The CPM today held the UPA policies responsible for the hike in petro product prices, saying the government paid a whopping Rs 40,000 crore as subsidy to oil companies in 2010-11 from the public exchequer.

"Who is subsidising whom," senior party leader Sitaram Yechury asked, indicating that the aam aadmi was being made to pay for it. He also said the government "seems to consider the misery of the people only when it comes to votes", thus delaying the hike in prices of diesel, kerosene and LPG because of assembly elections in the five states.

The government's justification behind hiking the prices citing rise in global crude prices "falls flat as the same has gone down to USD 90-92 per barrel compared to the USD 100-115 in April-May this year," he said.

Noted poet Anwar Farrukhabadi, who penned popular Hindi film song Humein toh loot liya milke husn walon ne, has died. He was 83.

The poet breathed his last at his native place in Nakkhas in Farrukhabad yesterday. Anwar wrote around two thousand songs in Bollywood and for private albums. His songs have been imortalised in the voices of Mohammed Rafi, Manna Dey, Pankaj Udhas, Shankar Shambhu and Sabir brothers among others.

Born in Nakkhas in 1928, the poet left for Mumbai in 1945 in search of better future and spent about 40 years there. Some of the films for which he wrote lyrics are Al Hilal, Mere Piya and Pardesi Sajan.

The government today hiked petrol and diesel prices by a marginal Re 0.27 a litre and Re 0.15 per litre respectively following increase in the commission paid to petrol pump dealers.

The government approved raising the dealer's commission paid on petrol from Rs 1,218 per kilolitre to Rs 1,499 per kl, resulting in a Rs 0.27 per litre increase in retail price with effect from midnight tonight, an official said in New Delhi.

Similarly, the dealers' commission on diesel was hiked from Rs 757 per kl to Rs 912 per kl, resulting in a Re 0.15 per litre increase in rates at retail level.

Nepal's Communist-led government has scrapped the licence of Indian 'Casino King' Rakesh Wadhwa to operate casinos for his alleged failure to fulfil tax liabilities.

The ministry of tourism and civil aviation, which sanctions operating licences, has scrapped the licence of Nepal Recreation Centre, which is owned by Wadhwa and operates four casinos in Nepal.

"The ministry of tourism and civil aviation took the decision to scrap NRC's licence on Sunday," according to tourism secretary Ganesh Raj Joshi. The ministry will issue a formal notice to this effect today, sources at MoTCA said.

And now, in more courtroom drama, the Danish high court has rejected a plea to extradite Niels Christien Nielsel alias Kim Davy in connection with the 1995 Purulia arms drop case.

On the night of December 17, 1995, as many as 300 Bulgarian-made AK-47 assault rifles, 10 rocket launchers, and 100 anti-tank grenades were airdropped by an AN-26 aircraft near the headquarters of the Anand Margis. Davy was named the main conspirator in the arms drop and was arrested soon after but he managed to escape from Mumbai airport.

Apart from Davy, Peter Bleach, a Briton, and five Latvian citizens were sentenced to life imprisonment. While Bleach was set free in February 2004, the Latvian crew had been released in 2000.

Twelve babies have died at a state-run hospital in Kolkata, triggering protests by locals and relatives, which prompted the West Bengal government to order an enquiry into it.

Superintendent of BC Roy Hospital for Children, D Pal, said most of the 12 babies were either premature or suffering from septicemia or low-birth weight problems.

The medical institute is considered to be the largest referral paediatric hospital in the eastern region.

"Most of these babies were brought in a moribund stage," he said. However, unconfirmed sources said 17 babies died at the hospital in the last 48 hours.

Amid questions over his continuance in the Union council of ministers, DMK leader Dayanidhi Maran today met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi. It was not clear as to what transpired during the meeting which came ahead of the expected reshuffle of the Union council.

Maran, however, sought to dismiss the meeting as a routine one. "It is nothing... I am a minister," he underlined and contended that the meeting was related to official work.

Maran, the textiles minister, has recently come under scrutiny over his role in the 2G spectrum issue. He was the telecom minister in UPA-1 when the 2G licences were allocated.

Toral Varia reports: The Mumbai sessions court pronounces actress Maria Susairaj and naval officer Jerome Mathew guilty of murdering TV executive Neeraj Grover.

Jerome has been convicted of culpable homicide not amounting to murder while Maria Susairaj has been convicted under Section 201 of the IPC for destruction of evidence.

The sessions court has set aside the prosecution's theory of conspiracy to kill Neeraj Grover. The judge has relied heavily on Susairaj's confession coupled with the circumstantial evidence.

The government on Thursday released the list of 17 holidays for its staff in Delhi, though four of them fall on three Sundays and a Saturday and hence their effective holidays are only 13, besides two they can opt on their own from the list of 36 restricted holidays notified.

Details, soon on rediff.com!

With less rainfall this year and lakes drying up, Mumbaikars have reason to worry as the local civic body has said it will decide on implementation of water cuts in the metropolis in 10 days.

"We will wait for 10 days or so then decide whether to implement water cuts or not. By July 10 or 12 we will decide about water cuts," Additional Municipal Commissioner Rajiv Jalota said.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has said it has sufficient water stock for the city until July 20. If it doesn't rain till then, the BMC will start looking at options to curb the usage of water.

Troubled star Lindsay Lohan, who turns 25 on Saturday, recieved an early birthday gift in the form of her release from the 35-day long confinement at home.

The Mean girls star was under house arrest at her pad in Venice, California, after she pleaded no contest in a necklace theft case, reported People magazine.

"She completed her home detention today and she's now back under the supervision of the courts and probation," said Los Angeles sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today questioned the Centre's decision to sending two drafts of the Lokpal Bill for consideration and demanded that the government be clear before seeking the states' views on the proposed legislation.

Indicating his willingness to set up a Lok Ayukta in Bihar, Kumar also said he will discuss the matter within his party the JD-U and his ally the BJP and invite the Anna Hazare team to Patna on the issue.

India's swashbuckling opening batsman Gautam Gambhir, whose injury kept him out of the West Indies tour and who, controversially, played the IPL4 despite knowing about his injury, today declared himself fit for the upcoming England cricket tour.

Which we thinks is great news.

Star Indian cricketers Sachin Tendulkar and Mahendra Singh Dhoni will soon don the flying suits, with the defence ministry clearing their flights in Indian Air Force's mighty Su-30 MKI fighter jets.

"Our proposal to fly the two cricketers in the Su-30s has been approved by the defence ministry and we are looking forward to their flight in Pune soon," IAF officials told PTI.

They said the dates for the flights have not been finalised yet and would be done soon depending on the availability of the two cricketers.

Tendulkar is already an honorary captain in IAF.

BTW, hope you'll have read the outgoing home secretary GK Pillai's farewell interview to Sheela Bhatt? Here's the link

A powerful improvised explosive device was today found along the banks of the Dal Lake, the star attraction for tourists visiting the Kashmir valley, the police said.

The 5 kg IED, placed inside a steel container, was planted by suspected militants near a wine shop outside a hotel along Boulevard road in Dalgate area of the city, they said.

The device was noticed by the locals, who informed the police. The IED was later defused by the bomb disposal squad.

Social networking site Facebook will launch a payment system, 'Facebook Credits', for Indian users, who could spend the virtual currency across various games or applications they use on the popular website from tomorrow.

A virtual currency, Facebook Credits is already popular among gaming enthusiasts in many other countries, including the US.

Rainfall continued to lash most parts of Rajasthan even as some areas in the desert state remained dry during the past 24 hours.

Light to moderate rainfall occurred at many places in Jaipur and Bharatpur divisions, at a few places in Bikaner and at isolated areas in Ajmer, the Met department said.

Heavy rainfall was received by isolated pockets in Bharatpur, Jaipur, Kota and Bikaner divisions. On the contrary, weather remained dry in Udaipur and Jodhpur divisions with no report of downpours.

Deeg in Bharatpur recorded maximum rainfall of 11 cm followed by Manoharthana at 10 cm since yesterday till today morning. Rainfall has been predicted by weather watchers during the next 24 hours at a few places in North and in isolated patches in South Rajasthan.

OK, the prime minister's media adviser found his car, laptop, mobile phone stolen yesterday, and our sympathies are with him at this moment of distress.

Having said that, we found this funny tweet on the subject and wanted to share it with you'll!

@auldtimer media advisor's car was stolen yesterday! What are the chances one of those pissed un-invited editors snitched it to get even?

About 150 turtles, in search of beaches to lay their eggs, crawled into the busy tarmac of John F Kennedy airport in New York and delayed dozens of flights. The parade of slow-moving diamondback terrapins began about 6:45 am on Wednesday.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said there were so many turtles on one runway and nearby taxiways that air controllers were forced to move departing flights to another runway.

"We ceded to Mother Nature," said Ron Marsico, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the JFK airport, which is surrounded by a bay and wetland areas.

You can scratch your head and wonder if Congress president Sonia Gandhi has ever given an interview to our own Press Trust of India, or how many interviews she has given the Indian media, but she has given a written interview to Xinhua, the official news agency of China.

On the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, Gandhi, in a written interview to Xinhua, has said that "at the party level, I believe that we should foster greater cultural and social linkages, especially among the youth, even as we promote trade, investment at the national levels, and international cooperation on multilateral issues of importance to both countries and on which we can adopt a common approach."

"Such a dialogue should address all vital issues of mutual concern through visits, seminars and a productive exchange of ideas, skills and experiences," Gandhi, who visited China in 2007 and 2008 as the Congress president, said in her interview.

Gandhi has also stressed that she is confident that "our party-to-party ties will foster greater mutual understanding between our leadership and our two people, and thereby impart positive momentum to the growth of multi-faceted relations between the two countries."

You can read the full text here

In other news, the court verdict in Neeraj Grover's murder case should be out post-lunch today. The judgment is being dictated right now, and Toral Varia, present in the court-room, will bring us the verdict soon as it is out.

Grover was murdered (allegedly, at least as of now) in 2008 by actress Maria Susairaj and her naval officer boyfriend Jerome, chopped into pieces and disposed of in a forest area, after a night of passion next to the dead body. The brutality of it all, plus the fact that a beautiful, sophisticated girl was in the midst of it, stunned Mumbai.

The trial has seen many dramatic moments, including Maria's counsel claiming she was a virgin, the actress breaking down yesterday in court, and director Ram Gopal Varma announcing a film based on the murder.

What will happen to Jerome and Maria? We will know soon, watch this space!

First he showed the Internet's 800-pound gorilla a thing or two about online behaviour. And now Mark Zuckerberg has shown Google founders a thing or two in the stock market too.

The Facebook founder's personal fortunes have soared, thanks to investment fund GSV Capital's recent stake in the social networking site which has put the Harvard dropout at a worth higher than Google founder Sergey Brin and Larry Page, reports PTI.

Earlier this week, GSV Capital Corp bought 225,000 shares in Facebook at an average price of $ 29.28 each. This stake values the popular social networking site at about $ 70 billion.

Based on the new investment, Zuckerberg in turn is worth approximately $ 18 billion, a report in Time magazine said.

He might be the founding father of the People's Republic of China, but the economic policies Mao Zedong followed have few takers today in the Communist Party of China, which believes "he did it all wrong".

In fact, as it celebrates its 90th anniversary, the party says Mao's ways resulted in "chaos in entire society" and it was a policy crafted out of the lessons learnt from his failures that have put China on the path to economic glory.

The CPC now attributes its success in stirring economic development in China in the past three and half decades to economic reforms propounded by Mao's successor Deng Xiaoping, and its ability to learn from past failures.

Former cricketer Imran Khan's political career and his complex relationship with his ex-wife Jemima are the focus of Kaptaan, an independent Pakistani film that is expected to be released later this year.

Faisal Aman Khan, a Britain-based independent filmmaker who is directing the film, met the cricketer-turned-politician several times while researching the project to get him to endorse the movie.

"Imran Khan was reluctant at first and claimed that it was more important to focus on other aspects of the country. Faisal's persistence finally paid (off) in ultimately convincing him," Naveed Anwar, the film's assistant director and screenwriter, told the Express Tribune newspaper.

The film, currently in post-production, will be ready for distribution this fall but its producers are tight-lipped about the scheduled release date, the report said.

An earthquake measuring 5.4 on the Richter Scale rattled central Japan today, causing alarm and panic in a nation that is yet to get over the trauma of the earthquake-generated tsunami of March 2011.

The Japan Meteorological Agency has been quoted as saying that the quake struck Nagano, almost 200 km north-west of Tokyo. No tsunami warning has so far been issued.

There's a lot of internet chatter on the prime minister's selective media interaction on Wednesday, most of it in anger and dismay.

This is what Sush Jaitley has to tweet on the subject: MMS is like Sania Mirza. Is in luv wid Pak, bad at his job, in news for wrong reasons and still expects us 2 cheer him.

Of course, reproducing it here does in no way mean that we endorse it:)

In Uttar Pradesh, a 12-year-old Dalit girl was allegedly raped by her neighbour in Khaampar area, the police said today. The girl was raped by one Manoj on June 28 when her mother had gone out and she was alone in her hut in Khaampar bazar locality, they said. Manoj has been arrested in this connection, the police added.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, which bought the social networking site MySpace for $580m, has now sold it for a fraction of its purchase price.

An internet superstar before it was blindsided by Facebook, MySpace has now been bought by Specific Media.

The financials have not been made public, but industry sources believe that the offer price was not very flattering for News Corp. $35 million is among the figures that are being bandied about but there has been no confirmation of it so far.

Another crucial question is of the staff, of which too there has been no clarity so far.

Music maestro Bhupen Hazarika has been admitted to the intensive care unit of a hospital in Mumbai's suburban Andheri after he complained of breathing problems.

The 85-year-old was hospitalised yesterday after he suffered breathing problems and was treated immediately. He is stable and doing fine, hospital sources said.

The maestro has been kept in ICU and is under observation but is out of danger, the sources said.

Hazarika is a noted poet, music composer, singer, actor, journalist, author and filmmaker and has been decorated with several prestigious awards including the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, Padma Bhushan and Sangeet Natak Academy Ratna award.

The controversy over poor umpiring in the ongoing Test series between India and the West Indies has taken a new twist as it has now emerged that Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was given out off a no ball on the first day of the second match in Bridgetown, Barbados.

In what could erupt into a major controversy, the television replays ordered to check if Fidel Edwards had no-balled didn't show that particular ball, instead some other legitimate delivery was shown to give Dhoni out.

Incidentally, Dhoni was given out off a no ball even in the first Test in Jamaica.

The total cost to America of its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, plus the related military operations in Pakistan, is set to exceed $4 trillion -- more than three times the sum so far authorised by Congress in the decade since the 9/11 attacks.

Click HERE to view graphic

Biz Stone, the co-founder and public face of Twitter, is to cease his work with the micro-blogging company and team up with his former colleagues in an attempt to invent the next big thing on the internet.

According to a report in The Independent, the 37-year-old entrepreneur is restarting the company that spawned Twitter five years ago -- a venture called The Obvious Group -- to experiment with making 'systems that help people work together to improve the world'