Live! Rs 51 lakh seized from Rahat's event mgt co
February 15, 2011
We end today's Live! news and leave you with the top news stories today...
Rs 51 lakh seized from Rahat's event mgt co
CBI summons 2G beneficiary biggies
CBI boss to PAC: 2G scam loss not zero
Rahat Fatheh Ali'sDRI date on Thursday
Italian PM Berlusconi's sex trial on April 6
Bryan Adams gig rescheduled for Sunday
BJP wants JPC in all corruption cases
HP govt to attach Karmapa property
SC upholds death for Nithari killer Koli
Adarsh Society challenges demolition order
This is high on the ewww factor.
A middle-aged South Korean man has been arrested 12 years after allegedly killing his wife and storing her body in a large cardboard box at his daughter's home.
The 20-year-old daughter called police Saturday after finding a woman's body inside a box wrapped in 10 layers of plastic at her home in Seoul's Yongsan district.
Fingerprints showed it was her mother. Lee told reporters, "I kept the body because I was sorry for my dead wife and daughter. I wanted to keep the body forever," he was quoted as saying.
Lee is suspected of stabbing his wife, who was 39 at the time, at their home in June 1999 and putting the body in a box, wrapping it and moving it along with his possessions to his new home.
17:40 Read the Arundhati Roy interview: Read Amitava Kumar's interview with Arundhati Roy in Guernica.
Roy, in the wake of sedition charges by the Indian government, describes the stupidest question she gets asked, the cuss-word that made her respect the power of language, and the limits of preaching nonviolence.
Syria is considering building its first nuclear power plant by 2020 to meet rapidly growing electricity demand, a document from the Arab state's Atomic Energy Commission showed, reports reuters.
The paper posted on the website of the International Atomic Energy Agency did not say whether Syria, which is under investigation over suspected covert nuclear activity, may also contemplate making its own fuel for such a facility.
Sleuths of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence today said that would continue to probe the dealings of Pakistani singer Rahat Fateh Ali Khan's dealings in India. DRI officials say they have seized Rs 51 lakh in cash from the office and residence of Rahat's event management company, Eyeline Telefilm and Events.
Rahat was nabbed with undeclared cash of over one lakh US dollars at Delhi's IGI airport. The event management company is owned by Chitresh Shrivastava, elder brother of Bollywood singer Aadesh Shrivastava.
DRI said both Rahat and Chitresh have submitted details of payments.
PAC chief Murli Manohar Joshi's press conference begins.
Joshi says CBI chief deposed before the PAC today and said it was wrong to suggest that the loss to the exchequer in the 2G spectrum scam was zero.
Pakistan singer Rahat Fateh Ali Khan will be questioned by the DRI on Friday. Meanwhile, Pakistan Interior Minister Rahman Malik today thanked Home Minister P Chidambaram for Rahat's release. The singer was detained by the revenue enforcement authorities at the Delhi airport for allegedly carrying USD 1.24 lakh on Sunday without declaring it.
Rahat, whose passport has been seized, has been asked to report to the DRI officials again on Thursday for further questioning. Officials claimed to have seized USD 1.24 lakh in cash and two demand drafts for over USD 18,600, from Rahat and some of the members of his troupe on Sunday when they were planning to catch a flight to Dubai for onward journey to Karachi.
A fast track court today granted anticipatory bail to social activist Teesta Setalvad in connection with exhumation of bodies of 2002 riot victims four years after they were buried.
The bail was granted on grounds of parity as other accused in the case have been granted bail. Setalvad runs a NGO called Citizen for Justice and Peace and has taken up the cause of riot victims.
16:20 Italian PM Berlusconi's sex trial on April 6: Details on Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi's trial.
The PM has been indicted to stand trial on charges of paying for sex with an underage girl and abuse of power, reports bbc.co.uk.
Examining judge Cristina Di Censo said the process would start on 6 April, after prosecutors in Milan asked for an immediate trial. Berlusconi denies paying for sex with Karima El Mahroug when she was 17.
He also rejects claims that he abused his power by seeking her release when she was detained in another case. He does, however, acknowledge that he called the police while she was being held on suspicion of theft.
Not satisfied with the CBI's two-page report refuting allegation of leaking the confessional statement of Ajmer dargah blast accused Swami Aseemanand, a Delhi court today asked the Director of the agency to file a complete report on the issue.
The court was not satisfied with the brief report in which the CBI had refuted the allegation that it had leaked the confessional statement. The court also pointed out that the two-page report was not signed by the CBI Director. The investigating agency said that the report was filed after being approved by the Director.
Twitter-enthusiast Liz Hurley left a not-so-cryptic message on the social networking site. She wrote: 'Happy Valentine's Day! Remember, love is like a rollercoaster ride- sometimes it's exhilarating but sometimes u (sic) feel sick and want to get off.
Here's the message uncoded.
British tabloid dailymail.co.uk says that just one day after their first public outing as a couple holding hands and looking blissfully happy, the relationship has been hit by scandal once again. A 26-year-old adult film star, Chloe Conrad, has revealed explicit text messages that Warne allegedly sent her and described their seedy night together to a Sunday tabloid.
Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi is indicted on charges he paid teen for sex and then tried to cover it up.
Berlusconi said that allegations he had sex with a teenage prostitute was "mud" thrown on him by political opponents who want to get rid of him. "But this time they've surpassed any limit," Berlusconi said in a statement. "The mud will fall on those who use justice as a political weapon."
Here's MK Bhadrakumar's blog on SM Krishna's speech glitch.
The Indian establishment did well to give the spin that EAM Krishna's faux pas in New York - reading out his Portugese counterpart's speech at the UN security council last week - was a perfect storm in a tiny tea cup.
But like the proverbial rubber coil, the story pops up again elsewhere, thanks to some treacherous undercutting apparently from some sections within the establishment itself - or from Delhi's unforgiving dip corps.
The only good thing is that it now transpires that the Indian bureaucrats were not at fault at New York. The minister apparently makes a habit every now and then of reading out from the wrong script, including from classified briefs strictly meant for his background.
15:09 'I was sure my country would explode': The Independent.co.uk interviews the doyen of Egyptian journalists, Mohamed Heikal.
The old man's voice is scathing, his mind like a razor, that of a veteran fighter, writer, sage, perhaps the most important living witness and historian of modern Egypt, turning on the sins of the regime that tried to shut him up forever. "Mubarak betrayed the republican spirit '" and then he wanted to continue through his son Gamal," he says, finger pointed to heaven. "It was a project, not an idea; it was a plan.
Also read: What next for Egypt?
14:52 Julian Assange was a roommate from hell: "The first time that something Julian said really left a bitter taste in my mouth was in early 2009, when we were considering taking part in the World Social Forum in Brazil. A friend had mentioned to me that he would like to come with us.
I told Julian about it. Personally, I was against the idea. This friend had nothing to do with the project, and we weren't going there on vacation, but rather to make contacts and to work.
Julian, on the other hand, thought it was an excellent idea and said, "Let him come along.' Julian would have liked for someone to shoulder his luggage. That was the first time I asked myself who was playing his porter right now. I couldn't think of anyone. Besides me.
ReadVanity Fair's fascinating story ofWikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from a person who rose to be his right-hand man
Results of anAssocham study of 10 cities in India, reported in the Times of India.
In a two-month long study vigorously carried out between December 2010 and January 2011, Assocham found that people in Lucknow spend around Rs 2,600 crore during Valentine week.
The average expenditure per person could be at least Rs 5,000, while the maximum is somewhere around Rs 70,000,"DS Rawat, secretary generalAssocham said.
Also see: Love grips Lucknow
14:20 Irina Shayk: Sexiest bikini covergirl of 2011!: Post-lunch eye-candy.
Russian supermodel Irina Shayk (pictured), girlfriend of soccer ace Cristiano Ronaldo, is this year's Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition cover girl. Shayk was to be officially announced covergirl on tonight'sLate Show With David Letterman, but the news was leaked on Twitter just hours ago.
As Egypt see-saws between anarchy and army, clashes between Iranian police and tens of thousands of protesters wracked central Tehran, killing one person.
The rally was the first major show of strength for Iran's cowed opposition in more than a year. Police used tear gas against the protesters in central Tehran's Enghelab, or Revolution, square and in Imam Hossein square, as well as in other nearby main streets.
Demonstrators responded by setting garbage bins on fire to protect themselves from the stinging white clouds. Eyewitnesses said at least three protesters injured by bullets were taken to a hospital in central Tehran while dozens of others were hospitalized because of severe wounds as a result of being beaten.
14:06 Paris Hilton:Just got home from a romantic Valentine's Day dinner with my love. He gave me the most beautiful ruby and diamond necklace. Loves it.
Who's she seeing?
Why would anyone want to party in a place where a father brutally raped his daughter, abused her andmade her pregnant?
Yet bruteJosef Fritzl's underground cellar, where he sexually abused his daughter Elisabeth for 24 years, has been a secret party zone. It is now to be sealed with a welded steel door by Austrian authorities.
The cellar has been violated in the months before contractors move in to demolish the house.
Old computers, smashed up chairs, a mattress, drug paraphernalia, smashed alcohol bottles and soiled clothes litter the warren of rooms that Fritzl constructed beneath the family home in Amstetten.
The tiger roars. Sena chief Bal Thackeray has scotched speculation of any alliance between the Shiv Sena-BJP and Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena and said there was no need for a "third one" in the combine.
"The Sena-BJP alliance was formed on the issue of Hindutva and we have fought strongly against many who came in the way. Our alliance is the only answer for all problems of Maharashtra and there is no need for a third one," Thackeray said in an editorial in the party mouthpiece 'Saamana'.
There were reports in the media that the Sena-BJP may go with the MNS in the Mumbai Municipal Corporation polls scheduled next year. MNS chief Raj's courtesy visit to state BJP office last year had sparked the reports.
Read from senior journalist R Rajagopalan's blog...
Karunanidhi request to Dr Manmohan Singh is not being attended to. That to appoint a close relative of DMK leader who is an educationist, as Member of the Union Public Service Commission. DMK is irritated over the delay by PMO.
13:19 Twitter carries 130 million tweets every day: We told you over an hourago and gave you the picture as well. Now, here's the full story.
Twitter CEO Dick Costolo has dismissed as rumour reports that Google and Facebook were in talks of acquiring the micro-blogging site for USD 10 billion. "People write that stuff all the time I don't know where these things come from, it's just a rumour," Costolo, who took over as CEO from Twitter co-founder Evan Williams last October, said.
Costolo said Twitter was "making money" and now regularly carried 130 million tweets a day, up from 100 million at the end of 2010.
Speaking at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, he said Twitter is focussing on a mission statement, which is to "instantly connect people everywhere to what's most meaningful to them".
Costolo said, "Every time I have an interview I am asked when we're going to make money. The short answer is were already making money," he said
A startling revelation made by a trapped Chilean miner says they contemplated suicide and were days away from cannibalism before rescuers made contact with them.
Veteran American journalist Jonathan Franklin writes in "33 Men" that nearly all of the miners have suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder since being rescued last fall after 69 days deep underground.
They had to survive on dwindling rations of tuna in the first 16 days after the mine collapsed. "Food, or no food, I was going to get out of there," Mario Sepulveda said. "How? I had to think about which miner was going to collapse first and then I started thinking about how I was going to eat him, I promise you, I wasn't embarrassed, I wasn't scared."
The Supreme Court has handed out the death penalty to Surinder Koli for the murder of Rimpa Halder in the Nithari serial killings case. A total of 19 cases were filed in connection with the rape and murder of children and a young woman whose skeletal remains, clothes and footwear were found in Nithari in 2006 and the Central Bureau of Investigation had filed charge sheets in 16 cases.
Three cases were closed due to lack of evidence.
Koli was also given capital punishment in February 2009, September 2009 and May this year for rape and murder in three different cases.
The apex court keeps pending the CBI appeal against the acquittal of businessman Moninder Singh Pandher in the case.
12:33 Despite strain US proposes USD 3.1 bn for Pak: Despite a stand off with Pakistan over the issue of jailing of its diplomat Raymond Davis, US has not proposed any slashing of aid to Islamabad, and for the second year in running has allocated a whopping USD 3.1 billion as assistance to the country for 2012.
President Barack Obama has kept up the aid levels to Pakistan and of the huge allocation a staggering USD 1.1 billion is to provide critical equipment and training for Pakistani security forces (and thereby increasing insurgency across the border in India).
Just in: Harsh spells of snowfall hit Asia, burying cities in eastern South Korea and blocking the only road link to Kashmir. The Jammu-Srinagar National Highway, connecting Kashmir valley to the outside world, remained closed for traffic for the second consecutive day following landslides at Panthal.
See the fantastic pictureof fisherwomen in Kashmir silhouetted in the snow, among others.
WithFacebookplaying a starring role in the revolts that toppled governments in Tunisia andEgypt, you might think the company's top executives would use this historic moment to highlight its role as the platform for democratic change. Instead, they really do not want to talk about it.
Here's why, says the New York Times
12:17 That's a as-it-happens picture of Twitter CEO Dick Costolo taking questions in a keynote address at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Costolo refused to comment on the question of being taken over by Google or Facebook, but later denied that there is no such takeover plans.
Rediff.com's GV Satish is at the conference.
Anew audio recording of a senior Pakistani police official says Pakistan did hand over alleged Al-Qaeda suspect Dr Aafia Siddiqui to the United States, suggests .
The recording has been released by the International Justice Network, which represents the Siddiqui family in the US, and says it has spent the past 14 months researching the circumstances surrounding the unusual arrest and custody of the Pakistani mother of three.
"Supported with previously unreleased evidence, IJN has uncovered direct involvement by Pakistan agencies in the disappearance of Dr Aafia and her three young children in March 2003- five years before the US government claims she was first arrested in Afghanistan in July 2008,' the human rights organisation said.
Also see:Was Dr Aafia raped, tortured in the US?
Britain's attempt at offering a helping hand to India by pledging a billion pounds of taxpayers' money as aid till at least until 2015, has outraged politicians in London who believe that the move is totally an "unacceptable' waste of public money.
Britain appeared annoyed with the fact that the cash was being offered to India, a new economic giant that has nuclear weapons, a space programme and itself gives aid to Africa, while schools, libraries, swimming pools, meals-on-wheels, nurseries and other services were being threatened with closure in Britain.
11:38 Adarsh Society challenges demolition order: Almost a month after the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests passed an order to demolish the scam-hit Adarsh Housing Society, its members have approached the Bombay High Court challenging it.
The Environment Ministry had on January 16 directed the Society to demolish within three months the "unauthorised" 31-storey building in South Mumbai for violating coastal regulations.
About 103 members of the Society filed a petition in the High Court yesterday challenging the Ministry's order on the grounds that it is "wrong in law".
Also read our report: Demolish Adarsh in three months
Is it legend and will it lead to the fall of the empire? Well, the ingredients of Coca Cola, always been a mystery, has now been revealed. The soft drink's top secret recipe is apparently guarded 24 hours a day in a vault in Atlanta, Georgia.
'Thisamericanlife.org' claims to have discovered a list in a photograph in a newspaper article giving the secret ingredients and exact quantities to make the drink which was founded by John Pemberton, a medicinal pharmacist in 1886. The February 8, 1979, edition of the 'Atlanta Journal- Constitution' has a photo of someone holding open a book with a recipe claimed to be an exact replica of Pemberton's,
The best seats for the men's 100m sprint final at the 2012 Olympics willcost £725 or about £75 a second. Cheaper tickets are available at £50. For the opening ceremony, the cheapest tickets will cost £20.12 and the most expensive £2,012.
The guardian.co.uk reports that the organisers for the London2012 Olympics have flagged off the sales for for 6.6m tickets across 645 sessions at the biggest sporting event ever held in Britain.
The protest movement in the Arab world is spreading to Iran.In street battles between protesters and police in Tehran, a man died, yesterday.Popular anger was directed against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the crowd chanted "Death to the dictator", reports Der Spiegel.
11:09 Mubarak 'depressed, very unwell': Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has been "very unwell' and suffering from psychological distress after being forced to resign from his post following the political unrest in that country.
Ambulances and doctors were seen driving along the private driveway of Mubarak's mansion in Sharm el-Sheikh, and security guards said that he was unwell.
"He has been feeling very unwell ... he is a very, very sick man,' a security guard, who has worked for Mr Mubarak for three years, said.
Meanwhile, Egyptian Ambassador to Washington, Sameh Shoukry, has also said that the 81-year-old former autocratic leader was "possibly in somewhat bad health".
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will announce retired diplomat Marc Grossman as the new US envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, senior White House officials said yesterday.
The Daily Beast reports that Grossman will fill the gap left by Richard Holbrooke after his sudden death in December, a vacancy the Obama administration has taken its time to fill because of the deteriorating situations in both countries.
In the interim, the administration has gone so far as to suspend high-level official contacts with Pakistan, and some members of Congress have warned Islamabad that they may cut off U.S. aid.
On the same subject, MK Bhadrakumar, our man who has the inside story on almost everything, says...
Washington has formally announced the indefinite postponement of the trilateral foreign minister level meeting with Pakistan and Afghanistan, which was scheduled to be held in Washington next week. The reason advanced is that this decision was taken "in the light of political changes in Pakistan'. However, there will be no takers for this sophistry.
The Bryan Adams Delhi concert has been cancelled due to lack of preparation and rains. Fans of Adams who've been waiting to see the legendary rock star live on stage in Delhi tonight are in for a disappointment, as stands cancelled on over police permission being denied.
An alternate date, venue for the concert is being decided.
Good morning and welcome to Live! news. The big stories that made headlines are...
Over 1 lakh phones are tapped every year(The Times of India)
Reliance Communications told the Supreme Court on Monday that the authorities had asked it to tap 1.51 lakh phone numbers in a five-year span between 2006 and 2010.
Balwa joined Swan board on last day of 2G applications (The Indian Express)
In what appears to have been "more than mere coincidence", DB Realty boss Shahid Usman Balwa joined the board of Swan Telecom as a director on October 1, 2007, the last date for receipt of applications for allocation of 2G spectrum.
Rahat Fateh Ali Khan allowed to go after surrendering passport(DNA)
Pakistani sufi singer Khan and two members of his troupe were released by Directorate of Revenue Intelligence today pending probe, a day after they were detained for their undeclared US$1,24,000.
Rahat Fateh Ali Khan may have got Rs 15L per song: DRI(The Times of India)
Rahat Fateh Ali Khan sang in Hindi movies for free as a goodwill gesture, according to documents found at the home of his event manager Chitresh Srivastav.
Nirupama Rao to meet Clinton, discuss Tri-Valley Univ issue(Hindustan Times)
Indian foreign secretary Nirupama Rao and Indian ambassador to the US Meera Shankar are expected to meet secretary of state Hillary Clinton today and follow up on the fate of Tri Valley Univ.
High Court upholds disqualification of 5 Karnataka MLAs(The Hindu)
PM Narendraswamy, Venkataramanappa, Gulihatti Sekhar, D. Sudhakara and Shivaraj Tangadagi were disqualified by Karnataka Speaker K.G. Bopaiah on October 10.
Ex-CJI Balakrishnan opposes release of his tax returns under RTI (The Indian Express)
As Chief Justice of India, Balakrishnan was initially not in favour of disclosure of judges' assets.
Sex workers also human beings, entitled to a life of dignity, says SC (Indian Express)
The Supreme Court on Monday said "prostitutes" are "also human beings and no one has the right to assault or murder them".
Dawood's second daughter ties knot with Pak-American(The Times of India)
Underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's second daughter secretly tied the knot with a Pakistani-American in Karachi's tony Clifton area recently.
Strikes pose challenge to Egyptian military (The Hindu)
A rash of cascading strikes and a call for million strong march on Friday has begun to challenge attempts by military authorities to cap Egypt's blazing uprising, mirroring a fast intensifying tussle between the army and a hardened set of protesters
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