India

Madurai, May 10: Amid the controversy over appointment of self-styled godman Nityananda as head of the Madurai Adheenam, the Madras High Court today dismised a PIL seeking a direction to the government to take over the ancient Saivite Mutt. The Madurai Bench of the Court also dismissed a habeas corpus petition filed by a disciple of the Dharmapura Adheenam seeking to produce the pontiff of Madurai

Chennai, May 10: Opposition today targeted P Chidambaram in the Lok Sabha over the Aircel-Maxis deal, dubbing it as a ''big scam'' allegedly involving his son but the Home Minister dismissed the charges as ''wild and reckless''. Declaring that neither he nor any member of his family had acquired or had any stake in Aircel or Maxis, Chidambaram quoted from a statement of his son Karthi, hours after

Ahmedabad, May 10: What was the need for amicus curiae Raju Ramachandran to put down these words in his final report before the Supreme Court which became public this week? "The cost for boarding and lodging for both the amicus curiae at BSF mess, Gandhinagar as well as the cost for local transportation by private taxi was arranged by the SIT...the cost of travel from Delhi to Ahmedabad and back

Dolhara (Thane District), May 10: Many myths surround the death of 41-year-old Parvati Jadhav, an adivasi woman in Dolhara. Officials attribute it to a heat stroke, and some say it was a cardiac arrest, but people in the village have no doubts about the reason. “Parvati was a sacrifice to the severe shortage of water here,” says Yashoda Wargade. “Why don't they just poison us instead of killing us

New Delhi, May 10: In a shocking disclosure, some drug companies have been caught red-handed writing scientific recommendations of their own products and submitting them to the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) after getting them endorsed by top doctors for a quicker marketing approval. Usually, scientific recommendations are submitted by experts after they have studied a drug's content. The

Ahmedabad, May 10: The Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team has totally disagreed with the observations of amicus curiae Raju Ramachandran, and said no case can be made out against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in connection with the 2002 communal riots under any of the Sections of the Indian Penal Code mentioned by him. Mr. Ramachandran, in his report, which formed part of

New Delhi, May 10: Rajya Sabha members on Wednesday expressed concern at the strike by Air India pilots, saying frequent strikes were creating a bad atmosphere and sending wrong signals to the international community about the national carrier. Raising the issue in zero hour, Congress member R C Khuntia said that even after a big financial package was given to Air India, salaries of pilots and

Ranchi, May 9: A Pawan Hans helicopter carrying Jharkhand chief minister, Arjun Munda, wife Meera and three others crash landed at the Birsa Munda airport around 12.25 pm today. All on board the chopper are safe but have sustained injuries for which they are being treated at the Apollo hospital near here. Munda has reportedly fractured an arm and has injuries on his leg. Munda and his wife were

Hyderabad, May 9: In a move that is expected to cripple YSR Congress chief Jaganmohan Reddy, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has written to the State Bank of India in Hyderabd, directing it to freeze the accounts of three large parts of his considerable empire - Jagathi Publications, Indira TV and Janani Infrastructure - pending an inquiry by it. (Read: CBI's letter to the State Bank of

New Delhi, May 9: India is looking to crank up its defence budget to counter the deepening military nexus between China and Pakistan, which could even extend to it being confronted with a two-front war in a worst-case scenario. Defence minister AK Antony on Tuesday told Rajya Sabha he would seek a hike in the Rs 1,93,408 crore (around $39 billion) defence outlay in the 2012-13 budget due to "new