New Delhi, Nov 26 : Accused of 1993 Mumbai serial blasts Abu Salem was produced in a court in New Delhi on Wednesday in connection with an alleged extortion call made by him to a businessman.

The court has allowed him to return to Mumbai for appearing before various courts in connection with other cases.

Salem is required to give a written undertaking that he would be present in New Delhi on December 12 for the next hearing in connection with the extortion case.

New Delhi, Nov 26 : A man from the Xiaguan district in the Sichuan province called up the police 16 times for assistance after his wife locked him in their house to stop him from meeting his mistress.

The police had received the first call at 7:40 pm on November 13, and they came over to his house to see what the problem was.

The man told them at the time that he needed to meet a friend but was stopped by his wife, the China Daily reports.

When the cops came to know the wife’s side of the story, they decided that it was a domestic dispute and not a kidnapping and that they were powerless to do anything and left.

But the man did not leave things alone and kept on calling the police, and they came after his 16th call.

New Delhi, Nov. 26 : The Indian Navy has defended its action in sinking a pirate ship in the Gulf of Aden waters near Somalia.

The pirate ship was originally a Thai fishing boat.

The Ekawat Nava 5 was captured by pirates on November 18 and the crew was tied up, the BBC quoted officials of the International Maritime Bureau, as saying.

The Indian Navy claimed that the ship was a pirate vessel in "description and intent" and it had opened fire first on the INS Tabar .

At least one crewperson was discovered alive after remaining adrift for six days. Fourteen others are still missing.

New Delhi - At least 28 people have died in four days of torrential rains in India's southern Tamil Nadu state, news reports said Wednesday.

Most of the deaths occurred due to wall collapses, electrocution and drowning in the seven coastal districts since Sunday, PTI and IANS news agencies reported.

The heavy rains and strong winds were being caused by a depression over the Bay of Bengal between the Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka coasts, PTI reported.

The local weather office predicted heavy showers over the next 24 hours.

Tamil Nadu capital Chennai was also affected. Schools and colleges shut down as most streets remained waterlogged.

New Delhi, Nov. 26 : The Chief Information Officer, Wajahat Habibullah, today said that the office of the Chief Justice of India does come under the purview of the Right to Information Act, 2005.

Delivering a talk on "Working of Right to Information Act Issues and Challenges" at the Observer Research Foundation, a press release of the foundation quoted Habibullah as saying that the Central Information Commission would hear soon some petitions pending on the issue. The press release further quoted the CIC as saying that he had had discussions with the Speaker of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha secretariat to improve flow of information regarding the functioning of Members of Parliament.

Ahmedabad, Nov 26 : The Cotton ginners in Gujarat are facing a hard time as the Government has raised the Minimum Support Price (MSP) by almost forty percent.

Gujarat is considered to be the hub of the cotton producers who say the rise in the prices may bring the industry to a standstill as the ginners find the purchasing prices of cotton higher than the selling price of processed cotton.