Timeline Refresh
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Several separatists, including Mirwaiz were placed under house arrest last month by authorities in Jammu and Kashmir over the strike called by hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani over the killing of two young men in an army operation earlier this week.
Last month, an FIR was filed against hardline separatist leader, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Masarat Alam Bhat and other separatist leaders 'for provocative activities and hoisting Pakistan flag' in Srinagar. Geelani's supporters also shouted anti-India and pro-Pak slogans.
"The Centre's decision not to provide funds for police modernization to the state will put the state government in difficulty in containing insurgency which though on the wane, is yet to be rooted out," Gogoi said.
"We need funds for procuring modern weapons for our police force, for setting up modern police stations and residential accommodation for policemen. All these will be severely affected in view of the Centre's decision to stop the police modernization fund," Gogoi said.
He pointed out that there was renewed threat from insurgents in view of several North East insurgent groups including ULFA (Independent) ganging up in Myanmar to launch a joint fight. "We have to constantly remain on vigil against insurgents as they have formed a joint organization (United Liberation Front of West South East Asia)," he said.
Meanwhile, Gogoi claimed that the on-going talks between the Centre and a faction of the ULFA led by Arabinda Rajkhowa was progressing well. The ULFA faction, he said, had raised the demand for declaring Assam as a tribal state, which had got the nod from the Assam government as well.
The BBC reports that militants seized part of the town of Tadmur located on a strategic east-west route next to Palmyra on Saturday but had been pushed back from the ruins.
Palmyra contains the ruins of one of the most important cultural centres of the ancient world, according to UNESCO.
It is feared IS fighters may now damage or destroy the site. Monitoring sources said a third of the area had been taken.
The CID has deleted some of the CCTV footage in the digital video recorder installed at his residence, Hanumanthrayappa claimed.
Facing rising public anger over the death of an upright IAS officer with growing clamour for a CBI probe, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had on Monday announced the government's decision to handover the case to the central agency, saying it had nothing to hide and was not protecting anyone.
Hanumathrayappa, a local Congress leader, said CID had taken the CCTV footage two days after Ravi's death and returned it on March 23 and he was surprised to see some portions deleted.
"Two days after Ravi's death, the CID took away the footage and returned it on March 23. I was shocked to see the footage recorded before 10.30 am on March 16 was deleted," Hanumnthrayappa told PTI.
The CBI started a preliminary enquiry into the "unnatural" death of Karnataka cadre IAS officer D K Ravi last month. His body was found hanging at his residence in Bengaluru in March.
Ravi, an IAS officer of 2009 batch, was found dead on March 16 at his residence in Bengaluru.
His death had snow-balled into a major controversy with Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah initially refusing to seek a CBI probe in the case. The case was handed over to the Karnataka CID.
Putting a spin on each of Modi's schemes, Ramesh said:
"One year ago Mr Modi promised maximum governance and minimum government, 1 year later what we see maximum arrogance, one man Govt."
"Mr Modi promised selfless govt, 1 year later what we see is not selfless Govt but 'selfie PM'."
"One year ago NDA govt took office, National democratic alliance, 1 year later we have 'MNDA' , Modi's Non democratic alliance."
"One year ago PM said 'Skill India', 1 year later we see 'Kill India', killing of Parliament, killing of judiciary and killing of civil society."
"One year ago Mr Modi promised 'turn around' of Indian economy, 1 year later we don't have turn around but we have 'U-turn'."
The Delhi Police submitted before Metropolitan Magistrate Sunil Kumar Sharma that Shashi Tharoors domestic help Narain Singh, driver Bajrangi and friend Sanjay Dewan were concealing material facts about Sunandas mysterious death on January 17, 2014, hence they should be subjected to polygraph test.
Citing specific instances to claim that they are lying, the police told the court that the three were Tharoors close associates and were in present at Hotel Leela Palace just before Sunandas death.
"During investigation, it has been found that the three persons are concealing material facts and did not disclose several issues related to the death of Sunanda Pushkar," the plea filed by SHO of Sarojini Nagar Police Station said.
It said that on January 17, Tharoor's close friend Sanjay Dewan came to the hotel at 5 pm and remained there till the discovery of Pushkar's death. He could not give plausible reason for cancelling his trip to Mumbai and his coming to the hotel in Delhi, it said.
Among the other points raised by the police was his silence about a power cut in Room No 345 just before the discovery of Sunandas death and, despite being there, they failed to explain the injury marks on Sunandas body.
"This issue has to be dealt with from humanitarian point of view and we will pursue the matter with the Union Home Ministry," PDP president Mehbooba Mufti told PTI.
Hardline Hurriyat faction leader Geelani has applied for a passport to visit his ailing daughter in Saudi Arabia. Several mainstream leaders have called for issuing passport to the separatist leader.
Reacting to the PDP president's statement on the issue, National Conference leader Omar Abdullah wondered if it was "fixed match" between the ruling allies in which Mehbooba was trying to appear as a "crusader".
"What's the big deal? Geelani declined to avail a passport in 2011 so why is Mehbooba suddenly trying to appear as some sort of crusader," Omar said on Twitter.
BJP, the coalition partner of PDP in the state government, has said Geelani must apologise for his "anti-national activities" and acknowledge that he is an Indian if he wants an Indian passport. Omar questioned BJP's objections on the passport issue.
"I completely fail to understand why BJP would object to Geelani calling himself an Indian unless this is a PDP-BJP fixed match," he tweeted.
Apparently referring to the requirement of declaring nationality as Indian in the application form, the former chief minister said, "If he could get a passport in 2011, there is no reason he can't get one in 2015. He's happy to travel on an Indian passport & citizenship."
Maggi noodles may lose its license and be banned in Uttar Pradesh. The decision is likely to be taken after monosodium glutamate or MSG and lead were found beyond permissible limits in Maggi samples.
The Uttar Pradesh Food Safety and Drug Administration department will soon start prosecution proceedings against Nestle which manufactures Maggi.
The Assistant Commissioner of Food Safety in Uttar Pradesh said that the samples were tested in a Kolkata lab and showed added MSG and lead. Further tests have been ordered.
Watch this space ... after two minutes.
"..I expect that it would be in 2015. We are expecting that he will take over (as Congress President), and we are expecting that he would take over in 2015," the former Union Minister told PTI in an interview. Gandhi is committed to creating a new cadre of leadership in states, he said.
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The 8,000-page charge sheet running into seven volumes contains the statements of witnesses, his conversation in the chat rooms and his mobile phone records, the official added.
In January this year, a local court had allowed NIA to seek details of conversations and chats carried out by the alleged ISIS 'recruit' through telecommunication apps Skype and Tango headquartered in Luxembourg and California, USA respectively.
The 23-year-old youth from Kalyan in neighbouring Thane landed in Mumbai on November 28 last year after a visit to Iraq, following which he was detained and subsequently arrested.
In effect, the L-G put a stay on appointments by the Delhi government without the CM's consultation. Jung's letter is in response to the CM's order that all files should be routed through him or ministers. All orders issued by AAP govt in the last four days regarding transfer and posting of officials have been cancelled by the LG.
In obtaining a million followers in less than five hours, Obama broke the record previously set by actor Robert Downey Jr., who got to the one-million mark in 23 hours and 22 minutes in April 2014.
The president already has another Twitter account, @BarackObama, which is handled by the team that directed his second presidential campaign, Organizing for America, and the messages he has written there so far have been marked with the initials "bo" to differentiate them from tweets created by other presidential staffers.
The Test squad: Virat Kohli (captain), Ajinkya Rahane, Murali Vijay, Rohit Sharma, K L Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Shikhar Dhawan, Wriddhiman Saha (w/k), Ravichandran Ashwin, Harbhajan Singh, Karn Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Varun Aaron.
Former captain Sunil Gavaskar has stated that Virat Kohli should lead India in the one-off Test match against Bangladesh and sit out of the three-match One-Day International series that will follow.
The Indian team for the tour of Bangladesh was selected today in Mumbai.
The incident occurred at around 7.45 am when Lalitha (aged around 25), a private firm employee staying at a hostel in Madhura Nagar, went to the ATM to withdraw money, they said.
"The armed man had covered his face with a kerchief. When the woman entered the ATM centre, he suddenly came from behind and demanded her valuables. When she refused, he fired on the wall and after terrorising her took away her gold chain and earrings (weighing around 20 grams)," S R Nagar Police Station Inspector G V Ramana Goud said.
The accused also snatched her ATM card before fleeing. He also attempted to withdraw money from the ATM, but failed to do so due to some technical problem, he said.
Police is verifying the CCTV footage and efforts are on to nab the accused, he said. Deputy Commissioner of Police (West Zone) A Venkateshwera Rao, who reached the crime scene, said the accused threatened the woman with a weapon and fired single round on the wall before robbing her gold ornaments.
"He also took away her cellphone and ATM card and forced her to disclose its PIN number before fleeing. We suspect that the accused is an repeat offender...we are collecting scientific evidence," the DCP said, adding, that the accused apparently used a country-made weapon for firing. A probe is on into the incident, he added.
The announcement was made on Wednesday by the Malaysian foreign minister, Anifah Aman, after a meeting with his counterpart from Indonesia and Thailand to address the plight of the migrants. Read more
Justice S P Garg posted the matter for July 16 after the counsel for Pachauri sought more time to file response to the application move by the 29-year-old woman, who has alleged that "free and fair investigation" cannot be carried out if Pachauri is "allowed to roam around freely".
"Let them (Pachauri and Delhi Police) file their responses then we will think over it. There is no point of cancelling the bail application immediately," the court said. It added that "This application (for cancellation of Pachauri's bail) should not come in the way of trial court proceedings."
In a letter to Modi, Kejriwal mentioned the posting and transfers made by Lt Governor Najeeb Jung and said the elected government must have a say about distribution of work to senior officials.
"In Delhi, Central government is trying to run government unconstitutionally through the Lt Governor. Let Delhi government function independently," Kejriwal said in the letter to Modi.
The letter by Kejriwal to the Prime Minister came a day after both he and Jung took their bitter fight to President Pranab Mukherjee, accusing each other of violating the Constitution and overstepping their respective jurisdictions.
The Lt Governor has been maintaining that he has the power to appoint and transfer the bureaucrats and none of his actions has been "unconstitutional" as was being alleged by the AAP government.
Kejriwal had yesterday met Mukherjee along with his deputy Manish Sisodia, who said "LG was functioning as if there is President's Rule in the national capital and there is no elected government here."
"Despite having a democratically elected government, he (LG) is bypassing the chief minister and ministers and issuing instructions to officers. He is even threatening them with transfers if they do not follow his orders. It is not good for democracy.
"We told the President that we accepted LG's decision to appoint acting Chief Secretary even without consulting us. But after that too, he has been appointing officers bypassing the elected government. He is even interfering in the appointments of secretaries and directly ordering them. Then where is democracy," Sisodia had told reporters after meeting Mukherjee.
Jung had yesterday also met Home Minister Rajnath Singh on the issue and informed him about his stand-off with the AAP government.
The tussle over appointment of Shakuntala Gamlin as acting chief secretary of Delhi had turned into a full-blown war between the AAP government and Jung with Kejriwal alleging that the LG was trying to take over the administration. Despite Kejriwal's strong opposition, Jung had appointed her to the post on Friday.
The Bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice PB Bajanthri directed the Punjab Government to compensate Jasbir Kaur by paying price equivalent to that of 10 acres of cultivable land.
The price is to be determined at collector rate.The Bench also criticised the 2010 rules, which envisaged payment of compensation at the rate of Rs 1 lakh per acre for 10 acres of cultivable land, instead of allotting 10 acres.
The Bench satirically observed: "We may take judicial notice of the fact that one cannot purchase even one-eighth of an acre in any corner of Punjab for Rs 1 lakh.'Major Kanwaljit Singh was awarded the Shaurya Chakra for displaying gallantry and initiative of high order on February 2, 1971, when a grenade attack by the Pakistani soldiers was repelled by him.
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Decks were cleared for the return of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam supremo Jayalalithaa as Tamil Nadu chief minister after she was acquitted May 11 in the 19-year-old disproportionate assets case against her by the Karnataka high court which said her conviction suffered from infirmity and was not sustainable in law.
"...the accused are entitled to acquittal. When the principal accused (Jayalalithaa) has been acquitted, the other accused, who played a lesser role, are entitled to acquittal," Justice C R Kumaraswamy said in his 919-page judgement that set aside trial court judge Michael D'cunha's order last year holding her guilty of corruption and sentencing her to four years imprisonment.
The high court verdict, that also acquitted Jayalalithaa's close aide Sasikala and two others, triggered immediate jubilation among the AIADMK ranks who celebrated the event with bursting of crackers, distribution of sweets and dancing outside her residence in Chennai and across Tamil Nadu.
After she secured the clean chit, stop-gap Chief Minister O
Panneerselvam and a host of party leaders trooped to her Poes Garden
residence and held consultations apparently on her assuming reins of
office once again.
"This government came in with tremendous expectations and I think the kind of expectations were probably unrealistic for any government,' Rajan said responding to questions after his address to the Economic Club of New York on Thursday.
He said in the minds of the people, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's image was that of "Ronald Reagan on a white horse' coming to slay anti-market forces and such comparison was "probably not appropriate'.
Rajan, however, said the government has "taken steps to create the environment for investment, which I think is important'.The government is "sensitive' to the concerns of investors and is looking into addressing economic issues, he said. Rajan's remarks come as the Modi-led government completes one year in office in May 2015.
Kejriwal told the President about what he alleges is a blatant overreach by Jung, who promoted IAS officer Shakuntala Gamlin as acting Chief Secretary, making her Delhi's seniormost officer without the Chief Minister's consent.
In the letter to the PM, Kejriwal accuses the Centre of trying to run the Delhi government through the LG.
Reports suggest at least 20 senior bureaucrats have indicated that they would like to be relocated from Delhi. Sources in the Union Home Ministry said that the bureaucrats have cited "adjustment problems" with the functioning of the Delhi government.
The senior actress was 77 and had been unwell for a while. In 2013, she had suffered a stroke and had to be hospitalised. However, she regained her health thereafter.
Also read our 2008 interview with the actress: 'I feel I'm the real Baa of the Viranis!'
Read KP Nayar's piece on the Telegraph.
"The Governor's office and Chief Minister's officer are responsible for this ruckus. This is totally unnecessary, there is no issue involved in this. After the Chief Secretary appointment which was controversial, the morale of the officers of the civil service will be completely shattered and that will affect the administration. Both the senior people should understand that," Congress leader P.C. Chacko said.
Journalists Sofiene Chourabi and Nadhir Ktari disappeared in Libya eight months ago. Libyan officials recently said captured militants said they were executed.