Misbah calls for need to make changes in Pak team for Windies tour

Pakistan national team captain Misbah-ul Haq has said that there is a need to make changes in the current squad for the upcoming series against West Indies in July. Pakistan had a disappointing ICC Champions Trophy campaign, losing all three of their group games, for which Misbah and his team came into the firing line, along with coach Dav Whatmore, the Daily Times reports.

Samajwadi Party against granting autonomy to CBI

Samajwadi Party leader Naresh Aggarwal on Friday said his party is opposed to the cabinet”s decision to grant the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) full or even partial autonomy. “India should not grant freedom to the CBI and allow independency as no other country grants allows freedom to its investigation bureau.” Aggarwal said. “It is very dangerous if this decision is taken just on the basis of retired judges, as Indians have started feeling that the retired judges are honest and the people elected by the public are not honest. We need to break this assumption of Indians.

Raja Bhaiya, wife booked for forgery

Former Minister Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya, his wife and three others have been booked on the charge of forgery on a complaint lodged by the legislator’s former aide.

“FIR of forgery has been registered against Raja Bhaiya, his wife Bhanvi Singh and three others at Aliganj police station on Jun 25 by Rajiv Kumar Yadav, who claimed to be his former Public Relations Officer (PRO)”, IG, STF, Ashish Gupta, told reporters.

Pak govt reluctant to give timeframe of Musharraf’s trial

The Pakistan Government is reluctant in giving a specific date about the completion of special FIA team’s investigations against former president Pervez Musharraf for imposing emergency on November 3, 2007.

Attorney General of Pakistan (AGP) Munir A Malik told a three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Jawwad S Khawaja, that giving a specific time would be a speculation.

The counsel for the petitioners has expressed concern over the government’s hesitation to give a timeframe for the completion of the investigation.

Britain to become 1st nation set to allow babies born with 3 genetic parents

Britain is set to become the world’s first nation to allow babies to be born with three genetic parents.

A landmark decision by the Department of Health opens the door to treatments for diseases that make use of donated DNA from a second donor “mum”.

New regulations to fertility law allowing the procedures will be issued for public consultation later this year and then debated in Parliament, the Mirror reported.

If MPs find them ethically acceptable the first patients could be treated within months.

US racer to cross Atlantic in electric plane Lindbergh-style

An American motorcycle and electric plane racer is planning to make history by a trans-Atlantic flight in an electric airplane, in the style of Charles Lindbergh, who managed the same feat in 1927. According to the Discovery News, Chip Yates, who will be going at a speed of 100 mph over the Atlantic, has revealed that he has his eyes on repeating Lindbergh”s much-remembered flight from New York to Paris in an electric plane that is modeled like a glider with a 100-foot wingspan.

Over 120 houses being built for vicitms of caste clash:govt

Tamil Nadu government today told the Madras High Court that over 120 houses were being built for the victims of the Dharmapuri caste clashes in which many houses were destroyed.

When the case pertaining to the November 7, 2012 clashes came up before a Division Bench comprising Justices R Banumathi and T S Sivagnanam, government pleader Moorthy said a 5,000-page report has been submitted to the court.

Politicians’ greed for votes stopping Delhi achieve slum-free

Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit today admitted that the city government has not been able to achieve the goal of making Delhi a slum-free city as “greedy politicians like me” consider them vote banks.

Speaking at a function organised by industry chamber Assocham, Dikshit touched upon a range of major issues and identified scarcity of housing due to increasing population as key challenge facing the city.

In that context, she said her government had set a goal of riding the city of slums and but it could not be achieved due to lack of political will.

Pak allows family, lawyers to visit ‘Osama doc’ Afridi in jail following US prod

Relatives and lawyers of imprisoned Pakistani doctor, Shakil Afridi, who helped the US track down Osama bin Laden, can visit him in jail after Pakistani regional officials lifted the ban on them.

Afridi had helped the CIA pinpoint the compound where Laden was hiding before the 2011 raid that killed the terror mastermind.

The move, by the provincial government of Pakistan”s northwest region, came after U.S. Special Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan James Dobbin met with Pakistani leaders earlier this week.

Dikshit takes pot shot at Kejriwal on inflated bills issue

Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit today took a pot shot at Aam Admi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal for raking up the issue of inflated electricity bills in the city.

“In the last few years, the sale of generators has declined in Delhi and the sale of air-conditioners has increased significantly. If you use an air conditioner than you will have pay for it. Your bill is going to go up. But Kejriwal does not understand it,” Dikshit said.

She was addressing a function at industry chamber Assocham.

Malaysia deports Sikh terror suspects to India

Malaysia has deported an Indian national for allegedly being part of an international Sikh militant group.

Satpal Singh Raghvir Singh, 41, was arrested in Cheras for immigration offences on January 4 and sent back to India on Thursday.

Special Task Force (Operations and Counter Terrorism) director Comm Datuk Mohamad Fuzi Harun said that they believe Singh is part of a Sikh militant group called Babbar Khalsa International (BKI).

Assam flood hits 30 new villages; 55,000 people affected

The flood in Assam is gradually taking more areas under its grip with around 30 additional villages inundated today, affecting a total of nearly 2,000 hectares of agricultural land in seven districts.

According to the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), Brahmaputra and its tributary Jia Bharali is flowing over the danger mark at Jorhat and Sonitpur respectively.

In Tinsukia district, 14 villages have been affected today, hitting around 5,000 people. Besides, 13 villages have come under water in Dhemaji district, along with 1 in Lakhimpur.

Adding butter to coffee sends energy levels soaring

A coffee executive has created a new coffee, which has butter as it’s driving ingredient., and is said to boost your energy and increase weight loss.

Dave Asprey, executive of the Bulletproof brand and blog told the Daily News said that just putting butter into bad coffee is a bad idea.

Asprey came out with the Bulletproof recipe, which calls for three ingredients, which are upgraded coffee, MCT (medium chain triglycerides) coconut palm oil and grass-fed butter.

U’khand: Over 8,000 troops, 50 choppers engaged in rescue work

With 2,000 people left to be evacuated from places including Badrinath and Harsil, the defence forces have deployed around 50 helicopters and over 8,000 troops in flood-hit Uttarakhand.

The IAF has deployed 37 choppers along with 13 helicopters of the Army. Together, they have flown 84 sorties in the last 24 hours for evacuating the stranded pilgrims in the state, a Defence Ministry release said.

The armed forces have been successful in bringing out over 650 people from the pilgrimage town of Badrinath and Harsil in the last 24 hours, it said.

FIIs exodus could cripple Indian companies

‘Foreign institutional investors’ in India are in an exit mode and in a ‘no-holds barred’ avatar and are deploying all possible means — ethical and unethical — to fully redeem their investments, according to private equity industry sources. FIIs are now realising it is better to invest in the US and Japan, than risk losing money in an underperforming market such as India.

Obama says not going to scramble jets to get 29-year-old NSA whistleblower

US president Barack Obama has ruled out engaging in diplomatic ‘wheeling and dealing’ in order to get other nations extradite NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.
Obama has reportedly said that the case would be handled through legal channels and he is not going to be scrambling jets just to get the 29-year-old hacker, BBC reports. As Ecuador is yet to decide on the fate of Snowden who leaked classified data about US led ‘snooping’ programme, Ecuador”s President Rafael Correa said that as Snowden is in Russia at the moment his claim for asylum is yet unaddressed to.

Yeddyurappa rules out joining BJP

With a section of BJP making moves to bring former Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa back to the party fold, the Lingayat leader today ruled out his home coming for now.

Asked if BJP leaders like Rajnath Singh and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi had approached him with a proposal for his return to the party, Yeddyurappa told reporters “I will discuss (the issue) at that time. Nobody has approached me so far and hence there is no question of joining BJP or any other party for now,” he said.

Kerry meets with Palestinian leader

US Secretary of State John Kerry was meeting today with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and planned to return to Jerusalem for more talks with the Israelis as he continues his latest round of Mideast diplomacy in an effort to get both sides back to the negotiating table.

Kerry was using Amman as a base for the talks. He drove to Jerusalem last night for a dinner meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that lasted about four hours.

He and his delegation returned to Amman early Friday. Around noon, he drove to a diplomatic area of Amman for a luncheon with Abbas.

‘Forging close ties with India important mandate of Pak’

Forging close ties with India was an “important mandate” of the government headed by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif as he was very keen on improving ties by picking up the threads from the Lahore process of 1999, a senior Pakistani official has said.

Adviser to the Prime Minister on National Security and Foreign Affairs, Sartaj Aziz, made the remarks while talking to Indian High Commissioner Sharat Sabharwal, who paid a farewell call on him yesterday, the Foreign Ministry said.

Butt openly admits to spot-fixing, apologises to fans

Former Pakistan captain Salman Butt for the first time has publicly admitted that he indulged in spot-fixing during the Test series against England back in 2010 and has aplogised to his fans for his act.

Butt along with Mohammed Asif and Mohammed Aamir were banned by the ICC after it was proved that they were guilty of spot-fixing during a Test match against England at Lord’s in 2010.

Judge: Tweets OK as evidence in WikiLeaks case

A military judge has ruled that prosecutors can introduce tweets suggesting an Army private took his cues from WikiLeaks in disclosing classified information.

However, Col Denise Lind also ruled today against another piece of prosecution evidence in the court-martial of Pfc Bradley Manning at Fort Meade.

Lind allowed the admission of two tweets WikiLeaks posted in 2010 referring to material Manning allegedly sent to the anti-secrecy organisation or stole from a Defence Department database.

If Pak cannot try 26/11 culprits, turn them over to ICC: Royce

Disappointed over Pakistan’s slow pace of trial in Mumbai terror attack case, a top US lawmaker has demanded that the seven suspects, including LeT operational commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, be handed over to the International Criminal Court to bring them to justice.

“There are seven individuals that need to be brought to justice (for their role in the 26/11 attack case),” said Congressman Ed Royce, Chairman of the powerful House Foreign Relations Committee.

Kerala govt modifies circular on Muslim wedding age

Faced with severe criticism, Congress-led UDF government in Kerala on Friday modified its controversial circular issued to legalise marriages of Muslim women in age group of 16 to 18 and men below 21, making it clear that the order will not have prospective effect.

The new circular issued by the local self-government department clarified the marriages of women in the age of 16 to 18 and men under 21 took place till June 27 would be valid but the weddings of women below 18 and men 21 from Friday onwards would be invalid.

Shiv Sena mum on Modi, but will be part of NDA

The Shiv Sena will contest the 2014 Lok Sabha polls as part of the NDA, party supremo Uddhav Thackeray said Friday but refused to comment on the Narendra Modi factor.

“We will contest the next election as part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). And we will win because the people are tired and angry with the Congress,” Thackeray told reporters here.

The Shiv Sena chief was in Panaji for the inauguration of a Marathi film festival.

Petrol price hiked by Rs.1.82 a litre from Friday midnight

Petrol prices will go up by Rs.1.82 per litre, excluding taxes, from midnight Friday due to the fall in the value of the rupee and hardening of crude prices in international market, state-run Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) said.

“Since the last price change, the downwards slide of rupee has continued and USD-INR exchange rate has deteriorated to Rs.58.94 per the US dollar during the fortnight. Further, international MS prices have also increased since the last price change,” the country’s largest oil marketing firm said.