New Delhi, Oct 22 : Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel today said that India''s airline companies are to repay upto 28 billion rupees outstanding aviation fuel dues to state-run refineries by March 2009 in six monthly installments.

New Delhi, Oct 22 : The Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to hand over to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry into the alleged rape of a nun in Orissa''s Kandhamal District by some Bajrang Dal activists.

A Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan said that at this stage we do not think that handing over the investigation into the case from the state police to the CBI is in the interest of the victim and in the interest of justice. We think that the victim will cooperate with the state police.

New Delhi, Oct 22 : The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a petition filed by Vikas Yadav, convicted for murdering Nitish Katara, seeking transfer of the appeal proceedings outside Delhi.

A bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and H S Bedi found no merit in the plea.

Vikas Yadav had pleaded that the appeal against his conviction in the Katara murder case should be heard either by the Allahabad High Court or any other High Court in the country barring the Delhi High Court.

Reno (Nevada, US), Oct.

Seoul - South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co said Wednesday that it was scrapping its 5.85-billion-dollar bid for US memory card maker SanDisk Corp, citing its third-quarter loss and a partnership with Samsung's rival Toshiba Corp.

Lee Yoon Woo, Samsung's chief executive officer, said in a letter to SanDisk's board that the Milpitas, California-based company faced "uncertain earnings prospects," which could worsen with the downturn in the global economy and the outlook for the chip industry.

He added that the two companies had been in negotiations for half a year without making progress on a deal.

Madrid - The Spanish government Wednesday won initial parliamentary support for its 2009 budget despite being accused of downplaying the impact of the country's deepening economic crisis.

The backing of two regionalist parties allowed the governing Socialists to reject amendments that several parties had proposed to the budget, which is still pending definitive approval.

The amendments were scrapped with 177 votes, while 170 legislators voted for them and one abstained.

The opposition conservatives have argued that the 1 per cent growth forecast the budget is based on is unrealistic, given that growth has plummeted from 3.8 per cent in 2007 to close to zero this year.