India

New Delhi, Jul 31: The ruling UPA on Tuesday decided to split Andhra Pradesh and create Telangana, acceding to a 45-year-old demand for statehood in a bid to win local support and stymie political rivals ahead of the 2014 general elections. Telangana, likely to be born as the 29th state of India sometime next year, will comprise 10 out of the 23 districts of united Andhra. For the first decade

New Delhi, Jul 30: A trial court on Tuesday awarded life term to lone suspected Indian Mujahideen operative Shahzad Ahmed who was convicted in the 2008 Batla House encounter for killing inspector M C Sharma and injuring two others. Shahzad has also been fined Rs 95,000 of which Rs 40,000 would be paid to family of slain inspector MC Sharma and Rs 20,000 to injured cop Balwant. Additional sessions

New Delhi, Jul 30: In the midst of mounting pressure from both pro and anti-Telangana leaders, Congress president Sonia Gandhi met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday ahead of the crucial UPA and CWC meetings to take a final decision on the separate statehood issue. The meeting came as leaders from both groups continued with their pressure tactics even as the leadership was veering towards a

Mumbai, Jul 30: In a severe blow to BCCI and its president-in-exile N Srinivasan, the Bombay high court on Tuesday held as "illegal and unconstitutional" the two-member probe panel set up by it to look into spot-fixing and betting charges in the IPL tournament. The high court order comes just two days after the probe panel submitted its report on July 28 giving a clean chit to Srinivasan, his son

Mumbai, Jul 30: A Bhopal-bound JetLite flight from Mumbai with 114 passengers on board made an emergency landing here this morning due to engine failure, airport officials said. The flight returned to the city airport after being airborne for over half-an-hour, they said. The flight landed safely and it later departed for its destination after the problem was rectified. "JetLite flight 9W1625

New Delhi, Jul 30: Former RSS activist Naba Kumar Sarkar alias Aseemanand, whose confession in December 2010 led to the unraveling of a saffron terror conspiracy behind the 2006 Malegaon blasts apart from several other attacks, may himself be never charged in the case. National Investigation Agency (NIA), which left him out in its recently filed chargesheet in the case, believes that Aseemanand

New Delhi, Jul 29: The foreign investment regulator gave conditional approval on Monday to a $379 million deal by Abu Dhabi's Etihad Airways to buy a stake in Jet Airways(JET.NS), paving the way for more acquisitions in the domestic aviation sector. "We have approved with some conditions," Economic Affairs Secretary Arvind Mayaram told reporters after a meeting of the Foreign Investment Promotion

Hyderabad, Jul 29: Supporters of united Andhra Pradesh today intensified their protests in the Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra regions against the Congress leadership's reported proposal to divide the state. The united Andhra protagonists held protests outside the residences or offices of Union Ministers and ruling party MPs including D Purandeswari (Visakhapatnam), K S Rao (Eluru), L Rajagopal

Lucknow, Jul 29: IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal, who was leading crackdown on sand mafia and was shunted out by the Uttar Pradesh government, today met the officiating chief secretary and demanded revocation of her suspension order. Nagpal was accompanied by members of the IAS association. "We went to meet the chief secretary and demanded revocation of the suspension. He said he will look into it

New Delhi, Jul 29: Veering towards conceding the demand for a separate Telangana, the Congress has convened a meeting of its working committee, the party's highest policy making body, tomorrow after deliberations on the issue in the UPA Coordination Committee. Highly placed Congress sources said the coordination committee will meet at 1600 hrs followed by the meeting of the CWC at 1730 hrs. The