India

New Delhi, April 17: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday appeared heading for a victory in the elections to all the three newly-formed municipal corporations of Delhi. Of the 80 results declared by State Election Commission so far, the BJP has bagged a total of 49 of 272 wards in all the three corporations while the Congress has won 19 seats. Eight Independents have also won, the Bahujan Samaj

Mumbai, April 17: After a gap of three years, Reserve Bank Governor D. Subbarao on Tuesday slashed short term lending rate by 0.50 per cent to 8 per cent, a move that will reduce the cost of home, auto and corporate loans. The reduction in the repo rate at which RBI lends to banks, has been prompted by deceleration in growth and softening of inflation. The cut is aimed at spurring growth to 9 per

Patna, April 17: The Patna High Court has acquitted all the 23 persons accused of perpetrating the massacre of 21 Dalits at Bathani Tola in Bhojpur in 1996. The accused were convicted by the sessions court in Ara district and sentenced in May 2010. While three persons were awarded capital punishment, the remaining twenty were handed life imprisonment. A Division Bench of judges Navneeti Prasad

New Delhi, April 17: A woman who was forced into marriage as a minor and suffered years of abuse before obtaining a divorce and qualifying for the Madhya Pradesh state civil service has petitioned Supreme Court that a law to discourage child marriage is being used unfairly to deny her a job. Responding to Ratnarashi Pandey's plea, the Supre8me Court on Monday issued notice to the MP government on

New Delhi, April 17: The Opposition-ruled States used the annual Chief Ministers' meeting on internal security on Monday to focus attention again on their objections to the Centre's proposal to set up a National Counter-Terrorism Centre, saying it violated the principle of federalism. This was even though Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in his opening remarks, told them that a separate meeting

New Delhi, April 16: A stiff opposition from non-Congress Chief Ministers and a Congress ally over NCTC and other issues of Centre allegedly encroaching upon the states' policing powers today cast its shadow at the conference on internal security here. Notwithstanding efforts by Singh and Home Minister P Chidambaram in trying to reach out to the states that they were together in tackling terrorism

Hyderabad, April 16: A student of the Osmania university here was stabbed for supporting a beef festival organised by several student groups opposing "food fascism" in hostels, police said on Monday. The beef festival saw clashes, which saw five students being injured, and even led to vehicles being burnt. The situation in the university was tense as violence continued in the campus past midnight

New Delhi, April 16: Left—wing extremism, religious fundamentalism and ethnic violence are major challenges facing the country, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said here Monday, and urged states to fight them together with the central government. “Left—wing extremism, religious fundamentalism and ethnic violence are the major internal security challenges facing the country... I urge the states to

Faizabad, April 16: Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday said his government would free Muslim youth who had been falsely implicated under terror charges. He was in the city to attend party MLA Tej Narain Pandey's wedding reception. The state government has sought opinion from the law department to withdraw cases against the accused in the November 2007 serial blasts in Faizabad

Amritsar, April 16: Union minister Farooq Abdullah on sunday paid obeisance at Golden Temple here. After paying the homage, Abdullah visited langar (community kitchen) and inspected the solar heating plant and solar energy plant here. "Recently installed solar energy plant was operating successfully and producing 25 megawatt electricity for the Golden Temple," said the Union minister for new and