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Shashi Tharoor resigned as Minister of State for External Affairs after the high-level Congress Core Group decided that he should quit in the wake of controversy over the IPL Kochi franchise, capping a week-long drama that threatened to suck the government and the party into it.

A day after the state cabinet mandated knowledge of Marathi and state domicile for a taxi driver’s licence, a move that smacked of the anti-migrant agenda of the Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), chief minister Ashok Chavan moved into damage control mode. The U-turn, however, came after vociferous protests from United Progressive Alliance (UPA) allies and a rap on the knuckles from Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. “The emphasis on local language was as per norms. I don’t mean local language has to be Marathi. It also means Gujarati and Hindi,” said a visibly upset Chavan.

While the stars the director of '3 Idiots' maintain the film is only loosely based on Five Point Someone, writer Chetan Bhagat insists the movie shares its plot with his book, apart from some 'Bollywoodisation'!

The NSA (National Security Advisor) said there was a need to effectively deal with organisations like SIMI and Bajrang Dal "because then there are many copycat organisations ... Several micro units of the same kind may come up." He claimed "SIMI and Bajrang Dal are not two sides of the same coin, but both of them are dangerous.

Under pressure from the Left parties to make clear whether the Indo-US nuclear deal is on or off, government on Monday said the operationalisation of the deal will take place in accordance with the UPA-Left committee's findings. External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee made this clear after a meeting between leaders of the Left parties and the UPA coalition formed to go into the concerns of the allies on the nuclear deal. The minister announced that the committee would meet again

A speeding Blueline bus mows down a group of people crossing a road in South Delhi, killing five women and a man (Updated: and a child). Eight others, including some who were crossing the road, were injured when the bus ran into a crowd while trying to overtake a stationary Delhi Transport Corp (DTC) bus from the wrong side at Aali Goan, near Badarpur. Sunday's accident takes the number of people killed by the rampaging Blueline buses in the capital this year

A relentless crackdown on Myanmar's pro-democracy activists showed no sign of easing with the junta announcing on Sunday that 78 more people have been detained in spite of global outrage and new sanctions. The latest arrests, reported by the state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper, brought to nearly 1,000 the number of people the military regime acknowledges holding in detention centers. In addition, it says 135 Buddhist monks remain in custody

It was a classic case of how the government was casual and careless in dealing with such sensitive issues which hurt the sentiments of crores of people," Venkaiah Naidu said. In a damage control exercise, the government suspended two officers of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and withdrew the controversial affidavit on Lord Ram, the BJP leader said, adding that the extent of damage would be known when Congress party goes to the people.
The image of both Central and state governments has taken a severe beating because of the way the government has been handling sensitive issues like Ram Setu, Indo-US deal and farmers problems.

Altogether 102 people have died in the operation, including 10 Army officers, a Ranger and 91 civilians according to a report in the Dawn which quoted the interior minister Mr Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao. The admission came two days after President Pervez Musharraf hinted in a televised address to the nation, that some women and children had died in the fierce clash which turned the capital into a battleground

The US will not allow Russia to stop it from deploying anti-missile defences in Europe, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said in Moscow. "I don't think anyone expects the United States to permit a veto on American security interests," she said after meeting President Vladimir Putin. But she also said: "If there are concerns about how the United States has and is continuing to exercise power, absolutely, we can have that discussion

India and China are coming under increasing pressure to sign up to a mandatory limit on greenhouse gas emissions at the G8 summit in Germany. But, India says it cannot take steps which will retard its economic growth which is the only way to deliver the vast majority of its people from poverty. Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon says it is unfair to target India when the problem of global warming has been created by the industrialised countries. "Once our per capita emission levels reach the same as those of the industrialised countries, we'll be very happy to do our share too

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