Pakistan's Taliban have named Mullah Fazlullah as their new leader, after the death of Hakimullah Mehsud in a drone attack. Mullah Fazlullah is a particularly hardline commander whose men shot the schoolgirl activist Malala Yousafzai. Mehsud was killed when missiles struck his vehicle in the North Waziristan region on 1 November.

 

The government had been trying to set up peace talks, but the new leader has already rejected the initiative. The BBC's Richard Galpin in Islamabad says the Taliban have indicated that Mullah Fazlullah wants revenge for the killing of Mehsud. A Taliban spokesman told the BBC the militants would target the military and the governing party.

 

Read more on BBC

The AICC has said that no Congress spokesperson should participate in any TV debates based on opinion polls. 

Congress leader Rashid Alvi on Sunday said that his party has supported the decision of the Election Commission to restrict opinion polls, and added that opinion polls create delusions and mislead people.

Restriction of opinion poll is a decision of the Election Commission, and we have only supported it. Opinion polls show varied results and it creates delusion and misleads people. All the parties should come together and look into this matter, he said.

The Congress party has written to the Election Commission to restrict opinion polls ahead of the elections.

The police today contended before the Delhi High Court that the accused in December 16 gang-rape case had hatched a conspiracy to commit rape and kill the victim.

The court is hearing the final arguments on a day-to-day basis on the trial court's reference to it for confirmation of death sentence awarded to four convicts in the case.

Appearing for the police, Special Public Prosecutor, Dayan Krishnan told the bench of justices Reva Khetrapal and Pratibha Rani that "the series of malicious acts of the accused persons amount to conspiracy".

Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi today warned his party's ministers in Jammu and Kashmir that they could be denied tickets in the next elections if they did not reach out to the people and address their grievances.

"Our ministers are sitting here. They are doing a good job, but there are complaints against them. I want to tell them that you are ministers and MLAs, but this is your party and you have to listen to them (people).

"And if you do not listen to them, then it is your decision, and remember this that when tickets will be distributed (in next elections) you will be at loss. And if you go to people, listen to them and do their work, you will benefit," Rahul told workers at the party headquarters in Srinagar.

He said the workers are the party's "back bone" and respecting them amounted to respecting people of the state. "They (workers) are our back bone. They fight our battle and whoever the leader -- be that Ambika Soni or Saifuddin Soz -- one has to respect them, because if we do not respect them, we cannot respect the people of Jammu and Kashmir," he said.

There's been a firing on a CRPF patrol in Awantipora on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway, say police. Two jawans are believed to be critically injured in the firing by militants. Details awaited.

Congress today brushed aside Union Minister Jairam Ramesh's suggestion that Rahul Gandhi was focused more on party's long term future, terming it as his "personal" opinion and said the party as well Gandhi take every election seriously.

"That opinion of Jairam Ramesh is his personal respectable opinion. As far as Rahul Gandhi and Congress are concerned, we take every election seriously -- be it big or small," Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari said. BJP has latched on to Ramesh's comments as an admission of defeat.

It was the embrace that melted hearts worldwide.Pope Francis, pausing for a moment to pray and lay his hands on a man with a skin disease. The man gently burying his head in the pope's chest, his many facial tumors visible. Read

The temple of Angkor Wat, the Egyptian pyramids, Stonehenge, and the famous statues on Easter Island were all built without the conveniences of modern technology. Ancient peoples didn't have access to forklifts, hydraulic cranes, or flatbed trucks. So how did they build the temples and statues that we admire today? Read and watch an Easter Island statue walk.

St. John's College from the University of Cambridge, announces this year's prestigious Dr Manmohan Singh Scholarships. The programme was first launched at the Prime Minister's residence in Delhi in 2007.

The scholarship programme has been set up exclusively for Indian students who are currently based in India for PhD and MPhil degrees at St John's College in areas such as science and technology, economics and social sciences. The closing date for the Dr Manmohan Singh Scholarships is 15 January 2014. For more details click here

Goa Art and Culture Minister Dayanand Mandrekar has apologised for his remarks comparing Nigerians to cancer. He said he regretted the statement.

"I apologise 100 times and regret my mistake. I said what I felt, I did not mean to label the entire Nigerian community," he said.

On Sunday, Mandrekar said that Nigerians were like cancer. "We are worried what would be the image of Goa for the outside world when the images of Nigerians creating ruckus on the road are shown through television to the world."

Nearly 200 Nigerians had blocked the national highway last week to protest against the drug-related murder of a fellow national.

Many Nigerians had been arrested following the incident.

The minister said that such incidents are bound to have a bad repercussion on the tourism industry of the state.

Timely police action could have saved the highway from being blocked by the Nigerians, Mandrekar said.

"People have seen on the television how Nigerians forcibly dragged out the corpse from the police van while the policemen remained silent spectators," he said.

The minister also claimed that the drug menace in the state has crossed beyond the coastal belt and percolated to the villages.

Discovery of Lythronax argestes pushes back story of the dinosaur group that led to Tyrannosaurus Rex by 10m years. Read

VK Singh's age controversy scripted by PMO? Read

Months ahead of the national election due by May, the Congress government has raised eyebrows by allotting BSP leader Mayawati three sprawling bungalows in the heart of Delhi, and allowing her to merge them into one large 'super-bungalow'.  Read

Narendra Modi today unpacked a litany of accusations against his political rival, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who he described as arrogant.

At an election rally in Chhattisgarh, which votes for its next government this month, Modi configured an image of Kumar as an uncaring chief minister after last month's serial blasts in Patna which preceded a massive rally held by the BJP leader.

Modi, who is the BJP's candidate for Prime Minister, was not harmed in those explosions. Six people were killed and 83 injured; the BJP has attributed the terror attack to the "gross criminal negligence" of Kumar and his government. -- NDTV.

The Congress leader in Madhya Pradesh who allegedly tried to commit suicide today after being denied a ticket to contest the state polls on November 25, has died. Narsingh Malviya, a leader from Agar, consumed poison.

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, who is also a friend of Sachin Tendulkar, today congratulated the retiring batting legend on a glorious career, saying he is not only a great cricketer but a good human being also.

"I know him (Sachin) quite well. He is a great cricketer but the main thing I like about him is that he is a great person and a good human being. I think that is much more valuable about him than his cricket," Rahul said in Srinagar.

"The question I always get is, "Have you seen him?" They'll ask, then wait for me to recount a host of sightings in juicy detail. They never quite believe my answer: Once."

Dilip D'Souza on sighting Sachin Tendulkar. Read 

Tamil Nadu Congress leaders who interact with A Raja and other former DMK Union Ministers says that the former telecom minister is extremely bitter about his imprisonment and those days in jail still haunt him. Their political interpretation is that the DMK will ditch the Congress in the Lok Sabha polls in Tamil Nadu. 

Congress Ministers are concerned that if Narendra Modi indeed becomes the prime minister, he will certainly use the CBI against the Congress. There are six cases ripe for picking involving Dr Manmohan Singh and four Union Ministers.

If Congress achieves a strength of 85 to 90, Narendra Modi will ensure a split in the Congress by July 2014, say sources.

Modi's main focus will be to prune the SPG cover from people it currently protects. The Modi camp openly acknowledges that two or three Union Ministers are quietly in touch with senior BJP leaders to avoid such a situation from emerging.

Rahul Gandhi says he's a friend and supporter of Omar Abdullah, the J-K chief minister and the Congress alliance with Omar's National Conference will continue for the 2014 polls. The Congress vice-president is in Jammu today.

The Election Commission has issued gag orders to its employees not to interact with the media during the poll season. Much before the notice was despatched to Rahul Gandhi, some TV journalists knew the contents of the notice and used it. An internal inquiry was ordered, but junior-level officers hint at serious differences between the three Election Commissioners.

Two are outspoken and one is tight-lipped and junior staff believe they have been slapped with unnecessary restrictions. Grade II and III employees blame 'leakages" on the constitutional authorities. 

When Bollywood actor Nandita Das was growing up, her relatives would warn her not to play out in the sun. As a teenager if she went to buy cosmetics, the sales assistants would advise her to try skin lightening creams.

On some of her first movies, directors and producers told her to go a shade or two fairer. The actress, who is something of a  non-conformist, refused every attempt to make her whiter. Read

Kiran Reddy, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, is set to create a huge embarrassment for the Congress leadership. The options before him are as follows: 1. He may step down to prevent the Telangana resolution being passed in the Andhra assembly,
2. He may launch a political party which may go by the name Andhra Congress or,
3. He may begin a padyatra in Seemandhra and choose not to convene the Andhra Assembly to defy the AICC.

Superstar Shah Rukh Khan, who is an ardent fan of master blaster Sachin Tendulkar, plans to watch the cricketing legend's second last test innings at Kolkata.

Since Shah Rukh is banned from entering Wankhede stadium in Mumbai (following an alleged scuffle with the ground staff there), he will try and catch Sachin's match at Eden Garden in Kolkata.

"I will go on November 10. I am going to Kolkata for a film festival and I will try and attend the test match there. I will see if I can reach, land up there and wish him," Shah Rukh said.

"There are some places (Wankhede stadium) where they don't allow even Shah Rukh Khan to go. You wait three hours for me out of love, there are people who don't want me," he added.

There have been clashes in Goa between the small community of Nigerians and the local Indian population since a Nigerian was stabbed to death in the western Indian state on Oct. 30.

After protests by Nigerians last week, local media reported a drive by the government in Goa to identify and deport Nigerians allegedly in the country without valid visas as well as a move by landlords to evict Nigerian tenants. Read

The bodies of the three ad professionals have been fished out of the Nira River. The body of 28-year-old Chintan Buch was recovered from the same river yesterday. This morning that car in which they were travelling was found on the river bed. The bodies are expected to be sent for an autopsy. 

Michael Schumacher enjoyed a long and illustrious career, much like Sachin Tendulkar. As Tendulkar plays in his swansong series, the Formula 1 legend says retirement is something the cricketing icon can look forward to. Read the report on NDTV.

LK Advani blogs today on the Nehru-Patel controversy:

"My last blog, based on a book in Malayalam, written by a 1947 IAS official, late Shri MKK Nair, has precipitated quite a controversy.

"There have been comments from the Congress Camp that Nair's report about a clash between Nehru and Patel on the issue of armed action against the Nizam is all bunkum.

"Going through Rediff on The Net, I have come across a very interesting interview Sam Manekshaw, the first Field Marshal in the Indian Army had with Prem Shankar Jha. Manekshaw, in those early years of independence, was a colonel who was chosen to accompany V.P. Menon to Kashmir when V.P. was proceeding to that state to secure J & K's Accession to India. Col. Manekshaw's version as recorded by Prem Shankar Jha runs as follows. Read what Manekshaw said to Nehru.

Read the full blog

Sonia Gandhi is addressing a rally in Kondagaon in Chhattisgarh. Ahead of the rally, security forces today averted a possible landmine explosion on a vital road in poll-bound Chhattisgarh as they diffused two IEDs weighing 50 kg in the Dantewada area of the state.

A joint squad of CRPF and state police detected two big Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) of 25 kg each kept in steel cases on the road between Dornapal and Jagargunda near Chintalnar in Sukma district.

The Congress today raised doubts over LK Advani's claim based on a book that then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had called his Home Minister Sardar Patel a "total communalist" when the latter suggested that army be sent to take over a defiant Hyderabad after Independence.

Advani had referred to extracts of a book - "The Story of an Era Told without Ill Will" by M K K Nair, an IAS officer of 1947 batch who served in the Union of India and was believed to be close to Sardar Patel.

The book refers to "sharp exchanges" between Nehru and Patel in a Cabinet meeting before "police action" against Hyderabad.

The car that four young advertising professionals from Pune were travelling in when they disappeared has been found at the bottom of a river just outside Pune.

The silver Hyundai was found by divers from the National Disaster Rescue Force this morning in the Neera river, 40 kms from Pune on the highway to Bangalore.

Yesterday, the body of one of the four missing advertising professionals, was fished out from the same river. Police officials said that the body of 28-year-old Chintan Buch was recovered from Neera river near Sarola village.

Police though are still groping in the dark about the whereabouts of the remaining three persons -- Pranav Lele (29), Sahil Quereshi (28) and Shrutika Chandwani (27).

Here's what happened

Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar has blamed the Indian foreign ministry for the snowballing diplomatic row with Nigeria after the murder of a Nigerian last week.

"The row between India and Nigeria was created by the mistakes of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA)," Parrikar told NDTV. "Why didn't the Nigerian attache come to Goa through the MEA?" Read more

The judicial custody of BJP MLA Suresh Rana, arrested for allegedly inciting communal violence in Muzaffarnagar by making provocative speeches, has been extended till November 20.

A Congress leader in Madhya Pradesh allegedly tried to commit suicide today after being denied a ticket to contest the state polls on November 25, reports NDTV.

Narsingh Malviya, a leader from Agar, allegedly took poison and is in a critical state. He has been taken to a hospital in Ujjain for treatment.

Mr Malviya, a district Panchayat member, has reportedly been with the Congress for two decades.

He has never contested the state elections before but was hoping to make a debut with this one.

Party leaders say Malviya was hoping to get a ticket to contest the polls from Agar, but the party fielded another candidate, Madhu Gehlot, instead.

Madhya Pradesh is among the five state going to polls in November-December, in what is being seen as a semi-final ahead of national elections due by May. The counting of votes will be held on December 8.

These Are Some of the Most Amazing Views of Earth You'll Ever See! Here's the slideshow.

Narendra Modi will be history if he loses the 2014 elections, but Rahul Gandhi will still be around if Congress is defeated, Union minister Jairam Ramesh has said.

"If Modi loses 2014, his bubble is burst." While the allusion was possibly to the age of the contenders for prime ministership, the formulation was immediately seized upon by BJP as an acknowledgement of the fact that Congress would lose the elections. Read more

Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre, two of the most important minds of the 20th century, were closely entwined throughout their careers. On the centenary of Camus' birth, SPIEGEL looks back at their famous friendship and the ideological feud that ultimately unraveled it. Read

United Breweries in partnership with the Alapatt Group launched Heineken beer in Kerala in July 2013. In an email interview with The Kochi Post, Joe Alapatt, Managing partner at Alapatt Group, says what it takes to introduce an international beer brand in Kerala. Read

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) today performed the first orbit raising manoeuvre of the Mars Orbiter spacecraft, which was launched on Tuesday.

"We started it by 1.17 am and have successfully completed the first orbit raising manoeuvre of Mars Orbiter Spacecraft. Right now, the computation is going on," an ISRO spokesman said.

The space agency had performed a rehearsal for the first orbit raising manoeuvre at 5.02 am yesterday, ISRO sources said.

A series of five orbit raising operations have been scheduled on the Mars mission starting today.

Saudi Arabia has invested in Pakistani nuclear weapons projects, and believes it could obtain atomic bombs at will. Read the report on the BBC. 

Mumbai's roads are among the most unsafe among 50 cities having a population of more than 10 lakh in the country. A 2012 report of the ministry of road transport and highways says the city witnessed the highest number of road accidents at 24,592 last year. Of them, 471 were fatal ones leaving 488 people dead and 4,543 others injured. Read

Britain's presence at the Commonwealth summit will achieve more than an empty chair would, says the country's foreign secretary. Read

Pakistan's daily disasters and constant crises mean that long-term issues, education prominent among them, get little attention from our harried leadership. When education is addressed, the focus is almost entirely on increasing access, enrollment and literacy, and if we're lucky, on girls' schooling. Read the column here.

Graceful and reticent, Anjali Tendulkar spent a typically quiet six hours at the Eden today. She'd come for the last IPL final, in May, but it was an absolute first for her in a match featuring India in the city. Son Arjun, of course, had a blast sitting in the lower tier of the Club House, along with some UK-based friends of his father and one of his own, from Mumbai. Read

Now, builders will be required to reserve 20 per cent land for affordable housing only in projects on over 4,000-sq m plots. Nearly two years after Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan unveiled a new plan to boost affordable housing stock in the state, his government has watered down its main provisions. Read

Details of that IEDs found in Chhattisgarh: Security forces today averted a possible landmine explosion on a vital road in poll-bound Chhattisgarh as they diffused two IEDs weighing 50 kg in the Dantewada area of the state.

A joint squad of CRPF and state police detected two big Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) of 25 kg each kept in steel cases on the road between Dornapal and Jagargunda near Chintalnar in Sukma district.

The forces were conducting an area domination exercise. The IEDs, concealed beneath, were diffused, a senior official said.

This is the same spot where Naxalites in 2010 had carried out the deadliest attack on security forces deployed for anti-Naxal operations as they killed 76 of them in a single ambush.

While India awoke to the sheer extent of mobile phone penetration a decade ago, web penetration's now making news, fuelled largely by easy internet access on smartphones. Reports say that Mumbai has India's most number of internet users. Read

In yet another relief to BSP boss Mayawati, the income tax department has released Rs 400 crore in fixed deposits belonging to her brother Anand Kumar and his group of companies, holding the money to be legit. Read

NDTV reports: Goa continues to remain tense after the murder of a Nigerian last week.

Incendiary posters with legends such as "We want peace in Goa. Say no to Nigerian. Say no to drugs" have been put up but Michael Lobo, an MLA from the ruling party, denies that these have racist overtones.

In controversial remarks, the lawmaker said, "98 per cent Nigerians, African nationals in Goa are involved in drugs... they come to Goa on false pretext of tourism, studies."Z

His party colleague and a minister in the state government, Dayanand Mandrekar, in fact, said that "Nigerians are like a 'cancer'.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has issued an alert of a possible Naxal attack between November 8 and 10 in Chhattisgarh. Maoist chief Ganpathy has also been spotted in Abujhmad.

CNN-IBN reports: Ahead of Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Narendra Modi's visits to Chhattisgarh, IEDs have been found on the highway between Dronapal and Sukma. The bomb disposal squad has destroyed the IEDs. No one has been injured in the incident.

The MHA has issued an high alert of Naxal attack between for November 8 and 10.   

 Bitti Mohanty, a rape case convict charged with jumping parole in Rajasthan and arrested in Kannur district of Kerala on charges of impersonation, forgery and cheating, was granted bail by a local court yesterday.

While granting bail, Judicial Magistrate AK Vidhyadharan directed Bitti to execute a bond of Rs 1 lakh with two sureties of like amount. The court directed that one of the sureties should be a close relative of Bitti and the other should have landed property in the state.

The accused was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment for raping a German tourist at Alwar in Rajasthan and was absconding after he jumped parole on November 20, 2006.

NDTV reports: After the Patna blasts, the Uttar Pradesh government has given a conditional clearance to Narendra Modi's rally scheduled to be held tomorrow. The government has admitted that security arrangements are far from satisfactory.

The state administration, not taking chances after multiple blasts targeted Modi's rally in Patna on October 27, has launched elaborate security measures for the his rally in Bahraich town.

"The Gujarat police had written to UP that the helipad should be ready 48 hrs before Modi arrives, but it is not ready. A seven-foot barricade around the stage to restrict access has not come up yet. General arrangement is also very poor," Kinjal Singh, District Magistrate of Bahraich told NDTV.

Read the full report here

Twitter shares have been priced at $26 ahead of its debut on the New York Stock Exchange today. That makes it the biggest market debut for a technology firm since Facebook went public in May 2012, reports BBC.

Read the full report here

The Congress core group is likely to take a decision Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Sri Lanka visit for the Commonwealth Heads of State Meeting Read

Sources have now told CNN-IBN that the external affairs ministry has proposed a compromise plan where the PM makes a short stop at Jaffna before he heads to Colombo.

Read the full report here

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) killed the two French journalists who were abducted in Kidal in north Mali, a website used by the group has said. An AQIM statement said the killings on Saturday were in response to France's "new crusade", Sahara Media reports.

 

French troops drove Islamist groups out of northern Mali's main towns after launching an offensive in January. France described the killing of Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon as a "calculated assassination". AQIM said their killing was intended to avenge "crimes" committed by French and African troops against the people of northern Mali, Sahara Media, a news agency based in Mauritania, reported on its Arab-language website.

 

"The organisation considers that this is the least price that President Francois Hollande and his people will pay for their new crusade," AQIM's statement said.

 

Read more on BBC

Google has dedicated their today's doodle to Nobel laureate Sir C V Raman on his 125th birth anniversary today. Check the fascinating doodle here

Twitter will set the final price for its initial public offering later on Wednesday, a move that will clear the way for the stock to start trading Thursday.

 

Twitter has already set a non-binding range for the IPO, but Wednesday's announcement will reveal exactly where the company will price its shares. Earlier this week Twitter raised the price range to $23-$25 a share, from an initial $17-$20 range.

 

If Twitter (TWTR) prices at $25 a share, the company would be worth $13.6 billion. But if you're looking to buy some of the 70 million shares that Twitter is selling in the offering, don't get too excited about the IPO price.

 

Read more on CNN Money

Drug money allows Mexican cartels to buy whatever they want -- people, governments, police or impunity, says cartel expert Anabel Hernandez. But who can halt the catastrophe?

 

Read the full story on CNN

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the computer scientist who created the world wide web, has called for a "full and frank public debate" over internet surveillance by the National Security Agency and its British counterpart, GCHQ, warning that the system of checks and balances over these two powerful bodies has failed.

 

As the inventor of the global system of inter-connectivity known as the web, with its now ubiquitous www and http, Berners-Lee is uniquely qualified to comment on the internet spying that has been revealed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

 

In an interview with the Guardian, he expressed particular outrage that GCHQ and NSA had weakened the security of the internet by cracking much of the online encryption on which hundreds of millions of users rely to protect the privacy of their data.

 

He said the agencies' decision to break the encryption software was "appalling" and "foolish", as it directly contradicted the efforts of both the US and UK governments to fight cybercrime and cyberwarfare, which they have identified as a top national security priority. Berners-Lee also decried the move as a betrayal of the technology industry.

 

Read the full report on The Guardian

The threat of another asteroid strike like the one that hit Russia earlier this year is much higher than was previously thought, a study suggests.

 

Researchers have found that space rocks of a similar size to the one that exploded over Chelyabinsk are hurtling into the Earth's atmosphere with surprising frequency. Scientists say early warning systems need to be put in place.

 

Read more on BBC

Unnaturally high levels of polonium found in Arafat's bones

Mirwaiz hails Vajpayee's stand on Kashmir

Musharraf freed after six months of house arrest

PIX: Prince Charles, wife attend 'Ganga arti' in Rishikesh

Vijender Gupta to take on Sheila Dikshit in Delhi poll

Will judges' retirement affect the Supreme Court?

Assam-Meghalaya police mull over joint operation against ultras

Asaram booked for rape in sexual assault case

Antony slaps DRDO on the wrist for unfinished projects

India takes 'diplomatic' route to allay Nigeria

NIA to question Italian witnesses through video conferencing

Repeatedly touched by MP, says Shewta in statement to police

BSP MP, wife sent to police custody in maid murder case

India's first celebrity chef Tarla Dalal passes away

1 killed in blasts at Communist Party's office in China

Key witness in Mumbai attacks cross-examined in Pak court

Pune: Body of one of 4 missing ad professionals found

'Modi's security adequate, Rajiv didn't have even a sub-inspector'

Raja rejects JPC report, wants Speaker to add his dissent note

Mandir forgotten, BJP appeasing minorities: Sena

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