India to build Afghanistan's parliament house
NEW DELHI, Jan 30 (Agencies): The Indian cabinet Wednesday granted approval to the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) to go ahead with the construction of Afghanistan's parliament house in Kabul.
Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi told reporters after a cabinet meeting that the CPWD would also construct the Indian Chancery in the Afghanistan capital.
'The CPWD was already in the process for inviting tenders.
The cabinet Wednesday approved the move for the combined projects of construction of Afghanistan's parliament and Indian chancery complex in Kabul,' Dasmunshi said.
Maya digs up communal CD, books BJP chief NEW DELHI, Jan 30 (Agencies): A CD the BJP had circulated just before the UP Assembly elections in May 2007 and which allegedly denigrated Muslims has come back to haunt the party.
BSP Chief Minister Mayawati's government has filed a complaint against BJP president Rajnath Singh and some other top BJP leaders for allegedly "promoting hatred among communities" through the CD.
Vikram Singh, Director General of Police, UP, told CNN-IBN that a complaint had been lodged against BJP leaders and "action" against them would depend on the investigation.
Senior UP BJP leader Lalji Tandon had released the CD at a function in Lucknow on April 4, 2007 days ahead of elections in May.
The BJP has maintained that the CD, which allegedly portrayed Muslims in bad light, was not part of its official campaign material and was prepared by a junior functionary.
The BJP on Wednesday called the charge-sheet "politically motivated".
Tandon said the party had apologised for the CD and had punished party workers responsible for it.
A delegation of BJP leaders on Wednesday met the Election Commission over the issue.
After the meeting, party spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said the charge-sheet against Rajnath and others proved that the UP government was misusing the police.
Rajnath alleged he was being framed.
"I was not there when the CD was released.I am falsely implicated in the case," he said.
Based on complaints from several organisations, the Election Commission (EC) in April 2007 directed the UP police to file of an FIR against senior BJP leaders L K Advani, Rajnath, Tandon and others involved in the production of the CD.
The BJP leaders had been charged with spreading and aggravating differences between communities liable to cause tension and appealing for votes on the basis of religion.
The EC then asked the BJP to publicly and strongly condemn the CD.
The Commission, in a 21-page order, had said statements by party leaders had "created a doubt, a genuine doubt, in the minds of the general public whether BJP has disowned the CD and condemned its contents or stand by its comments".
"The party should come out with an unequivocal and unambiguous declaration that they strongly condemn the contents of the CD so that the stand of the party before the Commission becomes publicly known to the country and public at large and any misgivings or apprehensions in their minds arising out of the distribution and dissemination of the CD or its contents stand dispelled and removed forthwith", the EC had said.
The Commission had said the party couldn't absolve itself of the responsibility of its functionaries.
ISI hires Dawood to kill Advani, Modi NEW DELHI, Jan 30 (Agencies): Security around senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was reviewed on Tuesday following intelligence inputs that global terrorist Dawood Ibrahim has been asked by Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence to assassinate them.
The inputs to central agencies have come from various sources indicating that Dawood had been approached by ISI to carry out the plot, sources said.
Immediately after receiving the inputs, the review of security of Advani, who is a 'Z-plus' protectee was done, and was found the arrangements satisfactory.
The Centre also sent an advisory to Gujarat government for taking necessary steps to beef up the security of Modi who also enjoys Z-plus category security.
The intelligence inputs suggested that Dawood, who has been designated by the US as a global terrorist having links with the Al-Qaeda, had been roped in after several sleeper cells of various terror groups failed to execute the plan.
Congress and BJP activists clash in Shivpuri over Afzal Guru SHIVPURI, Jan 30 (Agencies): Activists of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress party clashed here during a demonstration by the BJP, demanding execution of a death sentence handed down to Afzal Guru, the prime accuse in the Parliament attack case of December 13, 2001.
"Police and administrative officials were present there.
If they had wanted, they could have stopped us.
But as soon as we reached the Congress party office, their workers started raining stones on us," claimed Yashovardhan Sharma, a BJP activist.
The Congress, however, refuted the charges.
"We were sitting inside our party office, the BJP workers had a plot and attacked our office with stones.
One of our workers is injured," claimed Sanjay, a Congress party activist.
Police eventually quelled the protest in which several received injuries.
On December 13, 2001, five gunmen stormed the heavily guarded Parliament complex and killed nine people before being shot dead.
Mohammad Afzal Guru is one of the main accused in the case, and a trial court awarded him the death punishment, which was also upheld by the Supreme Court.
However, Afzal's scheduled hanging on October 20, 2006 was put off after his wife had submitted a mercy petition to the then President of India, A P J Abdul Kalam.
CBI court to decide on plea against Pandher in Jyoti murder case GHAZIABAD, Jan 30 (Agencies): A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court will decide whether Nithari killings accused Moninder Singh Pandher is to also be named an accused in the rape and murder of 14-year-old Jyoti.
The CBI had earlier given a clean chit to Pandher, but charged Surinder Koli, his servant, in connection with the case.
A protest petition challenging the chargesheet filed by the investigating agency in July last year was moved in the court of Special CBI Judge Ram Jain.
According to prosecution counsel Khalid Khan, Jyoti was murdered at Pandher's Noida residence.
Based on an account of Jhabbulal, Jyoti's father, charges of murder, rape and concealment of evidence were registered against the accused.
This is the fifth case relating to Nithari killings in which Pandher has been named an accused.
He had earlier been accused of the rape and murder of Payal(22), Pinki Sarkar (18), Madhu (14) and Rimpa Haldar(16).
The CBI has already filed eleven chargesheets in connection with the Nithari cases so far.
While Koli was named the prime accused in all cases, Pandher was given a clean chit in nine.
Nineteen people, mostly children, were killed inside Pandher's sprawling bungalow in the industrial town of NOIDA, in Uttar Pradesh in December 2006.
Senator Hillary Clinton wins Florida primary NEW DELHI, Jan 30 (Agencies): Among the Democrats, Hillary Clinton won the primary beating rival Barack Obama in Florida.
However, this is just a symbolic win and it will have little impact on the Democratic presidential race.
Party delegates from Florida will not be allowed to participate in the national convention in November because of party sanctions.
The state delegates are being punished for going against the party schedule and holding polls on Tuesday.
The national party wanted the polls to be held later in the year.
Despite that, the turnout was high.
Some reports said about 2.5 million voters cast ballots, and nearly 400,000 people cast early or absentee ballots ahead of the primary.
Senator Clinton sought to emphasise her performance in the state, declaring it a welcome victory.
The New York senator, fresh off her lopsided loss to Barack Obama in last weekend's South Carolina primary, arranged a rally in the state as the polls were closing, an evident attempt to gain campaign momentum.
"I am thrilled to have had this vote of confidence that you have given me today and I promise you I will do everything I can to make sure not only are Florida Democratic delegates seated, but Florida is in the winning column for the Democrats in 2008," she said.
Clinton and Obama collide next week in a coast-to-coast competition for delegates across 22 states.
With split decisions in the Democratic contests so far, there is increased speculation that the nominating race will extend beyond February 5 when more than 1,600 delegates are at stake.
India hopeful of resolving impasse with Kuwaiti work visa NEW DELHI,Jan 30 (Agencies): India is hopeful of finding an amicable solution with Kuwait to the impasse over work visa which has prevented hundreds of Indians from taking up jobs in that country, Minister of State for External Affairs E Ahamed has said.
The Kuwait embassy in New Delhi and the consulate in Mumbai stopped stamping work visas for Indians from December 20 after Indian authorities introduced new employment conditions to protect its nationals working abroad which were rejected by Kuwait.
"I shall be raising the issue in my discussion with Kuwaiti dignitaries and I am confident that a mutually agreed text of contract will emerge," the minister said addressing a gathering at the Indian mission in Kuwait.
The contentious conditions reportedly are that Indians who have labour cards in Kuwait are not sent to Iraq, the minimum wage for maids is fixed at Rs 15,000 and sponsors of maids enter into an agreement with the embassy on their work condition.
Ahamed is expected to call on Kuwaiti ruler Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah and convey the greetings of the Indian government to the Amir who completed two years of his ascendancy to the throne.
Ahamed will hold talks with Kuwait's foreign minister and labour minister to sort out the differences over the new labour norms.
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