May 23 India invites Pervez Musharraf for talks.

Woman candidate Vijaylakshmi Bidari tops in the Civil services (main) Examination 2000.

Congress leader A.K. Antony sworn in as Chief Minister of Kerala.

Centre appoints J.M. Lyngdoh as the Chief Election Commissioner.

First wind-power project of private sector in Rajasthan inaugurated in Jaisalmer.

- Indian AirLines announces a 15 per cent hike in fare.

Infosys Chief N.R. Narayana Murthy is the first Indian invited to speak at the famed Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Buddhadev Bhattacharjee sworn in as Chief Minister of West Bengal.

Tarun Gogoi sworn in as Chief Minister of Assam.

Anita Sen, prime accused in the child adoption racket in Andhra Pradesh and wife of a senior IPS officer, surrenders before a city court in Hyderabad.

Dabhol Power Company serves a preliminary termination notice to the Maharashtra State Electricity Board on the power purchase agreement.

Kutiyattam, the 200 year-old theatre tradition of Kerala, has been declared as one of the "Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity" by UNESCO.

Former Bihar Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav is elected President of Bihar Cricket Association.

The Trinmool Congress strips dissident Ajit Panja of all party posts, including chairmanship of its West Bengal unit for "anti-party activities".

K.N. Santh Kumar is the new chairman of India section of the Commonwealth Press Union.

The Samata Party led People's Front Ministry in Manipur headed by R.B. Koijam is defeated in a vote of confidence in the Assembly.

K.P. Singh has been appointed the next Director of Intelligence Bureau.

A public interest petition challenging the appointment of J. Jayalalitha as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu has been filed in the Madras High Court.

- Trans World International, a subsidiary of sports promoters International Management Group, bags the sponsorship of the Indian cricket team for next three years.

May 23

Government notifies the new Press Council with 28 members for a three-year term.

Government suspends Air India Managing Director, Michael P. Mascarehans, on charges of corruption and hands over the case to the CBI.

Britain's leading business school Edinburgh Business School opens its branch in India.

In search of peace in Jammu & Kashmir, India invites Pakistan military ruler General Pervez Musharraf for talks.

A big fire breaks out at the army ordnance sub-depot at Birdhwal, near the international border in Rajasthan.

Department of Posts hikes postal tariffs by 25 to 100 per cent on postal items.

- In a landmark judgement, the Allahabad High Court passes a ruling that a man and a woman can live together without getting married if they wish.

VHP Leader and Vice-President of Ram Janmabhoomi Trust Mahant Nritya Gopal Das and four others hurt in a bomb attack in Ayodhya.

A doctor from a leading heart institute in the Capital acquires a US patent for his machine that performs balloon angioplasty on the brain.

At least 22 members of a marriage party were killed and 30 injured when a train rammed into a bus at an unmanned crossing in Lakhimpur Kheri District.

The Home Ministry decides to amend the 1971 order making it mandatory for foreigners to report to the nearest police station on arrival in the country.

 

 

 

 

The BJP announces the candidature of Kalraj Mishra and Bibi Gurcharan Kaur for the Rajya Sabha elections from UP and Punjab respectively.

The Government approves the development of "longer range' missiles under the Agni project.

India becomes the third largest industrial user of silver in the world after the US and Japan.

A Turkish military aircraft crashes in South-eastern Turkey, killing 37 personnel on board.

An armed commando in North-eastern Colombia abducts at least 150 farm workers.

Jai Chandiram is first Asian to be elected president of International Association of Women in Radio and Television.

A plane carrying Iran's Transport Minister crashes in northern Iran, killing all 29 people on board.

President Saddam Husain's second son Qusai has been elected to the ruling party's leadership.

A man having five wives and 29 children found guilty of bigamy in the United States' first major polygamy case in nearly five decades.

Japan's first surrogate mother gives birth for her infertile sister, despite objection from the authorities.

The ruling Taliban in Afghanistan issues a decree asking the Hindus in the country to identify themselves by wearing yellow clothes.

A 35-year old Iranian woman buried up to her armpits, stoned to death by court officials for acting in obscene films.

Russian President Putin confers Friendship Order on veteran Indian poet, translator and journalist Madan Lal Madhu on his 75^th birthday, for his contribution to development of Indo-Russian cultural ties.

For the first time in the history of the United States Congress, the House of Representatives begins its session with a Jain prayer presided by Gurudev Chitrabhanujee.

 

 

 

President Bush nominates career diplomat Wendy J. Chamberlain to be the next US Ambassador to Pakistan.

May 24

Temba Tsheri, a 15-year-old Nepalese schoolboy, becomes the youngest person to scale Mount Everest.

- Environmental activist Vandana Shiva named among the top five most powerful people in Asia by Asia Week magazine.

Erik Weihenmayer becomes the first blind person to scale Mt. Everest, while Sherman Bull, a 64-year-old American, becomes the oldest person to scale the peak.

The Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) party unanimously elects deposed Premier Nawaz Sharif as their leader.

Preethi Bansal, the Indian American solicitor general of New York felicitated with an Asian American achievement award.

- Pakistan chief General Pervez Musharraf accepts talk offer proposed by India.

Jenna Bush, the US President's 19 year old daughter caught again trying to buy alcohol using someone else's identity card.

- Iran successfully test-fires its first surface-to-surface missile, named Fateh-110.