U.S., EU had warned against such move Voters in rebel-held east Ukraine chose new leaders on Sunday after Russia defied Western calls not to sabotage peace talks and Kiev urged fresh sanctions against the Kremlin. In the Donetsk and Lugansk “People’s Republics” in Ukraine’s industrial east, voters headed to polling …

BNP leader says they are in a ‘democratic struggle’ Bangladesh’s main Opposition party announced on Sunday that it would not boycott next month’s general election and would challenge Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the polls, despite its leader being in jail. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party said it would contest the …

Rajapaksa confident of SLPP sweeping the forthcoming polls Mahinda Rajapaksa told reporters on Sunday that the elections scheduled for January 5 would go ahead, and that he was confident of his party “sweeping” the polls. While admitting that he was speaking to lawyers on the legal challenge being mounted by …

Spit on Pune streets, be prepared to clean it In a bid to keep Pune streets clean, the civic body has started punishing people spitting on roads by making them clean the spit, besides levying a fine on offenders, an official said on Sunday. The decision was taken after authorities …

Scores attend protest march in Mumbai Hundreds of people on Sunday held a march against the killing of Avni and converged at Shivaji Park here to demand the sacking of Maharashtra’s Forest Minister as well as finding the big cat’s missing cubs. P.V. Subramaniam of Earth Brigade Foundation, the petitioner …

Tripura NGOs oppose special booths The Bru refugees stranded in makeshift camps in north Tripura will find it tough to join in the election exercise in Mizoram owing to stiff protests from hardliner Mizo social groups. NGO Coordination Committee, a new forum, spearheaded massive protests mainly in Mizoram capital Aizawl …

Writes to Centre seeking steps to protect architecture Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Sunday demanded an inquiry into alleged replacement of artistic stone carvings of the Konark Sun Temple with plain stones. The Sun Temple, an ASI-protected world heritage site, is known for its outstanding architecture. The 13th Century …

‘Publicise antecedents or face action’ Candidates with criminal antecedents and their political parties can be charged with contempt of the Supreme Court if they fail to widely publicise the cases against them as prescribed. They may also be penalised for false statements, the Election Commission has said.Separate formats have been …

Missile and torpedo firings to be part of this year’s bilateral naval exercise The 25th edition of the India-Singapore bilateral naval exercise, SIMBEX, has begun at the tri-services command in Port Blair.The exercise, which kicked off on Saturday off the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal, will conclude on …

After human deaths continued, the order was to tranquillise the tigress and shoot-at-sight only as a last resort, says A.K. Misra, who sanctioned the kill Avni, the tigress of Pandharkwada, was shot dead by sharp-shooter Asghar Ali Khan on the spur of the moment, said A.K. Misra, the Principal Chief …

‘Rechristening Faizabad district as Ayodhya will erase the historical identity of its eponymous city’ The decision to rechristen Faizabad district as Ayodhya has not gone down well with many of its residents, who believe it is an “unnecessary step” taken for “political” reasons and will eventually “erase the identity” of …

System may intensify into severe storm in the next 24 hours The deep depression over the Bay of Bengal intensified into Cyclone ‘Gaja’ on Sunday. North Tamil Nadu and Puducherry are likely to get good rain on November 14 and 15, India Meteorological Department officials said. Named ‘Gaja’ by Sri …

Patrol team targeted ahead of first phase polling in 18 constituencies A day before the first phase of polling in the partly Maoist-dominated areas of Chhattisgarh, insurgents triggered a series of improvised explosive devices (IED) in the Koylibeda block of Kanker district, killing one BSF sub-inspector and injuring another. Inspector-General …

Praying mantids prey on smaller insects and sometimes the odd frog or lizard. Now, it looks like they’ve added fish to their menu too, for naturalists have observed one catching and eating small ornamental fish in a garden in Bengaluru. Guppy-catcher It was on the evening of March 7 last …

Natural recharge during monsoon may not help much if groundwater depletion becomes acute, as rainfall of past years controls current storage With 230 billion metre cube of groundwater drawn out each year for irrigating agriculture lands in India, many parts of the country are experiencing rapid depletion of groundwater. The …

The pH and salinity of the waters exceeded permissible limits for ecologically sensitive zones The water quality at the Point Calimere Wildlife Sanctuary might be unsafe for avifauna to feed and breed, notes a study that examined different pollution indicators in water. Researchers from Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli compared their results …

Sensitivity for pulmonary TB and pleural TB were 94% and 93%, respectively. A highly sensitive diagnostic test for pulmonary TB and pleural TB has been developed by a multi-institutional team led by Jaya Sivaswami Tyagi from the Department of Biotechnology at AIIMS. The diagnostic test makes use of a DNA …

In the month or so preceding Remembrance Day, which marks the anniversary of the end of the First World War, red poppy badges are a common sight across Britain. This year, however, some of them come with a difference. Prime Minister Theresa May is among the high profile figures to …

Caught in the demographic pincers of a declining birth rate and an ageing population, notoriously immigrant-shy Japan is being forced to open its doors to foreign workers. Its current position on immigration is, at best, tepidly welcoming to highly skilled workers, while sceptical of allowing in job-seekers from lower down …

After a 40-year ride of economic reforms, Shenzhen is now looking for answers to spur an artistic renaissance. “Many questions of creativity have come to the fore,” says Ole Bouman, director of the Sea World Culture and Arts Center, a head-turning icon in the Shekou area of Shenzhen. It was …