New Delhi, Feb 18 : Keeping in view a possible nexus between the mafia and organized crime with terrorism, the Central Government has suggested that State Governments come up with action plans to counter it.

In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Dr. Shakeel Ahmad said: "The Central Government also focussed measures taken to identify and rid State capitals and other major cities/towns of mafia gangs, extortion groups, and land sharks."

New Delhi, Feb 18 : Hollywood actress Julia Roberts has revealed that US President Barack Obama and his family top her dream dinner party invite list.

The `Pretty Woman' actress, who also intends to invite Diane Sawyer, Mike Nichols, Oprah Winfrey, Stedman Graham and Tina Fey to her dinner party, says that her invite list begins with the Obama's placed at the top.

Julia insists that her twins Hazel Patricia and Phinnaeus Walter, with husband Danny Moder, can enjoy with Sasha and Malia Obama, if her dream dinner party takes place.

New Delhi, Feb 18 : An ambitious programme of development of solar cities is being launched tomorrow in the country. Nagpur in Maharashtra will be the first solar city in the country.

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy proposed to develop 60 such cities during the 11th Plan Period. At least one city in each state to a maximum of five cities in a State will be supported by the Ministry.

New Delhi, Feb 18 : Lawyers stayed away from courts in New Delhi for the second consecutive day on Wednesday to protest against the new provision in the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) that allows police to go by discretion to arrest the accused in an offence punishable up to seven-year-jail term.

The call for the nationwide strike of lawyers was given last month following a decision in a meeting of different bar associations in New Delhi.

New Delhi, Feb 18 : The government has proposed to benefit more than four crore households under its flagship programme of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme till the end of March in the current financial year.

Rural Development Minister Dr Raghuvansh Prasad Singh declared in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday that 27 lakh households have been given employment for hundred days in the first phase, 36 lakh more households in the second phase and 27 lakh households till now in the third phase in the implementation of the scheme.

Gold touched new heights at Rs 15,200 per 10 gram in the morning trading in Delhi, in line with significant rise in gold prices in the international market. Another reason for high price in India was decline in Indian currency and stock market.

Stockists kept on buying the precious metal, considering it as the safest investment mode amid tight financial conditions under the impact of global slowdown. Asian investors have shown high interest in the metal in order to preserve their wealth in the wake of global slowdown, fearing grimmer situation ahead.