New Delhi, Jan 31: India will sign a nuke safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Nuclear Agency (IAEA) at the headquarters of the agency, Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), in Vienna on Monday.

India''s ambassador Saurab Kumar will sign the inspection agreement, which will be later approved by the central government and Chief negotiator Ravi Grover will work on the additional mandatory protocol requirements.

New Delhi, Jan 31: Union Home Minister P Chidambaram will visit Jharkhand today to asses the law and order in naxal-affected states.

According to sources, during his day-long visit, Chidambaram will meet Jharkhand Governor Syed Sibtey Razi and other senior officials, including official of the CRPF.

His visit to Jharkhand comes following his assurance to the Chief Ministers of the naxal-affected states that he will provide all kinds of assistance to them to tackle the Naxal menace at a meeting in New Delhi on January 7.

New Delhi, Jan 31: Chief Election Commissioner N. Gopalaswami has demanded the removal of Election Commissioner Navin Chawla over charges of "partisanship". He has sent his recommendation to the President, who has forwarded it to the Prime Minister.

The move is being seen in government and media circles as having serious institutional and political ramifications, even as the country is getting ready for general elections to be held in April-May this year.

New Delhi, Jan. 30 : The special Central Bureau of Investigation court would pronounce its first judgement in the infamous Nithari killings case on February 12, as it has completed proceedings in the Rimpa Haldar murder case.

Haldar, a married woman, was called by Kohli to work as housemaid at Pandher''s Bunglow. She had gone missing before the disclosure of the Nithari killings.

New York - Petroleum giant Exxon Mobil reported Friday it achieved a record profit of 45 billion dollars in 2008 although earnings plunged in the last quarter amid slumping prices.

The world's largest petroleum concern said its profit came to 45.22 billion dollars, up 11 per cent from the previous record results achieved in 2007.

In the last quarter, profits fell one-third to 7.8 billion dollars, the Houston, Texas-based oil concern said, reflecting the strong drop in prices as the economic slump made itself felt.

New Delhi - Hundreds of people Friday held protests in India's southern state of Tamil Nadu over the plight of the Tamil ethnic minority caught in the war in Sri Lanka, news reports and officials said.

A day after a protestor set himself ablaze to highlight the suffering of the Sri Lankan Tamils, there was growing tension in the state capital, Chennai, which witnessed a number of protests.

Almost 5,000 students were expected to attend the funeral of the protestor, the NDTV network reported.