New Delhi, Feb. 1: With nursery schools in and around the city announcing their first list of admissions on Monday, while a few parents went away smiling, most were in for a lot of disappointment as their wards failed to get into schools of their choice through application of the points system mandated by the Delhi high court-appointed Ganguly Committee.

Colombo, Feb. 1: Sri Lanka’s Presi-dent Mahinda Rajapakse on Monday sacked a dozen senior military officers whom the defence ministry said were a "direct threat to national security" after last week’s presidential polls.

Beijing/New Delhi, Feb. 1: The first talks between top Chinese officials and envoys of the Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama in 15 months apparently failed to make much headway as Beijing on Monday said it would make "no concessions" on Tibet’s sovereignty. A top Chinese official Du Qinglin, head of the government organisation in-charge of the talks said "China’s national interest was inviolable" and "there can be no room for discussion. No room for compromise" on territorial issues, Xinhua news agency quoted him as saying. —PTI

London, Feb. 1: Archaeologists in Britain claim to have discovered a part of an ancient Roman law code previously thought to have been lost forever.

India’s Leander Paes and Zimbabwe’s Cara Black hold the Australian Open mixed doubles trophy after beating Ekaterina Makarova of Russia and Jaroslav Levinsky of the Czech Republic 7-5, 6-3 in Melbourne on Sunday. PHOTOS: AP

US President Barack Obama with White House deputy chief of staff Mona Sutphen and senior adviser David Axelrod during the first half of the NCAA men’s college basketball game between Georgetown and Duke at the Verizon Centre in Washington D.C. on Saturday. PHOTO: AFP

New Delhi, Jan. 31: In an effort to curb the spurt in cyber crime incidents around the country, Union law and justice minister M. Veerappa Moily on Sunday advocated the enactment of separate laws and the creation of a specialised agency to deal with IT-related cases.

Mumbai/New Delhi, Jan. 31: Disunity in the Sangh Parivar over Marathi came out into the open on Sunday with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh headed for a confrontation with the Shiv Sena over whether Mumbai belongs to all Indians or only to Marathis.

Bengaluru, Jan. 31: After former Prime Minister and JD(S) chief H.D. Deve Gowda abused Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, his son H.D. Kumaraswamy, also a former chief minister, called the chief minister “kalla” (thief) and described Bharatiya Janata Party general secretary H.N. Ananth Kumar as “malla” (scheming).

Bengaluru, Jan. 31: Former Prime Minister and JD(S) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda is often referred to as the “son of the soil”. Quite literally. His love for land dates back to the 1960s when he pulled strings to acquire tens of acres of government land by claiming to be a landless farmer and later to transfer the grant land to his kith and kin. Documents made available to this newspaper reveal that Mr Gowda and his family are involved in over 20 such fraudulent transactions.