Authorities have seized 500 kg ammonium nitrate, used recently to carry out blasts in the Karnataka capital, from Kolar district of the state, officials said.        

 

The huge seizure of the chemical, widely used to make explosives, was made yesterday by a Election Commission appointed flying squad deployed to check illegal activities in the run up to the May 5 polls in the state, they said.        

 

The team seized 25 bags, each containing 20 kg ammonium nitrate, and arrested one person named Mehboob from Kolar district. The police is probing the case now. The bags show that the chemical was made in South Korea, a senior official said.        

Samajwadi Party today sought an apology from the US for the "insult" caused by the questioning of Uttar Pradesh minister Azam Khan at the Logan International Airport in Boston.        

NCP chief and Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar today reviewed the political situation in Maharashtra at a meeting in Mumbai to discuss preparations for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.        

Almost 10 per cent of drinking water samples collected from areas under the North Delhi Municipal Corporation have failed to meet prescribed standards, a report released today said.        

Doctors affiliated to the Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors today called off their strike after the state government promised to fulfill its assurances to the body.        

The government has ordered a probe by the SFIO into three more West Bengal-based business groups, in the wake of the chit fund scam that rocked the state.

Villagers of Nandigram today submitted a memorandum to CBI officers demanding punishment for those involved in the police firing that left 14 people dead in East Midnapore district in 2007.        

The Assam police today arrested CPI-Maoist Central Committee member Aklanta Rabha, his wife and another member of the outfit from Guwahati and Goalpara.        

The country is expected to have a normal monsoon this year with overall rainfall of 98 per cent.        

Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh was attacked by another inmate at the Kot Lakhpat  Jail in Lahore on Friday.

In other news: 

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who has been avoiding questions on the 2002 post-Godhra violence against Muslims, today said there has been no riot in the state in the last 12 years.


Sharing the platform with yoga guru Ramdev in Haridwar, he maintained that his model of governance was based on "welfare for all" but made no direct reference to the post-Godhra violence that claimed the lives of over 1000 people, an overwhelming majority of whom were Muslims.


"My manifesto is everyone should be healthy and welfare for all. In Gujarat (where) riots happened every other day and innocents were killed, today after 12 years there is not a sign of riots," he said.


The speech was delivered to a gathering, including a number of religious men, at yoga guru Ramdev's ashram in Haridwar. Modi, who generally avoids questions on the post-Godhra violence, has been accused by his detractors of having not taken any steps to stop the violence against Muslims after the train carnage in Godhra.

The Kasturba Gandhi hospital has 350 beds and used to be one of the best hospitals in the city, but is in a dilapidated condition now, say TV reports. The IG Bhopal says four people have been rescued from the rubble, though earlier figures put the number as 10. The trapped include both patients and medical staff.

The Kasturba Gandhi hospital is run by Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited. There were two wards that were functioning, but not packed to capacity. The building is about 60 years old. One of the 20 people trapped inside the building, is believed to be a child, who is thankfully, alive. Some of the patients who were rescued have been evacuated to other hospitals. Early reports say that the ceiling of the surgical ward has collapsed at 5.30 pm.  

NDTV reports that no reports of casualties, but four people have been seriously injured. Ten people have been rescued so far, but at least 20 more people believed to be trapped inside the wing of the Kasturba Gandhi hospital in Bhopal. Rescue workers, police, at the site.

Just in: A part of the Kasturba Gandhi hospital in Bhopal has collapsed. Early reports suggest at least 20 patients have been trapped inside. Details awaited. 

The government today told a Parliamentary Committee that Chinese troops have pitched tents 19 kms deep inside the Indian territory in Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir and that efforts are underway to ensure that the status quo is maintained. Defence Secretary Shashi Kant Sharma and some other senior officials informed the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence that India has deployed forces to "keep a close watch on the border", sources told PTI.


Sharma and other officials appeared before the Committee after BJP members Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Prakash Javadekar wanted to know the actual ground situation in Depsang sector of Ladakh where the Chinese incursion took place in Daulat Beg Oldie area a week ago.


The meeting of the committee was cut short as members were dissatisfied with the insufficient information provided by the officials and they were asked to report back at the next meeting on May 30 with appropriate and exact details of the situation.


The officials told the Committee that Indian Army patrols reported on April 16 the presence of Chinese People's Liberation Army in Depsang, pitching tents 19 km inside the LAC, the sources said.

Just in: Chinese troops have entered 19 km inside Indian territory and pitched tents, government tells the Parliamentary Committee. 

Seeking to re-assure Italy, India today said any doubts on Italian marines being put on trial for committing a terror act should be set aside as the NIA is just one agency available to the government for investigating the case of killing of two Indian fishermen in high seas.


External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said he would read the assignment of the task to the NIA, not through the NIA Act but by nomination made through the order of the Supreme Court.


"Therefore any doubts that this really amounts to an investigation into a terrorist act should be set aside immediately. It is just one agency available to the government that under the orders of the Supreme Court can be used for the investigation," he said.

Late last year, leading publishing houses including Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press brought a copyright action against Delhi University and a tiny photocopy shop licensed by it, seeking to restrain them from supplying educational course packs to students.

This lawsuit sent shock waves across the academic community, leading more than 300 authors and academics including famed Nobel laureate Professor Amartya Sen to protest this copyright aggression in an open letter to publishers.  Read

South-West monsoon is expected to be satisfactory, but below normal rain likely in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, says Food Minister K V Thomas. Southwest monsoon rainfall for the country most likely to be normal, Science and Technology Minister S Jaipal Reddy says. Monsoon rainfall likely to be 98 per cent with a margin of error of 5 per cent.

The Congress Core Group will meet at Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh''s official 7, Race Course Road (RCR) residence here this evening, and is likely to discuss the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) affidavit in the Supreme Court on the coal blocks allocation issue.


According to reports, the meeting that is to be attended by the top brass of the Congress Party is likely to take place at 6 pm. The CBI earlier in the day filed an affidavit before the Supreme Court on its probe into the coal block allocations.

Narendra Modi at Haridwar: Loud chants of 'Modi lao, desh bachao' in the audience.

Parliament failed to transact any business for the fourth consecutive day today with Opposition creating uproar over coal block scam and other issues, stalling proceedings in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.


Sharpening its attack on the government on the coal issue, BJP was adamant on its demand for resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and dismissal of Law Minister Ashwani Kumar, while the Left raised the issue of alleged nexus of chit fund companies and politicians in West Bengal.


In the Rajya Sabha, SP members trooped into the Well protesting the questioning of senior party leader Azam Khan at Boston airport. "America ki dadagiri nahi chalegi, nahi chalegi (America's high-handedness will not be tolerated)," SP members shouted.


AIADMK members held newspapers carrying reports that the lawyer wife of a senior UPA minister took money from the West Bengal chit fund fraud case accused.

Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been moved from hospital to jail, says the BBC.

Gujarat CM Narendra Modi shares stage with Baba Ramdev as his ashram in Haridwar. Wearing white in a sea of saffron, Modi sings the yoga guru's praises.  Modi is set to inaugurate Ramdev's Acharyakulam School in Haridwar in tje presence of influential spiritual leaders like Morari Bapu and Rameshji Oza.

Seeking to put a full stop on speculations if ties between JD(U) and BJP were under strain after recent bickering, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today said the alliance was working well and will continue to do so in future.


"We work together in coordination and mutual agreement," Kumar said after filing of nominations by two JD(U) and one BJP candidates for the three seats of Bihar Legislative Council.


"Seat-sharing agreement among partners for the Council elections has strengthened the alliance and we will work together for the welfare of people of Bihar in future too," Kumar, flanked by Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, said.

Running an airline creates an astonishing amount of waste. Food, fuel, and the millions of tons of waste from worn carpets, uniforms and seat cushions adds up.Fortunately, many have started to get creative with recycling, turning their used goods into bags, quilts, shoes, carpets, and in one instance, a wedding dress.
Read how airlines recycle.

As women live longer and have fewer children, they are becoming taller and slimmer, a new study has shown. The study of people living in rural Gambia has revealed that the modern-day "demographic transition" towards living longer and having fewer children may lead women to be taller and slimmer, too. "This is a reminder that declines in mortality rates do not necessarily mean that evolution stops, but that it changes," said Ian Rickard of Durham University in the United Kingdom.

Seeking to turn the tables on the Centre in the chit fund scam, Trinamool Congress today demanded the resignation of Union Minister A H Khan Chaudhary for his alleged links with the Saradha group and raised questions over the Prime Minister's role in the issue for not taking any action.


Answering a query on the alleged role of his party MPs in the chit fund scam, Trinamool leader Derek O'Brien said the party was doing its own investigations into the case and "no one will be spared".


"There are three letters written by Minister of State for Health (who) wrote one letter in September 2011 slamming the Saradha group. Six months later, he wrote a letter to the Prime Minister praising the group and even asking him to keep this group out of the purview of the Reserve Bank.


"Two months later, he wrote another letter where not only he praised Sarada group but also slammed its competitors. The Minister of State for Health needs to resign but the bigger question is that the Prime Minister received three letters but no action was taken and he is answerable," he told reporters.


O'Brien said his party was taking multiple actions to get to the bottom of the whole issue including the arrest of Sudipto Sen, ordering SIT and judicial probe, calling a special Assembly session and creation of a Rs 500 crore corpus for the victims of the alleged scam.

If you've been following the Chinese incursion into Ladakh, read this. Since 1986, China has taken land in the Skakjung area in the Demchok-Kuyul sector in Eastern Ladakh. Now, it has moved to the Chip Chap area in Northeastern Ladakh. As in Kargil, India has been lax in patrolling. Read

The government today sought to end the current impasse in Parliament by reaching out to BJP for its support to get the Finance Bill and Rail Budget passed, but the main opposition was adamant that the controversial JPC report on 2G scam should not be adopted.


Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath met NDA Working Chairperson L K Advani, BJP Deputy Leader in Lok Sabha Gopinath Munde and other MPs to find a way out of the impasse in both Houses to get crucial finance bills passed.


Nath sought BJP's support to run the House to pass the Rail Budget and the Finance Bill.


With only nine working days left in this session, the government wants to get them passed at the earliest. Sources said BJP is likely to cooperate on these two matters but will not allow any other legislative business.


Advani is understood to have told Nath that the matter should be discussed on Monday as Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj is in Karnataka for the election campaign.


But he emphasised that BJP will not allow the controversial JPC draft report on 2G spectrum scam to be adopted. BJP is miffed by the allegation in the JPC report that the telecom policy followed by the erstwhile NDA government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee had led to the loss of Rs 42,000 crore to the exchequer. 

Pakistani intelligence agencies have warned that the Taliban have made plans to kidnap former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, who is currently being held at his private residence in Islamabad after being arrested in several criminal cases.


The intelligence agencies have issued an advisory that the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan might attempt to abduct Musharraf while he is being taken from his farmhouse to court, Geo News channel reported today.


The channel quoted its sources as saying that the Taliban was working with other jihadi groups to kidnap Musharraf. The intelligence agencies directed security agencies to ensure strict surveillance and tight security to foil the plans of the militants, the report said.


Shortly after Musharraf returned to Pakistan from self- exile last month, the Taliban announced that they had formed a special squad of suicide bombers and snipers to target him. A car rigged with a huge amount of explosives was recently found near Musharraf's farmhouse on the outskirts of Islamabad, which was declared a "sub-jail" after he was arrested last week when a court revoked his bail in a case over the detention of dozens of judges during the 2007 emergency.


Yesterday, Musharraf was formally arrested by the Federal Investigation Agency in the 2007 assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto.

Defence Minister A.K Antony today said that negotiations are taking place at various levels to find a peaceful solution to the Chinese troops incursion issue. Antony's statement comes in the backdrop of Chinese soldiers entering Indian territory in the Depsang area of Ladakh.


India has asked China to maintain earlier status quo in Ladakh. Antony was briefed on Thursday by Chief of Army Staff General Bikram Singh about the latter's recent two-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir and the Ladakh area to review the security situation with commanders and officers of the army's Northern Command.


The Army has given its inputs to the Government and the National Security Advisor-headed China Study Group, which is handling the present situation in Ladakh. External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid while announcing his May 9 visit to China yesterday, also said that such incidents happen due to differences in perception of the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

The UPA government today rejected the Opposition's demand for the resignation of Law Minister Ashwani Kumar, in the wake of the CBI filing an affidavit in the Supreme Court today admitting it had shared the draft status report on coal scam with the government.


Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath rejected the Opposition demand even as Law Minister Ashwani Kumar said he had done no wrong and that "the truth will prevail". "The UPA chairperson and the PM have just had a meeting with UPA allies. The discussions centred around the non-functioning of Parliament and unacceptable demands of the Opposition parties," Kamal Nath said. He added that there was no question of the Law Minister's resignation.

Sonia Gandhi also said that the Opposition makes such demands daily, there was no question of Ashwani Kumar resigning. Zee News

Filmmaker Yash Chopra, Rajesh Khanna, legendary playback singer Asha Bhosale are among those Bollywood legends, who will be honoured with the Dadasaheb Phalke Academy Awards in Mumbai on April 30.


Bhosale will be presented with the Phalke Ratna Award for her contribution in the field of music for five decades. Late Yash Chopra will be conferred with the Dadasaheb Phalke Academy Award for his services to the Indian film industry as the iconic filmmaker while his wife Pamela will recieve the Saraswatibai Phalke Award. Khanna, who died in July last year, will be honoured as the first superstar of Indian cinema award.


Akshay Kumar will receive the Best Actor award for 'Rowdy Rathore' and his mother-in-law Dimple Kapadia will get the Phalke Ever Memorable actor award. Manoj Bajapi will get the Phalke Excellent Performance award for the film 'Gangs of Wasseyur' while Irrfan Khan will be given the Phalke Memorable Performance Award for 'Paan Singh Tomar'. Govinda will be presented with the Phalke Versatile Actor award.

From the Wall Street Journal:

A Thursday morning post on the Facebook page set up by Sunil Tripathi's family called "Help us find Sunil' said:

On April 23, our beloved Sunil was discovered in the waters off India Point Park in Providence, Rhode Island. As we carry indescribable grief, we also feel incredible gratitude. To each one of you -- from our hometown to many distant lands -- we extend our thanks for the words of encouragement, for your thoughts, for your hands, for your prayers, and for the love you have so generously shared.Your compassionate spirit is felt by Sunil and by all of us.


This last month has changed our lives forever, and we hope it will change yours too. Take care of one another. Be gentle, be compassionate. Be open to letting someone in when it is you who is faltering. Lend your hand. We need it. The world needs it.

With love,
The Tripathi Family

Under attack from opposition parties, JPC Chairman P C Chacko today said he will consult Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar before finalising the date of the panel meeting to adopt the controversial report. "I can announce the next date of the meeting today itself. But since reasonable or otherwise, some members have approached the Speaker against it, I thought it would be better that I consult her before deciding on the date," Chacko said outside Parliament House.

Rahul Pandita on Twitter: Maoist central committee member Aklant Rabha alias Mahesh alias Bhupathi and his courier arrested in Karbi Anglong, Assam.

Sunil Tripathi's family has sought "privacy" for itself and "for our love for Sunny" after forensic dental examination confirmed that a body found in Providence River was that of the missing Indian origin student.


"On April 23, our beloved Sunil was discovered in the waters off India Point Park in Providence," his family wrote in a statement after the Rhode Island Department of Health confirmed the identity of the 22-year-old's body on Thursday. More

Rajya Sabha adjourned till 2:30 pm after uproar over questioning of UP Minister Azam Khan at Boston airport, coal and 2G scams.

The past week has been a devastating one for many families. Zubeidat Tsarnaev's is one of them. But the mother of the two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings remains resolute in her belief that her sons were not involved in the attack. Read

Negotiations are on at various levels to find a peaceful solution to the Chinese incursion issue, Defence Minister A K Antony.

Read: Battle of tents and banners on border

Shakuntala Devi's lifelong effort to get people, especially students, familiar with mathematics is worth admiring. Read

CBI Director Ranjit Sinha says in affidavit before Supreme Court that the status report on the coal allocation scam was shared with the Law Minister as desired by him.  

"The status report was also shared with joint secretary-level officers of PMO and Coal ministry as desired by them," Sinha said in two-page affidavit. The CBI chief promises not to share further status report with any political executive.


The CBI Director filed a personal affidavit in the Supreme Court stating whether or not Law Minister Ashwani Kumar reviewed the agency's report on the coal scam. The affidavit will state whether the minister suggested a "list of alterations" that were then cleared by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).

Saradha Group donated heavily to Trinamool govt, bought Mamata's art. Read

Writer Amitava Kumar on being brown in America. Read

The Supreme Court has ruled that the National Investigation Agency will go ahead with investigations in the Italian marines case. The day-to-day proceedings will be conducted by a special court against the two, accused of killing Indian fishermen. Italy had questioned the jurisdiction of the NIA to probe the case against its two marines - Massimiliano Lattore and Salvatore Girone - a contention rejected by the government which had on the last hearing assured the court that the investigation will be completed within 60 days.

China's deep intrusion into eastern Ladakh region was a well-planned exercise to needle India, even though the government is now taking pains to stress it's "more of a tactical-level operation" rather than one with "any strategic intent". Read

India has formally protested to the US the brief detention of Uttar Pradesh urban development minister Mohammad AzamKhan at Boston airport as he arrived to take part in an event at Harvard University.Khan, who is accompanying UP chief ministerAkhilesh Yadav for the presentation of a Harvard study on the Kumbh Mela pilgrimage, was detained for about 10 minutes for "further questioning" at Boston Logan International Airport Wednesday, according to Indian officials.

There was a sudden flurry of activity in our new 8th-floor office in Salt Lake. I had never seen the administrative staff of the office so animated before. The office manager came to my small room and told me: "No one is allowed to leave the building; the CMD Sir is coming.'He then proceeded to meet the other senior editors and repeated the diktat.Journalists are an uncontrollable breed and do not react too kindly to such orders, particularly when they are given at peak news time and that, too, by an office manager. Read

Amit Mitra's agony was Saradha's ecstasy but the stoical finance minister seems to have suffered in silence instead of prescribing a painkiller.Companies illegally mobilising deposits appear to have sucked dry one of the most preferred sources of loans for the debt-burdened Bengal government in the past two years, forcing it to tap markets with narrower repayment windows. Read

The India-China military face-off in eastern Ladakh has turned into a battle of tentwallahs on a Tibetan plateau.The Indian Army chief, General Bikram Singh, who returned from Jammu and Kashmir last evening, told a group of military veterans in a closed-door meeting today that the army has pitched eight tents in response to four pitched by the Chinese between the "Lines of Perception' on a dry bed of a rivulet called Raki Nala. Read the full story on the Telegraph.

The 32-year-old son of a senior lawyer was killed while resisting a robbery at his home in Preet Vihar, East Delhi. Delhi Police sources said that at least six armed dacoits entered the B-Block, Madhuban Colony house of former Director of Prosecutions Sumer Kumar Datta (70) at around 2.30 am.


They held Datta, his wife Prabha (67) and son Animesh captive and ransacked the house before making off with Rs.25, 000 and gold jewellery. Media reports quoted the Dattas, as telling the police that the dacoits were armed with guns and daggers, and added that the latter had said that they did not wish to harm them", but strangled to Animesh to death when he shouted for help.


Police were told that the dacoits seemed to be in their mid-20s. They entered the Dattas' home by removing the iron grill of the drawing room.

The Kurdish rebel group the PKK has announced it will withdraw its thousands of fighters from Turkey starting on May 8.The rebels from the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK), who have been fighting the Turkish government for the last three decades, will move to northern Iraq after leaving Turkish territory.

 

During the announcement, the armed group warned Turkey's powerful military against "provocations" which would result in the end of the pledged withdrawal.

 

Read the full report on Al Jazeera

Crime in England and Wales fell sharply last year with an 8% drop recorded on police figures and a 5% reduction according to the official crime survey, the Office for National Statistics has said. Statisticians say the crime rate has halved since it peaked in 1995 and appears to be at its lowest level for more than 30 years.

 

The official 2012 statistics show that all the main categories of crime recorded by the police fell, with violence down 6%, robbery down 13% and burglary down 9%. The murder rate also continued to fall in 2012, down 4% from 577 to 552 homicides. Knife crime fell by 16%, including a fall in the number or rapes involving a knife from 246 to 191.

 

There was a 3% reduction in the number of sexual offences, but the ONS said the effect of Operation Yewtree, the inquiry launched in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal, might mean more people coming forward to report historical sex abuse allegations.

 

Read the full report on The Guardian

Swedish police found illegal narcotics on Justin Bieber's tour bus as it was parked outside Stockholm's Globe Arena, where he was performing, a police spokesman said Thursday. While a source close to Bieber insisted it was a non-story and no charges were filed, it is the latest stumble in the teen pop star's European tour.

 

Bieber's publicist had no official comment when contacted by CNN. Police found a small amount of unspecified illegal narcotics on the tour bus that Bieber and about nine others had taken to the arena for the concert Wednesday night, Stockholm police spokesman Varg Gyllander said.

 

Read the full report on CNN

BBC: New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has said the Boston Marathon bombing suspects planned to detonate the rest of their explosives in Times Square. Mayor Bloomberg said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving suspect, had told the FBI he and his brother "spontaneously" decided that New York would be next.

 

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told reporters the suspects had a pressure cooker bomb and five pipe bombs. Three people died and over 260 were wounded in the 15 April Boston attack.

 

"Last night we were informed by the FBI that the surviving attacker revealed that New York City was next on their list of targets," Mr Bloomberg said during Thursday's news conference at city hall.

US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel has said American intelligence believes "to some degree of varying confidence" that Syria has used chemical weapons. It was suspected that sarin gas had been used against rebels, he said while in the United Arab Emirates.

 

Hagel said the use was "small scale", and did not give details. The White House has warned chemical weapons use would be a "red line" for possible intervention, but says this intelligence does not represent proof.

 

Read the full report on BBC

At least five people were killed and around ten others injured when a blast ripped through an election office of a political party in Karachi on Thursday night, officials told Dawn.com. Initial reports suggest the bomb was planted in a motorcycle near the election office of Muttahida Qaumi Movement in Karachi's Nusrat Bhutto Colony.

 

The explosion damaged nearby buildings and vehicles. Police and security agencies have cordoned off the area and an initial investigation is underway. Injured and dead are shifted to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital. Sources said that three brothers are among the five deceased.

 

Read the full report on Dawn

US: Body found in river identified as Sunil Tripathi

UP minister Azam Khan detained briefly at US airport

P C Chacko unites the opposition against Congress

Ship collides with trawler off Karwar; 2 fishermen dead

Toll in Bangladesh building collapse rises to 250

No evidence that Modi incited rioters, says SIT

Incursion issue to be over before China visit: Khurshid

Jundal in serious condition at Arthur Road jail: Lawyer

ED registers money laundering case against Saradha group

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