A complaint was today filed against BJP MP and eminent lawyer Ram Jethmalani for his remark in which he had dubbed Lord Rama as a "bad husband".         

 

RTI activist Sandeep Shukla, in his plea before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, alleged that Jethmalani's statement has hurt the sentiments of the followers of Hindu faith.        

 

The court has posted the matter for November 24. Speaking at a book launch function in Delhi, Jethmalani said "Ram was a bad husband. I don't like him at all. Just because some fisherman said something, he sent that poor woman (Sita) to exile."

Even as the Supreme Court today refused to order a CBI probe into death of two children at Asaram Bapu's ashram here, a commission probing the 2008 case ordered the religious guru and his son to appear before it.

PTI: India today said it would try to ensure that maximum number of Pakistani fans travel across the border to watch matches when the two cHigh Commissioner to Pakistan, today met PCB officials at the Board's headquarters in Lahore and said they were considering granting a special category of visa to Pakistani fans but did not promise anything.     

 

abharwal said the PCB chief had written to him sometime back regarding issuance of the special category visa.    

 

"This is still work in progress and I can't say anything ountries resume cricket ties next month after a gap of four years.    

 

Sharat Sabharwal, Indian specific on this issue. But we are very actively looking at this issue and we are giving a thought to it and our effort will be to ensure maximum number of people get to watch the matches in India," Sabharwal said at a media conference.

Russia's cash-strapped space industry appeared headed for a new shakedown today with a warning from a top police official about a growing embezzlement probe against its management. 

Fifteen people, including a parliamentarian, were injured when a bomb went off at a mosque in the restive Balochistan province of southwest Pakistan today, police said. 

A new gasoline rationing plan that lets motorists fill up every other day went into effect in New York on Friday morning, as utility crews made some progress erasing outages that put thousands of homes and businesses in the dark in a region still reeling from Superstorm Sandy.

The Supreme Court today said all parameters of water quality of river Yamuna indicates that it more or less resembles a drain and asked authorities to make a joint effort to make it pollution-free. 

Web users in China are having a harrowing time specially to use search engine Google and login into its mail service 'Gmail' as Internet speed has been drastically reduced coinciding with a key week-long meet of the ruling Communist Party.

For India, fairer trade agreements and an end to patronising soft power are more important than dribbles of aid from Britain. 

Cash-strapped Britain today announced it will halt all its aid to India in 2015 and make further cuts in the annual 280 million-pound assistance to the country for the remaining three years, citing the booming Asian giant's rising stature on the world stage. 

Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav kicked up a row with his remark that rural women will not benefit from the Women Reservation Bill because they are not as attractive as those from the affluent class.

Mulayam, whose party is in power in Uttar Pradesh and is an outside supporter of UPA government, made the comment while articulating his opposition to the long pending Women Reservation Bill.

"Bade bade gharon ki ladkiya aur mahilayan kewal upar ja sakti hain...yaad rakhna...apko mauka nahi milega..hamare gaon ki mahila me akarshan itna nahin...,"(Only girls and women from affluent class can go forward...remember this..you (rural women) will not get a chance...Our rural women did not have that much attraction)," he said at a rally in Barabanki yesterday.

Mulayam made the remark while claiming that if the Bill is passed, women belonging to the affluent class will march ahead while those from poor background will be further pushed back.

In conversations over the past 24 hours, friends, aides and advisers toMitt Romney have begun turning their attention to an issue that until now they have never had to consider: his next move. Read

Rejecting allegations of stashing away unaccounted money in Swiss accounts, Jet Airways today said there is no account in the name of its Chairman Naresh Goyal in HSBC Bank, Geneva though he is entitled to have bank accounts outside India as he is an NRI.

"...There is no account in the name Mr Naresh Goyal in the Swiss bank as has been alleged. Besides, Mr Naresh Goyal has been an NRI since January 1991. He is entitled to have bank accounts India.

"The suggestion that there has been any unaccounted money stashed away in Swiss accounts is entirely false," a statement issued by Jet Airways said. The carrier said Goyal is an NRI and had received a routine enquiry letter from the Income Tax Department regarding a bank account at HSBC Geneva of M/S Tailwinds Ltd, a company based in the Isle of Man.

"The existence of the company M/S Tailwinds is fully disclosed to various departments of the government of India. All questions have been satisfactorily replied to the Income Tax Department," it said.

Everyone's favourite singleton, Bridget Jones, has not been half-eaten by an Alsatian. She will return next year in a third novel set in London. More

Tata Motors earlier this week said it plans to introduce a diesel variant of its Nano minicar by the end of next year, a move that may improve sales of the car, which have been disappointing. More

First HSBC, then Reliance, and now Jet Airways denies the charges leveled by IAC that the company's chief Naresh Goyal has Rs 80 crore stashed in Swiss Bank accounts. 

India is expected to ink four pacts, including one in the field of mining with mineral-rich Afghanistan during the four-day visit of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who arrived in Mumbai today.

Karzai will meet business leaders in Mumbai to seek investments in the war-ravaged country before arriving here to hold talks with the top leadership, in a bid to intensify the cooperation under the India-Afghanistan strategic dialogue on bilateral and regional issues.

Vijay Mallya has always been keen to prove that despite his larger-than-life image of a hard-partying, free-spending millionaire, he is a shrewd and capable businessman.

The deal with Diageo Plc., the world's biggest spirits maker, should bolster those credentials. The promoters (read: Mallya and associates) retain around 15% stake in the liquor company even after selling around 19% to Diageo for 660 million (approximatelyRs.5,700 crore).

Diageo will also subscribe to fresh equity totalling around a 8% stake, and make an open offer for 25% of the public shareholding. The total consideration of the deal is around Rs.11,166 crore. Read

Reliance responds to allegations made by IAC today that Mukesh and Anil Ambani have Rs 100 crore each stashed away in HSBC's Geneva branch. In a statement, Reliance says that the allegations are false and it has no accounts with HSBC.  

Dividing the Taliban into good and bad creates complications that cannot be explained without destroying the credibility of Pakistan's future strategy in Afghanistan. Read

Politicians urged to back nomination of 15-year-old girl shot by Taliban while campaigning for girls' education in Pakistan. Read

With Arvind Kejriwal targetting the issue of black money and claiming to have a list of 700 Indians who have accounts in HSBC''s branch in Geneva, BJP leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy asked Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to come forth with a befitting reply to all the charges levelled by the India Against Corruption chief.

"The government must come forth and the Prime Minister must personally answer who is responsible, what Kejriwal is saying is it the truth; if there is a truth then has there been a failure on part of the government or is the government a part of the whole system in saying that such institutions which are playing fraud with the country they survive in this country," said Rudy.

Girish Karnad does it again. The playwright continued his tirade against Nobel laureate V S Naipaul yesterday and and called him an "old fogey and uncreative". He then targeted Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore saying he was a great poet, but his plays were dull and unbearable.

Speaking to reporters after a talk organized by the Azim Premji Foundation at its campus in Bangalore, Karnad continued his rant against Naipaul: "There is no development in his thought. He is saying the same thing. And he`s been uncreative for the past 10 years."

Just in: Done deal -- Vijay Mallya sells a 53.4 per cent stake in United Spirits to the Diageo group for $2 billion. A joint announcement is to be made after the stock markets close today.

Hopefully all the dues of Kingfisher employees will be settled now.  

Syed Akbaruddin, the spokesperson, Ministry of External Affairs, sends out this missive.

"Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Chairperson of the National League of Democracy of Myanmar, would be visiting India from November 13-18, 2012. She is scheduled to deliver the Nehru Memorial Lecture on the occasion of the birth Anniversary of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru on November 14, 2012.

"It would be recalled Daw Aung San Suu Kyi had accepted the invitation from Smt. Sonia Gandhi in her capacity as Chairperson of Nehru Memorial Fund to deliver the Nehru Memorial Lecture when she met the Prime Minister during his visit to Myanmar in May 2012.During her visit, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is scheduled to call on the Vice President, Prime Minister, Speaker of the Lok Sabha and External Affairs Minister.

Aung San Suu Kyi will visit her alma mater, Lady Sri Ram College, where she will interact with the faculty and students and also visit The Energy and Resources Institute in Gurgaon.

In Bangalore, she will visit the Indian Institute of Science and the Infosys Campus. She is also scheduled to tour rural areas in Andhra Pradesh to gain a firsthand impression of the rural development and women's empowerment programmes being undertaken in India.

BJP today distanced itself from the controversial comments of its Rajya Sabha MP Ram Jethmalani on Lord Ram and said the party does not agree with his views. Jethmalani had said yesterday, "Ram was a bad husband."

Asked about BJP's views on the issue, party spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said, "We believe in Ram. We do not agree with what Jethmalani has said." The spokesperson said these were the personal views of Jethmalani and did not reflect BJP's stand.

In today's s interview to Karan Thapar on CNN IBN, Jethmalani spoke on the controversy over his remarks on Lord Ram being a bad husband. He says he is not obliged to apologise to anyone and that Ram may not even be a historical figure. 

On Twitter: I am worried if the guy running the country Mukesh Ambani has only 100 crores in the swiss bank. Certainly doesnt speak well of Indians.

Five of 10 topics trending on India are on Arvind Kejriwal's Swiss bank account allegations.

Here's an interesting read on Forbes on HSBC's alleged hawala trade.

A Senate report released ahead of the embargo time revealed that HSBC's lax anti-money laundering policies allowed Mexican drug money, Iranian terrorist money, and even suspicious Russian money to enter the U.S. and gain access to U.S. dollar liquidity over the last couple of years. Read

Anu Tandon reacts to the charges levelled by the IAC that she and her husband had stashed black money worth Rs 250 crore in HSBC's Geneva branch.  As expected, she says the charges are baseless and malicious. 

With the Congress holding its conclave at Surajkund, BJP today asked the ruling party to come clear on the progress made in the investigations into scams including Commonwealth Games projects, Coal and 2G spectrum allocations as well as on issues like price rise.

"The country wants to know how the Congress is going ahead with the inquiries into scams like CWG, how they are trying to cover-up the coal scam and 2G spectrum allocations. The government is not ready for an impartial probe into the coal block allocations and is instead cancelling blocks alloted to PSUs," BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said.

HSBC India reacts to Arvind Kejriwal's claims that it was helping its clients stash black money in its Geneva branch saying, it was still too early to comment on this. "We will comment on charges after consulting our head office," they say.
The IAC says HSBC is notorious for masking the identities of its clients.

Supreme Court stays proceedings on all pending petitions relating to 2G spectrum scam case in the Delhi High Court.

Interesting point to note is that the Tandons (Rs 125 crore each) have more money stashed away in Swiss accounts than Mukesh Ambani (India's richest person) with Rs 100 crore, according to IAC figures.

Point to note is that the Swiss unit of HSBC Plc has apologised to Mukesh Ambani for embroiling him in an investigation by India's income-tax authorities after the Reliance chairman's name cropped up in a list of people with beneficiary accounts in Switzerland. In a letter to Ambani, the bank clarified that neither he, nor Reliance Industries, was the owner of any beneficiary account with the bank's private banking division. More

Kejriwal also wants HSBC officials nabbed under the Money Laundering Act. He says the bank's hawala practices were promoting graft, terror and crime.

Kejrwial says that Pranab Mukherjee was planning to bring a Voluntary Disclosure of Income Scheme to help these 700 people with Swiss bank accounts, but later  dropped the idea. Rather than do it formally through a VDIS, Mr Mukherjee granted immunity from prosecution under Income tax Act, according to some media reports. All these people were let off after paying income tax only.

The total black money in HSBC's branch in Geneva is Rs 6000 crore.

Anu Tandon, one those named holding a Swiss Bank account used to head Observer Research Foundation in Mumbai. Now she is the Congress Member of Parliament from Unnao, MP and her husband Sandeep Tandon was former IRS and one of the 'Mukesh 11' that Anil Ambani had famously lashed out against some years ago before the Reliance Empire split.

Kejriwal asks why were the Ambanis, Naresh Goyal (Jet Airways), Burmans (Dabur) and Birlas (Yash Birla) not raided? Why were their statements not recorded?

"It appears that small people in that list were raided and bigger and powerful people were let off. How did the money lying in their Swiss accounts reach there?

How did the money travel to and from these accounts regularly? Through hawala, as it is turning out in all other cases? Are Ambani brothers, Naresh Goyal, Burmans and Birlas guilty of indulging in hawala activities?" he asks. 

Kejriwal says his expose is about how India's economic sovereignty is at stake.

Explaining how hawala transactions work, he says HSBC is openly and brazenly running a hawala racket in India.

"From their statements, it appears that perhaps it is easier to open a Swiss bank account than it is to open an account in SBI. You just need to contact HSBC in India. They would send someone at your home, who would get forms filled up, take money in cash from you and your account would get opened in Geneva or Dubai. You don't need to go out of India to open an account.

"Likewise, you don't need to visit abroad to operate your account. You are given the name and mobile no of someone in Geneva. If you have to deposit cash or withdraw money, you just call up that person. Immediately someone in India from HSBC would visit your house.

"If you have to deposit cash, you hand over the cash to that person. Corresponding amount in dollars would get credited to your account in Switzerland. If you have to withdraw money, that person would deliver that much cash to you," says Kejriwal. 

Here's the press release from the IAC on the details of Swiss Bank accounts held by Indians. Read

Here's a list of who has how much money in Swiss accounts -- a total of Rs 6000 crore.
Former ED official Sandeep Tandon has 125 crore
Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambai Rs 100 crores
Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Rs 100 crores
Motech Software Private Ltd (Reliance Group company) Rs 2,100 crores
Reliance Industries Ltd Rs 500 crores
Sandeep Tandon Rs 125 crores
Anu Tandon Rs 125 crores
Kokila Dhirubhai Ambani She has an account but there was no balance on that date
Naresh Kumar Goyal Rs 80 crores
Burmans (3 family members) Rs 25 crores
Yashovardhan Birla no balance

Kejriwal says that a senior Congress leader had given him details for today's presser. He says the government does not want to bring back money stashed away in Swiss accounts. This has however, been stated before.

Kejriwal now goes for the jugular and says both Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani has Rs 100 crore each stashed away in Swiss accounts. (Only?)

The next target is Anu Tandon, who he says is a member of Rahul Gandhi's core group. "I have a list of names of people who have accounts in Swiss banks," he says.

He then goes on to name the Burman's of Dabur, Kokilaben Ambani, Naresh Goyal of Jet Airways as having money in Swiss accounts.     

OK, here you go... Arvind Kejriwal/IAC's next target is not a person but the issue of hawala money stashed away in Swiss bank accounts. 

The IAC press conference has begun. Nobody yet aware who the IAC will target today. 

BJP Rajya Sabha MP Ram Jethmalani's interview to Karan Thapar on CNN IBN speaks on the recent controversy over his remarks on Lord Ram being a bad husband. He says he is not obliged to apologise to anyone. He also says that Ram may not even be a historical figure. 

Two days after he was re-elected President of the United States, Barack Obama's campaign said today he has won 29 electoral college votes in Florida, the only state which had not declared a winner on Election Day. Republican challenger Mitt Romney's campaign too conceded defeat in Florida, a key battleground state.

With the win in Florida, 51-year-old Obama's tally reached 332 against Romney's 206.

In the 2008 presidential elections, Obama, the first black American to occupy the White House, had secured 358 votes. In the state-by-state electoral college system, a candidate needs 270 votes for victory and Obama already had 303 before Florida was called.

Update from the Congress' Surajkund conclave: The PM has invited Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav for dinner tonight at 8 pm. 

IAC activist Arvind Kejriwal will reveal his next target at 1.30 pm today. The expose-press conference -- that has now become an almost weekly affair -- has already served judgment on two political figures, Robert Vadra and Nitin Gadkari, and a corporate czar, Mukesh Ambani.

Pictured: Supreme Court lawyer and IAC activist Prashant Bhushan, who has always shared the stage with Kejriwal during the last four press conferences

Meanwhile, cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu will leave Bigg Boss 6 house today to campaign for next month's assembly elections in Gujarat, his wife Navjot Kaur announced yesterday.

She told media persons that she had received a call from Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who wanted Sidhu to campaign for the BJP candidates in Gujarat. She said she approached the channel following the call and was told to announce that Sidhu will leave the show.

Also read: BJP finds new Narendra Modi masks scary, stops their distribution

At least 35 ministers and 35 senior leaders are attending the Surajkund conclave, which comes ahead of the Gujarat polls and the winter session of Parliament. 

Congress President Sonia Gandhi's first statement from the Surajkund conclave. Addressing the party, Sonia said, "Those in the government should strive hard to fulfill unfulfilled promises in the 2009 manifesto. Policies mentioned in the manifesto must be fulfilled Our detractors want to grab power at any cost, notwithstanding that their greed would weaken democracy and secular values."

She added that PM Manmohan Singh's leadership has helped the country tide over economic difficulties. "Party and government should have a dialogue and the needs of party and government should be balanced," she said.

The meet attended by top central ministers and Congress Working Committee members will also see the party reviewing the extent of implementation of the promises made in its manifesto for the 2009 Lok Sabha elections.

Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has called up US President Barack Obama to congratulate him on his re-election and invited him to visit India again. 

Dr Singh said that this had given the opportunity to the two countries to carry forward and build on the enormous successes that had been achieved in the bilateral partnership in the last few years. 

He also expressed his appreciation for the personal interest and commitment that President Obama had brought to the relationship and said that he looked forward to continuing their close cooperation to pursue their shared vision for the India-US strategic partnership.

The Congress which is congregating at Surajkund today should think of dissolving the UPA, and forging a new unity with progressive forces. Read

Three colonies of Dalits (of the Adi-Dravida community) near Naikkankottai in Dharmapuri district of western Tamil Nadu remained benumbed on Thursday by the fury unleashed on them by a rampaging mob of caste Hindus on Wednesday. Read

Government's record will be under scanner at Surajkund conclave. Also read

With an attempt to chalk out a strategy for the next Lok Sabha polls, the Congress top brass today huddled at Surajkund to deliberate on political and economic issues at a time when the party and the government are facing tough challenges.

As the UPA-II witnessed a series of scams and one of its key allies Trinamool Congress walked out of the alliance, the Congress leadership including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and party chief Sonia Gandhi will decide the future course of action.

The meet attended by top central ministers and Congress Working Committee members will also see the party reviewing the extent of implementation of the promises made in its manifesto for the 2009 Lok Sabha elections.

Rahul Gandhi, who is set to assume a "larger role" in the organisation, is attending the session amid indications that the party reshuffle, which is due, would have the imprint of the young leader.

The exercise has come amid concerns within the party over "limitations" in implementing party's programmes and agenda in a coalition government. The Prime Minister had time and again talked about coalition compulsions in governance.

Ahead of the meeting, Finance Minister P Chidambaram had said that the achievements of the government in the last three years and nine months are "quite impressive".

However, party general secretary Janardan Dwivedi has conceded that "there are some limitations in a coalition government." Sonia Gandhi will set the tone for the discussion on current political situation in the meeting after which the Prime Minister will brief leaders on the economic challenges and the measures initiated by the government.

The Supreme Court has refused to direct a CBI probe against Asaram Bapu in the 2008 death case of two boys in his ashram.

Abhishek Vaghela (11) and his cousin Dipesh Vaghela (10) went missing from a residential school of the Asaram Bapu's Motrea Ashram in Ahmedabad in April 2008. Their decomposed bodies were later found from the banks of Sabarmati River near the Ashram.

A chargesheet had been filed against seven sadhaks whose role in the case was investigated by the crime branch. The case was handed over to CID in 2008 following a public outcry over the issue, which after a year of probing had filed a complaint of culpable homicide and booked seven sadhaks of the ashram.

Ssections 304 (causing death by negligence), 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) and 114 (abettor present when offence is committed) of the Indian Penal Code, besides section 6 of Juvenile Justice Act were slapped against the seven.

Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the UN, is emerging as the frontrunner to replace Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who is expected to leave the post of top American diplomat early next year. Senator John Kerry, Chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee and National Security Advisor Tom Donilon are also in line to succeed Clinton.

While all the three are confidant to the US President, Barack Obama, but Rice, 47, is said to be his most favourite. Obama has given Rice the status of a Cabinet Minister. Rice will be the second African-American woman to hold the position -- the first being Condoleeza Rice under George W Bush.

The name of Bill Burns, the Deputy Secretary of State, is also doing the rounds in some circle.

The Supreme Court says there is no evidence to prove that Sharief got pecuniary advantage by taking four staff members on an official trip to London. 

The Supreme Court has quashed criminal proceedings against former Union Minister C K Jaffer Sharief in an alleged corruption case.

The 80-year-old leader was accused of flouting rules to take his then private secretary B N Nagesh, stenos S M Masthan and V M Muralidharan and driver C H Samaullah to London as Union minister in 1995. The travel of the three persons had cost the exchequer Rs 7 lakh.

The CBI, which had registered an FIR in 1998 against Sharief, had filed a closure report in 2005 saying the appropriate authority had refused to accord sanction for his prosecution. The trial court had directed the CBI to place the entire investigation record before the sanctioning authority and seek fresh permission for prosecution.

Continuing their agenda of demolishing "holy cows" in politics and corporate world, India Against Corruption (IAC) has announced it would "expose" corruption in another case on Friday.The expose-press conference -- that has now become an almost weekly affair -- has already served judgment on two political figures, Robert Vadra and Nitin Gadkari, and a corporate czar, Mukesh Ambani. Read

Super-rich Indians account for more than 20% of the wealth of ultra-high net worth (UHNW) individuals in Britain, a new list showed on Tuesday. As a national group, they are second only to expat Russians. Read

Noor Inayat Khan, a Sufi, a musician and an children's author, was the first woman radio operator to be dropped behind enemy lines in Europe after deciding to join the war effort. Captured in France and brutally tortured by the Nazis, she did not reveal the names of any of her colleagues and remained defiant till the end. Read more

In an apparent move to send out a message of austerity, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi today took a bus ride along with other leaders to Surajkund in Haryana where the party is having a brain storming meeting.
However, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will not go to Surajkund by bus due to security reasons.

Union ministers and top Congress leaders will attend the brainstorming session which comes at a time when the party and the government are facing tough challenges on political and economic fronts. The day-long "dialogue session" is likely to chalk out the strategy ahead. It may also take a view on the issue of alliances in different states.

Sonia Gandhi and Rahul travelled in the same bus occupying the front seats. They were accompanied by senior party leaders Ahmed Patel and Ambika Soni. Ministers including A K Antony, P Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal, Ghulam Nabi Azad and C P Joshi were also in the same bus.

India-born Ivan Menezes, seen to be the next chief executive at Diageo Plc, is leading the drinks giant on its most significant conquest in emerging markets. Menezes, currently chief operating officer, and his battery of dealmakers are set to clinch a long-rumoured takeover of United Spirits Ltd from India's troubled liquor czar Vijay Mallya anytime now. More on the Times of India.

Getting down to his job soon after his electoral victory bid, US President Barack Obama will make a public statement today, the White House said.

Tightening its noose around Iran,the United States has announced a set of targeted sanctions against 17 Iranian individuals and entities related to the country's alleged human rights violations.        

Pakistani teenage rights activist Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in the head by the Taliban, continues to make satisfactory progress, the doctors have said.    

Iranian fighter jets shot at an unmanned US drone during a routine surveillance mission over the Gulf, Pentagon officials have said. The defence department said the drone was not damaged in the incident, which it said took place in international air space on 1 November.

 

Pentagon spokesman George Little said the president had been informed.

 

Read the full story on BBC

Fresh from his election win, Barack Obama will this month become the first US president to visit Burma, the White House says. He will meet opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and President Thein Sein.

 

It is part of a three-leg tour from 17 to 20 November that will also take in Thailand and Cambodia.

 

Read the full story on BBC

The gunman who shot US congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in a massacre that left six others dead in Arizona has been given seven life sentences plus 140 years in jail.  

 

"He'll never have the opportunity to pick up a gun again," said Judge Larry Burns, according to Tucson, Arizona's KVOA TV, as he sentenced Jared Lee Loughner.  

 

Loughner pleaded guilty in August to the January 2011 attack. Ms Giffords was in court for the sentencing.

Read the full story on ABC News

AP: Guatemalans huddled in the cold streets of an earthquake-ravaged town without communications or power today, one day after the worst temblor since 1976 shook nearly the entire country, killing at least 52 people and leaving another 22 people missing.         

 

President Otto Perez Molina said the powerful 7.4-magnitude quake that hit yesterday morning off the Pacific coast affected as many as 1.2 million people. He said a little more than 700 people were in shelters, with most opting to stay with family or friends.         

 

"They have no drinking water, no electricity, no communication and are in danger of experiencing more aftershocks," Perez told a news conference. The president said there had been 70 aftershocks in the first 24 hours after the quake, some as strong as magnitude 4.9.  

The White House just put out a press release of which world leaders got return calls from President Obama, all of which it says he made personally and this morning. The list is a little bit surprising:

 

Obama called four Middle Eastern heads of state, three European, two Latin American (but not Mexico!), plus Canada, India and Australia. Conspicuously absent: the East Asian states to which the Obama administration has been pivoting.  

 

Read more on The Washington Post blog

AP: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today ridiculed the expense of the US election a day after voters kept President Barack Obama for another four years, mocking the American process as a "battleground for capitalists" while speaking at a democracy forum.         

 

Ahmadinejad, whose government has been criticized for human rights abuses and is subject to sanctions for its nuclear programs, told the forum in Indonesia that democracy has become a system where the minority rules over the majority.         

 

"Just take a look at the situation in Europe and the US," Ahmadinejad said during the meeting's opening day on Indonesia's resort island of Bali. An "election, which is one of the manifestations of the people's will, has become a battleground for the capitalists and an excuse for hasty spending."         

 

The price tag for the 2012 US presidential campaign was the highest ever, soaring beyond $2 billion.

 

Read the full story here

Ram was a bad husband: Jethmalani

Jundal sent money twice while in Saudi: Chargesheet

Legislators are looting country's resources: Anna

Mumbai: Spanish woman identifies man who raped her

Sohrab case: Jailed accused to miss Mumbai court day

6 self-immolation bids in Tibet; China backs Panchen Lama

HC orders removal of two 'corrupt' IAS officers from NOIDA

Shun groupism, prepare for 2014 LS poll: Rahul in Amethi

At Congress, China says no to western-style democracy

Mumbai: 'Clerics to decide on women's entry in Haji Ali'

BJP ends boycott of JPC on 2G; insists on calling PM, FM

Norway kids' case: Mom wins custody, cops don't help

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