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New Delhi, Oct 24 : A Sessions Court today awarded life sentence to all the 10 policemen, who were convicted in connection with the 1997 Connaught Place shootout case.

Suspended Assistant Commissioner of Police S S Rathi was among those awarded the life term.

"I sentence them to life imprisonment," Additional Sessions Judge Vinod Kumar said, pronouncing the quantum of punishment to ten policemen.

On March 31, 1997, a Crime Branch team of the Delhi police, led by Rathi pumped bullets into two businessmen -- Pradeep Goyal and Jajgjit Singh--, killing the two at the spot.

Earlier, CBI counsel S K Saxena had sought death penalty Rathi, who led the operation, and head constable Mahaveer Singh and constable Kothari Ram, whose bullets had killed the victims.

Lahore, Oct 24 : Veteran Pakistani politicians belonging to different parties have expressed serious concern over the ‘dirty politics’ initiated by the PPP and the PML-Q leadership in the aftermath of the October 18 Karachi blasts.
They feel it would negatively impact country’s political culture already marred by politics of revenge and intolerance.
Senior PML-N leader Raja Zafarul Haq said that it was unfortunate to see the two parties indulging in a blame game over an issue, which was still under investigation.
He blamed successive military dictators for spoiling country’s political environment, sometimes directly jumping into the politics and at times supporting one political group or the other to serve their vested interests.

London, Oct 24 : The European Union (EU) is likely to see a rush of Asian and African immigrants in the coming days following a new blue card scheme, initiated on the lines of the US green card.

The blue card scheme, unveiled by EU Immigration Commissioner Franco Frattini, will allow close to 20 million immigrants and their families to settle in the member states.

Those having over three years' work experience or a university degree will be entitled to get the blue card, which will let them to work in a member country under "fast-track" immigration reforms.

However, the qualified workers will need to prove they have been offered a job lasting at least one year and with a salary at least three times the legal minimum wage applicable in the country they are heading for.

New Delhi, Oct. 24 : To curb the menace of terrorism, police chiefs of SAARC countries have called for the formation of an institutional mechanism to enhance cooperation amongst the SAARC nations.

Besides terrorism, other issues like drug trafficking, cyber crimes and financial frauds were also introduced at the Sixth SAARC Conference on Cooperation in Police Matters on Tuesday.

According to sources in the Union Home Ministry, police chiefs also agreed to share information related to trans-border crimes among police organisations.

“The delegates spoke of the need for a network of cooperation amongst them to strengthen the existing mechanisms of cooperation in drugs, terrorism and trafficking,” said a source after the meeting.

The BSE benchmark index, Sensex, today opened strongly at 17,910.30 and gained about 900 points during the day, reaching its highest intraday high.

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