The Supreme Court today dismissed the anticipatory bail plea of G R Sirish Bharadwaj, estranged younger son-in-law of Praja Rajyam president and Telugu mega star Chiranjeevi, who is facing a dowry harrasment case.

A vacation bench of justices G S Singhvi and Chandramauli Prasad, rejecting the plea of Sirish's counsel that bail be granted as the two families were seeeking an amicable settlment, asked the accused to surrender before the court concerned in Hyderabad.

Srija, youngest daughter of Chirajneevi, married Shirish in 2007 amidst high drama against the wishes of her family, so much so that the couple rushed to the Delhi high court and obtained police protection. The couple also held a press conference to denounce Chiranjeevi's alleged attempt to break the marriage.

However, four years down the line, the marriage turned out to be a disaster with Srija filing a complaint of dowry harassment against Shirish and her mother.

Sigh, it's never easy being a pop sensation, especially if you are still in your teens, as Justin Bieber would testify.

Bieber's girlfriend Selena Gomez has received death threats from the singer's fans after they were pictured kissing and frolicking on an holiday in Hawaii.

Actress Selena Gomez, 18, has become the victim of a jealous hate campaign from female fans of the 17-year-old star. "Stay away from Justin I'm gonna kill ya in the night underneath your smell bed. You are dangerously close to a long, slow painful death," an angry fan wrote on Twitter.

Gomez incurred the wrath of Bieber fans after she and the singer went public with their romance. The couple, who for months kept their romance secret were pictured being intimate in Hawaii. The open show of affection enraged many of Bieber's devoted young fans.

The Canadian born singer has nine million followers on Twitter and a YouTube video of his hit 'Baby' has been viewed by more than 500 million people.

You can see the couple's PDA here

FYI: A recent report has announced that India and Brazil continued to lead the pack in dissemination of spam via the internet in April.

India accounts for 12.76% and Brazil 7.15% of the total spam volume.

Read the reportin PC World

While on the DMK, the party's chief and former Chief Minister M Karunanidhi today took oath as a Member of the 14th Assembly of Tamil Nadu, where he would be representing Thiruvarur constituency.

The Delhi Court has reserved the bail order of DMK MP Kanimozhi and Kalaignar TV MD Sharad Kumar. In other words, both the accused in the 2G scam stay put in Tihar jail.

The Delhi High Court last week had issued notices to the CBI on the bail pleas of Kanimozhi and Sharad Kumar in the 2G spectrum case.

"Issue notice to the CBI for May 30,' said judge Ajit Bharihoke, who dismissed the bail pleas of five corporate honchos in the case on Monday last week.

The court also asked the probe agency to file a status report detailing the stage of investigation and the judicial proceedings in the case on the next date of hearing. Kanimozhi, the 43-year-old daughter of DMK Supremo M Karunanidhi, and Sharad Kumar had approached the high court yesterday with their bail applications after the special CBI court order their "forthwith' arrest on May 20.

Pakistani officials have announced that the Chinese look favorably on taking over theoperation of the Arabian Sea port of Gwadar close to the entrance of the Strait of Hormuz, and perhaps building a naval base for the Pakistanis there as well.

The Chinese have apparently contradicted these claims, indicating that they have made no such decisions on these matters, reports Foreign Policy.

The fact that Pakistan should want deeper Chinese involvement with this strategically located port, even as the Chinese are hesitant to do just that, should surprise no one.Gwadar is where dreams clash with reality. Read

Germany, Europe's biggest economy, will shut down all its nuclear power plants by 2022, a decision that would make it the first major industrialised power to go nuclear-free in the aftermath of the atomic disaster in Japan.

Germany's coalition government announced the decision after seven hours of negotiations that stretched into the small hours at Chancellor Angela Merkel's office.

Read our 11:38 am post on Merkel

Details of the Lokpal Bill committee's meeting today.Sharp differences came to the surface at a meeting of the drafting committee for Lokpal bill today with the government strongly opposing proposals for inclusion of Prime Minister, higher judiciary and acts of MPs inside the Parliament under its purview.

Anna Hazare, one of the members of the committee, who is spearheading the campaign for a strong and effective Lokpal bill, said that he was not hopeful of the government meeting its deadline of June 30 for preparing the bill.

At the meeting held under the Chairmanship of Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, contentious issues came up for discussion in the committee for the first time.

Is this a first?

Rocker Courtney Love isin a legal hassle over her Twittering tantrums on the social networking site.

The 46-year-old singer has been sued by Gordon & Holmes, a San Diego-based law firm for publishing libelous statements about her attorney Holmes, who represented her in a fraud case.

"Rhonda J Holmes Esq of San Diego was bought off," wrote Love on Twitter. The 'Hole' frontwoman had also claimed in an interview that her female lawyer abandoned her because she had been bribed. Love, who attracts significant media attention over her wild stage performances and subversive feminism, had to pay almost half a million to designer Dawn Simorangkir for calling him an "awipe nasty lying nosebag thief" on the micro blogging site.

So what's the connection between Pakistan interior minister Rehman Malik and Bigg Boss housemate Veena Malik?

Read

Difficult to imagine after the uppercrust veneer he got post the Bridget Jones movies, but apparently, the King's Speech superstar Colin Firth has revealed that he was once a grungy rebel with pierced ears.

The Oscar-winning actor candidly opened up that he hasn't always been a well-groomed Hollywood hunk.

The 50-year old actor still proudly sports scars from multiple piercings in his ears done way back in the 1970s.

"I went through a bit of a grungy phase in the seventies. I had three piercings; I was tempted at one stage to get one in my nose as well but, thankfully, never went through with it."

'I suggested he joined me in some prawn dansak I had made recently and said "how was it ?". He told me it was the most disgusting thing he'd ever eaten and he was telling me so I never gave it to him again."

That was Nigella Lawson, easily TV's hottest (in more ways than one) celebrity chef in the Daily Mail.

Read more

If the North Korea story doesn't interest you, this certainly will. The MP from Thiruvananthapuram -- Shashi Tharoor -- writes in Business.in.com

Throughout history, men have waged war for power, wealth, land and occasionally over women. But rarely, except in the past two or three centuries have they gone to war to bring peace. Is peace really the raison d'etre for the wars being fought in different parts of the world? Or are the real reasons the same as history has taught us?

Read more

North Korea is threatening to cut off military communication channel with South Korea. North Korea's powerful National Military Commission also said today that South Korea was escalating a confrontation with the North.

The statement said Pyongyang would cut off communications along the countries' eastern border and shut down a liaison office in a now-stalled joint tourism facility in the North.

The statement, however, didn't mention other military hotlines. It said the North would no longer deal with South Korea.

Despite that threat, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is reported to have recently offered to hold direct talks with the South Korea's President.

Usain Bolt made his 2011 debut last week in Rome. His win in the 100 metres in 9.91sec was a good result, but I'm starting to wonder about his future.

-- Legendary basketball star Michael Johnson in the Times, London.

Johnson goes on...

Last year he ended his season after being defeated by Tyson Gay and suffering a minor injury. ... Bolt is different from all other athletes in that he doesn't have to run races for money, he doesn't have to prove anything to anyone; he is The Fastest Man in the World.

I wonder where the motivation will come from for him. I think that may become a problem for him if it isn't already. I believe it was the reason why last year he didn't perform at the level he wanted and suffered his first and only loss since becoming a huge success and the fastest man in 2008.

The government today opposed a suggestion from the civil society members of the Lokpal bill draft committee that the Prime Minister should be included under the purview of the Bill, said Arvind Kejriwal.

The joint drafting committee for the Lokpal Bill had its fifth meeting today to thrash out differences that persist between social activist Anna Hazare''s representatives and the government on several issues.

Civil society members are likely to lay stress on stricter punishment for high-ranking officials accused of corruption.

OK, here they come...

The Delhi High court has rejected Cineyug director Karim Morani's bail plea. Morani is in Tihar jail in the 2G case.

On Twitter...

Ex Navy commando Kamran Ahmed and two others arrested from Lahore in connection with attack on PNS Mehran navy base.

The Delhi bomb disposal squad who is at Gargi college where the object which looked like a bomb was found, say it's a prank. The 'suspicious object' resembles a fire cracker, but does not contain any explosives. The police have calledit a prank.

Someoneidiot on the loose who deserves to cool his/her heels in jail.

From the Vanity Fair, a horror story on sex trafficking of Americans.

"He called me a stupid bitch ' a worthless piece of shit.' I had to tell people I fell off stage because I had so many bruises on my ribs face and legs.' I have a permanent twitch in my eye from him hitting me in my face so much. I have none of my irreplaceable things from my youth."

-- From the victim-impact statement of Felicia, minor prostitute-stripper enslaved by trafficker Corey Davis.

Read

A suspicious object has been found near the bus stop at Gargi College in New Delhi. The bomb disposal squad had been called. Remember, this is admission season and there was apparently a lot of students at the college, where some classes were on.

Report awaited.

On May 25, a low-intensity bomb was found in a car park at the Delhi High court, but there were no casualties.

The arrest of war crimes fugitiveRatko Mladic, found hiding inside a darkened house in a Serbian village last week, came from methodically pressuring his waning network of supporters and draining his financial lifeline so thoroughly that his most bitter complaint when captured was a demand for his frozen military pension of 140 euros a month, according to investigators inSerbia.

The New York Times report on the man who allegedly killed 8,000 Muslims in the Srebenica massacare, says that, he asked for his pension three times: 'I need my pension. I need my pension,"

Read more

After 15 years of a very public feud, V S Naipaul and Paul Theroux have finally buried the hatchet, reportsthe Independent.co.uk

The literary titans shook hands again at the Hay Festival on the Welsh borders, the scene of their original public falling out in 1996, after a gentle intervention by the writer Ian McEwan.

Naipaul's wife, Lady Naipaul, said: "Paul approached him and said he missed him. It was very gracious and wonderful of him. So that is the end to the literary feud." As to whether the two men will return to their habit of lunching together "you never know" said Nadira. "It's a strange world."

Read more

Ratko Mladicdenies ordering the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica, his son has said.

In a report filed in the Guardian, Darko (What's with their names?) Mladic said, "Whatever was done in Srebrenica, he has nothing to do with it. His orders were to evacuate the wounded, the women and the children and then the fighters.

"Whatever was done behind his back, he has nothing to do with that."

Read more

The Supreme Court today refused to entertain a petition seeking a CBI enquiry into the alleged excesses and violence unleashed by the Uttar Pradesh government on farmers protesting against "forcible" acquisition of land at Bhatta Parsaul.

A bench of justices G S Singhvi and C K Prasad asked the petitioner to approach the Allahabad High Court since it had already taken cognisance and was dealing with the issue.

Senior counsel U U Lalit, appearing for the petitioner farmers, tried to argue that the matter needs consideration by the apex court as it involved the life and livelihood of thousands of farmers who have been rendered homeless and were facing constant threat to their lives. he counsel alleged that the matter needs to be probed by the CBI as it was the official machinery including the local police which had allegedly let loose a reign of terror after forcibly acquiring the land under section 17 of the Land Acquisition Act.

Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai today appeared before the Joint Parliamentary Committee examining the 2G spectrum scam to explain how the government auditor quantified the losses in the spectrum allocation at Rs 1.76 lakh crore.

The CAG, in a report to Parliament last year, had pegged the presumptive loss to the exchequer on 2G spectrum allocation at Rs 1.76 lakh crore.

The findings triggered a political storm and subsequent events led to the resignation of the then Telecom Minister A Raja. "Today the talk is of a Rs 1.76 lakh crore scam. We want to know from the horse's mouth how he had arrived at the figure," the Committee, chaired by Congress leader P C Chacko said after the last meeting of the committee on May 18.

Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal had dubbed "utterly erroneous and without any basis" the estimated loss of Rs. 1.76 lakh crore, arrived at by the CAG on account of 2G spectrum allocation.

Former Bosnian Serb army chief Ratko Mladic is set to file an appeal today against his extradition to the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

The bbc.co.uk reports that his family says Mladic is too sick to go, but the Serbian government is widely expected to reject the appeal.

Mladic is accused of committing war crimes during the Bosnian war, including the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of 7,500 Muslim men and boys.

The Pakistani paper, International News says that Pakistan has decided to commence a careful and meticulous military offensive in North Waziristan, the tribal area adjacent to Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, where military operation was not earlier conducted.

Pakistan has never refused to undertake the operation but had been insisting that it would first consolidate its position in other parts of the tribal areas where it has carried out military action and achieved tremendous successes.

Read more

News from the now-forgotten Fukushima plant. Public memory, alas, is very short.

Tokyo Electric Power Company company officials have said it is impossible to stabilise the Fukushima nuclear crisis by the year end.

The statement is likely to affect the government''s decision to consider the timing of the evacuees' return to their homes.The Fukushimacrisis had led to ameltdown at No1 and 3 reactors and had damaged pressure vessels containing nuclear fuel.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will arrive in New Delhi tomorrow for the first Indo-German inter-governmental consultations. The inter-governmental consultations, termed by Merkel as a "milestone in Indo-German relations', will include discussions on the full range of bilateral relations, from security and defence policy, trade, vocational training, education and research to infrastructure and sustainable energy and environment technologies.

Merkel made it to every single newspaper and TV channel worldover in 2006 for the an infamous neck massage she received from then US president George W Bush.

Refresh your memory

Civil society members are likely to lay stress on stricter punishment for high-ranking officials accused of corruption.

They also want to bring under the purview of the Lokpal, the conduct of Members of Parliament inside Parliament, if it is an offence under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Meanwhile, Baba Ramdev is threatening to go on hunger strike on June 4 to protest the inaction against black money creators and hoarders.

Praveen Swami in The Hindu on the US decision not to push Pakistan to extradite indicted 26/11 suspects.

Fearing a further breakdown of its increasingly fraught relationship with Pakistan, the US does not intend to press Pakistan for the extradition of suspects sought by federal prosecutors for their role in the November 2008, attack on Mumbai.

Read

The Hindu today has a story on how FBI detectives disregarded multiple warnings that Pakistani-American jihadist David Headley was working with the Lashkar-e-Taiba -- two of which came from his own wives. The FBI, intelligence sources chose to believe Headley's claims that he had only made contact with the jihadist group to further his work as a counter-narcotics informant.

Read the story

Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai rebuked the US military for its "arbitrary and unnecessary" missions that kill Afghan civilians, saying it was his last warning on the issue after 14 died in an air strike.

Citing initial reports that 10 children, two women and two men were killed in a strike in the southern province of Helmand on Saturday, Karzai said such operations amounted to the "murdering of Afghanistan's children and women.

It may be recalled that immediately after Osama bin Laden's killing in Pakistan, Karzai had asked the US to stop air strikes on innocent Afghans.

Welcome to another Monday and the last week of May and hopefully we'll put the heat behind us soon.Incidentally, it;s a big day for 2G scam accused co-conspirator Kanimozhi as the bail plea will be heard by the Delhi High Court today. The headlines this morning.

India, Pakistan to resume Siachen talks today (The Hindustan Times)

After a gap of three years, defence secretary-level talks between India and Pakistan on the long-pending Siachen issue will kick off in New Delhi today. Defence secretary Pradeep Kumar will lead the delegation during the two-day talks with his Pakistani counterpart Lt General (Retd) Syed Ather Ali. Read

CAG Vinod Rai to brief JPC on 2G losses today (Hindustan Times)

The Joint Parliamentary Committee examining the 2G scam has sought to know from Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai as to how he quantified the losses in the spectrum allocation at Rs 1.76 lakh crore. Read

Black money: Baba Ramdev's hunger strike threat has government acting hot and cold (DNA)

While Union home minister P Chidambaram directed the Delhi Police to refuse permission to Ramdev to hold any dharna at the Ramlila grounds, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee has promised action on his demand. Read

2G scam: Kalaignar TV gets licence to launch new channel (DNA)
The Karunanidhi family has made arrangements to launch the new channel with the name Murasu. Read

Joining NY trial against ISI a political call: GK Pillai (The Times of India)
India could implead itself as a party in the lawsuit against LeT & Pak spy agency ISI in a New York court if the govt here decides to do so. Read

Doctor dies after being beaten up by inmates in Bihar jail (The Times of India)
Bhudev Singh was reportedly assaulted for refusing to issue fake health certificates to the inmates of a district jail in Gopalganj district. Read

FBI ignored warnings on Headley's jihadist career (The Hindu)

Federal Bureau of Investigation detectives disregarded multiple warnings that the Pakistani-American jihadist David Headley was working with the Lashkar-e-Taiba - two of which came from his own wives. Read

Yemeni forces fire at protesters in Taiz, 6 killed (DNA)

Yemeni forces loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh opened fire on protesters in the southern city of Taiz on Sunday, killing at least six people and wounding 120, hospital sources said. Read

Pakistan seeks clarifications from India on fugitives list (The Hindu)

Pakistan has sought clarifications on the "exact status" of the list of 50 wanted fugitives that New Delhi had handed over to Islamabad during the Interior Secretary-level talks in March-end. Read