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Cold Wave Claims Over 350 Lives in Northern India LUCKNOW: Icy winds swept across large parts of northern India on Tuesday as the total number of deaths from a month-long cold spell rose to over 350. Most of those dead were the poor and homeless living on pavements, often with just scraps of clothes to protect them from near-freezing temperatures resulting from fresh snowfall. (Details)
Lakhs Take Holy Dip to Celebrate Makar Sankranti NEW DELHI: Makar Sankranti was celebrated all over the country on Tuesday with hundreds of thousands of people taking holy dip and thronging temples to offer prayers. The festival celebrated to mark the winter harvest is known in different parts of the country by different names. While it is known as Makar Sankranti in eastern parts of north India, it is celebrated as Pongal in the south and as Bihu in north-eastern India. (Details) Kiwis Beat India by Six Wickets in Final ODI (Go To Top) SYDNEY: After losing two consecutive matches to India, New Zealand got back to winning ways when they beat the visitors by six wickets in the seventh and final one-day international in Hamilton on Tuesday. With the win, the hosts, who already had an unassailable 4-0 lead before the visitors won the fifth and penultimate matches, won the series 5-2. (Details) Reliance IndiaMobile Service Launched Nation-wide (Go To Top) MUMBAI: Reliance Infocomm on Tuesday rolled out its all-India mobile service, Reliance IndiaMobile, with product and service demonstrations in Mumbai and other major towns and cities with registration of customers.(Details) Pakistanis Turn Up for Registration
in US(Go
To Top) WASHINGTON: Monday was the first day for most male Pakistani immigrants in the United States to register with American immigration authorities. Pakistan is on a list of roughly 20 countries whose nationals must go through so-called special registration procedures, including finger-printing, photographing, and questioning. Male Pakistani nationals who are over 16 years of age and do not fall under certain exempted categories have until February 21 to register with the INS. Arsalan Masud has been in the US for four and a half years. He went to under-graduate and graduate school here and now works for an IT consulting firm. He said after going through the registration, it wasn't bad. "I don't feel it was a tough process. It probably took me like 20 minutes just had to fill out some paperwork, answer some straightforward questions, and that was it." Masud wasn't bothered by the fact that Pakistanis like himself were asked to register. "I know that Pakistan has been a sort of a marginal ally for the US. But I think from the perspective of people here, it's another Muslim country that has that terroristic cliche attached to it, and it's fair." However, he was skeptical about the effectiveness of the process. Meanwhile, Imran Alam who has lived in the US for nearly 15 years, first as a student, and now as an accountant, was visibly relieved when he came out after registration. Stated Alam, "We, at first we didn't feel good, but we have to comply with the law ... If they want to require us to register, we should". ANI caught up with Adnan Lakhany, a university student who's been in the US since 1999, when he was on his way into the INS office for his interview. He said he wasn't nervous at all because he had all his paperwork in order. But he felt, "It's embarrassing for me to come down here just for registration. It's like they don't trust me or something, you know?" Before the February 21 deadline, thousands of Pakistanis across the US will have to go through this process. The issue has sparked criticism from US civil liberties campaigners, who were alarmed at the arrests of many nationals from the countries on the list, mostly for minor immigration violations. This past Friday was the deadline for nationals from 13 other countries to register, and lines at INS offices across the country were hours long. Gehlot to Have Talks With Sonia Gandhi (Go To Top) NEW DELHI: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has been summoned for consultations with Sonia Gandhi on the political situation in the State. He, in fact, has been camping in the nation's Capital for the past few days. According to AICC general secretary Ambika Soni, the Congress president has received inputs from "various sources" on Rajasthan where the party is not too happy with Gehlot's leadership. Recently, Soni, Pranab Mukherjee and P Shiv Shanker had visited Rajasthan in the wake of the party's debacle in the three Assembly bye-elections. - On Maharashtra, the party on Tuesday decided to send a three-member delegation amid reports of a likely leadership change in the State. The decision came after party president Sonia Gandhi held talks with State leaders in New Delhi. Party general secretary Ambika Soni told reporters that the future course of action would depend on the delegation's report. "I have said that leaders are going with the brief of interacting with the party leaders and the MLAs. They will come back and give a comprehensive report on how the functioning can be bettered, how can there be better coordination, how we are more equipped to face the political challenges in the State," Soni said. The delegation comprising senior leaders Pranab Mukherjee, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Vayalar Ravi leaves for Maharashtra on Wednesday. Ms Gandhi's meeting with Maharashtra Congress chief Govindrao Adik and other leaders came a day after she summoned chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh for talks. With rivals accusing Deshmukh of inefficiency, analysts said this was a key opportunity for change ahead of State elections that must be held by late 2004. The Congress holds power in Maharashtra, home to India's financial markets, in tandem with the Nationalist Congress Party, a Congress break-away group. The coalition has a wafer-thin edge over the Opposition alliance made up of the hardline Shiv Sena and Bharatiya Janata Party. Sushil Kumar Shinde, a veteran low-caste Congress leader who was the Opposition candidate for the vice-presidential election last year, was tipped to take over from Deshmukh, according to reports. No Compromise on Kashmir at Any Cost: Musharraf (Go To Top) ISLAMABAD: President Pervez Musharraf says that Pakistan wants better relations with India but it would not compromise on the core issue of Kashmir under any coercion. The President stated this on Monday at the Foreign Office where he and Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali attended a briefing on various aspects of Pakistan's foreign policy. Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri, Chairman JCSC, Services Chiefs, senior military and Foreign Office officials were also present. The sources said the Pak-US relations dominated the discussion for four hours at the Foreign Office, However, regional issues including Pak-India ties were also taken up. In his remarks on the occasion, the President said, "We wish to improve the bilateral ties with India as Pakistan wants durable peace in South Asia. However, he added there would be no compromise on Kashmir issue. It was our principled stance that would not be altered at any cost, he said. The President said, the Indian coercive policy had failed to yield the desired results. Pakistan had time and again said that it wanted to develop ties with India that were based on equality but it would not budge a single inch from its position on Kashmir and other disputes under any coercion or blackmail. China Offers to Host US-North Korea Talks (Go To Top) BEIJING: For resolving the US-North Korean nuclear stand-off, China is ready to host talks between the two nations. "If the relevant sides are willing to hold dialogue in Beijing, I think we would have no difficulties with that," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue told reporters here on Tuesday. "We hope the United States and North Korea can resume dialogue swiftly because we think that talks are the most effective channel for resolving this problem," she added. Maoist Rebels Kidnap 80 Students(Go To Top) KATHMANDU: Maoist rebels raided a school and kidnapped about 80 students, a newspaper reported on Tuesday. In another incident, the police killed 15 guerrillas in a gunbattle. The guerrillas stormed a high school and abducted students in Bhalchaur, a village about 400 km west of Katmandu. The area is a rebel stronghold. Education officials denied having any knowledge of the kidnappings.(Details) Mufti Inducts 22 More Ministers JAMMU: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on Tuesday expanded his ministry with the induction of 22 ministers, raising its total strength to 29. Two ministers from Ladakh and Kargil regions have been elevated as Cabinet ministers in the keenly awaited expansion. Governor Girish Chander Saxena administered the oath of office and secrecy to the newly-inducted ministers in Jammu (the winter Capital). Sayeed said his Government was taking steps to ease the volatile situation in the valley. Sayeed's five-party coalition Government favours talks with separatists battling Indian rule in the disputed Himalayan territory to end a 13-year-old rebellion that has claimed at least 35,000 lives. Kashmir has been the trigger of two of the three wars fought between India and Pakistan since independence in 1947. Sayeed's People's Democratic Party (PDP) and the Congress trounced the National Conference, which dominated State politics for five decades, from power last year. The Congress and the PDP together control 36 seats in the 87-member Jammu and Kashmir Assembly after no clear winner emerged in an election marred by a separatist boycott and militant violence. Nearly a dozen militant groups are fighting New Delhi's rule in Jammu and Kashmir, the country's only Muslim-majority State. Pakistan denies giving material support to the rebels in Kashmir, but says it provides moral support to the Kashmiri people in what it calls their struggle for self-determination. Pakistani Jailed for Entering Hong Kong in a Suitcase (Go To Top) HONG KONG: A Hong Kong court jailed a Pakistani national for 18 months after he tried to illegally enter the territory in a suitcase, the South China Morning Post reported Tuesday. The court heard that Raja Kamran, 24, was found curled up inside a 54 by 80 centimetre suitcase that Indian national Pardeep Singh had tried to carry across the border from Shenzhen in mainland China, it said. Immigration officers stopped Singh, 22, at the Lowu border with the suitcase on December 26. Kamran had been banned from Hong Kong for life for previous offences and was deported to Pakistan last August. - -ANI |
