CCTV captured a Hyderabad blasts suspect: cops

LIVE

Sat, 09 March 2013

Timeline Refresh

23:38 Reddy meets Sonia to finalise MLC poll candidates

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy today met Congress President Sonia Gandhi to discuss the party candidates for the March 21 polls for 10 MLC seats in the state.

PCC chief Botsa Satyanarayana and AICC general secretary in-charge for Andhra Pradesh Ghulam Nabi Azad were also present in the meeting at Gandhi's residence 10 Janpath in New Delhi, where the issue was discussed in detail.

Monday is the last day for filing nominations. As per the election notification, the nominations would be received till March 11 and the last date for withdrawal is March 14. Polling, if necessary, will take place on March 21 and the results declared the same evening.

These 10 MLC seats, which fall vacant this month end, are from the MLA quota. The state assembly has a strength of 294.

Sources said that around 29 votes are required for winning one seat and in the volatile political situation, while Congress is likely to win five seats, it could field a candidate even for the sixth seat, which could create a problem for both TDP and TRS.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy today met Congress President Sonia Gandhi to discuss the party candidates for the March 21 polls for 10 MLC seats in the state.

These 10 MLC seats, which fall vacant this month end, are from the MLA quota. The state assembly has a strength of 294.

20:48 CCTV captured a Hyderabad blasts suspect: cops

Andhra Pradesh Police has said the face of one of the suspects of February 21 Dilsukhnagar twin blasts case in Hyderabad was clearly captured by CCTV cameras and efforts were on to identity the person.

"The face of one of the suspects with a bicycle has been clearly captured by CCTV cameras and the process is on for the identification of the suspect," Andhra Pradesh Director General of Police V Dinesh Reddy told reporters.

The images were recorded by a traffic surveillance camera and a CCTV camera in a store. The sketches of the suspect may be released by NIA investigating the case, Reddy said.

19:11 Odisha and Kerala get new governors

Just In: Congress veteran S C Jamir has been appointed as the Governor of Odisha while former IPS officer Nikhil Kumar has been shifted as Governor of Kerala

18:56 Slain UP cop's widow only wants DySP's post

The widow of slain police officer Zia-Ul-Haq has refused to accept the job offered by the Uttar Pradesh government saying that she would not accept anything other than a DySP's post.

Parveen Azad who has been maintaining distance from the media, today told the visiting leader of Loktantrik Congress Harishanka Tewari that she would not accept any job less than DSP.

Vowing to continue her struggle, Azad said that she was not fighting for herself but to ensure that no one dared to raise hand on those donning the khaki uniform of the police force.

She also demanded that the policemen who deserted her husband in Kunda area of Pratapgarh on the fateful night should be tried for treason.

Last night, the wife of slain DSP Zia-Ul-Haq was appointed as Officer on Special Duty (OSD) Welfare by the state government.

Brother of the slain officer was also appointed as constable.

Zeenews reports: Amid tight security, Pakistan's Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf offered prayers at the Sufi shrine of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti at Ajmer in Rajasthan. he was assisted by the khadims in his prayers.

The Pakistan prime minister is on pilgrimage with his family members.

The Indian government has ruled out any diplomatic talks with the visiting Pakistani prime minister.

Welcoming the decision of Ajmer Sharif Dargah Diwan, Zainul Abedin Ali Khan to boycott Pakistan Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf's visit to the Sufi shrine, BJP today said it reflects thinking of Indian citizens.

"It is a good decision which reflects thinking of our citizens...I do not know what is the thinking of Central government (on this)," said senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu.

The dargah spiritual head had said that he will boycott Ashraf's visit in protest of 'beheading' of an Indian soldier by Pakistani army along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kshmir.

My name is Khan and I am not a terrorist. This catch dialogue from Shah Rukh Khan's movie My Name is Khan must have reverberated through actor Irrfan Khan's mind when he was stopped 'several times' by the immigration authorities at the US airports.

"It's humiliating. They don't even disclose the reason," says Irrfan, who is one of the most recognised actors from India in Hollywood having worked in Oscar-winner Slumdog Millionaire, Life of Pi and crowd pleaser Spider-Man.

"Actually, I don't use my surname Khan in films, but in passports, surname and religion are required. I was stopped not once, but several times at airports in the US.

15:17 Terror was not discussed with Pak PM: Khurshid

External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid today hosted a lunch for Pakistan Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf but did not discuss issues like terrorism with him.

"This was a private visit. It was a pilgrimage (for Ashraf). This was not the occasion nor did I have the authority to discuss such issues," he told reporters after the lunch at Rambagh Palace Hotel here. He was replying to a question whether terrorism was discussed with his guest.

"We have taken up such issues. We will do it in future. Today it was a private visit. There was no official talk. We will do it at the appropriate time," Khurshid said.

One of the key accused in the drug haul case from Zirakpur allegedly attempted suicide, even as Punjab Police maintained that no decision has been taken yeton summoning boxer Vijender Singh after the Olympic medallist's name cropped up.

"The key accused Anup Singh Kahlon attempted suicide. Hetook out a wire from the bucket used for bathing and tried toslit his wrist with it, but he is out of danger," Fatehgarh Sahib's Senior Superintendent of police, H S Mann said today.

15:07 Rahul Gandhi meets slain DSP's family

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi today met the family of slain DSP Zia-ul-Haq at his native village and extended his condolences over the police officer's murder.

The Congress leader drove from Gorakhpur to Deoria to meet the Haq's family and extend his condolences on the killing of the DSP in Kunda area of Pratapgarh district last week.

Heavy security arrangements were made in the village and media personnel were also stopped at a distance from the slain police officer's house.

'Khwaja wants him to come' was how External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid today welcomed Pakistan Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf in Jaipur on way to Ajmer for his pilgrimage.

Both the leaders shook hands and greeted each other warmly before going for lunch at the Rambagh Palace Hotel here. After lunch, Ashraf and his delegation will leave for Ajmer to offer prayers at the 13th century dargah of Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Hasan Chisti.

A minor fire broke out on the fourth story of 'Mantralaya', the Maharashtra state secretariat complex in Mumbai that houses offices of the chief minister, key ministers and top officials, raising fears of a recurrence. However, the fire has been brought under control.

Twelve fire tenders were rushed to the building, and quickly brought the fire under control. Fire officials said that the fire broke out because of a short circuit.

It may be recalled that a devastating fire in the Maharashtra government secretariat left three persons dead and 16 injured and destroyed large number of files last year, raising questions on whether any sabotage was the cause.

More details are awaited.

12:16 Pakistan PM lands in Jaipur amid public outcry

According to reports, the air force plane carrying Pakistan Prime Minister Raja Prevez Ashraf has landed in Jaipur. Ashraf's delegation includes his family members and some officials.

External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid will host lunch for the premier in Jaipur. After visiting the sufi shrine in Ajmer, Ashraf is scheduled to return to Islamabad in the evening. No official meeting is scheduled during his visit.

This is likely to be Ashraf's last foreign visit before the term of his government ends on March 16.

Meanwhile, Syed Zainul Abedin Ali Khan, the chief of Hazrat Khwaja Moinuddin Hasan Chisti Dargah in Ajmer, has announced the boycott of Pakistani PM as a protest against the beheading of Indian soldiers at the Line of Control.

11:39 We were in touch with drug dealer: Ram Singh

Adding a new twist to the drug haul case, boxer Ram Singh has claimed that he and boxer Vijender Singh were in touch with drug peddler Anup Singh Kahlon since December 2012.

Sources said Ram and Vijender met Kahlon and co-accused Rocky four to five times and took drugs six times.Ram has also claimed that he bought drugs including heroin from Kahlon for consumption by him and Vijender and said that former inspector Jagdish Singh Bhola is said to be kingpin of the racket.

Bhola is emerging as the mastermind who moved several consignments of drugs out from India and received Rs 30 lakh for each consignment.

Read the full story here

10:51 We welcome our guests with open arms: Khurshid

Before leaving for Jaipur to receive Pakistan Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said on Saturday: "We welcome our guests with open arms."

"It's in our culture to welcome our guests with open arms. Whoever speaks about it, won't worry us," said Khurshid.

Earlier on Friday, dewan of Ajmer dargah Sayed Zainul Abedin Ali Khan said: "I have decided to boycott him when he comes here along with his family to perform prayers. I have not even asked for the pass to be in the dargah premises when the prime minister reaches here."

Ashraf is slated to visit the world-famous shrine of Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer.

Pakistan Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf will spend about five hours in Jaipur along with his family members before heading to the shrine of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer on Saturday.

The Ajmer district administration has deployed more than 1,000 policemen in and around the shrine.The Jaipur police has also made adequate arrangements for security of Ashraf at Hotel Rambagh Palace where he will stay for five hours and have lunch with Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid.

A mock drill of the security arrangements was concluded on Friday evening and the dummy convoy was taken from the helipad at Gughra to the main gate of the dargah. Ashraf will reach Ajmer at about 4.05 pm on Saturday.

CNN-IBN reports: Olympic bronze medalist Vijender Singh is under the police scrutiny in the drug haul in Mohali and police said that the interrogation so far establishes no direct link to him but hasn't given him the clean chit either.

Twenty six kilograms of heroin worth Rs 130 crore was recovered from a house in Zirakpur, outside Chandigarh.Police sources, however, said that accused Anup Singh Kahlon in a shocking claim revealed that two of his clients were Olympic medalist and sporting icon Vijender Singh and another boxer Ram Singh.

The police have also arrested two more persons in connection with the drug bust and are looking for one Jagdish Bhola who might have fled abroad.

Bhola is emerging as the mastermind who moved several consignments of drugs out from India and received Rs 30 lakh for each consignment.

Read the full story here

CNN-IBN reports: Syed Zainul Abedin Ali Khan, the chief of Hazrat Khwaja Moinuddin Hasan Chisti Dargah in Ajmer, has announced the boycott of Pakistani Prime Minister Pervez Ashraf, who is scheduled to visit shrine of Sufi saint today.

The Dargah chief told CNN-IBN that the boycott has been announced to protest against the beheading of Indian soldiers at the Line of Control.

"It will be a dishonor to the families of the Indian soldier who were beheaded by their (Pakistan) Army. I will not welcome or be present during his (Ashraf's) visit to the Dargah," Khan said.

CNN reports: Delta Air Lines CEO Richard Anderson said on Friday that he objects to the federal Transportation Security Administration's move this week to allow small pocketknives on airplanes.

"These items have been banned for more than 11 years and will add little value to the customer security process flow in relation to the additional risk for our cabin staff and customers," Anderson said in a letter to the head of the TSA.

TSA Administrator John Pistole said the move brings the United States into alignment with international rules and are keeping with his 'risk-based security' approach.

Read the full story here

09:06 Rape convict Bitti Mohanty arrested in Kerala

Zeenews reports: Absconding former Orissa DGP BB Mohanty's son Bitty Mohanty, convicted of raping a German woman in 2006 was on Saturday morning arrested from Kannur in Kerala.

Bitti Mohanty was convicted of raping a 26-year-old German tourist in Alwar in March 2006.

An Alwar court sentenced him to seven years in jail. He was allowed a 15-day parole to meet his ailing mother in November 2006 but he did not return to jail.

Read the full story here

The United States has cancelled the International Women of Courage Award to the Egyptian activist Samira Ibrahim after coming to know that she had in the past praised the 9/11 attacks.

The embarrassing cancellation of the award was announced yesterday by the State Department only a few hours before she was to be honoured by the First Lady, Michelle Obama, and the Secretary of State, John Kerry, along with nine others.

"The department has decided not to present her with the award," the State Department spokesperson, Victoria Nuland, told reporters at her daily press conference. Without explaining the reasons for it, she said the US did not consider some of her public statements as "appropriate" and those compromised with its values.

Known to India and the world as 'Nirbhaya' (fearless), the 23-year-old physiotherapy intern,whose brutal gang rape on a moving bus in Delhi in December inspired widespread protests, has been posthumously presented with the International Women of Courage Award.

"Her bravery inspired millions of women and men to come together with a simple message: No more. No more looking the other way when gender-based violence happens. No more stigma against victims or survivors," the US Secretary of State, JohnKerry, said at a State Department function held yesterday to honour women from across the globe with the prestigious International Women of Courage Award.

PTI: On the eve of Pakistan Prime Minister Raja Parvez Ashraf's visit to Ajmer Sharif, Pakistan today said the only way to overcome problems in its relations with India is through "building trust and confidence".

Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar spoke about India-Pakistan ties today while addressing the passing out ceremony of a specialised course for officers of the Foreign Service of Pakistan.

Talking about Pakistan's foreign policy objectives, she said the country has been single-mindedly focussing on improving ties with all its immediate neighbours, including Afghanistan and India.

"Regarding India, the Foreign Minister noted that despite difficult relations in the past, Pakistan strongly believed that the only way forward was through building trust and confidence," said a statement issued by the Foreign Office. Pakistan is committed to resolving all outstanding issues between the two countries through a meaningful dialogue, Khar said.

Photograph: Reuters

BBC: The US state of South Dakota has enacted a law allowing school districts to arm teachers and other school staff. The law's backers say it will prevent mass school shootings like a December massacre in Connecticut that killed 26.

Amid a push by the White House to strengthen gun laws, the bill reflects a growing divide in the US over whether more or fewer guns keep people safe. The measure does not force school districts to arm teachers and will not require teachers to carry guns. But it allows each school district to choose if staff could be armed. It takes effect in July.

Venezuela's Supreme Court says Vice President Nicolas Maduro became acting president the moment Hugo Chavez died, and can run for president. The decision comes just hours before Maduro is to be sworn in as acting president before the National Assembly and it was issued during the state funeral for Chavez.

National Assembly speaker Diosdado Cabello had earlier announced the planned swearing-in, which the opposition says it is boycotting. In a tweet, opposition leader Henrique Capriles called Friday's court ruling "a constitutional fraud."

Read the full story on Fox News

01:59 Now, Venezuelan parties gear up for elections

With everyone's attention on the funeral of the late President Hugo Chavez, politics in Venezuela is seemingly on hold. But even while the official mourning period is still under way, both supporters and opponents of Mr Chavez are gearing up for an election.

In fact, they have been doing so for weeks, ever since it became apparent that Mr Chavez's health was deteriorating to the point where he was unlikely to return to office. On Thursday, hundreds of thousands of his supporters queued to get a last glimpse of "Comandante Chavez" at his lying in state.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson: On Thursday night, I returned to Caracas, Venezuela, to participate in the funeral and mourning of Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela from 1999 until his passing this week. Chavez's death has captured the world's attention front and center with renewed vigor and interest.

He first burst onto the world scene with his presidential victory in 1999. Since then, through his fourth re-election in January -- and while he was in Cuba fighting the cancer that would take his life -- his focus was on forging a new socialist Venezuela. This won many friends and advocates at home and abroad, especially among Venezuela's and the hemisphere's poorest populations. Other world powers demonized Chavez and sought to ostracize him, a la Cuba's Fidel Castro, on a global scale. Read more on CNN

The state funeral for Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has been taking place in his nation's capital, Caracas. About 30 heads of state were attending the ceremony in the military academy, while tens of thousands of his supporters had gathered outside.

The BBC's Tim Willcox spoke to BBC Mundo's Lourdes Heredia about the ceremony.

00:15 Leaders and supporters bid farewell to Chavez

Leaders from Latin America and beyond were in Venezuela's capital for the state funeral of late president Hugo Chavez. Hundreds of thousands of mourners attended Friday's funeral, which was to be followed by the swearing-in of his handpicked successor Vice President Nicolas Maduro.

Thousands of busses brought people from all over the country to the capital, Caracas. Fifty-five world leaders were expected at the funeral, including Cuba's Raul Castro, Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Belarussian strongman Alexander Lukashenko, shunned by the West but long courted by the anti-US Chavez.

Ahmadinejad expressed his condolences as he arrived in Venezuela early on Friday, calling Chavez "a symbol for all those who seek justice, love and peace in the world".

00:11 Top headlines at this hour

Rani Laxmi Bai award for the 'spirit of Nirbhaya'

75 injured in clashes in curfew-bound Kashmir

Modi's latest dig at PM: Empty vessels make most noise

Techie held for misleading police on 'terror threat'

John Brennan sworn in as CIA director

Osama's son-in-law held, pleads not guilty in US court

Chopper deal: CBI quizzes ex-Union minister's brother

Prime minister's reply in RS a disappointment: BJP

My daughter feels unsafe in the city: Delhi CM

Rahul in Uttarakhand on stock-taking mission