PTI: The Centre has ordered an inquiry by a senior IAS officer into the gruesome tragedy at a fireworks manufacturing unit near Sivakasi in Tamil Nadu.          Union Minister of Commerce Industry and Textiles, Anand Sharma has ordered an inquiry by senior IAS officer Chaitanya Prasad under section 9 (a) of the Explosives Act 1884, an official statement said today. 

 

The inquiry has been ordered considering seriousness of the incident yesterday at the fireworks factory of M/s Om Sakthi Fireworks Industries located at Vadi, Sivakasi, Virudhunagar District of Tamil Nadu yesterday, it added.         

 

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa has also ordered a magisterial probe into the fire incident. Twelve persons have been arrested in connection with the tragedy at the fireworks manufacturing unit.

With reports that there may be an increase in prices of diesel, kerosene and LPG, the BJP today alleged that the ruling UPA Government was merely trying to divert the attention of the people as it is currently embroiled in various scams.

BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said this step of the government would be like rubbing salt on the wounds of the common people. "The government does not want to tell the truth in the Parliament. It wants to run away from the coalgate scam and wants to evade the issue of corruption by raising the fuel price," he said.

Soft-pedalling and the Indian inclination to walk on eggshells for fear of offending Chinese sensibilities, that emboldens China to push the limits of propriety and protocol in its conduct with India. Read

Senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh (and one time vice-president candidate) today claimed mistakes committed in understanding and management of border issues, resulted in the Indo-China war in 1962 and later territorial disputes with Pakistan.

Mistakes committed in domestic policy matters would be corrected in a lifetime but mistakes with regard to foreign policy issues take generations to correct, Singh, a former Defence and External Affairs Minister, said in an interaction with academicians here. To a query on 1962 Indo-China war trauma, he claimed India has not entirely come out of the trauma and to overcome it, the country needs a robust leadership which is absent at present.

Why does Manmohan Singh care so much about the Washington Post? Read Vir Sanghvi's post.

The monsoon session of Parliament which began on August 8 ends tomorrow. According to the Rajya Sabha Bulletin, the agenda for government Bills includes 29 pending Bills for consideration and passing.  One new Bill is listed for introduction, consideration and passing to replace the ordinances. 

The government plans to introduce 15 new Bills.  We list these below. Unlike in recent sessions, Lok Sabha and the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs have not published the Agenda for the Session. Read

During her speech at the Democratic National Convention Tuesday night, first lady Michelle Obama painted her husband as a president who has created jobs like those held by her father and his grandmother, jobs they used to give their families greater opportunities. Read

Lalit Modi's comment on the Hindustan Times story: The sheen is wearing off IPL. '@LalitKModi Who is responsible for this - I don't want to again beat on it.http://bit.ly/UufbxP. It is just one man - N Srinivasan. What an ego. Wow.

N Srinivasan is the BCCI president, while Modi used to be the IPL chairman and the two don't see to eye to eye, to put it mildly.  

A case was filed against Shiv Sena patriarch Bal Thackeray, party executive president Uddhav Thackeray and Maharashtra Navanirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray for making inflammatory speeches against migrants from Bihar and its people.

Adam Ali, a journalist of Urdu daily "Quami Tanjeem' filed the case today in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate Sanjay Kumar Sinha charging the Thackerays with making hate speeches against Biharis and other north Indian people that may disrupt peace and communal harmony and fuel regional sentiments in the country.

Oscar Pistorius secured his first gold medal of the 2012 Paralympics by anchoring a South African T42-46 4x100m relay victory.The South African team won in a new world record time of 41.87 seconds. More

Also read the blade runner controversy.

M C Mary Mom, who won a bronze medal at the London Olympics, today asked the sports person, who could not be on podium in the British capital, to not give up and keep striving hard to win a medal the Brazil Games.

"To be an Olympian is very hard. To qualify is very hard. I am very happy and proud to bring a medal for the nation. I will try hard again for Rio. Just challenge me," Kom said here at a felicitation ceremony organised jointly by a Guwahati-based organisation and a Bangalore-based firm.

"If Mary Kom can get a medal, why not others. This is my message to you," she said at the programme in which shooter Joydeep Karmakar and archer Rahul Banerjee, who could not win any medal at the London Games, were present. "I tell them don't give up. I am already married and have two kids. Try to win a medal in the next Olympics. All the best for Rio. Please support them for Rio," she said.

Simon Denyer's report on TB in India. The discovery of an almost untreatable form of tuberculosis in India has set off alarm bells around the world and helped spur a dramatic expansion of government efforts to battle the killer lung disease.

Denyer, as you know, is in the eye of a storm over the Washington Post's report that the PM cut a tragic figure.

After threatening to disrupt a TV reality show featuring Pakistani artistes, MNS chief Raj Thackeray today gave the "green signal" for its telecast, but asserted his outfit would not allow such shows in future.

The party withdrew its threat after filmmaker Boney Kapoor and CEO of Colors TV channel met Thackeray at his Dadar residence this afternoon. The Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena had on August 30 issued a diktat to Colors TV channel, warning it to not broadcast the show on September 8. It had also asked d Bhosle not to participate.

In the 1700s, one man antagonized the European powers, and insisted on the Maratha Empire's rights to taxation and sovereignty over Maharashtra's coast. He was Kanhoji Angre, the head of the Maratha navy. How did he, 283 years ago, set an important precedent for the Subcontinent's local powers? Read

The woman constable thrashed by Congress workers in Bhubaneshwar is being led to safety by her colleagues. The Congress workers were demanding the resignation of Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik alleging that he recommended people for allocation of coal blocks and tried to storm the Assembly.

The government needs to rethink its decision to have woman constables during morchas. If you recollect, woman cops were molested during the Azad Maidan riots in Mumbai last month. Here's the latest on that story.

New Delhi police officials have released hundreds of pages of documents from their investigation into the Feb. 13 bombing of an Israeli Embassy car. The documents aimed to show that a well-known Indian Muslim journalist aided an Iranian conspiracy to plan and carry out the bombing. But a review by IPS of the evidence filed in the case suggests that the Indian journalist accused in the case has been framed by the police, at least in part to implicate the Iranians in the terror plot. Read the report here

Indians use a credit card for an average payment amount of about Rs 55,000 in a year -- which is nearly 30 times the money spent through debit cards. However, the number of debit cards in the country is more than 15 times than that of credit cards, shows an analysis of data available with Reserve Bank of India. 

The life and times of Rahul Gandhi. A quickie biography. See

Protests over coal blocks allocation turned violent in Odisha when several thousand Congress workers clashed with police outside the state Assembly. The Congress workers were demanding the resignation of Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik alleging that he recommended people for allocation of coal blocks, reports IBN Live.

Police lathicharged the Congress workers, used water canon and fired tear gas to disperse then after they allegedly attacked them. Police officials claimed that the mob attacked and beat up a lady constable mercilessly after which the order to use force against the Congress workers was given.

Over 100 Congress workers were injured in the clash.Odisha Director General of Police (DGP) Prakash Mishra said that they used minimum force to disperse the crowd. He claimed that the crowd turned violent and indulged in vandalism outside the Assembly. He added that Congress workers were armed with sticks, rods, bricks and stones. Several of them were also drunk, said Mishra.

With his appointment as the World Bank's chief economist, Kaushik Basu has become the latest in a series of Bengali economists to take on a prominent global role. The region is well-known for its intellectual vigor, producing figures such as Nobel literature laureate Rabindranath Tagore and Satyendra Nath Bose, a physicist whose legacy played a role in the Higgs Boson drama in July. Read

A trip to the U.S. Open this weekend serves as a reminder that athletic excellence doesn't last forever. Read

Despite his reputation as a tough, no-nonsense police officer who has stood up to the government on several occasions, Nazrul Islam is soft-spoken and gentle, even when refusing to discuss thecontroversy surrounding his latest book, "Musalmander Koroniyo' (What Muslims Should Do). Read

Also see: Sharp criticism for Mamata Banerjee in Muslim officers book

Update on the flash floods in Bengal. So far 12 passengers have been rescued, with approximately 88 missing. A bus carrying 100 passengers was swept away in flash floods in Bankura district of West Bengal.  

An emotional Andy Roddick bid goodbye to professional tennis after he suffered a fourth round 6-7 7-6 6-2 6-4 US Open defeat at the hands of Argentine Juan Martin del Potro.
 
"I''ve loved every minute of it. It''s been a road, a lot of ups, a lot of downs, a lot of great moments," Stuff.co.nz quoted a tearful Roddick, as saying on the Arthur Ashes court after losing the game.
 
Roddick surprisingly announced last week that he would hang up his racquet after a 13-year professional career following the year''s final grand slam.
 
The 30-year-old began the match well, winning the rain-delayed first set in a tiebreak, but could not keep up with the towering and younger Del Potro, who won the U.S. Open in 2009.

A clutch of some 33 words in a foreign-policy statement of some 9000 words is all that the Democratic Platform manifesto devotes to the ties with India. Read MK Bhadrakumar's column

I was Lance's personal assistant for two years, during the height of his racing career. Do I think he cheated? Yep. But my real problem is something that diehard fans seem unable to grasp: the vengeful tactics he uses against people who tell the truth about him, on and off the bike. Read

A bus carrying 100 passengers has been washed away in flash floods in West Bengal. The bus was going from Jhargram to Durgapur in the Burdwan district of West Bengal. A few passengers have been saved even as rescue operations are on. 

The negative list regime for trade with India will be phased out by December after the move is approved by the federal cabinet, Commerce Minister Makhdoom Amin Fahim has said. The negative list allows trade in all but 1,209 items, Fahim said in a written reply to a question in the National Assembly or lower house of Parliament yesterday.

If you haven't read it yet, here's the October 2011 Caravan story, which the Washington Post quoted from without attribution. Read

While the first lady humanized Obama and reminded people why they liked him, it wasn't exactly a home run, writes Mark McKinnon and critiques the Democratic convention's first night. Read

Shah Rukh Khan, who is on his much-publicised maiden shoot in Kashmir, had to work his charm on fans and media as chaos broke out during his press conference.

The 46-year-old actor, who completed his nine-day filming schedule in the Valley for Yash Chopra's new directorial venture, took the mic first to apologise for turning up late by fifteen minutes and then started talking about how happy he was to be in Kashmir. But the actor was forced to repeat his lines as people jostled with each other to pose questions to him at the poorly organized event.

Tom Cruise insisted that a hotel chuck out all of its guests '" so that he could dine there without being bothered.The Mission: Impossible actor, 50, made the demand when he tried to book an executive suite at the ten-room boutique venue.But it was rejected by the outraged manager. All the gossip here.

Delhi metro commuters left stunned as woman jumps to her death. An eyewitness account. Read

And on similar lines, Bad Piggies, the sequel to Angry Birds, will be released later this month, games company Rovio has announced. See

DC Comics introduced a new Green Lantern on Wednesday - a Muslim from Dearborn, Michigan, who leaves behind street racing to join an intergalactic police force. Read

Notwithstanding the charges being leveled by the Obama Campaign against Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney of outsourcing jobs overseas, a top Obama aide has said that both outsourcing and in-sourcing are here to stay in this highly globalised world. 

The Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited (DCHL) has issued a tender notice inviting bids from prospective buyers for its IPL franchisee Deccan Chargers, which is currently in a financial mess. The re-sale has now been confirmed, which means that DCHL, which has issued tender notices under the aegis of BCCI has that tenders can be submitted latest by September 13. The Indian cricket board's  working committee on Monday decided to allow DCHL to go ahead and issue tender notice in the leading national dailies.

Prediction: 2013 will be a year of serious global crisis. That crisis is predictable, and in fact has already begun. It will inescapably confront the next president of the United States. Yet this emerging crisis got not a mention at the Republican National Convention in Tampa. We'll see if the Democrats do better. Read

Former Gujarat minister of state for home Amit Shah has been given bail in the Tulsiram Prajapati fake encounter case of 2006. The CBI had charge-sheeted Prajapati, the serving additional director general of police Geeta Johri, former DGP PC Pande, former additional DGP OP Mathur and 16 other police officers in the case. "Shah, Johri, Pande and others have been booked for the offences of criminal conspiracy, murder, destruction of evidence and offences under the Arms Act," a CBI press release said. The SC had restricted him from entering Gujarat while the case was being heard.

And finally, here is the Washington Post story that's causing so much grief.  Read

Read the Washington Post blog which details the letter written to it by Pankaj Pachauri, Communications Adviser to the Prime Ministers Office  and Simon Denyer's response to it. 

The PMO did say it received repeated requests from Simon Denyer, who is chief of bureau, India, for the Washington Post, but had replied that since the Parliament was in session, and a particularly stormy one at that, the PM would make a statement once it ended on September 8.

The PMO said the reporter, Simon Denyer, said sorry twice in private, but denied he apologised to the media. In effect, he lied to the media. The PMO said the Post used comments and rehashed quotes from another magazine (Caravan) but did not attribute it.

Meanwhile, read Jason Overdorf's piece for the Global Post: A defense of the one-sided story: Manmohan Singh has perfected the art of keeping silent, even if he has a ways to go in public speaking. Unfortunately, his office doesn't know when to keep mum. Read

The PMO replies to the Washington Post on its article on Dr Manmohan Singh. The PMO says the Post "never got in touch with us for our side of the story. And it was unethical and unprofessional on your part. You said sorry twice, but you told the media, you did not apologise. You have also rehashed and used a couple of quotes from our former media advisor."

This is the clarification issued by the Washington Post earlier today...
"An earlier version of this article failed to credit the Caravan, an Indian magazine, for two statements that it originally published in 2011. The assertion by Sanjaya Baru, a former media adviser, that Singh had become an object of ridicule and endured the worst period in his life first appeared in the Caravan, as did an assertion by Ramachandra Guha, a political historian, that Singh was handicapped by his "timidity, complacency and intellectual dishonesty.' While both men told The Post that the assertions could accurately be attributed to them, the article should have credited the Caravan when it used or paraphrased the remarks."

The World Bank named Kaushik Basu as its new chief economist, filling one of its top posts with a former senior official in India's government. Mr. Basu, 60 years old, will join the World Bank as a senior vice president next month. He spent the past three years as chief economic adviser to the Indian government.

He is on leave from Cornell University, where he has been on the faculty since the early 1990s as a professor of economics and international studies and chairman of the economics department. The WSJ has the report.

Pakistan's blasphemy law is overwhelmingly being used to persecute religious minorities and settle personal vendettas. As the case of 14-year-old Christian Rimsha Masih gains global attention, why have politicians failed to act? Read Mohammed Hanif's column for the Guardian.

Hanif is the author of Our Lady of Alice Bhatti. Read Hanif's interview with Rediff.com's Archana Masih.

The fracas over coal block allocations continued for the twelfth day in Parliament today as BJP members vociferously demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha were adjourned till noon after opposition triggered ruckus on the issue. Members of the DMK AIADMK, CPI and Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) were in the Well raising the Sri Lanka issue.

DMK members were opposing the training of Sri Lankan armed forces at an airbase in India, while AIADMK and VCK members protested the upcoming visit of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to Madhya Pradesh.

In the Lok Sabha, Speaker Meira Kumar took up the Question Hour after making an obituary reference to the victims of the fire tragedy in Sivakasu in Tamil Nadu. After observing silence for a while, the BJP members trooped to the Well raising slogans against the Prime Minister over the coal block allocation.

As the din continued, the Speaker adjourned the House till noon.

When the Rajya Sabha met for the day, it mourned the loss of lives in a devastating fire at a cracker manufacturing unit in Sivakasi in Tamil Nadu yesterday. Soon after, the House the plunged into turmoil as BJP members shouted slogans demanding resignation of the Prime Minister.

Some SP members were up on their feet but they could not be heard in the din. Chairman Hamid Ansari tried to restore order in the House and called for first listed question of the day but BJP members were unrelenting. He then adjourned the House till noon.

Yesterday, in the context of his article in Washington Post criticising the Prime Minister, Simon Denyer was all bluster and bombast. At the centre of the criticism hurled at Denyer, was the Congress' assertion that the quotes in the article credited to Sanjaya Baru, were not made to Denyer. Denyer stuck by his story repeatedly during appearances on prime time news television. Read more on Firstpost.com

Maybe Roger Federer had too much time off between U.S. Open matches. This much is certain: He won't be playing again at this year's tournament after losing to Tomas Berdych in the quarterfinals.Five-time champion Federer departed Flushing Meadows before the semifinals for the first time since 2003, stunned by the sixth-seeded Berdych 7-6 (1), 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 on Wednesday night."I just didn't come up with the goods tonight," Federer said. "It was unfortunate."

More on ESPN.

Women's groups in Karnataka are demanding the removal of a High Court judge, Justice K Bhakthavatsala, who said it was okay for a man to beat his wife as long as he was taking good care of her.

He reportedly made this statement while hearing a domestic violence case. The judge told the plaintiff, who is seeking a divorce on the grounds of abuse, that she should just "adjust" to the cruelty being meted out to her for the sake of her marriage and her children.

Read more

Visiting Chinese defence minister General Liang Guanglie had an unusual "token of appreciation'' for the two IAF pilots who ferried him and his entourage in a plush Embraer Legacy jet from Mumbai to New Delhi on Monday -- Rs 50,000 each in cash.

The Times of India reports that the pilots, baffled and slightly alarmed at receiving the crisp currency notes in sealed envelopes, the two pilots promptly reported the matter to their seniors in the IAF, who in turn got the defence ministry into the loop.

The end result is that the Rs 1 lakh has been deposited in the government 'Toshakhana' (treasury or depository) since it was thought prudent "to avoid hurting Chinese sensitivities'' by returning the gift.

Read more

Shinde said that Pakistan-baed terror groups posed continuous challenges. Meanwhile, Parliament has been adjourned till noon over, what else, but the CAG report on coal block allocations, now dubbed as coalgate. 

Shinde met LK Advani, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley earlier today in a bid to end the logjam in Parliament.  

Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde has said that motivated rumours and irresponsible use of social networking media pose a new challenge. "We are cognisant of the continuous thrust of Pakistan-based Islamic groups to infiltrate terrorists and hardware across the LoC. Naxalism continues to pose a significant challenge. Nearly 80 per cent of Naxal violence is taking place in less than 30 districts."

A day after a devastating fire broke out in a fireworks unit in Sivakasi, the police have intensified their search for the owner of the unit and six contractors associated with it.   

This is the retirement season for the sports world's Endearing Andys. First, English captain Andrew Strauss stunned the cricketing world by announcing his retirement from all forms of the game. Then came tennis ace Andy Roddick's quitting stunner. Richard Lord pays tribute to Strauss in The Wall Street Journal.You can also read a piece on the former English skipper by one of his distinguished predecessors, Mike Brearley, in The Guardian.

Meanwhile, Mr B Raman has criticised the Prime Minister's Office for the way it handles the media. You can read Mr Raman on Rediff.

The Washington Post has published a clarification on its report on the prime minister. It says: 

Correction: 

An earlier version of this article failed to 

credit the Caravan, an Indian magazine, for two statements that it originally published in 2011. The assertion by Sanjaya Baru, a former media adviser, that Singh had become an object of ridicule and endured the worst period in his life first appeared in the Caravan, as did an assertion by Ramachandra Guha, a political historian, that Singh was handicapped by his timidity, complacency and intellectual dishonesty. While both men told The Post that the assertions could accurately be attributed to them, the article should have credited the Caravan when it used or paraphrased the remarks. 

The article has been updated. You can read the original article here.

Under a barrage of attack from the opposition over his record as President, Barack Obama has asserted that the US economy is definitely better off now than it was four years ago when thousands of jobs were being lost. 

The US embassy in Delhi has posted photographs of Neil Armstrong with Indira Gandhi when the First Man On The Moon visited New Delhi after his historic journey. You can see the photographs here. 

The Shakti Bhatt Foundation has announced its shortlist for the Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize 2012.

Longlist judges, poet/author Jeet Thayil and writer/arts consultant Sanjay Iyer, sifted through a record 96 books to come up with the final six.

 

The shortlisted books will be sent to the 2012 panel of judges: literary agent David Godwin, poet and novelist Tishani Doshi, and author Basharat Peer. The winner will be announced in the second half of November and the prize will be presented in December. Last year's winner was Jamil Ahmads The Wandering Falcon.

 

The Shakti Bhatt Foundation is a non-profit trust. It wishes to reward first-time authors of all ages. For further information, mail shaktibhattprize@gmail.com

 

 

The 2012 Shortlist

 

1. Tamasha in Bandargaon by Navneet Jagannathan (Tranquebar)

2. The Purple Line by Priyamvada Purushottam (HarperCollins)

3. The King in Exile by Sudha Shah (HarperCollins)

4. The Inexplicable Unhappiness of Ramu Hajjam by Taj Hassan (Hachette)

5. Taj Mahal Foxtrot by Naresh Fernandes (Roli Books)

6. Calcutta Exile by Bunny Suraiya (HarperCollins)

PTI reports that Indian-American astronaut Sunita
Williams and her Japanese counterpart Akihiko Hoshide have
successfully restored power to the International Space Station on their second attempt. With this spacewalk, Williams surpassed Peggy Whitson's record for total cumulative spacewalk time by a female astronaut. Whitson worked outside for 39 hours and 46 minutes over the course of six spacewalks. Williams has conducted six spacewalks for a total of 44 hours and 2 minutes. The former record holder sent up congratulations: "You go, girl!" Williams replied: "Anybody could be in these boots." The spacewalk lasted 6 hours 28 minutes.
	

As one tweet points out, for every one of 'Clinton's prepared remarks (which you can read in the post below), he's ad libbing at least 2 or 3...' Everyone speaks of how good an orator Obama is. For sheer performance and the ability to move crowds, Barack would stand no chance against Bill. As another tweet points out, he explains Obama's policies better than Obama. In the audience is his daughter Chelsea who may enter politics soon. Hillary, the US Secretary of State, is away in Asia.

Former President Bill Clinton, the keynote speaker on Wednesday night at the Democratic Convention in Charlotte, delivered a brilliant speech to rouse the party faithful. You can read it here. 

AFP: US prosecutors are secretly preparing a case against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for publishing a cache of sensitive diplomatic cables, his lawyer Baltazar Garzon said Wednesday.

Read the full story on Radio Netherlands

Deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's intelligence chief is being held in Tripoli after being deported from Mauritania.

 

Pictures on social media appeared to show Abdullah al-Senussi stepping down from a helicopter in the capital.

 

Read more on BBC

Four people have been shot dead in the peaceful surroundings of Lake Annecy in eastern France, say reports. The bodies of three people were found in a British-registered BMW car near Chevaline, in the Haute Savoie region, say local media. A cyclist was found dead nearby.

 

A girl under 10 years old was discovered injured, reports said.

 

Read more on BBC

Kaushik Basu named World Bank's chief economist

Hijack drama off Nigerian coast; all Indian sailors safe

CBI recommends graft case against Chautala

PHOTOS: 54 dead in blaze at Sivakasi fireworks unit

Who has asked for your support, Nitish asks Uddhav

Washington Post write up stokes govt anger

Krishna-Khar meet: Terror, Pak's 26/11 trial on agenda

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