Iranian and UN officials held a "constructive" meeting on resuming a probe of allegations that Tehran has worked on atomic arms, officials said today, in talks seen as a test of pledges by Iran's new president to reduce nuclear tensions. 

Ahead of his meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Pakistan Premier Nawaz Sharif today said he was looking forward to it to make a "new beginning" and re-engage with India in a "substantive and purposeful dialogue."

"I am looking forward to meeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to make a new beginning," says Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. 

A day after twin attacks resulting in killing of 10 people including an army officer, Pakistani Army today resorted to unprovoked firing on Indian forward posts along the LoC in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir, drawing effective retaliation. 

Eight former Army Chiefs today rejected Gen(retd) V K Singh's statement that Army has been paying money to certain ministers in Jammu and Kashmir since independence to bring in stability there. 

Kenyan authorities are holding eight people in connection with an attack by Islamist militants on a Nairobi shopping mall and have released three others after the assault that killed 67 civilians and soldiers, the interior minister said on Friday.

Eight former army chiefs reject Gen (retd) V K Singh's statement that the army pays money to ministers in Jammu and Kashmir. No funds ever been provided by the army to any politician or political party in their tenures, the former army chiefs said. The army is completely apolitical, they added.

It seems possible to provide right to reject option in forthcoming assembly polls subject to feasibility, said the EC.

Breaking news on CNN: The Nairobi mall attack was planned for more than a year by conspirators who rented store in Westgate Mall, Kenyan official says.

What is pertinent is that the PM in his statement confirms that Rahul Gandhi wrote to him before his media meet this afternoon. 

PM's statement hardly surprising. He has on earlier occasion said he would respond on the issue at hand after returning to India.

In 2010, speaking on the IPL controversy involving then Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that he had to ascertain all the facts after he returned to India before taking any action in the matter. Dr Singh was speaking to journalists at the end of the Nuclear Security Summit hosted by President Barack Obama in Washington.  Read the report on rediff.com

Here it is: The PM's first reactions to Rahul Gandhi's attack on the ordinance: "The Ordinance cleared by the Cabinet pertaining to the Representation of the People Act has been a matter of much public debate.

"The Congress Vice-President has also written to me on the issue and also made a statement.

"The Government is seized of all these developments. The issues raised will be considered on my return to India after due deliberations in the Cabinet."

Alright, here we go. The PM will make a statement on Rahul Gandhi's comments on the ordinance shortly: PMO sources tell PTI.

However, ever since Rahul Gandhi barged into Ajay Maken's media meet and announced he wanted to tear up the ordinance and throw it away, the PMO has maintained that the PM would respond to Rahul's statement after he returns from the UNGA. 

Rahul Gandhi and Manmohan Singh rule on Twitter.

Malini Parthasarathy tweets: While it's odd for Rahul G to steal the PM's moral thunder,why did PM go along with the ordinance to shield politicians, in the first place? With his emphasis on morality and clean politics should never have agreed to this ordinance to protect convicted politicians.

Barkha Dutt: A Top UPA Minister tells me that the PM should go public with the fact that he was implementing a "party decision". A senior minister says the party can "pretend" its the PMs own decision, but the ordinance was a political mandate ordered on Sep 21st.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was apparently taken by surprise by Rahul Gandhi's attack on the ordinance on lawmakers but "will deal with the matter" only on his return to India next week.

The Congress Vice President's blunt denunciation of the controversial ordinance that seeks to negate the Supreme Court verdict immediately disqualifying convicted MPs and MLAs as "complete nonsense" happened in New Delhi while the prime minister was sleeping in his suite in the Four Seasons Hotel in Washington DC.

Singh's aides were woken up by the media seeking reaction to Rahul's attack including the comment that the government decision on the ordinance, which is now before President Pranab Mukherjee, was "wrong".

No immediate reaction was forthcoming but PMO sources said that Singh would "deal with the matter" only on his return to New Delhi on Oct 1.

The PM's aides, who were preparing for Singh's meeting with President Barack Obama later in the day, went into a huddle but refrained from making any public comments.

With Rahul Gandhi slamming the ordinance against disqualification of convicted lawmakers, the government is expected to take back the controversial measure, Congress indicated today.

"Rahul ji's opinion is the opinion and the line of Congress... Now Congress party is opposed to this Ordinance.

The views of Congress party should always be supreme," party general secretary and communication department in-charge Ajay Maken said when asked about the fate of the ordinance in the wake of Rahul's views and whether it is likely to be withdrawn.

Hugely busy day for the Congress and the first family of the party. Our sources in Delhi tell us that it was at the suggestion of President Pranab Mukherjee that the Rahul Gandhi made the statement that will come as a huge embarrassment for the  prime minister.

If you're blissfully unaware of what we are talking about, the Congress vice-president stormed into Congress general secretary Ajay Maken's media meet and said that the ordinance saving tainted netas was 'complete nonsense, it should be torn up and  thrown away. It is my personal opinion'.

Earlier in the day, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul and Priyanka are believed to have a meeting on the withdrawal of the Ordinance, as well.

The President is believed to have saved a major constitutional crisis and has given the UPA a much-needed boost by urging Rahul Gandhi to come clean on the ordinance.

The President had felt that the apex court might strike it down and believed he had limited resources to stop the ordinance from being passed. A Union Minister is believed to have said that 'Pranabda saved the UPA Government', soon after Rahul Gandhi's quickie press conference.

Be that as it may, Sonia Gandhi was party to the decision of issuance of the Ordinance on disqualifying convicted elected representatives. It was she who agreed to sidestep the SC order during the  all party meeting and also in the Congress Core Committee meeting.

Rahul's dramatic and open denunciation of the ordinance comes a day after President Pranab Mukherjee called three ministers - Home, Law and Parliamentary Affairs - and raised questions over the need for an ordinance on an issue on which there was no political consensus.

TMC MP Derek O'Brien tweets: While PM is in Washington DC,the Congress party too are in DC: Damage Control

Earlier, Shashi Tharoor, the Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram, tweeted: For those who asked abt my silence on the Ordinance, I replied that I had learned the hard way that speaking out of turn was not OK4Minister.

But now that my party VP has broken ranks, I'm delighted. I'd declined numerous invitations to defend the Ordinance. Let me say: RG is right.

Former media advisor to the PM, Sanjaya Baru, tells CNN IBN that the Rahul Gandhi's comment that the tainted ordinance is nonsense is the height of insubordination. Baru says Rahul is trying to become a hero at the expense of the PM. Rahul can't be a rebel and a potential PM at the same time. The PM should resign immediately. The party has always treated him as a fall guy.

The BJP has also said that the PM must resign.

The Parsi community, or Zoroastrians as they are known outside India, has been dwindling to such an extent that the government said it will spend $1.6 million over the next four years in an attempt to reverse the decline.

Minority Affairs Minister K Rahman Khan said the government will offer free or highly subsidized fertility treatment for Parsi couples who want to have a child. Young Parsis will also be offered counseling sessions to encourage them to marry early. Read

After a brutal gang-rape-murder that inspired not only protests and outrage but also a suicide, new legislation and a heightened awareness of the very nature of womanhood in India, all eyes ought to have been trained on the judge on the day the verdict was to be pronounced.

Instead, most of the drama was happening outside the courtroom.

Read more

If you pressed Control-Alt-Delete to log on before reading this, Bill Gates says he's sorry. The Microsoft founder says the triple-key login should have been made easier, la Apple's Macs, but that a designer insisted on the more complicated step. Read

Forget about the Opposition and the anti-corruption brigade protesting against the ordinance protecting tainted politicians. The Congress party itself is deeply divided on the issue. Sheela Bhatt reports. Read

The Joint Parliamentary Committee has adopted the controversial report on the 2G spectrum allocation case which gives a clean chit to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P Chidambaram. Fifteen votes in favour of the JPC report, 11 against.

Lot of action on Twitter today... Lalit Kumar Modi tweets: Grateful to Supreme Court for stopping the Mafia War lord Srini in his track. The games have begun.

N Srinivasan was today restrained from assuming charge of BCCI President, if elected to the post, by the Supreme Court which allowed the Board to hold its proposed Annual General Meeting scheduled for Sunday.

Sir Sri Jhunjhunwala: Rahul Gandhi's stand is confusing the hell out of Congress Spokespersons. They don't know if they should oppose or support it on TV now.

Welcoming Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi denouncing the controversial ordinance to negate the Supreme Court verdict on convicted lawmakers, former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee today said Gandhi has taken a principled stand.

"He is a young man. He is working for the youth. He has taken a principled stand on the issue. That is good," Chatterjee told PTI.

BJP leader Arun Jaitley today said those responsible in the government for the ordinance on convicted lawmakers should resign in the wake of Rahul Gandhi's denunciation of the move.

"All I can say, this is highly belated realisation of what constitutes nonsense and if the Congress party genuinely believes that this is nonsense, then the heads which have produced this nonsense twice in a month before this country... this is the question of governance... then will those heads remain or will those heads roll?," Jaitley said.

He was reacting to the Congress Vice President's statement that the ordinance should be "torn up and thrown away".

Taking a dig at the Nehru-Gandhi family on the matter, he said, "If the heads don't roll, then this is only a grandstanding, a charade... intended to only establish... well the government makes mistakes, rest of the world makes mistakes, but the first family of the Congress doesn't make mistakes." Jaitley termed as "a desperate damage-control exercise" Gandhi's opposition to the ordinance.

"In the last few days, there has been a national revulsion against this ordinance. Let us not forget that the subject matter of allowing the convicted politician to be a part of the legislative bodies has been approved by the UPA cabinet twice-- first as a bill and now as an ordinance," he said.

On both occasions, the Congress party has supported it, he said. "They have not opposed it. So it is not that till today the Congress was unaware of this. And in fact, the Parliament session was extended by a day to enable this to be passed," Jaitley said.

It was only because of the opposition and Parliament that the bill was referred to the standing committee and not approved, he said.

Barkha Dutt: Here in Washington eerie silence from the PMO. It is only six am. But huge embarrassment for PM who is to meet Obama in a few hours

After Rahul Gandhi calls it 'complete nonsense', the government is likely to withdraw the ordinance protecting convicted netas, says Congress sources to TV channels. 

Marya Shakil: In this game of chess being played between Cong and govt, it's Rjd chief Lalu yadav who has been checkmated.

The verdict on RJD chief and former railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, in connection with the multi-crore fodder scam is due on September 30. Yadav a key UPA ally and faces loss of membership, if convicted in the fodder scam.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari on Rahul Gandhi's statement that the ordinance was nonsense:

"If Rahul Gandhi has said something, it is not in my knowledge. You have just informed me about it, we will take cognisance of its (his words) and whatever response needs to be given on it, that will be given," Tewari said.

"If you see from legal point of view, it has been often noticed that subordinates courts, whatever decisions they take, superior courts take note of that and most of the times it has been found that superior courts overrule lower court judgements, he said.

"So the judiciary is a structure and according to that structure if a higher court stays a decision by lower court, then the principle of natural justice should be followed," Tewari said in support of the ordinance.

"What is the response on it by our Vice President (Rahul Gandhi), that is not in my cognisance. We will give you any response needed on it," the Minister said.

Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil said here today that the police would arrest assassins of rationalist and founder of the Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti (Anti-Blind Faith Eradication Committee) Narendra Dabholkar, "as soon as possible".

Chetan Bhagat: RG's stance on convicted neta ordinance is commendable, but bit like a chef coming out in a restaurant and screaming 'i hate the food here!'

Earlier in the day, Aam Aadmi Party leaders met President Pranab Mukherjee and requested him to send back the ordinance on tainted netas to the government for reconsideration. AAP leaders including national convener Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh, Shanti Bhushan and Prashant Bhushan met Mukherjee and submitted a memorandum on the issue.

If this is nonsense, then the heads that brought it out must roll: Arun Jaitley on Rahul Gandhi's statement on ordinance.

The buzz on Twitter: PM should cut short trip, cancel NY leg of tour. Forget Nawaz.  Resign on landing in Delhi. Time for snap poll. 

TV reports say the the government may withdraw the ordinance on tainted netas.

Ajay Maken, minutes after defending the ordinance, said that what Rahul Gandhi said is the line of the party. Rahul said the ordinance is nonsense and should be torn up and thrown away.

BJP's Arun Jaitley says this is a belated realisation of what the Congress calls nonsense.

Arvind Kejriwal tweets: Rahul Gandhi sochte hain iss desh ke sab log bewakoof hain. Khud hi ordinance laate ho, khud hi faadte ho.

BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi's rally here will be held on October 20, Kanpur unit of the party said today.

The rally was earlier scheduled for October 15, but was postponed as the date was clashing with two religious festivals.

The BJP asks, "Is this is a government or a drama company." 

Ajay Maken says Rahul Gandhi's statement is the line taken by the government. So, will the government withdraw the ordinance? Wait and watch.

First reactions from the BJP: The Congress has multiple voices. They pushed the ordinance and then realised the resistance.

BJD: Rahul Gandhi has said this out of public pressure. It's too little, too late. There is an element of confusion in the party. It's a political move by the party to save itself from the political ramifications of the ordinance.

The BJD has been against the ordinance from day one. 

Rahul Gandhi came out strongly against his own party and says, "All parties including mine does this because of political considerations. This the time to stop this nonsense. We need to stop making these compromises. If we want to fight corruption in this country, we need to stop making these compromises."

Ajay Maken says Rahul Gandhi aired the views of the Congress party and the views of the party should be embraced. Rahul's view has embarrassed his own party including the PM. 

Maken, who was at the media meet to defend the ordinance says, Congress believes in internal democracy and this is Rahul's view. 

Rahul Gandhi's statement comes as major embarrassment to the UPA government, when he denounced the controversial ordinance.

Making a surprise brief appearance at a meet-the-press programme of his party's general secretary Ajay Maken at the Press Club in Delhi, he said the ordinance should be "torn up and thrown away". Maken says Rahul's view is the Congress view. 

Rahul Gandhi says what the government has done on this ordinance is wrong

The cabinet recently cleared an ordinance which will circumvent the apex court's landmark July order, when it had struck down a provision in the Representation of the People's Act (RPA), which protected convicted MPs and MLAs from disqualification.

On August 22, the Union Cabinet cleared the proposal to allow convicted lawmakers to retain their membership, till an appeal was pending before a court.

According to the law ministry's proposal, however, a convicted MP or MLA will neither be entitled to vote nor draw salary and allowances.

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi addressing a media meet on the ordinance on tainted MPs/MLAs contesting the polls. Rahul Gandhi's considered opinion, which he repeated twice for good measure: The ordinance on convicted MPs should be torn up and thrown away. The ordinance is complete nonsense. All parties should stop making these compromises.

The Cabinet, on Tuesday, cleared an ordinance to undo the Supreme Court order disqualifying convicted MPs and MLAs. The ordinance has now been referred to the standing committee.

In effect, N Srinivasan can contest BCCI elections, says the Supreme Court, but if he wins, he can't take charge until the hearing concludes.

The Supreme Court restrains N Srinivasan from taking charge as BCCI President if he gets elected in the AGM in Chennai. The court heard the application filed by the Cricket Association of Bihar seeking to stop a desperate Srinivasan from contesting the Board elections. The Bihar association is also seeking an interim injunction against Srinivasan that will prevent him from being a member of any BCCI committee.

Cracking the whip on whistleblower IAS officer Ashok Khemka, the Haryana government has decided to chargesheet him for alleged administrative misconduct in cancelling the mutation of the land deal between Robert Vadra and real estate major DLF in Gurgaon.

Leading by example, Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily will travel by public transport every Wednesday beginning Oct 9 as part of fuel conservation drive to save USD 5 billion in oil import bill. Moily said he and all his ministry officials as well as those in PSUs under his ministry will travel by public transport every Wednesday.

Oil Minister Veerappa Moily has decided to use public transport every Wednesday starting October 9 to conserve fuel. Moily's ideas  to conserve fuel and bring down the oil subsidy bill during his ministry's 'National Mega Campaign' aimed at conserving fuel, include the proposal to declare one day in a week as 'bus day'.

Following two skeletons being discovered on the wrecked ship yesterday, the Rebello family is hoping to get some kind of closure; Russel, who was a cruise waiter, is one of the two people missing after the ship ran aground on Jan 13, 2012. Read

For all Raghuram Rajan fans:  Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram G Rajan has been awarded the Fifth Deutsche Bank Prize for Financial Economics 2013, in recognition of his ground-breaking research work which influenced financial and macro-economic policies around the world. Read

The RSS and the BJP are trying to package prime ministerial aspirant Narendra Modi as a development-oriented backward class leader in the crucial Hindi heartland, heightening communal tensions in the process. Read

And the horrors continue: A 25-year-old woman was allegedly gang-raped and dumped on a road in the heart of the satellite town of Gurgaon near Delhi last night.

The police say they received a call at around 10 pm about the woman.

She was found naked and unconscious near the upscale Sushant Lok area, with injuries on her body, a swollen lip and bruises on her face.

In her complaint to the police, the woman, who works at a garment factory, said she was returning from work at around 8 pm when a car stopped and she was dragged into it by four or five men inside.

The men allegedly forced her to drink alcohol and after taking her to an isolated spot, took turns to rape her. They finally dumped her on the road.

"It is not actually snooping,' was External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid's response in July when the Guardian, based on Edward Snowden's leak of U.S. National Security Agency documents, reported how the Indian Embassy in Washington DC. had been spied on by the United States. Read

Also read: Right to Reject candidates a GREAT step forward. Here's why

Aam Admi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal meets President Pranab Mukherjee to dissuade him from signing an ordinance to protect convicted MPs and MLAs from contesting elections.

The AAP also said that it welcomed the SC's decision on the right to negative vote.

Sources say the government is under pressure to withdraw the measure, with the President reportedly "unsure of the compelling reasons" for bringing the ordinance at this time and many Congress leaders coming out publicly against the proposed measure.

More on that landmark negative vote judgment by the Supreme Court.

The court said the right to reject candidates in elections is part of the fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression given by the Constitution to Indian citizens.

It said that democracy is all about choice and significance of the right of citizens to cast negative voting is massive.

With the concept of negative voting, the voters who are dissatisfied with the candidates in the fray would turn up in large number to express their opinion which would put unscrupulous elements and impersonators out of the polls, it said.

The bench, while reading out the operative portion of the judgement, did not throw light on a situation in case the votes cast under no option head outnumber the votes got by the candidates.

The raid on an armoured regiment of the Indian Army in Jammu yesterday has hurt the security establishment so much that it has to take stock of itself at multiple levels. Read

They waited for centuries before they found their promised land. They waited for 25 years to find 10 men in Calcutta. The wait ended this evening '" with one man to spare. Read

In other news: Security has been tightened in the border areas of Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch District after Thursday''s twin terror strike on a police camp and an army catonment in the region's Kathua and Samba Districts.

In all 12 people, including the three militants, were killed. Just a day before the twin strike, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said he would meet his Pakistan counterpart Nawaz Sharif on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly over the weekend.

The leaders of the nuclear-armed neighbours are expected to discuss rising violence in Kashmir. Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said the assault was an attempt to derail the talks.

The SC said that negative vote is recognised in 13 countries across the world and should be extended to the Indian electorate as well. The SC also said if Parliamentarians can have the right to negative vote in the House, it should be extended to the rest of the country as well.

BJP's Balbir Punj says the party welcomes the move of negative voting and would strengthen democracy.

The Centre had opposed the proposal of the right to negative vote. It had contended that an election is meant to elect and not to reject. It also argued that including a rejection button will confuse voters and will not serve any purpose. -- NDTV

The Supreme Court has also directed the Election Commission to publicise the introduction of the None of the Above (NOTA) option.

As of now, there is no provision yet to count the "rejection" votes and so these will not impact the result of the election.

Activists have proposed that if more than 50 per cent of those who vote reject all candidates, there should be a re-election in that constituency. -- NDTV

Voters in Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram - where Assembly elections are due in November - will be the first to have the right to reject option.

In the present system, if the person wants to register a negative vote, the voter will have to inform the polling officer at the booth and register a written protest. This, said the Supreme Court does not allow the voter to exercise his fundamental right to secrecy while voting.

The petition for the right to negative vote was first filed in 2004. The apex court bench of Chief Justice P Sathasivam, Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai and Justice Ranjan Gogoi said that negative voting would gradually lead to systemic changes as political parties will have to respect the will of the people in selecting their candidates.

Pronouncing the judgment, Chief Justice Sathasivam said the mechanism of negative voting is necessary and a vibrant part of democracy.

This is a landmark judgment and is bound to have plenty of political implications.

The Supreme Court has also said that the right to vote is a statutory right, and the right to reject a candidate is fundamental right of speech and expression under the Constitution.

India votes in the Lok Sabha polls in 2014.

The Supreme Court says that negative voting would lead to systemic change in polls and political parties will be forced to project clean candidates.

The SC has also asked the EC to maintain secrecy while a negative vote is being cast.

The Supreme Court says that negative voting would foster purity and vibrancy in elections.

The SC arrived at the decision after hearing a petition filed by the [People's Union for Civil Liberties & Anr. v. Union of India & Anr., WP (c) no. 161/2004] seeking, the right of negative voting.

The petition has sought directions to be issued to the Election Commission to make appropriate provisions in the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and ballot papers so as to enable the voters to exercise their right of negative voting and also ensure that the exercise of this right is kept secret.

In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court has recognised the right to negative vote. The SC directs the Election Commission to have a 'none of the above' button in the EVMs.   

The NDRF team says eight people have been rescued, 40 others are feared trapped in the building collapse in Dockyard Road in Mumbai. One person confirmed dead. 

The BSE benchmark Sensex today rose over 87 points in early trade on the back of increased buying by participants amid a mixed trend on other Asian bourses and further strength in the rupee.        

 

The 30-share index gained 87.72 points, or 0.44 per cent, to trade at 19,981.57, with all the sectoral indices led by consumer durables and oil and gas rising up to 1.27 per cent. Sensex had gained 37.61 points yesterday.         The wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty rose 23.30 points, or 0.40 per cent, to trade higher at 5,905.55.        

 

Brokers said pick up in buying by funds and retail investors, tracking a mixed trend on other Asian bourses, following overnight gains in the US markets on better-than-forecast jobless claims, supported the trading sentiment here.         Besides, further rise in the rupee to 61.86 against the dollar also triggered buying activity, they said.        

 

In Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was up 0.08 per cent, while Japan's Nikkei lost 0.16 per cent in early trade. The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.36 per cent higher yesterday.

The UN Security Council has discussed a draft resolution on ridding Syria of chemical weapons after the US and Russia agreed the text. The vote in the 15-member Council could now take place later on Friday, diplomats at the UN in New York said.

 

The agreement breaks a two-and-a-half year deadlock in the UN over Syria. It is seen as a key step in a US-Russia brokered plan earlier this month under which Syria agreed to disclose its arsenal and eliminate it by mid-2014.

 

Read the full report on BBC

A five-storey building has collapsed near Dockyard Road in South Mumbai on Friday morning, NDTV reports.The incident happened at 6:25 this morning. Many people are trapped under the debris, the report adds.

PM arrives in US; wants it on its side

What is the need for dialogue with Pak: Modi at Trichy rally

Dhoni, Raina blast Chennai to victory over Sunrisers 

Rupee hits 1-week high as foreign banks sell dollars

Coal scam: CBI questions Naveen Jindal

Ishrat case: CBI seeks legal opinion on tapped conversations

Muzaffarnagar violence: SC seeks explanation from UP