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US Defence Secy arrives in India

Hanoi: US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta flies to India on Tuesday for talks focusing on Washington's strategic shift towards Asia, as US officials eye New Delhi as a potentially pivotal partner.

Security ties to India have steadily improved in recent years but US officials have yet to  realise the goal of a game-changing alliance that could check China's role and empower the two countries' economies, analysts say.

During his two-day visit, Panetta is expected to discuss expanding defence ties, the NATO war effort in Afghanistan and China's increasing economic and military power in the region, US officials said.

Panetta is due to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon on Tuesday afternoon along with other officials, before giving a policy speech on Wednesday, officials said.

In President Barack Obama's new strategy blueprint unveiled in January, India is the only country mentioned by name as a vital partner.

US officials say the two countries share democratic traditions and similar concerns about China's stance as well as the threat posed by Islamic extremists in South Asia.

TMC ahead in WB civic polls

Kolkata: Passing the civic polls test, Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress on Tuesday bagged three of the six municipalities that went to polls on Sunday. The CPI-M led Left Front meanwhile won one municipality.

The TMC came out winners in Panskura, Nalhati and Dhupguri. In Panskura, the TMC won 12 seats while the Left Front bagged 5. In Nalhati, the TMC won 8 seats, the Left Front and the Congress 3 seats each, while the BJP won 1 seat. In Dhupguri, the TMC won 11 seats, while the Left Front won 4 and the BJP 1 seat.

The Left Front bagged the Haldia municipality, winning 15 seats. The TMC won 11 seats.

In Cooper’s Camp, the Congress was on way to victory with 11 seats while the TMC was ahead in 1.

In Durgapur, it was a neck-and-neck fight with the TMC leading in 11 seats and the Left Front in 9. The BJP and Others were ahead in 1 seat each.

The civic polls were seen as a test of the popularity of the Mamata Banerjee government, which has completed one year in power.

As many as 85 per cent of the electorate had cast their votes in the polls for six civic bodies.

The allies in the Union and state governments - Trinamool and Congress – fought separately for the first time after last year's Assembly polls.

Al-Qaeda man killed in Pakistan

Peshawar: Abu Yahya al-Libi, one of al Qaeda's top strategists and seen as the most prominent figure in the network after leader Ayman al Zawahri, may have been killed in a drone strike in northwest Pakistan, Pakistani intelligence officials said on Tuesday. If his death is confirmed it  would be the biggest blow to al Qaeda since US special forces killed Osama bin Laden in a secret raid in Pakistan in May 2011.

US sources said Libi, a Libyan cleric with a degree in chemistry who has survived previous drone attacks, was a target of a strike early on Monday in the North Waziristan tribal region, home to some of the world's most notorious militant groups.

Some US officials describe Libi, whose real name is Mohamed Hassan Qaid, as number two to al Zawahri, the former Egyptian doctor who took over al Qaeda after bin Laden's death.

Pakistani intelligence officials told Reuters they believe Libi (which means Libyan in Arabic) may have been among seven foreign militants killed in Monday's strike.

One of the officials said Pakistani authorities had intercepted telephone chatter about Libi, an al Qaeda theologian and expert on new media whose escape from a US-run prison in Afghanistan in 2005 made him famous in al Qaeda circles.

"We intercepted some conversations between militants. They were talking about the death of a 'sheikh'," one of the Pakistani intelligence officials said, referring to the title given to senior religious leaders.