Sarin has been used "several times and in a localised manner" during the two-year Syrian conflict, says France's foreign minister.

Economic growth can rebound to 7 per cent in two years if corrective steps -- that are needed -- are taken, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said today. 

Union Human Resources and Development Minister M M Pallam Raju's visit has laid the groundwork for refining and enhancing educational partnership between the United States and India, a US official has said. 

The information and broadcasting ministry has issued show-cause notice to the channels run by West Bengal-based Saradha Group for alleged violations of up-linking and down-linking guidelines. 

The Enforcement Directorate today slapped a Rs 8,600 crore show-cause notice on construction major Emmar MGF Land Ltd and its sister firms for alleged Forex rules violation, the biggest such penal action in the country's real estate sector. 

With no response from Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha yet, the West Bengal government has decided to request other state governments for armed forces for the three-phase panchayat poll beginning July 2. 

The Planning Commission today approved a plan outlay of Rs 21,500 crore for Odisha for the current financial year 2013-14, up 24.6 per cent from the previous fiscal. 

No decision on promulgating an ordinance for food security has been brought up before the Cabinet today, Finance Minister Chidambaram said on Tuesday.

Owing to the Naxal threat in Chhattisgarh's Dandakaranya region, the railways has cancelled train movement in the area during night from today till June 12.       

Accounting regulator ICAI today said it has begun an inquiry against 'key management persons' of global sportswear major Reebok with regard to a fraud unearthed last year, but is yet to initiate the inquiry against the company's auditor at that time.        

As Maldives prepares for the Presidential elections in September, India today said it is looking forward to "free, fair, credible and inclusive" polls there and that it was willing to assist Male in this process.        

A prominent activist has been sentenced to six months' prison for insulting Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi, calling him a 'killer' and a 'criminal'.        

A police constable was injured today in an encounter with Naxals in Chhattisgarh's Dhamtari district. The gun-battle took place when the joint party of CRPF and state police was patrolling in the forests of Khallari village under Borai police station limits, about 150 kms from Raipur, Inspector General (IG), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Zulfiqar Hasan told PTI.     

 

On seeing the search party, the ultras opened fire on it injuring police constable Jitendra Yadav, the IG said, adding he was admitted to Dhamtari district hospital.     

 

The security forces have recovered two tiffin bombs, a wire, naxal literature, commodities of daily use indicating that the Maoist platoon was camping in the region, he said.

The BCCI's general manager for game development, Ratnakar Shetty, has been banned by the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) for five years. Shetty was banned for making allegations against MCA members over selling of tickets in the black market. He was BCCI's first paid official when he was named Chief Administrative Officer in 2006.

Shetty had claimed that the MCA had made an advance payment of Rs 1.5 lakh for the tickets to a third party and it was likely that they were resold in Ahmedabad during the India-Pakistan T20.

The Delhi Police today slapped stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against all the 26 accused, including three cricket players of Rajasthan Royals, and claimed bookies like Ashiwani Aggarwal were working at the behest of Dawood gang.

The police claimed they were armed with enough evidence and telephone intercepts to prove in the court that the bookies had made use of the underworld network in fixing IPL matches.

A top police official associated with the probe said they had enough telephonic intercepts which showed the bookies had made calls to Dubai, Karachi and other cities of Pakistan to fix and alter betting rates.

As the Delhi Police had ensured that the accused in the case would not get bail easily by slapping MCOCA, its investigation was on to nab a Hyderabad-based person who could lead to the door of another cricket team whose players were allegedly involved in spot fixing.

The Supreme Court today agreed to hear next week a PIL seeking shifting of probe into the IPL spot-fixing scandal from Delhi and Mumbai Police to CBI to unearth the larger conspiracy and insulate the investigation from "highly influential persons and politicians".

The petition in this regard was mentioned before a bench of justices Gyan Sudha Misra and Madan B Lokur which said that the matter will be heard next week. The petitioner said the investigation in the scandal should be handed over to CBI from Delhi, Mumbai Police and officials of other probe agencies so that proper co-ordination takes place and the guilty persons do not go scot free due to "mismanagement and lack of co-ordination between different police agencies."

The petitioner, Sharmila Ghuge, an educationist in a Mumbai law college, wanted the apex court to direct CBI to probe allegations of spot fixing, match fixing, betting etc pertaining to the cricket matches of IPL-6 or its earlier versions.

The Delhi Police has decided to list gangsters Dawood Ibrahim and Chhota Shakeel as accused in the spot-fixing case, reports CNN-IBN. This means, Dawood, who was No. 3 on the Forbes' World's Top 10 most dreaded criminals list of 2011, is a co-accused along with S Sreesanth, Ankeet Chavan and Ajit Chandila in the IPL 6 spot-fixing case.

This comes even as the police have invoked the stringent MCOCA in the case. What it means is that it will now become extremely difficult for Sreesanth and co to get bail.  

Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan on Monday denied having assured Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray that he would allow a public park at the Mahalaxmi Race Course. Read

An 'encounter specialist' sub-inspector, who was instrumental in the killing of 68 terrorists in the Doda-Kishtwar belt, was on Tuesday arrested for allegedly running a terror module in Jammu and Kashmir. A recipient of President's gallantry award, SI Shiv Kumar Sharma was arrested in Doda for his alleged involvement in terror activities, official sources said. State Minister for Home Sajad Ahmed Kitchloo confirmed the arrest and told PTI that investigation is in progress.

When Pakistan's new government is sworn in on Wednesday it has a historic opportunity. The new administration under the leadership of Nawaz Sharif could be the government to eradicate polio from Pakistan, one of three countries where the crippling disease remains endemic. Read

The monsoon has arrived in Goa today, two days prior to the scheduled date, Indian Meteorological department (IMD) said. The monsoon has already set in Goa from today, which is two days in advance to the expected arrival, IMD Goa Director K V Singh said.

The post-mortem report in the death of Jiah Khan is out. The autopsy report rules out foul play and says death was caused as a result of asphyxia due to hanging. Ligature marks (caused by whatever she had used to hang herself) were seen on her neck.

Her mother has recorded her statement with the police, while Aditya Pancholi's son, Suraj has also been questioned. He was the last person to speak to her before she hanged herself.  

BJP senior leader Arun Jaitley speaking to NDTV says LK Advani had praised both Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Narendra Modi, though there was a groundswell in Modi's favour. Speaking to NDTV, he says, there will be a special place for Modi during the poll campaign. "MP CM Shivraj Chouhan is highly regarded in the party. Advanji retains the moral authority to express his views, he always has," he said.
He also said Modi was the tallest, and the most popular leader in the BJP and a decision on his larger role would be taken later.

Power, patronage and intrigue. The inside story of how Indian cricket is controlled Read more

Nawaz Sharif will be sworn in for a record third term as Pakistan's Prime Minister tomorrow after he is formally elected to the post and a very small cabinet comprising close aides is expected to take oath along with him. Sharif's election in the National Assembly or lower house of Parliament is a foregone conclusion as his PML-N party has over 180 members in the 342-member strong House. The election of the Prime Minister will be done by a division of the House.

M S Dhoni has come under sharp attack from some former cricketers for his alleged conflict of interest for having stakes in the sports management company which handles him and three of his Indian teammates.

Dhoni found himself in a controversy when it came to light that he had 15 per cent stake in Rhiti Sports, which also manages Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja and Pragyan Ojha, besides the Indian captain. Read more

A Delhi court has allowed the plea of two family members of former IAF chief S P Tyagi, accused in the Rs 3600 crore VVIP helicopter deal scam, to defreeze their bank accounts subject to certain conditions.

Special CBI Judge Ravinder Kaur gave a conditional relief to former Air Chief's family members Anurag Tyagi and Vandana Tyagi, saying their accounts will be defreezed by the banks on furnishing a bond of over Rs 19 lakh and a little over Rs 2 lakh respectively with an undertaking to produce the amount as and when required by the court.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa will skip the chief ministers' meeting on internal security convened by the Centre in Delhi tomorrow. "No, she is not going.

Finance minister Amit Mitra will represent the state at the meeting," a highly-placed source in the state secretariat told PTI. The sources did not give a reason why the chief minister would not be attending. He also could not state who would accompany Mitra. The chief minister had earlier on April 16 last year skipped a similar meeting.

A special CBI court today granted permission to the central probe agency to arrest Gujarat IPS officer D G Vanzara, in the 2004 Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case.

Vanzara, who is also one of the main accused in the 2005 fake encounter case of Sohrabuddin Shaikh and the murder of his wife Kausar Bi, was yesterday brought to Sabarmati Central jail from a Mumbai jail where he was lodged. Mumbai court had yesterday issued orders, under section 36 of Criminal Procedure Code(CrPC), to shift Vanzara to Ahmedabad jail under tight security following the order of the city CBI court to grant his custody to the investigating agency in the Ishrat Jahan case.

In other news: Vectra Group Chief Ravinder Rishi, facing CBI probe for alleged irregularities in supply of all-terrain Tatra trucks, has been allowed by a Delhi court to travel to the UK for four weeks for treatment.

Special CBI Judge Ravinder Kaur permitted Rishi to travel to the UK for four weeks from June 2 for treatment of his liver ailment after the agency said it had no objection to it. 57-year-old Rishi, a British national, is facing a CBI probe over alleged irregularities in supply of Tatra trucks to public sector Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML) by his firm Tatra-Sipox UK.

Rishi had moved the court for its permission to travel to the UK for four weeks saying he had earlier travelled abroad from April 21 this year for medical tests and had returned to India on May 18 after the Delhi High Court's order.

He had said that during his stay in London, he had undergone various medical tests which confirmed that he is suffering from acute liver problem and as per the medical advise, he has to undergo the procedure of "ultra sound guided liver biopsy" scheduled at a clinic in London on June 5.

The court, while allowing Rishi to travel to the UK for four weeks, referred to the High Court's order which had said that he was entitled to have treatment from a medical expert of his choice.

Police today questioned Suraj Pancholi, son of actor couple Aditya Pancholi and Zarina Wahab, to whom actress Jiah Khan had made her last phone call before ending her life.

25-year-old Jiah hanged herself at her Juhu residence between 11 pm and 11.30 pm yesterday, sending shock waves in Bollywood.

Jiah, according to police, last spoke to Suraj around 10:40 pm. Suraj had gone to Juhu police station along with his actor parents and was being questioned, sources said.

According to Jiah's mother Razia Khan, the actress, who made her dream debut opposite Amitabh Bachchan in 'Nishabd', was unhappy about her acting career. She had last appeared in a supporting role in Sajid Khan's multi-starrer comedy 'Housefull' in 2010.

According to her mother, Jiah was exploring a career in interior designing besides acting in films. Khan told the police that Jiah had gone to Hyderabad on June 2 for an audition which did not go well.

Her last rites have not yet been performed because the family is waiting for her friends and relatives to arrive from London, where she was born and brought up. Police have also questioned her maid, watchman and neighbours to determine the cause of the alleged suicide. The post-mortem examination at J J hospital suggested the death was caused due to hanging.

Former Bangladesh captain Mohammad Ashraful was today suspended by his Board till ICC's Anti-Corruption and Security Unit submits a full report into allegations of match-fixing and spot-fixing on him in this year's Bangladesh Premier League.

Bangladesh Cricket Board president Nazmul Hassan told reporters that Ashraful has confessed his involvement in fixing matches to the ACSU team. Hassan said Ashraful would not be allowed to play cricket at any level.

"As Ashraful has confessed his involvement in fixing to the ACSU team, so he should not be allowed to play any level of cricket until we get a full report of the investigation," Hassan told reporters. The ICC's ASCU has been probing allegations of wrong-doing during the Bangladesh Premier League, a Twenty20 competition.

As a child, Meera Nair was hopelessly in love with the wholly unreal English childhood that Enid Blyton invented. As a grown-up, she's thrilled with the series of events in the U.K. that are celebrating the once-out-of-favour author's works. Read

More details on the Manali gang-rape. The American tourist is believed to have hitched a ride with truckers at 1 am, as she did not have transportation to get back to her hotel. The police have launched a manhunt for the men since Manali is high on the tourist trail, both domestic and international.

Illustration: Uttam Ghosh

NDTV reports that a 31-year-old American tourist was gang-raped in Manali. The woman was waiting for transportation to her hotel, when three men in a car offered her a lift. The men took her to a forested area instead and raped her. Details awaited.

In July last year, the Indian Supreme Court banned tourism in the core areas of 41 tiger reserves in an attempt to protect the 1,700 tigers in the country. Three months later, the court reversed its decision but told the state-managed reserves to abide by new guidelines drafted by the National Tiger Conservation Authority. Read

Why the return of Kashmiri pandits is still a distant dream. Read

As the trial in the murder or Reeva Steenkamp moves to August 19, the man held for her murder, Oscar Pistorius, is a heartbroken man who has to live with the fact that he killed the love of his life. This is what his uncle has told CNN in an exclusive interview. Read the exclusive interview to CNN.

Paralympic star Oscar Pistorius had been reportedly whisked away by his bodyguards and the South African police force after his case for the alleged murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp was postponed to August 19. The Blade Ruuner''s bodyguards and more than 10 police officers helped him out of the building as Pistorius was whisked away in a Silver Fortuner, which had been idling on the street adjacent to the court entrance, News24 reports.

Delhi court extends till June 18 the judicial custody of S Sreesanth and 22 others in the IPL spot fixing case. Sreesanth's lawyer will apply for a fresh bail application in the MCOCA court. 

NDTV's Nitin Gokhale tweets: Agusta Westland wants clarity on status of the VVIP helicopter contract, writes to Indian MoD.Invokes a clause in contract.

The MEA responds to the freak accident involving the Pakistani envoy in New Delhi. Read

@news_houndz 1h Actress Jiah Khan mobile call records show Aditya Panchsoli son Suraj was the last person she spoke at 10.53pm before committing suicide

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has said that it cannot accept the order of the Central Information Commission that political parties are to be treated as "public authorities" and brought under the purview of the Right to Information Act.

"This decision is based on a fundamental misconception about the role of political parties in a parliamentary democracy. The CIC order states that "six national parties are substantially financed by the Central Government and therefore they are held to be public authorities under the Act".

"This is untrue because the bulk of the funding and finances for the parties do not come from the government or any State institution. In fact, the CPI(M) does not even accept funds from the corporates which is legally permissible.

"One of the concerns of the CIC seems to be transparency of the funding and finances of political parties. At present according to the law all political parties are required to submit their accounts to the Income Tax department and the Election Commission.

"Already under the RTI, the statement of accounts and the finances of the parties are accessible to anyone from the Election Commission. Any more details of the financing of the Party can be sought for and has to be given. The CPI(M) has from the outset taken the stand that the financial statements and accounts of a party should be publicly available."

Obama's dilemma about Guantanamo Bay prison. Read the blog by L K Advani.  

At least six persons were injured in a powerful explosion in Anantnag town in south Kashmir this afternoon, reports Mukhtar Ahmad from Srinagar. A senior police officer said militants lobbed a powerful hand grenade at passing security force vehicles near the office of the district magistrate in Lal Chowk locality of Anantnag town.

"The grenade missed the target and exploded on the road injuring five civilians and a cop. The injured were evacuated to hospital for treatment," the officer said. This is the second grenade attack in Anantnag town in past two days. Late Sunday evening militants had lobbed a grenade at a local police station which exploded without causing any damage. Police has detained some local youth for questioning. 

The prosecution invokes the stringent MCOCA (Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act) law in the spot-fixing case. This means that the case will now move to a special MCOCA court. The police say they have evidence of direct links between bookies and the underworld. With a Rs 40,000 crore illegal betting racket rocking the country, the government has been finally shaken into action. Today, a court accepted the bail pleas of Gurunath Meiyappan and Vindoo Dara Singh.

Magistrate agrees to the postponement in the Pistorius case. Next appearance is August 19.

Journalists covering the Oscar Pistorius trial tweet: Looks like we are on track to start on time. Oscar Pistorius waiting, his head down. Hearing likely to last just a few minutes.

David Smith: Pistorius's coach Ampie Louw says he doesn't like all the cameras snapping at Pistorius as it's "like he's being torn apart".

South African athlete Oscar Pistorius is in court for the first time since he was freed on bail over the killing of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. The pre-trial hearing is expected to be brief, as the prosecution asks for more time to complete its investigations.

Nitin Gadkari, the former BJP president, has turned down LK Advani's proposal to head a committee that would manage the party's campaign and strategy for crucial state elections over the next few months, which will serve as the semi-final for the big national election expected next year.

Gadkari reportedly made it clear to Advani that he does not want to take sides in the battle between the camps that are for and against Modi being declared the party's presumptive prime minister. Read more on NDTV.com

The Rathi family had sent their daughter Preeti to Mumbai a month ago, hoping that her job in the Navy would ease their financial situation. On Monday, Preeti's body returned home. An unidentified attacker had thrown acid on the 23-year-old the moment she alighted at Bandra station. With no help from the state or central government, the poor, grief-stricken family had to pay Rs 60,000 to bring back their daughter's body. Read

All that 25-year-old Preeti Rathi wanted was independence and a chance to fulfil her dreams. With hardwork and dedication, she had managed to secure a seat at the Army Medical Corps in Mumbai as Lieutenant. Read

Break from news for this: Moin Akhtar, the legendary Pakistani actor from a TV series called Loose Talk, a satire on every day life in Pakistan. Watch

South African athlete Oscar Pistorius is due to return to court for the first time since he was freed on bail over the killing of his girlfriend. The pre-trial hearing is expected to be brief, as the prosecution asks for more time to complete its investigations. More

The tiny Sidi community, descendants of ninth century African migrants, have lived quietly along India's west coast for hundreds of years while never losing touch with their ancient traditions. Read

The Income Tax (I-T) department has decided to scan the salary structure of top executives of large corporates and Public Sector Units (PSUs) to examine hidden tax opportunities in the perks and reimbursements made to them. Read

Ananya Vajpeyi's Righteous Republic, being marketed as the next big India book (after Sunil Khilnani's The Idea of India), seeks to understand the manner in which the 'Indian self' (the swa of swaraj) was conceptualised by five key intellectuals through 'Indic' categories. Here's what the Hindu has to say. Read 

Ram Gopal Varma tweets on Jiah Khan's suicide: I dont know the reason what led to this but jiah was very depressed about her career and scared for her future.

In other news:

Defence Minister A K Antony will arrive in Australia today on a maiden visit as part of his three nation tour aimed at strengthening India's defence ties with the countries in Asia Pacific region.

During his visit, Antony would meet his Australian counterpart Stephen Smith later today in Perth.

According to official sources, the two are scheduled to meet for a short duration this afternoon following Antony's arrival.

A series of meeting have also been lined up for the two leaders along with other officials of the two sides tomorrow in Canberra. Details of the meetings have not been divulged. Antony is currently on his three-nation official visit to Singapore, Australia, and Thailand.

Vindoo Dara Singh and Gurunath Meiyappan are in Arthur Road Jail and till the bail orders reach the jail, they will remain in jail. It typically takes a few hours for the order to reach and after the formalities are over with, the two and three other bookies should be out of jail by this evening. The bail was given on parity as two others were given bail in the case. The two and three bookies cannot leave the country while out on bail. The bail was granted on a surety of Rs 25,000 each. They will also have to appear before the crime branch office every alternate day.

Vindoo and Meiyappan had been given judicial custody till June 14. They were in custody for almost 13 days.

Gurunath Meiyappan and Vindoo Dara Singh get bail. A Mumbai Magistrate's court passed orders on the bail petitions filed by Meiyappan and Vindoo Dara Singh, and two others arrested by the Mumbai Police for betting in the IPL matches. Meiyappan and Vindoo had filed bail petitions soon after the metropolitan magistrate remanded them to judicial custody yesterday. Three other bookies have also been granted bail.

Those hoping Indian cricket would find a way to redeem itself in the wake of the spot-fixing and betting scandal can be forgiven for feeling let down by the uninspiring outcome of Sunday's meeting of the Board of Control for Cricket in India. Read

A wicket-keeper, aggressive batsman and India's captain in Test, one-day and Twenty20 cricket, Mahendra Singh Dhoni is a master at juggling various jobs at the same time. Now, ahead of the Champions Trophy that opens in England and Wales this week, Dhoni has been burdened with another task - defending the alleged sins of his pay-masters. Read

India cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and businessman Mahendra Singh Dhoni seem to be caught in a serious conflict of interest. A player management firm, Rhiti Sports Management Private Ltd, has Dhoni as one of its clients. By its own admission, till a couple of months back, the skipper even held a chunk of its shares. It meant that Dhoni stood to gain financially every time more and more players signed by Rhiti played for India or their T20 league franchise. Read more

A court will hear the bail pleas of Gurunath Meiyappan and Vindoo Dara Singh today.

More worms crawl out in the wake of the spot-fixing incident.

A day after BCCI president N Srinivasan had to step aside because of a conflict of interest, Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni faced a similar charge for holding shares in Rhiti Sports Management Pvt Ltd, a firm that manages three Indian national players -- Suresh Raina,Ravindra Jadeja and Pragyan Ojha -- besidesDhoni himself. Read

Vindoo Dara Singh boasted to CSK principal Gurunath Meiyappan that he had moles in almost all the IPL franchisees including Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).

"You just place bets and don't worry. I am trying to get more information from my source in KKR,'' Vindoo was heard telling Meiyappan in a phone conversation, transcripts of which are with the police. Read

In other news, the CBI has summoned former Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal for questioning today in connection with the railway bribery case.

Agency sources said that Bansal has been called in the afternoon for questioning in the case. The questioning of Bansal will revolve around his role in the appointment of suspended Railway Board Member (Staff) Mahesh Kumar involving his nephew Vijay Singla who was allegedly caught accepting a bribe of Rs 90 lakh, the sources said.

Bansal, who had to resign from the Union Cabinet in the aftermath of the case involving his nephew who is alleged to have been operating from his official residence, has been maintaining that he had done no wrong in the appointment of Kumar as Member of the Railway Board, a post equivalent to the Secretary in Government.

"Rip Jiah khan. Terrible tragedy.. Very very shocking and disturbing news," added Sonam Kapoor.

Filmmaker-choreographer Farah Khan tweeted, "Can't register that Jiah is no more... Worked with her in 'Housefull' and she was so beautiful n such a good soul. Too young to go Jiah."

Filmmaker Kunal Kohli said, "What she must've gone through to take such a step we'll never know. May her soul rest in peace."

"Shocked to hear about Jiah Khan, she was too young to give up on life. RIP," said Arshad Warsi.

Actress Dia Mirza posted on her Twitter page, "RIP Nafisa(Jiah) Khan. You were too young and beautiful. This is no way to go! Life is too precious. The worst phases pass. They do. Never give up!."

"Shocked and saddened by the news. Gone way too soon. RIP Jiah Khan," added Neha Dhupia.

The Cabinet is likely to clear ordinance for Sonia Gandhi's dream food security bill today.

The bill promises rice at Rs. 3 a kg and wheat at Rs. 2 a kg, less than 10 per cent of current retail prices, to about 810 million people.

The BJP is in favour of passing the food security bill, but with some amendments. They want a debate on the legislation.

The Left and UPA's external ally the Samajwadi Party are opposed to the Bill.
 

Actor Jiah Khan's suicide has shocked Bollywood.

Shahid Kapoor tweets: Shocked n saddened to hear about jiah khan ... Very disturbing ... RIP ....may her soul rest in peace.

Sonam Kapoor: Rip Jiah khan. Terrible tragedy.. Very very shocking and disturbing news..

Prtiish Nandy: So sad to see unhappiness and disappointment destroy a young life... Jiah Khan RIP.

Taran Adarsh: Shocked and saddened by the news.

Minissha Lamba: Jiah Khan.... Peace be upon your beautiful soul.

Actor Amitabh Bachchan, who starred opposite Jiah Khan in her film debut Nishabd, tweets
  
 about her death: WHAT ...!!! Jiah Khan ??? what has happened ? is this correct ? unbelievable !!!

The body of Bollywood actor Jiah Khan, who committed suicide last night, has been sent to a Mumbai hospital for a post-mortem. No suicide note was found.

The police are yet to record the statement of the actor's mother as she is in shock. Khan's domestic help, watchman and neighbours are being questioned to find out who her last visitors were, police said.

NDTV reports: Two people, including a motorcyclist, have been arrested by the Delhi police in connection with the assault on a Pakistani diplomat.

They have been charged under Section 279 (rash and negligent driving) and Section 336 (act of endangering life).

The diplomat, Zargham Raza, had alleged that a group of 10-15 people slapped him after the accident on Monday evening. Pakistan had lodged a complaint with India over the incident.

Read the full report here

Mississippi man was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of sending poison-laced letters to United States President Barack Obama and two other officials.   

If convicted, James Everett Dutschke, 41, faces maximum possible penalties of life in prison and $250,000 fine. 

Dutschke, who was arrested on April 27, is expected to  appear in the US district court in Oxford, Mississippi on June6.

The Central Bureau of Investigation has summoned former railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal to appear for investigation in the bribery scam today.

The questioning of Bansal is expected to revolve around his role in the appointment of suspended Railway Board Member (staff) Mahesh Kumar involving his nephew Vijay Singla who was allegedly caught accepting a bribe of Rs 90 lakh, official sources said.

Sources in the CBI say that there were two direct meetings between Bansal and Mahesh Kumar at his residence.

Bansal had to resign from the Union Cabinet  in the aftermath of the case involving his nephew.

Protesters seething over their treatment by security forces hurled rocks at riot police in Ankara's Kizilay Square on Monday, the latest in a string of violent clashes that have punctuated massive anti-government demonstrations spreading across Turkey -- leaving thousands injured and at least one dead in the past two days alone.

North Korea may be just one to two months away from following through on its threat to restart a plutonium reactor that can produce fissile material for nuclear bombs, a US research institute said. 

 Israel has reached an agreement to send thousands of African migrants to an unidentified country, according to a court document obtained, a plan that has elicited criticism over its potential harm to the migrants. 

The Times of India's Bharti Dubey reports that actress Jiah Khan committed suicide at her Juhu home on Monday night. Jiah, who was only 25, was last seen on the big screen in Sajid Khan's 'Housefull'. She made her debut in Ram Gopal Verma's 'Nishabd', opposite Amitabh Bachchan and also appeared in A R Murgadoss' 'Ghajini', starring Aamir Khan  

Six years ago, Jiah Khan appeared on the Rediff Chat. You can read the transcript here: http://www.rediff.com/movies/report/jiah/20070305.htm as we mourn the loss of a life gone away so young.

TOI reports: Actress Jiah Khan committed suicide at her Juhu residence on Monday night. 

A joint US-Afghan investigation into the crash of a civilian cargo jet in Afghanistan that killed seven Americans has ruled out insurgent involvement, but the exact cause could take up to a year to determine, an Afghan official said today. 

Both Yusuf al-Qaradawi and John McCain want Bashar al-Assad to fall. But in their competing visions you'll find reasons for the White House's reticence over deeper military involvement.

The United States announced additional sanctions on Iran targeting its currency and automobile industry, stepping up pressure over its nuclear program, the White House said.

The United States will send a Patriot missile battery and F-16 fighters to Jordan for a military drill and may keep the weapons there to counter the threat posed by Syria's civil war, officials said.

The newly appointed Palestinian prime minister, respected academic Rami Hamdallah, today said he will strive to continue the work of his predecessor and that he is ready to stand aside for a Fatah-Hamas unity government. 

A US army psychiatrist charged with killing 13 people and wounding 32 others in a 2009 shooting spree on a Texas army base will be able to represent himself at trial, a judge ruled today. 

Iran has not provided the International Atomic Energy Agency with sufficient information to substantiate its claim that its nuclear program is peaceful, IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano said Monday. An Iranian official in Moscow later called the allegation "unfounded.

The Obama administration voiced concern Monday over Turkey's crackdown on protesters and urged authorities to exercise restraint and all sides to refrain from violence.

Swollen rivers gushed into the old section of Passau in southeast Germany on Monday, as water rose in the city to levels not seen in more than five centuries.