Lok Sabha adjourns sine die (Go
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New
Delhi: The first session of the 14th Lok Sabha ended
sine die today with an unrelenting opposition insisting
on the removal of "tainted ministers" from the Manmohan
Singh-led government. The Motion of Thanks for the President's
address was, however, unanimously adopted by voice vote
without any debate on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's suggestion.
Soon after the motion was passed, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath
Chatterjee adjourned the House sine die. Earlier, the opposition
spent almost 10-minutes shouting slogans "Daagi mantri ki
sarkar nahin chalegi (Government with tainted Ministers
cannot function)" before they resumed their seats when the
Speaker called the Prime Minister to speak.
Manmohan Singh to head key cabinet committees
(Go
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New
Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will head the Cabinet
Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA), the Cabinet Committee
on Security (CCS) and the Appointments Committee of the
Cabinet (ACC) and will be assisted by ministers holding
key portfolios. The CCPA will comprise Pranab Mukherjee
(Defence), Shivraj Patil (Home), K Natwar Singh (External
Affairs), P Chidambaram (Finance), Arjun Singh (HRD), Sharad
Pawar (Agriculture, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution),
Laloo Prasad (Railways) and Dayanidhi Maran (Communications
and Information Technology), an official release said today.
The CCS will have Mukherjee, Patil, Chidambaram and Natwar
Singh while the ACC will have Patil and the minister-in
charge of the concerned ministry.
IMF warns that India's fiscal deficit
unsustainable (Go
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Washington:
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said that
India's fiscal deficit is unsustainable, and has called
for New Delhi to put in place a more efficient revenue collection
and tax administration, besides a wider tax base and reduction
in subsidies to alter this situation. "Tackling the fiscal
deficit has to be an important priority. The biggest single
obstacle to tackling this problem in India's case has been
complacency", IMF's First Deputy Managing Director Anne
O Krueger was quoted as saying. "... because so far, the
large deficit, now in excess of 10 per cent of the Gross
Domestic Product (Central and State deficits and losses
in State-owned enterpries), has not inflicted as such short-term
damage to the economy as might have been expected", she
said. But deficits of this order of magnitude are simply
"not sustainable", Krueger said addressing the Stanford
India Conference over the weekend.
Reagan's coffin arrives in Washington
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Washington:
Mortal remains of America's 40th President Ronald Reagan
have been placed in the Rotunda of the Capitol Hill here
to enable people from all walks of life to pay their last
respects. Mourners turned out in their thousands as Reagan's
flag-draped coffin arrived at the Capitol today even as
the building was briefly evacuated following reports of
a plane entering the restricted airspace before the ceremony.
Reagan's casket, brought from California, rolled on a century-old
horse-drawn caisson to the Capitol, the seat of Congress,
to enable people to pay their respects before it is taken
to the National Cathedral for services, to be later returned
to California for the funeral tomorrow. The former president's
widow, Nancy Reagan, 82, managed to smile through her sorrow.
She waved and thanked the crowd as it cheered and applauded
when she emerged from her limousine to watch honor guards
lift Reagan's coffin from a hearse onto the carriage. President
George W Bush, who is arriving here tomorrow from the G-8
meeting in Georgia, will deliver the eulogy. As Reagan's
body arrived at the dome-shaped building, 21 fighter jets
screamed by in four formations, with one plane breaking
away and rocketing upward in a befitting aerial tribute
to the late Commander-in-Chief. The ceremony was earlier
marred by a scare created when a small aircraft carrying
Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher to the Capitol building
mistakenly entered the restricted airspace over the capital.
Two F-15 fighter jets were sent to intercept the plane and
lawmakers and other dignitaries, including house speaker
Dennis Hastert, were already whisked away in secured motorcades.
Fox is for Republicans and CNN for Democrats
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Washington:
Americans are clearly demarcated when it comes to their
political preferences. According to Imdb, a poll conducted
by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press
has confirmed that while Fox News attracts mostly Republicans
or conservatives, CNN appeals mostly to Democrats. According
to the survey, 35 percent of Fox News viewers identified
themselves as Republicans, while 21 percent said they were
Democrats. For CNN 28 percent were Democrats and 19 percent
Republicans. The survey noted that when Fox News Channel
came on the air in 1996, CNN's audience was more Republican
than Democratic.
Pak SC says Asif Ali Zardari has completed
his sentence (Go
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Islamabad:
Is there a possibility of Asif Ali Zardari, the jailed
husband of former Pakistan premier Benazir Bhutto, being
set free soon? If the observation of Pakistan's Supreme
Court (SC) on Wednesday is anything to go by, that may be
the case sooner than later. According to Online News, Pakistan's
apex court observed on Wednesday that Zardari had completed
his entire sentence. A full SC bench comprising senior Judge
Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, Justice Rana Bhagwan
Das and Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday made this observation
after hearing Zardari's appeal challenging his conviction
in a NAB reference. Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry observed,
" It seems the appellant has completed his entire sentence".
/The court, however, gave two weeks time to the Ehtesab
bench of the Lahore High Court Rawalpindi bench to place
copy of the judgement before it, if announced, in an appeal
of Asif Ali Zardari. The court took serious notice that
the NAB had not shown Asif Ali Zardari as arrested in the
case against him, despite admitting fact that he had been
in jail since November 1996. Zardari was represented by
advocates Senator Farook H Naik and Abu Bakar Zardari, besides
his counsel Abdul Hafeez Pirzada.
