Nov. 8: Senior BJP leader L.K. Advani, on whom pressure is mounting to relinquish the Leader of Opposition post, celebrated his 83rd birthday on Sunday. President Pratibha Patil, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar wished the BJP leader. While Ms Patil sent flowers to him, Dr Singh and Lok Sabha Speaker wished him over phone.

Nov. 8: The Indian government, perhaps for the first time ever, has said it suspects that neighbouring China, with which it has been sharing a particularly prickly relationship of late, has been supplying small arms to the Maoist insurgents in this country.

Nov. 2: Karnataka’s Reddy versus Yeddy confrontation is far from over. While rebel leader Gali Janardhan Reddy placed his five-point formula before the BJP leadership at a two-hour meeting of senior party leaders at the residence of Mr L.K. Advani in New Delhi, the BJP tried to put a lid on the crisis and the Karnataka strongman refused to buckle.

Nov. 2: A suicide bomber on Monday killed at least 35 people and injured around 50 others when he slammed his explosives-laden motorcycle into a bank in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, near here, when the people were queuing to collect their salaries. The Rawalpindi blast was followed by another suicide bombing, this time in Lahore where two terrorists blew themselves up at the Babu Sabu inter-change police checkpoint, wounding 25 people, mostly policemen, officials said.

US secretary of state Hillary Clinton has severely criticised Pakistan over its failure to hunt the top Al Qaeda leadership hiding in safe havens inside the country.

Oct. 27: The Bhubaneswar-Delhi Rajdhani Express was stopped and its approximately 600 passengers held hostage for over six hours by the Maoist-backed tribal organisation People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA) in West Bengal’s West Midnapore district.