UPA candidate Hamid Ansari scored comfortable victory in the vice-presidential election Tuesday, defeating NDA nominee Jaswant Singh by 238 votes to secure another term in office. The anticipated outcome was announced by Lok Sabha Secretary General T.K. Viswanathan, the returning officer for the poll, minutes after the counting of votes ended Tuesday evening. Ansari, 75, polled 490 first preference votes out of 728 valid votes cast in the election held earlier in the day. Jaswant Singh polled

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and BJP leader L.K. Advani were among the members from both houses of parliament who voted Tuesday to elect India's 14th vice president. Vice President Hamid Ansari, the candidate of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA), is expected to win a second term in office, breezing through the challenge from the National Democratic Alliance's (NDA) candidate, BJP leader Jaswant Singh. Voting began at 10 a.m. and will continue till 5 p.m. Counting of votes will be taken up at 6 p.m. T

BJP leader Sushma Swaraj Tuesday urged Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde to take emergency measures to evacuate pilgrims stranded in Uttrakashi following flash floods in Uttarakhand. Swaraj spoke to Shinde by phone. The minister assured her of doing the needful. I have just spoken to Shinde and requested him to requisition army and air force helicopters and rescue the pilgrims immediately," Swaraj wrote on micro-blogging site Twitter. He assured me that he will do the needful at the earliest," she added. Torrential rains led to

The shocking image of a Class 6 boy shaking the contents of a gutka (tobacco-laced areca nut pieces) pouch into his mouth was one of the reasons prompted Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar to quit his own gutka-eating habit. arrikar made the confession during zero hour Tuesday when he also assured the Goa assembly that the government was looking at legal options to stop the manufacturers of 'Goa gutka' a leading gutka manufacturer, to stop using the name of the state on his sachets. used to have gutka. But I was also

Posters put by an outfit in the Jharkhand capital have threatened acid attacks on girls and women who wear jeans or do not wear a dupatta. The police said it could be a case of mischief. The handwritten posters, put up by Jharkhand Mukti Sangh at several points in the city, including St. Xavier's College and Albert Ekka roundabout, read: "From 20/8/2012 (Aug 20), jeans have been banned for girls. Any girl will be found wearing jeans and moving without dupatta will be attacked with acid." The poster also warns against displacing people for