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Apprehending customer hostility in his native Lahore, Inzamam contacted Sachin, offering to make Tendulkar8217;s 8216;8216;the best aloo paratha joint in the world8217;8217;. Beginning next week, he will be preside over Mumbai8217;s first paratha festival, tentatively called 8216;8216;Fully Feel Good8217;8217;.

New Delhi, Saturday, May 29: Just two weeks after being re-elected, the BJP-led NDA called an all-party meeting to discuss electoral reforms at the prime minister8217;s residence this afternoon. The meeting was stormy, with the Left parties protesting against the SP8217;s proposal to raise candidates8217; spending limits and the BJP protesting against the Congress8217; proposal to lower rath yatra speeding limits.

The meeting ended on a cordial note, however, when HRD Minister Murli Manohar Joshi8217;s proposal to set up a high-powered investigative team to look into the vastu of Nirvachan Sadan, seat of the Election Commission, was accepted unanimously. As a participant later said, 8216;8216;The parties were keen to find out what happens to even meek bureaucrats the moment they become EC members. If there is something wrong with the vastu, it can be rectified.8217;8217;

Contacted late at night, a happy Joshi said, 8216;8216;It is the first time any proposal I have made has been accepted without protest.8217;8217;

Pune, Saturday, August 14: Speaking exclusively to Sunday Express at his residence this evening, IOA chief Suresh Kalmadi confirmed that India would be sending its 8216;8216;largest ever8217;8217; contingent of 491 to next week8217;s Olympic Games in Athens. 8216;8216;We recognise that the importance of the Olympics goes well beyond sport,8217;8217; Kalmadi explained, 8216;8216;therefore we have taken a policy decision that no more than 10 per cent of the team will comprise sportsmen.8217;8217;

Accordingly the contingent will comprise 49 sportsmen. When asked for the names, Kalmadi said, 8216;8216;Well there8217;s Dhanraj and the hockey guys, that8217;s about 20 8230; Then the usual, wrestlers from Punjab, that high jumper, or is it long jumper from Kerala. I can8217;t remember the names 8230; but we are confident of winning 15-20 gold medals.8217;8217;

The remaining squad will comprise, primarily, sports administrators and government officials.

Even so, Kalmadi emphasised, 8216;8216;This is no junket. The Delhi transport commissioner is going, to get ideas on how to decongest Delhi8217;s roads for the 2010 Commonwealth Games. The Archaeological Survey of India is sending a team to study the impact, if any, on heritage monuments.8217;8217;

8216;8216;And the Jammu and Kashmir government,8217;8217; Kalmadi added, 8216;8216;is sending a research party to look at the socio-psychological effect of the Olympics on Greece8217;s Turkish minorities. We want to use sports to check the alienation of Kashmiri youth.8217;8217;

Chennai, Saturday, November 20: Claiming to be 8216;8216;disappointed8217;8217; and 8216;8216;exasperated8217;8217; at the renewed acts of terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir and other parts of the country, the steering committee of the Joint Confederation of the Jayalalitha Fans Associations JCJFA adopted a strongly-worded resolution demanding that the Centre 8216;8216;hand over the Kashmir problem to Amma.8217;8217;

8216;8216;Mr Vajpayee8217;s efforts have failed,8217;8217; said an agitated Rajgopalan Shivanandanswamy, president, JCJFA, 8216;8216;Musharraf is not to be trusted. Only a strong woman like Amma can handle Pakistan. We have to settle it once and for all.8217;8217;

Asked if he was advocating war, Shivanandanswamy looked surprised. 8216;8216;We are not unreasonable people,8217;8217; he said, 8216;8216;all we are asking for is an arm-wrestling contest between Musharraf and Amma at the LoC.8217;8217;

Kolkata, Saturday, February 13: In perhaps the most intriguing political crisis to hit West Bengal since the disappearance of Netaji, the CPIM top brass was summoned for a late-night, closed-door meeting at the party HQ on Alimmudin Street. The crisis began with the arrival, described by party sources as 8216;8216;sudden and unannounced8217;8217;, of an e-mail to the official e-mail address of Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya.

A senior aide to the chief minister described what happened, 8216;8216;When we opened the mail, we were shocked. The screen turned red in colour. Then some text was seen 8230; 8216;Happy Balentine Dey 8230; Mamata Banerjee8217;. We are trying to get to the bottom of the conspiracy.8217;8217;

The Sunday Express has learnt that two factors led the CPIM to worry about Mamata8217;s 8216;8216;imperialist links8217;8217;. 8216;8216;Why did the screen turn red?,8217;8217; a party insider asked, 8216;8216;It was deliberate. It was an insult to us.8217;8217; That apart, the address from which the e-mail was sent 8212; it is rumoured to be an AOL America Online account 8212; got the CPIM alarmed.

Meanwhile, the city police commissioner confirmed that 8216;8216;a massive manhunt has been launched to find Mr Balentine Dey8217;8217;. He is 8216;8216;suspected of being a CIA agent8217;8217;.