-BBC A former head of Swedish police says there is no Evidence that late Indian leader Rajiv Gandhi received a bribe in an arms scandal that contributed to his defeat as PM in elections in 1989. Sten Lindstrom led the probe and has identified himself as the whistle-blower who recently leaked documents. Mr Lindstrom said, however, that Gandhi had "done nothing" to prevent a "massive cover-up" in Sweden and India. Swedish arms firm AB...

-The Hindu In a case of honour killing in the city, a man killed his teenage daughter after she refused to marry a boy he had chosen. The 19-year-old girl wanted to marry another boy she was in love with. Police said Mohammad Kitabuddin Abdul Gafur Shah smashed Tabassum Khatun's head against the wall in a fit of rage. He has been arrested and booked for murder and tampering with the Evidence. “He...

-The Economist For the first time ever, the number of poor people is declining everywhere THE past four years have seen the worst economic crisis since the 1930s and the biggest food-price increases since the 1970s. That must surely have swollen the ranks of the poor. Wrong. The best estimates for global poverty come from the World Bank’s Development Research Group, which has just updated from 2005 its figures for those living in...

-IANS The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Left Wednesday demanded an explanation from the government on former Swedish police chief Sten Lindstrom's revelations on the Bofors payoff scandal, including the safe passage to main accused Ottavio Quattrochchi. The BJP said it had always questioned the safe passage to Italian businessman Quattrochchi in the Rs.1,500 crore Bofors gun deal in the 1980s. "The entire government of late Rajiv Gandhi was out to secure...

Audits will look into the money released to the states in the last seven years, says Ghulam Nabi Azad The health ministry will conduct annual audits of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) to detect irregularities in the utilization of funds. Health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has written to the state governments seeking their cooperation on this. “We have decided to go for an audit of NRHM fund utilization across the states,”...