The launch of IRNSS 1C,the third of seven satellites in the series to put in place India's navigation system on par with US' Global Positioning System, has been postponed following a technical snag and the launch date would be announced later, the space agency said today.

"The launch of IRNSS 1C on board PSLV C 26 has been postponed due to some technical reasons. The new date of launch would be announced later," ISRO spokesman Deviprasad Karnik told PTI.

Asked about the reasons for the postponement, a senior ISRO official said, "The rehearsal of the launch was done last night. We have observed a small anomaly. A particular item was not functioning properly."

Private schools in Tamil Nadu today withdrew their decision to remain closed tomorrow in protest against the sentencing of AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa in a graft case in the wake of strong opposition from different quarters, including politicians and educationists.

Haiti is to hold a national funeral for former dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, the government said today, a decision that dismayed the victims of his regime. 

Ebola has claimed 678 lives in Sierra Leone, officials in the West African country's capital Freetown reported on Sunday. 

Over the top telecom player Skype today said it will stop calling facility from its application on mobile and landlines within India from November 10. 

Demanding that the West Bengal government hand over the Burdwan blast probe to NIA, BJP National Secretary Siddharth Nath Singh today said that the central government would put pressure on the state in this regard since the case had international ramifications. 

In yet another border betrayal, Pakistani troops again violated the ceasefire at the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir on Monday evening. Fresh incident of heavy firing took place at Bhimber Gali and Krishna Ghati area of Poonch around 5.40 pm. In the morning, five civilians were killed and 34 injured in shelling from the Pakistani side of the India-Pakistan border in Jammu district. Today's major ceasefire violations by Pakistani rangers came on a day when Muslims in both India and Pakistan are celebrating the holy Eid-ul-Azha festival.

As a Liberian man diagnosed with Ebola was fighting to survive on Sunday in a Texas hospital, his worried family members and others who were in contact with him said they are being ostracised by the local Liberian community, which is struggling to cope with fear, isolation and the stigma associated with the deadly disease.

Bonhomie across party lines? Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted his appreciation of  Assam CM Tarun Gogoi spearheading the Clean India movement, saying, "Glad to see Assam CM Tarun Gogoiji inspiring the people of Assam to work towards a Clean India."

On October 2, Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary, the PM launched a countrywide five-year Clean India campaign, which urges citizens and obliges government officials to clean up public spaces and focus on introducing better sanitation.

The PM led by example, symbolically sweeping a narrow lane in North Delhi and then tackling garbage in a surprise check at a police station in the heart of the capital.

Gogoi had tweeted after sweeping a compound at a park where Durga Puja had been held: "Formally kicked off the Clean Assam Campaign in Guwahati city. It evoked a good response. Our Government had started the Clean Guwahati Campaign in February 2012."

It's got a cinema, a marble disco, an infinity pool with waterslide, a bedroom the size of two tennis courts -- and tables upholstered in stingray skin. Got UK Pounds 260m? Then the penthouse in Monaco's new Odeon Tower could be for you. Read

The Narendra Modi-led government in Gujarat would have performed "much better" had it not been for the discrimination meted out by the then Congress-led UPA government at the Centre, BJP said today.

"The Modi government in Gujarat would have performed even better had there been no adverse relationship with the then Central government," Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, Nirmala Sitharaman said.

"We cannot forget the step-motherly treatment which the Congress meted out to non-Congress state governments," the minister said.

However, the present government at the Centre treats all states in the same manner, she said, responding to a query about Modi's appeal during poll rallies that people should elect BJP government in states as well, to ensure that development is fast tracked.

The Coal Ministry has sought the opinion of Attorney General on whether the government needs to bring out an Ordinance to deal with the issues arising from the Supreme Court decision to de-allocate coal mines. The issues that need to be resolved by the government in the coal mine case include forfeiting of bank guarantees and title deeds of the land mines purchased by the companies, sources said.

Manipulating environment and forest clearances for Dibang Project. Read

After being pulled up by the Kerala Congress for what it believes are 'constant adulations' of the PM by Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor,  the former union minister tweeted his surprise that his comments were being construed as pro-BJP.  He said he was simply pro-India and was firmly a Congressman.

Here's proof: Tharoor tweets on LoC violations: "Deeply concerned by reports of 5 killed & 50 injured in Pakistani shelling today. Over 100 ceasefire violations on LoC since BJP came to power!"

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, criticized by his party in Kerala for "his constant adulation of Narendra Modi", today said he was astonished by charges that he is pro-BJP.

"Being receptive to specific statements or actions of BJP leaders does not remotely imply acceptance of the party's core Hindutva agenda," tweeted Tharoor, who was the only politician in a list of nine people tagged by PM Modi last week to promote his clean India campaign.

"The PM pitched his appeal as a non-political one and I received it in that spirit. I am a proud Congressman and a proud Indian. In short: not pro-BJP, just pro-India!" the 58-year-old Kerala MP said.

A mandate has been sent from Kerala Governor P Sathasivam to Chief Minister Oommen Chandy. 

The mandate is that any communication addressed to the Raj Bhavan will be sent to the Chief Minister to take necessary administrative action. Sathasivam who was Chief Justice of India has brought in legal aspects to his job and decentralised authority.

Meanwhile, Rajya Sabha chairman Hamid Ansari has moved the question hour from 11 am to noon for the winter session of Parliament in November. This will not only help the government, but will also be useful for the Opposition to stress their point of view during Zero Hour which begins at 11 am every day. 

Crediting the Congress with bringing stability to Maharashtra's economy, former state Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan urged the people to vote for development during the October 15 Assembly polls.

"Congress took over the reins of power 15 years back when there was an unstable economy and it transformed the state into one of the most stable economies," Chavan said while addressing poll rallies yesterday at Nandgaon tehsil and tribal-dominated Harsul town in Nashik district.

@Kicka79 tweets: Nobel Prize laureate Norwegian Edvard Moser is currently on an airplane and does not know he has been granted the prize.

Medicine is the first of the Nobel prizes awarded each year.Prizes for achievements in science, literature and peace were first awarded in 1901 in accordance with the will of dynamite inventor and businessman Alfred Nobel.

Pic: 2014 Nobel medicine winners.

The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska institute says their discoveries have helped explain how the brain creates "a map of the space surrounding us and how we can navigate our way through a complex environment.'

One half of the prize goes to John O'Keefe. The other half is split by the husband-wife team of May-Britt Moser and Edvard I Moser.

John O'Keefe is the director of the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre in Neural Circuits and Behaviour at University College London.

He was born in 1939 and holds both US and British citizenship.

May'Britt Moser is a Norwegian citizen. She worked at UCL in the past but is now director of the Centre for Neural Computation in Trondheim.

Just in: John O'Keefe, May-Britt Moser & Edvard Moser win 2014 Nobel Prize for medicine.  They were the prize for identifying cells that help you find your way in humans.

Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs M Venkaiah Naidu has begun to meet political leaders in both houses of Parliament with a set of new initiatives. Naidu plans to circulate the agenda well in advance of the Winter session of Parliament after which there will be an all-party meeting for two days where the items in the agenda will be deliberated.

This will unburden not only the government, but also pave the way for the Opposition to strategise their political formulations.

The government hopes the initiative will reduce the tense moments and scenes in both houses. 

Armed forces 'raped or killed' nearly 2000 Manipur civilians in 35 years say judges. Read

Crippling staff shortage sees 45,000 die at Teg Bahadur Hospital in just five years. Read

Shrien Dewani has formally pleaded not guilty to murdering his wife on their honeymoon in South Africa in 2010. Dewani is accused of hiring a hitman to kill his wife Anni. The couple were held at gunpoint while being driven in a taxi through Gugulethu township near Cape Town. Dewani, 34, was thrown from the car. The body of Mrs Dewani, 28, was found the next day in the abandoned taxi with a single gunshot wound to the neck.

Many American commentators who have written about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the US have noted how each of his public appearances was greeted with rapturous support from people of Indian origin who now live in the States. Read

Jammu and Kashmir CM Omar Abdullah on ceasefire violations by Pakistan: "Haven't spoken to PM yet, will do it if need be. They decided to celebrate Eid in a very different way, there was no reason for a ceasefire violation. 

Monday, Oct. 6: The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Tuesday, Oct. 7: The Nobel Prize in Physics

Wednesday, Oct. 8: The Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Friday, Oct. 10: The Nobel Peace Prize

Monday, Oct. 13: The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel

A suspected terror financier and senior IM operative slipped out of India's hands when the UAE, under pressure from Pakistan, freed Abdul Wahid Siddibappa as New Delhi was slow in sending the extradition request, sources have said. Wahid, 32, is a suspect in 2006 Mumbai train blasts in which 209 people were killed. He is also a cousin of jailed top Indian Mujahideen member Yasin Bhatkal. Read more

A man accused of arranging the murder of his wife while on their honeymoon has arrived in court in South Africa, reports the BBC.

Shrien Dewani, from Bristol, is accused of hiring a hitman to kill his wife Anni in 2010. He denies any wrongdoing.

The couple were held at gunpoint while being driven in a taxi through Gugulethu township near Cape Town.

Dewani, 34, was thrown from the car. The body of Mrs Dewani, 28, was found the next day in the abandoned taxi with a single gunshot wound to the neck.

The trial at the Western Cape High Court is expected to last until December.

Jaitley told Pakistan that it should realise that the kind of environment it was generating between the two countries was certainly not going to help in normalising relations.

Reacting to the continuous ceasefire violations, the minister said Pakistan has been trying to create tension in both the International Border and Line of Control.

"This is resulting in a series of ceasefire violations as a result of which innocent civilians have lost their lives. Pakistan must realise that the kind of environment it is generating between the two countries is certainly not going to help in normalising relations. The onus of creating a positive environment is on Pakistan which is utterly failing to do so.

"Let everybody be assured that our armed forces and para-military forces are fully ready and they are responding to each of these provacations from Pakistan," Jaitley said.

JUST IN: Armed forces fully ready to respond to each of these Pakistani provocations, says Defence Minister Arun Jaitley. Five persons have been killed and 29 injured in heavy shelling by Pakistani troops on forward villages and posts along the international border in Arnia sector of Jammu early Monday morning. Monday's firing coincides with Eid festival being celebrated across the country.

America's air campaign against ISIS has been front-page news for weeks, but how much "there' is there? Not much, by historical standards. Since the campaign started on August 8, the US has launched about 300 airstrikes in Iraq and Syria. Read

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was today discharged from AIIMS and he went straight to his new official residence on Krishna Menon Marg in New Delhi.

Jaitley (61), who holds additional charge of Defence portfolio, was admitted to the isolation unit of AIIMS last week.

He was taken there, after he had complained of respiratory problems following his stay in a private hospital where he was readmitted for post surgery check up. He had undergone diabetes management surgery on September 2 in that hospital.

Jaitley has been dealing with urgent official matters even in the hospital but is expected to attend office in the next few days.

Pic: Jaitley with health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley discharged from AIIMS.

"There is no mantra... I am far from the mantra and tantra world." These are prime minister Narendra Modi's words at the India Today conclave last year. He may not himself think that his approach is formulaic, but, as we shall see, this is untrue.

"There is of course no question that he is a superb communicator. There are few politicians around the world, including US president Barak Obama, and there is none in India, as good as Modi when it comes to talking to the people."  Read

PM Narendra Modi addressing a rally in Haryana says, that the BJP is working for good governance. "Hoodaji (CM) has accepted they have been defeated. Even though the Model Code of Conduct is in place they have finalized the land deals of 'daamad'.

"Congress should look at our Rail Budget, what they couldn't do for so long we did in our first budget.

"On the 14th of November when we celebrate the 125th Birth Anniversary of Pt Nehru all the schools should be given lessons on cleanliness. Now that Congress has nothing to do, I urge them also to join the cleanliness drive."

A lot of talk over Prime Minister Narendra Modi's trip to the United States has focused on the relationship India has with its diaspora. Modi actively caucused and engaged with those of Indian origin in the United States, and his grand performance in New York's Madison Square Garden was seen as a way of thanking and celebrating his electoral successes with those who had supported him all along.

Accompanying that came plenty of commentary about the nature of the Non Resident Indian and whether their support for Modi and India actually translates into anything. Read

A 15-year-old girl who had been missing for over a week in Meghalaya, was found dead in a jungle on Sunday night, beheaded and burnt. Her father has been arrested, reports NDTV.

The police say the girl, who was found without clothes, may have been raped. Her mother, who complained against her own husband, alleges that he sexually assaulted his daughter. Her father had reported her missing.

He had claimed that he took the girl to a doctor in Williamnagar town and sent her home in an auto. He returned home separately, saying he had some work at the market.

Every Durga Puja, when Calcutta pops out of a fairy tale, and people walk amidst fallen stars caught in webs called "Chandernagore lighting", and the thundering dhaak steals mundane words from our lips, there is a quiet mutiny of another kind taking place.  Read

Narendra Modi was speaking in code when he visited America. Read

The Congress government in Haryana has officially legitimised the land deal between party chief Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra and DLF.  Read

Equating the BJP with the "corrupt" Congress and the NCP, the Sena said that people in Maharashtra have now realized who are the "real and hidden" thieves of the state.

"It is a known fact that the Congress and the NCP have looted Maharashtra. But for what purpose did the CM of Gujarat Anandiben Patel visit Maharashtra? If she asks all the industrialists to set base in Gujarat, leaving Maharashtra behind, this too amounts to looting Maharashtra," the editorial said.

"How do you define keeping an eye on the coffers of the state and making a deal of Mumbai (for the benefit of Gujarat)? Is this not looting Maharashtra ? And then talking about the blessings of Shivaji Maharaj is nothing but a farce," it said. "Never before has anyone opened a market of Shivaji Maharaj's blessings," the Sena added.

The Shiv Sena lashed out at the BJP in general and PM Narendra Modi in particular. In its editorial in the Saamna today, the Sena said that the BJP could have shown more respect by maturity in seat sharing talks during the run-up to the Maharashtra elections. 

This comes a day after prime minister Modi said he would not say anything against Shiv Sena out of respect for late Bal Thackeray.

"Political pundits are saying that Modi is not criticising Shiv Sena in his speeches. This is the first election (in Maharashtra) in the absence of late Balasaheb, for whom I have great respect. I have decided not to utter a single word against the Shiv Sena. This is my tribute to Balasaheb. There are some things that are above politics, Modi had said.

Last month, senior Bihar BJP leader Sushil Modi declared that if Yogi Adityanath, BJP MP from Gorakhpur, had spoken of "love jihad' in Bihar the way he did in Uttar Pradesh, he "would have contradicted him".

It was a strong statement coming from an RSS-trained politician, which suggests that the BJP's rising star in UP belongs to a different school of thought.

Last month, senior Bihar BJP leader Sushil Modi declared that if Yogi Adityanath, BJP MP from Gorakhpur, had spoken of "love jihad' in Bihar the way he did in Uttar Pradesh, he "would have contradicted him'.

It was a strong statement coming from an RSS-trained politician, which suggests that the BJP's rising star in UP belongs to a different school of thought.   Read

Narendra Modi's US visit has restored a degree of confidence to a neglected relationship, preparing the ground for a lift to bilateral ties, while ensuring that India and the US get on with operationalising what they can from their multilayered agenda. Read more