• Honored at Shri Guru Ravidas Sabha, Montreal

• Brown seeks closer co-op with India in fight against terror
• Third front a `mirage`, no body should chase it: Congress
• CBI accuses Nanda of foreign remittance fraud
• Centre moots bill to create special fund for afforestation

• US is considering "deeper US military engagement" in Pak
• US Pacific Fleet chief meets Lankan President
• Parveez hoping for multi-party coalition government

• GDP Growth to be 8%
• HSBC open to taking Indian banks
• Big retail sector booming in India

• Rs 1 lakh car a threat to environment
• Chinese company takes Google to court

• High commission of India in Ottawa

Q&A by Jatin & Amita

• Brown seeks closer co-op with India in fight against terror
• Parveez hoping for multi-party coalition government
• US Pacific Fleet chief meets Lankan President
• US is considering "deeper US military engagement" in Pak

Brown seeks closer co-op with India in fight against terror

Hailing India-UK ties as "partnership among equals", British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Sunday pitched for intensified bilateral cooperation in fight against terrorism with particular focus on closer security coordination at airports and seaports.Arriving here on a two-day visit to "build stronger and strengthening relationship", Brown underscored the need for stronger economic ties, closer coordination on global issues like climate change and reform of international institutions besides cooperation in education and scientific fields.

Brown and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will hold talks tomorrow on a wide range of issues, covering bilateral, regional and global subjects."I expect cooperation against terrorism is intensified in the years to come and I will talk these very issues when I meet Prime Minister Singh," he told reporters here soon after his arrival on a maiden visit as British Prime Minister.

He referred to the arrest of 14 people, including two Indians, in Spain yesterday in connection with an alleged terror plot and said the development raises "questions on how we can cooperate internationally" in the fight against terrorism."What I would like to see is greater contact between our two countries in winning the battle of hearts and minds, isolating extremist ideologues who try to poison the minds of young people and the views they have," Brown said after an interaction with a women`s group.

Advocating the need for closer cooperation between security agencies, the British Prime Minister said "I believe we can introduce at our ports and airports even more sophisticated detection systems that will enable us to prevent people who are carrying weapons or explosive materials when moving between countries".

Setting the tone for tomorrow`s summit talks, Brown said he was in India to "celebrate the partnership of equals", which will grow stronger in the years to come.
Besides security and terrorism, the two countries will work together on other great issues that affect our continents -- environment, education and science exchanges, he said.

Describing India and Britain as "two confident 21st century economies", he said the world`s oldest democracy and the largest democracy were working together for common objectives."I am here to build stronger and strengthening relationship between our two countries," Brown said.

He noted that trade between India and Britain has doubled in the last five years, increasing at the rate of 20 per cent a year."There are 10 billion dollars of contracts waiting to be signed that will build stronger bridges between our two countries," he said.He pointed out that Indian companies were located in Britain, with 26 of those registered on the London Stock Exchange.

At the same time, British companies are located in India, helping this country through massive investments in infrastructure and pharmaceuticals and new educational exchanges, Brown said."I believe in the next two days we will be able to strengthen that economic relationship," he said.

Parveez hoping for multi-party coalition government

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf sees a multi-party coalition government after the February 18 election.

"I will play a positive role in the making of a multi-party coalition government after the parliamentary election and I will contact various political parties to save Pakistan from the prevailing menace of terrorism," he told newspaper editors at his Army House in Rawalpindi near here on Friday night.

He said that the government was not in contact with the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) led by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif but he would contact various political parties if needed to form a multi-party government. "No meeting is expected with Nawaz Sharif or Shabaz Sharif in the coming days," he said.

President Musharraf said new electoral lists would be prepared any time in future but this time old lists will be used and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has also decided to accept the old national identity cards along with the new ones to vote. "There is no plan to change the boundaries of the constituencies," he added. Regarding the appointment of the chief election commissioner, President Musharraf said that he asked names from the political parties in this regard but no one turned up with the name because they feared that they would not be able to blame the government after doing so.

He appealed to the media that the uproar of rigging should not be highlighted so that the nation’s faith in the election might remain firm.Pakistan’s nuclear assets, he said, were under the safe control of the National Control and Command System (NCCS) and the terrorists could not attack or gain control of the assets.

Pakistan would not compromise on national security and no Western pressure would be accepted, he said. The nuclear assets were spread across the country for their security, he said.The NCCS was established in his tenure to safeguard the nuclear assets, the President said, adding that Lt. Gen. Khalid Qadwai (Retd) had formulated a plan for the protection of the nuclear assets.

US Pacific Fleet chief meets Lankan President

Battles between government troops and Tamil Tiger fighters killed 35 rebels and one soldier along the front lines in northern Sri Lanka, the military said on Saturday as violence continued to escalate following the government’s withdrawal from a ceasefire.

The fighting coincided with a visit by a top US Navy official who reaffirmed American support for the government’s efforts to fight the rebels. Adm. Robert F. Willard, commander of the US Pacific Fleet, ended a two-day visit to Sri Lanka on Friday during which he "reaffirmed the support of the United States to Sri Lanka in defending against terrorist activity through cooperation on maritime security," the US embassy said.

Adm. Willard met President Mahinda Rajapakse and senior military officials and discussed US help in countering the Tigers, the embassy said in a statement without giving details.

Meanwhile, Sri Lankan soldiers destroyed three rebel bunkers and killed 12 guerrillas on Friday in Mannar district, southwest of the rebels’ northern headquarters, said military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara. One soldier was wounded in the fighting, he said.

In nearby Vavuniya district Army troops killed nine insurgents, while on the northern Jaffna peninsula two separate confrontations killed eight rebels, he said.

The United States is considering "deeper US military engagement" in Pakistan, a media report said.

"A senior American military commander will visit Pakistan this month to discuss the growing unrest in the country and possible deeper US military engagement," the Financial Times reported.

Admiral William Fallon, head of the US Central Command, will hold discussions on whether the US could provide training to help Pakistani forces deal with increasing attacks from militants inside its borders.

The US was already concerned about the regrouping of the Al Qaeda in the mountainous border region of Pakistan and Afghanistan. More recently, it has become concerned about the growing threat deeper inside Pakistan’s borders.

Admiral Fallon on Wednesday said the Pakistani military had begun switching from its traditional focus on the threat from neighbouring India to a counter-insurgency campaign internally. "My sense is there’s an increased willingness to address these problems, and we’re going to try to help them," Adm. Fallon said. Gen. James Cartwright, vice-chairman of the joint chiefs, this week said the US was evaluating whether the Pakistanis were able to handle the growing threat from militants inside Pakistan. Senior Western defence experts in Islamabad believe that the Pakistani military, supported by the Bush administration in the war on terror, needs training and equipment to strengthen its capacity to fight insurgencies.

"This is an Army whose focus has traditionally been to fight territorial battles, primarily against the Indians," said one expert. Shaukat Qadir, a Pakistani defence commentator, said that while the Pakistani forces knew the local terrain better than American forces, "the psychological dimension will be very important, the idea that there are US trainers on the ground helping Pakistani forces".

The US defence department is also assessing what assistance to give to Pakistan. "The character of the fight in Pakistan has changed to some extent, and it is more focused inward, and we’re watching that very carefully," Gen. Cartwright said in a statement. "Is it a threat that the Pakistanis are ready to handle? Do they need help? Do they need training help? Do they need other types of help? That’s what we’re trying to assess right now," he said.

"We’re assessing what value we could have, or any other ally could have, in contributing to their security," Gen. Cartwright said.

"But they’re a sovereign nation. They have to make those decisions. And we will stand by and be available, particularly for those things that we might do in the way of training or in helping them in shortfalls."

Officials say US military assistance to the region is under consideration by defence department but an official request from President Pervez Musharraf has not been made.