A high-level security meeting chaired by Cabinet Secretary PK Sinha on Friday has asked for the airworthiness of the aircraft to be cleared by both the Special Protection Group and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.


Gandhi's aircraft, which was on way from Delhi to Karnataka's Hubli, two weeks ago, reportedly developed multiple faults, pushing his team to ask for an investigation.


A complaint filed by Kaushal Vidyarthee, who was accompanying the Congress president, filed a complaint, asking the authorities to find out if there was any "intentional tampering".


The same evening, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had called Rahul Gandhi asking after his health. n a letter to the regulator that is probing the incident, the special team that guards the Congress president has called for complete details about the incident including its assessment if the snag was technical or otherwise.


The Congress has called for a thorough probe to assess if the faults in the aircraft including the failure of the auto-pilot mode could be attributed to sabotage.Gandhi did not mention the big scare for days and only spoke about the experience  at a rally in Delhi over the weekend. 

Update: The Supreme Court on Friday reserved its order on the review petition filed by the December 16 gang-rape and murder case death row convicts, Pawan (22), Vinay Sharma (23) and Mukesh (29). However, the apex court today granted three weeks time to the fourth convict, Akshay Thakur (31), for filing a review petition in connection with the case.


Lawyer AP Singh, appearing for convicts - Pawan and Vinay, submitted before the three-judge bench that the investigation in the case has been flawed and sought lesser punishment.


Last year, the SC upheld the capital punishment to the four convicts. The matter is being heard by the apex court bench headed by Chief Justice of India Justice Dipak Misra, Justices R Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan.


The convicts had challenged the Delhi High Court order which had sentenced them to the gallows, after terming the December 16 incident as a "rarest of the rare" case.


Earlier, the trial court had also sentenced all the four convicts to the death penalty.


On February 3, the Supreme Court accepted amicus curiae Raju Ramachandran's submissions that there have been violations of procedure with regard to the sentencing of the four convicts.


In December 2012, six people gang-raped a 23-year-old physiotherapy intern in a moving bus. The woman succumbed to her injuries in a Singapore hospital on December 29, 2012.


One of the accused, Ram Singh hanged himself in prison, while another man, who was a juvenile at the time of the crime, was convicted in August 2013 and sentenced to three years in a reform home. He was released on December 20, 2015, triggering widespread protests. -- ANI


File pic: Delhi gang rape convicts Akshay Thakur, left, and Mukesh Singh. PTI Photo

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday chaired a meeting of the GST council through video conference. Jaitley reviewed pending issues and resolved the problems brought before the GST council.


The 27th meeting of the GST Council on Friday will among other things consider the introduction of a simplified  tax return form and also decide on proposal for converting the GST network into a government company.


The meeting comes at a time when GST collections achieved its record high by exceeding the Rs 1 lakh crore milestone in April.

The Supreme Court reserves its order on the plea of two death row convicts for a review of the death penalty given to them in the December 16, 2012, gang-rape and murder case. 

Internet services suspended in Aligarh district amid unrest in AMU after Jinnah portrait row.

Bombay High Court grants bail to former Maharashtra Dy CM Chhagan Bhujbal in the money laundering case. Bhujbal (71) sought bail after the Supreme Court last December.


Bhujbal had moved a bail application before the high court after the special Prevention of Money Laundering Act PMLA Court rejected his bail application in December 2017. Bhujbal has been in custody for two years while the maximum punishment under which he will be tried is seven years.

According to the ED, the total amount of money laundered by Bhujbal was Rs 857 crore, while the ED has attached property worth Rs 156 crore so far.

Bombay High Court bars Maharashtra Cricket Association from using water from Pavana river, says it's illegal to use Pavana's water for maintaining cricket pitches.

A Kasauli court today remanded to a five-day police custody the main accused in the killing of an assistant town planner while leading a demolition drive. Vijay Singh, who was arrested from the Mathura- Vrindavan area yesterday, was produced before the court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Yuzvindra Singh under tight security.


The prosecution sought a five-day police remand to recover the weapon used by him for committing the crime. The court allowed the plea.


A team comprising Himachal Pradesh and Delhi Police personnel had arrested Singh for the murder of Assistant Town Planner Shail Bala Sharma on Tuesday.


Singh had fired at Sharma, who was leading a Supreme Court-mandated demolition drive against illegal structures, and fled. -- PTI


Image: Vijay Singh (extreme left) killed town planner Shail Bala Sharma (in blue) on Tuesday

Two DJs of a Detroit radio station have decided to boycott musician Kanye West and his songs after the singer recently said that "slavery was a choice".


DJ BiGG and DJ Shay Shay, who host Morning Bounce on the radio station 105.1 The Bounce, announced that they would no longer play West's music.


In a Facebook post, the duo wrote that the "Stronger" singer went "too far" with his comments about slavery. "We feel like Kanye has gone too far with his latest statement declaring that 'slavery was a choice'. We are over it. We don't want to hear Kanye's music, we don't want to play Kanye on our show, we don't want to talk about Kanye anymore. So we are taking a stand and we aren't playing his music anymore; we just are refusing to give him a platform," the duo wrote.


West was recently invited by TMZ to talk about his recent tweets, free thought and his praise for President Donald Trump when he made the controversial comments, which have received massive backlash.


"When you hear about slavery for 400 years. For 400 years? That sounds like a choice. You was there for 400 years and it's all of y'all. It's like we're mentally in prison. I like the word prison because slavery goes too direct to the idea of blacks," West had said. West's comments were met by anger and incredulity by the artistes and civil rights activists. -- PTI


Image: Kanye West with Kim Kardashian

In the wake of the dust storms that swept through Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, claiming over 60 lives in the two states, the India Meteorological Department, on Friday, released a statement forecasting thunderstorms and gusty winds in several Indian states.


The forecast suggests that on May 5, thunderstorms accompanied with squall is likely to be experienced in several parts of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and Himachal Pradesh (HP), while thunderstorms, along with gusty wind, is predicted for Uttarakhand and Punjab. It also predicts that heat wave conditions will prevail over Western Rajasthan.


It further says thunderstorm, accompanied with squall and hail, is expected in J&K and HP on May 7, while thunderstorms accompanied with gusty winds would be prevalent in Uttarakhand and Punjab.Heavy rain is expected in North-Eastern states of Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura on the same day, while thunderstorms/dust storm in Rajasthan.


Meanwhile, a Go Air Flight, G8-386, from Mumbai to Leh was diverted to Delhi today, due to unfavourable weather at the landing destination. 165 passengers are travelling on the flight. -- ANI

Himachal Pradesh: Vijay Singh, owner of one of the hotels, who allegedly shot dead Assistant Town and Country Planning officer Shail Bala Sharma in Kasauli during demolition drive on May 1, sent to 5 days police remand.

India tops the list of the fastest growing economies in the world for the coming decade and is projected to grow at 7.9 per cent annually, ahead of China and the US, according to a Harvard University report.


The Centre for International Development at Harvard University said in new growth projections yesterday that countries that have diversified their economies into more complex sectors, like India and Vietnam, are those that will grow the fastest in the coming decade.


"India tops the list as the fastest growing country for the coming decade, at 7.9 per cent annually, in the economic complexity growth projections. India has made inroads in diversifying its export base to include more complex sectors, such as chemicals, vehicles, and certain electronics," the report said.


It said that India's productive capabilities far exceed expectations for its current income level, which contributes to the projection of rapid growth for the coming decade.


The researchers also find India ranks the best on the criteria termed the Complexity Opportunity Index, which measures how easy it is to redeploy existing knowhow to enter new complex products. -- PTI

The organisation that decides the Nobel Prize for Literature has said it will not announce an award this year, after it was engulfed in a scandal over sexual assault allegations, reports the BBC.


The Swedish Academy has been in crisis over its handling of allegations against the husband of a member. She has since quit, as have the academy's head and four other members. The academy says it will now announce the 2018 winner along with the 2019 winner next year.


The scandal is the biggest to hit the prize since it was first awarded in 1901.


The academy said the decision had been made due to a lack of public confidence.


Some academy members had argued that the prize should proceed to protect the tradition, but others said the institution was in no state to present the award.


Apart from six years during the world wars, there has been only one year when the prize was not awarded. No worthy winner was found in 1935.

The Supreme Court has dismissed the plea of BJP leader G Janardhan Reddy for letting him go to Bellary to campaign for his brother, who is a candidate for the upcoming assembly elections in Karnataka. SC did not find any merit in the plea & dismissed it.

Bihar Disaster Management Minister Dinesh Chandra Yadav confirms there were no casualties in yesterday's Motihari bus accident. He had earlier confirmed on camera about 27 deaths.  "The information of deaths was wrong. Yes, I said 27 people have died, it was based on info from local sources, but I also said that only final report will be considered."


The bus travelling from Muzaffarpur to New Delhi turned turtle and caught fire on NH-28 near Belwa village in Bihar's Motihari on Thursday.

Yadav had said that East Champaran DM has confirmed the deaths of 27 people.

Villagers and eye witnesses had said that the accident took place when the driver attempted to save a two-wheeler. The bus belonged to a private operator, he said.


The bus was carrying 32 passengers, mostly from Muzaffarpur.


Muzaffarpur zonal IG Sunil Kumar said the bus was inspected after being pulled out but no human remains were found inside it.

Calcutta High Court refuses to interfere in the West Bengal Panchayat election schedule.

Escalating the on-going controversy on Pakistan's founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah's portrait, Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya on Friday termed the former as an 'enemy of the nation'.


"Jinnah was an enemy of the nation. No one in the nation has ever had or ever will have a place for an enemy in their hearts," said Maurya.


The controversy surrounding Jinnah's poster triggered this week after Bharatiya Janata Party MP Satish Gautam wrote a letter to Aligarh Muslim University's Vice-Chancellor Tariq Mansoor, seeking an explanation for a portrait of Pakistan's founder hung in the Students' Union Office.


Earlier, BJP leader and Uttar Pradesh Minister Swami Prasad Maurya's lauded Jinnah saying that the contribution of the Pakistan's founder before partition cannot be ignored.


Responding to Swami Prasad's remark, the Deputy Chief Minister said, "That is an internal party matter, we will deal with it later."


Earlier, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath also reacted on this controversy saying that the person who was behind the partition of India cannot be accorded respect.  The Chief Minister also sought a detailed report from the Aligarh Muslim University management and assured that he will look into the matter. -- PTI

The Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has voted to expel actor Bill Cosby and director Roman Polanski from its membership ranks.The decision to remove Cosby and Polanski from the membership was made Tuesday, May 1 at a scheduled board meeting. Read more

Raipur: The Chattisgarh govt to include transgenders in its police force, the  first state to do so. Aspirants preparing for recruitment say, "We're happy that govt took this step. We'll leave no stone unturned to clear tests and serve the state."


Also read:Why this could be the marriage of the century

A 16-year-old pilgrim from Rajasthan died after apparently suffering a cardiac arrest while on his way to the shrine of Vaishno Devi in Jammu and Kashmir today, police said. Manor Kumar of Dholpur district fell unconscious while on his way to the shrine. He was rushed to a dispensary by his friends where doctors declared him brought dead, they said. As per preliminary reports, he may have died due to a cardiac arrest, but it will be verified only after postmortem. PTI

Karnataka BJP chief ministerial candidate BS Yeddyurappa today promised to re-introduce the Karnataka Prevention of Cow Slaughter and Preservation Bill 2012 if the party came to power in the assembly elections to be held next week.


Launching the party's election manifesto, Yeddyurappa stressed on the party's commitment towards welfare of the farmers and announced various measures for them in the state.


He said welfare of farmers has always been the party's priority. "We will allocate Rs 1,50,000 Cr for various irrigation projects in Karnataka and ensure water reaches every field in the state," he said. The manifesto promised 1000 farmers will be taken to Israel for an agricultural fellowship. The BJP has pledged to ensure that farmers receive 1.5 times the cost of production as Minimum Support Price (MSP) to fulfill PM Narendra Modi's "vision of doubling farmers' incomes", the party has said on its official Twitter account.


The manifesto also announced Annapurna canteens, in the manner of Tamil Nadu's extremely popular Amma canteens, for subsidised food.


Addressing the below poverty line section, the party said Rs 25,000 and a gold mangalsutra will be given to BPL women for their marriage. The party has also promised free smart phones for BPL women. The party suffered a setback this morning, after MLA B N Vijaykumar died of a massive heart attack at a hospital in Bengaluru early this morning. He was a candidate for the May 12 assembly elections.


Meanwhile, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi will be concluding the eighth leg of his campaign in the poll-bound state by addressing public and corner meetings in Kalburgi, Gadag and Haveri districts today. 

Bengaluru: BJP's CM candidate BS Yeddyurappa, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar (not in picture) and other leaders launch the party's manifesto for the Karnataka polls. 

In Jammu and Kashmir, an 87-year-old woman from Udhampur district spent her waking hours building a toilet near her house in a bid to make her village open-defecation free. She said, 'I'm happy that more and more people are coming forward now to build toilets in their houses."


India is expected to be open defecation free by October, 2019, Home Minister Rajnath Singh has said after launching the 'Swachhta Hi Sewa' (Cleanliness is Service) campaign of the Ministry of Home Affairs.


The home minister said for cleanliness, the central government was implementing a Rs 12,000-crore action plan through 76 ministries and departments.


"Providing toilet facility at home will ensure safety and dignity of women. 'Swachhta Hi Sewa' campaign will help improve nutrition and productivity of our children," he said.


The home minister said Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Haryana and Uttarakhand have already been declared open defecation free.

Chandrapur and Ballarpur railway stations in Maharashtra's Chandrapur district have been selected as the most beautiful stations in the country by the Railway Ministry, state finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar on Thursday said.


The Railway Ministry has come out with a list of best railway stations, and Chandrapur and Ballarpur are at first position, he said, speaking to reporters. Both stations will be awarded by the Railway Ministry, he said.

Mungantiwar is the guardian minister for the Chandrapur district. "A beautification drive for these two stations was undertaken a year ago. A team of artists from the Nagpur Government Chitrakala Mahavidyalay worked there," he said.

"A picture of a tiger on the stairs of the Ballarpur railway station has become a selfie-point. No passenger leaves without taking a selfie with the tiger," said the minister, adding that Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal called him to congratulate over the distinction the two stations have achieved. -- PTI

Just in: BJP releases Karnataka manifesto. 

India is doing "extremely well" on electrification with nearly 85 per cent of the country's population having access to electricity, the World Bank has said. Between 2010 and 2016, India providing electricity to 30 million people each year, more than any other country, the World Bank said in its latest report released this week. While challenges still remain to provide electricity to the rest of the 15 per cent of the 1.25 billion population, India is all set to achieve the target of universal access to electricity before the 2030 target date, Vivien Foster, Lead Energy Economist at the World Bank here told PTI.


The report comes less than a week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that all the villages in the country have been electrified. The report said that nearly 85 per cent of the country's population has access to electricity.


"India is doing extremely well on electrification. We are reporting India about 85 per cent of the population has access to electricity," said Foster, lead World Bank author of the latest report on Energy Progress.


This figure, she pointed out, is higher than that of the Indian government. "That might surprise you. The government is currently reporting in low 80s," she said.


While the World Bank's methodology is based on household survey, which includes even those who are off grid, while the figures of the government is based on official utility connection, she said.


"In absolute terms, India is doing more on electrification than any other countries. Thirty million a year, is really an astounding performance and it stands out from the crowd," Foster said.


However, India is not the fastest country in electrification. Bangladesh and Kenya, for example are faster in electrification than India, she noted. -- PTI

From being the tomb of an unidentified person dating back to the Tughlaq dynasty to becoming Shiv Bhola temple two months ago, Gumti -- a small, domed tomb in Safdarjung Enclave's Humayunpur village -- is facing an identity crisis.


The state-notified monument built on a mound, amid buildings and a park, was painted white and saffron in March, and idols placed inside it.


It is learnt that the work has been done in complete violation of the Citizen Charter of the Department of Archaeology, which states that one "cannot paint, draw or whitewash any wall in and around the monument' and "cannot hamper or spoil the originality of the monument'.

Read the full report here.

After starting on a positive note, the benchmark BSE Sensex fell over 100 points today on weak global cues as investors eyed the outcome of US-China trade talks, ahead of the US jobs report. The 30-share index, after opening 103.41 points higher, turned negative on profit-booking to quote 118.75 points, or 0.34 per cent, lower at 34,984.39. The gauge had lost 73.28 points in the previous session. -- PTI

Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacts with the office bearers and karyakartas of Karnataka's Bharatiya Janata Party Mahila Morcha through NaMo App via video bridge, on initiatives taken by the government for women empowerment. Excerpts:

- India is marching ahead from women development to women led development.

- About nine crore women have benefitted from Mudra scheme so far .

- Able women have been given important portfolios in our cabinet.

- We increased maternity leave for women to 6 months. Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana was started, more than 19 thousand crore deposited under this scheme.

- We need to expose the hollow promises made by Congress party and urge the people of Karnataka to join the journey of development.

with inputs from ANI

One civilian was injured in the ceasefire violation by Pakistan late on Thursday night in Jammu and Kashmir's Keran sector.

India retaliated to Pakistan's firing from across the Line of Control.

The exchange of firing continued for nearly 45 minutes.

This comes a week after Indian Director General of Military Operations Lieutenant General Anil Chauhan and his Pakistani counterpart held an unscheduled hot line interaction on ceasefire violation.

During the DGMO level talk, India stood its ground regarding Pakistan-sponsored terrorism in the Kashmir Valley while Pakistani DGMO accused Indian security forces of resorting to unprovoked firing along LoC.

In response, Lt General Chauhan emphatically stated that retaliatory firing by Indian troops are only carried out in response to unabated support given by Pakistan Army to armed terrorists, who infiltrate across the border and target Indian Army posts with heavy calibre weapons.   -- ANI

Congress president Rahul Gandhi today urged his party workers to offer all help to the families of those affected by the dust storm in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

A storm barrelled through a swathe of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, killing at least 106 people in a trail of destruction that brought down mud houses, uprooted trees and flattened crops.

'The dust storms have claimed several lives in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. We stand with the grieving families in this hour or grief. There is one tragic incident in Motihari too,' Gandhi tweeted.

'I urge local Congress workers, colleagues from Seva Dal to support and offer every help possible,' he said.  -- PTI

The White House has given a thumbs up to last week's meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping, saying it was a 'good thing' that the world leaders were getting along.

After their informal summit meeting in China for two days, Modi and Xi agreed to improve communication over military and security matters.

The two leaders directed their militaries to earnestly implement various confidence building measures agreed upon between the two sides, including the principle of mutual and equal security, and strengthen existing institutional arrangements and information sharing mechanisms to prevent incidents in border regions.

Asked to comment on the summit, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders yesterday said the Trump administration had good relationship with both India and China, and wanted things to continue down the same road.

"(I) certainly think it's always good when other world leaders are getting along," Sanders told reporters at her daily news conference.

"And, certainly, when we can cooperate, that's definitely a good thing. We have a great relationship with both countries and hope to continue to do so," Sanders said.  -- PTI

Twitter today urged users to change their passwords, which were unintentionally 'unmasked' internally by a software bug.

The social media site said it found no sign that hackers accessed the exposed data, but advised users to change their passwords to be safe.

'We recently found a bug that stored passwords unmasked in an internal log. We fixed the bug and have no indication of a breach or misuse by anyone. As a precaution, consider changing your password on all services where youve used this password,' Twitter said.   -- Agencies

Sitting Bharatiya Janata Party MLA B N Vijaykumar died of a massive heart attack at a hospital in Bengaluru in the early hours today, the party said.

A candidate for the May 12 assembly polls, Vijaykumar had collapsed during an election campaign in Jayanagar constituency in Bengaluru and was shifted to government-run Jayadeva Institute of Cardiology, where efforts to resuscitate him failed, state BJP join spokesman S Prakash told PTI.

Vijaykumar, aged 59, was a two-time MLA from Jayanagar. He was a bachelor.  -- PTI