After a nine-day drama, the Maoists finally released Malkangiri collector R. Vineel Krishna Thursday evening, handing him over to a group of mediapersons at Doliamba, a cut-off village in the Chitrakonda-Balimela reservoir area, 750 km from here. He was abducted February 16.

Ms Mamata Banerjee’s Railway Budget on Friday is expected to be her manifesto for the coming West Bengal Assembly election, in which her Trinamul Congress hopes to end the Left’s 34-year rule.

The Lok Sabha on Thursday witnessed tu-tu, main-main between the leaders of the ruling Congress party and the main Opposition BJP during a discussion on the motion for appointment of a joint parliamentary committee to look into the allocation and pricing of telecom licenses and spectrum during 1998 to 2009.

Taking the corruption issue head on, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, replying to the debate on the President’s address, told Parliament on Thursday his government would do its utmost to clean up “public life”.

Bringing weeks of suspense to a climax, “Captain” Vijayakanth presented a birthday bouquet to the AIADMK chief, Ms J. Jayalalithaa, on Thursday and sent his negotiators to discuss seat-sharing for the upcoming Assembly election.

The inter-ministerial committee of secretaries has expressed deep concern over the construction of canal and two large dams over Tsangpo river in Tibet and decided to mount pressure on Beijing by using the UN convention on Law of Non-Navigation Uses of International Watercourses, which disallows countries from barring natural

After remaining in captivity for nine days, Malkangiri Collector R.V. Krishna was released by Maoists on Thursday.
According to initial reports, around 15 Maoists dropped the collector at Doliamba village where a meeting of local tribal people was organised. One of the local Maoists

The CBI, after arresting former secretary general Lalit Bhanot and director general (finance) V.K. Verma of the CWG organising committee (OC) has found prima facie evidence of irregularities reportedly committed by the top brass, including sacked chairman Suresh Kalmadi, in finalising eight contracts. The agency has also decided to start questioning of certain senior bureaucrats, who served in the OC, in this regard.

The CBI, investigating the 2G Spectrum scam, has started probing the alleged role of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) officials in allowing merger of certain telecom companies after they got spectrum licences separately.

A Delhi court on Thursday allowed the probe agency, CBI, to interrogate the two top officials of the Commonwealth Games (CWG) organising committee (OC), Lalit Bhanot and V.K. Verma, in its custody for five days in connection with alleged irregularities in the `107-crore deal with a Swiss firm for supply of timing, scoring and result (TSR) systems.