India

Raipur, May 3: Bringing an end to the hostage crisis, Maoists today released Sukma collector Alex Paul Menon. He was handed over to the mediators after 12 days of captivity. "B D Sharma and Professor G Hargopal, who represented the Maoists in the talks with the Chhattisgarh Government for the 32-year-old IAS officer's release, left for Tadmetla this morning to receive Menon, who was kidnapped on

New Delhi, May 3: The Delhi serial blasts (September 13, 2008) trial has taken a curious turn with discrepancies showing up in the phone records of Atif Ameen, the terror accused gunned down in the shootout at Batla House. Among other things, records produced in the court of Additional Sessions Judge Narinder Kumar showed the following: call logs of conversations between Ameen and another

New Delhi, May 3: Apparently bowing to the American pressure India has dropped Iran from the urea procurement list just ahead of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit to the country, sources told Headlines Today on Tuesday. Iran was the source of about 35 per cent of urea imports to India for the last two years. The State Trading Corporation (STC), a key government agency for procurement

New Delhi, May 3: After social activist Anna Hazare and his team, Yoga guru Baba Ramdev has stoked a controversy calling MPs “dacoits and murderers,” evoking strong condemnation from parliamentarians who asserted that such “insults” are unacceptable. Addressing the media while launching his month-long yatra in Chhattisgarh's Durg on Tuesday, Baba Ramdev said there were good people among the

New Delhi, May 3: In a conditional relief to Italy, whose merchant ship was seized following the shooting to death of two Kerala fishermen by two marines on board, the Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed the vessel to leave India, along with the crew and the remaining marines. But a Bench of Justices R.M. Lodha and H.L. Gokhale directed them to make themselves available whenever they were required

New DelhI, May 3: A Congress nominee, either finance minister Pranab Mukherjee or Vice-President Hamid Ansari, seems set to be elected President, with all indications suggesting that the BJP-led opposition may not be able to put up a credible fight in the polls to determine who should replace Pratibha Patil. Although BJP scrambled to contain the damage from the "unilateral" declaration to oppose

Kolkata, May 3: Desperate to hold back Muslim votes in the forthcoming Panchayat elections, the West Bengal government led by the Trinamool Congress has decided to include 33 more categories in the OBC list. According to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, will bring 99 per cent of the Muslim community in the OBC net. “At present there are 65 communities in the OBC category and today the cabinet has

New Delhi, May 2: Parliamentarians across party lines have once again united in the face of criticism and this time it is yoga guru and anti-corruption activist Baba Ramdev who has earned their wrath for calling the members of Parliament corrupt and characterless. He had said, "There are some politicians who are good. But some others are corrupt and have no character." Reacting to the comments of

New Delhi, May 2: After Anna Hazare and his team, it is now the turn of yoga guru Ramdev to kick up a controversy by attacking MPs calling them ''dacoits and murderers''. Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar and several MPs, including senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha, did not mince words in condemning the utterances and asked people to show respect to Parliament. Addressing the media while launching his

Ghaziabad, May 2: In a major setback for Nupur Talwar in the Aarushi Hemraj murder case, the sessions court of additional district judge Shyam Lal on Wednesday refused to grant bail to her, saying she is an "accused in double murders - of her own daughter and a poor servant - Hemraj". The court denied bail on the grounds that she may tamper with evidence if granted bail. On Tuesday, Nupur Talwar's