Food inflation is once again in double digits, having touched 12.13 per cent for the week ending December 11.

Mounting pressure on the UPA, a Trinamul Congress delegation that including ministers, MPs and MLAs on Thursday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and demanded the immediate withdrawal of Central security forces from West Bengal.

Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday attacked the Opposition for causing a deadlock during the recently concluded Winter Session of Parliament. Mr Mukherjee sought an apology from the Opposition for “destroying” Parliament by not letting it function. The Winter Session barely functioned due to the Opposition’s demands for a JPC probe into scams, including that involving 2G spectrum allocation.

The CBI on Thursday questioned senior functionary of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Indresh Kumar in connection with 2007 Mecca Masjid blast in Hyderabad. The agency also asked him specific questions related to his speech after the 2002 blast near Raghunath Mandir in Jammu.

There was little impact on the retail prices of onion which remained high between `60-70 per kg across the country even as an anxious government kept a close watch on the situation. The only relief for the government was that the wholesale prices of onion came down in the major markets of Maharashtra and Gujarat following its move to ban exports indefinitely and allow duty-free imports of the commodity on Wednesday.

The Congress, on Thursday, sought to steer clear of what it called wrong interpretation of Rahul Gandhi’s statement on party regaining power in Tamil Nadu after a gap of more than 40 years.

The CBI is set to question former telecom minister A. Raja on Friday in connection with its probe into the 2G Spectrum scam. He is likely to be questioned at agency’s headquarters in Delhi.

The Left and regional parties like the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) have expressed their displeasure to the EC over the use of the EVMs in polls.

India is considering sending a commission to Pakistan to collect critical information related to the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack which that country has failed to deliver in response to more than a dozen dossiers sent by New Delhi in the last two years.

The Congress is likely to ignore Mr Sharad Pawar’s directive to induct controversial NCP legislator Franscisco Micky Pacheco into Goa ministry after a a group of ten Congress MLAs threatened to topple the party-led government in the state if he was made a minister.