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Kolkata: The Trinamool Congress on Wednesday crushed West Bengal's ruling Left Front in civic polls seen as a trial run to next year's make-or-break assembly election, wresting the prestigious Kolkata Municipal Corporation and scores of urban municipalities in the state.

As thousands of Trinamool activists cheered their leader and Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata and scores of towns, the party demanded an immediate assembly election saying the Left had lost the right to rule West Bengal. A shaken Left rejected the demand. The Congress, which had refused to have a tie-up with the Trinamool ahead of Sunday's polls, finished a poor third in most places but still held the key to power in many municipalities.

But the day clearly belonged to Banerjee, a former Youth Congress activist whose one-point mission is to end the Left stranglehold on West Bengal, a sprawling state the Communists have ruled without interruption since 1977 - a world record.

An upbeat Banerjee told a news conference here: "The state government has lost all right to be in power. Assembly elections should be held immediately."

Congress leader and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who does not get along well with the young Banerjee, congratulated her for the "excellent performance" and accepted that his own party has fared "badly".

While Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee refused to comment on the results, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) state secretary and Left Front chairman Biman Bose rejected the demand for early assembly polls.

"There is no question of preponing the elections. We have 5.2 million voters in the state, only 17 per cent of who took part in the civic polls," he said. It was a hint that the CPI-M, which dominates the Left Front, still feels it can outdo the opposition in rural areas.

Continuing a trend seen since last year's Lok Sabha polls, West Bengal's urban voters gave the thumbs down to the Left even though the Trinamool as well as the Congress did not unitedly fight the elections.

The results are a big boost to the Trinamool, which defied exit poll predictions of a close contest and improved its bargaining power vis-a-vis the Congress for the assembly elections. Trinamool candidates won 95, or more than two thirds of the seats, in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation's (KMC) 141 wards. The Left bagged 33 seats, the Congress 10 and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) three. The Left has controlled the KMC since 2005.

The Trinamool also gained control, for the first time, of the Bidhan Nagar municipality, which includes the city's posh satellite township of Salt Lake.

In the districts, the Trinamool bagged 25 municipalities while the Left saw success in 17 places. The Congress won control of seven bodies.

But there were no clear winners in the remaining 30 municipalities, where the Trinamool would need Congress help to take power. Read more....

New Delhi: The Centre on Wednesday ordered a CBI probe into the derailment of the Gyaneswari Express train last week, accepting a demand made by Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Sources told CNN-IBN that the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) will probe the train crash, which has been blamed on Naxal sabotage, along with the West Bengal police's Criminal Investigation Department and Railway Police. The Union Home Ministry has informed the West Bengal government's Chief Secretary about its decisionto order a CBI probe.

Banerjee, whose Trinamool Congress won the municipal elections in the state on Wednesday, has welcomed the CBI probe. "I have good relations with the Home Minister (P Chidambaram). The truth should come out," she said.

Banerjee first refused to blame the Naxals and alleged a "political conspiracy" behind the Gyaneshwari Express train crash near Jhargram town on Friday, but later said she didn't know who caused the mishap.

Initial objections of the West Bengal government notwithstanding, the Union government decided to orderthe CBI probe as the incident had taken place on railway property and in such cases the concurrence of the state government was not required.

"We have decided to hand over the case to the CBI under Section 5 of Delhi Police Special Establishment Act, under which the CBI functions," an official said.

During the investigation, the CBI will be helped by the Central security agencies, Railway Protection Force and West Bengal government.

"Today the West Bengal government has conveyed to us that they will cooperate in the investigation," the official said.

However, the CPM leadership reacted to the move cautiously. Senior leader of the Communist Party of India-Marxist Sitaram Yechury said, "the decision could have been taken with the state government in confidence."

Kolkata: Riding the winds of political change, Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress on Wednesday won the 141-ward city municipal corporation elections, inflicting a crushing blow to the ruling Left Front in the civic elections, dubbed as a semi-final before next year's Assembly polls.

In Sunday's election to a total of 81 civic bodies across 16 districts in West Bengal, Trinamool also tasted success in the districts where it alone bagged 20 of 43 municipalities, the results for which were available till Wednesday noon. The party bagged another eight civic bodies where it had local-level seat adjustment with the Congress. The Left Front registered wins in 12 municipalities while Congress lagged behind winning only in three.

The Trinamool Congress, which had already won two-thirds majority in the 141-member Kolkata Municipal Corporation, will not need the support of the Congress to rule Kolkata where her party has already captured 94 of the 135 wards the results of which were available.

The Left Front which was in power in KMC with 75 wards has managed to win in only 29 wards.

The Congress has so far got nine and the BJP three seats.

In the 2005 KMC polls, Left parties had won 75 seats, TMC 42, Congress 21 and BJP three.

Congratulating Mamata on her party's performance, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who is also the West Bengal Congress chief, said he accepted the people's verdict.

Mukherjee, speaking to reporters in New Delhi, said till the final results were out, it would be difficult for him to assess the "net loss or net gain" of the Congress, but said his party had lost some and gained some municipalities out of the 14 it held earlier.

"First of all, I would like to congratulate Mamata Banerjee for her excellent performance both in Kolkata and also in the districts. I accept the failure of the Congress to perform up to the expectations which we had. I accept the verdict of the people with all humility," Mukherjee said.

Kolkata: Mamata Banerjee, popularly known as 'Didi' to all her followers, has acquired the reputation of having relentlessly fought the Left Front regime in West Bengal for close to three decades, and the journey hasn't been easy.

Daughter of a freedom fighter, Mamata entered politics in the 1970s when she joined the student wing of the Congress party while studying in Kolkata. But her big moment in politics came in 1984, when she defeated veteran CPI-M leader Somnath Chatterjee from the Jadavpore Lok Sabha seat. Later, her tremendous mass appeal saw her register six-straight victories from Kolkata South. Mamata first entered the corridors of power in 1991 as a junior minister in the PV Narasimha Rao government.

After spending over 20 years in the Congress, she snapped ties with the party in 1998, accusing it of diluting its opposition to the CPI-M and formed her own party the Trinamool Congress.

Known for her flip-flops and mercurial nature, Mamata's single-minded determination to defeat the Marxists, first saw her ally with the BJP-led NDA in 1998, then with the Congress just ahead of the 2001 state elections and finally again with the NDA in 2004. However all these tie-ups were seen as opportunistic and did not pay off.

The electoral reverses continued and in 2005, Trinamool lost control of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and a year later faced a crushing defeat in the Assembly elections, with more than half of TMC sitting members losing.

But despite these major setbacks, Mamata refused to give up and her big opportunity came when Nandigram and Singur exploded on the national scene. Read more....

West Bengal; Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress has take a big lead in the Kolkata municipal elections leading in 71 wards out of the 141. The left Front is far behind leading in only 41 wards while the Congress is leading in three seats while other smaller parties are ahead in two.

But the overall picture is not so rosy for the TMC. The party is leading in just

12 municipalities while the Left Front is ahead in 14 with the Congress leading in six.

A total of 81 civic bodies have gone to elections across the state with the Left Front government controlling 54 civic bodies. Counting of votes started on Wednesday morning.

Trinamool Congress is fighting without the Congress' support unlike the 2009 General Elections when the alliance swept the state.

The Trinamool Congress, which won that stunning victory in the 2009 General Elections in the state, islooking to maintain its winning streak. Mamata has claimed that if the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) loses the civic elections, the state will witness Assembly elections in the next three months.

For the Left Front and its main constituent in the state, Communist Party of India-Marxist, it's a battle for survival after they lost ground in the 2009 General Elections.

CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury said that Left Front was prepared and the civic election results would be in its favour.

"The results will indicate the turnaround in Bengal in a big way," said Yechury.

The civic elections have been marred by violent clashed between the Trinamool and Left Front supporters.

New Delhi: Pakistan Army's involvement in the attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul on February 26 last has been established. The attack left 16 people including seven Indians, a French film maker and an Italian diplomat, killed.

CNN-IBN has managed to get access to an interrogation report of one of the masterminds of the attack -- Fateh Hazrat Abdul Razzaq Ali who is a serving Captain in the Pakistani Army. The interrogation was conducted by the Afghanistan anti-terrorism department officials. Ali was arrested in Afghanistan on March 30 last. He revealed during interrogation that two Herat based ISI officers had planned the attack on the guest houses in Kabul.

Fourteen Pakistani Army officers were sent to co-ordinate the attack with the Jaish-e-Mohammed and Taliban gunmen.

Ali has named three serving Pakistan Army officers -- Hazrat Bilal, Hazrat Abdul Gafar Ali and Sardar Mohammed -- who were involved in the attack. The officers had arrived in Afghanistan through Kandahar and Helmand province On February 15 to carry out the operation.

New Delhi: The UN Security Council on Tuesday called for an impartial inquiry into the Israeli commando raid on a flotilla of aid ships for Gaza, which left nine activists dead. Israeli disagreed, saying its soldiers had been “brutally attacked” and would continue to defend themselves.

Mark Sofer, Israel’s ambassador to India, told CNN-IBN's Editor-in-Chief Rajdeep Sardesai in an interview the flotilla was not a humanitarian mission and the “truth” about it is coming out. “First of all any loss of life is tragic. This loss of life yesterday could have easily been avoided had the organisation that had been running it (flotilla) been a true humanitarian organisation dedicated to aid,” said Sofer about the Foundation For Human Rights And Freedoms And Humanitarian Relief (IHH or İnsani Yardım Vakfı in Turkish). “It was not, it is not -- the IHH is a jihadist organisation with close ties to the al-Qaeda. We have and we will allow humanitarian aid to Gaza but not through violence of so-called aid organisation.”

Sofer was asked what Israel’s reaction would be if India or Iran crossed their boundaries and attacked their rivals they accused of terrorism.

“I think every country in the world has the right to defend its citizens against terrorism emanating from aboard. Certainly India has that right, and I think every country has to work to defend its own citizens,” he replied.

Sofer claimed Israeli soldiers didn’t use excessive force and instead reacted when they were attacked by the ship’s passengers.

“There were six ships and in five of them there was completely peaceful action. In this big ship there were no Nobel laureates at all but fighters from the IHH organisation who made it clear before setting sail toIsrael that this was not a humanitarian aid towards Palestinians but just to end the blockade which was enforced when Hamas declared war on Israel.

Sofer said the international condemnation of Israel for the attack on the flotilla was unfair. “It is a little bit rich, sometimes, to hear international condemnation from countries like Iran, which just recently opened fire on some many of its own citizens, or Pakistan whose involvement in international terror is quite well known,” he said.

“We do feel that there was a tragic loss of life. It should never have happened and it wouldn't have happened had it been a true humanitarian aid flotilla.” The ambassador denied his country followed an “eye-for-an –eyelash” security policy. “Absolutely not -- it is not even an eye for an eye. Israel finds itself at war through no wish of its own and then we take every measure to defend itself and we will continue to do so, but certainly the idea of the Israeli Defence Forces is not to use indiscriminate use of force. The case is absolutely opposite.”

He rejected allegations that the blockade of Gaza was illegal. “I am not going to accept that the blockade is against international law. The blockade is an outcome of international law. Hamas has declared war on us, so we are at war with them.”

Sofer said Israel didn’t want “antagonism” with Turkey and would prefer talks to sort out their differences. “We are interlocuting with all our friends, including India. The truth is coming out more and more even as we speak.”

New Delhi: Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee was in New Delhi on Tuesday but did not attend the Union Cabinet meeting, saying the agenda didn’t concern her.

The Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh decided to recommend imposing President's rule in Jharkhand -- a matter the Trinamool Congress chief called a “simple issue”. “It (Cabinet meeting) was only for Jharkhand and no other agenda was there -- it was one simple issue. There is no difference between the Trinamool Congress and the Congress. We are absolutely comfortable and I have great respect for the Prime Minister,” she told CNN-IBN when asked if she had snubbed her ministerial colleagues. “Some people are doing conspiracy against us (Congress and Trinamool) and that is most unfortunate,” she said.

The Minister confirmed she would this evening attend a UPA government function to release a report card on its performance. “Yes, of course I am going there. There is no difference between me and the government--some conspiracy is going against us.”

“Some times people skip cabinet meetings because of some other work. It is a collective family--there is no problem.”

Banerjee was asked who she suspected was behind the conspiracy against the Congress and the Trinamool. “Maybe other political parties who don't like us, perhaps the CPI-M,” she replied, adding that she didn’t blame Congress leaders.

Banerjee refused to comment on her demand for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe the railway mishap in West Bengal on Friday. The West Bengal government and Union Home Minister P Chidambaram have refused to recommend a CBI probe into the mishap which has been blamed on Maoists.

“No comments. I have a good relationship with Mr Chidambaram. I don't know who did it --Maoists or others. I want them to be booked,” she said.

United Nations: Israeli police questioned on Tuesday hundreds of international activists arrested aboard Turkish-backed aid ships bound for Gaza in a naval operation that left nine people dead and sparked an international outcry.

The UN Security Council met in emergency session to discuss Israel's storming of the flotilla, with most members of the 15-nation body calling for a thorough investigation. "This is tantamount to banditry and piracy," Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told the council. "It is murder conducted by a state." Most of those who died in the incident were Turks, according to one senior Israeli officer.

Big questions were unanswered: notably, how far Israel could continue to blockade 1.5 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip after condemnation from allies; and how Israeli commanders miscalculated the situation and dropped marines onto a Turkish ship where they felt they had to open fire to save their lives.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, flying home from Canada after cancelling a White House meeting on Tuesday with President Barack Obama, planned to convene his Cabinet on his return to Jerusalem, officials traveling with him said.

Some 700 activists, many Turks but including Israelis and Palestinians as well as Americans and many Europeans -- among them politicians, a Jewish Holocaust survivor and Swedish author -- were held in and around Israel's port of Ashdod, where the six ships of the blockade-running convoy had been escorted.

They were detained incommunicado, ensuring no contradiction of Israel's version of Monday's events. The military said the nine activist were killed when commandos, who stormed aboard a Turkish cruise ship from dinghies and helicopters, opened fire in what Netanyahu said was self-defense.

Israeli Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch said most detainees would be free to go once they had undergone a process of checks and interrogation lasting about half an hour:

"They will have a medical examination, an investigation, questioning, and afterwards, whoever wants to leave Israel can go to (Tel Aviv) airport," he told local television.

Exceptions would be those suspected of involvement in violence. They would face prosecution, the minister said. European nations, as well as the United Nations and Turkey, voiced shock and outrage at the bloody end to the international campaigners' bid to break Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Once-close Muslim ally Turkey accused Israel of "terrorism" in international waters.

Many Security Council members criticized the Israeli action with degrees of vehemence, and said it was time for Israel's three-year-old blockade of Hamas-controlled Gaza to be lifted.

Following a 90-minute open meeting, the council went into closed-door consultations. Diplomats said envoys were haggling over the text of a proposed statement by the council, a task that dragged on into the evening.

The European Union, a key aid donor to Palestinians, demanded an inquiry and an end to the embargo.

Israel's most powerful friend, the United States, was more cautious -- disappointing Turkey. PresidentBarack Obama said he wanted the full facts soon and regretted the loss of life.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke by phone with Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak, who provided "some initial details" of the incident, her spokesman, PJ Crowley, said.

"Ultimately, this incident underscores the need to move ahead quickly with negotiations that can lead to a comprehensive peace in the region," Crowley said later in a statement.

Islamabad: Four armed men attacked a hospital in Pakistan's eastern city of Lahore on Tuesday morning, killing up to 12 people and holding several hostages before escaping, a hospital official said.

The attackers, who were wearing police uniforms, fled after the attack on Jinnah Hospital, according to police. The attackers apparently tried to rescue a wounded member of Friday's attacks on two mosques who was being treated in the hospital's intensive care unit, Punjab police chief Tariq Saleem Dogar said.

"The attackers have fled. The terrorist arrested on Friday is in police custody," Dogar told reporters.

He said that those killed at the hospital included three policemen on duty guarding the arrested terrorist.