President Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday batted for Afghanistan being turned into a regional hub for economic growth and pointed out that Indian companies were interested in bidding for its natural resources.

The hanging of two men scheduled to take place on Thursday in Belgaum in Karnataka was stayed on Wednesday by the Supreme Court which agreed to examine their petitions seeking commutation of capital punishment to life imprisonment on the ground that there was a delay of six years in rejection of their mercy pleas by the President.

Kimi Raikkonen, the least garrulous of Formula One drivers, is the man everyone is talking about ahead of Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix at his favourite Spa-Francor-champs circuit.

In a bid to win support of the key opponent Samajwadi Party for the National Food Security Ordinance’s ratification in Parliament, the government is to move an amendment in the legislative proposal to compensate states for the losses of foodgrains allocation for three years.

Soldiers of China’s People’s Liberation Army intruded over 20 km into Indian territory in the Chaglagam area of Arunachal Pradesh on August 11 and stayed there for about four days before returning. This ironically became known on a day when the Indian Army and the Chinese PLA were discussing the modalities of conducting a joint military exercise in November in China.

The police investigating the murder of Narendra Dabholkar has spotted the two bike-borne assailants in a CCTV grab of Cosmos Bank on Omkareshwar Bridge when they were riding away after committing the murder. However, their faces cannot be identified as the zoom function causes the picture to blur. The Mumbai crime branch, too, is investigating the firearm angle in the murder.

Fastest Finger, Vijays Conquer, Lumiere Blanche and Vijays Splendour impressed when the horses were exercised at Malakpet Race course on Wednesday.

The BSP has termed UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav’s scheme to allocate 20 per cent funds of all government welfare schemes for minorities as a “fraud” and a move to mislead minorities in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

The rupee nosedived to a record low on Wednesday after a sustained demand for dollars from oil importers and banks while the equity markets witnessed a rollercoaster ride as investors turned cautious ahead of the release of the minutes of the US Federal Open Market Committee meeting.

Over 650 people were killed when the Syrian Army bombarded Damascus suburbs with chemical weapons on Wednesday, rebel groups claimed, branding it a “massacre” and seeking global intervention.