Airtel, Vodafone, Idea told to end 3G roaming pacts

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Fri, 05 April 2013

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21:43 6.2 quake rocks Russia near N Korea border

A powerful 6.2 magnitude earthquake struck today in eastern Russia near the border with China and North Korea, the US Geological Survey said.

The epicenter of the quake was southwest of Vladivostok, around nine kilometers (five miles) from the Russian border town of Zarubino, at a depth of 561 kilometers (350 miles), the USGS said.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage from the quake, which struck seconds after 12 am Saturday local time.

A 6.1-magnitude quake struck Russia's far east last month, and a 6.9 quake rocked the region in February. Neither caused significant damage.

21:41 Punjab CM justifies ban on 'Sadda Haq'

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today justified the ban on 'Sadda Haq', a Punjabi movie believed to have glorified the Khalistan movement and its leaders, saying the state government was committed to maintain peace and harmony.

"It is our priority to maintain peace and communal harmony in the state... we don't want that the movie should vitiate the communal atmosphere of the state," he told reporters here after paying homage to Akali stalwart, the late Jathedar Gurcharan Singh Tohra on his 9th death anniversary.

A day before its release, the Chandigarh administration, Punjab and Haryana government banned the film as it is understood to have glorified the Khalistan (separate Sikh homeland) movement and its leaders.

The movie is based on events in Punjab during 1980-90s and portrays alleged police torture and other inhuman practices that were reported during that period.

Punjab had witnessed great turbulence during the period in question and many police officers, including Punjab DGP Sumedh Singh Saini, are facing charges for crimes such as torture, murder/extra-judicial killings.

21:40 Vijaykant's election upheld

Madras High Court today upheld DMDK founder and actor Vijayakant's election from Rishivandiyam constituency in Villupuram District in 2011 Assembly elections.

Dismissing an election petition by an independent candidate whose nomination was rejected, Justice K Venkataraman said the nomination paper filed by the election petitioner was non-est in law and not a valid one as per Section 33 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.

M Jayanthi had prayed the court to declare the Returning Officer's order of March 28, 2011, rejecting her nomination as improper and wanted to set aside the election of Vijayakant.

Her nomination was rejected on the ground that the proposers signatures and names were not clearly mentioned.

She had sought two days time to file to address the defects and said her nomination should not be rejected, but in vain. Had her nomination been accepted, she would have won the election, she contended.

The government today ordered Vodafone, Idea and Airtel to stop 3G roaming services outside their licence areas within three days and imposed hefty penalties on the first two operators for violating the norms.

The Department of Telecom slapped Rs 550 crore penalty on Vodafone and Rs 300 crore on Idea Cellular for violating 3G service roaming norms, officials said.

The DoT notice directing the operators to terminate their 3G roaming pacts came a day after the Delhi High Court set aside its single judge order, which allowed Bharti Airtel to continue providing 3G inter-circle roaming facilities with other service providers.

"It (notice) has been issued today," DoT officials told PTI, confirming the penalty amount on the two companies.

They also said that while Airtel has been asked to stop services within 24 hours, the other two companies have been asked to stop 3G services under the roaming pact with other operators within three days.

Comments were not received immediately from the three operators.

20:06 Violence in Jaipur town, curfew imposed

Violence broke out between members of two communities in Sanganer town here with mobs going on the rampage torching a religious school, vandalising properties and attacking policemen prompting authorities to clamp curfew in the area today.

The trouble started over a trivial issue of parking a motorbike last evening, officials said, adding 20 policemen were injured in the violence. As tension gripped the area, some miscreants set afire the school at Shikarpur road today. However no one was injured as the fire was doused soon, officials said.

20:05 HC comes down on media for 'misreporting'

Kerala High Court today took objections to 'misreporting' by a section of press on the sensational Suryanelli rape case and virtually warned of initiating contempt of court proceedings.

A division bench comprising justice K T Shankaran and Justice M L Joseph Francis expressed displeasure over 'misreporting' of court proceedings in the case and observed "this is an unhealthy practice". The bench cautioned 'this is a fit case for taking contempt of court proceedings'.

North Korea has warned Britain that it cannot protect foreign embassies after April 10 in the event of a conflict linked to soaring nuclear tensions, the Foreign Office said today.

A spokeswoman said Pyongyang had advised London that "from April 10, the North Korean government would be unable to guarantee the safety of embassies and international organisations in the country in the event of conflict".

The concerned deputy municipal commissioner and senior police inspector have been suspended in connection with the building crash at Shil-Phata in Daighar in Mumbra, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said here today.

The death toll has gone up to 44 while 53 were injured in the incident, Chavan said, replying to a discussion in the Legislative Assembly. An additional chief secretary level enquiry has been ordered, he informed.

The state government has also announced Rs 2 lakh each to the next of kin of those killed and Rs 50,000 each to those seriously injured, the chief minister said.

Pope Francis today urged Vatican disciplinarians to act "with determination" against sexual abuse committed by members of the Catholic clergy, in his first public pronouncement on the issue.

"The Holy Father in particular asked that the congregation ... act with determination in cases of sexual abuse," the Vatican said in a statement, referring to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which handles such cases, after the pope met with its director.

19:26 Deal on Rafale combat aircraft may get delayed

The country's biggest defence deal for procuring 126 Rafale combat aircraft is expected to get delayed with differences surfacing between India and French firm Dassault Aviation over certain contractual obligations.

Dassault has demanded two separate contracts to be signed for the deal which includes one for the 18 aircraft to be built by the firm in France and the other for the 108 aircraft which are to be integrated in India by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.

In a double blow to former Pakistani military ruler Pervez Musharraf, Supreme Court today decided to hear a petition seeking his trial for treason even as one of his four nomination papers for May 11 General Election was rejected.

A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry will take up on Monday a petition filed by former Rawalpindi High Court Bar Association president Taufiq Asif seeking Musharraf's trial for treason.

The petition was included among cases scheduled to be heard next week, officials said. Asif's petition was clubbed with two other applications seeking similar action against Musharraf.

An Army helicopter today made an unscheduled landing at a field in Assam's Golaghat district, official sources said. The helicopter with the pilot and two crew members on board landed at Morongi Pathar with a huge crowd gathering.

The crew members did not allow the crowd near the helicopter and took off after 25 minutes before the circle officer reached the spot.

Sudipto Gupta death: The arrested bus driver told the media that there was no case of rash driving. He was dragged out of the bus and beaten up, the driver claimed.

18:44 India lifts Pakistan visa freeze

India starts giving visa-on-arrival to Pakistan's senior citizens from March 31.

Visa norms were frozen after the beheading of an Indian solider at the Line of Control.

18:37

The Deputy municipal commissioner of Thane has been suspended following the Thane building collapse.

18:19 Man survives Thane building collapse, but loses 13 of family

Thirty-seven-year old Imran Siddiqui was lucky to survive and escaped with some fractures, but 13 of his family members including his eight-month pregnant wife perished when the seven-storeyed illegal building suddenly turned into a massive heap of debris here.

Siddiqui, originally from Delhi came to Mumbra, sometime ago in search of a good job but little did he realise that his dreams of making it big in Mumbai would soon crash with a life-altering collapse.

He lived in the ill-fated structure with his deceased wife Shakila and around 15 of his cousins, 12 of whom are dead. Lying with fractured legs at the Kalwa hospital here, he was inconsolable when Chief Minister Prithviraj Chauhan visited all the patients today enquiring about their condition.

In nothing short of a miracle, a woman was rescued alive from the rubble of the collapsed building in Mumbra in Thane district.

The death toll in the under- construction building collapse in Shil Phata area of the district has risen to 41 as rescuers recovered more bodies from the site today, Thane police control room said.

While 60 people were injured, rescuers fear that some victims are still trapped under debris, they said.

The deceased included nearly 10 children, women and some construction workers. The police have registered a case against builders Salil and Khalil Jamadar under Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of IPC, police said, adding that efforts were on to trace them.

A former Himachal Pradesh minister and BJP MLA Ravinder Singh Ravi has offered an "unusual" solution to tackle the menace of monkeys and stray dogs -- deploying Naga and Gorkha regiments in the state from time to time.

Moving a resolution in the Assembly on the menace of stray animals, the BJP lawmaker said "if Gorkha regiment or Naga regiment is posted in different cantonments of the state from time to time, the population of monkeys would decline with passage of time".

The former Irrigation and Public Health Minister went on to say that some of the delicacies from the region to which these contingents belong are based on the meat of these animals.

18:04

Rahul's CII show goes viral on Facebook. Read

17:49 Cops broke Del gang-rape accused's hand: Lawyer

Vinay Sharma, an accused in theDecember 16 gang-rape case, on Friday arrived in court with a fractured hand and his counsel said Tihar Jail inmates and police beat him up as he wanted to appear for an Indian Air Force (IAF) recruitment exam.Sharma's counsel told the court that "Tihar Jail inmates and police beat up Sharma and broke his right hand so that he could not take his exam".

Sharma was to appear on April 7 for an IAF exam for vacancies of clerks.His counsel AP Singh told the court that the inmates had said to Sharma: "You want to write the exam? You will write the exam with your right hand. We will break your hand." More

The family of the SFI leader Sudipta Gupta met the West Bengal Governor M K Narayanan to seek justice. Sudipta's sister had said that the family wanted justice. "I still hope that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will look into it. She said it was an accident and a petty matter. My brother was in police custody and was killed by the police. We want a CBI probe." Sudipta's sister said today.

17:20 The next Malalas

Undaunted by the attack on 15-year-old Malala Yousafzai, two extraordinary young women are working to change the hearts and minds of Pakistan. Read

17:05

A traditional practice of courtship draws controversy in modern Bhutan. Take a look.

16:51 Lot of 'mediocre' journalists around: Katju

Justifying his decision to appoint a panel on fixing minimum qualification for journlaists, Press Council Chairman Markandey Katju today said the aim was not to "muzzle" the media but to improve the standards as there are a lot of "mediocre" professionals in the field.

"There are a lot of mediocre journalists these days and the quality of journalism has fallen. So we have constituted a committee headed by Council member Shravan Kumar Garg to suggest minimum qualification for journalists in the changed circumstances," the PCI chairman said here.

Also, there are several specialisations in journalism and hence a minimum qualification is necessary, Katju said. Garg said the committe will also look into the quality of various journalism institutes in the country as at present there is "no control" on them.

16:40 Pranab hits Mumbai tomorrow

President Pranab Mukherjee will visit Mumbai tomorrow to attend the concluding ceremony of the accomplishment of Sagar Parikrama-II -- Solo Non Stop Unassisted Circumnavigation done by Lt. Cdr. Abhilash Tomy of the Indian Navy. The Indian Navy launched the Sagar Parikrama I project on August 19, 2009, in an indigenously built yacht named Mhadei.

16:35 Saudi 'paralysis sentence' bizarre

The reported sentencing to paralysis for a Saudi man for a crime he committed as a 14-year-old has been condemned as "grotesque". The punishment, which was reportedly handed down to 24-year-old Ali al-Khawahir for stabbing his friend in the back 10 years ago, should not be carried out, the Foreign Office said. Read

Prince William has reportedly told Kate that he wants to video her giving birth to their baby this summer. A source told the Daily Star that the Prince is desperate to preserve the moment their first baby enters the world. However, Kate is dreading the idea of a recording being in existence and then getting into the wrong hands, the insider said. The source added that Wills is convinced that his wife will have a change of heart on the big day.

The Delhi High Court today refused to grant interim relief on a patent row to US pharmaceuticals major Merck Sharp and Dohme (MSD) which sought a restraint on Indian firm Glenmark Pharmaceuticals manufacturing and marketing anti-diabetes drugs Zita and Zita-Met.

Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw dismissed the interim application of the multinational pharma major that the Mumbai-based firm be restrained from manufacturing and selling the anti-diabetes medicines on the grounds that the salt used in the drugs were not of generic nature.

MSD, in its plea, alleged that the Indian pharma company has violated its intellectual property right (IPR) over its anti-diabetes medicines, Januvia and Janumet, by coming in the market with their own drugs containing the same salts.

The development assumes significance as on Monday the Supreme Court had rejected the plea of Novartis AG for patent protection of its anti-cancer drug Glivec.

"If I won a rupee every time an Indian commercial stereotyped women, I could have a bought a Ford Figo to use as storage space." How Indian advertisements are moving past the standard issue housewife. Or are they? Read

15:53 Maha guv sends 60 pleas opposing Dutt's pardon

Maharashtra governor K Sankaranarayanan forwarded forwards 60 pleas opposing a pardon for actor Sanjay Dutt to the Home Department. The actor was sentenced to five years in prison by the Supreme Court in a case linked to the 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai.

NIA has registered a murder case against two Italian Marines for allegedly killing two Indian fishermen off Kerala coast last year. The Home Ministry had handed over the case to National Investigation Agency through an order last evening.

The NIA submitted the FIR before the Special NIA court today. NIA has booked the marines--Massimiliano Lattore and Salvatore Girone--under sections 302 (Murder), 307 (Attempt to murder), 427 (mischief) along with section 34 (Common intent) of IPC.

The NIA also booked them under the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against Safety of Maritime Navigation and Fixed Platforms on Continental Shelf Act, 2002.

The law deals with cargo ships, maritime navigational facilities whose personnel indulge in offences committed in sea. The maximum penalty in this section is death in case the action by those onboard has resulted in killing.

15:24 Absconding marines: Italian PM meets Khurshid

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti speaks to External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid over the marines issue. Italian Deputy Foreign Minister Staffan de Mistura also meets with Khurshid. Naval officers, Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone, are at the center of the controversy. They are accused of shooting and killing two Indian fishermen off the coast of Kerala in February 2012. Italy says the marines mistook the fishermen for pirates and fired warning shots. Both men deny murder. The men who were allowed to go to Italy to vote for the elections have not returned to India as promised.

15:20 BJP has PMs who lurk, PMs who sulk: Tewari

The BJP has "prime ministers in waiting, prime ministers in lurking and prime ministers who are sulking" which is reflective of intra-party warfare, Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari said here Friday.

The minister was taking potshots at the main opposition party a day after Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley launched an attack on the dual power arrangement model of the United Progressive Alliance government, saying Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was unable to act, despite understanding the nation's problems.

Tewari said he was surprised by that comment, which he termed a "bit of an oxymoron".

"Look at who is talking of divided power centres: If you look at the BJP, you have PMs in waiting, PMs in lurking, and PMs who are sulking and all sorts of other tendencies which are reflective of a tendency that can be characterised as intra-party warfare." -- Zee News

Funded by a public relations agency, politicians and a casino-operating hotel among others, Goa's first journalism award extravaganza has come under a cloud of alleged financial bungling and propriety issues.The sheen of the Goa Media Awards 2013, organised in February, by the little-known Saimaa Creations and a working journalists union, the Goa Union of Journalists (GUJ), is fast fading, with the latter raising questions about the monies raised in sponsorship and spent for the event. Read

AP leader Arvind Kejriwal will break his indefinite fast against "inflated" power and water bills tomorrow on the 15th day of his protest after launching the second phase of 'Civil Disobedience Movement'.

Announcing his plans today, Kejriwal invoked Anna Hazare in his speech and expressed his wish to break the fast after receiving a glass of juice from the 74-year-old activist with whom he had split last September on the question of the anti- corruption movement taking a political plunge. Hazare, however, would not be able to come to Delhi tomorrow as he was on his nation-wide tour, Kejriwal said.

15:05

My Name is Roger, and I'm an alcoholic. Read: Roger Ebert's tryst with alcoholism.

Also read: The Playboy Interview with Roger Ebert

14:58 Rolling Stones Hyde Park tickets sell out in three minutes

Rolling Stones fans left disappointed after tickets for their 65,000 capacity Hyde Park gig sell out within minutes of going on sale. Read

Fitiquette, a developer of virtual fitting room technology and a TC Disrupt finalist from September 2012, has been acquired by Myntra, one of the big fashion and lifestyle e-commerce companies in India. Read

14:36 The astronaut who brought samosas into space

A pendant of Hindu Lord Ganesha, a copy of Hinduism's holy book, the Bhagavad Gita, and a box of samosas, are some of the items NASA astronaut Sunita Williams brought with her on expeditions to outer space.

Last year, when the American astronaut ventured into space for the second time, she carried a copy of the Upanishads, a Hindu scripture."This helps me feel closer to home,' says Ms. Williams, whose father was born and raised in the western Indian state of Gujarat. Read

14:26

Do we love our cars more than ourselves? Must read.

14:24

China's 'String of Pearls' is closer than you think, red intrusion in Indian waters sends jitters. Read more

14:19 Sudipta's family to meet WB governor at 5 pm today

Bikash Bhattacharya, the former Kolkata mayor will appear for Sudipta Gupta's family, once they approach the court. The family of the SFI leader wants to meet the West Bengal Governor M K Narayanan to seek justice. The governor has granted an appointment at 5 pm today. "We want justice. I still hope that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will look into it. She said it was an accident and a petty matter. My brother was in police custody and was killed by the police. We want a CBI probe. We will go to the Governor," Sudipta's sister said today.

Even as it acknowledged that a US congressional delegation's visit to Gujarat had official sanction, the US said there was no immediate change in its stand on a visa to chief minister Narendra Modi, but he is "welcome to apply". "Visits like this do help support a deepening of business-to-business ties, of people-to-people ties, across India, in Gujarat," US state department spokesperson Victoria Nuland told reporters on Thursday in response to a question.

14:03 Modi can serve the nation by being CM: JD(U)

The JD-U today took a jibe at Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi for his remarks that it is the duty of every child to repay the debt he owes to 'Mother India' and said when a politician comments like this, it reflects his "desire" for the Delhi crown. "Let us see whom Delhi prefers after the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The country can be served even by serving Gujarat. Nitish Kumar is serving Bihar. In a way he is also serving the nation.

"Modi is already serving the nation as the Chief Minister of Gujarat. But when some politician says such things, it reflects the latent desire in his heart for the Delhi crown," JD-U General Secretary Shivanand Tewari said when asked about the Gujarat Chief Minister's remarks yesterday.

13:50

How 86 journalists in 46 countries can work on a single investigation. Read

13:49 Sanjay Dutt offer prayers at temple in MP

Actor Sanjay Dutt arrived here this morning along with his brother-in-law Kumar Gaurav in a private plane from Mumbai, to offer prayers at a temple in MP.

Soon after his arrival, the star, whose conviction has been upheld in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case, left along with Kumar and others by road for a 'darshan' at the Devi Peeth in Datia district of Madhya Pradesh.

He was dressed in a kurta and dhoti. The actor is likely to return to Mumbai in the evening. The Supreme Court recently upheld the conviction of Dutt under the Arms Act in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case and sentenced him to five-year imprisonment. Dutt has already served 18 months in jail and will have to serve remaining three years and six months. He has been given four weeks' time to surrender.

Also read: A Pardon for Sanjay Dutt

13:33

Thane building collapse toll: Dead: 36; injured: 59; trapped: 50

13:27 What skiing in Gulmarg really means

For most of the 1990s, the conflict between India and Pakistani-supported militants decimated tourism at the Gulmarg ski resort and throughout the region. But the collapse of the armed uprising in Kashmir and the lowest levels of militant infiltration from Pakistan since records were started in 1989 have brought quieter times over the past decade. The relative calm has allowed places like Gulmarg, which the British started as a ski resort in the 1920s, to thrive. Read

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today dismissed as a "useless" the debate over two power centres even as he did not rule out his accepting the third term. "This is the creation of the media. It is a useless debate," he said at Rashtrapati Bhawan when asked about the issue of two power centres coming into focus after senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh raked it up recently.

Digvijaya Singh had said the two power centres -- one the Congress President Sonia Gandhi and another the Prime Minister -- had not worked well and should not be repeated.

Congress officially rejected this contention of Digvijaya Singh and said it was an "ideal model" for future also.

When asked whether he would accept the third term as Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh said, "it is a hypothetical question... We are yet to complete this term."

The current term of the government will end in May next year. Asked whether he was ruling himself out, he said, "I am not ruling it in, I am not ruling it out." Queried whether he would welcome Rahul Gandhi as the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh replied, "oh yes, anyday." Gandhi, who was appointed as Vice President of Congress in January, has been reluctant to join the government.

The district secretary of the Trinamool Congress Chatra Parishad in West Midnapore, Subhojit Das, on Thursday resigned from his post after he posted a message on the social-networking website Facebook criticising Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in the aftermath of the death of the 22-year-old SFI leader Sudipta Gupta.

Das had posted a cartoon on his Facebook page where he tried to portray that while Mamata Banerjee was attending the gala opening ceremony of the IPL on Tuesday evening in the company of Bollywood actors , Sudipto's sister was crying at the SSKM Hospital after coming to know about her brother's death. More

13:18

Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook Home, Money, and the Future of Communication. Read

13:13 Medical emergencies at 40,000 feet

Airline systems are woefully underprepared to deal with medical emergencies on a flight. Here's what needs to change. Read

13:12

Beware, skimmers could clean out your bank balance. Read the story on the Hindu.

13:01 Illiterate woman teaches IAS officers

Can you imagine an illiterate taking class to trainee IAS officers? That's what has been accomplished by Aaidala Lalitamma. Read

12:55 PM: Welcome Rahul as PM any day

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said that the issue of two power centres in the UPA was a useless debate. On his continuing for a third term, the PM said it was a hypothetical question and he welcomed Rahul Gandhi as PM -- 'any day'.

Maharashtra CM Prithviraj Chavan reaches building collapse site in Thane. With 36 dead, this is the worst incident of its kind in Maharashtra in the last 10 years.

12:33 US visa shortage balloons Indian IT costs

Getting work visas in the U.S. is likely going to be more difficult for India's outsourcing services companies, a prospect which could increase their costs. Read

A 25-year-old man, manning the counter of a cab company at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, was arrested on the charge of harassing and abusing a 23-year-old IT professional who was transiting through Delhi to Ludhiana.A case of stalking has been registered under Section 354 D of the IPC -- this section was introduced under the anti-rape law, which was passed recently. Police said this is one of the first cases to be registered under this law. Read more here

Activist-turned-politician Arvind Kejriwal, who is on the 14th day of his hunger strike, is likely to end his fast today, said sources in his Aam Admi Party. Kejriwal is protesting against Delhi residents being over-charged for water and electricity because of an alleged conspiracy between the government and private firms. Read

12:19

The best and the worst cities of India according to ET-Janaagraha Study. Read

12:16 Tarantula the size of a human face discovered in Sri Lanka

If you're scared of spiders, you best look away now!A new species of tarantula, as big as a human face, has been discovered in northern Sri Lanka. Read more

12:07 China's internet: A giant cage

In the wake of Rahul Gandhi's address to the CII yesterday, where he called India a beehive, comparable, yet better than China's authoritarian dragon, read this: The internet was expected to help democratise China. Instead, it has enabled the authoritarian state to get a firmer grip. Read

US environmental groups are pressing President Barack Obama's administration to back off a World Trade Organization case against India they say threatens the ability of the world's second most populous country to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Read

The toll in the Thane building collapse has risen to 34. Many people are still feared trapped in the building. The numbers injured stand at around 69. At least 28 families were reportedly living in the unauthorized building. Maharashtra CM and Deputy CM will be visiting the site today. As of now, severe shortage of fire stations hamper rescue efforts with the fire department ill-equipped to deal with the enormity of the incident. This is reportedly, the worst building collapse in Maharashtra.

11:40

Roger Ebert, the most famous and popular film reviewer of his time who became the first journalist to win a Pulitzer Prize for movie criticism, died yesterday. He was 70.

Read: 'Batman' Director Christopher Nolan on why Roger Ebert was a star

11:31 Amid Pyongyang bluster, missile launch feared

Missile and launch components have been moved to the east coast of North Korea in the "last few days," a U.S. official with direct knowledge of the information told CNN. Read

11:30

Read: How my brother tried to kill me in 'honor attack'. An Afghan girl speaks to CNN.

11:24 Finally, CBI summons Raja Bhaiyya in UP cop's murder

Former Uttar Pradesh minister Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya has been summoned by the Central Bureau of Investigation to appear before it within a week, in connection with the triple murder at Balipur village March 2. Read

11:22 Where virginity is for sale in India

When girls dedicated in local temples under the illegal devadasi system hit puberty, their virginity is auctioned off to the highest bidder. Traditionally girls in this district in south India undergo an 11-day purification ceremony following the onset of menstruation. The "first maturity' ceremony, as they call it in Koppal, marks the transition into womanhood. Read more

Update on the death of SFI leader Sudipto Gupta: The post-mortem report has shown he died after hitting a 'blunt stationary object' and no injuries caused by "a lathi, rod or glass' were found, Calcutta police said today. The police, however, refused to rule out any possibility and cautioned that the investigation was still at a nascent stage.

Rediff.com's Indrani Mitra speaks to veteran actor Soumitra Chatterjee on the issue. Read

President Pranab Mukherjee has rejected mercy petitions of three mass murderers and a rapist-killer confirming death sentences awarded to the convicts.Uttar Pradesh's Gurmeet Singh, convicted of killing 13 members of a family, and Suresh and Ramji who were found guilty of killing five relatives over a property dispute, are among those whose clemency has been rejected. More

The death toll in the under- construction building collapse in Shil Phata area of the district has risen to 30 as rescuers recovered more bodies from the site this morning, Thane police control room said. Maharashtra CM Prithviraj Chavan is due to visit the site shortly.

While 69 people were injured, rescuers fear that some victims are still trapped under debris, they said. The deceased included 12 men, some of whom were construction workers, 10 children and eight women. A pregnant woman, identified as Shakila Imran Siddiqui, was among the deceased, Thane civic officials said. The remaining bodies are yet to be identified. Tuition classes were on in the building when it collapsed. The builder is still absconding. The Thane municipal commissioner says the building was built on forest land and two notices had been served to the builder.

10:27 NA to file FIR against Italian marines today

The National Investigation Agency or NIA, which is investigating the case of the two Italian marines accused of shooting dead two Indian fishermen off Kochi's coast last year, is likely to file an FIR today, reports NDTV.

Read the full report here

Indrani Mitra reports: West Bengal Industry Minister Partha Chatterjee will visit student leader Sudipto Gupta's house at 11 am today. A damage control measure after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said Sudipto's death a 'petty issue' yesterday?

09:55 US waiver for sale of defence equipment to Pak

In an indication of the "positive trajectory" of the bilateral ties, the US has issued a waiver, second in six months, for sale of major defence equipment to Pakistan citing national security interest.

The waiver issued quietly by the then Deputy Secretary of States Thomas Nides on February 15 and posted on the State Department website a week later on February 22 would pave the way for some major defence equipment sales to Pakistan.

09:18 Hotelier Vikram Chatwal released on bond

Indian-American hotelier Vikram Chatwal, arrested earlier this week at a Florida airport for allegedly carrying drugs, has been released on bond.

According to the TMZ website, the city-based millionaire hotel owner was arrested on April 2 at the Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport after Transportation Security Administration officials found drugs hidden in Chatwal's luggage as he was about to board the flight.

A spokeswoman at the Broward Sheriff's Office in Florida told PTI that Chatwal was released on April 3 on a bond of about $56,000.

The US received nearly 50,000 packages of H-1B visa applications on the very first day, a media report has said, which is reflective of the sudden surge in demand of the country's most sought after work visas for the IT professionals.

United States Secretary John Kerry will leave on a six-nation tour over the weekend that would take him to the two hotspots region of the world -- the Middle East and the Korean Peninsula.

Kerry was initially scheduled to travel South Korea, Japan and China his first as the Secretary of State, but the stops in Turkey, Jerusalem and West Bank has been added only at the last minute in view of the developments in the region in particular those in Turkey-Israel relationship.

In between, Kerry would squeeze time to travel to London to attend the G8 Foreign Ministers meeting on April 10-11, where he will meet with his counterparts to discuss a range of country-specific, regional, and transnational topics.

Recently, a Swiss cyclist was gang-raped in Madhya Pradesh's Datia district, a South Korea student was molested on a Kolkata bus. With a rise in attacks on women tourists in India, the country is among the eight popular tourist destinations which are dangerous for women to travel, reports Business Insider.

Based on reports from Human Rights Watch, the US state department, and crime reports in the media a list has been drawn. Other nations which are unsafe for women Brazil, Turkey, Egypt, Colombia, Gautemala, Mexico and Kenya, the report says.

Read the full story here

The toll of the Thane building collapse has risen to 29. Rescue operations are still on. Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar are expected to visit the site of the collapse today.

At least 26 persons, including a pregnant woman, 24 were killed and 64 others injured when an under-construction building collapsed in Shil Phata area of Thane on Thursday evening, police said.

A massive rescue operation is underway.

North Korea has moved a missile with "considerable range" to its east coast, South Korea's defence minister said Thursday, but he added that there are no signs that Pyongyang is preparing for a full-scale conflict.

The report came hours after North Korea's military warned that it has been authorized to attack the US using "smaller, lighter and diversified" nuclear weapons. It was the North's latest war cry against America in recent weeks. The reference to smaller weapons could be a claim that Pyongyang has improved its nuclear technology. Or a bluff.

South Korean Defence Minister Kim Kwan-jin said he did not know the reasons behind the North's missile movement, and that it "could be for testing or drills."

He dismissed reports in Japanese media that the missile could be a KN-08, which is believed to be a long-range missile that if operable could hit the United States.

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Indian-American hotelier Vikram Chatwal was arrested earlier this week at an airport in Florida for allegedly carrying a large stash of drugs including cocaine and heroine, a celebrity website reported.

According to the TMZ website, the multi-millionaire hotel owner was arrested on April 2 at the Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport after Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officials found an "arsenal of drugs", including cocaine, weed, heroin and various prescription pills hidden on his person and in his bag.

He was arrested by the Broward County Sheriff's Office after he tried to get on a plane with the drugs.

When contacted by PTI to comment on the report of Chatwal's arrest, the press office of the Sant Chatwal-led Hampshire Hotels and Resorts said they have "no comment on the issue at this time." The office would also not comment on whether Chatwal is still in Florida.

According to the police report obtained by TMZ, Chatwal was booked on one count of trafficking (six grams of heroin) and seven counts of possession for cocaine, heroin, marijuana and various other drugs.

01:25 Noted film critic Roger Ebert is dead

The Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that its film critic Roger Ebert has died. He was 70.

The paper says on its website the Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic died Thursday.

Ebert was known for his thumbs-up, thumbs-down TV reviews that influenced moviegoers across the United States.

On Wednesday, he had announced on his blog that he was undergoing radiation treatment after a recurrence of cancer.

00:44 So how far can those North Korean missiles go?

North Korea has redeployed some of its missiles to the country's eastern coast, a provocation and implicit warning that it just might carry through on some of its recent threats.

How far can those missiles actually reach? We can't say for sure because we dont know what kind of missiles they are. But there appear to be two most likely possibilities: either it's the Musudan missiles, as the South Korean military says, or it's the KN-08, as reported in the Japanese press, or its both. Fortunately, neither is particularly scary for the United States.

First off, here's a map (CLICK HERE) showing how far North Korea's various missile systems can reach.

The outermost green circle indicates the range of the Musudan: It includes Japan and South Korea but not Guam or Hawaii and certainly not the US mainland.

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At what turned out to be his last public appearance, Steve Jobs stood before the Cupertino City Council on June 7, 2011, to present plans for a new corporate campus for Apple.

Scarecrow thin but forceful as ever, Jobs displayed several renderings of a headquarters intended to accommodate more than 12,000 employees in a single, circular building.

"It is a little like a spaceship," he said of the massive, four-story ring, which, at 2.8 million square feet, would be two-thirds the size of the Pentagon and set among 176 acres of trees where today there are mostly asphalt parking lots.

"We have a shot," he said, at building the best office building in the world. I really do think that architecture students will come here to see it."

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00:43 As search goes mobile, Google loses its lead

Google remains the undisputed king of search, with about two-thirds of the market.

But the nature of search is changing, especially as more people search for what they want to buy, eat or learn on their mobile devices.

This has put the $22 billion search industry, perhaps the most lucrative and influential of online businesses, at its most significant crossroad since its invention.

No longer do consumers want to search the Web like the index of a book -- finding links at which a particular keyword appears. They expect new kinds of customized search, like that on topical sites such as Yelp, TripAdvisor or Amazon, which are chipping away at Google's hold.

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00:43 China's secret battlefields

China's cities are strewn with hidden rubble fields, vast apocalyptic landscapes that terminate abruptly at the thresholds of bustling neighbourhoods.

The skeletons of houses show what once existed there. Onlookers say it resembles the aftermath of a bombing raid -- and it does, except bombs are not this precise.

The damage here obeys strict geometries. You can fill a wheelbarrow with what's left of a house on this side of the road, while a house on that side stands without a scratch.

Before any of the damage occurs, walls are erected to partition a neighbourhood. The message of the walls is unmistakable: everything enclosed will be destroyed.

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00:43 How to delete your digital life

Wiping away your digital life means getting rid of the traces you've left -- the mistakes you made, the embarrassing photos, the unwise comments, the flawed social media profiles where you've left too much visible.

But how easy is that? The following steps provide a start to reducing your digital footprint and taking back control of your online life.

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00:42 Top headlines at this hour!

IPL: Bangalore edge Mumbai in a thrilling finish

Illegal building collapses in Thane; 10 dead, 56 hurt

Modi's first innings in New Delhi begins today

Modi: I want to repay my debt to Mother India

Three more MLAs walk out of BJP in Karnataka

Another Gujarat cop held in Ishrat Jahan encounter case

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