BHUBANESWAR - Giving a 48-hour ultimatum, Maoists have demanded a halt on combing operations to release an Orissa district collector, police said Thursday, a day after the abduction. This is the first time the rebels have taken an IAS officer hostage in the state.

GUWAHATI - Three children and a woman, from the same family, were injured when a bomb stashed inside a schoolbag in their backyard exploded in Goalpara district of Assam Thursday, police said.

WASHINGTON - The Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) has enough capabilities to launch a Mumbai-type terrorist strike in Europe and other parts of the world, say US officials concerned over expanding horizons of the Pakistan based terrorist outfit.