A major fire which broke out in an open plot of land near Lakshmi Cottage building in Parel in Central Mumbai has been brought under control, the fire brigade officials said.

Scrap material lying on the plot caught fire at around 8.30 pm. Ten fire tenders were rushed to the spot, they said.

No casualties were reported in the incident.

The Indian Navy will carry out the maiden test of the long-range Barak-8 surface-to-air missile from INS Kolkata tonight.

Navy spokesperson Captain D K Sharma said the test would take place after midnight.   The Barak-8 missile is being developed in collaboration by India and Israel.

While two tests have been successfully conducted on board Israeli ships, this is the first time that the test would be held on board an Indian one.

The Barak-8 has been designed to defend against a variety of short-to-long-range airborne threats, including fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, drones and projectiles.

It incorporates a state-of-the-art phased array multi-mission radar, two-way data link, and a flexible command and control system that enables it to simultaneously engage multiple targets day and night and in all-weather conditions.

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's adviser on foreign affairs Sartaj Aziz cautioned against 'unrealistic expectations' from foreign secretary-level talks going to be held on January 14-15.

Aziz made a policy statement in the Senate regarding the short visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Pakistan on December 25.

"The foreign secretaries would meet on January 14-15 and draw up a map for the next six months for talks on 10 identified subjects," he said.

He said the dialogue process is challenging as it involves difficult decisions and important issues.

He said there would be progress on some issues soon while it will take time for progress on others.

Aziz said the visit of Modi was a goodwill visit and it has been welcomed by majority of people in Pakistan and India and the international community.

A massive fire broke out in the Mauli Sadan in Mumbai's Parel area. 

Days before the odd-even rule for cars comes into force in Delhi, police chief BS Bassi has this to say to citizen - don't lie about being sick.

"The notification clearly says checks regarding odd-even violations concerning medical emergency for the sick will be based on mutual trust. Thus I request all citizens to start 2016 with the truth and don't lie about being sick," Bassi said.

For the first 15 days of the New Year, odd-numbered cars will run on odd dates and even-numbered cars will run on even dates, barring exemptions granted to categories like VIPs, women, CNG vehicles, emergency vehicles and two wheelers. Many have questioned whether the long list of exemptions defeat the purpose of the drive, which is to drastically reduce the number of vehicles on the roads and this cut down air pollution in Delhi.

Bassi had also expressed his reservations in an interview to NDTV on Monday. "What if someone says he is sick? I cannot stop him because I have to believe him. There is a possibility that many persons who will be violating will be able to wiggle through because of the exemptions. I wish we had gone for a policy without any exemptions," he said.

Today, he was more cautious as he said: "We will do our job as per the notification." The police chief, who has never shared very friendly vibes with the AAP government, has warned against vigilantism by thousands of volunteers that AAP says will help the traffic police implement the odd-even plan.

Besides the traffic police, around 10,000 volunteers will be present at traffic lights to guide drivers, the Delhi government has said. "No matter how good the cause is, we can't let volunteers stop vehicles in running traffic. The law does not permit this and neither will we...No vigilantism will be tolerated," Bassi said on Monday.

The BJP on Tuesday described as an exercise in "cheap publicity and propaganda" the one-man Commission of Inquiry's communication to the NSA, in which it has sought names of officers to be part of its probe in the alleged irregularities in DDCA affairs.

Accusing former solicitor general Gopal Subramanium, who is heading the commission, of working at the behest of the AAP government, BJP asked Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal to read the Constitution, alleging that his several decisions have been "unconstitutional".

"It is not within the legal purview of the Delhi government to probe the Delhi cricket board (DDCA) which is registered as a society under the Company Act. Subramanium is doing such drama at the behest of Kejriwal who is used to taking unconstitutional decisions," BJP secretary Shrikant Sharma said.

"It is nothing but part of its propaganda. Kejriwal should read the Constitution so that he can focus on what his government should be doing, like sanitation and preventing dengue from recurring, and not what it should not be doing," he said.

Subramanium has written to National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, seeking names of competent officers to become part of the investigation.

Sharma recalled that the AAP government had appointed Swati Maliwal as Delhi Commission for Women chairperson in an "unconstitutional" manner before they did it again in a proper way after being told by the LG.

Accusing Kejriwal of raking up the DDCA issue to deflect attention from the CBI probe against his principal secretary, he said the chief minister has a "history" of working to save the guilty and cited the example of the cases of two former law ministers, both arrested on criminal charges and now out on bail.

"AAP is in fact 'pakhandi' aam aadmi party (PAAP)," he said in a dig.

The more muck Kejriwal will throw at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and finance minister Arun Jaitley, the more he will sink into it, Sharma said.

Long accustomed to cheap utilities and some of the lowest petrol prices in the world, Saudis woke to a shock today as authorities made massive subsidy cuts after falling oil prices caused a record deficit.

In a clear departure from its decades-old generous welfare system, Riyadh announced prices would rise on fuel, electricity, water and even plane tickets and cigarettes.

Residents of the oil-rich Gulf kingdom have long enjoyed cheap prices on basic goods and services, but officials made clear that was no longer sustainable after the stunning drop in crude prices over the last 18 months.

"We have to rationalise unnecessary spending... This requires changes to focus on essential expenditures," Finance Minister Ibrahim al-Assaf was quoted as saying Tuesday by the Al-Eqtisadiah newspaper. After years of high spending, authorities moved swiftly to impose unprecedented cuts after announcing yesterday a 2015 budget deficit of USD 98 billion -- the largest in Saudi history and a whopping 15 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Rishi Kapoor @chintskap wishes Twinkle Khanna: "Happy Birthday dear one! You were in your mums tummy when I was serenading her in Bobby"Aksar koi Ladka" In 1973 lol."

Twinkle shares her birthday with her father Rajesh Khanna.

Setting in motion the process of resettling people who had lost their hutments in areas, including the banks of River Adyar here in recent floods, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa today issued orders allotting houses for them.

The government has also announced that families that relocate would get an allowance of Rs 5000 towards shifting expenses. Also, a monthly sustenance dole of Rs 2,500 for a year, job training for youth and recruitment camps for them will be held to help young men and women in families that had lost their houses.


She issued the orders allocating the houses to five beneficiaries at the Secretariat here as a token of allotment of 10,000 houses at Okkiam Thuraipakkam and Perumbakkam.


The present allotment was for those who had lost their hutments along River Adyar in recent floods. The construction work of 10,000 houses is complete and it was done through the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board, an official release said.

Markets rose for the second straight session as the benchmark BSE Sensex today gained over 45 points in a volatile trade to close at 26,079.48, led by gains in auto and banking stocks and a positive global trend.

Covering-up of short positions by speculators ahead of the December month expiry in the derivatives space accelerated the gains, traders said. Sentiment took a turn for the better after Asian and European stocks rose across the board despite losses on the Wall Street overnight.

Patiala House Court sends suspected ISI spy ex-IAF personnel Ranjit to four-day police custody.

The Army is cooperating with the police in tracing the two jawans accused in the rape of a minor girl during a train journey to Amritsar. "Police are doing all the investigation and we are co-operating with them. We are sharing all the information we have so that the accused can be caught and action taken against them as per the law of the land," Army sources said today.

A 14-year-old girl from Kolkata was allegedly raped by two Army jawans inside a compartment of the Howrah-Amritsar Express yesterday. The third jawan who allegedly compelled her to consume alcohol has already been arrested from Madhupur railway station in Jharkhand. Sources said the jawan is posted in Kolkata at the Eastern Command headquarters.

Islamic State theologians have issued an extremely detailed ruling on when "owners" of women enslaved by the extremist group can have sex with them, in an apparent bid to curb what they called violations in the treatment of captured females.

The ruling or fatwa has the force of law and appears to go beyond the Islamic State's previous known utterances on the subject, a leading Islamic State scholar said.

It sheds new light on how the group is trying to reinterpret centuries-old teachings to justify the sexual slavery of women in the swaths of Syria and Iraq it controls.

The fatwa was among a huge trove of documents captured by US Special Operations Forces during a raid targeting a top Islamic State official in Syria in May. Reuters has reviewed some of the documents, which have not been previously published.

Among the religious rulings are bans on a father and son having sex with the same female slave; and the owner of a mother and daughter having sex with both. Joint owners of a female captive are similarly enjoined from intercourse because she is viewed as "part of a joint ownership."

The United Nations and human rights groups have accused the Islamic State of the systematic abduction and rape of thousands of women and girls as young as 12, especially members of the Yazidi minority in northern Iraq. Many have been given to fighters as a reward or sold as sex slaves.

While on Tamil Nadu, heavy showers lashed Ramanathapuram and Tuticorin districts of the state for the third day today with crucial parts of the region inundated, even as weathermen forecast heavy rains in the next 48 hours.

Several parts of the temple island of Rameswaram in Ramanathapuram district, including the National Highway, were inundated.

Rameswaram recorded 75 mm rain in the last 24 hours and ended at 8:30 am today, while Thangachimadam recorded 52 mm. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be present at the high tea at finance minister Arun Jaitley's bungalow in Delhi tomorrow to wish Christian leaders, who will be arriving from different parts of the country. Select media persons will also interact with archbishops and leaders of the Christian community.

Tamil Nadu CM J Jayalalitha has adopted a novel method of reaching out to the flood-affected people of Chennai without actually holding a rally. She speaks to them on phone in chaste Tamil.

Jayalalitha has been reaching out to her people after the devastating floods that saw at least 350 dead. It is another matter of course, that the state readies for the assembly polls next year.

The CM plans to send out 10-second videos through Wassap just before the polls are announced.

And that's just the beginning.

The AIADMK has decided to go in for a social media blast backed by a team of 150 IT professionals

The Amma Pesugiren (This is Amma talking) video goes something like this: "I know your sufferings, your loss of property and belongings. I will certainly visit you in the next one month to share your
burden."

The state government administration is now working overtime to regain the image of an efficent administration which it lost in the aftermath of the floods when people complained that the administraion had failed.

Chief Election Commissioner Dr Nasim Zaidi accompanied by election commissioners AK Joti and Om Prakash Rawat are likely to visit Tamil Nadu by January 10 to assess the extent of flood damage in the state first hand. They will also hold talks with the state police and administration on the preparations to hold the Tamil Nadu assembly elections in 2016.

Tamil Nadu may be given a special consideration in the aftermath of the devastating floods last month. The EC may decide to waive off the model code of conduct provisions, like it did during the Jammu and Kashmir elections.

If this special provision is invoked, it will be a major victory for the state govt apparatus which is already knee-deep in flood relief work. But the EC can only waive off the code of conduct if political parties make representations to it.

So, it all depends on the outcome of the EC's visit to the state where it will undertake a spot assessment - a routine drill by the Election Commission - so that they are updated about problems arising due to the floods. 

There have been many complaints from the people in the state that Voter ID cards were either lost or damaged in the floods.

For a state that has lost at least 350 precious lives and incurred a loss of at least Rs 15,000 crore, it will take more than an election or a new head of state to get it back on its feet.

Former IAF personnel with alleged ISI links arrested from Punjab by Delhi Police.

The Pakistan based banned terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) is planning a new year attack on India. Indian intel agencies have issued an alert that the attacks could target PM Narendra Modi, Prliament House, the army headquarters, and nuclear facilities. India Today reports that 15-20 special trained terrorists may have already crossed over to carry out the attack.

In August, in the run up to Independence Day, intel agencies had warned that the LeT may target Air India flights on the Kabul-Delhi route. which is frequently used by senior officials of the government of India.

Gopal Subramaniam, the chairman of DDCA Enquiry Commission today wrote to National Security Advisor Ajit Doval seeking 5 IPS officers to probe the DDCA 'scam'. A naitonal security angle is involved in the probe it is believed and so Subramaniam wants the Intelligence Bureau, RAW and CBI officers to report to him by January 14.

If there is no reply from the NSA, the Delhi government will issue a show cause notice to the NSA for ignoring the demand from an elected government.

Senior officials of the Union Home Ministry stated that the letter was laughable and asked what is the status of Gopal Subramanium and asked if he has a constitutional position, either from the President of India or from the Lt Governor of Delhi.

Few officials who are familiar with Subramanium's style of presentation of legal matters, narrate an incident.

In the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attack in 2001, the entry to parliament had been barred but Subramanium wanted the gates to be opened to probe how the terrorists had gained entry. With him on the mission were senior officials, when he suddenly sat on the road and began chanting mantras and performed an impromptu puja. One of the officials accompanying him, who is now in a senior position in the government of India said Subramanuim can forecast the future. Let's see what his forecasts say of Arun Jaitley's future. 

Actress-turned-columnist Twinkle Khanna, who shares her birthday with her superstar father Rajesh Khanna, posted an old black-and-white picture of them on their birthday. Twinkle turned 41 today and her father would have been 72 this year.

Close on the heels of the murder of two engineers in Darbhanga district, another engineer was found dead with injury marks on his body in Vaishali district today.

The victim, whose body was found in an orchard, was identified as 42-year-old Ankit Kumar Jha, a Quality Engineer of Reliance IT. Superintendent of Police Rakesh Kumar said local people found the body in the orchard in Kashipur village under Rajapakar police station and informed the local police.

The policemen went to the spot and found it to be that of Jha on the basis of a diary and identity card recovered from his pocket, he said.

The body bore multiple injury marks on neck and stomach from a sharp object, the SP said, adding it has been sent for post-mortem at Sadar hospital in Hajipur.

Jha, son of Shatrughan Jha, was a native of neighbouring Muzaffarpur district, Kumar said. A probe was on to find out the motive behind the murder of Reliance IT's Quality Engineer, whose jurisdiction was entire North Bihar, the SP added.

The engineer's murder in Vaishali district follows a similar incident in Darbhanga district three days ago in which unidentified assailants shot dead two engineers of a road construction company.

Just in: CNN IBN reports that a woman who worked in the canteen at the Infosys office in Pune has been raped. A man, who is also a canteen staffer has been arrested, while another man who filmed the rape has been held. Details awaited. 

President Pranab Mukherjee has received new year greetings from US President Barack Obama which has been signed by everyone in America's first family and has the paw imprints of their two pets, who famously carry the family surname.

"With gratitude and cheer, we send our warmest wishes for health and happiness this holiday season,' the message from the Obamas said.

The greeting card contains signatures of President Obama, his wife Michelle and their two daughters Malia and Sasha. It also has the impression of the paws of 'Bo' and 'Sunny', two Portuguese Water Dogs which have been part of the First Family since 2009 and 2013 respectively.

The Obamas have included their pets in the new year greeting cards for the last four years now.

In 2012 card, it featured a solo 'Bo' wearing a scarf trekking through the snow-covered White House lawn during a blizzard.In 2011, the Obamas kept with the theme of not including any family members and opted for an image of Bo sleeping in front of a fireplace instead.

In 2013, the two furry friends were depicted walking in front of the White House, which was shown as a 3-D pop-up image inside the card.


That's Bo Obama posing in front of the White House

Gopal Subramaniam, the chairman of DDCA Enquiry Commission, has written to National Security Advisor ( NSA) Ajit Doval and asked for officers for the formation of a SIT.

Subramaniam told ANI that the DDCA Enquiry Commission may constitute a SIT if required. He also informed that he has sought four to five officers from the CBI, Intelligence Bureau and Delhi Police each for the Enquiry Commission.

Around 400 dabbawalas have started the initiative 'Roti Bank' to prevent criminal wastage of food at social functions this festive season by picking it up from venues and delivering it to the city's poor, quickly. Read more

Opposition parties, including the BJP, CPI(ML) and Jan Adhikar Party (JAP), attacked the Nitish Kumar government on the alleged return of 'Jungle Raj' in Bihar after the twin murder in Darbhanga on Saturday and attack on a doctor's house at Sitamarhi on Sunday.

Madhepura MP and JAP patron Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav said the sudden spurt in crime, including murder and kidnapping for ransom, over the last one month was a clear indication of the return of 'Jungle Raj' in the state after a decade. Read more

Continuing with his strategy of promoting his family members in politics, RJD chief Lalu Prasad is all set to send his wife and former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi and his eldest daughter Misa Bharati to Rajya Sabha in the biennial election for the Upper House next year. Read more

"My curiosity on the issue of tolerance was aroused by the ongoing high-decibel use of the term in the news and social media by numerous individuals as well as groups, from different walks of life in India and abroad. This may be best described as one of the frequent and periodic peaks of contemporary and excitable issues, and a typically Indian way of reacting to new or revived events or incidents."

Ashok Ganguly's must-read column in the Telegraph today.

The decapitated heads of the four fighters of the Islamic State terror group was placed on the side of a main road in eastern Afghanistan after they were beheaded by the local village militia members loyal to a powerful Afghan lawmaker.

According to Dawn, IS militants first captured four fighters from the militia, known as Pasoon or 'Uprising', and beheaded them. The militia then retaliated, by doing the same, Haji Zahir informed.

Dozens of members of the militia loyal to Haji Zahir, deputy Speaker of parliament, have been battling both Taliban and IS militants in Achin district of Nangarhar for weeks.

However, Ataullah Khoqani, spokesman for the provincial governor, said Afghan government forces were not involved in the incident as per the investigations.

A grand jury in Cleveland has declined to indict a city police officer in the fatal shooting of a 12-year-old black boy last year.

The decision by grand jurors was the end of a lengthy investigation that was criticised by the family of the boy, Tamir Rice, and activists, who called the shooting senseless and said the officer should have been charged with murder months ago.

Tamir, who was black, was carrying a replica gun outside a recreation center when someone called 911. The caller cautioned that Tamir was probably a juvenile and that the weapon was 'probably fake', but that information was not relayed to the two officers who responded, Timothy Loehmann and Frank Garmback.

Surveillance video, which has been widely circulated online, showed Officer Garmback pulling the police cruiser within a few feet of Tamir, and Officer Loehmann, who is white, stepping out of the car and almost immediately firing his gun. Tamir died hours later.

Read HERE

A dry run of the odd-even traffic rule will be held by the government on Wednesday from 8 am to 8 pm as a rehearsal of the plan during which no one will be booked for violations.

The ruling Aam Aadmi Party has called it a 'full rehearsal' where every arrangement will be the same as when the new rule will be enforced on January 1.

However, Delhi police chief B S Bassi has said that he is not aware of any such plan..

'Not aware of any rehearsal plan of odd even on 30th December 2015,' Bassi tweeted.

From 1 January, the Delhi government has planned to deploy 10,000 volunteers across the city to ensure the scheme is 'effectively implemented'.

This plan has also not gone down well with Bassi, who warned against vigilantism.

'Delhi Police to assist odd-even to protect environment. Volunteers not to act on their own. Even stopping or asking someone to return is an IPC crime (sic),' he said in another tweet.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi vowed today to free the whole country from the Islamic State group in 2016, speaking after security forces retook the city of Ramadi from the terrorists.

"If 2015 was a year of liberation, 2016 will be the year of great victories, terminating the presence of IS in Iraq," he said.

"We are coming to liberate Mosul, which will be the fatal blow to Daesh (IS)," he said.

The prime minister congratulated the security forces on their recapture late yesterday of Ramadi, which they had lost in May.

A petition has been filed in the Madras high court seeking an interim stay on the release of Ramgopal Verma's multi-lingual film Killing Veerappan, based on the operation leading to the killing of the dreaded forest brigand, on grounds that it is full of 'false information'.

Citing the trailer of the film released recently, petitioner Paneerselvi of a village in Salem district alleged that the 'entire movie is filled up with false information which is nothing but creating law and order problems in Tamil Nadu'.

Seeking a a direction to the state home secretary and the Censor Board's regional office to file a report with regard to issue of 'U' certificate to the film, she sought an interim injunction on the release of the film, set for January 1.

The petitioner claimed that the director of the film, produced by Sivaprakash in various languages including Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi, degraded Tamils, specifically women, and depicted that Karnataka police alone had taken all steps to curb the menace of the sandalwood smuggler who was killed in 2004 in a joint operation by the two states.

The petitioner further submitted that the movie falsely depicted the wife of Veerappan as having killed several persons.

The film director had visualised some 'negative' images about Tamil Nadu police and politicians, she charged.

A pro-Kremlin group has compiled some of the quotes and one-liners of Russian President Vladimir Putin into a 400-page book and sent several copies of it Russian officials, calling an 'ideal holiday gift' for them.

The book, titled The Words that are changing the World, contains some of the 'most patriotic' quotes of the Russian President, whose fans see him as the 'savior of modern Russia'.

'We had begun to notice that everything which Putin says comes to pass to one degree or another. In this book we traced his words and confirmed that idea,' Anton Volodin, author of the book said in a statement.

Among the quotes selected are Putin's threat to 'rub out' Chechen militants in the 'out house', his contested assertion that Crimea was always and remains an 'inseparable' part of Russia, and a bizarre brush-off of Latvia in which he told Riga it could only expect to receive 'the ears of a dead donkey' from Moscow, a Russian expression for nothing.

The tome is likely to hit Russian bookstores in January.

Germany has recruited 8,500 extra teachers to educate child refugees this year, according to German media.

The teachers have been hired to give special language lessons to the 196,000 asylum seekers of school age who entered Germany in 2015.

'Schools and education administrations have never been confronted with such a challenge,' Brunhild Kurth, who heads Germany's education authority, was quoted as saying by the German media.

'We must accept that this exceptional situation will become the norm for a long time to come,' Kurth said.

CNN obtained confirmation that 300 additional teachers of German as a second language have been hired this year in Saxony, a state in the east of Germany. The state plans to recruit 190 more by February.

Read HERE

A Chinese executive has committed suicide two days after a gypsum mine collapsed, trapping 17 people, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Ma Congbo, chief executive of Yurong Trade Company that owns the mine in Shandong province, eastern China killed himself by jumping into a mine well during the rescue operation, according to the provincial government.

The mine in Pingyi county collapsed on Friday while 29 people were working inside.

One miner has been confirmed dead and 17 are still missing, while the rest were rescued.

Nearly three years after snapping ties with the Congress, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief M Karunanidhi today said that the national party would be invited to join the alliance led by his outfit for the upcoming assembly elections in Tamil Nadu.

"We will not exclude Congress while inviting alliance parties (to join the DMK-led alliance)," he told reporters when asked if his party would invite the Congress like it had reached out to the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam.

An indication to this effect had come as early as in July this year when DMK treasurer M K Stalin and Congress state unit chief E V K S Elangovan had said that the two parties would 'work together' to protect the interests of the people of Tamil Nadu, in particular the oppressed sections.

DMK had in early 2013 snapped ties with Congress over the Sri Lankan Tamils issue.

British Prime Minister David Cameron was heckled by the victims of devastating floods during a visit to the worst-hit historic city of York in the United Kingdom.

'No more cuts to public services,' a woman shouted at Cameron.

However, Cameron, who yesterday described the flooding as 'unprecedented', defended his government's spending on flood defences and pledged to do 'even more'.

Hinting at a rethink on the flood defences, he said, "As I say though, let's have a look and see whether more needs to be done and whether the flood defences need to be made even higher than they are already," he said.