Former cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu was admitted to Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals Delhi Tuesday evening with a clot in one of his deep veins, a condition called acute deep vein thrombosis. 

Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, who had suspended 25 Congress MPs for five days for disrupting the proceedings during the monsoon session, has written to all MPs appealing to them to maintain discipline and decorum of the House and refrain from rushing to the Well, shouting slogans and waving placards.

A group of BSF personnel had a narrow escape in Manipur when two bombs exploded in Imphal East district just after the securitymen crossed the spot where the explosives were planted, the police said.

Unaccounted cash of Rs 12.78 lakh and over 2,500 litres of illicit liquor were seized from different locations in Bihar today under the ongoing pre-election drive.

The lynching of a 50-year-old Muslim man in Dadri over rumours of eating beef did not happen on the "spur of the moment" and was planned by certain Hindutva forces, a 'fact-finding' committee of academicians from JNU and Delhi University, among others, has claimed.

Expressing displeasure over the manner in which the organisers handled the second T20 cricket match between India and South Africa at Cuttack, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today ordered a probe into the incident by the home secretary.

JUST IN: West Bengal State Election Commissioner Sushanta Ranjan Upadhaya has submitted his resignation to the governor. More details are awaited. 

In mounting trouble for RJD supremo Lalu Prasad over his controversial remarks that 'Hindus too eat beef', a case was today filed in a court here charging him with hurting religious sentiments of the majority community. 

The Supreme Court today refused to advance the date of hearing on a plea challenging the recent appointments of Central Vigilance Commissioner K V Chaudhary and Vigilance Commissioner T M Bhasin. 

Two separate FIRs were registered today against RJD President Lalu Prasad for his "narbhakshi" (cannibal) comment against BJP chief Amit Shah.

The Supreme Court today agreed to hear on Friday the plea of jailed French national Marie Emmanuelle Verhoeven challenging her arrest and extradition proceedings initiated by the Centre at the request of Chile for her alleged involvement in the assassination of a senator there in 1991. 

The Supreme Court today agreed to hear on Friday the plea of jailed French national Marie Emmanuelle Verhoeven challenging her arrest and extradition proceedings initiated by the Centre at the request of Chile for her alleged involvement in the assassination of a senator there in 1991. 

Testing labs will be established at ports to check illegal export of cow meat, the government announced today in the midst of a raging controversy over the Dadri killing of a man over rumours of eating beef.

Minister of State for Agriculture Sanjeev Kumar Balyan made the announcement after a review meeting on illegal export of cow meat with senior officials of agri-export promotion body, Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority, and the Food Processing Ministry and the Agriculture Ministry.

"APEDA officials said there is no illegal export of cow meat as production and exports are strictly monitored through a software 'Meat Net'. However, it has been decided to set up labs at ports to check illegal export of cow meat," Balyan told reporters.

Exports are largely undertaken via the Mumbai port, he said. The minister said the buffalo meat exports have declined 14.7 per cent to $1,483 million during April-August of this year due to strict monitoring of shipments via the software. The buffalo exports are being undertaken by 49 APEDA registered slaughter houses, of which 20 are in Uttar Pradesh, he added.

There are 1,696 slaughter houses in the country, of which a maximum of 316 houses are in Maharashtra, followed by 285 in Uttar Pradesh and 185 in Telangana.

Trouble appears to be brewing for Union Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma and rabble-rouser Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Sangeet Som with the Uttar Pradesh police seeking action against them for alleged violation of prohibitory orders in Bishada village where a 50-year-old Muslim was killed on rumours of his family eating and storing beef last week

A report filed by the police with the district magistrate of Gautam Budh Nagar district recommended filing of FIRs against the two leaders and also against Bahujan Samaj Party leader and former minister Naseemuddin Siddiqui. Superintendent of Police (Rural) Sanjay Kumar Yadav said the report has been filed against the three leaders who addressed the villagers in defiance of prohibitory orders in force in the area.

The leaders were given permission only to meet the family of the victim and not for addressing public meetings in view of the sensitive situation prevailing in the area.

Som, MLA from Muzaffarnagar, is already in the news as he had on Sunday said they were capable of giving a "befitting reply" if "innocents were framed" in the lynching case. He had also attacked All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen MP Asaduddin Owaisi for visiting Bishada and accused non-BJP parties of indulging in polarisation of politics.

Former TV tycoon Indrani Mukerjea, accused of killing her daughter Sheena Bora, has returned to Byculla jail after being discharged for Mumbai's J J Hospital.

Indrani was admitted to the hospital in a critical condition on Friday after she fell unconscious in the jail where she is presently in judicial custody.  According to the doctors, she allegedly had an overdose of antidepressant pills.

A committee appointed by the Delhi Speaker has suggested a four-fold increase in the salaries of the lawmakers. If the recommendation is accepted, the basic salary of a legislator will go up from the present Rs 82,000 to Rs. 3.2 lakh. It would also be the highest salary for a legislator in the country, reports NDTV.  

Just in: A hike is expected in the salaries of Delhi lawmakers by almost four times the present sum. An independent panel appointed by the Speaker has recommended that conveyance allowance of Delhi MLAs be increased from Rs 6,000 to Rs 30,000  

Details awaited.

Just in: Jawaharlal Nehru's niece, writer Nayantara Sahgal, has returned the Sahitya Akademi award she won in 1986 for her novel Rich Like Us. She said that the government has failed to protect cultural diversity.

"Rationalists who question superstition, anyone who questions any aspect of the ugly and dangerous distortion of Hinduism known as Hindutva -- whether in the intellectual or artistic sphere, or whether in terms of food habits and lifestyle -- are being marginalized, persecuted, or murdered. A distinguished Kannada writer and Sahitya Akademi Award winner, M M Kalburgi, and two Maharashtrians, Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare, both anti-superstition activists, have all been killed by gun-toting motor-cyclists. Other dissenters have been warned they are next in line. Most recently, a village blacksmith, Mohammed Akhlaq, was dragged out of his home in Bisara village outside Delhi, and brutally lynched, on the supposed suspicion that beef was cooked in his home," she said.

"In memory of the Indians who have been murdered, in support of all Indians who uphold the right to dissent, and of all dissenters who now live in fear and uncertainty, I am returning my Sahitya Akademi Award," she added in her statement.

Photograph: Seema Pant/Rediff.com

Read: The interview with Nayantara Sahgal here

Actor Shah Rukh Khan will deliver a lecture at the New College of University of Edinburgh on October 15.

"The university is to host a visit by Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan on Thursday, October 15. The actor, one of Bollywood's most popular stars, will give a public lecture at the University's New College," said a note on the university's official website.

Professor Charlie Jeffery, the senior vice-principal of University of Edinburgh, said that they've "very strong" ties with India and are delighted "to welcome one of the most outstanding stars of world cinema."

The 49-year-old Chennai Express star has not commented on the matter directly but re-tweeted a post shared by the official account of the University, which said: "Tickets now available for public talk by Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan."

The ministry of external affairs has just announced that President Pranab Mukherjee will visit Palestine on October 12-13 and then visit Israel on October 13 till October 15. President Pranab in reaction to the announcement said he was happy, as he had never visited either of the countries. 

The 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to Takaaki Kajita and Arthur B McDonald. The two physicists have been awarded the prestigious award for  their key contributions to the experiments which demonstrated that neutrinos change identities. This metamorphosis requires that neutrinos have mass. The discovery has changed our understanding of the innermost workings of matter and can prove crucial to our view of the universe.

Three local leaders of the ruling Telugu Desam Party were reportedly abducted by Maoists from there village in Andhra Pradesh's Visakhapatnam district on Monday evening. Telugu Desam Mandal party president Mamidi Balayya Padal, senior leader Vandalam Balayya and district committee member Mukkala Mahesh were taken away from their homes at Kothaguda village on Monday evening by a group of Maoists.

Smartphone users can do "very little" to stop security services getting "total control" over their devices, US whistleblower Edward Snowden has said. The former intelligence contractor told the BBC's Panorama that UK intelligence agency Government Communications Headquarters had the power to hack into phones without their owners' knowledge. Snowden said GCHQ could gain access to a handset by sending it an encrypted text message and use it for such things as taking pictures and listening in.

Dear Prime Minister Modi,

Doubts have surfaced over Prime Minister Narendra Modi attending the foundation-laying ceremony of Andhra Pradesh's capital Amravati on October 22, 2015.   

A van was set on fire in Maharashtra by a mob of over 100 people on Sunday night after rumours that it was carrying beef. Later, the police confirmed that preliminary investigations indicated that it was indeed carrying around 100 kg of beef. The sale and consumption of beef is illegal in Maharashtra. 

Manipuri rights activist Irom Sharmila today told a Delhi court that the controversial Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act should be scrapped as it has caused "immense hardship" to the people of the state and thousands of innocent persons have been killed over the years. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was in Bengaluru for an investment meeting with visiting German  Chancellor Angela Merkel, totally ignored the state government, helmed by the Congress incidentally, in Karnataka. 

JUST IN: The CBI's application for interrogation of Indrani Mukerjea, prime accused in the Sheena Bora murder case, and others has been posted for orders on Wednesday. Mukerjea's lawyer has said in her reply that she has no objection to interrogation by CBI.

JUST IN: The CBI's application for interrogation of Indrani Mukerjea, prime accused in the Sheena Bora murder case, and others has been posted for orders on Wednesday. Mukerjea's lawyer has said in her reply that she has no objection to interrogation by CBI.

Shops in and around the village of Dadri -- where a man was lynched over beef rumours --have been closed temporarily even though the district administration has not issued any prohibitory order against sale or purchase of non-vegetarian items. Owners of eateries in the area also have decided to keep meat off their menu, saying that the attack had polarized the entire area and that business has been affected. Non-vegetarian restaurants in adjoining villages have also shut down.

In its recent edition, RSS mouthpiece Organiser has alleged that Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi claimed his salary and allowances during his 56-day 'leave of absence' earlier this year. 

The National Conference has decided to boycott rest of the Jammu and Kashmir assembly session after Speaker suspends two of its MLAs. The assembly was rocked by protests for the second day today as opposition members stormed the well of the House demanding adjournment of Question Hour to discuss various issues including regularisation of casual workers. The opposition members also demanded a discussion of Article 35 A which upholds the unique status of the permanent residents of the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar stepped up the anti-BJP ante by tweeting, "BJP in panic-- without neta, niti & niyat in Bihar and facing defeat they're brazenly attempting to communalize and mask it with Modi's rhetorics."

Over a week after 52-year-old Mohammad Ikhlaq was lynched to death by a mob in Dadri's Bishada village, the Uttar Pradesh government on Tuesday submitted a detailed report to the ministry of home affairs. The state government has refrained from mentioning any reason for Akhlaq's murder. Without mentioning the word "beef or cow slaughter", the report says that there were allegations that the deceased was killed for consuming "pratibandhit pashu ka maans" (meat of an animal, whose slaughter is banned).   In the two-page report, the government said that it was still investigating the incident  and yet to reach a conclusion. 

The chances of Pakistan and India resuming their bilateral cricket ties this year in December were dealt another blow when the country's National Security Advisor Sartaj Aziz said that he saw no chance of a revival in the current situation. 

The Delhi police has written to the state government saying that it cannot give permission for the Car Free Day event on October 22. According to the letter, the police has objected to the event keeping in mind the festival of Dusshera. However, state transport minister Gopal Rai said that he will approach lieutenant governor Najeeb Jung regarding the matter. 

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has condemned the lynching of a man over beef eating rumour in UP, saying such incidents hurt the country's image. "India is a mature society. We need to rise above these kinds of incidents because they certainly don't give a good name as far as the country is concerned," he said. 

Maharashtra government's Naxal surrender policy has yielded positive results with 502 Maoists giving up arms in the last 10 years and have been rehabilitated. Of these, 482 rebels have surrendered alone in Gadchiroli district, considered as a Naxal hotbed. The Maharashtra government had launched a Naxal surrender policy on August 29, 2005 which has been extended time and again till date, official sources from Anti-Naxalite Operations of Maharashtra Police said. 

The number of Indian pilgrims killed in the Saudi hajj disaster near the holy city of Mecca rose on Tuesday to 74, said External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. Saudi authorities have said the disaster in Mina happened as two waves of pilgrims converged on a narrow road, causing hundreds of people to suffocate or be trampled to death on September 24. 

Lalu's sons - Tej Pratap Yadav and Tejashwi Prasad Yadav  are making their electoral debut in Bihar but their entry into the poll fray has kicked up a row over the confusion regarding their age. The youngest son of Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad is older than his elder brother, if the affidavits submitted by them with nomination papers for the Bihar Assembly polls are to be believed. Tej Pratap, the eldest son of Lalu and Rabri Devi, on Monday filed his nomination papers from Mahua assembly constituency in Vaishali district wherein his age is shown 25 years, which is one year less than that of his younger brother Tejashwi who had filed his affidavit two days ago. 

If you love cows and care for them, you have three choices: Choice A: Build goshalas or cow shelters where the animals can be taken care of. But this is an expensive proposition. Choice B: Ban beef, stop farmers from selling cows and bulls to butchers, outlaw the culling of cattle, punish cow smugglers, declare all slaughter houses illegal, lynch people who eat beef, and justify all this using complex arguments. Choice C: Build local slaughterhouses near farms so that commercially unviable cattle can be humanely culled nearby, without their having to endure great suffering while being transported in horrible conditions to distant slaughterhouses.

Indrani Mukerjea, who is currently at Mumbai's JJ Hospital, is now conscious, said the dean of the hospital. Dr TP Lahane said that Indrani, who was not responding for 2 days, after she became unconscious on Saturday, was being treated and that her discharge would be decided later. Police are likely to record the statement of Indrani, mother and main suspect in Sheena Bora murder case, today regarding her recent alleged suicide bid in Byculla prison. Highly placed sources in the Home department said if the consulting psychiatrist permits, police might record her statement in the hospital. 

German will be taught in Kendriya Vidyalayas as an additional foreign language while modern Indian languages will be taught in Germany, according to an understanding reached between India and Germany to put a lid on a controversy that had erupted about a year back. An MoU was signed between the two countries on the occasion of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's visit and under the understanding, a pact will be signed between the KV and Max Mueller Bhavan to formalise the arrangement.

The Uttar Pradesh police has asked Twitter to remove photographs and text uploaded on the website related to the Dadri incident in which a man was lynched following rumours he had consumed beef. IG (administration) Prakash D said the letter was sent by the social media lab of UP police asking for removal of specific photographs and text uploaded by a Twitter handle.