Housing prices have increased by an average 66 per cent in Mumbai over the last four years on account of steady demand and rising input cost, according to property consultant Jones Lang LaSalle.   The increase has been even higher at 70 per cent in Thane and 74 per cent in Navi Mumbai.        

"The cumulative price escalation figures for Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai represent the highest among all cities in India," JLL India Managing Director (West) Ramesh Nair said in a statement.        

Gurgaon and Bangalore saw price appreciation of 52 per cent and 46 per cent, respectively, during this period. "Residential property prices in Mumbai have increased steadily after the correction seen post the Lehman debacle. In the period from the second quarter of 2009 to the same quarter in 2013, residential real estate prices in Mumbai have increased by 66 per cent," Nair said. 

On reasons for price rise, Nair noted that the demand for investment residential properties and end-user homes in the country's financial capital has remained stable.

Even as the controversy over Laxman Sivaramakrishnan's appointment to the ICC Cricket Committee raged on, the BCCI today received support from its Asian allies Sri Lanka and Pakistan who claimed allegations of the Indian Cricket Board forcing a re-vote were baseless.     

The furore over the appointment seemed to have created a rift in the cricket world with the Asian countries throwing their weight behind BCCI, which is apparently unhappy with all the noises being made over the former leg-spinner's appointment to the current player's committee.    

There were reports earlier today that a miffed India was threatening to pull out of the upcoming Champions Trophy to be held in England in June. However, when contacted, a top BCCI official denied such a move. "There is no question of pulling out of the Champions Trophy," the top BCCI official told PTI.

Al Jazeera: A Russian-made Yemeni military jet has crashed into a residential district of the capital Sanaa killing the pilot, an army official told AFP news agency. The Sukhoi on Monday crashed into "Al-Asbahi residential district in southern Sanaa," the official said.

The official did not provide further details. The accident is the second of its kind in the capital this year after 12 people died in February when another military aircraft ploughed into a building in a residential area.

That plane had also been identified as a Sukhoi SU-22 attack aircraft, and had been on a training mission. An air base is located near the Sanaa international airport, just 15 kilometres (nine miles) north of the capital.

China's new Premier Li Keqiang will visit Pakistan next week, allowing the two 'all-weather' allies to give further impetus to their strategic ties. Li's two-day visit from May 22-23 comes at the invitation of President Asif Ali Zardari. It will be Li's first visit to Pakistan after becoming premier and comes at a time when the country has held its landmark general elections.      

"A warm welcome awaits him," Foreign Office spokesman Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry said in a brief statement. The visit will provide the Chinese premier an opportunity to meet the new leadership in Pakistan, he said.        

"The visit also provides further impetus to our strategic relations. These friendly ties and the friendship with China is the cornerstone of Pakistan's foreign policy," Chaudhry said.

Fresh tremors of moderate intensity today shook Bhaderwah valley and adjoining areas in Jammu and Kashmir, prompting authorities to close down schools again.        

Tremors measuring 4.1, 3 and 3.7 on the Richter scale shook Baderwah valley and adjoining areas at 12:01 pm, 8:42 and 9:41 am respectively, Met officials said.        

There was no immediate report of any casualty or injury, but the tremors triggered fresh panic among people, who rushed out of their houses. Met officials said the epicentre is Bhaderwah. Schools, which had reopened after 12 days of closure due to quake, were again closed today and students were sent back home, officials said.

In a stern warning to PMK, whose party leader S Ramadoss' recent arrest triggered violence, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa today likened it to a "terrorist" organisation and said any political party that harmed law and order and public peace would be banned.        

Slamming PMK for the violence, she told the state assembly that steps would be taken to claim damages from it for the losses caused to public and private property, which she said, were running into several hundred crores of rupees. PMK workers had damaged 850 vehicles, including government buses, she said.

The World Health Organization says it appears likely that the novel coronavirus (NCoV) can be passed between people in close contact. This comes after the French health ministry confirmed a second man had contracted the virus in a possible case of human-to-human transmission.

Two more people in Saudi Arabia are also reported to have died from the virus, according to health officials. NCoV is known to cause pneumonia and sometimes kidney failure.

Read the full report on BBC

Bill Gates got emotional when CBS 60 Minutes Interviewer Charlie Rose asked him about his long time business rival, the late Steve Jobs.  

Gates described his last conversation with Jobs when the latter was sick, as "forward-looking'. He described that during his last meeting with Jobs, the latter showed him the boat he was working on and was looking forward to being on it, which they both knew could not happen due to Jobs' deteriorating health.  

Gates said he and Jobs in a sense grew up together, being naively optimistic, creating new products and achieving all of it mostly as rivals. Gates said that respect and communication was never overlooked when it came to Jobs.

Nawaz Sharif, poised for a record third term as Pakistan Prime Minister after his party's emphatic win in the landmark general elections, has vowed to pursue better relations with the US while seeking "warmer ties" with India.        

In an interview to The Wall Street Journal after the impressive victory of Pakistan Muslim League-N in the polls, Sharif recalled that his country's relationship with the US was quite good when he was in power.        

"I'd like to take this relationship further. We need to strengthen the relationship," said 63-year-old Sharif, who has held the top position twice in the past. "The US may wish to re-examine its drone campaign or risk stoking the anti-Americanism that feeds Pakistani public anger," Nawaz said, referring to the strong opposition to the controversial drone strikes by the CIA inside Pakistan.        

Responding to questions on the drone strikes, Sharif said he would discuss these issues of concerns with the US leadership.

Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal on Monday took additional charge of the law and justice ministry.    "I want to thank Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi for assigning me this job as additional charge. We have almost a year to go till the next Lok Sabha election. So, in this short time of one year or less, I would do my best to carry out the responsibility assigned to me,' Sibal told media after taking charge.    

In a swift and decisive move, the Congress party dropped both Ashwani Kumar and Pawan Kumar Bansal from the Union Cabinet in view of the charges of corruption and impropriety surrounding the duo.

The PML-N, which is set to form government in Pakistan, will revisit the foreign policy -- including all "covert and overt" agreements with the US -- while ties with India will be picked up from where they were left off in 1999, according to a media report today.        

The focus of PML-N's foreign policy will be on safeguarding the "supreme national interest", an unnamed close aide of PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif, who advises him on foreign policy, was quoted as saying by The Express Tribune.        

"It may sound cliched but we mean it," the aide said. Referring to relations with India, the aide said two-time former premier Sharif would pick up from where he left off in 1999, when then Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had visited Lahore.        

Asked if the PML-N would renegotiate current terms of engagement with the US, including a deal to facilitate the withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan, the aide said, "We will look into all such arrangements to find out whether they conform to the country's national interest." The PML-N would not seek a "divorce" with the US, he said.

K Siddaramaiah has been sworn-in as the 22nd chief minister of Karnataka at Bangalore's Kanteerva stadium. He was administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor H R Bharadwaj.

A large number of Congress supporters had gathered at the stadium to attend Siddaramaiah's swearing-in ceremony.

The Supreme Court refused to entertain Talwars' plea for summoning 14 additional witnesses in Aarushi-Hemraj murder case trial.  The apex court took strong exception to Talwars moving apex court against trial court's order and directs them to approach Allahabad HC. 

The CBI had told the court that teenager Aarushi was killed by her parents. Aarushi and domestic help Hemraj were found dead in 2008.

One person was charred to death and two others sustained serious burn injuries in a fire at an industrial unit in Dombivili township of Thane district this morning. The fire broke out in a hair dye manufacturing unit of the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation estate at Manpada in Dombivili at around 6 am and spread in the plant leaving one person dead.        

Fire tenders were pressed into service to douse the flames even as concerned officials of MIDC and police rushed to the spot to supervise fire fighting operations. The cause of the blaze was yet to be ascertained, fire brigade sources said. The body of the deceased, yet to be identified, was sent for postmortem.  

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Rajiv Shukla has criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party for frequently demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.  

Talking to media in New Delhi yesterday, Shukla said that BJP has demanded resignation from the Prime Minister 180 times since 2004.   "If they were obliged then the country by now could have seen 180 prime ministers in just nine years," he added.  

He further said that the BJP's only aim is to disrupt the Parliament proceedings and the party should learn from former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee who became popular in the country because of his speeches instead of creating ruckus in the House.

President Pranab Mukherjee will undertake a three-day visit to Assam and Nagaland from today.   In Assam, Mukherjee will present the Asom Ratna Award to Mamoni Raisom Goswami (posthumously) and Srimanta Shankardev Award for the year 2008 to Sharmila Tagore at Guwahati on Monday.  

On the same day, he will attend the closing Ceremony of the Golden Jubilee Celebrations of the Pandu College at Guwahati.   On May 14, he will attend the annual convocation of Assam University at Silchar.   In Nagaland, the President will attend the third convocation of Nagaland University at Lumami on May 15.

Five persons, including four children, died after being hit by lightning during a thundershower at Chancold in Malda district, the police said Monday.   Four children -- Bittu Saha (10), Joyprakash Singha (11), Md Hossain (11) and Mumpy Khatun (13) -- were killed by lightning at Harishchandrapur village when they went to pick mangoes during a thundershower last night.        

In a separate incident, one farmer died after being struck by lightning when he was returning from field at Kushal village.

The BSE benchmark Sensex declined by over 71 points in early trade today, as funds and retail investors booked profits amid a mixed trend in Asian markets.         The 30-share barometer fell by 71.11 points, or 0.35 per cent, to 20,051.21 The index had gained 183.28 points in the previous two sessions.        

Stocks of FMCG, capital goods, metal, auto, IT and realty sectors declined due to profit-booking. Similarly, the wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty fell by 25.40 points, or 0.42 per cent, to 6,081.85        

Brokers said selling by funds amid mixed trend on other Asian bourses mainly influenced the trading sentiment. They said Asian shares eased today with sentiment hit by selling in commodities triggered by a strong dollar, which rose to a fresh four-and-a-half-year peak against the yen on the back of growing confidence in the US economy.        

In the Asian region, Japan's Nikkei Index was up 1.63 per cent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index shed 0.82 per cent in early trade.  

Turkey's foreign minister has blamed the world's inaction on the Syrian conflict for the "barbarian act of terrorism" that claimed dozens of lives near the border. Ahmet Davutoglu's comments in Berlin came a day after a twin bombing in the small town of Reyhanli, in the southern Turkish province of Hatay bordering Syria, that left at least 46 people dead and 100 others wounded.  

They also followed a vigorous denial by Syria of any links to Saturday's blasts - the deadliest incident on Turkish soil since the Syrian conflict began.

Read the full report on Al Jazeera

Nawaz Sharif has established himself as the most successful politician in Pakistan's history. It's not just that he has won an unprecedented third term as prime minister. He has also survived sustained corruption allegations, periods of deep unpopularity, imprisonment, exile and being thrown out of power in a military coup.

The last time he lived in Prime Minster's House, in the late 1990s, his main objective was to see off anyone who challenged his authority. Frustrated by opposition in the parliament, he tried to pass a constitutional amendment that would have enabled him to enforce Sharia law.

He also confronted other power centres - a mob of his supporters ransacked the Supreme Court and he tried to rein in Pakistan's powerful military. It was his decision to sack two army chiefs in rapid succession that led to General Musharraf's military takeover.

Read the full analysis on BBC

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Monday addressed the Indian diaspora in the US via video conferencing. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader's address comes on the occasion of 53rd Gujarat Day.

Taking a swipe at the UPA and the recent scams, Modi lashed out saying that the misgovernance of some individuals at the top have broken trust of 120 crore Indians and that it was time to re-establish that 'trust'. "The biggest problem confronting India is lack of trust. We need to re-establish the trust. Even coal has not been spared, what else is left?," the BJP leader said.

Read the full report on CNN IBN