The Union government on Friday cleared a proposal for regulating and monitoring the quality of care and education provided to children at play schools and crèches across the country.

In a move which would benefit about 50 lakh central government employees and 30 lakh pensioners, the Union Cabinet in its meeting on Friday approved a hike in dearness allowance by 10 per cent to 90 per cent from the existing 80 per cent.

Ashfaq Shaikh alias Babu, 27, the fifth accused in the July 31 gangrape of a 19-year-old Bhandup-based tele-operator, was freely roaming around the NM Joshi Marg police station while on the run. Shaikh, who was later arrested by the police through a honey trap with the help of his girlfriend from Kamathipura, revealed this during his questioning, police sources confirmed.

Trouble seems to be brewing within the stakeholders in AirAsia’s venture to launch a low-cost carrier in India, with one of the stakeholders, Arun Bhatia of Telestra Tradeplace pvt. ltd., being reportedly miffed with the announcement by the Tatas on Thursday that they propose to launch their very own full-service carrier in India with Singapore Airlines.

In what appears to be a split wide open within the Trinamul Congress, the party’s three MPs — Kunal Ghosh, Tapas Pal and Shatabdi Roy — were the latest to join the group of disgruntled party leaders on Friday.

The Orissa steel and mines department has sought information from the energy department on whether two state-owned public sector units — Orissa Power Generation Corporation and Orissa Hydro Power Corp

The CBI officials said D.G. Vanzara’s questioning will help the agency gather “fresh leads” in the fake encounter cases, including the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case. Sources said the questioning of the 1987-batch IPS officer is expected to shed light on the role of the highest functionaries in the state government in the fake encounter cases being probed by the CBI.

Days after the communal clashes in Uttar Pradesh claimed more than 40 lives, home minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Friday said every citizen of the country has the right to live with his or her individual faith.

The Congress party on Friday intensified its attack on the Akhilesh Yadav government on the day the CBI closed a six-year-old disproportionate assets case against the Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav.

President Pranab Mukherjee on Friday expressed concern over the recent incidents of communal clashes and stated that the country has not learnt lessons from history and same “tragic mistakes” are being repeated.