New Delhi, Jan 30 : The Central Government has urged the States to accelerate project work in sectors like infrastructure and urban and rural development to fight the economic slowdown.

Chief Secretaries'' meeting with the Cabinet Secretary on Friday focused on employment, primarily in important areas like surface transport, rural development and urban development.

Planning Commission Secretary Subhas Pani said that the Centre could help states with infrastructure if they provide land for making houses at affordable prices.

New Delhi, Jan 30 : The Spice Group has expressed an interest to invest 408 million dollars in Satyam Computer Services and buy a 51% stake in the company.

Spice Chairman B K Modi said, "We want the money to go inside the company. For that they will have to make a preferential issue. If I buy shares from the market, the money will not go into the company."

Modi revealed that his company has submitted its proposal to the newly appointed board of Satyam on Thursday and has also talked to two or three board members informally.

New Delhi - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is recovering after a heart bypass surgery, is likely to be discharged from hospital this weekend, a news agency reported Friday.

"He would be discharged on Saturday afternoon if everything goes right till that time or we might consider to extend his stay to Sunday," his doctor Vijay D'Silva was quoted by the Press Trust of India as saying.

Seventy-six-year-old Singh was operated on at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, the country's top state-run hospital, in Delhi on January 24.

New Delhi, Jan 30: Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, who is recuperating after a coronary by-pass surgery is likely to be discharged from the All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) on Saturday.

Dr Vijay D'Silva of the Mumbai-based Asian Heart Institute, said the Prime Minister is likely to be discharged tomorrow.

Dr. D'Silva said the Prime Minister has slowly started getting back to his routine.

New Delhi, Jan 30 : The Supreme Court has granted bail to the Ansal brothers- Sushil and Gopal who were earlier convicted and sentenced to a year''s imprisonment in connection with the 1997 Uphaar fire tragedy case.

The bail was sanctioned after both furnished a personal bond of Rs. 10,000 each.

The apex bench, headed by Justice S B Sinha, issued notices on the appeals against the one year sentence filed by the Ansal brothers and Victims of the Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT).

New Delhi, Jan 30 : Former National Security Advisor Brajesh Mishra has said the United States should deny Pakistan all military aid till it fully co-operates with the international community in controlling the Taliban presence in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Speaking at a seminar on ''Future directions of US Relations with India and the region'' organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry and The Asia Foundation, a US think tank here on Thursday, Mishra said that the denial of economic support to the Pakistan military is the key to America''s success in Afghanistan.