A criminal court in Libya's western city of Misrata sentenced a Gaddafi-era education minister to death today for murder and for inciting violence during the 2011 civil war. 

Three members of a Sikh gang, including a woman, were today convicted of slashing the throat of Lt Gen (retd) Kuldip Singh Brar, the hero of the 1984 Operation Blue Star, here last year. 

US Secretary of State John Kerry arrived here today for consultations with the newly-elected government in Pakistan and nudge it to eliminate terrorist safe-havens ahead of the withdrawal of US-led troops from neighbouring Afghanistan.        

 

Kerry, who had earlier postponed his visit, will hold meetings with President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and army chief General Ashfaq Kayani tomorrow.        

 

This is Kerry's maiden visit to Pakistan after becoming the Secretary of State. Bilateral relations and regional situation especially resumption of strategic dialogue between Pakistan and the United States besides the issue of drone strikes will be discussed during Kerry's meeting with the top leadership.          

 

The two sides are expected to discuss resumption of strategic dialogue as well as cooperation in different fields including energy, the Pakistan Foreign Office officials said.

PTI: Signalling a departure from the aggressive policy to stake China's territorial claims with its neighbours, President Xi Jinping today said Beijing will adhere to the policy of "shelving disputes and carrying out joint development" in areas where it has sovereign claims.        

 

"The country will adhere to the policy of shelving disputes and carrying out joint development for areas over which China owns sovereign rights, while also promoting mutually beneficial and friendly cooperation and seeking and expanding common converging interests with other countries," state-run Xinhua news agency quoted Xi as saying at a high level ruling Politburo meeting of the ruling Communist Party meet in Beijing today.        

 

His remarks marks a significant departure from a very aggressive policy pursued by China in the last two years in asserting its claims over the South China Sea, besides maritime disputes with Japan over the islands jointly claimed by both countries.        

 

Observers say his comments were more on the lines of China's late moderate leader Deng Xiaoping who after taking over from Mao Zedong reported to have suggested to various countries including India and Japan to shelve the disputes to pursue development.        

A correspondent in New Delhi reports: Congress President Sonia Gandhi was visibly upset and snubbed two general secretaries -- Mukul Wasnik and Gurudas Kamat -- who raised the Vidarbha issue during the party's working committee meeting on Wednesday that was discussing a resolution for the creation of Telangana state.

Petrol prices hiked by 70 paise per litre, diesel prices hiked by 50 paise to a litre. Oil firms have been pitching for another big increase in diesel prices, which have gone up 23% in the past year, and up to Rs 1.50 increase in petrol to make the fuel 15% more costly in only three months, as international fuel prices have risen, industry officials said.

BJP today hit back at Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for his remarks vowing to put the saffron party in place in future and said that he should bother about his party JD(U)'s fate as the people of Bihar will bring it down in the next general elections.

"The people of Bihar will teach a lesson to Kumar and his party JD(U) for showing disrespect to mandate for NDA in 2010 assembly polls and they will put the ruling party in place during the next parliamentary polls," BJP legislature party leader Sushil Kumar Modi said.

Telugu Desam Party chief N Chandrababu Naidu today urged the centre to develop a city at par with Hyderabad as the capital of Andhra Pradesh following the formation of separate Telangana state.

He said the centre should allocate 2 to 4 lakh crore rupees to develop a new city. He demanded the government to earmark the funds in the bill it plans to table in parliament for formation of Telangana state. Read

MNS chief Raj Thackeray has slammed Shobhaa De for her tweet supporting statehood for Mumbai. He said separating Mumbai from Maharashtra is not easy as getting a divorce.

De tweeted: Maharashtra and Mumbai??? Why not? Mumbai has always fancied itself as an independent entity, anyway. This game has countless possibilities.

The BJP, Sena and NCP have asked her to delete the tweet.

The driver of a train that derailed last week, killing 79 people, was on the phone and reading a document as he travelled at 153kph before the crash, a court was told. Read

An internal report by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has found that it committed no wrongdoing in the case of Internet activist Aaron Swartz, who committed suicide while facing charges he hacked into the university's computers and stole millions of online documents. Read

The driver of a Spanish train which crashed told authorities he does not know what he was thinking in the seconds before the crash. Read

The troubling gap between politics and governance in Pakistan came into stark relief on Tuesday, when lawmakers elected the country's 12th president just hours after Taliban militants shot their way into a major jail, freeing about 250 prisoners. Read

Praising ally turned sworn enemy Nitish Kumar has earned BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha a sharp rebuke from his own party. Days after the actor-politician described the Bihar Chief Minister as well qualified for the Prime Minister's post, his senior BJP colleague Yashwant Sinha has asked him to "desist" from such statements.

"Bihari babu (Shatrughan Sinha) should refrain from making statements at a time relations between both the parties are at an all-time low," said Yashwant Sinha, speaking to reporters at his constituency Hazaribagh in Jharkhand.-- NDTV.

With GJM renewing the demand for Gorkhaland in Darjeeling following UPA unanimously endorsing creation of a separate Telangana state, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today ruled out division of West Bengal and blamed the Congress for the agitation in the hills.

"Darjeeling is part and parcel of West Bengal. There is no question of division of West Bengal. We are united, we will be united and we will be together," Banerjee said.

Apparently referring to the recent visit by a six member GJM team headed by its General Secretary Roshan Giri to Delhi with the Gorkhaland demand, Banerjee alleged "I am sorry to say ... I will write to Prime Minister whether it was a right step or not that some central ministers invited three or four Morcha leaders to Delhi some days back.

"A union territory without taking consent of the state? It is funny. Is it a lollipop in a child's hand? I request the Centre that has responsibility to see that peace is not disturbed in Darjeeling,"she said.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government has announced the formation of a "mountain strike corps' to defend India's Himalayan border with China.

With its 50,000 troops and action-movie name, the new outfit might seem like the muscular response New Delhi needs to counter this summer's spate of Chinese border incursions.

'But the announcement represents another example of Indian strategic timidity in the face of Chinese aggression.  Read

"I have both admired and slammed Sharad Pawar over the years on various issues, I suddenly feel sorry for the NCP chief as he has no credible face, apart from himself, to lead the party in the next elections and that includes the polls to the assembly which are due in October 2014," writes Sujata Anandan for the Hindustan Times. Read

More school meal horrors: Distressed over food containing worms being served to them, 50 girl students of a residential school, who had refused to eat meals for four days, fled the premises, prompting an inquiry following which five employees, including a warden and a cook, have been sacked.

The students of Kasturba Gandhi residential girls school in Hafizganj area in Bareilly, claimed that the cook would not wash raw food material and grains before preparing meals and they were scolded whenever they raised their voice against it.

They said that many of them were taken ill after consuming the food following which the girls fled the premises.

Uttarakhand today sought Rs 13,800 crore from the Centre for reconstruction and relief work in the flood-ravaged state at the first meeting of the Cabinet Committee on the issue and claimed to have got an assurance from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in this regard.

The Cabinet Committee discussed the issue of compensation and rehabilitation in the state with Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna saying that his government has decided to declare the 5400 people, who are still missing after the flash flood tragedy, as "presumed dead" and give them compensation.

The missing people will, however, not been given death certificates. "5400 people are still missing. Out of these 924 are from the state. These are presumed to be dead and Rs 5 lakh cheque each will be given to their family members. The Finance Minister said that the LIC should be asked to expedite their insurance claims as was done during tsunami," Bahuguna said.

Top 10 facts about Telangana. Read

A man was killed today allegedly by the sand mafia in Noida in the National Capital Region. The police say three motorcycle-borne men shot the man, Mangeram, in Sector 39, Noida, following which he died of his injuries.

The family of the man say he was killed by the sand mafia since he was fighting them in the area and had filed a complaint against them a few days ago.

The attack comes days after the UP government suspended IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal, and the opposition alleged that she has been suspended as she took on the sand mafia.

Remember this? Sand mafia truck mows down cop

The Indian Mujahideen are for real, and investigators have more evidence about them than they would have us believe. Read

The Cabinet Committee on Investment has cleared 157 projects worth Rs 1.6 lakh crore, Finance Minister P Chidambaram, said today. He said that the demand for credit is sluggish from large industry, but the government is confident of financing the current account deficit in 2013-14 without drawing on reserves. The government is also actively considering significant liberalising of the FDI policy.

Omar's foreboding rings true.

J&K chief minister, Omar Abdullah, voiced his reservations on the Telangana statehood issue said it could act as an incentive to those agitating for similar demands elsewhere in the country. "It is fine that you have to create Telangana, but don't do it piecemeal. Telangana will be created on the basis of agitations. This way the agitations are being incentivised," Omar said in Srinagar, yesterday.

He said giving in to the demand of creating a separate state in the backdrop of an agitation was a "dangerous thing".

"An impression is going out that an agitation can lead to creation of a new state, be it in Bundelkhand, Maharashtra, Gorkhaland or in our state. What will you tell people of Jammu -- agitate for seven or eight years and you will get a separate state? This is a dangerous thing," he said.

Violence erupted in Assam today in support of a separate Karbi Anglong state in which houses of a Congress MP and MLA were attacked, prompting the police to fire in the air to quell them.

Demanding that a separate state be carved out of Assam along the lines of Telangana, the agitators belonging to several organisations gheraoed the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council in Diphu and locked its main gate.

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee's first reaction to the fresh demand for Gorkhaland. She says that Darjeeling will remain part of West Bengal and the state government will not dissolve the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration.

For once today, the heat in the Andhra Bhavan canteen -- possibly the best-known south Indian address in Delhi -- came from Telangana. "Everything served here is authentic Andhra food. No Telangana food is served here," growled J David, managing the crowd on the ground floor of the canteen, whose spicy meals are a big hit. That's the story on the Telegraph.

Expressing concern over Britain's plan to introduce a scheme of demanding a whopping 3,000 pounds visa bond from visitors from certain countries, including India, Ficci today said the proposed move could "certainly impact" India Inc's investment plans for the UK.

"It is indeed a matter of concern if the UK Government actualises its plans to seek 3,000 pounds refundable bonds from Indians applying for UK visas in the immediate future... It could certainly impact the Indian industry's investment plans for the UK," industry body Ficci said.

Moreover, grouping India, which has emerged as the fourth largest investor in UK, with countries like Ghana, Uganda, Pakistan and Bangladesh was also a matter of concern, Ficci said.

Update on the JNU murder: A 23-year-old student of New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) killed himself after allegedly attacking his female friend with a cleaver this morning.

Akash and Roshni, 22, reportedly had an altercation at around 11 am in one of the classrooms in the campus. Both studied Korean in the school of language in JNU. Read

Despite being roundly criticized for suspending an IAS officer who had cracked down on the sand mining mafia, the Uttar Pradesh government will ask the officer for an explanation and is even readying a charge sheet.

Durga Shakti Nagpal, who was ostensibly removed for ordering the demolition on Saturday of a mosque built illegally on government land, will be given 10 days to explain herself in writing.

If the state government doesn't find her reply satisfactory, then a charge sheet could be filed in 45 days. More

BSF troops today fired after observing suspected movement along International Border in Jammu sector.

"There was suspected movement along IB Sidharwan Border Out Post (BoP) in Akhnoor belt of Jammu district around 0505 hours today," a BSF officer said.

The BSF troops guarding the border took positions and fired 25 rounds on the area of suspected movement, he said, adding that during search conducted afterwards, foot-prints were seen. The suspected persons apparently escaped back to the other side of the border, he said.

Congress legislators from Rayalaseema today demanded that capital should be established in their region after the division of Andhra Pradesh in view of the area's backwardness.

"Kurnool (in Rayalaseema) was the capital of Andhra state, but we sacrificed it for Hyderabad in AP. The state is being divided again. Hyderabad is developed. Now, it is not clear where the capital will be established. Our proposal is that we should get the capital, because we sacrificed," Andhra Pradesh Law Minister E Pratap Reddy said.

A visit to the headquarters of national parties makes us believe that top leaders are now busy shortlisting the names of celebrities they will showcase during campaign trails. BJP managers have 85 names, while Congress has 35. An insider at 24 Akbar Road said no star wants to contest elections on a Congress ticket. 

Former Chief of Staff General VK Singh had an hour-long interaction with senior BJP leaders recently. He is believed to have agreed to contest the Lok Sabha elections against a VVIP from Uttar Pradesh. No, we are not giving out names just now, but friends of the former general have planned a recce in the constituency to gauge the mood of the voters. 

Six spacious bungalows in central Delhi have been rented by Congress poll managers. A party general secretary yesterday, visited these bungalows to hold candidate selections and stock pamphlets and such other, as well as to strategise for the 2014 polls. A little early for all this? So, does this mean the elections are being advanced? Watch this space.

In a bid to raise funds for its youth training program, the Delhi Police this week launched an aggressive advertising campaign.

But one of the series of three advertisements has upset child rights' activists.

Next to a picture of a young Indian boy on one of the adverts is the strapline, "Help him learn how to chop an onion. Before someone teaches him how to chop a head."  Read

A BA IIIrd year student has attacked his classmate with a sharp object at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and then consumed poison. Both the students have been rushed to AIIMS. Details awaited.

A Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM)-sponsored shutdown left most parts of Darjeeling paralysed for the second consecutive day on Wednesday.

Markets, offices and educational institutions remained closed, as the 72-hour shutdown continued. There were, however, no untoward incidents reported by the police.

Vehicular movement was also restricted.The GJM has called for the shutdown over a demand for the creation of a separate state of Gorkhaland to be carved out of parts of Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts of northern West Bengal.

The police have been patrolling the highways and keeping a strict vigil to prevent any untoward incident.

Gorkhaland: The demand for Gorkhaland has renewed. Gorkhaland activists are holding a 72-hour bandh during which angry street protests were witnessed in the region yesterday.

Vidarbha: With the UPA government likely to concede the demand for the creation of the Telangana state, the call for carving out a separate Vidarbha state out of Maharashtra has started gaining heat.

Staunch protagonist of Vidarbha state, former BJP MP Banwarilal Purohit, who formed a political outfit for fighting for the cause, told PTI that his party had passed a resolution in its Bhubneshwar executive committee in 1992 supporting separate Vidarbha.

BSP chief Mayawati holds a quickie press conference primarily welcoming the decision on the creation of the Telangana state. "The BSP always advocates the splitting of states and governance units. I reiterate my proposal to split UP into four different states -- Purvanchal, Bundelkhand, Awadh Pradesh and Paschim Pradesh. But for that that to happen Mulayam Singh Yadav should be asked to leave UP," she said.

Opponents to the creation of Telangana have stated that giving in will ensure the demands for other states to be split up as well.

N Srinivasan is back in office as the chief of the Indian cricket board, sources have said. He took over at 8 pm on Tuesday, ending Jagmohan Dalmiya's short term as interim president. Read

Also read: IPL fixing: Sreesanth chargesheeted along with Dawood & Co.

A passenger was killed while some others were feared drowned as a bus fell into a canal near Sirhind in Fatehgarh Sahib district of Punjab in the early hours today.

The Punjab roadways bus plying on Delhi-Jalandhar- Amritsar route fell into the Sirhind canal near a floating restaurant on the national highway around 2 am, Fatehgarh Sahib SSP Gurmeet Singh Chauhan said.

While there were unconfirmed reports that the bus was carrying around 20-30 passengers, the SSP has not confirmed the same.

The divers have so far been able to recover one body from the gushing waters of the canal, he said. However, the SSP has not ruled out more casualties in the mishap.

Narendra Modi has lashed out at the Congress-led UPA for the "timing" of the Telangana decision and asked the government to apologize to the people of Andhra Pradesh for treating them like "doormats". In a blog, Mr Modi welcomed the creation of a separate state of Telangana, but questioned the UPA government's motives. Read

Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa had a nasty surprise on Tuesday when she tried to feed a baby elephant fruits at an elephant camp in Mudumalai.Mudumalai is home to one of the country's biggest wildlife reserves.The two-year-old calf pushed the Chief Minister, who was amused at first.She wasn't injured, of course.She had gone to Mudumalai for a surprise inspection, a press release said. -- NDTV

On April 27, 2001, K Chandrasekhara Rao founded the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) to lead the Telangana movement. While the party had a good start, its popularity soon seemed to wane.

But with the region getting separate statehood, KCR has been catapulted to the position of the most powerful political leader in the proposed new state, assisted by many members of his family. Read

A decision on statehood for Telangana has been imminent since the UPA's midnight announcement of December 2009.

What is bewildering is that the crisis mode that the Congress swung into then, having taken fright at TRS chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao's fast, still appears to continue to grip the party and its governments at the Centre and in Andhra Pradesh. Read

The creation of Telangana will have meaning only if it creates a new language of inclusive politics, or else it will merely amount to another demarcation on the map, writes the Hindu. Read

Industry experts feel that the decision to divide Andhra Pradesh will put Hyderabad firmly back in the saddle as a global IT/ITeS hub, as it was primarily the political uncertainty that had helped Bangalore and Chennai cash in on Hyderabad's T-woes in the past four years rather than any actual limitations of Hyderabad. Read

After the government 'unofficially' put its stamp on the creation of the Telangana state, protests have begun in coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions today. Road transport came to a standstill while shops, business establishments and educational institutions remained closed in the two regions, usually referred to as Seemandhra.  Read

More mid-day meal horror: A dead rat was found in the midday meal to be served to students of the Government Composite Secondary School at Katipalla on Monday.

A notice has been issued to Akshaya Patra Foundation of International Society of Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), which has been serving midday meal to 148 schools here for the last six years.  Read
This is surprising since ISKCON is an exemplar for hygienic meals.   

Five terrorist were killed in an ongoing encounter with security forces in Kupwara district in north Kashmir on Wednesday morning.

More details are awaited.

A year after six worshippers were shot down by a white supremacist in a rampage at the Oak Creek Gurdwara in Wisconsin, the Sikh community there will observe the first anniversary of the tragic event in spirits of Chardi Kala.

"In the spirit 'of Chardi Kla' (state of High Spirits) instilled into us by our Gurus the community is bouncing back and remembering our dear lost ones," the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin said on its website yesterday.

It announced a series of events -- prayers --beginning Friday in honor of those who lost their lives when a white supremacist went on a shooting rampage a year ago on August 5, last year.

Former US Army intelligence analyst Bradley Manning, accused of leaking classified documents to Wikileaks, has been acquitted of providing aid to the enemy, but was convicted of several counts of espionage.

Army Judge Col Denise Lind found the 25-year-old Army private guilty of espionage charges, which could result in a sentencing of 136 years behind prison. Manning's attorney, David Coombs said he was pleased by the verdict, but signaled that the decisive moment will come during the sentencing phase of the court-martial, which opens Wednesday and could last several weeks.

Manning had previously accepted responsibility for providing classified information to WikiLeaks, actions covered by ten of the 22 charges.

Military judge Colonel Denise Lind found him guilty of 20 of those 22 charges.

The US is against the "zero option" for the number of troops that would remain in Afghanistan after 2014, arguing that the mission is still not yet accomplished, said a Pentagon official.

However, it would have no other option except for the "zero option", if the United States didn't successfully negotiate a security deal with Kabul that will give it a legal basis for having forces in Afghanistan after 2014, said Peter Lavoy, acting assistant secretary of defence for Asia Pacific Security Affairs.

"If we don't get the permission of Afghan government in the form of a bilateral security agreement, then we will not be able to continue this job of working with the Afghan National Security Forces and then you end up with zero," he said yesterday.

He added that US wants to have its presence in Afghanistan post 2014.

Security at the luxury Carlton hotel in the French Riviera town of Cannes is under the spotlight in an investigation into a jewel heist at the weekend worth USD 136 million, police said. 

Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has termed the country's paramilitary Pakistan Rangers as an agent of fear instead of providing security to citizens. 

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe stated bluntly today that if he loses tomorrow's elections he will step down, the first time the strong man has openly said so to the international media.

Maharashtra government will install CCTV camera systems, scanners and jammers in state prisons under an ambitious modernisation plan, state home minister R R Patil said here today. 

Violence in Iraq killed 10 people on today, among them seven police, officials said, as an Al-Qaeda front group claimed a wave of attacks that killed dozens the day before. 

WikiLeaks denounced the US military judge's verdict against soldier Bradley Manning, saying it reflected "dangerous national security extremism from the Obama administration". 

Secretary of State John Kerry says Israeli and Palestinian negotiators have agreed to meet again within two weeks to continue substantive negotiations on a so-far elusive peace deal. 

Corruption charges against disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai will date back to an earlier stage of his career, media reported today -- a narrow focus that could help contain political fallout from the case. 

The train driver in last week's crash in Spain was talking on the phone when it derailed, investigators say. The train was travelling at 153km/h (95mph) at the time, investigators at the Court of Justice of Galicia said.

 

Francisco Jose Garzon Amo was speaking to members of staff at the state-owned railway company, Renfe, they added. Crash investigators had opened the train's "black-box" data recorder to find the cause of the crash, which left 79 people dead.

 

Read the full report on BBC

UPA finally grants Telangana; Hyderabad common capital

Telangana bytes: 'A decision too late'

PIX: Telangana erupts in jubilation, remembers its martyrs

MAP: What Telangana state will look like

KCR to Seema Andhra: 'We are brothers and will remain together'

4 ISSUES Telangana state will need to solve first

Seema-Andhra leaders now spar over new capital

Telangana state is still 6 months away!

Wikileaks source US soldier found guilty of espionage

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