The nationwide general strike called by Central trade unions to protest the “anti-labour” policies of the UPA government on Tuesday threw normal life out of gear in Kerala and had a partial impact in Karnataka and TN.

The pressure on Team India's seniors was evident today as the selection committee decided to to drop Virender Sehwag and Zaheer Khan from playing XI.

An extreme example of athithi devo bhava (guest is God) — India’s slogan for attracting foreign tourists — was when a couple of years ago, the Karnataka government mistook two Somali pirates as foreigners who had lost their way at sea and extended them complete hospitality and ev-en sent them back to Somalia at government expense.

The weapons and ammunition that could prove vital to the investigations into the high sea killing of two fishermen were finally seized after a marathon operation by the special investigation team, from the Italian merchant vessel Enrica Lexie, on Saturday.

State Bank of India (SBI), the lead lender to Kingfisher Airlines will not consider any fresh loans for the debt-laden carrier until it raises new equity itself, a senior executive of the state-owned bank said.

Refuting the claim of the Enrica Lexie crew that a suspected pirate attack led to last week’s fatal shooting of Indian fishermen, a Coast Guard preliminary report says the vessel never had a graduated response plan against piracy and that it violated basic maritime rules and guidelines.

With none other than BJP president Nitin Gadkari flatly rejecting former CM B.S. Yeddyurappa’s demand to replace Sadananda Gowda as CM and sending out a firm message that those who can’t toe the party line can quit, the crisis in the ruling BJP has deepened.

The Kerala high court on Thursday rejected a plea to stay proceedings against the two Italian marines in last week’s ship firing incident, while the police custody of the two was extended by seven days by a Kollam court.

Emphasising its willingness to open negotiations with states opposing the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC), the Central government on Wednesday appealed to the parties to stop “politicising” the issue and sought their cooperation.

In a rare celestial coincidence, as many as five planets, including Saturn, will be visible in the night for two weeks starting February 23.