1. In an audacious re-run of the Ajmal Kasab episode after 26/11, Pakistan has disowned Lashkar-e-Taiba jihadi Mohammad Naved who was captured alive after carrying out a terror attack on a BSF bus.
2. If the person given life sentence for conspiring to kill Mahatma Gandhi got remission of sentence and was released after 16 years in jail, why should similar remission not be given to Rajiv Gandhi assassination conspirators, the Tamil Nadu government asked the Supreme Court on Thursday.
3. Foreign minister Sushma Swaraj on Thursday offered an impassioned defence of her role in 'Lalitgate', asking if Congress chief Sonia Gandhi would have acted any differently in responding to a humanitarian appeal by Lalit Modi's wife ahead of a potentially life-threatening surgery.
4. Congress accused foreign minister Sushma Swaraj of hiding from Parliament that she interceded for Lalit Modi without being asked by the UK authorities, and that the former IPL chief's application for travel documents had been rejected once and her voluntary intervention swung the case in his favour.
5. A senior BCCI functionary has been receiving threat calls and emails for the last few weeks from people claiming to be members of Dawood Ibrahim's gang and demanding Rs 100 crore as protection money. Top sources claimed that the matter was taken seriously and two suspects were nabbed from Nellore in Andhra Pradesh.
6. Gangster Dawood Ibrahim's close aide Yakub Khan alias Yeda Yakub, a key accused in the 1993 serial blasts of Mumbai, is believed to have died in Karachi, Pakistan, said Indian Intelligence sources. They told TOI that Khan, who had been unwell for a few months, suffered a heart attack on Wednesday morning. He died before he could be rushed to a hospital.
7. At 7.30am on August 5, when a man holding a Kalashnikov stopped a BSF bus near Udhampur, constable Rocky stood like a rock between lethal bullets and certain death for all the 44 jawans in the vehicle. Sitting by the side of the driver, he was the only gunman in the vehicle. The rest were unarmed. As the LeT terrorist, now identified as Noman alias Nomi, sprayed the bus with bullets, fl attening its tyres, Rocky was one of the fi rst to receive bullet injuries along with the driver. BSF sources say he was hit in the chest.
8. At a time when all states are vying to get their own AIIMS, the parent institution, AIIMS Delhi, has raised apprehensions about dilution of its brand name. The premier medical institute, officials said, has offered to mentor the six new AIIMS for setting standards for patient care, training and infrastructure in the upcoming facilities.
9. A Darul Uloom Deoband fatwa stating it is un-Islamic to shave one's beard has put barbers from the community and clean shaven Muslims in a quandary. The barber in Saharanpur who sought the fatwa has decided neither to shave nor trim any beards.
10.Union environment ministry, which generally avoids sharing details of air pollution-linked deaths, made an exception on Thursday when it said in Parliament that more than 35,000 people had died due to acute respiratory infections (ARI) across India in close to 10 years. More than 2.6 crore cases were reported every year during the period.
