A body of sarpanchs in Jammu and Kashmir, which recently met AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi, today said he has promised that "no power can stop panchayat empowerment in the state." 

Thousands of people marched through the streets of Karachi today to protest against an anti-Islam film that angered Muslims across the globe. 

Pope Benedict's former butler Paolo Gabriele, who is accused of leaking secret Vatican memos about the politics going on in the holy city, went on trial today.

At least twelve people were today injured in stone-pelting after an angry mob damaged vehicles and shops at Dahemi village during the visarjan of Lord Ganesh.. 

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today condemned the violence by protesters during his ongoing Adhikar Yatra and slammed their conduct as unbecoming of the democratic and political culture of Bihar. 

Security personnel have arrested six ultras belonging to different Maoist outfits in Odisha's Nabarangpur and Ganjam districts, police said today. 

After Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyah warned that Iran will soon cross the 'red line' and acquire nuclear weapons, the Islamic nation hit back today, saying its arch foe had crossed the line a long time ago. 

Investigators today made little headway in the probe into the heist of Rs 5.25 crore from a cash van in south Delhi, recovering two empty cash trunks from a village in the capital. 

The Black Box of an ill-fated Nepalese plane that crashed, killing all 19 people on board, was recovered today. Officials cited a bird hit and an error by a "panic-stricken" pilot as possible causes of the tragedy. 

The Indian team's way of handling senior opener Virender Sehwag and the player's own attitude in this ongoing World Twenty20 is certain to raise questions about whether all is well in the Indian camp. 

Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu today suggested that a Third Front could emerge in due course of time. 

Opposition RJD has accused Bihar's Nitish Kumar-led government of imposing an 'undeclared emergency' in Bihar to suppress spontaneous protests by the people during his ongoing Adhikar Yatra. 

India today said that measures were being worked out with Bangladesh to bring down to 'zero-level' casualties on the porous border between the two countries, as Dhaka pledged not to allow Indian insurgents to operate from its soil. 

An FIR has been lodged against MNS chief Raj Thackeray allegedly for promoting enmity, causing mischief and making statements prejudicial to national interest by making remarks branding Bihar natives as infiltrators in Mumbai, the Delhi police has told a local court. 

Ahead of the week-long Odisha visit of the Justice M B Shah Commission to probe the mining scam in different parts of the country, the state government today said it was ready with documents for verification by the six-member team. 

Minister of State for Finance S S Palanimanickam has sought DMK chief Karunanidhi's permission to move a privilege motion against Sports Minster Ajay Maken in the Lok Sabha.

Ajay Maken wrote to an MLA in Tamil Nadu and sanctioned Rs 6 crore to build a stadium in Palanimanikam's parliament constituency. However, the MoS is upset as Maken disbursed the money without his knowledge. 

A new headache is brewing for the DMK and Congress, said a senior DMK leader.

In the coming year, not a single IAS officer from Keral will be appointed as secretary to the government. But two of the serving secretaries have sought a revision of the cadres, reports our correspondent in New Delhi.

The big question is why is the PMO sidelining Kerala-based IAS officers.

Following the incident at Vigyan Bhavan last week where a lawyer took off his shirt and shouted slogans disrupting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's speech, the Special Protection Group have taken elaborate precautions to ensure that a similar incident was not repeated during the function to commemorate the 150th birthday of Motilal Nehru at the same venue.  

The SPG made sure that two security men in plain clothes sat in every row during the function, according to our correspondent in New Delhi.    

The total capacity of Vigvan Bhavn is 850, but after last Saturday's incident only 750 guests were allowed. 100 security personnel occupied the remaining seats.  

Tamil Nadu assembly speaker D Jayakumar resigned today.

Jayakumar has stepped down without citing any reasons.

More details are awaited. 

One more rhinoceros was found dead today in the flood waters at Kaziranga National Park, which has seen a sudden rise in poaching activities in past few days.

While a total of six rhinos have died in past four days in poaching and flood-related incidents, the toll ever since the third wave of floods began on September 21 has gone up to 10.

Body of the mature female rhino with its horn intact was found floating in the flood waters at Gorakati under Bagori Range of the park today, Deka said, adding that the animal drowned in flood waters and was not a victim of poaching.

The horn from the body of the rhino was handed over to the forest department, he said. The carcass of the pachyderm was recovered during routine patrolling in the park, which has most of its 430 sq km area under flood waters.

Between September 26 and 28, five rhinos were killed by poachers.

Forty two people have been arrested in Bihar's Khagaria district after protestors on Thursday pelted stones at the convoy of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and attacked the collectorate, demanding special status for their region.

Police say, a probe has been initiated against all those who indulged in the arson and violence on that day. The chief minister was in Khagaria as part of his 'Adhikar Yatra' when protestors welcomed him with violent protests.

However, no action has been taken against the husband of a JD-U MLA, who flaunted a gun to threaten protesters who were shouting anti-Nitish slogans there.

The MLA's husband Ranvir Yadav also happens to be a former legislator who faces a number of criminal cases. On Thursday he snatched a carbine from his wife's bodyguard and threatened the protesters.

Unfazed by the uproar over FDI in retail and other tough decisions, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today indicated that the government may continue with the reforms process and expressed willingness to discuss issues with allies.

"We will do what is good for the country... reforms are not one-off process," he said.

The PM was responding to questions on demands for rollback of decisions on FDI in multi-brand retail, diesel price hike and cap on subsidised LPG cylinders by the opposition.

When asked to respond to reservations expressed by allies that the recent decisions could hurt their electoral prospects, Dr Singh said the issue could be discussed. "We are far away from elections."

He was talking to reporters on the sidelines of the swearing-in ceremony of new Chief Justice of India Altamas Kabir at the Rashtrapati Bhawan.

Justice Altamas Kabir, the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court, has been sworn in as the 39th Chief Justice of India.

Justice Kabir, 64, who succeeds Justice Sarosh Homi Kapadia, will serve a tenure of nine months till July next year.

Justice Kabir has delivered several landmark judgments including those on human rights and election laws.

In the third incident of its kind in three weeks, a teenaged girl was gangraped by four men in Gohana town in Haryana's Sonipat district on Friday.

The victim, a Std XI student, had gone to a grocery shop in the afternoon. The shop owner Kali asked her to go to a godown nearby to pick up the items she needed and then followed her, 

She was raped by Kali and three others identified as Harish, Deepak and Shanty, who were already there.

The police, which registered a case of rape, later claimed two of the accused had been arrested.

On September 21, a married woman in Jind district had alleged that she was gangraped by three men in her house at gunpoint in the presence of her family and children. Two accused were later arrested by the police.

The first gangrape case happened on September 9 and came to light only on September 18 after the Dalit father of the teenaged rape victim committed suicide.

The last rites of Brajesh Mishra, the country's first national security adviser who died here following a heart ailment, will be held on Monday. His mortal remains will be consigned to flames at the Lodhi Road Crematorium at 11 am on Monday, a close relative of Mishra said.

Mishra, who would have turned 84 today, was declared brought dead at the Fortis Hospital in Vasant Kunj at around 9.50 pm last night. He was suffering from coronary artery problem for some time.

A career diplomat, Mishra was principal secretary to PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee before he was appointed NSA. He had earlier retired as secretary in the external affairs ministry after having served as India's permanent representative to the United Nations.

He had played a crucial role in assisting Vajpayee during the Kargil conflict in 1999.

Ajit Pawar's resignation as the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra has been accepted by Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan today. The CM has forwarded the resignation to Governor K Sankaranarayanan.

The decision comes a day after NCP chief and Ajit's uncle Sharad Pawar asked the CM to accept the resignation and asked 19 other ministers who offered to quit in solidarity to return to work.

Ajit Pawar quit after his name cropped up in the Maharashtra irrigation scam.    

Former Karnataka CM B S Yeddyurappa clearly showed his displeasure towards the Bharatiya Janata Party by skipping the national executive meet in Surajkund, which concluded yesterday.

Yeddyurappa again revived his threat to break away from the BJP and form his own party. "The decision will be taken in December; I want to take the opinion of party workers and well-wishers first."

The announcement of the timing of a possible break from the BJP is significant since Karnataka assembly elections are scheduled in early 2013.

Read the full story here

India's advanced communication satellite GSAT-10 was successfully launched today on board Ariane-5 rocket from Europe's spaceport in French Guiana.

GSAT-10, with a design life of 15 years, is expected to be operational by November and will augment telecommunication, Direct-To-Home and radio navigation services.

At 3,400 kg during lift-off, GSAT-10 is the heaviest satellite built by the Bangalore-headquartered Indian Space Research Organisation. It was ISRO's 101st space mission.

A special investigation team has been appointed to probe a series of protests against Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

Shiv Kumar Jha, an SP-rank officer, will head the SIT constituted to probe into the incidents at Khagaria on Thursday during the CM's Adhikar Yatra.

Meanwhile, 35 persons have been arrested in connection with the attack on CM's convoy and vandalism in the town, according to Khagaria SP Mithoo Prasad.

The attack was part of a conspiracy hatched by youth wings of some opposition parties, said the SP. He, however, refused to name the organisations whose workers were allegedly involved in the attack, reports the Times of India.

The SP said an FIR had been lodged against 75 named accused and 600 unknown persons for brick-batting, arson, setting ablaze vehicles and damaging government property.

 In a veiled attack on his former close aide Arvind Kejriwal, Anna Hazare said "politics has split" the anti-corruption movement and the pro-party group has gone against his will.

The Gandhian activist also decried efforts to link him with some parties and "communal" outfits, in an apparent reference to allegations that he is closing ranks with RSS through yoga guru Baba Ramdev to run the anti-corruption movement after the split with the Kejriwal-led group.

"Those who favour party have been saying that if Anna says, then they will not form a party. But despite that, they have decided to go ahead with the plan against my decision. Sometimes, it is also said they were forming the party because Anna has decided so. This is not right," he said.

After Ang Lee's film based on Yann Martel's Booker Prize winner was screened at the New York Film Festival, Hollywood Reporter called it a 'glorious and accomplished rendering' of Life of Pi: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/life-pi-review-ang-lee-374992

Rediff Senior Contributor Claude Arpi sent us this one: Ten New Warnings to Officialdom Widely Circulated on the Internet Qiushi Theory, which is the CCPs official publication to interpret the CCPs major policies and theories, published an article discussing how the Internet era has placed new pressure on Party officials. Many Party officials have thus become alert and are fearful of the Internet. To illustrate its point, the article quoted some new information that has been circulating widely on the Internet: Ten New Warnings to Officialdom. The 10 warnings are: 1) do not talk nonsense during an interview; 2) do not smoke famous brand name cigarettes while attending a meeting; 3) do not wear expensive watches while conducting business activities; 4) do not drive a famous car when performing public service activities; 5) do not hold an umbrella during grassroots inspections; 6) do not copy famous articles when submitting something for publication; 7) do not use twitter when you are dating someone; 8) do not keep a diary about your former married life; 9) do not smile when a natural disaster occurs; 10) do not be the spokesman during emergent events. Sources: Qiushi Theory, September 25, 2012

We know Salman Khan listened to Priyanka Chopra's single thrice back to back, but here is high praise from the difficult-to-please Shabana Azmi who tweeted this morning: "@AzmiShabana: Priyanka chopra's single is vibrant and should soon be on everyones lips. Congratulations dear one"

Venkatesh Vembu has a must-read on the Kelkar Report on FirstPost.com: http://www.firstpost.com/politics/why-sonia-mamata-bjp-must-be-forced-to-heed-kelkars-warning-473130.html

The Vijay Kelkar Committee Report on the Roadmap For Fiscal Consolidation is essential reading for every Indian concerned about this country's economic future: http://finmin.nic.in/reports/Kelkar_Committee_Report.pdf

AFP reports: Monsoon floods in Pakistan have killed 371 people and affected nearly 4.5 million, the government's disaster relief agency said today.

Bo Xilai's career in China's Communist party ended on Friday when he was booted out and charged with numerous offences that could even cost him his life. Last year Bo was seen as a shoo-in for one of the nine places on the party Politburo's Standing Committee, the cabal that rules China. Then murder intervened, his political rivals sensed an opportunity to scuttle his ascent... Bloomberg BusinessWeek notes Bo's eclipse in this feature: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-09-28/bo-xilai-end-of-a-princeling

That great Aussie, Mark Taylor has failed to make it to the board of Cricket Australia. The representative of New South Wales, the interestingly named Harry Harinathan, made it ahead of Taylor, one of the finest captains of his time. Read the story here: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/cricket/former-skipper-mark-taylor-snubbed-for-cricket-australia-board-position/story-e6frey50-1226482797058 Taylor is not the only remarkable cricketer snubbed by a cricket board. OnThursday, Mohinder Amarnath was dropped as an Indian selector after just one year in the job. Amarnath's candor bothered the BCCI's powers-that-be...

Fox Sports Australia alleges a Sri Lankan man entered the rooms of some of the Aussie cricketers, in the country to play the worldT20 championships and offered them sex: http://www.foxsports.com.au/cricket/icc-world-twenty20/young-sri-lankan-breaks-into-aussie-hotel-at-world-twenty20-and-offers-sex-to-players/story-e6frf3m3-1226483705228

Continuing administrative reshuffle, the Rajasthan government today transferred three more IAS and six state administrative service officers.

Two months after half the country was plunged into darkness, post-mortems continue of what went wrong. This one is interesting and reveals Mumbai's strategy to avoid such power outages: http://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/the-smarter-grid/blackouts-illuminate-indias-power-problems

A most shocking revelation: http://www.treehugger.com/endangered-species/4-leopards-killed-poachers-east-week-india.html

James R Flynn insists we are. An excerpt from his new book: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-we-know-humans-getting-smarter-flynn-excerpt