Twelve children on their way to school were among 13 killed and 20 others injured when an overloaded van carrying them collided with a truck in dense fog on Saha-Shahabad road near here today, police said.

Two women civil police officers created controversy after allegedly climbing Neelimala early Monday, violating the Sabarimala tradition. Ms Sheeja Beegum and Ms Divya were part of a 12-member civil police team that was deployed at Pamba to prevent women aged between 10 and 50 entering Sabarimala.

The killing of a youth by the CISF personnel at Boniyar, Uri, near the Line of Control has taken place at a stage when the state government is under tremendous pressure from the Opposition, separatists and civil society groups to seek return of various power projects from the NHPC, including the one fed by Jhelum at Uri.

Power failure on the New Year’s Day midnight allegedly led to the death of four newborn babies at a major government-run medical college hospital in Bihar, causing angry protests by hundreds of people on Monday and forcing the state government to order a probe.

The almost definitive breakup between JD(U) and BJP after their failed seat-sharing talks for Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls has started surfacing as a major concern for the two parties running a coalition government in Bihar, making their leaders voice hopes about UP and faith in Bihar.

Political armies gearing up for the big battle next month will soon become “headless” because almost all state presidents of major political parties are themselves contesting elections.

A meeting between Pankaj Singh, son of former BJP president Rajnath Singh, and jailed BSP MP Dhananjay Singh in Jaunpur jail on Saturday has kicked up a major controversy within the BJP.

The power crisis row in Kashmir got uglier on Monday when Central Industrial Security Force personnel guarding an NHPC office at Boniyar, Uri, near the Line of Control, fired on a protesting crowd, killing a youth and injuring two other older people.

More than 40 mentally ill patients, some of them in chains and some with festering wounds from tethers, were rescued from an unlicensed rehab centre at Karor in the district in Kerala on Monday, in a raid by the district medical officer.

Tibetan religious head and 17th Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje has been made an accused in the seizure of unaccounted foreign currency last year from a Himachal Pradesh monastery where he is residing, police said here Monday.