LIVE! BJP justifies giving refuge to Pak, B'desh minorities

LIVE

Sun, 03 July 2016

BJP justifies giving refuge to Pak, B'desh minorities

Timeline Refresh

22:02 BJP justifies giving refuge to Pak, B'desh minorities

Bharatiya Janata Party General Secretary Ram Madhav has said if the Centre's decision to give refuge to persecuted minorities of Pakistan and Bangladesh is communalism, then it is happy to be called "communalist".

"As regards the 2015 central government notification that offers refuge in India to persecuted minorities of Pakistan and Bangladesh, the stand of the government is that such minorities are not just Hindus but also Sikhs, Jains, Christians, Ahmadiyas etc.

"If giving them refuge is communalism, we are happy to be called communalists," Madhav said at an event to discuss the party's victory in Assam assembly polls, "The Assam Triumph".

The government, last year, had decided on humanitarian consideration to exempt Bangladeshi and Pakistani nationals belonging to minority communities who have entered India on or before December 31, 2014, in respect of their entry and stay in India without proper documents or after the expiry of relevant documents.

He said borders in Assam will be sealed and constitutional steps will be taken to check infiltration.

Infrastructure is a priority for the North-East, and in this direction, Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari has allocated Rs one lakh crore for building roads in the region, he said.

"In last two yeas, the condition of roads in the North-East has improved tremendously," he said.

Madhav said the North-East is a gateway to South-East Asia, a region that is of strategic importance to India and the Centre's 'Look East Policy'.

"Assam has as many as five countries as neighbours and its development will contribute significantly to 'Look East Policy'," he said.

A man has been critically injured following an explosion in Central Park.

Reports suggest the victim suffered an injury to his leg and was being treated at the scene in New York's historic landmark.

One witness told CBS2 that he was walking on a rock when something exploded.

More details awaited.

The overall monsoon deficiency has reduced to 9 per cent after several parts of the country received a good amount of rainfall.

From June 1 to July 2, the country has received 164.9 mm of rainfall as against the normal limit of 180 mm, the meteorological department said, adding that the situation is expected to improve as good rainfall is predicted for the months of July, August and September.

But the rainfall deficiency in east and northeast India has gone up to 28 per cent as the region has received only 274 mm of rainfall as against 381 mm, which is the normal limit, they said.

According to India Meteorological Department, monsoon deficiency in central India is around 12 per cent.

As per the IMD predictions, other parts of the country are expected to receive good rainfall but the east and northeast India and parts of Tamil Nadu likely to get less precipitation.

Meanwhile, the Southwest Monsoon has advanced further to remaining parts of west Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, most parts of Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Punjab and some parts of east Rajasthan.

The Northern Limit of Monsoon passes through Dwarka, Vallabh Vidyanagar, Bundi, Jaipur, Hissar and Bhatinda.

"Conditions are favourable for further advance of Southwest Monsoon into some more parts of north Arabian Sea and Gujarat State, remaining parts of East Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab and some more parts of West Rajasthan during next 48 hours," the IMD said in its forecast.

A 76-year-old man in Malaysia has been arrested for allegedly sharing a "crude" photo of Prime Minister Najib Razak on a WhatsApp group which "insulted and hurt feelings of Malaysians", a media report said on Sunday.

The elderly man, who goes by the name Pa Ya, was arrested in Kampung Tunku, Petaling Jaya, Johor police chief Comm Datuk Wan Ahmad Najmuddin Mohd said.

The suspect, who can be fined over $12,000 or jailed for a year or both, had uploaded the photo into a WhatsApp group called "Bicara Politik Melayu", The Star reported.

The police arrested him for sharing a crude photo insulting the prime minister in a WhatsApp group, the report said.

"The photo has insulted and hurt the feelings of Malaysians," he said in a statement, adding that the man's mobile phone has also been seized.

A police report in this regard was lodged on Friday following the posting of the photo.

Ahmad said that the suspect would be remanded at the Johor Baru court for investigations under relevant provisions of the law which carries a maximum fine of 50,000 Malaysian Ringgit ($12,526) or up to a year's jail, or both upon conviction.

Eminent lawyer and Rashtriya Janata Dal MP Ram Jethmalani on Sunday said he felt "guilty" and "cheated" for helping Prime Minister Narendra Modi who failed to deliver on his promise of bringing back blackmoney stashed abroad.

While addressing a regional convention of Samajwadi Sindhi Sabha, Jethmalani claimed he contributed to making Modi the prime minister after Bharatiya Janata Party leaders promised to bring back blackmoney parked in foreign banks.

He said, however, after becoming PM, Modi failed to bring back blackmoney and now it seems that the latter would not be able to fulfil his promise.

"I feel cheated and consider myself guilty that I helped Modi. I have come here to tell you not to believe Modi," he said.

Jethmalani said Uttar Praesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has a clean image and described him as the future of the country.

Speaking on the occasion, Rajya Sabha MP Amar Singh said he respected Jethmalani a lot as he speaks about justice.

He appealed to the members of the Sindhi community to actively participate in assembly polls so that the Samajwadi Party comes to power again.

The family of an American woman who died recently put out an obituary that said she passed away to avoid the spectre of voting for either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton in the upcoming presidential election!

The funny obituary of 68-year-old Mary Anne Noland of Richmond, Virginia claimed she died to avoid the increasingly likely choice between Republican Trump and Democrat Clinton in the November 8 US presidential poll.

"Faced with the prospect of voting for either Trump or Clinton, Noland chose, instead, to pass into the eternal love of God on Sunday," read the obituary which was published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Her husband, Jim Noland, said that one of their sons wrote the satirical political line and that it was not an attack on either candidate, but rather a way to carry on Mary Anne's sense of humour. His wife passed away after a long battle with lung cancer in May.

Turkey's state-run news agency says authorities have detained three new suspects in connection with the attack at Istanbul's airport that killed at least 44 people.

Anadolu Agency didn't identify the suspects or specify their nationalities.

It said today the total number of those detained in relation to the shooting and suicide attack at the airport is now 27. Thirteen suspects, including three foreigners, have been referred to Istanbul's Bakirkoy Court after undergoing medical checks, according to the report.

Three militants armed with assault rifles and suicide bombs stormed Istanbul's Ataturk Airport on Tuesday night. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Turkish officials say they believe it was the work of the Islamic State group, which is based in neighboring Syria and Iraq and has operatives in Turkey.

Security agencies have identified the driver of the car which ferried the 'fidayeen' terrorists who ambushed a Central Reserve Police Force bus killing eight personnel, as a probe pointed to the Lashkar-e-Tayiba attackers having infiltrated into Kashmir Valley through higher reaches of Gulmarg early last month.

Official sources said on Sunday that the driver, whose identity has been withheld, had driven four militants of Pakistan-based terror outfit LeT from Baba Reshi, 57 km from Srinagar, four days before the deadly attack in

Pampore on June 25 and kept them in a safe house in Pulwama district in south Kashmir.

The driver, who has gone underground since the day of the attack, was considered as over ground worker of the militant outfit by the local police but no action was taken against him as there was no evidence so far, the sources said. Security agencies are now hot on the trail of the driver.

Piecing together the evidence collected by the security agencies so far, they said the four 'fidayeens' (suicide attackers) infiltrated through the higher reaches of Gulmarg in north Kashmir and reached south Kashmir in a Tata Sumo vehicle.

Initially all the four terrorists had carried out a reconnaissance of the national highway and chose the attack spot which is barely three kilometers from Entrepreneurship Development Institute, where LeT militants had gunned down two army officers and three others ranks in February this year.

Cautioning against expecting too much from central banks, RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan has said it is wrong on their part also to always claim a 'bazooka' left up their sleeves, even as he asserted that life is "very difficult" in emerging markets.

In a panel discussion in Basel, Switzerland on lessons learnt by the central bankers from the global financial crisis, he also took on the industrial nations for expecting the emerging markets to be "orthodox" in their monetary and economic policies at a time when they themselves have "thrown out the orthodoxy out of the window".

He was speaking at a panel discussion after the Per Jacobsson Foundation Lecture, delivered by JPMorgan Chase International Chairman Jacob Frenkel, on the occasion of the Bank for International Settlements Annual General Meeting.

The lecture took place on June 26, but its content has been made public now only. Those participating in the panel discussion included Bank of Mexico Governor Agustun Carstens and Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau.

The lecture took place within days of Rajan making public his decision that he would not opt for a second term as RBI Governor when his current three-year tenure ends on September 4.

Referring to Frenkel's lecture that talked about unconventional monetary policies and the central bankers not being the only game in the town, Rajan said the question at the heart of his talk appeared 'why is the populism popular'.

"In a way, he was making a desperate plea for orthodoxy and saying let's not abandon orthodox principles and I guess the converse of that is that populism has become popular.

"I think if you want to talk about the institutional and environmental situation which supported the orthodoxy, the 80s and 90s, one would guess that it was a society where the elites were respected, where there was a feeling that they could understand and interpret the policies for the masses.

"There was broadly a positive sum game... And actions were not interpreted as favouring one constituency versus another. There was a sense of coherence in the society, little more than today," he said.

Rajan further said that when there is trust in the elite and there is no common economic paradigm, a lot of competing paradigms come up, some of which contradict the laws of economics and very little trust is left in the institutions.

"Well, that's what we call an emerging market," he said.

"It's the kind of environment we have worked in the past and we have tried to change that to try and say that there are some broad principles, there are institutions that we should build and yes that some people can be trusted, the experts can be trusted. It takes time to do that.

"But my sense is that what the crisis has done is that in the industrial countries, created the kind of conditions that bring you back to the conditions we experienced in the emerging markets," he added.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday vowed to trace the "roots" of the culprits who supplied weapons and explosives to the terrorists who killed 20 people, mostly foreigners, in a barbaric attack on a cafe in Dhaka.

Her remarks came during a meeting with Japan's State Minister of Foreign Affairs Seiji Kihara at her official residence Ganabhaban.

"Describing the terror attack at Gulshan cafe as unfortunate, the prime minister said we must find out the roots of the culprits who supplied weapons and explosives to the terrorists for the barbaric attack," Ihsanul Karim, press secretary to the PM, told the media after the meeting.

Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka's upscale diplomatic zone came under attack on Friday evening by gunmen. Seven Japanese nationals were among 20 killed during the attack.

Six of the seven Japanese killed in the terror strike were surveyors for Dhakas Metrorail project.

The Japanese government has sent the minister to Dhaka after the attack.

The assailants killed two police officers, who tried to enter the cafe, to break the siege.

Army commandos stormed the eatery and rescued 13 hostages, killing six attackers while capturing one alive.

The army said 20 people were found dead on the premises during the raid, all possibly slaughtered late on Friday, hours before the commandos raided the cafe.

It has been confirmed that the hostages killed included nine Italians, seven Japanese and an Indian. Three Bangladeshis were also among the dead and one of them was a United States citizen.

A petition seeking lodging of a case against All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen Chief Asaduddin Owaisi was filed in a court in Meerut by a member of Uttar Pradesh Bar Council who alleged his remarks on the

youths held by the National Investigation Agency amounted to treason and promoted terrorism.

"The remark from Owaisi that his party will provide legal aid to five youths arrested by the NIA amounts to treason," the petitioner, Anil Kumar Bakshi, said.

"Owaisi's remark also shows that he is supporting terrorism," he alleged.

The hearing on the complaint will be held on July 6, said the court.

Owaisi on Friday said his party would provide legal help to the youths arrested by the NIA on charges of involvement in an alleged ISIS terror module, but asserted his party does not support terrorism.

Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi alleged that Owaisi is giving "oxygen" to terrorists and that he is seen as "standing with extremists".

"Owaisi is directly or indirectly helping the ISIS which had come up with a video in which it threatened to target India. This is betrayal of the country. On the one hand you condemn the ISIS and on the other hand you support those who are involved in such acts.

"The investigating agencies should take action against him within the legal framework. Those who support terrorism directly or indirectly should be condemned," BJP National Secretary Shrikant Sharma said.

Even as Bangladesh tries to come to grips with the deadly terror attack in Dhaka, it has been revealed that one of the slain terrorists, Nibras Islam, was an educated young boy who came from an affluent family, India Today reports.

Nibras was allegedly brainwashed and radicalized by terrorists to carry out the heinous attack in the name of Islam.

Videos and photos from his profile show a well-spoken, pleasant young boy.

In one of videos posted on his Facebook profile, Nibras is seen shaking hands with Bollywood star Shraddha Kapoor. "Shraddha Kapoor you beauty," he captioned it.

Reda more

India has slipped to 75th place in terms of money held by its citizens with banks in Switzerland, while the United Kingdom remains on top.

India was placed at 61st place last year, while it used to among top-50 countries in terms of holdings in Swiss banks till 2007. The country was ranked highest at 37th place in the year 2004.

As per the latest annual update on Swiss banks, released by Switzerland's central bank Swiss National Bank, the total money held there by foreign clients from across the world fell by nearly 4 per cent to Swiss franc 1.42

trillion (about Rs 98 lakh crore) at the end of 2015.

In terms of individual countries, the UK accounted for the largest chunk at about CHF 350 billion or almost 25 per cent of the total foreign money with Swiss banks.

The US came second with nearly CHF 196 billion or about 14 per cent. No other country accounted for a double-digit percentage share, while others in the top-ten included West Indies, Germany, Bahamas, France, Guernsey, Luxembourg, Hong Kong and Panama.

India was ranked 75th with CHF 1.2 billion (about Rs 8,392 crore), which is not even 0.1 per cent of the total foreign money in Swiss banks and is the lowest for the country in at least two decades or since 1996 -- the first year for which full comparable data is available.

Pakistan was placed higher at 69th place with CHF 1.5 billion -- a shade better than 0.1 per cent of total foreign money parked with Swiss banks.

India was also lowest ranked among the BRICS nations -- Russia was ranked 17th (CHF 17.6 billion), China 28th (CHF 7.4 billion), Brazil 37th (CHF 4.8 billion) and South Africa 60th (CHF 2.2 billion).

Others ranked higher than India included Mauritius, Kazakhstan, Iran, Chile, Angola, Philippines, Indonesia and Mexico, while a number of so-called tax havens were also placed above, including Jersey, Cayman Islands, Cyprus, Marshall Islands, Bermuda, Belize, Gibraltar, Isle of Man, Seychelles and St Vincent and the Grenadines.

All offshore financial centres together held CHF 378 billion in Swiss banks. The total for developing countries stood at CHF 207 billion, while the same for the developed countries was much higher at CHF 833 million.

India was ranked in top-50 continuously between 1996 and 2007, but started declining after that -- 55th in 2008, 59th in 2009 and 2010 each, 55th again in 2011, 71st in 2012 and then 58th in 2013.

14:31 Drinking alcohol may up cancer risk: study

Even moderate consumption of alcohol may increase the risk of several types of cancer, a new study has warned.

According to researchers at the University of Otago, drinking was responsible for 236 cancer deaths under 80 years of age in New Zealand in 2012.

The research builds on previous work that identified 30 per cent of all alcohol-attributable deaths in New Zealand to be due to cancer, more than all other chronic diseases combined.

The study used evidence that alcohol causes some types of cancer after combining dozens of large studies conducted internationally over several decades.

The cancers that are known to be causally related to alcohol include two of the most common causes of cancer death in New Zealand, breast and bowel cancer, but also cancer of the mouth, pharynx, oesophagus, larynx and liver.

The study estimated mortality for 2007 and 2012.

"About 60 per cent of all alcohol-attributable cancer deaths in New Zealand women are from breast cancer," said Professor Jennie Connor of the Department of Preventive and Social Medicine at Otago Medical School.

"We estimated 71 breast cancer deaths in 2007 and 65 in 2012 were due to drinking, and about a third of these were associated with drinking less than two drinks a day on average.

"Although risk of cancer is much higher in heavy drinkers there are fewer of them, and many alcohol-related breast cancers occur in women who are drinking at levels that are currently considered acceptable," Connor said.

There was little difference between men and women in the number of cancer deaths due to alcohol, even though men drink much more heavily than women, because breast cancer deaths balanced higher numbers of deaths in men from other cancer types, said researchers.

"These premature deaths from cancer resulted in an average 10.4 years of life lost per person affected, with more loss of life among Maori than non-Maori, and for breast cancer compared with other cancers," they said.

"While these alcohol-attributable cancer deaths are only 4.2 per cent of all cancer deaths under 80, what makes them so significant is that we know how to avoid them," said Connor.

Individual decisions to reduce alcohol consumption will reduce risk in those people, but reduction in alcohol consumption across the population will bring down the incidence of these cancers much more substantially, and

provide many other health benefits as well, researchers said.

The study was published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Review.

14:21 'Assad is a more advanced terrorist than IS'

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared that Syrian President Bashar Assad was a "more advanced terrorist" than the Islamic State group, despite the deadly attack on Istanbul's Ataturk Airport that Turkish officials blame on IS.

Speaking in the town of Kilis near the border with Syria, Erdogan said the Syrian leader was responsible for the deaths of some 600,000 of his own citizens and was the root cause of the war in Syria.

"He is a more advanced terrorist than a terrorist from the PYD or the YPG," Erdogan said. "He is a more advanced terrorist than Daesh." Erdogan was referring to Syrian Kurdish militia, which Ankara accuses of being a terror organization because of their affiliation with Turkey's Kurdish rebels, and to the IS group by its Arabic name.

Three militants armed with assault rifles and suicide bombs attacked one of the world's busiest airports on Tuesday night, killing at least 44 people. Although no one has claimed responsibility for the attack, Turkish officials say they believe it was the work of IS.

Turkish authorities have detained at least 24 people in raids in several Istanbul neighborhoods over possible connections to the attack. Seventeen other people were detained in the province of Gaziantep, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

Erdogan paid an unannounced visit to the airport on Saturday, saying a prayer in front of a memorial set up for the victims, which features the pictures of airport employees killed in the rampage.

He later flew to Kilis, where the number of Syrian refugees is higher than the local Turkish population. IS militants have also attacked the town with cross-border rocket fire, killing 21 people there since January.

Hundreds of fans of Lionel Messi gathered in the rain in Argentina's capital to ask that the soccer star return to the national team following his shock retirement from the squad, AP has reported.

Messi announced his decision to leave Argentina's national team after it lost to Chile on penalty kicks last week in the Copa America final in the United States.

Support for Messi has been overwhelming on social media with sports figures, artists and politicians urging him to return. Billboards and signs across the city are also asking him to stay.

On Saturday, the cold and rain kept the numbers down with only a few hundred fans gathering to urge their hero to return, not the thousands that had been expected.

Messi, who moved to Barcelona at age 13, has often faced criticism in Argentina because he has failed to deliver the country a major title, in contrast to his repeated success at Barcelona.

"Messi is the best player in history, both in Argentine and international football. I don't think we will see another like him in the next thousand years," said fan Hernan Sanchez during the rally in Buenos Aires.

A 10-year-old girl was allegedly raped and murdered after being kidnapped by a man suspected to be a habitual offender in Bollarum areain Hyderabad.

Accused Anil Kumar, who was recently released from jail, took away the girl, a Class 3 student, from near a toddy shop last evening where she was with her mother, after luring her to buy some chocolates and chips.

He then allegedly raped the minor and brutally killed her by smashing the girl's head with a boulder on Saturday night, Bollarum police station Sub-Inspector M Satish Kumar said.

A complaint was lodged in this regard and a search was launched following which the girl's body was found in an isolated place, the SI said.

Police teams have been formed to nab the absconding accused, he further said.

A case under relevant IPC sections for rape and murder and POCSO Act has been registered, he said, adding further probe is on.

An MLA's son, who hit an autorickshaw and a police PCR van with his speeding BMW killing three persons and injuring five others, had consumed alcohol five times the permissible limit.

As per the breathanalyser test conducted soon after the incident, Siddharth Maharia's alcohol level was found to be 152 mg/100 ml while the permissible limit is 30 mg/100 ml, Bala Ram, SHO, Ashok Nagar, said.

Siddharth, son of Independent MLA from Fatehpur Nandkishore Maharia, was allegedly driving the BMW at the speed of approximately 100 km/hr in the wee hours on Saturday.

The car first hit an autorickshaw and then rammed into a PCR van nearby, police said.

Of the four men who were in the autorickshaw, three were killed while one sustained injuries. Four policemen including an assistant sub inspector were also injured.

Siddharth, who was with his relative in the car, was arrested under section 304 of the IPC (punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder).

He, however, claimed that he was not driving the car and also denied consuming alcohol.

Image: Siddharth Maharia. Photograph: PTI

An alert was sounded along the 856-km long border with Bangladesh in view of the terrorist attack in a restaurant in Dhaka late Friday night, a top police official said.

He said as soon as the report of terrorist attack in Dhaka was received in Agartala, the Border Security Force and all other security forces including state police, were alerted so that no unwanted element could cross the border to enter in Indian territory.

Twenty hostages, including 19-year-old Indian teenager Tarishi Jain, were hacked to death by terrorists inside the cafe popular with expats in the diplomatic zone before commandos launched an assault killing six attackers and capturing one alive.

13:11 At least 75 killed in IS-claimed Baghdad blast

An Islamic State group suicide bomber killed at least 75 people in a busy Baghdad shopping district on Sunday, officials said, in the deadliest single attack in the capital this year.

The blast, which ripped through a street in the Karrada area where many people go to shop ahead of the holiday marking the end of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, also wounded more than 130 people, the officials said.

The mortal remains of Indian teenager Tarishi Jain, who was among those hacked to death by Islamic militants in a terror attack at a Dhaka restaurant, will be brought in New Delhi on Monday, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said.

"It is a case of brutal killing - an unnatural death. Some legal procedure has (to) be completed," the Minister said on twitter.

Swaraj said that Tarishi's body will be taken to Delhi by plane on Monday. "This is with concurrence of Tarishi's father."

"The family will take the mortal remains to Ferozabad (UP)," she added.

Tarishi, a student at UC Berkeley, was on vacation in Dhaka. Her father runs a garment business in Bangladesh for the last 15-20 years, according to officials.

Swaraj said the country is with Tarishi's family in this hour of grief and visa has been arranged for them.

Twenty foreigners, including eight Italians, seven Japanese and the Indian student, were brutally murdered by the militants inside the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka's diplomatic zone before commandos launched an assault

on Saturday, killing six attackers and capturing one alive, ending Bangladesh's worst terror attack.

The bodies of the victims were recovered during a search in the Bakery compound after the operation.

The ICC has approved change in rules in the LBW decisions of the umpires concerning the controversial Decision Review System, which is expected to benefit the bowlers, while deferring plans for a radical shake-up of international cricket, including on the proposed creation of two divisions in Test and a new one-day league.

The global governing body's annual meeting concluded in Scotland's Edinburgh on Saturday with the ICC, IDI and IBC Board deliberating over several issues under the chairmanship of former BCCI chief Shashank Manohar. Few major decisions were also taken.

The ICC said progress has been made on the issue of the governance restructuring in the world body while a push has been made for women's cricket to be included in the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Durban. Further discussions on the plan of International Olympic Committee over cricket becoming an Olympic sport.

Regarding the DRS playing conditions relating to the LBW 'umpire's call', the ICC said if the on-field lbw decisions are to be overturned, half of the ball would now need to hit a zone of the stumps that also borders the outside of off and leg stumps. Earlier, half of the ball would need to hit a zone between the centre of off and leg stumps.

"The size of the zone inside which half the ball needs to hit for a Not Out decision to be reversed to Out will increase, changing to a zone bordered by the outside of off and leg stumps, and the bottom of the bails (formerly the centre of off and leg stumps, and the bottom of the bails)," the ICC said in a statement.

In Uttarakhand, almost all major rivers are flowing near the danger marks and in view of this, the authorities have asked the people living in low lying areas to move to safer places.

Meanwhile, the Rishikesh-Badrinath national highway is still blocked at some places. Gangotri and Yamunotri national highways have also been disrupted at several places in Uttarakashi district.

The BRO and PWD personnel are pressed into service to reopen all the three yatra routes.

Relief and rescue operations are underway at war footing in the villages following heavy rains and cloud burst.

The death toll in Pithoragarh and Chamoli districts of state has risen to 16. In seven villages including Bastari under Didihat tehsil of Pithoragarh, 13 people have been rescued alive from the debris and they are under treatment in the hospital.

So far 10 dead bodies have been recovered, while about 17 people are still buried under the debris.

The terrorists who launched Friday's attack on a Dhaka restaurant, slaughtering 20 hostages, were members of a homegrown Bangladeshi militant group and not followers of the Islamic State of Syria and Iraq, a senior minister of Bangladesh told NDTV.

"They are members of the Jamaeytul Mujahdeen Bangladesh," said Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan. The group has been banned in Bangladesh for more than a decade. "They have no connections with the Islamic State," he said.

Earlier, the police had said that the seven terrorists were local Bangladeshis and five of them had been of the radar of the authorities. The police had tried to arrest them before.

Gunmen had stormed the upmarket restaurant popular with expatriates in the diplomatic zone late on Friday, before killing 18 foreigners in a coordinated mass killing that experts said marked a level of scale and sophistication not previously seen in Bangladesh.

HBO has launched the 'Game of Thrones' fan art competition, giving fans the chance to have their art displayed in a special GOT exhibition in London.

Drawings, paintings, graphic designs, sculptures and embroidery are all eligible for submission, with entrants above 18 years invited to upload an image of their fan art to the HBO website, reported Digital Spy.

A shortlist of 20 entries will be voted before winners will have their entries displayed in a special 'GoT' exhibition in a London art gallery in November, alongside professional graffiti and street art team 'The Graffitti Kings'.

Three students from US universities, including Indian girl Tarushi Jain, were among 20 hostages hacked to death by suspected IS militants in a terror attack on a restaurant in the Bangladesh capital's high-security diplomatic zone.

18-year-old Tarishi Jain, an Indian student at UC Berkeley, was on vacation in Dhaka when the attack happened. The two other students -- Abinta Kabir and Faraaz Hossain -- were studying at Atlanta's Emory University, varsity officials said.

Bangladeshi-origin Abinta, who was from Miami, was a rising sophomore at Emory's Oxford College, while Faraaz, a junior from Dhaka, was a graduate of Oxford College and a student at the university's Goizueta Business School.

10:22 No Salman-Katrina in Kabir Khan's next film

Actress Katrina Kaif will not be seen opposite superstar Salman Khan in director Kabir Khan's next film.

Speculation was rife that Katrina will be working with Kabir in his forthcoming film, Tubelight, after she was spotted with him recently at a programme.

"Katrina is not in the film. There will be someone else. We have not locked the actress yet," industry sources said.

Tubelight will be the third collaboration between Salman and Kabir, who have earlier delivered blockbusters, Ek Tha Tiger in 2012 and Bajrangi Bhaijaan.

"The shoot begins by the end of July in Ladakh," sources added. The film, which will be Salman's next Eid release, is a human story with a larger than life political backdrop. The film will also have the Dabangg star's brother, Sohail, playing his younger brother on the screen.

Australia is facing the possibility of a hung parliament as over 11 million ballots counted for the poll today showed a close race, with neither Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's conservative coalition nor opposition Labor bagging enough seats to form a majority government.

More than 10 million people cast their ballot yesterday to decide the fate of over 1,600 candidates, including five of Indian-origin, contesting from over 55 political parities.

Voters dumped more than 10 Coalition MPs, with the government suffering a 2.8 per cent swing against it.

With more than three-quarters of the vote counted, the government was on track to claim at least 65 seats -- down from 90. Labor was also predicted to win 67 seats. Thirteen were too close to call, and the results may not be known until later in the week.

The future Australian government would be resolved by the 13 seats which remain in doubt. Of these, Labor was ahead in six.

According to Rukmini Callimachi, The New York Times correspondent who focuses on Al Qaeda and ISIS, the Dhaka attack claimed by ISIS is proving to be more sophisticated in terms of pre-planning than we have seen in the past.

According to Callimachi, 'in keeping with the modus operandi pushed last year by Abdelhamid Abaaoud, planner of the Paris attack, the assailants in Bangladesh created a hostage standoff. The purpose of a hostage standoff was to extend length of operation & thus extend the press coverage, as well as a chance to make demands."

"It now appears images of bodies lying in pools of blood next to bakery's ratan chairs were photographed by assailants and sent back to the IS. They may have tried to do this during the November 13 attack on Bataclan concert hall in Paris. Witnesses saw suicide bombers trying to get online," she said on Twitter.

While asserting that social media had now made even the smaller, regional acts very effective in spreading the message of terror, Callimachi said: "Survivors (in Paris) reported that suicide bombers seized their phones; tried to surf the net, but the 3G network was out. Two witnesses saw a bomber whip out a laptop. But they did not succeed in getting images out."

"But in Dhaka, they not only got images out but also details of the operation (turns out they were right when they said 20 people were killed). The information they fed out went straight to ISIS' core media operation, appearing in close to real time on ISIS' Amaq News Agency. One other aspect of planning: Like Paris attackers, they left behind images of themselves pre-attack. In this case posing next to IS flag."

00:17 Wimbledon: Sania-Hingis in round 2

Wimbledon: Sania Mirza and her Swiss partner Martina Hingis edged out their French rivals Anna-Lena Friedsam and Laura Siegemund 6-2, 7-5 to advance into round 2 on women's doubles.

Timeline Refresh

TOP STORIES