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Al Jazeera: Nepal's major political parties have agreed to form an interim government led by a supreme court chief justice, and to hold elections in June, in an attempt to end the deadlock that has left the nation without a fully functioning government since last year.
The parties want chief justice Khilraj Regmi to chair the council, replacing Maoist prime minister Beburam Bhattarai as head of the interim government until the upcoming elections.
"We agreed on a package deal in which all major parties' concerns were addressed. The prime minister will recommend the chief justice as his successor at a meeting with the president later today."
"The four major parties have agreed to appoint the chief justice as a head of the interim government which will hold elections by mid-June," said Bimalendra Nidhi, a senior Nepali Congress politician.
"We agreed on a package deal in which all major parties' concerns were addressed. The prime minister will recommend the chief justice as his successor at a meeting with the president later today."
Angry over his Facebook page status updates, VHP leader Praveen Togadia today alleged it was the work of hackers and their politically-motivated masterminds.
"I was informed by my friends yesterday that there had been strange posts, unlike those put by me on my Facebook page. "To my utter shock I found that the page that I had myself created was no longer accessible to me and there were a couple of politically-coloured posts," Togadia said in a statement in Allahabad.
"I have urged the Facebook company to help me restore my access to the page and deny the same to anybody else unless officially authorised by me," the VHP international working president said. "I have also urged the Union government to help me locate the hackers and their politically-motivated masterminds for suitable action," he said.
The VHP leader's Facebook page has had a number of posts in the last few hours which are openly supportive of former BJP president Nitin Gadkari and critical of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
During this period, the two Houses will adjourn for recess on Friday, the 22ndof March 2013, to reassemble on Monday, the 22nd of April, 2013 to enable the department-related Parliamentary Standing Committees to examine the demands for grants relating to various ministries/departments and make their reports to the Houses. The Session will provide 34 sittings -- 21 sittings during first part of the Session before recess and 13 sittings during second part of the Session.
The President will address both Houses of Parliament assembled together at 11.00 a.m. on 21st of February, 2013. The Budget (Railways) for 2013-2014 will be presented to the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, the 26th of February, 2013 immediately after Question Hour. The Economic Survey of India will be laid in the Parliament on Wednesday, the 27th of February, 2013. The Budget (General) for 2013 2014 will be presented at 11.00 a.m. on Thursday, the 28th of February, 2013.
The Executive Committee meeting of BJP's Parliamentary Party, chaired by L K Advani, decided to raise the issue in Parliament in a major way, while party President Rajnath Singh demanded a comprehensive investigation into the deal, saying anyone found guilty should be punished.
"I am demanding a comprehensive investigation into this helicopter scam. Whoever is guilty should be punished," Singh said.
"Oscar would often tell me how much he loved Reeva and she was a fantastic person who understood him. She could be 'the one'." Pistorius breaks down yet again when he hears this.
Talking about the night of February 13, Pistorius says, "We agreed to spend evening at home. By 10pm we were in bedroom, she was doing yoga. I was watching TV with prosthetic legs off."
Pistorius breaks down, sobs uncontrollably. The magistrate asks Pistorius to try to maintain his composure. He gives Pistorius two minutes to speak to his family in order to help him do so.
Nair leaves to allow Pistorius to regain composure. A woman hands him an energy drink, his brother pats him on the back, Roux (the defense attorney) talks to him.
-- Guardian.
The former Union Minister has political links with both states and has represented them in Parliament at different times. Without getting into an argument, Yadav simply said the whole country was beautiful.
He then added in a lighter vein "even you are very beautiful." The engineer-turned-politician's remark evoked loud laughter from those present, including the reporter. Yadav was elected to Lok Sabha from Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh in late 1970s, while currently he represents the Madhepura constituency of Bihar in the Lower House of Parliament.
The verdict, which does not affect the ongoing nursery admission process in the national capital, however, clarified that the RTE Act would deal with 25 per cent reservation for toddlers of weaker sections in admissions to "pre-elementary" classes including the nursery.
Mode: Oscar Pistorius, i am sorry i don't believe you pal, you would have heard a womans scream after the first shot. But to then shoot another?
Rowena Grant-Frost: Oscar Pistorius's defence basically that he meant to shoot a black man dead and not a white lady? Not really doing it for me.
But the judge said he will consider downgrading the charge later.The ruling came after an emotionally draining bail hearing, with prosecutors saying Steenkamp's killing was premeditated and the defense saying Pistorius thought she was an intruder.
Both the defense and prosecution agreed Pistorius shot and killed his girlfriend in a tragic Valentine's Day confrontation inside his upscale Pretoria home.But the two sides gave wildly different accounts Tuesday of what led to the model's death.
Pistorius sobbed uncontrollably during the bail hearing as prosecutors described how they say he murdered his girlfriend.The state said the killing was premeditated: Pistorius armed himself, attached his prosthetic legs and walked 7 meters before shooting Steenkamp, who had come to spend the night, through a bathroom door, prosecutor Gerrie Nel said.Pistorius fired four times, Nel said; Steenkamp was struck thrice inside a locked bathroom.
As Nel spoke, Pistorius buried his face in his hands. -- CNN.
"I will do my duty. I am now getting ready for the Parliament session. We will explain everything to Parliament. We have nothing to hide. Our hands are very clean," Antony told reporters on being asked whether he would resign. Reacting to BJP's allegations that the Defence Ministry was "sleeping" over the reports of corruption in the Rs 3,600 crore deal for 12 VVIP choppers, he said, "I cannot wake up anybody who is sleeping".
The Defence Ministry had started taking action on the issue from day one when first media reports in this regard came in, Antony said.
Addressing a press conference at a BrahMos Aerospace function, he said there were no differences between different ministries on the process to scrap the deal and the whole Government was working together.
Antony said he was "sad and upset" over the controversy which had erupted despite all precautions having been taken. "Now we are preparing to face Parliament."
The Minister was asked if he was sad over the whole episode and was resigning on the issue taking a high moral ground. Antony said he was upset over the alleged scam as despite blacklisting six firms in one scam for which he was accused of slowing down modernisation, such an incident has happened as "there was no end to human greed and still greedy people were working around the world."
It arrived in a black hearse. A few mourners have arrived for the ceremony. "The memorial itself inside the chapel is family and friends and then there will be a statement afterwards for the media," her uncle Michael Steenkamp told AFP. The family bore the runner no grudge but wanted clarity about Steenkamp's death.
"The family haven't got that animosity or hatred or anything like that but questions, and we realise that it's going to come out," he said.
Sharon Steenkamp, her cousin, told local newspaper The Herald that none of the family at Steenkamp's parents home had met Pistorius. "No, we are not even thinking about Oscar. All our focus is on Reeva, her life and what has happened to her. She never had an enemy in the world and was a super person," she said.
However, trains, taxis, autorickshaws, buses, hospitals and public services will work.
The magistrate posted the next hearing in the case for March 5. While granting him bail last week, the court had asked him to appear before it today.
Akbaruddin, the Majlis-e-Ittehadul-Muslimeen (MIM) floor leader in the state Assembly, has been facing charges of sedition and waging war against the nation among others, under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for his "hate speech" in two different courts in Adilabad and Nizamabad districts. He was released on bail on February 16 after the two courts granted him bail.
She had an overnight bag and her iPad, a South African official familiar with a case said Monday.
The 29-year-old model was alive after she was shot, and Pistorius carried her wounded body downstairs, said the official, who was not authorized to release details to the media.Police were alerted to the shooting by neighbors, and residents had "heard things earlier," spokeswoman Denise Beukes said.
A police spokeswoman said there had been "previous incidents" at the home, including "allegations of a domestic nature." They did not detail what those may been.
Detectives are investigating a blood-stained cricket bat in the home, Johannesburg's City Press newspaper reported, and are trying to determine whether it was used to attack Steenkamp, if she used the bat in self-defense, or if Pistorius used it to try to break down the bathroom door.
Pistorius, 26, has rejected the murder allegation "in the strongest terms," his agent said in a statement. His defense attorney argued Tuesday that the incident was not premeditated, and that Pistorius has no prior convictions. More
A bail hearing, described as a "little trial' by one expert, was being held to determine whether the double-amputee athlete known as "Blade Runner" should be freed pending trial.
As the hearing began just after 9:30 a.m. local time, Pistorius, 26, stood staring straight ahead, trembling with his jaw clenched.Chief Magistrate Desmond Nair asked him "are you well?" to which the athlete shrugged and said "I guess."
Both Samuel and Sood were arrested on February 15 after a chase in suburban Oshiwara and produced before a magistrate, who had remanded them in custody till February 21. They were booked for over speeding on Jogeshwari-Vikhroli link road and also misbehaving with police. Police also alleged that Samuel was drunk.
Details of the murder case against Mr Pretorius are emerging at a bail hearing in Pretoria.
The defendant - who is expected to deny murder - wept as he heard the account.
His girlfriend, model Reeva Steenkamp, was shot dead on Thursday.The court appearance comes on the same day as her funeral in Port Elizabeth.
In their account of the killing, prosecutors said Mr Pistorius - a double amputee - got up, put on his prosthesis, walked seven metres and fired his gun through the bathroom door.
He shot four times and hit Ms Steenkamp three times, prosecutor Gerrie Nel told the court. Mr Pistorius then broke down the bathroom door and carried the victim downstairs, he added.
Earlier, prosecutors said they would press a charge of premeditated murder against the 26-year-old athlete.
Mr Pistorius, a multiple Paralympic champion, competed in both the Olympic and Paralympic Games at London 2012. -- BBC.
UB Holdings has sought approval from its shareholders to revise the lending limit for Kingfisher and to authorise its board of directors to take necessary actions in this regard, the company had said yesterday.
Also read: Police 'believe message on iPad of model shot dead by Blade Runner may have sparked fatal row
"We have nothing to hide. It is an outrightly objective procedure that has been followed. "Keeping all that in mind, the Defence Ministry will recommend what it thinks is appropriate," Khurshid told reporters here. The Minister also said he has not expressed reservations on scrapping of the deal by the Defence Ministry.
That's also on the Hindu. Read
"Abduction, murder and robbery charges, which were not in the FIR, have now been added as she was murdered and robbed by unidentified persons," a crime branch official said. A team of crime branch would also visit the spot in Navi Mumbai where her skeletal remains were found.
The places where she was seen on the fateful day would also be visited to understand the sequence of events that led to her murder, the officer added. "A forensic experts' team would also accompany the police team," the officer added. The case was recently transferred to Mumbai crime branch from Navi Mumbai Police. So far, no arrests have been made.
However, no reasons were given for Antony not being part of the delegation. During the talks, the British side is expected to take up the issue of Eurofighter combat aircraft for India's requirement of 126 multi-role fighter planes for the IAF. The controversial chopper deal involving Anglo-Italian firm AgustaWestland may also come up for discussion.
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A contempt of court petition filed by Tamil Nadu against Karnataka is likely to be taken up by the Supreme Court. The Tamil Nadu chief secretary is likely to appear in the Supreme Court to provide details of missing children from the state.
Then, Parliamentary affairs minister Kamal Nath is likely to issue a statement on the Budget session of Parliament at 4 pm today. Following this, a Joint Parliamentary Committee meeting is likely.
UK PM David Cameron is in Delhi and is likely to meet the PM.
Then, of course, Defence Minister AK Antony will speak at the India-Russia partnership event.
At least six fire engines were rushed to the spot.
More details are awaited.
However, in Mumbai most union will not strike work on Thursday keeping in mind the start of the HSC exams.
While the auto unions led by Sharad Roa will join the bandh on Wednesday, the BEST bus and train services will remain unaffected.
"I want to safeguard AgustaWestland's future. Separate chopper from the scandal," Cameron told NDTV ahead of his meeting with Dr Singh.
Watch the full interview of NDTV
However, India is unlikely to ask Nasheed to leave because it feels it was up to the Maldivian leader to take a call, sources said in New Delhi.
A Maldivian court on Monday gave time till Wednesday 4 pm to the police for bringing Nasheed before it, prompting them to approach the foreign ministry asking it to get in touch with the Indian High Commission, where Nasheed has taken refuge since February 13.
Imchen was detained earlier on Monday after he was caught carrying carrying a cache of arms and ammunition and Rs 1.10 crore in cash in a vehicle. A case under the Arms Act has been filed against him and he has been arrested.
Read the full report here
The arbitration court took the decision after Pakistan sought a stay on the project claiming that India was diverting the flow of the river and violating Indus Water Treaty between the two countries.
Reacting to the development, official spokesperson in the Ministry of External Affairs said, "The award of the Court of Arbitration at The Hague today reaffirmed validity of India's position regarding KHEP by allowing diversion of water from the KHEP as envisaged by India."