New Delhi - Daily life was disrupted in India's southern state of Tamil Nadu Thursday as a key regional party called a general strike to demand immediate steps for a ceasefire to the conflict in neighbouring Sri Lanka, news reports said.

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) which rules Tamil Nadu and is a partner of India's ruling United Progressive Alliance, called the 12-hour dawn-to-dusk strike, the PTI news agency reported.

New Delhi - Indian stock markets rose by nearly 3 per cent Thursday with the bell-weather Sensex index gaining over 315 points to end a three-day losing streak.

The Bombay Stock Exchange's 30-share sensitive index, Sensex, closed at 11,134.99, 2.93 per cent above its previous close.

The rally which took place in the afternoon session was led by the IT, metal and realty stocks.

Twenty-eight stocks in the Sensex ended in positive terrain and two ended in the red.

New Delhi, Apr 23 : The rate of inflation in India for the week ended April 11 rose marginally to 0.26 percent, from 0.18 percent a week earlier, a government data showed on Thursday.

The inflation rate, as measured by the wholesale price index, was 7.95 per cent during the corresponding week of the previous year.

During the week, prices of raw food as a whole rose by 0.5 percent due to tea prices increasing by five percent, bajara by three percent, fruit and vegetables by two percent, and mutton and maize by one percent each.

New Delhi, Apr 23 : Consequent to a couple of attacks by Maoists which disrupted the first and second stages of elections to the Lok Sabha, Union Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta assured that the subsequent three phases of polls will be secure, free and fair.

"The objective of having a free and successful democratic process was achieved and that will be achieved in subsequent phases also. Lets us not try to give a larger than life image (to the Naxals)," said Gupta.

In response to a petition, about black money stashed in foreign banks, filed in the Supreme Court by ex-Law Minister and renowned jurist Ram Jethmalani and five others, the Additional Solicitor General, Gopal Subramanium, has promised an explanation about the measures taken by the government within 48 hours!

New Delhi, Apr 23 : Communist Party of India (Marxist) General Secretary Prakash Karat has ruled out the possibility of forming a post-poll alliance with the with the Congress party.

In an exclusive interview with TIMESNOW, Karat clarified that his party''s aim is to see that there is a "non-Congress secular government."

He revealed that in the event of the CPI (M) failing to do so, it "would prefer to sit in the opposition."