enormous ash cloud from a remote Icelandic volcano caused the biggest flight disruption since the 2001 terrorist attacks as it drifted over northern Europe and stranded travelers on six continents. Officials said it could take days for the skies to become safe again in one of aviation's most congested areas.

The cloud, floating miles (kilometers) above Earth and capable of knocking out jet engines, wrecked travel plans for tens of thousands of people Thursday, from tourists and business travelers to politicians and royals. They couldn't see the source of their frustration -- except indirectly, when the ash created vivid red and lavender sunsets.

Non-emergency flights in Britain were canceled, and most will stay grounded until at least midday Friday. Authorities in Ireland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Belgium also closed their air space. France shut down 24 airports, including the main hub of Charles de Gaulle in Paris, Germany's Berlin and Hamburg were shut Thursday evening, and several flights out of the US had to double back. Kyla Evans, spokeswoman for air traffic service Eurocontrol, said half of all trans-Atlantic flights were expected to be canceled Friday.

At London's Heathrow airport, normally one of the world's busiest with more than 1,200 flights and 180,000 travelers a day, passengers stared forlornly at departure boards on which every flight was listed as canceled. "We made it all the way to takeoff on the plane. ... They even showed us the safety video," said Sarah Davis, 29, a physiotherapist from Portsmouth in southern England who was hoping to fly to Los Angeles. "I'm upset. I only get so much vacation."

A volcano beneath Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull (ay-yah-FYAH'-plah-yer-kuh-duhl) glacier began erupting Wednesday for the second time in less than a month, triggering floods and shooting smoke and steam miles into the air. Video showed spectacular images of hot gases melting the thick ice, sending cascades of water thundering down the steep slopes of the volcano.

About 700 people from rural areas near the volcano were evacuated Thursday because of flash flooding, as water carrying icebergs the size of small houses rushed down the mountain. Most evacuees were allowed to return home after the floods subsided, but more flash floods are expected as long as the volcano keeps erupting, said Rognvaldur Olafsson of the Civil Protection Department.

The ash cloud became a menace to air travel as it drifted south and east toward northern Europe -- including Britain, about 1,200 miles (2,000 kilometers) away. The ash plume drifted at between 20,000 feet and 36,000 feet (6,000 meters and 11,000 meters), where it could get sucked into airplane engines and cause them to shut down. The smoke and ash also could affect aircraft visibility.

Britain's air traffic service said early Friday it was extending a ban on most air traffic until 7 p.m. local time Friday, but flights to Scotland and Northern Ireland, and North Atlantic flights to and from Glasgow, Prestwick and Belfast airports may be allowed until 1 p.m. local time. The agency said Britain had not halted all flights in its space in living memory, although many were grounded after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States. "People can't remember a time when it has been on this scale," said Patrick Horwood of the air traffic service. "Certainly never involving a volcano."

Eurocontrol spokeswoman Evans said the ash had led to the cancellation of about 4,000 flights within Europe Thursday, and that could rise to 6,000 Friday. Several US flights bound for Heathrow, including those from Chicago, San Francisco, Denver, Las Vegas and New York, had to return to their departure cities or land elsewhere when London airports were closed. Canadian airlines also canceled some Europe-bound flights.

In Washington, the Federal Aviation Administration said it was working with airlines to try to reroute some flights around the huge ash cloud, which is hundreds of miles wide. Flights from Asia, Africa, South America, Australia and the Middle East to Heathrow and other top European hubs were also put on hold.

Australia's Qantas airline said it had some 1,700 passengers grounded Friday from five flights - about 1,000 passengers stranded in Singapore, and 350 each in Hong Kong and Bangkok. New Zealand's national carrier Air New Zealand warned travelers flying to Europe to defer their plans Friday, as it canceled two flights through London and diverted a third to Germany.

In Britain, the closures curtailed some campaigning for the May 6 national election. Monarchs from Norway and the Netherlands traveling to a 70th birthday celebration for Denmark's Queen Margrethe found their plans up in the air. Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt resorted to driving home to Sweden from Brussels. "We'll arrive sometime tomorrow," his spokeswoman Irena Busic said.

Eurostar train services to France and Belgium and Channel ferries were packed as travelers sought ways out of Britain. P&O ferries said it had booked a passenger on its Dover-Calais route who was trying to get to Beijing -- he hoped to fly from Paris instead of London.

It was unclear whether the ash cloud would affect the arrival of President Barack Obama and other world leaders planning to attend the state funeral Sunday of Polish President Lech Kaczynski, who died in a plane crash. Polish authorities banned flights over part of northwestern Poland late Thursday, the country's PAP news agency reported. The funeral is to be held in Krakow, in southeastern Poland.
The Icelandic plume lies above the Atlantic Ocean close to the flight paths for most routes from the U.S. East Coast to Europe, and over northern Europe itself.

Meteorologists from the AccuWeather forecasting service in the U.S. said the current ash plume will threaten air travel over Europe through Sunday at the least. Einar Kjartansson, a geophysicist at the Icelandic Meteorological Office, said the problem might persist for weeks, depending on how much wind carries the ash.

Explosive volcanic eruptions inject large amounts of highly abrasive ash -- essentially very small rock fragments -- into the upper atmosphere, the cruising altitude of most jet airliners. It can cause significant damage to both airframes and engines. Health protection officials in Britain said some of the ash will fall to ground level overnight -- starting in Scotland before moving south -- although Britain's weather forecasters said the public should not be concerned.

The US Geological Survey said about 100 aircraft have run into volcanic ash from 1983 to 2000. In some cases engines shut down briefly after sucking in volcanic debris, but there have been no fatal incidents.
In 1989, a KLM Royal Dutch Airlines Boeing 747 flew into an ash cloud from Alaska's Redoubt volcano and lost all power, dropping from 25,000 feet to 12,000 feet (7,500 meters to 3,600) before the crew could get the engines restarted. The plane landed safely.

In another incident in the 1980s, a British Airways 747 flew into a dust cloud and the grit sandblasted the windscreen. The pilot had to stand and look out a side window to land safely. Gideon Ewers, spokesman for the International Federation of Airline Pilots Associations, attributed the extent of the disruption to amount of air traffic in the area where the plume was drifting. "Normally, these volcanic eruptions affect air travel in areas of thin traffic such as the Aleutian islands in Alaska, or in Indonesia and the Philippines," he said.

Ironically, Iceland's Keflavik airport remained open Thursday. Flights to Europe were canceled but those to North America were operating normally. Iceland, a nation of 320,000 people, sits on a large volcanic hot spot in the Atlantic's mid-oceanic ridge, and has a history of devastating eruptions 
 

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In an unprecedented case of human sacrifice, the beheaded body of a 35-year-old man was found outside a temple of Goddess Kali this morning about 6 km from Bolpur in West Bengal's Birbhum district.

The body was found outside the temple by the priest who went there for prayers around 5 am. The temple is two km away from the nearest village called Donaipur.

Police arrived around 9 am. A man called Lalmohan Hansda of Donaipur village has been detained for the human sacrifice. Sniffer dogs used by police led to Hansda's house.

Confirming a case of human sacrifice, SDPO Bolpur Kalyan Mukherjee said the victim is not a local man.

According to Chandan Mukherjee, the priest of the Kajjala Kali Mandir, he had performed puja at the temple till about 9 last night. When he returned this morning, he saw a body lying just outside the temple.

When a closer look revealed the man had been beheaded, the scared priest ran to the nearest village for help. Inside the temple were some burnt incense sticks and blood splattered near the idol of the goddess.  
 

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Commonwealth Games gold medallist shooter Pemba Tamang was stopped by immigration officials in Mumbai from boarding a flight to Beijing as his passport had the "invalid" stapled visa, which China issues to the Indians from Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh.
    
Tamang, a resident of Arunachal, was last night going to Beijing for International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup, to be held from April 17 to 24.
    
The Rapid Fir pistol shooter said he was not aware of the fact that the Ministry of External Affairs had declared stapled visas as invalid for travelling out of the country in an advisory issued last year in November.
    
"I had travelled to China on a paper visa on three previous occasions and I wasn't aware that the government had declared them invalid. If I had known, I would not have accepted the visa when it was issued to me," Tamang told PTI.
    
Recalling the sequence of events in Mumbai, Tamang, who is part of a 28-member team for the World Cup, said he was stopped by the immigration after checking in.
    
"We were boarding the flight from Mumbai for the World Cup. We were first supposed to go to Bangkok and from there to Beijing. Immigration officials told me that my visa was not valid as the government does not accept stapled visas.
    
"I tried to explain that I had travelled on such a visa three times earlier but they said the new guidelines don't allow it anymore," he said from Pune.
    
Tamang, however, can still make the World Cup if he is issued a fresh pasted visa.
    
"I may still go because my event is on April 21 and 22. Immigration people told me that if the Indian Embassy in China issues a letter relaxing the conditions then there is a slim possibility of me going," he said.
    
Reacting to the controversy, the National Rifles Association of India's secretary Rajeev Bhatia said, "He was issued a paper visa because he is from Arunachal while the rest of the team got the normal pasted visas."
    
"It is true that he has travelled to China in the past on a stapled visa but the government guidelines right now prohibit that. Now, he won't go unless he gets the normal visa," he added.
    
Last year, the External Affairs Ministry had slammed China for issuing separate visas "to certain categories of Indian nationals on the basis of their domicile, ethnicity and/or place of issue of the passport.
    
"All Indian citizens intending to travel to China are advised that before making any travel arrangements they should first ascertain from the Chinese embassy or consulate, whether the visa being issued to them will be affixed to the passport or will be in the nature of a stapled paper visa, so that they are not inconvenienced or put to any financial loss later on this count," the ministry had said. 
 

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A series of strong earthquakes struck China's western Qinghai province Wednesday, killing at least 300 people, injuring thousands and burying many others under toppled houses in a mountainous rural area, officials and state media said.

The US Geological Survey said a magnitude 6.9 temblor struck an area in southern Qinghai, near Tibet, on Wednesday morning and was followed by several aftershocks.

The main quake sent residents fleeing as it toppled houses made of mud and wood, said Karsum Nyima, the Yushu county television station's deputy head of news, speaking by phone with broadcaster CCTV.

"In a flash, the houses went down. It was a terrible earthquake," he said. "In a small park, there is a Buddhist tower and the top of the tower fell off. ... Everybody is out on the streets, standing in front of their houses, trying to find their family members."

The quake hit the county of Yushu, a Tibetan area in Qinghai's south, said the China Earthquake Networks Center, which measured the quake's magnitude at 7.1. A local government Web site put the county's population in 2005 at 89,300, a community of mostly herders and farmers.

State broadcaster CCTV said the death toll had risen to about 300, with an additional 8,000 people injured.

The China Earthquake Administration said phone lines were down, hindering rescue efforts, while workers were racing to release water from a reservoir where a crack had formed after the quake.

In Jiegu, a township near the epicenter, more than 85 percent of houses had collapsed, while large cracks have appeared on buildings still standing, the official Xinhua News Agency cited Zhuohuaxia, a local publicity official, as saying.

"The streets in Jiegu are thronged with panic and full of injured people, with many of them bleeding from their injuries," he said.

There were also students buried under the debris of a collapsed vocational school, Zhuohuaxia said.

State television showed footage of paramilitary police using shovels to dig around a house with a collapsed wooden roof. A local military official, Shi Huajie, told state broadcaster CCTV rescuers were working with limited equipment.

"The difficulty we face is that we don't have any excavators. Many of the people have been buried and our soldiers are trying to pull them out with human labor," Shi said. "It is very difficult to save people with our bare hands."

Five thousand tents and 100,000 thick, cotton coats and heavy blankets were being sent to help survivors cope with strong winds and near-freezing temperatures of around 43 degrees Fahrenheit (6 degrees C), the Qinghai provincial government said in a statement.

Wu Yong, a local military chief, said medical workers also were urgently needed but that roads leading to the airport had been badly damaged by the quake, creating difficulties for people and supplies to be flown in. He said rescue efforts were hindered by frequent aftershocks and strong winds.

The epicenter of the first quake was located 235 miles (380 kilometers) south-southeast of Golmud, a large city in Qinghai, at a depth of six miles (10 kilometers), the USGS said.

Ten minutes later, the area was hit by a magnitude 5.3 quake, which was followed after two minutes by a temblor measuring 5.2, according to the U.S. agency. Both the subsequent earthquakes were measured at a depth of 6 miles (10 kilometers). Another quake, measuring 5.8, was recorded at 9:25 a.m.

Xinhua cited officials at the China Earthquake Networks Center as saying at least 18 aftershocks have been reported and that more temblors exceeding magnitude 6 were likely to occur in the coming days.

In 2008, a magnitude-7.9 quake in Sichuan province left almost 90,000 people dead or missing.

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Allegations of corruption, a cover-up, and now, a death threat received via SMS - a Ram Gopal Verma movie has nothing on what's being delivered everyday by the Shashi Tharoor vs Lalit Modi battle.

On Wednesday, a senior member of Tharoor's staff claims that the minister has received a death threat via SMS in connection with his alleged link to the Kochi IPL team. The aide says that Tharoor's security has been tightened and that the police have been alerted.

The Ministry of Home Affairs, and Delhi police sources, however, denies receiving any complaint from the minister's office, or of giving him additional security.

Tharoor is at the centre of a controversy over the Indian Premier League (IPL) team that was sold to Kochi last month for 1530 crores. A close associate of Tharoor's, Sunanda Pushkar, was gifted equity worth 70 crores by the team-owners. This was revealed by Lalit Modi, IPL Commissioner, in tweets on Monday. The BJP has demanded that the Prime Minister sack Tharoor for inappropriate "patronage and protection".   The BJP alleges that Pushkar was a front for Tharoor, and that the CBI must investigate Tharoor for "criminal misconduct by a public servant" in what it describes as "a copybook case of corruption."

The Left has also said that Tharoor should step down till the charges against him are cleared.

The Prime Minister, who  was in Washington for President Obama's nuclear safety summit, told reporters that any action, if required,  would be taken only after he returns to India and investigates the matter.  Dr Manmohan Singh said "I do not have all the facts before me."

In a press release on Tuesday, Tharoor acknowledged that he knows Pushcart well, but denied that he benefits financially from the Kochi team. He, in turn, accuses Modi of being unhappy with the fact that the Kochi bid won over other bids from Ahmedabad, a franchise which Modi allegedly preferred.

On Tuesday, the Congress first said that the BJP's request for Tharoor's dismissal was "absurd." But within hours, the party changed its stand and said that the IPL controversy was a personal affair of Tharoor's and that he should explain his role.  

Modi has also been criticized, both by the Kochi team-owners, and by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for tweeting the details of the different stake-holders in the consortium that bought the Kochi franchise.  While the Kochi owners have threatened to take legal action against him, the BCCI President, Shashank Manohar, has warned him that cricket issues should not be discussed publicly. The BCCI has also called a special meeting to discuss the controversy.

Political analysts suggest that the Congress is wearying of the multiple controversies it's been landed with, courtesy Tharoor. Last year, his tweets describing economy air travel as flying "cattle-class" left his party blushing, given that Sonia Gandhi had directed ministers to fly coach as part of the government's austerity drive. Tharoor was forced to explain his statement to Gandhi and the Prime Minister. 

He then offended his boss, Minister for External Affairs SM Krishna, when he took to Twitter again to discuss his reservations about the new visa policies the government was introducing for foreigners. 

Through it all, Tharoor has defended his penchant for tweeting as a unique way of staying in touch with voters.  
 

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A close friend of Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor, Sunanda Pushkar has been seen with him at various social events in the recent past.
 
She has, in fact, been introduced several times as Tharoor's "friend from Canada".
 
Tharoor has acknowledged that he knows her very well.
 
There is growing speculation that she's engaged to the junior Foreign Minister but there has been no official confirmation of that yet.
 
Sunanda, who is in her 40s, runs a spa in Dubai. She also holds an executive's post with an infrastructure company owned by the Emirate government. She has also worked with advertising firms, a travel agency in Dubai as well as with an IT firm in Toronto.
 
She belongs to Sopore in the Kashmir Valley and her father is a retired Lt Colonel.
 
Sunanda Pushkar is at the centre of the Kochi IPL franchise storm. There are allegations that Tharoor used her as a front to collect Rs 70 crores for helping the Kochi owners get their IPL team. Rendezvous Sports World leads the consortium that bought the Kochi team.
 
The group has offered a staunch defense of its decision to give away equity worth Rs 70 crores to Pushkar. It says that she is a Sales and Marketing Expert who knows the Kerala and Middle East market well and deserves to be rewarded for the expertise she offers to the consortium. 
 

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An eighth standard boy student of a government higher secondary school here reportedly slapped his teacher today after she admonished him for his poor performance and pretended to do so in class.

He has since been issued a transfer certificate by the management of the Rajendra Nagar government higher secondary school.

Local Village Education committee president, Kallippan said the teacher had repeatedly warned him to focus on his studies and to keep away from bad company. However her pleas fell on deaf fears and the boy's grades went down, he said.

This morning, the teacher severely reprimanded him in class and raised her hand as if to slap him. Even as she did so, the boy suddenly got up and slapped her, he said.

Later, the boy's parents visited the school and apologised for their son's action. However, the management issued a transfer certificate and asked them to take the boy away.  
 

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Hours after Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said that his country "qualifies for a civilian nuclear deal with the US, like that of India, the Obama Administration in a blunt message told it that such a deal is not on the platter of its talks with Islamabad.
 
"We are focused on Pakistan's energy needs, but, as we said last week, right now that does not include civilian nuclear energy," Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs P J Crowley told reporters.
 
A high-level Pakistani delegation led by the country's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi was here last month to launch the US-Pak Strategic Dialogue. The Pakistani delegation sought a civil nuclear deal with the US on the lines of that of India. The Obama Administration did not give any concrete assurance to Qureshi, neither did it totally reject the request.
 
Meanwhile, chairing a special meeting of Parliamentary Committee on National Security in Islamabad, Gilani said Pakistan "fully qualifies" for it as it has put in place effective security and non-proliferation measures. A "well established, foolproof safety and security culture fully qualifies Pakistan for equal participation in civil nuclear cooperation at the international level, which would help us in addressing our immediate energy problems and would bring greater stability as well," Gilani had said.
 
Crowley reiterated that US has full confidence in the safety and security of nuclear weapons in Pakistan. "I think various US leaders have expressed confidence in the security of the Pakistani weapons. I'm not going to go any further than that," he said.
 
Earlier in the day, another Obama Administration official said it favours a new global civil-nuclear architecture allowing countries to meet their energy needs without posing proliferation risk. "The Obama administration has favoured new international civil nuclear-energy architecture, an architecture that allows countries around the world to benefit from the peaceful uses of nuclear energy without increasing proliferation risks," Robert J Einhorn, Special US Advisor for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Arms Control, said.
 
"Ideas have been put forward, like fuel-supply assurances, international fuel banks. These are designed to give countries more options, to give them more access to the nuclear fuels they need to run a nuclear-energy program, a nuclear-power program. We have supported these international fuel banks to do that," Einhorn told foreign journalists at a news conference.  
   

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In some unusually tough talk, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh rebuffed his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani in Washington on Tuesday, for saying that Pakistan did not have enough evidence to act against Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) leaders like Hafiz Saeed,

Singh said: " I do not see the need for any further evidence about the role of Lashkar-e-Taiba. I would hate to enter into an argument with Prime Minister Gilani at a press conference. I think American intelligence and forces too pointed out the role of LeT, and it s link with al Qaeda. Hafiz Saeed, Ilyas Kashmiri and Zaki-ur-Rahman are names connected to fanning of terrorism (against India)."

Singh made it clear that India could resume dialogue with Pakistan on all issues if "concrete" and "effective" action is taken against those behind the Mumbai terror strikes - but there was no need for the US or any other country to get involved in Indo-Pak affairs. "I believe the issues in South Asia can be resolved and should be resolved by meaningful bilateral dialogue. I do not think there is any need for a outside force to come in play," he said.

Singh made known his dissatisfaction over insufficient action by Pakistan with regard to those behind 26/11 as he said that several of the "conspirators" were still roaming about freely. Singh, who conveyed to President Barack Obama India's unhappiness over Pakistan's attitude on dealing with terrorism, hoped that the points he raised would "weigh considerably" on the US government. Disagreeing that he had taken a "complaint" against Pakistant to Obama, he said he had to "explain" India's perspective, which is an "open secret", whenever anyone asks at meetings about the bilateral relations between India and Pakistan.

"We have said more than once that Pakistan, if it takes credible steps to bring the perpetrators of the horrible crime of 26/11 to book... that's the minimum we expect from Pakistan, and if Pakistan does that, we would be very happy to talk to them and beginning talking to them once again on all our issues," Singh said.

When pointed out that Pakistan was already prosecuting seven terrorists in connection with 26/11, the Prime Minister said there were "other people" named in the conspiracy who were "roaming about freely" in Pakistan. "That is the reality and these are facts which are brought about, not only by our intelligence agencies, but by intelligence agencies of friendly countries. We want Pakistan to at least bring those people to book and do it effectively."

At India's initiative, the two countries held Foreign Secretary-level talks in February to discuss the issue of cross-border terrorism hurting India. However, India has ruled out resumption of composite dialogue till it is satisfied with action Pakistan takes against perpetrators of Mumbai attacks.

Singh, who was in Washington to attend the Nuclear Security Summit that concluded on Tuesday, had two brief interactions with Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani on the sidelines of the meet. He was, however, evasive when asked whether he would meet Gilani in Bhutan during the SAARC Summit later this month. Singh said, "I think there is still time to think about the meeting in Bhutan. When we reach there we would cross the bridge." 
 

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On Tuesday morning, Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor tweeted "I've had enough." The Minister of State for External Affairs better brace himself. The controversy over his link to the Kochi IPL team has turned into a whirlwind, and his party has indicated that any extrication will not be a team effort.

Like other controversies that have centered on Tharoor, this one is playing out extensively  on twitter. In the past, Tharoor's tweets have been described as flip and insensitive (referring to flying economy as travelling cattle-class)  or indiscreet (questioning the new visa policies initiated by his ministry for foreigners.) They  forced him, and in the case of his cattle-class comments, the Prime Minister, to explain that Tharoor didn't mean any harm.

But this time around, the allegations are serious. Did Tharoor use a close friend, Sunanda Pushkar, as a front to collect Rs 70 crores for helping to get Kochi  its own IPL team?

Yes, alleges, the BJP, which, on Tuesday, demanded that the Prime Minister sack Tharoor, who it quipped, has turned the IPL into CPL (Corruption Premier League). BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said that his party is not  interested either in Tharoor's personal life or  in the IPL, but that Tharoor's position as minister and Pushkar's link to him puts this matter in the public domain. He also called Tharoor the enfant terrible of the Congress and said in reference to his controversies that Tharoor had migrated from "twitter to corruption."

After initially describing the BJP's request as "absurd", the Congress distanced itself from the scandal, stating that the controversy was a personal affair and that Tharoor should explain his position.

The lid was blown off the box by IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi on Monday, who tweeted that Sunanda Pushkar, a close friend of the minister, had been gifted stake worth Rs 70 crores in the  Kochi team, bought last month for Rs 1,530 crores. Modi then tweeted the details of the different partners who won the bid for the Kochi team. His most damning tweet may have been that Tharoor called him asking him not to investigate the different stakeholders in the Kochi franchise.

On Tuesday morning, Tharoor tweeted 'I've had enough' along with a link to his official press release in which he reasserts that he was a mentor and advisor to Rendezvous Sports World, which led the consortium that bought the Kochi team.

"Rendezvous includes a number of people, including many I have never met, and Sunanda Pushkar, whom I know well," he states. Adding that Modi guided the winning bid and presented himself as "a trusted friend," Tharoor says, "various attempts were made by Mr Modi and others to pressure the consortium members to abandon their bid in favour of another city in a different state. His extraordinary breach of all propriety in publicly raising issues relating to the composition of the consortium and myself personally is clearly an attempt to discredit the team and create reasons to disqualify it so that the franchise can be awarded elsewhere."

Tharoor's allegation is that Modi was upset that that the Kochi bid defeated that of the Adani Group from Ahmedabad which had been considered the front-runner. Tharoor also says that he called Modi not to ask him to back off from investigating the owners of the team, but to request him to stop delaying the formal notification of ownership.

As Tharoor emphasized that he had not and does "not intend to financially benefit" from the Kochi franchise, the BJP said his "patronage and protection" of the team is inappropriate, and that this seems to be a "copybook case of corruption."

The Kochi team-owners shot off an angry email to the Board of Cricket Control for India (BCCI), accusing Modi of breaching confidentiality agreements. Vivek Venugopal, a co-owner of the Kochi team told NDTV, "We have ... asked for Mr Lalit Modi to reveal the shareholding structures of all the other IPL teams owned by consortiums like Kings XI, Kolkata Knightriders and Rajasthan Royals. Why are the various owners of these teams and their stakes not being revealed?" endezvous says it will meet with its partners on Wednesday to decide whether to take legal action against Modi.

The group also offers a staunch defense of its decision to give away equity worth Rs 70 crores to Pushkar. As a Sales and Marketing Expert who knows the Kerala and Middle East market well, the group tells NDTV, she deserves to be rewarded for the expertise she offers to the consortium. As far as her close association with Tharoor goes, sources say "several other teams have owners close to politicians. Does that mean that it's the politicians who have invested?"

The BJP refutes the cited invaluable experience of Pushkar, arguing that she has  no earlier connection to either cricket or Kerala.

While Tharoor deals with the political controversy, Modi has his own fire-fighting to do. Shashank Manohar, the President of the BCCI, has written to him, rebuking him over his public disclosure. "The issue, if any, could have been discussed at the governing council meeting and that action on your part of raising it on twitter is unbecoming of you as a chairman of the a sub-committee of the board. Your action is in serious breach of the confidentiality clause in the agreement....The BCCI is a body which functions in accordance with its constitution and doesn't function through media."

In his reply to Manohar, Modi said, "It is the Kochi franchisee who has a lot to hide and as such have lied about who is the actual owners of the shares. Which I informed you earlier today....I have minutes of what they said at the meeting. And in fact, when I questioned who the shareholders are - they had no answer. In fact, they said they would revert back. Within minutes of me asking the same - I got a call from Shashi Tharoor asking me not to ask about who these share-holders are."

Sources in the BCCI say it will fall upon Union Minister for Agriculture Sharad Pawar, who doubles up as President of the Mumbai Cricket Association, to broker peace between Modi and other cricket officials.

(malathi)