The Sahitya Akademi has finally responded to the protesting writers by sending a letter requesting not to return awards.

The Akademi, pressurised by our movement, have called for solidarity. They have said, they are not against us but with us, said Bengali poet Mandakranta Sen.

I don't know about other writers but I am not taking my award back, Sen added.

Second round of Modi bashing from former BJP leader Arun Shourie, who today said the PM can tweet inconsequentially, but is silent after Dadri. "He has failed to fulfill his moral responsibility," Shourie said.

The senior journalist, author and former union minister who according to the party is "no longer a member of the BJP since he did not renew his membership" had launched a stinging attack on the Modi government last week on the increasing incidences of intolerance in the country.


Shourie today said, "PM in turning India into Pakistan and all because winning Bihar matters more than India's future and social strife is threatened."


"Calling protesters "rabid" is inexcusable as it applies to CNR Rao, Raghuram Rajan, Bhargava and Adm Ramdas," he added and said that claiming Modi is greatest victim of intolerance "is the most dangerous thing to do as it will give him grounds to be vengeful".


Shourie, a strong supporter of Modi during the Lok Sabha election campaign last year, had said last week that the Centre believes that managing economy means "managing the headlines" and that people had started recalling the days of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

"The way to charaterise policies of the government is - Congress scaled plus a cow," he had said. Read Shourie's 'Congress plus cow' remark

Shah Rukh Khan celebrates his 50th birthday in Mumbai.

The Russian airline whose jet crashed in Egypt killing everyone on board said on Monday the crash could not have been caused by a technical fault or human error.


The crash, in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula on Saturday, could only have been the result of some other "technical or physical action" which caused it to break up in the air and plummet to the ground, said Alexander Smirnov, deputy general director of the airline, Kogalymavia.


He did not specify what that action might have been, saying it was up to the official investigation to determine.


"The plane was in excellent condition," Smirnov told a news conference in Moscow. "We rule out a technical fault and any mistake by the crew," he said.


He said there had been no emergency call from the pilots to services on the ground during the flight, which took off from the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh and was bound for the Russian city of St Petersburg.


Kogalymavia's deputy general director for engineering, Andrei Averyanov, said a 2001 incident when the plane's tail section struck the tarmac on landing was fully repaired and could not have been a factor in the crash.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin demands thorough investigation of Flight 9268 crash in Egypt: Russian News Agency TASS.

India on Monday expressed 'deep concern' at the developments in Nepal after an Indian was killed in police firing at the border and said "it is monitoring the situation carefully".


"We are deeply concerned at reports coming in of firing today in Birgunj. An innocent Indian was also killed in the firing," the ministry of external affairs said in a statement.


"Causes underlying the present state of confrontation need to addressed by the government of Nepal credibly and effectively," the MEA said.


The government has advised transporters to exercise caution after they voiced concern about deteriorating situation across the border.

BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi today alleged that grand secular alliance leaders Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad betrayed Dalits and OBCs by promising their quota share to minorities.


Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad at a function 10 years ago had favoured quota for minorities by taking away the share of Dalits and OBCs, he said in a series of tweets.


"The two secular alliance leaders betrayed Dalits and OBCs by proposing to take away their quota share to give it to minorities...ever since their betrayal has come to light, both Kumar and Prasad have been maintaining stoic silence on the issue," Modi alleged.


The senior BJP leader said that his party will fight tooth and nail any effort to take away the quota share of Dalits and OBCs and oppose reservation on religious ground. On the issue of Kumar's poll advertisement on a Pakistani news website, he said, "Kumar should explain the need for giving an advertisement in a Pakistani newspaper (The Dawn) recently as also why the said GoogleAd was withdrawn if there was no motive to seek political benefit?" He said Kumar was not the peace ambassador of the United Nations and there could no motive behind the said advertisement other than pursuing votebank politics in Bihar.

A day after state minister Kusum Mahdele was caught on camera purportedly kicking a boy as he bowed to touch her feet, the Aam Aadmi Party today sought her resignation and petitioned the Madhya Pradesh Human Rights Commission for stern action against her.


TV channels had yesterday aired footage of Animal Husbandry Minister Mahdele purportedly kicking the boy, with a video clip of the incident also going viral on social media.


In the video, Mahdele, one of the senior members of the state Cabinet, was seen kicking the boy as he bowed to touch her feet at a function organised to celebrate Madhya Pradesh Foundation Day near the bus stand in Panna district.

The Russian airline whose jet crashed in Egypt killing everyone on board said on Monday the crash could not have been caused by a technical fault or human error.


The crash, in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula on Saturday, could only have been the result of some other "technical or physical action" which caused it to break up in the air and plummet to the ground, said Alexander Smirnov, deputy general director of the airline, Kogalymavia.


He did not specify what that action might have been, saying it was up to the official investigation to determine.


"The plane was in excellent condition," Smirnov told a news conference in Moscow. "We rule out a technical fault and any mistake by the crew," he said.


He said there had been no emergency call from the pilots to services on the ground during the flight, which took off from the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh and was bound for the Russian city of St Petersburg.


Kogalymavia's deputy general director for engineering, Andrei Averyanov, said a 2001 incident when the plane's tail section struck the tarmac on landing was fully repaired and could not have been a factor in the crash.

Sania Mirza @MirzaSania The season is officially done ...it's times to put my feet up and give my tennis racket a break for a few days.


Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza and her Swiss partner Martina Hingis lifted their ninth title together this year beating the Spanish pair of Garbine Muguruza and Carla Suarez Navarro to clinch the WTA Finals women's doubles trophy, in Singapore, on Sunday.

Before this, Sania and Martina had won eight titles (Indian Wells, Miami, Charleston, Wimbledon, US Open, Guangzhou, Wuhan and Beijing) and finished runner-up just once (Rome - falling to WTA Rising Stars Timea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic).

Tally so far in the KDMC polls

Sena 52
BJP 42
Cong 4
NCP 2
MNS 9
MIM 1
BSP 1
Ind 9 (3 backed by MIM)

As PM Modi invokes the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 and rebukes the Congress not to lecture the BJP on tolerance, Amitav Ghosh's 1995 essay for the New Yorker on the riots, which began on 2nd November, 31 years ago.  


"Nowhere else in the world did the year 1984 fulfill its apocalyptic portents as it did in India. Separatist violence in the Punjab, the military attack on the great Sikh temple of Amritsar; the assassination of the Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi; riots in several cities; the gas disaster in Bhopal - the events followed relentlessly on each other. There were days in 1984 when it took courage to open the New Delhi papers in the morning." Read

Just in: The Shiv Sena has won the Kalyan-Dombivli civic polls. The Shiv Sena contested alone, separate from their ally, the BJP.


The campaign was marked by shrill and bitter rhetoric by both parties, which saw Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray threatening to pull out of the alliance last week.


This came after Sena leader Eknath Shinde, a minister in the Maharashtra government of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis of the BJP, offered to resign, alleging that the partner has been "humiliating" Sena workers Thackeray then said he did not accept the resignation, and added that, if the government becomes arrogant, the Sena will resign all together. Eknath Shinde will not resign alone. He also warned the BJP to remember Indira Gandhi and sheath their arrogance.

Gangster Chhota Rajan, arrested last week in Bali, has told reporters that his former boss, Dawood Ibrahim, is in Pakistan and is under the protection of the country's Inter Services Intelligence agency. Dawood and Rajan fell out in the aftermath of the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts.


Rajan is likely to be brought back to India tomorrow.


An Indian team that reached Bali yesterday is working on his deportation and is the gangster will first make a stopover in Delhi before being brought to Mumbai.


A crack police team comprising officers from the CBI and the Mumbai and Delhi police met Rajan in jail in Bali.


The 55-year-old gangster is wanted for over 70 cases of murder, extortion and drug trafficking in Mumbai. Following an Interpol notice in 1995, he spent two decades running from the police in various countries until he was arrested after he stepped off a plane from Sydney on October 25.

After Prime Minister Narendra Modi raked up 1984 anti-Sikh riots to attack Congress for raising the issue of "intolerance", Congress hit back at him and said the PM is giving such statements in desperation. "The PM's statement is politically motivated and a mischievous attempt at re-opening the wounds of 1984 riots," Congress spokesman Anand Sharma said. Read

The BJP government wants the Winter Session of Parliament to be convened from November 26. Highly-placed government sources tell us that a file with a proposal to convene both houses of Parliament on Thursday, November 26, at 11 am, is being submitted to President Pranab Mukherjee. The president will take a couple of days to process this file and the announcement is likely to be made on Wednesday. 

In a major setback to Uttar Pradesh's ruling Samajwadi Party, relatives of many ministers and senior leaders were defeated in the Panchayat Elections. Counting of votes is underway.


Importantly, and in what is a message for the BJP and PM Narendra Modi, an independent candidate has defeated the BJP candidate in Jayapur, Varanasi., the village adopted by the PM. Modi had adopted the village in November 2014 under the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana a scheme for MPs to adopt a village in their constituency and develop it with all the resources at their command.


Meanwhile, officials with the state Election Commission told IANS that so far results of 35,000 regional panchayat wards have been declared, and of the 3,112 posts of district panchayat members, 19 results have been declared. Many family members of minisers in the Akhilesh Yadav cabinet contested the polls but have bitten the dust.


Read:  'Modi village' is Varanasi's new hot spot

Just in: An independent candidate has defeated the BJP candidate in Jayapur, Varanasi., the village adopted by PM Modi.

US President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama greet a young child dressed as the Pope and riding in a 'Popemobile' as he hands out treats to children trick-or-treating for Halloween on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, October 30, 2015. The picture was tweeted by The White House.  

Australia will no longer appoint knights and dames under the honours system, PM Malcolm Turnbull has said.


Turnbull said the titles were "not appropriate" in modern Australia, and that Queen Elizabeth had accepted the cabinet's recommendation to drop them.Former PM Tony Abbott reintroduced knighthoods and damehoods in 2014.


His controversial decision to grant Prince Philip a knighthood in January was widely seen as one of the factors which ended his term as leader. Read more

China must continue to enforce its one-child policy until new rules allowing all couples to have two children go into effect, the top family planning body said.


The ruling Communist Party said last week that Beijing would loosen its decades-old one-child policy. The plan for the change must be approved by the rubber-stamp parliament during its annual session in March.


Several parents interviewed by Reuters were lukewarm about the idea of having a second child after the new policy was announced last week.
Read more

A plane carrying the remains of 144 people killed when a Russian airliner crashed in Egypt landed in Saint Petersburg early today, hours after investigators probing the doomed flight said it had broken up in the air.


The emergency Russian plane, the first to bring back the bodies of those who died when the A-321 plummeted from the sky above the restive Sinai Peninsula, arrived in the Pulkovo airport of Russia's second-largest city.


Investigators from several countries have joined an Egypt-led probe to determine what brought down Russian airline Kogalymavia's flight 9268 on Saturday, killing all 224 people on board, en route from Sharm el-Sheikh to Saint Petersburg.


They have recovered the "black box" flight recorders of the Airbus, and the head of an Irish mission that will join the Egypt-led probe into the disaster said the results from the recorders should be ready in a few days.


The head of the Russian air transport agency Alexander Neradko on Sunday said it appeared the aircraft disintegrated while flying at high altitude, echoing similar comments from other top aviation officials. "All signs prove that the structure of the plane disintegrated in the air at a high altitude," he told Russian state television.

FLASH: Gangster Chhota Rajan taken to the room where Indian officials are with Indonesian officials. 

UP Panchayat Election results: AIMIM wins Azamgarh seat and leads on two in Muzaffarnagar.

The BJP leadership is meeting informally on November 6 in New Delhi after the final polling in Bihar ends. The results will be announced on November 8.


First on the agenda is working out a checklist for Bihar, which includes the date of convening newly elected MLAs in Patna, identifying  three observers to be deputed to Patna after poll results, positioning of leaders during the counting.


The tasks are being entrusted to Venkaiah Naidu and in fact, today, there was an informal meeting between Naidu and Arun Jaitley on the way ahead in Bihar.


The leaders also discussed the date for convening the winter session of Parliament. The mood  of the Cabinet committee on Parliamentary Affairs is to have a 10-day winter session.

Between the fifth phase polling on November 5 and the counting day on the 8th, the BJP government is expected to announce many reforms.

BJP top leaders are in an upbeat mood with a huge turnout of voters in the fourth phase of polls in Bihar.

BJP president Amit Shah is touch every hour with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and also senior BJP leaders.

BJP leaders informally share their assessment that the party will touch around 115-120 seats and is confident of forming government in the state.

On November 6, the BJP is expected to come up with both political and policy statements.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley will announce key policy statements about government initiatives and the BJP leadership will be on an aggressive mode on the tolerance issue.

Expect announcements on the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance, the strategy on Bihar and the smooth functioning of Parliament.

Narendra Modi has entrusted the political coordination to Amit Shah while policy matters
rests with Arun Jaitley.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is addressing a rally in the Purnea district of Bihar. Highlights...


-- Nitish's Bihar can't boast of anything.
-- Those in power must give an account of what they have done.
-- Lalu-ji ruled for 15 years, Chhota bhai (Nitish Kumar) ruled for 10 years. The list of leaders is so long that all the time will go in taking their names.
-- On anniversary of 1984 anti-Sikh riots, Congress should not lecture us on intolerance.
-- Nitish-ji does not talk about electricity because he knows people will question him on his promise to provide electricity to every home.
-- Is it a crime for me to come to Bihar. Why are they continuously commenting about me coming here.
-- Do you remember 2nd November 1984? What happened in Delhi? Sikhs were being killed. There are serious charges against the Congress, but now the Congress talks of tolerance!
-- Lalu-ji and Nitish-ji you fought the Congress for years. What happened that you gave them 40 seats.
-- Nitish babu and Lalu-ji you can play as many games as you want, results will be out on November 8 and Bihar will celebrate two Diwalis.

President Pranab Mukherjee's repeated pronouncements about tolerance has irked the BJP top leadership. The BJP leadership feels that as a seasoned statesman, the president should also tell the Congress to allow the Parliament to function  and not stall proceedings like it did during the monsoon session.


The fact that the president chooses to remain silent on the issue, is also tolerence of the wrong kind, feels the BJP. BJP Leaders expect Pranab Mukherjee to informally advise the Congress about the obstructionist attitude of the Gandhi family-led Congress party.Pranab Mukherjee has hinted that the government should not bring the Ordinance on Land Reforms, informally to the BJP leadership.


The President who is in the fourth year of his term, is apparently frustrated about the non- functioning of Parliament. The BJP leadership feels that Pranab Mukherjee should take the lead in convincing the Opposition that their obstructionist approach will derail the popular mandate of 2014 giving BJP 288 seats.

Just in: Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation polls -- Shiv Sena leading on 31 seats, BJP on 25, Congress and MNS on 2 seats each. AIMIM opens account, registers its victory on two seats.

Bangladesh authorities today tightened security across the country fearing violence ahead of the Supreme Court hearing on final appeal against two opposition leaders sentenced to death for war crimes committed during 1971 independence war.


"We have intensified security across the country," a senior police officer told PTI. The officer said the move comes as "general precaution" as followers of death row convicts - Jamaat-e-Islami secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid and opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury - could create an "anarchic situation" after the final judgement.

A furious Congress has demanded an apology from the ruling BJP after union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said at a public meeting that "Sonia Gandhi would cry all night" for a terrorist like Osama bin Laden.


"If a terrorist like Osama bin Laden is killed, then Sonia Gandhi will cry all night...will not sleep at all. If any terrorist is killed, it is instantly linked to religion," Naqvi, minister of state for Parliamentary Affairs, said in Uttar Pradesh's Kanpur on Saturday.


Naqvi was labouring on the theme that the opposition "talks about secularism" but plays politics of religion. The minister later told the news agency ANI that he was just reiterating what a senior Congress leader had said about his party president after the controversial Batla House encounter in 2008, when a Delhi Police team stormed an apartment building suspecting that terrorists were hiding there.


Two alleged terrorists and a Delhi police officer were killed in the incident that sparked a huge political controversy when the Congress alleged that the encounter was staged.


"A Congress leader had said earlier that Sonia had cried all night when terrorist were killed in the Batla House encounter. I just reiterated it. You should know that when this controversial statement was made, we chose to stay away from it at the time. But now a situation has risen where the Congress and their other allies are making desperate attempts to twist the words in their favour," Naqvi said on Sunday.


Senior Congress leader PC Chacko said: "They think that by attacking Sonia Gandhi and senior leaders of the Congress party they can gain more popularity in their team. What he has said is completely ridiculous."

Displacement is a by-product of development. Due to factors like global inequalities, war and nature's fury, an ever-greater number of people are fleeing their place of habitual residence and will continue to do so. Nation-states cannot continue to live in denial of this reality for long. Read

The government of Singapore will regulate its citizens' access to a Madison Square Garden-style reception for Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the massive 100,000sqm, column-free arena of Singapore Expo on November 24.


The city state's decision to restrict participation to Indian passport holders with visas to visit or live in Singapore and permanent residents of the city has thrown the organisers of the mega reception into a quandary.


They are now desperately looking for ways to fill the large space at the venue to avoid the impression on TV screens back in India that the much-trumpeted event was thinly attended. Read more

This week, a study was released by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania that found a surprising correlation when studying two kinds of maps: those that mapped the county-level frequency of cardiac disease, and those that mapped the emotional state of an area's Twitter posts. Read more

Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, who has a string of hits from "Baazigar" to "Chennai Express" over a career spanning 27 years, turned 50 today and expressed gratitude to his millions of fans.


To wish the actor on his milestone birthday, his fans started gathering outside his bungalow 'Mannat' since the early hours. Shah Rukh came out to greet them and later took to Facebook to say that he is humbled by the love showered on him by his admirers.


"Right now so humbled by the attention and love being given to my Birthday. Didn't ever realise living will be so beautiful. Thanks all," an emotional SRK posted.


On his 50th birthday, Shah Rukh took to social media to unveil the second teaser of his much-awaited film "Fan", which provides a glimpse of Gaurav, the biggest fan of the biggest movie star.


"Today as I turn 50 I turn 25 again- for all the years of love you have given me, I give you my most heartfelt creation. Gaurav the FAN. You and I are a Belief! ?#?IAmGaurav? and meet me here," SRK posted alongside a link of the teaser of the Maneesh Sharma-directed film.


Shah Rukh made humble beginnings on the small screen, featuring in shows like "Fauji", "Circus" and others. After having a successful stint on television he turned towards Bollywood with "Deewana". Initially he played anti-hero parts in films like "Baazigar", "Darr", "Anjaan" and also appeared in comedy, drama and romantic films.


Though he has acted in films across genres but he came to be known as the 'King of Romance', who mesmerised everyone with his charm in films like "Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge", "Mohabattein", "Kuch Kuch Hota Hain", "Dil To Pagal Hai" and "Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi" among others. His second stint on TV was when he replaced megastar Amitabh Bachchan for a season as the host of "Kaun Banega Crorepati" in 2007.


A year later, Shah Rukh hosted another show "Kya Aap Paanchvi Pass Se Tez Hain". He also appeared in "Zor Ka Jhatka: Total Wipeout" the Indian version of American reality show "Wipeout". Besides his love for cinema, SRK has a penchant for video games and sports. He is the co-owner of the Indian Premier League cricket team Kolkata Knight Riders. Currently, Shah Rukh is busy finishing the shoot of Rohit Shetty's "Dilwale", which will hit theatres on December 18. It will be followed by the release of Aditya Chopra's home production "Fan" and Rahul Dholakia's "Raaes". Interestingly, this year, the famous Khan trio of Bollywood--Aamir, Shah Rukh and Salman--all turn 50.

Superstar Salman Khan has wished good health and success to his actor-friend Shah Rukh Khan, who turned 50 today. "I wish him the best in life. I wish him good health, family and success and most amazing life. I would want the whole family to be healthy. I wish that for everyone," Salman said in an interview in Mumbai.


The three Khans of Bollywood -- Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan -- have been entertaining the audience for the past three decades. "We are friends. Shah Rukh Khan came much later in the industry. First Aamir Khan, then I came... Ajay Devgn, Akshay Kumar and then Shah Rukh Khan," he said.

After military veterans, retired paramilitary officials will now hold a 'dharna' on Monday demanding One Rank One Pension benefits and other privileges under the ex-servicemen category. n association of former officials of forces like CRPF, BSF, ITBP, CISF and SSB will hold the sit-in at Jantar Mantar for implementation of their demands which they say have been in the waiting for the last over a decade. 

A clutch of right-wing groups have announced a "Hindu helpline" for BJP-ruled Jharkhand to thwart cow slaughter and beef trade in the tribal state amid communal concerns in parts of the country following a spate of violence over sale and killing of cattle. The move comes at a time when the BJP and its affiliates have whipped up Hindu self-esteem and the cow as emotive issues in the country with the central message one of religious pride and tactical emphasis on uniting the community.

In an embarrassment for the Bharatiya Janata Party, well-known astrologer Bejan Daruwalla claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had consulted him once. Daruwalla said he had predicted that the progress and development of the nation lay in Modi's hands. In a picture released by some media organisations, Modi is seen showing his palms to Daruwalla, indicating that he had consulted the astrologer to know about his future.

Leslee Udwin, the filmmaker behind a documentary on the horrific 2012 December gang rape in Delhi, has urged people to protest during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the United Kingdom later this month. Udwin wants to bring together "hundreds, if not thousands" outside Wembley Stadium in London during Modi's mega Olympics-style address to the Indian Diaspora on November 13 to demand the ban on documentary 'India's Daughter' be lifted in India.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi is likely to meet President Pranab Mukherjee this week to bring his attention towards the alleged "growing intolerance' and "communal tensions" in the country. Though the date is yet to be finalised, Congress sources said Gandhi will lead a party delegation to the Rashtrapati Bhavan either on November 3 or 4. 

The process of underworld don Chhota Rajan's deportation will begin on Monday as a team led by Central Bureau of Investigation arrived in Indonesia on Sunday. Rajan received consular access with an Indian diplomat meeting him at an Indonesian police detention centre in Bali.The visit of the joint team of CBI and Mumbai and Delhi police officers comes two days after India wrote a letter to the Indonesian authorities for 55-year-old Rajan's return to face trial in various criminal cases registered against him. 

Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the United Kingdom this month, Patel quota agitation leaders said they have sent a letter to the British PM David Cameron about alleged atrocities and police crackdown on Patel community in Gujarat. The Patel leaders have also announced to stage a protest against Modi during his UK visit to highlight the issue. Through the letter, the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti, which is spearheading the movement to get reservation for Patels, said it aims at highlighting the plight of the community, which is "wrongfully targeted by the BJP-led state government for raising the voice".

In an interview, Home Minister Rajnath Singh has made it clear that no matter what and despite the results in Bihar, Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah will get a second term as the party chief next year.