No July deadline for N-deal: US

WASHINGTON: The Bush administration has said there was a "little bit more time" than the July deadline suggested by a top lawmaker for the Indo-US nuclear deal to be passed in the US Congress, while stressing that any internal pressure within India to quickly move the deal forward was "good".

White House Press Secretary Dana Perino was asked to comment on a statement made by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph Biden during his recent visit to New Delhi, were he said the nuclear deal has to be taken up in Congress by June and ratified by July.

Any new US administration will "renegotiate" the deal, Biden had said.

But Perino said, "We have a little bit more time than that, obviously, on the calendar before the end of the president's term. But if there's internal pressure from inside India for them to move more quickly, I think that's good. And I saw a report today that said that there are some elements within India that are very supportive of getting the deal done."

When asked if President George W Bush was in touch with New Delhi to push for the nuclear deal, Perino replied: "We are in touch with different levels of government throughout - here at the National Security Council and the State Department".

Police and lawyers clash in Orissa

BERHAMPUR (ORISSA): A clash erupted between police and agitating lawyers who raised slogans opposing Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's visit to a hospital accusing him of inaction in meeting their demand to set up a circuit bench of the Orissa high court in the city.

When the advocates, wearing black badges, attempted to break the police cordon near the MKCG Medical College Hospital it led to a minor clash, the police said.

Besides shouting slogans against Patnaik, the lawyers also attacked the government for setting up a commission to look into the demand for high court benches.

Claiming that there was no major confrontation or clash, Berhampur superintendent of police Nitinjeet Singh said "the agitating advocates tried to break the police cordon and we only pushed them back."

Ganjam Bar Association president S N Rath claimed two advocates sustained injuries in the incident, but police did not confirm it.

In order to prevent any major flare up, the authorities clamped prohibitory orders under section 144 and tightened security in the area for about an hour.

As all the four entrance gates of the hospital premises were cordoned off and barricaded, the patients had to wait outside.

India test fires submarine-launched ballistic missile

NEW DELHI: India on Tuesday tested its K-15 submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) from a submersible pontoon launcher off Visakhapatnam, amid some indications that the test was "not fully successful".

Sources said the missile, which has a strike range of 700km, did not meet all the pre-flight parameters laid down for the test conducted from the launcher submerged under the sea just before 1pm. On being contacted, DRDO officials refused to say anything, holding that only M Natarajan, the scientific advisor to the defence minister, could clear the position over the test-firing of K-15.

"A test like this, even though from a pontoon launcher and not an actual submarine, generates an immense amount of data... The exact position can be given only after a detailed analysis," said an official. It has taken around 10 years for India to even come to this stage of testing an SLBM, which has remained the preserve of the Big Five countries - US, Russia, China, France and UK.

DRDO chief controller Prahlada had told TOI earlier this month that this test would be the final test of K-15, which would then be ready to be integrated with the "mother ship". The "mother ship", of course, is a reference to the three indigenous nuclear-powered submarines being built at Visakhapatnam in the 25-year-old ATV (advanced technology vessel) project, which will overall cost around Rs 20,000 crore. The first of the three 6,000-tonne ATVs, each designed to carry 12 vertical-launched nuclear-tipped SLBMs, will be 'ready to go to sea' for trials by early 2009.

It will, however, take two to three years for the two-stage solid-fuelled K-15 to be integrated with the first ATV and then be test-fired from it.

When this happens, India will finally achieve its long-standing aim to have an operational 'nuclear weapon triad'. India already has Agni-I (700-km range) and Agni-II (2000-km-plus) ballistic missiles, as also the Agni-III (3,500-km) which has been successfully tested only once so far, as the land-based nuclear deterrent. Fighters like Sukhoi-30MKI and Mirage-2000s, which can be jury-rigged to carry nuclear weapons, constitute the air-based leg. But the absence of nuclear-powered submarines, armed with the capability of fire nuclear-tipped missiles from under the sea, has been a gaping hole in India's strategic capabilities.

The first test of Agni-III missile in July 2006, incidentally, had flopped miserably. Though the second test in April 2007 was successful, it will take at least three to four tests more for this China-specific missile to be fully-ready.

BCCI hits out at Aussies for sledging Indian team

MUMBAI, February 25: The India cricket board on Monday hit out at the Australian cricket team for indulging in sledging and provoking the Indians, saying such behaviour by the hosts was unnecessary and not good for the game. "The way the Australians are behaving is not good (for the game). They should not sledge our team members. It's not necessary," said BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah. Shah was reacting to the happenings during the Sydney tri-series tie on Sunday in which Aussie all-rounder Andrew Symonds provoked young Indian fast bowler Ishant Sharma for which the latter was docked 15 per cent of his match fees by ICC match referee Jeff Crowe. "They (Aussies) should restrain from such things and not get into another problem", the BCCI official said. But he did not comment on the complaint lodged by Indian manager Vimal Soni about the Aussies' behaviour with the match referee. Shah defended Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni for his comments after Sunday's loss to Australia wherein the wicketkeeper had asked the senior players to start delivering the goods. "He's the captain and whatever advice he (Dhoni) wants to give (to his teammates) he can give," the BCCI secretary said. Shah also said the World Cup under-19 team which has reached the semi-finals in Kuala Lumpur would be protected from being distracted by franchises eager to recruit them for the April 18-June 1 Indian Premier League. "We don't want any distraction for our cricketers and the board will decide which team they will go to," he said