
Geneva: Syrian forces and pro-government militia accused of committing a massacre in Houla could face prosecution for crimes against humanity, the United Nations said on Friday and rights experts said Syrian authorities had directly ordered torture. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay called again for the Security Council to refer Syria to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and for world powers to help implement Kofi...

09:48 AM, Jun 02, 2012

New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is on a one-day trip to Kolkata, where he will be attending two events - one at the Bose Institute, and the other at Calcutta University, where he's set to share the dais with West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee. This will be the leaders' first meeting after the petrol price hike, which the TMC chief has been protesting against....

09:21 AM, Jun 02, 2012

New Delhi: Strongly opposing the new format for admission to IITs and other central institutes from 2013, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) alumni association have decided to take the Union Human Resource Development(HRD) ministry to court. The association will be moving the Delhi High Court on Monday. In a meeting on Friday, the alumni and faculty members of institutions like the IIT, NIT and IIIT have decided to file...

08:59 AM, Jun 02, 2012

New Delhi: Just a day after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered a case in the coal block allocations case of 2006-09, the Prime Minister's Office has turned the tables, accusing BJP President Nitin Gadkari's son of benefiting in the deal. "Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh's government allocated coal blocks to those close to BJP President Nitin Gadkari. The issue was not allowed to be raised in the Assembly,"...

07:42 AM, Jun 02, 2012

Lucknow: Haunted by the spectre of cheating in the MBBS entrance exam for those aspiring to be doctors, the Uttar Pradesh Combined Pre-Medical Test (CPMT) organisers have this year put in place unprecedented security measures. These include bringing answer sheets on a chartered flight, keeping secret the forward route of the sheets and closing all photocopying shops around the test centres. Other steps include taking fingerprints, keeping handwriting experts on...

07:29 AM, Jun 02, 2012

New Delhi: The Prime Minister's Chief Economic Advisor Dr C Rangarajan has admitted that a hike in diesel and LPG prices is imminent despite a steep hike in petrol prices last week. While speaking to Karan Thapar on Devil's advocate, Dr Rangarajan said the government can soften the blow but fuel price hike is the need of the hour to contain the fiscal deficit. Here's an excerpt of the interview:...

07:17 AM, Jun 02, 2012

New Delhi: Upset over the new IIT joint entrance test pattern announced by the government, alumni of the institute in Delhi have decided to form lobby groups and meet the Prime Minister to get the decision rescinded. In decisions taken at a meeting on Friday, IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) Delhi Alumni Association decided to meet the Prime Minister next week to submit a memorandum with objections on the new...

04:41 AM, Jun 02, 2012

Hyderabad: The Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics on Friday received the blood samples of ND Tiwari, the youth who claims to be his biological son and also the youth's mother for the DNA test over the paternity suit involving the veteran Congress leader. The blood samples of the youth Rohit Sekhar and his mother Ujjwala Sharma were collected in the Delhi High Court on May 26 while Tiwari gave...

12:53 AM, Jun 02, 2012

New Delhi: Five global financial services majors, including Morgan Stanley, Stanchart and Citi, have lowered India's growth prospects to 5.7-6.4 per cent for the current fiscal, a day after markets received a "shock" from nine-year low GDP growth of 6.5 per cent for 2011-12. In their reports to clients worldwide, most of them blamed policy inaction by the government as a major roadblock to the Indian economy, which had expanded...

12:39 AM, Jun 02, 2012

New Delhi: It's summers in most parts of India and demand for power is at a peak of 2,17,000 megawatt (MW). But the power generation is much less at 1,99,877 MW and poor transmission and distribution is making it worse. Many cities like Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai are facing long power cuts and 40 per cent of the country does not get electricity at all. About 6 lakh villages do not...

11:06 PM, Jun 01, 2012

Is L K Advani's repeated public criticism of the BJP proof of deep divisions at the top of the party? ...

10:59 PM, Jun 01, 2012

New Delhi: Terming the 2010 Commonwealth Games a "nightmare", Chief Election Commissioner SY Qureshi on Friday said the event is being remembered more for its controversies, which denied the nation the pride it got from the performance of its athletes. "What a nightmare it was, something we should have been proud of, that pride was denied to the nation... Unfortunately we did not get any time to bask in the...

10:37 PM, Jun 01, 2012

New Delhi: Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi met former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in New Delhi on Friday amidst reports of growing rift within the top Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership. The meeting assumes significance given the unease in the party and a growing distance between Modi and senior leaders LK Advani and Sushma Swaraj. Modi, who had come to attend a Planning Commission meet in Delhi, is keen...

08:02 PM, Jun 01, 2012

New Delhi: It is the 60th anniversary of the coronation of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and Google is commemorating the event with a special doodle on its homepages in the countries of the Commonwealth realm. The doodle features a blue silhouette of Queen Elizabeth II (looking to the right), dressed in her royal finery. The Queen's long flowing blue robe is has diamond patterns and a golden border. The two...

07:00 PM, Jun 01, 2012