With the Opposition adamant on the cancellation of coal blocks, Congress president Sonia Gandhi met with President Pranab Mukherjee for an hour on Friday, and deliberated with him on the Parliament logjam

Pakistani Taliban have beheaded 12 soldiers captured during a recent attack on a security check post in the restive Bajaur tribal region and released a video showing their severed heads, a spokesman of the outfit said. 

Bilal Chishti, the 'Pir' of the famous Sufi shrine at Ajmer in India, called on Pakistan PrimeMinister Raja Pervez Ashraf on Friday and invited him to visit the shrine.        

A powerful car bomb went off in a crowded market on the outskirts of Peshawar city in northwest Pakistan on Friday, killing 12 people and injuring 14 more.

AP reports: Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague acknowledged today there was no swift end in sight to the diplomatic standoff with Ecuador over the fate of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

Jet fuel price was today hiked by a steep 7.6 per cent, the biggest ever increase that took ATF price to an all-time high of Rs 72,282 per kilolitre. 

A massive earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale has struck off the coast of Philippines, according to the US Geological Survey.  

 

The quake prompted a tsunami warning for parts of Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan, Japan, Guam and other areas, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said.

 

Read the full story on CNN

Reacting to the arrest of Aijaz Ahmed Mirza, a DRDO employee-as claimed by the Bengaluru Police on Thursday-for his alleged links with terror organisations, the premier Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) on Friday said that Mirza was not in possession of any classified information.

"He was not involved in any sensitive work and as such no sensitive/classified information has been compromised. Disciplinary action as per GOI rules is being taken,' a DRDO statement said.

The release added that Mirza was associated with DRDO as a Junior Research Fellow. "It is intimated that Aijaz Ahmed Mirza had been placed as Junior Research Fellow for the past few months, at Centre for Air Borne Systems, a DRDO laboratory,' the statement said.

The Bengaluru Police had, on Thursday, arrested eleven people, accused of plotting terror activities in the country.

Read: Latest instructions issued by DoT on Towers & Mobile Handsets  

Hundreds of Indian executives continue to use stakes of their companies to raise cash despite attempts by domestic regulators to scrutinize the practice.The executives borrow money by pledging shares, using controlling stakes as collateral to secure a loan for personal use or for the company. On the WSJ

Abhijit V Banerjee and Esther Duflo in their book Poor Economics'"Rethinking Poverty & the Ways to End It write a very interesting story about a woman they met in the slums of Hyderabad. This woman had borrowed Rs 10,000 from Spandana, a micro finance institution. Read

Hope for Unmukt Chand. The Delhi University vice chancellor writes to sports minister Ajay Maken saying he will look into the issue.

This comes after HRD Minister Kapil Sibal today requested St Stephens College Principal Walson Thampu to use his discretionary powers to ensure that junior cricketer Unmukt Chand, the captain of U-19 World Cup winning team, does not lose an academic year due to low attendance.

Sibal spoke to Thampu yesterday after India captain M S Dhoni and Sports Minister Ajay Maken rallied behind Chand. Talking to reporters, Sibal said, "I have requested Walson Thampu if he could use his discretionary powers to ensure that Unmukt could sit for his university exams. "He said he was bound by university rules and then I requested the Vice Chancellor if he could use his emergency powers. He agreed to it and said he would be positively inclined," the minister said.

Delhi University rules mandate a student to have at least 33.3 per cent attendance in an academic session after all exemptions, but 19-year-old Unmukt, a first year BA student of St Stephen's College, could not attend required number of classes owing to his cricketing engagements.

The government today said there was a threat of polio virus travelling to India from neighbouring countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan which has led to intensification of surveillance in border states of Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Jammu and Kashmir.

"The threat of polio continues as long as there is polio virus circulation in any part of the world," Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Sudip Bandyopadhyay said in a written reply in Lok Sabha.

The Minister said surveillance for polio has been intensified through active case search in the health facilities in Amritsar and other nearby districts and blocks of Punjab, Rajasthan, J&K and Gujarat that share a border with Pakistan.

Exposing a mass crime in the words of the perpetrators themselves should have been enough to nail them. The reality proved much harder. A first-person account of a difficult fight. By Ashish Khetan. Read

Khetan who conducted a TV sting operation for Tehelka on the accused, was one of the witnesses examined by the court.

And this is Barack Obama's response to Clint Eastwood's bizarre attack

Barack Obama's team responded to Clint Eastwood's bizarre speech at the Republican Convention, mocking the actor and director for his attack on the President that featured an empty chair. Read

Shane Warne's column in the Telegraph: England have lost their respected captain, Andrew Strauss, the Kevin Pietersen saga is bubbling away and the team have lost six out of 11 Tests. Those are facts. But they are not in disarray. There is no need to panic. Read

In other news: If you haven't yet, watch it now. Clint Eastwood talking to a chair at the Republican National Conference. Watch 

On August 25, a disgruntled former apparel designer was killed in a hail of police gunfire in front of the Empire State Building, NYC, after he shot and killed a co-worker and engaged in a gunbattle with two officers, authorities said.

Police officers fired a total of 16 rounds; one officer shot nine while another one shot seven, the New York Police Department said. The violence erupted just as visitors began to queue up to ascend the famous New York skyscraper in one of Manhattan's busiest neighborhoods.

This is the story so far. Early this morning, a man entered a Pathmark shop in Old Bridge, New Jersey and began shooting. Eyewitnesses say he was wearing a body armor, but no confirmations on that yet. It is also believed he took a few people hostage. Police have confirmed that three people were killed, including the gunman. The area has now been secured. 

Early reports say the toll in the New Jersey Pathmark mall shootout stands at three dead, including the gunman. 

The suspect was apparently wearing body armour, CNN IBN reports. The incident happened early this morning at the Super Center Path Mark mall, so the victims are likely to be employees of the supermarket. Police responded to shots fired inside the supermarket. Nobody has the figures yet, but here are what news agencies say...

@ABC7 NEW JERSEY SHOOTING UPDATE: Officials say 3 people dead in supermarket shooting, including gunman

@AJELiveBREAKING NEWS: Multiple shooting at a chemist store in NewJersey - unconfirmed reports say 7 dead and several injured...

Just in: A gunman has shot and killed several people at a mall in New Jersey. The police has reportedly shot the gunman. Details awaited.  

The Naroda Patiya massacre is the largest single case of mass murder during the 2002 Gujarat riots that broke out following the Sabarmati Express train carnage near Godhra station.

The case has been probed by a Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigating Team (SIT). As many as 327 witnesses, comprising eye witnesses, victims, doctors, police personnel, government officials, forensic experts and journalists including Ashish Khetan, who conducted a TV sting operation on the accused, were examined by the court.

Initially, 46 people were arrested by the Gujarat Police, whereas 24 more people were apprehended after the probe was handed over to the SIT in 2008. In all, 70 people were arrested in the case. Six persons died before the charges could be framed and trial started, while two others identified as Mohan Nepali and Tejas Pathak jumped bail and are still absconding.

Among the 2002 riots cases probed by the Special Investigation Team (SIT), in which rulings have come, Naroda is the only case, where convicts (32) outnumber those acquitted (29).

"The souls of our loved ones who were butchered and burnt here, finally have peace," Naroda Patiya victims families tell Headlines Today. 

OK, here it is. The final and correct life terms. Akhil Desai, the public prosecutor says that all the convicts have been handed out life terms.

Maya Kodnani has been given 28 years: 10 years (120 (B) (criminal conspiracy), and 307 (attempt to murder) and 18 years (302 (murder) of the IPC.
 
Babu Bajrangi gets "life imprisonment in jail till he dies."
 
Other convicts gets 31 years -- 10 years + 21 years. 

Interestingly, in the case of Maya Kodnani, the two sentences will NOT run concurrently. She serves one sentence of 10 years and then the the other sentence of 18 years. After the 28 year term is over, she is entitled to approach the court for a remission. All the other convicts except Babu Bajrangi gets a 21-year term, considered to be a life term.

Thirty one of the 32 convicts get a life term -- one convict is absconding.

Maya Kodnani will get 10 years under section 307 (attempt to murder) and 18 years under 302 (murder). The sentencing will not be parallel, which means she will finish a 10-year term and then do the 18 year term. Though the court does not explicitly say that "she will be in jail until she dies" as it does in the case of Babu Bajrangi, a life term incarceration for 14 years when lifers become entitled to remission of the rest of the sentence as per Prison Manual provisions.

Which is why the sentencing for all the convicts in the Naroda Patiya case is life sentence.

Handing out the judgment, the Special court judge Jyotsana Yagnik said communal violence is like a cancer to society and should be rotted out. Seven out of the 32 convicted get 21 years in jail.

Maya Kodnani gets a 10 year term followed by a 18 year term, a total of 28 years in jail.  Babu Bajrangi gets a life term "in jail till death", says the counsel for the victims.

Kodnani, a three-time MLA from Naroda area, who was considered to be close to chief minister Narendra Modi, is the first woman and first MLA to be convicted and sentenced in a post-Godhra riots case. Kodnani and Bajrangi were held guilty under sections 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy), 302 (murder) and 307 (attempt to murder) of IPC and the prosecution sought the maximum punishment of death sentence for all. 

BJP MLA Maya Kodnani gets 18 years, while Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi gets life in the Naroda Patiya riots case that left 97 dead. Kodnani, a BJP MLA and former minister in the Narendra Modi government and Bajrangi are among the 32 people convicted by a special court in the Naroda Patiya riots case on Wednesday. 

And the tu-tu main-main continues... Slamming Congress for attacking Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), BJP today said it is criticising the constitutional body to divert attention from the real issue of corruption.

"By attacking CAG, Congress is diverting attention from the real issue of corruption...It would be better if Congress targets 'CAG' - corruption, 'atankwad (terrorism)' and 'ghotala (scams)' - which it created. That will benefit the country and wash the taint off Congress' face because of this coal scam," BJP spokesperson Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told reporters here.

"We will fight effectively from Parliament to street to ensure that those behind the coal scam are punished," he said. On the demand by SP, Left and other parties for a judicial inquiry into the coal block allocation, party spokesperson Venkaiah Naidu said, "If parties supporting Congress are demanding this, the message from this dharna is that even parties supporting Congress are finding it difficult to support it on the issue."

PM Dr Manmohan Singh is back from his four-day visit to Tehran for the NAM summit. Dr Singh tells journalists, including Nikhil Lakshman, on his return, "I cannot get into a tu-tu-main main with other political leaders. I have to maintain the dignity of the PM's office. If I was resigning, I would not be here." Read

Friday has been a busy day for Sonia Gandhi as well, say our sources in Delhi.  She met many Union Ministers of State at 10 Janpath and had a discussion with  at least 25 MPs from four states. Sources say Sonia Gandhi feels Pranab Mukherjee's absence keenly now as he has always been the party's fire-fighter. 

Our Delhi sources tell us that fax machines were spewing out reports and emails were being sent between the capital and Tehran to brief the Prime Minister on the political developments on Coalgate. Of course, Air India One had special provisions for fax and satellite phones, as well.

BJP leader Nitin Gadkari who is now in Canada also kept himself abreast of the
BJP demonstrations on Coalgate in 40 cities in India. 

The family of Ruchika Girhotra will approach the Punjab and Haryana High Court challenging the Central Bureau of Investigation closure report in the molestation-suicide case. The CBI's closure report pertained to Ruchika's brother, Ashu Girhotra's torture and destruction of evidence in the case.

Teenager Ruchika, who was a budding tennis player, had committed suicide in 1993, three years after allegedly being molested by former Haryana DGP SPS Rathore in August 1990.

69-year-old Rathore is currently out on bail after spending around six months in jail serving a sentence of 18 months in the main case relating to the molestation charge. He has appealed against the sentence in the molestation case.

Ramesh Srivats @rameshsrivats Basically, St. Stephen's is asking Unmukt Chand to choose - Tests or Exams?

Government today said incidents such as stalling of Parliament by BJP would dent investors confidence and affect growth which has slowed down to 5.5 per cent in the first quarter of the current fiscal.

"When you raise every issue like this, the confidence of those coming from outside to invest is stopped, industrialists here will stop investment. Will the BJP governments and the BJP invest money," Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal said when asked to comment on the latest growth figures. Sibal said he wanted to know from the BJP whether they can run the country without growth.

They are the images which sum up the spirit of the athletes who have been dubbed The Superhumans. Each has found their own remarkable way to overcome their disability and perform to the highest level in their chosen sporting discipline.

Five athletes of the London Paralympics. Read

 For decades, Beijing has maintained that the Dalai Lama is a separatist, but Tibet's exiled spiritual leader once had a special relationship with the father of Xi Jinping, the man in line to become China's next president. Read

Former Samata Party president Jaya Jaitly was today allowed by the Supreme court to meet her party colleague, bed-ridden and Alzheimer's-hit former Defence Minister George Feranndes once every fortnight for 15 minutes.

A bench headed by Justice P Sathasivam allowed the plea of Jaitly who had approached the apex court after the Delhi High Court had denied her the permission to visit the ailing 82-year-old leader.

Jaitly, a close political associate of Fernandes, had earlier moved the high court after the ailing leader's family members had not allowed her to meet him. The high court had on April 17 denied her the permission to visit him while dismissing her plea for her impleadment in a civil suit filed by Fernandes' brothers seeking access to him.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh left Iran for home today after concluding a four-day visit to Iran during which he attended the 16th NAM Summit and held crucial bilateral meetings, including with Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari.

During his stay in Tehran, the Prime Minister addressed the NAM Summit, where he strongly pitched for coordinated global actions against international terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

He asked the Non-Aligned Movement to take a lead in this and also take a stand based on "universally accepted principles" on Syria.

Also read: Nikhil Lakshman's report from Tehran -- India wants early end to 26/11 trial in Pakistan

Rata Tata also said there is no anger about Singur, just sadness. " The matter is sub judice," he added. He reiterated that there was no bias against Bengal, and when the political climate was right, somewhere in Bengal there could well be a Tata factory.

Refresh your memory with this backgrounder. The Tata Singur story

At his last Annual General Meeting as Chairman of the Tata group, Ratan Tata today raised hopes for investment in Bengal. Addressing the meeting, Tata said the Group will not run away from West Bengal and added, "Who knows, there could be a Tata Motor factory somewhere in West Bengal."

Tata presided over the Tata Tea AGM in Kolkata. He is set to retire as chairman in December 2012 and 44-year old Cyrus Pallonji Mistry, who is the current Deputy Chairman, will take over from him.

Snapshots from a time when the cinemas were packed and the booze flowed. Karachi in sepia tones. See

A girl in Jalandhar has committed suicide after she was allegedly humiliated by the moral police. The girl, who is a college student was found dead near the railway tracks, reports CNN IBN. The girl was pulled up for being in a car with her boyfriend. She was also believed to have been distressed when the media took her photographs. Police have ordered an enquiry into the incident.  

The 2008 Kosi floods were a wake-up call for the government of Bihar. Its water resources department is now trying to make sure the disaster of 2008 doesn't happen again. Read how

In other news: Tata Motors helps Jaguar and Land Rover regain luster. Read

Who is Manoj Jayaswal and what is his relationship with coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal? Similarly, what is his connection with Congress Rajya Sabha MP Vijay Darda? They all seem to be interconnected and this confluence manifests itself in the Coalgate allocations. Read more on the The Daily Mail

HRD Minister Kapil Sibal today requested St Stephens College Principal Walson Thampu to use his discretionary powers to ensure that junior cricketer Unmukt Chand, the captain of U-19 World Cup winning team, does not lose an academic year due to low attendance.

Sibal spoke to Thampu yesterday after India captain M S Dhoni and Sports Minister Ajay Maken rallied behind Chand. Talking to reporters, Sibal said, "I have requested Walson Thampu if he could use his discretionary powers to ensure that Unmukt could sit for his university exams. "He said he was bound by university rules and then I requested the Vice Chancellor if he could use his emergency powers. He agreed to it and said he would be positively inclined," the minister said.

Delhi University rules mandate a student to have at least 33.3 per cent attendance in an academic session after all exemptions, but 19-year-old Unmukt, a first year BA student of St Stephen's College, could not attend required number of classes owing to his cricketing engagements.

Meghalaya urban affairs minister Ampareen Lyngdoh today said she had received threatening text messages in her cell phone after her goodwill visit to Maharashtra and Karnataka to stem the exodus of NE students in the wake of backlash against Assam violence.

The messages were sent by an unidentified person to her cell phone on the intervening nights of August 27 when she landed in Kolkata, Lyngdoh said. Lyngdoh was part of a three-member team of cabinet ministers that visited Karnataka and Maharashtra last week.

"Initially, I did not pay heed to the first message that I got. But then subsequently another two messages were sent from the same number which forced me to file an FIR,' the lone lady legislator in Meghalaya said.

The Rajya Sabha has approved the extension of the Lokpal Select Committee.
The panel examining the anti-graft Lokpal Bill had decided to seek an extension till the winter session of Parliament for submitting its report.

In a meeting, members of the the committee -- headed by Congress MP Satyavrat Chaturvedi -- appeared unanimous in seeking the extension of its term to complete analysis of the bill, which has already been passed by Lok Sabha.

In the beginning of the monsoon session on August 8, the government had expressed the hope that the select committee would finalise its recommendations by the last week of the session.

Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh is in the news again. Yesterday, he lashed out at Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Vinod Rai, accusing him of harbouring "political ambitions' like one of his predecessors, TN Chaturvedi. Chaturvedi was the CAG in 1989 when the auditor published a report on the Bofors guns bought by Rajiv Gandhi's government. After his retirement, Chaturvedi joined the BJP and became an MP and governor of Karnataka.

More on the Indian Express.

Showing persistent sluggishness, the economy grew by 5.5 per cent in the April-June quarter this fiscal due to poor performance of manufacturing, mining and farm sectors.

The gross domestic product had expanded by 8 per cent in the April-June quarter of 2011-12. During the quarter ended June 30, the manufacturing sector grew marginally by 0.2 per cent, against 7.3 per cent growth in the same period of 2011-12, according to the official data released today.

Gangster-turned-politician Arun Gawli gets life imprisonment. The gangster-turned politician and 11 others were convicted for the murder of Shiv Sena corporator Kamlakar Jamsandekar last week.

During arguments on sentencing, the once feared underworld don told Special Judge Pritiviraj Chavan there was no reason for him to kill Jamsandekar for a "paltry" amount of Rs 30 lakh.

The court also convicted eleven others accused while the sentence will be pronounced on August 27. One of the accused, Bala Surve, died during trial, while three accused were acquitted for lack of evidence.

SC directs retrial of Pakistani national sentenced to death by a lower court in 1997 Delhi bus blast case that left four dead.

A court in Tokyo has ruled that Samsung Electronics did not infringe on patents held by Apple, a victory for the South Korean company. The ruling dealt with transferring media content between devices. Read

The next time you feel the need to reach out, touch base, shift a paradigm, leverage a best practice or join a tiger team, by all means do it. Just don't say you're doing it. Read

Anti-nuke protestors say they will not give up the fight. Another fight looming is that the AIADMK has demanded that Tamil Nadu be given full allocation of 2,000 megawatt of electricity from the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project.

The Madras High Court gives the go-ahead to unit-I and II of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project in Tamil Nadu. The HC ruled that there were no environmental worries and orders for the setting up of a school and hospital around the plant.

Sahara will have to give the list of investors to the Supreme Court in 10 days and has appointed retired apex court judge Justice B N Aggarwal to oversee the probe by SEBI against the two Sahara companies. Sahara had raised the money through Optionally fully convertible debentures (OFCD). The SC has also ruled that if Sahara does not pay the money, their assets can be frozen and seized.

And as expected, both Houses of Parliament have adjourned. The Opposition has derailed Parliament for seven days now over coalgate and demands for the PM's resignation. 

Both houses of Parliament have convened, but this morning outside Parliament,
SP leader Mulayam Singh Yadav and MPs from TDP and Left parties sat on a dharna to seek a judicial inquiry into coal blocks allocation.

Eight parties, including the Samajwadi Party and the Left, have joined hands to protest the continued disruption of Parliament and are demanding a probe by a sitting Supreme Court judge into the coal block allocation issue.

"Our attempt is to unite non-NDA, non-UPA parties to demarcate ourselves from BJP and Congress, both of which are involved in corruption relating to mining and therefore do not want a debate in Parliament," CPI(M) leader Basudeb Acharia had said yesterday. Acharia had said the BJP had also made similar allocation of coal blocks in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, apart from the mining scam in Karnataka.

The SC has appointed retired apex court judge Justice B N Aggarwal to oversee the probe by SEBI against the two Sahara companies.

The Supreme Court has directed the Sahara Group to refund Rs 17,400
crore which it had collected from its investors and gave three months time to Sahara India Real Estate Corporation and Sahara Housing Investment Corporation to refund the amount. The SC also directed SEBI to conduct probe against the two Sahara companies to find out their actual subscriber base.

The court had asked the Sahara group of companies to state on an affidavit the amount of funds collected, the net worth of the companies which had received the deposits and how they sought to secure the liabilities. These queries were to protect the interests of the investors.

Up ahead today, a special court in Ahmedabad will pronounce the quantum of punishment for 32 convicts in the 2002 post-Godhra Naroda Patiya riots case. BJP MLA and former minister in the Narendra Modi government Maya Kodnani and Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi are among the 32 people convicted by a special court in the Naroda Patiya riots case on Wednesday, in which, 97 people belonging to the minority community were killed.

Admiral Devendra Kumar Joshi takes over as the new Navy Chief. Joshi, who used to be Vice Admiral, is an anti-submarine warfare specialist, and will succeed Admiral Nirmal Verma who retires today.

Joshi (58), who is at present the Western naval Commander, is taking over the force at a time when it is set to operate two aircraft carriers and induct a large number of warships, long-range surveillance aircraft and submarines.

He will have a three-year tenure.Vice Admiral Joshi has commanded the tri-services Andaman and Nicobar Island command and also headed the Integrated Defence Staff headquarters here. He also commanded the Vizag-based Eastern Fleet of the Navy. 

Commissioned in 1974, the Vice Admiral has commanded the aircraft carrier INS Viraat, guided-missile destroyer Ranvir and corvette INS Kuthar.

AP reports: Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague acknowledged today there was no swift end in sight to the diplomatic standoff with Ecuador over the fate of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

AP reports:  Isaac dumped unrelenting rain and flooded areas around New Orleans today as people who thought they could ride out a lowest-category hurricane faced quickly rising waters.

AFP reports: The United States warned Iran today its window for opening serious talks is limited, after the United Nations nuclear watchdog said Iran had doubled enrichment capacity at its underground facility at Fordo.

AP reports: Sikh priest Punjab Singh has remained in a coma ever since the shooting rampage at a Wisconsin temple earlier this month that left six victims dead and three other people wounded, his family said.

The opposition Syrian National Council urged the United Nations Security Council to impose a no-fly zone and humanitarian corridors to protect civilians caught in Syria's conflict, in a statement issued ahead of a UN council meeting on Thursday. 

CNN reports: The former top lawyer for the now-shuttered News of the World newspaper, Tom Crone, was arrested Thursday in London by police investigating phone hacking allegations, his wife confirmed.