PDP patron Mufti Mohammed Sayeed today staked claim to form the next government in the state. This follows Mufti's unanimous election as the leader of the PDP legislature party that emerged as the single largest party in the recent Jammu and Kashmir assembly polls.

The meeting of the legislature party was held in Jammu today presided over by senior party leader Abdul Rahman Veeri.

In his letter to the governor, Mufti informed him that with the support of the BJP, the PDP-led coalition would enjoy a clear majority and was in a position to provide a stable government in the state in the wake of a split verdict.

The swearing-in ceremony will be held at 11 am at the General Zorawar Singh stadium in Srinagar on Sunday.

-- Mukhtar Ahmad/Rediff.com in Srinagar.

As many as 42 military aircraft and helicopters have crashed since 2011 in which as many lives were lost, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said today. Replying to a question in the Lok Sabha, he said 28 defence aircraft including 14 MIG fighter jets have crashed while 14 helicopters were lost in accidents since 2011.

"42 lives were lost in thse accidents. The loss in terms of value of aircraft and service property in respect of 26 accidents assessed so far is estimated at Rs 1127.37 crore," Parrikar said.

He said the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) in August last year had decided to meet army and IAF's requirement of helicopters by procuring the ones required immediately and go for domestic manufacturing as well. Russian-made MIG-21 and MIG-27s were backbone of Indian Air Force for several decades. The MIG 21 aircraft were part of IAF since late 1960s and had participated in all major operations.

Denied permission by Odisha government to visit communally sensitive Kandhamal district, VHP President Praveen Togadia on Friday clarified that he was not against the minorities but would continue to speak in favour of his Hindu brothers and sisters.

"I am not against the minorities, but I'll certainly speak on the interest of my Hindu brothers and sisters,' Togadia told reporters, adding that he was, however, against the illegal entry of Bangladeshi Muslims.

Togadia said he had been worried over the safety, security and well being of the Hindus.

I would have talked on these issues in Kandhamal. However, if Naveen Patnaik does not want the well being of the people, let the masses decide. But, Ill continue to speak in favour of the Hindus and their interest.

Essar statement: We are a law-abiding company and responsible corporate citizen and have not indulged in any wrong doing. The newspaper, article and media news are based on information that is stolen or fabricated.

"We have initiated legal action and a complaint has been filed against the suspected individuals responsible for the act of thieving and fabricating documents from a private corporate organisation which is as much an offence as theft from government department."

Gadkari, who had stepped down as BJP President at the time of the cruise, today said he and his entire family had gone on a vacation to Norway paying from out of the "family account" and asserted that in his life he had never taken money from any corporates. He said when it was known that he was going to Norway Essar people told him that they have a yacht in the sea off France. "I had not seen the yacht. They said come and see the yacht once. I landed at Frankfurt, paid for my ticket, stayed at my hotel and went to the yacht," he said. "When I went on the trip I was not an MP, MLA or a Minister. I went with family paying out of family account. I have not taken anybody's ticket, lodging, boarding or for food and drinks. I have never taken any money from private corporates," he said adding he has a penchant for seeing things new.

Noted Supreme Court advocate Prashant Bhushan, whose NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) filed a PIL in the Supreme Court, on the issue today said it concerns the "well-oiled mechanism" of Essar corporate with which it "compromises" top ministers, bureaucrats, politicians, MLAs and media personnel.

"Big luxury yachts are used by the Essar to entertain families of big politicians like Nitin Gadkari," he said.

Bhushan said they have demanded an independent inquiry into the whole issue as it was a very sensitive because big corporates can compromise the system of the nation through leak of documents and other things.

He alleged that ESSAR gives smart phones to politicians, maintain their monthly recharge and scholarships given on VIP references.

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari in the eye of the storm for accepting a junket from the Essar group aboard a yatch in the French Riviera says he was invited by Essar. "I was invited just to see their yacht." he said.

Gadkari's clarification comes in the aftermath of an Indian Express report that a whistleblower has decided to go public with internal company communications of the Essar Group that, in which talks about how the company cultivated individuals in positions of power and influence, showered them with gifts and favours to push its business interests.

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Union Minister of State in the PMO Jitendra Singh and PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti were seen standing outside Central Hall reviewing the morning meeting between PM Modi and PDP patron Mufti Mohammed Sayeed.

Both were heard discussing the number of guests for the Sunday swearing-in ceremony and the logistics involved in accommodating guests from Jammu and Delhi. Ghulam Nabi Azad, who passed them by, did not intervene or disturb the serious conversation.

N Srinivasan on Friday offered an unconditional apology to the Supreme Court for chairing the February 8 BCCI working committee meeting.

The apex court has accepted his apology.

The court has barred Srinivasan from participating or chairing the AGM on March 2.

He has been allowed to vote at the AGM as the nominee of the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association.

The restriction on participation and chairing in any decision-making of the BCCI will continue until the operation of the SC judgment of January 22.

Disorder and disobedience were rife within the Trinamool Congress Parliamentary Party. Many of the Lok Sabha MPs do not see eye-to-eye and each MP is a leader unto himself.

Senior TMC leader Kalyan Banerjee has been sidelined, Sugata Roy has been relegated to the sidelines and there is a lack of coordination among women MPs.

But they all owe an allegiance to Mukul Roy who was not only a leader but also a fund raiser. With Roy's absence, issues are being buried under the carpet and nobody is ready to speak out against the problems in the TMC.

Arun Jaitley, Sharad Pawar and Rajiv Sukhla were in a huddle in the Central Hall of Parliament today. MPs walking by said the trio were probably discussing BCCI, so nobody stopped to talk to what they call the "BCCI teen murti".

The government today admitted to a shortage of laboratories for testing swine flu which has so far claimed 965 lives and said efforts are being made to set up such facilities in every state.

"We have 21 laboratories for testing swine flu. But that is not enough. We are planning to set up H1N1 testing laboratories in every state of the country and financial provisions are being made for it," Health Minister J P Nadda told Lok Sabha while responding to questions.

He said 965 people have died due to swine flu this season. At the same time, he said there was no need for panic but people need to be fully alert.

The Minister insisted that there was no shortage of medicine to treat swine flu (H1N1) affected people and it is available in government hospitals and dispensaries free of cost.

The PM's hour-long speech comes to an end.

The opposition is in uproar over PM's dig at MNREGA. Congress leader in the house Mallikarjun Kharge, says the PM is a good orator, but oration doesnt sustain. "Bhashan se pet nahin bharta. What the PM said about MNREGA was uncalled for," he says. 

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has appointed Derek O'Brien as leader of the party in the Rajya Sabha from Saturday. This means O'Brien will move to the first row to a seat just in front of the chairman. He is presently seated in the fourth row.

Mukul Roy is being eased out of the chairmanship of the TMC Parliamentary Party from Friday.

In a communication to the Rajya Sabha Chairman, Mamta Banerjee asked for these changes to be brought into effect.

Land acquisition bill: "Lot of discussion is going on land acquisition. When the act was made we walked shoulder to shoulder with you. We knew you were hurrying the passage of the bill for political gains yet we stood by you. But did it take 120 years to find flaws in the law?" 

PM: You will think that Modi addresses small issues for big problems. But the roots of big problems are small issues. Our retired Govt employees are supposed to give proof of their living for pension, can't we change such systems?

Speaking on the land bill he says how can a law made in 1894 be still relevant. Addressing the Congress, he says, what were you doing for 60 years? I will change land bill if you can prove it is anti farmer, he says. 

PM asserts that corruption-free system can be established, asks opposition to give suggestions and "guidance".

Modi on cleanliness: "Cleanliness is also an issue related to the respect and dignity of women, female students drop out of school due to lack of toilets.

"Cleanliness is a major issue, it is about our mindset, It's our responsibility to ensure cleanliness.

"When I speak of Swachta Abhiyaan I keep in mind the poor who fall sick due to dirty or unhygienic surroundings."

Meanwhile, TMC MP Mukul Roy who is no more in Mamata Banerjee's good books met finance minister Arun Jaitley: I am a member of the LS and the RS, Arun Jaitley is the Finance Minister, I can meet him anyway.

Modi on MNREGA: MNREGA will continue; it is a living, glowing example of Congress' failure, says the PM.

Sonia Gandhi seated next to Mulayam Singh looks stoic as the treasury benches applaud.

"Corruption has ruined the nation and the nation should not discuss it through a political prism. Corruption should not be talked of in context of politics, that makes in into a "tu tu mai mai" format," says the PM.

Modi in Parliament:

"When Mulayam Singh-ji spoke about Assi Ghat cleanliness, I was confused if he was giving report of UP Government or Centre.

"This is a nation that has been built by farmers, rishis, saints, munis, not the govt. It's the public that forms the nation.

"Ideologies may change. Governments come and go. Nation is made by the People, their strength and their Samarth.

"Governments don't make a country, people do."

A day ahead of the Union Budget PM Modi delivers the vote of thanks in the Lok Sabha.

"Many Parliament members must have felt, "this should have happened" or "that should have happened". I take these expectations in a positive manner. I take "what could/should have been" pointers positively.

" Expectations are essential because they mean that you believe that a solution is possible.

"heard it said that previous projects have been picked up and their name changed. For me, the issue is important, names of projects are not important. The problems have been the same. Some must have felt that this was our program, you just changed name, I believe you shouldn't criticize this, you should rather feel proud. Problems matter, not names of schemes," he says.

The Supreme Court has taken suo moto cognizance of the gang-rape video that sent shockwaves on social media and has decided to take up the matter.

The incident pertains to two separate videos which went viral on WhatsApp earlier this month, showing five smiling men gang-raping a women. They take turns to rape the women even as she begs them to let her go.

Hyderabad-based activist, Sunitha Krishnan, uploaded the videos on YouTube earlier this month, asking viewers to help identify the rapists in what she called the #ShameTheRapistCampaign.

So far, the police have not yet filed any complaints since neither the women nor the rapists have been identified and no one has come forward to lodge a complaint in the two cases.

Krishnan told NDTV, "Ten seconds into the video, I was overcome. I had to stop as I needed to throw up." She said an acquaintance alerted her to the videos after receiving them on WhatsApp.

Krishnan who is herself a gang-rape survivor said she is determined to find the men and get them arrested. She asked her husband, a filmmaker to edit the video to protect the woman's identity, but highlight the faces of the men who raped her.

The edited video was posted on YouTube to start a national campaign to shame the rapists. But YouTube has since removed the video saying it violates their terms of service.

The woman, meanwhile, still awaits justice.

The family of Steven Sotloff, an American-Israeli journalist murdered by the Islamic State group, said they were relishing seeing his killer face justice after the apparent executioner was named.

The masked IS militant dubbed "Jihadi John", believed to be responsible for beheading Western hostages, including Sotloff, was revealed by experts and the media to be Kuwaiti-born London computer programmer Mohammed Emwazi.

"The Sotloff family was informed of John's identity. This is one step on a long road to bringing him to justice," said Barak Barfi, the Sotloff family's spokesman, in a statement.

"If indeed Mohammed Emwazi is the man who executed Steve, the Sotloffs have full faith that the American intelligence community and law enforcement agencies will apprehend him.

The Supreme Court defers for March 9 a hearing on a plea seeking a stay on proceedings in the Karnataka HC on J Jayalalithaa's plea against her conviction in the DA case.

A Railway budget is essentially an opportunity for any government to push forward GDP growth by at least 2.5 per cent, but the Modi government, in its second budget, has lost the opportunity again. The huge expectation not only in India but also across the world for a completely new orientation and a path-breaking budget has been belied. Read

The Economic Survey 2014-15 presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to the Parliament on Friday indicates that a clear political mandate for reform and a benign external environment now is expected to propel India on to a double digit trajectory.

Taking into consideration the change of base year by the Central Statistics Office of the National Accounts series from 2004-05 to 2011-12, states that growth at market prices for 2015-16 is expected to be 8.1-to 8.5 per cent.

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Journalist Sankarshan Thakur tweets this picture of bitter political enemies JD-U chief Nitish Kumar and PM Narendra Modi with RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav on the occasion of the wedding reception of Lalu's daughter and Mulayam Singh Yadav's grandnephew in New Delhi on Thursday.

Sankarshan Thakur is the author of biographies on both Lalu and Nitish.

Three things that emerge from the "Update on US Policy" in the South Asian region in a special briefing in Washington on Thursday by the United States Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Nisha Desai are: a) The US looks back at President Barack Obama's visit to India as productive in its outcome. b) The US is highly pleased with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's appointment of S. Jaishankar as India's Foreign Secretary; and, c) Washington is unhappy with the leaderships in Bangladesh and Maldives for being intolerant toward the legitimate democratic opposition, but feels thrilled about the regime change in Sri Lanka.

Read MK Bhadrakumar's blog.

Six people have been acquitted in the killing of four people, including three British nationals.

A special trial court in Himmatnagar in north Gujarat delivered the verdict today. The killings happened during the 2002 riots in the aftermath of the Godhra train burning.

On February 28, 2002, a day after the Godhra train burning incident, Imran Dawood and his UK-based uncles, Saeed Dawood and Mohammad Aswat, were allegedly attacked by a mob near Pranjit in North Gujarat.

The Dawood family were in India for a visit and were returning to their native village in south Gujarat from a trip to Jaipur when they were allegedly attacked by a mob.

Unidentified assailants have hacked to death Bangladeshi writer Avijit Roy and seriously injured his blogger wife Rafida Ahmed Banna.

Police said the couple came under assault near at Dhaka University around 9:30pm on Thursday.

Witnesses said they were on a rickshaw returning from a book fair when two attackers stopped it, dragged them onto the footpath and started hacking them.

They were rushed to the Dhaka Medical College and Hospital where doctors declared Avijit dead during an emergency surgery.

Islamist zealots have been threatening Avijit, a bioengineer and a naturalised US citizen, for his active campaign against Islamist radicals.

Avijit has been a regular bdnews24.com columnist and the founder of popular blog Mukto-mona.

Avijit had suffered a deep gash on his head during the assault and Banna lost a finger and suffered cut wounds.

The Gujarat High Court today granted bail to one of the 31 convicts of Naroda Patiya riot case of 2002.

As many as 97 people were killed at Naroda Patiya in Ahmedabad during the post-Godhra riots.

The division bench of Justices R R Tripathi and R D Kothari granted bail to Kirpalsingh Chhabda who was the personal assistant to former Gujarat minister Maya Kodnani (convicted in the same case) on the ground of `parity'.

Chhabda's petition said he should be released as Kodnani had already been granted bail last July.

There were only two witnesses who deposed against him while 11 witnesses deposed against Kodnani, Chabda's petition pointed out.

Further, none of the witnesses had alluded to his overt role in the riot, it said.

Mufti will head a 25-member Cabinet. Common Minimum Programme to be released at 3 pm on March 1 after the swearing-in ceremony. 

Pak Army chief warns of "befitting response to provocation along Line of Control" ahead of Indian Foreign Secretary's visit.

Speaking to reporters about the meeting, Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, said, " I had a fruitful meeting with PM today, had discussions on many issues. We have formed a common ground and have developed a consensus on a common minimum program. This is both a political alliance and an alliance for governance."

PDP patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed met Prime Minister Narendra Modi this morning ahead of the swearing-in of the PDP-BJP alliance government on Sunday.

The US-led coalition carried out air strikes against the Islamic State group in northeastern Syria, where the jihadists have launched a new offensive and kidnapped 220 Assyrian Christians. 

Japanese motorcycle giant Yamaha will join the four-wheel market by launching small cars in Europe as early as 2019 to meet rising demand for energy-efficient vehicles, a company official said today. 

Union Finance MinisterArun Jaitley is likely to present the Economic Survey2014-2015 in the Parliament this afternoon.

The South Korean nuclear regulator said today it renewed the operating license of the country's second-oldest nuclear power plant until 2022, overriding the objections of residents and anti-nuclear groups. 

At least 43 fishermen from Tamil Nadu have been reportedly arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy, while fishing in Nedunchivu and Mullaithivu areas.

A 41-year-old Indian-origin man in Singapore is facing 10 years in jail after pleading guilty to charges of arranging a minor's sexual tryst with a part-time model and photographing them in a hotel room. 

Syria's refugee crisis is approaching a "dangerous turning point" as nearly four million Syrians face worsening living conditions in exile, the UN refugee chief has warned. 

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf paid an emotional tribute to the American people as the United States formally wound up its successful five-month mission to combat the west African nation's Ebola outbreak. 

The US can not reassure Pakistan against any Indian threat if it fails to commit itself towards working against anti-India terrorist groups operating within its territory, two US experts on South Asian issues have told American lawmakers. 

Explosions in Nigeria's north-central city of Jos and the northeastern town of Biu over the past two days have killed at least 34 people, witnesses said Thursday.

Five top Kamatapur Liberation Organisation militants, two of them carrying Rs 5 lakh reward, surrendered with arms in lower Assam's Kokrajhar district today, said a police official.

A German court sentenced a male nurse to life in prison on Thursday for killing patients with overdoses of heart medication that he confessed to administering because he enjoyed trying to revive them.

Bangladeshi atheist writer, blogger and government critic Avijit Roy has been killed in the capital Dhaka.

Los Angeles County sheriff's detectives are investigating the theft of what is believed to be the $150,000 pearl-adorned dress worn by actress Lupita Nyong'o to the Academy Awards on Sunday.

The World Health Organisation today lauded India's tobacco control mechanisms, calling the country a "champion" for curbing "tobacco marketing in films".

Washington Post reporters spoke to the killer's former hostages and friends as they tracked the identity of Mohammed Emwazi, the world's most wanted man.

New York court finds close Bin Laden aide Khalid al-Fawwaz guilty over Africa embassy attacksThis breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.

Gold bars weighing 2.5 kg, worth Rs 85 lakh were seized by customs officials from the toilet of a Jet Airways flight which landed in Chennai from Singapore tonight.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress President Sonia Gandhi were among a host of political leaders attending the wedding reception of Lalu Prasad Yadav's daughter with Mulayam Singh Yadav's grandnephew in New Delhi tonight.

As many as 43 Indian fishermen were today arrested by Sri Lankan naval personnel while fishing in Nedunchivu and Mullaithivu areas off the island nation, officials said.