Defending champions India will begin as underdogs when they take on an inspired Maldives in the semi-final of the SAFF football championship here on Monday.

Despite curfew in riot-hit Muzaffarnagar, the violence spread to rural areas of the district on Sunday and 10 more persons were killed in a communal flareup in five villages — Sisauli, Shahpur, Fugna, Dhaura Kalan and Kalapar.

A 41-year-old rich businessman’s tactics to win back his doctor girlfriend on her birthday went wayward, as he ended up in jail for allegedly molesting her.

The Tripura high court has ordered the doctor of Santir Bazar PHC Sanjit Kumar Deb and Sajal Sharma, officer-in-charge of the Manpathar police outpost in South Tripura district to pay `2 lakh each to the wife of one Krishna Keshab Datta, a police constable who died in police custody, for negligence in performing their duty as well as conspiring to protect some Tripura State Rifles officials who inflicted grievous injury on the victim causing his demise.

Come October 14, a new era in India’s rich cue sports heritage will unfold in New Delhi, which will host the Indian Open — country’s first pro-snooker event over five days.

AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh feels the earlier Mayawati-led BSP government was better than the SP government led by Akhilesh Yadav in Uttar Pradesh.

The mystery surrounding the murder of writer Sushmita Banerjee in Afghanistan has deepened. Her family and friends in Kolkata suspect that the Taliban had nothing to do with her murder: They believe that her killing was the result of a deep-rooted conspiracy.

A working women’s hostel even in the Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited township in Bhopal is not safe for the inmates and this was starkly exposed during the intervening night of September 7 and 8 when an intruder broke the window grill, entered a room and violently attacked a girl, who was seriously injured and had to be admitted in ICU.

With the RSS firm on Gujarat CM Narendra Modi as its choice as the BJP’s PM candidate, his anointment seems just a matter of time. It is speculated that with the RSS asking the BJP to take a final call on this “settled issue” soon, Mr Modi may be named before the “pitrapaksh” (inauspicious) period sets in Septemeber 20, as sought by the Sangh cadre.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s planned visit to India later this month has become uncertain as India “failed” to ensure signing of the Teesta water sharing deal and passage of the land boundary agreement, media here reported on Sunday.