Nirmal Om newsline

Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey starts an official visit of India on Monday an important step towards shifting Switzerland's relationship with India from traditional aid development programmes to joint ventures on themes of common interest in the signing of a joint declaration on privileged partnership, setting the foundations for closer links between the two countries.Swiss exports rose 38 per cent to SFr1.9 billion ($1.65 billion) in 2006 and imports were up 13 per cent to SFr737 million. Christoph Graf, head of the SDC's South Asia division in the bilateral cooperation department, told swissinfo "We see many opportunities through our past investment, experiences and the networks we have developed to open doors for other players such as scientific and environmental institutions," Economics Minister Doris Leuthard visited India in August to push a proposed Free Trade Agreement between India and EFTA states – Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. Leutha...

Congress-led government may certainly has its back to the wall on the SEZs (Special Economic Zones) issue as this is anti peoples welfare which is planned without the consent of the people affected the public voice condemns this project and demands scrapping of the same. Consumer is the key of all business and government policies and when his rights are flouted,the credibility of governance deteriorates. the The Government through its cabinet approval allowing the Multinational banks and other companies to have Laws and enforcements of procedures to suit the MNC for procurement of Loans,EMI,fiscal borrowing without taking consumer interest intact tantamount to nexus between the Politicians and businessmen. Ram Sethusamundaram project by national parties is ill conceived and lacks complete transparency and not studying in details as per the requirement of scientific,environmental and religious study.Peoples apthy in this projects is not with the politicians. Indo-US civil nuclear de...

Pakistan People’s Party chairperson Benazir Bhutto a reign of terror against protesting lawyers and journalists must end. she said she had conveyed to PML (N) chief Mian Nawaz Sharif through Mr Ishaq Dar her desire to wage a common struggle if the emergency was imposed. One minister who attended a cabinet meeting chaired by Shaukat Aziz, the Prime Minister, said: "The issue of holding elections was discussed at length... I feel that the elections may be delayed by two months. There will not be a delay of elections for longer than three months. There is no final decision." PML (N) president Shahbaz Sharif talking to the media here on Monday said that time had now come for all political parties to shun their differences and get together on one platform against “Musharraf’s illegal, unconstitutional and immoral dictatorial rule”. Benazir hoped that all democratic parties would unite to emancipate the people from the yoke of dictatorship and the menace of terrorism and extremism....

The Taliban relaunched their campaign two years ago to topple the pro-Western Afghan government and eject the 50,000 foreign troops, expanding their operations further from the mainly Pashtun south where they are strongest. In the last week, the Taliban captured three districts in the western province of Farah, bordering Iran, forcing lightly armed Afghan police to flee and defying Afghan and foreign forces to retake the lost ground. First, Taliban captured the Farah district of Gulistan a week ago, then on Wednesday took nearby Bakwa. On Sunday, they seized Khak-e Sefid without a fight. “Khake-e Sefid district fell into Taliban hands on Sunday without any resistance from Afghan forces,” Qadir Daqiq, a Farah provincial council member told Reuters. A provincial official who declined to be named also confirmed the report. Taliban militants had been building up around Khak-e Sefid for some days, a Western security analyst said. The radicals in Farah have been receiving arms through a Tali...