Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga has been sentenced to 14 years in jail for recruiting and using child soldiers in his rebel army in 2002 and 2003.

Taking into account time in custody, he will now serve a further eight years.

In March, he became the first person to be convicted by the International Criminal Court since it was set up 10 years ago.

The conflict between ethnic groups in Ituri, north-eastern DR Congo, is estimated to have killed 60,000 people.

Read the full story on BBC!

Ruling out any sabotage angle in the June 21 Mantralaya inferno, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan today lashed out at the Opposition for fuelling such speculations. 

Set to become the next President, Pranab Mukherjee today went reached out to mediapersons, asking them to forget instances when he may have been rude to them. "Sometimes, I candidly say that I have been rude. If I have hurt anybody, please forget it. Please keep it in mind it was never intentional," Mukherjee said in an informal chat with reporters here. 

The CBI today filed a charge sheet in a special court here against yoga guru Ramdev's aide Balkrishna in a case relating to submission of alleged fake and forged documents to obtain Indian passport. 

Former Telecom Secretary Siddharth Behura today sought to put the responsibility of major decisions taken ahead of granting 2G licences on A Raja and said he had difference of opinion with the then Telecom Minister on first-come-first-serve policy for allocation of the spectrum. 

Election Commission rejects petition by P A Sangma camp against Pranab Mukherjee's candidature in Presidential poll.

Jagadish Shettar will be the new Chief Minister of Karnataka--the third in four years--and will be sworn in on Thursday after he was elected leader of ruling BJP legislature party today amid high drama over demands from warring factions before the change of guard. 

With Karnataka BJP strongman and foe-turned-friend B S Yeddyurappa on his side and the castefactor working in his favour, 56-year-old Jagadish Shivappa Shettar had things going for him this time, particularly whenAssembly elections are less than a year away.

The scene today is in sharp contrast to the one seen in August last year when Yeddyurappa, not in a position to digestthe rise of another leader from Lingayat community to which he also belongs, backed D V Sadananda Gowda, a Vokkaliga.

Eleven months later, it was role reversal of sorts as it were as the powerful Yeddyurappa faction wanted Gowda to go,after things did not go as they planned and the incumbent chief minister chose to come out of their shadow.

Shettar lost to Gowda in the election at the legislature party meeting last year and ironically, the latter today had to pave the way for him to step into his shoes.    
The BJP central leadership appeared to have been convinced by Yeddyurappa camp's contention that the partyneeds to fight the Assembly election, due in May  ext year, under a Lingayat leader, clinching the issue in favour of Shettar.

Hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani today supported Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI), a Kashmiri politico-religious group, for issuing a dress-advisory to tourists.

"It (JeI's statement) is a very valid thing. Islam seeks such a society where human values are respected, where modesty is upheld, where semi-naked dresses are not worn, where alcohol and drugs are not promoted and where women and men do not mix," Geelani said.

Geelani said Jamaat's dress advisory to tourists visiting Kashmir is in line with the group's idea of society. He said the culture of "nakedness, immodesty and alcohol" is "poisonous" to every human society.

Jackie Shroff's greatest hit: The pulse polio ad. (The inside story). Watch

State Minister for Foreign Affairs Malik Hamad Khan has denied rumours that Pakistan executed an ''under-the-table'' deal to facilitate the release of Indian prisoner Surjeet Singh and Pakistani inmate Dr Khalil Chishti one after another.

"Both cases are completely different from each other. The Indian Supreme Court (SC) granted bail to Dr Chishti, while Surjeet completed his term in espionage case," The Express Tribune quoted Khan, as saying.

Last month Pakistan released Surjeet, who spent 27 years in Kot Lakhpat jail, while the Indian SC granted bail to Dr Chishti after President Asif Ali Zardari''s visit to India in April this year.

The CBI files a charge sheet against yoga guru Ramdev's aide Acharya Balkrishna in the fake documents case.Balkrishna allegedly used fake papers to get a passport.

Just in: Former telecom minister and 2G key accused A Raja will not be called by the Joint Parliamentary Committee to depose in the case, at least for now. Atal Behari Vajpayee, George Fernandes and Manmohan Singh will not be called either.

Former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura is to be called in today to depose before the JPC, becoming the first 2G case accused to appear before the panel. The JPC had decided to summon Behura as a witness before it on April 11 and 18, but he had written to the panel seeking more time to prepare himself before appearing as a witness.

The Sensex today soared 226 points riding on the surge in capital goods, FMCG, auto and banking shares to close at fourth-month high of 17,618.35 amid strong global cues after Eurozone finance ministers agreed on a deal to nurse the ailing Spanish banks back to health.

The BSE benchmark index, which had lost 129 points yesterday, was under some pressure in early trade after Asian markets slumped on disappointing Chinese imports data.

The first ever cross-Line of Control (LoC) traders' conference began here today with the participants calling for declaring the pre-partition Jammu and Kashmir as a Free Trade Zone for making up missed opportunities of developing the region due to decades of hostility between India and Pakistan. The conference, organised by the Centre of Dialogue and Reconciliation (CDR), began with 12 delegates from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir taking part in it.

The party leadership has however not revealed the formula arrived at regarding the post of Deputy CM and state BJP president.

Earlier in the day,  Gowda placed a set of demands in a last minute counter move against rival BS Yeddyurappa, delaying the legislature party meeting.

The Gowda camp insisted on the party president's post for him, deputy Chief Ministership for KS Eshwarappa and half the ministerial berths for itself, and acceptance of their demands before the meeting, as indications emerged that the change of guard would be not be a smooth affair.

The Gowda group, citing "social justice', pushed for key representation to the Vokkaliga and the Kuruba communities. Chief Minister-designate Jagadish Shettar is from the Lingayat community, counted by the BJP as its key vote-base.

Just in: Jagadish Shettar has been sworn in as the new chief minister of Karnataka. Ex-CM DV Sadananda Gowdawill submit his resignation to the governor shortly.

Just in: CNN IBN reports that a distant relative of former Bihar CM Lalu Prasad Yadav has been shot dead, along with a servant. The relative worked in the Bihar legislative council.

India is set to commission its latest military post named Baaz (hawk) on its south-eastern fringe in the Bay of Bengal to oversee a sea lane through which a quarter of the world's trade passes, an Indian Navy source told The Telegraph on Monday.

In April this year, the navy had upgraded its detachment in the Lakshadweep Islands in the Arabian Sea to the level of a full-fledged base. Named the INS Dweeprakshak, the base is in the island of Kavaratti.Together, the INS Dweeprakshak and the naval air station, Baaz, are set to be India's western and eastern-most sentinels. Read

Sometimes, one wonders if the old Mughal technique of powerful princes imprisoning their Emperor-Dads and grabbing power is not a better way to ring out the old and bring in new ideas to governance. On Firstpost.com

Late on the night of 26/11, over a voice-over-internet line that linked the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)'s control room in Karachi to its assault team in Mumbai, Zabiuddin Ansari read out the words that had sent 10 men across the Arabian Sea to kill 164 people in a city they had never seen.

Read Praveen Swami's piece for the Hindu.

With sweet memories from family and friends like Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, and Rosie O'Donnell, Nora Ephron's sendoff was as rich as the food she loved to cook. Read

Tweets, texts, emails, posts. New research says the Internet can make us lonely and depressed -- and may even create more extreme forms of mental illness. Read

Update on the hostage crisis in Paris.

An armed man has released the last hostage he had been holding at a French school on the outskirts of Paris and has himself been captured, reports say. The last hostage was a parent who had come to drop off a child at the school in Vitry-sur-Seine, which is being used as a leisure centre during the holidays, police said. Earlier, the gunman released a group of children he had been holding. Read

Three hunting cheetahs sent to royal family listed in historic documents to be sold at Sotheby'. Read

Home minister P Chidambaram addressing the media right now on the state of the economy, says he is confident India will return to the high growth path. He says India is still among the fastest growing economies the world, the second fastest growing telecom market in the world.

A Delhi court today cancelled its bailable warrants against former Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss after he appeared before it in a corruption case, involving grant of allegedly illegal permission by him to a medical college to admit students. The former minister faces prosecution for allegedly granting permission to the college, which had no sufficient faculty members or clinical infrastructure to run the course.

To think that a cover story in Time can influence people's minds, or build momentum towards a particular opinion reflects, reflects a very poor understanding of the mind of the Indian voter. Read

If you worry that foreign aid is an utter waste, just chat with some mortality experts here in southern Africa -- the coffin makers. They're miserable. These coffin makers in the street markets are idle partly because American spending on programs to fight AIDS around the world means that vast numbers of people are no longer dying at a young age. So coffin makers sit dejectedly beside stacks of lumber, waiting for business.

That's the op-ed piece on the New York Times. Read

Manoj Rana who went to the US on an exchange programme was a victim of a fire accident in 2005. However, the determined young man survived the extreme situations in his life to chase his dream and become an MBA. This is his story.
On Rediff.com

Awais Sheikh, the counsel for Sarabjit Singh, believes that the Indian convict on death row in Pakistan was the victim of a case of mistaken identity. Sheikh, the president of Pakistan-India Peace Initiatives, has also penned a book on his high-profile client called Sarabjit Singh -- A Case of Mistaken Identity.

In an interview with Tahir Ali, Sheikh expresses hope that Sarabjit, who has been languishing in a Pakistan jail for over 20 years, will be soon pardoned by the powers that be in Islamabad. Read

Sharpening his attack on UPA rival Pranab Mukherjee, Opposition-backed Presidential nominee P A Sangma today said Rashtrapati Bhavan was being used as a "dumping ground" for the "failed" former Finance Minister.

"The Raisina Hill is being used as a dumping ground for the failed Finance Minister," Sangma, who was here to mobilise support for his Presidential bid, told reporters.

Asked if he was confident of a victory,  Sangma said, "There are no ifs. I will win. I have never lost an election in my life. My winning margin has always increased." Sangma appealed to Congress ally NCP and NDA constituent Shiv Sena, which has already declared support for Pranab Mukherjee, to back him. "I have come here to appeal to parties, specially NCP and Bal Thackeray to
support my candidature."

A peacock shrieks. A monkey scrambles higher into the fire-colored canopy of a kesudo tree. And an Asiatic lion -- one of the last few hundred in the wild '" pads across the dusty earth of a west Indian sanctuary that is its only refuge from the modern world. Read the Washington Post report on the end of the Gir sanctuary.

Why the country will pay the price for its wildly overrated prime minister. Read the report on the Foreign Policy. 

Wrestler-turned-actor Dara Singh, who is in the hospital battling for his life since three days after suffering a cardiac arrest, still remains critical. Singh was brought to Kokilaben hospital in an emergency condition on July 7.

He had suffered a cardiac arrest and since then he is in the ICU. "He is still very critical and in the ICU... on ventilator. He is on dialysis," Dr Ram Narain, Chief Operating Officer, Kokilaben hospital told PTI.

Since yesterday, there have been rumors that the 83-year-old has passed away. The commonwealth wrestling champion entered film industry in the fifties and is known for his roles in 'King Kong' and 'Faulad'. He was last seen in Imtiaz Ali's 'Jab We Met' (2007) playing Kareena Kapoor's grandfather.

The richest woman in the world, according to a respected business magazine, is not Oprah Winfrey, Queen Elizabeth II or L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt. It's a relatively unknown Australian mining magnate. So who exactly is Gina Rinehart?
Read

Former president APJ Kalam's interview to MJ Akbar for MSN.com. Read

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah seems to have expressed solidarity with Union Law and Justice Minister Salman Khurshid's view about the perils of being misquoted by the media, especially when it comes to using English words.

Reacting to the observations and criticisms from various quarters, including leaders and the media to Khurshid's interview to the Indian Express on the Congress Party suffering from a lack of ''ideological direction'', especially from the next generation of leadership, Abdullah tweeted. " Note to self don''t use English words in replies to media that will be misunderstood, misinterpreted or will confuse them.'

Khurshid had earlier kicked up a storm by saying that the root of the problems plaguing the Congress was the lack of "ideological direction" from its next generation leader Rahul Gandhi.

He had also said that governance and politics had not been the strong points of UPA-II regime, hinting that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was not in charge of the government. While referring to Rahul Gandhi, he said that the latter has so far shown an unwillingness to accept functional responsibility, even though it was undoubtedly and unquestionably established that he was the number two leader in the party. 

On Sunil Gavaskar's birthday today, read Ayaz Memon's tribute. This was written three years ago...

A few weeks ago, shortly after Sunil Gavaskar had delivered the first Dilip Sardesai Memorial lecture at the Cricket Club of India, a twentysomething man asked me if Gavaskar had been a better batsman than Sachin Tendulkar, reducing me to a hum-and-haw wreck. I could understand the legitimacy of his curiosity, but was there a legitimate answer? More

Singapore is proposing changes to its mandatory death penalty for drug trafficking and murder in some cases.Under the proposed changes, the courts will have discretion in the sentencing of low-level drug couriers who co-operate with police.In murder cases, the mandatory death penalty will only apply when there is an intention to kill. Read

Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga has been sentenced to 14 years in jail for recruiting and using child soldiers in his rebel army in 2002 and 2003. He was convicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in March - the first conviction since the court was set up 10 years ago. Lubanga had protested his innocence and said he had not supported the use of child soldiers.
Read the full report on the bbc.co.uk.

An armed man is holding a parent hostage at a French school on the outskirts of Paris after releasing a group of children he had been holding, reports bbc.com. The parent had come to drop their child off at the school in Vitry-sur-Seine, which is being used as a leisure centre during the holidays, police said.Units of the elite police Raid unit are at the scene. French schools are on summer holidays, but are running summer activities.

The Dawn, Pakistan, reports that Pakistan's Interior minister Rehman Malik has resigned from his Senate membership. Speaking to media representatives, Malik said that he had tendered his resignation on Monday. Malik moreover said that he had renounced his British citizenship and that the dual nationality bill had not been proposed in order to facilitate him.

Presidential hopeful PA Sangma adds his two-bit to the Salman Khurshid interview fallout. Sangma says if he could he would have sacked Khurshid for his comments. Khurshid today backtracked on his interview with the Indian Express, saying his comments were misinterpreted. 

The chromosomal test report to determine athlete Pinki Pramanik's gender, which is under question following allegations of rape, reached the State-run SSKM Hospital on Monday. The report was submitted to a court today.

Athlete Pinki Pramanik has got bail after 25 days in police custody. The West Bengal High Court says that her custody is not required as the gender tests have been conducted. The Asiad gold medalist is accused of raping her partner.

China's trade surplus widened in June as import growth weakened, underscoring worries about both the domestic and global economy.The trade surplus grew to $31.73bn (20.46bn), up 42.9% from the same month last year, the customs bureau said. Read

A JPMorgan Chase employee has been accused of taking advantage of a man suffering from Alzheimer's by pulling $100,000 from his bank account, according to a new lawsuit.The curator assigned to make decisions for Herman Lafayette, who is legally incapacitated because of his Alzheimer's, claims that a JPMorgan employee took advantage of Lafayette after his diagnosis in 2008.

Read the full story here.

It's authoritatively held that no athlete, no matter how gifted, can resist the summons of Father Time. But you wouldn't have known it from watching the 126th edition of The Championships at Wimbledon, the oldest and greatest tennis tournament on earth. Roger Federer and Serena Williams, the gentlemens and ladies singles champions, are only 30.

Read the edit on the Hindu.

Ramesh Srivats @rameshsrivats What does Bal Thackeray mean by calling the PM politically impotent? That he can't get it UPA?

"I was lying stark naked on a hard wooden slab with two men slathering my limbs in sticky, pungent oil. Without warning, one of them tried to give me an enema using a rubber hose,' Tarquin Hall writes in The New York Times Sunday Magazine.
"This was Day 3 of a month-long program to help my wife, Anu, and me conceive a child,' he writes.

More on India Ink.

Delhi's experiment with efficient public road transportation, in the form of the Bus Rapid Transit corridor, has devolved into a court battle that pitches the city's wealthy, car-owning minority against the majority of road users. Read

"Fires, floods, treasure seekers and ficus trees have by turns withered' the ancient royal capital of Bagan in Myanmar, Andy Isaacson wrote in the New York Times, "but in many ways it still looks as it might have eight centuries ago."

Read the report on the New York Times' blogs on India.

The man who killed Indian student Anuj Bidve in a random attack has told a court he likes prison because he gets to watch Coronation Street. Kiaran Stapleton admits gunning  down Bidve on the grounds of diminished responsibility but denies murder.


Read  more
Pictured: Victim Anuj Bidve

In other news, the unearthing of a mega scam on the bourses, perpetrated by rogue broker Ketan Parekh and several other major players, led to the tanking of the 'manipulated' stocks on Monday. Read the report on the Daily Mail. 

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong will make a two-day state visit to India from tomorrow, seeking to boost the already strong and multifaceted bilateral ties which has seen growing trade and investments.

Accompanied by his wife, Lee will lead a high-level delegation that includes the Speaker of Singapore Parliament Michael Palmer, Education Minister Heng Swee Keat and senior government officials.

"Prime Minister Lee's visit is very important because it enables the high-level focus of the bilateral relationship," Indian High Commissioner to Singapore T C A Raghavan

Katie Holmes' lawyer has confirmed her highly-publicised divorce with Tom Cruise has been settled, as reports emerge she will have 'sole custody' of their six-year-old daughter Suri. It seems the couple have reached an agreement out of court, meaning the actor's beloved Scientology is no longer at risk of scrutiny with the religion's secrets being dissected during a trial.

Read more 

An unusually dry rainy season is ruffling the feathers of India's poultry industry, which already was alarmed by the soaring price of chicken feed '" its most significant cost. Read the report on the Wall Street Journal.

Referring to the Time magazine article on Manmohan Singh, Thackeray said: "Until now, the domestic media was rapping on his head, now even the international media is kicking him."

In these difficult times, Thackeray contended that it was high time the prime minister and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi handed over the country to a person with a fighting spirit - "an inspiring person who can fight the corruption, the economic woes, the terrorism, and other forces inimical to the country's interests".

For this, Thackeray said, only the Shiv Sena's "Shivrai" was capable of giving the right direction to the country. 

After Time magazine called Prime Minister Manmohan Singh an "underachiever", Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray today termed him "politically impotent" and called for a nationwide revolution.

Thackeray said people had been wondering what underachiever actually means. "In our (Thackeri bhasha) language, it implies the country's prime minister is 'politically impotent'," he said in an editorial in the party's mouthpiece Saamna.

Thackeray, however, clarified that any opinion by Time magazine does not mean a person becomes big or small, since even that magazine is compelled to carry on its "business". 

The Karnataka Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is scheduled to meet today to formally elect Jagadish Shettar as the new Chief Minister.
 
Senior BJP leaders Arun Jaitley and Rajnath Singh are in Bangalore to oversee the transition from outgoing chief minister M Sadananda Gowda to Shettar.
 
Shettar, who has the backing of former Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, will be the third BJP chief minister in the state in four years since the party came to power there in 2008.

Amidst rising complaints about misuse of the railway's Tatkal scheme of booking tickets, a revised scheme with additional measures to check the lacunae will come into effect from Tuesday under which passengers can book Tatkal tickets from 10 am instead of 8 am.

The revised scheme comes in the backdrop of increased number of complaints from train passengers about the misuse of the scheme and involvement of touts in cornering bulk of tickets to sell them at a premium. No authorised agents, including agents of IRCTC and others, will be allowed to book Tatkal tickets from 10 am to 12 noon from counters as well as from Internet.
More

Update on the Karnataka political crisis.
In a last minute hitch, the ruling BJP Legislature party meeting to elect Jagadish Shettar as its leader was delayed this morning with outgoing Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda's camp insisting on their demands being met.

Ministers and MLAs loyal to Gowda are believed to be pushing for making him the party's state unit President, and K S Eshwarappa Deputy Chief Minister.

They held a meeting at Gowda's residence, in an apparent show of strength. They have also demanded equal number of ministerial berths to their camp, and announcing the names of Ministers and constitution of the Shettar cabinet at one go, sources said.

Transport and Home Minister R Ashoka is also making a vigorous behind-the-scenes moves to become Deputy Chief Minister, party sources said. BJP central leaders Arun Jaitley and Rajnath Singh are already in the city as party observers for the legislature party meeting, which was slated to start at 11 AM, and offer guidance on ministry formation issues.

According to sources, BJP central leadership is not in favour of creating the post of Deputy Chief Minister. Buckling under pressure from Yeddyurappa, the BJP central leadership on Sunday decided to opt for a change of leadership in a bid to end the leadership tussle in the state unit

Khurshid says that in retrospect this is something we should reflect on only in the party fora. When asked about the Time magazine assessment of Dr Manmohan Singh as an underachiever, Khurshid says, "We don't accept the assessment of Time magazine. I don't have to wear my faith and my allegiance to the PM. We can't have a better person to lead us through the economic crisis," says Khurshid.

Update on the explosions at Vasai near Mumbai.

Lancelot Uttanwalla reporting from Vasai says that a low-intensity blast took place near Dattani Mall in a plastic bag in a dumpster. According to various versions, the blast took place between 7.30 am and 8 am, injuring at least four  people.
Rediff.com's Prasanna D Zore adds that police Naik Valvi says the first report about the blast came in at 7.55 am but refused to confirm the number of injured. Police are still investigating the blasts, but no word yet on whether it was a terror attack.

Salman Khurshid is now holding a press conference in New Delhi in an attempt to clarify his comments on the Congress and Rahul Gandhi. Khurshid says his statements on Rahul Gandhi and the party are being wrongly interpreted. He says he is confident that the government will be able to showcase its work before the electorate.
Addressing the press in both Hindi and English, Khurshid says that what he meant was the young leadership in the party has to prepare for future challenges. "Please read my statement in a positive context. The party has to give strength to the government," says Khurshid.

Just in: The Congress has finally reacted to Union Law minister Salman Khurshid's comments on Rahul Gandhi and the party. It has asked Khurshid to clarify his comments. In an interview to the Indian Express, Khurshid said, "The fact is that he (Rahul) is undoubtedly and unquestionably the number two leader in the party. Yet he has not taken up the mantle or accepted a functional responsibility. He is so far not willing to accept the number two position. In such a situation, we have to wait. This is a waiting time."

Roger Federer's timing was exquisite, as always. The seven-time Wimbledon champion arrived on the dot at the back-rooms of the All England Club for an exclusive interaction with select media.

It had been a night of much celebration and little sleep but the once and newly returned world No. 1 looked none the worse for wear. And he was quick to acknowledge that given the magnitude of the stakes for both finalists, it was always going to be a tearful affair, either for him or Andy Murray.

The Swiss superstar, who has often wept after both wins and losses, didn't shed too many tears on Sunday night. But he insisted that it was fine for grown men to cry, "To show you are human, that your heart can be broken too".

Read the story on the TOI.

This is the full text of the Indian Express report that sparked that made headlines this morning.

One wonders if Salman Khurshid will have endeared himself to the first family or his party after his sudden attack of loquaciousness on Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Manmohan Singh's government and the Congress party.
Read the report on Firstpost.com.

The Samajwadi Party says it is waiting to see how the Congress reacts to Khurshid's comments, while the BJP says the comments echo truth and that the Congress government lacks governance. The Congress has refused to react on the remarks till details are known. 

The Supreme Court upholds the conviction and life sentence of ex-MP Anand Mohan in the 1994 Gopalganj DM G Krishnaiah murder case.


A bench of justices A K Patnaik and Madan B Lokur also rejected an appeal by the Bihar government that sought enhancement of Anand Mohan's punishment to death sentence and its appeals against acquittal of all other accused including his wife Lovely Anand in the case.

The cross appeals were filed against the December 2008 verdict of the Patna High Court, which had commuted Anand Mohan's death penalty, awarded by the trial court, to life sentence and had acquitted all others due to lack of evidence.

Three small simultaneous explosions at Vasai near Mumbai led to panic this morning. A Zee News report says that the explosions took place in three bottles kept in a polythene bag. Four women are reported to have been injured in the incident; two of them are said to be serious. The police have said that the incident was not related to terrorism, but are yet to ascertain the cause of the blasts.

If Khurshid isn't careful, he'll be mistaken for a BJP spokesperson. Earlier in the day, Gujarat CM Narendra Modi said, "The country needed good governance, which was "pro-active and pro-people' to achieve the desired development targets."

A good governance is pro-active and pro-people. The word 'file', which is so crucial in the government business, should be re-sequenced in letters as 'life',' he said.

Modi was speaking at a function organised by the Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhini (RMP) to mark completion of three decades of the institution that trains public representatives for good governance.

Read the report on the Indian Express.

The BJP's legislature party will meet in Bengaluru today to formally nominate Jagadish Shettar as the new chief minister.   

Union Law Minister Salman Khurshid, in an interview with the Indian Express, has voiced his disappointment over the lack of "ideological direction" from Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi.   

Syria's army pounded besieged rebel-held areas of Homs today, monitors said, as troops also shocked Qusayr residents with a morning bombardment and 38 people were killed across the country.
 
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said those killed were 21 civilians, 13 regime troops and four rebels.
 
Qusayr in the central province of Homs near the Lebanese border, pounded continuously for three months in a bid by regime forces to wipe out the revolt there, suffered renewed shelling early today.

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes have reached an agreement to settle their divorce, representatives of both film stars have confirmed.

"The case has been settled and the agreement has been signed," Holmes' lawyer, Jonathan Wolfe, said in a statement to People magazine.

"We are thrilled for Katie and her family," he added.

Read the full story on BBC

Mulayam openly lobbies to influence 2G auction

Prez poll campaign: Pranab, Sangma to visit Srinagar

PIX: Agricultural sector worst hit in Assam floods

Cong keeps Mamata out of VP support count

Jagan Reddy in SC: Can't I get bail if I am wealthy?

Stranded Air India passengers return from Pakistan

Click here for yesterday's news updates!