Timeline Refresh
Describing the reported spat between LK Advani and Narendra Modi on the issue of BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate as a fight between "guru and chela", RJD President Lalu Prasad today wondered whether there was any chance of either of them entering that office.
"Advani, who has been a guru (teacher) to Modi on communal politics is today fighting his own 'chela' (disciple)," the RJD president said. "But is there any chance of either of them becoming Prime Minister, (the post) for which they are clashing," Prasad told reporters here.
Apprehending that the 2014 polls would be a "dangerous" one due to the "divisive" politics of BJP and RSS, Prasad urged Congress and other secular forces to come together to defeat such elements.
Asked to comment on the US and Russian foreign ministers' meeting in Geneva on the implementation of Moscow's proposal to bring Syrian chemical weapons under international controls, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lie said today that China supports reaching a consensus on the implementation of the initiative through consultation.
Hong welcomed Russia's proposal and praised it as "providing an important chance" to relieve the current tension, reiterating China's position on the use of chemical weapons and a political solution on Syria.
"Important opportunities have emerged on easing tension in Syria. We hope all parties can grasp the opportunities, make a positive and rational response," he said, reacting to French government's comments that it has kept open the military option to act in Syria if a diplomatic solution fails.
Hong again urged for a solution on Syria through political and diplomatic means to preserve peace and stability in the country and the region.
Even though large queues are being witnessed during curfew relaxation, shopkeepers claim that the business is nowhere near to what it was before the communal clashes.
"Riots are dangerous. It takes lives of so many people. You have seen how many people have died in Uttar Pradesh in riots. There were also riots in Assam some time back and we have helped giving shelter (to the refugees from Assam and provide them with food and other necessities," she said.
Bhatkal also said confessed to his role in 10 blasts and said the IM was planning more blasts.
Also read: Rediff.com's report -- You will hang me even if I don't speak: Yasin Bhatkal
"Despite several directions of this court earlier while taking suo motu cognisance on the December 16 brutal gang-rape case, the incidents are taking place. Implementation of such directions is the real issue and you (police) need to improve the working mechanism," the bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana said.
"Implementation of court order is the real issue...," the bench also comprising Justice Pradeep Nandrajog said and asked Special Public Prosecutor Dayan Krishnan to furnish details about the number of vacant positions in the police force.
It asked Delhi police to file an affidavit disclosing the number of vacancies of Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI), Sub-Inspectors and Inspectors including the number of women personnel.
"The entire country is watching what kind of pulls and pressures are happening within the BJP. A party, which is trying to come power to rule the country, is not being able to handle its internal conflicts.
"It's a confused party with a confused agenda and confused people. Those who are confused behave only this way," party spokesperson Meem Afzal said.
BJP President Rajnath Singh, who had a 30-minute meeting with Advani to persuade him on Modi's candidature but failed to get an assurance, today claimed that "nobody in BJP is unhappy and nobody has put any conditions" (on declaring Modi as PM candidate).
Read more here
"If I was not thrown, I would have been killed by the accused," Ram Adhar, a carpenter by profession, told the Additional Sessions Judge Daya Prakash during his deposition as a prosecution witness in the case.
Ram Adhar had earlier identified the four adult accused -- Mukesh (26), Vinay Sharma (20), Pawan Gupta (19) and Akshay Singh Thakur (28) -- who were present in the courtroom and had said they had beaten and robbed him.
The accused allegedly lured Ram Adhar into the bus and robbed him before raping and assaulting the girl in a moving bus in south Delhi on December 16 last year. The girl died in a Singapore hospital on December 29. The sentencing of the four accused is tomorrow.
Aziz, Advisor to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs and National Security, and Khurshid are expected to try to schedule a meeting between the premiers of the two countries on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York later this month.
Read the report on Jharkhand.
Salman acknowledged that SRK starrer beat the box office records set by him but is not too worried about "Chennai Express" earning Rs 225.67 crore.
"I hugged Shah Rukh during Ramadan because it was a pious month and it's not only me who should show such gestures to friends but all should do that. It's a being human act.
"I don't have any personal enmity with him and I know his release broke all my records. If I have any problem then I want to beat the person through my work. My next release will be an answer to all the new records which are going to happen at the box-office be it Aamir's 'Dhoom 3' or new actor Ranbir's next film," Salman said during a press conference for 'Bigg Boss' season 7.
There are regions where fewer than 800 girls are born for every 1,000 boys. For many reasons Indian culture prefers sons.
An expensive bride-price, or dowry, is only one of them. Read
Senior BJP leaders have held meetings with Advani to bring him on board to declare Narendra Modi's name.
BJP President Rajnath Singh held a half an hour meeting with Advani on Wednesday, while former party president Nitin Gadkari had met the party's parliamentary party chief on Tuesday as an emissary of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. More
The meeting which is scheduled at 12:15 pm at the party office at Ashoka Road, will be followed by senior leaders briefing the press.
That is when Rajnath Singh is expected to announce Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate. He will also convey that Modi is the overwhelming and universal choice as the PM candidate.
The time, 12:15 pm, on Friday, was chosen specifically for the anointment. Rahu Kaal, an inauspicious time, is between 10:30 am to 12 pm, so astrologers have proposed 12:15 pm, which was also endorsed by Rajnath Singh's personal astrologer.
On Thursday morning, Rajnath spoke to Modi and got his approval. Modi's friends in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, have already begun organising pujas at the Ambe temple in Gujarat.
Taking a potshot at the BJP and Narendra Modi in particular, Mulayam says justice was not done in Gujarat, but will be done in UP. "I don't play communal politics," he says.
Khan had criticised his own government's handling of Muzaffarnagar riots and had been sulking off and on various issues ever since the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh in 2011. SP has come under all-round attack over its handling of the communal riots that has claimed 48 lives.
Mulayam briefed the media on the party meeting saying it was about the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
"Relations between us have passed through different stages. We stood against each other during the cold war. But we were also allies once, and defeated the Nazis together. The universal international organization -- the United Nations -- was then established to prevent such devastation from ever happening again."
Read Vladimir Putin's column for the New York Times
The angry parents of the 11-year-old victim girl barged into the principal's room along with many others. They allegedly ransacked some classrooms of the all-girls school.The relatives of the schoolgirl attack the principal, left, of Christ Church School in Kolkata. Read
"We may send the final reply to CBI with regards to files which could not be traced, by Friday," a source close to the development said.
"The CBI can take action after that," the source added. The deadline set by the Supreme Court for handing of the files to the investigative agency expires next week.
Union minister Ajit Singh, the elected representative from Baghpat constituency, today accused the Samajwadi Party of trying to polarize voters ahead of national polls due in May. Read
Though the shops opened, all schools and colleges would remained closed till September 15. Strict vigil was being maintained during the relaxation period and police and paramilitary forces are on high alert.
Owing to the strike, transportation service has come to a grinding halt and academic institutions, major markets, and most of the factories have been shut down in Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur districts of Kathmandu valley and about a dozen districts in eastern Nepal.
However, tourist buses, ambulances and vehicles belonging to the press were allowed to operate during the strike.
SP national general secretary Ramgopal Yadav said the absence of Khan, the Muslim face of the Samajwadi Party, was not felt at the meeting yesterday.
"It is a national executive meeting and all prominent leaders are present here...he was not here, but its does not make any difference and his absence was not felt," he said, adding, "With such a behaviour a person lowers his own stature." "Either he should not remain the office-bearer and resign or he should have come," Yadav said.
A call-centre employee, she visited the mill with her boyfriend on the evening of July 31that and was raped by five men, three of whom were involved in the gangrape of a 22-year-old photojournalist in the same mill in August.
The traumatised couple fled to Chhattisgarh after the incident, where they got married. The crime was reported only after the couple returned to the city on August 3. Read
Read the full report here
Senior party leaders Ramgopal Yadav and Naresh Agarwal have called for action against Khan. "No one is bigger than the party," Mulayam Singh should take action against him, said Agarwal.
"If Yadav does not understand the dignity of the post, he must resign," said Yadav.
Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav will address the press later in the day.
The emergence of communal faultlines between the Jats and Muslims will affect the Congress-RLD alliance, which is dependent on the support of these communities. But it could help the BJP in western UP in the 2014 national elections.
Read the full report on Indian Express
The death toll in the Muzzafarnagar communal clashes has touched 48.
Read more at: http://ibnlive.in.com/news/sp-rules-out-akhileshs-resignation-sc-to-hear-pil-seeking-cbi-probe-into-muzaffarnagar-riots/421303-37-64.html?utm_source=ref_article
Read the full report here
In a statement, OFBJP, a US body whose members associate themselves with, and support the BJP in India, said Modi will be addressing their convention in Tampa on September 21 through satellite.
The annual festival is facing problems related to its venue because it causes traffic congestion at Candolim beach, 9 kms away from Panaji in North Goa. The locals have also complained about the chaos created during the musical extravaganza.
During the event, an estimated 30,000 people throng the venue every day.
In a letter to top lawmakers, these former envoys observed that American competitiveness and vitality depend heavily on robust US-India commercial ties They further said any comprehensive immigration reform legislation approved by the Congress needs to appreciate the mutual benefit of deepening the bilateral partnership, which is vitally important to the two countries and global economy.
The letters were addressed to the Speaker of the House of Representatives John A Boehner, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and the House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. The letter was jointly signed by former US Ambassadors to India -- Thomas Pickering, Frank Wisner, Richard Celeste, David Mulford and Robert Blackwill.
Read the full story here
Former and current student activists reflect on General Augusto Pinochet's lasting legacy.
Envoys of the five permanent UN Security Council members are meeting in New York to discuss a Russian plan for making safe Syria's chemical weapons.
The UK, US and France are eager to frame a binding resolution but Russia prefers a non-binding declaration. Russia and the US will hold key bilateral talks in Geneva on Thursday. Syria has backed Russia's plan to place the chemical arms under international control. The US says it will hold off military strikes to pursue diplomacy.
Amid efforts to convince L K Advani on declaring Narendra Modi as BJP's prime ministerial candidate ahead of 2014 Lok Sabha polls, party leader from Bihar Sushil Kumar Modi today said the veteran leader had failed to gauge the public mood in this regard.
The former Bihar deputy chief minister said Advani had declared Atal Behari Vajpayee as the party's face in the past and he could have done the same for Narendra Modi today.
"Advaniji has failed to gauge the public mood. Advaniji himself declared Atalji as PM candidate. Now also he could have done the same for Namo," Modi said on Twitter.
We recently learned that U.S. intelligence agencies had at least three days' warning that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was preparing to launch a chemical attack on his own people, but wasn't able to stop it. At least that's what an intelligence briefing from the White House reveals.
With the combined abilities of our national intelligence apparatus -- the CIA, National Security Agency, National Reconnaissance Office and all the rest -- it's not surprising that we had advance notice. It's not known whether the U.S. shared what it knew. More interestingly, the U.S. government did not choose to act on that knowledge (for example, launch a pre-emptive strike), which left some wondering why.
Russia has now handed over to the US its plans for making Syria's chemical weapons safe, Russian media say. Russia announced its plans for placing Syria's stockpile under international control on Monday and Syria said it welcomed the initiative.
The proposal led US President Barack Obama to put military action against Syria on hold in favour of diplomacy. Tense negotiations will now follow at the United Nations on the nature of any Security Council resolution.
A girl allegedly tried to commit suicide by jumping in front of a speeding train in Metro Railway in Kolkata on Wednesday after hearing the news that her lover had jumped from the Howrah Bridge, the police said. She was admitted to a hospital near Kalighat after she sustained injuries when hit by the train in Kalighat metro station, the police said.
She took the extreme step Wednesday evening after hearing that her lover had jumped into the Hooghly river from Howrah Bridge following a quarrel with her over telephone, the police said.
The boy has been missing since jumping into the river on Wednesday and River Traffic Police personnel have been carrying out search and rescue operations, sources said.
Contradicting the claim by the Chief Minister's Office, the Joint Action Committee of electricity employees of Andhra-Rayalaseema region announced late on Wednesday night that it would launch a 72-hour strike from midnight on Thursday protesting the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.
The Chief Minister's Office in the evening had issued a statement, saying that electricity employees had agreed to defer their indefinite strike from Thursday. The JAC leaders, however, clarified subsequently that they would observe a 72-hour strike from midnight today.
"We are not concerned with the CMO statement. We are going on strike but will ensure power supply to railways, hospitals and water supply schemes," the JAC leaders said.
Earlier, Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy held talks with the Joint Action Committee leaders at his camp residence this evening and asked them to call off the strike.
Dec 16 gang rape: Police want death, convicts beg for mercy
Life on MARS? India will find the answer soon
Popularity of 'superficial' Hindi films in Assam worries ULFA
Obama leads US in sombre tributes to 9/11 victims
Delhi records 1,121 rape cases in 8 months
Rajiv assassination: HC quashes case against Nalini
Vizag HPCL refinery fire: Death toll rises to 27
Bodies of two INS Sindurakshak officers brought to Assam
Rahul takes dig at Modi, says Cong will not resort to abuse
1 dead in CRPF firing after fresh protests in Shopian
Curfew relaxed in Muzaffarnagar, constable injured in Baghpat