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 : Popstar Christina Aguilera is keen on learning how to cook "bad-for-your-arteries" food.

The ‘Keep Getting Better’ hitmaker is hoping that she’s able to make meals like her mother in order to impress 10-month-old Max, her first child with husband Jordan Bratman, reports China Daily.

"My mom loves to cook really southern, good, buttery, salty, delicious, bad-for-your-arteries kind of food, but it is amazing, and I hope to be a cook like that someday because one thing that I look forward to whenever I do go home is tasting my mom''s home cooking,” Aguilera said.

"I want to do the same for Max. Cooking is my next goal in life to achieve,” she added.

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.

New Delhi - The foreign ministers of India and Pakistan were expected to discuss their four-year-old peace dialogue at a meeting in New Delhi Wednesday.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi was scheduled to arrive in the evening and hold talks with his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee, an Indian Foreign Ministry release said.

The two leaders were expected to discuss a host of bilateral issues including the composite peace dialogue between the nuclear-capable South Asian neighbours that began in 2004, Indian diplomatic officials said.

New Delhi, Nov 26 : Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi will campaign at Delhi on Wednesday.

The Gandhi scion will address the rally in GTB Enclave in Dilshad Garden, which is part of the Seemapuri constituency.

This will be the first ever election rally of Rahul Gandhi in the capital which is going to polls on November 29.

Nominees from other nearby constituencies will attend the rally besides Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and other party MPs.

Congress Party President Sonia Gandhi has already addressed an election rally in Mongolpuri.