"I hope he (Tendulkar) enjoys his role and he is able to do it very well. It's a big step for him and I think he will enjoy it," Anand said. 

Tendulkar will take oath as a member of Rajya Sabha on Monday. 

Anand said that he would not lobby for himself to be conferred the Bharat Ratna, but thanked his well-wishers for thinking that he deserves the country's highest civilian award.

The 84-year-old ailing former dictator was handed down life imprisonment along with his former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly on Saturday by a Cairo court which, however, acquitted six former police commanders. 

The court also dropped separate corruption charges against Mubarak and his two sons Alaa and Gamal. But his sons will remain in detention as they are to be charged with stock-market manipulation.

The ruling party leaders comprising MLAs, MPs, ministers and corporators assembled at Naveen Niwas on Sunday evening and attended a party hosted by the CM, sources said. 

The gathering at Patnaik's residence was significant in the wake of a rumour that some of the party MLAs, who two days ago supported the chief minister, had switched over to the Mohapatra camp, they said.

The resignation of Lodi G Gyari and Envoy Kelsang Gyaltsen, who have held nine rounds of talks with the Chinese side as part of the dialogue process which remains stalled for over two years now, has been accepted by Prime Minister of the Tibetan Government-in-exile Lobsang Sangay, a spokesperson of the Tibetan 'cabinet' said today. 

"Given the deteriorating situation inside Tibet since 2008 leading to the increasing cases of self-immolations by Tibetans, we are compelled to submit our resignations," the envoys said in their letter.

There are definitely no thoughts of retirement. (Winning a fifth world title) has been a huge boost to my morale and I really want to play chess. This is something I have enjoyed. As long as I enjoy, I don't see any reason to retire," Anand said. 

"I am still enjoying the game having just defended my title. I am looking forward to playing chess and winning tournaments. I am really happy as you can imagine that I had retained my title this time and this has been my biggest test so far," he told reporters.

Elizabeth II, 86, comes out on top in an ICM survey for The Sunday Telegraph, with Victoria in second place, Elizabeth I in the third, and Henry VIII and Henry V finishing behind the queens. 

"I had to leave fast venue becoz I am very unwell. I told this to Anna and Swamiji. It is wrong to say that I left in protest," Kejriwal said in a tweet. 

"I have greatest respect for Swamiji," he tweeted. He said he would convince the yoga guru about the importance of taking names and demand action against corrupt people. 

"This is a political battle and we will have to name and shame and demand severe action against corrupt people," he said in his tweet.

"I am ready to sacrifice everything for the nation. I am an honest person, that's why I am able to fight these goondas," said Hazare.   

However, he did not mention the spat between Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal and Ramdev earlier in the day.

Activist Anna Hazare is holding a joint one-day fast with the yoga guru to protest against corruption.   

In his speech, Kejriwal had stated that MPs like A Raja, Suresh Kalmadi and Lalu Yadav, who have corruption cases pending against them, will never allow the Lokpal Bill to be passed in Parliament.   

Ramdev rebuked Kejriwal by stating that he should not target individual MPs.   Later, Keriwal walked out of the fast venue though the reason for his departure was not immediately known.

Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar, who was the defence minister till Saturday and has now been given the water and power portfolio in a minor Cabinet reshuffle, said India and Pakistan both stand to benefit from resolving the Siachen issue. 

Both countries stood to gain nothing from the stand-off on Siachen and the matter only served to satiate egos, he claimed during an interview with BBC Urdu.

Javadekar, who campaigned in support of the saffron party's nominee at Parkal in Warangal district, said separate statehood is neither possible with a sub-regional party like TRS, which has only two MPs, nor with the Congress. 

"We had promised three states and we created three states (during NDA regime). Now, we are promising Telangana and we will create it. We are not like the Congress. They promise one thing and do exactly the opposite. It is not our style. We say what we want and we deliver what we say," he told reporters.

"It (increase in prices of diesel and LPG) should be done, as early as possible. We need to take action, howsoever unpleasant it may be," he said in an interview. 

Hiking the prices of diesel and cooking gas, Rangarajan said, was necessary to cap subsidies and contain fiscal deficit at 5.1 per cent of the GDP during 2012-13. The fiscal deficit was 5.76 per cent in 2011-12.

The drone struck in Barmal area of South Waziristan tribal agency, TV news channels quoted officials as saying. 

At least 10 of them were killed and several others were injured, local residents said. TV news channels quoted officials as saying that some foreign militants were among those killed.

The Maoists stormed the village and slit the throats of Bajrangi Paswan, 40, and Sudhir Das, 25, Chandra said.

The coal ministry has identified 54 coal blocks a few days ago for various sectors, including 16 for power, 12 for steel and 12 for government firms among others.

"We have given the offer letter to Crisil and asked it to provide us a report within three months on the methodology of fixing the reserve price of blocks to be auctioned," a source close to the development said.

"Despite the Indian economy facing tough and challenging times, it is not all gloom and doom. The situation is expected to improve in the next four-six months," it said. 

A majority of respondents covered by the Bizcon Survey said that the situation would change for better after a few months. The study said the first signal of improvement would be seen immediately after completion of the monsoon. 

The Meteorological Department has predicted a normal monsoon which would significantly improve the prospects of agriculture.

The volunteer, donning a Team Anna T-shirt and cap and carrying a mega phone, surfaced at the media enclosure of the protest site at Jantar Mantar around 12:15 pm when a close aide of Ramdev was speaking on black money. 

The youth started speaking through his megaphone, demanding that he be heard by both Hazare and Ramdev, but was prevented by Ramdev's volunteers. 

While he was being pacified, he alleged that he was mistreated by Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal. He then pulled out a bottle of a kerosene and poured on himself. While he took a lighter to set himself on fire, the volunteers and some media personnel snatched the lighter from him.

Italy's Prime Minister Mario Monti expressed "great satisfaction" over the release on bail of two Italian marines accused of murdering Indian fishermen, but called for their return to Italy.

"I express my own and the government's great satisfaction for the liberation, under bail conditions, of our marines. An important objective has been reached," Monti said in a statement.

"But the final outcome, for which we have worked with determination since the start in our relations with Indian authorities of every level, is the return of our marines to Italy," he said.

Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone, who shot dead two fishermen off India's southwestern coast on February 15, were freed on bail by Kochi High Court last week, and left jail on Saturday for a hotel.

The marines, who deny murder and say they mistook the fishermen for pirates, appeared in a court in Kerala on Saturday for a preliminary hearing in a case that has caused a diplomatic row.

A Pakistani anti-terrorism court has acquitted four men who had been charged with helping a Pakistani-American man carry out a failed attempt to detonate a truck bomb in New York's Time Square, said their lawyer and family members.

The four were arrested in the wake of Faisal Shahzad's May 2010 attack, which fizzled when the explosives in his vehicle produced smoke but no blast. 

Shahzad has pleaded guilty and admitted to getting training from the Pakistani Taliban in the country's tribal region along the Afghan border. He was sentenced to life in prison in the US.

The attempted attack increased tension between Pakistan and the United States, which has long accused Islamabad of not doing enough to crack down on militants on its soil who pose a threat to the West.

Even though the men acquitted had been in custody for two years, very few details had emerged about their closed-door trial in an anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi, next to the capital Islamabad.

Strong winds coupled with light rains brought down temperature on Saturday night in New Delhi, much to the relief of Delhiites.

"Strong winds blew across the city tonight. Temperature has come down by a few degrees," a MeT official said.

The city received traces of rains during the night hours. 

Earlier, the maximum temperature was recorded at 44.2 deg C while the minimum stood at 33.2 deg C.