New Delhi, Jan 27, : Former President Ramaswamy Venkataraman passed away on Tuesday at the Army Research and Referral Hospital in New Delhi.

Venkataraman, 98, was admitted to the hospital on January 12 with complains of Urosepsis (a toxic condition caused by the extravasations of urine into bodily tissues.

He was suffering from multi-organ failure and was on advanced life support systems including ventilatory support and continuous hemodialysis," an official of the hospital said.

New Delhi, Jan 27 : Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh continues to maintain excellent progress following his heart surgery.

This morning, Dr Singh had breakfast with his wife and daughters.

According to a statement from the Prime Minister''s office, most of the tubes have been removed from his body and he is taking physiotherapy to enable him move at the earliest.

Dr. Singh is eager to resume work as early as possible. He has received countless messages from across the country and abroad for his speedy recovery.

New Delhi, Jan 27 : External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee will visit Sri Lanka today where the military claims to have captured the last LTTE bastion of Mullaittivu.

During the two-day visit, Mukherjee will meet Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama and to press for early implementation of the devolution package to ensure that the ethnic Tamils get rights and privileges at par with others.

His visit comes in the backdrop of strong demands by the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi and some other parties from the state that the External Affairs Minister should visit Sri Lanka and prevail upon Rajapaksa government to go for ceasefire.

New Delhi, Jan. 27 : The mother of Scarlett Keeling, the British teenager who was murdered on a beach in Goa last February, has charged the police of that state with destroying her daughter's internal organs.

The body of 15-year-old Scarlett Keeling was pulled from North Goa''s Anjuna beach semi-naked, with just a bikini top around her neck, while her bikini bottoms, shorts and shoes were discovered by her mother on a busy path two days later.

New Delhi, Jan 26, : Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday said that the party would finalise its list of all candidates for Delhi and more than half of Uttar Pradesh for the upcoming General Elections by January 29.

BJP will be able to finalize the list during its Central Election Committee (CEC) meet to be held between Jan. 28-29.

"I have called the next CEC meeting of BJP on January 28 and 29. We will finalise our Lok Sabha candidates for almost all the seats," BJP President Rajnath Singh told mediapersons in national capital on Monday.

New Delhi, Jan 26 : Despite of starring in a string of successful films in his career, Tom Cruise "can''t sleep" before he starts filming a movie.

The `Top Gun' actor still gets excited about starting a new film, even though he has been in the business for over 25 years.

"I can''t sleep the night before I start to shoot. I care about the work I do," he said.

And the actor has said that he was particularly keen to begin making new movie ''Valkyrie'' because he found the story so engaging, reports the China Daily.