Surinder Koli, the domestic help of businessman Moninder Singh Pander, was on Wednesday sentenced to death by Special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) judge A. K. Singh for a 12-year-old girl’s murder.

With incidents of piracy and suspected poaching occurring near India’s Lakshadweep Islands, the government has ordered setting up of two Coast Guard establishments in Lakshadweep. Defence minister A.K. Antony will also be visiting Lakshadweep on Friday.

The Cabinet Committee on Security will take a final decision on the constitution of an interim regional authority for Gorkhas in Darjeeling. BJP leader and Darjeeling MP Jaswant Singh on Wednesday said a note detailing various aspects of the interim Darjeeling Regional Authority will be placed in the next meeting of CCS.

The Centre has drawn up a contingency plan to deal with any law and order situation which may arise after the Srikrishna Committee submits its report on the Telangana issue.

The government on Wednesday announced appointment of a “Working Group on Regulatory Framework” under the recently-constituted Civil Aviation Economic Advisory Council (CAEAC) that will examine “the existing system of passenger fare restructuring by all the scheduled domestic airlines and the manner in which the passenger fares are disclosed to the public ...”

The CBI is likely to question former telecom minister A. Raja in a day or two in connection with its probe into the 2G spectrum scam. The agency had questioned corporate lobbyist Niira Radia in connection with its probe into the 2G scam on Tuesday.

The state government is contemplating forcibly ending Telugu Desam president N. Chandrababu Naidu’s fast which entered the sixth day on Wednesday as his health deteriorated further after he refused to be administered intravenous (IV) fluids.

Kicking off to an early start to his party’s campaign ahead of the state Assembly polls a year from now, Punjab Congress Committee (PCC) chief Amarinder Singh described the Akali-BJP coalition as a “sham government” wherein both the chief minister and the deputy chief minister were holidaying abroad and most ministers were absent.

A delegation of leaders from non-Congress, non-BJP parties met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday drawing his attention to the plight of farmers in Andhra Pradesh.

The Congress on Wednesday said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s offer to appear before the PAC was his “personal sentiment” and did not mean that the government had conceded to any demand.