Delhi

A cold wave swept through North India on Saturday with temperatures plummeting and fog disrupting transport in New Delhi and Chandigarh.

New Delhi was gripped by dipping temperatures coupled with dense fog, making life difficult for people.

The minimum temperature fell to 4 degrees Celsius on Friday, one of the coldest winter mornings of the season.

Mukhesh Kumar Dixit, a rickshaw puller, who woke up at around 5:00 in the morning, was unable to bear the winter chill. He said his hands were freezing and that he would not be able to work in such weather.

The counting of votes for Rajendra Nagar Assembly constituency in West Delhi began this morning.

Result is expected to be declared by afternoon.

Twelve candidates are in the fray from this constituency.

The polling was rescheduled following the death of BJP candidate Puran Chand Yogi.

Yogi, 73, was a three-time BJP legislator from Rajinder Nagar. He was seeking re-election for the third time from the seat.

He was first elected to the Assembly in 1993 and was re-elected in 1998 and 2003. In the last Assembly polls, he had defeated Raj Kumar Kohli of Congress by 891 votes.

Australians have reportedly discovered the “secret” behind India’s impressive swing bowling, which resulted in a crushing defeat by 320 runs of the visitors in the second Test in Mohali earlier this week.

And, the tourists have decided to emulate the “trick” in rest of the two matches in Delhi and Nagpur.

After closely watching hours of video footage of Indian seam bowlers Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma, the Australians noted that the hosts held the ball across the seam while bowling, after only a handful of overs, or as soon as they have stopped generating conventional swing.

Australian cricket captain Ricky Ponting is of the view that fast bowler Brett Lee only has to fine tune himself to get back to his best form for the remaining two Tests to be played against India in New Delhi and Nagpur respectively.

A Delhi Metropolitan Court on Saturday sent five suspected terrorists allegedly involved in the September 13, Delhi serial blasts to 12 days'' police custody.

Mohammed Saif, Zeeshan, Mohammed Shakeel, Zia-Ur-Rehman and Saquib Nissar were produced before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sanjeev Jain who sent them to police custody till October 16.

On September 19, Saif was arrested in an encounter at Jamia Nagar in south Delhi, while Zeeshan was arrested the same evening from Jhandewalan area in Central Delhi.

The Central Government today gave its approval for establishment of 12 new Central Universities in 12 States and taking over and conversion of four existing State Universities.

A Bill for this purpose will be introduced in the Parliament.

The new universities will be set up in Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. (ANI)

Delhi ushered in Navratras in Yakshagana style with Goddess Durga killing demon Mahishasura. The play was performed at the Swami Malai temple in Ramakrishnapuram by Thenku Thittu Yakshagana troupe from coastal Karnataka.

The play, performed in Hindi by the artistes, was watched by hundreds of devotees who had come to the Temple to usher in the Navaratra festival on Monday evening.

Delhi ushered in Navratras in Yakshagana style with Goddess Durga killing demon Mahishasura. The play was performed at the Swami Malai temple in Ramakrishnapuram by Thenku Thittu Yakshagana troupe from coastal Karnataka.

The play, performed in Hindi by the artistes, was watched by hundreds of devotees who had come to the Temple to usher in the Navaratra festival on Monday evening.

The Centre has decided to extend a pilot project to create additional water recharge facilities across the country in order to improve the fast-depleting ground water table.

The project to repair and renovate water bodies was initially limited to 26 districts of 15 states, but it will now be extended to the entire country during the current (11th) Five Year Plan, a Ministry of Water Resources spokesperson said in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Outgoing Director General of BSF A K Mitra today stressed on the need for a centralised force on the line of the US''s Homeland Security to deal with terror incidents.

Concerned over lack of coordination among security agencies, he said: “Often, there is not enough cooperation. We (security agencies) are not ready to share information with each other. Lack of coordination among us is always there,” Mitra, who retired today as Director General of BSF told reporters here.