Government today said the French Consulate official, accused of raping his three-and-a-half- year-old daughter, will get his due punishment through the courts. Minister of State for
External Affairs Preneet Kaur said that this is the worst kind of crime that can be committed and the law has taken its course.

He has been arrested. The French official, Pascal Mazurier, was arrested in Bangalore today, a day after the Ministry Home Affairs clarified to the city police that the accused did not enjoy
any diplomatic immunity and action can be taken as per law. He has been remanded to 14 days judicial custody.

French President Francois Hollande arrived on a surprise visit to Afghanistan early this morning. He met French soldiers posted in Nirab district of Kapisa province. Addressing them he said that time for withdrawl of French soldiers from Afghanistan has come. Thanking French soldiers for carrying out their mission in the country he said it is the time for Afghan sovereignty. Later French President reached Kabul to meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

President Hollande during his election campaign recently and also at the NATO summit in Chicago earlier this week had announced the pull out of French troops from Afghanistan ahead of the NATO schedule of 2014. There are 3,400 French soldiers in Afghanistan.

A media report said French President Nicolas Sarkozy allegedly received nearly 42 million pounds from former Libyan dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi during his election campaign in 2007. An Arabic written document signed in 2006 by Mussa Kussa, Gaddafi's former intelligence chief, made public in Paris.

The document refers to an "agreement in principle to support the campaign for Nicolas Sarkozy, the candidate for the presidential elections. President Sarkozy's campaign spokesperson Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet has dismissed the report as ridiculous a clumsy diversion orchestrated by supporters of socialist opponent Francois Hollande.

French law bans candidates from receiving cash payments above 6,300 pounds, but local news website Mediapart claims that the massive donation was laundered through bank accounts in Panama and Switzerland.

Indian Navy is all set to operate five nuclear submarines by the end of this decade, including two leased from Russia and three built indigenously. Defence Minister A K Antony said, India is considering a proposal to induct another nuclear submarine built in Russia and has plans of indigenously building two more Arihant Class underwater vessels to guard its maritime boundaries. The Navy on Wednesday formally commissioned the Akula-II Class INS Chakra in Vishakhapatnam and is set to launch the INS Arihant for sea trials soon. On India's plans to expand its nuclear submarine fleet Antony said the government was considering a proposal in this regard and the country can afford to buy another such vessel.  the Navy which currently operates more than 10 conventional diesel-electric submarines of the Kilo and HDW Class, has plans of inducting a dozen more in the next decade. Already six Scorpene submarines are being constructed at Mazagon Dockyards in Mumbai in collaboration with French DCNS and six more are planned to be built under the Project-75 India.