Kerala appears to be heading for a severe summer as soaring temperatures and acute water shortage in many parts have already made life difficult for people, who also face the looming threat of power cuts.

The DMK government in Tamil Nadu on Saturday pitched for central intervention in inter-state water disputes, as the party upped the ante on the Mullaperiyar Dam row with Kerala saying the Supreme Court ruling appointing a committee on the issue was not acceptable to it.

The Kerala High Court on Tuesday stayed the state government's proposal to start an Islamic Financial Institution on the lines of Islamic Bank.

The CBI Special Court in on Monday dismissed a petition filed by CPI-M Kerala secretary Pinarayi Vijayan, an accused in the Rs 100-crore graft case, seeking a direction to CBI to examine Union Defence Minister A K Antony in the case.

Kerala CPI-M Secretary Pinarayi Vijayan, arraigned as an accused in a graft case relating to awarding of contract to a Canadian firm during his tenure as Power Minister in 1998, was on Wednesday granted bail by a CBI special court in Kochi.