Gwalior, Apr 14: The Congress party on Tuesday called for a shutdown in Bhind and Datia districts of Madhya Pradesh to protest the murder of lawmaker Makhan Singh Jatav the previous night.

Congress leaders are blaming the opposition for the murder and have demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry in the matter.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan, however, has urged the party not to politicise the killing.

Islamabad, Apr. 14: The Chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator John Kerry has rejected claims that the drone attacks are encouraging terrorism in Pakistan.

"Make no mistake about it. Extremists, religious radicals and terrorism did not begin after drone attacks. So it is important for people to focus on that reality as well," the Dawn quoted Kerry, as saying.

Senator Kerry, who is in Islamabad to discuss the proposed aid package, said that the provisions attached with US aid package to Pakistan were only meant to improve the `effectiveness of aid'.

Beijing - New Zealand's Fonterra Co-operative Group will buy up shares from a farm it jointly owned with Sanlu Group, the company at the centre of a milk contamination scandal that killed six children in China last year, state media said Tuesday. Fonterra Chairman Henry van der Heyden said Monday that his company, which already owns 85 per cent of the dairy farm , plans to buy the remaining 15 per cent owned by Sanlu, according to the official Chinese news agency Xinhua.

Poonch (Jammu and Kashmir), Apr 14: The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has beefed up security in Poonch ahead of the five-phaseD general elections beginning from April 16.

Soon after the announcement of the election dates, the Election Commission (EC) had said there would be a massive deployment of security forces across the region during the polls.

According to the CRPF Commandant and the District Nodal Officer for election security, S. S. Sidhu, the CRPF has taken all necessary security measures to ensure fair and safe elections in the region.

Geneva - Somali pirates are in danger of again threatening food supplies for the war-ravaged East African country, the UN food agency warned on Tuesday. "Piracy is a constant concern for the World Food Programme," said spokeswoman Emilia Casella - noting that
90 per cent of the aid to Somalia is delivered by sea.

The Maersk Alabama with its American crew were captured last week

as they were delivering food aid to Africa. More than half of the 200 containers on the ship were destined for the WFP.

Moscow - Two Russian biathletes who tested positive at the recent national championships were named by Russian news agency RIA Novosti Tuesday as Andrey Prokunin und Veronika Timofeyeva. The agency cited confidential sources for its report but there was no comment from the Russian biathlon federation.

A-samples of the two skiers tested positive for the blood-booster EPO, it was reported. Follow-up B-samples will be returned next week.