Baseball catching up in Kerala

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM - Baseball, the national sport of the US, is slowly but steadily finding a place in the sports curriculum of many educational institutions in Kerala.

Iraqi PM: Corrupt bureaucrats are as bad as criminals, calls for anti-corruption campaign

BAGHDAD — Iraq should launch an anti-corruption campaign that would match the fight it has waged against insurgents and militias, the country’s prime minister said Saturday amid increasing complaints over criminality in the government.

Goa still a soft target for terror: defence officials

PANAJI - Numerous illegal landing zones, no proper mechanism to check trawlers, unverified migrant workers employed on board fishing vessels and a media-sensitive tourism hub, continue to make Goa a perfect, soft target for terror attacks, maritime officials said.

Valentin Varennikov, Soviet Afghan war general and hardline coup supporter, dies, vets say

MOSCOW — Retired Gen. Valentin Varennikov, a hawkish World War II veteran who directed the Soviet war in Afghanistan and joined the rebellion against Mikhail Gorbachev that sped the collapse of the Soviet Union, died in Moscow on Wednesday, colleagues said. He was 85.

Eleven killed in Chhattisgarh landmine blast

RAIPUR - As many as 11 people were killed and two others injured Wednesday in a powerful landmine blast planted by Maoists in Chhattisgarh’s restive southern Bastar region, police said.

CBI arrests CRPF IG in recruitment scam

KOLKATA - The Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday arrested an Inspector General of the CRPF along with a commandant of the force for alleged corruption and bungling in the recruitment of personnel for the anti-naxal force COBRA.

West Bengal hooch toll rises to eight

KOLKATA - The toll in the hooch tragedy in West Bengal’s East Midnapore district has risen to eight while 23 others are battling for their life in hospitals, police said Tuesday.

Agartala civic body to crack down on ‘water thieves’

AGARTALA - Faced with a serious water crisis the past few months, the Agartala civic body has decided to crack down on ‘water thieves’ and has ‘identified’ 12 people, including a police official, a professor, doctors and senior bureaucrats, for the ‘crime’, an official said Tuesday.

High security but low polling in West Bengal’s Maoist belt

LALGARH - Indian Air Force helicopters roared in the sky, the thumps of the heavy boots of security personnel pierced the uneasy calm, but voters were only a handful in most areas of the state’s Maoist belt Thursday.

Report: California air traffic controller facilities rely heavily on inexperienced trainees

WASHINGTON — The nation’s busiest air traffic control facility in Southern California relies heavily on inexperienced trainees, who are expected to make up more than 40 percent of controllers there later this year, according to a report released Monday.

NY state tax worker accused of stealing taxpayers’ identities, running up $200,000 on accounts

TROY, N.Y. — A former New York state tax department worker was accused of stealing the identities of thousands of taxpayers and running up more than $200,000 in fraudulent charges.

Tight security for PM’s polling booth in Assam

GUWAHATI - Authorities in Guwahati have beefed up security at a school where Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh is expected to cast his vote in the second phase of Lok Sabha polls.

Banks still broken, Geithner tells impatient overseers as they press for timetable, costs

WASHINGTON — America’s banks are still broken despite all their bailout billions, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told impatient rescue overseers Tuesday as they pressed him on when things will get better and how much it will cost. A bleak new report estimated U.S. banks and other financial institutions could lose a stunning $2.7 trillion in all.

Two securitymen killed in Jammu gun battle

JAMMU - An army jawan and a special police officer were killed in a gun battle with militants Sunday in Jammu and Kashmir’s Doda district, police said.

US mulls appointing inspector general for Pak to keep track of financial aid

LAHORE - The United States has already made it clear that the financial aid to Pakistan would not go unchecked, and now strengthening its ‘no blank cheque’ stance the Obama Administration is considering appointing a special Inspector General for Pakistan to supervise its proposed aid on the lines of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Congress calls for shutdown to protest legislator’s murder

BHOPAL - The Congress Tuesday called for a shutdown in Bhind and Datia districts of Madhya Pradesh to protest the murder of its legislator Makhan Singh Jatav the previous night, even as Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan asked the party not to politicise the killing.

Maoists blow up police vehicle in Chhattisgarh, one killed

RAIPUR - A constable was killed and five policemen were injured Tuesday when Maoist guerrillas attacked the superintendent of police’s convoy and blew up one of the vehicles in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district.

Security along India-Bangladesh border strengthened

FULBARI - Authorities in Siliguri have taken all possible measures to foil any untoward incident in the state in the wake of the upcoming general elections.

Six troopers killed in Islamabad suicide attack (Third Lead)

ISLAMABAD - At least six troopers were killed and 11 injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a high-security zone in the heart of the Pakistani capital Saturday evening, apparently targeting security forces near the diplomatic enclave close to the president’s office.

Three Lashkar militants killed in Jammu and Kashmir

JAMMU - Three guerrillas believed to be of the Lashkar-e-Taiba terror outfit were killed Thursday in a gunfight with security forces in a mountainous area of Jammu and Kashmir, a police officer said.

Kochi on terror alert after intelligence inputs

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM - Kochi, Kerala’s commercial hub, was on alert after intelligence reports indicated that a terror gang was possibly heading towards the city, a police official said Monday.

CBI hunts origin of ‘false’ report on Mulayam Singh

NEW DELHI - The Central Bureau of Investigation on Thursday revealed that it was probing the origin of a “false, fabricated and forged” report which stated that the Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav had been “framed” in a disproportionate assets case.

Chhattisgarh family arrested for abducting trader

RAIPUR - Seven people, including five of a family, were arrested here for allegedly abducting a trader for a ransom of Rs.5 million, police today said.

Two Maoists arrested with weapons in West Bengal

KOLKATA - Two suspected Maoist rebels were arrested from a village in West Bengal’s Nadia district Friday, the police said.

Shutdown affects normal life in north West Bengal

SILIGURI - Normal life was affected in four northern districts of West Bengal Monday as the Kamtapur Progressive Party (KPP) forced a 24-hour shutdown to protest the state administration’s refusal to let it hold a public meeting a day earlier.

Maoists attack railway station in Orissa

BHUBANESWAR - Maoist guerrillas Saturday attacked a railway station and blew up its building in Orissa’s Sundergarh district, police said.

Special team to probe Pakistan journalist’s killing

ISLAMABAD - A special police team has been formed to probe the killing of Pakistani journalist Musa Khankhel while he was reporting on a peace deal brokered with the Taliban in the restive Swat Valley.

India gets FBI evidence on Pakistan’s 26/11 link

WASHINGTON - A Mumbai police team headed home with crucial evidence from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that shows the 26/11 terror carnage was planned in Pakistan even as the US clarified it will not interfere in the issue of extradition of the lone surviving attacker from India to Pakistan.

Union minister booked for murder

LUCKNOW/NEW DELHI - Mahavir Prasad, a minister in the central government and a Congress leader, was on a court’s order Wednesday charged with conspiring to murder a villager in Uttar Pradesh, and his party hastened to say the law would take its own course.

Four tribals injured in clash with West Bengal police

SILIGURI - Four people, including two women, were injured as the activists of tribals’ Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Bikash Parishad (ABABP) clashed with the police in the Dooars region of West Bengal’s Jalpaiguri district, the police said Thursday.