The People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities, whose posters the police said were found at the site of Friday’s train derailment, has reportedly enjoyed the support and sympathy of the Trinamul Congress.

Education ministers of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal met Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal on Friday and demanded additional funds from the Centre to implement the Right to Education Act.

March and April were the hottest months in the past 100 years and May has also been warmer than normal with severe heat conditions prevailing in many parts of North India, the Indian meteorological department (IMD) said on Friday.

The three Italians, who have been detained by the special cell of Delhi police on charges of carrying live ammunition inside Radisson hotel here have told the interrogators that the cartridges recovered from the hotel didn’t belong to them, police sources said.

Rural development minister C.P. Joshi has ordered a probe into the reported misuse of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) funds by the Narendra Modi-led Gujarat government.

Army Chief General V.K. Singh met home minister P. Chidambaram on Friday and is believed to have discussed training and operational tactics of Central forces to fight the Naxal menace. Gen. Singh and Mr Chidambaram had a closed door meeting which lasted around twenty minutes. Emerging from the meeting, Gen. Singh refused to disclose details of what transpired at the meeting and said it was just a courtesy call.

For the first time in the history of board examinations, the students could not figure out “how much exactly they had scored” with the Central Board of Secondary Education announcing the grading-based results for Class 10 on Friday. And not many seemed to mind that. A large number of them were relieved as there were neither any toppers, nor any failures. Meanwhile, the old story of girls outshining boys continued.

The ruling Congress on Friday expressed “deep anguish and sorrow” over the tragic deaths in the train accident took place in West Bengal, whereas Opposition BJP found this an opportunity to browbeat the government by accusing it of failing to firmly deal with the “enormous challenge” of Naxalism. The Saffron party claimed that the accident was a result of Naxal attack.

The Centre is mulling handing over the investigation into the suspected “sabotage” of the Howrah-Kurla-Jnaneswari Express train in West Midnapore district in West Bengal by Maoists’ groups from the state police to a Central agency.

The Maoist move to target civilians is the second phase of their warfare strategy. While the first phase was confined to remote tribal areas, in the second phase the insurgents intend to bring the war close to the urban areas.