In what has been stated to be the first direct evidence of Maoist link in Assam and other north-eastern states, security forces on Saturday arrested three Assamese youths from Saranda forest area of Sunderdgarh district in Orissa.

Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh on Saturday dropped broad hints of taking the initiative to start a fresh peace talks with Maoists, even as eminent social activist Swami Agnivesh said, “Time is now ripe for resolving the age-old Naxal problem”.

The highest individual final compensation for the Mangalore air-crash is likely to be `2.8 crores to the family of a wealthy Gulf-based businessman who died in the crash, senior government sources have told this newspaper. The second-highest compensation amount is likely to be `1.6 crores to the family of a software engineer who also died in the crash, sources said.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Saturday that airplanes were no longer seen as the mode of travel for the rich alone.
“At one time, the aviation sector was looked upon as being relevant only for the affluent sections of our population,” he said while inaugurating the new international

Barely hours after his chief secretary categorically absolved the Karmapa of any misdemeanours, Himachal Pradesh chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, in a most vehement U-turn, said there was no question of any clean chits to Ogyen Trinley Dorje while Central agencies were still investigating the currency seizures from his monastery.

Even as the Bollywood actor Shahid Kapoor took to the skies from the Yelahanka Air Force Station on Saturday, spectators were taken aback when they saw the Indian cricket team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni at the air show.

The first Bollywood actor to fly a combat aircraft in India, Shahid Kapoor took off from the runway on Saturday amidst, as he himself confessed, much anxiety. Clad in a smart green pilot’s suit and aviators, the actor was fulfilling the dream of every boy who wants to be a pilot, even if it was for just a couple of hours.

A special team of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday brought former OC chairman Suresh Kalmadi’s aide Shekhar Deorukhar to Delhi from Pune on transit remand. Mr Shekkar, who was on Thursday arrested in Pune, was produced in a Delhi court and sent to further CBI custody for five days, which the CBI has stated was necessary for the accused’s interrogation.

The Samajwadi Party will launch a three-day agitation in Uttar Pradesh from March 1 to 3 to completely paralyse the functioning of the state government. SP president Mulayam Singh Yadav asked party workers to paralyse the working of the government completely on issues relating to corruption, atrocities, autocracy.

Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav has asked his party workers to prepare for a final do-or-die battle against the Mayawati government.
The three-day state convention of the Samajwadi Party in Gorakhpur has sent out a clear message to party cadres that they should remain prepared for the final assault on the Mayawati government in the next Assembly elections.