A Saudi Arabian rights activist sentenced to prison and 1,000 lashes for insulting Islam will not be flogged Friday for medical reasons, his wife said.

A suspected jihadist group targeted in a major anti-terror raid on Thursday had been planning to kill policemen in the street and at police stations, Belgian prosecutors say.

A B Bardhan, former secretary general of CPI, was admitted in a private nursing home here following an increase in his blood pressure. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today expressed his strong support for closer economic ties with Japan and conveyed his greetings to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for his recent victory in general elections. 

The US today slapped sanctions against two Indians, including a brother of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, and a Pakistan-based paper company for their ties with the D Company.

Designation of two long-time members of D Company, Shaikh Anis Ibrahim Kaskar (Anis Ibrahim), the brother of Dawood Ibrahim, and Aziz Moosa Bilakhia (Bilakhia), comes less than a fortnight before US President Barack Obama's visit to India.

Anis is known to be involved in narcotics trafficking, extortion, contract killings, and money laundering on behalf of the D Company. He is also accused of involvement in the 1993 Mumbai blasts.

The Delhi police today held meetings with sleuths of US Secret Service and top police officials of neighbouring states to chalk out a coordination plan and identify possible challenges in order to ensure fool-proof security during the coming Republic Day parade where President Barack Obama will be the chief guest.

According to sources, officials of the US Secret Service discussed the overall security set-up for Obama's visit and also sought a certain details regarding the hotel where he would stay, routes he will travel and the places he will visit. They have also asked access to CCTV cameras installed on all the routes to be travelled by the US President and several emergency exit routes were also finalised for Obama's entourage.

In a related development, an interstate co-ordination meeting aimed at strengthening cooperation and coordination in order to address various issues related to policing in NCR was held under the chairmanship of Delhi Police Commissioner B S Bassi today.

BBC reports: 2014 was the hottest year on record across the globe, US scientists have confirmed.

The year ranks as the Earth's warmest since 1880, according to two separate analyses by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The ten warmest years on record, with the exception of 1998, have now occurred since 2000, said scientists.

 

Delhi Police Commissioner B S Bassi today launched 'MeruEve', a new cab service which will be chauffeured only by women drivers.

Twenty five such cabs were flagged off by Bassi and Siddhartha Pahwa, CEO of Meru Cabs, said that in the next couple of months, the number of such cabs will be increased to 300. Other than a woman driver, the cabs will have 3G-enabled mobile phones with 'video recording' facility which would also have a speed dial for All SHOs for distress call number, a panic buzzer, a pepper spray and women helpline numbers displayed on it prominently.

Speaking at the event, Bassi said that with the new service, if women think that they don't want to be driven home by a man, they have an option. Referring to the Uber rape case incident, Pahwa said "last month's incident has forced us to make efforts to make our roads safer."

The Aam Aadmi Party has launched a Twitter war against Kiran Bedi and Shazia Ilmi, who have joined the BJP by pulling out old tweets of the two.

In a subtle attack on Ilmi on Wednesday, AAP Chief Arvind Kejriwal retweeted one of her old tweets, dated November 21, 2013, which said 'Hypocrisy, thy name is BJP'. The tweet by Ilmi, who was in AAP at the time, criticises the BJP and the Congress over its funding.

Founder AAP member Kumar Vishwas posted more than half-a-dozen old Kiran Bedi tweets in which she gave her views on the Congress, the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"One day, Namo (Narendra Modi) will have to respond with clarity about riot massacre," said another tweet posted by Bedi on March 16, 2013.

Shiv Sena, which is BJP's partner in Maharashtra and at the Centre, is considering contesting the Delhi assembly elections to be held next month.

"We are thinking about contesting the Delhi polls. A final decision will be taken soon. However, there has been no talk so far on a poll alliance with anyone," Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray said today.

Just in: Congress has pit Kiran Walia against Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal in the New Delhi constituency.

Walia a former Delhi minister was defeated by AAP's Somnath Bharti in Malviya Nagar constituency in the 2013 assembly polls. She had won the seat in 1999, 2003 and 2008.

She was the minister for health and education in Sheila Dikshit's cabinet.

Just in: Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses the global business summit at Taj Palace in New Delhi.

"I am happy to her here today. You will see India as a country of opportunities. I assure you that your inputs shall receive the government's highest attention," he said. "The New Age India has also begun its transition from a winter of subdued achievement lasting 3 to 4 years, to a new spring that beckons."

"We can overcome the mood of despair. And we must. It is in this context that all the steps we have taken must be seen," he said.

"The government must nurture an eco-system where the economy is primed for growth and growth promotes all-round development."

AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal today took a swipe at the BJP, saying that it roped in former top cop Kiran Bedi and his one-time aide Shazia Ilmi when Prime Minister Narendra Modi's rally in New Delhi turned out to be dud.

Addressing a rally at Trilokpuri, which saw communal riots flaring up some three months back, the former Delhi chief minister accused the BJP of doing "venomous politics."

"The BJP is rattled and nervous. Earlier they sent 200 MPs to campaign in Delhi. I attended one of the rallies and I saw seven MPs on the stage and only ten people on the chairs. When that did not work, it pressed in its ministers."

"When ministers did not work, the prime minister stepped in . When his rally turned out to be a flop, now they have introduced Kiran Bedi and Shazia Ilmi in the party, but let me tell you truth will always prevail," Kejriwal said.

Just before the rally, he took to social media to hit out Bedi and Ilmi for accusing AAP of doing "negative" politics.

The AAP chief said he is fighting to make Delhi a better place while the BJP is fighting to defeat him.

The Congress today slammed its senior leader Shashi Tharoor for continuing to praise Prime Minister Narendra Modi ignoring the party's line.

While senior leader and AICC Disciplinary Committee Chairman A K Antony said the party had earlier also cautioned Tharoor against lavishing praises on Modi,

Congress spokesperson P C Chacko came down heavily on his colleague. "On a similar occasion in the past the party has cautioned Tharoor against this after the disciplinary committee examined the matter. I don't want to respond to the latest instance as I have some limitations as the head of the disciplinary committee," Antony told reporters.

He was reacting to the laudatory comments made by Tharoor on Modi in Kolkotta yesterday.

A Hyderabad-based engineer, who has studied in the US, was arrested today by the Telangana police for suspected links with the Islamic State, NDTV reports.
 
22-year-old Salman Moinuddin, a resident of Asif Nagar in Hyderabad, was stopped by security agencies at the airport yesterday when he was about to take a flight to Dubai. The police say he has confessed that he was going to join the Islamic State.

In Dubai, Moinuddin allegedly planned to join his girlfriend, British national Nicky Joseph, and travel to Syria via Turkey.

Read the full report here

Delhi polls: Congress's Kiran Walia to contest from New Delhi. 

Paris hostage situation ends with the arrest of the gunman. 

Abraham also denied she was writing Tharoor's biography as reported by India Today.

BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on Wednesday also claimed on his Twitter account that Katie is actually Katherine Abraham. However, Swamy later tweeted, "My information is from the police. I made no such claim. I said Katie is a girl called Katherine, but will not identify her because she is not involved in the murder."

India Today reports that according to the social media profile of Katie, she is an author, an aspiring United Nations diplomat and she used #Tharooriyan- a hash tag to support Tharoor.

Katherine Abraham, the woman over whom the Tharoors allegedly argued,  has filed a defamation suit against a TV channel for alluding that she was involved with Shashi Tharoor.

The Special Investigation Team's probe into the murder mystery of Sunanda Pushkar Tharoor, wife of former Union minister Shashi Tharoor, revealed that a woman called Katie, over whom the couple reportedly argued, is actually Thiruvananthapuram-based author named Katherine Abraham.

India Today reports that Tharoor was constantly in touch with 24-year-old Abraham who is also known as Katie. Tharoor, in fact, retweeted several of Abraham's tweets.

A picture of top cop Kiran Bedi with former PM Indira Gandhi in 1973. Bedi joined the BJP yesterday and will contest the Delhi polls. A police officer who was there at the meeting says Bedi grabbed the chair next to Mrs Gandhi, but did not get any special attention.

The Delhi High Court today chided the government for installing 15,000 CCTV cameras within weeks for US President Barack Obama's upcoming visit to the national capital, but failing to act fast when it comes to meet the needs of the citizens.

So "let's get someone from outer space," a bench of justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdeva remarked.

The bench was hearing an application seeking that the cameras being put up for the American President's security should not be removed after the event in light of several incidents like the December 16 gang-rape case.

"Because of a foreign President you (government) do it, but not for Indian citizens. If we direct you to do it for Indians, you do in months and years, else you do it in weeks. Let's get someone from outer space," the bench said.

It also issued notices to the Centre, Delhi government and city police and sought their responses on whether the cameras would be removed.

"Will you remove it (cameras)? You take instructions. Notice. Delhi government, Centre and Delhi police seek time for instructions. Renotify on January 30," the bench said. It also remarked, "it will take them years to remove it, if it is not vandalized before that".

The Independent reports that the man, though heavily armed, is known to be an "unbalanced" individual who recently broke up with his girlfriend. Two individuals are being held by the gunman, who contacted the police himself, but insisted there was no link to terrorism.

US Secretary of State John Kerry made up for missing Sunday's Paris unity march with a visit to the capital to meet French officials and show American solidarity in the wake of the recent terror attacks, reports France24.

The march, held to commemorate the 17 victims of last week's three-day terror spree and to defend the values of tolerance and free speech, was attended by around 1.5 million people, including dozens of heads of state and top diplomats from around the world.

But the US came in for severe criticism from certain media for failing to send any senior officials to the march. It was instead represented by the country's ambassador to France, Jane Hartley.

AFP reports that two, and not three people, have been taken hostage in Colombes in northwest Paris. The gunman is believed to be a holding a Kalashnikov rifle.  The post office has been cordoned off and there are choppers circling the area.

Earlier today, there was a bomb threat at a Paris train station, after which the station was evacuated.

Just in: Three people have been taken hostage by a gunman in a post office in suburban Paris. Details awaited.

This comes just a day after funerals were held for four people killed in last week's attack in Paris on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo by militant Islamists.

Friends and family paid last respects to cartoonists Bernard Verlhac, known as Tignous, and Georges Wolinski, as well as a columnist and a policeman.

Seventeen people died in the attacks. Eight magazine staff, a visitor to the magazine and a caretaker died, as well as three police officers and four people at a Jewish supermarket.

In Hollywood women and people from ethnic minorities are only rewarded for playing victims and villains. Read

AFP photographer Asif Hassan was shot while covering the Charlie Hebdo protest in Karachi, but appeared to be out of danger following surgery.

"The bullet struck his lung, and passed through his chest. He is out of immediate danger and he has spoken to his colleagues," Dr. Seemi Jamali, a spokeswoman for Jinnah Hospital where Hassan was taken, told AFP.

Pakistani police have clashed with crowds protesting over an image of the Prophet Muhammad published in French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, reports the BBC. An  AFP photographer shot at is believed to be in a serious condition.

The authorities deployed water cannon to disperse the demonstration, near the French consulate in Karachi.

The protest was part of a nationwide rally called by the Jamaat-e-Islami religious party.

Charlie Hebdo featured a cartoon of Muhammad, a week after gunmen carried out a massacre at its offices.

On Thursday, Pakistani politicians passed a motion condemning Charlie Hebdo for publishing the cartoon.Several religious groups called for protests after Friday prayers.

In Karachi, at least three people were injured during clashes between the police and protesters, who were mostly student activists from Jamaat-e-Islami.

In a shocking incident of moral policing, a video has surfaced on social media showing a group of hooligans brutality thrashing a young couple in Latur, Maharashtra.

The attackers belong to GanimiKawa, a rural organisation which often indulges in moral policing. According to reports in the local media, this particular group was led by Balaji Godse. Local police has registered a case against the accused. Read

Ira Bhaskar, Censor Board member on her decision to resign: "No pressure. Had already decided, there has been no board meeting for a year. It is a culmination process which has been going for a while, what is the point of extension if we are not able to function? I have decided to resign in support of Leela's (Samson) resignation."

AFP photographer shot at in Pakistan Charlie Hebdo protest, in serious condition.

Anti-Charlie Hebdo protests in Karachi turn violent. A photographer is shot as police fire on protestors.

Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh addresses a press conference after the release of his film, MSG -- Messenger of God, was stopped today.

Singh says, that he never put any pressure on the censor board to release the film and calls for censor board chief Leela Samson to say why she quit.

He said that while the MSG premiere has not been finalised, there is nothing in the movie that can hurt anyone. "Only one line has been removed, one word has been muted. Protestors should see the movie first and then react. Nobody questioned Amitabh when he pulled of miracles. I am not projectimg myself as god in the movie. The movie is about the menace of drug abuse," he said.

In Punjab various Sikh outfits came out to protest against the screening of 'MSG: Messenger of God.'  The temporal seat of the Sikhs, the Akal Takht, had in December last year sought a ban on the movie by the godman who had first hurt the sentiments of the community when he had allegedly dressed up like the Sikh guru, Guru Gobind Singh.

Censor Board members have objected to the portrayal of the controversial dera chief as god.

The film has been dubbed an advertisement which also shows the dera chief performing miracles to cure diseases.

An Indian was among eight foreigners who are missing along with 14 others when a tugboat sank off the Yangtze River in China's east Jiangsu Province.

Four from Singapore and one each from India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Japan were among the 25 people aboard the boat when it capsized while conducting tests in Fubei Channel, near Jingjiang City off the Yangtze River at about 3 pm local time yesterday, the provincial maritime rescue centre said. Three people were rescued so far.

AAP's Ashutosh on Shazia Ilmi's induction: "My wishes with Shazia, but shows BJP has turned into Arvind's B team, they can't fight him alone so taking ppl who've worked with him."

Yesterday, Kiran Bedi, a former Team Anna worker, was inducted into the BJP.

Days after his shocking electoral defeat, embattled former president Mahinda Rajapaksa today handed over Sri Lanka Freedom Party's reins to the country's new leader Maithripala Sirisena, saying he does not want to see his party divided.   

"I dislike to see my party divided," 69-year-old Rajapaksa who ruled the Island nation for a decade said in a statement while handing over the party chairmanship to the new Lankan President Sirisena.   

Scores of senior party leaders had joined 63-year-old Sirisena before and after he became the president on January9.   

"With effect from today I will be handing over the leadership to President Maithripala Sirisena", Rajapaksa said in a statement.   

Finally. Former AAP leader Shazia Ilmi joins the BJP. 

Just in: After Leela Samson, another Censor Board member Ira Bhaskar to resign.

Swapan Dasgupta @swapan on Leela Samson resigning as Censor Board chief. "Samson's method: create a controversy just before term expires, submit resignation & emerge a political martyr. Congress debt repaid."

Just in: The US also wants a lockdown of central Delhi. The US advance security team wants all of central Delhi to to be closed for US president Obama's visit. The Obamas are in India from January 25 to 27, but US secret service has asked Indian security agencies to sanitise all government buildings by January 24 and close down areas of central Delhi.

The United States aims to secure agreements with India to start pilot projects for joint production of drones as well as equipment for transport planes in talks next week ahead of a visit by President Barack Obama, a US industry source said on Wednesday.

Former Chief Election Commissioner V S Sampath prior demiting office paid a courtesy call on President Pranab Mukherjee as he is the appointing authority apart from being an elder statesman.

The president heard Sampath's recommendation that the government enact a law giving legal teeth to the Election Commission to prosecute law breakers during poll season.

Three neighbouring countries including Pakistan have invested such powers with their Election Commission.

A former CEC cattily remarked that wisdom dawns on authorities when they demit office.

Just in: The Delhi-Agra highway will be be shut ahead of US President Barack Obama's visit to Agra on January 27. This means all shops, restaurants, hotels along the highway will be shut. The US advance team which met Indian security officials today said they want an emergency exit route in case anything untoward happens.

American officials raised concern that terrorists might target the Delhi-Agra Highway which President Obama will take to travel to the Taj city. As per sources, US agents have expressed concern that restaurants and hotels, which fall en route to Agra, might be targeted by terrorists.

US secret service agents have also asked their Indian counterparts to prepare emergency exit routes and dummy routes for President Obama's entourage.

Former law minister Jairam Ramesh created quite a stir at Bhatta Parsaul village in UP, holding forth against the Modi government's Land Acquisition Act.

Ramesh, who was also a rural development minister, attended a farmers' meeting in the village.

The Congress has so far been alleging that the ordinance promulgated the government takes away the powers given to the farmers by the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, enacted by the UPA-II regime in 2013.

Ramesh, who wore a green turban typical of Haryana farmers addressed the crowd in fluent Hindi to much applause. 

From Parsaul, Ramesh drove straight to the international airport to catch a flight to Paris for his lecture tour junket.

The woman who says she was raped by an Uber Technologies Inc. driver in Delhi has reached out to a high-profile lawyer in the U.S. to sue the car-hailing company. The woman, who has not been named in accordance with Indian law that protects the identity of alleged victims of rape, has engaged Douglas Wigdor, a New York-based lawyer who specializes in sexual assault cases. Read more

Union minister for urban development, Venkaiah Naidu, hosted a delectable lunch at his house for Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu. On the invitee list were two BJP union ministers, BJP general secretary  Ram Madhav, two Supreme Court judges and TDP MP C M Ramesh.

Venkaiah told Chandrababu in Telugu that he had three cooks flown in with ingredients (vegetables, chillies, fish) from the Godavari region of Andhra for the meal.

Fingers are still being licked, we believe.

Union Ministers are all set to make a beeline in front of J Jayalalithaa's Poes Garden house in Chennai from Sunday.

The first minister to meet her will be Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who wants her support on the GST Bill and the Land Acquisition Act.

After Jaitley, this is the line-up: Ravi Shankar Prasad, JN Nadda and Nirmala Sitaraman.

And yes, all the four ministers have got a go-ahead from the PM for the meet and greet. 

Shazia Ilmi after meeting Amit Shah says, she had a good meeting. "He (Amit Shah) welcomed me in the party, will be joining party (BJP) soon."

So, Bharatnatyam danseuse Leela Samson has quit as Censor Board chief. She put in her papers on Thursday amid reports that the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal had cleared the release of the film MSG -- The Messenger of God featuring Dera Saccha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.

That's known.

What is not, is that Samson trained Priyanka Gandhi in Bharatnatyam and there are whispers that it is this proximity that helped Samson hold six key positions in the 10 years of UPA regime.

The debut movie of Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh '" 'MSG: The Messenger of God' will not be released today since the film's producer has not received a censor certificate. The new release dates are being worked out. 

Hours after the Censor Board chairperson Leela Samson leveled charges that the government was interfering in the functioning of the body, the government has come forward and refuted Samsons charges, asserting that it has always maintained a distance from the certification process.

Former AAP leader Shazia Ilmi meets BJP president Amit Shah. Ilmi is likely to be inducted into the party today, a day after Kiran Bedi joined the party.

Congress leader Ajay Maken on Kiran Bedi's candidature for the Delhi polls: "Kiran Bedi has an experience of 40yrs as a bureaucrat, when one runs pol admin, have to think otherwise not like a bureaucrat. She has an experience of 40  years, an experience of fighting with her seniors."

And Kiran Bedi's response...

"I think he is a good person,let him say what he wants to.Have to work,no time to comment on what others say."

The Paris attacks were barbaric but also startling, leading many to ask what can be done to prevent this kind of terrorism. One man has a clear answer.

"That attack you saw in Paris? You'll see an attack in the United States," Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) told the New York Times.

Elaborating on how to stop this from happening, he told the Times and CNN that prevention will require a more aggressive strategy from the U.S. military across the greater Middle East, with ground troops and a no-fly zone in Syria and more troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

This theory was sometimes described during the Iraq war as "we fight them there so we don't have to fight them here.' It was wrong then, and it's wrong now.

Read Fareed Zakaria's column for the Washington Post.

On Monday, the young students who survived one of Pakistan's worst terrorist attacks returned to the Army Public School in Peshawar.

The school was shut for a month after the Tehreek-e-Taliban terrorists massacred 150 people, mostly children in the school.

As traumatised students of the army-run school returned after the unusually long winter break, extended for 12 days due to threat of militants, this picture was posted on Twitter. 

Back in school, teenager Talha Munir Paracha posted two images in an attempt to recreate what he had lost. The first image shows Paracha with three friends.

Paracha and another student recreated the photo, but with a gaping hole -- which signified that their two friends had been killed in the incident.

Militants killed 150 people, including 134 students, on December 16, during a 7-hour siege, leading to closure of educational institutions across Pakistan. A tweet by army spokesperson, Maj Gen Asim Bajwa, said Gen Raheel joined the students in the morning assembly. "Standing proudly to sing national anthem," Bajwa said.

Click on the image for a larger picture.

The government today refuted charges of interference in the Censor Board's functioning levelled by its chairperson Leela Samson, who has decided to resign, even as it asserted that it has always maintained a distance from the certification process.

The decision by Samson to resign came amid a row over controversial film 'Messenger of God' featuring Dera Saccha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Reacting to the CBFC chairperson's statement that she had decided to resign because of "recent cases" of interference in the functioning of the Board, Minister of State in the Information and Broadcasting ministry Rajyavardhan Rathore said the ministry has always "kept a hands away distance" from the Censor Board decisions.

"This latest issue of the Chairperson resigning has come to light. I would like to bring to the notice of everyone that the entire Censor Board and all its members were placed by the previous government. None of them have been changed. No additional member has been put in. The extension that the Chairperson has been talking of has been granted to the entire Censor board," Rathore said.

Also read: Censor Board chief quits over Dera Leader's controversial film

Stocks of SpiceJet today surged nearly 10 per cent after the company returned to original promoter Ajay Singh for its revival in a multi-layered deal worth up to Rs 1,500 crore. Shares of the cash-strapped firm rallied 9.92 per cent to Rs 20.50 -- its highest trading permissible limit for the day on the BSE.

Shobhaa De '@DeShobhaa It took the beauteous Jaya Prada a really, really long time to discover her mentor Mulayam Singh Yadav was anti-women!

Yesterday, actor-turned-politician Jaya Prada said she wants to join the BJP as she is impressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modis leadership.

Everyone is impressed by Modijis leadership. Many big leaders want to work with him. Similarly, as an activist, I want to join the party, the former MP said. Her colleague and former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh was talking to BJP leadership (in this regard), she said.

She also said she wanted to put behind her what she called a "very bitter experience" with the Samajwadi Party and its chief Mulayam Singh Yadav.

"They never respected women," Jaya Prada said about the Samajwadi Party.

A woman faculty with a government-run college, who also writes scripts for Malayalam films, has been asked by college authorities to explain the "indecent behavior'' of kissing her husband during "kiss in the street'' recently held in Kozhikode to protest against moral policing.

Deedi Damodaran and her husband Premchand had kissed on a street on December 7 to express their solidarity with the agitation. Premchand was even beaten by Hanuman Sena, which had threatened to thwart the event.

Read more

HS Brahma takes charge as the next Chief Election Commissioner in place of VS Sampath who demitted office on Thursday. The appointment of Brahma has been made keeping with the convention of elevating the senior-most Election Commissioner as the CEC, a recommendation the Law Ministry had made to the government.

There is nothing extraordinary about The Theory of Everything. It is a simple story -- part-biopic, part-romance -- about two people as vastly different from each other as any two people can be, who come together against all odds for the love that binds them. However, The Theory of Everything is a story that needed to be told. Read the review and yes, go watch the film.

Just in: In a major relief to Tarun Tejpal, former editor of Tehelka, the Supreme Court has directed the Goa court to adjourn the case against him for three weeks.

Tejpal has approached the Supreme Court challenging a Goa session court order to proceed for arguments on charge against him in the alleged sexual assault case without providing him the necessary documents.

The bench is headed by Chief Justice H.L. Dattu.

The appeal, filed by advocate Sandeep Kapur, contended that the session court while passing the December 23, 2014, order was conscious of the recklessness shown by the prosecution to uphold statutory requirements that are obligatory to provide all necessary documents.

It also claimed that the prosecution had deviated from procedure and failed to appreciate that speedy trial was barely a facet of fair trial.

Tejpal has been chargesheeted for allegedly raping, sexually harassing and outraging the modesty of a junior colleague during an event at a Goa hotel in November last year.

He was arrested on November 30, 2013 and is presently out on interim bail. Before being released on interim bail, he was lodged at Sada sub-jail in Goas Vasco town.

Asserting that he didn't believe in hyphenated identities, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has said that his parents came to the US from India four decades ago to become Americans and not Indian-Americans.

He invoked his ethnic heritage to make a call for immigrant assimilation and called people who talked about skin pigmentation as the "most dim-witted lot" around.

"My parents came in search of the American Dream, and they caught it. To them, America was not so much a place, it was an idea. My dad and mom told my brother and me that we came to America to be Americans. Not Indian-Americans, simply Americans," Jindal said in a prepared remarks that he is scheduled to deliver next week.

Jindal, the first Indian-American Governor of any American state, is scheduled to address the Henry Jackson Society on Monday in London.

Releasing the prepared remarks of Jindal's speech, his office said the Louisiana Governor will call for immigrant assimilation to strengthen countries and protect freedom.

REVEALED! How Ajay Singh plans to revive SpiceJet. Read

Former IPS officer Kiran Bedi has, in a manner of speaking, challenged former India Against Corruption colleague Arvind Kejriwal to a direct fight in the Delhi polls.

Speaking to NDTV, Bedi said, "I'm ready to fight Kejriwal directly in his constituency,  I don't care if I lose."

Yesterday, BJPs top brass -- Amit Shah, Arun Jaitley and Dr Harsh Vardhan -- inducted Bedi at the party headquarters confirming that she would contest the elections.      

The BJP chief welcomed Bedi to the party and said she would strengthen its Delhi unit. "I extend my heartiest wishes to Kiran Bediji for joining the BJP. Her presence will strengthen our Delhi unit. She will definitely contest from the BJP's side, but it is the prerogative of the parliamentary board to decide who will be CM candidate.

Though no announcement has been made on the seat that Bedi will contest, rumour mills are abuzz that she may be pitted against Aam Aadmi Partys Arvind Kejriwal as BJPs candidate for the top job. 

Two Assam Rifles jawans were injured, one of them seriously, when militants attacked their post in Manipur's interior Chandel district bordering Myanmar. 

Fog and cold wave conditions continued to prevail in most parts of north India on Friday.

Police have found a terror message scribbled in the washroom of Mumbai Airport warning of a terror attack on Republic Day.

Two Italian aid workers who had been held hostage in Syria for almost 6 months have been released, the Italian government announced.

British Prime Minister David Cameron has arrived in the city to hold talks with US President Barack Obama on a wide range of issues including counter-terrorism, joint campaign against IS and cyber- securities. 

The UK and US are to carry out "war game" cyber attacks on each other as part of a new joint defence against online criminals.

Cameroon's President Paul Biya has announced that neighbouring Chad will send troops to aid his country's army fight Boko Haram militants from Nigeria, a government spokesman said. 

A spokesman for Muhammad Ali says the boxing great is back in the hospital for follow-up care related to a urinary tract infection. 

Former national security adviser Condoleezza Rice told jurors she was stunned to learn that a classified mission to thwart Iran's nuclear weapons ambitions had been leaked to the news media. 

US Secretary of State John Kerry has arrived in France "to share a big hug for Paris" hours after funerals were held for five of the 17 people killed in last week's jihadist attacks. 

Today should be a day full of joy for Hollywood, as the Academy Award nominations were announced. 

Birdman, Boyhood, American Sniper sweep Oscar 2015 nominations

Dera chief's 'Messenger of God' WILL release today

18 armymen arrested for Nashik police station attack 

When PM Modi impressed Shashi Tharoor 

Kiran Bedi joins BJP, likely to be pitted against Kejriwal 

Militant who ordered tribal massacre in Assam held 

Sunanda case: More to be quizzed in next 2 days, says police

It's 0.25%! Why the RBI cut the repo rate

In Case You Missed: Thursday's Commentary