LIVE
Sat, 18 May 2013
Meteor slams into Moon, blast was visible on Earth

Timeline  Refresh

image
23:14   Meteor slams into Moon, blast was visible on Earth
A massive explosion from a meteor which crashed into the Moon was visible to the naked eye on Earth, NASA says.

A boulder-sized meteor slammed into the moon in March,  causing an explosion so bright anyone looking up at the right moment would have spotted it, NASA said.

NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office is reporting the discovery of the brightest impact seen on the Moon in the eight years the monitoring programme has run, the National Geographic reports.

About 300 lunar impacts have been logged over the years but this latest impact, from March 17, is considered much, much brighter than anything else observed.

image
22:22   BJP shunned vote-bank politics: Modi
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi today said only BJP had challenged the prevailing vote-bank politics in the country.

At a rally in Rajnandgaon, the Assembly constituency of Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh, Modi said before BJP came to power in December 2003, there was no growth in this mineral-rich state.

"The country has witnessed vote-bank politics for fifty years. After gaining power through vote-bank politics, leaders subsequently promoted it further. BJP is the only party which has challenged this approach through development-based politics," Modi said.

"When Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh split, both were under Congress rule. But no growth came to Chhattisgarh in the three years that followed. People of the state chose wisely and rejected Congress," he said.
image
21:20   US court dismisses human rights case against Badal
A US court has dismissed a case filed by a Sikh rights group accusing Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal of being involved in human rights violations. 

In its order, the US District Court in Wisconsin ruled that Badal was never served with the court summons as being claimed by the New York-based 'Sikh for Justice' (SJF), which had filed the case against him.

In fact, judge Jynn Adelman in his five page order, said that Sikh for Justice came out with "creative" but unconvincing argument that the court summons were served to Badal, which indeed was served by Christopher Kratochvil and his brother on behalf of SFJ to another Surinderpal Singh Kalra, believing that he was the Punjab Chief Minister.

"I have no doubt that Christopher Kratochvil and his brother sincerely believe that they served defendant, but I conclude that they made an honest mistake, one that was understandable under the unusual circumstances of this case," the judge wrote.

Kratochvil apparently served summons to Kalra presuming that he was Badal on August 9, 2012 where the latter was attending a public function at Oak Creek High School following the tragic death of six Sikh worshippers at Oak Creek Gurdwara.
image
19:45   Walmart probe panel submits report
A committee appointed by the government to look into US giant Walmart's lobbying activities to enter the Indian market submitted its report on Saturday.

The committee, headed by former Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court Mukul Mudgal, was set up by the Government in the wake of major political uproar over the issue last year which even led to stalling of Parliament.

The conclusions of the panel could not be immediately ascertained.

The panel, which was set up in January this year, is looking into "whether Walmart undertook any activities in India in contravention of any Indian law" and any other matter relevant to this issue.

There was political uproar following reports about Walmart's lobbying among the US lawmakers since 2008 for facilitating its entry into the Indian market. The government had, in December 2012, assured Parliament that the matter would be probed by a retired judge.
image
19:22   Somebody wants me out of coalgate probe: CBI SP
Arrested CBI SP Vivek Dutt claims that someone wants him out of the Supreme Court-monitored Coalgate probe team.

Dutt and three others were today sent to three days in the agency's custody by a Delhi court for allegedly taking a bribe of Rs seven lakh from a businessman to favour him in a land dispute case. 

Dutt's counsel said someone was trying to destroy career of the senior officer. 

"The doubt which we have in our mind is that when an officer is involved in a very important case, then someone may try to divert the attention. Someone might want to remove him from the probe," the counsel said.

He told the court that his client is being targetted and nothing has been recovered from his possession by the agency. 

"He is investigating an important case under the supervision of the Supreme Court and somebody wants him not to be the part of the probe team... This is simply a device to divert the attention that the investigation in the coal scam is vitiated and the officer is corrupt," the counsel said.
image
18:33   Passengers hold up Delhi-Trivandrum train after fans fail
A train from Hazrat Nizamuddin to Thiruvanthapuram was held up by the angry passengers for nearly two hours at Vijayawada station today after all the fans in a bogey failed. 

Railway sources said the passengers had complained to the Travelling Ticket Examiner (TTE) at Warangal about the non-functioning fans, and they were assured that the problem would be fixed at Vijayawada.

However, as nobody addressed the complaint at Vijayawada, the angry passengers pulled the chain, saying they would not allow the train to move unless the problem was solved.

The passengers only relented when authorities sent two technicians and promised that they would fix the fans during the further journey. 

The train, which had arrived here at 11 am, left at about 1 pm.
image
18:18   India betrayed Kashmir; it belongs to Pakistan: Mirwaiz
Hurriyat Conference (M) Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has termed Kashmir dispute as a creation of 'broken promises' by India and said after partition in 1947, Kashmir by logic should have been natural part of Pakistan.

"After partition Kashmir by logic should have been natural part of Pakistan. However, the then Prime Minister of India Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru promised to provide right to self-determination to Kashmiris. Despite lapse of over six decades, the promise is yet to be fulfilled," Mirwaiz said, while addressing Friday congregation at historic Jamia Masjid in Srinagar.

image
18:16   Moving on from Ladakh
India-China relations can enter a new chapter if bilateral negotiations progress beyond a talk show, and move the focus from borders to business linkages.

image
18:14   Ban upheld: Avatar tribe 'to decide' future of Vedanta mine
In a landmark ruling, the Supreme Court today rejected an appeal to allow Vedanta Resources to mine the Niyamgiri hills. 

In a complex judgement, the court decreed that those most affected by the proposed mine should have a decisive say in whether it goes ahead.

The court recognised that the Dongria Kondh's right to worship their sacred mountain must be 'protected and preserved', and that those with religious and cultural rights must be heard in the decision-making process. 

The tribe now has three months to decide whether to allow mining of their sacred hills, but there are serious concerns over the pressures that might be heaped on the community during this crucial time.

Read more HERE
image
17:34   Will Sreesanth's diary entries nail his guilt?
Highlights of the Mumbai Police press conference:

* We have arrested a bookie named Ramesh Vyas on May 14. 92 mobiles phones, 18 sim cards, 1 laptop and cash was seized.

* Questioning of Ramesh Vyas revealed that he was in touch with bookies whose names appeared in the current spot-fixing being investigated. 

* Sreesanth had independently booked himself in a hotel in Mumbai. This was not the team hotel. The search of the hotel room shows that it was lived in as well. 

* Have recovered a laptop, an iPad, cash, some diaries. Entries in the diary appear to be by Sreesanth , some in English, some in what appears to be Malayalam. 

* We have reason to believe Sreesanth and Jiju (bookie arrested) checked into this hotel room late on May 13.  

* Recovered iPad, mobile phone, personal belongings from Jiju Janardhan's room.
image
17:06   Mumbai police retrieving data from Sreesanth's laptop, mobile
In a press conference held by Himanshu Roy, joint commissioner of crime, Mumbai police, after raiding a hotel in which S Sreesanth stayed, he said, "A laptop, iPad, mobile and diary was seized, which appears to be of the cricketer."

He said that the police were in the process of retrieving data from Sreesanth's laptop. Cash was also found from the room where the cricketer stayed, along with a diary that had certain notifications.

The CCTV footage of the room where Sreesanth stayed will be examined by the police to see who visited him.  

Roy said, "We have arrested another bookie from Mulund, named Ramesh Vyas." Ninety two mobiles and 18 SIM cards have been seized from him, the police said.

Vyas had links with other bookies involved in IPL betting. Interrogation of Vyas has provided several leads in the case, the police said.

"It's too premature to say if other players are involved. Depending on what we retrieve from Sreesanth's mobile and laptop, we may seek his custody," Roy said.
    
image
15:27   Spot-fixing: Sreesanth's laptop seized in raids on Mumbai hotel
CNN-IBN reports: The crime branch of the Mumbai police has raided Sofitel Hotel in Bandra Kurla Complex in connection the IPL spot-fixing case. They reportedly recovered a laptop belonging to accused cricketer S Sreesanth. Sources said more raids were likely to be conducted in a few more places today.
image
14:57   IPL is NOT fixed, says BCCI chief
Talking about the recent spot-fixing scandal, BCCI chief N Srinivasan told CNN-IBN:  "IPL has not let down people, it is these dirty cricketers who have done this. No punishment is enough for them. If these dirty cricketers are found guilty, they should not be allowed to play anymore and should be sent to jail." 

Srinivasan said the fault lies with the greed of the players and that the tournament was not fixed. He said the BCCI is a private body and RTI Act does not apply to it. "The fault lies with the greed of the players," he added.

 
image
14:45   Spot-fixing: Jaipur police seize 250 mobiles during raids
The Jaipur police will share with their Delhi counterparts the call details of mobile phones seized during raids to assist with the ongoing Indian Premier League  spot-fixing probe.

"Over 250 mobile phones, some laptops and other items were seized during 16 raids in the city during the IPL season this year and call details of the mobile phones will be shared with Delhi police to assist them in the ongoing probe in spot fixing," a police officer said.

"This is to ascertain whether there was any connection of the bookies arrested in Jaipur," the officer said, adding, that the city police was unaware of any spot- fixing but action on large scale was taken against betting.
image
14:42   North Korea launches short-range missiles
CNN reports: North Korea launched three short-range guided missiles into the sea off the Korean Peninsula's east coast on Saturday, South Korea's semi-official news agency Yonhap cited the South Korean defence ministry as saying.

The ministry said it had detected two launches in the morning, followed by another in the afternoon, Yonhap reported.
image
14:38  
BJP patriarch L K Advani does not want to continue his blog. His readership has drastically gone down as he has begun to criticise the BJP and praise the Congress. Insiders in BJP whisper that Advani has become a redundant in the party and it's high time he takes 'sanyas', reports our correspondent from New Delhi. 
image
14:35   Yeddyurappa's KJP to join hands with BJP?
BS Yeddyurappa is keen to become the Leader of Opposition in the Karnataka assembly. His best shot at that is for the Karnataka Janata Paksha to merge with the BJP in six months ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. With this move, they can politically demolish their arch rival -- the Janata Dal-Secular.      

Insiders says that JD-S chief H D Kumaraswamy is keen to return to state politics and resign as an MP. 
image
14:29  
Reports our correspondent from Delhi: Former BJP chief Nitin Gadakri is expected to interact with the media in New Delhi in the first week of June with a major expose. RSS leaders have confidence in Gadkari despite the Purti group controversy.
image
14:24   Why Assam journalists are miffed with the PM
The Special Protection Group that protects Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was ordered not to allow any job seekers near him. Because of a miscommunication the SPG did not allow the local media near the PM when he was filing his nomination for the Rajya Sabha from Assam. This has left mediapersons in Assam angry, according to our correspondent in New Delhi.  
image
14:17  
The Congress leadership has decided to project Jyotiraditya Scindia as the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh. The state Congress, however, are opposing this promotion.
image
14:00  
Reports our correspondent from New Delhi: Insiders in the Bharatiya Janata Party say that party chief Rajnath Singh is still to allocate responsibilities to his new team.

A few partymen are of the opinion that Rajnath Singh is slow in taking decisions just like PM Singh, who has been delaying the Cabinet reshuffle. 

Insiders speculate that Rajnath Singh will announce division of work to office bearers of the BJP on May 22, so that he can save his face ahead of the the BJP national executive in Goa in first week of June.
image
13:56  
Three Union ministers dined till 2 am on Friday, venting their anger against Dr Manmohan Singh having protected his close confidantes and exposed the Congress. .
image
13:54  
Reports our correspondent from New Delhi: Only 11 out of 29 Union ministers were present in the Cabinet meeting on Thursday. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh entered the Cabinet room, looked around and nodded to the cabinet secretary to start proceedings. Fifteen items in the Cabinet agenda were either postponed or adopted -- all just in 8 minutes.

"Such is a farce of Dr Manmohan Singh cabinet" was the cryptic comment of a senior Union minister. Fourteen Union ministers were on foreign jaunts. 
image
13:47   IPL spot-fixing: BCCI to hold emergency meet in Chennai tomorrow
Jolted by the sensational Indian Premier League spot-fixing scandal, the BCCI's all-powerful working committee will hold an emergency meeting in Chennai tomorrow to discuss the fallout of the controversy and decide the future course of action against the three arrested cricketers.

The BCCI is under intense pressure to take a tough stand as it is a second case of spot-fixing in the cash-rich IPL and indications are that they could even contemplate handing out life bans on the basis of preliminary report by its anti-corruption unit.

The Board's anti-corruption unit chief Ravi Sawani is also expected to be present at the meeting and brief the members on the issue which has cast a shadow on the league.
image
13:11   2 differently-abled girls raped near Jaipur, 4 held
NDTV reports:  Two differently-abled girls have allegedly been raped at an NGO near Jaipur where they had gone for speech therapy. The police arrested four employees of the NGO -- its warden, supervisor, accounts clerk and the clerk's wife -- this morning. 

The teenagers suffer from speech and hearing disability and are orphans. They live in a government-run home in the city, but had gone to the NGO, Awaaz Foundation, for speech counseling in April.

According to the police, the girls were allegedly raped and also beaten up at this NGO last month.
image
12:55   Playing hardball with China
The Chinese have put India on notice. Can India raise its game, asks Hardeep S Puri, a retired diplomat, who was India's permanent representative to the United Nations.

Read the full column on The Indian Express

image
12:51   Arrested player tries to rope in 3 other RR cricketers
Vicky Nanjappa reports: Police say that the arrested cricketers have dragged names of other players into the spot-fixing scandal as their interrogation continued.

The players in the custody of the Delhi police have said that three Rajasthan Royals' were in know of things. However, the Delhi police say that there is no evidence against these players. They had maintained that they have a strong case is against S Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan, who were arrested.

Chandila's lawyer also claimed that the team management was in the loop about the betting. Police say that the claims made by the players will be investigated but they are not jumping the gun.

Some members of the Rajasthan Royals management will be questioned. However, there is no decision to summon team owners and or the captain of the team Rahul Dravid, Delhi police sources maintained. 

Meanwhile, the Delhi police will be sending voice samples to the forensic sciences laboratory for examination. The police have recorded the voices of the players during their interrogation, which will be studied along with the voices obtained through the tapped conversations.  
image
12:10   Spot-fxing: Delhi cops to grill accused players, bookies again
CNN-IBN reports: The Delhi police is expected to confront players with bookies' confessions as a fresh round of questioning began today.
image
11:28  
Twenty eight ministers were inducted today into Siddaramaiah's ministry in Karnataka, as part of the cabinet expansion. 
image
11:25   Spot-fixing: Delhi police team trace money trail across country
The Delhi police has sent investigators to four cities in the country to trace the money trail in the Indian Premier League spot-fixing case.

According to sources, teams have been sent to Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and Hyderabad in this connection.

Sreesanth and the other two cricketers -- Ankit Chavan and Ajit Chandila-- were arrested in in Mumbai on Thursday by the Delhi police for spot-fixing IPL matches for payments of up to Rs 60 lakh just for giving away pre-determined number of runs in an over.

According to police sources, Chandila allegedly got Rs 20 lakh for spot-fixing.
image
11:10   J&K: Army foils infiltration bid, one officer killed
CNN-IBN reports: The army today thwarted an infiltration bid at Machil in Kupwara, Jammu and Kashmir. A fierce gunbattle with terrorists left an officer dead and a jawan injured.

The fleeing terrorists have left behind a huge cache of arms and ammunition. 
image
10:36   Sreesanth, Chandila, Chavan have confessed to spot-fixing: Police
Vicky Nanjappa reports: The arrested Rajasthan Royals players -- -- S Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan -- have confessed to spot-fixing in the sixth edition of the Indian Premier League, according to the police. 

The confession of a crime before the police may not be admissible in law, but if the three cricketers are proven guilty they may face imprisonment up to three months under the Public Gambling Act of 1867.

Sources in the Delhi police told rediff.com that they will file a supplementary chargesheet in this case in the next three weeks based on the confessions, circumstantial evidence and also the video/audio evidence.

The bookies during the questioning have revealed the names of their associates in Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Hyderabad. A team has been sent to these places to conduct searches and recover money, sources informed.
image
09:22   Karnataka cabinet to be expanded today
The four-day old Siddaramaiah ministry in Karnataka will be expanded today with the induction of 29 ministers, an exercise from which the "tainted" would be kept out.

Siddaramaiah, who was sworn in as the chief minister on May 13 marking return of the Congress to power after a seven-year hiatus, however, ruled out induction of any deputy chief minister.

Twenty nine ministers will be sworn in at Raj Bhavan, the 64-year-old chief minister told reporters in the district headquarters town of Mysore on his return from Delhi where the first list of ministers was finalised in consultation with the party's central leadership.
image
03:14   Cannes Festival: Man held after scare at TV studio
A man was arrested on Friday after causing a scare at the Cannes Film Festival, where he attacked a TV studio with a gun loaded with blanks and a dummy grenade, police and witnesses said.

There were no casualties in the incident, and the TV channel, France's Canal +, resumed broadcasts after a break of
several minutes. 

The suspected assailant fired twice in the air as he approached the temporary studio, set up on the Croisette seafront for special coverage of the film festival, they said. 

"He said to a woman next to him 'if I were you, I wouldn't stick around here'," said Michel Denisot, the programme's presenter.

"The police intervened. He had a hand grenade. There were no bullets in the gun and the grenade was a fake," he told viewers.
image
01:51   Bill Gates back as the richest man in the world
Bill Gates has regained his title as richest man in the world after five years out of the top spot, beating Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim.

The net worth of Gates, founder of Microsoft and co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, hit a five-year high on Thursday at $72.7 billion, topping that of Slim, 73, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Gates last held the title, which has also been held by Berkshire Hathaway chairman and CEO Warren Buffett, five years ago.
Though Gates, 57, is still chairman of Microsoft, he only owns about 5 percent of it, reports Forbes. 

Microsoft shares are up 28 percent this year. 

Bloomberg figures that Gate's fortune has risen 15 percent this year.

Slim's net worth has dropped about $3 billion due to regulatory issues with his company, America Movil SAB, the largest mobile-phone operator in the Americas, according to Bloomberg. 
image
01:28   Bombs targeting Sunnis kill 76 in Iraq
Bombs struck Sunni areas in Baghdad and surrounding areas on Friday, killing at least 76 people in the deadliest day in Iraq in more than eight months, officials said, as a spike in violence has raised fears the country could be on the path to a new round of sectarian bloodshed.

The attacks in Baghdad and surrounding areas pushed the three-day Iraqi death toll to 130, including Shiites at bus stops and outdoor markets in scenes reminiscent of the retaliatory attacks between the Islamic sects that pushed the country to the brink of civil war in 2006-2007.

Tensions have been intensifying since Sunnis began protesting what they say is mistreatment at the hands of the Shiite-led government, including random detentions and neglect.

The protests, which began in December, have largely been peaceful, but the number of attacks rose sharply after a deadly security crackdown on a Sunni protest camp in the country's north on April 23. Majority Shiites control the levers of power in post-Saddam Hussein Iraq.
image
01:26   Russia reveals identity of CIA Moscow chief
The Federal Security Service in Russia has revealed the identity of the CIA's station chief in Moscow in a breach of protocol.

The revelation, made by an FSB spokesman who accused the US agency of crossing a "red line" in its attempt to recruit turncoats among Russian spy agencies, will up the ante in the unfolding spy scandal that emerged earlier this week when Russia detained and expelled an alleged CIA agent working undercover as third secretary at the US embassy in Moscow.

Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin's foreign policy advisor, have taken pains to say they believe the scandal will blow over quickly.

Publicly revealing the CIA station chief proves that some inside the Russian government believe otherwise and is likely to prompt an angry response from Washington.

Speaking to Russia's Interfax news agency, the FSB spokesman said his agency had complained to the CIA station chief as far back as October 2011 "that if they [the Americans] continue their provocative recruitment efforts regarding employees of the Russian secret services, the FSB will take 'mirror' actions against CIA agents". In that statement, the spokesman included the station chief's name.

TOP STORIES