New Delhi, Apr. 15 : The Rajasthan Royals, which won last year''s inaugural Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20 tournament, has axed former Test player and Uttar Pradesh captain Mohammad Kaif and seven other players from the squad that will do duty in the second edition.

They will now fly back to India. Kaif was purchased for a hefty 675,000 US dollars at the auction last year, but didn''t have much of a role during the victorious campaign.

New Delhi, Apr 15 : High School Musical star Zac Efron has revealed that he always keeps memorabilia of his films in the boot of his car, to help get him out of sticky situations.

Efron, 21, says that in order for him to get his way, he sometimes has to resort to using such tactics, reports the China Daily.

"I've kind of got it figured out. I just pull in to the lot at the movie studio and photographers can''t follow me," he said.

New Delhi, Apr 15 : Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh today said that no effort can be made to have peace talks with Pakistan unless Islamabad takes strict action against the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks.

Interacting with members of the Editors Guild of India, Dr. Singh rejected as "not true" Pakistan's contention that India has not provided sufficient evidence to Pakistan in connection with the 26/11 attacks.

New Delhi - The trial against Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone surviving gunmen of the November Mumbai terror attack suffered a setback Wednesday when a special court dismissed the state-appointed lawyer for professional misconduct, news reports said. Anjali Waghmare failed to disclose that she also represented a witness in the same case when she was appointed to defend Kasab, NDTV news quoted judge ML Tahiliyani of the special court as saying.

"It will not be appropriate for Waghmare to continue. I revoke the appointment," Tahiliyani said, citing a conflict of interest.

New Delhi, Apr 15 : With the Election Commission identifying the twenty-three thousand villages that would go to polls for the first phase of Lok Sabha elections on Thursday as "vulnerable", the onus is now on the central and state governments to ensure peaceful elections.

A total of 1,715 candidates, including 122 women, are contesting for the 124 seats, where over nine lakh officials have been deployed across 1.85 lakh polling stations.

Deputy Election Commissioner R. Balakrishnan has assured to deploy Central paramilitary forces along with state security forces at the polling booths.

New Delhi, Apr. 15 : Leader of Opposition L K Advani skipped a farewell dinner for former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee hosted by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here on Tuesday evening.

Advani's skipping of the dinner comes amid a bitter war of words between him and Dr. Singh.

Advani has described Singh as the weakest Prime Minister the country has seen, while Singh has countered by saying he would not like to give Advani the privilege of being an alternative Prime Minister by joining a debate with him.