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Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad, on Saturday slammed the Congress government alleging that it carried out sinister campaigns to hide the truth and hinder investigation into the Telecom scam probe by Public Accounts Committee (PAC). While addressing party activists and media persons in Patna city of India's eastern state of Bihar, Prasad said Congress led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government is trying to cover up its faults.

With Gold setting a new record at Rs. 22,470 per 10 grams, customers are left with no option but to explore the alternative ornaments. Customers in Siliguri of West Bengal are these days opting for imitation ornaments over gold as they could get them at affordable prices.

Chief minister of Assam today said, with fresh instances of violence in the state of Assam, he has given orders for shoot at sight. He has also promised relief to those who migrated due to violence. He has also asked for a CBI probe into the clashes in BTAD and Dubri districts where "internal and external forces were at work".

Slamming senior BJP leader L K Advani for predicting a non-BJP, non-Congress Prime Minister in 2014, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray in his -party mouthpiece 'Saamna' said that the BJP seemed to be in utter confusion. "What is wrong with the BJP? Are they ill? Have internal fissures made the party frustrated? As usual it is their internal matter but I cannot say, 'forget it'," he said. Thackeray also said that Advani by his statement is trying to add fuel to the fire of ambitions in Nitish Kumar and Narendra Modi  for the prime minister's post. Thackeray urged Advani to help bury the Congress instead of playing politics through blogs. "It is our primary duty to throw the devil (congress)," wrote Thackeray.

Keywords: BJP, L K Advani, Congress, Bal Thackeray, Narendra Modi, Blog

The fourth of the six-phase of assembly elections began amid tight security in West Bengal on Tuesday. Voting is being held for 63 constituencies spread over four districts of Howrah, Hooghly and East Midnapore and parts of Burdwan district for 366 candidates. Voters hope that the new government will resolve the issues of price rise and corruption.

Commenting on the killing of world's most wanted militant Osama bin Laden on Monday, Islamic clerics in India criticised the United States of America by saying Washington had exploited Laden for its own political benefits. Adil Siddiqui, spokesperson of the Darul-Uloom, an Islamic seminary at Deoband in Uttar Pradesh shared his organisation's views with mediapersons on the killing. He said US applied its 'use and discard' policy on Laden. A professor of Aligarh Muslim University too expressed similar thoughts.

After a rousing welcome at Hyderabad airport, Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal today said that she was proud of herself and praised her coach and parents for their support. Meanwhile, Saina’s coach Gopichand talked about her potential and appreciated her victory. Proud father of the badminton champion, Harvir Singh gave all the credit for the victory to the hardwork of Saina and the teachings of her mentor, Gopichand.

Foreign minister SM Krishna on Tuesday voiced his concern on the safety of the Indian community in the United States to the country’s secretary of state, Hillary Clinton after the shooting at a gurdwara in Wisconsin. Krishna said that he had suggested some points to Clinton to ease the comfort level of the Indian community.

Like other parts of the globe, various labour organizations and trade unions in Kolkata marked the May Day, also known as International Workers' Day. They raised slogans for labour rights to prevent retrenchment and improve working ties with the employers. Alok Banerjee, a trade union leader and General Secretary of All India Medical Representatives Association said that May Day was celebrated to express anger against the capitalist policies.

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi survived a NATO air strike on a Tripoli house that killed his youngest son and three grandchildren, a government spokesman said on Saturday. The strike, which came hours after Gaddafi called for a ceasefire and negotiations in what rebels called a publicity stunt, marked an escalation of international efforts to prevent the Libyan regime from regaining momentum.

Voting is currently underway to elect the country's next Vice-President for which UPA candidate Hamid Ansari and NDA nominee Jaswant Singh are contesting. Voting in the parliament house would end at 5 pm. The Election Commission has made elaborate arrangements for smooth conduct of the poll. Ansari has the committed support of the Congress, Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, RJD, DMK, NCP, RLD, CPM, National Conference and several others. BJP nominee Jaswant Singh has the support of Janata Dal-United, Shiv Sena, Akali Dal, AIADMK and several other smaller parties. A total of 790 MPs are eligible to cast their votes on Tuesday.

The condition of Union science and technology minister Vilasrao Deshmukh was admitted to a private hospital in Chennai for liver-related ailment. His condition was reportedly critical even as he was put on life support, following cirrhosis of liver and complete failure of both his kidneys.

Trying to rein in growing inflation, the Reserve Bank of India today raised key short term lending rates by 50 basis points. While addressing media persons at Mumbai today, RBI governor D. Subbarao announced the first monetary policy review of 2012. He informed that Repo rate will be up to 7.25% and the Reverse Repo to 6.25%, while Cash Reserve ratio remains unchanged.

New Zealand spinner Daniel Vettori, who is suffering from a groin injury, is likely to miss the two-match Test series against India, starting from August 23.

American Matthew Emmons suffered yet another final shot wobble in the men's 50 metres three position rifle gold - a mistake which cost him an Olympic medal place once again. Emmons dropped from silver to bronze in the final round at London's Royal Artillery Barracks after shooting a poor 7.6 to South Korea's Kim Jong-hyun's 10.4. The last shot by Emmons was reminiscent of his disastrous finale at the Beijing Games where he shot a 4.4 when leading to miss out on a medal. That followed his 2004 Athens Games meltdown where he hit a target in the adjoining lane when set to clinch gold. Emmons insisted that he had not been thinking about his two previous Olympics when he pulled the trigger for the final time.