We close Live! news for today. Stay with us tomorrow. The big stories that made headlines...

1. Kalmadi, cronies in Tihar jail till June 1
2. Chhattisgarh CM slams Binayak's appointment
3. Oommen Chandy, Tarun Gogoisworn in as CMs
4. Mamata quits railways tomorrow; Roy next minister?
5. Rahul misquoted says Cong: It's ash, not bodies
6. American author Philip Roth wins Booker
7. K'taka gov: I will complete my tenure
8. Kaskar not present at firing spot: Police
9. Egyptian is Al Qaeda's new chief

The BJP today lashed out at Rahul Gandhi for his claims of police brutality and rape in Greater Noida villages, and said the Congress leader should refrain from making such statements without ascertaining facts.

"While being in opposition, we should be careful not to hurt the sentiments of people we are supporting... though atrocities have been committed against farmers, Rahul Gandhi has no right to insult the women and poor farmers of the area by claiming on TV that they have been raped," BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain said.

He said without carrying out proper investigations and ascertaining facts, Gandhi should not make such comments.

Moments after it was announced that Philip Roth had won the Man Booker Prize -- Carmen Callil, the judging panelist, author and publisher -- has withdrawn from the panel. Dismissing the Pulitzer prize-winning author, Callil said that "he goes on and on and on about the same subject in almost every single book. It's as though he's sitting on your face and you can't breathe".

Read the report in the Guardian

Talk show legend Oprah Winfrey wrapped shot the last episode of her iconic show, The Oprah Winfrey Show... The Beyonce, Usher and Madonna joined her to bid farewell.

Watch

Home minister P Chidambaram takes responsibility for the India's most wanted goof-up. Calling it a "normalhuman error in compilation", PC blames the IB and the Mumbai police for the gaffe. He says Pakistan will be informed about the oversight. He said the Mumbai police failed to inform the CBI about Wazhul Khan's arrest. (PC grins through the PC. Sigh.)

See our 11:18 am post for an update.

Here's a background of the story

Congress leaders Digvijay Singh and Salman Khurshid jump in and parrot Rahul Gandhi at the Congress plenary at Varanasi.

Digvijay Singh says UP chief minister Mayawati was encouraging corruption through land allotments and that UP has been on a decline for several years .

The people of the state have suffered under Governments led by Mulayam Singh Yadav, Bharatiya Janata Party and Mayawati. He said the law and order situation in the state had deteriorated and there has been an increase in crimes. Factories have had to shut down due to lack of electricity.

Rahul Gandhi in Varanasi at the Congress plenary: Party will keep fighting for the people of UP.

We will reach every village in UP and fight for the people.

We will develop UP.

This is not a fight for votes, but a fight for the future of the people of UP (Ya, right!)

Incidentally, no mention of either the 'rapes' or the 'body count' in Bhatta-Parsaul.

Strategic analyst B Raman's blog on fighting cancer: His blogspot: My cancer and I.

I completed my quarterly anti-cancer evaluation on May 18, 2011, after undergoing a series of lab tests -- blood, urine, ultrasound of the entire abdomen, chest X-ray etc -- since May 12.

At the end of them all, I had my seventh quarterly shot. The progress is encouraging. My body has been responding well to the therapy and tolerating it without any major side effects. Twenty months after the cancer was detected, it has remained confined to the urinary tract and is showing no tendency to spread outside.

Read more and raise a toast

The Egyptian people are still outraged after authorities released Suzanne Mubarak, the wife of ousted President Hosni Mubarak, on bail after she relinquished her assets to the government.

Suzanne gave up bank accounts worth 3.4 million dollars, gave up a villa and signed an affidavit allowing further investigation into her fortunes both in Egypt and abroad.

The 70-year-old and her husband, who was ousted from power February 11 after 18 days of uprising, are facing allegations of acquiring illegally wealth.

On an aside, here's a story from CNN -- the hunt for Nelson Mandela's pistol.

The story goes that as a young freedom fighter, Nelson Mandela stepped out of a farmhouse hideout in South Africa, took 20 strides and dug a hole on the sprawling land.

He leaned over, put in a semiautomatic pistol and 200 rounds of ammunition, and carefully put a khaki uniform over them. After covering them with heaps of soil, he sauntered back into his rural hideout in northern Johannesburg -- hoping to retrieve them soon.

Hooked? Go here for what happened next

Congress spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan says the party stands by Rahul Gandhi's claims in UP, but reiterates Manish Tiwari's earlier statement that the AICC general secretary was misquoted by the media. Cong also wants an inquiry into Bhatta-Parsaul violence. "Quote Rahul correctly," Natarajan admonishes the media.

Meanwhile, Rahul is giving it a go at Varanasi. Says the Congress will fight for the people of UP.

Good news alert: Suresh Kalmadi stays in the cozy confines of Tihar jail till at least June 1.

The judicial custody of sacked CWG Organising Committee chief Suresh Kalmadi, arrested for alleged irregularities in awarding a contract to a Swiss firm, was extended today by a Delhi court.

While remanding the suspended Congress MP to judicial custody till June 1, Special CBI Judge Talwant Singh also extended for the same period the jail custody of two other top officials of the Games organising committee -- OC Joint Director General (Sport) A S V Prasad and Deputy Director General (Procurement) Surjit Lal.

The trio had been arrested on April 25 for awarding the lucrative contract to the Swiss firm to install a Timing-Scoring-Result (TSR) system for the 2010 Commonwealth Games at an exorbitant cost, causing a loss of over Rs 90 crore to the exchequer.

This should have been coming ever since the announcement was made on May 11.

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh today asked the Prime Minister to review the decision of appointing activist Binayak Sen on a Planning Commission panel, saying his contribution to health sector is "hugely exaggerated" and there is little on ground to support it.

In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the chief minister said the nomination of Sen, who has been convicted for waging war against the state for colluding with Naxals to set up a network, as member of a steering committee of Planning Commission on health is "shocking".

"There have been no precedents of this kind," he said, adding he will not attend any Planning Commission meeting till this matter is resolved.

"It appears strange that no other name in the entire country could be found for nomination in the aforesaid committee.

Senior Congress leader Oommen Chandy was today sworn in as the 21st Chief Minister of Kerala at the Raj Bhavan here. Along with Chandy, six floor leaders of the UDF coalition were administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor R S Gavai at the lawns of the Raj Bhavan.

The UDF unseated CPI(M)-led LDF by securing a thin majority of 72 seats in the 140-member House after April 13 Assembly polls.

IPL has fined Rajasthan Royals captain Shane Warne $50,000 for publicly insulting state Cricket Association secretary Sanjay Dixit after an IPL match. IPL says criticising Dixit publicly was a serious breach of conduct.

The incident took place just after the prize distribution ceremony of the IPL match between RR and Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Sawai Mansingh stadium on May 11.

Disappointed at not acceding to his request for a favourable pitch for the match against Bangalore, Warne allegedly walked up to Dixit and abused him for not replying to his messages.

He called Dixit a liar, told him he was egoistic and asked him to go away, forcing Rajasthan Royals owner Shilpa Shetty to intervene and apologise for the incident.

However, Warne will not face a one-match ban.

Yet another opionion that says the the US should not rapidly retreat from Afghanistan in the aftermath of Osama bin Laden's death.A prominent American expert on South Asian affairs says it can spell disaster for the region.

"Bin Laden's death may signal a turning point in the fight against terrorism. But to use it as an excuse for rapidly withdrawing troops from Afghanistan is shortsighted and would likely spell disaster for the region, where a plethora of Islamist extremist groups threaten stability in both Afghanistan and nuclear-armed Pakistan," Lisa Curtis of the Heritage Foundation said.

At least 10 people have been killed in northern Afghanistan during a protest against an overnight raid by Nato and Afghan forces, hospital sources have told the BBC. .

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee will resign as Railway Minister tomorrow, a day ahead of being sworn in as West Bengal Chief Minister.

After her talks with UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here on Monday, Banerjee had made it clear that the Railway Ministry would be retained by the Trinamool Congress.

Though Banerjee has maintained that the Prime Minister would take a decision on her successor in the crucial Ministry, speculation is rife that Mukul Roy, party General Secretary and Minister of State for Shipping, is the front- runner for taking over the reins of the Railway Ministry from her.

Besides Roy, the name of Dinesh Trivedi, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, is also doing the rounds for the job.

First takes on Rahul Gandhi's soon-to-be blooper.

Congress spokesperson Janardhan Dwivedi says thatthe media has misquoted Rahul Gandhi. "What Rahul Gandhi said that he saw a place where 70 ft of ashes (sic) were lying. It is wrong to distort what is said. I deny what is being reported in media quoting Rahul Gandhi. His question is that women and children have been beaten up and harassed is to be taken up. If bones have been seen in the ashes there, it has to be investigated in detail."

So how did a 70-ft pile of ash become 74 bodies?

Here's what's happening on the Centre's interlocutors on Jammu and Kashmir in October 2010.

Chief Interlocutor Dileep Padgaonkar today said they were working closely with the state government to ensure that calm and stability prevails in the state. "We have already given some recommendations and many more are in the pipeline towards achieving this goal," he said.

He said certain remarks about the conduct of the state government during last year's summer incidents in the Valley have been wrongly attributed to the interlocutors in a media report. "There is not a shred of truth in the report. We have not made those remarks in any of our written or oral communications, neither officially nor even in private conversations to anybody," Padgaonkar said.

Just in: Philip Roth has won the Man Booker International Prize recognizing a novelist's body of work.

The American author whose career spans 50 years and includes a Pulitzer Prize in 1998 and the controversial novel Portnoy's Complaint was awarded the $100,000 prize on Wednesday in Sydney, reports AP.

The Man Booker International Prize is awarded every two years to a living writer for overall contribution to fiction. It is connected to but separate from the better-known Man Booker Prize for Fiction, which is awarded each year for a specific book.

Major egg in the face for the Congress and Rahul Gandhi if his claim that the 70-ft ash mound is a grave, is not true. Forensic evidence is awaited, but his other claim that women have been raped in Bhatta-Parsaul seem unfounded as not a single villager has come forwardto support the claim. Villagers say they don't know anyone who has been raped.

Congresssays that the villagers are being threatened into silence.

Point is why wouldthe Mayawati government leavea mass grave around when it knows the Congress iswaitingon the sidelines for a foot into the state.

The lawyer for a hotel maid who accused IMF chiefDominique Strauss-Kahnof sexual abuse says she feels "alone in the world" and is telling the truth. Jeffrey Shapiro says his client is from the west African nation of Guinea.

He says the woman, who has a 15-year-old daughter, has "no agenda" and did not know even know who Strauss-Kahn was until a day or two after she was allegedly attacked on Saturday, reports guardian.co.uk. Read more

Just in case this bit of news changes your world...

Carla Bruni Sarkozy proudly displayed her burgeoning bump in Paris on the same day her father-in-law finally confirmed that she is pregnant.

The Daily Mail reports that as the wife of French president Nicolas Sarkozy made her way into the launch event for her illiteracy foundation she had quite a task hiding the obvious.

See

More on the attack on Dawood Ibrahim's brother Iqbal Kaskar.

In a new twist, the Mumbai police today claimed that fugitive don Dawood Ibrahim's brother Iqbal Kaskar was not present when gunmen opened fire in a south Mumbai area killing his bodyguard.

"Kaskar was not there at the place of firing last night. But this does not mean that he was not targeted," said Joint Police Commissioner (Law and Order) Rajnish Seth.

Karnataka governor Bhardwaj now says CM BS Yeddyurappa is his friend and praises him. The governor is now likely to allow the Assembly session to continue.

Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa today had said he would meet the Governor soon to request him to convene the session of the state assembly early in June.

Bhardwaj says: I fought for principles, I am not partial, I cannot be recalled by anyone except the President. Yeddy is a hard worker -- he works 10 to 15 hours a day. We are and will remain friends.

Meanwhile, read this story for the genesis of the Yeddy-Bhardwaj fracas

Let's take you through the rest of the news from India.

First, Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy today told a Delhi court that his private complaint in the 2G spectrum case, touching the issue of national security, should be heard separately as the CBI is not willing to club his complaint with its FIR in the scam. Swamy told Special CBI Judge O P Saini that his complaint touches the wider issue of national security which the CBI has not investigated.

Here's what Swamy tweeted: Major advance in 2G in Patiala House today. Case listed now after Supreme Court hearing on " PC be probed by CBI" plea of mine.

Then, Infosys boss N R Narayana Murthy says leaving the company was like parents giving away their daughter in marriage. The founder and outgoing chairman in his last letter to the company's shareholders said,"The best analogy that I can think of for this separation between Infosys and me is that of one's daughter getting married and leaving her parents' home."

Having nurtured the country's leading IT firm for the last 30 years, Murthy would be succeeded by eminent banker K V Kamath as Infosys' Chairman with effect from August 21 and would thereafter become 'Chairman Emeritus'.

Just back from a trip to Pakistan, US Senator John Kerry says the Obama administration expected more from that country to root out terrorist groups holed up there, observing a "fullness of measure of effort" is now required.

The comments by Kerry, who had several rounds of discussions with Pakistan's top leadership, came even as another top Senator Richard Lugar asserted that Pakistan is playing a "double game" and warned that going after some terrorists while "coddling others" may force the Obama administration to cut off aid to Islamabad.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meanwhile said the Obama Administration is working very hard to have an understanding with Pakistani leadership on the best way forward in counter-terrorism operations and bilateral relationship after killing of Osama bin Laden on May 1.

Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa today said he would meet Governor H R Bhardwaj soon to request him to convene the session of the state Assembly early next month.

"I will meet the Governor along with a few of my Cabinet colleagues to request him to allow us to start the Assembly session," Yeddyurappa said here before leaving for Bangalore.

He said it was for the second time that the state Cabinet has recommended the session dates. "I hope today he is going to take a right decision and allow us to commence the Assembly session from June 2," he said.

The Congress party meet in Varanasi, UP, has begun, which in fact, signals the official call to battle for the state elections to be held in 2012. Not too many peopleto hear Rahul speak -- probably for two reasons.

Oneis he'ssaid all that he has to say about Bhatta Parsaul andthe alleged rapes and murders all through last week ad nauseum and two, the temperature in Varanasi is 46 C.Salman Khurshidspeaks after Rahul.

FYI

Pritish Nandy tweets: What the government grabs in taxes is 43% of what you pay for fuel, says the Economic Times. The cost of fuel is barely Rs 31.

Mrityunjoy Kumar Jhatweets: CBI updates its website and removes the name of Wazhul Kamar Khan from its list of Red Corner notice fugitives.

Here's the background of the story

More dirt on love rat Arnold Schwarzenegger. Apparently, the love child looks like the actor himself.

The mother -- Mildred Patricia Baena (Patty) - was a housekeeper/assistant for the family for more than 20 years. Her jobs included cleaning, laundry, cooking and other chores.

According to the sources, in the late nineties Baena began to 'pursue Arnold'. She told friends they would have unprotected sex during the day at the house. Baena never slept overnight at the house and no one ever caught them in the act.

When she became pregnant, she didn't tell Schwarzenegger that he was the father. In fact, the star didn't learn he was the daddy until the boy was a toddler.

You must've read that there was an attempt on Dawood Ibrahim's brother Ibrahim Kaskar last night. Now, it seems gangster Chhota Rajan's name has cropped up in the preliminary probe into the firing incident here in which fugitive don Dawood Ibrahim's brother Iqbal Kaskar escaped unhurt while his bodyguard was killed.

"However, it is premature to say anything now. It is yet to be verified. Just because Dawood and Rajan are rivals, we cannot hold the latter responsible for the incident," a senior police official said.

According to another official, Kaskar also had problems with many other people and police is investigating whether the firing was the outcome of personal enmity.

Meanwhile, the two arrested accused in the case were identified as Syyed Ali (29), a resident of Mumbra and Indra Khatri (27), possibly from Nepal, police said.

Kaskar's bodyguard, Arif Syed Abu Bukha, who succumbed to his wounds before being admitted to a city hospital, had suffered six bullet injuries, they said.

Kaksar is an accused in the Sara Sahara Mall land grabbing case

A former Egyptian military officer turned al Qaeda militant has been chosen to head Osama bin Laden's terror network temporarily until the slain leader's successor is officially named.

Saif al-Adel, a former Egyptian special forces officer, has been chosen as the interim head of al Qaeda, a fortnight after its chief was killed by US forces in Pakistan, CNN reported.

Al Adel is believed to have served as a member of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, the group responsible for the assassination of former Egyptian president Anwar Sadat in 1981 and is also believed to have fought the Soviet forces in Afghanistan.

"Al Qaeda's interim leader is Saif al-Adel, who has long played a prominent role in the group," CNN said citing Noman Benotman, who has known al Qaeda leadership for more than two decades.

He was once a leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), a militant organisation that used to be aligned with al Qaeda, but has in recent years renounced al Qaeda's ideology, the news channel reported.

Good morning. UDF's Oomen Chandy will take oath as the next chief minister of Kerala, while the Congress's two-day convention begins in Varanasi today. More as it happens. Here are the top headlines this morning.

Smoke shrouds Rahul Gandhi's ash claim (The Indian Express)
A day after Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi escalated his fight against the Mayawati government by making the startling claim that women of Bhatta Parsaul had been raped and that there were 74 mounds with bodies inside, not one person in the two villages stepped forward to back the claim. Read

Dawood's brother Iqbal escapes bid on his life, bodyguard shot dead (Indian Express)

Iqbal Kaskar, the younger brother of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, escaped an attempt on his life after two men fired at him after a heated argument near his home in south Mumbai's Bhendi Bazaar area on Tuesday. Read

Jailed IMF chief faces growing pressure to quit (DNA)
The battle to succeed Strauss-Kahn, who is alone in a cell at New York's notorious Rikers Island jail, heated up when China, Brazil and South Africa challenged Europe's long-standing grip on a job that is pivotal to the world economy. Read

Mumbai firm in Commonwealth Games mess; CBI probe on (DNA)
The firm connived with government officials to present an inflated bill and gained Rs113 crore in a contract of Rs350 crore, the CBI said. Read

Egyptian named new al-Qaida leader: Report (The Times of India)
Saif al-Adel, a top al-Qaida strategist and senior military leader, has been tapped as "caretaker" chief of the group. Read

BJP flaunts strength, governor flexes muscle (Hindustan Times)
The war between the BJP and Karnataka governor HR Bhardwaj escalated on Tuesday, as chief minister BS Yeddyurappa paraded 114 MLAs before the President - with letters of support from seven others - to prove his majority in the 225-member assembly. Read

India's consolation prize to US (The Times of India)

The government is moving swiftly to mollify the American establishment that is deeply upset over rejection of both their fighter aircraft from the $10 billion MMRCA (medium multirole combat aircraft) contract for the Indian Air Force. Read