Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has arrived in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan. He was received by Minister of Oil and Gas, Kazakhstan, Sauat Mynbayev and Astana Mayor Imangali Tasmagambetov.

Dr Singh will attend a summit-level meeting with Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev in Astana on Saturday.

Stay tuned for reports from rediff.com'sNikhil Lakshman, who is accompanying the prime minister

Iran is building a concrete fence all along its 700-km long border with Pakistan to stop cross-border movements of terrorists, according to the country's defence minister.
The three feet thick and 10 feet high fence, built with concrete and fortified by steel rods, will span the impenetrable mountainous terrain in south eastern Iran, Brig Gen Ahmad Vahidi told IRNA news agency.
The fence would start from Taftan area to Mand in the Baloch majority Sistan province, which borders Pakistan'sBalochistan province.

The Supreme Court-appointed Central Empowered Committee has said that large-scaleillegal mining was on in Karnataka particularly in Bellary district in connivance with officials and public representatives.
Special forest bench headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia issued notice to the state government and sought its response on various findings in the CEC's interim report including the export of 304.91 lakh metric tonnes of iron ore without valid permit between 2003 to 2009-10.

Union Minister and Trinamool Congress leader Mukul Roy, whose son allegedly assaulted an Election Commission team in West Bengal, on Friday met Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi in New Delhi and raised the issue of alleged violence by Communist Party of India-Marxist cadres in Nandigram.

There was no official word from the EC on what transpired during the talks but Roy told reporters that he had apprised the CEC about alleged acts of intimidation and violence by CPI-M cadres in Nandigram.

Roy was accompanied by a lawyer during the meeting. His son, Subhrangsu Roy, who is the Trinamool Congress candidate from Bijpur assembly constituency in North 24 Parganas, is absconding after the EC filed an FIR at Bijpur police station on Tuesday against him and 10 others.

He is facing charges of assaulting members of an EC team which went to erase wall writings on public and private buildings.

The EC has also suspended the local inspector in- charge for failing to arrest the alleged offender.

The CPI-M has demanded strict action by the Election Commission and exemplary punishment for Roy saying EC officials have been attacked by the candidate "which demonstrates scant respect for the democratic system".

The Japanese government has ordered the embattled operator of radiation-leaking Fukushima nuclear plant to urgently pay $12,000 in provisional compensation to each of 50,000 affected households near the facility, amid frantic efforts to tackle the atomic crisis.

A Singapore court has sentenced to death a Malaysian of Indian-origin for drug trafficking, a media report said on Friday.

Dinesh Pillai Reja Retnam, 27, carried the drug from Johor in Southern Peninsular Malaysia on a motorcycle via a causeway link to Singapore on December 19 2009, a third run for delivering 19.35 grams heroin to a Singapore contact.

Justice Chan Seng Onn dismissed Dinesh's claim he was not aware of it being drugs but presumed it was food for the Singapore contact.

TV reports on Friday claimed that Indian Premier League team Kochi Tuskers Kerala has sought the permission of the IPL governing council whether it could include former Team India captain Saurav Ganguly as a replacement player.

The reported development might be a result of Australian player Steve Smith's unavailability in the ongoing IPL-4 tournament.

None of the reports have been confirmed, though.

In the backdrop of protests by political parties, Maharashtra government on Friday opened the doors of the sanctum of the famous Mahalaxmi temple in Kolhapur district for women.

So far only men were permitted to enter the sanctum and perform 'abhishek' (ritual) in the temple of goddess Ambabai from 10 am to 11.30 am everyday.

From now onwards, women would also be able to enter the temple sanctum during morning hours and also perform the 'abhishek' with men.

A decision in this regard was taken during a meeting, headed by minister of state for home Satej Patil and attended by the district collector, temple trustees and priests, in Kolhapur today.

Home Minister P Chidambaram on Friday expressed happiness over the Supreme Court decision to grant bail to rights activist Binayak Sen, who had been convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for sedition by a Chhattisgarh court.

"I am happy to know that Binayak Sen has got bail from the Supreme Court. I have always believed that if one is not satisfied with a lower court order, one can get reprieve by approaching a higher court," he told mediapersons.

The Andhra Pradesh government on Friday told the Supreme Court that it would be agreeable to a Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry into the killing of top Naxalite leader Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad and journalist Hemchandra Pandey by state police in a gunbattle in July last year.

A bench of justices Aftab Alam and R M Lodha, while taking on record the submission made by senior counsel Harish Salve on behalf of the state government, adjourned the matter till Monday for passing appropriate orders.

The bench adjourned the matter after Salve said that he needed certain instructions from the state government and would talk to the Union home ministry for allowing the CBI to take up the investigation into the matter.

The Centre and the state had on March 31 opposed in the apex court the demand for a judicial probe into the matter.

Pakistani police on Friday claimed to have foiled a terror plot by seizing 204 kg of explosives and arresting three suspected militants in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province in the country's troubled northwest.

Police seized the explosives when they intercepted a Peshawar-bound pick-up truck near the strategic Kohat tunnel.

The explosives were hidden in secret cavities in the truck, a police spokesman said. Police stopped the truck after getting a tip-off, the spokesman said.

Three suspected militants who were travelling in the truck were arrested and sent to an undisclosed location for interrogation. The arrested men were identified as Umar Naiz, Ikramulah and Asmatullah.

A major fire broke out in the densely populated Habba Kadal area in Srinagar in which several houses were gutted, police said.

No causality is, however, reported so far, they said.

The fire broke out from a house in Habba Kadal and soon engulfed the nearby houses, officials said. So far, three houses have been gutted in the fire and the blaze is spreading to other houses, they said.

Fire tenders have been pressed into service but the narrow lanes in the area is causing difficulty in bringing the blaze under control, they said.

The entire area is in danger as the houses are old, mostly made of wood, and constructed very close to each other, they said.

By-election to a Maharashtra legislative council seat, which is expected to pave the way for Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan to get elected to the legislature would now be held on May 4.

The bypoll has been advanced by a day in view of the EC deputing the chief electoral officer of Maharashtra as its special observer for the West Bengal assembly polls.

The commission had earlier fixed the date of poll as May 5. Chavan will be contesting the election to enter the state legislature, as per constitutional requirements.

At present, he is not a member of either of the two Houses of the state legislature. The seat fell vacant after Sanjay Dutt of the Congress resigned on March 11 to facilitate Chavan's election.

Dutt's term was to expire on July 7, 2016. Chavan took over as the chief minister on November 11 last year replacing Ashok Chavan who resigned over the Adarsh Housing Society scam.

He is required to get elected to either of the two Houses within six months of assuming office.

Union minister and National Conference president Farooq Abdullah was hospitalised on Friday after suffering a bout of vomiting.

73-year-old Abdullah, Union minister for new and renewable energy, was on his way to Kala Kendra to attend a function in Vikram Chowk area of Jammu, when he suffered a bout of vomiting.

He was rushed to Gandhi Nagar hospital, officials said.

Doctors hospitalised him and some tests have been conducted on him, they said, adding that he was put on a drip immediately. The condition of Abdullah is stable, doctors at the hospital said.

The Supreme Court on Friday directed UK-based telecom major Vodafone to appear before the income tax department which had instructed the company to pay penalty in the $ 2 billion tax case relating to the telecom major's stake purchase in Hutchison-Essar.

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia asked the company to file its representation before the IT department.

"We direct the company to file its representation before the official concerned in this case. ..the officials would proceed in the matter," the court said.

Meanwhile, the court also made it clear that if the IT department passes any order for penalty, it would not be enforced till Supreme Court's further order as the main matter of tax dispute is still pending in the apex court.

During the proceedings, the Supreme Court told telecom major Vodafone that tax penalty is at an initial stage because only notices have been issued till now by the IT department to the company.

The Central Bureau of Investigation on Friday sought "detention" of five corporate executives chargesheeted by it for their alleged role in the 2G scam, saying that they might "abscond" and impede the trial.

Opposing their bail pleas, the CBI, in its reply to the court of Additional Session Judge O P Saini, said that some of the key witnesses, belonging to the corporate world, directly worked under them and the possibility of the accused winning them over could not be ruled out.

"The accused are holding high positions and now that the names of witnesses are disclosed, some of whom are directly working under (them) or are amenable to their directions, possibility of winning over and/or influencing the witnesses is clearly present," the CBI said.

"Considering the matter on record, complicity of present accused in the crime is clearly made out. The act complained of and offences alleged are far serious having made deep inroads in public interest and financial affairs of the state," the CBI said.

The top corporate leaders are Swan Telecom Director Vinod Goenka, Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) Ltd Managing Director Sanjay Chandra, and three top officials of Reliance ADA Group Gautam Doshi, Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair who have been named as accused by the CBI in its first charge sheet running into 80,000 pages.

The replies, settled by Special Public Prosecutor U U Lalit, appointed by the Supreme Court to assist the special court to try the 2G scam accused exclusively, said there was every likelihood that the accused "will abscond" in order to avoid smooth trial.

Judge Saini, who has been directed by apex court to hold day-to-day trial in the case, had earlier allowed Lalit to file written replies to the bail applications of the corporate executives who were not arrested during the investigation by the CBI.

The court would hear the remaining arguments on the bail applications at 2 pm on Friday.

The Supreme Court on Friday granted bail to civil rights activist Binayak Sen, sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of sedition and links with Naxalites.

Sixty-one-year-old Sen had challenged the order of the Chhattisgarh high court, which had rejected his bail plea on February 10.

A professional doctor and pass out of the prestigious Christian Medical College, Vellore, Sen had sought bail contending that the trial court has erred in convicting him when there was no substantial evidence.

In the petition prepared by senior advocate Ram Jethmalani it was submitted that Sen had already spent two years in jail after his arrest and he should be allowed to come out on bail during the pendency of appeal in the high court.

Sen, vice president of People's Union of Civil Liberties, was convicted for sedition and sentenced to life imprisonment along with Naxal ideologue Narayan Sanyal and Kolkata businessman Piyush Guha for colluding with Naxals to establish a network to fight the state.

Sen's conviction and sentence had led to outrage in many quarters, including international bodies of human rights. Family members of Sen, PUCL activists, and two members of the European Union were present in the high court during the hearing. The EU had earlier sought the high court's permission to attend the hearings.

Ammunition and explosives were recovered by the security forces near the Line of Control in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir, officials said in Jammu on Friday.

During a search operation, security forces recovered 37 rounds of AK rifle, 2 AK rifle magazines, one grenade and a radio set near the LoC in Keri belt of Rajouri district on Thursday night, they said.

A day after activists of Raj Thackeray led-Maharashtra Navniramn Sena targeted 'pani and bhelpuri' vendors in Mumbai for dishing out unhygienic fare, the party on Friday decided to give written complaints to all Brihanmumbai Municipal Commission ward officers seeking strict action against them.

"We are going to give written complaints to all the ward officers against the street vendors for selling unhygienic food to people," MNS leader from South Mumbai Arvind Gawade said.

The ward officers should take action against these food vendors, as they are illegal and the food served by them poses a grave threat to the health of the people, Gawade said.

The trouble began after a young girl caught on camera a 'pani puri' vendor urinating into the pot used to serve the snacks following which MNS workers went on a rampage on Thursday in few parts of the city throwing out food from their stalls.

The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha on Friday announced it will fight Jamshedpur Lok Sabha by-poll, for which the Election Commission has not yet set a date.

"Our party President Shibu Soren has decided that JMM will field a candidate from Jamshedpur and the party supremo's decision cannot be revoked," Deputy Chief Minister and JMM leader Hemant Soren told mediapersons in Ranchi.

Expressing confidence that the party's decision would have no bearing on the ruling BJP/JMM/AJSU coalition, the junior Soren said, "JMM will contest in the interest of the state."

The Jamshedpur LS seat fell vacant after Chief Minister Arjun Munda, who had won the seat as BJP candidate, resigned soon after getting elected as MLA from Kharswan assembly constitutency in March by-poll.

During his recent visit to Ranchi, BJP President Nitin Gadkari had said the BJP would contest the seat. The AJSU party, another coalition member, has already asked the two senior partners to leave the seat for it as it had supported them in the formation of the government.

Inflation rose to 8.98 per cent in March 2011, from 8.31 per cent in previous month, the latest report from the Central Statistical Organisation stated.

However, food inflation declined to 8.28 per cent for the week ended April 2, from 9.18 per cent in the previous week.

Pakistan plans to hike its defence budget by 18 per cent to Rs 582 billion during the upcoming fiscal year due to inflation and expenses on the war against terrorism, according to a media report.

The defence ministry has sent a proposal to the federal government for allocating Rs 582 billion for the defence budget for 2011-12.

The ministry sought the higher allocation after calculating inflation and expenditure in the fight against terrorism, the Business Recorder daily quoted its sources as saying.

The outlay for defence during the current financial year was Rs 442 billion.

Two French Muslim men have been detained by law enforcement agencies in Lahore for alleged links with terrorist groups in Pakistan.

Sharafuddin, a Pakistani-born French national, and Zohaib Afzal, a French national of Moroccan origin, had arrived in Lahore about two months ago from France, sources said.

Acting on a tip-off from an intelligence agency, security personnel picked them up from the airport and shifted them to an interrogation cell, the sources said.

The French nationals wanted to go the volatile Waziristan tribal region, described by the US as a safe haven for Taliban and Al Qaeda elements, to take part in jihad, the sources said.

Several parts of Mumbai will on Friday face 30 per cent water cut as two main pipelines, supplying water to the city from Tansa Lake burst near Chinchavli and Bhiwandi areas.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation announced 30 per cent cut in water supply in 18 of the city's 24 wards after two main pipelines burst on Thursday.

The two 72-inch diameter pipelines supply 455 million litres of water from Tansa Lake to the city on a daily basis.

The areas that would face water cut are: entire south Mumbai area, Worli, Dadar, Prabhadevi, Mahim, Bandra, Santacruz, Khar, Andheri, Malad, Goregaon, Borivali, Kandivali, Charkop, Dahisar, and parts of Kurla, Ghatkopar, Vikhroli, Bhandup and Mulund.

"We can't establish how much time it will take to repair as we are yet to know the extent of damage to the two pipelines. The repair work is going on at a war foot level. These pipelines are more than 125 years old," a civic official said.

The hydraulic department of the BMC says it would take at least 24-48 hours to fix both the pipelines.

The Malayali community in Kerala on Friday celebrated their summer harvest festival Vishu with traditional fervour and gaiety.

In wee hours people woke up at homes to see the 'Vishu Kani', the ceremony of looking at auspicious articles such as rice, gold, the glowing seasonal flower 'konna' and fruits and vegetables tastefully arranged in platters.

There was heavy rush in temples across the state including the famed Sabarimala Ayyappa shrine and Guruvayoor Srikrishna temple, where the 'Vishu Kani' was also arranged.

Children enjoyed the festival by bursting crackers since last evening. They also received cash gifts from family elders as part of the tradition known as 'Vishu Kaineettam'.

The highlight of the festival was a sumptuous feast with several dishes mostly made of seasonal vegetables and fruits such as cucumber, plantine, mango and jackfruit topped with local dessert 'payasam.'

As Vishu came closely after the Wednesday's assembly elections in the state, it turned out to be a day of relaxation for politicians who had been busy in the campaign trail for over a month.

Kerala Governor R S Gavai, Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan and leaders of various political parties greeted the Malayalis around the world on the occasion.

United States President Barack Obama kicked off a massive fundraising campaign for his 2012 reelection bid during a visit to his hometown Chicago.

"The last two and a half years have obviously been extraordinary," Obama, who was in a light and jovial mood, said at the Democratic National Committee event held at N9NE Steakhouse Restaurant in Chicago, according to a statement released by the White House.

Obama announced that his campaign headquarters will be Chicago as it had been in 2008. "We understood when we put together our presidential campaign that the country was entering a crossroads, that we were going to have to make some fundamental decisions about who we were and who we are as a people."

"And I got into this race for President because I believed that what makes us great is our incredible commitment to individual freedom and individual responsibility; the fact that with some pluck and some hard work and some good fortune, here in America anybody can make it, regardless of race or creed or station," he said.

Sathya Sai Baba, who has been undergoing treatment for multi-organ dysfunction, continues to be critical but stable, doctors attending on him said in Puttaparthi on Friday.

"Sathya Sai Baba continues to be in a stable state of health. Most of his vital systems have shown positive response to the treatment being given to him, but the response is slow," a health bulletin issued by A N Safaya, director of Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences, said.

"All his clinical parameters of halth are nearly normal and are showing improvement over the previous values. He continues to be on assisted ventilation and on intermittent slow dialysis," it said.

The NATO forces would continue their action in Libya until Muammar Gaddafi is in power and a Libyan future including the strongman is "unthinkable", the leaders of France, United States and United Kingdom have said.

"As long as Gaddafi is in power, NATO must maintain its operations so that civilians remain protected and the pressure on the regime builds," they wrote in a joint article published in the International Herald Tribune, Le Figaro and Times of London.

"Then a genuine transition from dictatorship to an inclusive constitutional process can really begin, led by a new generation of leaders. In order for that transition to succeed, Gaddafi must go and go for good," wrote US President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister David Cameron and France President Nicolas Sarkozy.

In March, the UN Security Council passed a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire, establishing a no-fly zone and authorised "all necessary measures" for protecting civilians in Libya. India, China, Russia, Brazil and Germany abstained from voting on the resolution.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday left for Kazakhstan, completing his three-day stay in Sanya during which he attended the BRICS Summit and held bilateral talks with the presidents of China, Brazil, Russia and South Africa.

Singh will be in Kazakh capital Astana for two days during which both the sides will sign an inter-governmental framework agreement on civil nuclear cooperation and some other pacts.

Attending the third BRICS summit, Singh pushed for closer cooperation, particularly in the field of economy among the five fast emerging nations.

BRICS (India, China, Russia, Brazil and South Africa) took a significant step towards enhancing economic cooperation when the members countries signed an agreement under which they will be able to provide credit to each other in local currencies and collaborate in capital markets and other financial services.