Another Shiv Sena leader quits

    Mumbai: Shiv Sena deputy leader Shishir Shinde has resigned from the party after he was snubbed by party chief Bal Thackeray at a public meeting on January 23. Shinde, a former Maharashtra Legislative Council (MLC), sent his resignation to Thackeray on Friday, saying that he was hurt by the latter's remarks at the meeting on his 79th birthday. In his birthday speech, the Sena chief had compared Shinde with Kripa Shankar Singh, which enraged Shinde. Thackeray had also attacked another deputy leader Bala Nandgaonkar, who also openly supports Raj Thackeray since the time he quit the party. Shinde had hit headlines when he dug up the pitch at the Wankhede Stadium to oppose the Indo-Pak cricket match in 1991. On January 25, Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) spokesperson Husain Dalwai had said that Five more Shiv Sena MLAs, all supporters of Maharashtra Revenue Minister Narayan Rane, would soon quit Assembly and join Congress.

   According to Dalwai, the MLAs will contest the bypolls and will be elected, as it happened with the three Rane supporters who quit Assembly and got elected again on Congress ticket. Due to induction of Rane in Congress, the party had bolstered its presence in Konkan region. The last time Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri districts had a Congress MLA was in 1990. Now, the districts have two Congress MLAs each, he pointed out. Meanwhile, former Shiv Sena leader Raj Thackeray said he had no interest in the just-concluded assembly bypolls in Konkan where Shiv Sena lost all the three seats to Congress. Raj, who resigned from the Sena on December 18, had recently undertaken the first leg of his statewide tour to drum up support for his political party which he said would be launched in March. He is scheduled to visit parts of Vidarbha and western Maharashtra in the next leg of the tour which concludes in Pune in the last week of February.

Surface-to-air missile Akash test-fired  (Go To Top)
by Sarada Lahangir

    Balasore (Orissa): Akash, the indigenously developed surface-to-air missile, was test-fired successfully from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur on sea, at 12:30 pm today. Akash is a mobile area defence medium-range, medium and high altitude missile, with a range of about 25 Kilometers. The 650 kg missile has a capacity to carry a 50 kg payload. Powered by ram rocket propulsion and an air-breathing engine, Akash can cut through electronic jamming with its electronic counter measure equipment. Akash is one of the five missiles currently under various stages of development by the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO). Officials said that prior to the testfire, a Pilotless Target Aircraft (PTA) was test flown from the ITR and an object was dropped from the unmanned vehicle as the missiles target. Akash has undergone a few tests earlier to gauge proposition parameters and predicted values. It is a part of the Integrated Guided Missile Development Program (IGMDP) undertaken by the DRDO in 1983. By 1998, five flight trials had been conducted. The major programs under the IGMDP are the development of missiles including Agni, Prithvi, Akash, Trishul and the Nag. The Sagarika and the Surya have since been added to the IGMDP.

Seven militants killed in Poonch (Go To Top)

    Jammu (Poonch): Eight persons, including seven militants and an Army Major, were killed in a gunbattle when security forces tried to stop ultras from crossing the Line of Control (LoC) in Salotri in Poonch district on Saturday. The encounter between the Army personnel and the militants is still on, official sources said. Four Army personnel have also been injured, and the condition of two is said to be serious. The encounter took place when army troops noticed suspicious movement near the LoC at Nangitakeri post of Salotri sub-sector in Poonch district around 1:00 a.m. Constant rain in the region is hampering a quick end to the encounter.

Karan Singh, Janardan Dwiwedi RS members (Go To Top)

    New Delhi: Chairman of Rajya Sabha and Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat on Saturday administered the oath of office to Senior Congress leaders Karan Singh and Janardan Dwiwedi who have been re-elected to the Rajya Sabha from Delhi. Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairperson K Rehman Khan and Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Suresh Pachori were also present on the occasion. The term of these two MPs had expired on Friday, and they would be beginning a new six-year term from today. Congress President Sonia Gandhi had re-nominated these MPs for Rajya Sabha on December 27. The third MP from the National Capital Region (NCR) Jai Prakash Aggrawal, elected to the Rajya Sabha for the first time, would be taking oath in Parliament, Rajya Sabha sources said. While Singh is the deputy leader of the party in Rajya Sabha as well as chairman of AICC's Foreign Affairs Department, Dwiwedi is the general secretary of the party.

Pak PM appeals to Russia for n-reactors (Go To Top)

    Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has urged Russia to sell nuclear reactors to his country and invest in the Pakistan economy. In an interview with the Russian newspaper Vremya Novostei, Aziz, who has just returned from Washington after failing to negotiate a civilian nuclear deal similar to that granted to India in July 2005, said: "Why not sell Russian nuclear reactors for our nuclear power plants? In the military area, we have a successful record of purchasing MI-17 helicopters." He further went on to say that Moscow's special level of defence cooperation with New Delhi, was hampering the possibility of a similar level cooperation with Islamabad. "Relations between the two countries should not stand in the way of relations with a third country," Aziz, was quoted by the Daily Times, as saying. "The dynamics of the world are changing and Pakistan desires better relations with every country. A new chapter of Russia- Pakistan relations need to be opened and links should be developed in every field," the Pakistan premier said. Pakistan is trying to increase its energy capacity, and plans are underway to import gas from overseas.

   Describing Pakistan's role as anchor for maintaining peace in South Asia, Aziz said: "We are eager to see progress in the peace process between India and Pakistan. Pakistan wants a solution to the Kashmir issue acceptable to the Kashmiris." He said that while Pakistan opposed to nuclear proliferation, every country has the right to use nuclear energy for peaceful purpose under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards. He also said that Russia could play an important role in finding a solution to the Iranian nuclear controversy. On the issue of terrorism and allegations that his country was a state sponsor of it, Aziz said Pakistan is against terrorism in all forms, and would be more than willing to work with Russia in security matters as well to fight terrorism. He said that the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) has the potential to serve as a platform for cooperation in economic, diplomatic and security issues and can contribute to the development of the region. He said that Pakistan, due to its geo-strategic location, provides ideal access to Central Asian States through the Arabian Sea. Pakistan is strengthening its infrastructure and building highways to facilitate trade with the Central Asia States and Russia, he said.

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