Uttar Pradesh Minister Azam Khan, who is accompanying Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav to narrate the Kumbh Mela success story at Harvard University, was detained briefly for questioning at the Boston Airport, sources tell PTI.

The May 5 assembly elections in Karnataka would have 35,58,862 first time voters (18-22 age category), including 5,34,548 in Bangalore, eligible to cast their ballot in the state, where there would be 52,034 polling stations, an official said.        

 

Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer Anil Kumar Jha said the total electorate is 4,36,36,966, including 70,37,885 in Bangalore, -- 2,22,84050 male and 2,13,52,916 female. "Net addition of voters since January 28 is about 18 lakh, including six lakh in Bangalore", he told reporters.    Of the total 52,034 polling stations, 10,103 were identified as hypersensitive and 14,209 as sensitive, Jha said.        

 

As many as 65,000 electronic voting machines would be deployed for the single phase poll, including about 10 per cent as reserve. In addition to 37,535 voters serving in defence services, postal ballot has already been sent by speed-post to 2,53,000 polling officers, 48,182 police personnel and 9900 drivers and conductors who would be on election duty, he said.

Hindustan Times: Rhode Islands medical examiner on Thursday said the body found in a river on Tuesday is that of Sunil Tripathi, a Brown University student missing for more than a month.Health Department spokeswoman Dara Chadwick said the body  was identified through a forensic dental exam.

 

The cause of death has not been determined yet however. Tripathi, a 22-year-old philosophy student, was last seen on March 16. The body was found in Providence River behind the Wyndham Garden Providence Hotel at around 6 p.m. The coach of Brown's rowing team, which practices in that area, saw the body floating in the water. The police waited for medical examiner to make the final determination.

 

Read the full report here

The Supreme Court today decided to watch the controversial Punjabi film "Sadda Haq" which allegedly glorifies the era of extremism and its abettors before taking a call on the ban imposed by governments of Delhi, Punjab and the Union Territory of Chandigarh.        

 

A bench comprising Chief Justice Altamas Kabir and justices A R Dave and Vikramajit Sen said they will watch the film tomorrow morning at the apex court precincts in the presence of senior advocates Fali S Nariman and Rajeev Dhavan before passing its order.        

 

The bench said two women advocates -- Indira Jaising, who is the Additional Solicitor General, and senior advocate Rebecca John -- would also be present during the screening of the film. It said they would be assisting the bench in the capacity of amicus curiae and the advocates for both sides would be at liberty to be present during the screening of the film.

Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal, who is lodged in Arthur Road jail for his alleged role in the 26/11 Mumbai attack case, is in a serious condition, his lawyer Ejaz Naqvi said.  

In further trouble for the chit fund scam-hit Saradha group of Kolkata, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has registered a money laundering case to probe the allegations of financial irregularities by numerous depositors against it. 

Debjani Mukherjee, one of the directors of chitfund Saradha group who was arrested along with its chairman in Kashmir, played an important role in the decision making process of the company, Bidhanagar city police which is investigating its ponzi scheme, today claimed. 

Holding that prima facie a news channel had telecast defamatory allegations against actor Salman Khan, the Bombay High Court today restrained it from telecasting such items.

Justice S J Kathawalla was hearing a suit filed by Salman seeking a written apology from ABP News channel for telecasting a news item allegedly defamatory to the actor.

Salman approached the high court seeking an injunction on broadcast or telecast of such defamatory news items and direction to the channel to either submit a written apology or telecast an apology.

Rahul Gandhi's travel programme in Karnataka on April 26. The state goes to the polls on May 5.

Friday, April 26, 11:30 hrs: Public meeting at the district municipal high school Ground, Haveri, District Haveri

13:45 hrs: Public meeting at the Mahatma Gandhi Stadium, Tumkur, District Tumkur

15:45 hrs: Public meeting at the Maharaja Ground, Chamraja, District Mysore.

The West Bengal Congress MP from Malda, AHK Chowdhury, in the net over the West Bengal chit fund scam, on Thursday defended himself saying that he met Saradha group promoter Sudipta Sen only six months after the second letter he had written to the PM defending Saradha Realty.


"In my previous note (a letter dated September 2011 in which he demands action against Saradha group) I had made some errors. It was a mistaken identity and I would be sued, so I had to change my opinion... I mistook Sudipta to be someone else... I met Sudipta only six months after my second letter," he said.


Chowdhury accused the Trinamool Congress (TMC) of "using the Congress to cover up their fault". He also admitted to having bought paintings from Sudipta Sen for Rs 2 crore.


The Trinamool Congress (TMC), however, hit back saying the Congress must probe why its MP did a U-turn within six months. Demanding Chowdhury's resignation, TMC MP Derek O'Brien said, "In September 2011, Chowdhury wrote a letter demanding strict action against Saradha group.


Within six months, he does a U-turn and says the company be spared. The Congress has to give serious answers why its minister did this U-turn.""The Congress is trying to play angel in this chit fund issue. The West Bengal government will call a special session of the Assembly to prevent such incidents," he added. IBN Live

A 25-year-old Indian-origin teacher in Singapore has been sentenced to one year in jail for having sex with an underage girl student. Aravind S Menon had earlier pleaded guilty to three counts of consensual sexual intercourse with the 14-year-old girl between May and July 2009, reported the Channel News Asia.


Menon became close to the minor when he was her teacher and they started a relationship. But when the girl wanted to break up with Aravind, he threatened to post their sex videos online, which he recorded and kept in his laptop.


Aravind also threatened to commit suicide by jumping off the highest floor of a public housing apartment block. In sentencing, district judge Siva Shanmugam said the girl was at a vulnerable age, and Aravind had abused the trust in him as a teacher.


The Judge noted that Aravind warranted a heavy sentence as he had captured their sex acts on video. But the Judge also took into consideration that this was Aravind's first brush with the law and that the accused was remorseful.

The Delhi High Court today sought the Centre's response on a plea questioning how children below the age of 18 years are allowed to open an account on social networking sites including Facebook, even though Indian laws do not permit it. The court also asked two US-based entities- Facebook Inc and Google Inc--to reply to the plea of former BJP ideologue K N Govindacharya seeking an order for recovery of taxes from the websites on their income from operations in India.

Now, Delhi can be known as more than just the rape capital of India. New Delhi and its satellite cities are becoming hothouses for startups by some measures, encroaching on a title long-held by Bangalore. Read

Nalini Chidambaram was engaged as a senior lawyer to appear before on behalf of Manoranjana Sinh, a former journalist and wife of a former union minister Matang Sinh, in a petition filed by her before the Company Law Board against her husband and M/s Positive TV Ltd.

They said Manoranjana was planning to set up a TV and she approached Nalini Chidambaram. There was a proposal of Saradha Group to invest in a company which Manoranjana was planning to set up. Manoranjana wanted due diligence of Saradha Group to be done and Nalini Chidambaram was one of the lawyers who did the due diligence along with other lawyers and a auditors firm in Bangalore.

The sources said Nalini Chidambaram and the other lawyers, in their due diligence report, asked Manoranjana not to go ahead with accepting the investment from Saradha Group and the proposal was dropped.

On the backfoot over the chit fund scam in West Bengal, Trinamool Congress today raised questions over the role of a senior Chennai-based lawyer who is married to a Congress union minister. Sudipta Sen, Chairman of the scandal-ridden Saradha Group, who was arrested two days ago, has said in a purported letter to CBI that politicians, journalists and lawyers had blackmailed him and taken money assuring him protection.


Those named by him included TMC MPs Srinjoy Bose and Kunal Ghosh, who have denied the charges, a Congress minister from Assam and Nalini Chidambaram, wife of Finance Minister P Chidambaram.


Without mentioning her name, the TMC put a series of questions on its official website under the headline "Why was a Chennai lady lawyer fixing deals in the Saradha scam? Congress minister must clarify". Among the questions was the allegation by TMC that the woman lawyer charged Rs 1 crore to draft an agreement and asked why was she paid such a "generous" fee and what was the quid pro quo.


Another question was why was a lawyer from Chennai engaged when there were so many good lawyers were available in New Delhi and Guwahati.


However, sources close to Nalini Chidambaram rejected the allegation that she applied pressure on Saradha Group to invest in a northeast television channel. Instead, she advised the channel against accepting funds from Saradha Group, the sources said.

The BSE benchmark Sensex today surged 227.49 points to close at over six-week high of 19,407 on last minute buying in auto, healthcare, oil & gas, metal and banking stocks triggered by monthly expiry in derivatives segment and rate cut hopes amid firming Asian trend.


Rising for the fourth straight session, the Sensex advanced 227.49 points, or 1.19 per cent, to close at 19,406.85, a level last seen on March 15. The index had gained 448 points in last three sessions.

Female police officers in Afghanistan often suffer harassment from colleagues amid lack of dedicated facilities, says Human Rights Watch. Read

Chief of Army Staff, General Bikram Singh, today briefed Defence Minister A.K. Antony on the Chinese incursion in Ladakh and the situation along the border.


General Singh returned from Jammu and Kashmir last evening after reviewing the situation there with Northern Army Commander Lt. Gen. K.T. Parnaik General Singh, who met top commanders of the Army during his visit, is said to have discussed various issues related to the Armed Forces with formation commanders and interacted with troops deployed on the Line of Control and counter insurgency duties.


External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid today said that a mechanism was in place, which would help to resolve the ongoing dispute.

Saradha's Sudipta Sen: India's stupidest businessman. Read

Samajwadi Party, which extends crucial outside support to UPA, today said it would "oppose" the JPC draft report if former Telecom Minister A Raja is not allowed to personally depose before it, but ruled out siding with BJP in demanding removal of P C Chacko as chairman of the committee.


In perhaps its first public reaction to the draft report which gives a clean chit to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P Chidambaram, the party said, "We can't go with the BJP" in demanding Chacko's removal.


"But we wish to state clearly that A Raja should be given an opportunity to appear before the Committee. If not, then we will oppose the (draft) report," SP leader Naresh Agarwal told reporters outside Parliament House.

The Calcutta High Court today directed the West Bengal government to file an affidavit on the steps it has taken against the Saradha Group and also directed the company not make any financial transaction till further orders.


Taking up a PIL seeking a CBI investigation into the alleged multicrore chitfund scam by the Saradha Group, a division bench comprising Chief Justice J N Patel and Justice Joymalyo Bagchi directed the state government to file the affidavit by May 2.

Survivors from a building that collapsed in Bangladesh killing at least 187 mainly women workers described hearing a deafening crack before the complex housing factories supplying Western clothes retailers crashed down in a matter of seconds.  Read

Opposition and DMK members of the JPC on 2G today demanded the ouster of chairperson P C Chacko for being "highly partisan" and asked Speaker Meira Kumar to replace him with a new chief.


The 15 Joint Parliamentary Committee members belonging to BJP, JD(U), AIADMK, DMK, Left parties, TMC, and BJD met the Speaker and expressed "no-confidence" in Chacko on grounds of "highly partisan, unfair and prejudicial" conduct as also leakage of the draft report.


The JPC has 30 members, including Chacko. Congress, NCP, BSP and SP are supporting the chairperson.

The Saradha group, which is under fire for allegedly defrauding investors, has more than 100 firms registered with the RoC (Registrar of Companies) for businesses across sectors including real estate, automobile, education and entertainment.


Most of these companies are registered with the starting name as 'Saradha' while the group also has firms having different names. Authorities are already looking into alleged ponzi or multi-level marketing schemes run by at least ten Saradha entities.


There are over 110 companies of Kolkata-based Saradha group under the same name and most of them have their registered address at Diamond Harbour Road in Kolkata, according to an analysis of data available with Corporate Affairs Ministry. Saradha group is alleged to have duped thousands of investors, including poor people, through a multi-crore chit fund scam.

An Open Letter to the Prime Minister of India on the rising incidence of rapes in the country. Read

A Kolkata court today sent Sudipta Sen, the millionaire whose chit fund went bust last week, leaving thousands of small investors across Bengal bankrupt, to 14-day police custody. When he was brought to court, protesters, some of them weeping, chanted slogans in anger. Groups of Congress workers broke past police lines of security and rushed into court. Cops used batons on them. Read the full story

The Ukrainian group Femen restarted the international debate about Muslim veils when it declared "Topless Jihad Day' on April 4, staging protests against the hijab and in support of an activist in Tunisia. A group of Muslim women then organized a counterprotest called "Muslimah Pride Day,' defending the hijab.Is either party dealing with a serious issue? Is the hijab worth fighting over? Read

The mother of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects is set to travel to the U.S. today with her ex-husband, nearly a week after one of their reign of terror came to an end. Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, who now lives in Dagestan, Russia, said in an emotional telephone interview that she believes her sons, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, have been framed for the bombings. Read more

Six decades after DNA's shapely curves were first revealed, no aspect of biology is now above modification, remix or redesign. Read

In international news: Despite fears that he was heavily armed, multiple federal law-enforcement officials say that the younger of the two Boston bombing suspects, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was not armed when police fired at him in a boat where he was hiding.

According to The Washington Post, the FBI has declined to discuss what triggered the gunfire, but other authorities say the shooting may have been caused by the "chaos of the moment' and activity in the boat that may have led police to believe that Tsarnaev had fired a gun or was about to denotate an explosive. Read

Voicing concern over the "alarming" increase in rape cases in the national capital, the Delhi High Court today asked the Centre and the city police to find out the "root cause" of such incidents.


"It is surprising as to what is happening in Delhi. Find out the root cause of such incidents," a bench headed by Chief Justice D Murugesan said.


"There is something wrong somewhere with Delhi. People have become mad. Other aspects we can understand," the bench said after Delhi Police stated that mere policing will not stop such kind of incidents.


The court also asked the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the Delhi Police to look into the sudden rise in rape incidents and find out their root cause to curb the menace.


"Most of these accused belong to nearby States and there is a need to find out the ways to prevent these kind of occurrences," the bench said, referring to the recent rape of a five-year-old allegedly by her neighbours in east Delhi.


"Everybody is very sad as to what is happening in Delhi. Look what has happened to a child of five years recently," the bench said, adding, "Now we will have to see as to how such crimes can be stopped."

Our sources in Delhi tell us that DMK MP TR Baalu and at least six MPs went up to BJP senior leader Yashwant Sinha to discuss the 2G strategy. Sinha gave the DMK MPs some tips. In all probability, the DMK leaders might bring a draft letter to Central Hall which will be corrected by Sinha.

Of course, this elicited an immediate response from Jairam Ramesh, who said that Yashwant Sinha is the leader of the DMK Parliamentary Party. Pat came the reply from Sinha, who said, yes, he is the president of the DMK Jharkhand and that he wanted the Prime Minister to be summoned to the JPC for cross questioning.

Army chief Gen Bikram Singh briefs Defence Minister A K Antony on Chinese incursion in Ladakh.

A Delhi court remands Manoj Sah, the main accused in the rape of a minor in east Delhi, to five-day police custody.

Pushpender Kumar, a junior inspector in the Delhi Police, considers most of his colleagues unfit for duty. "A lot of them are overweight,' says Kumar, a well-built officer. Others are "frustrated" by the daily cases of crime -- from murder to rape -- that they battle every day, says Kumar.


Some have developed hypertension, insomnia and migraines because of long and sporadic hours on the job, he says. "How can one effectively serve the public like this?" asks the 49-year-old cop, who works at the police station of Ashok Vihar, in northwest Delhi. Kumar thought of a solution: Yoga. Read

This is a true story, though it sounds suspiciously like a fable.


A tiny tobacco pouch tied to the hand of an elderly man saved the lives of nearly 800 people in a remote Chinese village when a powerful earthquake struck Sichuan province last week, killing about 200 people.


The incident took place in Fujiaying village in Longmen township, just five km from Lushan county, the epicentre of the 7.0 magnitude quake on Saturday.

68-year-old Li Xianhe has being hailed as the saviour of Fujiaying after he pulled out this miracle, all thanks to his humble tobacco pouch. Li carries the pouch everywhere he goes, securing it to his wrist by a piece of string when he lies down to sleep.


Just before the quake struck, Li was woken by the violent rocking of the tobacco pouch hanging from his arm. "It's really weird, you know? I experienced the Wenchuan earthquake in 2008 and my instincts told me just one thing - earthquake. I yelled out 'earthquake, earthquake' and rushed my family out of the house immediately," he told state-run China Daily today.


Rather than trying to re-enter their house and collect valuables, Li and his family rushed along the village road and shouted to their neighbours, warning them of the impending disaster. "Run! Quickly! Leave everything behind and run!" yelled Li in the hope his voice would alert those still indoors.


As his cries rang out, many villagers ran from their homes and joined him in the road. Fearing a large number of injuries in the village, Li and the other residents went from door to door, calling out and checking to see if anyone was trapped inside. Li let out a long sigh of relief when every one of the more than 800 villagers was gathered unscathed outside. "Thank goodness, we were all alive and fine," said Li, his voice still hoarse a few days after the disaster. 

Noting that rising cases of "brutal assault" of women and "child rape" has shaken the conscience of the nation, President Pranab Mukherjee today said society should introspect at its repeated failure to ensure safety and security of the fairer sex. He said the country must identify the cause behind such criminal depravity, and exhorted educational institutions to take a lead in imparting moral education to meet the challenges of the present time.

The Prime Minister has cleared the name of Anil Goswami as the next Union home secretary and when appointed he will be the first officer from the Jammu and Kashmir cadre to be selected for the post. Goswami may be asked to join as officer on special duty (OSD) as early as next week, The Telegraph has learnt. The appointment as OSD will be nearly two months before R.K Singh retires as home secretary on June 30, a move seen as a snub to the incumbent. Sources said the government was unhappy with Singh's performance since the home ministry came under flak from various quarters for its handling of the December 16 gang rape case.

A major fire broke at Axis bank, located near Lakshmi mills, Coimbatore. The fire has been doused and the situation is under control. However, 4 people are reported dead -- all women employees of the bank. There were reportedly no fire exits.   

Protestors outside the Bidhan Nagar court in Kolkata say the Rs 500 crore relief announced by West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee yesterday, is too little. Sudipta Sen and Debjani Ghosh will be interrogated shortly.  

There's been an explosion in a junkyard near the Taj Mahal, Agra, killing two people. Details awaited. 

Saradha chit fund group boss Sudipta Sena and the three others who were produced before a court in Bidhan Nagar, Kolkata, were jeered by onlookers.

On April 23, a woman committed suicide after losing her savings in the chit fund scam in West Bengal, and another woman has attempted to end her life.

Over the last few days, several of Saradha's offices across the state have shut down and many of its cheques have bounced. With a huge default in repayments, the group is on the verge of collapse.

The Supreme Court has pulled up the Delhi police over a female protestor being slapped over the rape of a five-year-old girl. The cop, Assistant Commissioner of Police Bani Singh Ahlawat, has been suspended.

The SC has asked the Delhi police commissioner Neeraj Kumar to file an affidavit over why the protestor was slapped.

And even as we tell you that, Sudipta Sen and three others have been produced at a Kolkata court.

The Chairman of the Saradha Group Sudipta Sen, will be produced before a Kolkata court today in the wake of the chit fund fiasco. Sen, who is one of the three accused has accused two Trinamool Congress (TMC) MPs of ''extortion'' and ''blackmail'' and blamed them for his downfall.


Sen, in a letter to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), threatened to commit suicide over his predicament, as he feared he would not be able to refund the public money.


The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) unit in West Bengal has demanded a CBI probe. Reacting to the situation, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee promised to take action against guilty. She also announced a Rs. 500 crore relief fund for duped investors.

The JPC meet on 2G scheduled to be held today has been postponed. The Chairman of the Joint Parliamentary Committee looking into the 2G scam, P.C.Chacko said Thursday that the JPC was scheduled for 3pm, to decide on whether to adopt the 2G scam report.

"I am getting the support of everybody from the committee, there is bound to be a difference of opinion. We have done a very tough job for the past two years and now we have made a fair report, and we are also sure the report may be or may not be acceptable to all the members. But yes, we will discuss and sort out as to whether we will adopt the report or not. I am personally very hopeful about it," Chacko said.

The Rajya Sabha has been adjourned till noon after the BJP and SP created an uproar on various issues. The Lok Sabha has been adjourned for the day after obituary reference to sitting TMC MP Ambika Banerjee.
Right now, the Congress Core Group is meeting to resolve the deadlock in Parliament over the JPC, the chit fund crisis and Coalgate. At the meeting are the PM, Sonia Gandhi, P Chidambaram and Kamal Nath.

A polity too frozen in scandals, agitations, elections, promises and having factories to churn out new slogans and charming lines to woo voters suddenly can't be woken up to a People's Liberation Army platoon, pitching tents on a land that poses direct threat to our position. What should we do? Read

The Line of Actual Control is crossed many times each year as if to underline the fact that India and China do not agree fully on its contours, but the latest incursion by Chinese troops in Ladakh has cast a shadow on the new warmth in ties between New Delhi and the new leadership in Beijing because the troops have stayed put and not returned.  Read the editorial on the Hindu.

In other news: Even though the current standoff with the Chinese troops in Ladakh may eventually blow over, the signal is clear that India's decision to strengthen infrastructure and deployment near the China-India border -- though delayed -- has irked Beijing. Read

Excerpts from the letter written allegedly by Sudipta Sen's to the CBI on April 6, four days before he was reported missing.

"I, (Mr) Sudipta Sen, son of Late Nripendra Narayan Sen aged about 53 years do hereby solemnly declare, affirm, state and say as mentioned below and this may be treated as my last wish before my death which may occur any day by way of suicide or otherwise.

I shall be committing suicide any moment not because I am physically or mentally sick or weak, but because I am feeling helpless because of unscrupulous persons and cheats in the society because of whom the entire public money which has been collected in my name or by using my name has come to such a risk that I may not be able to refund them"

Read the full letter here

The Telegraph, Kolkata: Kashmir police sources said the three looked calm and composed during their 24-hour stay at the police lines.


"They were not like prisoners. Sudipta and Arvind weren't nervous at all but Debjani appeared a little worried. The three took a stroll on the lawns of the compound after they reached here yesterday afternoon,' a Kashmir officer said.


At the police lines, Sen and Arvind were put in one room and Debjani in the other. "An eight-member police team, including two women constables, were put on guard outside their rooms,' he said.


The camp is highly protected and also houses a CRPF company. "In fact, we asked the CRPF cooks to prepare food for them,' the officer said. At Srinagar airport, unlike regular passengers, the three were kept in the airport manager's cabin till their GoAir flight was announced.


Sources said the trio were given a middle seat in different parts of the plane, each flanked by two Bidhannagar cops. Through the 90-minute flight, the sources said, Sen kept his head lowered. He expressed unwillingness to eat anything, saying he was "not comfortable flying'. More

Saradha Group chief Sudipta Sen and his two aides were brought to Calcutta tonight on a four-day transit remand granted by a court in Kashmir where they were arrested yesterday.


The court in Ganderbal, near the Sonamarg resort town from where they were picked up, granted the transit remand for Sen, Debjani Mukherjee and Arvind Singh Chauhan to a six-member team of Bidhannagar police.


A large police contingent escorted the trio to the court. Several Kashmiri lawyers volunteered to plead their case. Read

You may not have heard ofShankaraditya Sen, an ambitious naxalite, who later turned into a land shark. Known as Shankar in his neighbourhood at the height of the naxal movement in the 1970s, he had disappeared over a decade back, only to resurface with a new identity '" Sudipta Sen. Read

Call it a diversionary tactic to confuse investigators or the desperate bid of a drowning man clutching at straws, Saradha Group CMDSudipta Sen wrote an explosive tell-all letter to the CBI naming top national and state-level politicians on April 5, five days before his cross-country run. Read

The Corporate Affairs Ministry is likely to order a probe into Saradha group companies amid growing controversy over the Kolkata-based entity allegedly duping thousands of investors.


Corporate Affairs Minister Sachin Pilot along with senior Ministry officials would today hold a meeting to look into the functioning of various chit funds including issues related to Saradha group companies.


A senior official said the Ministry is likely to order a probe into the Saradha group companies in the wake of chit funds scam. The alleged chit fund scam has defrauded thousands of investors, including poor people, in West Bengal.

The United States has said that it supports peaceful and bilateral resolution of the boundary dispute between India and China.        

The US does not have answers to all the questions related to the Boston terrorist attack, and the complete and comprehensive investigation in this regard is going to take some time, the White House has said.       

A study about the Kumbh Mela pilgrimage in India will be presented at an annual symposium on South Asia hosted by the Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.        

The Joint Parliamentary Committee that is probing the 2G scam will meet today.

The Guardian: The U.S. is calling for China to release the wife of imprisoned Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo from house arrest. Liu Xia made rare appearance Tuesday, leaving the Beijing apartment where she has been held for 2 1/2 years to attend her brother's trial.

 

She shouted to onlookers: "I'm not free." In Washington on Wednesday, State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell told reporters that the U.S. remains deeply concerned that Liu Xia is under an "extra-legal house arrest." He said the U.S. is closely monitoring the trial.

A teenager from the suburbs of the US city of Chicago has been arraigned on terrorism charges in connection with an FBI sting operation that has raised new questions about whether US investigators are engaging in entrapment. Abdella Ahmad Tounisi, 18, made a brief court appearance Tuesday in federal court in Chicago.

 

The American-born man from the Chicago suburb of Aurora is accused of seeking to join al-Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra, which is fighting Syria's government in a civil war. He tried to join the group through a website, constructed by the FBI, which urged readers to "join your lion brothers... fighting under the true banner of Islam".

 

Read the full report on Al Jazeera

The Syrian Electronic Army -- a group of pro-Syrian regime hackers that has aggressively targeted major news organizations and activists -- may operate in cyberspace, but its attacks can have real-life impact.

 

The power of misinformation was amply demonstrated when the group hacked the Associated Press Twitter feed Tuesday. The fake AP message -- which read, "Breaking: Two Explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured," -- caused a brief flurry of panic and sent stocks plummeting.

 

The tweet was quickly revealed as false, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average recovered from its 145-point dip, but it was nearly a day before the AP Twitter account was restored to life.

 

Read the full report on CNN

CNN: Italian President Giorgio Napolitano has asked center-left politician Enrico Letta to form a new government, the president's spokesman said Wednesday, raising hopes of an end to the country's political impasse.

 

Speaking after their meeting, Letta told reporters he would consult with parties Thursday and then would return to the presidential palace to "fully accept" the mandate.

The step comes four days after Napolitano, 87, was re-elected by Italy's Parliament on Saturday to an unprecedented second term. Italy has been locked in a political stalemate since February's general election left a three-way split between the right, the left and a wild-card party.

 

A delegation led by Letta, a 46-year-old former deputy prime minister who belongs to the center-left Democratic Party, met with Napolitano on Tuesday.

Agencies: Two days of violence in Iraq have killed 125 people, 99 of them in clashes and attacks involving security forces, protesters and their supporters, officials said today.         

 

At least 268 people have been wounded, 194 of them in protest-related unrest, which prompted two Sunni ministers to\ quit and has sent tensions in the country soaring.         

 

The violence, which began with clashes at a protest site in northern Iraq after security forces moved in, is the deadliest so far linked to demonstrations that erupted in Sunni Muslim areas of the Shiite-majority country more than four months ago.         

 

The protesters have called for the resignation of ShiitePrime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and railed against the alleged targeting of their community by the authorities.

BBC: Thousands of mourners have held a memorial for a university police officer killed during the hunt for the Boston marathon bombing suspects. US Vice-President Joe Biden spoke at the service in memory of 26-year-old Sean Collier at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

 

About 4,000 students, staff and police officials from around the country attended the ceremony. Authorities say Collier was killed by the brothers suspected of the bombing. Wednesday's service was held as anonymous US officials told the Associated Press that the bombs had been triggered by remote-controlled detonators.

Former MP from Andhra Pradesh D K Adikesavulu Naidu, who served as Chairman of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams, passed away tonight in Bengaluru.        

 

Adikesavulu (72) underwent a bypass surgery in a corporate hospital in Bengaluru a couple of days ago but could not survive, sources said. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, Leader of Opposition N Chandrababu Naidu and State Congress President Botsa Satyanarayana mourned the death of ex-MP.

 

Union Minister of State for Tourism K Chiranjeevi also condoled the death of Adikesavulu, who represented his native Chittoor constituency in Lok Sabha from 2004-09 and twice served as Chairman of TTD, an independent trust which manages the Tirumala Venkateswara Temple at Tirumala, Andhra Pradesh.

Defiant China: Our troops haven't crossed line by a step

Saradha scam: Trinamool, CPM blame each other; Cong seeks CBI probe

Anti-apartheid hero Desmond Tutu in hospital

Bird flu spreads to Taiwan; WHO says H7N9 more lethal

Abdul Hamid sworn in as Bangladesh's president

Savita's father seeks justice, may sue Irish hospital

In Photos: Over 100 killed in Bangladesh building collapse

Katta Naidu may retain Hebbal through proxy

SIT opposes Zakia's protest petition on Modi clean chit

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