A select list of stories to read before you start your day
European Union offers UK more time to leave the bloc
Worn down by three years of indecision in London, European Union leaders on Thursday grudgingly offered the UK more time to ease itself out of the bloc, delaying by several weeks — but not eliminating — the threat of a chaotic British exit.
After a meeting that stretched through the afternoon and over dinner, the bloc said Britain could postpone its departure, due on March 29, until May 22 — if the UK Parliament approves Prime Minister Theresa May’s divorce deal with the bloc next week.
If the twice-rejected deal is thrown out again, the bloc says Britain has until April 12 to “indicate a way forward.”
Ms. May agreed to the plan, European Council President Donald Tusk said.
Federal front will become a reality after the election: K.T. Rama Rao
Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) working president K.T. Rama Rao is confident that the proposal made by his father and party founder K. Chandrasekhar Rao for the formation of a federal gront as an alternative to the BJP- and Congress-led coalitions will become a reality after the Lok Sabha election. Emphasising that “politics is the art of the possible”, Mr. Rao spoke on the prospects of the TRS and other regional parties and the BJP and the Congress.
Alvin Kallicharran recounts his life and career
Alvin Kallicharran was not just about sparkling footwork, immaculate balance, wonderful timing and loads of courage. Behind his cricketing achievements is a tale of struggle and sacrifice. He has overcome odds, broken through barriers.
From a childhood of poverty and hunger in Guyana — he had 11 siblings and as many as 20 people slept in his tiny house — to captaining the West Indian team it is a story of the triumph of the spirit.
With GJM losing its hold, BJP steps into the breach in the Darjeeling Hills
Prior to September 2017, flags of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), the dominant political force in the Darjeeling Hills, fluttered on almost every household in the region. Not any more.
Much has changed since the violent agitation and the 104-day strike in the hills between July and September that year. As the constituency goes to the polls on April 18, not only have the GJM flags disappeared but large posters of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee have emerged on the highway leading to the hills.
In Bihar, leaders flock to astrologers
With the Lok Sabha election barely three weeks away and the names of candidates expected to be announced shortly, many ticket hopefuls in Bihar are said to be queuing up at the doors of pundits, astrologers and fortune-tellers. Some of them are privately performing special pujas (rituals) in the State, some others are doing so outside of it.  “When the election approaches, politicians from Bihar as well as other States start approaching people like us either to know their poll prospects or to perform special pujas to better their chances,
” Noida-based astrologer Swami Sarvabhoot Sharanam told The Hindu over phone. “Every day, I get phone calls from some politicians from Bihar, and even Ahmedabad, to know their electoral fortunes but I perform pujas only for those who actually believe in [the] divinity [of the pujas],” he added.