SYDNEY: Australian Prime Minister John Howard's Conservative coalition won a second term in office after surviving a huge swing to the Opposition Labour Party in Saturday's general election. With around 75 per cent of the primary vote counted, ABC television projected that Howard's Liberal National coalition is expected to get between 77 to 83 seats in the 148-member House.

Nuns' rape case

BHOPAL: Three more persons have been arrested in connection with the rape of four nuns in Nawapada village of Jhabua district in Madhya Pradesh, raising the number of those apprehended in the case to six. Two of the three belong to Dhebhar village while another hails from Roomkheda village.

Bihar clash

MUNGER: Police today fired in the air as nearly 27 people were injured in a clash over immersion of an idol of Goddess Durga at Kharagpur. The incident was sparked off when processionists accompanying the idol on its way for immersion were stopped bypolice from taking a particular route.

State rains toll 94

MUMBAI: Ten persons were killed and 17 injured in rain-related incidents in Maharashtra last night, taking the toll to 94 this monsoon even as life in the metropolis, battered by a heavy downpour, was limping back to normalcy today.

Uttarakhand BSP

NEW DELHI: Reflecting the current plurality in her party, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday admitted virtually the entire Uttarakhand BSP unit into her fold while keeping speculation alive on a possible understanding with Kanshi Ram in MP.

Shakeel aide killed

MUMBAI: Unfazed by the report of Principal Sessions Judge A S Aguiar holding the Mumbai police guilty of staging encounters, elimination of gangsters continued with the killing of Mohammed Waris Mohammed Wajid Hussain (30), a close associate of Chhota Shakeel, in an encounter at Cotton Green on Saturday.