Sonia, Rahul back Prime Minister's line on Pakistan

Supporting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's "firm and unequivocal" statement in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday on major foreign policy issues, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Thursday said "no one should be in any doubt on our party's position vis-à-vis Pakistan. It remains unchanged."

Addressing a general body meeting of the Congress Party in Parliament (CPP), Mrs Gandhi said: "We support the resumption of the dialogue process with Pakistan, but only after it has demonstrated its seriousness to bring the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks to justice and to prevent its territory from being used to launch terror attacks on any part of our country. These are imperatives for restoring confidence and building an environment conducive to any meaningful dialogue."

The message is loud and clear. The party does not want to delink terrorism from resumption of the composite dialogue with Pakistan.

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Pakistanis get hooked to spoof channel on Taliban

Pakistanis are getting hooked to "Channel T", a spoof channel on the Taliban, to divert their attention from acts of terror that have affected almost every section of society.

Conceived and produced by Younis Butt, whose sense of humour is par excellence, the show begins with two "Taliban" hosts, who speak Urdu with a Pushtu accent, making the all-important announcement:

"The opinion of women will not be included on this channel."

The first segment of the programme is a spoof on an awards show. A woman bags the best actor award but since she is a woman she cannot be shown on TV.

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Gujarat rejects President advice, 2 bills cleared

The Gujarat Assembly passed the controversial anti-terror Gujarat Control of Organised Crime Bill for the second time, rejecting changes sought by the Centre after the Narendra Modi government re-introduced the same legislation on Tuesday, setting the stage for a fresh confrontation with the UPA government.

Ignoring suggestions by President Pratibha Patil to modify the GUJCOC Bill passed five years ago and still awaiting presidential assent, the House approved the unchanged bill unanimously with only ruling party members present.

The Opposition is boycotting the Assembly over the recent hooch tragedy.

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Metro's 18 pillars from hell

A structural audit of the under-construction Delhi Metro's Phase-II tracks has revealed cracks on 18 piers. The DMRC on Monday described these as "hairline cracks and superficial in nature".

Swinging into action, the DMRC ordered a series of tests to check the solidity of the piers. However, following repeated mishaps and faulty work, the DMRC could take back the projects from construction company Gammon India Ltd, which was in charge of at least two of the three corridors where cracks have been found. At least six DMRC officials are also expected to be fired. The DMRC is likely to come out with the report of its probe on Tuesday. The investigation was ordered after accidents and six fatalities at Zamrudpur on July 12 and 13.

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Row over Obama hiding birth certificate

As President Barack Obama attempts to cool a heated racial row in the United States linked to the arrest of a black Harvard professor, a growing conspiracy claims that he is hiding a Kenyan birth certificate, making him ineligible to serve as President.

The controversy linked to Mr Obama’s birth and whether he was "genuinely" born on US soil has come alive as the President’s reaction to last week’s arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr., a black Harvard professor, threatens to spark a racial row and dent his reputation. Conspiracy theorists in the US and far right wingers, who have begun to call themselves "birthers", claim that Mr Obama is not entitled to be in the White House simply because he is "foreign born", the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported.

According to the conspiracists, there is something suspicious in the absence of a photocopy of Mr Obama’s original birth record, known as the "long form", even as the White House has published copies of his official birth certificate — a printed summary of his birth details, including the name of the medical centre in Honolulu, Hawaii, where he was born.

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On the peaks of Kargil, Bravery versus Brutality

Ten Years ago, in May 1999, Pakistan caused its fifth war against India in over 60 years. The finer variations are that 1947-48 and 1965 were those in which tens of thousands of outsourced "fighters" were kabailis, mujahids or razakars; in 1971 when the Pakistan Army had to fight on both western and eastern fronts, it came to the sorry plight of breaking a record by 93,000 forced to lay down arms, become prisoners of war and lose its eastern part; the fourth, which began in end of 1980s, was masterfully outsourced to the products of what was created in Pakistan as a factory of terrorism. The two month-long intense confrontation in Kargil heights was a fifth war limited to a major sector only, but with both countries possessing nukes.

As the first Indian conflict to be beamed countrywide on television, the Kargil war, fought from May to July 1999 on the rugged steep mountains of the Zanskar Range from where the Srinagar-Leh National Highway 1 can be dominated, some poignant aspects that emerged, apart from the deviousness of the Pakistan Army in undertaking this misadventure, were the striking contrasts of outstanding bravery by the Indian Army's soldiers and junior leaders on one hand and on the other, not only the brutality of the Pakistan Army towards Indian soldiers, but callousness towards their own.

These aspects of this much reported war become more interesting, informative and impactful when viewed with references from a letter written by Dr N.K. Kalia, father of Lieutenant Saurabh Kalia,

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India wakes up to longest solar eclipse

Scientific temper and faith were in almost equal display across the country as citizens woke up on Wednesday morning to the longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century.

Apart from Varanasi, the eclipse was completely visible at Dibrugarh in Assam between 6.31 am and 6.34 am. Other Northeastern states like Manipur, Sikkim and Nagaland were disappointed as overcast conditions prevented people from watching the eclipse.

In the western states, many people in Rajasthan and also in Gujarat were disappointed as clouds prevented them from witnessing the celestial spectacle. However, Bikaner, Kota, Jodhpur, Udaipur, Ganganagar and Hanumangarh got a good glimpse of the eclipse. In Jaipur, it was visible for a minute.

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40 years after moon walk, astronauts aim for Mars

The first astronauts to walk on the moon want US President Barack Obama to aim for a new destination: Mars. On Monday, the Apollo 11 crewmen, fresh from a Washington lecture on Sunday in which two of them expressed concerns about Nasa getting bogged down on the moon, will meet Mr Obama at the White House.

In one of their few joint public appearances, the crew of Apollo 11 spoke on the eve of the 40th anniversary of man’s first landing on the moon, but didn’t get soggy with nostalgia. They instead spoke about the future and the more distant past.

The Sunday night, a packed crowd at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum, 7,000 people applied in a lottery for 485 seats, didn’t get the intimate details of the Eagle’s landing on the moon with little fuel left, or what the moon looked like, or what it felt like to be there.

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Nato: Copter crash at Afghan base kills 16

A Russian-owned civilian helicopter crashed during takeoff at southern Afghanistan's largest Nato base on Sunday, killing 16 civilians in the latest in a string of deadly aircraft crashes in the country.

A US military helicopter also made an emergency landing in the country's east. A military spokesperson said there was no insurgent fire involved.

There were no indications that the crash of the Mi-8 helicopter at southern Kandahar Air Field was caused by hostile fire, military officials said. A Nato statement said 16 people died in the crash and that the conditions of five additional casualties weren't immediately known.

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Custody case: Jacko kid to be interviewed

Michael Jackson’s elder kids will be interviewed to know who they want to live with if their mother Debbie Rowe pursues custody claim.

A hearing is scheduled to take place on July 20 for Judge Mitch Beckloff to be-gin deliberating who should win custody rights amid Rowe’s announcement she will try to regain control of the two eldest kids, Prince, 12, and Paris, 11.

According to the lawyer, who’s a close associate of the judge, youngsters will be interviewed in private by family law specialists.

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Prohibition: Modi plans death for death law

The Narendra Modi government on Wednesday night announced that if any person died due to the consumption of spurious liquor in Gujarat, those responsible, and those involved in manufacturing the illicit liquor, would face the death penalty.

The Modi government plans to do this by amending the existing prohibition laws. Though the state government has not officially clarified how it would go about doing this, a senior Modi aide said amendments will be made to the existing Bombay Prohibition (Gujarat Amendment) Act. He said the Gujarat Cabinet has already discussed the amendments and that the amendments would be introduced in the Gujarat Assembly by July 29.

Ironically, the Modi government had given its assent to the Bombay Prohibition (Gujarat Amendment) Bill of 2003 to relax rules related to the procurement of raw jaggery and ammonium chloride, the two main ingredients used to manufacture hooch in Gujarat.

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Obama set to unveil 12 billion dollars college plan

US President Barack Obama will unveil a $12 billion initiative to boost community colleges and propel the US towards his goal of having the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020, administration officials said.

The 10-year programme, which he will announce during a visit to Macomb Community College in Warren, Michigan, includes a new goal of graduating an additional 5 million students from community colleges over the next decade, double the current number of expected graduates.

Education is the often-forgotten third pillar of Mr Obama’s economic plan and has received far less attention than the other two — healthcare reform and renewable energy.

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Facilities inadequate in Lanka camps: Doctors

Doctors treating displaced Tamils in the government-run welfare camps in Sri Lanka’s north have written a letter to President Mahinda Rajapakse complaining about inadequate facilities and shortage of medical staff.

"It is difficult to stay in these shelters. The doctors examine patients from 7 o’clock in the morning to 7 o’clock in the night (in the Menik camps in Vavuniya). They need a proper place to sleep. The doctors do night shift. They are virtually alone there. There is no adequate nurse or staff members," a representative of the doctors told reporters here.

Spokesman for the Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) Upul Gunasekara said that only 50 doctors were available for treating over 2.5 lakh Tamils in these camps.

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Jacko murdered for his £1 billion fortune: Sister

Latoya Jackson, sister of singer Michael Jackson, has claimed that he was murdered as part of a conspiracy to steal his fortune. The 53-year-old, who took part in Channel Four’s reality TV programme Celebrity Big Brother this year, told the News of The World that a $2 million stash of cash and jewels had gone missing from her brother’s mansion after his death.

"Michael always had cash in his homes, usually around $2 million which he used to pay out on things. People said he wasn’t wealthy, but Michael always had money with him. When I went to the house later that day there was no cash or jewellery. So many people had been through that house before I got there. Someone went in there and did a good job. It was very strange," she was quoted as saying.

The family, she said, is convinced that her brother’s apparent drugs overdose was "foul play" by a shadowy group out to get their hands on his £1 billion fortune.

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G-8, G-5 agree to agree

The world’s brightest faith healers wrote down the prescription for healing planet earth in this quake-hit town in Italy after day-long consultations on how to rid the globe of its major illnesses, but stopped short of administering the medication. As things stand at the end of Day 2 of the talkfest featuring some of the world’s best speakers, from Presidents Barack Obama, Nicolas Sarkozy, Jacob Zuma, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Dmitry Medvedev and Felipe Calderon to Prime Ministers Gordon Brown, Silvio Berlusconi, Manmohan Singh and Chancellor Angela Merkel, among others, there was a one-line message for the planet’s 6.7 billion people: "Yes, we can". It will, however, take more than placebo to cure the planet of the scars inflicted by hunger, pollution, greed, waste and mismanagement.

Experts and "non-state actors" clued into the summit confided that major differences still linger between Russia and the rest of the G-8 members on addressing the climate issue, just as there is a variance in commitment between the EU and the US on the extent to which they are willing to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

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Zardari admits Pakistan state terror policy

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has admitted for the first time that extremists were manufactured in Pakistan as state policy in the past "to achieve some short-term tactical objectives".

President Zardari was referring to military dictator General Zia-ul-Haq, who ruled the country from 1977 to 1988. Talking to former senior civil servants at the Aiwan-e-Sadar (President's House) here late on Tuesday night, the President, quoted in an official statement, said, "The militants and extremists emerged on the national scene and challenged the state not because the civil bureaucracy was weakened and demoralised, but because they were deliberately created and nurtured as a policy to achieve some short-term tactical objectives".

"Let us be truthful to ourselves and make a candid admission of the realities," Mr Zardari said.

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Quake hits G-8 city in Italy as Very Important Persons arrive

As world leaders began to arrive for the G8 meeting in the Italian city of L’Aquila on Tuesday, areas outside the city were shaken by a new earthquake at 11 am that measured 2.4 on the Richter scale. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is also visiting Italy as part of the Outreach 5.

It was the third earthquake in the region since Monday and is certain to create fresh speculation about whether it is safe for the G8 leaders to meet there.

The epicentre of Tuesday’s quake was located in Villa Sant’Angelo, San Eusanio Forconese and Fossa, on the outskirts of L’Aquila

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Big budget to feed hunger for growth

Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee has performed a fine balancing act in his Budget, working within revenue constraints and yet ensuring high spending by the government to put the country on an accelerated growth track.

The Union Budget for this year, presented in the Lok Sabha on Monday, marks a "deepening and broadening" of the UPA’s social inclusion agenda.

Never before has the government been so emphatic about its resolve to see a change in the vast hinterlands. To this end, allocations made under various programmes have been gigantic.

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Jacko was writing a new will: Report

Michael Jackson was writing a will just weeks before his sudden death, claims journalist Ian Harperlin the author of Unmasked: The Final Years Of Michael Jackson

Harperlin, who was the first to predict the pop icon’s death in an article in December 2008, quoted sources close to Jackson to claim that there exists another will which can supersede the July 2002 document released last week, reported Daily Mail online.

“I’ve been told his behaviour became increasingly erratic during his trip to London. He took prescription drugs and sat up all night writing. An aide said ‘That night he stayed awake writing.

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Obama salary 400,000 dollars a year

Guess how much does United States President Barack Obama earn? A cool salary of $400,000 a year in cash, a new list has revealed.

Well his staffers are also doing well with almost half the presidential income. In fact, the list sent to US Congress has revealed the salaries of 487 White House Office employees, capped at $172,200, the Chicago Sun Times reported.

The $172,200 earners from Chicago are senior adviser David chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, senior adviser Valerie Jarrett and Susan Sher, chief of staff to the First Lady Michelle Obama.

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Seth’s Suitable Girl in 2013

Indian poet and novelist Vikram Seth is writing a sequel to his acclaimed, monumental story A Suitable Boy, to be titled A Suitable Girl.

Penguin imprint Hamish Hamilton bought the English language rights to the new novel, excluding the US, from Seth’s agent David Godwin, and expects it to be published in 2013, 20 years after the original.

Asked why he was returning to his best-known work, 1,300 pages long, Seth replied: “I think it’s just that I suddenly got the idea not of taking up the story in 1952, where I had left it, but rather to take it up in the present...

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China puts off Internet filter, activists happy

China’s ambitions to strengthen control of the Internet with filtering software became a show of the limits of its power on Wednesday, as activists and industry groups welcomed AN abrupt delay of the contentious plan.

The surprise climbdown was reported late on Tuesday by Xinhua news agency, which said the ministry of industry and information technology would "delay the mandatory installation of the controversial ‘Green Dam-Youth Escort’ filtering software on new computers".

Officials said the software was intended to stamp out Internet pornography, and computer companies had originally been told that from Wednesday they had to bundle "Green Dam" with any personal computers heading to stores for sale in the country.

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Central Board of Secondary Education grading, ‘optional’ Class 10 exam from 2010

Union human resources development minister Kapil Sibal said Tuesday he plans to make the Class 10 board examination optional for students under the Central Board of Secondary Education from 2010, when the new grading system of assessment would also be introduced.

The minister said the proposal for a one-board-one-exam system across the country was not on HRD’s immediate agenda as a uniform exam might not be possible right away because of the differences in standards between the state boards.

"Unless the quality of education in state boards is improved, they cannot affiliate to a uniform system. The one-board-one-exam system needs to be evolved after a detailed consultation process," he said.

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