Bihar Congress leader and RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav’s estranged brother-in-law Sadhu Yadav was on Monday expelled from the Congress for meeting and praising the BJP’s prospective prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi in Gandhinagar.

A morning abuzz with religious fervour turned into one of sheer mourning and mayhem in Bihar on Monday when nearly 37 Hindu devotees were killed under the wheels of a speeding train and three dozen others were badly injured. An angry mob then set afire ten coaches of two trains, killed one train driver and left another battling for life.

Paralympic sprint star Oscar Pistorius — charged with murdering his girlfriend on Valentine’s Day, — will go on trial at the High Court from March 3 to 20, a South African magistrate ruled at a packed court hearing on Monday.

Top Lashkar-e-Tayyaba operative Abdul Karim Tunda, in a startling disclosure during custodial interrogation, has told a joint team of the Intelligence Bureau and the Delhi police special cell that Pakistan Army commandos had indeed been training militants of both the Lashkar and the Jaish-e-Mohammed at camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir so that they could be inducted into the “border area teams” of the Pakistan Army.

After giving a call for a third platform, the CPI(M) has decided to launch parleys to forge alliances or seat adjustments with non-Congress secular parties in the run-up to the upcoming Lok Sabha and state Assembly elections.

Railways continue to kill people on tracks for lack of crowd management at stations, while unmanned level crossing remaining a cause of concern. The Monday mishap in Khagaria district in Bihar where about 37 pilgrims were crushed after they unsuccessfully tried to stop a speeding express trains is another addition into growing list of such accidents in which a large number of people have lost their lives.

Arsenal and AC Milan face daunting Champions League dates in mid-week as 20 teams chase the 10 remaining places in the world’s most lucrative club competition.

While the government is ready to accept “workable” amendments proposed by political parties, top Congress leaders on Monday met Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav to enlist his support for the UPA’s ambitious National Food Security Bill, that is now pending in the Lok Sabha.

The Congress leaders in Madhya Pradesh have been using every card up their sleeve to target state chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on the illegal mining issue and to build further pressure on this count, Leader of the Opposition Ajay Singh on Monday appointed a two-member committee of MLAs to probe the alleged involvement of 150 dumpers in what has been dubbed as illegal sand mining in Hoshangabad district.

In the wake of ceasefire violations by the Pakistan Army, defence minister A.K. Antony said on Monday that the Indian “Army has mobilised its resources to effectively and strongly retaliate to every ceasefire violation on the Line of Control (LoC)” and that “our restraint should not be taken for granted; nor should the capacity of our armed forces and resolve of the government to uphold the sanctity of the LoC ever be doubted.”