nirajan family kerala adopts

The Kerala Cabinet on Wednesday decided to adopt the family of Lt. Col. E.K. Niranjan, the NSG commando who was killed in the Pathankot terror attack.

The State will pay a solatium of Rs. 50 lakh to the family. His wife, Radhika, will be given a government job and the entire education expenses of his daughter, Vismaya, would be borne by the government.

Germany and Cuba agree to open Havana trade office

Germany and Cuba agree to open Havana trade officeBurying old Cold War tensions, Germany and Cuba have agreed to open a trade office in Havana. German Vice Chancellor and Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel said both countries "want a new partnership on eye-to-eye level."

The memorandum, signed by Sigmar Gabriel (above, center) at the start of his two-day trade visit on Thursday, could prove to be beneficial to German businesses seeking to invest in Cuba, and potentially increase the current 225 million euros ($244.22 million) in annual bilateral trade.

Speaking at the launch of a forum of German businesses and Cuban government officials, Gabriel said the deal marked "the start of a very dynamic process for our bilateral economic relations."

"Part of this process will also surely be to modernize our political relations," the vice chancellor added.

"There were difficult times for economic and political cooperation, and now is a good time to change that."

Echoing Gabriel's sentiments, Cuba's Foreign Trade Minister, Rodrigo Malmierca, said he too saw "great potential" to strengthen ties as Cuba reforms its economy.

Cold War tensions

mufti mehabooba a next chief minister of jammu kashmir

 Mehbooba Mufti, 56, is expected to take oath this afternoon as the first woman chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir. She will succeed her father Mufti Mohammad Sayeed who died in Delhi yesterday after a brief illness.

Mehbooba will also be the country's first Muslim woman chief minister. The oath ceremony is likely to take place at around 3 or 3.30 this afternoon, sources said. Senior BJP leader Ram Madhav is expected to attend.

today quake strikes on india myanmar border

 A powerful earthquake struck South Asia before dawn on Monday, killing at least nine people and injuring nearly 200, with efforts to rescue those trapped in rubble hampered by severed power supplies and telecommunication links.

strong earth quake on north east india ricter 6.7

A strong 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck northeast India early today, sending panicked residents fleeing into the streets. The epicentre of the earthquake, which occurred at 4.37 am at a depth of 17 km below the ground, was at Tamenglong which is located 33 kilometers from Imphal in Manipur.

vijayakanth spit reporter as correct

afghanisthan bowling is well but afghan lost

The new year brought in new fortunes for Zimbabwe's bowlers, but not their batsman, as they snatched a 117-run win from Afghanistan in the third ODI in Sharjah to keep the five-match series alive. Their medium-pacers struck from the very first over and allowed a biggest partnership of only 23 runs as Afghanistan were routed for 58 in their chase of 176.Luke Jongwe took his maiden ODI five-for and Neville Madziva finished with 3 for 27 from six overs to dismiss Afghanistan in only 16.1 overs.

It barely looked like Zimbabwe would get anywhere close to

after pathankot issue minister sushma met a group of diplomats

Foreign minister Sushma Swaraj met a group of diplomats today for what the ministry described as "diplomatic consultations on Pakistan strategy".

The meeting was attended by, among others, S K Lambah, G Parthasarathy, Shyam Saran, Shivshankar Menon, Satyabrata Paul, Sharad Sabharwal and TCA Raghavan.

Sources said though scheduled earlier, the meeting acquired a new dimension after Saturday's terror attack at Pathankot,