As we close for the day, news comes in that two Std XI students in a school in suburban Kolkata got into a scuffle, which ended in the death of one of the boys. Boys will be boys is cruel irony indeed.

The other big stories today...

1. Jaya in Delhi: PM must sack Maran NOW
2. Apocalypse now! 50-mile wide, mile high dust storm in Arizona
3. So is China's ex leader Jiang Zemin dead?
4. Ukranian coach restrained from leaving India
5. 2G: JPC to start quizzing telecom secretaries
6. Is Twitter valued at $7 billion?
7. Japan to 'stress test' all nuclear reactors
8. Cornered Oz women agree to lift the burqa
9. Third accused guilty of Nitish Katara murder
10. Maya rapped: SC stops Noida land grab
11. Journo gets Rs 5-cr damages from husband
12. Binayak Sen wants apology from Chhattisgarh govt
13. Chidambaram rules out President's rule in AP
14. Padmanabha temple treasure videographed
15. Pro-Telangana Osmania students tear-gassed

Before we end, an update on Union Textile Minister Dayanidhi Maran. The minister came under the Supreme Court's scanner in the 2G Spectrum allocation scam with the CBI raking up his role in "forcing" a Chennai-based telecom promoter to sell his stakes in Aircel to a Malaysian firm in 2006.

The agency, which placed its 71-page fresh status report about the 2G scam, said that during 2004-07 when Maran was telecom Minister, the promoter C Sivasankaran, was forced to sell the stake in Aircel to a Malaysian firm Maxis Group.

Senior Advocate K K Venugopal, who read the status report before a bench of justice G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly, did not take Maran's name but stated that the Chennai business man was not granted UAS licence for two years.

It said that the Malaysian firm was favoured by Maran and was granted licence within six months after taking over the Aircel in December 2006. Maran was the Telecom Minister between February 2004 and May, 2007.

A massive dust storm has descended on the Phoenix area, drastically reducing visibility and delaying flights as strong winds toppled trees and caused power outages for thousands of residents in the valley.

The wall of dust towered over city centre skyscrapers after it swept across the desert from the south; it appeared to be roughly 50 miles wide in some spots.

Click here for the amazing photographs

The National Human Rights Commission has issued a notice to the Defence Secretary over the killing of a boy in Cantonment area in Chennai. If you're not aware of what happened, here's what happened.

A 13-year-old boy died of bullet injuries when an army jawan allegedly fired at him and three others for trespassing on to residential premises near Fort St George in Chennai on Sunday, triggering protests.

Dilshan, whose father is a labourer, was rushed to a nearby government hospital. TN CM Jayalalithaa has held the army responsible for the killing.

Rediff.com favourite R Rajagopalan tweets.

PM-Soina meet is now taking place at 7 RCR. Will they be discussing Dayanidhi Maran? Or Telangana,

Tamil Nadu CM J Jayalalithaa who is now in New Delhi ahead of the finalisation of the annual plan by the Planning Commission has resumed her attack on Cabinet minister Dayanidhi Maran. Jaya said today it was high time that the Prime Minister dropped Maran from the Cabinet, a statement she made last month on her maiden visit to the capital after her poll win.

The CBI today implicated Maran saying he deliberately sat on granting licences to Aircel owner Siva.

Had to share this with you.

On Twitter:  Advice for first-time fliers: pry open hard bread roll, insert slab of frozen butter, close, and place under armpit to warm up before eating

Advocating enactment of a strong and effective Lokpal bill, the CPI today demanded inclusion of the Prime Minister in the ambit of the proposed national watchdog on corruption.

"The government should enact a strong and effective Lokpal bill latest by the Winter Session of the Parliament and the Prime Minister must be under the jurisdiction of the national watchdog on corruption," CPI General Secretary A B Bardhan said.

This is certainly news you can use. You can easily check your Facebook account at work without fear of being caught by your boss.

A website developed by a university student allows you to automatically convert your Facebook news feeds into an Excel spreadsheet and users can instantly see what their friends are up to on Facebook with updates appearing as new spreadsheet rows.

Uploaded pictures and videos can be viewed by hovering over the entries, and users can interact by "liking" the updates with a simple click on the spreadsheet.

Still rumours, but in case you didn't know speculation is rife that China's ex leader Jiang Zemin may be dead. Gossip about the 84-year-old's ill health has circulated for some time, and the fact that he didn't show up for the mega-celebrations of the Chinese Communist Party's 90th anniversary on July 1st further fueled speculation.

Stay with us for updates.

Almost 12 years after it opened in London, Abba's hit musical Mamma Mia, has become the first major Western to be translated for China.  

The play hopes to win over an audience more accustomed to stirring historical dramas and revolutionary epics, after playing to 40 million people and grossing more than 1.2 billion pounds worldwide.  

The show will have 32 performances in Shanghai and the southern city of Guangzhou and 80 in Beijing.

India awaits. Not a translation, the show will do just fine, thank you.

More on scams and the aftermath.

The Joint Parliamentary Committee probing the 2G spectrum allocation scam will start questioning from tomorrow former telecom secretaries including Siddharth Behura who is currently lodged in Tihar Jail, and ex-chiefs of TRAI.

Behura will be produced before the committee on July 12 after the special CBI court dealing with the 2G spectrum allocation scam case agreed to the same. He is in jail since February facing charges of cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy in the 2G scam.

First the Lokpal Bill and now this. Expect the monsoon session of Parliament to be stormy.

The Central Vigilance Commission, investigating the multi-crore Commonwealth Games scam, has submitted its annual report to President Pratibha Patil, which will be tabled in Parliament.

Officials said that the report carried details of the probe undertaken by the anti-corruption watchdog between January and December 2010.

"The report has been given to the President late last month and it will be tabled in the Parliament," a CVC official said. However, the official, did not divulge details on the content of the report saying it will be a "breach of Parliament".

Every time you tweet, think of this.

Twitter Inc is raising funding that values the startup at about $7 billion, reports Bloomberg.

The San Francisco-based company is in talks with investors to receive hundreds of millions of dollars. Twitter's worth has almost doubled since December, when it received a $200 million investment led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers that valued the company at $3.7 billion.

The startup was pegged at about $1 billion in 2009, an exchange for shares of closely held companies, has assessed Twitter's current worth at $6.8 billion.

From the BBC: The head of a major New Zealand employers' group has been fired after he caused public outrage by linking women's productivity to menstruation.

Alasdair Thompson of the Employers' and Manufacturers' Association made his comments on a radio show last month. Thompson said women were paid less than men because they took more sick leave and "have children they have to take time off to go home" to care for.

He said: Who takes the most sick leave? Women do, in general." "Why? Because once a month they have sick problems. Not all of them, but some do.

Prime Minister John Key said Thompson's dismissal was inevitable.

Rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa who has been giving us all the news as it happens on Telangana says all the Congress MLAs are headed back to Hyderabad after there was absolutely no assurance from the Union government over a settlement of the issue.

Visibly upset they said that they were disappointed by the Centre and they would continue fighting until the goal was achieved.

Ram Reddy Damodar Reddy, one of the Congress MLAs there was no question of withdrawing resignations and they would not settle for anything less than a Bill regarding Telangana in Parliament.

Also read: Mohammed Siddique on Telangana paralysed

Read the Hindustan Times story of what happened on the day the Yadavs were convicted and sentenced to a life term for Nitish Katara's murder.

Last week, the 2G trial court judge noted during a surprise visit to Tihar jail that Vishal and Vikas Yadav were enjoying a stroll in the prison gardens, way beyond permitted time.     

Just in: A Court has found Sukhdev Pehelwan guiltuy of Nitish Katara's murder. An employee of the Yadav family - (Vikas and his cousin Vishal were found guilty of killing Nitish) Pehelwan had helped the Yadavs. Pehelwan was the third accused in the murder and was tried separately in the case.

The court ruled that Pehelwan who was present in the car had abducted Katara in 2002 and helped the Yadavs destroyed evidence. The three had tried to burn the body, which was found in an unrecognizable condition from Khurja in UP.

The yadavs are serving a life term for the murder.

Details on the home minister's press briefing today. We told you earlier, what he said on Telangana (see our 13:05 pm update), and now here's what he said on the Kim Davy case.

Terming as "disappointing" a Denmark court's refusal to allow the extradition of Purulia arms drop case mastermind Kim Davy, P Chidambaram strongly rejected the argument that prisoners are subjected to torture here.

"The Kim Davy verdict is very disappointing. We reject the argument that prisoners are subjected to torture or that human rights of the accused will be violated," Chidambaram said today.

He was replying to a question on the refusal of a Danish High Court to allow the extradition of Davy to India to face trial, saying he ran the risk of "torture or other inhumane treatment" in India.

Chidambaram said he has written a letter to External Affairs Minister S M Krishna, making all these points and requesting him to ask the Government of Denmark that they should immediately file an appeal in a higher court there. 

From Foreign Policy magazine, a commentary on how Pakistan is cracking down on the Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, but United States and Britain has been allowing it to operate freely.

The how, why, whats answered in this definitive story. Read 

Almost four months after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, Japan said today it would run "stress tests" on all its nuclear reactors. The atomic accident was sparked by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami disaster.

The ongoing crisis, the world's worst atomic accident since Chernobyl 25 years ago, has ignited debate in Japan about the safety of nuclear power, which before the disaster accounted for a third of its electricity needs.

The centre-left government ordered a round of initial tests on the quake-prone country's other atomic plants after the disaster, and said the new stress tests aimed to reassure the public that the facilities are safe.

Almost four months after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, Japan said today it would run "stress tests" on all its nuclear reactors. The atomic accident was sparked by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami disaster.

The ongoing crisis, the world's worst atomic accident since Chernobyl 25 years ago, has ignited debate in Japan about the safety of nuclear power, which before the disaster accounted for a third of its electricity needs.

The centre-left government ordered a round of initial tests on the quake-prone country's other atomic plants after the disaster, and said the new stress tests aimed to reassure the public that the facilities are safe.

Our Delhi correspondent reports that the railways plan to encourage people buy platform tickets by using their mobile phone in the same manner in which it now allows the train reservation through the cellphone.

A SMS message on your mobile giving details of the platform ticket including the expiry time will be accepted as the platform ticket.

This will put an end to the serpentine queues before the platform windows and save the railways costs in terms of paper and printing of tickets and manpower.

Christine Lagarde, who recently took office as the International Monetary Fund managing director, will be bound by tough ethical rules as the fund tightens its rules following last month's departure of Dominique Strauss-Kahn.  

As part of the contract she will sit in one-on-one sessions with IMF ethics chief Virginia Canter and have it explained to her that the IMF encourages the advancement of women and discourages sexual harassment, bullying or other intimidation.

Yesterday, we told you that police in Australia's New South Wales state have been given more powers to remove burkas and other face coverings to identify crime suspects.

Today, Muslim women in the state raised concerns that the decision was part of a renewed push to ban the Islamic garb, but most Muslim women were willing to cautiously accept the law as long as it wasn't misused.  

The new law threatens fines of 5500 dollars or a year in jail for refusing to lift the veil during routine traffic stops, if suspected of committing a crime or if they are considered a potential security risk. 

Families of London's July 7, 2005 bombing victims have been told they may have been targeted by phone hackers. The phone-hacking crisis enveloping the paper, News of the World, intensified last night after it emerged that Scotland Yard has started to contact the relatives of victims of the 7 July 2005 attacks to warn them they were targeted by the paper. 

Read more

Yesterday, the Supreme Court lashed out at growing incidents of land acquisition that were not meant for any public purpose. This is a sinister campaign initiated by several state governments against the people. It is forcing them (land owners) to become slum dwellers or take to crime, the SC said.

From cnn ibn:

In a verdict favourable to former NDTV Correspondent and senior journalist Jennifer Arul, who had filed a case against her husband, the XIV Metropolitan Magistrate, Egmore, has awarded a compensation of Rs 5 crore in connection with a case pertaining to the Domestic Violence Act.

Jennifer, the daughter-in-law of former IGP and CBI Director F V Arul, had filed a case against her husband Michael Arul in 2009 alleging ill-treatment, cruelty, extramarital affairs and eviction from her marital house.

The court passed the order on June 29 in favour of Jennifer. The Court also ordered that she could live in the family residence at Egmore from where she had been evicted by Michael until he made alternative arrangements for a permanent residence for her.

The court awarded Jennifer Rs 2 crore compensation for maintenance towards her future and another Rs 3 crore, payable by Michael, for deserting her for 12 years, having an extra-marital affair, leaving her to face court trials and not paying rent.

Chidambaram adds that reports that several thousand people ready to infiltrate into J-K are highly exaggerated.

On Telangana he said no decision has been taken on convening an all party meeting on the issue.

From Home minister P Chidambaram's press conference today.

On Telangana: We hope the campaign for Telangana will not lead to a breakdown of law and order. We will engage MPs and MLAs who have resigned on the Telangana issue. We are not thinking of President's rule in Andhra Pradesh.

On J-K: We are keeping a vigil on infiltration attempts in J-K. There has been no incident of terror in past six months in country's hinterland. India rejects arguments that prisoners are subjected to torture. There are very many practical difficulties to be resolved in bringing back people from across the line of control.

Activist Dr Binayak Sen, who was accused by the Chhattisgarh government of being a Maoist rebel and convicted last year by a trial court in the state for sedition and his wife, Ilina Sen, told the Wall Street Journal that they felt vindicated by a Supreme Court order yesterday.

Dr Sen called for an apology from the state government to the people of the state. He said he felt that the criticism he had made of the way the Chhattisgarh government was trying to battle the Maoist insurgency, for which he feels he was victimized, has been borne out by the Supreme Court's ruling.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa left for Delhi today to take part in the finalisation of the annual plan by the Planning Commission.

Official sources said Jayalalithaa was accompanied by her close aide Sasikala (of the extravagant, over-the-top marriage scandal), Finance Minister O Panneerselvam and high ranking officials.

This is Jayalalithaa's second visit to Delhi since she came to power.

During her June 14 meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Jaya had placed a demand for a special assistance of Rs one lakh crore even as she had been charging previous DMK regime with pushing the state into a 'debt-trap.'

On an aside, Maria Shriver, who filed for divorce from actor Arnold Schwarzenegger this month, is likely to walk away with more than USD 300 million.

Shriver, who was married to Schwarzenegger for over 25-years, filed for divorce from the actor-politician after it was revealed that he cheated on her and fathered a love child with the housekeeper.

A settlement agreement has been under discussion for months between lawyers for Schwarzenegger and his soon-to-be ex-wife. Under California law, all assets obtained during the marriage are split 50/50.

A blast at a French nuclear power plant which comes days after nuclear authorities found 32 safety concerns at the plant should be a wake-up call for the Indian government which says the nuclear power plant in Jaitapur is safe.

The blaze at the Tricastin plant in Drme in the Rhne valley sent a thick cloud of black smoke into the sky. A mistral wind sent it south over a nearby motorway on one of the busiest travel days of the year as the French left for their summer holidays.  

The government in April said it has decided to have a stand-alone safety system in the designs of each reactors, two of which are expected to be operational by 2019 and announced a bill would be brought to create an autonomous nuclear regulatory body for the Jaitapur nucelar power plant.

Pro-Telangana protestors clash with the police. Osmania University students pelt stones at the police, which used tear gas shells to disperse the crowds.

Meanwhile, normal life was affected on the second consecutive day today in the 10 districts of the Telangana region in Andhra Pradesh following a 48-hour shutdown by the Telangana Political Joint Action Committee for a separate statehood.

Schools, colleges, shops, petrol pumps and other commercial establishments remained closed and public transport services were badly hit in all the Telangana districts, including Hyderabad, due to the bandh.

The Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation suspended its services at various places as a precautionary measure and commuters had a tough time in reaching their destinations.

As 17th Karmapa readies for his US trip, external affairs minister S M Krishna today began an official visit to Bangladesh during which he is expected to convey India's commitment to forging a strong and enduring relationship with the people and government of the neighbouring country.

During talks with the Bangla leadership, Krishna will review the entire gamut of bilateral relations ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's September 6-7- visit there.

Krishna's three-day trip comes against the backdrop of Singh's remarks last Wednesday about 25 per cent of Bangladeshis being anti-Indian which kicked up an uproar in that country.

The two countries have since downplayed the remarks with Krishna himself denying suggestions that his trip was being undertaken to repair the damage to bilateral relations following the prime minister's remarks.

From the Hindustan Times: The government has finally allowed Ogyen Trinley Dorje, the 17th Karmapa, who is parallel head of powerful Kagyu karma sect of Tibetan Buddhist to travel to United States to attend the Kalchakra festival.

Under scanner of investigating agencies for  huge stacks of foreign currency recovered from his monastery, Ogyen Trinley Dorje had earlier expressed his desire to visit United States along with Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama for Kalchakra which commences from July 6th in Washington DC. 

Also read: Our interview with Ugyen Thinley Dorje when he became the 17th Karmapa 

Just in: The Supreme Court has directed that the treasure being unearthed from the Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Kerala be videographed. The court has proposed the appointment of a curator of a museum for the task. 

Earlier, Kerala Chief Minister Oomen Chandy had said that the state government would not stake any claim to the treasure, valued at nearly Rs 1 lakh crore, which was uncovered at Sri Padmanabha Swamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram.

The chief minister while speaking to the media said the treasure should be kept at the temple itself. Chandy also said that the government would provide top level security to the temple.

A team, deputed by the Supreme Court of India has been examining and opening the cellar rooms of the temple for the past several days. The authorities and inspectors were stunned to find gold and sovereigns worth crores.

The Supreme Court allows French cement giant Lafarge to mine in the Khasi hills of Meghalaya on the basis of a revised environmental clearance given to Lafarge by the Ministry of Environment and Forest in April 19, 2010. 

The environmental clearance given by the Ministry of Environment and Forest had been challenged. The court had on May 10 reserved its judgement after hearing all the parties over the revised environmental clearance given to Lafarge for mining in the forest.

The apex court had on February 5, 2010, stopped Lafarge from carrying out limestone mining in Meghalaya for its cement plant, saying mining in the environmentally-sensitive zone could not be allowed.

More international news soon, but first this...

Nine policemen were injured, five of them critically, in a deadly terrorist strike in north Kashmir's Sopore town this morning.

A senior police officer said terrorists initially fired two rifle grenades towards the Sopore station, which exploded without causing any damage in the backyard of the police station building.

"Immediately after the blasts, a group of policemen went outside to locate the place where from the grenades had been fired. Terrorists triggered a pre-planted improvised explosive device they had kept inside a parked scooter when the policemen neared it," the officer said.

Also read from the Time magazine, what happens when Pakistani journalists take on the ISI. This comes in the aftermath of journalist Saleem Shahzad's death on May 31, three days after he mysteriously disappeared in Islamabad. Suspicions immediately fell on the ISI as Shahzad had told human-rights campaigners that he had earlier been threatened by the ISI.

Read more

Quickly on to international news before we return to what's happening in India. The Wall Street Journal reports that Cisco Systems Inc. will help China build a massive surveillance network in the city of Chongqing. The technological part of it is impressive, as it will "cover cover a half-million intersections, neighborhoods and parks over nearly 400 square miles, an area more than 25% larger than New York City."  

But the bigger question is whether that equipment will be used by the Chinese government to crackdown on dissent and what responsibility does a Western company bear when it does business with a government like China?

Read more

For those who follow art film, news comes in that noted filmmaker Mani Kaul, who was considered one of the pioneers of new Indian cinema, died in New Delhi today after prolonged illness.

Mani Kaul, 66, is survived by two sons and as many daughters. He breathed his last at 1 a.m. at his home in New Delhi after he was discharged from a hospital on Tuesday night, his family said.

Mani Kaul, born in Jodhpur in Rajasthan to a Kashmiri family, was ranked among the filmmakers who contributed to new Indian cinema with their exemplary movies.

His uncle was well-known actor-director Mahesh Kaul. Mani Kaul began his career with Uski Roti in 1969 which won him the Filmfare Critics Award for best movie and his other movies like Ashad Ka ek Din, Duvidha and Idiot also got awards.

A graduate from the Film and Television Institute of India, Mani Kaul got the National Film Award for his documentary film Siddheshwari in 1989.

Good morning. Clarifications from health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on the homosexuality is a disease comment. He now says, he meant HIV positive people. In fact, the Congress seems to have have mantris with diseases -- foot in the mouth -- Digvijay Singh being another. The other big stories today.

Pranab meets Telangana legislators (The Hindu)
The meetings are part of the Congress strategy to engage with the legislators, who have put in their papers, and explain to them the position of the party and the Centre on the issue. Read

'NIS food supplement ran out, we took what coach gave us' (Indian Express)
Sports ministry has fired Yuri Ogorodnik, the man in charge of dope-tainted 4x400 m relay squad. Read

I was quoted out of context, says Ghulam Nabi Azad on homosexuality (DNA)
With his remarks on homosexuality among men creating an uproar, Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad today said that he had been "quoted out of context" and he "never intended to hurt the sentiments of any section of society". Read

On foot, Rahul Gandhi test drives to Bhatta Parsaul (DNA)
In his by-now-perfected trademark style, he walked in to Parsaul village early Tuesday morning and caught the district administration unaware. Read

Dharavi in Mumbai is no longer Asia's largest slum (The Times of India)
Dharavi, spread over 557 acres and housing nearly three lakh people, is no longer Asia's largest slum. Mumbai has at least four larger contenders for the dubious distinction, some of them three times the size of Dharavi. Read

Private hospitals are not hotels to charge exorbitantly: SC (The Times of India)
Criticizing the Delhi's big private hospitals for their steep charges, SC said that they are acting like star hotels and have not kept their promise to treat the poor -- 25% outdoor and 10% indoor -- free of cost. Read

Mukesh Ambani looks to sell gas pipeline business: Report (The Times of India)
Mukesh Ambani is looking to sell Reliance Gas Transportation Infrastructure Ltd, a business that builds pipelines to carry natural gas across the country, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Read

Kochi Tuskers Kerala to be sold? (DNA)
Squad suffered a loss of over Rs125 crore in its first year; one of the owners confirms the news, another skirts the issue, a third was in silent mode. Read