India

New Delhi/Lucknow, May 8: Majority of Muslim clerics and leaders Tuesday welcomed the Supreme Court ruling directing the government to eliminate in the next 10 years the subsidy given to Hajis - pilgrims to the holy Makkah. The clerics and leaders said that instead of providing subsidies, the Haj committee, an autonomous body under the Indian government responsible for making arrangement for Haj

New Delhi, May 8: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Tuesday and Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna discussed terrorism emanating from the region, the Afghan situation and other global issues. Clinton, in India on a three-day visit, met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi Monday. She had earlier met West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata

New Delhi, May 8: Erstwhile Air India pilots are threatening to strike work but the government may not be ready to play ball this time. The pilots threatened to go on strike from Monday night, minutes after their talks with the airline management and aviation ministry failed on the issue of training for the Boeing-787 Dreamliner. The ministry, toughening its stand, has warned that it will shut

New DelhI/Kolkata, May 8: India wants Iran to fulfill international obligations with regard to its nuclear programme, but New Delhi cannot lose sight of its energy security needs, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told US secretary of state Hillary Clinton during a wide-ranging discussion here on Monday. Iran was an important aspect of Hillary's meeting with Singh on Monday evening as she made it

New Delhi, May 8: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday told U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that India was aligned with the international community on checking the spread of nuclear weapons but would be guided by its national interests on securing its energy supplies. India's stand on non-proliferation and approach to importing oil was reiterated during an 80-minute unstructured meeting

New Delhi/Ahmedabad, May 7: Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's role in the 2002 riots in the state should be probed, Raju Ramachandran, the amicus curiae appointed by the Supreme Court in the case, has said in his final report. According to the report dated July 25, 2011 which was released Monday, there was a need for examining Modi's role in the wake of the Godhra train burning to find out

Kolkata, May 7: The U.S. has agreed to treat West Bengal as a partner state for investment in the changed political situation, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said in Kolkata on Monday. “As per partner state, they will invest in West Bengal which was not taking place due to the political situation in the past,” Ms. Banerjee told reporters after a 52-minute meeting with U.S. Secretary of State

Srinagar, May 7: As many as 129 army personnel, including three dozen officers, were found guilty of human rights violations mostly in Jammu and Kashmir and Northeast in the last two decades, defence sources have said. Following the establishment of human rights cell in 1993, the army has received more than 1,500 allegations of rights violations against its men but most of these have been found

New Delhi, May 7: India has developed its own missile defence shield which can be put in place at short notice to protect at least two cities, bringing the country at par with an elite group of few nations. The shield, developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), has been tested successfully and an incoming ballistic missile with the range of up to 2,000 kms can be

New Delhi, May 7: The CBI has told the Supreme Court that it was not only against dropping of conspiracy charges against BJP leader L K Advani in the Babri Masjid demolition case but also wanted him and other leaders to face trial along with the accused kar sevaks. In the demolition incident, two FIRs were lodged. FIR No. 197/92 was against kar sevaks who allegedly demolished the mosque while FIR