The CBI may file separate FIRs in connection with its probe into alleged irregularities in the award of spectrum licences since 2001, which covered the stint of three former communications ministers, including late Pramod Mahajan, Arun Shourie and Dayanidhi Maran.

Anna Hazare is emerging as a crusader against the Congress but is seen soft about the BJP and its state governments on the issue of corruption. On Tuesday, he announced he would campaign against the Congress candidate in the Hisar Lok Sabha bypolls scheduled for October 13.

As a lot of heat and dust is being raised on the Planning Commission’s affidavit to the Supreme Court on determining the new poverty line based on a day’s earning of `32 by person, the parameters of poverty seems to have lost any meaning for country’s policy planners as the average income of a minister in the Manmohan Singh government has increased by `3.3 crores during the last two years.

India has approached Portugal’s Supreme Court of Justice to challenge the verdict of the high court of Lisbon terminating the extradition of 1993 Mumbai serial blast accused Abu Salem.

New Delhi and Kabul appear all set to give a boost to their trade and economic ties with the signing of the strategic partnership agreement as well as two other pacts that provide for cooperation in the fields of mineral development and hydrocarbons.

The Centre on Tuesday asked the Narendra Modi government in Gujarat to provide adequate security to arrested Gujarat cadre IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt and his family members. Mr Bhatt had levelled allegations against chief minister Modi in connection with the 2002 post-Godhra riots.

External affairs minister S.M. Krishna met Afghan President Hamid Karzai early Tuesday evening while Prime Minister Manmohan Singh hosted a dinner for the visiting dignitary.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at Hyderabad House in New Delhi on Tuesday. — Sondeep Shankar

Women using harmonal contraceptives are at double risk of acquiring and passing HIV infections, a new study published in the renowned Birtish medical journal the Lancet has revealed.

Priests perform Kumari Puja at Belur Math on ashtami on Tuesday. — Abhijit Mukherjee