Condemning the violence in Mumbai, Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde today warned of strong action against rumour mongers and appealed to the people to maintain peace. 

The Maharashtra government has asked the Crime Branch to probe the violence which erupted in Mumbai today, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan has said. 

Senior BJP leader Murali Manohar Joshi today accused the UPA government at the Centre of being an "utter failure" in protecting Indians in other countries. 

RSS ideologue Sanjay Joshi today claimed that the divide between the rich and the poor would further broaden if FDI in retail was allowed. 

The condition of Union Science and Technology Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, who is undergoing treatment for serious liver ailment, continues to be stable today, hospital sources said.  

Paul Ryan, the Republican vice-presidential candidate, today lashed out at the US President for his "failed" economic policies and said Barack Obama was part of the problem.  

Struggling Kingfisher Airlines today said its net loss widened by a whopping 147 per cent to Rs 650.8 crore in the quarter ended June, from Rs 263.5 crore in the year-ago period. 

Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney has chosen Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan, a strong critic of the Obama administration's economic policies, as his running mate for the November presidential polls in US. 

After a protest in Mumbai against Assam riots turned violent, prompting the police to fire in the air, Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil has appealed for peace. 

Two people were killed and 10 injured after protests against the Assam violence turned violence in Mumbai.

Around 10,000 protestors had gathered at Azad Maidan in south Mumbai and a  a section of the crowd burnt vehicles, including media vans. The police had to then fire in the air and lathicharge the crowds to control them.

The protest was later controlled and the situation limped back to normalcy.  

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has picked Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan to be his running mate, according to a Republican with knowledge of the development.

The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because this person was not authorised to disclose the decision. Romney's completion of the Republican ticket comes as he tries to repair an image damaged by negative Democratic advertising and shift the trajectory of a campaign that's seen him lose ground to President Barack Obama.

The vice presidential selection will dominate headlines, and Romney's team has been relentlessly teasing the announcement for weeks.

Ryan, 42, is viewed by some in the Republican Party as a bridge between the buttoned-up party establishment and riled-up conservative activists that have never warmed to Romney.

A protest in Mumbai against Assam crisis which turned violent earlier today has now been contained. The situation has returned to normalcy.

Earlier today, BEST buses were torched and one vehicle was set on fire near Azad Maidan in Mumbai after a mob went on a rampage for 30 to 45 minutes. Media vehicles were also attacked.

The police resorted to firing in air to disperse protestors and a few protestors have been arrested.

A few people are said to be injured in the incident. 

Around 10,000 people gathered at the maidan. The police have cordoned off the area. They have deployed more forces in the area.

However, there has been no word on what turned the protest violent, said sources.     

More details are awaited.     

At least 30 people were injured, six of them seriously, when a wooden bridge on the Dal Lake collapsed during a protest demonstration in downtown Srinagar today.

A group of people at Gaadi Mohalla locality of Saidakadal took to streets and staged a demonstration in support of their demand for proper roads after two minor siblings drowned two days back, officials said.

They said some civil and police officials rushed to the scene and were persuading the protestors to disperse when all off a sudden the bridge collapsed.

Taking on Manmohan Singh, senior Bharatiya Janata Party Arun Jaitley said, "The prime minister is deceiving the people of this country. He is in denial over the state of our economy.  He should be given a wake up call."

Earlier in the day Dr Singh said the downgrade of India's growth forecast by Moody's was a cause of concern but expressed hope that India would better last year's 6.5 per cent economic growth. "It is a cause of concern but one should not draw unwarranted conclusions," Singh told reporters when asked to comment on ratings agency Moody's analysis of the Indian economy.

Moody's research arm had scaled down its forecast for the country's economic growth this fiscal to 5.5 per cent earlier this week.

 A deaf and mute Indian woman, whoin advertently strayed into Pakistan at least 12 years ago, is desperate to return home to her parents.   

The woman -- whom leading Pakistani rights activist Bilqees Edhi has christened Geeta as no one knows her real name -- apparently entered the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore on a train from India. She was found by police and sent to a state-run shelter.   

However, Geeta's inability to communicate caused a lot of frustration and she was moved from one welfare home to another as she often tried to escape and quarrelled with staff, Bilqees told PTI on phone from Karachi.    

"Efforts made by the authorities to trace her family in India produced no results and she was finally sent to Karachi.She must be about 21 or 22 years old but she looks much younger," said Bilqees, the wife of Abdul Sattar Edhi, founder of Pakistan's largest and best-known charity Edhi Foundation.    

"As she was unable to fit into the various shelters, I brought her to the home run by the Edhi Foundation about twoor three months ago," Bilqees said.

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has constituted a three-member committee of parliamentarians, tasking them to visit various parts of Sindh to express solidarity with members of the Hindu community, reassuring them for providing adequate security.

Pakistan Senator Hari Ram, MNA Lal Chand and federal minister Maula Bakhsh Chandio are members of the committee. Zardari has taken serious notice of media reports which talk about the prevailing sense of insecurity among Hindu families in Sindh. He directed authorities concerned to remove Hindus' grievances, besides asking them to submit a report in this regard.

Spokesperson for the president Senator Farhatullah Babar confirmed the formation of the committee and said that it had been constituted to reassure the Hindu community about their security and well-being.

The CBI will investigate seven cases related to ethnic violence in parts of lower Assam.    

"The CBI will hear preliminary investigation of seven cases related to the violence. Of them four cases are from Kokrajhar, two from Chirang and one from Dhubri," Assam IGP (law and prder) L R Bishnoi told PTI today.       

The decision was taken after a visit to the violence-hit areas by a two-member CBI team comprising its Special Director K Saleem Ali and Deputy Inspector General Satish Golcha yesterday.   

The team met senior administration and police officials, including chief secretary N K Das and Director General of Police J N Choudhury to discuss the different issues related to the violence between Bodos and immigrant minority. They collected details related to the violence and examined 300 cases registered so far in connection with it.

Batting for Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said today, " I would welcome Rahul Gandhi's entry into the Cabinet."

On Moody's forecast on India's growth rate, he said, "Downgrade is a cause of concern but we should not draw unwarranted conclusions. Fundamentals of the Indian economy are fine.'

About 130 members of a group of Pakistani Hindus travelling to India on a month-long pilgrimage are set to cross the Wagah land border today, authorities said.   

After clearance from the Interior Ministry, immigration authorities yesterday began allowing the group of some 250 Hindus to cross the border yesterday.  

About 115 Hindus walked across the frontier yesterday before the crossing was closed for the day.   

Despite possessing valid travel documents, the Hindus were virtually detained by immigration authorities for about seven hours yesterday following reports in the electronic media that they intended to migrate to India. The Hindus belong to Balochistan and Sindh provinces,where the minority community has been the target of extortions, kidnapping for ransom and forced conversions.   

"Some 115 Hindus left for India on Friday and remaining will go today as there is no bar on their travel," Fraz Abbas, a deputy director of the Evacuee Trust Property Board toldPTI.

Mohammed Hamid Ansari was sworn in as the 14th Vice President today after he was re-elected on Tuesday. This is his second consecutive term as the vice president, only the second to do so after Dr S Radhakrishnan.

In an almost one-sided contest Ansari got 490 votes out of the 788 valid votes cast in the elections. His opponent, the NDA's Jaswant Singh, a BJP leader and former Union Minister, got only 238 votes.

Mitt Romney, the Republican Presidential nominee, will announce his vice presidential pick today during a campaign event in Virginia, as two Indian-Americans were in the fray for being his running mate.

The announcement would be first made on a smart phone application at 6:30 pm IST. While there was no indication from the Romney campaign who would be his running mate, some media reports indicate that it is expected to go to Paul Ryan, Congressman from Wisconsin.

Besides Ryan, other potential vice presidential candidates include two Indian-Americans Bobby Jindal and Nikki Haley, the governors respectively of Louisiana and South Carolina.

Abu Jundal, the 26/11 handler who is in jail in Mumbai, has made some startling revelations to the Mumbai police, reports NDTV.

Sources say Jundal has revealed that terror group Lashkar-e-Tayiba is planning to carry out aerial attacks on Indian cities and has trained para-gliders for this. He has reportedly also told them that he had himself seen 150 parachutes sealed in boxes in Muzzafarabad in Pakistan occupied Kashmir in 2010, the report said.

Yesterday, Jundal recorded his confession of his role in India's worst-ever terror attacks, in which 166 people were killed. His statement was recorded before a magistrate in Mumbai, which means it can be treated as evidence in court.

Read full story here

Noted Indian-American journalist and author Fareed Zakaria has been suspended by his employers CNN and Time magazine after he admitted to plagiarism and apologised for the ethical lapse.   

Zakaria, was suspended by CNN and Time magazine after he admitted that he had plagiarised portions of an article he wrote on gun control for Time, from the New Yorker magazine. He issued an apology saying he had made a "terrible mistake" and his lifting a paragraph from the article by Harvard University professor of American history Jill Leporewas an "ethical lapse".   

Zakaria, 48, a Yale and Harvard graduate, had written the column on gun control that appeared in the August 20 issue of Time magazine. Time said it was suspending Zakaria's column for amonth, pending review.

Five Indian software professionals, all from Hyderabad, were killed when their out-of-control Chevrolet Camaro hit a tractor-trailer and burst into flames in a fiery crash on a highway near Oklahoma city on Friday, police said.

The accident took place as the driver of the car, travelling south on the Interstate 235, lost control as it tried to merge onto the ramp toward southbound I-35, the Highway Patrol said.

The Camaro flew off the road and onto the southbound ramp from I-40 to I-35. It slammed into the back of a semi-truck and went under the trailer.The top of the car was sheared off. The car then spun off the road and burst into flames. All five people inside the Camaro were ejected from the vehicle and died at the scene. The driver of the semi was not hurt.

An Afghan man wearing a uniform has shot and killed three US soldiers in the southern province of Helmand, a NATO spokesperson has announced.

The incident took place early on Friday morning, and details were still being gathered, Major Lori Hodge, the spokesperson for the military alliance in Afghanistan, said.

Read the full story on Al Jazeera!

PTI reports: The US today imposed a new set of economic sanctions against Hezbollah for providing support to Syria's government, the Obama administration's latest move aimed at stopping President Bashar al-Assad from violently suppressing Syrian people.
 
The US is committed to take every step to isolate the Assad regime, the White House said as the Obama administration announced a new sanctions.
 
"We are committed to take every step we can to isolate the regime, starve it of resources to finance its brutal crackdown on the Syrian people, and to expose those who continue to support someone who is surely one of the most brutal and bloody dictators operating in the world today," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, told reporters at his daily news conference.
 
The White House comments came as the Department of Treasury designated the terrorist group Hizballah for providing support to the Government of Syria.
 
"Hizballah's extensive support to the Syrian governments violent suppression of the Syrian people exposes the true nature of this terrorist organisation and its destabilizing presence in the region," said the Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David Cohen.

Bo Xilai's wife admits involvement in Brit's murder

'Geetika didn't realise what she was being led to'

Five Hyderabad youth killed in road mishap in US

Mourners pay homage to six Gurdwara shooting victims

Ramdev wants 'big decision' from govt to end fast

Afghan-Pakistan talks on release of Taliban prisoners

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