Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia today recommended for the promotion of Rio Olympics bronze medallist wrestler Sakshi Malik's father Subir Malik, who works as a conductor in Delhi Transport Corporation, besides felicitating the grappler and her parents.

In a communication to Transport Minister Satyendar Jain, Sisodia said, 'One of our colleagues (Sakshi's father Sukhbir Malik), while working as a conductor, created such an atmosphere for her daughter so that she could raise the honour of the nation... I propose that apart from felicitating Sakshi Malik, the government should felicitate her family, especially her father. I recommend for the promotion of Sukhbir Malik for his contribution,' he said.

The deputy chief minister will visit the wrestler's family at Rohtak in Haryana tomorrow.

On Wednesday, the 23-year-old wrestler ended the country's wait for a medal at the Rio Olympic Games as she bagged the bronze medal in the 58 kg category, pulling off a dramatic 8-5 victory in the play-off bout.

The Union home ministry is mulling strictly enforcing a law that ensures that no non-governmental organisation is allowed to receive foreign funds more than twice by taking government nod under the prior permission category.

As per the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, an NGO can avail the facility of prior permission category to receive funds from abroad only twice, but the rule is not enforced strictly, leading to its alleged misuse.

"We have come to know that there have been many instances in the past when NGOs received funds more than twice under the prior permission category which is against the rule. We want to stop the practice," a home ministry official said.

The official said if any NGO wants to receive funds from abroad more than twice, the entity should register under the FCRA and following the stipulated laws.

Many NGOs were avoiding the registration under the FCRA and allegedly trying to bypass rules and receiving the funds under the prior permission category, the official said.

Opposition parties from Jammu and Kashmir led by former chief minister Omar Abdullah will call on President Pranab Mukherjee tomorrow to apprise him of the situation in the Valley, which continues to remain under curfew since July 8.

Omar, who held an all Opposition parties meeting earlier this week, will apprise the President about the continued difficulties being faced by the people because of continued curfew in the valley.

He will be accompanied by Congress leaders led by state Pradesh Congress Committee chief G A Mir, Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Mohammed Yusuf Tarigami, Independent MLA Hakeem Yasin and others.

The delegation will demand a probe by a retired Supreme Court judge into allegations of excessive use of force by security personnel besides urging the Centre for holding a dialogue with all stakeholders.

Omar and other opposition parties were worried about youths getting killed and injured in security forces' firing,alleging the state and the central governments 'mishandled' the situation.

President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, among other top leaders of the country, congratulated P V Sindhu, whos won first silver medal for India in badminton with a golden performance.

Congrats for the Silver @Pvsindhu1. Very well fought. Your accomplishment at #Rio2016 is historic & will be remembered for years, tweeted the PM.


Great game played with grit; Hearty congrats #PVSindhu on creating history by winning  for India Olympic Silver medal. Proud moment for India, whole nation rejoices with your family and you, said President Mukherjee.

Congratulations to @Pvsindhu1 on her incredible achievement. Although she has won a #silver but her performance was golden. #RioOlympics2016, tweeted Union home minister Rajnath Singh.


Rahul tweeted, Great match P V Sindhu! The first #silver for India at Rio! Very proud! Many congratulations.

Congratulations #PVSindhu .What a splendid match you played! Exemplary! said Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

Paul Manafort, the beleaguered chairman of Donald Trump's presidential campaign, resigned today after a staff shake-up this week that marginalised him in the team amid growing speculation about his links with Ukrainian politics.

"This morning Paul Manafort offered, and I accepted, his resignation from the campaign. I am very appreciative for his great work in helping to get us where we are today, and in particular his work guiding us through the delegate and convention process," Trump said.

"Paul is a true professional and I wish him the greatest success," the 70-year-old business tycoon said.

Manafort's role was reduced after Trump elevated two aides to senior positions on Tuesday, appointing Breitbart Newschief Steve Bannon as campaign CEO and Kellyanne Conway as campaign manager.

Manafort, who had once lobbied for pro-ISI and anti-India groups, had been recently attracting negative publicity for his alleged lobbying activities in Ukraine.

Manafort had joined the campaign after Trump's historic wins in the Republican primaries.

He successfully led the campaign in the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, where Trump was formally nominated as the party's presidential nominee.

Trump's popularity rating had been falling down after the convention.

Manafort told Trump he was becoming a distraction and he wanted to end that, a Trump source was quoted as saying by CNN.

The resignation comes as the campaign seeks to correct course after weeks of damaging controversies and self-inflicted wounds, effectively evaporating Trump's steady footing against Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in the polls and his post-convention bump.

Trump is now trailing Clinton in every major poll.

Jawaharlal Nehru University which has been the centre of protests since the beginning of this year saw a new agitation today, this time over its iconic Ganga Dhaba whose owner has been served an eviction notice by the administration.

Ganga Dhaba, which opens at 4 pm and feeds hungry students till 3 in the morning at nominal prices, is one of the favourite hotspots of the campus besides being a perfect place for campus debates.

The owner of the eatery was served an eviction notice last week and was asked to vacate the place till today morning.

However, the students gathered at the dhaba, protesting against the alleged attack by the administration of the culture of the campus.

"The new JNU administration has been proving itself as an agent, who is appointed to destroy the JNU in every manner. It has left no single instance to take the opportunity to implement all its diktats to shrink the campus democracy. It has been using the February 9 incident as a pretext to justify all its decisions," JNUSU general secretary Rama Naga said.

"Now, it has decided to shutdown the Ganga Dhaba for ever. The administration has sent a 'final letter' to the owner of the Ganga Dhaba by saying that it will shut down the eatery," he added.

The JNU vice chancellor said the administration does not intend to 'close down' the dhaba but all commercial spaces operating on the campus have to adhere to rules and the dhaba owner Bharat Tomar doesn't have a license to function there.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Friday said Pakistan is committed to protect its maritime assets and achieve self-reliance in defence production as he launched a 17,000-tonne naval tanker, the country's largest.

Speaking on the occasion, Sharif expressed happiness over the launch of the largest warship constituted at the country by Karachi Shipyard.

"The project will further strengthen cooperation between Pakistan and Turkey. The tanker was a gift to Pakistan on its 70th Independence Day," he said.

Pakistan Navy's fleet tanker will play an important role in catering to its logistic needs.

He said the successful construction of the fleet tanker would play a vital role towards achieving self-reliance in defence production and the government would continue to support the policy of indigenisation in all technological spheres.

Defending Prime Minister Narendra Modis statement that the Bharatiya Janata Party suffered more under the Congress rule than the Congress suffered under the British, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the PM was not undermining Congress role in the freedom struggle.

The PM only said that the BJP has faced a lot of adversities since Independence. He didn't even for once undermine Congress' role in the freedom struggle, Prasad said.

Asserting that the BJP has made more sacrifices than any other party, the PM had yesterday said that his party faced more adversities in independent India as compared to what Congress would have during the British rule.

Prasad also took a dig at the Congress for objecting to Modis remark saying, Does the Congress of today represent even one per cent of the essence of the Congress during freedom struggle.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be the face of Incredible India campaign of the Union culture and tourism ministry.

Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju  said that the Chinese army had transgressed the border of Arunachal Pradesh on two occasions last month, but these could not be described as incursion.

Amid an outrage in Kashmir, the army today said actions by its soldiers like the one in which a lecturer was killed will not be tolerated. "These raids were not sanctioned in the first place. It is unjusitified. Nobody can support it and it will not be tolerated," Northern Army Commander Lt Gen D S Hooda said.

Ever since she tweeted about India's poor performance at the Rio Olympics, Shobhaa De has been trolled time and time again. However, today trying to put the issue to rest, the author said, "Whatever I said earlier, I want to put it behind me."

The long-awaited night Tubes will finally roll on to London's Underground platforms, putting the UK capital in league with other major cities around the world offering a 24-hour underground transport network.

Three Border Security Force (BSF) soldiers were injured in a militant attack on a camp in north Kashmir's Kupwara district on Friday. PTI reports that three soldiers were injured when militants attacked the camp. An encounter is still on. 

Meanwhile, curfew was on Friday extended to several places in Kashmir as a precautionary measure in view of the call for a march to Aripthan area of Budgam district given by separatists against the death of four civilians in clashes between Central Reserve Police Force and protesters on August 16.

Additionally, an ambulance driver was shot at and injured allegedly by security forces in Safakadal area of downtown Srinagar while he was ferrying a patient from Ganderbal district to SMHS hospital.

Schools, colleges and private offices remained closed while public transport remained off roads. The attendance in government offices was thin. Mobile internet and telephony services also remained suspended.

As many as 64 persons including two police personnel have been killed and several thousand others injured in the clashes that began on July 9.

File picture.

Legendary sports journalist Sharda Ugra on the superwomen Dipa Karmakar, Sakshi Malik and PV Sindhu. "Their places in history secure, Dipa, Sakshi and Sindhu have become more than the sum of their performances. Across three sports - gymnastics, wrestling and badminton - running on strength, endurance and flexibility, they have stretched boundaries and reinforced power for Indian women's sport."

Read her column here.

Former South Africa Women allrounder Sunnette Viljoen, who has played one Test and 17 ODIs, created history on Thursday by bagging a silver medal in the women's javelin final of the Rio Olympics. Read more

Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhayay Marg in New Delhi near the New Delhi railway station has been the focus of many national political parties including the Congress, RLD, JDU, AIADMK and NCP among others.

Since Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg is so centrally located, the UPA government in 2008 made a  cabinet decision to allot national and regional parties land for their headquarters here. Lalu Prasad Yadav's RLD has already built a three-storeyed building here. But some of these parties have been hiccuping over having Upadhayay's name on the address in their letterhead since the sociologist is a right wing icon.    

The BJP and Shiv Sena have been allotted government land to build their headquarters in the same area, with the BJP even performing their bhoomi puja this week.

So, the Congress has found an alternative. It has made a small change to their drawing plan so that the entry to the office faces a service road called Kotla Link Road. Which means Deen Dayal Upadhya Marg will not find mention on their address.

Viren Rasquinha winning hearts all over again with this lovely tweet: "@virenrasquinha With the superstar @Pvsindhu1. Been supporting her since she was 14. Tears in my eyes today @OGQ_India #Rio2016 #IND."

Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju on Friday said there were reports of transgressions by the Chinese army in Arunachal Pradesh twice recently.

One incident was reported from Kibithu area in the remote Anjaw district on July 22 and another at Thangsa in Tawang district in the same month, the Minister told reporters after inaugurating a Advance Landing Ground (ALG) at Pasighat.

Rijiju said he was not describing these as acts of incursion, but transgression.

"We cannot term it as incursion, but transgression as the Chinese army just crossed the perceived area along the Line of Actual Control."

When the matter was reported from Kibithu by the ITBP, the Centre verified it and found that it was only an act of transgression.

Asked about the government's efforts to match China's infrastructure development across the border, the Minister said the Centre had begun strengthening infrastructure across the border and the Pasighat ALG was a major step in this direction.

"We are not challenging or competing with any other country by strengthening our border infrastructure. We will have to build robust infrastructure to strengthen our defence and whatever we did is because India is an emerging power with capability. So IAF should have operational bases in all the bordering states," he said.

The NDA government attached priority to development of border infrastructure, he said.

CBI has taken over investigation in the Bulandshahr gangrape and dacoity case in which a woman and her minor daughter were assaulted by a gang in July.

The incident had taken place when six members of a Noida-based family were travelling to Shahjahanpur in western UP.

At the national highway passing through Bulandshahr, their car was stopped by criminals who dragged the 13-year-old girl and her mother out and raped them in a field nearby.

The Allahabad High Court had ordered CBI to take over investigation in the case.

This awesome statement by NYC Parks following the dismantling of the naked Trump statue, is true.

"NYC Parks officials issued the following statement."NYC Parks stands firmly against any unpermitted erection in city parks, no matter how small," the statement said."


PS. Sorry, we can't use the full frontal picture of Mr Trump, but you haven't missed much. 

That's little P V Sindhu training at the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Stadium.The picture was tweeted by AIR. Her father told news channels that she would begin her training at 4:30 am with her coach, Pullela Gopichand waiting for her at 4:15 am sharp.

As Sakshi Malik won India the bronze medal in 58kg Women's Wrestling and made the entire nation proud, Omar Quraishi, a Pakistani journalist, mocked India's win at the Rio Olympics 2016 in a series of tweets.

"Finally one of the 119 competitors that India sent to Rio has won a medal -- a bronze -- now see how they portray it as if they won 20 golds. For a population of over 1.25 billion India managed just one bronze medal -- Norway with 5 million managed 2," he said.

The outrage on Twitter was almost immediate.

@vivekrajindia @omar_quraishi sir, what is your problem? Can't be happy for your neighbour? Live and let live

@manakgupta Tch tch tch....this coming from a nation where not even one player could qualify for olympics

@priyankac19 @manakgupta only if bomb making, squabbling, finger pointing&terrorising was a sport, Pak would have excelled. Just saying. @omar_quraishi


@Sanjil_v @omar_quraishi One medal gets pakis jealous. A few more and you might run to U.N. crying like you do about kashmir😂

@KyaUkhaadLega .@omar_quraishi A small correction sir, *that India was able to send because they qualified.* and then tweeted the Tribune headline saying, No Pakistani qualifies for Rio.

Omar Quraishi then tweeted, "My TL would suggest that may Indians on Twitter are quite intolerant of criticism - one bronze for 1.25 billion people is valid criticism."


And finally, Amitabh Bachchan tweeted a sentiment echoed by 1.25 billion people: @SrBachchan For me it is worth a 1000 golds and even that is not enough. Pride for Sakshi, proud that she is Indian and a woman.

Islamic State terrorists had "studied" the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack and similar "active shooter scenarios" to maximise confusion and casualties before hitting multiple locations in Paris in November, UN member-states have said.

The 18th report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team submitted to the UN Security Council's 1267 ISIS, Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee said the modus operandi that IS operatives demonstrated while conducting multiple, nearly simultaneous attacks, such as in Paris and Brussels, presents particular problems in terms of security response.

"Member-States explained that that was a deliberate tactic in order to make it more difficult to mount coordinated and targeted responses to the most dangerous continuing threats," the report said.

A suspected Pakistani spy was apprehended by intelligence sleuths in Jaisalmer district of Rajasthan. "The accused who identified himself as Nandu is a Pakistani national and entered the country on visa," U R Sahoo, ADG Intelligence told PTI today.

"He was found in suspicious circumstances in Jaisalmer yesterday and was interrogated. He is now being taken to Jaipur. He will be placed under arrest later," he said. "We are probing his local connections in the border areas and those who helped him reach there," he said. Jaisalmer borders Pakistan and is 560 km from state capital Jaipur.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi was on Friday discharged from Sir Ganga Ram Hospital. "Sonia Gandhi who was re-admitted on 17th August 2016 for a pre-planned evaluation and a minor procedure to Sir Ganga Ram Hospital has been discharged from the hospital in stable condition today," a hospital statement said.

While the memory of losing an Olympic medal by just 0.15 of a point in Sunday's vault final continues to haunt Dipa Karmakar, the 23-year-old knows what she achieved in Rio could be the start of something big for Indian gymnastics, reports Reuters.

"I want to inspire the next generation so that in 10 to 15 years, India can send a full gymnastics team to an Olympics and not just one athlete," Karmakar told Reuters in an interview in the athletes' village before heading home to India on Thursday.

When Karmakar and her coach Bishweshwar Nandi embarked on their dream, they had no funding, no equipment and no guidance. All they had was a determination to succeed and a brainwave to build makeshift apparatus from a pile of crash mats and discarded parts of a second-hand scooter.

"Up until three months ago I was using out-of-date equipment. Even now we still do not have the Olympic standard balance beam and uneven bars in India," explained Karmakar, who was one of only two competitors in Rio to attempt the high-risk Produnova vault.

Just how oblivious Indians are about gymnastics was clear on Sunday when a throng of reporters bombarded Karmakar with questions such as:

"Couldn't you have done the landing better?"

Delhi HC reserves order on Payal Abdullah's plea (estranged wife of Omar Abdullah) against eviction notice to vacate her govt accommodation. 

Welcoming the 'fatwa' issued against Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed by Dargah-e-Ala Hazrat in Bareilly declaring him anti-Islamic and a man of terrorist ideology, the Congress Party on Friday said it is a good message that is going down from the Muslims to the country at large. Congress leader Tom Vadakkan told ANI that this kind of terrorist needs to be eliminated from the hierarchy of the Muslim leadership.

Sania Mirza tweeted this lovely congratulatory message for PV Sindhu after her awesome win and posted this picture: "So so sooooo proud of you fighter #favorite #champion @Pvsindhu1" 

Update on the Bandra fire: According to locals, it's a new building, and was empty at the time of the fire, so no one was hurt. One floor however is totally gutted. The building is located near National College.

Omita Paul, secretary to President Pranab Mukherjee, has shot off a letter to Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha seeking cabinet approval for a bungalow for Pranab Mukherjee after his retirement in July 25, 2017.

We can tell you that a few locations and bungalows have been shortlisted.
Keeping in mind the security necessary and also other logistics, it generally takes six to eight months to find a suitable house.

Since it's not yet clear whether Pranab Mukherjee will run for a second term, the internal preparations have begun, including sorting out of personal belonings.

Many of his belongings will go to the new bungalow, while some will go to Kolkata. But the President himself does not want to go back to his 13 Talkatora Road house where he spent 20 years as a Union Minister. In any case, from a security point of view, it's way too cramped.

The president also has a home in Sonatikuri in Jangipur, the constituency which was once represented by him in the Lok Sabha in between 2004 and 2012. 


Image: The ornate Ashoka Hall at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Just In:  A huge fire has broken out in the building next to National College, Bandra west, in Mumbai. Details soon.

A special court today framed charges of cheating and criminal conspiracy against former Coal Secretary H C Gupta and five others in a coal block case. The Court has also framed charges against ex-joint secretary in Ministry of Coal (MoC) K S Kropha and the then Director (CA-I) in MoC, K C Samria. Vikash Metals and Power Ltd has also been charged with the same offences.


Read Harish Khare's piece, Stop worshipping false gods, on the hounding of an honest bureaucrat. Khare was media secretary to former PM Dr Manmohan Singh.

President Pranab Mukherjee's visit to Germany in mid September has been rescheduled as German leaders are busy with their visit to New York to attend the UN General Assembly. The President was to have left for Germany and two other countries and the visit will now take place in November, according to a high-level Rashtrapati Bhavan source. 

The Delhi High Court will today hear a plea of Payal Abdullah, the estranged wife of former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah to retain the official residence or get an alternate government accommodation on security grounds.

On Tuesday, Payal failed to get any relief from a Delhi court which directed her to vacate the bungalow in Lutyen's Zone where she has been living since 1999.

On the last date of hearing on August 12, the high court had extended till August 16 the interim protection from eviction granted on July 12.
While Payal enjoys a Z category security cover, each of her sons has Z plus security, comprising of a total 94 personnel.
She has claimed that so many personnel, their weapons and other security arrangements cannot be accommodated at her private flat in the city.


With regard to the Centre and the states claim that the 7, Akbar Road bungalow was meant for the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, she has told the high court that it was allotted to her husband from 1999 onwards and was never cancelled, even when he was not an MP or an MLA.

Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy doesn't give up does he? The MP tweeted: @Swamy39 " Looks like officials of the Finance Ministry are also of the same view as me on GSTN. But not that American In MoF."

The reference is seemingly, Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian.
After targeting RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, Swamy had attacked Arvind Subramanian, a PM Modi-appointee, asking that he be sacked. 

Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Friday gave another extension to the Parliamentary Committee formed to probe Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP Bhagwant Mann till end of the first week of next session, news agency ANI reported.

The probe committee received an extension of two weeks earlier in August as well. Mann, the AAP MP from Sangrur, had triggered a controversy in July by live-streaming the security arrangements at the Parliament House complex on social media. He had also videographed the process of draw of lots for selecting members' questions for listing.

'The sacking of Outlook magazine's Editor-in-Chief Krishna Prasad provides another example of the saffron camp's disrespect for dissent,' argues Amulya Ganguli. Read the column on Rediff.com.

History-maker Usain Bolt said he deserves to be among sport's all-time greats after romping to a third straight Olympic 200m gold. With a third consecutive sweep of the 100m, 200m and relay sprints in sight today, the world's fastest man argued he should be in the pantheon of sporting heroes with Pele, Muhammad Ali and Michael Phelps.

"I am trying to be one of the greatest. Be among Ali and Pele," he declared in the seconds after the win. "I'll wait to see what you guys write tomorrow," the sprint king added at a later press conference.

"I'm just waiting to see what the media have to say and if they put me in that bracket," he said when asked how he stacked up against football star Pele and boxing legend Ali. "I've worked all my career, all my life for this moment. Hopefully you can read about me as one of the greatest people in sport, that's my focus."

Bolt, who has now won a staggering 19 Olympic and world titles, insisted he had run his final individual Olympic race. "I've proven to the world that I'm the greatest and that's what I came here for," he said, sounding for a moment like Ali himself.

"That's why is why I said it's my last Olympics," added Bolt, who will look to bow out with the so-called triple-triple in the 4x100m relay today.

Amidst speculations over cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu's decision to join Aam Admi Party, supremo Arvind Kejriwal today in a series of tweets hinted at the prospects of Sidhu's affiliation.In a rhetorical tweet he said there are a lot of rumours doing the round about Sidhu joining his party.

He added it was his duty to put forward the party's side and maintained he had the utmost regard for the cricket legend.His tweet read, "Would Navjot Sidhuji join AAP- lot of rumours? It's my duty to put forward our side. We have greatest regard for this cricket legend."

Meanwhile, in another tweet Kejriwal stated that he had met Sidhu last week. Although Sidhu did not place any preconditions, Kejriwal said that Sidhu needed time and the party respects it.

His tweet, "He met me last week. Didn't put any pre-condition. He needs time to think. Lets respect that..."

Kejriwal ruled out any possibility of ill-willl between him and Sidhu. In one of his tweets he said that Sidhu is a good human being and that he would continue to respect him regardless of his decision to join or withdraw.

@IndiaHistorypic  tweets this picture of PV Sindhu with her mother, sister and Badminton player Pulela Gopichand (Photo courtesy: Femina)

Congress leader and former union minister Mani Shankar Aiyar and journalist Prem Shankar Jha faced a hostile crowd at Srinagar's Shri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital, when they to meet the civilians, injured during the ongoing protests, on Thursday but were forced to leave the institute after protests from volunteers and attendants.

Indian Express reports that Aiyar and Jha who were a part of a delegation of individuals which included journalists and activists were asked to leave the premises while the journalists and others were allowed to visit the wards where they interacted with the injured. "We don't shake hands with murderers,' attendants told Aiyar, according to a doctor in the hospital.

Sources said the patients met with the group of journalists and activists and narrated the situations during which they suffered the injuries.
Read more

The Clinton Foundation has announced that it will stop accepting foreign donations if Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton wins the November general election, according to a media report.

Former US president Bill Clinton reportedly told his staffers in New York that the foundation will only accept contributions from US citizens and independent charities if Hillary win the elections, ABC News reported yesterday. Hillary Clinton is the Democratic presidential nominee. She along with her daughter Chelsea are the two other Directors of Clinton Foundation, which is involved in massive charity work globally.

Narsingh Yadav's statement after his 4-year ban:

"To say I am devastated at the decision of CAS would be putting it mildly. I have gone through so much over the last two months off the mat but the thought of fighting for the glory of the nation at the Games had kept me going. My dream of competing and winning the country a medal at the Rio Olympics has been cruelly snatched away from me twelve hours before my first bout," Narsingh, who was to fight in men's 74kg category, said.

"But I will do everything it takes to prove my innocence. It is all I have left to fight for," he said in a statement issued by his sponsors JSW Sports.

In a stunning reversal of fortunes, wrestler Narsingh Yadav was ousted from the Olympics yesterday and slapped with a four-year ban for flunking a dope test after the ad hoc division of Court of Arbitration for Sports overturned the clean chit given to him by the National Anti-Doping Agency.

The statement said that a review of the decision could be filed if further evidence is found pertaining to the claim of sabotage made by Narsingh.

"We will be pressing for a review of the decision that WADA would be amenable to if further evidence is found pertaining to sabotage," it said.

"JSW Sports strongly believes in Narsingh's innocence and will stand by the wrestler in doing everything to fight for justice," it added. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) had appealed against the NADA all-clear to Narsingh at the ad hoc division of the CAS at Rio, three days ahead of his scheduled opening bout at the Olympics.

Under fire over charges of sedition, Amnesty International India on Thursday denied reports of shutting down their office and asserted that the charge of sedition against them was completely wrong, adding that they would continue to fight for justice.

Executive director of Amnesty India Aakar Patel said that the information provided by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, on the basis of which an FIR was lodged against them had factual errors.

"It is unfortunate for us that an issue that is serious and on which we had spent so many years, was then submerged by one aspect of this, which is slogan shouting," he said.

On reports of Amnesty office being closed down, Patel said that the staff is working from the office, although earlier in the day, they were advised to work from home after threats of dhranas and protests loomed.

A naked statue of Donald Trump, complete with bulging belly and elaborate yellow hair, caused laughter and merriment in New York on Thursday until it was ripped up by park wardens.

Hands clasped across ample belly, the sculpture was unveiled in Union Square, gazing out across the busy street with an engraved plaque saying The Emperor Has No Balls, witnesses said.

Indecline, a California-based company, released a video on their website showing a naked statue of the controversial Republican presidential nominee being made.

But New Yorks department of parks and recreation was unimpressed. Wardens ripped the statue from its base, then used spades to smash its feet and foam base to smithereens, and pry its metal platform from the ground.

Parks has removed the sculpture," a spokesperson for the citys department of parks and recreation was quoted as saying by AFP. The installation of any unapproved structure or artwork in a city park is illegal.

Throughout the morning, passers-by stopped to take photographs, pose for selfies or laugh at the depiction of the New York billionaire.

Babulal Bera, the father of United States Republican Ami Bera (D-Elk Grove), was sentenced to federal prison on Thursday for illegally funneling about $260,000 (Rs 1.73 crore) to his sons congressional campaigns, the Los Angeles Times reported.  

Prosecutors said the elder Bera created an elaborate scheme and repaid friends and family for the donations they made to his sons campaign.

Ami Bera, a two-term congressman from Sacramento County, faces a tough reelection fight this November.

Read full story HERE

Pro-talk United Liberation Front of Assam leader Anup Chetia on Thursday met Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and submitted a memorandum enlisting various demands of the organisation, officials said.

Sonowal assured Chetia that the government would consider their demands, which included rehabilitation of the surrendered cadres.

Minister for Agriculture Atul Bora was present during the discussion, they added.

Sindhu shocks Okuhara to enter Rio Olympics final

Grappler Babita eliminated after losing opening bout

Bronze medalist Sakshi set to receive Khel Ratna

Amid calls for 'azadi' in Kashmir, 300 don Indian Army uniform

Gujarat cop N K Amin discharged in fake encounter cases

Sidhu keeps everyone guessing, AAP says it's his call

Islamic seminary issues fatwa against Hafiz Saeed; deems him an 'outcast'

Smriti, Nirmala tie rakhi to 'brothers' at borders

Sachin Tendulkar adopts village in Osmanabad

Read yesterday's commentary HERE