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New Delhi, Sep 3 : Prime Minister Manmohan Singh insisted Tuesday that his government has nothing to hide vis-a-vis the coal scam and it was wrong to assume that it was "hiding something".

Manmohan Singh said it would be premature to conclude that official papers sought by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the irregularities in allocation of coal blocks were indeed missing.

He told the Rajya Sabha that the vast majority of the papers had already been handed over to the CBI and that there was nothing "fishy" as a section of members feared.

Mumbai, Sep 3 : Actress Parineeti Chopra says her cousin, the multi-talented Priyanka Chopra, is a huge inspiration for her.

After bagging the Miss World title in 2000, Priyanka ventured into films, and she is among the top Bollywood actresses today. She has also forayed into singing with two international singles - "In my city" and "Exotic".

Parineeti, who joined showbiz in 2011 with "Ladies vs Ricky Bahl", is all praise for her elder sister.

"Priyanka is a huge inspiration for me," Parineeti said here.

Paris, Sep 3 : Sales of new cars in France declined by 10.9 percent last month after it had inched up by 0.9 percent in July, the French car sales federation said.

New car sales stood at 85,565 units sold while the French brands fell by 9.1 percent over the period with a sharp fall in sales of PSA Peugeot Citroen, France's largest auto maker, according to an official statement from the federation Monday.

At the end of August, PSA sold 23,539 vehicles, down by 17.3 percent compared to the same month a year ago when the sales of Renault rose by 1.7 percent after providing 21,880 new cars, reports Xinhua.

The growth of Indian core sector slipped drastically year-on-year in July, giving another indication that the Asian economy is still in the tight grip of slowdown.

The core sector, which includes eight key infrastructure industries viz. coal, crude oil, natural gas, petroleum refinery products, fertilizers, steel, cement and electricity, grew only 3.1 per cent in the month of July 2013 as against 4.5 per cent growth rate recorded in corresponding month of 2012.

Mumbai, Sep 3 - A benchmark index of Indian equities markets was trading down by 129.37 points or 0.69 percent during pre-noon trade Tuesday.

Good buying was seen in auto and public sector undertaking (PSU) sectors, while selling pressure was observed in banking index (bankex) and IT sectors.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 19,002.77 points, was trading at 18,756.76 points in the pre-noon session, down 129.37 points or 0.69 percent from the previous day's close at 18,886.13 points.

Public sector lender State Bank of India (SBI) has announced that it has acquired 23 per cent more shares of Bank State Bank of India, Indonesia (BSBII), raising its stake in the Indonesian subsidiary to 99 per cent.

In a filing with the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), SBI said it bougt the stake in a recent deal with its Indonesian partner P T Ravindo Jaya. However, the largest public sector lender of India didn't disclose the financial terms of the deal.