Six more pilgrims including two women died of natural causes at various halting stations en route Amarnath cave shrine, raising the death toll during the ongoing yatra to 18, officials said today.

While four of the deceased were from Uttar Pradesh, one person was a resident of Gujarat. The identity of the sixth is yet to be established, they said.

In a bid to facilitate visually challenged voters in exercising their franchise, the Maharashtra State Election Commission has added the Braille script on the Electronic Voting Machines.

"The visually-challenged did not have the option of the Braille script so far. But, with the newly designed EVMs, which will have Braille script, blinds across the state would benefit," State Election Commissioner Neela Satyanarayan has said.

The cine wings of the Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena have warned filmmakers and television channels against casting Maria Susairaj, convicted in the 2008 Neeraj Grover murder case.

Ram Gopal Varma, who has made a film Not A Love Story on the gruesome incident, had said he was interested in casting Maria for a role in his next film. Stories of Maria being a part of the next season of Bigg Boss have also made the rounds, even though Colors, which airs the reality show, has dismissed the speculation.

Shiv Sena-promoted Bharatiya Chitrapat Sena's president Abhijit Panse warned of carrying out "Shiv Sena style" protests, if any filmmaker casts Maria in a film.

Maharashtra Navnirman Cine Workers' Association president Amey Khopkar too said, "Maria has a criminal background and therefore we don't want to see her in films or television shows. Any filmmaker or production house that intents to offer her a role or show, should be prepared to face our wrath."

Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe says he spent years battling with a secret drinking problem and now has turned teetotal in a bid to put behind his boozy lifestyle. 

The 21-year-old British actor, who shot to stardom in the wizard franchise when he was 11, developed a penchant for partying and became "reliant" on alcohol in order to have a good time, reported Contactmusic. 

"I became so reliant on (alcohol) to enjoy stuff. There were a few years there when I was just so enamoured with the idea of living some sort of famous person's lifestyle that really isn't suited to me," the actor said.  

Now he has turned his back on his wild ways, he says. We always knew age does that to you!

Here's some bad news for Maharashtra, especially the slowly parching capital city of Mumbai.

The south-west monsoon, which has so far been erratic over the city and its environs, has turned weak over Kerala.

Now, time to pray to the rain gods for mercy!

'Bhaag DK Bose', the popular song from Aamir Khan's latest production Delhi Belly, accidentally infringed the copyright of an artist duo who have a registered trademark of a similar name, but the actor has now amicably resolved the issue.

Jiten Thukral and Sumir Tagra had claimed that the phrase 'BoseDK' was originally their idea and the title of their first exhibition at Gallery Nature Morte in 2005.

Aamir, who was not aware of the registered trademark, has now acknowledged that the phrase is their property, saying he has no claims over it.

On his blog, http://blog.lkadvani.in, BJP stalwart LK Advani writes about the long and chequered history of the Lokpal in India, but we liked what he said at the tailpiece and reproduce it here:

"I have been in Parliament for forty years, and have attended numerous all-party meetings convened by Government.  

"The meeting held by the Prime Minister on July 3 evening, however, proved unique, and without precedent.  

"Never before has an all party meeting turned out to be so unanimous in its criticism of Government as last Sunday's.  

"This discussion was initiated by Sushma Swaraj, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha. Her speech was crisp and powerful. The country wants a strong and effective Lokpal. But the manner in which Government has dealt with the issue and bypassed Parliament is totally indefensible. By deviating from established parliamentary procedure, it has messed up the matter, and made a laughing stock of itself. This all-party meeting seems only an exercise to extricate itself from the mess.  

"Almost every MP who spoke at the meeting endorsed what the BJP leader said. The last speaker at the conference was Arun Jaitley, LOP in Rajya Sabha.  

"He said that Government had given to the meeting two Draft Bills-one prepared by Team Hazare and the other by five Union Ministers. He wished to emphasise that the Ministerial draft would make Lokpal a pliable government person. When government introduces the Lokpal Bill in Parliament let the present draft be completely overhauled.

Here's a spot of good news for all those aficionados of genuine scotch whisky.  

New Delhi has agreed to allow the Scotch Whisky Association to use 'geographical indications' on its products, to differentiate them from 'local' scotch brews.

Is there a difference the morning after, you ask? You bet there is.  

For one, the local brews are often distilled from molasses (yuck), not grain or malt, and are clearly not made in Scotland, though in many cases they are mixed with malt-based scotch.  

While India's decision will continue to allow Indian whisky-makers to use Scottish images on their labels, Scottish producers will now on be allowed to register and label their products with geographical indications that are recognised by the WTO to ensure quality.  

According to David Mundell, Scotland's office minister, India's decision is 'good news for Scotland and great news for one of its most important exports.'   Cheers to that, we say!

Here's another Indian going places. The Wall Street Journal reports quoting a person familiar with the matter that Neeraj Swaroop, chief executive of Standard Chartered PLC's India unit, will soon take over as the head of its Southeast Asia operations in Singapore.

A search is underway to find Swaroop's replacement, who will be replacing Ray Ferguson in Singapore.  

For StanChart, this will be the second big ticket appointment from India, Jaspal Bindra who moved on from heading the South and Southeast Asia ops to become the bank's Asia CEO being the first.

Pakistan-based LeT wanted to invite Bal Thackeray for a fund raiser in the US, hoping he would make inflammatory comments to the benefit of the ISI, but they never planned to kill the Shiv Sena supremo, David Headley, the Pakistani-American terrorist has said.

Describing Shiv Sena as very influential in India, Headley, told the defence attorney during the Chicago trial of Tahawwur Hussain Rana that killing Thackeray would have been operationally a stupid thing to do and tantamount to killing the goose that lays the golden egg.

However, during his discussions with other Lashkar operatives, the 26/11 terror accused did joke about killing the Shiv Sena supremo, he has admitted.

The sniping between Pritish Nandy and Suhel Seth, on since the weekend, shows no sign of flagging. And after reading Seth's latest tweet below, we know that the last word on the matter is far from being said:

Bombay Police announces massive prize for finding @PritishNandy : a private dinner with Chagan Bhujbal on a boat being rowed by Dawood!!!

Nirmala Seetharaman, the BJP's spokesperson, could be nominated to the Rajya Sabha from Gujarat. Sheela Bhatt has the details, which should be up on rediff.com in a little while.

It's now official, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh will visit Bangladesh on September 6-7 this year.

We think it should give his government enough time to troubleshoot following the furore over the inadvertent putting out of his off-the-record negative comments about Bangladesh citizens, during an interaction with editors last week.

Oh, in continuation of our morning post about Amitabh Bachchan's comments on Delhi Belly versus Bbuddah Hoga Tera Baap, please don't miss out reading what the senior superstar has to say on the subject, in detail, on his blog. For those of you who don't know its url, click here

Last week Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in his interaction with editors, said that Mani Shankar Aiyar, when he was sports minister, opposed the Commonwealth Games on ideological grounds and did not bring any wrongdoing to his notice.

This week, the unputdownable Aiyar has given an interview to CNN-IBN, in which he has spread the cheer all around by dragging in the names of P Chidambaram and Prithviraj Chavan. An excerpt:

On Finance Minister P Chidambaram's role: "I don't know that these letters went to the finance minister, at all. But after one meeting of the Group of Ministers, where my insistence on observing the general financial rules was overruled by the finance minister himself, I did write to Mr Chidambaram. In that letter I did say because I was so upset with the situation, that instead of the sports ministry being asked to release these grants in violation of the GFR to Mr Kalmadi's Organising Committee, why not the finance ministry itself does it? And to the best of my memory, I may be wrong here, that letter was neither acknowledged nor acted upon."

On Prithviraj Chavan: "Well, in fact I was tipped off to the need to ensure that sanctions of authority were properly given by my immediate predecessor who was Sri Prithviraj Chavan. He was the one who tipped me off within weeks of my becoming minister that something was rotten in the state of Denmark, that it was in my own best interest that I should check out what was happening. So I'm grateful to him for that. My secretary was a gentleman who was not in the public eye at that time, but has since gone renowned as one of the most able and honest chief election commissioners we've ever had, that was SY Qureshi and he shared all my concerns."

As they say, over to Round 3!

A retired Indian Air Force officer and his wife were killed by suspected robbers in the wee hours today at their house in Vasundra colony in Ghaziabad.

"Ram Pratap and Bela Devi (both in early 60s) were sleeping in the first floor of their house when some unidentified persons entered the house and strangulated them during a robbery bid," superintendent of police J K Shahi said. "Pratap's son Krishna and his wife were sleeping in the ground floor, but they have denied having any knowledge of the incident."

Toral Varia adds from the Mumbai special court: Reema Khan, wife of alleged tax evader Hasan Ali Khan, who was summoned by the court on Monday, asked her to present herself before it on Juy 20, and to also appear before the Enforcement Directorate as and when called.

The ED had filed an application before the court stating that Reema did not appear before it for questioning. Reema's appearance before the ED now has been fixed for July 12 between noon and 2 pm.

The Delhi high court has asked the government to pay a compensation of Rs 15 lakh each to the families of the two Haryana businessmen, shot dead in March 1997 in Connaught Place by a city police team which mistook them for gangsters.

While asking the Union home ministry to pay the compensation within six weeks, Justice S Muralidhar sought the compliance report of his order within 12 weeks.

Gurgaon businessmen Pradeep Goyal and Jagjit Singh were killed by a Delhi police team, headed by its encounter specialist and former assistant commissioner of police S S Rathee on March 31, 1997.

Rathee and his nine subordinates were sentenced to life imprisonment by a Delhi court in 2007. The high court had upheld their conviction and sentence in September 2009.

The Tamil Nadu government today launched a free bus pass scheme for students for the current academic year which is expected to benefit over 27 lakh school and government college students across the state.

Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa launched the scheme for the 2011-12 academic year, which would be implemented at a cost of Rs 303.84 crore, a government release said.

She gave away passes to seven students from seven different schools in the city, the release said, adding the number of beneficiaries had increased from 26.3 lakh students to 27.2 lakh students this year.

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to direct the government to disclose the names of persons who have stashed away money in foreign banks, but it appointed a Special Investigation Team headed by former Supreme Court judge B P Jeevan Reddy to probe the black money issue.

Aiding Reddy in the SIT will be another former Supreme Court judge, M B Shah.

The Supreme Court also said the high-level committee constituted by the government to look into the black money issue will become part of this SIT. 

Further details are awaited.

Ok, this one is for all you who constantly hunger for trivia, as opposed to solid, serious news.

If you didn't know, actress Bipasha Basu has got her naval pierced. The actress, who recently split from hunk John Abraham after nine years, says it was her wish to get her naval pierced since she was a teenager.

"From the age of 16 wanted to get a navel piercing! Finally I got guts to do it! Looks great but it heals slowly! Can't workout much for the next 15days!," Basu has posted on Twitter.

The Guinean maid who accused former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn of sexual assault, may face perjury charges and she can also be deported from the US following claims that she lied under oath, a news report has said.

The 32-year-old hotel maid is under intense scrutiny after New York prosecutors told a court on Friday that they had found holes in her story which may seriously damage her credibility as a witness, the Daily Telegraph online reported.

Moreover, local media reports also alleged that the maid at Sofitel Hotel was doing double duty as a prostitute, collecting cash on the side from male guests, and that Strauss-Kahn may have misunderstood the situation on May 14.

A 30-year old Indian national has won a brand new 2012 model BMW 3-series as the first lucky winner of a local promotion in Dubai.

Fahd Abdullah, a resident of UAE, won the Dubai Shopping Malls Group promotion, which gives 10 lucky winners the chance to win BMW cars during Dubai Summer Surprises and 'Ramadan-in-Dubai', a DSMG statement said.

Abdullah's winning raffle coupon was the result of buying a camera from a store which gave him the lucky coupon. Dubai Events and Promotions Establishment (DEPE) said that nine more chances to win BMW cars beckon shoppers every week at 14 participating malls. The next draw will take place on July 7.

The 10-week city-wide promotion runs concurrently across 14 participating malls in Dubai with the last draw set to be held on August 31 to coincide with the last date of the Ramadan-in-Dubai festival, ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr.

A six-year-old boy died after he was crushed under the wheels of the Lord Jagannath chariot at Purunapani in Sundargarh district, 70 km from Rourkela, the police said today.

Sushanta Mohapatra, who was witnessing the Ratha Yatra celebration yesterday at Purunapani, fell on the ground when he was knocked by the chariot pulling crowd and came under the wheels of the chariot, the police said.

He was immediately rushed to Hatibari health centre and subsequently shifted to Rourkela Government Hospital. However, the boy succumbed to his injuries last night, they added.

The Andhra Pradesh assembly plunged into a crisis on Monday with 69 MLAs both from the Congress and Telegu Desam Party resigning their posts to press their demand for forming a separate Telangana state. The fate of the Kiran Kumar Reddy hangs in balance now. Further details are awaited.

The Amarnath yatra today resumed from both the Baltal and Pahalgam routes after remaining suspended for a day due to landslides and inclement weather, officials said.

"Both the Baltal and Pahalgam routes have been reopened for the pilgrims following improvement in weather conditions and clearance of the track," an official of the yatra control room said.

A massive landslide had blocked the track between Railpathri and Baltal on the shorter 13-km route, preferred by large number of pilgrims compared to the traditional 46-km Pahalgam route.

The Supreme Court today dismissed Bollywood film producer Shakeel Noorani's plea seeking cancellation of actor Sanjay Dutt's bail in the 1993 Mumbai serial blast case.

Noorani, who is involved in a financial dispute with the actor, had approached the apex court alleging that he is being threatened by underworld at Dutt's behest.

Dismissing his petition, a bench of justices P Sathasivam and B S Chauhan said, "You cannot use this court to solve your financial disputes in a criminal case."

Our Correspondent sent in this flash from New Delhi: Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, made to wait by Congress MPs from Andhra Pradesh who were to meet her and resign their seats in an effort to pressure the Union government over forming Telangana state, left in a huff, leaving the parliamentarians waiting in her chamber and arguing with officials. Last heard, the Speaker continues to remain angry

Indian women's cricket team's medium pacer Snehal Pradhan has been reported for a suspected illegal bowling action after the first one-dayer against England in Derby.

"The medium-pace bowler was reported by on-field umpires Jeff Evans and Graham Lloyd, at the conclusion of the first ODI between England and India which was played last Thursday (June 30) at the County Ground in Derby," the ICC said in a statement.

"Pradhan's bowling action will now be scrutinised further under the ICC process relating to women's Tests, ODIs and T20Is."

A Sikh man was denied entry into a hotel in Australia as he refused to take off his turban, a media report said today.

Confirming the incident, the management of Royal English Hotel in Brisbane said it was trying to locate the man, whose identity is yet to be ascertained, to tender an apology.

The hotel management told the Australian Associated Press that one of its staff members at the hotel in Nundah asked the man to remove his turban yesterday under a no headwear policy. A spokesman for Spirit Hotels, which runs Royal English Hotel, said the decision to ask the man to remove his turban was an oversight.

The deputy chief of mission at the Myanmar embassy in Washington, who had previously served in New Delhi, has defected and is now seeking political asylum in the United States saying he fears for his life back home, a media report said today.

Deputy Chief of Mission Kyaw Win, 59, told Radio Free Asia , which is funded by US Congress, that he made the decision to leave the Myanmar government because he saw little hope for the country's future and also he fears that "his life and those of his family were in danger."

Kyaw Win said that after Myanmar held historic elections last November, he expected the government to begin a transition to democracy. Instead, he told RFA, nothing has changed and the military continues to hold uncontested power.

A senior executive of Sun Pictures who who was held yesterday under various charges including cheating and intimidation, has been remanded to judicial custody, the police said.

Hansraj Saxena, chief operating officer of Sun Pictures which is owned by Kalanidhi Maran, media magnate and grand-nephew of DMK chief M Karunanidhi, was arrested based on a complaint by a Salem-based distributor, a statement in Chennai late last night said.

T S Selvaraj, the complainant, had said that Saxena, whose Sun Pictures had produced the Tamil film Theerada Vilayattu Pillai starring Vishal, had sold him the film's Salem distribution rights for a sum of Rs 1.25 crore. The film was released last year.

Supreme Court gives nod for criminal prosecution of Indian National Lok Dal leaders Ajay and Abhay Chautala in disproportionate assets case.

The CBI Dec 24 2009 filed a chargesheet against the Chautala brothers for having assets more than their known sources of income.

According to the chargesheet against Ajay Chautala, he was in possession of assets to the tune of Rs.27.74 crore -- more than three times of his income of Rs.8.17 crore during the period 1993 to 2006.

The chargesheet against Abhay said his assets were over five times his income of Rs.22.89 crore as per income tax records from 2000-05. 

Amitabh Bachchan, whose Bbuddhah Hoga Tera Baap has come second-best in the BO sweepstakes, with Aamir Khan's Delhi Belly taking the honours, has been busy on Twitter over the weekend, tweeting about its collections of Rs 1.91 crore in the first weekend when they needed Rs 1.5 crore.

In one of his tweets, he says: We made a low cost film and are happy with the return .. our theaters are less in capacity also and number, hence low return.

In yet another tweet, posted before he set out to Ajmer Sharief, Big B says: i wish all films to be super hits .. makes Industry healthy .. a healthy industry keeps us healthy too .. love

 

On its opening day after the summer vacation, the Supreme Court will pass interim orders on the black money issue today.

The Supreme Court will pass order on revealing names of 26 Indians who kept black money in LGT bank. The Centre had opposed revealing the names of 26 account holders saying it would violate bi-lateral agreement.

The Congress leadership in Telangana is in a fix as Telangana Congress leaders adamant on en masse resignation. Telangana Congress MPs, ministers and legislators say they will resign today as the Government has not given in to their demand for a separate state of Telangana. The MPs are scheduled to meet speaker at her office at 11 am today.

The party's MLAs and MLCs in Andhra are also threatening to wuit today triggering a Domino effect. Legislators of main opposition Telugu Desam Party from the region say they too will quit once the Congress legislators resign.

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