The West Bengal Petroleum Dealers’ Association (WBPDA) called for a 24-hour strike here on Friday to protest the ‘irrational’ policies of the major oil companies in the country. Around 2,000 petrol pump dealers took part in the strike, as the WBPDA claimed that despite paying full prices for petroleum products, the oil companies supply less More >

Swine flu has hit Kolkata yet again, this time probably in a mutated form. Twelve patients have tested positive for the H1N1 virus in the last 11 days, including minister Nandagopal Bhattacharya. Three tested positive on Thursday itself. A 25-year-old man, Manoj Kriplani, has also tested positive. A patient of chronic renal failure, he returned More >

They are barely 18 years old, but have already achieved immortality. Anish Mukherjee and Debarghya Sarkar, who passed out of South Point High School this year, now have two minor planets named after them. The celestial honour was bestowed on them by the Massachussetts Institute of Technology and Lincoln Laboratory of the US. The honour More >

Raising concerns over violence in children, it has emerged that two teenage boys molested and strangled a five-year-old girl to death. The boys aged 12 and 14 molested, battered, strangled and killed five-year-old Jhumjhum Das on the terrace of a 10-storied building at Turfview, Hastings, on Tuesday, Jun 29 evening, reported a leading national daily. More >

s the Soccer World Cup mania grips fans all over the world, daughters of sex workers of Kolkata are keen to play the sport. Fifteen-year-old Tulsi Sardar, daugher of a sex worker, looks up to Brazilian football star Ronaldo as her idol and enjoys playing football.

As soccer crazy Kolkata gets engulfed in the World Cup fever, sculptors here are busy making statues of football stars like Diego Maradona, Lionel Messi and Kaka. “We are receiving orders for statues of Kaka, Maradona and Messi,” said a sculptor from Kumortuli standing beside a Messi statue made by him. Kumortuli is a potters’ More >

Football lovers in Kolkata celebrated the world’s biggest football event at Kalighat to mark the beginning of the World Cup. India, ranked 133rd in the world, has never come close to qualifying for the World Cup, but that does not seem to have dampened the enthusiasm of the fans for the month-long tournament.

The results of West Bengal’s civic polls announced on Wednesday suggest a “hung situation”in nearly 30 municipalities. However, Mamata Banerjee said: “It is wrong to say there is a hung situation in so many municipalities.” The Trinamool Congress chief claimed the people’s mandate is primarily in her party’s favour and the public had voted for More >

Chowdhuri Mohan Jatua, Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting inaugurated the festival at Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute this evening. He said that as part of celebration of the 60th year of diplomatic relation between the two countries festival of China and Festival of India are being organized in the other country.