New Delhi, Sept 22 : Union Minister of Labour and Employment Oscar Fernandes today called for a review of the industrial disputes resolution system, suggesting that it should be in sync with the policy of economic liberalization and restructuring.

Inaugurating the Third India-EU Seminar on “Employment Relations and Resolution of Conflicts” here, Fernandes said that the industrial resolution system should focus on bipartite consultation, building of trust by information sharing at enterprise level and promote voluntary arbitration rather than resolution of disputes through adjudication.

Brussels - The European Union on Monday called on three Indian states to lower their high import duties on spirits and wine, saying they contravene World Trade Organization (WTO) rules.

India's states of Goa, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu represent some of the country's largest markets for wines and spirits.

And these states apply a variety of additional duties on such products, on top of a nation-wide 150 per cent import tariff, thus making it difficult for European producers to reach those markets.

New Delhi, Sept 22 : The Home Ministry has rejected as “speculative” media reports that Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil showed a casual approach to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi when he met him to convey some information about a possible terror attack on Delhi.

The report had also mentioned that Patil displayed restlessness during the meeting, as he was getting late for his lunch.

New Delhi - Scores of Buddhist villagers in India's north-eastern state of Assam performed a unique funeral ritual for more than 800 endangered storks that died after a tree where they were nesting fell, a news report said Monday.

The Asian openbill storks died when the 200-year-old banyan tree that served as their colony crashed last week into a pond inside a Buddhist monastery some 300 kilometres east of state capital Guwahati, the IANS news agency reported.

The villagers, most of them farmers, considered the banyan tree sacred and believed that the storks were their guardian angels.

London, Sept 22 : Frank Leeson, the last British officer to have served in undivided India in Waziristan in 1946-47, recounts how difficult terrain the tribal belt is. According to him, it is a perfect hiding place for terrorists, riddled with valleys and caves. He says now it was a perfect hiding place for the Taliban, and with the support of the local tribesmen, the Taliban couldn’t be won over by use of force.

After more than 60 years of his service, Leeson says that the US must learn a lesson from the Britishers that the Taliban could not be won with force, especially because of the active support of the locals who believe in three principles - hospitality, protection and retaliation.

New Delhi - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday embarked on a 10-day visit to the United States and France which is expected to mark India's opening nuclear trade with the world after a three-decade ban.

Singh is scheduled to attend the United Nations General Assembly in New York as well as the India-European Union Summit in Marseilles before returning on October 2.

The highlight of Singh's visit will be meeting US President George W Bush in Washington on Thursday amid the possibility that the US-India civil nuclear energy deal could be signed.