A terrorist, police official and an army trooper belonging to the Rashtriya Rifles regiment have been killed in an ongoing encounter at Dadsara in South Kashmir's Pulwama district.

A senior police official told rediff.com's Mukhtar Ahmad in Srinagar that a joint team of the Rashtriya Rifles and local police, acting on a tip-off, had surrounded a house and challenged the terrorists holed up inside to surrender. The encounter is still on.

Reinforcements have been rushed to the area, the official added.

It can now be revealed that what may have appeared to be a spontaneous gesture -- Sachin Tendulkar being carried aloft by his teammates -- after India's World Cup win was not so.

The decision to carry Tendulkar for a victory round was taken much earlier but was not known to the batting maestro, Harbhajan Singh disclosed today.

"We had decided to chair him around the stadium if India won the World Cup," said the off-spinner who is personally close to Tendulkar.

After the e Bombay High Court rejected former IPL Chairman Lalit Modi''s plea against the revocation of his passport, it also dismissed an appeal filed by Modi against an earlier order asking the BCCI to initiate an inquiry into alleged financial irregularities.

The BCCI had in December 2010 formed a Disciplinary Committee to probe into the allegations of financial irregularities during Modi's tenure as chairman of the cash rich Twenty20 league.

On March 4, a single judge of the High Court had dismissed Modi's petition against the inquiry and had directed BCCI's DC to initiate proceedings against him.

Here's why Libya's Colonel Muammar Gaddafi is still popular. Nurses and staff loyal to the Libyan leader revealed they were rewarded each year with gold watches with his picture on them.

Oksana Balynskaya, one of five nurses on his personal medical team who left the oil-rich country when violent protests began against the regime in February, said that Gaddafi or "Papa" as they used to call him, presented them with Italian gold watches every year on the date when he assumed power.

There's hope, guys!

Poonam Pandey tweets: Once Steve Forbes said "A promise made should be a promise kept." so guys soon will complete my promise just Wait n watch.

Poonam Pandey, is the 19-year-old model, whopromised to do the full Monty in the men's dressing room should India win the Cup.

Hours before the India win on Saturday, the model's phone was switched off. And over the weekend, her phone has been 'out of coverage area'.

Finally, today, her public relations executive said Poonam had been admitted to a hospital (refused to say where and when) for kidney stones.

He also said he was feeling feverish and would not be available on the phone later. For good measure, he then, coughed.

As Poonam suggests, we will wait, and certainly, watch...

Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus has lost his final appeal in Bangladesh's Supreme Court against his sacking from the Grameen micro-finance bank he founded.

The bbc.co.uk reports that the court upheld the decision by the central bank to remove him from office.

The bank said Professor Yunus had been improperly appointed while past retirement age. But Professor Yunus said the attempt to remove him from the bank had been politically motivated.

The Bombay High Court has rejected former Indian Premier League Chairman Lalit Modi''s plea against the revocation of his passport. The court also turned down Modi''s plea for a stay in the disciplinary proceedings initiated against him by the BCCI.

The court has asked the BCCI to avoid holding any disciplinary committee meeting for the next two weeks. The RPO in Mumbai had revoked Modi''s passport on March 3 following the Enforcement Directorate''s probe into financial irregularities.

The special investigation team probing the 2004 police encounter of Ishrat Jahan and three others, today submitted its progress report in the case in a sealed cover to the Gujarat High Court.

The report was submitted in the High Court ahead of the hearing in the case, scheduled on April 8. In January this year, the court had directed the SIT to submit its progress report every two months and update it about the status of investigation in the case.

News flash: Following in the footsteps Australia's Ricky Ponting, Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara will quit as the country's captain. In an interview to India Today earlier, Sangakkara said he had already met the Lankan board officials and communicated his decision and said he felt that following the ICC World Cup finals defeat at the hands of Indian team it was time someone else took over as the captain of the Lankan cricket team.

The Sri Lanka cricket board confirmed that Sanga had quit as captain of both ODI and T20 team. Selectors will now decide on the new captain. Sanga says he wants a new captain in place for the 2015 WC.

Harsha Bhogle tweets: If true, am a little perplexed at sangakkara's decision. Sri Lanka need him & Jayawardene as statesmen at this time. Still has time on his side.

Also read from the Dawn: Cricket's true triumph -- Sangakkara

The Election Commission has dropped Sourav Ganguly as its brand ambassador following protests by the Trinamool Congress that he was associated with a particular political party and that he had worked as an ambassador of the West Bengal government, particularly the WBIDC.

In fact, Ganguly wanted to withdraw after row over his political bias. The EC will now reuse the campaign, to promote and popularise voting,with MS Dhoni and APJ Abdul Kalam.

British PM David Cameron, who ison a day'svisit toPakistanoffered money and security expertise as he committed Britain to helping Pakistan to tackle terror as part of a new long-term partnership.

The Times, London, reports that Cameron promised up to £650 million to get four million Pakistani children into school as part of the government's biggest overseas education programme. Britain will also share its expertise in countering roadside bombs, or improvised explosive devices, at a new centre of excellence to be jointly set up in northwest Pakistan.

The pooling of IED know-how with Pakistan's intelligence service, the ISI, amounts to a diplomatic gamble and will raise eyebrows given its well-documented links with the Taleban.

Britain Army's redundancy programme is poised to axe 150 Gurkha troops in the country.

The Ministry of Defence said overall 1,000 soldiers and 1,600 Royal Navy personnel would lose their jobs in the first tranche of redundancies for the two services under the Strategic Defence and Security Review cuts.

It is expected that around half the redundancies will be compulsory in the army.

The Pakistan Cricket Board is negotiating with former skipper Javed Miandad to accept the post of the national team's batting coach.

ODI skipper Shahid Afridi (who is still trending on Twitter in India!) said after a meeting with PCB chief Ijaz Butt that the board was in talks with Miandad.

"I have suggested having a batting coach with the team to work with the players and Miandad is one of the people the board is in touch with," Afridi said.

It must be noted that Miandad, a veteran of 124 Tests and 237 one-day and also a former coach, had to leave his post due to issues with the board and within the team.

FYI: Javed Miandad's son is married to Dawood Ibrahim's daughter.

In forgotten Libya, the government, such as it were,today said it was open to political reforms but rejected Western demands that country's strongman Muammar Gaddafi step down. The government said Gaddafi was a unifying force and must stay in power to avoid a Somalia or Iraq-style power vacuum.

Norway's prime minister has urged his Indian counterpart to ensure "fair treatment" for Telenor amid fears that the Norwegian mobile operator's Indian business could be in jeopardy from the telecoms licensing scandal now rocking India.

The Financial Times reports that the letter from Jens Stoltenberg, Norwegian prime minister, reflects growing concern over the fate of Telenor's Indian operations, after its local joint-venture partner, Unitech Wireless, was formally charged this weekend of the rigging of a wireless spectrum auction.

Close on the heels of a spat over the Raymond Davis case, the CIA contractor who gunned down two men in Lahore, another diplomatic row is brewing between Pakistan and the US after Islamabad barred several American military personnel from leaving the country.

The US personnel were barred from leaving Pakistan because of expired visas and other documentary irregularities. There are varying claims about the number of US soldiers denied exit. Some sources claimed about 20 to 30 people had been affected while others put the figure at slightly less than 100. Most of the personnel had been working on different projects with the Pakistani military.

Poonam Pandey, the 19-year-old model, whopromised to do the full Monty in the men's dressing room should India win the Cup has finally surfaced.

Hours before the India win on Saturday, the model's phone was switched off. And over the weekend, her phone has been 'out of coverage area'.

Finally, today, her public relations executive said Poonam had been admitted to a hospital (refused to say where and when) for kidney stones. He also said he was feeling feverish and would not be available on the phone later. For good measure, he then, coughed.

Watch Silly Point with Poonam Pandey

Rediff.com's Harish Kotian reports: Team Royal Challengers has announced New Zealand skipper Daniel Vettori as the captain of the team for IPL 2011. Vettori led a spirited New Zealand team to the World Cup 2011 semi-finals, only to lose to Sri Lanka.

He is one of the most respected captains in the world and was praised for his leadership skills in the World Cup quarterfinals against South Africa which the Kiwis won by 49 runs.

From Tamil Nadu: A haul of unaccounted cash in the poll-bound state --six bags full of currency worth Rs 5.11 crore -- have been recovered in Trichy today. Investigations on the owner of the cash is still on.

Alocal court in Jaipur has directed the police to lodge an FIR against actor Rakhi Sawant, Rahul Mahajan and six others for allegedly threatening a man, who had claimed to have written the script of TV serial 'Rakhi Ka Swayamvar'.

The petitioner Gaurav Tiwari claimed that the script of the serial was originally written by him but the production house used it without his consent which was a violation of Copyright Act.

The US commander in Afghanistan, General David H. Petraeus, is reportedly being 'seriously considered' for the job of CIA director.

Petraeus, who plans to leave that post later this year, 'would take the job if offered'.

Current CIA director Leon Panetta is likely to replace Defence Secretary Robert Gates, who plans to step down this year.

Random tweets...

Rezhasan: I want to have 3 kids and name them Ctrl, Alt and Delete. Then if they screw up I will just hit them all at once.

Kiran Bedi: Barkha I wish u had come 2 jan tar man tar today and spoken to Anna Hazare starting his fast for the Ginnnee bill He is sitting for u and me.

It's the begun: the shaming of Ricky Ponting.

Australia's new skipper Michael Clarke has taken over the captain's suite in a Dhaka hotel, relegating his predecessor Ricky Ponting to a standard room. The official line from Clarke is that his new captaincy post will finally sink in when he leads Australia out for the one-day international against Bangladesh on Saturday.

But he quickly had to come to grips with his new role when the team checked into the Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel in Dhaka.

Under the MoU between the competing nations, two hotel rooms are upgraded on every tour for the visitors, which traditionally go to the captain and team manager.

West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has termed as "distorted" and "one-sided" the WikiLeaks revelation that he had invited Dow Chemicals to a proposed chemical hub, saying the invitation was made on condition that the company owned responsibility of compensating Bhopal gas tradegy victims.

"I had categorically stated that we want Dow Chemicals to invest in the proposed chemical hub in the state, subject to the company accepting responsibility for compensating the victims of Bhopal gas disaster. The responsibility aspect has been left out in the cable," Bhattacharjee said in a statement in Kolkata last night after filing his nomination papers.

It seems like every babu in every state government has beenset the task of finding out what else can be doled out to Team India after their historic World Cup win.

The Maharashtra government has now come up with the rather stale idea of recommending Sachin Tendulkar's name for the Bharat Ratna.

It may be remembered that Sachin was in the running for India's top civilian honour in January. Read

News flash: The government says it objects to the CBI's decision to appoint senior advocate U U Lalit as Special Public Prosecutor in the 2G spectrum case.

This comes a few days after the CBI said it is willing to take over the investigation of Sadiq Batcha's death from the Chennai police after clearance from the Union government.

The Tamil Nadu government has already passed a notification to transfer the probe.

Batcha, a close aide of former telecom minister A. Raja, died in an alleged suicide at his home in Chennai on 16 March, allegedly over the 2G scam.

PMO on Anna Hazare's fast unto death.PMO believes that in the best democratic tradition there has to be give and take.

Alright, remember the Raj Rajaratnam trial? Read if you don't.

And here's an update: After three weeks of presenting evidence against Galleon Group founder Raj Rajaratnam, accused of making USD 45 million from insider trading, the prosecution is expected to rest its case tomorrow.

The government plans to present two more witnesses before wrapping up. Rajaratnam's lawyer John Dowd said the defence could begin their case later today.

Since the trail began in March, government lawyers have played secretly recorded phone conversations between Rajaratnam and other alleged conspirators, who provided him with confidential information.

Out of 26 people arrested in the case, 19 have pleaded guilty. 53-year-old Rajaratnam, who is charged with 14 counts of conspiracy and securities fraud, denies wrongdoing. If found guilty, he faces up to 20 years in prison.

Bee Gees singer Robin Gibb was rushed to a hospital after complaining of abdominal pains, throwing his Brazil tour into jeopardy. The Stayin Alive hitmaker was taken ill yesterday morning and doctors have told him not to travel while they diagnose the problem.

Last year he underwent surgery for a blocked intestine, the same condition which led to the death of his twin brother Maurice in 2003.

In a volte-face, (the second after Shahid Afridi's) the Obama Administration today said that the alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Muhammad and his four co-conspirators would now be tried in a military court instead of a civilian.

In November 2009 it was announced that Muhammad and four others would stand trial in a federal court for their roles in the terrorist attacks on the US on September 11, 2001.

Mohammed is the self-proclaimed architect of the 9/11 attacks and a host of other plots and was arrested in 2003 in Rawalpindi and handed over to American agents who held him in secret prisons for over three years before sending him to Guantanamo in September 2006.

Superb! Ramesh Srivatstweets: I suppose Harbhajan will now want a ride in a Su-30 Teri MKI.

Yesterday, the TOI reported that Indian skipper MS Dhoni and Sachin Tendulkar will be given a ride on a Sukhoi.

Anil Ambani, chairman of Reliance ADAG has reached Parliament to appear before PAC in the 2G scam. He is expected to anser the parliamentary panel investigatingthe 2G scam, thesecond corporate to be questioned after Ratan Tata, yesterday.

Ambani's testimony comes days after police indicted officials and a unit of his group for conspiracy, cheating and other offences during a flawed 2008 telecoms licence grant process that may have lost India up to $39 billion in revenue.

The Commonwealth Games Federation has slammed the Shunglu Committee report on the alleged financial irregularities in the conduct of last year's Commonwealth Games, saying its statements on the CGF's role are "inaccurate and unsubstantiated" and lack context.

The Shunglu Committee report, which has indicted Organising Committee chief Suresh Kalmadi and some other top OC officials for financial bunglings, has also questioned the decisions of the CGF President Mike Fennell and its Chief Executive Officer Michael Hooper.

The CGF reacted strongly to the committee's report and said the statements lack fairness.

Another accident, but not as traumatic.

An accidental grenade blast at an army training camp in Rajouri has left seven jawans injured. During a training drill on handling of grenades, the device exploded in the hand of Army jawan Sepoy L Balaji. Balaji's hand was blown up and his right eye badly damaged in the incident, they said.

Six other soldiers were also injured and shifted to the military hospital for treatment.

In a tragic incident,a toddler died Monday after being found unresponsive in the back seat of a sweltering car parked outside his gynecologist mother's workplace. The 21-month-old boy was left for hours in a car seat while his apparently distracted mother worked at the medical office in a town in Puerto Rico.

The mother, Dr Cynthia Galinaltis, apparently forgot to drop the child off at daycare and found him in her car in the mid-afternoon. The toddler was rushed to a hospital, where he was declared dead.

An educational charity of Madonna's, Success for Kids, is being investigated by the FBI over claims of financial mismanagement.

Madonna, 52, chairs the charity, but it is not clear to what extent she is involved in the investigation by the FBI for "several irregularities and suspicious activity'.

The singer has donated 671,000 dollars since it was founded in 2001, and she has also persuaded a string of celebrity friends to give generously.

The development comes a week after it emerged that the Material Girl had to scrap plans to build a school in Malawi due to financial mismanagement by another of her charities.

The Times of India reported yesterday that the chief ofthe Indian Air ForceP V Naikstated that he will seek special permission from the government so that India captainMahendra Singh Dhoniand legendary batsmanSachin Tendulkarcan experience a flight of Su-30MKI- the best fighter plane of IAF.

And Ramesh Srivats tweets: A Sukhoi ride'll benefit MSD. As Kabir said, "Dukh me sumiran sab kare, Sukhoi me kare na koi. Jo Sukhoi me sumiran kare, dukh kahe ko hoi?"

Cnn.com reports that India's aviation industry is taking off again. Between 2009 and 2010 domestic passenger traffic grew 19% -- an impressive figure considering the 2008 global financial meltdown that led airlines around the world, including those in India, to ask for government bailouts.

"I have never seen such a dramatic change in the market character in such a short span of time,'analyst KapilKaul, who runs the Center for Asia Pacific Aviation, said. He notes that less than 2% of India's 1.2 billion population travels by air, which points to massive potential for growth.

Read more

Update on Anna Hazare's fast.

In his home state Maharashtra, there is growing support for social activist Anna Hazare who began his indefinite fast in Delhi today, demanding implementation of Jan Lokpal Bill.

During Gudi Padwa celebrations in Hazare's village Ralegan Siddhi in Ahmednagar district, villagers displayed their support by putting up black clothes in on their gudis as a mark of protest against government.

Requests to Hazare by Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan and MPCC president Manikrao Thakre to defer the fast were of no avail as the veteran Gandhian began his hunger strike at Jantar Mantar.

Activists of the India Against Corruption movement began a fast at Azad Maidan in Mumbai, to support Hazare.

A rally of around 100 cars and bikes was organised from Shivaji Park in central Mumbai to Azad Maidan this morning, as a part of the protest.

"Several people have pledged their support via text messages and e-mails. Others are fasting at their homes or offices," Mayank Gandhi of NGO Jagrut Nagrik Manch said.

Here's a valid reason why you should be a clockwatcher at work and not stay back to impress the boss.

Researchers have found that those who spend more than 11 hours at work increase their chance of having a heart attack by two thirds. The risk is so great that GPs should ask patients what hours they work along with how much they drink or smoke.

The research team looked at more than 7,000 civil servants over a period of 11 years and established how many hours they worked on average a day. They also collected information including the condition of their heart from medical records and health checks.

Veteran social activist Anna Hazare began his indefinite fast unto death today to press for the demand to involve civil society in the formulation of the anti-graft Lokpal (ombudsman) Bill.

Hazare visited Rajghat this morning before going to Jantar Mantar via India Gate to start the protest.

Hazare said that he was saddened when the Prime Minister rejected the demand by leading civil society members to include them and senior ministers in the joint committee to draft the Lokpal Bill. The PM has requested Hazare to call ofo his strike.

With Mamata Banerjee's 'padayatras' drawing thousands, the ruling CPI-M not to be outdone has also planned a similar roadshow on coming Saturday by Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee in his Jadavpur constituency in the city's southern part.

"Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee will participate in a roadshow from the Jadavpur police station to Sonarpur covering a distance of seven kms," CPI(M) state secretariat member Robin Deb said.

Deb insisted there was no question of the chief minister taking a leaf out of Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee's book.

"On the contrary, it is Mamata who is following in the footsteps of CPI-M which had in the past organised huge processions on issues of public importance in the city and elsewhere, in some of which Buddhada himself took a leading part," Deb, who is looking after CPI-M's campaign in the Jadavpur constituency, said.

Last Sunday, Banerjee along with former state chief secretary Manish Gupta, who is the candidate of her party in the Jadavpur constituency against Bhattacharjee, at her side organised a mammoth padayatra covering several constituencies.

She walked the 12-km route from Gariahat to Garia in one of the most successful road shows organised by the Trinamool Congress.

Mamata has already held five such road shows in the city and its outskirts in the last two weeks including the Jadavpur constituency.

The 14-year-old suicide bomber, who was captured after his explosives failed to detonate during Sunday's terror attack on a shrine in Pakistan, remains unrepentant as he tells police that he wants to be a "martyr" and send them "to hell."

The teenager- identified as Fida Hussain -- was arrested at the shrine close to Dera Ghazi Khan in central Pakistan shortly after Sunday's twin suicide attacks on thousands of people attending an annual festival there, killing 42 people and wounding 100 others.

British Prime Minister David Cameron has arrived in Pakistan on a one-day visit on the invitation of Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani.

Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination Raza Rabbani received the British Prime Minister on his first trip to Pakistan, Dunya News reports.

Cameron will hold meetings with both political and military leadership of Pakistan, including President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Gilani, during his one-day visit.

UK-Pakistan bilateral relations, the situation of the region, the ongoing war on terror and other issues would be discussed during the meeting.

Cameron said that a new era of bilateral relationship between both nations would begin with his visit to Pakistan.

Sri Satya Sai baba, who was admitted to a hospital following lung and chest congestion, continues to be on ventilator support though his vital systems are in a stable condition, doctors attending on him said today

"Sai Baba, who was admitted in this hospital, continues to be in the same condition as yesterday," a health bulletin issued by the Director of the Sri Satya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences here said.

"However, his level of consciousness has considerably improved. His vital systems are in stable condition. He still continues to be on assisted ventilation through ventilator and CRRT, which is a slow dialysis process," it said.

Doctors attending on him had yesterday said that "the condition of Baba is critical. The panel of doctors treating him are doing their best to make the system to respond". 85-year-old Satya Saibaba was admitted to the super-speciality hospital at Prashantigram at Puttaparthi near here on March 28 following respiration-related problems.

Prohibitory orders under Section 144 Criminal Procedure Code have been clamped in Puttaparthi town as followers of the Baba allegedly tried to attack the district collector and other officials for not allowing them to have a darshan of the ailing Baba.

Additional police personnel have been sent to the area keeping in view the situation there.

Pakistan skipper Shahid Afridi has now done another volte-face.

After creating a furore by stating that Indians are not "large-hearted", Afridi did a volte-face, claiming that he was misunderstood and quoted out of context. "Media makes a big deal of small issues. It is shameful. I have always done my bit to improve Indo-Pak ties but sometimes you say something and it is interpreted the other way. I have been quoted out of context," Afridi said.

"I have enjoyed my cricket in India and I love Indian people. Don't take my comments negatively. I have always got a lot of love and affection from Indian fans. And I request the media to play a more positive role and not waste time on such trivial issues," he told NDTV.

Good morning and welcome to the week after. Sore loser Shahid Afridi has been ranting aboutthenegative reporting by the Indian media on the Pakistan cricket team and how Indian players don't have large, clean hearts. And this, just a day after thanking us for the hospitality he and his team enjoyed here. Anyway, really doesn't matter, we are the World Cup winners -- proud, diginified and justifiably the best cricket team in the world. Up ahead today, Sai Baba continues to remain criticial. Stay with us for all the news as it happens.

2G scam: 'Candid' Tata admits chemistry problem with Maran (The Times of India)
Tata Group chief Ratan Tata and lobbyist Niira Radia deposed before the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee probing the 2G scam on Monday. Read

Anil Ambani to appear before PAC (Hindustan Times)

After quizzing industrialist Ratan Tata and corporate lobbyist Niira Radia on Monday, Parliament's Public Accounts Committee will today question Reliance Communications Chairman Anil Ambani in connection with alleged irregularities in the 2G spectrum allocation. Read

Anna Hazare to start fast unto death for strong Lokpal Bill (Hindustan Times)

Veteran social activist Anna Hazare will today start a "fast unto death" to press for the demand to involve civil society in formulation of the anti-graft Lokpal (ombudsman) Bill. Read

Over 66% polling in Assam in first phase (The Hindu)
Prominent among those whose fates were sealed in the first phase include Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and nine of his Cabinet colleagues, Speaker Tanka Bahadur Rai, BJP State president Ranjit Dutta and the former Asom Gana Parishad Ministers, Hitendra Nath Goswami, Pradip Hazarika and Jagadish Bhuyan. Read

DMK 'served' sub-standard rice to keep promise: Tamil Nadu voters (DNA)
The Re1 per kg rice, announced with much fanfare by the DMK in its 2006 election manifesto, may not swing votes in the ruling party's favour on April 13. Read

Sai Baba critical (The Times of India)
Doctors treating Sri Sathya Sai Baba (85) on Monday said the spiritual guru's condition had turned critical. "The vital systems are not adequately responding. His condition is critical," said ex-AIIMS cardiologist Dr A N Safaya, among the doctors attending on him. Read

Real or fake? Breathe easy, Team India lifted the right Cup (The Times of India)
ICC issued a statement clarifying that Team India had been given the right trophy, the 'recognized trophy' for the winners of World Cup 2011. Read

Lashkar bid to attack World Cup final posing as scribes averted (The Times of India)

Barely a week before the cricket World Cup final match in Mumbai, a foreign intelligence agency had alerted India stating that the Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba had managed to get forged passes and fake identity cards issued to journalists and corporate sponsors for the title clash at the Wankhede Stadium on April 2. Read

Indian players don't have large, clean hearts: Shahid Afridi (DNA)

Days after thanking the Indian crowd for their hospitality, the all-rounder has said Indians are not as large-hearted as Pakistanis. Read