A fire broke out on the sixth floor of the Income Tax Building in Marine Lines area in south Mumbai tonight but there were no report of casualties. 

The Punjabi Taliban is believed to be behind the kidnapping of former premier Yousuf Raza Gilani's son Ali Haider, officials said today.   

"A Punjabi Taliban group based in Mian Chanu, 80 km fromMultan district, is believed to be involved in the kidnappingof Ali Haider Gilani," a source in Punjab Police told PTI.   

Earlier in the day, gunmen kidnapped Ali Haider in Multandistrict, 350 km from Lahore, while he was campaigning for the May 11 general election.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan will not be able to vote in Saturday's historic general elections because of injuries sustained in a dramatic fall at an election rally, doctors treating him said on Thursday.

Doctors at Shaukat Khanum Hospital in Lahore, where Khan, 60, was admitted after he suffered fractured vertebrae and a broken rib on Tuesday, said he needs to stay in bed for some more time.

CNN-IBN reports: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is still not keen on Law Minister Ashwani Kumar's exit, sources said on Thursday. The sources said that the PM's main worry was that he would be in the line of fire if Ashwani resigned.

At the Cabinet meet at the PM's residence, the solution offered was changing the portfolio of Ashwani Kumar.

An association of chemist and drug retailers today threatened to go on a day-long strike and shut down medical shops tomorrow against the "unjustified" policies of the government.

"We have decided to observe a day-long token strike against the unjustified policies of the government. However, medical shops at hospitals and nursing homes will remain open during the bandh so that emergency services are not hit and inconvenience is not caused to the general public," said Sandeep Nangia, president of The Retailers and Distributors Chemist Association.

Railway Minister P K Bansal on Thursday skipped a meeting of the Union Cabinet. 

YSR Congress chief Jagan Mohan Reddy got a fresh jolt today, with the Supreme Court dismissing his bail plea for the second time in seven months, saying his release at this stage may hamper the probe into the corruption case of "huge magnitude".        

Bank officials' advice of splitting deposits to evade taxes, as exposed in a sting operation by an online news portal, is "undesirable loose talk" but there is no apparent criminality, SBI Chairman Pratip Chaudhuri said today.        

Nearly 18,000 Indian workers in Saudi Arabia, who had applied for emergency exit papers amid concerns about possible job losses after a new labour law, have got their travel documents processed.        

The Supreme Court today upheld the US$ 8.5 billion Cairn-Vedanta deal, saying that the Centre and ONGC not exercising the right of pre-emption over sale of shares of Cairn India Limited was a prudent commercial decision.        

Union minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, under fire over an alleged railway bribery scandal, today got the support of Congress leader Digvijay Singh, who said the BJP or any other party has no right to seek his resignation.        

India will take up with Chinese Premier Le Kequiang the issue of the recent intrusion by the People's Liberation Army troops into Depsang valley in Ladakh and wants to push ahead with the bilateral dialogue on settling the border row. Official sources said today that the the recent standoff over the Chinese intrusion will be taken up with the Premier when he will be here later this month.

By then India would have had the benefit of the consultations External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid would have had with the Chinese leaders on this and other issues during his on-going trip to Beijing, the sources said.

Explaining how New Delhi tackled the recent standoff along the Line of Actual Control, the sources said they were completely at a loss to understand the motives and design behind the Chinese at a time when leaders of both the countries were to exchange bilateral visits and there was complete cordiality in relations.

Also read: The tin-pot icebreaker

Accusing the Left of failing to protect investors in ponzi schemes during its prolonged rule in West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress today hit back after Left leaders met the Prime Minister and Finance minister seeking a CBI probe into the chit fund scam.

"Who are asking for a CBI probe today? It is those who were unable to pass an effective bill to rein in chitfund companies to protect the interests of small investors when they were in power from 1980 to mid 2011," Trinamool Congress Secretary-General Partha Chatterjee said.

Another TMC leader Derek O'Brien referred to the birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore that the state was celebrating. "On Rabindra Jayanti, a day Bengal celebrates Gurudeb Rabindranath and abjures politicking. True to form CPI(M) doesn't. It has resorted to dirty games," he said.

"Commies have complained to the President and demanded a CBI inquiry into the chit fund swindle they founded and promoted in then first place," he alleged. "Aside from the hypocrisy, couldn't CPI(M) have chosen another day? I suppose such cultural insensitivity comes easily to it," O'Brien said. "After all the CPI(M) is the party that threw out 'Sahaj Path' and lost Gurudeb's Nobel medal. His message is secondary to its politics," the MP said.

A cabinet meeting is underway. Rail minister PK Bansal is skipping it.   

Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan will not be able to vote in Saturday's historic general elections because of injuries sustained in a dramatic fall at an election rally, doctors treating him said today.

Doctors at Shaukat Khanum Hospital, where Khan, 60, was admitted after he suffered fractured vertebrae and a broken rib on Tuesday, said he needs to stay in bed for some more time. The doctors said it would be "impossible" for Khan to travel to Mianwali town, where he is registered as a voter.

Shaukat Khanum Hospital chief executive Faisal Sultan too said Khan could not be discharged before the May 11 general election because of his injuries. A decision on discharging Khan will be made only after conducting some more tests, Sultan said.

"The most important thing for a person with such injuries is that he should remain immobile," he said. Doctors expect the 60-year-old Khan to make a full recovery but are not sure how long he will have to remain in hospital. The May 11 general elections mark a historic milestone for Pakistan as one civilian government completes its term and prepares to hand off to another.


And here's Imran's tweet: I will be in D chowk in spirit and will deliver my address live from hospital bed thru videolink to all r ppl gathered for NayaPakistan!

These nations have been dismissed as underdogs and weaklings. But like budding superheroes, theyve been sitting on hidden talents. And now theyre about to fly.

Balwan Khokkar, Girdhari Lal and Captain Bhagmal - held guilty for murder by District and Sessions Judge J R Aryan -- have been given life terms. The CBI had  sought the death sentence for three of the five convicts in an anti-Sikh riots case as it told a Delhi court that they were engaged in "planned communal riot" and "religious cleansing". Congress leader Sajjan Kumar was acquitted in the same case.

A Delhi court heard the arguments on quantum of punishment in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case in which Congress leader Sajjan Kumar was acquitted while five persons were convicted for being a part of the mob that killed five Sikhs here.

District Judge JR Aryan, who was scheduled to hear the arguments on point of sentence in the case on May 6, deferred the matter for May 9 after CBI prosecutor, senior advocate R S Cheema, expressed his inability to appear before it on the earlier date.

Two others Mahender Yadav and Kishan Khokkar get a three year jail term

Pakistan prisoner Sanaullah's body has been handed over to Pak authorities. The Quran is among 27 belongings of deceased Pakistani prisoner Sanaullah Ranjay, which will be sent back to Pakistan along with his body. A senior official of Prison department said, "Twenty-seven items belonging to Sanaullah have been sent to Chandigarh through a special messenger." The items include a Jai Nimaz (prayer rug), besides daily use items like his slippers, comb, brush and clothes, the officer said. These items are being handed over to officials of Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), he said.

Five accused, including Railway Minister P K Bansal's nephew and suspended Member (Staff) in the Railway Board, were today remanded in judicial custody till May 20 by a Delhi court in connection with the Rs 10 crore railway bribery case.


Bansal's nephew Vijay Singla, Mahesh Kumar, the suspended Railway Board member, and three other accused -- Singla's close aide Ajay Garg, businessman Sandeep Goyal and Managing Director of GG Tronics India Pvt Ltd, Narain Rao Manjunath, were produced before Special CBI Judge Swarna Kanta Sharma after expiry of their CBI custody.


CBI moved an application seeking to send them in judicial custody, saying the investigation in the case is in progress and it is still at an initial stage. The agency told the court that crucial witnesses are yet to be examined and some documents are to be collected from various departments.

The man who wrote two of the 20th century's greatest novels, Animal Farm and 1984, was born in Motihari. But few come to the sleepy Bihar town seeking George Orwell... Archana Masih reports

Jet Airways group today said it has revised, with effective from May 15, the free baggage allowance to 15 kg in the economy class on all domestic routes, but has retained the cabin baggage limit at the previous level of 7 kg.

The airline, in a statement, said it will charge a passenger flat Rs 250 for every additional baggage. However, the JetPrivilege members will continue to enjoy the additional free baggage allowance as per their JP membership status, while Premiere guests will continue to avail 30 kg of free baggage allowance on Jet Airways and JetKonnect flights, it said.

The Quran is among 27 belongings of deceased Pakistani prisoner Sanaullah Ranjay, which will be sent back to Pakistan along with his body.

A senior official of Prison department said, "Twenty-seven items belonging to Sanaullah have been sent to Chandigarh through a special messenger." The items include a Jai Nimaz (prayer rug), besides daily use items like his slippers, comb, brush and clothes, the officer said. These items are being handed over to officials of Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), he said.

Sanaullah, who went into a coma after being badly beaten up by a fellow inmate in Kot Balwal jail here last week, died this morning at PGIMER (Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research) hospital in Chandigarh.

A Dhaka tribunal on Thursday handed death penalty to Jamaat-e-Islami leader Muhammad Kamaruzzaman for two wartime offences committed during the country's 1971 Liberation War. The International Crimes Tribunal-2 found him guilty of five out of seven charges leveled against him. The prosecution failed to prove rest two charges, it said while reading out an excerpt of the verdict. Read the full story here.

Our source in Delhi was privy to a conversation between a chief minister and his son, a deputy chief minister, in New Delhi, yesterday. The two were discussing why Dr Manmohan Singh was so disturbed and angry and speculated it may be because of the Supreme Court observations on the Coalgate report damning the government for changing the tone of the report. Or it could be non-cooperation from Congress ministers. 


This conversation was told to a senior leader of BJP. This comes at a time when there are perceived differences between the Prime Minister and the Congress president Sonia Gandhi over the PK Bansal and Ashwani Kumar issues.


Close confidantes of the PM, all economists affectionately address the PM as "doctor Saab" and observed that the Congress leadership tends to drop Dr Singh like the proverbial hot-potato and said this was the first time they had seen the PM angry.


The minister under scrutiny, Law Minister Ashwini Kumar, is said to have abused a top investigating officer in public glare in the first week of March during a meeting where senior law officers were present. "Who made you director? Do you know English? Can you write or speak two sentences in English?" 

Law minister Ashwani Kumar's first statement after his visit to the PMO this afternoon. The beleaguered law minister says he met PMO officials, but not the Prime minister since there was no time.  

The war against the Assad regime has passed into the hands of al Qaeda affiliated jihadis. Obama should resist the pressure to intervene on their behalf. Read

CVC seeks detailed report from the CBI on the government's interference in the draft coalgate probe report.

All the accused, including PK Bansal's nephew Vijay Singla, in the railway bribery case have been produced in the CBI court. 

Shafiqur Rahman Barq, a BSP MP, has refused to apologise for walking out of the Lok Sabha when the national song Vande Mataram was played yesterday  to mark the sine die adjournment of the Budget Session of Parliament.

Speaker Meira Kumar had rebuked him saying, "One honourable member walked out when Vande Mataram was being played. I take very serious view of this. I would want to know why this was done. This should never be done again," Kumar said.

Barq, a BSP member from Sambhal in Uttar Pradesh, said today that he did not respect the national song. Speaking to CNN IBN, Barq said, "I respect the national anthem, not the national song. I have boycotted it earlier as well. I will not apologise to the Speaker and neither will there be a letter of apology from me. As long as I am alive I will not sing the Vande Mataram, it is against our beliefs. Muslims like me will not sing the Vande Mataram, we will bow only to Allah." 

The CBI today questioned the private secretary of Railway Minister PK Bansal in connection with the alleged Rs 10 crore bribery scandal involving Railway Board Member Mahesh Kumar and the minister's nephew V Singla.


Rahul Bhandari, a 1997-batch IAS officer from Punjab cadre, reached the CBI headquarters in the morning and was confronted with his telephonic conversations with Singla which are understood to be related to elevation of Kumar in the Railway Board and his chances of becoming Member (Electrical), CBI sources said.


The sources said the agency is also likely to question three more officials who are part of Bansal's staff. They said Bhandari's conversations were tapped by the agency after it put Kumar's and Singla's phone on surveillance.


The conversations revolve around Kumar's postings in the Railway Board, they claimed. The sources said Bhandari could be a crucial link as the conversations are understood to carry reference to Bansal.

TV reports suggest that there is a real possibility that a senior minister may replace law minister Ashwani Kumar. Even as the PM is meeting the President now, earlier in the day he met the law minister and attorney general GE Vahanvati. The PM is believed to be briefing President Pranab Mukherjee on the political situation. 

In other news:
-- A team of four AICC observers led by A K Antony to visit Karnataka tomorrow and consult party MLAs to decide on the issue of chief minister.

-- The Prime Minsiter met President Pranab Mukherjee over the issue of the two tainted ministers -- Ashwani Kumar and PK Bansal.

Militants, believed to belong to the Pak Taliban, abducted Ali Haider from a Pakistan People's Party rally at Multan. Mohiyudin, the secretary of Ali Haider Gilani, has been killed and five others were injured in the gunfire opened by militants when they drove into the rally on the last day of the campaigning for the general election on May 11.

If you've just joined us, Ali Haider is the son of former Pakistan PM Yousuf Raza Gilani.

Eyewitnesses say Haidar Gilani had been threatened and asked not to attend the rally.  The gunmen opened fire at Gilani's car and five people were injured in the firing that killed his secretary. 

CNN IBN says there were four gunmen, believed to be from the Taliban, who abducted Yousuf Raza Gilani's son Ali Haidar Gilani. Gilani's bodyguard and secretary have been killed. 

Just in: Former Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's son Ali Haidar has been abducted from an election rally in Multan. His secretary has been killed. Details awaited.

Did a 14-foot fall raise the conscience of a nation? Pakistan in the aftermath of Imram Khan's forklift fall. Read

Law minister Ashwani Kumar is also at the PMO to meet Dr Manmohan Singh. 

Attorney General GE Vahanvati meets PM Manmohan Singh after the Supreme slammed him and the former additional solicitor general Harin Raval for their alleged role in changes made to the CBI's draft status report on the coal blocks allocation scam. Details awaited.

China's latest border squabble with India might seem trivial, but the consequences could set Asia on edge. Read

Also read: The tin-pot icebreaker

The gang rape and death of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student in New Delhi in December drew global attention to sex crime in India. It also spurred British journalist Sunny Hundal to write a book. Read

The failure to push through a food security bill aiming to guarantee cheap grains to about 70% of India's population doesn't necessarily mean there'll be a quiet burial for one of the most ambitious food aid plans ever conceived. Read

Court has exposed the governing principle: evil deeds are done but there is no doer. Read Pratap Bhanu Mehta's column for the Indian Express.  

Former Union Minister and PMK leader, Anbumani Ramadoss, who was arrested recently in connection with a case filed last year, has been granted conditional bail by a local court in Kancheepuram. On May 6, a local court had granted bail to Anbumani, arrested on May 3 for offences, including unlawful assembly and rioting at a PMK function at Mamallapuram last year. He was re-arrested on similar charges in connection with a case relating to a party function at the same spot last month and remanded till May 17.

BJP leader Kirit Somaiya reaches the CBI Headquarters with papers he says are incriminating evidence against rail minister PK Bansal as well as law minister Ashwani Kumar.

A Final Embrace: The Most Haunting Photograph from the Bangladesh building collapse. See

Meanwhile, BS Yeddyurappa takes credit for the Congress win in Karnataka. "The only reason the Congress won is because we split the BJP votes. It also proves that the BJP has no existence in Karnataka without me. I will never join the BJP, it is no longer a big party in the state," he said.  


Former BJP leader B S Yeddyurappa's ominous warnings about destroying the party in the state assembly election were not merely empty threats. The Janata Dal Secular won 40 seats, the same as the BJP. The top BJP leadership had forced Yeddyurappa to resign from the chief minister's post after massive charges pf corruption surfaced against him. Yeddyurappa, considered the party's strongest leader in south India, had walked out of the BJP in a huff.

Siddaramaiah, the frontrunner for the post of Karnataka chief minister, has been instructed by the Congress High Command to stay put in Bangalore. He has been told that two senior leaders, Ambika Soni and AK Antony will visit Bangalore late tonight and decide on when to convene the Congress Legislature party meeting to elect the new leader.

Siddaramaiah had said yesterday that he would be leaving for Delhi today to thank his leaders. However the intention behind his visit was to push his case to become the chief minister.

Ambika Soni and Antony are expected in Bangalore tonight. They will hold several round of talks with state leaders including Mallikarjuna Kharge (another contender for the CM' job) and G Parameshwar to decide on who the next CM should be. Once a consensus is arrived at, they would conduct the CLP meeting and a new leader would be formally elected.
-- Vicky Nanjappa

Former corporate lobbyist Niira Radia, a key prosecution witness in the 2G spectrum allocation scam, is likely to appear before a Delhi court on May 28 to depose in the case.

The CBI today submitted before Special CBI Judge O P Saini its list of prosecution witnesses to be called for recording of their statements before the court and Radia's evidence is slated for May 28.

Radia, who was scheduled to appear in court on December 5 last year to testify as a CBI witness, had earlier sought three months time on the ground that she had reportedly undergone a surgery for a neurological ailment. The CBI, in its charge sheet filed on April 2, 2011 against former Telecom Minister A Raja and others, had named Radia as a prosecution witness in the case.

NCP chief and UPA ally Sharad Pawar cautions the Congress in the aftermath of its spectacular win in Karnataka. Says Pawar, "A single win can't predict the trend for 2014. Polls in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan will pose a bigger challenge for the Congress."

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister offered sincere apologies to the family of Pakistan prisoner Sanaullah, who died in a hospital in Chandigarh on Thursday morning, days after being assaulted in Jammu''s Kot Bhalwal Jail.

"Although it's scant consolation, I'd like to offer a sincere apology to the family of Sanaullah Haq & my sympathies for their loss," Abdullah tweeted.

"While the inquiry will fix responsibility for any dereliction of duty, the fact that this is happening at all is a matter of great regret," he said

Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur expressed her condolences to the family of Pakistan prisoner Sanaullah, who succumbed to his injures in a hospital in Chandigarh on Thursday morning, days after being attacked by a fellow prisoner at Jammu's Kot Bhalwal Jail.


Kaur said the Indian Government would provide all assistance to send his body back to Pakistan. "We have done the best of the treatment for him, but sadly he is no more. We will facilitate and provide assistance to send his body back," she said.


Meanwhile, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said that despite the government''s best efforts, Sanaullah had succumbed to his injures. "We have informed Pakistan and are in touch with them," Akbaruddin said. "We would make best efforts and arrangements to send back Sanaullah's body," he added.

Sanaullah, 52, a convicted terrorist serving a life sentence in Jammu''s Kot Bhalwal Jail, was undergoing treatment at Chandigarh''s PGIMER, after being hit with a brick by a fellow inmate on May 3.

The Supreme Court dismisses a plea challenging the USD 8.5 billion Vedanta-Cairn deal. The court said today that the Centre and ONGC's decision on the USD 8.5 billion deal was taken after due deliberation and that there were no extraneous considerations involved in the deal and it should not be interfered with by the court.

A Economic Times report says that a PIL had challenged the deal on the ground that there was a loss to state-owned ONGC on account of the sale. The apex court said that Cairn Energy should have first offered any shares in Cairn India to JV partner ONGC.

Neither ONGC nor the government pressed this right, SC said, alleging that this caused a Rs 1 lakh crore loss to ONGC.

The loss figures were attributed to the CAG report, but a bench, comprising justices K S Radhakrishnan and Dipak Misra, rejected the plea to set aside the deal.

The court cannot sit on judgement on an agreement between parties unless it is against the statute, SC said.

CAG figures are not the final word and are subject to interpretation and can be contested by the ministry, it said.

The Supreme Court has dismissed the bail plea of jailed YSR Congress leader Jaganmohan Reddy in the disproportionate assets corruption case. Delivering the verdict, the Supreme Court observed that Jagan's release would hamper the probe in the case which is of a high magnitude and the "likelihood of tampering with evidence and influencing witnesses can't be ruled out on his release."

This is the sixth attempt made by Jagan Reddy in a year to get bail. He has been in a Hyderabad jail since May 2012.  

When Pakistanis go to the polls on Saturday they will be electing key players battling to govern one of the world's most complicated countries.From corruption, claims of international interference, terrorism and religious extremism to overpopulation, inflation, poverty and unemployment, Pakistan has been famously dubbed by some as the world's most unstable nuclear power. More

It has been seven months since the Jamia Teachers' Solidarity Association brought out its report, Framed, Damned, Acquitted, chronicling in detail how the Delhi Police's Special Cell implicated innocents -- former militants, police informers, businessmen, and just ordinary, unlucky men -- as terrorists.

It is one of the few documents that lends evidentiary credence to the widespread sense amongst Muslims that they are being targeted in the war against terror.

Apologists for the police and investigative agencies however do not tire of contesting its conclusions, namely that there is a systemic and systematic bias against minorities when it comes to terror investigations. What bias, they ask. As does our chief National Security 'analyst' Praveen Swami, who has stressed that "liberals are compromising the war against jihadi terror".

Click here for Manisha Sethi's riposte to Praveen Swami

Till a few days ago, the road outside the homes of the railway minister and nephew Vijay Singla would be clogged with vehicles, much to the annoyance of neighbours who found cars blocking their entrances.Not any longer.With Singla in CBI custody for accepting an alleged bribe, the bungalows, almost adjacent to each other in Sector 28, look deserted. Read the full story here.

The death toll in Bangladesh's worst industrial disaster today approached the 900 mark as rescuers overnight pulled out 80 more bodies from sandwiched floors of the ill-fated eight-storey building that collapsed last month.

"The death toll now stands at 892," an official said as the military-led salvage operation entered the 16th day today. Hundreds of bodies are still trapped under the debris of the illegally constructed Rana Plaza building as many have remained missing, local media reported.

The building in Savar near the capital Dhaka that housed five garment factories collapsed on April 24. It is still unclear how many people were there on that fateful day.

External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid will today begin a two-day official visit to China at the invitation of his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.  The two ministers will discuss bilateral, regional and global issues of concern to both sides. They will also discuss the proposed visit to India of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.
 Chinese incursion is expected to figure prominently during Khurshid''s talks with Chinese leaders.

Sometimes, the ruling party is the opposition's biggest benefactor. In Karnataka, the Congress returned to power with a comfortable majority on the strength of what was clearly a mandate against the Bharatiya Janata Party. All that the BJP was trying to do against the Congress at the national level, the Congress successfully did against the BJP in Karnataka. Read

Having shied away from any Narendra Modi-versus-Rahul Gandhi debate so far, the Congress was today emboldened enough by its victory in Karnataka to question the Gujarat chief minister's popularity outside his state and to showcase Rahul as a mass leader.  Read

Pakistan today demanded an investigation into the assault on Pakistani prisoner Sanaullah Ranjay, who died of multi-organ failure in an Indian hospital almost a week after he was injured in a jail in Jammu.


"The brutal manner in which Sanaullah was attacked in the jail is most unfortunate and a matter of deep concern for the Government of Pakistan," Foreign Office spokesman Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry said. "We have conveyed our concern to the Government of India in this regard and demanded that an investigation into the incident be held and perpetrators of this heinous crime be brought to justice," Chaudhry said.


Sanaullah, a resident of Sialkot in Punjab province, was serving a life term after being convicted of involvement in terrorist activities in 1999. He was attacked in Kot Bhalwal Jail in Jammu by a fellow inmate convicted of murder after a row between the two men on May 3. The attack on Ranjay happened a day after Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh died following an assault in Lahore's Kot Lakhpat Jail.

If you're wondering why, Renu Mittal has the answer: Congress President Sonia Gandhi has come across tough resistance from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over the issue of sacking tainted ministers in his Cabinet. For now, Dr Singh is having it his way, but voices of dissent are growing louder. Read the report.

Trouble is mounting for Pawan Kumar Bansal in the cash-for-postings scam as evidence surfaced that his nephew Vijay Singla met with senior railway ministry official Mahesh Kumar at the railway minister's official residence in Delhi.The CBI also questioned Bansal's private secretary Rahul Bhandari, an IAS officer of the Punjab cadre, in the case on Wednesday, the same day that HT reported that Bhandari was under CBI's scanner. Read more

CBI sources on Wednesday said they had evidence to prove that Pawan Bansal's nephew Vijay Singla had been "boasting about his maternal uncle (mama) being the railway minister and confidently assuring Sandeep Goyalthat Mahesh Kumar would be made member (electrical)" in the Railway Board. Read the full report.

Zee News reports: Congress president Sonia Gandhi has taken a serious note of the corruption allegations being levelled against two senior Congress ministers Pawan Kumar Bansal and Ashwani Kumar, and wants them to quit to save thye party from further embarrassment. 

While the recent troop standoff in a remote Himalayan desert spotlights a long-running border dispute between China and India, the two emerging giants are engaged in a rivalry for global influence that spreads much farther afield. 

At least 18 people, including two women and six children were injured, when a bomb went off in a residential area here. Police said the bomb had been planted in a red charade car and was detonated by a remote device in Mahmoodabad area near a bakery last night. 

The United Nations today pulled peacekeepers back from an observation post in the Golan Heights ceasefire zone where four Philippine troops were abducted by Syrian rebels, a spokesman said. 

Britain does not support a Tibetan state independent of China, Prime Minister David Cameron said today amid reports of Chinese anger at his meeting with the Dalai Lama last year. 

A white tiger being used by the PML-N in its election campaign in Pakistan, died today because of prolonged exposure to heat, according to media reports today. 

Kurdish fighters have begun withdrawing from Turkey into their stronghold in Iraq, Kurdish sources said today, in a major step towards ending a decades-long conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people. 

The BJP today expressed surprise over Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray expressing his happiness over the Jagadish Shettar-led government's defeat in Karnataka Assembly elections. 

Gujarat Congress today claimed that wherever Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi addressed public meetings during Karnataka election campaign, BJP lost those seats. 

Notification for the by-polls to two Lok Sabha and four assembly constituencies in Gujarat, to be held on June 2, was issued today by the state's Chief Election Officer.