New Delhi, Dec. 7 : External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee has condemned Pakistan in strong words clarifying his stance on the hoax call issue.

“I had made no such telephone call. My last and only conversation with President Asif Ali Zardari was in Islamabad during my visit to Pakistan in May 2006,” Mukherjee said in a statement released by the External Affairs Ministry today.

Lahore, Dec. 7: Suggesting that there is enough evidence of former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) officers involvement in the planning and execution of last week''s terror attacks in Mumbai, Arizona Senator and Republican presidential candidate in 2008 John McCain has warned that if Pakistan does not act fast to arrest them, India will conduct air strikes on select targets in Pakistan.

Srinagar, Dec 7 : Fourth phase of the seven phased elections is going on in Jammu and Kashmir today.

18 constituencies where the votes are being polled include Udhampur, Reasi, Baramullah and Budgam.

Polling of votes started at eight in the morning and will close at four in the afternoon. Tight security arrangements have been made at all polling stations. In Gool Arnas constituency of Reasi, 109 polling stations have been set up for 50,000 electorate.

Being the militancy prone area 77 polling stations have been declared hyper sensitive, 23 sensitive leaving only 9 stations normal. An impressive arrangement of security has been made for peaceful conduct of poll.

New Delhi, Dec 7 : In the aftermath of the commando attack on Mumbai -- I refuse to treat it as a terror attack-- a war or words has been unleashed among those who should all have in the first instance protected Mumbai. The whole thing is unseemly. The media too has been dragged into the controversy; next time something similar happens, they want to arm themselves to gag the media?

A nation that does not remember history is bound to suffer. In its heyday, the Mughal Empire, particularly during the reign of Akbar, Jehangir and Shah Jehan, was the richest in the world. The whole world set out to find where India was. That is how so many countries; including the United States were discovered.

Chilyari/Samba Sector/Londi/Hiranagar, Dec 7: Farmers of Kathua district that shares borders with Pakistan said they face a bleak future after relations soured between India and Pakistan in the wake of the Mumbai terror strikes.

Although both countries have denied reports about mobilization of troops on their borders, residents of the border areas say that hostilities between the two neighbours cast a shadow on their lives.

Farmers in the region said they feared they would have to abandon their crops if hostilities flared up.

Lucknow/New Delhi, Dec 6 : Muslims of Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh observed ''Black Day'' on the 16th anniversary of the demolition of Babri mosque.

Some of the members from the community gathered at a local mosque to give vent to their anguish over the demolition, which happened in 1992.

The main dome of the mosque was mast with a black flag and the forecourt reverberated with the feelings of the speakers.