Chennai, Jan 8: Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh will inaugurate the three-day Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) 2009 convention here today.

The 7th Indian Diaspora convention is being organised by the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs in partnership with the Government of Tamil Nadu and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

The theme of PBD 2009 is ''Engaging the Diaspora - The way forward''

Hong Kong  - A Hong Kong park was preparing on Thursday to send two sick rare sturgeon back to China for treatment after the death of three other fish, all gifts from the Beijing government.

The two endangered fish will be moved from Ocean Park to the Yangtze River Fisheries Research Institute in Xiamen where experts will try to save them following a decision by mainland authorities to take them back.

An Ocean Park spokesman said it was unknown whether the fish would be returned if they recovered.

Kannur, Jan 8: Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh will inaugurate the Naval Academy at Ezhimala in Kannur (Cannanore) district of Kerala today.

This Academy will be the premier officer-training establishment of the Indian Navy and will be the largest Naval Academy in Asia.

Commencing June 2009, all officers inducted into the Indian Navy, under various schemes, will undergo basic training at this Academy.

Tokyo - Sales of imported cars in Japan plunged to their lowest level in 15 years in 2008 amid oil price surges and the global financial turmoil, the Japan Automobile Importers Association said Thursday.

Sales fell 17.3 per cent to 219,231 units in 2008 compared to the year before. These figures include Japanese cars built overseas.

Sales of imported foreign cars declined 16.3 per cent to 193,902 units, and those of Japanese vehicles produced overseas tumbled 24.4 per cent to 25,329 units.

The Sensex lost more than 700 points on Wednesday (Jan 07) following some startling revelations made by B. Ramalinga Raju, the Chairman of Satyam Computer Services Ltd.

It came as disgusting news to market that Raju quitted after confession of fraud in company’s books.

All sectorial indices hammered badly and marked their closures on a negative note. Realty, oil & gas and IT were among the major losers, which fell 16.95%, 9.35% and 9.32% respectively.

Jakarta  - A fire gutted a boarding house in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta early Thursday, killing eight people local media reports said.

The fire broke out at about 3 am (2000 GMT Wednesday) and immediately engulfed the two-story boarding house in West Jakarta suburb of Palmerah, when the residents were sleeping, said Tatang, an officer from the city's traffic police.