New Delhi, Aug. 2: The Editors Guild of India has expressed shock at the pressure tactics being adopted by the Bharatiya Janata Party against CNN IBN Television channel.

Criticising BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu for declaring that his party would boycott CNN IBN, if the channel does not immediately telecast the tapes of the sting operation carried out in concert with the BJP MPs in New Delhi on Juy 22 in connection with the vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha, the Guild said: "The freedom of an editor to publish or telecast any news item cannot be subject to the approval or disapproval of a political party."

New Delhi, Aug 2 : Lok Sabha Speaker Somanth Chatterjee will leave for Kuala Lumpur today to attend the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) meeting.

The conference will witness a direct contest for the chairmanship of the Association between NRI industrialist Lord Swraj Paul and a Malaysian minister.

Paul, who is a Labour member of the British House of Lords, is pitted against Mohammed Shafie Apdal, Malaysia''s Minister for Unity and Culture.

New Delhi, August 1 : External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee today expressed deep sorrow at the demise of veteran Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Harkishan Singh Surjeet.

He said while talking to ANI: “He was suffering from quite some time and was not in a position to communicate. I wanted to talk to him but he was hospitalized. He was doyen of Indian communist movement. Particularly Prime Minister, President and myself admitted that he was the architecture of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) left coalition, which was functioning well since the last four years."

New Delhi, August 1 : It is ironic that Harkishan Singh Surjeet, who was instrumental in ensuring the Left’s support to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government, should pass away within a month of the death of UPA-Left alliance.

Surjeet, the 92-year-old CPM leader, was instrumental in forming a number of anti-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) coalitions in the 1990s and for ensuring Left support to the present UPA Government.

New Delhi, Aug. 1 : The 9th International Kashmir Peace Conference organized by Kashmiri American Council/Kashmir Centre Washington and Congressmen Joseph Pits, Republican, Congressman Jim Moran Democrat and Congresswomen Yvette Clarke, Democrat at Capitol Hill opened Association of Humanitarian Lawyers on Thursday.

New Delhi, Aug 1 : Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil today expressed deep sorrow at the demise of veteran CPI (M) leader Harkishan Singh Surjeet.

In his statement, Pail said, "I am deeply grieved to learn of the sad demise of Harkishan Singh Surjeet. He will always be remembered by the countrymen as a statesman and a very good human being. May his soul rest in peace. I join the nation in paying tribute to the departed soul."