India

Kolkata, Dec 12: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Friday threw an "open challenge" to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP to arrest her following the arrest of minister Madan Mitra in connection with the Saradha chit fund scandal, a situation she likened to the emergency. "The situation in India is like Emergency now. We condemn all this. This is our stand. I will go to SSKM

New Delhi, Dec 12: Even as India will try to use diplomatic steps to avoid a confrontation with Pakistan, one needs to teach lessons to "those who are rogue", Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said Friday. Asked at the Aaj Tak-2014 conclave about the disturbances created by Pakistan along the border, he said India was not closing any options for "harsh measures". "We are always prepared with

New Delhi, Dec 12: A united opposition today forced BJP member Sakshi Maharaj to express regret in Lok Sabha and withdraw his remarks terming Mahatma Gandhi's assassin Nathuram Godse a patriot. Congress President Sonia Gandhi joined opposition members in raising slogans against the government and the BJP member. Soon after Speaker Sumitra Mahajan referred to the December 13, 2001 Parliament attack

Srinagar, Dec 12: Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said on Thursday that there could be more terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir in view of the ongoing Assembly elections. Talking to reporters, Parrikar, who is on a maiden visit to the state after assuming office, said the recent terror attacks were meant to bring down the percentage of people taking part in the democratic exercise. “The polling

New Delhi, Dec 11: BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj was today at the centre of a controversy when he described Mahatma Gandhi's assassin Nathuram Godse as a "patriot", sparking outrage following which he retracted. The MP from Unnao said, "Godse was an aggrieved person. He may have done something by mistake but was no an anti- national. He was a patriot." When his remarks triggered a controversy with demands

New Delhi, Dec 11: The 1975 Emergency was perhaps an "avoidable event" and Congress and Indira Gandhi had to pay a heavy price for this "misadventure" as suspension of fundamental rights and political activity, large scale arrests and press censorship adversely affected people, says President Pranab Mukherjee. A junior minister under Gandhi in those turbulent times, Mukherjee however, is also

New Delhi, Dec 11: Uproar continued in the Lok Sabha Thursday with almost all opposition parties demanding the suspension of the question hour and a discussion on the Agra "conversions". As soon as the house met for the day, members of the Congress, Trinamool Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and CPI-M trooped near the speaker's podium, and also raised slogans like "Modi sarkaar hosh mein aao"

Washington, Dec 11: A team of researchers from India and the US has found that the browning of the Taj Mahal's iconic marble dome and soaring minarets is due to dust and airborne carbon particles. "Our team was able to show that the pollutants discolouring the Taj Mahal are particulate matter: carbon from burning biomass and refuse, fossil fuels, and dust - possibly from agriculture and road

New Delhi,Dec 11: The religious conversion of 100 people in Agra drew sharp protests in Parliament on Wednesday with the Opposition demanding an explanation from the Modi government. An angry Opposition stalled the proceedings in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, demanding action against some RSS-affiliated organisations, which were allegedly carrying out the conversions. In Rajya Sabha, BSP

Oslo, Dec 10: India's Kailash Satyarthi received the Nobel Peace Prize for 2014 today, sharing it with Pakistan's Malala Yousafzai, the youngest ever Nobel laureate, for their work on promoting child rights in the troubled sub-continent, where millions are deprived of their childhood and education. "Satyarthi and Yousafzai are precisely the people whom Alfred Nobel in his will calls 'champions of