YSR Congress chief Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, facing corruption charges, today filed two pleas before a special court in Hyderabad seeking further relaxation on his bail conditions to allow him to visit other states and also without having to inform the CBI on his tour itinerary.        

 

The applications seeking to leave Andhra Pradesh without having to inform the CBI and to proceed to other states, filed by Jagan's counsel will come up for hearing tomorrow.        

 

Jagan, who was arrested in May last year, got bail in the corruption case in late September this year, with the court asking the Kadapa MP not to leave the state capital without its permission.        

 

However, the court on October 30 had allowed Jagan's plea for relaxing the bail conditions to enable him to visit different parts of Andhra Pradesh and Delhi after informing it two days before leaving Hyderabad.        

 

It is learnt that in the application submitted that being an MP and leader of a political party, the YSR Congress chief has to meet members of public (in view of the prevailing situation in the state in the wake of announcement to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh) and travel frequently.

Swiss scientists who conducted tests on samples taken from Yasser Arafat's body have found at least 18 times the normal levels of radioactive polonium in his remains.

 

The scientists said that they were confident up to an 83 percent level that the late Palestinian leader was poisoned with it, which they said "moderately supports' polonium as the cause of his death.

 

A 108-page report by the University Centre of Legal Medicine in Lausanne, which was obtained exclusively by Al Jazeera, found unnaturally high levels of polonium in Arafat's ribs and pelvis, and in soil stained with his decaying organs. The Swiss scientists, along with French and Russian teams, obtained the samples last November after his body was exhumed from a mausoleum in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.

 

Read more on Al Jazeera

Indian Navy today inducted the fourth generation advanced jet trainer aircraft 'Hawk 132', which has led to a jump in the operational versatility. 

A car bomb killed at least eight security personnel in a rare attack on a military intelligence headquarters in the southern Syrian city of Suweida on Wednesday, and a separate blast killed eight people in Damascus.

Former Pakistani military ruler Pervez Musharraf was today freed after spending nearly six months in house arrest as he has been granted bail in four major cases registered against him, including one over the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. 

The United Nations right chief today expressed "serious alarm" at death sentences passed by a Bangladesh court on 152 soldiers over the massacre of scores of army officers in 2009. 

Apprehension of Naxal attacks has prompted the Election Commission to relocate 167 polling stations in Chhattisgarh to safer areas. 

Former BJP Delhi chief Vijendra Gupta to take on Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit in New Delhi consituency in assembly polls, says Ananth Kumar.

Marvel comics is reintroducing Ms Marvel but this time she is Kamala Khan, a Pakistani-American teenage Muslim girl living in New Jersey. Kamala has closely followed the career of Carol Danvers, who now goes by Captain Marvel, a name she inherited from a male hero.

As Kamala discovers her powers, she takes on the code name Ms Marvel, something that Carol called herself when she began her superhero career, reported New York Times. Marvel, which originally debuted the character in the 1960s, is planning to bring the new series in February.

In the light of repeated incidents of exploitation of domestic workers in New Delhi, the city government today told the High Court that the Delhi Private Placement Agencies (Regulation) Bill has been drafted to regulate placement agencies.

Filing a status report before the bench of Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justice Manmohan, the Delhi government told the bench that 1754 placement agencies have been registered under the Delhi Shops and Establishments Act.

It further mentioned that "a bill, The Delhi Private Placement Agencies (Regulation) Bill, has been drafted after incorporating suggestions of various stakeholders The bill was also sent to West Bengal, Jharkhand, Orissa for their views as a lot of domestic workers come from these states.

The bill would be placed before the cabinet after Delhi assembly Elections," as per the report.

DMK chief M Karunanidhi today described as "cheap tactics" the reported denial of visa to a UK documentary film-maker who had released videos of alleged war-time atrocities against Tamils by the Sri Lankan Army.

India had reportedly denied visa to Callum Macrae, whose recent video claims that a woman Tamil TV presenter who had served in the LTTE was executed after being captured by the troops and not during the final battle as claimed by the government. She was found dead with her clothes stripped.

"Denial of visa for Callum Macrae is not just against freedom of expression but also cheap tactics", the DMK leader said citing a Tamil anecdote.

Arranged marriage seemed like a box of lies waiting to explode, writes Rediff.com's Divya Nair. 

Youth Congress workers today sent a package containing history textbooks to BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi as a "Diwali gift", claiming it was meant to help him "improve his knowledge" of the subject.

"At a recent rally, Modi wrongly said in his speech that Taxila was a part of Bihar, when it was in fact located in North West Pakistan," Mumbai Pradesh Youth Congress president Ganesh Kumar Yadav told reporters during a function held at Azad Maidan in south Mumbai.

Modi also referred to Chandragupta as a great king of the Gupta dynasty instead of the Maurya dynasty, he added.

PM's address at the inauguration of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Museum in Ahmedabad. Read

Delegates to the fifth Annual Heads of Mission Conference called on the President of India, Pranab Mukherjee today at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Speaking on the occasion, the President said the theme of the Conference - "India's place in the changing world order' is extremely relevant. Our foreign policy must be an extension of our national policy.

"There are certain basic fundamentals in our foreign policy that we have inherited from our core civilization values and our freedom movement. 

"They must continue to guide us in our relations with our neighbours.  The President said India has been always committed to global peace but is conscious of the fact that efforts for the same should begin from our neighbourhood. 

"We can change friends but not neighbours. Change is the only constant and India's foreign policy must adapt to changing scenarios in the world."

So, does this mean the President is against the PM attending CHOGM in Sri Lanka?

Thank you, Mr Mugabe: Zimbabwe's forced land redistribution led to huge controversy - but it has transformed the lives of thousands of small farmers.
The tobacco industry is no longer marked by the pattern of large,  white-owned farms, which have been seized and resettled. Read

Former telecom minister A Raja has urged Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar to return the Joint Parliamentary Committee report on the 2G spectrum scandal and resubmit it with his written statement.

In a three-page letter, Raja has stated that the JPC must examine matters relating to allocation and pricing of telecom licences and spectrum from 1998 to 2009. Read the letter

Coffee's a very personal thing. Some people will only drink at certain chains, others demand a bubble bath's worth of cappuccino foam, and then there are the aficionados who swear by sophisticated gadgetry like the "Aeropress" or the "drip coffee machine in the break room."

Here's a comprehensive list of 29 of the most common coffee-drinker stereotypes, ranging from people you wish would die to people who will probably face an early death thanks to their choice of sweetener. Read

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is voted best crime novel ever. Whodunit? Agatha Christie of course. Read

Tempted to play spoiler for those who haven't read what we think is Christie's best, but better sense prevails. Sigh.

After two failed attempts, the Maldives is set to hold its presidential elections on Saturday to avoid a constitutional crisis, with the three warring political parties agreeing on the final voters' list.

The agreement to sign the list was reached after a meeting between the three presidential candidates, Maldivian Democratic Party's (MDP) Mohamed Nasheed, Progressive Party of Maldives' (PPM) Abdulla Yamin and Jumhoory Party's (JP) Gasim Ibrahim.

A Delhi court today reserved its order on framing of charges in the 2008 cash-for-vote-scam case involving former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh, two BJP MPs and others. The court is likely to pronounce the order on November 16.

BSP MP Dhananjay Singh and wife Jagriti have been produced in a Delhi court in connection with the murder of their 35-year-old maid. The couple have been remanded in five days police custody by the court.

Read the full story here

From Tarla Dalal's FB page:

Dear All,

We would like to thank all of you for your support and affection through the years of Mrs. Tarla Dalal's career. She is no more with us as she expired in the early hours of this morning. We thank her for all the happiness that her talent has given to us and our families...

With all our love,

Tarla Dalal's Team

Seems, noted Tarla Dalal has indeed passed away. City newspaper Mid Day spoke to her family, who confirmed that the noted chef, food writer, passed away at 7 am after she suffered a heart attack.

The reports of her death, unfortunately, are true.

Shiv Sena leader Rahul Narvekar has denied that the editorial in Saamna was an attack on the BJP and Narendra Modi. Narvekar said that edit was targetted at the Congress and specifically Rajya Sabha MP Mani Shankar Aiyar.

In an apparent barb at Modi, the Sena said, "Special efforts are being made to bring in burqa-clad women faces to (Modi's) public rallies. Everyone is in a hurry to appease minorities. Rather than opposing the Congress, all are getting in the race of appeasing minorities," an editorial in Sena mouthpiece "Saamna" said.

Likening India's Mars probe to putting 'a golf ball from Tokyo in a hole in Paris', Chinese experts have termed Mangalyaan's launch as "a great achievement" which if successful could make India the first Asian country to achieve this fete.

Indian launch should be interpreted rationally as "a great achievement" of India that also deserves applause from the rest of the world, Ye Hailin, an expert on South Asian studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said.

"Like the Chinese, Indian people have their space dreams as well. The Mars orbiter, if successful, will increase the human race's store of knowledge and change our life," Ye told state-run China Daily.

The US has reiterated its stand on its visa policy and said that India' prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi (BJP) can reapply if he wants and wait for a review.

US State Department Deputy Spokesperson Marie Harf said that there has been no change in the visa policy and Modi is welcome to apply for the procedure and wait for any other applicant.

According to reports, the Gujarat Chief Minister, was denied a diplomatic visa in 2005 and his existing tourist and business visa was revoked under the Immigration and Nationality Act that makes a foreign government official responsible for severe violations of religious freedom ineligible for a travel document.

Harf denied having specific knowledge about whether Modi has applied to a US visa and said that visa application details are confidential. Modi is running for the crucial Lok Sabha election which is expected to be held in 2014.

The frail Napoleon Bonaparte knew he was near his end as he penned his will and asked that his ashes be scattered along the Seine among the French people he loved. This rare flash of emotion from the once-mighty leader is revealed in the only known copy of the document being auctioned in Paris on Wednesday, and gives an unusual insight into his final moments. Read

Here's what Tarla Dalal wrote for us on 1998 Diwali and 1999 Holi.

Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily has asked the Finance Ministry to cut duties on branded petrol and diesel that offer better mileage and help cut fuel consumption.

Currently, the Finance Ministry levies higher excise duty on premium or branded petrol and diesel, making them costlier than normal or unbranded auto fuel.

While a litre of regular/normal or unbranded petrol costs Rs 72.45 in Delhi, branded petrol is priced at Rs 81.88. Similarly, normal diesel in Delhi costs Rs 52.54 a litre while branded diesel is priced at Rs 67.93.

Asaram Bapu has been chargesheeted by CBI in sexual assault case, his judicial remand extended till November 16. 

Another paean to Sardar Patel: "As a young man growing up in pre-Independence India, I do have personal memories of most public persona of that time. I was born in a family that, like many others educated families, was heavily involved emotionally in India's freedom struggle, without actually participating in it." Read

Rumours that Tarla Dalal, the noted food writer, chef, best-selling cookbook author and host of cooking shows, has died is not true.

The rumors began from a single post on Twitter attributed to GujaratHeadline News, which tweeted: @GujaratHeadline: "Known cooking expert Tarla Dalal no more.She made a mark for herself and taught culinary skills to many households."

Wikipedia, normally quick to post changes, did post her death after many hours, but has since taken it off.

Dalal, 77, is doing well and we hope will be stoking appetites with her remarkably tasty recipes, for many, many years to come.

Vice President Hamid Ansari's visit to Havana provided rare insights of the Castro brothers, Fidel and Raul. Rediff.com's Nikhil Lakshman reports. Read

Police in New Zealand say they're powerless to arrest two boys who've caused outrage with online boasts about raping underage girls too drunk to fight back.

The alleged offences happened two years ago but were only made public this week after local media came across a Facebook site, which named and "slut-shamed" girls the boys had allegedly attacked. Read

In a veiled attack on ally BJP and its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, the Shiv Sena today said issues like Ram temple at Ayodhya and uniform civil code are being ignored for the sake of gaining power.

In an apparent barb at Modi, the Sena said, "Special efforts are being made to bring in burqa-clad women faces to (Modi's) public rallies. Everyone is in a hurry to appease minorities. Rather than opposing the Congress, all are getting in the race of appeasing minorities," an editorial in Sena mouthpiece "Saamana" said.

Targeting BJP's politics, the newspaper said, "people forgot the Ram temple issue in a bid to seek power."

The Sena comments have surfaced even as BJP is trying to reach out to Muslims ahead of the Assembly and General elections, in a bid to seek acceptability for Modi, who has been under fire over the 2002 riots.

The editorial also claimed that appeasement of minorities will be detrimental to country's interests in the long run. "We had seen earlier that to get power, Ram temple issue was sidelined, issues like common civil code were kept aside," the Sena said.

As Mumbai goes into a tizzy to felicitate India's batting legend Sachin Tendulkar on his retirement  at the end of  his 200th test match on November 18, the Maharashtra government has also decided to do its bit.

The  Maharashtra Cabinet will present him with a special silver trophy bearing the signatures of all the 40 ministers.

Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan told rediff.com that the decision to felicitate Sachin Tendulkar with a special trophy was approved by the state Cabinet. Chavan said the Cabinet had taken a cue from the cricketing world's tradition of presenting autographed bats to winners or retiring players. -- Anita Katyal. 

After having made a goof-up in spelling Sachin Tendulkar's name, the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) were in for another embarrasment today when they addressed the batting legend's wife as "Mr" Anjali in the welcome message on the giant electronic scoreboard.

The CAB's second goof-up came in as many days when the giant display at the High Court end kept on flashing Welcome "Mr Anjali Tendulkar and Master Arjun Tendulkar" during the lunch break on the opening day of the first cricket Test between India and West Indies.

As Anjali along with son Arjun got into the President's box around the lunch break, the giant screen flashed the wrong message and it was only after a few minutes that the mistake was realised and corrected, but by then the damage was done.

The CAB, which had already drawn flak for its over-enthusiastic preparations for Tendulkar's 199th Test, had yesterday misspelt the senior batsman's name as "Sachine" in a giant billboard.

The CAB had then put the entire blame on a private agency.

Quote of the day: MoS Home RPN Singh on Narendra Modi's security: "I want to tell the NDA that Rajiv Gandhi wasn't given the security of even a sub-inspector when they were in power. Maybe that's why he lost his life." 

In other news: A day after its successful launch, India's Mars Orbiter spacecraft was functioning smoothly in the Earth's orbit and ready for orbit raising operations tomorrow.

"Since its injection into Earth's orbit yesterday, it has been functioning smoothly on the orbit. We are planning to perform orbit raising manoeuvres in the early hours of tomorrow," an ISRO spokesman said.

Right now, the Mars Orbiter Mission is on its first round around the Earth, ISRO sources said.

Also read: All you need to know about India's Mars mission

The four professionals -- Pranav Lele (29), Chintan Buch (28), Sahil Quereshi (28) and Shrutika Chandwani (27) -- were working with a communications and marketing firm in Bhusari Colony at Kothrud.

Buch and Quereshi live with Lele in his flat at Arjun Rekha Apartments, Veerbhadranagar, Baner. While Buch hails from Vadodara in Gujarat, Quereshi is from Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh.

The four left Baner in Lele's silver-coloured i20 at 11 pm on Friday. Chandwani was to get off at her home in Kolhapur after which the other three would have headed for Goa.

The police said they planned to visit Gokarn and Mahabaleshwar after Goa.

The police said the car (MH-12/FY-4510) passed the Khed-Shivapur toll plaza around 2.30 am on Saturday. "After that the car has not been traceable. None of the four cell phones are reachable," said inspector Shrikant Navale of the Kothrud police station.

Navale said his team has checked whether the car had met with an accident.

"We checked with the Pune rural, Satara, Sangli and Kolhapur police too. No accident involving such a car has been reported since Saturday. The police also carried out a search by helicopter for two days in the Varandha ghat section near Bhor and in the ghat near Mahabaleshwar. But the aerial searches too yielded nothing," he said.

Navale said that before leaving Pune, Lele had visited his parents' home in Kothrud and told them about the trip.

"He also said that they would be dropping Chandwani at Kolhapur along the way," he said. The call records of all four showed that they had met at Baner around 10.30 pm on Friday and left Baner around 11 pm.

Chandwani's phone was traced till Kapurhol, a few kms ahead of Khed-Shivapur, around 2.45 am. After that, their cell phones could not be reached. On Saturday, when none of them could be contacted, Lele's father Ashok lodged a complaint with the Chatushrungi police station.

DNA reports that the body of one of the four employees of an advertisement and marketing firm in Pune who had embarked on a trip to Gokarn Mahabaleshwar in Karnataka on Friday night has been found in Nira river.

The identified person is Chintan Buch. Police are investigating the case and searching for the other three. The three others who went missing are Pranav Lele, Sahil Kureishi and Shrutika Chandwani.

Five days ago, a group of four young people left Pune for a vacation in Goa. The three men and a woman all worked at an advertising firm.

The police are now searching desperately for them, after their families said their cellphones are unreachable. The group was last seen on security cameras on Saturday morning as their car -a silver Hyundai i20 -passed through a toll plaza near Pune.

The woman in the group, Shrutika Chandwan, was allegedly being given a lift to her family home in Kolhapur by her colleagues who were headed to Goa. The car is yet to be tracked by the police. 

"We have formed teams to track the four,'' said SB Nawale, a police officer handling the case. -- NDTV

The village panchayat of Parra, the home to several Nigerians in Goa, has decided to launch a crackdown on house owners who have illegally rented out their places to foreigners.

The special gram sabha of Parra held last evening resolved to send notices to all house owners who have illegally rented out their premises to foreigners, asking them to vacate it.

The notice mentions that house owners who have rented out their premises to foreigners should get it vacated as they have not obtained no objection certificate from the panchayat to sublet their premises to foreign nationals.

Parra, a village next to Mapusa town and around 9 kms from Panaji, is a home to more than 150 Nigerians. The locals have been alleging that the Nigerians there have been creating nuisance.

Telecom Commission accepts TRAI suggested reserve price for spectrum auction. Telecom Commission decides to auction 800 MHz band spectrum.

Details awaited.

The sarpanch at the Rahul rally in Jammu says the central government has given rights to the state, but the state does not share the rights with them. Rahul's reply: Agar may aapki baat nahin sun-na chahta toh mai kyoon aata

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi addressing sarpanchs a rally in Jammu. He says the Kerala model of Panchayat Raj should be replicated in Jammu. Keeping it non-controversial after the debacle of his Indore speech, Rahul Gandhi says the UPA government has focused on the rights of people since 2004.

A sarpanch disrupts the rally complaining about the Omar Abdullah government.

If you're Venezuelan President Nicols Maduro, and you're sweating an upcoming vote, the solution isn't to campaign more. No, the obvious answer is to move Christmas. Read

Just in: MoS Home RPN Singh says the security provided to BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi is adequate. The BJP Parliamentary Board on Wednesday passed a resolution demanding Prime Minister-level security for Modi.

The BJP has sought an increase in Modi's security cover, underlining that the Gujarat Chief Minister's security is the responsibility of the Central government. A series of small bombs killed six people ahead of a rally led by Modi in Patna on October 27, raising his security concerns.

The Supreme Court's award of a record compensation of Rs.5.9 crore in a case of medical negligence is in continuation of its well-considered stance of balancing the rights of patients with the legitimate protection of doctors when they are on call.

The significance of such an approach cannot be overstated in the specific context of India, where the health care system -- in the public and the private sector -- functions under sub-optimal conditions; while the entire medical profession operates within the purview of the Consumer Protection Act.  Read

In its maiden gold mine venture, NMDC, India's largest iron ore miner, is setting up a pilot plant in Tanzania for processing the yellow metal at an investment of around Rs 50 crore. Read

Mumbai's developers are increasingly holding the city to ransom as its people desperately grapple with the dearth of affordable housing. Read

US President Barack Obama secretly offered Pakistan in 2009 that he would nudge India towards negotiations on Kashmir in lieu of it ending support to terrorist groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Taliban, but much to his disappointment Islamabad rejected the offer.  Read more

More than 100 Indians were among the 1,000 men caught trying to pay a computer-generated 10-year-old Filipina girl called Sweetie to perform sex acts online. Read

India's first interplanetary probe, the Mars Orbiter Mission, has left home on the first leg of a voyage of scientific discovery. Once again, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation performed its task with impeccable ease. Read

The Gujarat pogrom is the elephant in BJP's parlour. It is the unbreakable genetic connection between 2002 and the present that makes it clear that a Narendra Modi prime ministership would be disastrous for democratic and secular India. Read the column by N Ram in the Hindu.

A minor who worked for BSP MP Dhananjay Singh and his wife has reportedly given details to the police, of the savage beatings and torture that led to the death of a domestic help at their home. Read

Bahujan Samaj Party MP from Uttar Pradesh Dhananjay Singh and his wife Jagriti were on Tuesday arrested in connection with the murder of their 35-year-old maid and "mercilessly" torturing another minor domestic help with sticks and rods.

The body of the maid Rakhi, bearing burn marks and injuries on the chest, stomach, arms and legs, was recovered from Singh's residence at South Avenue in New Delhi on Monday evening after the Jaunpur MP himself informed the police.

On Monday, nine live bombs were found at a lodge in Hindpiri, Ranchi.  Security agencies are apprehensive about finding more bombs at the site.

Mujibul Ansari (22) and his friend Salim Ansari (23) told other boarders at Iram lodge at Hindpidhi that they were preparing for IPS examination. At least, this was the alibi that the duo used to stay away from other boarders, mostly Muslim students preparing for competitive examinations.

Police recovered nine powerful bombs and other materials from room No. 8 of Iram lodge in the city, which was occupied by the two students, suspected to be Indian Mujahideen (IM) operatives.
Read the full story here.

Rabindranath Tagore, the first Indian to recieve the Nobel Prize in Literature will be at the centre of celebrations of the Sweden India Nobel Memorial Week in the country.

Organised by the Swedish Embassy, the seventh edition of the week is dedicated to Rabindranath Tagore to mark the centenary of his Nobel Prize in Literature.

"Tagore was not only the first Indian to bring home the prestigious award but also the non-European to get one in Literature," according to an official statement from the Embassy.

An earthquake of moderate intensity today rocked Assam. No casualty or damage to property was reported in the quake measuring 5.5 on the Richter Scale. The tremor at 9:46 am lasted a few seconds, jolting doors and windows.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is under pressure to miss a Commonwealth meet in Colombo over Sri Lanka's alleged war crimes against Lankan Tamils, may consider including Tamil-dominated Jaffna in his itinerary as a compromise formula. Read more

The Jodhpur police has completed investigation against Asaram Bapu and his five aides and have filed a chargesheet in the sexual abuse case. The self-proclaimed godman has been charged with rape.

The police will submit the chargesheet in the sessions court today.

A 16-year-old girl on August 20 lodged a police complaint, accusing Asaram of sexually assaulting her at his ashram near Jodhpur. Asaram was arrested from his ashram in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, and brought to Jodhpur on September 1.
 

Finance Minister P Chidambaram has warned that Gujarat Chief Ministerial and Bharatiya Janata Party prime ministerial candidate Nadrendra Modi is propagating dangerous RSS ideology.

In an interview with Network18, Chidambaram claimed the BJP is making the mistake of making Narendra Modi larger than the party.

Read the full report here

PTI reports: The diamond studded crown of India's Srishti Rana, who has been crowned Miss Asia Pacific World 2013 in Busan South Korea, was seized today for not paying customs, a senior customs official said.

Twenty-one-year-old Rana was intercepted by the Customs after she landed at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai, sources said, adding that she was asked to pay the duty as the crown contained diamonds.

It was, however, not known when the crown was seized.

Ever have one of those days where you just wanna be alone, maybe have the planet to yourself? Well, based on sheer numbers, there may be a planet just for you.

 

Astronomers at the University of California-Berkeley and the University of Hawaii, using data from NASA's Kepler space telescope, estimate there are tens of billions of Earth-size, possibly habitable planets in our Milky Way galaxy. Given that there just more than 7 billion of us on this planet, that means a planet for each of us with some spares for your picky neighbors.

 

Or a vacation planet or two for you, maybe. And the closest may be circling a star you can see if you look up into the heavens tonight.

 

Read more on CNN

Previously unknown paintings by Henri Matisse, Marc Chagall and Otto Dix are among a treasure trove of art -- much of it believed to have been looted by the Nazis -- found hidden in a Munich apartment.

 

The vast collection, which experts say has "a value so high it cannot be estimated," was recovered in a raid by German tax authorities, in connection with an investigation into tax evasion, in February and March 2012.

 

At a press conference in Germany on Tuesday, experts revealed that more than 1,300 artworks -- many long feared lost or destroyed, and some which had never been recorded -- had been discovered. Among the haul were paintings by Pablo Picasso, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Oskar Kokoschka, Canaletto, Pierre-August Renoir, Franz Marc and Gustav Courbet.

 

Read more on CNN

The British prime minister's wife adopted traditional sari for Diwali and actually pulled it off, unlike some other famous adopters.

 

Read more on The Guardian

Scientists have reported the successful eradication of hepatitis C in patients using two new antiviral drugs, raising hopes of a possible cure. In the trial, the virus was eliminated from almost all the patients involved, including those who had not previously responded to existing drugs.

 

Hepatitis C is caused by a virus that spreads via bodily fluids and ends up damaging the liver. Unlike other forms of hepatitis, there is no vaccine and the only treatments include powerful combinations of drugs known as interferons and protease inhibitors.

 

But the treatments have many side-effects, are complex to administer and, in the common type of hepatitis C known as genotype 1, the drugs do not work. If an infection cannot be cured, it can lead to liver cancer. The new treatment, reported in medical journal the Lancet on Tuesday , consists of the experimental drugs sofosbuvir and ledipasvir.

 

In the trial, 100 patients with genotype 1 hepatitis C were split into groups and given the drugs in a single pill for either eight or 12 weeks. Forty of the participants had previously failed to respond to drugs and half of this group had cirrhotic livers.

 

Read more on The Guardian

Muslims are "disappointed, confused and feel insecure' in the wake of the Muzaffarnagar riots and this would cause "obvious' political damage to the Samajwadi Party, Uttar Pradesh Cabinet Minister Azam Khan admitted on Tuesday. But, he said, if they vote for other parties in next year's general election, it would be a "grave mistake.'

 

"Who will they vote? The ones who allowed Babri demolition? The party that doesn't even have candidates and workers in the State? That Congress? Or those who say that if [Narendra] Modi apologises [for the 2002 Gujarat riots] people would vote for him?' Mr. Khan asked.

 

Read the full interview on The Hindu

Iran's foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, has said that a deal to end a nuclear standoff with the international community could be reached at talks in Swiss city of Geneva later this week.

 

"I believe it is even possible to reach that agreement this week but I can only talk for our side, I cannot talk for the other side," Zarif told France 24 television ahead of talks in Paris with his French counterpart Laurent Fabius. His comments come two days after Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei voiced his support for Iran's nuclear talks, but reserved an amount of pessimism about their results.

 

"No one should see our negotiating team as compromisers," Khamenei, Iran's top decision-maker, was quoted as saying on his official website on Sunday.

 

Reac more on Al Jazeera

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has admitted smoking crack cocaine in a "drunken stupor", despite denying he had taken the drug. Mr Ford told reporters at city hall he had taken the drug about a year ago but was not an addict.

 

The mayor has rejected calls for his resignation after the revelation that a video apparently showing him smoking crack was in police possession. He has defied calls to quit, vowing to run for re-election next year.

 

"Yes, I have smoked crack cocaine," Mr Ford said outside his office on Tuesday. "There have been times when I've been in a drunken stupor. That's why I want to see the tape.

 

Read more on BBC

The UN-Arab League envoy to Syria has said that peace talks between the Syrian government and rebel groups will not go ahead as planned in November. Lakhdar Brahimi however said on Tuesday that diplomats were "still striving to see if we can have the conference before the end of the year".

 

The announcement came after he met senior diplomats in the Swiss city of Geneva in a new push to prepare the already long-delayed peace conference. President Bashar al-Assad's government signalled it was not ready to negotiate handing over power.

 

Russia on Tuesday meanwhile insisted that Iran must be invited to the peace negotiations. Brahimi said the discussions on that issue had not been completed. "All those who affect the situation must be invited to the conference," Sergey Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, said.

 

Read more on Al Jazeera

ISRO's Mars Mission blasts off: Launch termed successful

PHOTOS: How the historic Mars mission launch unfolded

Mars mission is historic achievement: PM

Amidst euphoria, some voices question cost of Mars mission

Digvijaya's son, Arjun Singh's son-in-law to contest in MP polls

BSP MP, wife arrested in a case of murder of a maid

Gandhi's charkha sold for 110,000 pounds at UK auction

BJP MP questioned by CBI in connection with RTI activist murder

Better to remain out of power than compromising on ideals: Omar

18 dead as violence spikes in Karachi ahead of Muharram

Centre peeved at Bihar Police's handling of Modi security

Bangladesh sends 152 soldiers to gallows for 2009 mutiny

Courts should give special reasons for awarding death penalty: SC

Meghalaya: Five cops killed in ambush by ultras

ISI's latest gift: Recycling Khalistani terror in India!

Obama administration bids sentimental adieu to Nirupama Rao

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