The CBI today filed a charge-sheet in the Sheena Bora murder case in a magistrate's court here in which her mother and former media magnate Indrani Mukherjee and two others have been named as accused. 2

Abaaoud first travelled to Syria last year -- but seemingly not out of any great religious motivation. "He did not even go to the mosque," his older sister Yasmina told the New York Times earlier this year.


Like many who travel to the so-called Islamic State, his actions appear to have been motivated more by a thirst for power, violence and unaccountability.


In an interview printed in Islamic States english magazine, Dabiq, Abaaoud told how he had travelled to Belgium to terrorise the crusaders waging war against the Muslims.


The Independent reports that according to his family, the young man showed much more interest in petty crime than Islam, and they were shocked when he took his 13-year-old brother Younes with him to travel to Syria in January 2014.


After he was trained and further radicalised in Syria, Abaaoud was able to return to Europe via Athens. He was picked up by European security services and reportedly even stopped by police but let go, after which he disappeared.

He bragged: My name and picture were all over the news yet I was able to stay in their homeland, plan operations against them, and leave safely when doing so became necessary.

Meanwhile, Underworld don Chhota Rajan has been sent to 14-day judicial custody by a local court and will be lodged in Tihar jail, says the CBI. The  CBI takes over all 71 cases against Chhota Rajan from the Maharashtra Police.

Sheena Bora murder case: CBI files chargesheet in special CBI court in Mumbai's Esplanade Court.

Abdelhamid Abaaoud was identified among the Saint Denis raid dead on the basis of his fingerprints, the French prosecutor says.

On Wednesday, intelligence led investigators to believe that Abaaoud was in an apartment in Saint-Denis to the north of Paris, triggering a ferocious seven-hour shootout in which over 5,000 rounds were fired. At least two bodies were found in the badly damaged building after the shootout.    

CNN reports: France says that the Paris attacks mastermind Abdelhamid Abaaoud was killed in the raid at St Denis in the early hours yesterday. More than a 100 police officers and soldiers stormed an apartment building in Saint-Denis, a bustling suburb home to many immigrants, during a seven-hour siege that left at least two people dead.


The French government has now confirmed that the dead included the suspected overseer of the Paris bloodshed, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, and a woman militant who blew herself up. 

News coming in of a massive fire in a coach on the Prayagraj Express in Delhi . The train was between Adarsh Nagar and Azadpur. The train runs between Delhi and Allahabad. No reports of any casualties yet.

The heartbreaking picture of Col Santosh Mahadik's mother bidding farewell, while his wife waits her turn. Col Mahadik was cremated with full honours at his village in the Satara district of Maharashtra.

France's National Assembly approves extension of state of emergency for 3 months, reports France's Le Figaro newspaper. 

Around 60 per cent of Indians do not have access to safe and private toilets, a new study has claimed. A report titled 'It's No Joke - State of the World's Toilets' by WaterAid states that "If all 774 million people in India waiting for household toilets were made to stand in a line, the queue would stretch from Earth to the moon and beyond."


According to the study released on the occasion of World Toilet Day today, the world's second most populous nation has 60.4 per cent of its people without access to safe and private toilets.


"Since 1990, access has improved by 22.8 percentage points, putting India at seventh out of eight countries for improvement in South Asia. In South Asia, Nepal has seen the most improvement, followed by Pakistan and Bhutan," the report stated.


Noting that the resulting health crisis is a serious matter, the report said that more than 140,000 children younger than five years die each year in India due to diarrhea.


"Nearly 40 per cent of India's children are stunted; this will affect both their life chances and the future prosperity of India. India also has high rates of maternal and newborn mortality linked to sepsis," the report said.


The equipment necessary to prevent infection during and after child birth is simple and inexpensive, but requires clean water and soap along with clean surroundings, which are difficult to achieve in an environment contaminated by open defecation and without good hygiene practices such as handwashing with soap by clinic staff and midwives, it said.


Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given the sanitation issue a top political priority, and last year launched Swachh Bharat (Clean India) Mission. Commenting on Swachh Bharat, which aims to ensure a toilet for every household by 2019 and to educate people about the long-term health and economic benefits of using a a proper sanitation system, the report said that "by simply building the toilets won't be enough."


"What will be absolutely crucial is getting local, state and national government to make this a priority, and creating the cultural shift that will ensure that once the toilets are built, they are used by everyone," it added.

Lok Sabha Secretary General Anoop Mishra on Thursday contacted Dr Subramanian Swamy and told him that as per the rules and regulations of the Ethics Committee of Parliament the complaint on Rahul Gandhi cannot be entertained as it has not been forwarded by a sitting Member of Lok Sabha. Dr Swamy now will have to look for a MP of Lok Sabha to forward his complaint against Rahul Gandhi to the chairman of the Ethics Committee. Incidentally, LK Advani is the Chairman of the Committee.


Swamy had written to Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, urging her to refer the matter of Rahul's alleged violation of Constitution and ethical code on citizenship to the Ethics Committee and disqualify him as MP if he is guilty.

Will Advani now agree to discuss the Rahul Gandhi issue given his peculiar and precarious position in the BJP of leading a dissident group.

Breaking his silence today on the continuing BJP allegations against him, this time by senior BJP leader Subaramanian Swamy, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi today challenged Prime Minister Narendra Modi, demanding that either the BJP proves its charge or keep its peace.  


"The BJP and RSS people have been flinging dirt on my family forever, on my grandmother, my father and my mother. I have been seeing this since I was a child," Rahul said at a function to mark the 98th birth anniversary of former prime minister Indira Gandhi.


"I want to say this, Modi-ji it's your government, you have all the agencies. Set them after me. Launch an investigation me and if find anything in six months put me in jail... but stop using your lackeys to dump dirt on my family," he said.

Marriage between a Hindu woman and a Christian man is not legally valid if either of them does not convert, the Madras High Court today held. Dismissing a Habeas Corpus petition filed by the woman's parents, justices P R Shivakumar and V S Ravi said if the couple wanted to solemnise the marriage as per Hindu custom, the man should have converted to Hinduism or she should have converted to Christianity if she wanted to do so as per Christian custom. In the alternative, their marriage should have been registered under the Special Marriage Act, 1954, if they preferred to follow their religions without conversion.


The woman, who was produced in court by police after the petition was filed, told the judges that she had got married in a temple at Palani, to which they asked how the marriage was valid as per Hindu law if the man did not convert.


The woman, however, remained steadfast in her decision to go with him, which they did as she was a major. "As she is a major she can go anywhere she likes, though they had not married as per law," the bench here said. The judges said that the girl became a major on May 29 and she was free to go to any place at her will. As per law, she did not need care and protection.

A French-Syrian couple have issued an beautiful statement following the horrific Paris attacks that claimed 129 lives.


The Independent reports that Hamid Sulaiman and Aurlie Ruby posted a photograph together, taken in front of the Place de la Republique, each holding their respective passports and brandishing a sign declaring "love will always win.'


Sulaiman, who fled from Syria in 2012, and Ruby, have been together for three years after meeting in a theatre in Paris and both work as artists. Their Facebook post has been shared more than several times, with other couples inspired to make similar declarations.

That the Paris terrorist attacks had strong links to a suburb of Brussels didn't shock many of us who live in the Belgian capital. Radio stations here in both French and Dutch are full of discussions about Molenbeek that elicit indignation, sorrow, anger, guilt, despair, defiance. But not surprise.

Here's why.

France could face the risk of chemical or bacterial warfare in its fight against Islamist terrorists, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said today.


"We must not rule anything out. I say it with all the precautions needed. But we know and bear in mind that there is also a risk of chemical or bacteriological weapons," Valls told parliament.


"The macabre imagination of the masterminds is limitless," he said in a speech in the lower house of parliament meant to gain approval to an extension of the state of emergency.


Evidence is mounting that Isis could be both manufacturing and using chemical weapons in Syria and Iraq. Months of reports by Kurdish forces fighting the so-called Islamic State sparked the start of an investigation by the US and a United Nations probe earlier this year.


No findings have been announced by either group but an anonymous UN official has told the BBC that at least four attacks using powdered mustard agents have been documented on both sides of the Syria-Iraq border.


Representational picture: Soldiers wearing gas masks hold bottles containing chemicals during a news conference at the Defence Ministry in Baghdad

Sins of the father visiting the son?

Union minister (MoS finance) Jayant Sinha can hardly be blamed for thinking so.

Jayant's father, former union minister Yashwant Sinha was among four senior leaders -- L K Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Shanta Prasad --  to issue a stinging statement in the wake of the Bihar debacle that the party was being forced to kow-tow to a handful. The statement said the BJP's consensual character has been destroyed, and it has been emasculated in the last year.


An embarrassed Jayant Sinha has been compelled to cancel a quiet dinner he was planning to host for foreign investors and top honchos from India Inc. Our sources tell us he believes it's better to keep a low profile till the  dissidence issue blows over.

Some things however cannot be swept under the carpet.

Calcutta High Court cancels bail of Trinamool Congress leader Madan Mitra and accused in the Saradha scam.

Senior Congress leader Janardan Dwivedi is upset with colleagues Mani Shankar Aiyer, Salman Khursheed and Shakeel Ahmed for making statements which are considered to be anti-Hindu. Dwivedi feels such statements will not augur well for the Congress in Uttar Pradesh which goes to the polls next year.


In a two-page confidential note to Sonia Gandhi, Dwivedi sought her immediate intervention for damage control since he felt many TV channels were portraying that the Congress stands for the minority community.


Motormouths are found not only in the BJP, but also in the Congress, feel many senior Congress leaders.

Noted British sculptor Anish Kapoor, who had made scathing remarks against Narendra Modi government in a UK daily during the Prime Minister's visit there, has been removed from Rajasthan's cultural panel, two days after he was nominated by the BJP-ruled state government.


The Vasundhara Raje government nominated the controversial sculptor and 11 others as the members of the Governing Board of Jaipur's Jawahar Kala Kendra on November 16.


Kapoor's article critical of Modi appeared in the Guardian on November 12, where he had raised the issue of alleged 'intolerance'.


Rajasthan Tourism minister Krishnendra Kaur, however, canceled the nominations of all 12 members, including Kapoor, last night saying that she was unaware of the nominations and the Principal Secretary of the department had issued the order without consultation.

Belgian authorities launch 6 raids in Brussels region linked to Paris suicide bomber Bilal Hadfi, says the Associated Press. Hadfi had attacked the Stade de France and lived in Belgium.

What he did in Bihar, he will try in Uttar Pradesh -- an even bigger electoral prize. Prashant Kishor is in talks with Congress to be its election strategist in UP polls in 2017.


And now, Kishor, the man who put together Nitish Kumars campaign strategy for the Grand Alliance (Mahagathbandhan), in a professionally slick and agile package of moves, is yet to decide whether he will make a serious political intervention in Bihar or will continue to be a professional running the Indian Political Action Committee (I-Pac). Or help the Congress.


Two people close to Kishor and a senior Congress leader told the Economic Times that he and the Congress were in a active discussions on him helming the Grand Old Party's UP campaign.


Kishor has also been sounded out for campaigns in Bengal (Trinamool), Tamil Nadu (AIADMK) and Assam (Congress) as well but the UP assignment for Congress is for him the most important decision.

US President Barack Obama today said Syria's civil war would not end unless Bashar al-Assad leaves power, discounting suggestions the Middle Eastern leader could take part in future elections.


"I do not foresee a situation in which we can end the civil war in Syria while Assad remains in power," Obama said, just days after meeting Assad's top backer, Russian President Vladimir Putin.

With Tamil Nadu reeling from monsoon fury, Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa today apprised the Centre of the flood situation in the state and said her government would submit a detailed memorandum seeking central assistance by next week.


In a telephonic talk with Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, she apprised him of the situation and sought a central team to make assessment after which the Minister assured her that it will be deputed once the Centre receives the memorandum, the state government said.


Singh, who is in China, said on Twitter that he had spoken to the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and assured of all possible help. "The Centre is assisting the state agencies of Tamil Nadu in rescue and relief ops. Assured TN CM of all possible help," Singh said in his tweets.


The state government said that the "Chief Minister apprised the Union Home Minister of the current situation in Tamil Nadu due to the unprecedented rains and floods, particularly in the districts of Chennai, Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram and Cuddalore."

FIR filed against three passengers for allegedly misbehaving with a stewardess on Indigo's Coimbatore-Chennai flight. One of the three accused is believed to be a member of the Hindu Mahasabha.

India has frozen assets worth Euro 3 lakh (over Rs 2.12 core) of over three dozen entities on charges of terrorist financing and money laundering of illicit funds, a latest report by global anti-financial terror body FATF has said.


The body has conducted a mid-session review of various countries and economic powers of the world in the wake of the increased activities of dreaded terrorist group, ISIS, around the globe. The banned group has also been held responsible for the recent terror attacks in Paris which killed 129 people.


As part of India's initiative against suspect funds and those related to terrorism, the FATF report said the country has frozen assets to the tune of Euro 3 lakh belonging to 37 entities till August 15 this year. India is a full-member of this reputed global body, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), along with other nations like the US, France, Germany and the United Kingdom.

The massacre of innocents in Paris has brought to the forefront a dramatic shift in ISIS's tactics and strategy. For some time it has been widely believed that ISIS's overriding aim is to capture and hold territory and create a single caliphate out of the present borders of the Middle East, rather than trying to bomb the West or pull off spectacular attacks like the toppling of the Twin Towers in New York. Such raids on the so-called "far enemy," aimed at bringing down the capitalist order, have long been the mission of al-Qaeda; whereas the much newer ISIS, in seeking to conquer the "near enemy' in the Levant, has given priority to establishing its caliphate now.  Read more

Here's the truth about PM Narendra Modi's 2003 visit to the UK when he was Gujarat CM.

This is the UK Home Office's statement during the visit.


"The Home Office issued a statement in which it said, with neither warmth nor respect:"We are aware he's visiting the UK. He is not visiting at Her Majesty's government's invitation nor does the government plan to have any contact with him when he's here. We do understand the concerns expressed but there were no appropriate grounds to refuse Mr Modi a visa." Read more on Modi's UK visit here.


That story appeared in The Wire on November 17, but Twitter is abuzz with speculation about whether Facebook is blocking people from posting this not too flattering article on their walls?


Former Jammu and Kashmir CM Omar Abdullah posted: "Dear @facebook what is it about this article that worries you enough to block it from my wall???"  Followed by the link of the Wire piece.


Radha Khan @70kha tweeted: Some censorship happening - I had posted http://thewire.in/2015/11/17/when-mr-modi-went-to-london-15802/ on FB. And it's been deleted. Now when I've retried FB says no. @thewire_in.


Hmmm.

A plane flying from Warsaw, bound for the Egyptian resort of Hurghada, has been forced to make an emergency landing at Bulgarias Burgas airport after a bomb threat. The passenger jet was evacuated after landing, according to Bulgarias Nova TV. According to Polish media, there were a total of 161 passengers onboard the plane. All are unharmed.


According to news website Rmf24.pl, which contacted one of the passengers, it has not been ruled out that the man who talked about a bomb was drunk.


"Already in the airport, the man joked what would be done to him if he had a bomb. We were locked on the plane for an hour, and at a certain moment the doors opened and anti-terrorist forces rushed onto the plane and started shouting in English: 'Where is the bomb, where is the bomb?' They asked us to raise our hands above our heads, then they grabbed the man. They ordered us out of the plane with our hands up, one by one, and to leave our belongings. Buses carried the planes passengers to the airport," one passenger told Rmf24.pl.


The planes captain decided immediately to make an emergency landing after learning of the bomb threat, which was made by a 64-year-old passenger, who is currently being questioned by authorities, the TV channel reports.

A plane flying from Warsaw to the Egyptian resort of Hurghada has made an emergency landing in Bulgaria after a bomb threat, according to officials. Details awaited.


This comes just a day after two Air France flights from Los Angeles to Paris were diverted after a bomb threat was called in.It was not known if the same person called in both threats.

Air France Flight 65, headed from Los Angeles to Paris, was diverted to Salt Lake City because of a security incident, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said.

A little while later, Air France Flight 55 from Washington's Dulles InternationalAirport to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris was diverted to an airport in Halifax, Nova Scotia because of the same reason, a government source said.

Pic: Bulgaria's Burgas airport

Markandey Katju tweets: At this rate, PM vl soon break, Ibn Batuta's record of being d most travelled man in history!

Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed has challenged the Pakistan government's decision to ban media coverage of his outlawed organisations Jammat-ud-Dawah and its front Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation in the Lahore High Court. Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority which comes under the Federal Information Ministry on November 2 had asked all broadcasters to refrain from covering 72 banned groups including LeT, JuD and FIF under UN restriction.



Saeed through his counsel Advocate A K Dogar filed a petition in the Lahore High Court yesterday, challenging the ban on his organisations. Justice Aminuddin Khan took up the petition of Saeed and allowed Saeed's counsel to argue. Advocate Dogar told the court that JuD and FIF were charitable organisations and had "no nexus with the banned Lashkar-i-Taiba". He said JuD has established 142 schools and four universities in different cities of the country.

Col Mahadik's mortal remains are consigned to flames. All around the village are large posters of a smiling colonel superimposed on a map of India. The journey of the son of a milkman to a colonel in the army who always led from the front, ends. RIP, Sir.

Col Mahadik on a holiday with his family. 

The bullet that killed him struck his neck, an area that was not protected by his bullet-proof jacket. He was critically injured in the counter-infiltration operation in the Manigah forest of Kupwara and died a few hours later. The son of a milkman, Mahadik stepped away from the family trade to join the Army. As a woman told NDTV, one in 10 homes in Pogarwadi village and in Satara, have somebody in the armed forces.

The poignant strains of Last Post is played as the body is consigned to flames.

The Indian Army's formalities are over. Col Mahadik's mother is led to the pyre by two army personnel. Following her are the colonel's wife, his son and daughter.

A 21-gun salute is on now, as the funeral pyre is lit by his son.

Cries of Bharat Mata ki Jai rent the air as family members walk up to the pyre. The army now paying their final tributes. The tricolour which was draped on the body is now being removed. 

A woman from Pogarwadi village tells NDTV that not a single person has eaten a morsel or even sipped on tea this morning to pay respects to Col Mahadik. She says one in 10 houses in Pogarwadi has somebody in the armed forces.

The colonel's mother breaks down as she is led to the funeral pyre where his body has now been laid. .

Stocks continued to see buying interest from investors as the benchmark BSE Sensex rallied 275 points, led by short covering on strong global cues. What supported the upbeat mood was expectations that US Fed may take care in tightening rates after a likely December lift-off. Sustained buying was seen in auto, IT, banking, capital goods, technology and FMCG stocks while healthcare saw some mild selling.

Rangoli on the road and large posters of Col Mahadik line the road in Satara. Col. Mahadik will be laid to rest with full military honours today. 

Colonel Santosh Mahadik, the 38-year-old Indian Army Officer who died in an encounter with terrorists in Kashmir on Tuesday, will be cremated in his village in Pogarwadi in the Satara district of Maharashtra today.


Mahadik's entire village has come to pay their last respects, as have politicians from across parties; defence minister Manohar Parrikar will also be there.


There will be a 21 gun salute, followed by the last rites by the family and the colonel's mortal remains will then be laid to rest.


His body was brought to Pune yesterday, where the Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis paid his respects. Reports say that all the women in Mahadik's village have removed their bindis to mourn the death of their son as thousands of men and women weep openly before TV cameras.


The army officer is survived by his wife and two children, aged 11 and seven. The army officer, in fact, has two mothers in a manner of speaking. His mother gave him to his aunt who did not have children and he was brought up by both women.


The army on Wednesday paid floral tributes to Colonel Mahadik, Commanding Officer of 41 Rashtriya Rifles, who was killed while battling militants near Line of Control in north Kashmir's Kupwara district.

Tributes to the valour and sacrifice of the late officer were paid in a solemn ceremony held at Badami Bagh Cantonment in Jammu. Mahadik, 39, a resident of Maharashtra, who was the commanding officer of 41 Rashtriya Rifles, was critically injured during an operation in the Haji Naka forest area of Kupwara near the LoC in Kashmir on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani and Google's India-born CEO Sundar Pichai are among over 50 global leaders,business chiefs and pop icons named as contenders by Time magazine for its annual 'Person of the Year' honour.

Cooks and chefs could soon receive Padma awards, with the Ministry of Culture sending a recommendation to the Home Ministry in this regard. "The Ministry of Culture recently received a proposal to include the art of cooking in the list of Padma awards. Cooking is an art. If there can be Padma awards in other fields of art like music, tabla, why not cooking? We studied the proposal and sent a recommendation to the MHA," MoS for Culture and Tourism Mahesh Sharma told The Indian Express. 

France and Europe should treat refugees and migrants with compassion, UN chief Ban Ki-moon has said as he condemned the terrorist attacks in Paris during a phone call with French President Franois Hollande. 

In what could be dubbed a breakthrough for investigators, the forensic examination conducted at AIIMS has confirmed that the remains found in the forest area in Raigad belong to Sheena Bora. The AIIMS team carried out three tests to ascertain the results. 

Even as water receded from many localities, rescue operations in a few low-lying areas continued to remain a challenge for government agencies. Most of the areas that continue to be flooded are those developed by the government under the 'sites and services' scheme with World Bank funding a few decades ago. 

Paris is a city fraught with tension following the brutal Islamic State terror attacks on Friday night. 

Fourteen Indian fishermen along with three boats have been detained by Sri Lankan navy this morning near the Palk Strait.

That's Sonia and Rahul Gandhi paying homage to Indira Gandhi on her 98th birth anniversary at Shakti Sthal. President Pranab Mukherjee and Vice President Hamid Ansari were also present to pay homage to Indira -- the world's longest serving woman prime minister. 

The drug history of Paris attacks suspects is fuelling speculation that the Islamic State jihadis were 'high on drugs' as they carried out the deadly attacks.

2 dead after 7-hour St Denis raid targetting Paris attacks mastermind