A local court on has acquitted five youth arrested on charges of criminal conspiracy following the twin blasts last year. The court acquitted Mohammed Abdul Kaleem, Mohammed Abdul Raoof alias Imran, Shujauddin, Mohammed Faseehuddin, and Mohammed Sohail who were arrested in September last by the special investigations team. The judge in his orders observed that the police had failed to provide any evidence against the accused. The police had charged that these youth had procured SIM cards in...

Many survivors of the communal violence of 2002 complained they were denied even basic amenities in relief camps when a representative of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) met them during his Gujarat visit. R K Bhargava, special rapporteur (Central Zone) of the NHRC, visited several localities in Sabarkantha and Mehsana districts during his five-day visit. Over 100 people now staying in the Shalimar Mosque in Mehsana too narrated their woes to Bhargava on Wednesday. Bhargava in th...

The UPA government acquiesced in DMK's position in the Sethusamudram case to question in the Supreme Court the existence of Ram Setu by citing the scriptures and Puranas. Unperturbed by the withdrawal of its earlier affidavit doubting the existence of Ramayana, Rama and their link to Ram Setu, which had created a furore, the Centre, through senior advocate Fali S Nariman, cited the ninth-century Ramayana of Kamban and also the "Padma Purana" to tell the court that if Rama construc...

The Delhi High Court asked the Delhi Urban Art Commission to inspect an investigation report about alleged changes carried out in the Court-approved project for renovation of the historic Jama Masjid. A Division Bench of the Court comprising Justice Mukul Mudgal and Justice Manmohan passed the direction after going through the report submitted to it by the amicus curae in the matter. The Bench ordered handing over a copy of the investigation report to the Commission for its perusal. It dire...

Eleven Indian authors have found a place in the long list of the prestigious Man Asian Literary Prize 2008 considered by many as the Asian Booker. The Indians in the reckoning are Tulsi Badrinath ( Melting Love ), Anjum Hasan ( Neti, Neti ), Daisy Hasan ( The To-Let House ), Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi ( Lost Flamingoes of Bombay ), Amit Varma ( My Friend, Sancho ), Sarayu Srivatsa ( The Last Pretence ), Kavery Nambisan ( The Story t...

A high-level Central team is in Kashmir to assess the arrangements ahead of the opening of the weekly Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service. The service will begin after August 21. At present, the bus operates fortnightly and only 30 passengers from both sides are allowed to travel. At a recent high-level meeting, India and Pakistan had agreed to increase the frequency of the bus service running between two parts of Kashmir. Headed by Joint Secretary (Home) Sakanandan, the team visited Kaman po...

From 2009 onwards, it will become mandatory for the MBBS students in India to undergo a year-long stint in the rural villages in order to apply for a post graduate degree in the country. As per reports, the Union Health Ministry has forwarded the final proposal about one year compulsory rural stint for students to the Medical Council of India (MCI) for ratification. It was put on hold following a nationwide protest by the medical students earlier. After this proposal gets cleared, the MCI w...