AFP reports: Iraqi security forces have arrested an insurgent allegedly involved in more than 30 attacks, a security spokesman said today, as the number of people killed across the country in September reached 200.

Britain and Ecuador failed to reach agreement on the fate of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange today at a meeting of their foreign ministers here, officials said. "We see no immediate solution," Ecuadoran Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino told reporters after meeting with British Foreign Secretary William Hague on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. 

Arvind Kejriwal-led India Against Corruption today said it will intensify its protest against the Delhi government and discoms on the issue of power tariff in the capital. 

As India overtakes China as the world's most populous nation, temperatures will rise and the monsoons will be more intense and variable, says the Financial Times

Narendra Modi, that is who! Read The Economist piece here: http://www.economist.com/node/21563644

An organisation of private bus owners today threatened to go on an indefinite strike in the state from October 1 if the West Bengal government did not announce a fare hike within 48 hours. 

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday came out with a book on the coal scam titled 'The Great Coal Robbery'. The book has been authored among others by BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar, whose complaint along with a party Member of Parliament to the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) led to the Central Bureau of Investigation crackdown on private companies cornering coal blocks fraudulently.

...and there is no solution in sight. Read why: http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-has-a-festering-global-problem-with-no-solution-2012-9

September 14 to 21 was yet another turbulent week in Pakistan. This is where the protests erupted: http://www.criticalthreats.org/sites/default/files/PK_protests_Slide5.JPG

The Internet giant is a sprightly teenager, and hit a peak on Wall Street this week. Read what Sida Vaidyanathan said about Google last year: http://bnreview.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Daybook/Going-Google/ba-p/8933

The Times, London, reports that Chelsea captain John Terry has been given a four game suspension and fined 220,000 pounds for using racist language against Anton Ferdinand.

BJP President Nitin Gadkari today served a legal notice on RTI activist Anjali Damania for alleging that he had tried to cover up the irrigation scam when she approached him and demanded an apology from her. 

The Diplomat Web site says Chinese copycats have struck again: https://thediplomat.com/flashpoints-blog/2012/09/27/the-fake-35-chinas-new-stealth-fighter/

On his blog, the investment guru explains why: http://mobius.blog.franklintempleton.com/2012/09/26/brics-economic-growth/

Congress today downplayed TMC chief Mamata Banerjee's statement that her party was ready to support a resolution moved by any party in Parliament against FDI in retail. 

Forty prisoners have gone on a hunger strike in Tihar Jail alleging various malpractices in the prison and demanding better facilities for them, claimed a a human rights activist, prompting authorities to deny it. 

The Group of Ministers has deferred its decision on the controversial land acquisition bill.

A local court today remanded 11 terror suspects to judicial custody till October 11 on expiry of their police custody.   

 

First Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Venkatesh Hulagi remanded the 11 terror suspects, who were in police custody since their arrest last month.    The court also extended till September 29 the police custody of two other terror suspects, nabbed subsequent to the arrest of the 11.    

 

All the 13 accused were produced before the court amidst tight security.     In all 14 persons with suspected links to terror outfits Lashkar-e-Tayiba and HUJI were nabbed by the Central Crime Branch police last month from Hubli and Bangalore.   

 

The police custody of the 14th accused ends on October 1.

Dismissing the allegations of RTI activist Anjali Damania, Maharashtra BJP today said it had been consistently raising the issue of corruption in the state irrigation projects in the state assembly.    

 

Senior BJP leader and Leader of Opposition in Assembly Eknath Khadse said here that his party was in fact working with Damania to expose the irrigation scams.    

 

"We have been consistently raising the issue of irregularities in Gosikhurd irrigation project, in Kondhane and elsewhere," Khadse said.    

 

BJP first raised the issue in 2007, he said, rubbishing the claim by India Against Corruption that opposition in Maharashtra was not much enthusiastic about taking up the issue.

Around six lakh employees of the Gujarat government today took casual leave en masse, seeking full implementation of recommendations of the Sixth Pay Panel.    

 

The one-day agitation, which came in the election year, crippled the work in government offices.     

 

The employees have also demanded that Gujarat government should withdraw cases filed against their union leaders, and the transfers of unions' office bearers be revoked, but government refused, saying that there could not be any preconditions for talks with the employees.     

 

Taking a tough stand, the government declared the mass leaves `unauthorised', saying that absence would be considered as `a break in service', and truant employees would not get any allowances.     

 

"Work in the state offices across Gujarat came to a halt as around six lakh workers went on mass casual leave today, pressing the demand of implementation of Sixth Pay Panel recommendations," said Vishnu Patel, president, Gujarat State Employees Coordination Committee.     

 

"So far no fruitful discussion has taken place with the state government," he said.  

Three persons, allegedly involved in the gangrape of a teenaged Dalit girl of Dabri village in Haryana's Hisar district, were remanded to seven-day police custody by a court in Hisar today.        

 

Vikas, Pawan and Raj Kumar were produced before the court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Raj Gupta, which remanded them to police remand for seven days.        

 

Meanwhile, two more persons Dharmender alias Mohinder and Anil, booked for allegedly giving shelter to the culprits involved in the gangrape, were also produced before the ACJM's cort today and were also remanded to police custody for seven days, police said here.        

 

The police had arrested these culprits yesterday from Almora in Uttarakhand where they were residing in a hotel.        

 

The teenage Dalit girl was allegedly raped a fortnight back by the youths who had also threatened to make public her objectionable pictures, following which her shocked father committed suicide on September 18.

Over one lakh security-men will be deployed in Gujarat to ensure peaceful polling during the forthcoming assembly elections which is expected to be held in two phases in November. 

 

The Home Ministry has conveyed to the Election Commission that it would make available 52,000 paramilitary personnel for deployment in Gujarat during the election, official sources said.    

 

Apart from the central forces, 55,000 state policemen will also be deployed to ensure peaceful electioneering in the western state.

Hitting back at Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, DMK President M Karunanidhi today said it was she who practiced "double standards" on various issues and ridiculed her advice to him to stop issuing "contradictory" statements.  

 

Joining issue with Jayalalithaa who on Tuesday accused him of adopting double standards on issues such as FDI in retail, the DMK patriarch said it was for the people to decide who were trying to fish in troubled waters and issuing contradictory statements.   

 

Referring to Jayalalithaa's charge that DMK could not even convene the meeting of Cauvery River Authority despite being in power at the Centre and state in the past, he said the authority itself came into being because of his efforts.  

 

Jayalalithaa had described the CRA as "toothless body" and walked out of its meeting in 2002, the DMK chief said, adding this had set a precedent for Karnataka Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar now.

Just In: Television channel CNN-IBN is reporting that the Congress may take legal action against Trinamool Congress cheif Mamata Banerjee for PM's mimicry

More details are awaited

With militants targeting panchayat members in Jammu and Kashmir, a group representing them today met Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to press for compensation for the kin of the three sarpanches killed and secure working conditions, apart from greater devolution of powers. 

Just in: A Delhi court has ordered the filing of an FIR against Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray on a complaint against his remarks terming Bihar natives as infiltrators in Maharashtra.

"His remarks that Bihar natives in Maharashtra shall be kicked out were defaming and his provocative statement is against national integration as the Constitution has given the right to any person to live anywhere in the country," Advocate Prem Shankar Sharma had said in his complaint.

Just in: A Delhi court has ordered the filing of an FIR against Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray on a complaint against his remarks terming Bihar natives as infiltrators in Maharashtra.

An anti-US rally called in by a Muslim group in Kolkata against the 'anti-Islam' film turned violent as protesters tried to break through police barricades and enter the American Centre.

The American consulate has closed.

Welcoming the Supreme Court verdict on the 2G auction Minister of Telecom said Kapil Sibal, reiterated, "Policy making must be left exclusively to the government. SC order brings constitutional clarity."

"The Centre will auction 2G Spectrum. The government can now work without fear," he added as the addressed a press conference at the PIB Conference Hall, Shastri Bhawan.

The Supreme Court today clarified that it does not believe that all national resources must be auctioned.

The Bombay high court has ruled that the second marriage of a Muslim man cannot be the reason for either stopping payment of maintenance to the first wife or reducing it.

"In fact as per the enjoinment in Islamic Law, a person would be entitled to marry for the second time if he was capable of maintaining both the wives equally fairly," observed Justice Roshan Dalvi while hearing a plea of a woman who sought a raise in maintenance payable by her husband.

"If the husband is in a position to earn, the fact that the husband has remarried and has a second wife, cannot bring down the quantum of maintenance for the first wife whom the husband has failed and neglected to maintain", the judge ruled in a recent order.

It is a test that all Indian and other non-EU citizens have to pass before becoming British citizens, but Prime Minister David Cameron last night had a tough time answering some key questions on a widely watched American chat show.

Cameron, who is an Oxford graduate, appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman in what was considered by some in London as a risky move, given the host's biting humour and obvious relish in embarrassing high profile guests.

Cameron, who announced in a major speech on immigration in October 2011 that his government was revising the citizenship test to "put British history and culture at the heart of it", could not answer questions about the Magna Carta and the composer of Rule Britannia.

Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar's husband Feroz Gulzar has rubbished rumours about differences in their relationship as a campaign to malign his wife.   

Gulzar, an industrialist from Punjab province, was quoted by Geo News channel today as saying that the campaign to malign his wife was "rubbish" that does not merit comment.   

He further said there was "no premise for such trash" and that he would not offer any comment on "social media gossip".   

There has been considerable speculation about the fate of Khar's marriage to Gulzar since a little-known Bangladeshi tabloid claimed without any proof she was allegedly involved in a relationship with Bilawal Bhutto, son of Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari.

The Supreme Court today clarified that the government need not follow a competitive bidding process for allocating all national resources. The auction order is only restricted to the telecom spectrum.   

The profit maximisation cannot be only basis for allocating natural resources, said the SC. The policy of auction has not got a constitutional mandate.

The apex court says it cannot prescribe or proscribe method of allocation of natural resources but can undertake judicial scrutiny on case to case basis.

Earlier this year, in the context of the expansive 2G telecom scam, the top court had observed that all natural resources must be auctioned by the government.In February this year, the court cancelled 122 telecom licenses issued by former minister A Raja in 2008 on the basis of a first-come-first-serve policy which he allegedly manipulated.  In its landmark judgement, the court said that a get-in-line policy was fundamentally flawed and that all natural resources must be auctioned by the government. 

The Right of Citizens for Time Bound Delivery of Goods and Services and Redressal of their Grievances Bill, 2011 is a novel legislation of paramount importance to deliver the government services to citizens within the stipulated time.

A parliamentary panel has recently asked for shortening the tittle of the bill and calling it Citizens Charter Bill.

Read the highlights of the Bill
   

With the exit of TrinamoolCongress from the UPA, the finance ministry has decided to levy service tax on AC and freight services fares, which are set to increase by 3.7 per cent from October 1.   

Fares of AC first class, executive class, AC-2 tier, AC-3 tier, AC chair car will go up by 3.708 per cent from October 1 and a notification to this effect will be issued today, a senior railway ministry official said.   

The decision for levying service tax on AC classes and freight and auxiliary services was taken yesterday at a meeting between Railway Minister C P Joshi and Finance Minister P Chidambaram.   

The service tax will apply to tickets issued in advance for journeys to commence on or after the date of its implementation. In case of tickets already issued excluding service tax, it will be ensured that the same is recovered either by TTEs in the train or by the booking offices before commencement of journey.

The Jamia Teachers' Solidarity Association's released report on 16 terror case filed by the Delhi police's special cell that ended in acquittal, is an indictment not just of the functioning of the cell, but also of the English press, according to twocircles.net.  

It cites examples of reports in leading national dailies such as The Times Of India, The Hindu, The Indian Express, and Hindustan Times, which carried verbatim, often without the use of the word "alleged', the version given by the special cell at press conferences where, the arrested innocents were produced as "hardcore militants".

Read full story here

The controversial former India coach Greg Chappell in a column for The Hindu talks of his love and respect for Virendra Sehwag and how he fears that he may squander his god-given talent for ball striking by his devil-may-care attitude to batting and training.

Read the full column here

Celebrated writer J K Rowling's first novel for adults went on sale today with many people queuing up for the book that has already broken records.

Pre-release sales of the book titled 'The Casual Vacancy' were the highest of any book this year, as Rowling gave interviews in a carefully choreographed launch.

People started queuing up for the book outside stores since 8 am (local time). Rowling described the book as "tragic comedy".

President Pranab Mukherjee, who is on a three-day visit, to Jammu Kashmir, will ride a shikara on Srinagar's famous Dal Lake today.

On Twitter, Shammy Baweja posted:
@shammybaweja: Far from the world of reforms and politics Pres Pranab Mukherjee to take a shikara ride on the Dal Lake in Srinagar shortly.

More on the President's Kashmir visit here

As vice president of Shanghai Synergy Culture & Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of state-owned Shanghai Media & Entertainment Group, one of Bill Zang's tasks is to makea global star. 

President Pranab Mukherjee today condemned the offensive video on Islam made in the US and its dissemination through social media.

"I condemn in the strongest of terms the making of the offensive video and its dissemination through social media. India can never condone any act which disparages religious sentiments or hurts religious feelings," he said.

The President was reacting to a media query and to local sentiments which also found expression through advertisements in local newspapers in which he was urged to denounce the film.

At the UPA coordination committee meet today, DMK demanded for a rollback of diesel prices and an increase in LPG cap, according to our correspondent in New Delhi.

T R Balu of the DMK demanded that the cap on LPG cylinders should be increased to 18-20. T R Baalu also explained the reason why DMK supported the Opposition during the national bandh against diesel hike and cap on LPG.

While the PM did not speak, DMK sources said Finance Minister P Chidambaram gave explanations for increase in diesel prices.  

Just In: The Supreme Court issues notice to the ministry of environment and forests and the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board on a petition challenging the environmental clearance to the project.

The Cabinet reshuffle will take place after October 14.

The reshuffle is likely to see a change in the top four ministries - home, finance, defence and external affairs. It is not clear yet which one it will be. Of the four, two have seen recent changes, with P Chidambaram moving to finance and Sushilkumar Shinde to home.

Several key portfolios in the Union cabinet have been lying vacant since Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress, which has 19 MPs in the Lok Sabha, pulled out of the UPA last week.

Yes, we all know about the throngs of Westerners who flock to India in search of yoga, meditation, Om and Shanti. Most are lucky, in that they dip their toes into the ocean of wealth and carry the touch through their lives; others are not so lucky -- ill-prepared for the arduous discipline required to continue on the tough path of spirituality, some go unhinged. While some are never heard of again, as this fascinating feature tells us.

Former India batsman Sandeep Patil is set to take over as the new chairman of selectors, sources said in Mumbai on Thursday.

Jimmy Amarnath, who was in the fray for the top selector's spot has been dropped from the north zone panel of selectors.

Patil will succeed Kris Srikkanth as Indian cricket's chief selector.

Earlier, Roger Binny was said to be in the fray for the top post.Binny was the highest wicket-taker for India in its 1983 World Cup triumph.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India is all set to announce the five selectors' names today after its 83rd annual general meeting.  

Sources tell CNN-IBN, Syed Karim is expected to replace Raja Venkat from the Esst Zone.    Abey Kuruvilla will be made selector of the West Zone, while Sunil Chaturvedi will be the Central Zone selector, say insiders.     

On his first visit to Kashmir as President, Pranab Mukherjee today said no problems are ever resolved by violence and the healing process must be nurtured with love, compassion and patience while important issues need speedy resolution. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin has called off a scheduled visit to Islamabad, leading to the postponement of a quadrilateral summit of Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Afghanistan planned for next month, officials said today. 

Just In: The issue of resignation of Ajit Pawar is over for the NCP, says Sharad Pawar.

The Centre today told the Supreme Court that the Kudankulam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu can withstand Fukushima-type incident.

"All safety measures are in place. Even if a Fukushima type of incident were to occur, Kudankulam is fully equipped to withstand any such unlikely event," the Centre said in its affidavit.

The Supreme Court was hearing an appeal against the Madras high court order which allowed fuel loading at the plant.

The Supreme Court also expressed concern over the safety aspects of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant.  "Will stop plant if if safety and environmental measures are not followed," SC judges said.

The United Progressive Alliance coordination committee agrees that economic reforms were necessary and unavoidable, said Finance Minister P Chidambaram today after a meet in New Delhi.

"The government's decisions are welcomed by stakeholders," he added.  

This was the first meet of the committee after the split with the Trinamool Congress.

The Supreme Court today permitted Sasikala Natrajan, a close aide of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, to inspect certain documents filed by the probe agency in the disproportionate assets case pending against them before a Bangalore trial court.

A bench of justices P Sathasivam and Ranjan Gogoi while allowing Sasikala's plea said that the same shall be completed within 21 days and the special court trying the offence would determine the venue.

The apex court, however, clarified that today's order would not affect, in any manner, any part of the ongoing trial or examination of the witnesses that has taken place so far. The court had on September 5 reserved its order after hearing arguments by Sasikala's counsel on her appeal against the Karnataka high vourt ruling, which had concurred with the trial court order that she was not entitled to the documents which were not part of the chargesheet.

Earlier on June 25, the apex court had refused to stay the trial but had allowed her to place on record the relevant material relating to her claim that she was not provided with certain documents relating to the questions put to her in the ongoing day-to-day trial. Jaya and others are accused of amassing disproportionate wealth during her tenure as chief minister in 1991-96.

Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar has said that there is no going back on Ajit Pawar's resignation as the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra. Sharad Pawar also told IBN Network that his family was united and there were no differences.

Sharad Pawar said that Ajit Pawar took the decision after speaking to him and that he gave the go ahead to him to resign. He also said that the resignation was Ajit Pawar's personal decision. He also said that there was no need for the other NCP ministers to resign.

Ajit Pawar resigned as the deputy chief Minister of Maharashtra over irregularities in awarding contracts for irrigation projects

Sharad Pawar said that decision of whether Prithviraj Chavan should continue as Maharashtra CM lies with the Congress.     

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has accused US President Barack Obama of seeking to exploit the Arab uprisings for personal political gain.

Assange's remarks came while speaking to a gathering of diplomats at the UN general assembly via a satellite video link from the Ecuador's embassy in London.

According to the Guardian, the founder of the whistle blowing website claimed that Obama's vocal support for freedom of expression had not been translated into action.

Assange focused largely on Obama's address to the UN in which he gave a staunch defence of freedom of speech, and voiced American support for the revolutions in the Arab world. 

The Supreme Court today granted full bail to Amit Shah, former minister and close aide of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, in the 2005 Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case.

The court has also transferred the case out of Gujarat to Mumbai.

The CBI had petitioned the court for cancellation of Shah's bail on the grounds that he may try to influence witnesses in the case.

Sohrabuddin and his wife Kauser Bi were allegedly abducted by the Gujarat's Anti-Terrorism Squad from Hyderabad and killed in a fake encounter near Gandhinagar in November 2005.

More details are awaited.

The United Progressive Alliance's coordination committee of allies meet today in New Delhi for the the the  first time since Mamata Banerjee's walkout from the alliance.

The committee is expected to discuss the new crisis in Maharashtra where the Nationalist Congress Party appears split wide open over Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar's resignation.

The committee is likely to endorse government's recent reforms, two days after Congress fully backed Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. The meeting is expected to make an attempt to formulate a coordinated response of the ruling alliance to the challenging economic issues before the country.

The Supreme Court on Thursday will give its advisory opinion on the presidential reference moved by the Centre on whether all natural resources be auctioned in line with its 2G spectrum judgement, or the directive be confined to spectrum alone.

A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia and comprising of Justices D K Jain, J S Khehar, Dipak Misra and Ranjan Gogoi will also decide whether the reference is maintainable or not, as it was alleged that the government tried to overrule the 2G verdict through the route of reference.

The government had on April 12 moved the reference signed by the then President Pratibha Patil in which eight questions have been raised, including whether there could be judicial interference in policy matters, vis-a-vis disposal of natural resources and investments made by foreign investors under multi and bilateral agreements.

"Whether the judgement lays down that the permissible method for disposal of all natural resources across all sectors and in all circumstances is by the conduct of auction," the reference has stated.

"Whether the court holds that within the permissible scope of judicial review that the policy is flawed, is the court not obliged to take into account investment made under the said policy including the investment made by foreign investors under the multi and bilateral agreements," it said.

The first ever tri-lateral dialogue between India, Afghanistan and the United States made good progress on economic side in particular towards strengthening Afghan economy and regional integration, a senior US official said.

"We had some good conversations, particularly on the economic side, about how we can continue our work together to promote regional integration, to help build up the private sector in Afghanistan, to help this transition from an aid-based economy to a more trade and private sector-based economy," Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Robert Blake told reporters.

Senior officials from India, the United States and Afghanistan held their first ever tri-lateral dialogue in New York on Tuesday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

While the Afghan delegation was led by the Deputy Foreign Minister Jawed Ludin; the American team was represented by the Special US Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Ambassador, Marc Grossman and Blake.

The Indian delegation was represented by the Joint Secretary (Pakistan/Afghanistan/Iran) Y K Sinha and Joint Secretary (Americas) Jawed Ashraf.

In a new twist in the irrigation scam in Maharashtra, one of the whistleblowers has named Bharatiya Janata Party chief Nitin Gadkari for trying to suppress it, reports NDTV.

The whistleblower, Anjali Damania, has been instrumental in blowing the lid off the Rs. 72,000 crore scam.

Damania said that when she met Gadkari in August at his Worli home in Mumbai and he told her to not push too hard to expose the scam, the report said.

Read full story here

The police arrested the head of Google Brazil over his refusal to remove YouTube videos that allegedly slander a mayoral candidate. But as the crime that Fabio Jose Silva Coelho is accused of has "low potential to offend" he will not remain in custody, federal police said in a statement. Rather, he will be released after he agrees in writing to appear in court, the statement said.

An electoral court has said Silva Coelho committed the crime of "disobedience" by not removing two videos that "slander, insult and defame" Campo Grande candidate Alcides Bernal.

The videos accuse the candidate of "instigating abortion, drunkenness, physical injury of a minor, illicit enrichment, and contempt as well as prejudice against the underprivileged," according to the indictment.

The United States will begin easing an import ban on goods from Myanmar, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Myanmar leader Thein Sein, in a further lifting of sanctions on the country.

Clinton told the Myanmar president that in recognition of the rapid reforms his Southeast Asian nation, which was once ruled by a military junta, has undertaken "the United States is taking the next step in normalizing our commercial relationship."

"We will begin the process of easing restrictions on imports of Burmese goods into the United States. We hope this will provide more opportunities for your people to sell their goods into our market," she said.

Thein Sein met Clinton on Wednesday ahead of his address to the United Nations General Assembly tomorrow, during a landmark visit to the United States that coincides with the tour by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

An American Sikh student's dignified response to a tasteless post making fun of her facial hair has earned her a legion of fans.

A man took a photo of Balpreet Kaur and uploaded onto Reddit in the 'funny' category with the tagline 'im (sic) not sure what to conclude from this', Daily Mail reported on Wednesday.

The aspiring neurosurgeon discovered the picture -- which shows her standing in a queue -- and, instead of flying into a rage at the person behind the cheap dig, she posted a comment explaining why she didn't remove her hair.

Balpreet, an Ohio State University student, said, "I'm not embarrassed or even humiliated by the attention [negative and positive] that this picture is getting because, it's who I am."

"Yes, I'm a baptised Sikh woman with facial hair. Yes, I realise that my gender is often confused and I look different than most women."

She refused to attack the person who had posted the photo, which many viewers accused of being mean and deliberately trying to draw laughs at Balpreet's expense.

AP reports: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's top press adviser has been taken into custody to serve a six-month jail sentence after being convicted of 'publishing materials contrary to Islamic norms'.

AFP reports: Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri resurfaced for the second time in a month today in an online video on the life of his late predecessor Osama bin Laden who he said was blind in one eye.

The Pakistani Taliban today said they had removed from their 'hit list' a federal minister who has offered a bounty of $100,000 for the death of a filmmaker who produced anti-Islam movie.