Did Mehbooba praise Modi? Yes, tweets Sushma; so does Omar

New Delhi/Jammu:  Narendra Modi'ssadbhavana mission has not impressed politicians in Kashmir. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and main opposition leader Mehbooba Mufti are warring over perceived support - past or present - to the Gujarat Chief Minister.

Onion ban lifted: Politics vs prices

Mumbai:  The Centre on Tuesday lifted ban on exports of onion after protests from farmers in Maharashtra.

The government had banned exports just 11 days ago, on September 9, to check rising onion prices in the country. Maharashtra's farmers had been protesting the ban due to the bumper crop this year. After the ban wholesale prices had fallen toRs. 400 per quintal from Rs. 1000 per quintal.

Agnivesh seeks forgiveness after fallout with Hazare

New Delhi:  Activist Swami Agnivesh, who fell out with Anna Hazare's team during the agitation over Lokpal Bill, today sought forgiveness from the Gandhian and the others "who felt hurt" through his "unintentional acts".

Rahul Gandhi visits quake-hit Sikkim

New Delhi:  Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi is visiting quake-hit Sikkim today to meet victims and take stock of rescue and relief efforts. Mr Gandhi arrived at Gangtok at around 10:30 am. 

India steps up polio surveillance as virus re-emerges in China

New Delhi:  With the detection of four cases of polio in China after a gap of 10 years, India has heightened surveillance in border states.

The Health Ministry has put on high alert various border states in the country, asking them to put up polio booths.

Not poor if you earn Rs 32 a day: Planning Commission

New Delhi:  The Planning Commission on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that the below poverty line (BPL) population in the country is 40.74 crore and the poverty line for the urban and rural areas could be provisionally placed at Rs.965 per capita per month (around Rs. 32 per day) and Rs. 781 per capita per month (around Rs. 26 per day), respectively.

Quake aftermath: Many villages in Sikkim still cut off, thousands waiting for help

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Gangtok:  Three days after a devastating earthquake measuring a forceful 6.8 on the Richter scale struck large parts of north-east India, rescue and relief teams are still trying to reach thousands of people trapped in remote areas.

Advani in Nagpur to discuss yatra with RSS

New Delhi:  LK Advani is in Nagpur today where he says he will discuss his rath yatra against corruption with BJP President Nitin Gadkari and Mohan Bhagwat, who heads the BJP's parent body, the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS).

Protest over Tamil Nadu's nuclear plant: Narayanaswamy to meet Jayalalithaa today

Koodankulam:  In Koodankulam, the protests over the new nuclear plant that's meant to swing into business next month have become a local spectacle. A hundred people have been on a hunger fast for 10 days.  Every day, a few hundred more shout slogans at the gates of the plant.

Advani in Nagpur to discuss yatra with RSS

Nagpur:  L K Advani is in Nagpur today where he says he will discuss his rath yatra against corruption with BJP President Nitin Gadkari and mohan Bhagwat, who heads the BJP's parent body, the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS).

Mumbai Film Fest to have France as country focus

Mumbai: The 13th Mumbai Film Festival, starting Oct 13, will focus on French films this year.


"This year the country focus will be France, so you will have a large selection of French films... and we expect a large delegation of artists and filmmakers from France to attend the festival," Amit Khanna, one of the trustees of the festival, told reporters here.

Jnanpith Award for Amar Kant: ‘Happy, but under pressure’

Flooded with congratulatory phone calls and messages from well-wishers and dear ones for winning the 45th Bharatiya Jnanpith award for 2009, Hindi literary giant Amar Kant looked relaxed and happy.

'Rockstar' Ranbir Kapoor performs at Nizamuddin Dargah

Ranbir Kapoor, Imtiaz Ali and singer Mohit Chauhan visited the Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah in Delhi on Monday to seek blessings of the musical saints for their upcoming film Rockstar. Ranbir also played the guitar to a qawwali at the dargah.

Amar Kant, Shrilal Shukla, Kambar win Jnanpith Award

Eminent Hindi authors Amar Kant and Shrilal Shukla were on Monday chosen for India’s highest literary honour Jnanpith Award for the year 2009 while renowned Kannada litterateur Chandrasekhar Kambar won it for the year 2010.

Kangna’s bad phase

Kangna Ranaut seems to be in her bad phase of time. Even before the Paris Hilton controversy settled, she fell out with ‘good friends’- Ajay Devgn and Sanjay Dutt. In fact, Kangana missed the music launch of ‘Rascals’, which is her friend Sanjay Dutt’s first ever production venture . Sanjay Dutt says his late father Sunil Dutt had always wanted him to turn a producer some day. So, missing friend’s event is indeed very bad. Incidentally, Dutt is also starring in the movie along with Ajay Devgn, Arjun Rampal, Chunky Pandey and Satish Kaushik.

Working with Ajay, Sanjay was amazing: Lisa

Mumbai: Model-actress Lisa Haydon, who will be seen sharing screen space with Ajay Devgn and Sanjay Dutt in forthcoming movie `Rascals`, enjoyed working with them.

Kareena Kapoor's birthday to be low-key affair

Despite loads to celebrate, looks like actress Kareena Kapoor’s birthday today will be a low-key affair. The actress along with beau actor Saif Ali Khan has postponed the big celebration to a later date due to Saif’s father Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi’s ill health.

Marriage on cards for Saif next year

Mumbai: His impending marriage to Kareena Kapoor has been making headlines since the day he started dating her, and actor Saif Ali Khan has further fuelled rumours by saying he is going to talk about it next year.

The 41-year-old actor, who has been dating Kareena since 2007 and is currently busy with the post-production of his film `Agent Vinod`, says he will focus on his upcoming production rather than talking about his marriage right now.

IAF helps ‘Mausam’?

‘Mausam’ has generated enough controversy to be in the spotlight. The latest being the trouble with the Indian Air Force over a few scenes that the IAF wanted changed but the producer claiming that he had taken the Force's approval at the scripting stage. The producer said, it’s too late to change. Industry circles wonder if the delay in its release from Sep 16 to 23, 2011, hasn’t benefitted the producer. They believe the film's team's stand against the IAF may have been a 'stunt' plotted to generate eyeballs! With IAF controversy the buzz around ‘Mausam’ grew from 28% to 58%, meaning a 100 % increase. Film producer Talwar claims that the whole controversy has been addressed and they have made changes to the sequence in question. But it remains to be seen whether the IAF controversy generates hype or something else. During the film promotion, its female lead star Sonam Kapoor said she essays the role of Kashmiri girl who falls in love with Air Force officer enacted by Shahid Kapoor.

I admire Pankaj Kapoor: Sonam

Mumbai: Contrary to the reports that Sonam Kapoor had problems with actor-director Pankaj Kapoor while shooting for his directorial debut `Masuam`, the youngster says she admires the veteran`s acting skills. 

Syria opposition calls for unity, continued protests

Syrian opposition members of the National Coordinating Committee for Democratic Change Hussein Awdat, left, and Samir Aita hold a news conference in Damascus on Sept. 18, 2011 where they called for the continuation of popular protests to overthrow the "tyrannical" regime in power in Syria. AFP

DAMASCUS: Opponents of President Bashar Assad met in Damascus Sunday calling for the continuation of popular protests to overthrow the “tyrannical” regime in power in Syria.
“We need to end the tyrannical security regime. We must overthrow the tyranny and the security [agents]. We welcome all those who have no blood on their hands,” said Hassan Abdel-Azim, a member of the opposition National Coordinating Committee for Democratic Change.

Bangladesh: Police arrest hundreds over rally violence

Bangladeshi police have arrested hundreds of Jamaat-e-Islami supporters on charges of inciting violence during a demonstration on Monday.

"We are arresting only those involved in violence," senior police officer Habibur Rahman told the BBC.

At least 4 killed, 27 injured in Peshawar blast

Four people were killed and 27 others sustained injuries when a blast ripped through a CD shop here in Peshawar at Nishtarabad area on Monday, a private TV reported. 

According to the report, the explosion occurred in a busy commercial CD market at Dasht Nagar area on G.T Road. Four persons have reportedly been killed and some 27 injured. Several shops also caught fire following the powerful blast.

Titanic necklace stolen from Danish amusement park

A gold-plated necklace recovered from the Titanic has been stolen from an exhibition at Copenhagen's Tivoli amusement park.
Park spokesman Torben Planks says the alarm did not sound when the jewelry disappeared Saturday morning.

Necklace from Titanic (the ship, not the movie) stolen in Denmark

More bad luck for the Titanic almost a century after its sinking. This time a necklace worn by a passenger was stolen from an exhibit hall Saturday morning inCopenhagen's Tivoli park from the traveling show "Titanic, the Exhibition," according to media reports. The show opened in April and is set to run until Dec. 30.

Gunmen kill 25 pilgrims riding in bus in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Gunmen opened fire on Shiite Muslim pilgrims riding in a bus in southwest Pakistan on Tuesday, killing 25 of them in an apparent sectarian attack, officials said.

The pilgrims were travelling through Mastung district in Baluchistan province on their way to the Iranian border when the attack occurred, said Saeed Umrani, a senior district official.

Pakistani gunmen 'kill 26 Shiite pilgrims'

QUETTA, Pakistan — Gunmen shot dead 26 Pakistani Shiite Muslim pilgrims travelling to Iran on Tuesday, the deadliest attack on the minority community in Pakistan for more than a year, officials said.

In a brutal assault, gunmen ordered pilgrims off their bus, lined them up and assassinated them in a hail of gunfire in Mastung, a district 50 kilometres (30 miles) south of Quetta, the capital of the southwest Baluchistan province.

Bomber Targets Senior Pakistani Policeman; 8 Dead

A Taliban suicide bomber detonated a vehicle packed with explosives Monday outside the home of a senior police officer tasked with cracking down on militants in Pakistan's largest city. The blast killed at least eight people and left a crater 10 feet (3 meters) deep, police said.

Clashes sparked by Taliban attack leave 19 dead in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: At least 18 militants and a soldier were killed on Tuesday in clashes that erupted after heavily-armed Taliban fighters attacked a security check post in Orakzai tribal region of northwest Pakistan. 

Hundreds' in midnight queues for Gears of War 3 launch

Gamers queue on Oxford Street in London for the midnight launch of Gears of War 3

The event started earlier in the day with an animatronic "Locust" trooper peering out from a cage in Marble Arch – no doubt to the confusion of shoppers unfamiliar with the terrifying alien enemies from Microsoft's sci-fi shooter series, Gears of War. But the culmination was, of course, the 12.01am launch of the third and "final" chapter in the gaming phenomenon, with hero Marcus Fenix looking to save the last scraps of humanity from annihilation.

Japan urges mass evacuation ahead of Typhoon Roke

More than a million people in central and western Japan have been urged to leave their homes as a powerful typhoon approaches.

Japan's Meteorological Agency warned that heavy rains brought by Typhoon Roke may trigger landslides and floods.

More than 1M urged to evacuate as typhoon nears Japan

TOKYO — More than a million people in central Japan were urged to evacuate Tuesday as a powerful typhoon approached, triggering floods that left two people missing.

Public broadcaster NHK said about 1.3 million people have been ordered or advised to leave their homes, including 80,000 people in Nagoya.

Fugitive Gaddafi taunts NATO in audio broadcast

CAIRO (Reuters) - Deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi taunted NATO in a speech broadcast by a Syria-based television station on Tuesday, but the station gave no new clues as to his whereabouts or when the recording was made.

Murdoch offers £3 million payoff to Dowlers

Rupert Murdoch’s media group News International on Tuesday offered an unprecedented £3 million pay-off to the family of Milly Dowler, the murdered schoolgirl, whose phone was hacked by the News of the Worldsparking nationwide outrage and resulting in the closure of the 160-year-old tabloid.

It is believed to be the highest compensation yet paid to any of the phone-hacking victims who include high-profile celebrities such as actor Sienna Miller who received £100,000.