A court in Jodhpur on Friday has directed the jail administration to examine the health of self-styled godman Asaram Bapu and submit a report by September 10. The court passed this order while hearing a plea made by Asaram to allow a female ayurvedic doctor to cure his ailment.

The Lok Sabha on Friday passed a bill aimed at regulating street vending activities and also to protect the rights of urban street vendors. This also includes protecting hapless vendors from harassment by police and municipal authorities.

Wrestling, squash or baseball and softball? As the International Olympic Commitee mulls the inclusion of an additional sport for the 2020 Olympics programme — the final decision for which will be taken in its ongoing 125th Session in Buenos Aires on Sunday — India’s wrestling and squash fraternity are hoping to get lucky.

Seven Afghan Taliban leaders, including Mansoor Dadullah, were Saturday freed by Pakistan to boost the troubled reconciliation process in Afghanistan, taking the total number of commanders released so far to 33.

A pall of gloom has descended on the Baguiati house of Gopal Banerjee, the younger brother of Sushmita Banerjee who was allegedly gunned down by the Taliban in Kharana, capital of Afghanistan’s Paktika province. “We want to appeal to the government of India to make arrangements to bring didi’s body to Kolkata,” Mr Banerjee said.

Speaking late on Friday evening in the Lok Sabha, defence minister A.K. Antony said India would not cede an inch of its territory to any foreign country, adding that the Indian Army has patrolled 27 times this year so far upto the Indian perception of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Depsang Bulge area of eastern Ladakh. The defence minister also declared that India would continue to build border infrastructure on its side of the LAC.

Plans for a Grand Prix in New York have been dropped from the provisional calendar for the 2014 Formula One season, revealed to reporters on Thursday, but Mexico does return.

Seven minority Shia Muslims, including a prominent community leader, have been shot dead by four unidentified men in Pakistan’s Punjab province.

A man in a Chhattisgarh town has found a weird way to appropriate government funds by conducting “fake” inter-caste marriages and had even gone to the extent of tying knots with over 300 women under fictitious names himself, the police said on Friday.

Patrick Quinn-trained Ocean And Beyond, who is bidding for hat-trick, holds an edge over the rest of the runners at the Idar Gold Trophy, the feature event of the races to be held here on Saturday.