Prime Minister Manmohan Singh accepts the resignation of 6 Trinamool ministers, sources said.

Dr Singh said, "We have much to do to protect the interests of our nation, and we must do it now.  At times, we need to say 'No' to the easy option and say 'Yes' to the more difficult one. This happens to be one such occasion. The time has come for hard decisions. For this I need your trust, your understanding, and your cooperation".

Dr Singh said, "We need to do more, and we will do more. But to achieve inclusiveness we need more growth. And we must avoid high fiscal deficits which cause a loss of confidence in our economy".

On a conciliatory note, he said, "We recognise that some political parties are opposed to this step.  That is why state governments have been allowed to decide whether foreign investment in retail can come into their state. But one state should not stop another state from seeking a better life for its farmers, for its youth and for its consumers."

Dr Singh said, "The last time we faced this problem was in 1991.  Nobody was willing to lend us even small amounts of money then.  We came out of that crisis by taking strong, resolute steps. You can see the positive results of those steps. We are not in that situation today, but we must act before people lose confidence in our economy".  

Dr Singh said, "At the same time, it is the responsibility of the government to defend the national interest, and protect the long term future of our people.  This means that we must ensure that the economy grows rapidly, and that this generates enough productive jobs for the youth of our country.  Rapid  growth is also necessary to raise the revenues we need to finance our programmes in education, health care, housing and rural employment".

In an address to the nation on Friday night, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh defended the recent economic reforms introduced by the government, which have triggered a storm of protests from the Opposition as well as its allies.

The Indian Air Force is planning to fly ace shuttler and Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal in its Kiran Mk II jet trainer at its officers' training academy in Didndigul in Andhra Pradesh next week. 

Stating that FDI in retail is allowed only in cities with population of more than 10 lakh and not at villages, Union Minister of State for Industry and Commerce Jyotiraditya Scindia today said BJP is creating a "negative mayajal" on FDI with Bharat Bandh. 

The much-awaited event where Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal were to share dais has been called off. Both leaders had consented to remain present tomorrow at the foundation stone laying ceremony of the Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar (IIT-GN).

A missing Maldivian boat with four persons on board has been rescued by the Indian Navy today. The vessel named 'Rankuri' had been missing off the Maldivian coast since September 17 and was finally traced and rescued by the Indian naval ship INS Shardul, this afternoon. 

At least five people were killed and almost 40 more wounded today after a car bomb exploded in a packed market in Thailand's insurgency-hit south, officials said. 

The editor of a prominent Sri Lankan daily, known for its anti-government stance, claimed today that she has been sacked after resisting pressure to stop printing reports adverse to the government. 

India's nuclear operator has started loading enriched uranium fuel in the first reactor of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project after getting the final clearance from the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) on Tuesday. 

Continuing the slew of reformsinitiated by the UPA government, Finance Minister PChidambaram today cut the withholding tax on overseasborrowings to 5 per cent from 20 per cent and approved theRajiv Gandhi Equity Scheme to attract more investment andsupress demand for gold.     

Novelist Mohsin Ahmed, whose critically acclaimed novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist has been recently recreated as a feature film by Mira Nair, says, "I don't write my novels thinking of how they could be filmed.'

Read the full interview here

Also read, director Mira Nair's take on the film

PTI: BJP leader Uma Bharti today kicked off her 'Ganga Samagra Yatra' from Ganga Sagar, the place in Bay of Bengal where holy Ganga meets the sea.        

 

"I invite people from all communities and all political parties to be a part of this campaign to make Ganga pollution free," Bharti, who is also demanding national heritage status for the river, said here in South 24 Parganas district.

Expressing resentment against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for not allowing her to hold any public rally, she said, "I was not allowed to address people over here. This is a complete non-political initiative."         

 

The 39-day-long yatra will end at Gangotri on October 28 after travelling through five states from where the river Ganga passes.

Indrani Roy Mitra reports from Kolkata: The Congress ministers in the Trinamool Congress-led government in West Bengal will resign on Saturday in what is seen as a tit-for-tat move.

Read more here

Trinamool Congress chief attacked the UPA government on Friday evening by saying that notifying foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail by a minority government is unethical and undemocratic.  

 

Meanwhile, six of her ministers tendered their resignation letter to PM at his 7 RCR residence.  

 

Earlier in the day, TC leader Mukul Roy gave a similar statement. Read it here

On July 4, CERN, the European council for nuclear research, announced the possible discovery of the Higgs boson based on observations at the Large Hadron Collider.

 

The next day, Milan K. Sanyal, the director of the prestigious Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics in Calcutta, told reporters he would write to CERN to say that the "boson' in "Higgs boson' should also carry a capital letter. The demand, made with a straight face, was based on the fact that the term honors the work of the Calcutta-based, Indian Bengali physicist Satyendra Nath Bose.

 

Read more here

Trinamool Congress ministers led by Mukul Roy today submitted their resignations to PM Manmohan Singh.

After stepping down, the six ministers headed to Rashtrapati Bhavan to meet President Pranab Mukherjee to withdraw their party's support to the government over new policies on opening up the retail sector to foreign companies and increasing the price of diesel.

There were no special cars or police escorts for the TMC team that is proceeding towards Rashtrapati Bhavan, reports rediff.com's Indrani Roy Mitra.

The Prime Minister said he is sad at the resignation of the six ministers, says Trinamool Congress leader Sudip Bandhyopadhyay, who was among those who quit. 

As her ministers resigned, Mamata Banerjee held a press conference in Gaighata, Kolkata. She said TMC will hold a press conference at Jantar Mantar in Delhi on Sept 30.      "Game over, no room for negotiation," Trinamool Congress leader Mukhul Roy had said earlier in the day. "We will meet the President after our ministers submit their resignations."

Roy said that the Trinamool will launch a nationwide agitation against FDI in retail.  

Irked by Japans purchase of the disputed rocky outcrops known as the Senkaku Islands, Chinese cities witnessed the biggest anti- Japanese protests since 2005, reports bloomberg.com.

What about the Sino-Japanese relationship periodically enrages nationalists in both countries? What is this trap of historical memory and nationalist myth-making in which both countries find themselves?

Read full report here

BJP spokesperson Shanawaz Hussain today said the government is not addressing the issues of the common man.

"The government has not a learnt a lesson from Thursday's bandh. By giving a notification on going ahead with its decision on FDI in retail the government has mocked the demands of the public. This government fails to take into consideration the voice of the Opposition and also breaks the promises it has made in the floor of the House," he said at a press conference in New Delhi.       

India, Pakistan sign three agreements on cooperation in customs matters, redressing trade grievances and conforming standards.

More details are awaited.

External Affairs Minister S M Krishna will attend the United Nations meet and address the UN General Assembly on October 1. He is also scheduled to attend the International Day of Non-Violence, an Indian initiative.

During his trip to the US, he will also go to Milwaukee near Chicago to meet the Sikh victims of the recent gurdwara massacre. He will also speak at Brown's University in Rhode Island.

Find out why the CPI-Ms Biman Bose is saying either Mamata Banerjee lost her head (in 2009) then or has lost it now.

Pakistan today summoned acting US Ambassador Richard Hoaglan to protest anti-Islam film. It also asked the US to remove video from YouTube.

Violence flared up in Pakistan on the day of protest against an anti-Islam film today, with a man dying after being hit by a bullet allegedly fired by police as angry demonstrators chanted slogans against the US and set ablaze two cinema halls in Peshawar.

Notwithstanding Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf's call for people to express their outrage in a peaceful manner, protesters turned violent in Peshawar, the capital of the restive Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, and the garrison city of Rawalpindi, where several demonstrations were organised by students' groups and religious parties.

An investigative piece in tehelka.com speaks of the plunder of Chhattisgarh's natural resources allegedly by cronies of BJP Chief Minister Raman Singh.

Read the full story here

Walmart Stores Inc has said it is capable of opening stores within 12 to 18 months in India, a media report says.

"The company is capable of opening stores within 12 to 18 months and would be seeking permission to do so from states that have already indicated their willingness to have the US retailer set up shop" Walmart Stores President and CEO for Asia Scott Price said in an interview to The Wall Street Journal.

"Two years would be a reasonable time frame in total," he added. Price, however, said the company has not yet decided where or how many stores it would like to have in India. But he said the company expects to continue in retail its current partnership with Bharti Enterprises in a chain of 17 cash and carry stores.

Walmart Stores Inc is not in discussions with any other company for a potential retail partnership at present, Price was quoted as saying in the report.

As the 75th anniversary of JRR Tolkien's novel The Hobbit approaches, expert Thomas Shippey asks why it still manages to capture imaginations today.

What has made the book such an enduring success? There are lots of reasons why one would not have expected it to be. Too much poetry! No female characters at all! (How will Jackson get round that one?) A lot of professorial quibbling over words!

The BSE Sensex jumped over 500 points as markets witnessed their biggest single-day rally of 2012 Friday. The Nifty soared above the 5,700 mark and the rupee strengthened to 53.45 against the dollar. The BSE Sensex is now trading at its highest level in 14 months while the rupee hit a four-month high, reports NDTV.

The government's decision to go ahead with the notification allowing foreign investment in multi-brand retail, aviation and broadcasting sectors despite widespread political opposition boosted sentiments on the Street.

The government cut withholding taxes on overseas borrowing by local companies, sparking hopes of more reform measures in the coming days.

Prime Minister Manmohan Sigh will address the nation at 8 pm today to explain recent decisions on economic reforms. Sources say that the PM wants to personally put across to the country his point of view for the tough economic decisions the government has taken last week.

The PM is expected to explain on television the economic measures for which he has staked his government.

Sources say the address may have an echo of the budget speech he made as finance minister on July 21, heralding economic reforms which changed the country's face. The address is expected to chime with the dire message of the Kelkar report on the country's finances, according to The Times of India.  

India test-fires nuclear-capable Agni-III ballistic missile from island off Odisha coast, say defence sources.

More details are awaited.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram today announced the removal of customs and excise duty on non-subsidized domestic cooking cylinders, and called upon states to share the burden of fuel subsidy, patting Nitish Kumar's Bihar government on the back for cutting value added tax on diesel to reduce the burden on consumers.

Chidambaram, who has been very clear that there can be no rollback on the decision to raise diesel prices and cap the supply of subsidized cooking gas, said the Centre was paying a huge amount on account of subsidies on fuel and it was not unreasonable to expect states to bear some of the burden.

On the business website livemint.com, Aakar Patel writes on why Gujarat prefers the BJP and Modi.

Read the story here

The Congress will pull out of the Mamata government in West Bengal today. The Congress has six ministers the Bengal government, two Cabinet and four MoS. They will submit their resignations in the evening.

The Congress will pull out its ministers from the West Bengal government: WBPCC president Pradip Bhattacharya.

This decision comes as Trinamool ministers arrive in New Delhi to submit their resignation to the PM. They will meet the PM at 4 pm today.  

The last of the 33,000 US soldiers that President Barack Obama sent to Afghanistan nearly three years ago as part of a military surge has left the country, US defence officials said, reports AP. 

The withdrawal of surge troops, which began in July, follows an unprecedented number of Western soldiers being shot dead by their Afghan colleagues -- 51 so far this year -- and as anti-West protests sweep Muslim countries.

There are still some 68,000 US military forces in Afghanistan, as well as some 40,000 from NATO's ISAF coalition. The US-led effort to contain the Taliban insurgency involves a phased withdrawal of Western troops, and training Afghan forces to take their place. The plan is for Afghans to take charge of their own security by the end of 2014.

The Supreme Court today issued notice to the Centre and Air India on a plea seeking a CBI/SIT probe into alleged irregularities, including purchase of aircraft for the national carrier and giving up of profit making routes to private airlines, when Praful Patel was Civil Aviation Minister.

A bench of justices H L Dattu and C K Prasad sought response from the government, the national carrier and CBI on a petition filed by an NGO, Centre for Public Interest Litigation, alleging that various decisions taken during the tenure of Patel were meant to benefit private airlines and caused huge loss to Air India.

The NGO, in its petition, has referred to several of Patel's decisions, including the "massive" purchase of 111 aircraft for national airlines costing about Rs 70,000 crore, taking a large number of planes on lease, giving up profit-making routes and timings in favour of private airlines and the merger of Air India and Indian Airlines.

Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Yasin Malik was detained in Srinagar today after protestors clash with police over a controversial film deemed offensive to Islam.

Authorities on Friday imposed strict restricts on the movement of people in old Srinagar city and Anantnag town in south Kashmir, fearing law and order problems over the anti-Islam video made in the US.

Restrictions under Section 144 CrPC, which bans assembly of four or more people, were imposed in five police station areas in the Old Srinagar City, police sources said.

Hours before Trinamool Congress ministers submit their resignation to the PM, Union Law Minister Salman Khurshid said, "Mamata is a respected ally."  

"We have tried to bring everyone on board. However, our views do not match what can we do," he added.  

MDMK chief Vaiko and 700 supporters protesting the visit of Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa were detained at Chhindawara, Madhya Pradesh today.

Vaiko's supporters clashed with the the police in Chhindawara.

Vaiko was held while marching towards Sanchi, 45 km from Bhopal, where Rajapaksa is visiting to inaugurate a Buddhist University.

We will not forgive the Madhya Pradesh government, said Vaiko. He blamed the Congress and the BJP for being insensitive towards the cause of Tamils. 

In what comes as a relief to the Congress, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav today said that he will not withdraw support the the UPA government.

"He does not see the possibility of mid-term polls. There may be a Third Front in the 2014 polls," he adds.

After Trinamool Congress's withdrawal of support, the UPA government's support in Lok Sabha will come down from 273 to 254 and the coalition will be heavily dependent on Samajwadi Party (22) and BSP (21) for its majority in the House.

Cabinet reshuffle is on the cards after Trinamool Congress' exit from the UPA today. Sources say the Congress is keen to keep Railways after Mukul Roy quits and there is the possibility that Jairam Ramesh may get the berth, reports CNN-IBN.

Ramesh currently holds the Rural Development portfolio.  

Power Minister Verappa Moily may lose Corporate Affairs while Rehman Khan is likely to get Minority Affairs.

Jyotiraditya Scindia (minister of state for industries and commerce), Sachin Pilot (minister of state for communications and information technology) and Ashwini Kumar (minister of state for parliamentary affairs) may get upgraded, say sources.   

Controversial spiritual leader Swami Nithyananda is likely to be a part of reality show 'Bigg Boss' this season, reports PTI.

Swami Nithyananda was in news after southern actress Ranjitha accused him of raping her more than 40 times. There were allegations of sexual harassment by some of his other disciples also. There is a buzz that the self-styled godman is all set to participate in 'Bigg Boss 6'.

"I have been told the godman has been approached earlier. It is too early to confirm or deny," his spokesperson Dale Bhagwagar said in a statement.

It is going to be a day of high drama in New Delhi today will the Trinamool Congress ministers all set to submit their resignations to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi and the PM have busy schedules and will meet Railway Minister Mukul Roy at 3 pm. This will be followed by a meeting of the Congress core committee at 5 pm, reports our correspondent from New Delhi.       

The PM is expected to address the nation at 8 pm to defend the economic reforms.

Who is scripting PM's all-important speech? There has been a buzz in New Delhi that the role of the PMO is now being played by P Chidambaram.

After addressing the nation, the PM will meet President Pranab Mukherjee.

Sri Lanka President Mahida Rajapaksa reaches Sanchi in Madhya Pradesh where he will inaugurate a Buddhist University.

Rajapaksa will lay the foundation stone of an International Buddhist University at Sanchi, about 45 km from Bhopal.

To ensure that no Tamil protesters reached the venue, security measures have been tightened on all the entry points to Sanchi.

The Jammu and Kashmir government has directed Internet and telecom service providers to take necessary steps, including blocking Youtube and Facebook, to ensure that a controversial film deemed offensive to Islam is not accessible to subscribers.

The order to this effect was issued by the state home department, invoking the powers conferred under section 5(2) of the Indian Telegraph Act 1885, reports NDTV.

"In the interest of public safety and for maintaining public order, the government directed all licensed Telecom Service Providers and Internet Service Providers to make arrangements to ensure that their subscribers in Jammu and Kashmir should not be able to download or upload the contents" with regard to the video, the order says.

"If necessary, due to technical reasons, the Fully Qualified Domain Names shall be blocked viz www.youtube.com, www.facebook.com etc," the order reads.

As a precautionary measure, all internet services in the state have been blocked since midnight.

The Trinamool Congress ministers leave for Delhi to submit their resignation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Six TMC ministers including Railway Minister Mukul Roy will meet the PM at 3 pm.  

The TMC ministers will then head to Rashtrapati Bhawan where they will formally withdraw their letter of support to the ruling UPA coalition. "The party has decided that we will give resignation to the PM. We are ready to quit," Roy told the media this morning.  

The withdrawal of the TMC over FDI in retail and diesel hike will push the UPA into minority.  

With Mamata Banerjee's ministers leaving the Manmohan Singh team on Friday, six key positions will fall vacant. The most important among these is the cabinet rank of railway minister.

Sources say the Congress is likely to keep Railway after Mukul Roy quits, according to a CNN-IBN report.

This means the Railway will soon have a new minister, the third in a year. Current Railway Minister Mukul Roy was appointed in March after Mamata made Dinesh Trivedi step down for increasing passenger fares without her consent, the report said.

Read full story here

US President Barack Obama has said that an anti-Islam film is being used as an excuse to carry out violent acts against Americans.   

"What we've seen over the last week, week and a half, is something that actually we've seen in the past, where there is an offensive video or cartoon directed at the Prophet.   

"And this is obviously something that then is used as an excuse by some to carry out inexcusable violent acts directed at Westerners or Americans," Obama said in Miami Florida.   

Obama was responding to a question on the ongoing anti-U Sprotests in countries like Pakistan and Libya. "As we know, at the present time, 1,000 people are trying to get into the (US) embassy in Pakistan, and we have seen protests, anti-American protests in thousands of countries. We know in Libya, four Americans were killed. We know now that Ambassador Chris Stevens warned about security, days before he was killed, he said.