Timeline Refresh
Indian terror group may be behind blast: PC
PM asks PC, Khurshid to tighten SC security
3rd threat email: Next blast so cruel
Delhi blast: Afzal Guru calls it barbaric
Delhi police: There may be two bombers
BJP holds Parl postmortem: Govt at war with itself
PC: All we can do is put everyone on high alert
Court asks Amar for fresh medical reports
Third threat email may be hoax
NIA to release sketch of suspected HuJI email sender
Home Minister P Chidambaram has told the BBC that it is likely that an attack on the Delhi high court was carried out by militants based in India. "We can no longer point to cross-border terrorism as a source of terror attacks in India," Chidambaram said. He said the authorities were still trying to verify emails allegedly sent by two groups claiming responsibility for Wednesday's attack.
PM Manmohan Singh has asked Home Minister P Chidambaram and Law minister Salman Khurshid to call on the Chief Justice of India SH Kapadia and take urgent steps to beef up security arrangements in the Supreme Court complex.
On Wednesday, hours after the Delhi high court blast the CJI had asked the government to ensure a Parliament-like security for the Supreme Court.
It may be recollected that the second threat email purpotedly sent by the Indian Mujahideen had threatened to bomb the Supreme Court.
Read: Ten years after the attacks, we are still in a drawn-out, twilight war with Islamism, says a column in hoover.org.
The writer, Fouad Ajami, is senior Fellow and cochair, Working Group on Islamism and the International Order.
Here's the text of the third threat email sent to the Delhi Police today:
"This is to inform you that we Indian Mujahideen claims the terror attack on Delhi High Court. I just want you to pass a message to the Indian government that next blast will be so cruel that you people won't be able to forget it for decay (decades) and if you are willing to know the next attack it is 1,8,5,13,4,1,2,1,4 till you come to know what it stands for the next blast will be done if you have any question get back soon because we don't have time for anything."
-- Ali Saed el-Hoori
(The numbers were decoded to spell Ahmedabad.)
Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru today distanced himself from the Delhi High Court bomb blast calling it a "barbaric crime" and "cowardly act" that
must be condemned by all.
He said no religion permits the killing of innocents and that he is "disturbed" by his name being dragged into the case. Soon after the blast, an e-mail was received, said to have been written by Harkat-ul-Jihad Islami, owning responsibility and demanding the repeal of Guru's death sentence.
Guru said in a statement, circulated by his lawyer N D Pancholi, that his name was being dragged into the case to malign him and to cultivate public opinion against him.
government virtually rejected her plea for a fresh probe into the case. "I moved the High Court for re-investigations in the case. The High Court in its last order had criticised the CBI for loopholes in investigations," Jagruti said. The case will be heard on September 13.
British Prime Minister David Cameron has outlined his vision for the education system today. Read
India finds mention in Cameron's speech...
"Britain is a modern, developed country.
If theyre seeing excellence as standard in cities like Shanghai, why cant we see that in cities like London?
If theyre making huge strides in science and maths in India, whats to stop us?Weve got the resources, weve got the fantastic teachers, we know what works.
Now we just have to have the will the energy to make this happen. And believe me, we have it."
Incidentally, when the July 13 Mumbai blasts took place, PC had said there were two terror attacks on his watch and admitted they were blots on his record. So when the fourth terror attack takes place we know what he's going to say.
Right now, Home minister P Chidambaram is briefing the media on Wednesday's terror attack in Delhi.
Briefly, this is what he says:
- The government has not lowered its guard, but is trying to build its capacity to respond to attacks.
- Security agencies have promising leads.
- Intel inputs are being followed.
- The government is doing its best to blot out terror and secure people.
- All we can do is place everyone on high alert.
- All states have been put on high alert.
- Have got three threat mails and they are being investigated.
- There have been three terror attacks since I took over as home minister and they are blots. But there are blots on other governments as well.
- 48 people are still in hospital.
- Nitrate-based explosive used.
- Opposition should cooperate in battling terror
Aviation minster Vayalar Ravi hits out at the CAG report indicting Air India yesterday and said the decision to purchase aircraft was first taken by the NDA government in 2002. Air India needed aircraft and the was purchase inevitable, he said.
The decision to acquire 111 planes by Air India through debt was "a recipe for disaster" and should have raised alarm in the government, the Comptroller and Auditor General said yesterday.
Terming the move for getting of a "large number" of planes as "risky", the CAG said the aircraft acquisition had "contributed predominantly" to the airline's massive debt liability of Rs 38,423 crore as on March 31 last year.
Also read: Former aviation minister Praful Patel's 2009 interview to Business Today
On the 10th anniversary of 9/11 terror attacks, Discovery channel has a week-long special series, to premiere on September12, a tribute to the brave souls that lost their lives as well as the people who made the memorial a reality. It's a show put together by Steven Spielberg.
This week the Queen pop idol Freddie Mercury would've been 65. Now pop star Dave Clark reveals: 'Freddie chose to die when his life stopped being fun'.
Mercury died of AIDS. Read the Daily Mail story
A two-day meeting of Team Anna core committee will begin at his village Ralegan Siddhi tomorrow. "Arvind Kejriwal reached the village this afternoon,
while Kiran Bedi and Prashant Bhushan will be reaching tomorrow morning," Hazare's close aide said.
The meeting is being held in the backdrop of Hazare making public his displeasure over the government "targeting" his team members. Bedi, Bhushan and Kejriwal have been served breach of privilege notices and Kejriwal has also been slapped with Income Tax notice.
The Tihar Jail authorities today told a Delhi court that Rajya Sabha MP Amar Singh, who has sought bail on health grounds in the 2008 cash-for-vote case, has been kept in a separate cell under hygienic conditions in the prison.
The jail administration said Singh has been kept in ward number four of jail number three which has 20 cells each measuring 22x8 feet. Each cell has its own separate toilet and bathroom and Singh does not have to share common public toilet, it said.
The report also said Singh, who had initially refused to give his blood sample for the medical test, agreed to give a sample this morning.
The Delhi court has directed Amar Singh to submit fresh medical reports rejecting his bail application today.
This morning, the Tihar jail authorities had submitted to the court of Special Judge Sangita Dhingra Sehgal, through fax, the medical report that had been asked for. After receiving the report, the court posted the matter for further arguments on the interim bail plea to September 12 and directed the jail authorities to submit all medical reports by 11 am on Monday.
Paes and his Russian partner Elena Vesnina, seeded seventh, gave a walkover to unseeded Americans Melanie Oudin and Jack Sock in the mixed doubles semifinals due to the Indian's back problem.
"Rough day for Leander, back spasms during the doubles. Out of mixed and now in doubt for Davis cup too..hmmmm," tweeted his men's doubles partner Mahesh Bhupathi.
Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh today has expressed his sympathy for the former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh who was arrested in the cash-for-vote scam case two days ago. "I have full sympathy for Amar Singh and I believe that he will be proved innocent,' Digvijay Singh said.
Just in: Home Ministry asks states to beef up security in high courts in wake of the September 7 Delhi blast.
Just in: Now, a third email claiming responsibility for the Delhi high court blast has been received The NIA has kept the origin of the third email under wraps. That's three mails in as many days. The second email allegedly from the Indian Mujahideen has been traced to West Bengal, while the first from HuJI, to Kishtwar in Jammu and Kashmir.
Details awaited.
On Firstpost.com, read: Chariot of hypocrisy: Yatra will resurrect Advani but BJP needs more.
Yesterday, the senior BJP leader announced an all-India anti-graft yatra, though the modalities had not been worked out.
A day after picking up five persons for questioning, police have prepared a sketch of the suspected email sender from Kishtwar district and launched
operations today to track him down.
As per the description provided by the detained persons including the cyber cafe owner, the sender is a 17-18 year old boy, and the police is hopeful of tracing the suspect soon.
"We are hopeful of catching the suspect soon", Director General of Police (DGP), Kuldeep Khoda, said. Police said the sketch of the suspect has been prepared on the basis of information provided by five detained persons including cyber cafe owner Masood Aziz during day-long interrogation.
In other news, US President Barack Obama has urged lawmakers to back his ambitious proposals aimed at creating more jobs and cutting taxes. In a rare address to a joint session of Congress, he said he wanted to get the unemployed back to work, put money in employees' pockets and rebuild infrastructure, says the bbc.co.uk.
Read the full text of Obama's speech to Congress.
NIA sources says the mail allegedly sent by the terror group Indian Mujahideen has been traced to West Bengal.
This is the second mail allegedly sent by two terror groups -- the first by HuJI on Wednesday, the day of the blast, and the second by the IM, yesterday, both claiming responsibility for the terror attack that has so far claimed 13 lives.
Read: Toral Varia makes a comparative analysis of these mails and its effect on the investigations.
Law enforcement agencies investigating the abduction cases of Shahbaz Taseer, son of slain former governor Punjab Salmaan Taseer, and American aid expert Dr Warren Weinstein reportedly made a breakthrough but have simultaneously arrived at a dead-end, officials privately informed The Express Tribune.
US President Barack Obama today declared an "emergency" in the states of New York and Pennsylvania after heavy rains flooded much of the US
northeast, killing at least five people.
The formal declarations authorize federal agencies to coordinate disaster relief efforts in order to "save lives and to protect property and public health and safety," the White House said in a statement.
A Reuters story says that being politically connected isn't what it used to be for corporate India. When prominent politician and mining baron, G Janardhana Reddy, was arrested at dawn this week, with police seizing $1 million in cash and 66 pounds of gold bars, it was another sign of just how perilous the mix of politics and business has become.
One person more person was detained in Varanasi yesterday on account of his resemblance with the sketch of suspects released by Delhi Police," said a top police officer.
The man detained at the Shivpur police station in Varanasi was identified as Lekhma Ram, a resident of Ajmer. Yesterday, one person was picked up in Balrampur was identified as Shehzad, a permanent resident of Bela village who had come home from Pune.
The court had earlier yesterday directed the Tihar Jail authorities to submit a report on Amar Singh's health condition. His counsel pleaded for interim bail for the Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament on grounds of his ''deteriorating'' health.
This is the second time the court has asked for medical reports.
threat before the 10th anniversary of 9/11 attacks. "The President directed the counterterrorism community to redouble its efforts in response to this credible but unconfirmed information," a White House official said.
"The President was briefed on this specific threat information this morning and has been updated on it throughout the day," the official added. "The United States government has already significantly enhanced its security posture in advance of the 9/11 anniversary to protect the country against possible terrorist threats," the official said.