In a tragic accident, at least 42 school children were killed and over 30 others missing after a truck carrying them plunged into a canal near Bangladesh's southeastern port city of Chittagong today, the police said.

The truck, carrying an estimated 60 primary school children aged between nine to 14, was returning home after a football match at a local stadium when it skidded off the road and landed into the canal at Mirresarai area, 240 kilometres southeast of the capital Dhaka.

The accident apparently occurred as the driver lost control of the vehicle.

More than eight lakh devotees today reached the temple town of Pandharpur in the district, to witness the `maha-puja' of Lord Vitthal and his consort Rukhmini, on the occasion of `Ashadhi Ekadashi'.

It marks the culmination of pilgrimage, called `waari', that devotees undertake from across the state on foot to reach the pilgrimage spot.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and his wife Satyashila performed the maha-puja, as is the custom. Along with them, Ganesh Sakharam Doke (65) and his wife Rukmni (58), a farmer couple from Buldhana district, too took part in the puja, as representatives of ordinary pilgrims.

AICC General Secretary Digvijay Singh was also present on the occasion.

In what must surely bring relief to Telecom Minister Kapil Sibah, the Supreme Court on Monday ruled that no order was required to be passed on the affidavit accusing Sibal of favouring RComm.

The apex court also said any alleged irregularity in telecom cannot be linked to the 2G case.

A day after the train disasters in Uttar Pradesh and Assam, an alert driver averted a possible accident of the New Delhi-Muzaffarpur Sapta Kranti Super Fast express near Tirhut canal between Bagaha and Khairpokha railway stations in Bihar's West Champaran district today, a railway official said.

The much-talked about reshuffle of the Union council of ministers will take place tomorrow evening, PTI has said quoting sources.

The reshuffle is expected to place at 5 pm, the sources said, and that about 10 to 12 ministers including new entrants from the Trinamool Congress and the Congress are likely to be involved in the reshuffle.

An IED blast completely damaged a stretch of the railway track and led to the derailment of seven bogies of the Guwahati-Puri Express, injuring over 100 passengers in Assam's rural Kamrup district, a senior railway official has said.

The blast, caused by an improvised explosive device, completely damaged 200 metres of track and fuse wire, and detonators were also found, North East Frontier Railway's Rangiya divisional railway manager A K Manocha has told PTI.

More details on rediff.com shortly.

From next month, pregnant women belonging to underprivileged sections of the city will be able to undergo free of cost regular and cesarean deliveries at all Delhi government hospitals.

The city government has decided to implement the 'Janani Shishu Suraksha Yojna', an ambitious programme of the Union health ministry to control maternal and infant mortality rate.

The initiative that will also cover caesarean section deliveries envisages among other things providing free drugs and transport to pregnant women and free treatment to sick newborns in government health units.

In a major catch, the Nepalese police have arrested Iltaf Hussain Ansari, alleged kingpin of fake Indian currency smuggling racket, from Kalimati on the outskirts of the Nepali capital, Kathmandu.

A special team of police from Central Investigation Bureau arrested the notorious smuggler, alleged to be running the smuggling racket for over a decade, CIB chief Rajendra Singh Bhandari said.

He described Ansari's arrest as the completion of a decade-long mission of the Nepal police. "He is perhaps the cleverest criminal ever seen in the smuggling arena here," he said.

Yoga guru Ramdev today alleged in the Supreme Court that Union Home Minister P Chidambaram was behind the midnight crackdown on him and his followers during the protests on the issue of black money at the Ramlila Maidan last month.

Senior advocate Ram Jethmalani, appearing for Ramdev, sought a direction that the home minister should explain the incident and notice should be issued to him personally.

Sonia Gandhi's political secretary Ahmed Patel, who it was reported had decided to opt out of the Rajya Sabha race, seems to have had a change of heart.

At 12.30 pm today, he filed his RS nomination in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, reports Sheela Bhatt.

Patel, 62, has completed three tenures in the Lok Sabha and three tenures in the Rajya Sabha. The first time he was elected to the Lok Sabha was in 1977, the year of the Janata Party wave that unseated Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

Given that the Congress has enough votes to ensure his re-election, the nomination of Patel, considered more powerful than any central minister, is a cinch.

Emphasising that voting should be made mandatory, former Election Commissioner GVG Krishnamurthy has said that those who do not use this constitutional right should be punished.

"Those who do not use the constitutional right of casting their vote in elections should be punished or fined and their civic rights must be withdrawn for a certain period of time," he said.

As many as 69 dead bodies have been extricated from the wreckage of the ill-fated Delhi-bound  Howrah-Kalka Mail , during the 24-hour long rescue operation that concluded under the leadership of the Indian Army jawans Monday noon near Malwan station in Fatehpur district, about 140 km from Lucknow, reports Sharat Pradhan.

The dead include two Swedish nationals,Victor and Wick, who were travelling in a second class reserved coach that was completely smashed in the accident. Their companion, Oscar, however survived and is currently hospitalised with multiple injuries in Kanpur.

Our correspondent reports from New Delhi that the agenda of the fourth meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi was to ensure that the monsoon session of Parliament passes off peacefully.

The focus in all the four meetings wsa on who are the new faces to induct in the Union Council, who to drop (this is a tough question, given that the UPA council has not exactly covered itself glory), which MoS to promote to the Cabinet rank, and of course to consider the usual issues of regional, caste, age and religion balances. And you thought a reshuffle is a simple thing!

Check rediff.com in a short while for the detailed report!

OK, so you've strong views either for or against the DK Bose doggerel (sorry, aesthetics prevents us from calling it a song, and yes, we are judgemental) from Delhi Belly, why don't you try the other version -- The DK Bose Mata ka Jagrata version, courtesy Bengaluru-based digital entrepreneur Anju Mudgal?

This is how it goes:

'Mata mujhse boli, yeh shakti hai meri... Uspe zindagani, Bhakti hai teri... Mata ki sharan mein, naa aaya to lagega tujhko shraaap, shraaaaaaap, shrrraaaaaaaaaaaap... Laga bhog teekey bhog teekey bhog teekey... Bhog teekey bhog teekey bhog!'

Enjoy!

Here's a further update on Sunday's Delhi-Howrah Kalka Mail derailment. Some 165 survivors of the mishap have been brought to New Delhi in a special train. Thirteen trains plying the route have been cancelled, while 72 have been diverted on the Delhi-Howrah line.

Update on the blast in Pakistan, at a politicla rally at Battagram in northwest Pakistan where a suicide bomber blew himself up. At least six persons were killed in the blast and 19 others have been injured.

Thankfully, no one has so far been reported killed in the three blasts that went off at an army arms depot in Sihala, outside Rawalpindi today.

The number of dead in Sunday's railway mishap in Uttar Praesh, when 15 bogies of the speeding Delhi-bound Kalka Mail derailed in Fatehpur -- incidentally, the second major train mishap in a week in Uttar Pradesh -- has gone up to 67, reports Sharat Pradhan from Lucknow

That's one of the things we like about Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, like his predecessor and political mentor P V Narasimha Rao, Dr Singh ensures through his silences that there's a whole army of commentators out there churning out theories on the motives behind his actions and non-actions.

Similar is the case with the Cabinet reshuffle, which has been delayed thanks to the railway mishaps over the weekend.

Has he as de factor railway minister taken moral responsibility for the incidents and hence the delay? Is the deferment because of obstreperous allies? Or, is there discord between 7 Racecourse Road and 10, Janpath over the possible inductees and droppees? One doesn't know.

Having said that, here's an interesting piece on what the reshuffle's delay means, check it out here.

Are the weather gods cruel or what!

While Mumbai and several rain-fed areas are left groaning at the vagaries of the monsoons, which promised a lot over the weekend only to deceive by Sunday, rains have lashed several parts of Rajasthan.

Mount Abu recorded 102.5 mm of rains over the weekend while Jaipur got 23.8 mm. Jaisalmer received 18.6 mm of rainfall, and Dabok registered 18.3 mm. Bikaner and Barmer were not too far back either, recording 15.8 mm and 12.1 mm of rains respectively.

Cry, Mumbai!

Several blasts reported at Pakistan army ammunition depot on the outskirts of Islamabad. An explosion also hits the site of a political rally at Mansehra in northwest Pakistan; details are awaited.

Several blasts also reported at Pakistan army ammunition depot on outskirts of Islamabad. 

Sucheta Dalal tweets this, and we must say there's immense merit in what she suggests: Here's an idea. Instead of wasting money in UIDAI, why not make Nandan Nilekani Railway Minister to clean it up & get reservation working 2?

There's been tremendous focus on illegal mining in Karnataka and not enough on Kerala where the state government had framed rules to prevent illegal mining. As always, recourse was taken to the judiciary to challenge this regularisation, and we are glad to report that the Supreme Court has refused to intervene in the matter. Notch one up for Kerala!

The National Anti-Doping Agency on Monday conducted raids on the premises of the Sports Authority of India, Bangalore.

The raids were conducted in the wake of a number of top Indian athletes testing positive for steroids.  

West Indies captain Darren Sammy is surprised that India did not push for a win in the third and ultimate Test match in Dominica, and frankly, so are we.

It was not an impossible get -- India had to get, what, 84 runs in 15 overs, and given India's firepower in Gen X, it was gettable. We thinks Captain Cool didn't want to chance it and spoil the 1-0 score line in the 3 Test match series, and honestly for us old-timers it only brings back memories of an India that was, not and India that is.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday met Congress chief Sonia Gandhi to discuss the imminent Cabinet reshuffle.

The reshuffle was postponed in the wake of the train mishaps in Uttar Pradesh and Assam respectively.

Good morning, here are the top news stories of the day:

1) The toll in the Kalka Mail train mishap on Sunday at Fatehpur, Uttar Pradesh, has risen to 63. Rescue operations are still going on at the accident site as several passengers are feared trapped inside the derailed compartments.

2) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has asked Minister of State for Railways Mukul Roy to visit the accident site at Dhatkuchi in Assam, where the Guwahati-Puri Express was derailed after a blast on Sunday.

3) The United States has decided to suspend its military aid to Pakistan following Islamabad's request for a "significant cutback" of American military trainers on its soil, the Pentagon has said.