-The Indian Express   Over a month after introducing the Land Acquisition and Resettlement and Rehabilitation Bill in Parliament, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh on Thursday reached out to the Opposition BJP seeking its cooperation for early passage of the Bill. Ramesh called on Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj to seek her support for expediting the Bill that has been referred to the Standing Committee of Parliament headed...

Prosecutors have begun questioning the controversial chief minister of India's Tamil Nadu state, Jayaram Jayalalitha, in a corruption case against her. She is accused of amassing huge amounts of wealth during a previous term as chief minister between 1991 and 1996. She denies the allegation. The case was transferred from Madras (Chennai) in Tamil Nadu to Bangalore, capital of neighbouring Karnataka state, to ensure a fair trial. Security was tight for her appearance. Known...

First such verdict by Election Commission The Election Commission delivered a historic verdict on Thursday by disqualifying Uttar Pradesh MLA Umlesh Yadav from contesting again for three years for not including in her official accounts of expenditure the amount she spent on advertisements in two Hindi dailies that were masquerading as news items. Umlesh Yadav is the wife of liquor baron and billionaire strongman D.P. Yadav and mother of Vikas Yadav, the...

Rudrapur, an industrial town in Uttarakhand, witnesses large-scale rioting and clashes of a communal nature. THE Garhwal and Kumaon regions, which constitute the tiny hill State of Uttarakhand, were totally free of communal disturbances even when the entire country was in the grip of tension following the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in 1992 and the Mumbai blasts in 1993. These regions had always maintained communal peace. But on...

-PTI   Already plagued by internal dissensions, Team Anna plunged into yet another controversy on Thursday with allegations against Kiran Bedi that she charged her hosts full fare on air tickets while availing discounts but the activist claimed there was "no personal" gain. Allegations were levelled against Bedi, a key member of Team Anna, that she used her gallantry medal to get 75 per cent discount on Air India tickets and then submitted...