Back to the Norway massacre trial in a bit, but first a story on the sun.co.uk:

The world's most expensive bathtub just sold for 1million. The bling bath, called Le Grand Queen, is carved from rare gemstone Caijou, which is believed to have healing properties. It sold for the massive sum at the Dubai International Jewellery Festival, a global showcase for jewellery pieces and industry expertise. See

On Rediff.com: Six dos and don'ts on your first day at work.

And for good measure, read Businessweek on: Three types of people organisation's should fire immediately.

When I teach "Introduction to Hinduism" in the fall of every year most of my students are neither Hindu nor of Indian heritage. I often hear from the few Hindu students who do take my class, that their Hindu peers felt that by reason of their being Hindus, they do not need to study it.

The mantra is "I was raised a Hindu, read Amar Chitra Katha comic books, and know everything I need to know already about Hinduism."

Read Deepak Sarma's column on the Huffington Post.

Appearing firm in his resolve for "a strong and effective" Lokayukta, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today said a three-member ministerial team led by Deputy Chief Minister S K Modi would fine-tune the draft for the purpose
before placing the bill in the state assembly.

"We have constituted a three-member ministerial team led by Modi to go thoroughly into the suggestions and recommendations from every quarter on the proposed Lokayukta bill to be placed in the state assembly next month," Kumar said on the sidelines of his favourite Janata Darbar programme in Patna.

Amidst high expectations by India on the MFN issue, Pakistan today asked New Delhi to have "trust and faith" in it, as "times have changed" and Islamabad
wants complete normalisation of the bilateral trade. India said, there is a clear political desire to "walk the talk" with its neighbouring country.

The mutual assurances were handed out by Commerce Secretaries of the two countries, who began their two-day talks for ensuring normal bilateral trade.
Armed with a "political backing and mandate, Pakistan Commerce Secretary Zafar Mahmood said in his opening remarks, "I want to assure you that please have trust and faith in the process (normalisation of trade). Times have changed. World is coming closer."

In other news: Israeli newspapers on Sunday were thick with innuendo, the front pages of the three largest dailies dominated by variations on the headline "Mysterious Explosion in Iranian Missile Base."

Turn the page, and the mystery is answered with a wink. "Who Is Responsible for Attacks on the Iranian Army?" asks Maariv, and the paper lists without further comment a half-dozen other violent setbacks to Iran's nuclear and military nexus. Read the Time magazine report.

H. Gobind Khorana, MIT's Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Biology and Chemistry emeritus, died of natural causes in Concord, Mass., Wednesday morning. He was 89

Read MIT's announcement of his death.

As the world condoles the death of cricket writer Peter Roebuck, anohter luminary, whose death last week, we seem to have missed: Nobel Laureate Dr Hargobind Khurana. The man who rose from a childhood of poverty in India to become a biochemist and share in a Nobel Prize for his role in deciphering the genetic code. He died on Wednesday in the US. He was 89.

Read the obit on the New York Times.

Also read: Dr Khurana's Nobel lecture 

Shankar Lal, at age 63, wants to reclaim his native "House of Love" after living in exile in India for 20 years. The Hindu patriarch is from Prem Nagar, Hindi for House of Love, a once-prosperous Hindu village in southeastern Afghanistan that over the years has been absorbed by the neighboring city of Khost.

For the past two weeks Lal and other leaders from Khost's once-vibrant Hindu and Sikh communities have been petitioning provincial authorities to force local strongmen from properties they vacated amid the civil war in the early 1990s.

Read the story on Eurasianet.org

Julian Assange has hired a Swedish public relations company in an indication that the WikiLeaks founder is ready to abandon his appeal against his extradition. The 40-year-old campaigner, who is wanted for questioning in Sweden over allegations of rape and sexual assault, has taken on Ullman PR.

Read more on the Independent.

The Supreme Court today refused to interfere with a Mumbai High Court order under which Times Now news channel has been asked to deposit Rs 20 crore in cash and to give a bank guarantee of Rs 80 crore before its appeal against a trial court award of damages of Rs 100 crore to former apex court judge P B Sawant could be heard.

Justice Sawant had sued the news channel for displaying his photo wrongly during telecast of a news bulletin on September 10, 2008 on a Provident Fund scam allegedly involving a Calcutta High Court judge. The report had
mistakenly showed Justice Sawants photograph. 

On a defamation suit by Justice Sawant, the Pune district court had ordered the company to pay him Rs 100 crore as damages.

Former President APJ Abdul Kalam today downplayed his frisking by US security officials at New York's JFK Airport, saying it was not worth talking about. "Forget about it. It is not worth talking about," Kalam said while responding to a question on the sidelines of an IIMC event in Kolkata.
Kalam (80) was twice frisked at the JFK Airport by security officials who even took off his jacket and shoes to check for explosives before he was to board an Air India flight on September 29.

Also see our 13:00 pm post.

When lingerie giant Victoria's Secret stages its annual catwalk extravaganza, its sexiest, best-known faces -- the 'Angels' -- put on a display of sizzling sensuality, mixed in with a lot of fun, good cheer and naughtiness.

Sixteen years ago, in 1995, the brand started off with its first showing and its most visible spokeswomen who modelled the lingerie line were tagged its 'Angels'.

But if you were to consider all the Angels of all time, who would emerge the shining star? In the following pages, we present you (in alphabetical order) all the sirens who have donned the beautiful wings at some point -- take our poll and let us know who you think was the best ever!

Vote

Rahul at the Phulpur, UP, rally: "I come from Delhi, listen to you, eat with you. Sometimes I think, why don't I go to Lucknow and fight your battle. I promise there will be a change in UP in the next five years."

At Phulpur, UP, Rahul continues his tirade against Mayawati. Says the poor -- farmers, weavers, women -- are suffering under the UP government. The PM gave a Rs 3000 crore relief to weavers, but it hasn't reached them.

Central funds are not being used properly and corruption is rampant in the state. The benefits of MNREGA are not reaching the poor in the UP and says that though the Centre has sent aid in crores to UP, it has not been passed on to the poor since the government did not bother to spend the money. Corruption in health, police departments is huge, says Rahul.

He says both Mayawati and Mulayam Singh have lost their will to fight for the poor, they are only after power.

Update on the other big meeting today -- Omar's with the PM -- on AFSPA.

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today said there was ample opportunity to address the concerns of the armed forces and still go ahead
with the proposed plan. Omar, who met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister P Chidambaram, also made it clear that he was not in
the "business of playing politics with national security", nor would he do so ever in future. 

"I believe that there is ample opportunity to address both the concerns of armed forces while still allowing us to go ahead with the position that we have taken which is keeping with what the Cabinet Committee on Security recommended almost a year ago," he said after a meeting with Chidambaram.
 

At the rally in Phulpur, Allahabad, Rahul Gandhi goes in for the jugular, saying, "While India is progressing, UP is going backwards. It is time mafia rule in UP has to be brought to an end."

He says that a leader has to visit the home of the poor to understand their pain. "Leaders don't understand people's pain. I understand people's needs."

There has been a security breach at Rahul Gandhi's rally in Phulpur as SP supporters show black flags.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on the euro zone crisis. The FM today said the crisi is impacting the country's growth and will hurt exports in coming months.

"India's short-term growth prospects have been adversely impacted," he said while inaugurating the India International Trade Fair in Delhi.The minister further said the tendency of certain developed countries to adopt protectionist measures during a downturn would have a bearing on India's exports, which have reported impressive growth so far this year.

A chorus against the government bailing out Kingfisher Airlines grew louder on Sunday, as eminent industrialist Rahul Bajaj spoke out against any state aid to rescue liquor baron Vijay Mallya's expensive aviation dream, while bankers lined up a meeting next week to decide the fate of the  cash-strapped airline.

Read the report on the Hindustan Times.

US regulator Securities and Exchange Commission wants to question convicted hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam, his brothers as well as Goldman Sachs
board members in the insider trading lawsuit it has filed against former Indian-American McKinsey head Rajat Gupta.

Who is Raj Rajaratnam?

Who is Rajat Gupta?

An entirely different take on the double security checks on former president APJ Abdul Kalam, which has angered India.

On Firstpost.com: APJ Abdul Kalam, for a moment, must have disapproved of the sloppiness of the US security officials. Not because he was being put through rigorous checks despite being a dignitary but because the officials missed a few steps of the elaborate security exercise. In the end, however, he, a no-nonsense man, would have applauded their commitment to thoroughness.

Read

On Twitter: R Rajagopalan: The Congress Core Committee takes up the crucial Telangana issue. Aa policy statement is likely late evening.

The CCC will also discuss AFSPA even as J-K CM Omar Abdullah met the PM today. See our 12:36 pm post.  

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh amid the on-going controversy over the issue of withdrawal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act from some parts of the state. 

Abdullah, who is pitching for removal of the AFSPA from those areas where normalcy has returned, discussed the issue during his half-an-hour-long meeting with the Prime Minister. After his meeting with Singh, Omar also met Home Minister P Chidambaram.

Health officials have recalled 1800 jars of Loyd Grossman's korma sauce after two Scottish people from the same family were hospitalised due to botulism poisoning after consuming the product.

According to the Food Standards Agency, both the people are in a stable but serious condition. The Agency has asserted that the outbreak involves only one jar of the sauce, but as a preventative measure, it has recalled the entire batch that was manufactured in August.

The board of Kingfisher Airlines is meeting right now to discuss the next step ahead for the debt-ridden airlines.

State Bank of India, which has the largest exposure to Kingfisher Airlines, today said it has asked the carrier to raise fresh equity to the tune of Rs 800-1,000 crore if banks are to consider a second restructuring of existing debt or extend fresh advances.

On whether the bank will consider making fresh advances to Kingfisher, SBI Managing Director Hemant Contractor said, "We have to be satisfied about the viability of the company. There is no point restructuring if the company's operations are not going to be viable."

The Pakistani Taliban have warned that their fighters were targeting civilians and government employees who helped the prosecution of arrested militants. 

Militant commander Sirajuddin Ahmad, the spokesman for the Taliban in Swat, said the militants had started targeting civilians and government employees who wanted to help the authorities and would become witnesses in court against militants currently in custody on terrorism charges.

Uttar Pradesh's ruling Bahujan Samaj Party is playing the caste card with a vengeance in a bid to ride back to power, even as all major political parties are trying to direct voters towards issue-oriented politics.

The party is organising a series of caste conferences ahead of next year's Assembly elections in the hope that this will counter the anti-incumbency forces. On the Sunday Guardian.

MJ Akbar writes for the Sunday Guardian: Mamata Banerjee is an edgy politician, who is happiest when she is perched at the brink. Something about her temperament makes her nervous about a safe habitat.

She treats the political habitat like a casino, always playing the odds. Perhaps her experience has reinforced such inclinations. After all, in Bengal she played the same number for decades, raising her stake each time she lost, certain that whenever the roulette wheel stopped on her number it would deliver unprecedented returns. It did. Read

Pakistan has raised two squadrons equipped with the JF-17 Thunder combat jet that was developed jointly with China and plans to have a third squadron by early next year.

So far, two Pakistan Air Force squadrons have been equipped with JF-17s while the "third is planned to be raised by the beginning of next year", an official statement said.

Read: Fareed Zakarai on CNN.com: Don't rush into war with Iran.

Also read: Iran bans baha'i faith

Quick takes...   Three French aid workers who were kidnapped in Yemen in May have been released, the French authorities say.  

US President Barack Obama has said that China is not doing enough to allow its currency to rise in value. Read

Exhibition celebrates work of Obama's mother. Read

A Russian spacecraft carrying an American and two Russians blasted off successfully Monday from the Kazakh steppes on a mission to the International Space Station. Read the report on the New York Times.

A US-Russia crew would have been unthinkable a few decades ago. Read: The US-Russia race for space and President John F Kennedy's decision to go to the moon.

As for who is Mario Monti, read the profile on bbc.co.uk

Big test ahead for the new premier of Italy, Mario Monti, with the opening of the European financial markets today.

Monti is starting work to form a new government to lead Italy out of its acute debt crisis which prompted the resignation of Silvio Berlusconi. The appointment of Monti, an ex-EU commissioner, was announced by Italy's president on Sunday, reports the bbc.co.uk.

Monti said he wanted to build "a future of dignity and hope" for Italy's children.

It will take at least a month before the circumstances of renowned cricket writer Peter Roebuck's suicide in South Africa are revealed with a Police Services official there saying that an inquest has been launched into his death. 

Colonel Vishnu Naidoo of the South African Police Services has revealed it will take four to six weeks for the inquest to be completed. The 55-year-old Roebuck plunged to death from his sixth-floor room in a Cape Town hotel after being reportedly questioned over sexual assault charges on Saturday night.

Kingfisher board to meet today to resolve crisis (Hindustan Times)
Shares in cash-strapped Kingfisher Airlines rose more than 7% on Monday after reports the cash-strapped Indian carrier would consider proposals, including selling property, to cut its $1.3 billion debt by more than half. Read

Rahul Gandhi to evoke Nehru for reviving Congress in UP  (Hindustan Times)
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, seen as the party's best bet for the upcoming polls in UP, was all set to evoke the memory of his great-grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru on the latter's own soil in Allahabad today in the hope of reviving the party's fortunes in the state, where the party has been in oblivion for two long decades. Read

Indo-Pak commerce secretary-level talks begin (DNA)
The India-Pakistan commerce secretary-level talks began here today, with the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) issue among the main agenda items of the parleys that seek to normalise bilateral trade relations.Read

SA Police silent on Roebuck suicide mystery (Indian Express)
55-year-old cricket writer jumped to his death from 6th floor of his hotel room in Cape Town. Read

AFSPA removal: Omar Abdullah to meet PM, Chidambaram (Indian Express)

Jammu and Kashmir Chief minister Omar Abdullah is meeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today to present the case of the state government for removal of AFSPA from certain parts of the state. Read

Stop outsourcing visa-related work: MEA to Indian missions (The Times of India)
Stung by complaints from NRIs, the ministry issued a circular to Indian missions asking them not to outsource any visa & passport related work to foreign firms. Read

U.S. regrets inconvenience' after Kalam faces double security check (The Hindu)
While the Government of India played down the double frisking of the former President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, at a New York airport over a month ago, the US embassy has "regret[ted] the inconvenience" to the 80-year old scientist. Read