Kashmiris were among 15 immigrants found in a lorry today by the British police, as the vehicle's German driver was arrested on suspicion of people smuggling.

The people were found in the lorry in Somerset, just days after Afghan Sikhs were rescued from a shipping container at a UK port. Avon and Somerset Police said it acted upon a number of calls concerning noises coming from the back of the lorry.

"A total of 15 people were found on board '"- including men, women and a 15-year-old boy. They have stated they are from Eritrea and Kashmir," a police spokesperson said. The German lorry driver has been arrested on suspicion of facilitating the unlawful entry of people into the UK.

A special anti-money laundering court here today attached properties worth Rs 863 crore of YSR Congress leader Jaganmohan Reddy and his associates in connection with its probe into alleged corruption and money laundering in an infrastructure project in Andhra Pradesh.

The court's orders came on a notice of the Enforcement Directorate, issued in March, in which it had slapped separate notices against Jagan and Nimmagada Prasad whose companies were allegedly favoured by the then Andhra Pradesh government (when Jagan's father Y S Rajasekhara Reddy was chief minister) in the Vadarevu and Nizampatnam Industrial Corridor (VANPIC).

The project's aim was to develop sea ports and a green field airport in coastal areas of the southern state and industrial corridors in Prakasam and Guntur districts. The current order, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, has been the largest order for attachment of assets in this case.

The ED had in 2012 registered a criminal probe against the individuals and associated firms based on a CBI FIR in this case.

Two sisters from Kolhapur whose mercy petitions against capital punishment were rejected bythe President recently, today moved the Bombay high court praying their death sentence be commuted to life imprisonment.

The sisters--Renuka Shinde and Seema Gavit--have, in their petition, contended that the President had taken more than five years to decide their mercy petitions when such a plea should have been disposed of within three months.

On this ground alone, their death sentence may be commuted to life term, the duo prayed. The petition, filed through their lawyer Sudeep Jaiswal, came up before Justices V M Kanade and P D Kode who posted it for hearing tomorrow.

The judges also asked the petitioner's lawyer to show judgements which empower the high court to entertain a petition when the Supreme Court has confirmed death penalty and the President has rejected the mercy petition.

The Prime Minister's Office has convened a meeting tomorrow to explore a long-term solution to the contentious fishermen issue between India and Sri Lanka.

"The PMO has called a meeting tomorrow to deliberate on India-Sri Lanka fishermen's issues like illegal poaching and welfare of Indian fishermen among others," a senior government official told PTI.

The meeting will be chaired by the Prime Minister's Principal Secretary Nripendra Misra and attended by senior officials from Agriculture, Home and External Affairs Ministries. The fishermen issue is a very emotive one for both the countries.

While Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa has been repeatedly pressing the Centre to take it up with the Lankan leadership, there was tremendous pressure on Sri Lankan government to initiate judicial process against the apprehended Indian fishermen, resulting in their prolonged detention.

The organisation charged with overseeing the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons program says the most crucial part of its operation has been completed. 

About 1,000 suspected members of a Christian sect have been arrested in a crackdown against the group which China considers a "cult", state media said today. 

U.S. police said early on Tuesday they came under heavy gunfire and arrested 31 people during another night of racially charged protests in Ferguson, Missouri, sparked by the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a white policeman 10 days ago.

A day after India cancelled Foreign Secretary-level talks over Pakistani envoy's meeting with Kashmiri separatists, Pakistan today reacted strongly saying it was "not subservient" to New Delhi and was a "legitimate stakeholder" in the Kashmir dispute.

Arguing that High Commissioner Abdul Basit did not interfere in India's internal affairs, Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam claimed that Kashmir was not part of India.

"That is just a pretext. It was not the first time that meetings with Hurriyat leaders took place. It is been happening for decades," Tasnim said.

She was replying to Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh telling Basit to not to go ahead with the meeting in New Delhi and to choose between dialogue with India or with the Kashmiri separatists.

Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan has ruled out the Congress getting the Leader of the Opposition post.

She said the Speaker does not have any personal discretion and is only supposed to follow rules, which mandate 10% strength to be recognised as Leader of the Opposition.

The Congress is far short of this minimum requirement with just 44 seats.  An impatient Congress had already sent her a petition, claiming their right over the post.

BJP national president Amit Shah will visit the West Bengal capital on 7 September to attend the party's state committee meeting and also address a public meeting ahead of assembly bypolls.

"Earlier it was decided that the state committee meeting will be held at Siliguri, but as bypolls for Bashirhat South and Chowringhee assembly seats are scheduled to be held on September 13, it has been decided that the state committee meeting will be held in Kolkata from September 6-7," BJP state president Rahul Sinha said today.

He said that the party national president Amit Shah would be present on the last day of the meeting on September seven, and also address a public meeting in the Chowringhee assembly seat.

Sinha also said that he would send a roadmap to Shah very soon for fighting the assembly bypolls. BJP was keen to wrest the Bashirhat Dakshin seat from TMC and open its account in the state Assembly.
The by-elections were necessitated as CPI-M's sitting legislator in Bashirhat Dakshin, Narayan Mukhopadhyay had died and TMC's Sikha Mitra resigned as legislator from Chowringhee.

The parole plea moved by Vikas Yadav, convicted for killing Nitish Katara, was today transferred to another bench of the Delhi High Court which is hearing arguments on sentence to be awarded to the three convicts in the case.

Justice Pratibha Rani, before whom the plea was listed, refused to hear it saying the regular bench which is hearing arguments on punishment to be handed down to Vikas, his cousin Vishal Yadav and Sukhdev Pehalwan, will hear the matter.

The regular bench will now hear Vikas' plea on August 22.

In his petition, Vikas, son of politician D P Yadav, has sought three months' parole on the ground that he has to visit his 93-year-old grandfather, who has recently undergone angioplasty.

He said that he has been in jail for the past 12-and-a- half years and his conduct has been good throughout.

Vikas also said that he wishes to challenge in the Supreme Court his conviction by the high court in the murder case and requires time to prepare his appeal.

In his plea, he further said that he had approached the Delhi government to grant him parole under the special rights given to prisoners. However, no decision was taken and hence, he approached the high court.

Vikas, Vishal and Sukhdev are serving life term for abducting and killing Katara, a business executive and son of an IAS officer, on the intervening night of February 16-17, 2002. They did not approve of the victim's affair with their sister.

The high court had on April 2 upheld the verdict of the lower court in the case by describing the offence as "honour killing" stemming from a "deeply-entrenched belief" in caste system. The high court had dismissed the appeals of the convicts and kept pending two separate pleas of the state and Neelam Katara seeking death penalty for them.

The Congress is asking its chief ministers to avoid going for functions with the PM after Haryana CM BS Hooda was jeered at today when he shared the dais with Modi.

At a presser immediately after the event, Hooda said, "If I invite a BJP leader to a Congress rally saying its a state govt rally, how will he feel?"

The Supreme Court today issued notice to the Centre on a plea seeking its direction to the government to amend the Constitution for making Hindi official language for conducting court proceedings in higher judiciary.

Agreeing to hear the PIL, a bench headed by Justice H L Dattu sought response from the Centre for amending Article 348 of the Constitution which says that all proceedings in the Supreme Court and all the high courts shall be done in English.

Petitioner Shiv Sagar Tiwari, a lawyer, submitted that using English as an official language in higher judiciary is a legacy of British rule which should be done away with.

He termed the termed the language as "Gulami Bhasha". "Time has now come that language of the Supreme Court should be 'rashtra bhasha' as defined under Article 343 of the Constitution and it has to be amended," the petition said.

An angry and embarrassed Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda today said that he would never attend a single event attended by PM Narendra Modi in Haryana.

Hooda is believed to be upset at being shouted down by Modi's supporters at an event in Kaithal, Haryana where he laid the foundation stone of a Kaithal-Rajasthan border section of the National Highway.


The PM and Hooda shared the dais at the event and it is beleived that the moment Hooda began speaking, the crowd shouted him down and he could not say a single word.

Yet, when Modi began speaking they all fell silent and when he took up the issue of corruption, they cheered him on.

Hooda now says he will boycott all events attended by Modi in Haryana.

Hooda has said the Congress will form government in Haryana for the third time in a row.

Social network trials feature that would flag up fake news stories from humorous sites in users' news feeds. Read

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa today emphatically refused to grant visas to UN war crimes investigators and instead named an Indian and a Pakistani in a team of experts for a domestic probe into alleged rights abuses during the 30-year civil war with the LTTE.

Rajapaksa said he will extend his non-cooperation with the UN Human Rights Council mandated probe to deny visas for any international investigators seeking to enter the island. 

Tamil Nadu Governor K Rosaiah today called for "complete eradication" of ragging in educational institutions as five cases were registered in the state this year so far.

Surging for the sixth straight session, the benchmark Sensex today rose about 30 pts to new closing peak of 26,420.67 and the Nifty edged up 23 points to end at a record 7,897.50 following across-the-board gains on positive domestic and global cues.

This is the second day in a row that broader indices have logged new life-time highs and concluded at fresh peaks. Yesterday, they rose over 1 per cent each on oil price drop, lower inflation data and PM Narendra Modi's pledge to boost manufacturing and infrastructure in his August 15 speech.

Pakistan High Commissioner's meeting with Syed Geelani ends.

Despite Modi's high-flown rhetoric about good-neighbourly relationships in South Asia, he lacks a road map how to proceed -- be it with Bangladesh or with Sri Lanka and Pakistan... But a deeper question arises here: Did he duck on his own accord or under the diktat from the RSS, asks former ambassador M K Bhadrakumar. Read

Prime Minister Narendra Modi woos voters in poll-bound Haryana.

Laying the foundation stone for a road project in Haryana the PM addresses a rally in Kaithal. "I have come from the land where Swami Dayananda Saraswati was born. He is widely respected in Haryana.  I had the fortune to live in Haryana for a long time, I learnt a lot from it. I know Haryana as much as I know Gujarat. After we formed the government this is my first programme in Haryana. I thank you for your affection and I will return your affection with record development.

"It is from Kurukshetra that the bugle of morality was first blown," said Modi. "We can't do with the infrastructure of last century. A contractor comes builds a road and it gets destroyed in the monsoon; it can't work like this.

"I also know the sense of humour among the people of Haryana. This is the speciality of this land. The number of people gathered here shows the importance of development in the lives of the people."

On November 3, 2011, when her fast against the Armed Forces Special Protection Act in force in Manipur completed 11 years, Irom Sharmila penned a heartfelt appeal to her people, which was handed over to the media on November 30 as she was being produced before the chief judicial magistrate in Imphal. Read it on Rediff.com.

The 'Intensive Household Survey' across Telangana, aiming to ascertain the details of an estimated 84 lakh families living in the state, began this morning. About 4 lakh employees of Telangana, including teachers and policemen, are involved in the massive exercise.

Pic: Enumerators collecting data from family members of Bandaru Dattatraya BJP MP and National Vice President at his residence in Ramnagar, Hyderabad 

Opposing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision to do away with the Planning Commission and have a new institution in its place will "cost the nation," Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said today.

"Recent decisions like abolishing Planning Commission will cost the nation," Chavan said.

"It is dangerous to hand over financial matters to Free Economy," the Chief Minister tweeted.

Chavan's comments came after Modi tweeted that the government wants ideas from people on how the new institution which will replace Planning Commission will look.

The Prime Minister, in his Independence Day speech, had said that his government would scrap the six-decade old plan panel to set up a new think-tank that will be more federal in nature.

"Inviting you to share your ideas on what shape the new institution to replace the Planning Commission can take," Modi tweeted today.

Meanwhile, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators have agreed to extend a temporary truce by 24-hour to allow more time for negotiating a long-term ceasefire and end the month long conflict in the Gaza Strip that has left more than 2,000 people dead.

Deepti Priya Mehrotra, author of Burning Bright: Irom Sharmila and the Struggle for Peace in Manipur, recalls her association with the Iron Lady of Manipur. Read

A court has ordered the release of Manipur activist Irom Sharmila Chanu, who has been on fast for more than 13 years demanding the repeal of the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from Manipur.

Sharmila was arrested on charges of attempt to commit suicide. The court says there is lack of evidence in the attempted suicide case against her. 

She has been on a fast since November 4, 2000 demanding repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act 1958. She is booked under section 309 IPC. The law permits the authority to detain her for one year at one go. At the end of each year she is released.

But then she is invariably rearrested since she continues the fast in front of her supporters.

Also read: The tragedy of being Irom Sharmila.

Syed Shah Geelani reaches the Pakistan High Commission in Delhi, protests break out and police detain protesters.

Hurriyat Conference chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani is on his way to meet Pakistan envoy Abdul Basit in Delhi. Security has been stepped up outside the Pakistan high commission. Protestors have been detained from outside the high commission.

CPI(M) today attacked the BJP-led government for announcing the winding up of the Planning Commission without any discussion in Parliament and said this "arbitrary move" would only facilitate private capital profit maximisation at the cost of welfare programmes.

When a television series I've been committed to ends its run, I'm usually sad it's over but thrilled at the joy it has given me. And I wonder what to replace it with and who to recommend it to. But all I can say about Yudh wrapping up is YIPPEE!

Raja Sen recaps Yudh. Only on Rediff.com. Read

Japanese national Mitsutoki Shigeta, on the run from Thailand, also travelled to Ukraine in an attempt to father surrogate babies, according to reports. Read

In other news: Jaycee Chan, the son of kung fu mega-star Jackie Chan, has been arrested in Beijing on drug-related charges amid an anti-drug crackdown that has already netted thousands --  including several celebrity scalps -- in mainland China. Read

The forensic report in the Badaun double murder/rape case is out. The CBI report says it could be a case of honour killing since the DNA of the accused was not found on the victims' clothes.

CBI director Ranjit Sinha has so far refused to single out any theory but confirmed that "they are probing every possibility, including honour killing."

The two girls, who were cousins aged 14 and 15, went missing from their house on the night of May 27 and their bodies were found hanging from a mango tree in the village on May 28. The postmortem report of the two girls confirmed that they were raped before being murdered. Five persons have been arrested in the case that had sparked nationwide outrage. 

An Army man was today arrested for allegedly making an attempt to molest a teenaged girl on board the Dibrugarh-Delhi Rajdhani Express in Assam.

The 17-year old girl travelling with her uncle in a three-tier AC compartment raised an alarm at 4 am when the army man was making an attempt to molest her as the Rajdhani Express was passing between Lumding and Chaparmukh stations, a NF Railway spokesman said.

The Railway Protection Force (RPF) immediately caught the accused and handed him over to the Government Railway Police in Guwahati Railway Station, he said.

The man was identified as Kulvinder Singh from the Military Engineering Service and was posted in the Army's Amingaon camp, the spokesman said.

If this wasn't tragic, it would have been really funny.

Armed robber died during raid on jewellery shop after members of the public piled on top of him to restrain him. Read

All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) leader Mirwaiz Umer Farooq told Rediff.com in New Delhi that the media and leaders of parties had blown their meeting with Pakistan was out of proportion. "We have been in touch with the Pakistan government for last 25 years. We want the two governments of India and Pakistan to hold talks and find a solution to the Kashmir problem," he said.

Asked about taking part in elections, Mirwaiz said that if they do so then it becomes law and order problem. "We are trying for a resolution of the Kashmir problem," Mirwaiz said.

He denied that Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif had asked that talks be held with APHC leaders through the Pakistan High Commissnor in Delhi.

-- Onkar Singh in Delhi.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the bail plea of self-styled godman Asaram Bapu, in connection with a rape case filed against him in Gujarat. While rejecting the bail plea sought on grounds of ill-health, the apex court directed the Rajasthan government to set up a medical board to examine Asaram, and subsequently submit a health report by September 23.

Cautioning BJP workers against self complacency, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has asked them not to solely depend on the "Modi wave" for victory in the forthcoming Assembly elections in Maharashtra.

While stressing that the "Modi wave" in the country is a fact, Gadkari, however, asked the party activists to "go back to the people at the grassroot level" to win their confidence.

"Be confident of the Modi wave and leadership. But do not just dream of coming to power in the state elections relying only on this factor. Work at grassroot level to win the voters' confidence," the Union Transport Minister told a party rally in Pune last night.

The minister also refuted allegations of State Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar that the Centre had cleared Metro project for Nagpur ahead of Pune for "political gains" and said Pune too will get Metro clearance along with other cities.

"The Chief Minister did not follow up on the Metro project at the central government level. The state government and Pune municipal corporation did not complete requisite formalities in respect of the project," which apparently resulted in the delay, he claimed.

Security forces gunned down one more militant in the ongoing search operation in the Tangdhar forest area near the Line of Control (LoC) of frontier Kupwara district.

A senior police officer said militants opened fire at the surrounding troops in the forest area this morning.

"The fire was returned and one more militant has been killed. So far the security forces have killed four militants in the operation," the officer said and added that the operation continues as some more militants are believed to be hiding in the forest area.

-- Mukhtar Ahmad in Srinagar

Another critique of the PM's I-Day speech.

The prime minister's Independence Day speech was refreshing. He spoke fluently and extempore; he was full of ideas. Some were good, others not quite. The government's actions affect millions; if it makes mistakes, millions suffer the consequences. Hence it is necessary to identify mistakes before they are made; inaction is better than wrong action.

Read

A woman who was allegedly molested on Sunday morning in Mumbai, has said that she was turned away by two police stations and that her complaint was finally registered at the Bandra police station. She said that the police asked why she was out so late at night.

The incident occurred at an isolated spot on the Sion-Dharavi bridge near Raheja hospital at around 3am, when the girl and her male friend were out looking for cigarettes.

The three men who also robbed the couple's cash and mobile phones, ran away after the girl started screaming. All three have been arrested. 

New Delhi's message, an official spokesperson said on Monday, was simple: "The only path available to Pakistan is to resolve outstanding issues through a peaceful bilateral dialogue within the framework and principles of the Simla Agreement and the Lahore Declaration'. Those words -- omitting mention of the Composite Dialogue the two countries began in 2004 -- suggests New Delhi is shutting off life support for a 10-year-old secret dialogue process that was meant to resolve the Kashmir conflict.

Read Praveen Swamy's report for the Indian Express today.

The meeting between Amar Singh and Mulayam Singh Yadav has ended. Amar Singh it was just an informal meeting and he was not joining the Samajwadi Party.

Meanwhile, Kashmiri separatists have not cancelled their date today with Abdul Basit, Pakistan's High Commissioner in Delhi.

While Shabir Shah has already met him, groups led by Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Mohammad Yasin Malik have decided against cancelling their meetings.

Pakistan has been inviting Kashmiri separatists to Delhi every time it had a major national function or a dignitary was visiting India.

Hurriyat Conference chairmaan Syed Ali Shah Geelani has said that he will go ahead with his meeting with the Pakistan envoy and challenged the government to arrest him.

Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, BJP, on the government cancelling foreign secretary level talks with Pakistan: Separatists ke saath walk aur Bharat sarkar ke saath talk yeh dono saath sambav nahin hain.

A meeting is now underway between Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and Amar Singh in Lucknow. It may be recalled that the two had shared a dais in Lucknow at an event last week. Amar Singh, who used to be Mulayam's key aide, had been expelled from the party for anti-party activities in 2010.

Amar Singh has accepted Mulayam's telephonic invitation to attend the inauguration of Janeshwar Mishra Park in Lucknow last week. The news has triggered widespread speculation within the political circles in Uttar Pradesh as well as within the SP.

SP senior leader and key strategist Ram Gopal Yadav has rejected outright reports of Amar Singh's return to the party anytime in the near future. Though Amar Singh, too denied rejoining the SP while reacting to Ram Gopal's statement later in day, but issue has already led to sharp differences within party leadership.

For the past fortnight, a small part of Tihar has been converted into what a jail official described as a "five-star hotel' for Sahara chief Subrata Roy.

Tihar's 500 sq ft conference room was already air-conditioned and boasted an attached bathroom and anteroom when Roy was shifted there on August 4.

It has now been rigged out with video-conferencing and Wi-fi facilities, three soft beds and two extra desktops. Read more

Within four days of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call to corporates to take up building toilets in schools as a priority under their corporate social responsibility (CSR), companies have announced over Rs 200 crore contribution for government's "Swachh Bharat" campaign.

Two major corporates - Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Bharti Foundation, an arm of Bharti Enterprises - on Monday announced a total expenditure of Rs 200 crore as part of their CSR initiatives to construct toilets in schools.  Read more

The Planning Commission needed to be returned to its first purposes, to its transparent and audacious planning for an India progressing without old enervations and new injustices to prosperity.

Read Gopalkrishna Gandhi's piece here.

Jairam Ramesh, former union minister in the UPA government, critiques Narendra Modi's I-Day speech.

The Prime Minister's maiden Independence Day speech from the ramparts of Red Fort has drawn wide encomiums. While invoking our founding fathers, he was decidedly partisan in not mentioning Jawaharlal Nehru, a key architect of the modern Indian nation state with its profound commitment to parliamentary democracy, secularism, science and technology, and economic development. Other than this glaring and undoubtedly deliberate lapse, the speech brought into sharp public focus a couple of social evils that continue to be a scourge on our society.

Read more

Continuing their rising spree for the sixth straight day, the BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty today hit new records of 26,520.73 and 7,912.05 respectively in opening trade on robust buying by foreign funds coupled with firming trend overseas.

Ahead of the Maharashtra Assembly polls, BJP MLA and daughter of late Gopinath Munde, Pankaja will launch a 'Sangharsh Yatra' across the state from August 27.

BJP State President Devendra Fadanvis, and leader of opposition in Legislative Council Vinod Tawde said that the 14-day 3000 km yatra will cover 71 Assembly constituencies in 21 districts of Maharashtra.

The yatra would begin at Sindkhed in Buldhana district. Sindkhed is the birth place of Rajmata Jijau, mother of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.

There were reports recently that Pankaja is not keen on contesting the Lok Sabha seat bypoll, necessitated by death of her father. NCP chief Sharad Pawar had said his party will not field a candidate if someone from Munde's family gets into the fray.

Sikh men, women and children found in a shipping container in Britain were fleeing persecution in Afghanistan and had been trapped in the airless compartment without food or water for 18 hours, their translator said today.

Sikhs, discovered at Tilbury Docks in Essex, east of London, feared they would have all died had they remained inside for any longer without food or water, Kamaljit Singh Mataharu, a Punjabi-speaking local man called in by the police to translate, told reporters.

"It was pitch black, without any air. It soon became extremely uncomfortable," he told ITV television. "Horrendous, horrendous, horrendous. They suffered a lot," he said.

It has emerged that there were 15 families inside the container, all from Kabul, who had made it to Europe in a truck. A 40-year-old man died and the survivors included 13 men, eight women, aged between 18 and 72, and 13 children aged between one and 12.

Israel and Palestine have agreed to extend a temporary ceasefire in Gaza by 24 hours to allow more time for negotiating a lasting truce, a Palestinian official has said.

The truce aims at giving more time for negotiations on a complete long-term ceasefire, said Azam el-Ahmed, the head of the Palestinian delegation in Cairo. The decision came an hour before the current five-day truce ends. Media reports said the both sides are to sign an agreement on long-term ceasefire before the end of the truce.

Since last week, Egypt has been hosting indirect talks between the two sides aimed at ending a devastating month-long fighting which erupted on July 8, as the death toll in the war-torn Gaza Strip pushed over 2,000.

Uttar Pradesh flood toll rises to 48
Censor Board CEO arrested on bribery charge
Imran's party lawmakers to quit Parliament, reject talks
20 killed, 2 injured as train hits autorickshaw in Bihar
Pak standoff continues, Khan, Qadri adamant on Sharif's ouster
Pakistan ceasefire violations deliberate: Jaitley
Bihar floods: 600 villages affected, death toll rises