Over eight lakh migratory birds, most of them from far-off foreign lands like Siberia, Ireland and Ukraine, have arrived at Orissa’s Chilika lake for their annual winter sojourn to Asia’s largest brackish water lagoon.

Former 33 Corps chief Lt. Gen. P.K. Rath, indicted by a court martial on Friday for irregularities in the Sukna land case, was on Saturday awarded a sentence of loss of seniority of two years, 15 years loss of service for pension, and a severe reprimand by the Army court martial at Shillong.

Andhra Pradesh chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy on Saturday dared former Congress MP Jagan Mohan Reddy to bring down his government and made it clear that he was not at the mercy of Mr Jagan Mohan, though he did concede that the participation of MLAs and MPs in Mr Jagan Mohan’s programmes was embarrassing to him and the party.

A day after Karnataka governor H.R. Bhardwaj sanctioned the prosecution of chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, the BJP leader vowed to take the issue to the people.
Asked whether he would step down in the aftermath of Mr Bhardwaj’s decision, a defiant CM asked: “Why should I resign? Has any chief minister resigned on the filing of a complaint against him?”

Karnataka governor H.R. Bhardwaj’s move to prosecute state chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa has split the saffron camp from within. The camps of top party leaders, ranging from Mr L.K. Advani to Ms Sushma Swaraj, who were in favour of replacing Mr Yeddyurappa immediately after the Bihar polls, are now pointing fingers at Mr M. Venkaiah Naidu, Dr Murli Manohar Joshi and BJP chief Nitin Gadkari for retaining him. Though the BJP has so far decided to back the CM, the party will wait for Mr Gadkari to return from China on Monday to take stock of the situation.

The Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) took Aseemanand into its custody and produced him before a local court in Ajmer on Saturday in connection with blast at the dargah in 2007. The ATS brought Aseemanand from Harayana to Ajmer following the court-issued production warrant for him.

After a PIL filed by late RTI activist Amit Jethwa exposed the Gujarat government’s lenient approach towards illegal mining activities in the state, the authorities have now started a series of measures to stop the illegal mining of minerals across the state. It may be noted that Jethwa was murdered in July 2010 near the Gujarat high court

Probe by the Central agencies has revealed mismanagement of a total of `450 crores allegedly by the members of the Organising Committee (OC) of the Commonwealth Games (CWG) in conduct of the mega sporting event. The OC, headed by Suresh Kalmadi, was granted a total of `1,813 crores by the Central government for the smooth conduct of the Games.

A city court has asked the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), Vinod Rai, and another senior official of the audit body to appear before it as witnesses in connection with the prosecution related to 2G spectrum allocation scam. The order was passed by the court on a private complaint filed by Janata Party president Subramanian

Intent on hoisting the tricolour at Srinagar’s Lal Chowk, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday invited Jammu & Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah to “prove his loyalty to the nation” by joining the culmination of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha’s Rashtriya Ekta Yatra on Republic Day.