Encouraged by the success of its recent rallies in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress is now holding a two-day convention in Varanasi on May 18 and 19 to discuss the strategy for the next Assembly elections.

Jammu and Kashmir was put on high alert on Monday with the police, paramilitary forces and Army troops in a state of alacrity to meet possible violent reaction to the killing of Osama bin Laden by the US forces in Pakistan.

Top government aviation sources said on Monday that the state-run Pawan Hans Helicopters Ltd. appears to be guilty of violation of standard operating procedure by operating a single-engine copter to ferry the Arunachal Pradesh chief minister, a VIP. Sources said single-engine copters should not be used to ferry VIPs, as per the DGCA rules.

The inclement weather condition on Monday, the third consecutive day, forced the Indian Air Force to abandon its aerial search mission to trace the missing helicopter carrying Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Dorjee Khandu.

The Delhi high court on Monday issued notice to the chief medical officer (CMO) of its dispensary to spare a doctor to collect the blood samples of veteran Congress leader Narayan Dutt Tiwari in connection with a paternity suit filed by a 31-year-old city-based lawyer, Rohit Shekhar.

There was no immediate relief on Monday to Reddy brothers’ Obulapuram Mining Company from the Supreme Court a plea to allow it to sell 2.5 lakh tonnees of iron ore extracted from three mines in Andhra Pradesh for payment of income-tax arrears worth `149 crores raised on the mining operations since 2008.

India was hoping for “26/11 closure” from Pakistan just as the killing of Osama bin Laden brought to a close America’s decade-long hunt for the Al Qaeda chieftain who masterminded the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre’s twin towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington.

The Supreme Court on Monday took cognisance of former Chief Election Commissioner J.M. Lyngdoh’s petition on “cash-for-vote” scam and issued notices to the Centre and Delhi police seeking a status report on the FIR registered after the 2008 confidence vote by the Manmohan Singh government and progress of investigation made so far.

A man sentenced to three days in jail for drunken driving has been ordered by a city court to instead perform community service at a local temple once a week for two months, saying that a prison term will be an “indelible blot” on his career.

The anxiety churning in 19-year-old Mohan Kumar Ram, a dalit student of B.Sc. first year, over the acutely dismal electricity scenario in Saran district is more refined than in Mohammad Roushan, 45, who runs a small tent-house business. But they all feel the Rajiv Gandhi Rural Electrification Scheme (RGRES) has drastically failed to deliver in power-starved Bihar.