Indian national football team succumbed to its first defeat during the ongoing two-month training tour of Portugal after it went down 0-1 to a local third division side Sintrense in the fourth practice match at Lisbon.

Cornered Commonwealth Games Organising Committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi on Friday refused to step down despite widescale corruption allegations against OC, insisting that he might consider such a move only after the event if asked to by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The Sports Authority of India (SAI) handed over five of the nine stadiums, which it was preparing for the October 3-14 Commonwealth Games to the Organising Committee here on Friday.

The government is ready with a draft bill, which aims to protect whistleblowers who raise the alarm over corruption in Central government ministries and offices, and agencies or institutions under them. The draft legislation, which is called “The Public Interest Disclosure (Protection of Informers) Bill 2010”, is high on the agenda of the Union Cabinet at its meeting here on Thursday.

There are suggestions of a quiet leadership struggle within the hard right separatist camp in Kashmir that may in part account for the violent anti-government campaign which has led to nearly three dozen civilian deaths in just under two months.

Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday called on state governments to take coordinated action with the Centre to control rising prices, saying it was a joint responsibility of the nation’s political leadership.

Congress MP Suresh Kalmadi, chairman of the CWG organising committee, has not been seen in Parliament after corruption allegations over the Games started escalating.

While the Delhi government and the Commonwealth Games 2010 Organising Committee have been dismissing the Central Vigilance Commission’s reports of alleged irregularities in 16 CWG projects, the CVC is preparing to hand over the reports to the Central Bureau of Investigation for further investigation. However, the exercise will be carried out after the Games.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) is set to introduce new cockpit simulator cognitive aptitude tests for applicants — devised by the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) — that will improve the quality of pilots and test whether applicants are more suited to fly fighter aircraft, transport aircraft or helicopters. This could also help reduce aircraft accidents caused by pilot error.

As a battery of top lawyers of the country continued their attack on the HRD ministry for cancelling the recognition of 44 deemed universities in the Supreme Court, one of them on Wednesday tried to link the ministry’s decision to an attempt by a “powerful political class” to allow foreign universities to set foot in India.