TWO MILLION Britons are escaping the royal wedding drama to enjoy hot spring weather with eight holidays, which many of them are extending to 11 days by taking three days off this week.

The Conservative and LibDem parties, coalition partners in the UK government, are increasingly making bitter attacks on each other in the battle over the voting system referendum due on May 5.

BRITONS, WHO have grown up with a tradition of organising street parties for momentous royal and national events, seem to be warming up to celebrate the wedding of Prince William.

New Delhi-born cancer physician and researcher Siddhartha Mukherjee has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize in the general non-fiction category for his acclaimed book The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer.

INDIAN FILMMAKER Muzaffar Ali, whose Sufi festival Jahan-e-Khusrau is being held at London’s Southbank Centre this weekend, is not sure if the decision to get his festival to Britain has come at the right time. “Even now I don’t know whether it is the right time to come here,” said the filmmaker, who has dedicated his festival to Hazrat

Dr Mark Toleman, a senior research fellow, is part of the research team led by Prof. Tim Walsh of Cardiff University’s School of Medicine that discovered the NDM-1 superbug in New Delhi’s drinking water supply. He speaks to Sarju Kaul about the research, which is considered controversial in India, and what remedial action needs to be taken to stop the spread of the superbug.

INDIAN-BORN AUTH-OR Rohinton Mistry, who is based in Canada, has been shortlisted along with 12 other heavyweight writers for the biannual £60,000 Man Booker International Prize.

EICESTERSHIRE-BA-SED CAKE designer, Fiona Cairns, who runs a cake firm with her Indian-origin husband Kishore Patel, has been chosen by Prince William and his fiancée Kate Middleton to create their wedding cake. Mr Patel is managing director of Fiona Cairns Ltd, which the couple started from their kitchen 25 years ago.Trained

Fictional flying car Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is getting a modern makeover.

Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani, who heads Reliance Industries Ltd, on Monday afternoon announced his company’s partnership with oil giant BP, which over time will be worth over $20 billion.