The leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly, BJP's Eknath Khadse today said that NCP chief Sharad Pawar travelled in jailed DB Realty boss Shahid Balwa's personal aircraft twice. As did NCP's Praful Patel, BCCI's Shashank Manohar and 2G scam accused Vinod Goenka. Alleging a link with Balwa, Khadse said he had proof and demanded an enquiry.

Balwa, the promoter of DB Realty, which floated Swan Telecom, was arrested by the Mumbai CBI in connection with 2G scam last month. The DB group's telecom arm had sold 45% stake to UAE-based Etisalat for $900 million in 2009.

The company, earlier known as Swan Telecom, is now known as Etisalat-DB. The company is also alleged to have made pay-offs to DMK-owned Kalaignar TV after bagging the deal.

Earlier today, we told you that Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa has fled to UK. Now, it appears that Britain will not be offereing him immunity from prosecution, despite his unexpected arrival in the country, reports bbc.co.uk.

UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said Koussa had resigned an indication that the Gaddafi regime was "crumbling from within".

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A forest officer, Satyanarayana has been beaten to death in Adilabad, Andhra Pradesh, allegedly by sandalwood mafia. The villager accompanying the officer says he was beaten with sticks and stones. The officer did not have any weapons with him following a dictat which prohibits officers from doings so in Naxal strongholdsfor fear that the weapons would be seized.

China today issued a white paper on national defense, aiming to enhance its military transparency and boost the world's trust in its commitment to peaceful development.

The document, the seventh of its kind the Chinese government has issued since 1998, says China will never seek hegemony, nor will it adopt the approach of military expansion now or in the future, no matter how its economy develops.

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The Shunglu Committee has faulted the sacked chief of Commonwealth Games organising body Suresh Kalmadi and his aides over the award of contracts saying there was "extreme concentration of powers at the top" and "conflict of interest" among OC officials.

The two-member High Level Committee, headed by former Comptroller and Auditor General V K Shunglu, in its fresh report, also upbraided several government agencies for causing losses of over Rs 1,600 crore in executing projects.

The HLC, which went into the complaints of alleged corruption and irregularities in the conduct of sporting extravaganza, said the OC had serious governance problems due to an unwieldy general body with 500 members and a "subservient" executive board.

It looks like a giant potato in space. And yet, the information in this model is the sharpest view we have of how gravity varies across the Earth.

The globe is a highly exaggerated rendering, but it neatly illustrates how the tug we feel from the mass of rock under our feet is not the same in every location. Gravity is strongest in yellow areas; it is weakest in blue ones, reports bbc.co.uk.

Read more and see the picture

Beijing has become the second city in China after Shanghai to enjoy the benefits of a slightly relaxed family planning policy in what appears to be a gradual rollback of China's three decade old one-child policy.

Under the new rules, fewer couples would be subject to the fines charged to those who violate China's family planning policy by having a second child.

Beijing couples who give birth to a second child will now be charged fines only if the mother is younger than 28 years and the second child is born within four years after the first.

In the past, such couples had to pay a fifth of their annual income if they broke these rules.

Arre wah!

The Maharashtra government has declared a holiday on April 2, Saturday, for the World Cup final, which will be played in Mumbai. The state holiday will only be applicable to government organisations, including banks.

Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni is on the threshold of creating World Cup history but former captain Kapil Dev, who has been there and done that, hopes that the maverick cricketer is not judged by the result of just one final.

"I will never doubt Dhoni's credentials as a captain irrespective of the result of World Cup final. Lot of people believe that it's the ultimate result which will count but I believe otherwise," the skipper of India's victorious 1983 team, said today.

"Look at Ricky Ponting. He has won two World Cups and after one bad World up he is out. That's not the way to judge a captain. So I would like that Dhoni shouldn't be judged by a win or loss. About his take on Dhoni's x-factor, the legendary all-rounder said," Mahendra Singh Dhoni is a bit of a gambler.

BJP's Sushma Swaraj who is campaigning in Chennai tweets: Vanakkam TN assembly electionil BJP kku oottu podungal.

Translated that means: 'Vote for the BJP'

Rediff.com's Ganesh Nadar, who will covering the Tamil Nadu elections,calls in to say that AIADMK chief J Jayalalitha has postponed her campaign trail in Tirunelveili from Saturday to Sunday.

While her rank and file insist she is the most popular leader in the state, (and if prodded more --in the country), amma knows she doesn't stand a chance against the World Cup finals. Meanwhile, she says that TN doesn't want a coalition government (DMK and Cong) and her aim is to overthrow the DMK.

R RAJAGOPALANtweets: Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs today to discuss national clean energy fund for public accounts and formulate modalities for utilisation.

The union cabinet will meet at 4.30 pm to discuss ratification of the UN Convention against transanational organised crime.

Former Pakistan skipper Imran Khan feels the primary reason for their rout was not going for the kill when India lost four wickets for less than 150. He lists the three reasons.

1. Saeed Ajmal should have gone for the jugular when India were four down. Except for Sehwag, all the other Indian batsmen struggled but they failed to press home the advantage. That was the first mistake

2. The second mistake was to send Asad Shafiq above Younis Khan and Misbah-ul Haq. "They should have promoted Misbah and Younis up the order. I always believe that your best batsmen should come ahead of others. So when Umar Akmal got out, I could figure that Pakistan were mentally out of the game."

3. "Not taking Powerplay is a reflection of how they were mentally out of the game even before the last ball had been bowled. It was a case of lack of concentration," Imran concluded.

The Indian cricket team today left for Mumbai to play the final of the cricket World Cup against Sri Lanka on Saturday.

India vanquished Pakistan to storm into the final in a high-voltage match last night which was watched by the Prime Ministers of the two countries and millions of passionate fans across the world.

Meanwhile, WC final opponents Sri Lanka have already reached Mumbai.

Ridiculous this!

A shopkeeper was found shot dead in his establishment in after he reportedly stated that the Indian team will lose the Cricket World Cup semi-final match with Pakistan.

Soon after the Indian side completed its innings last night, Vishal Gupta had allegedly stated that India would lose the match at Mohali, which the rest of the people at the shop opposed.

When India won, people left the shop and it was only after a while that people noticed Gupta with bullet injuries all over his body.

Scotland-born famous explorer David Livingstone killed and ate an elephant during an African expedition, according to one of his letters.

Livingstone's 12-page missive to British Premier Lord Palmerston in November 1861 has sold for nearly 28,800 pounds, fetching more than treble its estimated price at an auction in London, the 'BBC' reported.

The letter describes how his party on the famous Zambezi expedition of 1858-1864 killed an elephant for food and then saw the rest of the herd apparently mourning.

In it, Livingstone reveals a series of incidents, including being robbed by "professional" thieves who struck just before dawn. He said the local people appeared to be afraid to kill elephants for the ivory, as the animals were "not disturbed by the presence of man".

"When we killed one for food the rest of the herd stood a mile off for two days. Elsewhere they would not have stood within 30 or 40 miles," he wrote.

UK-based telecom major Vodafone Group today said it has exercised its option to acquire Essar's stake in their joint venture, Vodafone Essar, which will result in a cash flow of USD 5 billion for the Indian firm.

"Vodafone exercised its call option over the remaining 11 per cent of VEL owned by the Essar Group, resulting in a total cash payment of USD 5 billion," Vodafone said in a statement.

With this, Essar will exit completely from the joint venture, which is offering nationwide mobile services in India. The company also that final settlement is anticipated to be completed by November, 2011.

Did they ask the zoozoos?

For those of us who saw the Berlin Wall fall (thanks in some measure to CNN and BBC), will remember the man directly responsbile -- Mikhail Gorbachev. He will always be looked upon as a hero, a 20th century messiah, as the man who at great personal and professional risk -- changed the world.

Gorbachev's 80th birthday was brought in at London at the Royal Albert Hall in a star-studded gathering. The event was hosted by Kevin Spacey and Sharon Stone.

This is what Spacey said: "If you look at our world now," he told us, "all of the things that are happening in Egypt, Belarus, Iran and Libya, people are fighting for the very kind of freedoms and access and ability to cross borders that Mikhail Gorbachev did so many years ago... I suspect that you could draw a direct line to Mikhail Gorbachev and say that's where a lot of this began."

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The visit by the Chief of General Staff of China's People's Liberation Army, General Chen Bingde, to Kathmandu last week underscored both the pragmatism and the obsessive bottom line of Beijing's current policies toward Nepal.

China has evidently no qualms about building bridges with the Nepalese army leadership, the latter's virulent hostility toward the Maoist party notwithstanding.

Nor is China deterred by the fact that the Nepalese army is heavily dependent on India's goodwill and support historically.

Thus, Chen's visit once again underlines that China has no 'favourites' on the Nepalese political landscape and has only 'interests' and Beijing will advance its interests no matter who it has to deal with or what it takes.

Read MK Bhadrakumar's blog

Details of the assassination attempt on JUI chief Rehman.

For the second straight day, Pakistan's hardline Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman today had a narrow escape when a suicide bomber targeted his motorcade in northwest Pakistan. Eight people were killed and 29 injured.

The bomber struck just after 57-year-old Rehman's motorcade entered Charsadda town in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, where he was to address a gathering at Darul Uloom Islamia seminary.

The powerful blast occurred near a government office and a private school, witnesses said.

Pakistani police have arrested a man in the central Punjab province under the controversial blasphemy law for allegedly burning pages of a book with religious teachings.

Police registered an FIR against Ghulam Mustafa following a complaint froma cleric. Mustafa's four children go to a mosque to study the Quran. The cleric alleged that some children assembled outside Mustafa's house and said that pages of the Quran had been burnt there.

The cleric said he went to Mustafa's house and found him standing near a 'tandoor' (earthen oven) that contained some charred pages. A mob wanted to lynch Mustafa but he was handed over to police.

In a reverse, China says its been watching United States operations in the Asia Pacific. It says its concerned with the US military presence in the Asia-Pacific region, which is becoming more "volatile".

It also says there has been a rise in operations directed against China.

The views were made in China's National Defence white paper, issued by the government. The paper outlines the country's current views on security issues and gives an overview of its military forces.

Pulitzer prize-winning author Joseph Lelyveld has opposed a ban on his controversial book on Mahatma Gandhi, describing the move as "shameful".

"In a country (India) that calls itself a democracy, it is shameful to ban a book that no one has read, including the people who are doing the banning," Lelyveld said.

He was reacting to the ban imposed by Gujarat government on his book, which reportedly talks about the sexual preferences of Mahatma Gandhi.

"They should at least make an effort to see the pages that they think offend them before they take such an extreme step. I find it very discouraging to think that India would so limit discussion," he told CNN-IBN news channel.

The author of the book titled 'Great Soul; Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India' has triggered a controversy with Gandhi's kin and historians saying it was an attempt to "sensationalise" the life of the icon of non-violence and showed the "negative" mindset of the author.

Defending his work, Lelyveld said: "It is a responsible book, it is a sensitive book, it is a book that is admiring of Gandhi and his struggle for social justice in India and it's been turned into as if it is some kind of sensationalist pot boiler. It is not."

The Lahore High Court has directed the federal and provincial governments of Pakistan to submit their replies by April 8 on a petition pertaining to the release and departure of double murder accused CIA contractor Raymond Davis.

On March 16 - the same day when he was indicted for double murder - US national Davis was freed and quickly flown out of Pakistan after the heirs of his two victims told a local court that they had accepted blood money worth 200 million rupees, bringing the over one and a half month-long saga to an abrupt end.

The petitioner wanted to know why Davis' acquittal was facilitated as was his departure despite the fact that his name was placed on the Exit Control List.

The heir apparent to business iconWarren Buffett's investment firm has quit under an oily cloud, reports guardian.co.uk.

David Sokol, long considered the most likely candidate to succeed the billionaire investor as the head of Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, resigned after purchasing shares in anoilcompany that he suggested Buffett should buy.

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Buffett was recently India. Read

News briefs

• Microsoft Corp files complaint against Google Inc to European commission over competitive practices.
• Radiation levels in seawater offJapanplant spike to all-time highs
• Rajesh Kamat has quit as CEO, Colors.
• Poonam Pandey's status message

One's crown jewels are frozen, jokes Prince Harry after arctic swim. He may be third in line to the throne, but even for Prince Harry, there are some experiences that can only be summed up with a bit of barrack room humour, reports the telegraph.co.uk.

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For once, can our politicians not unite in what is easily India's diplomatic win, nevermind the Pak rout.

The BJP today said cricket and diplomacy between India and Pakistan should be kept separate and the game allowed to remain a game.

"Let the game be game. Dialogue diplomacy should be separated from cricket," senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj said today.

Responding to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's invitation to his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani to watch yesterday's semi-final encounter between the two countries at Mohali which India won, she initially described it as "thing of the past."

However, pressed for her party's reaction, the opposition leader in the Lok Sabha said games and diplomacy should be kept separate.

Swaraj is in Chennai for campaigning for the April 13 assembly elections.

Five-year-old Thushara Kamaleswaran was gunned down in front of her parents by a bullet that narrowly missed her heart.She and her seven-year-old brother, who escaped unhurt, had been visiting their uncle at the shop to give him a birthday present, reports the dailymail.co.uk. Instead, she became one of the youngest victims of gun crime in Britain.

The story of how gangland wars have taken over Britain.

What a waste of a life and certainly, talent.

Actor Shiney Ahuja. who was convicted by a Mumbai court yesterday, (people almost missed the news in the backdrop fo the WC semis), for raping his maid, will challenge his conviction in the High Court.

He has been sentenced to seven years in prison.

The actor apparently wept after the judge pronounced him guilty; his wife, Anupam, knelt on the floor to console him, reports ndtv.com.

From court, Ahuja was taken to jail.

In June 2009, an 18-year-old who had been hired by the actor and his wife to work for them at their residence said that she had been raped by Shiney while his wife was away.

What about the same verdict for Banda legislator Purushottam Dwivedi? The MLA who raped a Dalit girl in Mayawati's UP has still not been convicted.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa will watch the Sri Lankan cricket team take on India in the World Cup final at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on April 2.

"The President and his three sons were keen spectators on Tuesday night when Sri Lanka beat New Zealand to reach the final to meet India," Rajapaksa''s spokesman Bandula Jayasekera said.

And in Libya, the foreign minister Moussa Koussa has defected to Britain. He said he was"no longer willing" to work for Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's regime, the UK Foreign Office says, in a report filed by bbc.co.uk.

He flew in from Tunisia on a non-commercial flight and was questioned for several hours by British officials. "He travelled here under his own free will. He has told us he is resigning," a Foreign Office spokesman said.

Libyan envoys who resigned almost en masse after the anti-Gaddafi movement began are still in a sense, stateless. The parallel with rats and a sinking ship comes to mind.

Lest we forget, (and yes, that's a terrible cliche), news from Japan.

The fear of being affected by radiation has prevented authorities from collecting around 1,000 bodies of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami victims from within the 20-kilometer-radius evacuation zone near the troubled Fukushima nuclear plant.

The bodies had been exposed to high levels of radiation after death. On Sunday, high levels of radiation were detected on a body found in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, about five kilometres from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station.

Foreign Secretary Nirupama Raotweets: Love of cricket united both Ind and Pak at Mohali. Our PM said we shld build on this to bridge trust deficit, working together at all levels.

-----

He said bth countries r strategically placed to work together and address challenges that face them finding cooperative solutions.

Vanquished Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi expects a mature reaction from Pakistani cricket fans when the team returns home after going down to archrivals India in the high voltage World Cup semi-final clash in Mohali yesterday.

"I think people have realised that we have put in our full effort. We have won six out of eight matches which is a big achievement," Afridi said.

"We have confidence (in our fans). Our country has backed us so much. People who love you so much can criticise you as well. It''s not a big deal," he added.

During the closing ceremony last night, Afridi had apologised to Pakistan for the semis loss.

It may be remembered that when the North Korean football team returned home after a world cup loss, they were made to sweep the streets, while the coach was threatened with execution.

In Pakistan, around 30 people including children were injured in firing incidents in the city during the World Cup semi-final between Pakistan and India.

Police reported that people were injured by stray gun shots because of celebratory firing to celebrate an Indian wicket or to cheer a boundary in the Pakistan innings. But stray bullets hit people around them including children who were taken to hospitals for treatment.

As soon as the semi-final ended in defeat for Pakistan, the guns fell silent as plans to celebrate a Pakistan victory were canceled yesterday.

In Rawalpindi, a student took poisonous pills after being depressed by the defeat, while in Faisalabad a 65-year-old succumbed to a heart attack during the match

And another update from yesterday. Chairman of the Hurriyat Conference Mirwaiz Umar Farooq yesterday stressed the need for the formation of a Kashmir Group in Parliament to monitor the situation in the state and put forth recommendations for resolving Kashmir issue.

Mirwaiz while talking to a 40-member delegation of Greater Municipal Corporation Hyderbad,gave a detailed account of the incidents of human rights violations and 'brute force' and the repressive method employed by the government through its forces to quell the upsurge of peaceful mass protests, processions and rallies since 2008.

Mirwaiz said if the Prime Minister of India Dr Manmohan Singh and Prime Minister of Pakistan Yousuf Raza Gilani, during cricket diplomacy, succeeded in pushing forward the composite dialogue on resolving the Kashmir issue, it would be a matter joy for Hurriyat and people of Kashmir and would certainly also help hammer out a solution acceptable to the both countries and people of Kashmir.

While you digest that, here's the statement by our Prime Minister at Mohali yesterday. Incidentally, Pak PM Gilani has invited the PM, Sonia Gandhi and Team India to Pakistan.

I am very grateful to Prime Minister Gilani for having accepted my invitation to join me in watching this beautiful game of cricket. Cricket has been a uniting factor, it has brought our two Prime Ministers together and I dare say that's a very good beginning.

Whatever be the differences between our two countries we have to find pathways to resolve them. And Gilani sahib and I have had extensive discussions on all outstanding issues and we have reaffirmed our resolve that there are difficulties on the way but we will make every honest effort to overcome those difficulties.

And the message from Mohali is that the people of India and Pakistan want to live in peace and amity and that the two prime ministers have committed their government to work in that direction.

The census report for 2011 is out. What has been released today is a provisional report.

For now, only the highlights are in. Details awaited.

• India's population is pegged at 1,210.2 million (male 623.7 million and female--586.5 million).
• India's population growth in 2011 is 17.64 per cent in comparison to 21.15 per cent in 2001.
• The Census commissioner says it's the sharpest fall in population grwoth since Independence.
• Total literacy is 38.82 per cent.
• Female literacy is more than male literacy.
• Jammu and Kashmir, Bihar and Gujarat show a decline in sex ratio.
• 29 states show an increase in sex ratio.
• Child sex ratio in 2011 is 914 females against 1,000 male -- the lowest since Independence
• India's population is now bigger than the combined population of USA, Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
• Uttar Pradesh is the most populous state and the combined population of UP and Maharashtra is bigger than USA.
• Highest population density is in Delhi's north-eastdistrict (37,346 per sq km), while the lowest is in Dibang Valley in Arunachal Pradesh (just one per sq km).

Wiki continues leaking.

The cables now reveal that the then Australian Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard's visit to India in 2009 during a spate of racial attacks on Indian students in Australia was a 'wasted opportunity', as it failed to quell the rising tide of anger in the country over the assaults.

Diplomatic cables unveiled by WikiLeaks disclose that Gillard's India visit secured only 'vague commitments' on the burning issue in the country.

Back to violence and mayhem. First up...

Australia's oldest Hindu temple in New South Wales was attacked by unidentified masked gunmen who fired several shots at it, triggering panic among the community members.

Sri Mandir at Auburn, which is more than three decades old, was attacked by two men, who were wearing balaclavas or ski masks, earlier on the night of March 19.

The attackers were caught on CCTV firing shots at the temple. No one was killed or seriously injured in the incident, which created panic among the temple's priest and worshippers.

Good morning! The exclamation, of course, is forthe blockbuster win yesterday. Two more days to Saturday. And the World Cup win. For now, the top headlines in the papers.

Ind vs Pak: India beat Pakistan to reach World Cup final (The Times of India)

Twenty-eight long years after that magical Indian summer in England, the Men in Blue are one victory away from proving that India is truly cricket's superpower, not just commercially but also on the field. Read

No breakthroughs, but PM & Pak PM have a good conversation (The Times of India)

During the informal talks, PM Manmohan Singh touched upon a number of issues that are yet to be resolved between the two countries. Read

India-Pak semifinal: Aamir to Ambani, all catch the action (The Times of India)

The sleepy city airport handled an unprecedented rush of 120 flights on Wednesday as politicos, dignitaries, top corporates and glitterati streamed in from across the country to catch the World Cup semifinal action. Read

Shiney Ahuja gets seven years jail in rape case (DNA)
While convicting the accused, Judge PM Chouhan relied mainly upon the FIR in the case, Ahuja's lawyer Srikant Shivade told reporters who were not allowed in the court as the trial was held in-camera. Read

Aseemanand takes back all he said, was 'coerced' (Indian Express)
The prime accused in the string of terror cases involving alleged Hindu extremists, Swami Aseemanand, has told the Ajmer Chief Judicial Magistrate that his confession to the CBI was under coercion from investigation agencies. Read

Bill Gates plotted to grab shares from cancer-stricken partner: Book (Indian Express)

Bill Gates plotted to grab Microsoft shares from his cancer-stricken business partner Paul Allen, the software firm's co-founder has claimed in a new memoir.

Read

Public relations train wreck' in Washington on the eve of Manmohan's U.S. visit (The Hindu)

The cable, accessed by The Hindu through WikiLeaks, took potshots at the Indian media and political observers for focussing "only'' on the U.S. position while "neglecting all other comments made during the course of the General Assembly debate'' on the resolution. Read