It was a tragic end to Kerala’s people’s poet A. Ayyappan who died here under mysterious circumstances on Thursday night with his identity remaining unknown till Friday afternoon.

Congress veteran and four-time former Kerala chief minister K. Karunakaran was admitted to intensive care unit at a private hospital here Thursday morning following complaints of fever. He is 92.

A total of 70,915 candidates are left in the fray for the multi-tier local body polls in Kerala as the deadline for withdrawal of nominations drew to a close on Thursday evening, according to the Stat

Bucking the hunky-dory trend, popular Pakistani novelist Mohammed Hanif said here that there was no point in Indians talking to Pakistanis “since they had nothing in common.”

In a bold move, the Indian Union Muslim League has fielded a brahmin woman, Ms Radha, as its candidate from the Karamana ward here for the local bodies’ polls to be held on October 23 and 25.

Defence minister A.K. Antony said on Sunday that there were no differences in the Union Cabinet on the question of partial withdrawal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act in trouble-torn Kashmir.

Despite widespread criticism against its action, the management of the church-run Newman college rejected the plea of lecturer T.J. Joseph to revoke his dismissal for setting a question paper which hurt the sentiments of Muslims and for which his hand was hacked off by activists of a radical outfit.

A major rail mishap was averted near Ezhukon by two students who frantically waved their red bags and stopped a train after noticing that the rail tracks were broken.

A woman, who gave birth at the government run-SAT hospital here, sold her newborn baby to a couple for Rs 5,000.