The Delhi Metro’s ambitious high-speed Airport Express Line may start next week. The line underwent fourth safety check on Friday.
“The Commissioner of Metro Rail Safety began a two-day inspection of the corridor on Friday. We are hopeful this time we will get the safety clearance certificate. We will then need less than a week to open the line for public,” a Reliance official said.

A 27-year-old man allegedly attempted self immolation on Friday morning near Mandi House in New Delhi area, the police said. The incident took place when the victim, Rajesh, was returning from Bengali Market in his Esteem car with his mother, two younger brothers and a domestic help.

The Delhi high court has rapped an additional chief metropolitan magistrate (ACMM) for acquitting custom officers in a corruption case.
Coming down heavily on the ACMM, Justice Shiv Narayan Dhingra said, “The learned ACMM seemed to have acted more like a clerk than like a judge and was happy in discharging everybody on the ground that there was no investigation on the point how the goods were allegedly exported.”

The city continued to reel under cold wave conditions with the lowest temperature being recorded at 4.3 degrees Celsius (three degrees below normal). The maximum temperature was recorded at 15.6º Celsius (five degrees below normal). Dense fog set in around Thursday midnight with minimum visibility reduced to less than 50 metres at the Indira Gandhi International airport.

Onion prices are likely to come down a bit following arrival of fresh crop and the subsidy offered by the Central government to Nafed. Onions were selling in the range of `60-70 per kg in retail markets in the city, while Mother Dairy outlets sold them at `50 per kg.

Performing arts groups in the country have got a much needed boost from the ministry of culture with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announcing a studio theatre scheme for them in the capital on Friday.

National Voters’ Day, to be launched on January 25 by the Election Commission (EC) for the purpose of ensuring that the youth participate in the polling process, will witness Electoral Photo Identity Cards (EPIC) being given in 8.5 lakh polling booths across the country. It is to be inaugurated by President Pratibha Patil.

High retail prices of onion ranging between `45-`70 per kg continued to worry the government on Friday even as reports of Pakistan lifting the ban on export of the commodity to India raised hope of domestic prices coming down.

Top CAG officials have rejected the claim of Union minister Kapil Sibal, who has the additional charge of telecom ministry, that the CAG did not mention anything about the 10th Plan policy in its final report on the 2G spectrum losses. “The report establishes that the losses were indeed to the tune of `1.76 lakh crores and clearly points that it was on the basis of the 10th Plan policy document,” said a top CAG official, on the condition of anonymity.

Bihar is making a bid to attract investors in the Pravasi Bhartiya Divas in its food-processing industry.
Bihar is promising investors of speedy clearance of their projects with planning atlas 2011 and independent directorate in place for the purpose.