A poor, dalit man in Bihar’s flood-hit Kishanganj district on Saturday committed suicide after staying hungry along with his family for three days as relief material did not reach the school building where he and others had taken shelter.

Amidst the absence of present-day celebrities of tinsel town, Pran, 93, who passed away after a prolonged illness on Friday night, was given a final farewell on Saturday.

A team of three doctors from the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, on Saturday completed the second autopsy on the body of dalit youth Ilavarasan, which was later transported to his native Natham village with heavy police escort.

A controversial posting on Facebook by the BJP’s minority cell member Dr Saleem Raj, a sexologist, demanding arrest of former chief minister Ajit Jogi and Congress legislator Kawasi Lakhma to “unearth” the political conspiracy behind the killing of several senior Congress leaders in the Naxal attack at Jiram Ghati in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar district on May 25, has triggered a political storm in political circles in the state.

The Opposition Congress here on Saturday decided to boycott the monsoon session of the Chhattisgarh Assembly, scheduled to commence on July 15, in protest against failure of the state BJP government to take action against those responsible for May 25 Naxal attack on the convoy of the party leading to death of several senior Congress leaders.

Police and CRPF personnel in large numbers were fanned out in Srinagar overnight to enforce a security clampdown, a somewhat time-tested manoeuvre by the local authorities aimed at steering clear of a face-off in open with the separatist leadership and its supporters.

Escalating airfares seem to be no deterrent for people from holidaying.
In fact, the tourism industry saw a splendid growth of 20 per cent in domestic tourism in 2012, the hot spot being Andhra Pradesh for domestic tourists and Maharashtra attracting more of foreign tourists.

Acting on a public interest litigation (PIL), the Bombay high court on Friday asked whether the state knew what our national anthem was.

A survey released recently by the National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA) has ranked Maharashtra as the eighth best state when it comes to primary school education.

Following Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi’s comment that he was a “Hindu nationalist”, BJP’s alliance partner Shiv Sena has hailed him as the right choice to lead the NDA.