Srinagar, Feb 3 (AP/UNB) — India's prime minster paid a daylong visit to disputed Kashmir on Sunday to review development work as separatists fighting Indian rule called for a shutdown in the Himalayan region.

Shops and businesses were closed while thousands of armed government forces and commandos in flak jackets spread out across Kashmir and closed off roads with razor wire and iron barricades to prevent protests and rebel attacks during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit.

India and Pakistan each administer part of Kashmir, but both claim it in its entirety. Rebels have been fighting Indian rule since 1989, demanding Indian-controlled Kashmir be united either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.

During his visit, Modi inaugurated some infrastructure projects and started foundation work on several others related to health care, hydropower generation and education at three places in the region.

Traffic was sparse, with public transport staying off the roads and few cars venturing out in Srinagar, the main city and the center of urban dissent against Indian rule. Modi reviewed developmental projects in the city amid a massive security blanket around a lakeside convention center.

"We will fight terrorism forcefully. We will break its back," Modi said at the Srinagar venue in an address to officials.

Authorities detained dozens of activists overnight and put separatist leaders under house arrest to stop them from staging any anti-India protest. They also shut internet on mobile phones and suspended train services in the Kashmir Valley, a common tactic to make organizing protests difficult and discourage dissemination of protest videos.

Government forces also enforced a security lockdown in downtown Srinagar, the urban heart of anti-India protests, as they warned residents to stay home to foil demonstrations.

Modi visited the remote mountainous Ladakh region bordering China and Pakistan on Sunday morning, where he inaugurated a university.

Later in a Hindu-dominated area in Jammu, Modi addressed a public rally. His speech had clear political overtones as he eyed India's upcoming national election due in few months.

Modi invoked the Hindu nationalist theme of "Mother India," which nationalists say included present day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

"There are many children of Mother India who have faced persecution in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh," he said. "We will stand with those who were part of India at one time," he added.

Three Kashmiri leaders, known as the Joint Resistance Leadership, called for the strike to protest Modi's visit.

"A person who in his pursuit to crush Kashmiri resistance ordered killings and damaging properties, hurting Kashmiri economy and other oppressive measures deserves only a protest from those he has oppressed," the leaders said in a statement.

Anti-India sentiment runs deep in Kashmir, which in recent years has seen renewed rebel attacks and repeated public protests. Nearly 70,000 people have been killed in the uprising and the ensuing Indian military crackdown.

India, Feb 3 (AP/UNB) — Seven people were killed and 29 injured when nine coaches of a New Delhi-bound train derailed early Sunday in eastern India, officials said.

Most of the passengers were asleep when the train jumped the tracks. Soon after the accident, hundreds of villagers rushed to help rescuers and members of India's disaster management to pull out people trapped in the twisted metal and overturned coaches.

Indian Railways official Rajesh Dutt Bajpai said that by noon Sunday, the rescue work was over. Two of the injured were in critical condition, he said.

The cause of the accident is being investigated. The Press Trust of India news agency said a rail fracture appeared to have caused the derailment about 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of Patna, the Bihar state capital.

India's vast railway system is the world's third largest but lacks modern signaling and communication systems. Most accidents are blamed on poor maintenance, outdated equipment and human error.

In 2016, 127 people were killed after 14 coaches derailed in Uttar Pradesh state, in one of India's worst train accidents.

Farah, Feb 2 (Xinhua/UNB) -- A total of five Taliban militants including a group commander Qazi Abdul Qadir have been killed and seven others injuried in western Afghanistan's Farah province over the past 24 hours, provincial police spokesman Mohibullah Mohib said Saturday.

The government forces, according to the official, have targeted Taliban positions in Khak-e-Safid district over the past 24 hours during which eight insurgents have been captured.

Mohib said the crackdown on militants would continue in Khak-e-Safid and neighboring Pusht-e-Koh district.

Taliban militants haven't commented.

Caracas, Feb 2 (AP/UNB) — Momentum is growing for Venezuela's opposition movement led by lawmaker Juan Guaido, who has called supporters back into the streets for nationwide protests Saturday, escalating pressure on embattled President Nicolas Maduro to step down.

A defiant Maduro's socialist government has called on its own loyalists to flood the streets waving flags to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Bolivarian revolution launched by the late Hugo Chavez.

The dueling demonstrations will play out amid a political standoff in its second week of heightened tensions — and with the potential to spark violent clashes between the opposition and security forces.

Guaido has turned down offers from the presidents of Mexico and Uruguay to negotiate with Maduro. In a letter Guaido urged both presidents to back Venezuela's struggle, saying to remain neutral aligns them with Maduro.

"At this historical moment that our country is going through, to be neutral is to be on the side of the regime that has condemned hundreds of thousands of human beings to misery, hunger and exile — including death," he said.

Guaido declared himself interim president last week before tens of thousands of cheering supporters and vowed to end Maduro's "dictatorship." His claim to the presidency is backed by the United States and some two dozen other nations.

The opposition seeks to usher in a transition by holding democratic elections, Guaido said in the letter to Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez and Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

The United States has also rejected the offers from Mexico, Uruguay and the Vatican to mediate a dialogue.

Vice President Mike Pence on Friday met with exiled Venezuelans in Miami, reassuring them the Trump administration would continue to weaken Maduro.

"This is no time for dialogue," Pence said at a church, prompting loud cheers from the Venezuelan exiles. "It is time to end the Maduro regime."

President Donald Trump's national security adviser John Bolton tweeted Thursday that Maduro and his top advisers should retire to "a nice beach somewhere far away from Venezuela." Bolton's talk turned tougher Friday in an interview with conservative radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt in which he warned that it could be a beach area more like Guantanamo.

Later Friday, Bolton tweeted that Washington would send humanitarian aid to Venezuela despite Maduro's refusal to accept such assistance. The comment came after Guaido said he would defy the aid ban and receive convoys of medicine into Venezuela with the help of neighboring nations.

"Pursuant to the request of Interim President Juan Guaido, and in consultation with his officials the US will mobilize and transport humanitarian aid_medicine, surgical supplies, and nutritional supplements for the people of Venezuela. It's time for Maduro to get out of the way," Bolton's tweet said.

Maduro remains dug in, blaming the White House for openly backing what he calls a coup to remove him from power and exploit his country's vast oil wealth. He retains support from powerful allies, including Russia and China, but is growing increasingly isolated as more nations back Guaido.

Maduro on Friday continued a show of might as commander-in-chief that has seen him crisscross Venezuela to oversee military exercises as he vows to defend his socialist government no matter the cost.

"We're in a historic battle," Maduro told several hundred troops standing in formation around armored vehicles. "We're facing the greatest political, diplomatic and economic aggression that Venezuela has confronted in 200 years."

The military's top leadership is backing Maduro, though analysts warn that rank-and-file troops frustrated by their country's economic and humanitarian crisis may not share that unwavering loyalty.

The opposition's street protests planned for Saturday are the second such mass action this week. Guaido led a peaceful demonstration Wednesday with residents stepping out of their homes and workplaces for two hours. Last week, street protests turned violent in days of unrest that killed nearly three dozen people in clashes with government security forces.

Meanwhile, a prominent opposition lawmaker called on a group of European Union and Latin American countries to support Maduro's ouster — without negotiations.

An "international contact group" announced Thursday by the EU's top diplomat, Federica Mogherini, "should help to cease the usurpation of power by Maduro and establish a transitional government until new elections," said Francisco Sucre, who heads the international committee of the opposition-led National Assembly.

"There is no possible discussion here. Maduro has to leave," Sucre told The Associated Press in Madrid, where he wrapped up a three-day European tour to enlist support for Guaido.

The European Parliament has called on the EU's member states to recognize Guaido as interim president. The socialist government of Spain, which has strong historic, cultural and economic ties to Venezuela, has said it will do so on Monday if Maduro doesn't call a general election by Sunday.

"Power is evaporating from Maduro's hands with the passing of the hours," Sucre said. "We have been contacted by diplomats across Europe who are ready to take a step forward, but they are waiting for the right moment."

Meanwhile, California-based Chevron Corp. said its operations in Venezuela will continue normally for the "foreseeable future" despite newly imposed U.S. sanctions on Venezuelan state-owned oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA.

Chevron has four joint-venture operations for exploration and production with PDVSA, as the Venezuelan company is known. The Trump administration has banned U.S. companies from doing business with PDVSA but allowed a six-month grace period for those with ongoing operations in the South American country.

"For the foreseeable future, we feel like we can maintain a good stable operation and a safe operation on the ground in Venezuela," Chevron CEO Michael Wirth said Friday in a conference call with Wall Street analysts.

Chevron's refining operations in the U.S. are well-prepared to handle an expected disruption of Venezuelan crude supply due to the sanctions, Wirth said, adding that Chevron had a contingency plan in anticipation of the sanctions and has alternate sourcing.

New Delhi, Feb 01 (AP/UNB) — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has announced a cash handout for small farmers, an informal employment pension scheme and tax relief for small traders in an interim budget to prop up popular support ahead of national election due before May.

Finance Minister Piyush Goyal laid out the budget in Parliament on Friday as reports said the government was suppressing data that the unemployment rate has hit a 45-year high of 6.1 percent. The government says the data are premature and official figures will be given in March.

Piyush said 6,000 rupees ($85) will go to farmers annually, benefiting as many as 120 million households.

Nearly 100 million workers in informal sectors would get a monthly pension of 3,000 rupees ($40) a month after retirement at 60.