1. Leveling a direct and personal allegation that all but ends any prospect of a resolution of the standoff in Parliament, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday asked external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj to reveal the amount of money her family received from controversial ex-IPL chief Lalit Modi.
2. Two massive attacks in Kabul on Friday, one striking near a government and military complex in a residential area and the other a suicide bombing outside a police academy, killed at least 35 people, sending the strongest message yet to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani — that militants are still able to strike at his heavily fortified seat of power.
3. Chief Justice of India H L Dattu on Friday ordered "all possible security shield" to judges of the Supreme Court after an anonymous letter-threat was thrown into the residence of Justice Dipak Misra, one of the judges on the bench which rejected Mumbai serial blasts convict Yakub Memon's last-gasp petition to stay his execution.
4. The sown area under Kharif crop in the country keeps on increasing but the overall area under summer crop may not be much higher than it was in 2014 — the year which saw a 12% deficit rainfall and over 5% deficit in overall foodgrain production.
5. Ram Tarneja, former managing director of Bennett Coleman (BCCL), who was widely respected for his leadership skills, passed away in Mumbai on Friday morning. He was 83.
6. Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa over lunch at her residence here on Friday, in a significant amid his government's big push to get key bills passed in Parliament. Sources said during the 30-minute lunch meeting, when only two of them were present, the Prime Minister asked AIADMK chief for her party's support to the GST Bill, though a memorandum presented by her later expressed her opposition to the legislation that is part of the Modi government's proposed financial reforms.
7. His intimidating roar terrifies humans but his partner's mating call breaks him into cold sweat.
Officials at Alipore zoo officials are faced with a rather strange situation where one of their young male tigers is showing little or no interest in mating despite several not-so-subtle hints dropped by his female partner. No amount of Aphrodisiac or libido stimulant has not been successful either. in making him, er, rise to the occasion.
8. A 40-year-old secular Bangladeshi blogger was hacked to death at his flat here on Friday by five machete-wielding unidentified assailants believed to be Islamist militants, the fourth such brutal murder in the country in less than six months.Niloy Chakrabarty Neel was killed by assailants inside his fifth-floor flat at North Gorhan in the capital Dhaka.
9. Did terrorist and 1993 Mumbai bomb blast accused Dawood Ibrahim influence the swelling crowd at Yakub Memon's funeral procession?
According to Mumbai police sources, Dawood had called up his loyalists in the city and asked them to go in large numbers to attend Memon's funeral. "We have information that Dawood and his protege Chhota Shakeel had called up several of their cronies in the city and ordered them to attend the funeral and show solidarity," said a senior police officer on condition of anonymity.
10. A student was beaten to death in a college in Sabang, West Midnapore, by alleged Trinamool Congress supporters when he refused to follow their diktat to felicitate a state minister on Friday morning. The murder is a fall-out of Trinamool muscle-flexing to gain control of campuses across Bengal, prompting the Left Front and Congress to call for statewide protests on Saturday.
11. Nearly a month after its signing, the Ufa "agreement" lies virtually in tatters while the NSAs of India and Pakistan are yet to sit down for their one-off conversation on terrorism. As Pakistan has tried to walk back from the talks, it has ramped up violence on the border as well as unleashed Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives in terror attacks in Gurdaspur and Udhampur. Eight Indians are dead and over 15 injured since the Ufa meet between Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif.
12. England were three wickets away from regaining the Ashes and completing Australia's humiliation at Trent Bridge after reducing the tourists to 241-7 by stumps on the second day of the fourth Test on Friday. The Australians will resume needing 90 more runs just to make England bat again, having started their second innings 331 runs behind following England's positive declaration at 391-9.
13. A series of cloudbursts, landslides and flood alerts in Kashmir — a combination of extreme events dubbed "weather terror" by local business people — has caused tourist arrivals to drop 60 per cent so far this year, and things may get worse.
14. Gurjinder Singh scored a fine brace as India convincingly beat France 4-1, in the second and final match of the two-match series, to kick-start their European tour in emphatic fashion.Team India convincingly won the two-match series 2-0 against France and will now travel to Spain for three games. India defeated France 2-0 in the first match of their Euro Tour.
2. Two massive attacks in Kabul on Friday, one striking near a government and military complex in a residential area and the other a suicide bombing outside a police academy, killed at least 35 people, sending the strongest message yet to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani — that militants are still able to strike at his heavily fortified seat of power.
3. Chief Justice of India H L Dattu on Friday ordered "all possible security shield" to judges of the Supreme Court after an anonymous letter-threat was thrown into the residence of Justice Dipak Misra, one of the judges on the bench which rejected Mumbai serial blasts convict Yakub Memon's last-gasp petition to stay his execution.
4. The sown area under Kharif crop in the country keeps on increasing but the overall area under summer crop may not be much higher than it was in 2014 — the year which saw a 12% deficit rainfall and over 5% deficit in overall foodgrain production.
5. Ram Tarneja, former managing director of Bennett Coleman (BCCL), who was widely respected for his leadership skills, passed away in Mumbai on Friday morning. He was 83.
6. Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa over lunch at her residence here on Friday, in a significant amid his government's big push to get key bills passed in Parliament. Sources said during the 30-minute lunch meeting, when only two of them were present, the Prime Minister asked AIADMK chief for her party's support to the GST Bill, though a memorandum presented by her later expressed her opposition to the legislation that is part of the Modi government's proposed financial reforms.
7. His intimidating roar terrifies humans but his partner's mating call breaks him into cold sweat.
Officials at Alipore zoo officials are faced with a rather strange situation where one of their young male tigers is showing little or no interest in mating despite several not-so-subtle hints dropped by his female partner. No amount of Aphrodisiac or libido stimulant has not been successful either. in making him, er, rise to the occasion.
8. A 40-year-old secular Bangladeshi blogger was hacked to death at his flat here on Friday by five machete-wielding unidentified assailants believed to be Islamist militants, the fourth such brutal murder in the country in less than six months.Niloy Chakrabarty Neel was killed by assailants inside his fifth-floor flat at North Gorhan in the capital Dhaka.
9. Did terrorist and 1993 Mumbai bomb blast accused Dawood Ibrahim influence the swelling crowd at Yakub Memon's funeral procession?
According to Mumbai police sources, Dawood had called up his loyalists in the city and asked them to go in large numbers to attend Memon's funeral. "We have information that Dawood and his protege Chhota Shakeel had called up several of their cronies in the city and ordered them to attend the funeral and show solidarity," said a senior police officer on condition of anonymity.
10. A student was beaten to death in a college in Sabang, West Midnapore, by alleged Trinamool Congress supporters when he refused to follow their diktat to felicitate a state minister on Friday morning. The murder is a fall-out of Trinamool muscle-flexing to gain control of campuses across Bengal, prompting the Left Front and Congress to call for statewide protests on Saturday.
11. Nearly a month after its signing, the Ufa "agreement" lies virtually in tatters while the NSAs of India and Pakistan are yet to sit down for their one-off conversation on terrorism. As Pakistan has tried to walk back from the talks, it has ramped up violence on the border as well as unleashed Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives in terror attacks in Gurdaspur and Udhampur. Eight Indians are dead and over 15 injured since the Ufa meet between Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif.
12. England were three wickets away from regaining the Ashes and completing Australia's humiliation at Trent Bridge after reducing the tourists to 241-7 by stumps on the second day of the fourth Test on Friday. The Australians will resume needing 90 more runs just to make England bat again, having started their second innings 331 runs behind following England's positive declaration at 391-9.
13. A series of cloudbursts, landslides and flood alerts in Kashmir — a combination of extreme events dubbed "weather terror" by local business people — has caused tourist arrivals to drop 60 per cent so far this year, and things may get worse.
14. Gurjinder Singh scored a fine brace as India convincingly beat France 4-1, in the second and final match of the two-match series, to kick-start their European tour in emphatic fashion.Team India convincingly won the two-match series 2-0 against France and will now travel to Spain for three games. India defeated France 2-0 in the first match of their Euro Tour.
