A Labour MP, Denis MacShane, has accused the Tory-led government of being India obsessed and not paying enough attention to Pakistan.

Two top gainers amongst the large cap stocks on Thursday were ONGC and Oil India. Both the companies saw their share prices soar by 8-9 per cent — following the government’s decision to raise natural gas prices. These companies produce over 50 million cubic meters/day of natural gas which will now be sold at $4.2/unit instead of the earlier price of $1.9/unit. Analysts estimate that this can push up the profits of both the firms by up to 20 per cent.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh gave an assurance Thursday that the government would examine what it could do amid demands that it stop the auction of 12 paintings by Rabindranath Tagore due to go under the hammer at Sotheby’s in London on June 15.

The Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government on Thursday revealed the complete details of their policy agreement.

A significant hike in the prices of petrol and diesel are on the cards following the hike in the price of natural gas on Wednesday. An empowered group of ministers (eGoM) constituted by the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, will meet on June 7 to decided on the issue of liberalising prices of auto fuel as recommended by the Kirit Parikh committee.

In a significant order, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court on Thursday dismissed the CBI’s plea challenging a lower court order in the Babri Masjid demolition case that dropped charges of criminal conspiracy against senior BJP leaders L.K. Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Vinay Katiyar, Uma Bharti, Kalyan Singh, VHP leader Ashok Singhal and 14 others.

In an embarrassment for Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, a Pakistani court on Thursday ordered the government to present the notification of the of remission of interior minister Rehman Malik’s jail sentence awarded by an accountability court and upheld by the superior court. The Lahore high court — that upheld the sentence

India will take on regining world and Olympic champions Holland in their opening encounter of the women’s Hockey World Cup in Rosario, Argentina, from August 29 to September 11 this year.

The International Cricket Council on Thursday gave a clean chit to Indian Premier League-3 saying it had no evidence or intelligence of any corruption, despite rumours.
Lord Condon, the outgoing chairman of the ICC anti-corruption and security unit, said here on Thursday, “IPL-3 from a clean cricket point of view seems to have been a very clean event.

The CBI has asked the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India to form a special team to go through the financial part of the investigations in connection with 2G spectrum auctions in which the union telecom minister A. Raja is facing charges of corruption.