No Let-up in Sena Ire Over Valentine's Day: Card Shop Destroyed

          NEW DELHI: Hardline Shiv Sena activists, continuing with their protests against the Valentine's Day celebrations, destroyed a card shop the Capital on Thursday. Activists carrying iron rods ransacked the shop selling Valentine Day's products and appealed to people to refrain from buying products which goes against Indian ... (Contd)

US Planes Attack Iraqi Defence; War Yet To Begin

          WASHINGTON: War planes from a US-British coalition targeted surface-to-air missile systems near Basra in southern Iraq for a second consecutive day, the News quoted the US military as saying. Coalition aircraft using precision-guided weapons launched the latest strike, the US Central Command said in a statement. It came less than a day after coalition war planes struck another mobile surface-to-air missile battery, also near Basra. The United States and Britain have stepped up attacks on Iraq's air defences in the south amid a massive military build-up in the region for a possible war against Baghdad.

CIA Warns of a Possible Al-Qaeda Attack (Go To Top)

          WASHINGTON: American CIA director George Tenet told a Senate committee on Thursday that the United States mulling on whether the purported new audio tape from Osama bin Laden is a signal of a pending attack, a report said. "What he said has often been followed by attacks," Tenet said, "which I think corroborates everything in what we are seeing in terms of raising the threat warning, in terms of the specific information we had at our disposal last week."

North Korea Threatens Nuclear Strike at US(Go To Top)
First go to US and investigate their nuclear programmes, Pyongyang tells UN Council

          PYONGYANG: North Korea has responded defiantly to the decision by the United Nations nuclear watchdog to refer it to the UN Security Council for breaching nuclear non-proliferation agreements. A senior official in Pyongyang told a news agency that North Korea had a right to self-defence and, if provoked, had the ability to strike American targets anywhere in the world. He also called on the Security Council to investigate the United States own nuclear programme.

           Meanwhile, US media reports indicated the UN Security Council could impose sanctions on North Korea. The International Atomic Energy Agency could present the issue of North Korean nuclear programme before the UN Security Council for further action, said reports. The IAEA will review the North Korean nuclear issue at its forthcoming meeting.

UN Security Council Agrees to Hold Open Meeting on Iraq(Go To Top)

          NEW YORK: The UN Security Council on Thursday acceded to the demand made by the Non-aligned Movement that it hold an open meeting on Iraq to enable all UN members to express their views on the issue at this critical juncture, a foreign newspaper reported. The Council members would express their views on Iraq immediately after chief inspector Hans Blix and IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei present their report on Friday on whether Iraq is cooperating with the inspectors.

           But the Council has scheduled another open meeting on Tuesday in which all UN members would be able to participate. Security Council President Gunter Pleuger of Germany said this is being done in the interest of transparency and to give a chance to all members of the United Nations to express their views.

Ayodhya: SC Not to Take Up Centre's Plea Before Feb 21 (Go To Top)

          NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to take up before February 21 the Centre's plea for hearing its application on the vacation of the apex court's order banning any kind of religious activity in the 77 acres of land in Ayodhya acquired by the Government after the demolition of the disputed structure in 1992. (Details)

BJP, RSS Meet: No Decision Taken, Says Mahajan (Go To Top)

          NEW DELHI: A meeting between Bharatiya Janata Party leaders and those of the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh was held here on Thursday. Coming as it does a day after the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's threat to launch a mass campaign over the construction of a Ram temple at the site of the razed Babri Masjid, the meeting generated a lot of interest. But the BJP spokesman Pramod Mahajan said it was just a routine meet. (Details)

Sena for Ram Temple at Undisputed Site (Go To Top)

          MUMBAI: Shiv Sena threw its weight behind the plan to construct a Ram temple at the undisputed portion of Ram Janmabhoomi at Ayodhya. Party's executive president Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday said a "practical solution" to resolve the issue could be to construct the Ram temple at the undisputed land in Ayodhya. "How long are we going to stretch the dispute and allow bloodshed," he reportedly said in an interview with a news agency. Replying to a query as to what should be built on the disputed site, Uddhav said Sena supremo Bal Thackeray had earlier suggested that a national monument should be constructed at that site.

Lata Mangeshkar to Perform Live With AR Rahman (Go To Top)

          HYDERABAD: Melody queen Lata Mangeshkar will for the first time team up with acclaimed music composer AR Rehman for a rare live performance in Hyderabad on Friday. The sell-out concert will see the duo peform some of their greatest hits in front of an estimated 150,000 people. Nicknamed as the "nightingale of India" by Jawaharlal Nehru, 73-year-old Mangeshkar is the country's most sought-after singer. She was also awarded the Bharat Ratna, the country's highest civilian honour recently.

           Known to be extremely choosey about her performances, the esteemed singer says it was the lure of working with AR Rahman that got her to break her self-imposed hibernation. "I agree that I have worked with very big directors but AR Rahman is different, it's different working with him. When we are recording for a song, it's only me and Rahman, we record the entire song alone without music etc. It's later on that the music is added and chorus is filled in. It is so perfect that when you listen to it it looks complete. He knows the requirement of a movie exactly," said Mangeshkar.

           Mangeshkar and Rahman have worked together just six times. Having been chosen the MTV most popuplar Indian artist this year, the 32-year-old composer has more than proved his credentials. A graduate in classical music from the Trinity College of Music, London, Rahman has worked with the likes of Michael Jackson and tabla maestro Zakir Hussain amongst others. He has already won two national and 13 Filmfare awards. His latest claim to fame is the hugely successful Broadway musical 'Bombay Dreams', produced by the acclaimed musician Andrew Lloyd Webber, who hand-picked him for the composition.

India Ready to Help Nepal Attain Political Stability(Go To Top)

          NEW DELHI: India is willing to render maximum help to Nepal so that stability returned to the kingdom troubled by a Maoist rebellion which has claimed more than 7,200 lives in the last six years. And New Delhi does not want to interfere in its neighbour's affairs beyond what was acceptable to Kathmandu, according to the foreign secretary. (Details)

Infiltration Across LoC Continuing: US Official (Go To Top)

          WASHINGTON:  A top US official on Thursday told the Senate select committee on ntelligence that the continuing cross-border infiltration across the Line of Control was increasing the potential for hostilities breaking out between India and Pakistan, a foreign news agency said. "With the Kashmir situation still unresolved and with continued 'cross-border infiltration from Pakistan, the potential for miscalculation between the two countries remains high, especially in the wake of some violent 'triggering event' such as another spectacular terrorist attack or political assassination," Vice-Admiral Lowell E Jacoby, director of the US defence intelligence agency, told the committee. This is in spite of steps taken by both countries to defuse tensions, after last year's military stand-off along the LoC, he said.

ISI Sheltering Taliban Along Pak-Afghan Border: US Senators (Go To Top)

          WASHINGTON: Two senior members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee have said that Pakistan's powerful intelligence agency ISI was sheltering Taliban fighters along the border, thus undermining the stability of Afghanistan. The Senators - Richard G Lugar, Republican of Indiana, and Joseph R Biden Jr., Democrat of Delaware - said they did not believe that President Pervez Musharraf was involved in the destabilizing activities, says New York Times.

           But the law-makers, citing news reports, said there was evidence that ISI might be helping the Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives along the border to infiltrate into Afghanistan. The Senators also raised concerns that Iran was assisting the warlord Ismail Khan in western Afghanistan. ISI is "once again either turning a blind eye to or cooperating with" Pashtun groups opposed to the Afghan Government of President Hamid Karzai, said Biden, the committee's ranking Democrat, during a hearing on the reconstruction of Afghanistan. The Taliban were composed mainly of Pashtun tribesmen from southern Afghanistan. Lugar, the committee chairman, said elements of Pakistan's intelligence service, which supported the Taliban in the 1990's, appeared to be trying to gain influence in Afghanistan by allowing Taliban fighters to infiltrate across the border, where they have been attacking Afghan and American soldiers. "This is international politics impinging on a small country," Lugar said.

India Not in Need of Any Assistance: IMF (Go To Top)

          NEW DELHI: The International Monetary Fund said on Thursday that India has "comfortable" foreign exchange reserves and does not need any assistance from it. "India does not need any financing from IMF considering that the country had 73 billion dollars of forex reserves", said James Gordon, the Washington-based multilateral institution's representative in India, at a seminar on the Role of IMF in India organised by the Indian Institute of Planning and Management here. (Details)

Jude Law Wants Custody of Children (Go To Top)

          WASHINGTON: Hollywood heart-throb Jude Law, who considers himself as a better parent than his wife Sadie Frost, finally tells his lawyers that he wants custody of his three children by Frost, who is currently in hospital for treatment following her traumatic break from husband. Law, 30, has also followed up the demands for custody with a request for "custodial rights" of his wife's 12-year-old son by ex-Spandau Ballet Gary 'Gold' Kemp, so that they can still see each other regularly, according to report in People News.

           The actor feels he can bring up the children - aged four months, two and seven years - in a better way and is willing to go to court to ensure that that is what happens. However, his friends said he has no intention of restricting Frost's access to them though he is determined that he should retain ultimate control and is keen to take the children with him when he is away filming, the paper states.

'An Unfinished Life' - for Redford and Lopez (Go To Top)

          WASHINGTON: Veteran Hollywood actor Robert Redford will be seen with Jennifer Lopez in a new movie titled 'An Unfinished Life', which will begin filming from April. According to a report in People News, Lopez will play a single mother forced to move in with her estranged father-in-law (Redford) when times become hard. As it often happens when living with an in-law, the two bitterly resent each other and fight all the time, but later heal old wounds and get along much better. What she may not be looking forward to is the love scenes. Given the predilection among Hollywood's ageing male icons for starring alongside nubile young actresses, it seems inevitable that the impressionable single mum will be swept off her feet by the craggy older man (not literally as he may injure himself) and end up in the sack. Now there's a thought, it was stated in the magazine.

No Let-up in Sena Ire on Valentine's Day(Go To Top)

          (Contd) ... culture. "We have been appealing to the people to oppose this Valentine's Day. In the name of Valentine's Day they are selling vulgar things. We have received calls saying that girls are being harassed by boys in the name of Valentine's Day. This is the anger of our activists which has come out on these card shops," Jai Bhagwan Goel, president of the Delhi wing of Shiv Sena, told reporters.

          Shiv Sena condemns Valentine's Day as "cultural corruption" from the West. The party is a partner in Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition Government at the Centre. For the past few years, the growing popularity of Valentine's Day in mainly Hindu but officially secular India has sparked national protests, some of which have erupted into violence. But despite the opposition, retailers have been selling an increasing number of love souvenirs ranging from red balloons and velvet pillows tailor-made for the occasion. Not to be left behind, flower sellers are stacking up their shops with red roses, to be sold at exorbitant rates on the D-day - February 14.

 -ANI