Caroline Jaine, a former British diplomat 'concerned with public diplomacy and nation branding,' filed a request with the British government to officially lobby an apology for the Jallianwalla Bagh massacre of April 1919.

If the application to e-petition the British Foreign Office is successful and if she can get 100,000 British signatures in support of the statement -- it will be debated in the Hosue of Commons, the British parliament.

In her blog on Dawn.com, she goes on to talk about the Jallianwalla Bagh tragedy, but here's the blooper.

Though most of those killed in the 1919 massacre were Sikhs -- 379 dead -- the photograph used on her blog is one of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale consoling another man. Bhindranwale was killed during Operation Bluestar in June 1984, after Indira Gandhi assigned the Indian Army to clear the Golden Temple of Punjabi extremists. See

Also read: What Winston Churchill said in the House of Commons after Jallianwalla Bagh.

The government has also decided to set up a Commission on Centre-State relations. The task of finalizing its terms of reference was entrusted to a Group of Ministers, which met recently for this purpose.

The proposed Commission shall consist of a Chairman, who may be a retired Chief Justice of India or a Judge of the Supreme Court, and four full time Members. The tenure of the Commission will be for two years. Read more

Sports minister Ajay Maken has announced a cash reward of Rs 1.5 lakh each for hockey players. Maken said the award was part of an existing scheme which rewards players.

In addition, the Maharashtra government has announced a cash award of Rs 10 lakh for Yuvraj Valmiki which may be followed up by a job offer. Then, the Punjab government announced an award of Rs 25 lakh for the players.

This came after The Indian hockey team rejected Hockey India's cash reward for winning the inaugural Asian Champions Trophy, saying the paltry amount of Rs 25000 each was not proper recognition of their achievement.

During a felicitation ceremony at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium on Tuesday evening, the players were offered the reward, but they rejected it outright.

In the Times, London.

It is one of the world's oldest religions, a faith first set down by the Iranian Prophet Zoroaster whose followers still observe "sky burials" in which corpses are fed to birds.

Now Zoroastrians in Mumbai are planning to build the biggest aviary in the world, in a drive to increase the number of sky burials in the city where it is believed that pollution has ravaged the population of wild vultures upon which it has relied for centuries.

Rediff.com's Ganesh Nadar says Pankaj Kapoor's movie Mausam could not be shown at the Toronto film festival because they did not get clearance from the Indian Air Force.

In the film, Shahid Kapoor plays an officer in the Indian Air Force. It was alleged that the Indian Air Force had objected to a scene which shows a fight scene involving six fighter planes. One of them is flown by Shahid Kapoor.

Speaking exclusively to rediff.com Indian Airforce PRO Wing Commander Gerard Galway said, "There is absolutely no controversy, I do not know from where these stories are coming from".

Full story on rediff.com shortly...

Kaushik Basu's letter to The Economist, reproduced here.

Sir,

At 11 words, Harold Pinter's shortest poem was certainly enigmatic: "I saw Len Hutton in his prime/Another time/another time' ("The known and the unknown', August 20th). So was Simon Gray's response when, a few days after sending him the poem, Pinter phoned Gray to check if he had received it. He replied he had, but "I haven't finished reading it yet'.  

Basu is the Chief economic adviser, Ministry of Finance, Delhi

Terrorism, left-wing extremism and modern cybher crimes are the  major topics for discussion in the three-day directors general of police conference beginning from Thursday for three days.

President Pratibha Patil will receive all DGPs at Rashtrapathi Bhavan while the Prime Minister will interact with the select eight DGPs on terrorism.

Punjab Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal announces Rs 25 lakh to the victorious Indian hockey team for winning Asia Champions Trophy and lambasts the government for the Rs 25,000 felicitation amount. The prize money was turned down by the Indian hockey team. 

The General secretary of  the hockey federation Narinder Batra said he accepted the amount was too little, but said his hands were tied as they had to operate within limits and with whatever budget they had at their disposal. He said Hockey India cannot afford more than this.

He blamed corporates for not coming forward to reward players.

The DSC Prize for South Asian Literature today announced the 16-title longlist for the 2012 prize. 

The longlist for the prestigious $50,000 prize, which selects the finest writing from or focusing on South Asia,  includes both established and debut writers, as well as three translated works.

Notable debut works on the longlist are Bombay based journalist Manu Joseph's Serious Men, along with Kishwar Desai's acclaimed Witness The Night, which won the 2010 COSTA first novel award, and Shehan Karunatilaka's fictional cricketing opus, Chinaman.

More established writers on the list include Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (author of 15 books, including The Mistress Of Spices) with her novel One Amazing Thing which tells the stories of nine strangers trapped in an India visa office after an earthquake. Others include Siddharth Chowdhury  Day Scholar,and Omair Ahmad for Jimmy The Terrorist.

You've probably read this before, but in case you haven't, here you go...

A new study has found that curcumin, the main component in the spice turmeric used in curry, kicks off cancer-killing mechanism in human saliva.  Researchers at the University of California, led by Marilene Wang, have carried out the study and found that curcumin suppresses a cell signaling pathway that drives the growth of head and neck cancer.

Two tweets from R Rajagopalan:

The Communist Party of India national council in Patna will elect Sudhakar Reddy as Secretary  General on May 21, 2012. He will be the successor to AB Bardhan.

... and

Report of  J&K interlocutors Dilip Padgaonkar and Radha Kumar next month should not be a repeat of the Srikrishna Commission report on Telangana -- of giving 8 points.

Chinese troops are reported to have entered into Indian territory and destroyed some old Army bunkers and tents in Chumar division of Nyoma sector, about
300 kilometres from Leh.

While some reports suggested that the Chinese troops in helicopters entered one-and-a-half kilometres into Indian airspace, other reports said that the helicopters landed in Chinese territory and then the troops marched into the area to dismantle the bunkers, a move aimed at displaying that the
area belonged to them. 

The Army denied that any such incident had taken place.

Even as the Supreme Court order directing the Special Investigation Team to file its final report into the allegations of Narendra Modi being the architect of the 2002 Gujarat massacre before an Ahmedabad trial, amicus curiae Raju Ramachandran says it's premature to talk of either clean chits or indictments.

Read the report in Tehelka.com

Also read: Zakia Jafri's FIR with the DGO, Gujarat.

Union Home Secretary R K Singh said today that investigators have made some arrests in connection with the Delhi High Court blast case and the suspects are being questioned. He, however, refused to divulge details. "We have clues. There is progress also. But we do not want to disclose whatever progress we have made as it will hamper the investigation," he said.
Two people -- Abid and Sharik -- were arrested  in Kishtwar, Jammu and Kashmir, for sending emails shortly after the Delhi High Court blasts and their  role in the blast conspiracy being examined.

The Orissa flood story that somehow never made it to the papers.

Fresh rains triggered by a low pressure compounded the plight of the marooned people in flood-hit parts of Orissa today besides hampering relief operations.
The state government, however, ruled out any deterioration of the flood situation due to the rains. Rains and thundershowers lashed several areas of Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Puri and Khurda districts since early hours, official sources said. 

The floods claimed at least 20 lives and affected about 22 lakh people in around 4,000 villages spread over 19 districts. The meteorological department said rains were likely to continue at many places in coastal Orissa till tomorrow with possibility of heavy rain at a couple of places.

On Twitter: Shashi Tharoor: Today Kashmiri Pandits worldwide are observing Martyrs Day in the memory of those who were killed due to terrorism in Kashmir

And another tweet from Tharoor:

Quoting BBC that 1 million in Orissa are displaced by floods, affecting in 2800 villages. No front page story here.

A report in Dawn.com says that after a gap of two years that saw the suspension of trade relations with India, Pakistan has unilaterally decided to take a lead by enhancing import of products from India -- a decision likely to facilitate dialogue on economic and political issues between the two countries.

Read what's in the new list

If you work in Maruti's Manesar plant and happen to "remain in toilets for a longer period of time,' you can be sacked for "major misconduct'. This is according to the Standing Orders for Workers for the plant, approved by Deputy Commissioner of Labour, Haryana, in January 2007, says Business Line.

Read! 

Railways today cancelled more than 10 trains passing through Arakkonam-Katpadi section after 10 persons were killed in a mishap at Sitheri in Tamil Nadu. Several trains leaving Chennai Central have either been rescheduled or diverted.

Cancelled trains:

Chennai Central-Bangalore Mail, Chennai Central-Erode Yercaud Express, Chennai Central-Coimbatore Kovai Express, Coimbatore-Chennai Central Kovai Express, Chennai Central-Bangalore Brindavan Express. Bangalore-Chennai Central Brindavan Express, Chennai Central-Coimbatore Duronto Express, Coimbatore-Chennai Central Duronto Express, Erode-Chennai Central Yercaud Express, Tirupattur-Chennai Central, Chennai Central-Tirupattur, Jolarpettai-Arakkonam, Arakkonam-Jolarpettai were also cancelled.

On CNN.com, a story that will make you think.

According to Mokshda, a Delhi-based NGO working to reduce the environmental impact of funeral pyres, fifty to 60 million trees are burned during cremations every year in India. "When you are burning those trees, you are emitting about eight million tonnes of carbon dioxide or greenhouse gas emissions," said Mokshda director Anshul Garg.

Read more

Relationship between India and the US is among the world's most important in the coming decades, a Congressional report has told American lawmakers.

"President Barack Obama's Administration has sought to build upon the deepened US engagement with India begun by President Bill Clinton in 2000 and expanded upon during much of the past decade under President G W Bush," the Congressional Research Service (CRS) in its latest report 'India: Domestic Issues, Strategic Dynamics and US Relations.'

The Indian hockey team today rejected Hockey India's cash reward for winning the inaugural Asian Champions Trophy, saying the paltry amount of Rs 25,000
each was not proper recognition of their achievement.

During a felicitation ceremony at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium last evening, the players were offered the reward but they outrightly rejected it.

"We were offered Rs 25,000 each by HI Secretary General Narinder Batra as reward for winning the Asian Champions Trophy but we all refused to take it because it a very small reward considering our achievement," senior player Gurbaz Singh said.

UK PM David Cameron has warned migrant jobseekers who don't bother to learn English, that they will be stripped of benefits. In effect, this means that benefits claimants who cannot speak and write English will be ordered to take language classes or have their handouts stopped for up to three years.

Read more in the Daily Mail

A South African man who was accused of firing the shot, killing Indian-origin bride Anni Dewani during her honeymoon last year, will never stand trial because of his brain tumour surgery.  

Alleged hitman Xolile Mngeni, who has undergone surgery for a malignant brain tumour, would reportedly be declared unfit to stand trial for her murder, the Daily Mail reports.  

"The way things stand now with all the chemotherapy Mngeni is having, he won't be able to stand trial,' a source close to the case said.

Dirt on Gaddafi's son: The Daily Mail says one of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's sons went on a sex and drugs binge in London as his dad's regime crumbled. Saadi Gaddafi, 38, blew thousands on hookers, vodka, cocaine and cannabis while at the family's 11million mansion.

Bodyguard Stefan Bell, paid 300 a day to protect Saadi, said: "He was intimidating and nasty and lived a bizarre life. "He did like his hookers. He'd spend ages trawling the internet for Chinese escorts, they always had to be Chinese.

Chennai rail accident: Here are the helpline numbers put out by the railways to for the families of the victims. The numbers are 09244919572, 044-25357398, 044-25380710, 044-25355793, 044-25353438 and 044-25352639.

Pankaj Kapur's eagerly awaited directorial debut Mausam was pulled from the Toronto film festival line-up on Tuesday, one day before it was to premiere, says the International News.

Organisers said in a statement they were informed by the studio that the film had not received regulatory approvals in India in time to screen the film this week in Toronto. "We ran into a delay getting approvals from the Indian Air Force and the Board of Film Certification in India," producer Sheetal Talwar said.

Update on the train accident in Tamil Nadu.

Southern Railway General Manager Deepak Krishnan said the MEMU driver had apparently ignored the signal and speed restrictions. The Arakonam-Katpadi passenger was waiting for the signal. Being an automatic signalling territory, trains move one after another in this section, he said.

"Normally the previous signal would be danger (red). But apparently the MEMU train driver has not adhered to the signal," he said.

Officials said the last bogie of the stationary passenger train bore the brunt under the impact of the collision.

The government has announced a compensation for the victims -- families of the dead will get Rs 5 lakh and the injured will get Rs1 lakh.

Update on the condition of former India skipper Mohammad Azharuddin's son.

The Deccan Chronicle says doctors yesterday removed the left kidney of Ayazuddin, who had been critically injured in a bike accident on the Outer Ring Road on Sunday in which his cousin Ajmal had died. Doctors at the Apollo Hospital said that a nephrectomy (removal of kidney) had been performed on Ayazuddin's left kidney. His condition still remains critical.

The audio tapes of Jackie Kennedy, made just months after the assassination of her husband US President John F Kennedy, have been released for the first time. In the interviews with a White House historian, she says civil rights leader Martin Luther King is "a terrible man" and calls Indira Gandhi "horrible prune".

Read the story in the bbc.co.uk.

In other news, a US commission on religious freedom today expressed disappointment on the omission of countries like Pakistan and Vietnam from the list of nations designated as of particular concern on religious freedom.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton designated eight countries of particular concern -- Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Uzbekistan - for having long-term, chronic and egregious violators of religious freedom.

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom said six other countries -- Egypt, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, and Vietnam too had been included in the list which it recommended to the State Department early this year.

If you've just joined us, at least 10 persons were killed and over a 100 injured when a passenger train from Chennai rammed into a stationary train near Arakkonam, derailing five coaches, about 75 km from Tamil Nadu capital, in the third major rail accident in two months.

The Chennai Beach-Vellore Cantonment Mainline Electrical Multiple Unit (MEMU) train rammed into the Arakkonam-Katpadi passenger from behind as it was waiting for a signal at Chitheri station, about 90 kms from Chennai, around 9.40pm on Tuesday night, police and railway officials said. 

Read on rediff.com: Rail minister hints at human error

Train accident in Tamil Nadu: 9 killed, 100 injured (The Times of India)

Arakkonam-Vellore passenger was waiting for signal near Chitheri station when an Electric Multiple Unit rammed into it from behind at around 9.40 pm. Read

Narendra Modi's Gujarat best example of effective governance: US report (The Times of India)

Gujarat, is followed by Bihar and its CM Nitish Kumar, for his governance and administrative skills, the latest report of the Congressional Research Service on India said. Read

Sharad Pawar fooled all with Rs12 crore assets disclosure (DNA)
Pawars recent disclosure on the prime ministers website that as of March 31, 2011, he owns assets totalling Rs12 crore along with 1.47 lakh shares each in his wife Pratibha and his name in Panchil Hotels Ltd is wrong. Read

States abutting Maharashtra put on high alert (The Hindu)

The Central Industrial Security Force, which is entrusted with the responsibility of providing security at all airports, has also been put on alert. Read

Charges against me are false: Modi (The Hindu)

Breaking his silence for the first time on the 2002 communal riots, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said the charges that he and his government were involved in the riots were "unfounded and false". Read