Lalu gets 5-yr jail in fodder scam 
* Fined Rs 25 lakh; ceases to be MP * Bihar ex-CM Jagannath Mishra jailed for 4 years
Ranchi, October 3
Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad was on Thursday sentenced to five years imprisonment in a 17-year-old fodder scam case by a special CBI court. It immediately disqualifies him as MP and will keep him out of elections for 11 years, raising questions over the leadership of his party ahead of Lok Sabha polls next year. Special CBI judge Pravas Kumar Singh pronounced the sentence of the two-time former Bihar Chief Minister, another former Chief Minister Jagannath Mishra and sitting JD(U) MP Jagdish Sharma and other convicts, who are currently lodged in the Birsa Munda Central Jail here, through video-conferencing.

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Cabinet stamp on Telangana; Hyderabad to be joint capital
New Delhi, October 3
The Union Cabinet tonight cleared the formation of the new state of Telangana by bifurcating Andhra Pradesh. Hyderabad, the former city of Nizams, will be the joint capital of the two states — Telangana and Seemaandhra — for 10 years. “The Cabinet has approved the creation of Telangana. Hyderabad will be a joint capital for 10 years," Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said after the Cabinet meeting.

Words against ordinance may be wrong, but not sentiment: Rahul
Ahmedabad, October 3
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi today claimed he had vented the sentiments of the youth of the country and a large number of his party men when he described the proposed ordinance on convicted politicians as “nonsense”. He is on a two-day visit to Gujarat to assess his party’s working. Rahul admitted that on the hindsight, he realised that the words used by him were “too strong”, but felt as a young man what he said “was right”.

9 feared dead as boat capsizes in Beas
Kabirpur (Sultanpur Lodhi), Oct 3
At least nine persons were feared drowned after a boat capsized in the Beas in Munda village of Tarn Taran district on Thursday. Tragedy struck soon after the boat carrying 16 boys and an elderly man to a religious fair at Dalla village of Sultanpur Lodhi across the Beas gave way. While seven boys and the boat operator managed to swim to safety, nine of them were feared drowned.

Militants hiding in huts near LoC
New Delhi/Srinagar, Oct 3
The biggest counter-infiltration operation in recent times entered its 10th day on Thursday as a large number of militants remain holed up between the Line of Control and the fencing, also called the Anti-Insurgency Obstacle System, in Kupwara’s Keran sector.

The big picture: Star power to sell ‘Brand Punjab’
Chandigarh, October 3
For long, Gujarat has been the benchmark for initiating development in Punjab. So much so, that for almost all development and welfare initiatives, the ruling SAD-BJP government in the state has been following the “Gujarat model”.