Washington - US Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned Tuesday of "pretty dramatic" consequences is a proposed agreement on the status of US forces in Iraq is not approved by Iraqi lawmakers before the end of the year.

He made the comment in an exclusive interview with three news outlets including the Bloomberg news agency at the Pentagon defence headquarters outside Washington.

New Delhi - India on Wednesday launched its first-ever mission to the moon, with the unmanned Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft blasting off from the Sriharikota spaceport in southern India on a two-year exploration.

The 44-metre tall Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV C11) carrying the Chandrayaan probe lifted off at 0622 local time (0052 GMT) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, 80 kilometres north of Chennai.

The Indian Space Research Organization said the launch and the performance of the rocket was going "perfectly."

The Chandrayaan, which means moon craft in Sanskrit, is on a 3.86- billion-rupee (79-million-dollar) mission.

New Delhi, Oct. 22: Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Murli Deora will meet with representatives of state-run oil companies and private airlines here today in a bid to resolve their dispute over unpaid fuel bills.

According to sources, Deora and Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel have reportedly been asked by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, who is currently away on an official visit to Japan and China, to resolve this issue at the earliest.

Tokyo  - Tokyo stocks shed the previous session's gains on Wednesday, tracking the US market's overnight losses.

Pune, Oct 22: An International workshop on Advances in processing of Solid Propellant Rocket motors (IWAPS 2008) will be held at the High Energy Materials Research Laboratory 
(HEMRL) here today.

The two-day workshop is being organised as part of the Golden Jubilee celebration of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Centenary Celebrations of HEMRL.

The objective of the workshop is to bring eminent scientists and technologists from across the globe together on a common platform to discuss the advances in the field of solid propellant processing in order to meet the challenges ahead for advanced futuristic propulsion systems needed for high pay loads.