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      | by
        Sandeep Joshi |  | EC
    issues formal notification forAssembly poll
 New Delhi, January 31
 The process for electing new
    representatives in Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura began
    today with the Election Commission issuing formal notification for the
    one-day poll.
 India plays
        Central Asia cardForges strategic ties to counter Pak
 New Delhi, January 31
 External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha today completed a crucial visit to two Central Asian nations, Tajikistan and
        Kyrgyzstan, at the end of which New Delhi clinched a much closer strategic cooperation with this region, which Pakistan has been using as its strategic hinterland against India.
 
      
        | India,
          Thailand discuss treaty on extradition |  
        | Bangkok, January 31 Expressing deep concern over global terrorism, India and Thailand today declared that the ongoing cooperation between them on security issues needed to be institutionalised and given legal sustenance by finalising treaties on extradition and other issues.
 
 Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani shakes hand with Thailand’s Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra at Government House in Bangkok on Friday. Mr Advani is
          on a four-day visit to Thailand. — AFP photo
 
  In video (28k, 56k) |  |  Pak
    laying mines in Indian territoryNew Delhi, January 31
 Security forces along the international
    border with Pakistan in the Punjab sector have detected several instances of
    Pakistani forces sneaking across to lay mines in the Indian territory in the
    past 10 days.
 
      
        | HIV-positive
        man conceals illness, marriesLudhiana, January 31
 The only son of a family from Moga,
        allegedly an HIV positive case, married a girl of Chakra village in
        Jagraon subdivision of this district. This fact came to light today
        after a high-level inquiry into the case was conducted by the Jagraon
        police.
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            |  | Bathinda
    Refinery to be speeded up January 31, 2003
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            |  | Jaitley, Thakur get Cabinet berth January 30, 2003
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            |  | Congress
    splits in UP January 29, 2003
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            |  | Question mark over Bathinda refinery January 28, 2003
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            |  | Fresh threat to
    Bathinda refinery January 26, 2003
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            |  | India, France sign extradition treaty January 25, 2003
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            |  | Pak
    expels four Indian staffers January 24, 2003
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            |  | Four
    Pak Mission staffers expelled January 23, 2003
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            |  | Nod to
    jail term for insulting Tricolour January 22, 2003
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            |  | Pak cops harass
    diplomat again January 21, 2003
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