We close Live! for today. Stay with us tomorrow for all the news as it happens.

Indian Olympic Association interim president V K Malhotra today said there is still no reason to impeach jailed President Suresh Kalmadi, who is facing trial on charges of corruption.

In its first executive committee meeting after the arrest of Kalmadi last month by the CBI, Malhotra said the IOA would follow the constitution in taking any step against the former Commonwealth Games Organising Committee chairman.

Asked if IOA is standing by Kalmadi at this crucial phase, Malhotra said, "It's not the question of standing by Kalmadi or not ... Law will take its course. IOA has nothing to do with it. Constitution is there to take the decision and we will go by the Constitution."

The Supreme Court today sought a response from Chhattisgarh government on a bail petition of Pijush Guha who, along with civil rights activist Binayak Sen, was sentenced to life imprisonment on the charge of sedition.

The vacation bench of justices G S Singhvi and C K Prasad issued the notice to the state government and asked it to file the response by May 31 when the bail plea would be taken up for further hearing.

Guha, a Kolkota-based business man, was convicted along with Sen and Naxal ideologue Narayan Sanyal for colluding with Maoists to establish a network to fight the state.

They were awarded life imprisonment. He then challenged his conviction in the Chhattisgarh High Court which refused to grant him bail in the case.

Challenging the order of the High Court, advocate Prashant Bhushan (the Lokpal committee person), appearing for him, pleaded with the court to grant bail saying he has already spent four years in jail.

He also pointed out that the apex court recently granted bail to Sen. The apex court had on April 15 granted bail to 61-year-old Sen while questioning his conviction and life sentence for sedition saying he could be a sympathiser of Naxalites and nothing beyond.

All that you wanted to know the Obamas London visit

Meanwhile, in London, a certain lady in a dressing room at 10 Downing Street is pressing the panic button.

Samantha Cameron, the PM David Cameron'swife is probably laying out and trying on the entire contents of her wardrobe, reports the Telegraph.co.uk.

The reason why: Why the alarm? Sam Cam's arch fashion rival, First Lady of US style, Michelle Obama is coming to town.

Read more

Rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa who is with PM Manmohan Singh at the Second Africa India Forum Summit in Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa sends us this report.

Seeking to make inroads into Africa, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh today said at the that India would continue to support efforts at infrastructure development, before announcing some very handsome grants which aim at helping Africa.

Delivering his address, the prime minister said that India will offer $5 billion for the next three years, under lines of credit to help achieve Africa's development goals.

Hang in there for the full report on rediff.com shortly

The Icelandic volcano ash has forced US president Barack Obamato leave Ireland early due to fears that Airforce One could be grounded by the ash cloud blowing down fromIceland.

The US president flew to London last evening just hours after he received a rapturous reception in central Dublin from more than 25,000 people during a speech in which he pledged that America would continue to stand by peace-makers in Northern Ireland, reports the guardian.co.uk.

The CPI top brass today reviewed the drubbing of the Left in the recent assembly elections in its stronghold of West Bengal terming it as a "serious political setback" and decided to make joint efforts to regain their lost base there.

A meeting of the party's National Executive heard reports received from its units in West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Assam and held in-depth review of the Left's poll performance and reasons for the humiliating defeat in Bengal.

The meeting came in the backdrop of party General Secretary A B Bardhan warning Left leaders to "either change or you are out" and describing the Left's debacle in West Bengal as a "defining moment".

The spread of dense ash from the erupting Iceland volcano could force the cancellation of up to 500 commercial flights in Northern Ireland, Scotland and parts of Scandinavia, the European air traffic agency said today.

Between 200 and 250 flights had already been canceled, said Brian Flynn, head of network operations at Eurocontrol.

There are just over 30,000 flights within Europe on average every day at this time of the year.

Ash from the Grimsvotn volcano already forced President Barack Obama to shorten a visit to Ireland, and has raised fears of a repeat of huge travel disruptions in Europe last year when ash from the Eyjafjalljokull volcano stranded millions of passengers.

The high-waisted Calvin Klein jeans, the black leather jumpsuit, the gold Vera Wang couture along with her show, which ends Wednesday, Oprah has broadcast her style evolution over 25 years. From the Daily Beast.

See photos

The outrageous hat worn by Princess Beatrice at the royal wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton last month will send $131,000 to two international charities based in Britain. The hat has been nicknamed the Toilet Seat.

Jog your memory

Apparently, Dominique Strauss-Kahn's friends secretly contacted the impoverished family of the hotel maid, who has accused the former IMF chief of raping her, and offered them money to withdraw the case.

The maid reportedly has an extended family in the former French colony of Guinea in West Africa that lacks paved roads, electricity and phone lines.

"They already talked with her family. For sure, it''s going to end up on a quiet note," the New York Post quoted a French businesswoman with close ties to Strauss-Kahn and his family, as saying.

A broad smile was Kanimozhi's reply to a question from her half-brother M K Stalin on how was she doing in Tihar jail when they came face to face at a trial court in New Delhi.

Stalin, clad in his trademark white shirt and dhoti, waited for 30 minutes at the Special CBI court at the Patiala House Court complex here for his sister.

A composed Kanimozhi came inside the court of Judge O P Saini and smiled at her husband Aravindthan. Then, the senior DMK leader stood up and greeted former Telecom Minister A Raja, who is also in jail, and shook hands with him.

As he saw Kanimozhi walking near his seat, Stalin asked "How are you doing?". Her answer was just a smile and all the three stood for a while before being nudged by DMK Parliamentary Party leader T R Baalu to sit.

Stalin sat between Kanimozhi and Raja and got to know from them conditions in the jail and how they were being treated. All the three then settled for an interaction in Tamil that lasted 50 minutes.

"How is father?" a concerned Kanimozhi asked Stalin, to which he replied: "He is doing fine."

DMK chief M Karunanidhi had met Kanimozhi at the Tihar jail yesterday.

Then, Kanimozhi asked her brother about the well-being of his family members in Chennai.

In between, Kanimozhi and Raja were seen talking to each other. Though the atmosphere was emotionally-charged, both Stalin and Kanimozhi were seen talking casually to each other.

This is what RCA Secretary Sanjay Dixittweeted that earned him a showcause notice from the BCCI.

'Sachin gets out off a full toss. Can't blame the pitch this time'.

This tweet happened after Tendulkar had been dismissed for 51 against Punjab in the next league match. Tendulkar apparently complained to the BCCI about the tweet.

PM at the Africa-India summit in Ethiopia:

India offers USD 700 million to establish new institutes and training programmes in Africa. India will also launch a virtual university in Africa andoffers 10,000 scholarships for students from the continent.

India also offers USD 300 million to develop a railway line in Ethiopia.

Shouldn't charity should begin at home by building grain silos so that thousands and thousands of tonnes don't rot in the open and as many Indians don't go to bed hungry. Makes you sick.

After a meeting with DMK chief M Karunanidhi, Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad today said the arrest of Kanimozhi in the 2G spectrum case would not have any impact on the ties between the two parties but insisted that the government would not interfere in the case.

"All these on-goings have no effect on DMK-Congress alliance and in future also it will have no effect," the Union Minister said.

He said the Congress President Sonia Gandhi is concerned about Kanimozhi being in jail and he expressed sympathies with the DMK over the issue.

"Our leader Sonia Gandhi is concerned because Kanimozhi being a woman is in jail and it is a matter of concern and the fact is that one cannot do anything," Azad said.

He, however, clarified that the government would not interfere in the legal process.

Azad, who is also Congress in-charge of Tamil Nadu, maintained that Karunanidhi understands that the Supreme Court is directly monitoring the 2G spectrum case and the government has no role in it.

"Karunanidhi is a man of political standing and also a man of political understanding. He knows well that the Supreme Court is monitoring and a special court is looking into it. He also knows the opinion of the Government of India as it is not interfering in any cases, including the (Suresh) Kalmadi case," he said.

Remember Vuvuzelas? Those noisy, droning horns used by football fans during last year's football World Cup?

Apart frombeing an irritant and causing noise pollution, vuvuzelasmay also spread diseases, say experts.

The bbc.co.uk report says a short burst on the instrument creates a spittle shower similar to a sneeze, travelling at a four million droplets a second.

In crowded venues one person blowing a vuvuzela could infect many others with airborne illness like the flu or TB.

Just in:More than 250 flights now cancelled because of the Icelandic ash cloud, says European air traffic controller.

Read more

A rediff.com exclusive story on life and living ina 15X10 home.

DMKchief M Karunanidhi's daughter Kanimozhi, who is cooling her heels in a cell in Jail No 6, Tihar, for her role in the 2G spectrum case, lives in a cell the same size.

Our correspondents across metros met families who have less or as much space to live in. The only difference, they live with their head held high...

Meet the people

A day after the Pakistan's naval airbase in Mehran was attacked by the Taliban, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Noman Bashirsaid the country's Navy installations would be moved from residential areas to safer places.

Between four and six Taliban terrorists entered Karachi's Mehran Naval Station on Sunday night, destroying two US-supplied maritime surveillance aircraft and killing ten military personnel during their 17-hour siege of the naval air base.

Also read: Why loss of 2 P-3 Orions is a big blow to Pakistan

Like we said we would, here's an update on the David Coleman Headley trial in Chicago.

In further indictment of the ISI, 26/11 accused Headley today said the Pakistani spy agency and its operatives like Major Iqbal and LeT founder Hafiz Saeed had helped him in laying the groundwork for the Mumbai attacks.

The testimony by 50-year-old Headley, a prosecution witness, came as the trial of Mumbai attacks co-accused and his longtime friend Tahawwur Rana, a Canadian of Pakistani origin, opened in the US at Chicago's Dirksen Federal Building.

"They (ISI and LeT) coordinated with each other and ISI provided assistance to Lashkar," Headley told Judge Harry D Leinenweber.

According to Headley, who is Rana's friend from a military school in Pakistan, two years before terrorists struck Mumbai, began laying the groundwork for the attack with USD 25,000 finance from Major Iqbal.

Headley said that when LeT leaders began talking about a possible attack in India, he suggested that he get involved.

"I suggested that I change my name and make a new passport to make it easy to enter India undetected," he told the court. Headley said the ISI provided help to LeT and that he first started training in Pakistan more than a decade ago with the Lashkar.

Headley said LeT chief Hafiz Saeed, the mastermind behind the 26/11 attacks that killed 166 people, told him that the satisfaction of one second of "jihad" is equal to "100 years of worship."

Change of plans apparently. Ajit Kumar Seth an IAS officer of 1974 seniority of Uttar Pradesh cadre has been appointed asthe newUnion Cabinet Secretary.

Our man in New Delhi says the announcement was made hurriedly to avoid embarrassment to the government with the speculation of KM Chandrasekhar getting his fourth extension.

Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad called on DMK chief M Karunanidhi here today. Azad, who is in charge of Congress affairs in Tamil Nadu, came to the hotel where Karunanidhi is staying and met him.

Last night, Home Minister P Chidambaram and Minister of State for Personnel V Narayansamy also met Karunanidhi, who arrived in Delhi yesterday to meet his daughter Kanimozhi in Tihar jail.

Karunandhi also met former Telecom Minister A Raja and Kalaignar TV executive Sharad Kumar, both accused in the 2G scam along with Kanimozhi, in the jail yesterday.

In April 2010, the unpronouncable volcano Eyjafjallajkull erupted disrupting flights worldover. About 20 countries closed their airspace (a condition known as ATC Zero) that affected hundreds of thousands of travellers. The European flights avoided about 344,109 tonnes of CO2 emissions per day, while the volcano emitted about 150 000 tonnes of CO2 per day.

Now, a year on, another Icelandic volcano, with yet another unpronoucable name, Grimsvotn, in Vatnajokull National Park began erupting on Saturday. And the situation is grim.

The bbc.co.uk reports that UK is the first country where flights are affected, apart from Iceland, of course. Thousands of passengers face UK flight cancellations because of drifting ash from an Icelandic volcanic eruption.

BA, KLM, Aer Lingus and Easyjet are among the airlines that have chosen to suspend services in and out of Scotland for the coming hours.

Stay with us for updates as it happens

Missouri state officials have confirmed the death toll has crossed 100 in the tornado that hit Joplin in Missouri province of the United States on Sunday.

About 116 people were dead and 1150 injured in a tornado that knocked down power lines and damaged nearly 2000 buildings.

A door-to-door search and rescue operation began on Monday morning, but the thunderstorm hindered its pace.

Here's why the Delhi High Court today rejected the bail applications of DMK MP Kanimozhi. The special court had said that the offence attributed to them (Kani and Kalaignar TV MD Sharad Kumar) was grave and the possibility of influencing the witnesses cannot be ruled out.

Kanimozhi, who sought bail in the Special Court on the grounds of being a woman, had approached the high court seeking relief citing the need to look after her school-going child who has to be cared for as his father works abroad.

"The petitioner (Kanimozhi) is having a single school- going child to be taken care of. Her husband is employed abroad and the court should grant bail to her," said the bail plea.

As the International Monetary Fund prepares to replace its disgraced former chief, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, women employees have called for a female boss at the helm of the financial institution.

'CNN' claims to have obtained e-mails which suggest the female staff have for long been complaining about the male culture at the IMF and they now want a woman to run the global economic organisation.

"In fact, in the e-mails exchanged among numerous female workers at the IMF late last week in response to a New York Times article titled, 'At IMF, Men on Prowl and Women on Guard', women are bemoaning a "male dominated workplace" where "gender stats speak for themselves".

One female worker in her e-mail asks whether the IMF would be better off with a woman in charge "to end such a negative impression".

She tells colleagues: "We now have a good opportunity to voice it out." Another e-mail reads: "Would be nave to pretend that there is no glass ceiling."

Pictured: The New York hotel where IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn allegedly molested the maid

We'll get you more details on the big Chicago trial of David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Rana in a bit.

Meanwhile, dirt on IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn's trial.

Traces of former his sperm have reportedly been found on the dress of the New York hotel maid whom he had allegedly sexually assaulted earlier this month. Police sources in Paris said they had received DNA samples from the New York hotel where the alleged crime had taken place, and claimed that they belonged to Strauss-Kahn.

French news website Atlantico.fr published an exclusive report about the findings, stating: "These tests were performed on samples taken by police after the sexual assault victim says he (Strauss-Kahn) was with the maid at the Sofitel Hotel on Saturday, May 14.'

Sixty-two-year-old Strauss-Kahn was released on bail from Rikers Island prison in New York earlier this month, and is currently under house arrest in his New York Mansion.

In Chicago, the 26/11 trial began yesterday.David Coleman Headley, the Lashkar-e-Taiba man who did a recce of the terror spots in Mumbaitold the court that his hatred for India in the aftermath of Pakistan's defeat in the 1971 war led him to terrorism.

But what does the trial mean for India?

Rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa, who is incidentally with the PM in Ethiopia, says Indian agencies are keeping a close watch on the developments at Chicago.

Senior Indian officials say that the important thing about the ongoing trial is that India's claim has been vindicated and this trial has more emphasis on the ISI as compared to the Lashkar-e-Tayiba.

What David Headley has said is nothing new, but it does give a boost to what India has maintained -- that the ISI was involved in the Mumbai terror attacks. .

What these depositions now show is that the ISI happens to control every terror network operating out of Pakistan and there will be pressure on that agency to own up to its crime.

Read the full report on rediff.com shortly

Good morning.

First, news of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh's visit to Ethiopia on the Africa-India summit.

Our New Delhi correspondent reports Dr Singhis all set to give a six-month extension to his Cabinet Secretary KM Chandrasekhar. It may be remembered that the PM left for Ethiopia without making a successor plan for Chandrasekhar.

Amonth's training is given to the new appointee for a senior position like Cabinet Secretary.

The PM returns on Sunday and from then, there's just a fortnight for a new face to takeover.

Since there is as yet no exercise of the sort done at the highest level of bureaucracy, it is taken for granted that KM Chandrasekhar will get his fourth extension.

The UPA2 has completed seven years, but has had just two Cabinet Secretaries --BK Chaturvedi and KM Chandrasekhar. Atal Bihari Vajpayee, on the other hand, during his six years had three Cabinet Secretaries.