In an irony of sorts, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit today said appropriate action would be taken against anybody found guilty of wrongdoing in the Commonweath Games spendings based on the recommendations of Public Accounts Committee and the GoM examining CAG and Shunglu Committee reports respectively.

"I have repeated again and again that if anybody found guilty of any wrongdoing or found giving out of turn benefit violating rules will face action. But let us first know what action to take and against whom," Dikshit said.

It may be recollected that Dikshit's name had figured in the CAG report on alleged irregularities in the Commonwealth Games.

And another story on the Kingfisher row: King of sad times: The 'Kolaveri di' against Vijay Mallya. Read

This is the BBC update on the J Dey murder A senior Indian journalist has been charged for her alleged role in the killing of a prominent crime reporter in Mumbai last June. Jigna Vora, deputy bureau chief of the English-language daily Asian Age, is accused of murder and conspiracy in the killing of Jyotirmoy Dey. Ms Vora, who was arrested in November, denies the charges.

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At the heart of the controversy over the National Counter Terrorism Centre is its secret weapon of a dedicated Operations Division, which was first revealed on February 3.

Read the report on MSN news.

Just in: Our Delhi correspondent tells us that the Standing Committee of the Home Ministry today recommended that the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC), a proposed national anti-terror body be kept in abeyance. Senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu allowed all party MPs to speak on the issue.

The PMO stepped in today and said it sought the Ministry of Home Affairs response on the issue of chief ministers objecting to the NCTC.

But there's been no decision or in fact, no clarity, on whether NCTC operations, which was to take off from March 1, will be postponed. The centre is likely to call a meeting of all DGPs and chief secretaries in the issue.

The DGCA today contended that passengers were forking out higher airfare due to last moment buying of tickets, while discounting reports of a 10-25 per
cent across the board hike in fares because of disruption in Kingfisher flights.

"We haven't witnessed any hike in airfare by the airlines in the wake of large number of cancellations Kingfisher flights. When there are sudden cancellations like this, then passengers have to buy tickets on the higher fare baskets
available in the last hour," Director General of Civil Aviation E K Bharat Bhushan said. 

He said the DGCA has been keeping a "close watch" on airfares since December 2010 and there has not been any abrupt rise in the fares to cash in on the situation. There were reports that major airlines have jacked up
fares on many busy routes by 10-25 per cent over the past few days.

UP chief minister Mayawati in a brief interview with CNN IBN.

Mayawati says she and her party stands for everyone and is good for all communities. "People know I'm working for all because I've done more for the people of UP as compared to the SP, BJP or the Congress since Independence. People are supporting me, they come for my rallies," she said. She however stayed mum on both Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav.

Also read on rediff.com: Congress blames Mayawati for FIR against Rahul

Rediff.com's Toral Varia reports on the supplementary chargesheet filed today against journalist Jigna Vora in the murder of senior crime reporter J Dey.

The chargesheet says that Jigna hatched a criminal conspiracy, which started sometime in 2010 in the background of the Fareed Tanasha murder.

Excerpts...

The prosecution's case is that Jigna was aware of the impending murder and that she gave Dey's bike registration number and his residential address.

This is corroborated by electronic evidence, claims the prosecution.

The chargesheet attempts to show that there was an enmity or ill will between Jigna Vora and J Dey, which began because of his proximity to Tanasha. On May 25, Jigna called Rajan to talk about what J Dey had written on the gangster, and in the same month, she wrote an article that falsifed Dey's story

Between April and June there were approximately 36 calls between Jigna and Rajan.

For more of these intriguing details, wait for the complete report on rediff.com.

Rajdeep Sardesai tweets: Bhupen Chaube gets a rare interview with Mayawati on the campaign trail. Will play out at 5 pm onwards on CNN IBN.

Beleaguered Kingfisher Airlines was today set a 24-hour deadline to come up with a "realistic" flight schedule by the DGCA which ruled out any immediate punitive action to avert further difficulties to air travellers even as the carrier scrapped 40 more flights.

"The airlines will have to file a new schedule instead of a truncated one in the next 24 hours," DGCA chief E K Bharat Bhushan told reporters after the regulator quizzed Kingfisher CEO Sanjay Aggarwal and top officials on how they plan to get the crisis-ridden airlines back on track.

If you're planning to bunk work and head to the movies, read this.

Almost 12,000 movie halls across the country will remain shut on February 23 to protest against the proposed service tax. President of Film Federation Of India (FFI) Vinod Lamba said that with the help of Minister of Information and
Broadcasting Ambika Soni a meeting was arranged with Finance Minster Pranab Mukherjee on February 19. But it went futile and thus the cinema halls have decided to remain shut for a day.

Experiment used fruit and seeds from a Siberian squirrel burrow that had been stuck in the permafrost for over 30,000 years!

Read the story on the Guardian.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn has been questioned as a suspect, not a witness as expected, by French police investigating a suspected hotel prostitution ring.

Read the related report on the Telegraph, UK.

Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was taken in for questioning on Tuesday by police investigating an alleged prostitution ring run out of the northern French city of Lille.

Read the reuters report.

Italy today sent a top diplomat to India and said Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi will visit next week amid an escalating row over two Italian soldiers arrested
for killing two Indian fishermen. 

Junior Foreign Minister Staffan De Mistura will "continue on a political level the action so far carried out by a delegation of experts from the Italian foreign, defence and justice ministries," the Foreign Ministry said in a note.

The Foreign Ministry also said that Indian police had taken "coercive" and "unilateral" action when it escorted the two soldiers off the oil tanker where they were deployed as security guards and arrested them on Sunday.

Read: On Firstpost.com: Kerala murders: We must tell the Italians where to get off

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today favoured Centre-state consultations to put at rest any controversy over setting up of National Counter-Terrorism Centre (NCTC). 

"There has been no discussion between state government and the central government on the issue of NCTC. I do not think it would be appropriate as Chief Minister for me to publicly comment about it, before I privately share the feelings of the state government with the Union government on this crucial issue," Omar said today.

He said consultation between the Centre and the states was essential to put at rest the controversy surrounding NCTC. 

No matter how lovingly a fictional character is rendered in print, he or she is still just a figment of the literary imagination, with a face readers can only imagine. But now a new website uses police technology to sketch out faces of characters described in notable novels.

Called The Composites, it shows images of literary characters created by using the author's description of a character with law enforcement composite-sketch software.

Read the report on the bbc.co.uk.

In other world news: A weakened Al Qaeda feels cheated as Taliban engage in peace talks with the US ahead of the 2014 NATO pullout.

Read the report on the Newsweek.

The Mint story on Bengal in the hands of Mamata Banerjee: The madness of queen Mamata. Read in disbelief.

As the Bengalis say, mathay chheet achche.

The opinion piece on the Hindu.

Outside politics, there are other areas of life in which caste consciousness has been dying down. Those who try to keep up with discussions on current affairs in the newspapers and on television may be forgiven if they conclude that caste is India's destiny. If there is one thing the experts in the media who comment on political matters have in common, it is their preoccupation with caste and the part it plays in electoral politics.

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If you're a Tagore fan or a Bengali (and that's generally mutually inclusive), here's something you can pick up.

The Essential Tagore, a collection of work from Rabindranath Tagore published to mark the 150th birthday of the Bengali polymath, was formally released in Kolkata earlier this month.

The result of collaboration between the Visva-Bharati University Publishing Department and Harvard University Press, the book seems to be aiming for the same synthesis of the East and the West that the Nobel laureate stood for.

Read more

Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh in the news for the second time today. (See our 12:23 pm post).

Singh attacked the BJP saying he felt sorry that an "outsider" from Madhya Pradesh had been projected as the party's Chief Ministerial candidate in UP. 

He said, he felt sorry for state BJP leaders like Rajnath Singh, Kalraj Mishra and Surya Pratap Shahi who were not considered fit to be UP CM, instead an "imported" outsider like Uma Bharti had been brought in which was a poor reflection on the state leadership of BJP.

Digvjay said if he was an outsider campaigning in UP like Baba Ramdev says, then so was Uma Bharti and that too as a Chief Ministerial candidate. 

He lambasted SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav for claiming that he would abolish VAT, saying such impractical promises had been made earlier as well, but they do not work.

Cracking the case of videography of semi-naked Jarawa tribal women, police today arrested a constable who had allegedly asked the victims to dance and had shot their video. 

The Andaman and Nicobar Police arrested constable Silvarious Kindo after interrogating him at length following his identification by the victims. 

"The probe reveals that the video was possibly shot in the months of July to November, 2007. The said video, which was broadcast on news channels, has also been sent for forensic examination to ascertain its date of recording and the device used to record the same," a police spokesperson  said. 

Now picture this. An Indian merchant vessel sailing a few nautical miles off the Italian coast fires on an Italian fisherman's boat and kills two of them. 

Here's what could happen.

Read the story on Firstpost.com

On Twitter: Prabhu Chawla: Now Sachin betrays India! More concerned about his 100th ton than scoring to win!  

Sachin Tendulkar looked crisp in his brief innings today at the India vs Sri Lanka ODI in Brishane, but then he succumbed to same old problem, as he couldn't finish what he had started. The 100th hundred will have to wait for another innings as he is once again castled for a score less than 30.

Struggling to stay afloat after cancelling large number of flights, Kingfisher Airlines was today rapped by DGCA for not adhering to its flight schedulesbut the aviation regulator made it clear there were no plans to take any punitive action against it for the moment.

"Let us not talk of punitive action at the moment. We are more interested to see the airline back on its feet. Our priority is not to punish ... because of the immediate difficulties the travelling public will have to face," DGCA chief E K Bharat Bhushan told reporters after an almost two-hour meeting with Kingfisher CEO Sanjay Aggarwal and Executive Vice President Hitesh Patel here. 

Bhushan was asked whether DGCA would consider action against Kingfisher for flouting Aircraft Rules by not taking its prior approval for drastic curtailment of its flights. 

As over 40 flights were cancelled across the country today, the airline informed DGCA that it had 28 functional aircraft, out of 64 planes in November last. The airline's top brass were summoned to explain the large-scale disruptions in the operations and the reasons.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalitha was today issued a notice by the Supreme Court on a CBI appeal challenging the Madras High Court verdict, which had quashed a case, registered against her for allegedly receiving an illegal remittance of US $3 lakh in 1992.

The case of the CBI is that Jayalalitha had received a remittance of three lakh US dollars in 1992 through a demand draft issued by banker's trust company in New York, drawn on ANZ Grindlays bank, St Helier Jersey.

President Barack Obama has spoken to Afghan President Hamid Karzai to discuss efforts to reconcile with elements of the Taliban, including his meeting last week with Pakistani and Iranian leaders.

The White House says Obama and Karzai on Monday discussed regional support for reconciliation in Afghanistan. The conversation came in the wake of a three-day summit in Islamabad with Karzai, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Read the full report on the Dawn, Pakistan

Horror story from Singapore.

A man allegedly raped his neighbour's Indonesian maid twice and then tried to kill her by throwing her out of the window of a second-storey flat. 

The man forced his way into the empty flat, raped the maid, cut her with a pair of scissors and tried to strangle her before throwing her off the flat, the High Court was told yesterday.

The maid, who was 26 at the time of the attack, survived the ordeal despite suffering serious injuries. The incident took place in September 2009.

The man faces five charges - two of aggravated rape and one each of attempted murder, causing hurt with a dangerous weapon, and trespassing.

President Pratibha Patil's son and Congress MLA Raosaheb Shekhawat was today questioned by the Amravati Police in connection with the seizure of Rs
one crore unaccounted cash here ahead of the civic polls. 

Amravati Police Commissioner Amitesh Kumar told reporters, "We have questioned the source and destination of the funds seized, to which Shekhawat has reiterated that it was party fund." He said that investigations are in a critical stage and "we are probing all angles."

This is the story that has been playing all morning across TV channels. A must-read that exemplifies the state of our public schools.

A six-year-old boy, who was locked in a bathroom for several hours allegedly by his school teacher as a punishment for not completing his homework, has
died after remaining ill for over 55 days. 

Pankaj, a kindergarten student of Rajkul Senior School Kamela in Gharonda sub-division, was locked in a bathroom for several hours on December 27 last year by his teacher after he failed to complete his home work. 

The boy remained in a state of shock due to alleged inhuman and insensitive attitude of the teacher before falling sick. He finally died on February 19.
Parents of the boy Jaiver Singh and Reena have held the school authorities responsible for the death of their child claiming that after locking Pankaj in the bathroom, the teacher forgot to open the door.

It was only after the school was over that his elder brother Sagar told the bus driver that his brother had not arrived. After being treated at various places, Pankaj attended school for a day before plunging into shock again. 

 However, school manager Bablu Rana said that the child had been suffering for some disease and ultimately succumbed to it, a fact denied by the parents of the victim. 

Yahoo India tells the Delhi court hearing its case that generalised social evils alleged against some of the prominent social networking websites cannot be fastened on to it.  Yahoo says that the suit against it is motivated and a complete abuse of the process of law.

Yahoo India which has moved the Delhi High Court against a lower court order summoning it for allegedly hosting objectionable content. Refusing to stay the criminal proceedings against the website, Justice Suresh Kait had declined to pass any order "at this stage" and fixed the matter for March 1, saying he would hear the case before the trial court hears it on March 13.

Appearing for Yahoo India Pvt Ltd, senior advocate Arvind Nigam claimed that the company's name did not figure in the complaint and submitted that the high court should stay the proceedings.

Exchange for tweets between Yuvraj Singh and Big B:

Amitabh Bachchan @SrBachchan  T 661 - Looks like a few more days then before they set me free .. but recovery at home will be another few months ..  

Yuvraj Singh: @SrBachchan and one of the biggest examples is you mr bachchan ! Thank you very much I'm better each day  

Yuvraj Singh tweets: "Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls. The most massive characters are seamed with scars..."

Amitabh Bachchan: @yuvsingh09 could not agree with you more ... hope you are doing well Yuvraj .. prayers for your speedy recovery.

The Supreme Court today questioned the Gujarat government for initiating a probe against social activist Teesta Setalvad for her alleged role in a case of
illegal exhumation of the bodies of the 2002 riot victims, saying it is a "spurious" case to victimise her. 

"This is a hundred percent spurious case to victimise the petitioner (Setalvad)," said a bench of justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana Prakash Desai. While criticising the state government for beginning the probe against Setalvad, it added, "this type of case does no credit to the state of Gujarat in any way." 

"This case is hundred percent spurious. In other cases against petitioner, there may be something," the bench said. Besides this case, the Gujarat government has also lodged criminal proceedings against her in other riot-related cases.

Here's the outcome of that meeting between the DGCA and the Kingfisher Airlines top brass.

The cash-strapped Kingfisher Airlines hopes to restore flights schedules in next five to seven days. The DGCA asks Kingfisher to provide by tomorrow flight schedules it can operate. "We have had a good meeting. Information sought by DGCA to be provided by tomorrow," Kingfisher CEO Sanjay Aggarwal after two-hour meeting with DGCA chief E K Bharat Bhushan.

Jigna Vora was charged under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) and the Indian Penal Code (IPC) read along with the Arms Act.

J Dey, a senior crime journalist with MiD Day, was shot dead in Mumbai on June 11, 2011 by four bike-borne assailants. Mumbai Crime Branch had filed a chargesheet against 10 other accused on December 3, 2011.

The chargesheet filed in the special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court runs into 3,055 pages and has described in detail the role of 10 men involved in Dey's murder. Fugutive don Chhota Rajan has also been named in the chargesheet. However, police mention that Rajan and another accused, Nayan Singh, are still untraced and ion the run.

One day, Zach turned to me and said: Mummy, I'm a girl. Read

A combative Congress today asserted that it will move the High Court seeking quashing of the FIR lodged against Rahul Gandhi for alleged violation of poll
code, saying the action was taken at the behest of Chief Minister Mayawati.
"Because of the successful election campaign of the Congress, this action has been taken on the direction of Mayawatiji," Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh said today.

"We will go to the High Court to get the FIR quashed. I also want to clarify that we haven't received any notice regarding violation of Model Code of Conduct," he said. 

The FIR was lodged against Rahul by the district authorities which said his road show here had breached the time limit and the route map set by them.

"The district administration had allocated time till noon and fixed a 20-km route for Rahul Gandhi's road show but he violated it and stretched it beyond permitted time. He also did not stick to the prescribed route for the event," the
DM said. 

"There has been no violation of the model code of conduct," Singh said adding, "we have neither received any notice nor has anybody registered any opposition to it. Only the district administration has registered an FIR against
Rahul for violation of Sec.144 CrPC."

On the Business Standard: The difference between extinction and success.

Read

Right now, senior Congress leader and telecom minister Kapil Sibal lashes out at the Mayawati government for filing a plea to withdraw cases against tainted MLAs who have murder and rape cases against them.

Sibal says the UP government is shielding criminals under Mayawati.

Rediff.com's Toral Varia reports that the Mumbai Crime branch officers have reached the MCOCA court to file a supplementary chargesheet in the J Dey murder case. This supplementary chargesheet will detail the role allegedly played by journalist Jigna Vora in the murder of Mid Day journalist J Dey. 

Vora has been accused of criminal conspiracy in the case and was arrested on November 25, 2011. The police believe the murder may be related to Dey's reporting on the oil mafia.

From rediff.com's blogs on the polls.

Both the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party have taken a conscious decision to stay away from stars from another sky, but nothing is stopping the Congress and its allies from going the whole hog.

The Congress has brought actresses Amisha Patel, Nagma, Celina Jaitly and Mahima Chaudhry to dazzle the campaign. Its ally, the Rashtriya Lok Dal, has in its filmi arsenal, Vivek Oberoi.

Oberoi made more news for his tiff with local journalists while traveling with Union minister Ajit Singh's son RLD MP Jayant Chaudhary in Mathura than for his crowd pulling abilities.

The BJP is relying on the in-house talent of Hema Malini, Shatrughan Sinha and Smriti Irani. What Box Office results these stars will pull out in UP, no prizes for guessing this one!

Read more from the gossip at the Dilli durbar.

The Italian navy guards of Enrica Lexiemoved the Kerala High Court today and filed a plea to quash the FIR against the two accused in the fishermen killing case, reports CNN IBN. A senior Supreme Court lawyer is likely to represent them.

Read more

Evan Shapiro, the president of IFC, which will broadcast the Independent Spirit Awards on Saturday with Seth Rogen as host, offers suggestions to make the Oscars less excruciating: alcohol, time limits, a banter ban, and more.

Read the story on the Daily Beast.

Congress leader Rita Bahuguna Joshi has accused the Bahujan Samaj Party of attacking Rahul Gandhi to neutralise his growing popularity. "The Uttar Pradesh government has been targeting Rahul Gandhi and creating problems whenever he visits the state.

The state government led by Mayawati is petrified by the growing popularity of Rahulji and envies his association with the common man in the state," Joshi told media after an FIR filed against Gandhi for violating the Model Code of Conduct during a road show in Kanpur.

Shobhaa De on Twitter: Is Mamata so insecure? Sounds paranoid. Sees conspiracy everywhere.Well done Detective Chief Damayanti Sen:Hero of rape victim.Boo 2 u Didi  

West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, before the arrest of three people in the rape case on Saturday, had said that the whole thing was fabricated.

Megastar Amitabh Bachchan has been recuperating at a hospital here post his abdominal surgery since over a week and now as he shows signs of improvement, doctors also seem to be satisfied with the health progress.
Bachchan, who has a history of abdominal ailments, was  operated on February 11 at the Seven Hills hospital.

"The meetings of the morning with the team of doctors.. the most trying for the patient. As you await results of their assessment, you wonder what new discovery they may have found that would immerse you in further treatment.

"But happy to note that they seemed satisfied with the progress and after a few closed door discussions, came back with a few points that would bring relief to any sufferer," Bachchan wrote on his blog, last night.

One person has been detained by the National Investigation Agency in
connection with the Delhi High Court bombing last year. The person identified as Mohammed Ayub had figured during the interrogation of Wasim Akram, a medical student who is being touted as the main accused in the case by the
probe agency, official sources said.  

Ayub is alleged to have purchased a SIM card for a known Hizbul Mujahideen commander - Jehangir -- one of the  terrorists whom the NIA was looking for in connection with the conspiracy. It is not clear whether Ayub would be placed under arrest and brought to the national capital or would be questioned in Kishtwar itself and handed over to local police, the sources said.

Just in: The Supreme Court today has sought the CBI's response on the Talwar's plea seeking the transfer of the Aarushi murder trial from Ghaziabad to a Delhi court.

Aarushi Talwar, a 14-year-old Class IX student of Delhi Public School in Noida and the daughter of a successful dentist couple, was found dead with her throat slit in her parents' home in May 16, 2008. Her parents have been charged with the murder and that of a man servant, Hemraj.

In another part of the world, Yemeni voters head for the polls today, ending President Ali Abdullah Saleh's 33-year rule and thus making Yemen the first Arab state where a revolt has ledto a negotiated settlement.

The referendum-like poll, in which Saleh's deputy Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi is standing as the sole consensus candidate, is being boycotted by two major opposition groups; the separatist Southern Movement and the northern Shiiterebels.

Good morning. Civil Aviation minister Ajit Singh has stuck to his guns saying there will be no bailout for Kingfisher Airlines and that it is "upto the airlines to save itself."

At least 30 flights of Kingfisher Airlines were cancelled this morning as the top brass of the cash-strapped carrier began its meeting with aviation regulator DGCA, which had asked it to explain the reasons for large-scale disruptions
in schedules.

While 15 flights were cancelled from Mumbai, eight were cancelled from Kolkata and four from Delhi leaving many passengers stranded.

The major air route of Mumbai-Delhi was the worst-hit with maximum cancellations and clubbing of flights. Kingfisher CEO Sanjay Aggarwal and other officials are set to met DGCA chief E K Bharat Bhushan today and give a
revival plan of their disrupted flight schedule. The carrier faced fresh problems yesterday with 34 pilots quitting and a large number of staff being put on notice.

The resignation of the pilots have taken the total number of those who have quit to about 80 since last October.

Govt moves to take conduct code out of EC purview (Indian Express) 
GoM on corruption to consider statutory backing; courts, not EC, will then decide on violations. Read

Kingfisher Airlines CEO to appear before DGCA (The Times of India)
The cancellations that continued for third consecutive day on Monday have affected incoming or outbound flights in major metros like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore. Read

Centre rules out bailout, Kingfisher blames it on Income Tax authorities (The Hindu)
Sudden attachment of bank accounts caused the crisis, says the airlines. Read

FIR filed against Rahul for flouting roadshow rules (The Times of India)

Congress star campaigner Rahul Gandhi was slapped with a case on Monday for flouting restrictions on his six-hour road show in the city on Sunday. Read

Eurozone approves bailout for Greece (The Hindu)

After more than 12 hours of negotiations, Eurozone Finance Ministers have reached an agreement on a second bailout for Greece worth 130 billion euros (172 billion dollars), diplomats in Brussels said early Tuesday. Read

Strauss-Kahn to be quizzed on prostitution ring (Indian Express)
Police probing organisation of sex parties in restaurants and swingers' clubs in 5 countries. Read

Govt moves to take conduct code out of EC purview (Indian Express)
GoM on corruption to consider statutory backing; courts, not EC, will then decide on violations. Read