The Board of Control for Cricket in India will choose between Airtel and Sahara as the new team sponsors after the two firms were the only ones left in the hunt for bagging the rights at the end of the deadline for submitting the bids with the requisite security deposit.

The full extent of the Gyaneswari Express tragedy is finally becoming clear. In one case, a family has been forced to hide the death of two children from their mother, and in another, a family had to go ahead with a marriage despite several relatives left dead in the train tragedy.

With as many as 147 bodies being recovered from the affected coaches of the Gyaneswari Express, 57 of them remained “unidentified” till Sunday evening. Sample collection for DNA testing has been started from Sunday to ascertain the identity of the victims whom the accident has left changed, beyond recognition. Blood samples for the DNA testing of 20 bodies have been collected.

The inaugural India-US strategic dialogue at the level of their foreign ministers, to be held in Washington on Thursday, will lay the ground for US President Barack Obama’s visit to India later this year. It will cover bilateral issues such as export controls, education, energy, climate change and counter-terrorism. External affairs minister S.M. Krishna and his American counterpart Hillary Clinton will also discuss a host of regional and global issues.

The BJP has asked government to make “all possible efforts” to extradite David Headley, who has confessed to his involvement in Mumbai terror attack. A team of Indian investigators is heading to the US to quiz the Headley.

The RSS, which is opposed to caste-based census, has asked the BJP to clarify its stand on the issue and clear the misconception that its affairs are controlled by the RSS. Though the BJP maintained that it favours caste-based census, some of its leaders are opposed to it.

In a move to prevent the PMK from straying back into the Jayalalithaa camp, DMK president M. Karunanidhi on Sunday announced that his party high-level committee had decided to admit the PMK into the DMK-led alliance, accepting the plea made by its leader S. Ramadoss in two letters he recently received from him.

Wary of losing Muslim votes, JD(U) leader and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar is showing reluctance to join the BJP’s proposed rally in Patna on June 13.
Mr Kumar has not yet confirmed his participation in the rally, for which an invitation was sent almost a fortnight ago. In Bihar, Assembly elections are scheduled in October-November.

The Delhi police has arrested two youths, including a woman, from the Jamia Millia University on charges of impersonation during an entrance test.
The police said Vikrant, 24, a resident of Gaya in Bihar, and a 28-year-old woman were arrested moments before a medical entrance test was scheduled to begin in the university.

The NGOs working on police reforms have criticised the Delhi government’s move to constitute a Police Complaint Authority with depleted strength, while demanding that the proposed body be incorporated in the Delhi Police Amendment Bill 2010 to give it more teeth.