Amid protests by farmers in Karnataka over sharing of Cauvery river water, a Central team today held discussions with the Tamil Nadu government and said it would submit a report to the Centre in four days.   

A team led by Union Water Resources Secretary DV Singhheld discussions with Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary Debendranath Sarangi and others on issues regarding reservoir levels and status of standing crops dependent on Cauvery water.  

Singh later told reporters that the team will visit the Cauvery delta area and would submit its report to the Central government in about four days.   The team is also scheduled to visit Karnataka as part of its two-day programme.

Sensitive documents related to delicate information about US operations in Libya are laying unguarded at the American consulate in Benghazi, more than three weeks after the attack on the compound which killed ambassador Christopher Stevens and three others.         

Documents detailing weapons collection efforts, emergencyevacuation protocols, the full internal itinerary of Ambassador Stevens's trip and the personnel records of Libyans who were contracted to secure the mission remained loosely secured at the looted compound, Washington Post reported quoting its reporter who managed to go inside.         

Although the gates to the Benghazi compound were locked several days after the attacks, looters and curiosity-seekers were free to roam in the initial chaotic aftermath, and many documents may have disappeared, the newspaper said.         

No government-provided security forces are guarding the compound, and Libyan investigators have visited just once, according to a member of the family who owns the compound.

President Pranab Mukherjee today hoped the Indian economy would come back to the path of steady growth shortly.        

Inaugurating an international conference and exhibition of chemicals and petrochemicals industry in Mumbai, he said the event was happening at a time when the Indian economy was witnessing a rebound.        

"I do hope shortly it would come back to the path of steady growth," the President said. Mukherjee underlined the importance of research and development as a key to the advancement of the sector.

Maruti Suzuki India today said production at its Manesar plant, which faced labour troubles recently, will return to normal by the middle of this month.    

The company has been gradually ramping up production at the plant, which had been locked out for a month following the July 18 violence in which one senior official was killed.    

"By the middle of October, normal production will begin from Manesar. At present, production for all models have started," Maruti Suzuki India Chief Operating Officer (Administration) S Y Siddiqui told reporters here on the sidelines of a CII event.

 A Correspondent in New Delhi: UPA ally DMK is likely to skip the Union Cabinet meeting which will resolve controversial issue of FDI in various sectors.  

The lone DMK minister MK Alagiri is in Mumbai with President Pranab Mukherjee attending an international seminar on chemicals.

Alagiri in a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh explained the reasons for his absence and also attached a copy of the speech of his father Karunanidhi in recent DMK executive asking the UPA leadership to discuss any contentious issues with the allies before bringing in the Cabinet.

Describing the special status demand for Bihar as Nitish Kumar's pet political agenda to boost his career, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad today said that the chief minister was nursing an ambition to become the prime minister of the country.     

"The special status demand is nothing but a personal and political agenda of the chief minister.....he wants to ride this agenda to become the PM of the country," he told reporters after reaching Bhagalpur to undertake 'Parivartan yatra' in the district.        

However, the prime ministerial ambition will merely prove to be a mirage for Kumar as the people of Bihar have "belatedly realised their mistake of having re-elected the NDA to power which was embroiled in corruption," Prasad said.

The UK government will announce details this month of a controversial national identity scheme which will allow people to use their mobile phones and social media profiles as official identification documents for accessing public services.

Read more on Independent

The writer came to L.A. to accept the Library Foundation of Los Angeles' literary award and to talk about his new memoir of his underground years, "Joseph Anton." He and the book have arrived just as the blowback from "Innocence of Muslims" has caused us all to confront the questions that commandeered a decade of his life.

Read the full interview on LA Times

ANI: Over 2.38 million people in Pakistan belonging to the wealthy class are tax evaders, revealed statistics compiled by the National Database and Registration Authority.  

Nearly three million people possess a National Tax Number, but only 1.4 million of them filed income tax returns last year.  

Sources identified 2.38 million people who live in palatial houses, own luxury cars, travel abroad frequently, possess arms, hold multiple bank accounts and pay hefty utility bills, but pay no income tax, reports The Dawn.  

The statistics also revealed that tax officials don't bother to bring these rich people into the tax net, ignoring the fact that one cannot buy a new car without producing their NTN.  

Accusing the central government of not thinking about students while policy making, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today said the cap on subsidised LPG cylinders will badly hit the mid-day meal scheme.         

"This is a very sensitive matter. The Central government has never thought of the fate of poor school children....There is a fear that these school children may have to go without food in schools due to enormous increase in price of non-subsidised LPG cylinder," Banerjee said in a post on Facebook.         

Pointing out that the real impact of the restriction on subsidised LPG cylinders was unfolding now, she said, "Common people have been burdened with additional Rs 127 (exclusive of taxes) per cylinder. The price is likely to go up further in the coming months."  

A hardcore ULFA militant was killed in an encounter with police in Tarani forest of upper Assam's Tinsukia district today.        

The militant identified as Wangli Moran alias Diganta Bora exchanged fire with police in the dense forest during a police operation, police said.        

An AK-81 assault rifle, four AK series magazines, 25 bullets and some documents were recovered from the slain ultra, they said.

A farmers' body spearheading the stir against release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu began a relay hunger strike here in protest against Karnataka's action and warned that people would stop paying taxes if government did not heed their demand to stop the flow by this evening.        

"We have set a deadline to the government... if the water release is not stopped by this evening, people will resort to a civil disobedience movement by not paying taxes," Cauvery Hitarakshana Samithi President G Madegowda told reporters.        

Karnataka has been releasing 9,000 cusecs since Sunday, in compliance with a Supreme Court directive.         Gowda, a former MP, said he has decided not to go on an indefinite fast on a plea by former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda.        

Raitha Sangha (Farmers Association) leaders said they would lay seige to Raj Bhavan today in Bangalore, demanding intervention of Governor H R Bharadwaj on the Cauvery water issue and to safeguard the state's interest.  

India today test-fired its nuclear-capable Prithvi-II ballistic missile with a strike range of 350 km from a test range near Balasore as part of a user trial by the army.         

"The flight test of the surface-to-surface missile was conducted at around 0907 hrs from a mobile launcher from Integrated Test Range's launch complex-III at Chandipur," defence sources said. 

The state-of-the-art Prithvi is the first ballistic missile developed under the country's prestigious Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMPD) and has the capability to carry 500 kg of both nuclear and conventional warheads with a strike range of 350 km, they said.

The UPA government is set for a second push for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's reform measures. The Cabinet is expected to clear 26 per cent FDI in pensions and 46 per cent in insurance on Thursday. Currently, no foreign investment is allowed in the pension sector and only 26 per cent FDI is allowed in insurance.

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AFP: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called Wednesday on Sudan to conduct a full investigation into an attack that killed four peacekeepers in Darfur, his spokesman said.

Martin Nesirky said Ban was "appalled and deeply saddened" by the ambush Tuesday of a patrol by UN-African Union peacekeepers in El Geneina, West Darfur. Four Nigerian peacekeepers were killed and eight others were wounded.

AFP: The winners of the 2012 Nobel Prizes are to be announced next week, with no clear frontrunners yet seen for the much-talked about Peace and Literature prizes and suspense and speculation mount.           

Betting sites have become a popular feature of the Nobel guessing game in recent years, with gamers sometimes surprisingly accurate, even suspiciously so.            

Chinese author Mo Yan and Japan's Haruki Murakami share the top spots on two Swedish betting sites a week ahead of the expected announcement of the Nobel Literature Prize, while Coptic Christian Maggie Gobran of Egypt who helps the poor in Cairo's slums tops the one Swedish site taking bets for the Peace Prize.

US President Barack Obama and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney met in Denver for a contentious but largely unmemorable debate in which each man accused the other of lying about his plans for taxes, health care and other key domestic issues.

Romney went on the offensive early, hammering Obama on his economic record: "Look at the evidence of the last four years, it's absolutely extraordinary,' he said. "We've got 23 million people out of work, stopped looking for work in this country.'

Obama admitted mistakes, acknowledging that he "hadn't been a perfect president," but sought to characterise Romney as out-of-touch and concerned chiefly with the wealthiest Americans. 

"Do we double down on the top-down economic policies?" he asked. "Or embrace a new economic patriotism that says America does best when the middle class does best?"

Read more on Al Jazeera