Ten people, including two children, were killed and over 20 others injured when a bomb went off at a market in the restive Bajaur tribal region of northwest Pakistan today, officials said. 

The country's new President Pranab Mukherjee will now be on social networking site Facebook. The move to take the plunge into cyberspace came a day after Mukherjee was sworn-in as the 13th President of the country.

'Psycho' Stapleton, a Briton who shot dead Indian student Anuj Bidve in an unprovoked attack last year was today held guilty of murder after a trial in the Manchester Crown Court. Kiaran Stapleton, 21, who once called himself 'Psycho' Stapleton in a court hearing, had earlier admitted manslaughter but not murder, on grounds of diminished responsibility, but his plea was not accepted by prosecutors and the case went to trial from June 25. 

Union Agriculture Minister and NCP chief Sharad Pawar today called on Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray at the Lilavati Hospital here. Pawar who arrived from Delhi this evening drove straight to the hospital and enquired about the 86-year-old Shiv Sena leader. 

The LeT operative Sayed Ansari alias Abu Jundal has revealed that he had used four email addresses and 10 international SIM cards while he was hiding in Saudi Arabia, where he was also given a task of recruiting young men into the terror outfit, police said. 

Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray, who was admitted to Lilavati Hospital in suburban Bandra two days ago, was 'fine', the doctor treating him said here.

Any time double money! A faulty ATM in the United Kingdom started dispensing double the amount requested as people squabbled with each other to avail the sudden windfall.

Amarjyoti Kalita, prime accused in the molestation of a girl on July 9 outside a pub in Guwahati, was remanded to five days police custody today.

Kalita, who was arrested on July 23 in Varanasi and brought here yesterday on a transit remand, was today produced amidst tight security before the Kamrup Chief Judicial Magistrate S K Moitra. Moitra after hearing the petition of both Kalita's lawyer B D Konwar and Public Prosecutor Minoti Saikia, remanded the accused to five days police custody.

Kalita will be produced next before the CJM on July 30. Meanwhile, police today arrested another accused in connection with the molestation of the girl on GS Road taking the total number of those held in the case to 15.

With the situation remaining grave in strife-torn Kokrajhar district in Assam, around 2,000 people from the state have migrated to neighbouring Jalpaiguri district in West Bengal. Jalpaiguri SP Sugato Sen said the refugees have migrated to Alipurduar, Alipurduar junction, Kumargram and Barovisha on the West Bengal-Assam border.

Most of them have them are staying with their relatives, while a few have taken shelter in schools at Barovisha and Kumargram areas. Sen said about 500 to 700 refugees are staying at the relief camp set up by Railways at Alipurduar junction.

Poor show at Team Anna's fast at Jantar Mantar...

@thekiranbedi In support of Arvind, Manish and Gopal on indefinite fast, there are 410 others fasting around the country, which includes 32 women. Thank u

Unlike the August 2011 fast, where the number of people fasting across the country were in their thousands, on the second day of the fast in Delhi, the numbers can be counted with ease.

The mass violence at Maruti Suzuki's Manesar plant in Haryana July 18, 2012 was shocking. What started as a petty tiff over tea time between a supervisor and a worker Jiya Lal, during which supervisor also allegedly used caste based slur, snowballed into one of the goriest incidents of recent times.

When Jiya Lal was suspended and the management refused to revoke his suspension the same day the workers staged a sit-in after the shift was over. During the sit-in, iron rods which actually fit into the car door, were distributed to workers secretly.

Read the full story on rediff.com

The wife of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai and a family aide have been charged with the murder of a British businessman, the government said Thursday, pushing ahead a case at the center of a messy political scandal that exposed divisions in China's leadership. Read more


On Rediff.com: The Bo Xilai I Met

Excerpt from Gujarat CM Narendra Modi's interview with Shahid Siddiqui, editor of the Urdu-language weekly newspaper Nai Duniya...

Q Senior Congress leaders including Rajiv Gandhi apologized after 1984 [communal riots]. And [Jagdish] Tytler was made to quit politics. You haven't regretted your actions or apologized until now. It has been 10 years. You should have done it as a head of state.

A.You should see the statements I made at that point. From that you will understand what Modi thinks and believes. There was a 2005 interview of mine with Prabhu Chawla. He asked me the same question and I told him, why should I apologize? If a government is responsible for this, then it should be hanged in the middle of the road.

And they should be hanged as a deterrent -- so that no administrator dares to do this again. They should not be forgiven, because that is encouraging the crime. If Modi has sinned, then Modi should be hanged. But, even after trying sincerely to save many lives, some people want to badmouth me due to political reasons, then I cant answer them.

Full interview in a bit.

Thirteen months since the murder of Mid Day journalist J Dey, the Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Council, Vinod Tawade today demanded a CBI probe in the case.

"If the government is sincere enough and wants the truth to be revealed, they should hand over the J Dey murder case probe to CBI," Tawade said.

"What was the motive behind killing J Dey? Who all were involved in the murder, will be revealed if the probe is handed over to the premier investigation agency," he said.

Tawade also alleged that the state government is aware of the betting and match-fixing done during IPL matches, but is "turning a blind-eye" from taking any action.

"After the state government felt intense pressure post J Dey murder, they framed Jigna Vora in the case," he alleged. The BJP leader had yesterday alleged that Dey, who was associated with a daily tabloid, was killed as he was about to expose the match-fixing in the Indian Premier League.

Update on the Laila Khan murder case.

The Bombay High Court today said it cannot transfer investigations into each and every case to the CBI unless there is any formidable ground which shows inefficiency on the part of the police.

A division bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and A R Joshi was hearing a petition filed by Nadir Shah Patel, Bollywood starlet Laila Khan's biological father, seeking CBI probe into the murder of Laila, her mother and four siblings. The city police's crime branch is presently investigating the probe.

Laila, her mother and four siblings were missing since February last year. Their decomposed bodies were recovered early this month from their bungalow in Igatpuri. According to crime branch, they were allegedly murdered by Laila's step father Parvez Tak.

In his petition while seeking CBI probe, Patel has said the police has delayed by over a year in investigating the matter despite a missing complaint filed by him in February last year.

"Just because she is supposed to be a celebrity, the CBI cannot be asked to probe the matter. Give us some formidable ground to show inefficiency on the part of the police. You cannot just come and say give the case to CBI," Justice Khanwilkar said.

Huge embarrassment for the organisers of the London Olympics. Organisers yesterday refused to name the person responsible but said they had offered to resign over the gaffe.

The North Korea's women's team walked off the pitch for an hour when they were mistakenly introduced at Hampden Park using the flag of South Korea - their bitter enemies. Read more

Wife of scandal-hit Chinese politician Bo Xilai will be prosecuted for murder, state news agency Xinhua says. Details awaited.  

Congress General Secretary and Assam In-charge Digivijaya Singh in an interview to CNN-IBNs Editor-in-Chief Rajdeep Sardesai talks about the ethnic clash in Assam and the measures taken by the state government to bring the situation under control in the affected districts of Kokrajhar, Dhubari and Chirang. Excerpts...

On the parallel being drawn between Gujarat & Assam

"The communal violence in Gujarat was state sponsored, here it is certainly not state sponsored. Here the state govt is trying its utmost to bring peace to the area.

"You just can't compare Gujarat riots with Assam. (Narendra) Modi sponsored the communal violence & Tarun Gogoi & the whole administration has tried his best to bring about peace by controlling immediately. There can't be any comparison between the two.

"Is there an incident where collector, SP or DGP are helping the people who are doing communal violence. In Gujarat there was a specific instance of the whole administration allowing the VHP & RSS to go berserk against the Muslims. This was not so in the case of Assam."

In Delhi, Team Anna is on an indefinite fast. But the big question now is whether the anti-corruption movement has lost its steam. Unlike in the past, crowds that had thronged the protest venue were missing now.

The organisers issued appeals to "mothers, wives and daughters" to flock to the protest site at Jantar Mantar tomorrow.The crowd count in the afternoon was less than 1,000, a marginal improvement from morning's 600, in a contrast to its earlier protests when Jantar Mantar, the dharna hotspot, was jampacked.

The response to the fast on the first day yesterday was also modest with 2,500-3,000 people attending it.Anna Hazare and his aides took the dais at 11 am only though a Team Anna spokesperson said they had reached the spot an hour before. They were greeted with lukewarm chants of 'Bharat Mata ki Jai, Vande Mataram and Inquilab Zindabad'.


That's the picture Kiran Bedi tweeted, saying, "Another view from Jantar Mantar on their feet. Women almost missing! Is this not everyone's cause"

Sassy, self-deprecating and sharp as a knife, actress/writer/performer Meera Syal is perfectly cast as Beatrice in a new show, Much Ado About Nothing. Read the Telegraph report. 

A Balinese teenager caught in the act of intercourse with a cow passed out on Friday when he was forced to marry the animal in a ceremony witnessed by hundreds of curious onlookers.

It's not just Oprah who has taken India to America. We have another brand ambassador. A home-grown one this time around '" in the curvaceous form of Sherlyn Chopra.Sherlyn who, you ask?

For those of you who have not been googling her incessantly over the last few days, Sherlyn aka Mona Chopra is a Bollywood starlet who's acted in some random films including the eminently forgettable Dil Bole Hadippawith Rani Mukherjee. Now that's not what she's famous for. What she's famous for, and being pilloried for, is that she's going to be Playboy's first Indian cover-girl ever.

On Rediff.com: Sherlyn Chopra: I'm most comfortable when I'm nude

The 32.7 mile relay of the Olympic flame has legendary personalities from all over the world and all walks of life, including Lawrence Dallaglio, Lewis Moody, Jim Anderson, Phil Packer, Darren Fitzpatrick and Tom Davis.

Incidentally, the Olympic torch weighs around 1.5 kilos.

Dressed in white tracks the actor is part of the relay team carrying  the torch, a day before the Games are set to begin. Bachchan carried the torch for 300 m before handing it over to the next runner. 

Yesterday, Bachchan, 69, tweeted that he would be carrying the torch in London at 10.30 am: OK !! HERE IT IS : Have been invited by London Olympic Organizing Committee to carry the torch in the relay tomorrow ...,'

"Honored to be asked to carry the Olympic Torch in London at Southwark around 10:30 AM !! A proud moment for me and country.

Bachchan is the only Indian given the honour of carrying the Olympic flame.

Amitabh Bachchan carries the Olympic torch in the Southwark district of London. Earlier, Bachchan said it was a proud moment for him and India.

The bail plea of French national Pascal Mazurier has rejected by a court in Bangalore. Mazurier, deputy Head of Chancery in the Consulate of France, was arrested on 19 June on a complaint by his wife Suja Jones Mazurier, a native of Kerala, alleging that he had raped their four-year-old daughter.

The issue led to a public outrage before the diplomat was arrested.A magisterial court on 3 July had extended by 14 days the judicial custody of Pascal. His bail petition has been adjourned to 9 July by a fast track court after police filed objections to the plea.

The Navnirman Sena has also distributed visuals of the act. The white marble statue installed in the Bhimrao Ambedkar Samajik Parivartan Sthal was damaged this afternoon. A big hammer was apparently used to vandalise the face and head of the statue. Heavy police force has been deployed at the spot.

In Lucknow, there are nine statues of Mayawati and 156 statues of elephants, while in Noida there are two statues of Mayawati and 52 elephants.

Former UP chief minister Mayawati's statue has been beheaded in Lucknow. The attack was allegedly carried out by activists from Navnirman Sena. UP CM Akhilesh Yadav has condemned the act and orders the statue to be reconstructed.

Assam CM Tarun Gogoi, who visited Kokrajhar to review the situation in the riot-affected areas said the state was NOT burning and that the situation would be brought under control in two to three days.

This statement comes even as the Army mobilised around 1,000 personnel for deployment in four violence hit districts of Assam and has begun conducting flag marches to ensure safety and security of people there. The toll so far is 41 with an estimated 2 lakh people from four districts homesless, following ethnic violence during last few days.

Over 120 relief camps have been established by the state government in several areas for around 70,000 people who have left their villages in search of a safe place.

Just in: Ten Congress MPs write to Sonia Gandhi suggesting Rahul Gandhi's appointment as Leader of Lok Sabha; say it is the 'need of the hour'.

The chorus for Rahul playing a greater role in Congress party has grown louder after Digvijaya Singh demanded that he be given "decisive" responsibility and a senior leader making a strong pitch for projecting him as PM candidate in the next polls.

This was followed by Rahul's statement to a TV channel saying he was ready for a bigger role in government and politics, but the go-ahead should be given by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and PM Manmohan Singh.

Pranab Mukherjee was Leader of the House in the Lok Sabha, a post now vacant, after he became India's 13th President yesterday.

Activist Ai Weiwei withdrew from the Beijing 2008 Olympics opening ceremony and was declared a threat to the police state. Here he explains why he hopes the London Games will be different. Read

Is Pranab Mukherjee, the activist president that we have been waiting for? A president who will speak his mind, be the conscience-keeper of the majority of the country and the devil's advocate that we will need every now and then.

Read

Scattered violence continued for the sixth day today in riot-torn lower Assam districts where one person was killed in police firing while four persons were injured in an attack by a group of persons in Baksa district.

Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi arrived in Kokrajhar to review the situation in the riot-affected areas where tension prevailed. Kokrajhar district executive magistrate Bipul Saikia was injured in an attack by unidentified assailants and his vehicle damaged while he was on his way to visit a relief camp in Bhotgaon Kanchipara area of the district.

In Dhubri district, one person was killed last night when the police fired to quell a mob, taking the death toll to 41, IGP (Law and Order) L R Bishnoi said.

An Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on drought will meet on Tuesday to review the monsoon situation, as 22 per cent deficit rains so far have affected sowing of Kharif crops, particularly coarse cereals.

"I have planned EGoM on drought on coming Tuesday," Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, who was recently made head of EGoM on drought, said.

The EGoM is authorised to review the situation and take "quick and timely decisions" on policy and other matters for effective management of drought. Pawar, who joined office today after issues related to a week-long stand-off between the Congress and his party NCP were sorted out, said the ministry is collecting details from States on the impact of poor rains.

The background of the unrest in Assam: Ever since the clashes between Bodos and migrant Muslim groups in 2008, Kokrajhar, the seat of administration of the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC), has held an uneasy peace. Read

Leander Paes has done it all for Indian tennis in a career spanning more than two decades. He won an Olympic medal, won countless Grand Slam trophies and guided the national team to some unbelievable wins at the Davis Cup level. But he was literally left to fend for himself and was caught in the middle of a selection fiasco that nearly saw the veteran pull out of the Olympic Games.

Read

Rediff.com's Harish Kotian is in London to give us all the buzz on the Olympics as it happens. Stay with us.

Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh will visit ethnic violence-hit Assam''s Kokrajhar District on Saturday to take stock of the volatile situation.

Meanwhile, the situation in Kokrajhar, Chirang and Dhubri district has improved to some extent and  there have been no reports of violence  today. Curfew has been relaxed in Kokrajhar district till 12 noon, while in Chirang district it has been relaxed from 12 noon to 5 pm.

Assam Chief Minister visited Kokrajhar and took stock of the situation. He met senior government officials and the inmates of the relief camps. A 16 member delegation of state Legislative Assembly also visited Chirang district today.  On Wednesday, Union Home Secretary R.K. Singh said the situation in Assam is "under control," and the miscreants "would not be spared."

Anna Hazare, who is taking part in an anti-corruption protest at Delhi's Jantar Mantar, has wished Pranab Mukherjee on becoming India's 13th President.

"He has become the first citizen of India, I congratulate him," Hazare said. "He is an important man of the nation. I wish him luck," he added.

Team Anna on Wednesday began its indefinite hunger strike here, demanding an independent probe into the corruption allegations against 15 ministers, including President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh.

UP's power couple - Dimple and Akhilesh Yadav - might have steered clear of political controversies during their visit to the Capital on Tuesday but they more than made up for it by showcasing their sparkling chemistry.

Their performance was quite unlike that of straight-jacketed political couples as they teased each other, answered each other's questions and even discussed the challenges of bringing up children.

The Yadavs were chief guests at a function organised by Young FICCI Ladies Organisation at the Lalit Hotel in Delhi on Tuesday.

Read

Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi arrives in Kokrajhar even as one more person was killed in police firing during clashes between minority immigrants and Bodos in lower Assam's Dhubri district even as fresh violence in Baksa district left four persons seriously injured on Thursday.

Indefinite curfew and shoot-at-sight orders continued in worst-affected Kokrajhar district where 25 persons have lost their lives while night curfew is on in Chirang, which accounted for 15 deaths, and Dhubri where one person was killed.

In the latest trickle of information from notoriously opaque North Korea, the country's supreme leader, Kim Jong Un, was confirmed by state media to be married -- and to a woman named Ri Sol Ju.

Read the report on cnn.com.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has congratulated Pranab Mukherjee on becoming India's 13th President, calling him a strong partner of the American people.

"I want to congratulate President Mukherjee on his swearing-in as the 13th President of India. President Mukherjee has been a strong partner to America and the American people, working throughout his career to deepen our cooperation on a wide range of issues," Clinton said in a statement yesterday. Mukherjee was sworn in as President yesterday, succeeding Pratibha Patil.

NRI industrialist Lord Swraj Paul's portrait will be featured to represent India at a major public art project showcasing Britain's cultural diversity coinciding with the 2012 London Olympics.

Under the project, The World in London, the Photographers' Gallery commissioned 204 photographic portraits of Londoners, each originating from one of the nations competing at the London Olympics and Paralympic games from tomorrow.

Lord Paul, Chancellor of two British Universities - Wolverhampton and Westminster - was chosen to represent India and his portrait was taken by Mary McCartney, daughter of Sir Paul McCartney, a famous photographer in her own right.

Pratibha Devisingh Patil has given her farewell gift to the nation -- her last speech as Rashtrapati. On the assumption that the nation was largely busy with other things (Sherlyn Chopra's press conference about her Playboy debut, for example) Firstpost.com bring you a handy guide to Patil's swan song. Read

Maruti Suzuki India yesterday said that it has run out of stock of its two best selling models - Swift and DZire - which are produced at the Manesar plant, where it has declared lockout following violence last week Read more

Also read: Economics Journal: Roadside barbers Vs. Maruti workers

Alan Cumming, a Scottish actor, recently starred in an adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth in New York in which he played all the major parts. With reports that Manmohan Singh is now doing the job of the agriculture minister in addition to being the finance minister and Prime Minister, we wondered, tongue firmly in cheek, if he is heading in the same direction.

The Scene: The Cabinet meeting room, Prime Minister's Office, South Block, New Delhi; 11 am

Read

Just in: Senior UP Cabinet minister Azam Khan says he has NOT offered to resign form the Uttar Pradesh Cabinet berth. Reports had said that he had offered to quit  after he was removed as the minister in-charge of Meerut district. He says the reports were false and he had no wish to weaken the party.

James Holmes, who has been accused of killing at least 12 people during the screening of latest Batman film 'The Dark Knight Rises,' at a movie theater in Colorado, the US, wanted to know how the film ended. 

"Did you see the movie? How does it end?' the Batman obsessed killer asked the bizarre question to a jail worker on Tuesday.  

Holmes repeated the question when the worker ignored him, according to another jail employee who witnessed the incident.  

"Holmes was trying to look like he was sincerely curious,' the New York Daily News quoted the witness, as saying.   "Like he had no idea why there was anything wrong with what he was saying. It was sick ... I think he's trying real hard to act crazy,' the witness added.  

The jail worker was stunned by Holmes' callous question about the movie now synonymous with his homicidal rampage. "If he said that to me, it would have been real hard to resist smacking him,' the worker said.

On Day 2 of the Team Anna fast against the UPA government on the issue of corruption -- there were few people at the venue. The response to the fast on the first day yesterday was also modest with police estimating that 2,500-3,000 people attended during peak hours.

The Team's earlier protests had attracted several hundred people. This morning around 600 protesters attended, according to police but organisers expressed hope that the numbers will rise.

Arvind Kejriwal, one of the three Team Anna members who is fasting, left for Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh to attend a court hearing on his remarks against MPs calling them "criminals and rapists".

He will join the protesters later in the day. Before leaving for the court, Kejriwal said if such people will sit in Parliament then there is no future for the country. "I don't think I have done anything wrong. And if speaking truth is against the country, then I am ready to face the consequences," he said.

Noted Indian poet and writer Jeet Thayil is among 12 authors long-listed for the 2012 Man Booker Prize for Fiction worth 50,000 pounds and an assured spurt in the sales of the prize-winning book. Kerala-born Thayil, 53, is the only Indian writer in this year's long-list that includes known writers such as Will Self and Hilary Mantel. Thayil's book selected for the long-list is titled Narcopolis.

Read

"Hang me if I am guilty (Main gunehgaar hoon toh mujhe phaansi par latkaa do)." This is what chief minister Narendra Modihas said in his first ever interview to a leading Urdu weekly.

The cover-page interview was conducted by Shahid Siddiqui, a former Rajya Sabha MP from odd quarters - the Samajwadi Party. It runs into six pages and covers post-Godhra riots, the state of Muslims in Gujarat and other sensitive issues.

Read the report here.

A five-day old newborn died in Jalandhar's Civil Hospital when the doctors removed her from the incubator because her parents could not pay Rs 200 in advance that the hospital asked for, media reports said today. Reports said that the baby was born on July 20 and had to be kept in an incubator.

Read

The Army continued to stage flag march in the violence affected areas of lower Assam on Wednesday following a clash between Bodos and Muslims which has claimed 40 lives.An indefinite curfew has also been imposed in two districts of Assam's north-west.

On the sixth day of the ethnic violence, the number of people packed into relief camps reached 180,000 even as train services resumed in the disturbed areas. Early on Wednesday, rioters fired on a group of people, killing three. Apart from this, three bodies were found in Chirang district and two in Kokrajhar.

Read

Senior UP Cabinet minister Azam Khan offered to resign form the Uttar Pradesh Cabinet berth after he was removed as the minister in-charge of Meerut district.

Irked over taking away of the charge of Meerut district, the SP leader relinquished the charge of Ghaziabad and Muzaffarnagar districts, and told Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav that he was free to remove him from the Cabinet if he thought he (Khan) was incapable.

Read more

The Anna Hazare show is back in town. But this time, with not much of a bang. After the breathless, second-by-second coverage of every word or move the anticorruption activist and his aides made last August, this time around the response has so far been lukewarm.

Hazare and his supporters on Wednesday gathered in New Delhi's Jantar Mantar, a popular protest venue, in a bid to push the Congress party-led government to enact the bill to set up the Lokpal, an anti-corruption ombudsman, during the parliament session that starts Aug. 8. Read

 Australia has issued a travel advisory asking its citizens to reconsider their travel plans to India's northeastern states of Assam, Manipur, Nagaland and Tripura.  

Issuing a new advisory yesterday, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said, "We advise you to reconsider your need to travel to the northeastern states of Assam, Nagaland, Tripura and Manipur because of the risk of armed robbery, kidnapping, extortion and terrorism-related incidents. If you do decide to travel to these areas, you should exercise extreme caution."

An Indian Forest Service officer has been arrested in the United States for allegedly assaulting a hotel maid sexually, reports NDTV.

Surender Mahapatra was arrested in Pennsylvania yesterday. He was part of a batch of 34 officers who had gone to the US for a training workshop at Syracuse University in New York.

More details awaited

Germany's highest court has declared that the country's reformed electoral law introduced by Chancellor Angela Merkel was unconstitutional and ordered for it to be overhauled before the next general election next year.

The Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe yesterday ruled that the reformed parliamentary electoral law was unconstitutional as it "violated the basic principles of equality and constitutionally-guaranteed equal chances for all parties".

The court ordered the government to put in place a new electoral law before the next parliamentary election in in 2013. The ruling, which follows a judgement in 2008 when the court said the system could give an advantage to bigger parties, makes clear last year's changes left a system that was still at odds with the Constitution.

The court delivered its verdict on petitions filed by the parliamentary groups of the opposition Social Democratic Party and the Green party as well as by over 3,000 citizens, who complained that their basic rights were violated and they were unfairly disadvantaged by the law.

Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi is expected to visit relief camps in Kokrajhar today. The state continues to remain tense after five days of ethnic violence.

The army continues with flag march in affected areas.    

There have been fresh clashes and cases of arson in Assam and six more people died in the ethnic violence taking the toll of those killed due to the strife to 41. Shoot-at-sight orders are in place in four districts. The exodus of people from villages affected by the clashes continues; they are taking shelter at about 120 relief camps set up by the government, reports NDTV.  

Entire villages have emptied out after houses were burnt down. Nearly 2 lakh people have had to flee their homes. Over 10,000 people have reportedly escaped into neighbouring West Bengal.    

Jeet Thayil on 2012 Man Booker long-list

Congress-NCP stand-off ends

Army mobilises 1,000 troopers for violence hit Assam

Petrol, diesel prices rise in 7 states, drop in 11

I have never understood what amnesty means: Kapil Dev

Never planned to attend Games opening: Kalmadi