Highlights of railway budget for 2009-10
New Delhi, July 3 (IANS) Following are the highlights of the rail budget for the current fiscal presented by Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee in the Lok Sabha Friday:

- No increase in passenger, freight fares

- Rs.1,102 crore allocated towards improving passenger amenities

- Kolkata metro to be extended

- Rs.50 billion increase in budgetary support in 2009-10

- Freight target for 2009-10 set at 882 million tonnes

- Target set in interim budget unrealistic

- Freight cargo increased 5 percent in 2008-09

- One doctor to be posted on each long distance train

- Rs.25 monthly pass for ... Read More

Vikram Seth strikes 1.7 mn pound publishing deal
By Binoo K. John

New Delhi, July 2 (IANS) Indian writer Vikram Seth, who is working on a sequel to his blockbuster novel "A Suitable Boy", has finalised a deal worth around 1.7 million pounds to move his entire back list to Penguin UK, sources close to the deal said.

This will be the biggest such deal struck by an Indian author and places Seth far above the league of Indian writers in commercial terms.

The deal was midwifed by well known agent David Godwin. Godwin and Seth were hoping for a full 2 million pound deal but, after three publishers ... Read More

Gay sex legalised in India, religious leaders protest
New Delhi, July 2 (IANS) Gay sex Thursday won legal sanction in India after the Delhi High Court passed a landmark ruling that was hailed by gay rights activists but denounced by religious leaders as an assault on God.

In a judgment that followed eight years of judicial battle, the Delhi High Court read down section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), quoting Jawaharlal Nehru to emphasise that the constitution guaranteed homosexuals rights equal to what other citizens enjoy.

In a courtroom packed with around 100 people, half of them activists, Chief Justice Ajit Prakash Shah and Justice S. Muralidhar ... Read More

Advani airs concern at jizya on Hindus, Sikhs in Pakistan
New Delhi, July 1 (IANS) Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani has expressed concern at Taliban-imposed jizya - protection money being forcibly collected from religious minority in Pakistan - and urged the Indian government to take steps "to prevent hardships and persecution of Hindus and Sikhs" in that country.

"The BJP urges the Indian government to take all necessary steps with the government of Pakistan to prevent any further hardships and persecution of the Hindus and Sikhs in that country," the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha said Wednesday.

Taliban militants in the North Western Frontier ... Read More

UN inquiry into Bhutto's assassination begins
Islamabad, July 1 (DPA) A UN panel began an inquiry Wednesday into the assassination of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto 18 months after her death.

The three-member commission - headed by Chile's ambassador to the United Nations, Heraldo Munoz - is to examine the facts and circumstances of the murder.

Bhutto was killed in a suicide gun and bomb attack in December 2007 as she concluded an election rally in the garrison town of Rawalpindi.

The attack came barely two months after she survived a bombing in the southern city of Karachi after her return from eight years of self-imposed ... Read More

New housing scheme to make India slum free: Selja
New Delhi, July 1 (IANS) India's millions of urban poor have reason to cheer. A new housing scheme, Rajiv Awas Yojana, was announced Wednesday promising to improve their lives and aiming to make the country "slum free" in the next five years.

Announcing her ministry's 100-day plan, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Minister Kumari Selja said: "Rajiv Awas Yojana on the lines of the Indira Awas Yojana is being formulated to promote a slum free India in five years."

"The scheme will focus on according property rights to slumdwellers and the urban poor with the help of the state government. The ... Read More

Safety, welfare of Sri Lankan Tamils most important: Karunanidhi
Chennai, July 1 (IANS) Safety and proper living conditions are the most important issues for the Tamil community in Sri Lanka at the moment, even if it means a change of stand for parties in Tamil Nadu, Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi said in the assembly Wednesday.

He also said improving the condition of Sri Lankan Tamils and reaching relief to them could now happen only through the government there.

Karunanidhi said political parties should change their stand for the welfare of the people. He called upon parties to decide what was more important under the circumstances - securing the life ... Read More

Is man creating god to suit his image, asks Peres
By Vishnu Makhijani

Astana, July 1 (IANS) Did god create man in his image or was it the other way around, Israeli President Shimon Peres wondered while addressing a global faith conference that opened here Wednesday.

"Did god create man in his image or is man creating a god to suit his own image?" Peres asked during his address to the third Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions that Kazakhstan President Nurstultan Nazarbayev inaugurated.

"Only god, who created man, has the right to take a life. No one who cannot create life has the right to take life," Peres, a ... Read More

UN secretary general plans to meet Aung San Suu Kyi: Official
Yangon, July 1 (DPA) UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is likely to meet Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi during his visit to the country later this week, an official said Wednesday.

"He (Ban Ki-moon) is supposed to meet Aung San Suu Kyi when he arrives here but we cannot definitely tell his schedule," said an official who requested anonymity.

Ban is scheduled to visit Myanmar Friday and Saturday at the official invitation of the ruling junta.

He is expected to meet the country's most powerful man, Senior General Than Shwe, head of the State Peace and Development Council, as ... Read More

Expectations high as Mukherjee readies for national budget
By Sushma Ramachandran

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee faces a tough job July 6 as he rises to present the first budget of the newly-elected United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, during which he will have to try and keep fiscal deficit under check while meeting the many promises made by the Congress party and its coalition partners during the elections.

The exercise will also be a complex mix of populism and pragmatism since it comes at a time when the global economy is still in the throes of a recession. Mukherjee's task has been rendered more difficult with international crude prices climbing once ... Read More