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Three killed in Assam serial blasts

        Guwahati: Three persons were killed and 20 injured as three serial bomb blasts rocked Assam today. Militant violence continued in the state for the second day on Sunday taking the toll to 29. The blasts occurred as Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil landed in the state to review the security situation in the state. Two National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) militants ferrying bombs were killed when the explosives went off at Koilajuli in Rangapara area of Sonitpur district, official sources said. A tea garden labourer was killed on-the-spot and two others were seriously injured when ULFA exploded a bomb in Borhat in Sibsagar district. As many as 15 people were injured in another explosion in a cloth shop at Dhekiajuli weekly market in the district. Police later seized six kg of deadly RDX and arrested 10 ULFA militants from the district. In another incident, NDFB ultras opened indiscriminate fire in a weekly market in Gossaigaon in Kokrajhar district seriously injuring two persons.

AP Govt to hold talks with PWG on Oct 15 (Go To Top)

        Hyderabad: The Andhra Pradesh government is ready to hold talks with the Naxalite People's War Group (PWG), announced state Home Minister K Jana Reddy in Hyderabad today. The talks are likely to be held on the Oct 15. After meeting the chief minister, Jana Reddy told mediapersons that the modalities of the talks would be held with the PWG emissaries on October 5. According to him, the state government has also assured the PWG of providing safe passage to the three top PWG leaders, namely state secretary Ramakrishna, secretary of the Andhra-Orissa border special zonal committee Sudhakar, and North Telangana special zonal committee member Ganesh, named as representatives by the PWG for the talks.

Mayawati promises a separate state for Maharashtra's sugar belt (Go To Top)

         Pune: The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati has promised a separate statehood for the Vidharbha, a long pending demand of the people of what is known as the sugar- belt in Maharashtra. She was addressing a public rally here yesterday as campaigning picked momentum in Maharashtra for the October 13 state polls. "The people of Vidharbha have for long been demanding a separate state, the BSP fully supports them. Vidharbha has not been able to develop as much in comparison to the rest of the state. We need to give it more focus and attention, that's why it needs to be separated. The BSP anyway has from the very beginning been an advocate of smaller states," Mayawati said. Despite expectation, the separate statehood for Vidharbha has not found mention in manifestoes of both the ruling Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) alliance and the BJP-Shiv Sena. Although the state is set to witness direct fight between the Congress-NCP and BJP-Shiv Sena alliance, regional parties like the BSP may hold key to the power in case of a hung verdict. "This time the BSP is fighting the state election in Maharashtra with full preparation, it is here to stay and will surely clinch a surprising victory," Mayawati said.

CPI says government taking 'unilateral' decisions (Go To Top)

          Patna: The Communist Party of India on has accused the Central government of taking unilateral decisions. The powerful left parties are providing crucial support to the Congress-led government. D. Raja, senior leader of the CPI, was referring to the inclusion of foreign consultants in the plan panel, which was later dissolved after strong protests from the Left. The communists had been at loggerheads with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, also the chairman of the Planning Commission, over the appointment of foreign experts from Mckinsey, World Bank and Asian Development Bank as consultants. They have also opposed foreign investment in key sectors of telecom, civil aviation and insurance. "Stop taking unilateral decisions on major policy matters. There should be proper consulations with the left parties before taking unilateral decisions," Raja told a news conference here yesterday. Raja, however, lauded government's efforts in moving forward with the peace process with arch-rival Pakistan. "We want our government to carry forward the composite dialogue with Pakistan and the common joint statement issued by both Prime Minister of our country and the President of Pakistan gives a framework to continue the dialogue process. They themselves have agreed to carry forward the dialogue," he said.

Arunachal puts poll arrangements in place (Go To Top)
by Pinaki Das

       Itanagar: The election commission in Arunachal Pradesh is making full arrangements for state assembly elections to be held at the end of next week. Talking to ANI, Arunachal Pradesh State Election Commissioner Manoj Kumar Parida said that the election commission is leaving no stone unturned to ensure a smooth and fair poll. "Our major constraint was that EVM or ballots reach the interior places. Arunachal is a big state, in fact it has 83,000 square kilometres which is bigger than Assam or Bengal, 82 per cent is covered by forest, multiple rivers criss-cross the state and most of the villages are located at the hill top, very few population, we have just eleven lakh population, most of the people there are in inacceble terrain, we have such police station which have no motorable roads," said Parida He said that around 10,000 people have been engaged in the polling job. "We have 1757 polling booths out of which 640 have been declared sensitive and 307 as hyper sensitive," Parida added. "We have with us 17 companies of para-military forces, mostly ITBP. We have asked for some 60 companies of additional forces from the Government of India, somehow they have agreed to give us 25 additional companies, they will be in the form of CRPF, ITBP and other para military forces", he said.

Pakistan journalists cross over into India (Go To Top)

         Wagah: A 16 member delegation of Pakistani journalists today crossed over into India through the Wagah border near Amritsar as part of the 'Journalists Exchange Across Kashmir' program organised by the South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA). This will be first time visit of a Pakistani journalists' delegation to Kashmir. The delegation which arrived from Muzaffarabad in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) on the invitation of Indian chapter of the South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA) to visit Jammu and Kashmir and New Delhi will stay here from October 3 to 9. Talking to ANI on Sunday at Wagha land border, Imtiaz Alam, the SAFMA central secretary general and head of the delegation, said that why we two nations allow third party to intervene in our affairs when we can solve our problems in better way then others. He said, "We have always gone to the extreme even in war or love. We should do our best to help, support and encourage our governments to bring peace between the two nuclear powers and make it permanent". "I think people of both countries want peace, they don't want and conflict or war and the politician from both nation should respond to this", he added. Claiming that the visit will enable the media to understand Kashmir better, he said, that they as journalists could do much better to handle the situation "In fact we can do a lot, we can change while Sanrio, we can bring war, we can bring peace," he said.

        Mariana Babbar, a Pak journalist said that writings of journalists of both nations were read in each other's country and the analytical stories helped in making the mindset of politicians. She said that the journalists from Pakistan have come here not to bring any changes but people to people contact, which would certainly help in improving the relations between the two countries. While giving details of the programme of the delegation KK Katyal, former Associate Editor of The Hindu, and president of SAFMA, Indian chapter told ANI that the delegation consisting of journalists from various cities from Pakistan including Pakistan- occupied-Kashmir(PoK) will meet leaders of political parties, students, teachers, businessmen and lawyers in Jammu, Srinagar and other areas to observe the Kashmir situation firsthand. "As a professional journalist I am sure they will reproducing the fact what they will see here and to the that extent this is a positive development and I don't think this effort could demoralize the security forces in Jammu and Kashmir," Katyal said.

Kirui, Sun win Half Marathon (Go To Top)

        New Delhi: Paul Kirui of Kenya won the elite IAAF World Half Marathon Championships for men held in Delhi today. The women's race was won by Yingjie Sun of China with the record timing of 1 hour 08 min 40 sec. Kirui clocked 1 hour 02 min and 15 sec to take the top spot ahead of Tanzania's Joseph Fabiano (1:02.31), the silver medallist in last year's half marathon. Ahmad Abdullah Hassan finished third with a timing of 1:02.36. Hassan, an Asian record holder in 5,000m and 10,000m, is from Qatar. "I am very happy. I was very much prepared for the humid weather, well I am very happy right now," said Kirui. In the women's segment, Kenya's Lydia Cheromei took the second spot clocking 1:09:00, her personal best, while Romanian Constantina Tomescu-Dita came third in 1:09.07. Title favourite Sonia O'Sullivan was relegated to the fourth spot as she finished the race in 1:10.33.