New Delhi - At least 23 passengers were killed and 33 injured Saturday when a bus plunged into a gorge in India's western Maharashtra state.

The government-run bus was negotiating a steep curve and fell into a 31-metre gorge in the Raigad district district, 150 kilometres south-west of state capital Mumbai, police told the IANS news agency.

Many of the passengers succumbed to their injuries on the spot, while 20 injured were moved to a hospital in Mumbai.

New Delhi - Police in India's north-eastern state of Assam have arrested three men and are investigating whether separatist militants received support from terrorist groups to carry out multiple bombings that claimed 81 lives, news reports said Saturday.

Among those arrested overnight were a man whose car was used in one of Thursday's bombings in the state's capital city of Guwahati, the IANS news agency reported quoting the state's senior police official Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta.

Another arrested man's motorcycle was used in a bombing in the western Bongaigaon district.

New Delhi, Nov 1 : The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Saturday effected yet another 100 basis points cut in cash reserve ratio (CRR) and a 0.5 per cent reduction in key short-term lending repo rate, signaling softening of interest rates to prop up growth.

The CRR cut will be in two trenches and the first one of 0.5 per cent will be effective retrospectively from October 25 and the second from November 8.

The RBI also cut the repo rate, the rate at which it lends to banks, by 0.5 per cent to 7.5 per cent with effect from November 3.

New Delhi  - At least 15 passengers were killed and 38 injured Saturday when a bus plunged into a gorge in India's western Maharashtra state, a news report said.

The accident occurred when a government-run bus was negotiating a steep curve in the Raigad district district, some 150 kilometres south-west of state capital Mumbai, police told the IANS news agency.

Many of the passengers succumbed to their injuries on the scene while 20 wounded were moved to a hospital in Mumbai.

The death toll could rise as some of the injured were in a serious condition, the report said.

New Delhi, Nov 1 : Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh met the chiefs of the three wings of the defence service - the Army, the Navy and the Air Force – in New Delhi on Saturday.

Dr. Singh and Defence Minister A. K. Antony met Navy Chief, Admiral Sureesh Mehta, Fali H. Major, Chief of India''s Air Force and Deepak Kapoor, Chief of the Army Staff.

The chiefs met to review and to address matters of national security on the day of the combined Commanders'' Conference.

New Delhi  - India's central bank on Saturday lowered its key short-term lending rate (repo) as well as banks' cash reserve requirements to inject additional liquidity of about 850 billion rupees (18 billion dollars) to help growth amid the global economic slowdown, officials and news reports said.

The repo rate has been cut by 50 basis points to 7.5 per cent and the cash reserve ratio (CRR) stands lowered by 100 basis points to 5.5 per cent, a notification posted on the Reserve Bank of India's website said.