AHMEDABAD/DELHI: The Gujarat Government today transferred Dang-Ahwa Collector D N Joshi to the state Education Department and began disbursing compensation to damaged churches even as the Prime Minister prepared to visit the place.

Initially, the state government had refused to move Joshi despite the Home Ministry team indicting the local administration in the attacks against Christians.

Meanwhile, in Delhi VHP president Vishnu Hari Dalmia, who met Union Home Minister L K Advani this evening, along with other leaders, expressed his readiness to enter into a dialogue with Christian organisations on the issue of forced conversions.

Clinton trial proceedings

WASHINGTON: The United States Senate began proceedings in the impeachment trial of President Clinton with a solemn ceremony that many fear could soon degenerate into a partisan circus. At the stroke of 10 am on Thursday morning, a team of 13 Republican Congressmen, who constitute the prosecution teamsaid to represent the people of the US, trooped into the Senate chamber, to set the ball rolling in the first such trial in 130 years.

Pakistan slams Vajpayee's remark

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Thursday criticised Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee for his comments on the assassination attempt on premier Nawaz Sharif saying he had tried to give a ``self-serving and mischievous twist'' to a serious incident. ``The Indian PM has displayed a gratuitous malevolence which is regrettable,'' Tariq Altaf, the spokesman for the Pakistani Foreign Ministry. Vajpayee while expressing relief that Sharif had survived an assassination attempt said in Bangalore earlier this week that Pakistan's abetment to terrorism in India had recoiled.

Laloo's release

PATNA: Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) president Laloo Prasad Yadav, granted interim bail for three months in the fodder scam case by the Supreme Court today, could not be released as the order reached the Patna High Court in the afternoon. The former BiharCM is likely to be released tomorrow after relevant formalities.