Chennai ,March 13: The straws of suspicion over the Congress-DMK alliance, seen recently after AIADMK supremo J. Jayalalithaa tried to woo Congress president Sonia Gandhi, blew away on Saturday as the allies, who had gathered on the glittering dais for the inauguration of the Rs 425-crore Tamil Nadu Assembly/secretariat complex, proclaimed loud and clear that their ties were stronger than ever.

Rajasthan Royals’ Yusuf Pathan hits a shot during their match against the Mumbai Indians at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai on Saturday. Pathan scored the fastest IPL ton off 37 balls but his team lost the match by four runs. In the second match of the day, the Delhi Daredevils defeated Kings XI Punjab by five wickets.
 Report on Page 10    PHOTO: PTI

New Delhi ,March 13: India said on Saturday that while it had made repeated efforts to have peace with Pakistan, certain “dark forces” operating in that country which encouraged terrorism were consistently undermining these attempts. Minister of state for external affairs Shashi Tharoor, in a statement at a function here, also justified the recent foreign secretary-level talks, saying that the dialogue with Pakistan will have to be kept going to ensure that peace and stability were maintained.

Australian players celebrate after winning the 2010 Hockey World Cup final against Germany at the Dhyan Chand Stadium in New Delhi on Saturday. Australia won the event for the first time in 24 years, beating two-time defending champions Germany 2-1. n Report on Page 12    PHOTO: AFP

New Delhi ,March 13: An Indian Navy sailor died on board the INS Delhi, a destroyer, at Visak-hapatnam harbour on Friday night when the anti-aircraft gun on board went off accidentally.

New Delhi ,March 13: The crisis in the JD-U appears to have deepened further as the central leadership of the party on Saturday disapproved of the state unit’s move to authorise Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar to make all organisational appointments and chalk out the political strategy ahead of the Assembly elections.

New Delhi ,March 13: Gujarat chief minister Narendera Modi, who has been summoned for questioning by the Supreme Court-appointed special investigation team in connection with the post-Godhra riots, is likely to face queries related to over a dozen Indian Penal Code offences listed by Zakia Jafri, wife of slain former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, in a chart annexed with her petition to the Supreme Court for registration of FIRs against the BJP leader and 62 others.

New Delhi ,March 13: After directing his officials to verify whether there are “ghost employees”, Union home minister P. Chidambaram appears to have softened his tough line towards staff members at North Block. This change of line comes after The softening in his stand towards the employees has come in the wake of reports that many in the home ministry were continuing to report for work late and skipping the biometric attendance system recently installed there.

Deepika Padukone performs at the inaugural ceremony of the third edition of the Indian Premier League Twenty20 Championship at the D.Y. Patil Stadium in Mumbai on Friday evening. The Kolkata Knight Riders won the opening match, beating defending champions Deccan Chargers by 11 runs. PHOTO: Anand Shinde

New Delhi, March 12: In a landmark ruling, the Delhi high court on Friday ordered granting of permanent commissions to 50 short service commissioned (SSC) women officers belonging to both the Army and the Air Force who had accused the government of