FEATURE STORY
British author, former Conservative politician, and peer Jeffrey Archer has died at the age of 86. A master of personal reinvention whose real-life trajectory traversed parliamentary prominence, catastrophic bankruptcy, global bestseller fame, and a sensational perjury conviction, Archer penned international blockbusters including ‘Kane and Abel’ and sold over 300 million books worldwide before passing away on the eve of the publication of his final novel.
Sonia Gandhi has long occupied the centre of Indian politics while revealing little about herself. She has been most ubiquitous and elusive for three decades.
Ladakh’s newly created districts have finally received their own Autonomous Hill Development Councils—an institutional shift expected to bring governance and development closer to every remote corner of the Himalayan region. Until now, decentralised administration in Ladakh functioned only through the two principal councils based in Leh and Kargil. “With the extension of this framework to all seven districts, Ladakh enters a new phase of grassroots empowerment,” said an official.
Simmering resentment has surfaced within the West Bengal BJP following the nomination of former Trinamool Congress MP and actor Koel Mallick for the upcoming Rajya Sabha by-election. Accompanied by Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari and state president Samik Bhattacharya during her filing, Mallick’s swift induction has faced fierce pushback from party old-timers who label her a political opportunist, even as the state leadership justifies the choice on the grounds of legislative realpolitik and Upper House strength.
Dalal Street roared back on Friday as benchmark indices reversed Thursday’s steep sell-off, with the BSE Sensex advancing 879.09 points to 72,472.33 and the Nifty 50 climbing 288.65 points to 22,520.45. A stellar Q2 FY27 earnings beat by TCS—anchored by $3.1 billion in annualized AI revenue—fueled a 3% surge in IT stocks, while a pullback in Brent crude to $103 following a pause in US military threats against Iran helped domestic bulls overpower relentless foreign institutional selling.
Legendary Hollywood actress Eva Marie Saint, who won an Academy Award for her film debut opposite Marlon Brando in ‘On the Waterfront’ and dazzled as Cary Grant’s co-star in Hitchcock’s ‘North by Northwest’, has died at the age of 102. Renowned for prioritizing her family over studio contracts while delivering intense, critically acclaimed dramatic performances, Saint remained one of the final living bridges to cinema’s Golden Age.