At least 52 LTTE militants were killed in fierce battles with the Sri Lankan army near the Jaffna peninsula officials said on Friday.

The Army also captured a Tamil Tigers' airstrip in nearby Kilinochchi.

"Smashing the conventional notion that the Tigers' Forward Defence Lines in Muhamale and Kilaly cannot be challenged, troops in Jaffna on Thursday overran the first LTTE Forward Defence Line in the strategic bottleneck and the lagoon to the north and south of the Jaffna-Kandy Highway killing over fifty militants," the army said.

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has ordered to stop demolition of temples in the state with immediate effect. The move came after VHP President Ashok Singhal met him on Friday

The State Govt. has demolished nearly 200 temples along the city roads as part of its anti-encroachment drive, annoying saffron groups - VHP, Bajrang Dal and others - Hindu groups.

Even the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) had compared it to the plundering of temples by Mahmod of Ghazni in medieval India.

Virgin Mobile surely deserves lots of congratulations for expanding its range of mobile phones, with the launching of its latest addition ‘vKewl’ in the Indian market.

Targeting youth, vKewl comes packed with a 1.3 megapixel camera having video recording capability, an MP3 player, FM radio, MMS, speakers and headsets.

The CDMA-capable phone features vBytes and WAP connection, 1.8-inch display screen with resolution of 176 x 220 pixels , 256 MB flash memory together with 64 MB SRAM.

The Supreme Court on Friday said 'NO' to a petition seeking registration of a criminal case under MCOCA (Maharashtra Control of Organised Crimes Act) against MNS chief Raj Thackeray.

An NGO Yuva Shakti filed the petition against Raj for his party's hate campaign and violence against north Indians in Mumbai.

 "It is not our duty to pass orders for registering cases," said a Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan.

"Don't convert this court into police station," the Court said. Justice P Sathasivan was also a member of the bench.

President Pratibha Patil is scheduled to visit Vietnam and Indonesia next week. The visit aims to enhance bilateral ties with those two countries.

During her 10 day visit President Patil will hold extensive talks with the leaders of Vietnam and Indonesia which have seen impressive growth rates.

 "This visit essentially reaffirms India commitment to enhance our engagement with these countries, our close friends within ASEAN fraternity. It is part of our Look East policy initiative," Secretary (East) N Ravi said at New Delhi.

A recent study has articulated that taking pine bark extract for a few days prior to a long flight could reduce the severity and the duration of jet lag symptoms. According to Dr. Gianni Belcaro, a lead researcher of the study, Pycnogenol's combined activities for better circulation and antioxidant potency are the reasons for such remarkable results.