India’s main opposition party today demanded a parliamentary investigation on into the Commonwealth Games, which were hit by embarrassing allegations of corruption, building delays and cost overruns.

New Zealand’s foreign minister today condemned a local television host’s “insulting” comments on air about an Indian official’s name which drew a complaint of racism from the New Delhi government.

WHAT would a major sporting event be without the preliminary hullabaloo about the venue? It won’t be ready; its cost has over-run; there are terrorists in the bushes; it’s too expensive.

Workers raced to finish preparations for the Commonwealth Games as hundreds of athletes and team officials arrived in New Delhi today.

Indian organisers faced more embarrassment today as a boxer’s bed collapsed when he sat on it after moving into his accommodation at the Commonwealth Games athletes’ village.

THE Commonwealth Games Federation signalled yesterday that Delhi was succeeding in fixing the problems that have brought the event to the brink of disaster, with fears receding about its cancellation.

The head of the Commonwealth Games rushed to New Delhi for emergency talks today as a ceiling collapsed in one of the venues.

THREE cranes crashed yesterday while trying to lift a steel girder which had fallen at New Delhi’s metro rail construction site, a day after six people were killed in the first accident.

ONE section of a bridge being built for the Indian capital’s metro rail system collapsed yesterday, crushing to death five workers and injuring 13 in a major setback to the project that officials hope to complete before the 2010 Commonwealth Games.