U.S. planes pound Kabul, Herat
Kabul: U.S. warplanes pounded the area around the southern Afghan city of Kandahar on Tuesday night for the second time in 12 hours. Raids the previous night in Kabul killed four civilians working for a U.N.-affiliated mine-clearing agency - the first confirmed civilian deaths of the air campaign.

U.S. aircraft had been flying almost continual sorties over Kandahar during the day on Tuesday, presumably to determine which air defences remained intact.

Taliban troops traded gunfire with the Pakistani border guards in the North-West Frontier Province. Taliban forces later withdrew deeper into their own territories.
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More protests in Pak, clerics held
Islamabad: The Musharraf administration on Tuesday detained three hardline Muslim clerics even as Islamabad was turned into a veritable fortress to pre-empt violence that saw four persons being killed elsewhere in widespread riots across the country.

The police put under house arrest three prominent leaders in an attempt to stop further demonstrations. Senior Jamiat Ulema Islami (JUI) party faction leader Fazlur Rehman was detained in his northwestern hometown of Dera Ismail Khan for the second time since Saturday.

Another JUI chief, Samiul Haq, was placed under house arrest in northwestern Akora Khattak, where he runs a prominent seminary and taught Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar in the early 1990s. Azam Tariq, head of the Sunni extremist group Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), was detained at Lahore airport overnight and restricted to his home in Jhang, central Punjab.

In Lahore, several hundred pro-Taliban demonstrators stoned police, blocked roads and chanted slogans against US President Bush and Pakistani President Musharraf for his support of the US.
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Hardware units slam luxury tax
Bangalore: Beginning this week, the states IT hardware sector with 2000 vendors is expected to halt transactions if the government does not revoke the 12 per cent luxury tax imposed on IT/computer goods.
According to the Association for Information Technology (AIT), the stricture to be enforced with retrospective effect from April would cause severe damage to the industry.
AIT members submitted a memorandum to chief minister SM Krishna on Saturday and spoke to IT Minister BK Chandrashekar. Both have considered the issue.
AIT said the luxury tax will result in a 300 per cent increase in tax rate on IT products in Karnataka. If the tax is not revoked immediately, it would discourage the IT businesses, including manufacturing, Deepak Chopra of AIT said.
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Software exports to suffer
New Delhi: Software exports targets would suffer if US-led air strikes on Afghanistan are to continue, according to the IT industry.

Soon after the September 11 terrorist attacks in US, IDC had revised its software exports target to 25-30 per cent for the year 2001-02.

ESC, an autonomus body under the IT ministry estimated that the growth could be between 25-30 per cent depending on the longevity of the war.

The current misfortune afflicting the airlines industry would affect the travel applications of Indian software companies.

The delay in reconstruction work of WTC due to the start of the US-led retaliation was another matter of concern for the Indian software companies.

Manufacturers Association of Information Technology said the hardware industry, which is already facing a domestic demand crunch, might see the hardest of times due to the attack.
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Indo-Bangla waterway proposed
New Delhi: The Centre is planning to develop river Brahmaputra as an international waterway providing connections between India and Bangladesh. Rs 300 crore would be needed for the purpose and the waterway would provide an economic, efficient and environment-friendly mode of transportation
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Promoter-directors excluded from Esops guidelines
New Delhi: The final guidelines on the employee stock option plan scheme (Esops) have excluded the promoter-directors from the ambit of the scheme.
Accordingly, the promoter directors will not be eligible for Esops. Companies will not have to obtain prior approval now from the government for issuing the employee stock option.
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