Demanding the arrest of Kashmiri leader Syed Ali Geelani, senior jurist and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Rajya Sabha member Ram Jethmalani Thursday accused him of being "an intentional abettor of murder" who is on Pakistan's payroll and responsible for the current imbroglio in Jammu and Kashmir. Addressing mediapersons, Jethmalani said the youth who are indulging in violence against the police in the state are instigated by people "in the pay of Pakistan of whom Geelani is the leader". The jurist said that if Geelani believes that pelting stones at the police is an "honourable and

Maoists Thursday killed one of the four Bihar policemen they abducted four days ago, following a decision by a 'jan adalat' or kangaroo court, their spokesman said. The fate of the remaining three will be decided by 10 a.m. Friday, the spokesperson told a local TV channel. Sub-inspector Abhay Kumar Yadav was killed at around 4 p.m., six hours after expiry of their second deadline of 10 a.m. After killing Yadav, the Maoists said the fate of the remaining three policemen would be decided by 10 a.m. Friday if the state government failed to initiate a dialogue or

The United Nations expressed fears Thursday that flood-affected people in Pakistan's southwestern province of Baluchistan could move toward Iran, sparking illegal cross-border movements. Baluchistan, which July 22 became the first of Pakistan's provinces hit by flash floods that have since submerged one-fifth of the country, borders Iran's restive Baluchistan-Sistan province, where the anti-Iran Jundollah militant organisation has been active. More than 2 million people have been affected in the impoverished province, and at least 1 million are living in relief camps, where the

As Sonia Gandhi is all set to be unanimously elected Friday for a fourth term as the Congress president, she will be setting several records in the history of the 125-year-old party, among them being the longest-serving incumbent. Italian-born Sonia Gandhi (nee Maino), who has been the Congress president since 1998, is the seventh person of foreign origin to become the president of the Congress - a party formed to secure a greater share in governance for educated Indians. Sixty-three-year-old Sonia Gandhi, who settled in India after marrying Nehru family scion

A commemorative postage stamp on Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, the late Andhra Pradesh chief minister, was Thursday released on the occasion of his first death anniversary. Visakhapatnam region post master general Sharada Sampat released the Rs.5 stamp carrying the portrait of YSR, as he was popularly known by his initials, at a ceremony held in Visakhapatnam. Officials said it normally takes 18 months to prepare and release a stamp but they had come out with this commemorative stamp within a year. Visakhapatnam-based philatelist G. Durga Prasad had sent the stamp proposal in