A day after Kamal Haasan stated that Hindu terror is now a reality in India, a defamation case for hurting religious sentiments has been filed againt the Tamil actor in Varanasi. 

Just in: Rahul Gandhi is likely to be elevated as Congress president after the two upcoming assembly polls in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, say reports. At a recently held meeting of Congress general secretaries on demonetisation at the AICC headquarters, Rahul Gandhi, who is the party's vice-president was urged to set a date for his elevation to the party's top job. Top Congress leaders told Rahul Gandhi not to wait for the Assembly polls. But this may not come to pass.

Assembly elections in Gujarat will be held on two days, December 9 for 89 assembly seats and December 14 for 93 seats, while voting for the 68-seat Himachal Pradesh assembly will take place on 9 November and the results will be declared on 18 December.

Just in: Former TMC MP Mukul Roy to join BJP today, says CNN News18.

Bharatiya Janata Party national General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya last week had said Roy expressed his wish to join the BJP to the party's West Bengal unit.

Roy had quit the Trinamool and resigned his Rajya Sabha seat citing "lack of principle" as his compulsion to leave a party of which he was a founding member.

BJP President Amit Shah is likely to induct him into the BJP.

A slanging match erupted on Bihar's political scene today with the ruling Janata Dal (United) releasing a photograph of opposition leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav to allege that younger son of Lalu Prasad was used to a life of revelry. In a quick retort, Yadav alleged that the exercise was the ruling party's reaction to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's "careflly cultivated image taking a beating following our exposes on corruption and illicit liquor trade in his rein".


The picture, which showed Yadav standing with an unidentified woman and a bottle of liquor in the backdrop was released at a joint press conference called by JD(U) spokesmen Sanjay Singh, Neeraj Kumar and Nikhil Mandal.


"You all can see the so called Bihar youth icon's photograph in which he is having a good time. We wonder about this 'rang' (colour) of Tejashwi Yadav. Is this the sanskar (values) he has imbibed from his father (RJD supremo) Lalu Prasad", the JD(U) spokesmen said in their stinging comment.


At a press conference called a couple of hours later, Yadav returned the fire alleging "the standard of politics hit rock bottom in Bihar today and this has been at the behest of Nitish Kumar who is upset that our relentless campaign against corruption and illicit liquor trade in his rein which is tarnishing his image".


On his picture released by JD(U) spokesmen, he said that "the picture predates my entry into politics. It was clicked during my cricketing days. Perhaps at a party thrown during an IPL match. I wonder what is so objectionable about the photograph and what is the JD(U) trying to prove by resorting to such tricks".  -- PTI

US President Donald J Trump's first reaction to his Twitter account be taken down this morning. @realDonaldTrump "My Twitter account was taken down for 11 minutes by a rogue employee. I guess the word must finally be getting out-and having an impact."


Trump's Twitter account briefly vanished on Thursday but has since been restored, the social media company said.


A Twitter employee deactivated the @realdonaldtrump account, it said, clarifying that it had been their last day in the job. The account was down for 11 minutes.


@POTUS, the official account of the US president, was unaffected.

Cumulative foreign direct investment equity flows into India reached USD 114.4 billion during the last two financial years -- 2015-16 and 2016-17, according to a latest report by global accounting firm KPMG. This is about 40 per cent higher than the USD 81.8 billion recorded in the preceding three years, from 2011-12 to 2013-14.  -- PTI

Hindi writer Krishna Sobti has been awarded the 53rd Jnanpith Award for the 2017 for her pathbreaking contribution in Indian literature in a meeting of the Jnanpith Selection Board today. Sobti (92) is also a Sahitya Akademi Award-winning writer for her book, Zindaginama, set in rural Punjab. The Jnanpith Award is an Indian literary award presented annually by the Bharatiya Jnanpith organisation to an author for their "outstanding contribution towards literature".

Both Kevin Spacey's publicist and talent agency have cut ties with the actor amid mounting sexual harassment and abuse allegations. Spacey's publicist, Staci Wolfe, and the CAA talent agency will now longer be representing the actor, Deadline Hollywood reports.  This comes after after Star Trek: Discovery actor Anthony Rapp came forward with allegations that the two-time Oscar-winning actor made a 'sexual advance' toward him in 1986, when Rapp was 14 years old.

WhatsApp, which suffered a global outage today for a brief period, with users reporting problems accessing the app, is now back and running.

According to downdetector.com, WhatsApp was down in India, parts of the Middle East, Philippines, Germany, USA and Sri Lanka.Worldwide, users were being shown the clock symbol after attempting to send a message, meaning that the message hasn't been sent to WhatsApp's servers.


Downdetector.com said over a thousand of WhatsApp customers reported issues using the app and 60 per cent customers were having issue connecting to it. A further 25 per cent report issues receiving messages and 14 per cent were struggling to login. 

The Independent reports that the WhatsApp app doesn't initially look broken, with chats and contacts able to load. But once a user is into a chat, the app just shows a "connecting" message that never resolves itself, and so new messages can't be sent or received.

That also means there's no easy fix to the problem, since it appears to be on WhatsApp's side. Shutting and opening the app, for instance, just resets the connecting message but won't stop it showing.

WhatsApp users worldwide are experiencing problems with the app with reports coming in from India, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Philippines, Germany, USA an Sri Lanka, reports www.express.co.uk.

Independent website DownDetector, which tracks social comments around a certain topic to monitor outages across the globe, shows over a thousand of WhatsApp customers reporting issues using the app.

According to the site, problems with the chat app occurred around 8am this morning, with hundreds of people reporting issues with the app.

DownDetector says that 60 per cent of customers are having issue connecting to it.

A further 25 per cent report issues receiving messages and 14 per cent are struggling to login. 

The Supreme Court issues a notice to the Centre on pleas challenging the linking
of bank accounts and mobile numbers with Aadhaar. All Aadhaar-related pleas to be taken up for final hearing by SC's constitution bench in November last week. The SC says banks will indicate in messages sent to customers that  December 31 is the last date to link Aadhaar with accounts. Telecom service providers shall also tell customers that last date to link Aadhaar with mobile numbers is February 6, 2018.  Details awaited.

It was 11 minutes that shook and delighted the world, and has at once embarrassed and presumably irritated Donald Trump. But it didn't involve nuclear weapons or diplomacy. It was something that might be much more important to the president: his Twitter account. Read more

Around 15 years ago, Salman Rushdie was leaving the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. The city had just become his adopted home. He was heading towards the exit when he spotted a figure approaching along the corridor. The figure was Donald Trump.


"This was a long time ago," Rushdie recalls. "Long before he had expressed any political ambitions. When he was just this lummox, this kind of New York buffoon.'Trump began gesturing at Rushdie.


"He did this thing where he pointed at me with his shapely and very long index fingers.' Rushdie mimes Trump's take on "finger guns'."Then Trump said, 'You're the man.''  Read the full interview here

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said starting business in India is easier than ever before as procedures have been simplified, archaic laws repealed and compliance requirements reduced.


The reforms initiated by the government in the last three years have helped India jump 30 places since last year in the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business ranking to break into the top 100-nation club.


"This is the highest ever improvement for India, and the highest jump for any country this year. From a rank of 142 in 2014, we have now reached the top 100," he said at the World Food India 2017 conference in New Delhi.


India, he said, ranked number one in the world in 2016 in greenfield investment and has also rapidly progressed on the Global Innovation Index, the Global Logistics Index and the Global Competitiveness Index.


"Starting a new business in India is now easier than ever before. Procedures for obtaining clearances from various agencies have been simplified. Archaic laws have been repealed, and the burden of compliances has been reduced," he said. Modi pitched India as one of the fastest growing economies of the world today. The introduction of Goods and Services Tax from July 1 has eliminated the multiplicity of taxes, he said further.

Incessant heavy rains lashed Nagapattinam district, roughly 300 km from Chennai, for the fifth consecutive day today, inundating hundreds of houses and submerging paddy crops in thousands of hectares.

People have been evacuated to safety in Tarangambadi and Sirkazhi Taluks in the district where hundreds of houses have been flooded. Due to a breach in Rajendran channel at Thalachankadu in Tarangambadi Taluk early morning, rain water surrounded over 300 houses in the area. -- PTI

Update: Panel headed by Executive Director SK Roy looking into the cause of the accident. A report is expected in a month, says NTPC CMD Gurdeep Singh. He added that the NTPC plant explosion is the rarest kind of incident and people maintaining the unit were the most experienced. It will take nearly three to six months to make the unit functional again, the NTPC CMD added. 

The toll in the massive explosion that ripped up a boiler at NTPC's Unchahar plant in Uttar Pradesh's Rae Bareli district on Wednesday has risen to 32, the state-run power giant said today. Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and Union minister of state for power R K Singh visited the accident site.

The NTPC has initiated a probe to ascertain the reasons behind the blast.

In a statement, the National Thermal Power Corporation has said that at unit number six of its Unchahar plant, there was a sudden abnormal sound at 20-meter elevation around 3:30 on Wednesday afternoon.

There was an opening in corner number two from which gas and steam 'escaped' affecting the people working around the area, the central public sector undertaking said.

It added that around 80 people were rushed to the NTPC Hospital, most of whom were discharged after first-aid.

The 1,550-MW plant supplies electricity to nine states, according to officials, and employs around 870 people.

Meanwhile, the state administration has ordered a magisterial probe into the incident. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that he was 'deeply pained' by the accident at the power plant. Modi approved ex gratia payment of Rs 2 lakh each for the families of those killed.

The Union power minister also announced an ex gratia amount of Rs 20 lakh to the families of the deceased, Rs 10 lakh for the seriously injured and Rs 2 lakh to the other injured over and above the statutory compensation, it said.

Image: An injured man being taken to hospital after the boiler blast at the NTPC plant.

The Supreme Court has disposed of 14 individual petitions seeking its nod to deposit demonetised currency and asked the petitioners to file a plea before the Constitution Bench.   

A powerful explosion mangled the doors of a nightclub in Malmo, Sweden, on Thursday, but no casualties have so far been reported. The city has recently been hit by a series of blasts, reports RT.


A bomb squad and a team of technical specialists have been called to the Babel nightclub in central Malmo, police spokesman Magnus Lefvre said, as cited by SVT.


So far it is unclear what type of explosive device was used, but efforts to determine it are under way.Although the incident took place in the evening, no clubgoers are believed to have been injured in the blast, he said.


The motive for the explosion remains as yet unknown.Witnesses cited by Sydsvenskan report that they saw a man on a moped driving away from the scene shortly before the explosion.


Fortunately, the club was closed at the time the explosion struck.People living in the neighborhood were woken up by the blast at around 12:30am, and say it was so powerful it could be heard a significant distance away from the site."I was awakened by a big crowd. It was a terrible bang,' a witness said.


A year ago, the club's entrance and a car parked nearby suffered considerable damage in a similar explosion, which also shattered the windows up to the third floor and on the adjacent building.

The Shiv Sena has launched another attack at ally BJP by distributing to its members a booklet titled "Ghotalebaaz Bhajap" (Scamster BJP) that chronicles the scams involving BJP leaders.


The 56-page booklet was distributed during an organisational meeting at the Sena Bhavan on Wednesday.


The cover of the booklet features four BJP leaders, along with a mention of the scam alleged against them.


A picture of Eknath Khadse features with the mention of the MIDC land scam, Education Minister Vinod Tawde is featured for the irregularities in supply of fire extinguishers to zilla parishad schools without inviting tenders, Food and Civil Supplies Minister of Maharashtra Girish Bapat is featured for the tur dal scam, and lastly, Dilip Gandhi for the loan waiver scam.


In addition, several senior BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and national president Amit Shah also get a mention in the booklet.Since forming the government in Maharashtra, in alliance with the BJP, the Sena has been fairly vocal about its grievances with the party.


Through its mouthpiece, 'Saamna', the party has been continually castigating the Centre as well as the Devendra Fadnavis-led state government. -- PTI

"It's odd, I made Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar which is about winning, but today I feel we live too much in a winning world. Everybody wants to win. Mansoor Khan, the director who left Bollywood at his peak for a quieter life, speaks to Rediff.com's Archana Masih at his farm in the Nilgiris. Read the first part of the interview here.

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi looked after Nirbhaya's grieving family and helped them emotionally as well as monetarily, all without drawing attention to himself, said Nirbhaya's father.

Badrinath Singh, Nirbhaya's father, said many came to help the family initially after his daughter was assaulted and gang-raped in 2012, but "it was Gandhi who stood by us always and had strictly told us to keep it a secret", according to the news agency Indo-Asian News Service (IANS).


"The incident left a permanent scar but Gandhi came like an angel. Whatever the politics, he has been an angel to us," said Singh to IANS.


Nirbhaya, then 23, was raped and brutally assaulted on December 16, 2012. The assault was the cause of her death 13 days later.The Congress vice-president especially counseled Nirbhaya's brother, and even helped him become a pilot, said Singh.


He added that he has no interest in politics and his acknowledgement of the Congress leader's support has no political agenda.

The producers of blockbuster series 'House of Cards' have come up with an explosive revelation about Kevin Spacey amid allegations of unwanted sexual advances by many people.


According to Deadline, the producers, Netflix and Media Rights Company confirmed that they investigated a complaint about Kevin Spacey's behaviour on set during the hit Netflix drama's first season.


MRC issued a statement on the matter, which read, "During our first year of production in 2012, someone on the crew shared a complaint about a specific remark and gesture made by Kevin Spacey.


Immediate action was taken following our review of the situation and we are confident the issue was resolved promptly to the satisfaction of all involved."


The statement also added, "MRC will continue to thoroughly investigate all current claims and any new claims that are formally brought to our attention."


Though Netflix says it "is not aware of any other incidents involving Kevin Spacey on-set," MRC has set up an "anonymous complaint hotline, crisis counselors, and sexual harassment legal advisors for the crew" of the multiple Emmy nominated series.

With Chennai facing torrential rains, schools and colleges have been shut and public transport severely affected, a lot of good Samaritans have taken it upon themselves to spread information about the affected areas.

Here's an update received on WhatsApp, based, it says, on 'data collated as of 01:00 Hrs on 3/11/17, and received from Various sources'.

#ChennaiRains #RouteAlert #ChennaiMicro #ChennaiTraffic

People who are travelling to #Guindy, #Porur, #Vadapalani, #Pallavaram, #Saidapet do not come via #velachery #Phoenixmall route. The left after Phoenix mall has been blocked as the water level is high.

#TNagar #DuraisamySubway is #closed due to water logging. Please take alternate route.

Avoid #Kathipara to #Vadapalani road travel as there is heavy water logging from #Olympia to #Ekkaduthangal Metro. Take the alternate route via Saidapet.

Who are travelling via #Thoraipakkam Road to reach Keelkatalai/Madipakkam please do not take #LICNagar route.

For those travelling from #Nungambakkam towards #AnnaNagar. #SterlingRoad is fast filling up with knee deep water and traffic is quite bad moving in single lane. The Nelson Manickam Subway is being cordoned off by the traffic police as water is filling up. By the next shower, it will surely be flooded. Shanthi Colony and Anna Nagar however are comparatively better. Heavy rains continue until Mogappair on the same route.

Damage done at #sholinganallur. Nearly two to three feet water from signal to Aavin. Four wheelers have started stranding one by one

Avoid using #medavakkam to #sholingnallur route. Water has started reaching roads and nearby #SathakCollege there is hip level water by now. Already lot of two and four wheelers got stranded

#Mylapore #Vivekananda College road is blocked due to heavy Water logging. Two Wheelers - Pedestrains - Cars // use alternate route.//

#Okkiyam to #mettukuppam damage done. Tuf for vehicles to cross. Two to three feet water. tuf to pass okkiyam especially

#AnnaUniversity #Kotturpuram flooded upto 15cms.

Torrential overnight rains for about 10 hours brought Chennai and neighbouring districts of Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur to a grinding halt, paralysing normal life completely.


Schools and colleges, which are closed since 31 October due to rains, have been shut today as well in Chennai, Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur districts.


The Met department forecast heavy to very heavy showers in north coastal Tamil Nadu till tomorrow. It said yesterday's low pressure area over Sri Lanka and adjoining south West Bay of Bengal now lies over South West Bay of Bengal off the Lankan and Tamil Nadu coast.


"Rainfall will continue over north coastal Tamil Nadu with heavy to very heavy rain over Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram and Chennai districts during the next 24 hours," a special bulletin issued at 8.30 am said today.


The mild, intermittent showers post noon yesterday became moderate and then heavy in some pockets last night inundating several more neighbourhoods including West Mambalam and the Guindy Industrial Estate.


As a result, bus, taxi, auto and suburban train services were affected. While heavy waterlogging hindered free movement of vehicles, a "signalling snag," hit train services between the St Thomas Mount and Kodambakkam suburban section since 9.30 pm. Services were restored at 3.20 am today, Railway officials said.


Heavy traffic congestion and serpentine queue of vehicles were seen at the arterial Kathipara grade separator, Guindy intersection, Saidapet and all along till Velachery through the Raj Bhavan point.


Flight operations at the city airport were normal, airport officials said. Chennai and Nungambakkam registered 18 cm rain and Meenambakkam in the southern suburb recorded 14 cm, till 8.30 am today, according to the Met department.


Areas like Vyasarpadi and Otteri in North Chennai, parts of West Anna Nagar in Central Chennai and Madipakkam in South Chennai are facing heavy water-logging. -- PTI


Image: A motorcyclist wades through a flooded street in an inundated locality after heavy incessant rains due to the onset of North East Monsoon in Chennai. PTI Photo

China today said it was ready to work with India to promote "constant progress" of bilateral relations, amid fresh strains in ties after Beijing again blocked Pakistan-based JeM chief Masood Azhar's designation as a global terrorist by the UN.


China yesterday for the fourth time blocked India, the US and other nations' bid to list Pathankot terror attack mastermind Azhar as a global terrorist, saying "there is no consensus" within the members of the sanctions committee. India reacted sharply to China's move, saying "accommodating with terrorism" for narrow objectives was both short-sighted and counterproductive. -- PTI


File picture of PM Narendra Modi with Chinese president Xi Jinping

Stocks were firmly in the saddle today as both indices Sensex and Nifty jumped to new peaks after the announcement of a new US Federal Reserve chief. Investors also took keen interest in the unveiling of tax reforms by House Republicans in Washington. The 30-share index rose by 119.36 points, or 0.35 per cent, to hit a new peak of 33,692.58, surpassing its previous intra-day lifetime high of 33,657.57 hit yesterday. -- PTI

Sensex hits a record at 33,692.58, Nifty at new peak of 10,461.70 in opening trad.

Standing 16 inches tall and 20 inches wide and deep, Lego's interpretation of the Taj Mahal was its biggest set ever when it was originally released in 2008.

The set is making a comeback in late November and will be available for $369.99 (Rs 24,000).

The Lego Taj Mahal is so huge that it splits apart into seven pieces for easy travel.

The recreation captures the structure's four facades with sweeping arches, balconies and arched windows.  -- Agencies

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday deplored actor Kamal Haasan's 'Hindu extremism' remark and said that making such irresponsible statements without any evidence only reflects his sick mind.

Speaking to ANI, BJP leader S Prakash said that Haasan is emerging as an irresponsible political aspirant with each passing day.

"If there is any evidence to prove that a Hindu extremism exists, Kamal Haasan should provide those to NIA or to probe agency to punish those who indulged in such activities.

"Making such irresponsible statement without any evidence or basis only reflects his sick mind. It is very unfortunate. I completely disagree with him and deplore this sick attitude of Kamal Haasan," he said.

Haasan, in his column in the Tamil weekly Ananda Vikatan, wrote, 'In the past, Hindu right-wing groups would not indulge in violence, but they would hold a dialogue with the opposite parties on their arguments. But this old tactic was defeated and what they stated to do is use muscle power. They started indulging in violence.'

'The right wing cannot challenge talk of Hindu terrorists because extremism has spread into their camp as well,' wrote the Tamil film icon.

Haasan's remark drew flaw from various quarters especially BJP and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

BJP national spokesperson G V L Narasimha Rao compared the actor to Lashkar-e-Tayiba founder Hafiz Saee and said that by passing such remarks all these people have given Pakistan an upper hand.

"There has been a tendency in this country we have seen in the past decade how Sonia Gandhi-Rahul Gandhi led Congress party drew a strategy of maligning the Indian society and Hindu community only to appease the Muslim vote bank.

"It was done by the former home minister P Chidambaram and Congress leader Sushil Kumar Shinde saying it on the floor of Parliament that there is Hindu terror in this country.

"Today, when Kamal Hassan makes similar comments, he is actually joining the ranks of Chidambaram, Hafiz Saeed and is possible angling to become an extension of the Congress Party," Rao told ANI.

RSS leader Rakesh Sinha also expressed anguish over Haasan remark and demanded his apology for 'hurting and defaming Hindu civilisation for his petty political end.'  -- ANI

United States President Donald Trump's personal Twitter account disappeared for a few minutes on Thursday evening.

Those trying to access @realDonaldTrump on Twitter just before 7 pm Eastern came across a 'Sorry, that page doesn't exist!' message.

However, after around five minutes, the account page reappeared and seemed to be functioning as normal.

On a related note, Trump hadn't tweeted anything controversial in the minutes leading up to the account's disappearance.

His latest tweet was a congratulatory video to Jerome Powell, who was earlier nominated as the next Chief of the Federal Reserve.  -- ANI

Heavy rain lashed several parts of Chennai on Thursday night leading to waterlogging and traffic jams in many areas.

Chennai has been witnessing isolated rains for the past few days.

Continuous rainfall has disrupted lives of people, with authorities being forced to shut schools and colleges.

IT companies have also been advised by the government to remain closed, NDTV reported.

Rainwater has accumulated at several areas on the outskirts of Chennai, while residents have to struggle through knee-deep water outside their homes

According to Skymet weather, more rainfall is expected over entire Tamil Nadu along with Chennai in the coming 24 hours.

The Tamil Nadu Meteorological Department earlier warned of heavy rainfall at a few places in the state in the next 24 hours.

"In 24 hours, heavy rainfall is expected in few places in north coastal region, while heavy to very heavy rainfall in south coastal region," said MeT official S Balachandran.

The department asserted that widespread rainfall is also expected over coastal region in the coming 24 hours.

'Fairly widespread rain of moderate intensity over interior region,' stated the MeT Tamil Nadu.  -- ANI

Photograph: ANI