National News

By Augustine AnthonyISLAMABAD (Reuters) - The party of assassinated former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto, which is set to lead a coalition government, will announce its candidate for prime minister on Saturday, party officials said.

Gandhinagar, March 22 (IANS) Gujarat has brought broadband connectivity to all village bodies so that 'every household can avail the advantages of information technology'.

Thiruvananthapuram, Mar 22 (PTI) Three tribal boys were buried alive as the rain-sodden riverbank they were sitting on gave way in Wayanad district, taking the number of casualties in the heavy

New Delhi, March 22 (IANS) It was a picture perfect day for Holi revellers in north India Saturday as a warm and sunny day enabled boisterous celebrations.

A child protection centre in Tamil Nadu state has provided a safe haven to several abandoned female infants by taking them in its folds and nurturing them.

New Delhi, March 22 (IANS) Aiming to improve his ties with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, opposition leader L.K. Advani Saturday made an unusual gesture - he visited them at their homes on the day of the Holi festival and presented them with copies of his autobiography 'My Country, My Life'.

New Delhi, Mar 22 (PTI) Leader of Opposition L K Advani today visited Congress President Sonia Gandhi's residence and greeted her on Holi.

New Delhi, March 22 (IANS) The Communist Party of India (CPI) is beginning its 20th party congress in Hyderabad Sunday and plans to review government policies at a time when the ties between the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government and the Left allies who support it from outside are growing sour.

New Delhi, Mar 22 (PTI) Security in and around the Chinese Embassy in the national capital has been further beefed up following Tibetan protesters' entry into the high-security complex

Tirunelveli, Mar 22 (PTI) The Tamil Nadu Election Commision has banned 1,700 candidates from contesting local body polls for three years as thay failed to file their poll expenditure, State

I'm taken aback by what I heard a group of ragged boys and girls sing this week as they made the rounds of Delhi's residential colonies, asking for Holi money and mithai. Banging away on their dholak, they actually sang the trademark Holi song – Aaj Biraj mein Hori re rasiya.

There's that meaningful story about Guru Nanak going to Mecca and pointing his feet west while resting in the courtyard of a mosque. The local priest scolded him for pointing his feet in the direction of the Kaaba Sharief.

TWO OF his art works have sold for Rs one lakh each. But Shambu Kumar, 25, is more relieved than happy: he can finally pay his college fees.

Kunming is awaiting a historic moment. If Chinese eagerness can overwhelm Indian fears, a 1700 km road will change the economic landscape of a remote region of both countries. For Kunming lies at the start of the Southern Silk Route, a road that has the weight of history behind it, but presently barely exists.

The symptoms of an oncoming election fever have begun to show. One clear indication of this is that people have begun to argue whether or not the elections will take place before the scheduled time.

Agartala, Mar 22 (PTI) At least 67 tribal families were driven out of their homes, their men folk beaten up, women stripped and belongings looted by insurgents of the National Liberation Front of

POLICE ON Friday were searching for the body of a senior doctor of a government health institute who was allegedly killed by a former patient 12 days ago and his body dumped in the Najafgarh drain.

Remember Irfan Hussein? Like Shivani Bhatnagar, he too was an enterprising journalist-a cartoonist with the Outlook magazine. Both were murdered in 1999 in East Delhi just three months apart. Revenge again was the alleged motive in both the cases.

More than a thousand civilians - often breadwinners for their families - are killed every year in the armed struggle between extremists and police forces or the army.

Enraged over the killing of an examination centre superintendent in Bijnore on Wednesday during a UP Board examination, leaders of UP Secondary Teachers' Association have threatened to boycott the board examination.