of Dadoji Konddeo, who is the tutor of Marathi warrior Shivaji, from a city location.

According to a police source, the youths most probably attacked Rajpal in anger over his decision, even though the mayor later announced the appointment of an expert committee to make a final decision on the matter.

PUNE: The low pressure over the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea has resulted in good rainfall in the state since Saturday.

According to Medha Khole, director (weather forecasting) India Meteorological Department, ( IMD) Pune, "The situation is likely to continue for the next 24 hours. The Konkan region is likely to witness heavy to very heavy rainfall in this period. Other areas like Marathwada, Vidarbha and states like Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh will witness scattered rainfall with the same intensity as Sunday's. This is a normal development," she said.

Saturday night showered Pune with a high dose of fashion, glitz and glamour. The much awaited Mr and Miss Pune, 2010 personality and beauty pageant, which was sponsored by Proxima Creations' Yin Yang, took place at Hotel Le Meridien.

PUNE: Ill health could not stop his pen. On Monday morning, cartoonist R K Laxman drew a sketch while lying on a bed at Pune's Command Hospital to convey all was well with him.

Mumbai, Aug 29 (PTI) Emerging solar energy-provider, Clover Solar, has earmarked a Rs 300-crore investment over the next two-years to set up 25 MW of solar power plants pan-India and is eyeing private equity funding for it, a top company official said. The company will kick-off its plans by setting up a 2MW plant at Supa near Pune which it hopes to get operational by March 2011 at an investment of Rs 35-crore, to be funded through a mix of debt and internal accruals, the company's Founder-Director, Javed Tapia, told PTI here today.

PUNE: State minister for transport Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil on Saturday said that he would look into the proposal on the formation of the Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (UMTA) for Pune, and the plan to reduce taxes for public transport undertakings and initiate action.

As for the state government's policy on safe transport for school children, Vikhe Patil said that the rules are comprehensive and that there is no point arguing that they are not required. "One can see how dangerous it is to allow eight children to travel in autorickshaws," he said.

PUNE: Having pioneered the term ‘autorickshaw’, for a motorised rickshaw as against the cycle or hand-pulled one, Force Motors (earlier Bajaj Tempo) has discontinued manufacture of its 15-year old three-wheeler, the Minidor. Company chairman, AN Firodia, was categorical that this was not an exit from the three-wheeler segment — a segment which they carved out and even named decades ago.