India rejects American offer to train IAF cadets fearing ideological invasion

India has rejected an American offer to train for free half-a-dozen air force (IAF) officer-cadets for a year at the US Air Force Academy.

The decision reflects extreme caution in the higher echelons of the defence ministry about rushing into an all-encompassing military relationship with the US at the cost of India's traditional ties with Russia and Europe and its tender peace with China.

In a day of pulls and pushes ahead of the general election, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Sunday threatened to look for an alternative if its demand for a joint alliance with the Congress at the national level was not met while the Congress and Samajwadi Party continued to wrangle over seat-sharing in Uttar Pradesh.

NCP chief Sharad Pawar did not talk numbers explicitly, but deputy chief minister Chhagan Bhujbal demanded that the Congress give them 24 seats (of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state). "What is wrong if we ask for 24-24, 144-144 (assembly) seats, and 2.5 years-2.5 years of chief-ministership?" he said at a rally in Nashik.

President Pratibha Patil on Sunday rejected chief election commissioner N Gopalaswami's recommendation to remove Navin Chawla as election commissioner. The president's decision paves the way for Chawla to take over as the CEC after Gopalaswami retires on April 20.

The government had made clear that the CEC was not empowered to seek the removal of an election commissioner without a presidential reference being first made to him. Gopalaswami's action was criticised by legal luminaries though the BJP had backed him. Chawla has been accused of being partial to Congress.

New Delhi, Mar 1 : President Pratibha Patil today rejected the recommendations of the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) N Gopalaswami to remove Election Commissioner Naveen Chawla from the poll panel.

A Rashtrapati Bhawan communique said the President had received a recommendation to this effect from the Union Government and taken a decision after taking a considered view on the issue.

The development comes days ahead of an announcement of a schedule for general elections.

The three-member Commission is widely expected to announce poll dates in a day or two.

Kolkata, Mar 1 : Giving a fresh jolt to the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) in West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress on Sunday wrested the Bishanpur (West) assembly seat from the Left Front by a huge margin in a byelection.

The bypoll was held on February 26, in which 82 percent voters cast their votes.

Madan Mitra of the Trinamool Congress Secured 85,335 votes and he defeated his CPM rival Iskandar Hossain by 30,395 votes.

Dhaka  - The government of Bangladesh announced Saturday that it intends to prosecute members of a paramilitary border force that mutinied this week by special tribunal, as more graves of the mutineers victims were discovered.

"The law ministry was asked to enact laws for the speedy trial of the killers and looters," Syed Ashraful Islam, the Local Government Rural Development and Cooperatives minister, told a press briefing after an emergency meeting of the council of ministers and senior leaders of the ruling Awami League party.