Mumbai: Ghazal king Jagjit Singh, the soul-stirring voice behind 'Hazaron khwaishe aisi', 'Ye kaghaz ki kashti and 'Jhuki jhuki si nazar', died this morning over a fortnight after he suffered brain haemorrhage.

The 70-year-old singer, who along with his wife Chitra almost rediscovered the ghazal genre for common Indian in the 70s and 80s, was admitted to the Lilavati hospital on September 23 and was in coma since then.

"Jagjit Singh passed away at 8.10 AM after having a terrible hemorrhage," said Dr Sudhir Nandgaonkar, hospital spokesperson, here.

The day he was admitted, he was supposed to perform at a concert at Shanmukhananda Hall, Matunga, in Mumbai, but the programme was cancelled after he was taken ill. Despite a surgery, his condition did not improve and he remained on life support.

Singh, a Padma Bhushan recipient, was born in Sri Ganganagar, Rajasthan, on February 8, 1941. After graduation, he shifted base to Mumbai, to explore career in the world of music. In the next decade and half, he earned nationwide fame as ghazal singer and music composer. He sang in several languages, including Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali, Gujarati, Nepali.

His personal life, though, was marked by a tragedy: His only son, Vivek, died in a car accident in 1990 when he was just 18. — PTI

New Delhi: The Supreme Court today suspended the death sentence awarded to Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab in the 26/11 Mumbai attack case, saying that it would like to hear his plea challenging capital punishment at length as "due process of law" has to be followed, even though many feel that the appeal should be outrightly "rejected".

While staying Kasab's death sentence and agreeing to deal with the appeal expeditiously, a special bench of justices Aftab Alam and C. K. Prasad also permitted him to amend his Special Leave Petition and furnish additional grounds to challenge the sentence awarded to him by the special court and confirmed by the Bombay High Court.

Chennai/New Delhi/Hyderabad: The CBI today conducted raids across three cities in connection with the 2G spectrum scam, searching the premises of DMK leader and former Union Minister Dayanidhi Maran, his brother and an Apollo Hospital director. A first information report (FIR) report was also registered against the Maran brothers.

Besides Dayanidhi Maran, a former Communications Minister, raids were also conducted on the premises of his brother and promoter of Sun TV group Kalanithi Maran, Apollo Hospital executive director Suneeta Reddy and offices of Sun TV.

Dayanidhi Maran is under the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) scanner following a complaint by industrialist C. Sivasankaran that he was forced to exit the mobile telephone company Aircel by the then Communications Minister. Sivasankaran alleged that Aircel was not given telecom licences and he was forced to sell his holdings to Malaysia-based Maxis group owned by T. Ananda Krishnan. — IANS

London: Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh was chosen 'Sikh Sportsperson of the Year' at the World Sikh Awards 2011 for his "contribution to the Indian cricket team's World Cup triumph". Harbhajan, however, could not receive the award personally here as he was busy leading Mumbai Indians to the Champions League Twenty20 title. — PTI