Timeline Refresh
Rakesh Maria, who as joint commissioner of police (crime branch) led the probe into the terror strike, took over as police commissioner yesterday.
The call logs were of wireless conversations between the Mumbai police control room and Kamte's van on the day of his death.
Under the RTI, Vinita had sought information on the call records of the police control room on November 26, 2008 attacks. However, she had claimed to have found "serious discrepancies" in the information given to her in November 2009 and February 2010.
Payeng said Mizoram was the last state in the region to form the state unit of AAP and that a membership drive for the Lok Sabha elections would be launched soon.
Pravin Varughese, originally from Morton Grove, was last seen about 11 pm on Wednesday in Carbondale, Illinois, police said. The family is now offering a reward of $15,000 for information leading to the recovery of Varughese, a statement from the Carbondale police department said.
His sister, Priya Varughese, said Pravin, his cousin and a roommate had all gone to a house party in that area that night. His most recent post on Twitter, sent Wednesday night, reads, "Bloody knuckles...guess I was in a fight #backdown." "I'm not really sure what it means," Priya was quoted by the Chicago Sun-Times as saying.
The Bill will be taken up for discussion at 12:30 pm tomorrow.
Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar today claimed the investigation into allegations of sexual assault against journalist Tarun Tejpal was another benchmark after that in the December 16 gangrape case in Delhi.
"This is a benchmark investigation after the (Delhi's) Nirbhaya case," Parrikar said, reacting to the filing of the charge sheet against the founder-editor of Tehelka by the Goa crime branch. Police had done a meticulous investigation in this case, he claimed.
Within 80 days of registration of the FIR, Goa police today filed a 2,684-page charge sheet against Tejpal, in jail since December 1, under sections 354, 354-A (sexual harassment), 341 and 342 (wrongful restraint), 376 (rape), 376(2)(f) and 376 (2)(k) (taking advantage of official position and raping a woman in custody) of IPC.
Congress is likely to finalise its candidates for the Lok Sabha elections after conclusion of the Parliament session on February 21.
The party today began the process in this regard with the first meeting of its Central Election Committee taking place. Party chief Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, party Vice President Rahul Gandhi are among the top leaders who are members of the committee which decides the nominations.
Party leaders said that the nominations for those seats will be finalised early which are at present not with the Congress. The party had won 206 seats in the last Lok Sabha polls.
This is being done to avoid any controversy during the session which has a heavy legislative agenda and government is planning to get a number of bills including the one on Telangana passed.
The issue of tainted leaders is expected to figure in seats like Pune, currently being represented by Suresh Kalmadi, who is facing corruption charges in the organisation of the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
The judgement will be delivered by a bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam, which had reserved its verdict on the plea of three convicts--Santhan, Murugan and Perarivalan-- on February 4. Their plea was strongly opposed by the Centre which had said that it was not a fit case for the apex court to commute death sentence on the ground of delay in deciding mercy plea.
The state police today charged Tejpal with rape, sexual harassment and outraging modesty of a woman journalist in a lift of a five-star hotel in Panaji in November last year.
Read Arun Jaitley's blog on the budget.
They want to know why Speaker Meira Kumar was not taking note of this security ring.
Modi had, at a rally in Chennai earlier this month, taunted the finance minister saying he had failed to revive the Indian economy despite his Harvard background.
In an apparent reference to Chidambaram's 2009 victory in Lok Sabha polls from Sivaganga after a recounting of votes, the Gujarat chief minister described him as the "recounting minister" and charged him with displaying 'excessive arrogance' while leaving the country's economy in bad shape.
"UPA government has a recounting minister. He lost (the election) but won in recounting. He is from Tamil Nadu. He thinks he was the first in the queue when God was distributing knowledge," Modi said without naming Chidambaram.
The Telangana bill will be taken up in Parliament tomorrow and the government is determined to get it passed, even in the middle of protests if it can't be discussed.
The BJP wants these addressed:
Why was the confidence motion and an objection to the bill notice not taken up first.
The Bill will not withstand judicial scrutiny especially the issue of the law and order to governor.
The BJP does not want the bill passed in a din. House must be in order to move amendments and pass them.
The BJP is opposed to 'selective' suspension and says all those who contributed to din must be suspended.
Speculation is rife that there will be high drama inside and outside Parliament (near the Gandhi statute).
Apparently, five suspended Seemandhra MPs plan to arrive in one car to Parliament. They will get off near the Gandhi statue and stage a dharna before the TV cameras parked there.
The questions doing the rounds are:
Will they immolate themselves?
Will they set their car alight?
Will they drive their car on the walls of Parliament?
Will they drive it near PM or Sonia Gandhi carcade?
The apex court refused the plea of her advocate Ram Jethmalani who pleaded for bail on the ground that she is suffering from suicidal impulse and asked him to file affidavit of burn injury that she suffered recently due to which it extended the interim bail twice.
NCP chief Sharad Pawar was seen rubbing a spot on his right hand and applying balm.
Parliamentary Affairs minister Kamal Nath whipped a canister of a spray, while Chidambaram was talking. No, not pepper spray, but some kind of a mouth freshener. Kamal Nath used the spray before PC began his speech, which the finance minister took in with a backward glance.
Clearly not to one to take a browbeating, Naidu said that the UPA Cabinet did not accommodate 12 amendments on justice to Seemandhra. Sonia walked away after this, say MPs who were listening in.
The apex court said it cannot take a different stand and different view from what it had taken on February 7 while terming the plea against Telangana as "premature".
Prashant Bhushan had said that their political party would adopt a "socialist-type' economic policy, but would not be totally against private sector participation.
-- We have possibly the best economist leading the country today. But are people happy?
-- The best of economic policies simply remained on paper. They never got implemented. There was no honesty.
-- The government claims they've brought about development. Development is done by people, not by governments.
-- The government has to provide a safe and secure environment for development to take place. A clean, honest environment.
-- How can development take place amidst rampant corruption?
The government can't give jobs to all. Jobs must come from the private sector.
Govt policies driving business away.
The meet is basically to put forth the AAP's economic agenda. Quick look at what he has said so far:
Kejriwal says that if corruption ends prices will come down.
Centre didn't bother to look into issues of industries in Delhi
The government has no business to be in business. Business should be left to private players.
A small segment of industrialists is looting the country.
We're first class citizens, but victims of third class governance.
We are against crony capitalism, not capitalism.
What he used in the Lok Sabha in an act that left fellow MPs in tears and the entire House red-faced is a chemical substance banned in war.
The chemical is called capsaicin, derived from the fruits of plants like capsicum or chilli. What goes into the can, as sold in India, is capsaicin converted into a resin, mixed with an emulsifier and water, and then pressurised. Read more
German author Gladys Abankwa-Meir-Klodt spent two years researching and seeking permission to access the embassies of Chanakyapuri -- the Indian capital's diplomatic enclave created after independence from British rule in 1947. Her book "Delhi's Diplomatic Domains' is the result.
Read
It was possible to fool some people, but not all the people, Banerjee said replying to the debate on the governor's address in the Assembly.
Noting that the outgoing UPA government would not be able to implement the budget, she said it was an election gimmick in a vote-on-account budget where the purpose was only to seek permission of Parliament for incurring expenditure for the coming four months.
Bose said the names of all 42 candidates would be announced shortly.
Reacting to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's remark that opposition members who boycotted the Assembly today would be rejected by the masses, he said, "...She is not a queen and how can she make such statements after witnessing the Brigade rally on February 9? In democracy it is the people who speak the last word."
Presenting the interim budget, Chidambaram said the government would transfer Rs 500 crore to the defence pension account for implementing one rank, one pension scheme.
The decision, likely to benefit around three million defence pensioners, will come into effect from 2014-2015.
The two UPA governments, he said, had made changes in the pension rules for defence services on three occasions but some gaps remained in the ranks of 'Sepoy' and 'Naik' among non-officers and 'Major' and above among officers.
The Chairman made the remark as he walked into his office this morning.
The Secretary General then directed the security wing to instal the door frame metal detector at gate number 11 at Parliament House building, through which the Chairman and Deputy Chairman enter Parliament.
The development took place hours before the Committee on Security in Parliament complex was to discuss measures in the wake of the pepper spray attack by a Congress MP inside Lok Sabha on Thursday.
The man, an Ethiopian man in his early 30s, was arrested when the plane landed at Geneva International Airport, police said.
Passengers and crew aboard the Boeing 767-3002343 were not harmed.
It was a welcome outcome from the last time an Ethiopian Airlines was hijacked.In 1996, 125 people died after a hijacked Ethiopian Airlines crashed in the Indian Ocean after running out of fuel.- CNN.
In Pune, where the party has picked a candidate called Subhash Vaare to contest the seat currently represented by "tainted" Congress leader Suresh Kalmadi, another local, Arun Bhatia, has reportedly threatened that he will contest as an Independent. Read more
Supreme Court extends by one more week interim bail of former minister and a convict in Gujarat riots case Maya Kodnani.
Supreme Court refuses to interfere with Telangana Bill, says let Parliament decide first.
Chidambaram also hit back at the BJP's PM candidate telling him "among other mentors, my mother and Harvard taught me the value of hard work".
Modi had last week tried to take a dig at Harvard-educated Chidambaram saying that the growth in Gujarat was due to hard work and not Harvard.
The Finance Minister noted that Jean Dreze and Amartya Sen have pointed out that India was the first non-Western country and also the first poor country in the world to commit itself to a resolute way of governance.
"Be it the BJP or Congress, both the parties indulge in politics of loot. People of this region are fed up with them. There is a strong possibility of Aam Aadmi Party emerging as a third force, as the voters are now looking for a better alternative," the 46-year-old leader said yesterday.
AAP can provide a strong alternative to the voters of the state, claimed Agarwal, who is a 1989 batch graduate in chemical engineering from IIT Kanpur. He said the entire organisational network of NBA is supporting AAP.
"I congratulate the FM for presenting a well balanced vote on account portraying a realistic picture of the economic situation in the country. The Finance Minister has aptly summarised the economic and social achievements of the last 10 years which our Government is proud of.
The issue of One Rank One Pension has been addressed comprehensively and I'm confident that our Forces,Officers & Jawans will welcome this."
"In order to make it clear that the (Nirbhaya) fund will be a prominent fund, I intend to declare the grant of Rs 1,000 crore as non-lapsable and in order to support more proposals, I propose to contribute to the fund another Rs 1,000 crore next year," Chidambaram said while presenting the interim budget in Parliament.
In last year's Budget, Chidambaram had announced the Nirbhaya Fund with a corpus of Rs 1,000 crore as a tribute to the gangrape victim. Nirbhaya (fearless) was the pseudonym given to the victim.
''But I think the Wendy Doniger group is not allowing open architecture. They are closing this architecture.
'They are bringing a point of view in such a heavy-handed way that it tends to dominate and it tends to suppress the alternative points of view. So some kind of counteraction is necessary and using the law is a decent thing to do."
Rajiv Malhotra, one of Wendy Doniger's most vociferous critics, speaks toRediff.com's Arthur J Pais about the prejudices created by American scholars about Hindu gods and Hinduism. Read
One hijacker has been arrested. The airline said in a statement that all passengers and crew were safe.There are no injuries, and the police say the situation is "under control". Read more
The airline said in a statement all passengers and crew were safe at Geneva airport.Flight 702 was scheduled to leave Addis Ababa at 00:30 local time and arrive in Rome at 04:40 local time. Read more
"I wrote a letter to every party asking them whether they are ready to work on 17 issues that India is facing today. No political party is thinking about changing the economic system. Only Mamata Banerjee agreed to implement those 17 agendas if voted to power. I will campaign for her party if she commits to these issues in written,' he said.
Read Vir Sanghvi's column on the Hindustan Times.
Here's the reference.
"Mere liye na koi aagey, na peechhey. Kiske liye bhrashtachaar karunga? (I've no familial ties. Who would I ever try to benefit through corruption?)," said Modi, claiming only those free of mundane worries - who aren't hobbled with filial responsibilities - can bring corruption to an end.
Incidentally, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi is a bachelor. Read