New Delhi, Dec 3 (IANS) Israeli President Shimon Peres has appreciated the “heroic efforts” of India’s security forces in rescuing hostages in Mumbai and said that his country is with India in the “crucially important” fight against terrorism.

Ranchi, Dec 3 (IANS) India’s leading steel maker Tata Steel is introducing an early separation scheme in its Jamshedpur plant in Jharkhand to downsize the workforce, officials said Wednesday.

Lucknow, Dec 3 (IANS) A Dalit teenager was beaten to death in an Uttar Pradesh village after he allegedly stole sugarcane from a field, police said Wednesday.

New Delhi, Dec 3 (IANS) A phone call about a terror strike in two schools in the national capital Wednesday triggered panic among parents and teachers but turned out to be a hoax.

New Delhi, Dec 3 (IANS) The rapid downslide in India-Pakistan relations in the wake of the Mumbai terror strikes has alarmed the US as it feels that any confrontation between the two nuclear-armed neighbours could ruin its hopes of defeating a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan.

New Delhi, Dec 3 (IANS) Pakistan must act with “urgency and resolve” and cooperate “fully and transparently” in the aftermath of the Mumbai terror attacks, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said here Wednesday.

Ramnagar (Jammu and Kashmir), Dec 3 (IANS) School children in two districts of Jammu and Kashmir are paying a price for free and fair elections in the state. For the past three weeks these schools have been turned into virtual camps of security forces even as the children have been asked to take an “off”.

Sanaa (Yemen), Dec 3 (DPA) Somali pirates Wednesday freed a Yemeni cargo ship after negotiations with Somali tribal leaders, Yemen’s envoy to Somalia Ahmed Hamid Omar said.