Congress MP Priya Dutt today questioned the "silence" of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi over the snooping row involving a young woman.         In Vadodara to attend social media training camp of Congress, Dutt said, "Modi's silence over the alleged illegal surveillance of a woman by state agencies is difficult to understand. Why does he not break his silence on this issue despite the demands by various women's organisations?"        

A sitting judge of the Supreme Court should probe the mater, Dutt said, adding that Gujarat government should initiate a probe on its own.        

Dutt also condemned the alleged sexual assault by Tehelka editor Tarun Tejpal on a female colleague, and welcomed the Goa police's probe.       

China today established an air defence zone over disputed islands administered by Japan, a move that can exasperate tensions between the two countries.         Defence Ministry announced the establishment of East China Sea Air Defence Identification Zone which comes into operation from today. It warned that the aircraft flying over the area should seek permission failing which they are liable for action, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.        

The zone includes the airspace within the area enclosed by China's outer limit of the territorial sea, it said specifying boundaries in the East China Sea, where the uninhabited disputed islands called Diaoyu by China and Senkakus by Japan were located.        

If enforced strictly the new Chinese law could spark off major military tensions with Japan, which has been administering the group if islets believed to be rich with minerals and hydro carbons.        

China stepped up its protests over Japanese control from September last year after Tokyo bought the islets from a private Japanese party, which Beijing said amounted to nationalisation of the islands and pressed its fleet of war ships to patrol aggressively with that of Japanese patrols.

An impleading petition has been filed in the Madras High Court stating that the 'Amma' mineral water and canteen programmes were state government schemes and they did not mean to refer to Chief Minister Jayalalithaa.        

The word 'Amma' in Tamil means mother or god or a reverential reference to women or even children, and it should not be construed that government schemes were being named after Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, the petitioner Varaki said, praying to implead himself in a PIL filed by social activist 'Traffic' Ramaswamy.        

Noting the Chief Minister took oath as Jayalalithaa and not as 'Amma', he said it is false and mischievous to say that public funds were being used to promote the personal image of the Chief Minister. They are welfare schemes meant to benefit the downtrodden, he said, adding, the Centre had 461 schemes named after former Prime Ministers Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi.        

Ramaswamy had filed the PIL last month seeking a direction to prevent pictures of Jayalalithaa and AIADMK's party symbol being carried on bunks erected on pavements, in bus stands and on buses.        

A man was today killed and two others were injured when a fire broke out in a residential apartment in Pune, police said. While the deceased, a student, reportedly living as a paying guest, died of asphyxiation, two other residents, including a girl, who suffered serious burn injuries, were being treated at government-run Sassoon Hospital, they added.        

Over a dozen vehicles, mainly two wheelers in the parking area of the "Anupam" apartment in Navi Peth locality, were also burnt in the blaze, the cause of which was not yet known, fire brigade sources said.        

Most of the residents were asleep when the fire, which started in the parking, spread in the apartment, they said, adding the cause was being ascertained.

Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, in a rare overseas trip, are scheduled to begin a tour of the Indian cities of New Delhi and Chennai on November 30. The imperial couple's weeklong visit is likely to mark a defining moment in Indo-Japanese relations, fostering closer economic and security ties between Asia's two leading democracies as they seek a pluralistic, stable Asian order.

Traditionally, a visit from the Japanese emperor '" except for a coronation or royal anniversary celebration '" signified a turning point in a bilateral relationship. While the emperor is merely the "symbol of the state' under Japan's US-imposed postwar constitution, he retains significant influence, owing to Japanese veneration of the imperial dynasty '" the world's oldest continuous hereditary monarchy, the origins of which can be traced to 660 BC. Indeed, the emperor's overseas visits remain deeply political, setting the tone '" if not the agenda '" for Japan's foreign policy.

Read Brahma Chellany's take on The Project Syndicate

A six year-old girl was allegedly raped by a youth in Naduahaldipur village under Ubhaon police station area in Ballia, police said on Saturday.   The incident took place on Friday when accused Avdesh, a labourer, lured the victim to an old building and allegedly raped her there, they said.        

A villager, who heard the cries of the girl, handed over the accused to the police, they said.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Saturday that our law and order agencies must ensure that trivial or local issues are not exploited by vested interests to inflame communal passions.  

He said, "There is likelihood of disturbance by terror groups during upcoming Lok Sabha and assembly polls'.   On Muzaffarnagar riots, the PM said, "We cannot afford such a state of affairs'.