Kathmandu, Sept 22 : The Maoist cadres on Saturday launched their agitation to disrupt the Constituent Assembly elections slated for November 22.

As part of their campaign, Maoists staged demonstrations in front of the Village Development Committee's (VDC) and municipal offices across the country today.

The Maoists had warned to disrupt the Constituent Assembly elections earlier this week after the Interim Government turned down the Maoist demand to declare the Himalayan nation as a republic immediately.

Kolkata, Sept 22 : External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee today expressed the hope that the deadlock over the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal would be broken at the UPA-Left meeting to be held on October five.

"I am hopeful that the issue would get resolved then (at the meeting on October five)," Mukherjee told reporters.

Mukherjee, who heads the UPA-Left panel formed to resolve the nuclear deal issue, said that at the two meetings of the committee, the UPA has received three notes from the Left on the issue.

Bhopal, Sept 22 : Blaming the UPA Government of completely bungling in handling the Ram Setu issue, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday demanded an “unqualified apology” from the Centre, and said the ruling coalition should recognising Ram as a “great national hero.”

In its resolution on the Ram Setu issue, adopted at its ongoing national executive meet here, the BJP also called for preservation of the bridge as a National Heritage, saying that during the debate on this issue in Rajya Sabha, important party leaders had demanded this.

New Delhi/Bhopal, Sep 22 : With former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee opting out of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s national executive meet citing health reasons, party’s veteran L K Advani was all set to take the lead, but the former’s recent open letter to his party men has once again put the issue of party leadership in deep freeze.

Chennai, Sept 21: The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) on Friday said that the Central Government should continue with the Sethusamudram Ship Canal Project without any further delay.

"We don't consider the issue of the Adam's Bridge as an obstacle. There is no scientific evidence to show that this is a man-made formation," CPI-M General Secretary Prakash Karat said.

Islamabad, Sep 21: Pakistan’s Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed has said that President Pervez Musharraf would be in uniform if the present assemblies are dissolved prior to his re-election.

If elected by the present assemblies, Musharraf would doff his uniform before taking oath of office for a new term, Rashid told a TV channel.

Musharraf would file his nomination papers after consultation with the Pakistan Muslim League (Qaumi) leadership, Rashid added.