Kolkata, Mar 9 : The Kamatpur Progressive Party (KPP) has organised a 24-hour shutdown in four districts of West Bengal on Monday to protest against the administration's refusal to permit a KPP rally that was to be held at Maynaguri in Jalpaiguri district today.

Three districts Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri and North Dinajpur saw partial response while it was total in Darjeeling hills.

The Gorkha Jana Mukti Morcha has given its total support to the shutdown in Darjeeling.

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) general secretary and the former Lok Sabha Speaker P. A. Sangma said he was in total support of the KPP's demand for constitutional recognition of Kamatpuri district.

New Delhi, Mar 9 : Union Minister of Water Resources Saifuddin Soz on Monday expressed his condolences over the passing away of veteran Dogri writer and litterateur Prof. Ram Nath Shastri in Jammu on Sunday night.

Soz recalled the services of Professor Shastri for the revival and resurgence of Dogri language, and said that it was late writer's inspiration, which led to the tremendous growth and glory of Dogri language.

"Prof. Shastri was a father figure who has always inspired young writers and journalists", Soz added.

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New Delhi, March 9 : Reports have indicated that China is planning to launch 15 to 16 satellites in 2009.

"Though the global financial crisis is taking toll on world economy, it has no impact on China's space programs," said Zhang Jianqi, deputy chief commander of the manned space project.

China is at present "batch-producing" the three spacecraft, Shenzhou-8, Shenzhou-9 and Shenzhou-10, according to Zhang, who is also a deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC), the country's top legislature.

Amritsar, Mar 9 : To explore trade potential between Punjab and East Midland (UK), a high-level delegation visited Punjab from February 28 to March 7 in association with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Punjab Link Council, UK.

During their stay in India, the delegation met several business groups from Punjab.

New Delhi, March 9 : China is working on an ambitions ocean exploration program that may send men to 7,000 meters deep into the ocean, for the first time in the world.

According to Sun Zhihui, director of the State Oceanic Administration, a deep-sea manned submersible for the mission has been assembled last year and the test would begin this year.

If successful, the China-made submersible would be the first manned vehicle to reach such a depth.