The bigwigs of the BCCI and Sahara Group had on Tuesday started another round of discussions in a desperate bid to break the stalemate over the participation of Pune Warriors in the fifth edition of the Indian Premier League. A day after the BCCI's Working Committee rejected some of the demands of Sahara.

In a notable development, former board president Shashank Manohar was also included in the parleys. Board president N Srinivasan was present at the meeting. Manohar was the president of BCCI when Sahara Group bought the Pune franchise for whopping Rs 1700 crore, the costliest franchise in the IPL.

The former BCCI president is well respected in the Indian cricket fraternity for his expertise in crisis management.

Just in: The Board and Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and Sahara, after a special meeting today, have agreed to give their partnership another chance. The two have arrived at a compromise and early reports suggest Sahara is back in IPL and will be involved both in the Pune IPL and Team India.

The contentious trading will now be open till February 29 to allow Pune to scout for players. This means that the Pune Warriors auction purse will be revived.

Sahara can also contact other franchisees to strengthen its squad.

Heads up all Amitabh Bachchan fans (In other words much of India's 1.2 billion)

A day after assuring fans that all is well with him post his abdominal surgery, Amitabh Bachchan has said he is now facing "fresh medical issues".

The 69-year-old megastar, who has been updating his fans on his hospital stay, today posted a brief entry on his blog saying that he won't be detailing on his medical condition further.

"I seek forgiveness... I will not be detailing any more... Some fresh medical issues have come up, and I need to concentrate on the treatment now," he wrote last night.

Bachchan was operated on at the Seven Hills hospital (same hospital where Ash-Abhi's daughter was born) Saturday, after which he had tweeted that he was in pain.

His tweet yesterday indicated that he was on his way to recovery, but it seems that Bachchan will have to spend some more time at the hospital.

Bachchan has been battling a string of stomach ailments since his near fatal intestinal injury while filming a fight scene in 1982 movie "Coolie".  His latest condition is also a result of the same accident.

Shah Rukh Khan: Cast my vote..it's amusing how ppl r obsessed that the voter should show his/her finger..can I just stick my tongue out instead..rude enuff?

Turnout figure in a bit...

A week after he lost his battle in the Supreme Court on the age issue, Army Chief Gen V K Singh today said the controversy was "behind" everyone and he was happy over its resolution.

"I think there was no controversy. They are all behind us. I have already said this. We are happy at the way things have been dealt with," he said when asked whether the controversy over his age back in India was over or not.

"I followed a particular path for a particular aim and that was achieved. So there is no controversy if you are meaning or implying a particular controversy," he told Times Now.

Open magazine editor, Manu Joseph, on the New York Times. Shaking off the horror of the past in India.

Read

Till 3.30 pm, Mumbai voting was 29 per cent! UP's Naxal affected areas registered 60 per cent!

Shame on you Mumbai!

Update on the killing of two fishermen off the Kerala coast by an Italian cargo vessel. Union Home Secretary R K Singh says a case will be registered against the Italian crew.

A small, but important update on the Israeli car blast.

News comes in that the explosives used in the Delhi blast and the triple blasts in Bangkok are different, though the Thai police has been quick to point to the Iran link.

Something called C-4 has been used in the Bangkok blasts, which is often used by the military and contains RDX.

While the Delhi blast had nitrate and potassium-based explosives.

While on Pakistan, Industries and Commerce Minister Anand Sharma is in Islamabad, the last day of his three-day visit and the first such minister to visit the country.

This is the joint statement from India and Pakistan on the bilateral visit

Remember as you read this, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai is in Pakistan seeking backing for the reconciliation process, saying its support was "critical" for the success of any Afghan-led peace process in his war-ravaged country.

Karzai, who arrived in Islamabad this morning on a two-day visit for bilateral talks and to attend a trilateral summit of Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan, discussed the troubled peace process in his country with Prime Minister
Yousuf Raza Gilani.

He described "Pakistan's support as critical to the success of the Afghan-owned and Afghan-led peace process and the reconciliation" in Afghanistan. The two leaders agree on the need to strengthen cooperation on common challenges of terrorism and extremism and resolved to work for stability and peace.

Rahul Gandhi's dramatic act of tearing up a paper with a list of election promises of political opponents at a poll rally drew a sarcastic reaction today with Samajwadi party saying he may now jump from the stage to vent his anger.
Rahul's sister Priyanka Gandhi played down the incident, observing that he just tore a paper and not any party's manifesto.

Congress leader Digvijay Singh refused to comment on Yadav advising Rahul to learn courtesy. "Rahul seems angry. Earlier he used to get angry by folding hands, then he got angry by tearing up paper. Who knows, next time he might jump off the stage in anger," SP's Akhilesh Yadav said talking to reporters after addressing an election rally at Tiloi in Amethi in Uttar Pradesh. 

38-year-old Akhilesh, son of SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, also advised Rahul, who is three years older to him, to control his anger. "He should control his  anger..It's not good for his health," he said.

Last month, UK politician David Lammy shocked many by blaming last summer's UK riots on an anti-smacking law, which he said leaves parents "no longer sovereign in their own homes". Lammy -- the MP for the riot-hit Tottenham area -- later backtracked by saying the riots could not be blamed on smacking alone, but maintained that working-class parents should be able to physically discipline their children to prevent them from joining gangs.

That's the story on Firstpost.com

Security has been ramped up at Israeli diplomatic missions in the US in the wake of recent attacks on Israeli officials in New Delhi and Georgia, a former senior counterterrorism official has said.  

The ex-counterterrorism official, who worked closely with Israeli military and security services, said the increased security includes embassies as well as personnel, after Israel's diplomatic employees were targeted at least twice in the last week overseas. Israel is also taking steps internally.  

The ramping up of security came as the FBI and Homeland Security Department recently said in a jointly issued bulletin that the US government has no information suggesting Iran or its surrogates are targeting Jewish community in America.  

The Kolkata rape case: She was just asking for it!

Read the opinion piece on Firstpost.com

Our Delhi correspondent reports that Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar will address Pakistan MPs in Islamabad on February 22.

In a surprise move, two BJP MPs will accompany her delegation. The delegation of six MPs includes -- Syed Shahnawaz Hussain and Tarun Vijay both from the BJP,  Mohan Lal Sharma (Congress MP), Syed Haq (CPM), Inder Singh Namdari (Independent), Bhirendra Prasad Bhasya (AGP)

Meira Kumar is expected to return to Delhi on February 25.

Insiders say the Speaker is now taking tutorials in writing Urdu every morning.

Amidst concern and inquiries in India, a London-based tribal rights group today appealed to a UN committee to renew its call to close the key Andaman Trunk
Road to stop "human safaris" in the islands.

The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination had sought the closure of the road in 2007. After recent exposures in the UK media and inquiries instituted by the Indian government, Survival International has asked CERD in a letter to take up the issue again with India.

The Guardian story that started it all

A health department clerk Mahendra Sharma was found dead today in Lakhimpur Kheri district of Uttar Pradesh.

While the police said the death is a prima facie case of suicide, questions are being raised about the claim.

The death of the suspended health department clerk is linked with the National Rural Health Mission scam allegedly going on in the state.

If proved, Sharma's death will be the fifth one in relation with the scam. Sharma was also missing for the last nine days. Police said the body was recovered on the floor of Sharma's official residence at 4pm on Wednesday.

Read more

No doubt, cell phones have become a necessity in today's world. But, a large number of Britons are now suffering from "nomophobia" -- the fear of being separated from their mobile, says a new study.

Researchers have found that two in three mobile users are terrified of being without their phone and the number has actually risen from 53 to 66 per cent in the past four years.

Young adults suffer the most, according to the study based on a survey of 1,000 employees. Among those aged 18 to 24, 77 per cent were nomophobic.

By comparison, 62 per cent of those aged 55 and over fear losing their phones, while 59 per cent of 35 to 44-year-olds were found to be nomophobic.

A bunch of people have actually spent time and money doing a research on this. Researchers have found that like human beings, goat kids have the ability to change vocal sounds (vocal plasticity) and develop an accent. Vocal plasticity is the ability of an individual to modify the sound of their voice according to their social environment.

Hallelujah!

Health bulletin:

Slow walking predicts dementia

The speed someone walks may predict the likelihood of developing dementia later in life, according to researchers in the US. They also told a conference that grip strength in middle-age was linked to the chance of a stroke. Read

Bacteria used to fight sleeping sicknes

Scientists believe they have found a way to beat sleeping sickness using a bacterium against the tsetse fly host that spreads the disease to humans. Read

On Foreign Policy magazine, photos of a swinging Iran when the skirts were short, the dance was the twist, and America wasn't Enemy No 1.

Read

And while you're at it watch/read Marjane Satrapi's pictoral essay, Persepolis.  

Italian Ambassador Giacomo Sanfelice di Monteforte, who was summoned by Ministry of External Affairs by Secretary M Ganapathi, said his country's Navy
followed the international protocol. After the meeting here, the envoy said the facts of the case are yet to be clarified.

"We are working in very close cooperation with Indian authorities. It is in any case a very sad incident. What I want to underline is that the Italian ship moved voluntarily into the Kochi port," he said.

The Kerala government has announced an ex-gratia payment of Rs 5 lakh for two fishermen who were shot dead by Italian cargo ship Enrica Lexie, at 4.30 pm yesterday. The fishermen's association wants murder charges slapped on the crew.

The Kochi police says a case has been registered against unknown persons and that the nine surviving fishermen allege that they did not shoot at the cargo vessel.

The Ministry of External Affairs which has asked for a probe in the matter says it is inconceivable that the fishermen could have 'attacked' the cargo ship, as claimed by the Italian crew.

Here's what Priyanka Gandhi said at the poll rally in Rae Bareli today.

A day after Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi tore the list of election promises of political opponents, his sister Priyanka said that people were bored of promises and now want real work. 

"Everyone knows who all are making hollow promises...people want work. All agree that just promises are made", Priyanka said in response to questions during an informal chat. 

On Rahul tearing the list of election promises of political opponents, she said that she has seen it in newspapers today as has been seen by all others. "I have not asked what it was (in the paper)", she said. 

To a question on Samajwadi Party president Mulayam SinghYadav first saying that he could extend support to the Congress to stop the BJP from coming to power in UP and later withdrawing it, Priyanka remarked only "he should know why he went back (on his statement)".

Nice read on the Hindu: Youth from Odaipatti village in Tamil Nadu risk their lives to work as cooks in US forward military.

An Indian woman has been rewarded for her 'bold' decision to leave her marital home within days of the wedding to protest the lack of a toilet in the household, an official said on Thursday.

Anita Narre was handed $10,000 by Sulabh International, a non-profit group, for refusing to defecate in the open and sparking a 'toilet revolution' in her village in central Madhya Pradesh, according to the district magistrate.

Here's more

A high rate of inflation may be pinching hard on day-to-day life of people in the country, but a global survey has named two Indian cities -- the financial hub Mumbai and the national capital New Delhi -- among the four least expensive places across the world. 

As per the worldwide 'cost of living' survey by Economist Intelligence Unit, Mumbai is the second least expensive city globally, while New Delhi is ranked fourth. Karachi in Pakistan has been named as the cheapest destination globally, while Zurich in Switzerland is the most expensive place across the world, as per the survey. 

Inflationary pressures have figured among the key concerns facing the government as well as the public in India for many months now, although the rate of inflation has declined a bit in recent past.

The house where the late singer Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown got married has been put back on sale for 1.75 million dollars.

The Mendham New Jersey mansion is on the market after Houston initially put it up for sale back in 2009, two years after her marriage to Brown ended.   Photographs from the listing on Zillow.com show a spacious house with curved walls and high ceilings.  

The living room features a skylight and floor to ceiling windows with an exposed brick wall, while the bedroom features an open plan layout with a bed on a raised platform in the centre.  

The house was featured in Brown's 2005 reality show, 'Being Bobby Brown'.

Click here for pictures of the house

Pop diva Whitney Houston's funeral on Saturday is expected be broadcast live from the New Jersey church, where she started her career as a choir singer.
Contrary to the initial reports, the services, to be held at New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, will be a small and intimate affair attended by only invited guests. 

Nearly a dozen celebrities and personalities have been invited for the memorial, the CNN reported. Gospel singer and pastor Marvin L Winans, a longtime friend of the Houston family, will give the eulogy. Winans officiated at her 1992 marriage to R&B singer Bobby Brown.

Winans said the family decided not to hold a public memorial because they did not want to have a parade.

The family of Osama bin Laden's youngest wife, shot in the knees in the daring raid by US navy SEALS, has petitioned Pakistan's Chief Justice seeking release and that of her children from Pakistani authorities. 

The petition on behalf of Laden's Yemeni wife Amal Ahmede al-Sadah was moved by her brother citing that his sister's five children were in poor mental health and receiving no education, the Guardian reported. 

The brother told the court that Amal could not walk as her leg wound was not treated properly. Laden's wife was shot after apparently trying to shield him during the US raid on their Abottabad hideout. 

The paper said the entire Osama family found in the house have been in Pakistani custody, at a secret location since the May 2 raid last year.

"Osama bin Laden's family who passed upon their illegal disappearance in Pakistan more than eight months with Pakistani authority despite their innocence. Their detention is against all human rights and laws in the world", the
petition written in broken English said.

Marked by a poor turnout, polling is in progress today in 10 municipal corporations across Maharashtra, including the cash-rich Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, with no untoward incident reported so far.
Voter apathy was evident in Mumbai with hardly 13 per cent of the 1.02 crore electorate casting their votes till 1 pm.

Who said what:

Congress MP from Mumbai North-Central constituency, Priya Dutt: It is very sad that a lot of people have not come out to vote. If you don't vote, you have no right to complain. They are not contributing to the society. You are getting what you deserve....you are harming the society and the country."

HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh: "Voting is a fundamental right and people must exercise their franchise. Educated people don't come out and vote. The quality of life is going down in the city and some desperate measures
are needed."

As relations between them swing from love to hate, the US today said that "divorce" is not an option between Islamabad and Washington.  "I mean, from our perspective, divorce is not an option with Pakistan," State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said, responding to the remarks made by new
Pakistani Ambassador to the US Sherry Rehman. 

Rehman, new to the job in Washington, had said that the "marriage metaphor for instance, never seems to go away, with its implicit embrace of love and hate, life, death and in fact, divorce, which we seek to avoid." 

In the theatre of the ridiculous, the Italian embassy says the fishermen tried to attack the vessel and therefore as per protocol, they were obliged to shoot.

Two fishermen, one each from Kerala and Tamil Nadu, in a fishing boat were on Wednesday shot dead by security officials of an Italian cargo vessel in the deep sea after being mistaken for pirates.

The MEA however says it was impossible for the Italian vessel to mistake two fishermen in small boat to be pirates and a threat. To which the Italian embassy says the vessel ascertained that the two men were armed.

The Kochi police which is handling the case says it is incorrect to say that the fishermen shot at the Italian vessel and in case they should not have shot to kill.

The MEA has summoned the Italian envoy in the issue.

Incredible video shows the view from the freezing surface of dwarf planet Pluto.

See

The Supreme Court today sought response from the government on whether it could share the probe report on leakage of controversial Radia tapes with Tata
Group Chairman Ratan Tata.

A bench of justices G S Singhvi and S J Mukhopadhyay asked the Centre to file its response on Tata's plea, seeking a copy of the report on the probe, which pointed out tampering of the tapes released to the media. 

The court granted three weeks time to the government to file its reply and posted the matter for further hearing on March 27.

Earlier, the government had expressed reluctance in sharing the report on the ground that the investigation was still in progress to find out how the tapes of Radia's conversations, tapped by Income Tax Department, got leaked. 

The Centre had filed the report in a sealed envelop before the bench on January 31.

Update on the Israeli car blast.

Investigators are scanning international calls made to Iran, Pakistan and middle-eastern countries around the time of the attack on Israeli diplomat's car in Delhi on Monday even as they carried out overnight raids to trace the motorcyclist who stuck the magnetic bomb.

A senior police official said they were specifically looking into a few calls made to Iran, Lebanon and Pakistan from the Khan Market area where Tal Yehoshua-Koren, the Israeli diplomat, had lunch with her husband, before she was attacked. 

However, the sources said, theywere yet to link these calls with the attack. 

Overnight raids and intensive search for a motorcyclist who carried out a car bomb attack on an Israeli diplomat have yielded very little so far. Delhi Police Commissioner B K Gupta said investigations have gathered pace but were still in the initial stages.

The US and Afghan governments have begun secret three-way talks with the Taliban, Afghan President Hamid Karzai told The Wall Street Journal, disclosing an important breakthrough in efforts to end the 10-year war. 

Karzai, whose government had protested being left out of recent talks between Washington and the insurgents, added he believes most Taliban are "definitively" interested in a peace settlement.

Read more on the Wall Street Journal.

There is the comb, the cigarette holder and the house keys he had on him when he was captured; the needle used to sedate him during his abduction from Argentina to Israel; and the booth in which he sat during his trial.

Israel's intelligence agency, the Mossad, has lifted a veil of secrecy to display publicly for the first time documents, equipment, artefacts and personal testimonies relating to the capture, abduction and trial of Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi war criminal who was hanged in Israel almost 50 years ago.

Read the full story on the Guardian.

Recommended: Watch the film Odessa File for the Eichmann story.

Another of those bizarre fatwas: Malaysia's National Fatwa Council has ruled that foreign exchange trading is forbidden or 'haram' for Muslims as it was against the Islamic Sharia law.

"A study by the committee found that such trading involves currency speculation, which contradicts Islamic law. For that reason, the National Fatwa Council has decided that it is  haram for Muslims to participate in such trading," Council chairman Dr Abdul Shukor Husin said.

He said Muslims should not participate in forex trading as there were many doubts about it, given that it involved individuals using the Internet with uncertain outcomes. "Other forms of trading in foreign currencies, such as trading by money changers or between banks, are permissible as they do not involve currency speculation or uncertain outcomes," he said.

Update on post-coup Maldives: Known for $2,000-a-night white-sand-and-turquoise-ocean atoll retreats, Maldives is hoping to build a more affordable tourism industry. But it's facing a challenge from the country's more religiously conservative population.

Read more on the Wall Street Journal.

Amid all the depressing news about a slowdown in the economy, a plethora of scams and poor performance in cricket, India has at least one reason to celebrate: It has overtaken Thailand to become the world's top exporter of rice.

Read the report on the Wall Street Journal.

Also see: 24 per cent Indian kids go hungry daily

Three former Karnataka BJP ministers, who lost their jobs over watching porn film clippings on mobile when the Assembly was in session, today submitted their replies to the show cause notice slapped on them by Speaker K G Bopaiah. 

The trio -- Laxman Savadi, C C Patil and Krishna Palemar sent in their seperate replies to the speaker and their respective aides handed over them to Assembly Secretary, Om Prakash. Prakash said that the replies submitted in sealed cover would be forwarded to the Speaker.

Bopaiah said that the replies by the three former ministers had reached his secretariat and he was yet to take a look at it.

Sir Paul McCartney has finally quit smoking cannabis -- at the age of 69. He revealed he had given up dope because of daughter Beatrice, eight.

The Sun has the story.

Whitney Houston eerily told pals she felt her 'time was coming' and spoke of 'seeing Jesus' in the hours before her death, it emerged last night. The tragic star is said to have become increasingly spiritual -- quoting Bible passages and saying she felt her end was near. Last Friday -- the day before she was found slumped in the bath of her Los Angeles hotel suite, she told one friend: "I'm gonna go see Jesus. I want to see Jesus."

Read the story on the Sun, UK.

She usually appears stoney-faced in photos, seemingly unwilling to crack a smile. But Victoria Beckham showed she does have a sense of humour when she posed for this cheeky photo which husband David posted on his Facebook page. The fashion designer, 37, stands on a New York street - strategically distancing herself so she appeared to cup David's nether regions in a huge advertisement on the side of a building behind her.

More of that story on the Daily Mail.

In one of the world's worst incidents of prison fire, a massive blaze swept through an overcrowded jail in Honduras, killing at least 357 inmates and leaving officials struggling to quell growing public outrage at the treatment of victims and their families, reports stated.

Pictures of the incident in our slideshow.

The core team of IAC (India Against Corruption) that was campaigning in Barabanki in January had attracted a crowd of almost 7,000 people. To put the numbers in perspective, this was perhaps far better than the crowd that the movement attracted at Anna Hazare's sit-in fast in Mumbai in December.

More on Firstpost.com

Even before the smoke had cleared from a series of bombings in the Thai capital of Bangkok Tuesday, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak blamed Iran for the incident, as well as the attacks against Israeli diplomats in Delhi and Georgia two days ago.

Read the report on cnn.com

US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta has said that al-Qaeda is the primary enemy of United States in the Af-Pak region and those part of the Taliban who
support al-Qaeda is also American target. 

"The Taliban is a very broad group. Our primary enemy in that part of the world is al-Qaeda. The Taliban elements, the terrorist elements that support al-Qaeda are also our enemy," Panetta said at a Congressional hearing. 

"And there are some elements, obviously, of the Taliban that support al-Qaeda. And those are the ones that we've been targeting," Panetta said in response to a question at hearing on budget of the House Committee on Armed Services.

Two fishermen, one each from Kerala and Tamil Nadu, in a fishing boat were shot dead yesterday by security officials of an Italian cargo vessel in the deep sea after being mistaken for pirates, an official said.

The Italian vessel was identified as Enrica Lexie and has been directed to come to Kochi for a probe. The vessel's authorities have apoloigised for the incident, saying that they mistook the fishermen for pirates.

Read

Here we go with our daily update on terror and terroism:  

A US drone strike targeting a militant compound killed five insurgents in a northwest Pakistan tribal region near the Afghan border today. "Two missiles were fired by a US drone on a compound used by militants in Spalga town near Miranshah and five militants have been killed,' a security official said.

Cancer-stricken Yuvraj Singh greeted the world with an uplifting tweet this morning.

"Got very good news from Dr Lawrence today. My tumour is almost out of my system. 2nd cycle of chemotherapy underway."

Yuvraj is being treated by Dr Lawrence Einhorn, a US-based cancer expert who has treated Lance Armstrong, seven times winner of the Tour de France, when the former American pro road-racing cyclist had been diagnosed with stage three testicular cancer (Embryonal carcinoma) on October 2, 1996. 

Last week the ace all-rounder, named man of the tournament after India's World Cup win in April last year, said he had been drawing inspiration from Armstrong, who overcame testicular cancer to win the Tour de France seven times. 

A photo of the message, posted on Yuvraj's twitter account, read: "Yuvi, I want you to know that the entire LIVESTRONG team is here for you. "We say it all the time, and truly believe in it: Knowledge is power, Unity is strength, and Attitude is everything. Please know that we are here to help you and your family in any way possible. Go Yuvi!! Livestrong." 

In return, Yuvraj tweeted: "Message from @lancearmstrong makes me feel better! Thank you lance means a lot hope we can meet," tweeted Yuvraj, who is undergoing chemotherapy in the United Statesfor a malignant tumour located between his lungs. 

A horrifying story that's come to light in the 'cultural capital of India' Kolkata yesterday.

A 37-year-old separated woman with two kids to support was lured with a job offer from a prominent night club, beaten and raped twice inside a car on the pretext of being given a lift on the night of February 5.

And when she went to Park Street police station to lodge an FIR, she was mocked by  the cops there. At least, this is what the woman claimed on Wednesday.

Read more here

A day after their meeting at the White House, US President Barack Obama and visiting Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping exchanged polite warnings on
trade-related issues. 

Travelling to Milwaukee in Iowa, Obama said he would not stand by competitors like China that don't play by the rules, whereas Xi, addressing a meeting of business leaders, said America needs to respect China's core interests and concerns. 

In world news.

The United States has said it was not impressed at all by the latest Iranian claim of progress on its nuclear programme, saying the "hyped" move was calibrated mostly for the domestic audience. "One thing is absolutely clear, Iran is clearly feeling the pressure of its international and diplomatic isolation of the increasing economic pressure on it," State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad yesterday unveiled on state television what was described as Iran's first domestically produced, 20-per cent enriched nuclear fuel for Tehran's research reactor. 

"With regard to this news about activity at that reactor, we frankly dont see a lot new here. This is not big news. In fact, it seems to have been hyped. The Iranians have, for many months, been putting out calendars of accomplishments, and based on their own calendars, they are many, many months behind. This strikes us as calibrated mostly for a domestic audience," Nuland said.

Polling for 10 municipal corporations across Maharashtra, including Mumbai, to decide the fate of 1,244 candidates, began this morning amidst tight security. The elections are being held in Thane, Ulhasnagar, Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Solapur, Nashik, Akola, Amravati, Nagpur and Mumbai municipal corporation, where a triangular contest is on cards between the Congress-NCP combine, Shiv Sena-BJP-RPI alliance and the Raj Thackeray-led MNS.

The 10 civic bodies have an electorate of 2.02 crore. In the 227-seat Mumbai corporation, the election is a fiercely fought affair.

It is a challenge for the Congress-NCP combine which aims to dethrone the Sena-BJP combine, at the helm of civic affairs for the last 16 years.

Polling was held up today in a booth in Nagpur following complaints of EVM malfunction.

In Mumbai, police have beefed up security measures to ensure smooth voting in the city.

A total of 2,375 police officers and 20,000 policemen have been deployed at polling booths across the metropolis.

Almost 2,000 home guards and personnel of the State Reserve Police Force and Rapid Action Force have been deployed at strategic locations.