Pakistani columnist Mehr Tarar, who was embroiled in a controversy surrounding the death of former Union minister Shashi Tharoor's wife Sunanda Pushkar, has broken her silence on the issue in a book slamming the media for dragging her in an "unsavoury story across the border". 

An army jawan was critically injured in small arm fire by Pakistani troops in Poonch in the latest ceasefire violation on a day when DG-level talks were held in Delhi to de-escalate border tensions. 

The Jammu and Kashmir high court order banning the sale of beef has irked the separatists and Hurriyat chairman Syed Ali Geelani has called for protest and a day-long strike in the Valley against the court's decision on Friday. 

Union minister and senior BJP leader, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi backed Vice-President Hamid Ansari's comments on the plight of the minorities, saying there is a need for affirmative action to uplift them. 

In a fresh crackdown on an NGO run by social activist Teesta Setalvad, the home ministry today suspended its registration for six months accusing the organisation of violating Foreign Currency (Regulation) Act that invites termination of its licence. 

The civil aviation ministry has no plans to remove the name of Congress president Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra from the elite "no-frisking" list at domestic airports. "We are not withdrawing Robert Vadra's name from the list. It is not on our radar," Minister of State for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma said. 

Lessons from Mahabharata, Ramayana and Gita may soon be taught in schools and colleges as part of the NDA government's plan to rid the country of "cultural pollution" and inculcate "values" among young minds. Ministries of Culture and HRD are working on a plan to teach students about India's cultural values following detailed deliberations at a meeting of Education and Culture Ministers of BJP ruled states and the Centre, besides RSS affiliates. 

Fox, which is owned by self-confessed climate change sceptic Rupert Murdoch, has bought a 73 per cent stake in the environment-focussed world culture magazine National Geographic, making Murdoch the majority stakeholder in an unlikely joint venture. 

Opposition NCP today demanded an ED probe into "money laundering" angle in finances of INX Media, founded by Indrani Mukerjea, the prime accused in Sheena Bora murder case, and her husband Peter Mukerjea, while hinting that such investigation will unravel a "big name".


"If the investigation is done in details with proper monitoring, a big name will be exposed," NCP spokesman Nawab Malik said. The Mumbai police investigating the murder case had asked Enforcement Directorate (ED) to look into and probe financial transactions of the accused in this case and into the business ventures floated by Indrani and Peter.


The NCP leader termed as a "damage control exercise" the Maharashtra government's move to give a supervisory role to former Mumbai police commissioner Rakesh Maria in the Sheena Bora murder investigation even after his abrupt removal from the post on Tuesday.

NCP today hit out at Shiv Sena over its "anti-Muslim rant" amid the controversy regarding the ban on sale of meat during the Jain fasting period of Paryushan, and alleged that the saffron party's politics was based on the hatred of the community.


"Muslims have never demanded that their religion and lifestyle be imposed on others. Shiv Sena's anti-Muslim rant in the editorial in its mouthpiece 'Saamana' proves that spreading hatred of Muslims is the base of its politics," NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said.


Since 2004 the slaughterhouses were shut down for two days during the Paryushan, he said. Malik also clarified that the NCP-controlled civic body in Navi Mumbai had only said that those who wanted to keep slaughterhouses closed during the period could do so.


The Saamana editorial today said, "Until now, only fanatic Muslims used to bully people in the name of religion. If the Jains too are going the way of Muslims, then God save them."

A special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act court will deliver its verdict tomorrow in the Mumbai serial train blasts, which killed nearly 200 people and injured at least 800.


The July 11, 2006 serial blasts, carried out in a span of just 11 minutes, targeted the crowded suburban train services during the evening peak hours as bombs kept in pressure cookers went off in north-bound locals on Western Railway.


The blasts took place at Bhayander, Borivali, Jogeshwari, Khar Road, Bandra, Mahim and Matunga Road and one unexploded bomb was found by police and defused at Borivali.


Maharashtra anti-terrorism squad (ATS) arrested 13 accused in connection with the case. Like many other blast cases, this too wasn't without controversies after claims that the ATS falsely implicated some people came up following the arrest of 22 Indian Mujahideen operatives by the Mumbai crime branch in September 2008.


But those claims fell through after Mohammed Sadiq Israr Sheikh, the co-founder of Indian Mujahideen who was arrested in September 2008, turned hostile before the MCOCA court. Sadiq in his confessional statement had claimed responsibility for the blasts.

A cargo ship missing for a week with 14 crew members, including Indians, is feared to have been hijacked in the piracy-prone South China Sea, prompting Malaysian maritime authorities to launch a search today.


The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) said a commercial vessel had reportedly spotted the missing ship about 23 nautical miles west of Miri yesterday evening and had notified the owners of the vessel MV Sah Lian.


"The ship was reported to have a damaged gearbox and propeller crankshaft," MMEA officials said.


"This morning the owner informed us and we quickly deployed our vessel," they said. The owners of the Malaysian-registered vessel lost contact with it on September 3 while it travelled along the Malaysian state of Sarawak with a crew of 14, including Indians.


"We believe this ship has been hijacked and taken out of Malaysian waters. We believe it could be in Indonesian waters near the Natuna islands," said First Admiral Ismaili Bujang Pit, the state's coast guard chief.


The MV Sah Lian was said to be carrying a mixed cargo including iron products, piping and food from Kuching to the town of Limbang.

"The journey of a Bandra boy from wearing chappals and playing cricket in the streets to becoming an IPS officer and police commissioner of Mumbai is like a dream come true."

A tribute to former Mumbai police commissioner, Rakesh Maria. Read

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Singh Yadav was in Mumbai on Thursday for the one-day UP Conclave to promote Brand UP and garner investment worth Rs 50,000 crore from potential investors in Maximum City. He was accompanied by his cabinet ministers and top state officials, and the daylong jamboree, held in Mumbais Trident hotel, was an impressive affair by all means.


No issues there, but what caught our eye was the presence of Asaduddin Owaisi, president of the All India Majlis e Ittehadul Muslimeen and the partys Lok Sabha MP from Hyderabad, who was checking out of the Trident on Thursday evening.


For those who came in late, Owaisi, who is keen to project himself as the voice of the Muslim community, has found the UP government led by the Samajwadi Party unwilling to let him hold rallies in the state. He had told Rediff.com recently: UP is not the personal fiefdom of the Yadav clan. It is a part and parcel of our great nation called India.

"It is really pitiful that I can speak in Parliament but I cannot speak in UP against the Samajwadi Party's communalism.

"They cannot stop me because it is my democratic right. I will definitely go to UP and put forward my views. Whether people like me or not is up to them."

So did Akhilesh Yadav and Owaisi manage to meet up while at the Trident, Mumbai, and sort out their differences? Watch this space!

In the meantime you can read our interviews with Owaisi here and here.


Pic: Asaduddin Owaisi coming out of the Trident hotel in Mumbai on Thursday evening.

Syrians and Libyans fleeing to Europe are committing sin by exposing their children to atheism, drugs, alcohol and sexual permissiveness, according to a magazine published by Islamic State insurgents, reports Reuters.


Hundreds of thousands of people have fled wars in the Middle East this year, often from areas seized or threatened by Islamic State militants. They have crossed the Mediterranean to Europe on flimsy boats that have sometimes capsized, killing hundreds, in one of the biggest waves of migration since World War II. Most of the refugees come from Syria, Iraq and Libya -- states ravaged by conflict frequently involving Islamic State.


"Sadly, some Syrians and Libyans are willing to risk the lives and souls of ' their children, sacrificing many of them during the dangerous trip to the lands of the war-waging crusaders ruled by the laws of atheism and indecency," Islamic State's Dabiq magazine said. 

Controversial BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha on the thrust and parry of remarks between Congress president Sonia Gandhi and PM Narendra Modi. Sinha remarked: "Hawaabaazi aur Hawalabaazi, ye sab cheezey jumle baazi hain... Khamosh." (Referring to Sonia Gandhi's remarks that PM Modi's promises were all in the air (hawaabazi) and Modi's quip today on hawalabaazi, saying they were all election rhetoric.)


Sinha, who has openly defiant of the BJP leadership said on Tuesday that he was not in the race for the post of Bihar chief minister. 


Over the last few months, as the Bihar assembly elections drew closer, he has become more brazen in his actions. He skipped the Maha Parivartan Rally addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Bihar's Muzaffarpur and then left the party's leadership red-faced by meeting and praising Janata Dal (U) leader and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar the very next day.


He also met his party's biggest detractor, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, at the latter's residence and praised his performance effusively. This is when the BJP is locked in a nasty, no-holds-barred fight with the Aam Aadmi Party.

A man has been arrested in China for allegedly murdering his girlfriend after a selfie he posted with her corpse went viral on social media. The picture was captioned with the phrase 'please forgive my selfish love'.


The victim, identified only as Lin, is alleged to have been killed after a quarrel between the two turned violent, reported the Mirror.


The suspect Qin then clicked a selfie of himself next to Lin's dead face and posted the picture online alongside a previous picture of the couple enjoying each other's company.


Thousands of users in China picked up on the image and spread it around the Internet. Police in Wuzhou, in South China's Guanxi province, launched a manhunt following the viral spread of the gruesome picture and arrested Qin nine hours later.

Authorities have refused to comment on the circumstances of Lin's death, the report said

Lieutenant General Harbakhsh Singh, GOC, Western Command, disobeyed the then army chief and took on a superior Pakistani armoured column. The Indian Centurion tanks outgunned the more modern Pakistani Patton tanks in the battle at Khem Karan, that proved the turning point of the 1965 War. Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd) salutes the Soldiers' General. Read

Scientists have discovered a new human-like species in a burial chamber deep in a cave system in South Africa. The discovery of 15 partial skeletons is the largest single discovery of its type in Africa.


The researchers claim that the discovery will change ideas about our human ancestors.


The studies which have been published in the journal Elife also indicate that these individuals were capable of ritual behaviour.


The species, which has been named naledi, has been classified in the grouping, or genus, Homo, to which modern humans belong. Read more


Pic courtesy: National Geographic

BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on Thursday said India is wasting too much time on Pakistan, even as the two Director Generals of the border troops began a meeting in New Delhi.


"We are wasting too much of time on Pakistan. Two policemen meeting, how is that of any national importance. They (Pakistan) are screaming so that we reply and they can get a status of equality," Swamy told ANI.


"Let them do whatever they are doing and we should not put our attention on it," he added. The DG-level talks between India's Border Security Forces (BSF) and Pakistan's Rangers (PR) is scheduled to take place here. BSF Director General D.K. Pathak will meet Pakistan Rangers chief Major General Umar Farooq Burki to discuss border related issues between the two forces.

In a major embarrassment to the BJP, Krishan Lal, its MLA from Jammu's Chhamb constituency, was photographed crossing a river on his Personal Security Officer's back. The photograph, tweeted by ABP News, shows Lal's PSO carrying him on his back to help the MLA cross the river.


Lal justified his act saying the PSO was hired to help him. "He is my PSO, he was hired to help me right? Who else will help me," news agency ANI quoted Lal as saying.


Recently Maharashtra rural development minister Pankaja Munde was embroiled in a controversy after a member of her staff was seen carrying her slippers. Munde defended herself saying that the man was in her personal employment and not a government servant.  

Former top four player was waiting for car to take him to the US Open when an informant mistakenly identified him as a suspect in a case, say officers. Read

Slamming Jains for their insistence on banning sale of meat during their festival 'Paryushan', the Shiv Sena today said the community's stance on practicing "non-violence" comes as a surprise now as they purportedly supported violence during the 1993 riots in the city.


The party accused the Jains of doing a volte-face for altering their position on "non-violence". "Until now, only fanatic Muslims used to bully people in the name of religion. If the Jains too are going on the path of Muslims, then God save them. During the 1992-93 Mumbai riots, Marathis had protected Jains, who were saved because violence had been answered by violence. At that time too 'Paryushan' was on. But Jains were at the forefront of supporting violence then," the Sena said in an edit in its mouthpiece 'Saamana'.


"Scores of Jains used to come to Matoshree then and thank (late Sena Supremo) Balasahab then for helping them. Today these people talking about non-violence...its surprising. What caused this sudden change of heart?" the Sena questioned. The party said that it needs to be made clear what does violence exactly mean. "Does only banning slaughter of animals mean non-violence? Violence is in the mind and in the action. Are Jain brothers free from this kind of violence? Many builders in the city are Jains where the game of black and white money is being played. Accepting black money too is a sin. Will Jains stop taking black money in this festival?" the Sena said. It said that to think that only Jains are vegetarians was wrong.

In her peppy and helpful online video tutorial, Reshma Bano Quereshi promises to teach her viewers "how to get perfect red lips". But unlike the more than 200,000 other online videos dedicated to the application of lipstick, this one goes beyond plumping and priming. Read

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has rejected the response from the All India Congress Committee on the National Herald and Young India transactions, saying they are unsatisfactory.


When the case came up for hearing in March this year, Congress President Sonia Gandhi told the Delhi High Court that the summons issued against her, Rahul Gandhi and five others in the National Herald case were "illegal", claiming no one was cheated in the acquisition process.

A bench of Justice Sunil Gaur was told by senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who represented the Congress chief, that not a single person was cheated during the acquisition of Associated Journals Ltd (AJL), the publisher of the now defunct National Herald newspaper, by the Young Indian Private Ltd (YIL).

The CBDT will reveal the details it has on the case to the Delhi High Court during a hearing next month.


Besides Sonia and Rahul, Congress treasurer Moti Lal Vora, General Secretary Oscar Fernandes and Suman Dubey had moved the High Court on July 30, 2014 against the trial court order summoning them in the case.

The trial court had on June 26 last year summoned Sonia, Rahul, Vora, Fernandes, Dubey and Sam Pitroda to appear before it on August 7, 2014 on a complaint by Swamy alleging cheating in the acquisition of AJL, the publisher of National Herald newspaper, by the YIL.

Later, the High Court on August 6 had stayed the summons issued against the Gandhis and others, and on December 15, 2014 had listed the matter to be heard on day-to-day basis.

The court on December 15, 2014 had also stayed the summons till final disposal of the petitions.

The allegations against the Gandhis is that they formed a company called Young Indian with the deliberate intention of diverting funds from Associate Journals Ltd (AJL), a company owned by the Congress.

The National Investigation Agency announces a cash reward of Rs 7 lakh for information leading to the arrest of SS Khaplang, Chief of NSCN-K, a group responsible for the attack on armed forces including the attack on 6 Dogra Regiment Convoy in Chandel district of Manipur on in June 2015 killing 18 Army personnel. 

@news_houndz  Mumbai crime branch files 13760 pages chargesheet in Malvani spurious hooch tragedy killing106 against 14 accused citing 577 witness

In a protest against the four day meat ban in the state, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) party workers began selling chicken at Agar Bazar in Mumbai's Dadar area. The banning of meat in Mumbai has turned into a political slugfest with various political parties including BJP ally Shiv Sena slamming the Maharashtra Government for imposing such ban. The Shiv Sena says there must be no ban at all. "We will ensure there is no ban on sale of meat for the days," said Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray.

The Maharashtra Government has banned meat in Mumbai for four days, in view of the Jain festival of Paryushan.


Close on the heels of BMC suspending the sale of meat in its markets for four days, now the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation, controlled by the NCP, has announced a similar measure till September 17, as these dates fall within the eight-day Jain fasting period of 'Paryushan'.

The "seeds' of Alzheimer's disease may be transmitted from one person to another during certain medical procedures, scientists have found. Read more

Just in: Three FTII students begin hunger strike in Pune, demanding the resignation of Gajendra Chauhan as chairperson of the institute.

With protest against his appointment at the helm of Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) refusing to die down, actor Gajendra Chauhan met Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Rathore in Delhi on Monday. Chauhan later said he was awaiting the I&B ministrys nod to visit the institute and take charge.

Why we decided to re-engage Nawaz Sharif at Ufa remains a puzzle. If previous signals from Pakistan had been positive it would have made sense to do so, but not if they were consistently negative, as has been the case even with Nawaz Sharif's adversarial rhetoric. The Gurdaspur and Udhampur attacks showed Pakistan's continued reliance on a tried and tested strategy of using terrorism as a lever in the dialogue with India.

Read

BJP Leader Shatrughan Sinha's security upgraded from Y to Z category.

The Supreme Court allowing a plea filed by the Uber cab rape case victim that she and12 other witnesses be not re-examined in the matter, has set aside the Delhi High Court order allowing recalling of 13 witnesses.


The victim challenged the Delhi High Court order permitting the recall and re-examination of 13 witnesses including herself.


While reserving the verdict on August 13, on the plea by the victim and Delhi Police challenging the recall and re-examination of witness, the court had said that the accused can't be allowed to frustrate a trial on flimsy pleas.


It also said that the recall and re-examination of the witnesses could be permitted only when new material that emerges subsequently has the potential falsifying the prosecution case, as otherwise no trial would get completed if courts were to grant plea by the accused for re-examination of witnesses.


Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, who had appeared for Delhi Police, told the court that it was the victim who had suffered four times first when incident took place, second time when her statement was recorded under section 164 of Code of Criminal Procedure before the magistrate, third time when she was examined before the trial court in the course of the trial and fourth time when she was re-examined following the high court's March 4 order.


His argument came while assailing the high court reasoning that it was the accused who would suffer delay in trial, and holding it should have rejected the plea by accused Shiv Kumar Yadav with costs.


The apex court had March 10 stayed the high court order permitting the recall and re-examination of witnesses including the victim.

MNS workers sell chicken at Agar Bazar in Dadar in a protest against he four-day meat ban in Mumbai. 

PM Narendra Modi addresses BJP workers in Bhopal where he will inaugurate the Vishwa Hindi Sammelan (World Hindi Conference). Modi blamed the Congress for dropping of the idea to call an extended Monsoon Session of Parliament for passing the GST Bill and said that all other parties were ready except Congress.


Hitting back at Congress president Sonia Gandhi over her 'hawabaaz' barb, Modi said 'hawalabaaz' are disturbed due to the govt's tough stance on black money.


"To those who have been rejected by the people, I appeal to them for the pride of democracy, to fend off economic dangers, and work with us. But they are not working with us, they did not let the Parliament work. That is why the 'hawalabaaz' are troubled," Modi said.


Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday launched a severe attack on the Narendra Modi government, calling the promises made by the Prime Minister in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections "nothing more than hawabaazi (hogwash)", which have reduced to "unedifying flip-flops casting doubts on what he really stands for".

JUST IN: An FIR has been lodged against AAP MLA and former law minister Somnath Bharti on the basis of his wife's complaint at the Dwarka police station.