The media box at the Wankhede stadium here will be named after the late Shiv Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackeray, Mumbai Cricket Association announced today.

Noted lawyer and Rajya Sabha MP Ram Jethmalani tonight threatened to "expose" the "undesirable elements" within BJP and suggested that his expulsion from the party's primary membership was done because of his campaign against black money.

At least 1,76,052 leaders and activists of the ruling CPI-M today courted arrest while participating in an agitation against the Central government over issues like FDI, corruption and price hike, the police said.

Britain has ordered extradition of one of the main Naval war room leak accused Ravi Shankaran to India to face trial, a move that may expedite court proceedings pending for several months.

The killings of Mahendra Karma and his colleagues call not for retributive violence but for a deeper reflection on the discontent among the tribals of central India and their dispossession. Read Ramachandra Guha's opinion piece on The Hindu

Accusing Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit of total mismanagement in handling the water crisis, BJP today demanded Prime Minister's intervention to ensure availability of water in the national capital.  

 

Delhi BJP president Vijay Goel while slamming the government's handling of the issue said his party will soon come out with a "white paper" which will "feature ways and means the overcome the challenge of water crisis".        

 

"We want Prime Minister to intervene and arrange water for the people of Delhi. We will produce a 'white paper' to deal with problems related to water crisis and solutions to deal with it," Goel said.        

 

Various areas in the city have been facing acute water shortage due to increase in demand. He said four states -- Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, and Rajasthan -- held a meeting today in which the three other states were not ready to provide water to the national capital.

The BCCI has named a three members-inquiry commission to probe the Gurunath Meiyappan issue.

 

The commission will have two independent members and one from BCCI. Retired Justices T Jayaram Chouta and R Balasubramanian and BCCI Secretary Sanjay Jagdale have been named members of the commission.

Chhattisgarh government has suspended Bastar Superintendent of Police Mayank Shrivastava, and shifted Bastar Inspector General Himangshu Gupta in the wake of Maoist killing of Congress leaders.

Congress today disapproved of Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde extending his stay in the United States even as the security appratus back home grapples with the fall out of the deadly Maoist attack on party leaders in Chhattisgarh.     

 

"No tour could be important" at this juncture, party spokesman Bhaktacharan Das told reporters replying to a volley of questions whether it was proper for Shinde to be away in the US in the wake of such a situation at home.     

 

At the same time, Das said there was no need to make the absence of the Home Minister a political issue as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had himself visited Chhattisgarh after the incident and Minister of state for Home R P N Singh was at hand with "full powers".      Reports had it that Shinde, who left New Delhi on May 19 to attend the Indo-US H

 

omeland Security dialogue, is not cutting short his visit and will return home tomorrow as scheduled.

The United Kingdom today has ordered the extradition of Ravi Shankaran, wanted in the naval leaks case.

Shakaran is accused of leaking classified information from Indian war room to arms dealers.     

Chattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh to hold all party meet on May 30 on the Naxal issue.

Income Tax department has issued notices to three top private lenders in the country - ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and HDFC Bank - in connection with alleged money laundering charges levelled by online portal Cobrapost.

The department has asked these banks to produce documents for verification as part of its tax evasion probe.

At the presser ahead of the Champions Trophy, Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni evaded questions the recent Indian Premier League spot-fixing controversy.

According to CNN-IBN, the media was not allowed to ask questions on the fixing row. The BCCI's media manager reportedly asked Dhoni not to take questions related to the IPL. 

Sudipta Sen, the chairman of Saradha Group, which allegedly defrauded thousands of small investors, and two others, were today sent to judicial custody till June 3 in cases related to cheating by a court at Baruipur in South 24 Parganas district. Sen along with Saradha director Debjani Mukherjee and Arvind Singh Chouhan, who looked after the group's operations in Jharkhand, were produced before the court today. 

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi visited drought-affected villages in Maharashtra''s Aurangabad District on Tuesday, and  admitted that the situation is quite difficult.
 
But, he added that the Congress-led state government is making all efforts to reduce the misery of the people of the region.
 
"It''s a very difficult situation, but CM Sahab is trying his best. I think there is a decent amount of work being done," he told mediapersons here.
 
Gandhi also launched a frontal attack on the opposition, and accused them of disrupting parliamentary proceedings.

Congress today demanded the immediate resignation of Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh charging his government with failure to maintain security that led to the gunning down of 27 people, including senior party leaders, by Maoists.

However, the party steered clear of the demand for imposition of President's Rule in the state where assembly elections are due by the year-end. "Raman Singh should step down", Congress spokesperson Bhaktacharan Das said, three days after the audacious attack by the Maoists, the first major organised attack on the leadership of a political party by Maoists.

Update on Sreesanth's judicial custody: The court pulled up the investigators for not showing any fresh ground to take the custody of S Sreesanth, saying as to why he should be handed to "your hospitality" for two days. "How will you (investigators) establish that the removed articles belong to Sreesanth as anyone can plant to falsely implicate him," the court said.

Cricketer-turned-politician Kirti Azad today attacked the current dispensation in BCCI saying people in the board are not going after its President N. Srinivasan because "somebody wants to be the next president" of the high-profile sports body.

"They (BCCI) do not want to take on N. Srinivasan because somebody wants to be next BCCI president. They think, if they go against him, they will not get 10-15 votes from his loyalists in the next AGM," Azad said.

"They are acting like Gandhiji's three monkeys. They all are involved. You scratch my back I'll scratch yours. Such is the current scenario," he said.

Asked if Srinivasan should step down as the BCCI chief, Azad said, "Why should I say Srinivasan should resign or not? I would first like to know what people in BCCI, who talk of high morality and probity in public life, think. What they think about Srinivasan?"

Accusing the Congress of indulging in "petty politics" for charging the Chhattisgarh government with failure to provide adequate security to Congress leaders killed in Saturday's Naxal attack in Bastar District, the BJP on Tuesday called on the Congress to evolve a well coordinated policy to combat, neutralise and eradicate the Naxal menace.

"BJP has exercised restraint regarding the dastardly attack by Naxals... we have not indulged in blame game due to a sense of responsibility. But Congress is going berserk and indulging in petty politics by blaming the state government," said party spokesperson Prakash Javadekar.

How did the first Everest expedition come about, how many people have climbed since, and what routes did they take? Find out more about the mountain on the 60th anniversary of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay's ascent.  Read

T S Sudhir '@Iamtssudhir34m Ankeet chavan denied bail to get married on june 2. But they allow killers of indian fishermen to go to italy for xmas break and also vote

As the country grapples with one of the worst Naxal attacks in recent times, home minister Sushilkumar Shinde holidays in the US.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi, party Vice-President Rahul Gandhi, Minister of State for Home RPN Singh, Home Secretary Designate Anil Goswami had visited Chhattisgarh while Union Home Secretary R K Singh, Director of Intelligence Bureau Syed Asif Ibrahim and other senior Central officials followed soon after. Shinde extended his visit to May 29 after his official visit to the US ended on May 22.

Shinde is believed to have spoken to Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh and announced that the probe would be handed over to the NIA.

Today, MoS Home, RPN Singh told CNN IBN, "I can't speak for Home Minister's absence."

Soybean farmers in India, Asia's biggest shipper of the animal feed extracted from the oilseed, may boost planting this year as prices head for a fifth straight year of gains, potentially lifting output to a record. Read

A window of opportunity may be opening up to resolve the border dispute between India and China. Unfortunately, Indian public opinion and a section of its strategic community seem ill-prepared to allow the government to take advantage of this. An assessment of the recent border incident between these two States illustrates the obstacles which have to be overcome. Read the report on the EPW.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today awarded the Padmashree to Professor Noburu Karashima for his contribution in the field of literature and education, reports Vipin Vijayan from Tokyo.

Professor Noburu had been unable to collect his prize at the ceremony held last month for health reasons. The Japanese scholar had spent several years in India as a research scholar on South Indian history and epigraphy at the University of Madras in Chennai. Professor Noburu is fluent in Tamil and is an acknowledged authority on medieval South Indian inscriptions. He is currently Professor Emeritus in the University of Tokyo.

Just in: S Sreesanth has been sent to judicial custody. The court rejects the Delhi police's plea for extension of police custody. The court will hear his bail plea on June 3. The court also dismissed the bail plea of Ankeet Chavan, who had asked for bail on grounds that he was to get married on June 2. Chavan is already in judicial custody till June 4.

Union Home Secretary RK Singh today said anti-Naxal operations will be intensified with more security forces and modern weapons being provided by the Central Government to the affected regions.

"We will coordinate with Naxal-hit states adjoining Chhattisgarh and forces and modern weapons would be provided by the Centre for anti-Naxal operations," he told mediapersons after holding a meeting of senior officials at the police headquarters in Raipur.

The Union Home Secretary, who was in Raipur to hold a review meeting with senior state officials regarding the Saturday's Naxal attack on Congress leaders, also made it clear that the Army will not be a part of the operations against the Maoists.  "We will not involve the army. There is no need to call the Army. Neither have we asked them. But we will send more (paramilitary) forces," he said, when asked to comment on the role of the army to tackle the Naxal threat. Singh further said a judicial inquiry has been set up to find out the error.

"The state government has requested the honourable Chief Justice to nominate a sitting judge. We will come to know where was the error," he said.  

Singh further said there is proper coordination with the neighbouring state governments, and added that the ultras are on the backfoot at several paces.

Actor-politician Sekhar Suman, who had contested last Parliamentary polls on Congress ticket, says it was like a 'travel on the bypass road' and supported Narendra Modi for the prime minister's post.

"Sometimes even while going on the main road you need to take a bypass road to come back on the highway ... My journey with Congress in the last general election was like travel on a bypass road," Suman said last night.

He was unsuccessful in contesting on Congress ticket against his Bollywood senior and BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha from Patna Saheb constituency in the 2009 elections.

Living legend Stephen Hawking has already achieved superhero status in the eyes of many science geeks, and now his ideas are being honored in comic book form. Read

The legendary Indian obsession with purchasing gold has been passed down for generations. Families purchase gold on auspicious religious occasions and, in larger quantities, for weddings. It forms a significant part of savings, particularly in rural areas, and is often passed down as inheritance. Today, however, it is also being credited as one of the main reasons for India's spiraling current account deficit, which has widened to a record 6.7% of gross domestic product in the latest period. Read more

Also see: Former RBI deputy governor Subir Gokarn on how to save India's economy.

Just in: Cricketer Ajit Chandila and bookie Chandresh Patel sent to judicial custody. The police seek an extension of two days in Sreesanth's custody which expires today.  

With pirate raids in eastern Arabian Sea virtually stopped for the past two years, India has taken up a new battle against global insurance firms to get the piracy risk map redrawn to prevent major  shipping traffic from getting uncomfortably closer to its exclusive economic zone that adversely affect Indian fishermen. Read

The European financial crisis has calmed down quite a bit.And now the hope is that perhaps the economy is about to turn the corner as well.But the long-term ramifications of the downturn may prove to be incredibly corrosive to European politics, and long-term economic health. Read more 

Former corporate lobbyist Niira Radia was today warned by a Delhi court for "evading" questions relating to the 2G spectrum allocation case in which she is considered as a "sensitive" and "important" witness.

"You are a very sensitive witness. Be brief and be specific in your answers," Special CBI Judge O P Saini told her when she was not giving direct answers and was speaking in inaudibly.

"You are trying to evade the question. It is a very simple question," the judge said when Radia was evading a question by the CBI prosecutor as to why Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL) was granted CDMA licence so late in 2008, three years after it had applied in 2005.

"Please be a little loud. Don't talk to yourself or to the public prosecutor. Your answers should be audible to me. There are accused persons, defence counsel and other persons who are interested in this case, so you should be audible to them also," the judge said. 53-year-old Radia, an undergraduate, was told by the judge that she is an intelligent professional and she should answer the questions by first understanding them.

"Please understand the question properly. I have heard from media reports that you are a very intelligent person and you are a professional also, so first understand the question and then answer," the judge said.

The court also asked CBI to be brief and specific in its questions, saying that Radia is a very sensitive witness.

"Witness is very sensitive. Witness is very important also. Please be brief and specific in your questions to her," the court told the CBI prosecutor during the recording of her statement

Defending his government's decision to use memorials and parks constructed in memory of Dalit icons during the previous Mayawati regime for marriages and cultural events, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav today said by holding such programmes the memorials "would only earn name".

"What's wrong in holding marriages and other pubic events at the memorials...By doing this, these memorials will only earn name...," Yadav told media.

He said the memorials were constructed from public money and the SP had earlier said that it would make utilisation of the space in them. "Ashtdhatu trees and animals were installed in these parks...How else can they be put to better use than this...," he added. The state government had recently decided to rent out the space in memorials for marriages and public events inviting ire of BSP, which said it is an insult to Dalit icons on whose name the memorials had been constructed.

Ram Jethmalani's son, Mahesh, continues to remain a BJP party member. The BJP also says that the senior SC lawyer had failed to respond to a show-cause notice with regards to charges of "indiscipline and challenging the party's authority." 

Ram Jethmalani has been expelled from primary membership of the party for six years.

On May 6, Jethmalani asked the party leadership why no action was taken to remove him from the party over three months after he was served a notice. All BJP MPs, including Parliamentary Party leader LK Advani, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and her Rajya Sabha counterpart Arun Jaitley, heard him in silence as he spoke for 10 minutes before walking out in a huff.

Several party MPs later spoke against Mr. Jethmalani's behaviour and said this should not be tolerated. BJP top brass, however, is of the opinion that expelling him would increase his "damage potential and nuisance value' as he would then be free to speak his mind in the Rajya Sabha.

As a suspended member, Mr. Jethmalani is bound by the BJP whip and can speak or cast his vote in the House only in accordance with the directions of the party. He was suspended in November last year on disciplinary grounds.
-- The Hindu

Just in: The BJP expels Supreme Court lawyer and Rajya Sabha MP Ram Jethmalani from the party for anti-party statements. Jethmalani, who has been expelled from the primary membership of the party, had recently criticised the BJP's stand on corruption. Jethmalani will be an independent RS MP from now on.

On May 7, Jethmalani took the party by surprise when he walked into its Parliamentary Party meeting and attacked the leadership for being soft on the UPA government on the corruption issue.

Jethmalani had been suspended from the party in November last year for asking for Nitin Gadkari's resignation.

The Mumbai police have been granted custody of Vindoo Dara Singh till May 31. Vindoo's custody had ended today. The police say they need to investigate whether Vindoo gave a sim card to an umpire. 

Widening the probe ambit in the IPL betting case, Crime Branch-CID of Tamil Nadu Police today issued summons for May 30 to prominent hotelier Vikram Aggarwal, with cops saying his possible role in the racket could be ascertained only after further interrogation.

CB-CID DSP Rajasrinivasan also dismissed reports that the hotelier had been picked up by them for interrogation, as claimed by Aggarwal's advocate. "They can claim but it is not so...we have not been able to locate him," he said.

He said summons have been issued to Aggarwal to appear before the CB-CID team in connection with the ongoing IPL betting case on May 30. "We have served summons requesting Aggarwal to appear in this office on 30th of this month," he said, adding, police would seek custody of some of the arrested to get more information on the "syndicate."

Anti-naxal operations will be intensified with more security forces and modern weapons being provided by the Centre to the affected regions, Union Home Secretary R K Singh today said.

"We will coordinate with naxal-hit states adjoining Chhattisgarh and forces and modern weapons would be provided by the Centre for anti-naxal operations," Singh told reporters after taking a meeting of senior officials at the police headquarters.

He said anti-naxal operations in the affected (Bastar) region would be intensified. Singh is here to hold a review meeting with senior state officials regarding the Saturday's naxal attack on Congress leaders.

When asked about the press release issued by naxals in which they regretted killing some innocent people, Singh said, "Yes, they were not on their hit-list, in spite of that they were shot dead."

Talk about defining moments. In addition to unleashing gems like weissnichtwo andhumuhumunukunukuapuaa on us, the 281 contestants in theNational Spelling Bee, which begins Tuesday, will have to know what the words mean too. Read

Also read: 12-year-old Sathwik spells Chimborazo right to win Bee

The Shiv Sena-run Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has provisionally cleared a proposal banning the display of lingerie on mannequins in the city.

The proposal seeks strict action against shopkeepers and hawkers who display such mannequins.The proposal has been cleared on the grounds that such mannequins will excite men and pose a danger to women.

The proposal is yet to get final clearance from the BMC.On getting the final clearance, the move would allow civic officials to ask shopkeepers to remove a mannequin if they think it is indecently dressed.-- CNN IBN

Bollywood actor (sic) Vindoo Dara Singh has been produced at the Qila court in Mumbai. The Mumbai police want his custody extended. 

Renowned cardiovascular and cardiothoracic surgeon, and chairman and managing director of the Medanta Medicity Hospital in Gurgaon Dr Naresh Trehan on Tuesday said that senior Congress leader Vidya Charan Shukla continued to be in a critical state medically, though he has shown slight improvements in the past 24 hours.

"He seems to have showed some improvement with respect to kidney function etc. However, given his age and the trauma that he has gone through, we have to be very cautious," Dr Trehan said.

He also expressed hope that Shukla will show some definite improvements in next 24 to 48 hours. "Hope that there is more improvement in his condition in the next 24 hours. But it is too early to say he is out of danger," he said.

The 84-year-old former union minister sustained three bullet wounds after he was caught in the middle of an ambush by Maoists on a Congress convoy in Chhattisgarh's Bastar District on Saturday. 

Former top cop KPS Gill, 76, best known for his fight against Punjab insurgency, was handpicked and sent to Chhattisgarh in 2006 as chief minister Raman Singh's advisor. Seven years later, the security strategist reveals stunning details to Harinder Baweja of Indian Express of how the chief minister reacted to his plans of taking on the Naxals. Read

Three years ago Kishwar Desai traded journalism for fiction. Now she creates compelling characters who challenge gender roles and the 'endemic' problem of sexual assault in India. Read

Just in: The Mumbai police are conducting a search at Gurunath Meiyappan's residence again. 

Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh in an interview with CNN IBN says intellectuals should stop romanticising Maoists. "There can be no dialogue with them as they don't believe in democracy. There is nothing ideological about Maoists anymore; they are extortionists and criminals. We will win the war against Naxalism, we will persevere we will bring political development and we will use force," said Ramesh.

"Mahendra Karma was a very progressive tribal leader. He was killed because Naxals don't want political acitivity," said Ramesh. "We need to emulate Andhra Pradesh's way of dealing with them. Tribals are getting squeezed between security forces and Naxals," he says. "Focussed action and tribal welfare is the way forward. We need to have a full package of policies to deal with Naxalism," says Ramesh.

In their statement, the Maoists named Mahendra Karma, Nand Kumar Patel and VC Shukla as the main targets of the attack and said they "regret the killing of innocents and lower Congress functionaries.

MoS (Home) RPN Singh speaking to CNN IBN said the government would nor respond to the Maoist statement, but said it was ridiculous to accept their 'regret' after 27 people died. "To say they were targeting only a few people is ridiculous," he said.

The Maoists on Tuesday claimed responsibility for the deadly May 25 attack on a convoy of Congress leaders in Chhattisgarh. The Naxals sent a four-page letter and an audio clipping to the media, claiming they were behind the attack in which 27 people including top Congress state leaders were killed. The letter carries the signature of a Maoists spokesperson from Dandakaranya. As per the letter, a team of the People's Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) carried out the attack. It further states that senior Congress leaders Mahendra Karma, Nand Kumar Patel and VC Shukla were the main targets of the attack.

A BSF jawan was today injured in an IED blast triggered by Naxals in Maoist-hit Kanker district of Chhattisgarh. The incident took place between Konde and Chhindpal village when the security forces were on an anti-mining operation in the Badgaon police station area of the district, a senior police official said. As per information, the jawan stepped on a landmine in the region triggering the blast, the official said.

A BSF jawan was today injured in an IED blast triggered by Naxals in Maoist-hit Kanker district of Chhattisgarh. The incident took place between Konde and Chhindpal village when the security forces were on an anti-mining operation in the Badgaon police station area of the district, a senior police official said. As per information, the jawan stepped on a landmine in the region triggering the blast, the official said.

The custody of the three cricketers arrested in the IPL spot-fixing scandal - Ajit Chandila, S Sreesanth and Ankeet Chavan - ends on Tuesday. The Delhi Police is expected to seek an extension as more details are coming out of the probe each day.

Jill Greenberg is one of the more popular photographers of her era, however she is also one of the most controversial ones too. Her exhibit, called End Times, shows photos of various kids crying as if something terrible had happened. The pieces were titled to reflect Greenberg's frustration with the government and Christian Fundamentalism in the United States.

How does she get these shots, you might ask? One photography enthusiast revealed photographer's rather cruel way of making her models cry -- Greenberg gives them lollipop and then quickly takes it away. Once people realized this, many condemned her for such methods. Others, however, say that kids cry all the time, and there's no harm in it.  See

Veteran Congress leader V CShukla might well have met the same fate as his party colleagues Mahendra Karma and NandKumar Patel had it not been for his quick thinking driver's ability to speak Telugu.

Speaking to TOI from Raipur, Bala, who survived the attack with a bullet wound, said he began shouting in Telugu as the heavily  armed Maoists approached the SUV - a Toyota Land Cruiser Prado - claiming that Shukla was a businessman returning from Andhra Pradesh.

The driver, who has been with Shukla for almost 10 years, hid the former Union minister's identity and maintained that Shukla was his 'Seth' caught in the Congress cavalcade but wasn't a politician.  Read the full story on the TOI.

Just in: Former corporate lobbyist Niira Radia appears in a Delhi court to testify as a prosecution witness in the 2G case. Radia, who was scheduled to appear in court on December 5 last year to testify as a CBI witness, had sought three months' time on grounds that she had undergone a surgery for a neurological ailment.

The CBI had submitted in the first week of May its list of prosecution witnesses to be called for recording of their statements before special CBI judge OP Saini and Radia's deposition was slated for May 28. CBI, in its charge sheet filed on April 2, 2011 against former telecom minister A Raja and others, had named Radia as a prosecution witness in the case.

Radia's statement assumes significance as she, in her statement recorded during the probe under section 161 of the CrPC (dealing with examination of witnesses) before CBI, had said that Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd, facing trial in the 2G case, was not "eligible" to get the Unified Access Service (UAS) Licences.

An American F-15 fighter crashed into the sea after its pilot ejected from his plane off Japan's southernmost Okinawa prefecture today, the US Air Force said.

"A Kadena-based F-15 aircraft developed a problem that ultimately resulted in the pilot ejecting from the aircraft over the Pacific Ocean approximately 110 kilometres east of Okinawa," the air force said, referring to the hub of American air power in the Pacific.

"US and Japanese rescue crews are responding to recover the pilot, who reportedly ejected safely and is in contact with rescue crews," the statement said, adding the cause of the incident would be investigated. Japan's coast guard said it was involved in the rescue.

Maoists on Tuesday claimed responsibility for the attack on senior Congress leaders in Chhattisgarh that claimed 27 lives on Saturday night. 

The Chhattisgarh government has tightened security arrangements of the families of senior Congress leaders Nand Kumar Patel and Mahendra Karma, who were killed in a Maoist attack on Saturday in Bastar.