British theoretical physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking, who turned 71 this January, was so ill in 1985 that doctors offered to turn off his life support machine, a new documentary film on the world-renowned scientist revealed Sunday.

The BJP’s election campaign committee head and Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi will sell development and good governance in Uttar Pradesh with the help of Hindutva hardliners in the coming electoral battle. Hindutva hardliners in the saffron party — Uma Bharti, Vinay Katiyar, Yogi Adityanath and Varun Gandhi — will play the supportive role for Mr Modi.

The Bahujan Samaj Party on Sunday demanded the resignation of UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav for his comment that if former chief minister Mayawati was so disturbed with the law and order situation in UP, she should not come to the state.

Former Chhattisgarh chief minister Ajit Jogi has suffered a severe jolt with the party high command deciding not to include his son Amit in Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee (CPCC) in the latest reshuffle of the state party.

After launching a major campaign against Bihar’s ruling JD(U) right in chief minister and JD(U) stalwart Nitish Kumar’s home district of Nalanda, the state BJP on Sunday invited Gujarat chief minister and saffron icon Narendra Modi to contest the 2014 Lok Sabha polls from the Nalanda constituency.

Although the number of Twitterati in the Congress is increasing after the party decided to focus on the social media, its senior ministers, chief ministers and CWC members have yet to become familiar with this form of communication.

The Union home ministry has cleared the prosecution of the three Chinese nationals who had crossed over into the Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir last month after they gave conflicting versions during sustained interrogation by security agencies.

The defence ministry is learnt to be probing allegations of irregularity involving a top retired Army official in the `3,000 crore deal to procure 145 ultra-light howitzers from the US.

The UP government, late on Saturday night, suspended Ms Durga Shakti Nagpal, sub-divisional magistrate of Greater Noida, for allegedly clearing an encroachment near a shrine.

The special investigation division (SID) of Tamil Nadu police probing the recent murder of BJP state general secretary “Auditor” Ramesh scored the first big break with the arrest of five suspected Al-Umma activists and seizure of a large cache of explosives at Melapalayam here late Saturday.