Timeline Refresh
Officials in New Delhi confirmed that Geeta had found her family and will be flown home.
Announcing the good news, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said, "We have located her family. She will be handed over to them only after the DNA test."
According to reports, Geeta has identified her father, step-mother and siblings from a photograph sent to her by the Indian high commission in Islamabad. The family reportedly lives in Bihar.
Geeta, now 21, was found by Pakistan Rangers 13 years ago, sitting alone on the Samjhauta Express in Lahore that had come across the Wagah border.
The story of Geeta became more famous as it was similar with the one depicted in Salman Khan blockbuster Bajrangi Bhaijaan.
The party alleged that it showed that the Narendra Modi dispensation was "insincere, insensitive and unconcerned" to what is happening in the country.
Congress leader Anand Sharma, however, steered clear of the observations on India in the U S State Department report on International Religious Freedom for the year 2014.
The India section of the report, which includes the UPA rule till May 26, says that in 2014, India witnessed religiously motivated killings, arrests, riots and coerced religious conversions and the police in some cases failed to respond effectively to communal violence.
"It is an issue concerning the nation so we will be able to judge it better than others (outsiders). We will not judge the government by what others are saying. We will judge the government on the basis of the situation on the ground," he told reporters.
Sharma dubbed Jaitley's remarks as "perverse and cynical" contending that there was a "plan to create division with the diabolical agenda of radical elements of the so called Hindutva forces to suppress dissent and intimidate those (who speak up)".
He was also critical of the Prime Minister's remarks on the issue. Sharma insisted that the Prime Minister needed to go beyond expressing regret over the communal incidents in the country. "The credibility of the Prime Minister has taken a beating after his statement yesterday," Sharma said.
Noting that communal conflicts are not a law and order issue, he said that "it is part of a larger agenda of suppression of voices". He said government's response showed that it was "insincere, insensitive and unconcerned" to the happenings in the country in the wake of the Dadri lynching incident.
It had earlier restricted its use to public distribution system and LPG subsidy, compelling the government to rush to the court seeking a permission to use Aadhaar for more services.
A Constitution Bench led by Chief Justice H L Dattu, however, clarified that linking of Aadhaar for providing these services will only be on voluntary basis and no person shall be deprived of any benefit for want of Aadhaar
Aiyar wrote: "Manohar Parrikar, Union defence minister and former Goa chief minister, will be in the running to become the next prime minister if Modi dies of a heart attack tomorrow. Parrikar has been a loyal RSS man all his life."
The party feels that Aiyar could have avoided writing this as it's in bad taste. The BJP felt that the author could have mentioned the political death of Modi but not a mortal death.
Aiyar has refused to apologise but the Economic Times has summararily edited that part from its web edition today.
BJP sources confirmed that the Economic Times management found that such personal remarks could have been avoided and is believed to have assured the BJP that the policy of the paper is not against PM Modi but against his style of functioning and they do not subscribe to the views expressed by the author.
Read Aiyar's blog (edited) in the ET today.
The United States currently has about 9,800 troops in Afghanistan -- sharply down from 100,000 that were in the country as recently as 2010.
Obama said last year that he wanted to withdraw nearly all of them by the end of 2016, leaving only about 1,000 to provide security for the U.S. Embassy in Kabul.
The president is expected to make a formal announcement sometime Thursday morning that he plans to maintain 5,500 troops at bases in Bagram, Jalalabad and Kandahar into 2017 and the term of his successor, the U.S. officials said Wednesday night.
Pic: Obama meets US troops in Afghanistan on a 2014 surprise visit
Wholesale prices fell for an 11th straight month in September, plunging an annual 4.54 percent primarily on the back of tumbling oil prices, government data showed on Wednesday.
The country kicks off its two-month religious festive period on Monday, a time considered auspicious to buy big-ticket items such as cars, and when promotions abound. Company executives say they see the RBI's unexpectedly sharp 50 basis point cut last month as a lifeline.
Consumers have already been showing an eagerness to spend more on small luxuries, like movie tickets and fancy haircuts, even as the overall economy struggles to take off after a period of cooler growth.
Over 32 Sahitya Akademi award winners returned their awards over the last one week to protest the increasing clampdown on personal freedoms.
"They are now screaming about Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP and RSS, so they are obviously politically motivated. It's so obvious you know. Rub the surface and the truth comes out," she said while claiming that the"truth" will come out soon.
The move comes after the Modi government has invited just seven RTI activists for the annual two-day event beginning October 16.
The activists invited include Aruna Roy, Nikhil Dey, Shekhar Singh, Amrita Johri, Anjali Bharadwaj, Venkatesh Nayak and Lokesh Batra.
The RTI convention was earlier not on PM Modi's agenda as he was to travel to Bihar to campaign for state polls that began on Monday. The annual event traditionally opens with an address by the President or Prime Minister. This year, the function was postponed from Monday - October 12 is when the RTI Act came into effect - to Friday, reportedly to suit the prime minister's schedule.
Commodore (retd) Lokesh Batra on why he filed an RTI application to find out how much the prime minister spent on his foreign visits. Read the interview here.
Of the 532 women officers currently in the Navy, there are already 51 "observers" that fly on maritime patrol aircraft like P-8I, IL-38 and Dornier to handle navigation, weapons and sensors. Admiral Robin Dhowan on Wednesday said the Navy has sent to the defence ministry the proposal to induct women as pilots as well. "It's under consideration. The government will have to take a view, a policy decision," he said.
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In a controversial move in 2005, dance performances in bars of the state were banned, but three-star and five-star hotels were kept out of the purview of the Act.
The government could not defend this discrimination when the ban was challenged before the Supreme Court which, in July last year, upheld a Bombay High Court verdict quashing the state government's order, ruling that the ban was discriminatory and violated the Constitutional right to earn a living.
The apex court had ruled that bar dancers could resume working after bars got back their licences for performances.
Last year, the Cabinet had authorised ministers in-charge of Excise, Home and Parliamentary Affairs departments to review the Act and consult group leaders in the state legislature on the proposal to amend the Act and remove the lacuna.
Accordingly, the decision was taken to amend the Act and ban dance performances in three-star and five-star hotels as well.
The government is likely to table the Amendment Bill in the ongoing session of the legislature.
"My sentiments are hurt the way M M Kalburgi was shot dead and Akademi is unable to do anything to protect the rights of writers and not even expressed any condolence on this serious issue", showing letter to media persons, the former DD Director, commented.
Bhardwaj has won the prestigious honour for his book 'Samhi khulto marag.' Not only writers the common man's feeling were also threatened in the present scenario where freedom of expression has been facing fundamentalist and communal challenges, he alleged.
"This is a protest against religious and creative intolerance which is rising in recent time," he added. Bhardwaj is also the Rajasthan coordinator for Jaipur Literature Festivals (JLF), since its beginning.
With this, at least 29 authors including Nayantara Sahgal and Ashok Vajpeyi have decided to return their Akademi awards and five writers have stepped down from official positions of the literary body, which in turn has convened an emergency meeting on October 23 to discuss the developments.
"All three leaders have reached their homes at 5 am today," Visakhapatnam District Superintendent of Police K Pravin said.
A group of Maoists, had allegedly held Telugu Desam mandal unit president Mamidi Balayya Padal, senior leader Vandalam Balayya and district committee member Mukkala Mahesh, hostage after summoning them from their Kothaguda village.
The rebels had demanded that the government drop plans to exploit bauxite in the 'agency' area, the officer said.
The decision to celebrate October 15 as 'Reading Day' was taken by state Education Minister Vinod Tawde soon after Kalam's death in July.
In a government resolution, the state has asked all schools to host book exhibitions and implement 'gift a book' programme. On 'Vaachan Prerna Din' today, Tawde visited Zilla Parishad School No. 1 at Achole in Nalasopara. He inaugurated the Dr A P J Abdul Kalam Vaachan Katta (reading hub) and gifted a book box to students. The minister interacted with students and thereafter visited a 'Book Mobile' van with students.
Pic: PM Modi pays his tributes before Dr Kalam's bust at DRDO.
In an exclusive interview with The Hindu, Kulkarni, who faced a black paint attack by the Shiv Sena on Monday for hosting former Pakistan foreign minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri in Mumbai, said "Mumbaikars have shown a strong sense of solidarity for the cause for which he was invited here. They have firmly rejected the Shiv Sena on both the right to have freedom of expression and the need to promote Indo-Pak. dialogue and normalisation of our relations.' Read
His wish stemmed from a sense of exasperation with fellow citizens of Israel. "I have the misfortune," he wrote, "of living now among too many people who believe their descendants will resemble them in all respects, because for them peoples are eternal - a fortiori a race-people such as the Jews." Read Swapan Dasgupta's column for the Telegraph.
An apex court bench headed by Chief Justice HL Dattu said that they would hear the plea by the investigating agency on the opening day after the Dusshera holidays. The case will heard on October 26.
Zaheer, 37, has featured in 92 Tests and 200 ODIs for India. He last represented India in a Test match against New Zealand in February last year.
Zaheer finishes with 311 wickets in Tests and is India' s second most successful fast bowler after Kapil Dev.
He played a key part in India's World Cup triumph in 2011 but was affected by fitness issues in the last couple of years.
The book "JFK's Forgotten Crisis: Tibet, the CIA and the Sino-Indian War" scheduled to hit the book stores in November says that the final decision with regard to this massive military aid package to India was to be decided at a White House meeting with Kennedy on November 26, 1963.
"But Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas several days earlier," Riedel writes. According to the book, National Security Action Memorandum No 209, approved on December 10, 1962 by JFK, authorised the mew military aid package for India.
"The United States would -- assist in creating and equipping six new mountain divisions to work with the Indian Army to guard the Himalayas, help India increase its own production facilities, and prepare for a US-UK air defense programme for India," the book says.
"The first two missions were to assist India develop its capabilities, and the third was joint American British military exercise in India," Riedel said adding that Kennedy wanted the funding programme of USD 120 million to be split 50-50 with the United Kingdom and its Commonwealth partners. Riedel writes that Nehru was disappointed with the proposed aid package.