A look at the top news stories of the day before we close. Goodnight.

Jairam Ramesh: Jaitapur N-plant not tsunami proof

Pak frees Raymond Davis in blood-money deal

Woman in bag was pregnant, possibly raped

Ex CVC Thomas begs President to review dismissal

No ticket for Kerala CM Achuthanandan, decides CPM

No Kerala mafia in PMO, says ex NSA Narayanan

Raja's key aide Sadiq Batcha commits suicide

Jaitley alleges discrimination over Guj I-T notice

Emperor tells Japan to keep hope alive

CBI final report on 2G scam on March 29

In an addendum over yesterday's comment that the Jaitapur nuclear power plant was safe, environment minister Jairam Ramesh today said the plant was not tsunami proof.

He said the government would look at putting in place additional environmental safeguards to ensure safety of the proposed nuclear reactors in Jaitapur in the aftermath of the tsunami in Japan that has endangered the atomic power plants there.

Italy's ceasar of sex PM Silvio Berlusconi paid for sex 13 times with Karima El Mahroug, also known as Ruby, when she was still 17. Prosecutors have filed a document requesting indictments against three of the prime minister's associates for allegedly soliciting prostitutes for him, reports the bbc.co.uk. Prosecutors allege that 33 women took part in erotic parties at his villa near Milan.

Also read: Berlo says he's too old to have sex

Goldman Sachs Group Inc's asset management arm said it has agreed to buy India's Benchmark Asset Management Company, a major provider of exchange-traded funds, reports the Wall Street Journal.

The terms of the deal, which is expected to close later this year subject to regulatory approvals, weren't immediately known. Benchmark Asset Management was founded in 2001 and has about $700 million in assets under management as of December 31.

Navratna PSU Coal India has got a proposal to acquire, The Kraal -- Mahatma Gandhi's house in Johannesburg where he had lived a century ago -- and convert it into a memorial, the government today said.

India's attempt to earlier acquire the heritage property through the state-owned company, after it was announced in 2009 that the house was auctioned off, was unsuccessful.

Sadiq Batcha's wife tells police that he was unable to handle the pressure of the 2G investigation.

Scroll down to read what happened.

In a surprise move, a Pakistani court frees CIA contractor Raymond Davis following a "blood money" deal with relatives of the two men he killed, says Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah.

Earlier in the day, a Pakistani court today indicted Davis, on two counts of murder at a hearing held at a prison in Lahore. Davis, 36, shot dead two Pakistanis in the eastern Punjab city on January 27 following what he described as an attempted armed robbery.

He said he acted in self-defense and the United States says he has diplomatic immunity and should be repatriated.

Najam Sethi tweets: As predicted, Davis has been freed on application of Kissas and Diyat law. CM Shahbaz played key secret role.

Dubbing the internet as the world's greatest spying machine, the co-founder of whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks Jullian Assange said that it's an obstacle to free speech.

Assange said that the web could allow greater government transparency and better cooperation between activists. However, he added, that it also gave authorities their best ever opportunity to monitor and catch dissidents.

A report from dawn.com says that the Pakistan Army has refused to participate in population census that was to be held this in September this year. It saysit would be unavailabledue to its engagement in the war on terror. According to official sources, a letter was sent to the Army seeking its help during the census.

Imagine the Indian army taking a similar stand! Unthinkable.

Read this to find out who exactly was Sadiq Batcha

The young woman found dead in a suitcase at the Sandhurst Road railway station in Mumbai, was pregnant and may have been raped before being killed, Railway Police said today.

The post mortem report suggested that she was four-months pregnant and she died of strangulation. They also stated that the Delhi police had contacted them saying that a woman resembling the deceased was missing from Delhi and she could be the same person.

CBI on Sadiq Batcha: The investigating agency says his death will not hamper investigations since he was a suspect, not a key player. The CBI said he was cooperating with the investigation.

Batcha had been questioned by the CBI in the 2G scam last month.

Scroll down for the Sadiq Batcha story.

Fevicol Thomas appeals to President Pratibha Patil for a review of his dismissal. On March 3, the Supreme Court ruled that the appointment of PJ Thomas as central vigilance commissioner was illegal and directed him to resign. Thomas became the first CVC to beremoved.

Dismissing reports that Thomas had resigned, his counsel Wills Mathews said he would go through the judgment and consider "whether to resign or file a review petition'.

Read the rediff.com interview with his lawyer

Just so you know...

Minissha Lamba: Heartiest congratulations to @konkonas@ranvirshoreyon being blessed with a baby boy. Don't know who is more lucky, the baby or d parents :)

A federal court in Brooklyn has charged a Canadian, Farid Imam on 10 counts, including helping Najibullah Zazi and others travel to Pakistan for attaining terrorist training in a plot to bomb the New York City subway in 2009.

A 'cloud of nuclear distrust' is steadily spreading across the advanced world in the wake of Japan's tsunami. Maybe, India being not yet a developed country, can be impervious to the debate. Life is much dearer there than here? Bhopal vs. BP oil spill ? At any rate, the prevailing thinking continues to be that there is nothing wrong with India's accent on developing the nuclear industry for energy production.

Read MK Bhadrakumar's blog

In a surprise decision, the CPM will not field Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan to lead the LDF in the assembly polls. According to party sources, the state secretariat does not favour Achuthandan's candidature.

A formal announcement is expected after the conclusion of the state committee meet.

The question whether Achuthanandan should be put up again has been dominating the political debate for the last few weeks.

The Central leadership had referred the matter back to the state unit. CPI (M) general secretary Prakash Karat was present in today's meeting, marked by the Achuthanandan's absence.

It may be remembered that he was denied a ticket in the last Assembly elections as well, but he created a furore and finally got himself a ticket. Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan will lead the party and the LDF in the polls. State secretary of CPM, Pinarayi Vijayan too will not be in the fray.

JPC Chief P C Chacko today accepted Public Accounts Committee Chairman Murli Manohar Joshi's suggestion that he should write to him on the issue of "parallel probe" by two committees into the 2G spectrum scam.

Chacko, who earlier made it clear that PAC should confine itself to looking into the CAG report on the 2G spectrum scam, said he would write to Joshi on the matter "today itself." "Definitely I will write to him. It is a good suggestion. I take it in true spirit," the JPC Chairman said.

Rakesh Jhunjhunwalatweets: No One killed Sadiq Batcha

and...

This Sadiq Batcha's death will have a direct bearing on the behavior of Arnab Goswami

doctoratlargetweets: Karuna to Raja:SadiqnahinBatcha.

The West Bengal governor and former National Security Advisor, MK Naryanan, has said that there is no 'Kerala Mafia' in the Prime Minister's office. The Hindu report on the WikiLeaks' India cables said Naryanan and the Prime Minister's Principal Secretary TKA Nair were from Kerala and it could therefore be inferred that a Keralite Mafia was working in the PMO. And that they would in the long run control the policy matters in the Prime Minister's office.

Narayanan said, "We need not listen to the United States and it is clear that there is no mafia in the Prime Minister's office."

The CBI believes that Sadiq Batcha's firm Green House Promoters was floated in 2004 only to divert funds in the 2G scam and was allegedly a front company of A Raja.

Singapore branch of Green House Promoters was set up during the 2G licence and spectrum allocation.

In fact, Batcha hails from Raja's constituency Perambalur in Tamil Nadu.

Yesterday, the Enforcement Directorate told the Supreme Court today that former telecom minister A Raja took bribes from telecom companies in the 2G spectrum allocation and that payoffs were channelled through hawala transactions. It also named 31 telecom companies found to have received kickbacks.

Batcha was also under the Fema scanner for routing money to Swan Telecom.

Subramanian Swamy, the petitioner in the 2G scam says Sadiq Batcha may have been pushed into committing suicide. Says the police should check the suicide theory.

Incidentally, RP Paramesh Kumar, the son of A Raja's sister Vijayammal, was made the joint Managing Director of Sadiq Batcha's Green House Promoters.

Sadiq Batcha was booked on a flight to New Delhi this afternoon, where it is believed he was to be questioned by the CBI once again for his role in the 2G scam. He was earlier questioned on February 23 and his firm Green House Promoters raided in December last year.

Today, the CBI told the SC that a final report on the 2G case would be filed on March 29, and it is believed that Batcha would have been arrested in the case, probably prompting him to hang himself. His body was brought to Apollo Hospital at 1.30 pm.

Sadiq Batcha, akey aide of former telecom minister A Raja, has committed suicide in Chennai.Batcha is the MD of Green House Promoters, a company considered to be a front company of Raja.

The Chennai-based export house is believed to have been a means of funds that were paid as kickbacks in the 2G spectrum allocation scam. His body has been taken to Apollo Hospital. He had been questioned by the CBI on February 23 and his company raided. It is believed that Batcha would have been arrested in a couple of days in the 2G scam.

Initial reports say he hanged himself in his home in Chennai and is believed to have been booked on a flight to New Delhi this afternoon.

Raja's wife, brother and nephewwere directors in Batcha's firm. The Chennai police chiefconfirmed the suicide.

Another important bit of news...

A Pakistani court today indicted Raymond Davis, a CIA contractor on two counts of murder at a hearing held at a prison in Lahore. Davis, 36, shot dead two Pakistanis in the eastern Punjab city on January 27 following what he described as an attempted armed robbery.

He said he acted in self-defense and the United States says he has diplomatic immunity and should be repatriated.

The BJP held up proceedings inside the Rajya Sabha today over the Income Tax department's notice to the Gujarat Government seeking details on MoUs signed by the state during the recent Gujarat Investors' Summit.

Alleging that the Congress-led UPA Government was harassing the BJP Government in Gujarat, leader of the Opposition in the RS, Arun Jaitley, said the communication issued on February 17 also sought details from the State government on the number of investors, both private and foreign companies.

Jaitley alleged that every Opposition-ruled state in the country has been complaining of discrimination by the Centre.

Japan was warned more than two years ago by the international nuclear watchdog that its nuclear power plants were not capable of withstanding powerful earthquakes, leaked diplomatic cables reveal.

The telegraph.co.uk reports that the Japanese government pledged to upgrade safety at all of its nuclear plants, but will now face inevitable questions over whether it did enough.

Read more

NicholeSobeckiwrites fromRas Lanuf, Libya (remember Libya?):What most accounts of war skip over is the boredom, the long stretches of idle time spent waiting to attack or be attacked. "What can we do?' said Said Bugofor, 35, a petroleum engineer, with a shrug. "We sit with our weapons, we eat, we fight.'''

The rivetting story of the day in the life of a Libyan rebel

Thousands of tourists and residents left Tokyo and fled to safer areas today, despite official reassurances that radiation levels in the capital were negligible and posed no threat to health. There was an explosion in reactor no 2 of the Fukushima nuclear plant, which threatened to send radiation levels soaring.

The explosion is believed to have caused a crack in the chamber of reactor no 2 and steam and radioactive substances are reportedly pouring out through it, raising the contamination levels.

Video: Ground reactions in Tokyo

Rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa reports that Karnataka's minister for tourism, and miningmagnate Janardhan Reddy has decided to hang up his boots as an industrialist.

The decision is interesting, considering that the Lokayukta of Karnataka Justice N Santosh Hegde is all set to submit his explosive report on illegal mining in the state.

Read the report

Meanwhile, in Bahrain, the government has announced a three-day emergency after pro-democracy protestors shot dead a Saudi peacekeeping soldier yesterday. MK Bhadrakumar blogs...

The government seems to have asked Indian nationals in Bahrain to avoid appearing too much in the public and to stay indoor as a precautionary measure. Will such a limited advisory do in the developing situation? I think dependents should be advised to leave, if possible - although the advisory by the Philippines asking its nationals to leave may be too hasty.

The Bahrain situation is likely to worsen and a bloody denouement is on the cards.

Read more

Japan's emperor Akihito makes his first televised address to the nation since the double tragedy struck Japan. The reclusive Akhito, apparently, rarely makes a public address.

The bbc.co.uk blog says the emperor expresses his condolences to disaster victims, appeals to people not to give up hope and says, "I pray for the safety of as many people as possible."

The number of confirmed dead now stands at 3,771, with nearly 8,000 people missing.

A team has acutally spent precious man hours to give mankind this groundbreaking report.

New dads who suffer from depression are three times more likely to spank their babies than those fathers who have a happier state of mind. Depressed fathers are also less likely to be involved in everyday parent-child activities like reading to their children, according to researchers at the University of Michigan.

Tennis star Maria Sharapova's parents fled their home to escape the fallout from the Chernobyl explosion before she was born.

The 23-year-old was born in Siberia a year after the Chernobyl catastrophe, considered the worst nuclear accident in history, as her parents left Belarus to avoid any possible exposure to the spreading radiation, says cnn.com.

Sharapova reacts

A couple of 'human interest' stories from Japan.

The story of how Akiko Kosaka, a student from Japan attending the University of California at Riverside, found her family in Minami Sanriku, the fishing village where more than half of the 17,000 residents are missing and feared dead in the aftermath of last week's tsunami.

Cnn.com reports that for three days, she scoured the Internet and then, this is what happened. Read

Mrityunjoy Kumar Jha Wikileaks says that DMK leader Alagiri bribed his voters to secure a parliament seat.

Yesterday, the publication of Wikileaks reports by the Hindu, suggesting that a 'US tilt' was visible in the Indian Cabinet reshuffle of 2006, prompted the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha to allege that the pro-American shift by the UPA government was a 'shameful' act.

Comparisons are being drawn between Hiroshima (scenes of devastation) and Chernobyl (impending nuclear fallout).

But this story says there is a big difference between Chernobyl and Fukushima.

When Chernobyl's reactor number four exploded during a test run on April 26, 1986, the Soviet Union showed its worst colors.

A system built on secrecy and isolation clamped down even harder. The government did not announce the accident to its population '" let alone the world '" for days.

It was forced to confront the accident only after European agencies began picking up abnormally high levels of radiation, meaning the cloud of radioactive particles that was expelled when reactor four exploded and caught on fire had begun to drift westward.

Survivors say there is no resemblance between Chernobyl and Fukushima and here's why.

Want to snare a prince?The story of the wisp of a dress that in 2002 gave the fairy-tale romance between a British commoner and a blond-haired young prince a racy and wholly modern kick start.

Read the story and see the dresson the Daily Beast

Finally, someone's yelled the emperor has no clothes on. For the first time ever, someone has been honest enough to say that the Madame Tussauds waxworks museum in London (tickets priced at Pound 28) is a boo boo.

When Justin Bieber's waxwork was unveiled at Madame Tussauds in London today, fans were left stunned by just how unrealistic the model was. But 17-year-old Bieber didn't seem to mind, grinning widely as he posed next to the waxwork alongside his mother Pattie and labelling it 'awesome. See the picture.

Indira Gandhi, with a skin tone reminiscent of a boiled lobster, looks nothing like her. Ditto Amitabh Bachchan, SRK, even the British royal family. Ash looks real -- nice and plastic.

Give it a wide berthwhenyou go there.

And this one...

Viva Kermaniby sshibad: Predictably, India sends woollen and blankets to Japan.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

On this day 2055 years ago, JuliusCaesarwas assassinated. Read the tweets.

JuliusCaesardied 2055 years ago today. If it wasn't for him we'd be eating salads with no croutons. Hail Cesar.

JuliusCaesardied 2055 years ago today? Gosh, feels like just yesterday! Time flies.

JuliusCaesarfailed to 'beware the Ides of March' and was assassinated on this day. What a shame. He really knew how to toss a salad.

Apple Inc is delaying the launch of its new iPad 2 in Japan in the wake of the devastating earthquake and tsunami in the country.

The iPad 2, which was launched by company chief Steve Jobs in the US on March 2, was scheduled to hit Japan on March 25.

Apple had said it will begin selling its latest tablet computer in 26 other countries, including Mexico, New Zealand and Spain, on March 25.

The California-based technology giant has not yet set a new launch date for the tablet in Japan, which now also faces risk of nuclear radiation leak after a series of blasts at its nuclear plant at Fukushima.

The Pentagon also says that the resumption of peace talks between India and Pakistan is extremely important for peace in the region, including Afghanistan.

"We have actually been very heartened by the fact that India and Pakistan are resuming their own dialogue on a number of disputed issues, whether from Kashmir to counterterrorism, humanitarian issues, trade and so forth. So we think that dialogue is extremely important," US Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Michele Flournoy said.

When will the US stop being big brother to the rest of the world? India certainly doesn't need its concern, though the WikiLeaks releases yesterday on the UPA's pro-US tilt, seems otherwise. Read yesterday's Live news

Top Pentagon officials have expressed strong concern over the increasing influence of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistan-based terrorist outfit, in South Asia and the its damaging potential to bring India and Pakistan on the verge of war through a terrorist activity.

India is concerned as well, boys.

More news from Fukushima...

A rise in radiation levels at Japan's stricken Fukushima nuclear plant has forced workers to suspend operations, reports bbc.co.uk.

We told you in our earlier report that smoke was seen rising from reactor three. Now, a fire has also struck reactor four for the second time in two days. Friday's 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami, which killed thousands, damaged the plant's cooling functions. The site has also been hit by four explosions, triggering radiation leaks.

Pictured: Tsunami waves carry a ship away, including the crew. The fate of the crew or the numbers is not yet known.

At Fukushima, reports say all workers have fled the plant as all the nuclear reactors are in trouble and the situation still critical.The overheating risk in the reactors The official death toll in Japan now stands at 3676 with 7585 missing.

Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama has said that he was not worried about radiation from the quake-hit Japanese nuclear power plant reaching Hawaii.

"I've been assured that it... any nuclear release dissipates by the time it gets even to Hawaii, much less to the mainland of the US. I do think it's important for us to think through constantly how we can improve nuclear technologies to deal with additional safety concerns," Obama said when asked about the safety of nuclear plants in the US.

A fresh fire broke out at a reactor of Japan's quake-hit Fukushima No 1 nuclear power plant early today. An employee confirmed smoke was pouring from the roof of the number-four reactor at the plant.

A blaze and explosion hit the same reactor yesterday, causing a crack in the roof. The government has separately reported apparent damage to part of the container shielding the number-two reactor at Fukushima 250 kilometres northeast of Tokyo.

Good morning. We open the day with news that the CBI is questioning Attorney General Ghoolam Vahanavati in the 2G scam. Vahanavati, who has a squeaky clean record and ishighly respected, had termed scam-tainted former telecom minister A Raja's first come first serve policy in the allocation of 2G spectrum as fair. Bascially, he is being quizzed on his legal opinion.

Stay with us.