New Delhi  - German-born Sister Mary Prema has been elected the new head of the Missionaries of Charity, a congregation founded by Mother Teresa in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata, news reports said Thursday.

The appointment has to be ratified by the Vatican.

The congregation's general chapter elected Sister Mary Prema as superior general after its current leader, Sister Nirmala, said she wanted to be relieved of the position, citing poor health, the Times of India newspaper reported.

New Delhi, Mar. 26 (ANI): A casual glance through the Congress Party’s latest manifesto indicates that it has placed on itself a huge and onerous task of fulfilling 29 promises as part of its nation-building endeavour between 2009 and 2014, should it emerge victorious in this year’s general elections.

The 21-page manifesto starts off with a pledge to ensure a “life of security, dignity and prosperity” for every Indian citizen, and claims “we have delivered on promises made in our manifesto of 2004 in a very substantial measure”.

Kolkata, March 26 : German-born Sister Mary Prema has been elected as the new superior general of the Missionaries of Charity (MC), the congregation founded by Mother Teresa in Kolkata.

The German-born nun replaces Sister Nirmala Joshi, who was re-elected for a third time on March 13 and has led the congregation since 1997, after the death of Mother Teresa.

According to the headquarters of Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata, the nuns were keen to re-elect Sister Nirmala, but she requested to be relieved from her duties due to ill health.

Cape Town (South Africa), Mar. 26 : The Indian Premier League is set to start with a bang at Newlands, with four games on the first two days of the series.

The final programme will be finalised today, but it has been learned that the series will start at Newlands on 18 April with an opening ceremony and two games.

Provincial cricket bosses were scurrying on Wednesday to make arrangements for the series, which starts in 23 days’ time.

Sachana (Gujarat), Mar 26 : A global economic slowdown has hit industries ranging from automakers to investment banks, but in Sachana village of Gujarat, business is at record levels and workers are struggling to meet the demands.

In Sachana, home to the world''s largest ship breaking facility on the coast of Gujarat, as a slowdown in global trade and lower freight rates mean ships are being scrapped faster.

New Delhi, Mar 26 : The Army on Thursday revealed that a top militant of the Pakistan based terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) was killed in the gun-battle with security forces in Jammu and Kashmir''s Kupwara district.

On receiving information about militant infiltration in the forest area, the Army, assisted by local police had acted promptly and launched a gunbattle on March 20, in which the self-styled district commander of LeT Abdullah was killed, a defence spokesman said.

The militants had sneaked into Kupwara as the dense forest range is close to the Line of Control (LoC).