News Wrap: 18 get life for Guj riots; Maoists release Italian

- In today’s top story, a major judgement was made concerning the Gujarat riots in 2001 as special trial court sentenced 18 people to life imprisonment and sentenced another five to seven years RI in connection with the massacre of 24 people who took shelter in a house and were killed when a mob set it on fire.

Meghdoot Sharon of the CNNIBN has a report.

- Maoist rebels in Odisha released Paolo Bosusco, the second of two Italian hostages after the government met some of their demands, which included releasing some Maoist prisoners.

In our bulletin, we have a clip from him saying that in spite of what he experienced, he maintains that he loves the people of Orissa.

- The Cabinet approved restructuring of Air India at the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) meet. The plan includes infusion of additional equity worth Rs 4000 crore to shore up the precarious financial position of the cash-strapped carrier. However, the issue of FDI in aviation was not discussed in the meeting.

- Nupur Talwar, facing arrest in the twin murder case of her daughter Aarushi and domestic help Hemraj, and moved the Supreme Court seeking stay on the non- bailable warrant issued against her by the trial court.  But a bench of justices refused to hear her plea today and said that it would be taken up tomorrow. The CBI is looking for her and conducted raids yesterday.

- Over to the US Presidential elections, President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney have exchanged a series of sharp attacks at each other as they opened a seven-month battle for the White House. More detail in the bulletin.

- In sport, Real Madrid restored their 4-point lead in the La Liga, beating rivals Atletico Madrid 4-1 as Ronaldo scored a hat-trick. In the EPL though, Man United’s eight point lead was slashed to five yesterday as the Reds lost against Wigan and Man city won against West Brom. Of course, there’s the IPL and you can follow all the live updates on our IPL page .

- Finally, Samsung has ended Nokia’s 14-year leadership of the global cellphone market in the first quarter of the year, outselling the struggling Finnish handset maker for the first time ever, according to a Reuters poll of analysts.