Nine Maoist cadres were gunned down by the police in Jharkhand in a five-hour encounter in the state’s western Latehar district early on Friday morning. With no policeman getting injured and sophisticated arms seized from the rebels, this was dubbed as the district’s most successful anti-Maoist operation yet. The Barwadih

The two main rivals — the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress — have allotted tickets for the Kukshi and Sonkatch Assembly byelections in Madhya Pradesh on the basis of family equations.

Yet another BSP minister in Uttar Pradesh is caught in the vortex of controversy after a minor rape victim has alleged that she was pressurised by the minister’s nephew to compromise with the accused.

After 28 months of being set up to probe the 2008 church attacks in Karnataka, the Justice Somasekhara Commission of Inquiry has given a clean chit to the state government of Mr B.S. Yeddyurappa, while stating that Hindu outfits, in collusion with the police and the district administration did attack churches.

It is the turn of BJP-ruled states to face AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh’s ire. On Friday, he accused the saffron party-led governments of sheltering people affiliated to the RSS and allegedly involved in bomb blasts. He termed the phenomena “Sanghi terrorism”.

It’s the season of rath yatras in the BJP. After the just concluded Rashtriya Ekta Yatra, the party is all set for another rath yatra, but this time to enhance its support base in poll-bound West Bengal. Through this yatra, the BJP, which virtually has no stakes in the state, wants to project itself as alternative for providing “peace and development” in the state. The party said it will contest on all the Assembly seats. Assembly polls in the state are scheduled for this year.

The CPI(M), which has been consistently targeting freedom fighter Veer Savarkar for violent trends in Sangh politics, in 1987 published a book hailing Savarkar’s contribution to the freedom movement.

Riteish Deshmukh and Lara Dutta have shared a great camaraderie ever since they worked together in Do Knot Disturb and Housefull.

IT raids may be plaguing her on the home front, but they certainly aren’t preying on Katrina Kaif’s mind.

The worst fears over preparedness of venues for the Cricket World Cup starting next month materialised on Thursday with the International Cricket Council ruling that Kolkata’s Eden Gardens was unfit to hold its first match — the India-England tie on February 27 — as it failed to meet the deadline for completion of renovations.