Islamabad - Taliban militants in Pakistan's restive north- western Swat valley on Tuesday refused to lay down arms hours after Pakistani government approved Islamic sharia law for the troubled north-western region, to honour a truce with them. "My brother, we have only conventional weapons - and Islamic sharia gives people the right to keep them. Islamic jihad will continue until Judgement Day," Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan told Geo television's Capital Talk show.

Going by the instructions given by the Election Commissioner, the police Tuesday arrested BJP's Kandhamal candidate, Ashok Sahu, when he was addressing a public gathering in Phulbani. The arrest comes in reaction to Sahu's April 5 inflammatory speech at an election meeting at Raikia; an FIR was lodged against him on April 9.

Warsaw - Poland's government will allot one million zloty (305,269 dollars) to aid families and survivors of a fire that killed 22 people and injured 20, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Tuesday. Poland will also build a new facility for those left homeless by the blaze that struck a hostel for the homeless in the early hours of Monday. A seven-person commission was investigating the cause.

Budapest - Former economy minister Grodon Bajnai was voted into the post of Hungarian prime minister in a parliamentary vote Tuesday which at the same time expressed no confidence in Ferenc Gyurcsany, voting the socialist premier out of office. Immediately after the vote Bajnai, who has no party affiliation, said he would be reshuffling the cabinet and bringing in experts who were also free of party affiliations to take over the key finance, economy, social welfare and energy ministries.

Bhatinda (Punjab), Apr 14: Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday slammed Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) prime ministerial candidate Lal Krishna Advani for his reported statement that he was not aware of the release of militants in exchange for Indian hostages during Kandahar plane hijack episode in 1999.