Top Stories

Rahul Gandhi today returned from his 56-day “unexplained” sabbatical that had raised a lot of questions over his leadership of the party at a time when Congress has been battered in elections repeatedly.

The Congress Vice President arrived here at 11.15 AM on a Thai Airways plane from Bangkok.

The plane, which was scheduled to land at 10.35 AM, was delayed by 40 minutes, sources said.

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi reached the 12, Tughlaq Road residence of Rahul before 11 AM and was soon followed by daughter Priyanka.

A 13 year-old Muslim girl was allegedly molested by a BJP corporator of the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC).

According to the police, the corporator, Ashwin Kasodriya (38), represents the Shanti Nagar area in Mira Road West on Friday afternoon allegedly inappropriately touched a teen-aged girl inside the staircase of the four storey residential apartment complex.

The Muslim family due to the scariness of the BJP corporator sought protection from the police in a case.

More than two decades after the then Janata Dal disintegrated, six of its constituents merged today to form a new party which will be headed by Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Announcing the merger, JD(U) president Sharad Yadav said a six-member committee will decide on the name of the new party, its symbol, flag and other details.

“We have merged,” Sharad Yadav told reporters after top leaders of Samajwadi Party, JD(U), RJD, INLD, JD(S) and Samajwadi Janata Party met at Mulayam Singh Yadav’s residence here.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has asserted that the recent attacks on churches and rape of a nun were not political or communal issues but law and order problems.

He said while the attacks on churches in Delhi were cases of theft and drunken brawl, some Bangladeshi Muslims had allegedly raped the nun in West Bengal.

“Now that most of these cases have been resolved, not a single case is of a majority community attack or of a political nature,” he told NDTV.

Barely a couple of days after calling for an end to voting rights for Muslims, the Shiv Sena on Wednesday sought forced sterilisation of Muslims to check what they alleged was their burgeoning population.

Shiv Sena, known for its disruptive politics, on Wednesday supported the recent call by All India Hindu Mahasabha vice president Sadhvi Deva Thakur demanding forced ‘nasbandi’ (sterilisation) of Muslims and Christians to restrict their numbers in the country’s population.

The Islamic State (IS) is running a camp in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua, just eight miles from the U.S. border, Judicial Watch has said.

Citing sources that included a “Mexican Army field grade officer and a Mexican Federal Police Inspector,” the watchdog said on Tuesday that the Middle East-based terror group was operating just a few miles away from El Paso, Texas, in the Anapra neighborhood of Juarez and in Puerto Palomas.

Separatist leader Masarat Alam on Wednesday sparked a fresh row of controversy after he was seen waving Pakistan’s flag at a rally in Srinagar .

According to reports, Alam also raised anti-India slogans to greet separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani of the Hurriyat.

The incident has led to widespread criticism over Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufit Mohommad Sayeed’s move to release the separatist leader.

Earlier, Alam was released from Baramulla prison following the new Jammu and Kashmir government’s policy to free political prisoners who do not face criminal charges.

Petrol price was today cut by 80 paise a litre and diesel by Rs 1.30 per litre, the second reduction in rates this month.

The reduction will be effective from midnight tonight, Indian Oil Corp (IOC) said.
After the cut, petrol will cost Rs 59.20 a litre in Delhi and diesel will be available Rs 47.20/litre.

Prices of petrol and diesel were last revised downwards with effect from April 2 by Rs 0.49/litre and Rs 1.21/litre respectively.

Islam is a religion growing every second. And it is nice to see a wide range of Muslim men and women accepting Islam.

As many as 500 people embrace Islam during the first quarter of 2015, according to statistics released by the Islamic Affairs and Charitable Activities Department in Dubai (IACAD).

The new Muslims, touched by the merciful teachings of Islam that respect all cultures and religions, willing make steps towards the Islamic Affairs and Charitable Activities Department in Dubai (IACAD) to announce and authenticate their conversion.

Trupti Sawant Shiv sena candidate won the Bandra East by-election by 19,000 votes defeating her immediate rival and Congress heavyweight Narayan Rane.

Asaduddin Owaisi’s MIM was also in the fray eyeing the sizeable Muslim votes. Rehbar Khan is contesting the polls for MIM Rahbar Khan polled 15,050 votes.

Bandra (East) constituency in suburban Mumbai houses the residence of Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, ‘Matoshree’.

The Supreme Court today asked the trial court in Maharashtra to decide on the bail pleas of accused persons, including Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, within a month in the 2008 Malegaon blast case.

A bench of Justices F M I Kalifulla and Shiva Kirti Singh also said the provisions of stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crimes Act (MCOCA) would not be considered while dealing with the bail applications of accused persons, barring one Rakesh D Dhawde on the grounds that he had been involvedin other similar offences prior to the Malegaon blast.

Panchayats in Haryana has lost the better sense of social justice. Accused involved in serious criminal acts such as dowry rape and get away with punishment like 5 shoes slaps and fine as low as 75 paise.

On Monday, a community panchayat in Fatehabad settled a dowry case by imposing a fine of just 75 paise to the accused family after both the parties approached it for compromise.

22 year-old Mansi was engaged to Sanjeev Kumar, a resident of a village in Punjab’s Mansa district last January and both the families had finalize the marriage on 22 April as the wedding date.

An Indian man has been charged in a UAE court for allegedly posting on a social networking site comments that insult Islam, a media report said on Tuesday.

The 41-year-old Indian was charged in the Court of First Instance in Dubai for allegedly making the insults through his conversations and posts on Facebook, Khaleej Times reported.

The Indian made the comments last year after watching a video clip about the violence in Iraq.

In a potentially controversial statement, the Shiv Sena came out in support of forced sterilisation of Muslims in a bid to check their burgeoning population, here on Wednesday.

The party supported the recent call by All India Hindu Mahasabha vice-president Sadhvi Deva Thakur demanding forced ‘nasbandi’ (sterilisation) of Muslims and Christians to restrict their numbers in the country’s population.

Shoaib Malik, Pakistani cricketer said on Tuesday that he is proud of his wife Sania Mirza after she became world’s top-ranked doubles tennis player. He said that it is an honour for both the countries.

Sania Mirza is the first Indian woman to become world first after winning the Charleston title.

Shoaib Malik and Sania Mirza got married in 2010. Malik said that Mirza’s victory will be an inspiration for young fans. Malik said that he had celebrated with his family after watching the match from his hometown of Sialkot in Pakistan.

Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) and other Muslim groups in Telangana threatened to launch a state-wide protests against the state government, if it failed to order independent inquiry into killing of five undertrial prisoners by the police.

United Muslim Forum, an umbrella grouping of Muslim organisations, rejected the probe by Special Investigation Team (SIT) ordered by the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government.

The public meeting organised by the forum in the old city of Hyderabad on Tuesday night rejected the probe by SIT into April 7 incident.

Former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit accused the media of misinterpreting her statement on Rahul Gandhi after reports stated that she had expressed skepticism about the leadership qualities of the party vice president.

“This is being misinterpreted. Please stop it, because it is embarrassing for me. I will never say anything like that. I just said that Sonia Gandhi is a great leader,” Sheila Dikshit told the media here.

A Senate panel approved a bill demanding a congressional review of any nuclear deal the Obama administration inks with Iran by the end of June.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday voted 19-0 to pass an amended version of the bill, which will advance to the full Senate for a vote, Xinhua reported.

The new bill, while blocking President Barack Obama from lifting the sanctions on Iran during the review period, reduces the period to 52 days from the original 60 days, and allows the president to submit the accord after the June deadline for concluding the negotiations.

Stoking another controversy, BJP MP Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday called for barring non-Hindus in Har Ki Pauri, a famous ghat along the banks of the Ganga in the city.

“Non-Hindus should be prohibited from visiting Hari Ki Pauri. It is necessary both from the point of view of religion and the security of the ghat,” Adityanath said addressing a felicitation ceremony organised by Panchayati Akhara Udaseen (Naya).

India will overtake China as the fastest growing emerging economy in 2015-16 by clocking a growth rate of 7.5 per cent on the back of recent policy initiatives, pick-up in investments and lower oil prices, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said today.

“India’s growth is expected to strengthen from 7.2 per cent in 2014 to 7.5 per cent in 2015. Growth will benefit from recent policy reforms, a consequent pick-up in investment, and lower oil prices,” the IMF said in its latest World Economic Outlook.

As the public in Telangana pressed panic button with spread of H5N1 influenza Bird-flu, the State government has announced a blanket ban on the sale of chicken and eggs all over the State.

It is learnt the State government was not equipped to take on the spread of virus, which may prove fatal on becoming pandemic if mutated with humans. The government is said to have no adequate stocks of Tamiflu or Oseltamivir tablets that are suggested to check the problem with symptoms of fever, soar throat, muscle pains, eye infection to pneumonia.

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon on Tuesday slammed a Russian decision to lift a ban on selling an advanced missile defence system to Iran as a “direct result” of a framework nuclear agreement reached between six world powers and Tehran.

“The S-300 deal we’re hearing now, which is in fact the Russian approval to resume transactions they suspended in recent years, is a direct result of the framework agreement reached in Lausanne,” Ya’alon said during a visit to army units in northern Israel, according to a statement by his office.

A Muslim woman in Muzaffarnagar, was gang raped by four youths at her house. According to her, in-laws neither came to her rescue nor accompanied her to police station.

She even got the shock of her live when her husband who is working in Saudi Arabia came to know about this incident by her uttered triple “talaq” over the phone.

The village head of Charthawal area of Shahpur in Muzaffarnagar is reportedly out of station will return in couple of days.

The woman is now in women’s police station, The Superintendent of Police seek an explanation from the area SHO.

Taking the battle to Nitish Kumar’s home turf, BJP President Amit Shah today ridiculed the Janata Parivar alliance with Lalu Prasad saying “zero plus zero remains a zero” and claimed that nobody can stop the saffron party from coming to power in Bihar.

Attacking the duo, he asserted their merger would not pay them any dividend.

Under fire for seeking disenfranchisement of Muslims in India, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut today made a U-turn stating that his comments have been “misinterpreted” by the media and that taking away the voting rights of the minority community is unconstitutional.

I have not written (in party mouthpiece Saamana) that the voting rights of Muslims should be taken away. I only said that Muslims will not be used for political opportunism if they are not allowed to vote. It is wrong and unconstitutional to take away the voting rights of Muslims,” Raut told reporters in Aurangabad today.