Narain Karthikeyan climbs into his truck during a practice session at Martinsville Speedway in Martinsville, Virginia, on Friday. Karthikeyan is India’s first Nascar driver and will make his Nascar Camping World Truck Series debut on March 27 in the Kroger 250.  PHOTO: Reuters

Actress Koena Mitra presents a creation at the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week in New Delhi on Friday. n Report in Newsmakers PHOTO: AP

 Ms Gupta was posted as BJP leader L.K. Advani’s personal security officer during the period when the BJP was bringing its supporters to Ayodhya for "kar seva" at the mosque in December 1992.

New Delhi ,March 26: Senior BJP leader L.K. Advani came under fresh attack from political parties and Muslim groups, with the Congress saying he should retire from politics, after a senior IPS officer testified against him in the Babri Masjid demolition case on Friday. The BJP, on the other hand, decided to wait and watch and refused comment citing the legal process involving the depositions of a number of witnesses and cross-examinations.

New Delhi ,March 26: Six labourers were run over by a speeding SUV in south Delhi’s Saket area. Two men died and three others were injured while the driver of the SUV managed to speed away.

Islamabad ,March 26: David C. Headley moved effortlessly between the US, Pakistan and India for nearly seven years, training at a militant camp in Pakistan on five occasions, according to a plea agreement released by the US justice department last week.

New Delhi ,March 26: The Supreme Court on Friday declined to intervene in the issue of M.F. Husain’s Qatari citizenship, saying it could not pass a direction to the government to withdraw cases against the painter as they were filed on private complaints in which even the government has no role.

Kolkata ,March 26: The police on Friday claimed to have entered and taken control of a stretch of seven km of forest in the Lalgarh area where it had a major encounter with the Maoists on Thursday. While four Maoists were arrested, the rest managed to flee. A combing operation has been launched in the Lalgarh area to track down the Maoists, sources said.

Kolkata ,March 26: The number of Royal Bengal tigers in the Sunderbans has been incre-asing, West Bengal forests minister Ananta Roy info-rmed the state Assembly Friday. He said the 2007 census put the number of tigers in the Sunderbans at 274.

Answering a question, Mr Roy said, "The number of Royal Bengal tigers is on the rise... We have started the tiger census in Sunde-rbans this year. The survey is being conducted by the state government in association with the National Tiger Conservation Autho-rity and the government of India." Mr Roy hopes the ongoing survey will prove the number of tigers stands closer to 300. "According to our reports, most tourists get to see tigers in the Sunderbans now compared to two to three years ago. Incidents of tigers straying into villages adjacent to the forest area in the Sunder-bans have also increased, which we think is proof of the increase in their population," he said.

"We are basically collecting pugmarks and excreta of tigers. The samples of excreta will be sent to the Central Zoo Authority for DNA tests to get the final figure," Mr Roy added.

Kaushik Pradhan

US secretary of state Hillary Clinton shares a laugh with Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi after their meeting at the state department in Washington D.C. on Wednesday. Mr Qureshi said the US agreed to speedy disbursement of the Coalition Support Fund under which it promised to pay Pakistan for its cooperation in the war against Al Qaeda and Taliban.     PHOTO: Reuters