Miscreants today desecrated a statue of Mahatma Gandhi at the Ridge here on his birth anniversary.

A garland made of empty bottles was found around the neck of the statue, Shimla SP Chander Shekhar Pandit said.

A case under Section 295A (insult to religious feelings) has been filed based on the complaint by Deputy Commissioner Arun Kumar, he said.

"It is a serious matter and we have started probe and the culprits would be brought to the book," Pandit said.

In an apparent dig at Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar on Tuesday said that at times those at the helm should see beyond their own "image" and not hesitate in "bypassing" rules in the interest of the common man.

He however, did not name Chavan, who is considered as stickler of rules in administrative decisions.

"One should not think only of one's own image but take an initiative to solve the problems of common man. At times, those holding office have to do this bypassing the rules," the former deputy chief minister said at a convention organised by NCP MP and party boss Sharad Pawar's daughter Supriya Sule.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation, which is the regulatory body for airlines, has told top executives of Kingfisher Airlines that it will be allowed to operate only after ensuring its employees return to work.

270 of its engineers have been on strike since Sunday, triggering its latest crisis.

After the meeting with the DGCA, Sanjay Aggarwal, Kingfisher's CEO said the airline planned to pay staff "in the next few days."

He added the airline will take a call on resuming operations on October 4.

The debt-ridden airlines has declared a temporary lockout and is selling no tickets till that date; the engineers strike has meant that all Kingfisher aircraft are grounded.

Libyan authorities have approved an FBI visit to Benghazi following a deadly attack on the US mission there, but details of cooperation still need to be ironed out, a senior official said today.

"We are getting ready for the FBI team to go to Benghazi and meet with our team, start joint investigations... and visit the place where it happened," said Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammed Abdel Aziz.

"The FBI team is now in Tripoli. There are others who will come maybe tomorrow to join the team. Until now, there has been no visit by the team to the site," added Abdel Aziz in reference to the crime scene.

Talking to CNN-IBN hours after launching his political party, Arvind Kejriwal said, "Anna has said he will support good candidates."

He said that the definition of the government should be changed. "People must be consulted on laws."

"Corruption may not end but can be reduced," he said.    

India, the only country to send MPs to attend sessions of United Nations General Assembly, is deputing 13 Parliamentarians this time, including Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani.

The MPs, representing both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, will be in New York in three groups, one after another, from Friday, sources said in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Each group will attend the session for two weeks and speak on various issues ranging from economy to disarmament.While there are four MPs from the Congress, three are from the BJP, two from the Trinamool Congress and one each from the Samajwadi Party, Janata Dal-United, Communist Party of India-Marxist and Bahujan Samaj Party.

The first batch of the MPs will attend the UN session from Friday. It will include Advani, they said.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao was today presented with a top United Nations award in recognition to his contribution to promote food security and poverty alleviation in the world's most populous nation.   

The Food and Agriculture Organisation's 'Agricola Medal' was presented to the 69-year-old leader by Jose Graziano daSilva, the director of the UN agency, at a ceremony in Beijing.   

The medal is presented to "pay tribute to your life-long dedication to promoting food security and poverty reduction in the People's Republic of China, and in the world," the FAO said in a statement.   

Speaking on the occasion, Wen said China will seek the steady growth of agricultural products and enable Chinese farmers to share the achievements of the country's economic development and social progress.   

"This is more than a personal honour to me. It represents the international community's full recognition of and high acclaim for what China has achieved in agriculture and rural development," Wen said.

A FIR was filed on Tuesday against Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray and Shiv Sena Executive President Uddhav Thackeray under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code, including sedition, for making allegedly inflammatory speeches against the people of Bihar.

The case at Town police station in Bihar's Muzaffarpur district was lodged at the direction of a local court against the Thackeray cousins under 124A (sedition), section 153A (promoting enmity between different groups of people), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) of the IPC.

Advocate Sudhir Kumar Ojha had filed the case in the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate S P Singh on September 5 against the Thackerays.

In a show of unity and strength, cousins Ajit Pawar and Supriya Sule -- one is NCP chief Sharad Pawar's nephew, the other his daughter -- are touring Maharashtra together.

At a public function in Pune, Sule said, "I love my brother...blood is thicker than water."  Just in case anyone missed the point, she added, "There are no differences between me and Ajit dada (brother)."

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Nearly 300 people have been arrested in Bangladesh for their suspected involvement in attacks on 11 Buddhist temples over an anti-Islam post on Facebook, sparking worst violence against the minority community in the Muslim majority country.   

"Thirteen cases were lodges naming 1,000 people and we arrested so far some 300 people, 73 of them in the past 24hours as manhunt is underway for the suspects," additional police superintendent Babul Akhtar told PTI.   

During the attacks on Saturday night, a mob torched 11Buddhist temples, damaged two others and ransacked at least 30 homes of Buddhist at southeastern Ramu town.    

Security has been beefed up around the Buddhist neighbourhoods at Ramu and nearby areas under the Cox's Bazardistrict.

Appearing skeptical about the new political outfit floated by Arvind Kejriwal, yoga guru Ramdev today said it takes a minute to form a political party but "how many people follow you is the key."

The yoga teacher did not rule out forming his own party, saying,"wait for three-four month things would be clear."

The anti-corruption activist Kejriwal today announced forming his party in New Delhi. When asked about the Kejriwal's party, Ramdev said,"Let them form the party, let the manifesto come, anyone can form political party in a minute." "But the crux of the matter is how many supporters do you get," he said.

Unfazed by the strong opposition to allowing Foreign Direct Investment  in retail even from some allies, the government today made it clear that the decision will not be rolled back as it is in the interest of farmers and consumers.

Addressing a group of farmers in New Delhi, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail trading will help farmers in getting good price for their produce besides creating lakhs of jobs.

"This decision is final. This decision will not be rolled back. We are not afraid of anything. This decision is taken in the interest of the farmers and consumers," he told the farmers at the Congress headquarters.

A United States university professor was taken into protective custody after he took off his clothes in front of the class and started shouting at the students.

A call came in to the local police dispatch centre "about a man in the Michigan State University Engineering Building shouting in the hallway", a statement posted on the university website said.

"MSU police responded and took the man, a university professor, into protective custody and transported him to a local hospital," the ABC News quoted the University website as saying.

"No one was injured and the professor is not being charged with a crime," it said.

Students posting on social media named the professor, but the university spokesman did not confirm the man's identity. A student from the university posted a photo on a social media website with the comment, "My math teacher just stripped naked during class and was arrested! Go MSU!" "I was in Calc 1 at Michigan State University, and my teacher was always pretty eccentric, but today he went overboard. Half way through class he started screaming at us, swearing left and right," said a student.

"He then started slamming his hands on the window and pressing his face against it, still screaming. Eventually he walked out and down the hallway to the end, all while screaming. "He then came back into the classroom and took off his clothes, except for his socks. You know someone's crazy when they leave their socks on lmao. At this point everyone in class ran out. We were literally scared for our lives.

The police took about 15 minutes to get here and during this time he continued walking around screaming," the student said.

According to the university, the school's counselling centre "has reached out to students who may have witnessed the incident to offer any support they need."

The Congress has asked Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal to explain his sexist remark.

In Kanpur, commenting on India's recent victory over Pakistan in the World T20 , Jaiswal said that an old victory, like a wife of many years, becomes less charming as time goes.

Talking to CNN-IBN today, Jaiswal said, "I will apologise if anybody's sentiments are hurt. I was speaking at a kavi sammelan. The context should not be twisted.

A cameraman who accompanied Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the UN General Assembly here has stayed back and applied for an asylum in the US over fears of being persecuted in his home country, a media report said today. 

Shekhar Kapur on his blog: So what does Gandhi mean to the world, to India and specially to us, who are born in India and brought up to almost worship him.

Direct rule of the people, fighting corruption and eliminating price rise will be the focus of the political party being started by Arvind Kejriwal and other activists, a vision document for the party said.

BJP today alleged that instead of coming clear on whether expenses for UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi's travel and treatment were paid from public exchequer and what was the amount spent, Congress is diverting attention by saying the opposition is raising issues about her health.

Castigating Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi for his allegation that Sonia Gandhi's foreign trips were funded from public exchequer, the state Congress unit today said the BJP stalwart has 'lost control over his mind and is suffering from 'inferiority complex'.

Published in India in 2009 and released this month in the United Stastes, Tarun J Tejpal's novel The Story of My Assassins starts like a thriller: a prominent New Delhi journalist learns that the police have just arrested five hit men who were on their way to murder him.

A day after declaring a partial lockout, top officials of beleaguered Kingfisher Airlines today met DGCA chief and promised to pay salaries of the staff held up for last six months in the next few days.

Taking a strict note of the incident of alleged molestation of a girl by a senior IAS officer in a train, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav today he has given directions to prepare a list of people who tried to save the officer, who has been suspended.

IBNLive reports: Avind Kejriwal's new political party to be unveiled on November 26. The Vision document and the selection process of candidates will be announced today.

There was no difference between the UPA government at the Centre and the BJP-led coalition in the state as both have failed to deliver people-friendly policies, Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantric-JVM) chief Babulal Marandi alleged today.

A ruling party lawmaker in Maldives was today stabbed to death on stairs of his apartment here hours after he appeared in a television programme.

Scotland Yard has appealed for information from members of the public on the Sunday night assault on Lt Gen KS Brar, and described the four assailants as wearing dark clothing, long black jackets and having 'ong beards'.

Scotland Yard documents suggest Labour MP Keith VazKeith Vaz received 'significant amounts of cash' of a 'suspicious nature' between 1997 and 2001.

NDTV reports: Anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare, just 11 days after parting ways with Arvind Kejriwal, seemingly made a U-turn after a surprise closed-door meeting with Kejriwal on Monday.

DNA reports: India may send a team from the National Investigation Agency to Pakistan to have a look at the evidence gathered by the Federal Investigation Agency in the 26/11 probe and also possibly to question its key handlers who are currently lodged in jail.

Business Standard reports: The financially strained Kingfisher Airlines declared a partial lockout after it was forced to stop flying altogether today, as its engineers and pilots decided to stay away from work due to non-payment of their salaries since March.

Army shelling and air raids killed dozens of civilians including children in Syrian flashpoints today, a watchdog said, while rebels and loyalists fought close-quarter battles in Aleppo's main souk. 

The Syrian foreign minister accused the US and its allies of stoking "terrorism" in his country, delivering an uncompromising message before the United Nations today as fighting spread in a centerpiece of Syria's cultural heritage, the historic Old City of Aleppo. 

Jason Valero was so excited about the possibility that Henrique Capriles could unseat President Hugo Chavez that he took a few weeks off from his job as a dump truck driver to work on the opposition presidential candidate's campaign. 

A chartered boat packed with revelers during a holiday weekend collided with a ferry and sank today night off Hong Kong, killing at least eight people were killed and injuring dozens more, authorities said. 

The Obama administration is rejecting a demand from a senior Republican lawmaker for the US ambassador to the United Nations to resign. Republican Peter King has said Susan Rice's explanation of the September 11 attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, was a foreign policy failure. 

British author Salman Rushdie said today that if a fatwa calling for his murder over his book "The Satanic Verses" had been issued in the social networking era, it would have further endangered his life.