A final look at the situation in the Maldives: Senior journalist Sumon K Chakrabarti tweets: Riot police firing tear gas on former president's supporters in the Maldives capital, Male and pepper spraying them.

More updates on rediff.com...

After an initial lull, polling picked up quickly after midday as the weather cleared with over 55 per cent of the 1.7 crore-strong electorate, which included 70 lakh women, exercising its franchise, state election officials said.

Polling was held in 55 constituencies spread over 10 districts -- Sitapur, Barabanki, Faizabad, Ambedkar Nagar, Bahraich, Shravasti, Balrampur, Gonda, Siddharth Nagar and Basti amidst tight security arrangements.

The candidates include 796 men, 65 women and one eunuch. The first phase of elections for the 403-member assembly will seal the fate of two ministers, 31 MLAs and 15 former ministers.

Rediff.com's Sharat Pradhan also reporting from UP says that there has been an estimated 62 per cent voter turnout, according to the chief electoral officer Umesh Sinha.

On Day 1 of the polls, it's been an incident-free day with a remarkable tournout, especially by youth and women. As compared to the 2007 polls, which had a 46.6 per cent turnout, the 2012 polls, at least on day 1 fared better.

Sheela Bhatt's despatches from UP:

Congress: The mood on the streets seems to be for change with people saying that Rahul Gandhi is a good option with his craving for development, but the party is unable to do its groundwork.  Beni Prasad and Punia are cutting into each other.

The BJP is active in some pockets only and will gain by default.

In the SP, the Akhilesh Yadav factor has added weight.

The BSP is struggling to retain the 30 seats that they have and may lose due to the anti-incumbancy factor.

Former Maldives prez Mohammad Nasheed has been surrounded by police as activists of his Maldivian Democratic Party hit the streets.

'It's a story that won't go away': Jennifer Aniston reveals she's tired of the Brangelina love triangle.

On the Daily Mail

Former Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed said today he was forced from office in a coup and he demanded that his successor immediately resign.
Nasheed was greeted by roaring applause as he spoke to about 2,000 members of his party in the capital, Male, a day after he resigned when police joined widening street protests against his government.

He was replaced by his former vice president, Mohammed Waheed Hassan, who denied claims there was a plot to oust Nasheed and called today for the creation of a national unity government. 

The Maldivian Democratic Party reaffirmed Nasheed's role as its leader and declared it would not join a coalition. "I call on Mohammed Waheed to immediately resign from the presidency," he told his supporters.

Pictured: New president, Mohammed Waheed Hassan

Newsalert: Former Maldives prez Mohammad Nasheed has asked the new Maldivian president to step down.

This, even as the new president of the Maldives stressed that he did not take power in the Indian Ocean resort islands in a coup and that his succession was in line with the constitution.

The Maldives, one of the world's most famous luxury tourist destinations, installed Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik as president on Tuesday after the man credited with bringing democracy to the islands resigned, apparently under military pressure following a police mutiny, says reuters.

A top official linked to one of China's most powerful politicians has been placed on leave for stress, the government said today, amid speculation that he
had tried to flee the country. 

Wang Lijun, vice mayor and former police chief of Chongqing, is famed as one of China's top graft-busters after leading a crackdown that led to scores of senior officials being jailed in the southwestern city of 30 million people.

Aircraft maker Airbus has been ordered to check the wings of all A380 superjumbo planes currently in service.

The European Aviation Safety Agency has ordered all 67 Airbus A380 superjumbo planes currently in operation to be checked. Airbus said the cracks were not an immediate threat to safety and that repairs would be carried out if any damage was found, says the bbc.co.uk.

Hailing the Supreme Court verdict in 2G case, L K Advani today wondered if former telecom minister A Raja could be the sole "villain" and said no one can beat the UPA government, which is "actually run" by Sonia Gandhi, in its "stinking record" in scams. 

"The key question the judiciary has now to decide is: Is A Raja, the former Telecom Minister, the solitary villain of the piece, and the only person responsible for these fraudulent transactions?" the BJP leader said in his latest blog.

From fat to fit in just FIVE hours: Blogger shows how.

On the Daily Mail.

Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar today said it will be difficult to implement the proposed Food Security Act with existing distribution system and suggested
massive reforms. 

"I will be failing in my duty if I do not emphasise the fact that the Food Security Act will never succeed in achieving its goal in letter and spirit, if we try to push the same through the existing PDS apparatus," Pawar said today.

The minister felt that "a massive process re-engineering" was required to make the Public Distribution System (PDS) compatible with the proposed law.

The Food Security Act aims to provide legal entitlement over subsidised foodgrains to 63.5 per cent of the country's population. The bill was introduced in Parliament in December 2011 and the same has been referred to the Standing Committee. 

Our Delhi correspondent reports that Union Telecom minister Kapil Sibal has urged President Pratibha Patil to flag off the first government-sponsored yatra, christened 'Sakshar Bharat Yatra,' from Delhi on February 18.

Sibal has also urged union ministers to join some part of the journey or receive the 'yatris' as they pass through 22 states in the 38-day long journey covering 16,000 villages in 180 districts.

The purpose? To spread the message of adult literacy.

Renewable Energy Minister Farooq Abdllah has promised to join up in Jammu and Kashmir while Corporate Affairs Minister M Veerappa Moily will be present at Bidar, Karnataka. Home Minister P Chidambaram has also consented to receive the participants at Erode in Tamil Nadu.

The op-ed piece on the Hindu:

In October 2010, the country's best known son-in-law, Robert Vadra, triggered off speculation when he told The Times of India that he could win an election from anywhere:

"I can definitely win (an election) from anywhere but I am a businessman. Why politics? I should be known for what I am,' he had said, continuing, "There is a time and place for everything. If I feel that I know enough about this line (politics), if I can dedicate enough time and effort to it, when my children are grown up and if I can make a difference, then why not?' At the time, Congressmen had dismissed the interview, saying it was "unauthorised' by the Family.

For more of that click here.

The tensions in the United States-Pakistan ties are fast subsiding. The surest sign is that the drones are back on the Pakistani skies, raining death in the tribal tracts on the Afghan border and no one in Islamabad or Rawalpindi could care less. The Pakistani leaders know that the drone attacks now carry President Barack Obama's imprimatur. 

Read the opinion piece

Worried over the impact of rising expenditure on the fiscal deficit, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today said he is "losing sleep" over skyrocketing
subsidy bill which could exceed budget estimates by over Rs 1 lakh crore in 2011-12.

"As Finance Minister when I think of enormity of the subsidies to be provided, I lose my sleep. There is no doubt," he said at a conference in New Delhi today. He would be presenting the Budget for 2012-13 on March 16 in the backdrop of falling growth rate and widening gap between revenue and expenditure.

Update on the UP polls:

Congress' star campaigner Priyanka Gandhi will return to Amethi tomorrow to campaign in her brother Rahul Gandhi's Parliamentary constituency. 

On a campaign trail in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, Priyanka is scheduled to address about 20 meetings tomorrow starting from Rasulpur area in Salon constituency, Congress media in-charge Jagdish Piyush said. 

She campaigned for Rahul Gandhi from Februay 3 and continued it till February 6 before returning back. Priyanka will later shift her focus to neighbouring Rae Bareli, represented by her mother Sonia Gandhi in Parliament.

A rush of stories from the New York Times' India blogs.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's view that India doesn't need British aid has raised some hackles in Britain and led to some proud strutting in India. And that's very understandable. Why should Britain continue giving aid to India? And why should India want it?

Read

Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap tweets: I had a terrible Kingfisher experience too.flew to London last year and Sid Mallya was flying too& the entire staff was just catering to him.  

Wondering what that's about? Read the story on rediff.com: Actress Ayesha Takia got involved in a row with Sidhartha Mallya after she claimed that her sister Natasha was mistreated by the staff of Kingfisher airlines.

Amnesty International warned the Maldives' new regime today against seeking revenge against the party of former president Mohamed Nasheed, who quit in the face of public protests and a police mutiny. 

"The new authorities in the Maldives must avoid persecuting members of outgoing president Mohamed Nasheed's political party," the human rights watchdog said in a statement. 

Nasheed, the island nation's first democratically-elected president, resigned yesterday after what his party described as a "coup d'etat" orchestrated by the opposition with the backing of rebel elements in the security forces.

Update on the Narendra Modi story.

A division bench of acting chief Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya and Justice J B Pardiwala made these observations, while ordering compensation for over 500
religious structures in the state. The court was hearing a petition filed by Islamic Relief Committee of Gujarat (IRCG).

Inadequacy, inaction and negligence on the part of the state government to prevent riots resulted in large-scale destruction of religious structures across the state, the court observed.

The government was responsible for repair and compensation for such places, it further said. The court said that when the government had paid compensation for destruction of houses and commercial establishments, it should also pay compensation for religious structures.

IRCG's petition in 2003 had sought court's directions to the government to pay compensation towards damage of religious places during riots on the ground that the National Human Rights Commission, too, had recommended and the state government had in principle accepted the suggestion.

And an update on the late US president John F Kennedy's sex scandal: Read it on the Daily Mail.

Just in: The Gujarat High Court raps the Narendra Modi government for inaction and negligence in preventing the 2002 post-Godhra riots.

Details awaited.

Cricketer Yuvraj Singh, who is currently undergoing chemotherapy for germ cell cancer in the United States, today said nobody but himself was to blame for
the delay in his treatment and insisted he will return a stronger person.

"I see few people trying to blame my guruji for delay and BBCI! Again wrong it was my decision! The president and the members of BCCI have bin a huge support in my tough times and because of them I'm getting the best treatment! Thank you again BCCI," Yuvraj tweeted.

"I'm recovering well yes its tough but tough times don't last tough men do! I will fight and come back as a stronger man cause I have the prayers of my nation!," he added.

The 'Indian subcontinent' is a region which was until some decades ago called British India, with perhaps Nepal and Sri Lanka attached -- neither of which were part of the British Empire in the manner that undivided India was -- the current notion of South Asia seems to be less rooted in history or geography.

Read the piece on the Dawn.

On the Daily Beast:

Who said it, Dominique Strauss-Kahn or Grard Depardieu?

Gerard Depardieu will portray Dominique Strauss-Kahn in a new movie. Can you tell the actor and the disgraced former IMF chief apart from their boorish quotes about women? Take this quiz.

Actress Kareena Kapoor has rubbished reports that she will be tying the knot with long time boyfriend Saif Ali Khan after the release of their action-thriller Agent Vinod. 

The 31-year-old said there are no plans of marriage right now and the duo are concentrating on their career. The film will hit the screens on March 23. "There are no plans for marriage as of yet. We are just concentrating on the release of the film and our career right now," Kareena said.

Unusual story on the Discover magazine: Peppering the fairs and festivals of India, striking in their boldly colored if battered armor, are a fleet of robots that are part fortune cookie, part street-corner psychic.

These bots wait in perpetual readiness to dispense their pre-programmed wisdom, and for only 5 rupees or so, the robot's handler will allow you to plug a pair of headphones into its metallic underpants and listen as it tells your fortune.

Read

And Pritish Nandy on the Karnataka porn row:

Pritish Nandy:  Porngate, my foot. its Yawngate. ND Tewari did better. At least the women were real. We must be the world's most hypocritical nation. 3 idiot ministers watching porn in the Assembly is a laugh, not a political issue.

From the Tribune, Pakistan.  

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani filed an appeal in the Supreme Court today against the charges held against him in the contempt of court case. Gilani filed the appeal through his lawyer Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan who had earlier, after the last hearing of the case, told the media that he would advise the prime minister to file an appeal.

For a quick recap of what happened in Pakistan last month, click here.

Ministers Savadi and Patil (who quit over the porn clip): We blame the media for blowing the incident out of proportion. We are loyal soldiers of the party and do not want to further embarrass the government and the party... But we have not committed any crime.

BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman: The ministers have come under cloud, now they have submitted their resignation and they have submitted themselves to be investigated by any competent authority. Congress had to
explain on Raj Bhavan being misused on such shameless acts. The allegation will be investigated, if it has happened, it is worrying.

Congress leader Kapil Sibal: Nowadays it appears that some of the BJP have all kinds of entertainment. Sometimes political entertainment, sometimes it is entertainment of other sorts.

Update on the crisis in the Maldives: PM Manmohan Singh today said India  assures new the President of Maldives of continued support and cooperation.  Mohammed Waheed Hassan is the new President of the Indian Ocean island nation known more for its lavish beach resorts than political turmoil.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has asked Maldivians to refrain from violence amidst the takeover of a new government after the resignation of
President Mohamed Nasheed.

Update on the porn in the house fiasco in Karnataka.

The Congress has, quite obviously, taken a a dig at the BJP over the porn clip controversy in Karnataka, saying it showed the 'hiatus' between preaching and practice by the Opposition party.

The three BJP ministers, who were engulfed in a row over watching porn clippings during the Assembly proceedings, put in their papers today bowing to the directives of the party central leadership.

"From corruption to pornography they have the entire spectrum and range available in BJP in Karnataka. This shows the hiatus between preaching and practice by BJP," party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said.

Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock and three other directors are stepping down from the board of the company, which is struggling in an increasingly competitive online space.

In a letter to shareholders late night, Bostock and three other directors -- Vyomesh Joshi, Arthur Kern and Gary Wilson -- have volunteered not to stand for re-election to the company's board. Yahoo has been struggling to compete with Google and Facebook in an increasingly competitive online space.

Updates on UP in a bit. Meanwhile...

An under construction Gurdwara in the American State of Michigan has been vandalised and defaced with anti-Muslim graffiti, the police and community leaders have said. The vandalism of the Gurdwara, coming up in Sterling
Heights city of Michigan, happened on February 5, members of its management committee said. The graffiti included vulgar language, racial epithets,
the use of what appears to be a cross, a large drawing of a gun, and references to the 9/11 attacks.

From the Times, London:

Scientists have been able to "eavesdrop" on a conversation between two cabbages. The exchange was recorded using a highly sensitive photon camera after the plants were genetically modified to emit flashes of light as they communicated with each other.

The experiment proved visually what scientists had long suspected: that plants can "talk" to each other. Researchers cut the leaves of an Arabidopsis, a small member of the cabbage family, before sealing it in a chamber with two other plants.

The wounded cabbage released the gas ethyl jasmonate, which was detected by its neighbours. These plants in turn released the same gas, spreading the word among the threatened cabbages.

Previous experiments with other plants have suggested that some have evolved defence mechanisms in response to a threat, such as drawing their leaves tighter or producing a chemical that is toxic to insect predators.

Briefly, on to other news, till we get you updates on the UP polls.

On the Daily Mail: Can yoga classes kill you? Read

All the excitement, all the action, live from UP only on rediff.com.

Our correspondent, Sheela Bhatt who is in Barabanki, UP says the temperature at a chilly 10 C and rain, seems to have spoilt the mood of Pannalal Punia, a Congress leader and chairman of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. He was entrusted with the job of overseeing 85 reserved constituencies or what is called Mission 85.

However, when he came to vote, there were hardly any voters around.

Punia said the Congress expects to win and once the rains stop, people would would come out to vote.

Punia, incidentally, was Mayawati's confidante, while serving in the government but joined the Congress after he retired and even gave evidence against Mayawati in the Taj corridor scam.

Live from Barabanki:

Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt speaking to Mohmmad Qazi, a retired government officer, said the man was upset to see that reporters of TV channels were not talking to him. In UP, TV reporters get more attention than even local leaders, he said.

Qazi is 73-years-old, but his enthusiasm to vote was no less than young voters. He said he belongs to Seethapur, a neighbouring area, but when he moved to Barabanki, the local BJP office didn't even send him a voter's slip, because he is a Muslim.

Hurt, he said, he voted for the Samajwadi party for the last two terms and has not voted for the Congress after 1977 (post the Emergency). "I hate dictatorship," he says emphatically.

He voted the BJP to outst the Congress in '77. Later, when the BJP "ignored" him he moved to the SP.

On Mayawati: She must go because she is Dalit-centric and has not added power-generating capacity to the state. "Bijlee nahin to vikas nahin," he points out.

More on the UP polls: Of the1.70 lakh electorate - 952.87 lakh male and 70.44 lakh female - are expected to seal the fate of 862 candidates.
The candidates include 796 men, 65 women and one eunuch. Maximum 26 candidates are in fray for Barabanki seat, whereas Mehmoodabad has minimum number of 8 candidates. Stakes are high for ruling BSP, Congress, SP and the BJP in the no holds barred fight for the 403 assembly seats.

Today's polling would decide the future of cabinet minister Lalji Verma, minister of state Sangram Singh Verma, 31 sitting MLAs, 15 former ministers and relatives of several MPs including Union Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma.

It would be a litmus test for Congress leaders, including Beni Prasad Verma and National Commission for Scheduled Caste Chairman P L Punia as both of them represent the areas going to the polls.

Moving on to UP, where the first phase of the polls began today.

Rain played spoilsport during polling as only 5.17 per cent of the over 1.70 lakh electorate exercised their franchise in the first two hours. "Polling started at 7 am and in the first two hours 5.17 per cent polling was registered in 55 assembly seats spread over 10 districts," Chief Electoral Officer Umesh Sinha said. 

He said the percentage was low due to heavy rains in certain areas where polling was being held today. In Basni Assembly seat in Siddharth Nagar district, not a single vote was cast in the first two hours of polling due to heavy rains, official sources said. While Sitapur registered 5.1 per cent polling in the first two hours, people boycotted polling in Gularia village in Misrikh assembly seat to protest lack of development works. 

Minimum vote percentage:

3.5 per cent registered in Faizabad district

4 per cent in Bahraich. 

Maximum: 16 per cent (till 10 am) was recorded in Barabanki district followed by 10 per cent in Gonda.

Polling is being held in 10 districts -- Sitapur, Barabanki, Faizabad, Ambedkar Nagar, Bahraich, Shravasti, Balrampur, Gonda, Siddharth Nagar and Basti amidst tight security arrangements, CEO Umesh Sinha said.

A day after the incident caused huge embarrassment to the BJP government, all the three tainted ministers were summoned to the party office and were asked to submit their resignation after a meeting of the senior leaders presided over by Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda.

Minister for Cooperation Laxman Savadi, Minister for Women and Child Development C C Patil and Minister for Ports and Science and Technology Krishna Palemar announced after a meeting with top leaders that they have decided to quit.

"We don't want the party and the government to face further embarrassment. All of us have decided to resign from the ministry", Savadi told reporters outside the BJP office. Savadi and Patil demanded that the Speaker of the state
assembly K G Bopaiah institute a probe into the issue of watching the porno video footage and expressed confidence that "they would come clean from the allegations".

Good morning.

Three Karnataka Ministers who were allegedly watching a porn clip in the legislative assembly have resigned, reports Vicky Nanjappa from Bengaluru.

The ministers are Lakshman Savadi, C C Patil and Krishna Palemar.

A ruckus broke out in Karnataka political circles after a television camera spotted two ministers, Savadi and Patil watching a porn clip which was forwarded by Palemar.

The clip was allegedly forwarded to Savadi's cell phone by Palemar. Patil and Savadi were said to be watching the clip while the assembly was debating a serious issue pertaining to the hoisting of the Pakistan national flag in Northern Karnataka by some miscreants.

The opposition raised the pitch seeking their resignation. However Savadi said that it was not a porn clip, but the video was about a woman being raped by a couple of men.

He said that the assembly was also debating an incident during a rave party in Malpe, coastal Karnataka and hence watching the clip made sense.