A judge sentenced four men to death Friday for the fatal gang rape of an Indian student on a bus last December, triggering applause inside the packed courtroom.

Samajawadi Party is keen to have a “crucial role” for party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav in 2014 but ruled out formation of any “third force” before the next Lok Sabha elections.

The National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) Ranjan Daimary faction has been asked to deposit their arms and list of cadres to the police to sign a formal suspension of operations agreement with security forces in Assam.

Yuvraj Singh, who has been named India A skipper for the three unofficial ODIs against the West Indies A sweated it out at the National Cricket Academy here on Thursday.

Amidst speculation that veteran BJP leader L.K. Advani and his protégé Sushma Swaraj, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, could quit their posts if the party declares Gujarat CM Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate ahead of the coming Assembly polls, party president Rajnath Singh appears determined to go ahead with the announcement, perhaps even on Friday or early next week.

The most direct and open call within the BJP to party patriarch L.K. Advani asking him to make way for Narendra Modi’s projection as the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate came on Thursday from senior Bihar leader Sushil Kumar Modi, known for long for his pro-Advani leanings. In two back-to-back Twitter messages, the former Bihar deputy chief minister made an impassioned pitch for ending the current logjam in the BJP’s top echelons over a reportedly stubborn Advani blocking the Gujarat leader’s prime ministerial path.

Tobacco inflicts huge damage on the health of India’s people and could be clocking up a death toll of 1.5 million a year by 2020 if more users are not persuaded to kick the habit, an international report said on Thursday.

Famed Pakistan fast bowler Wasim Akram said on Thursday he hoped Indian batting great Sachin Tendulkar would play his final Test farewell against Pakistan in Kolkata.

With President Pranab Mukherjee giving his assent to the National Food Security Bill on Thursday, the Right to Food has become a law. The bill was earlier passed by both Houses of Parliament.

In a tactical move apparently to render “rebellious” former CM Ajit Jogi politically ineffective ahead of the November Assembly polls in Chhattisgarh, the Congress leadership has taken the initiatives to rein in his youth brigade in the party as well as woo the Satnamis, a dalit community, from him.