Chiru to return with 150th film

Two years after taking the plunge into politics, Praja Rajyam president Chiranjeevi is all set to act in films again. This was disclosed by his actor-son Ram Charan Teja during Chiranjeevi’s 55th birthday celebrations on Sunday.

“He will certainly act in a film this year. It will be ready by his next birthday,” said Teja. The film would be Chiranjeevi’s 150th and his fans have high expectations from it. Teja made the announcement after cutting a cake at the Chiranjeevi Blood Bank here.

In a film career spanning over three decades, Chiranjeevi has acted in 149 films and his popularity is often compared with matinee idol N.T. Rama Rao who founded the Telugu Desam.

Though Chiranjeevi had persistently turned down requests from his fans till now, he recently confessed that the artiste in him had a desire to act again after watching the promo of Robot directed by Sankar with Tamil superstar Rajnikanth and former Miss World Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in lead roles.

During the audio release of the film, Chiranjeevi had hinted that he might consider acting again and his speech had been received with overwhelming appl-ause. Rajnikanth, who was present at the promo had also urged Chiranjeevi to do a film to which the latter had responded positively.

Scriptwriters Paruchuri Brothers have apparently readied a story based on the life of freedom fighter Uyyalawada Narasimha Reddy and are pressurising Chiranjeevi to take up the assignment as his 150th film.

Officials drive man to suicide for plot of land

Distressed that bureaucrats were not giving him his piece of land despite a court order, an elderly man attempted suicide in the presence of the collector here on Monday by popping sleeping pills. He was rushed to a hospital where he is recovering.

Trouble started for Mr B. Kishan, 66, of Old Bowenpally, 14 years ago after he purchased a 400-sq yards plot beside Sai San-tosh apartments, Survey No 57/2 near Tirmulgherry.

The land was registered in his name but Cantonment officials claimed ownership of the land. The government too joined in, saying the land was allotted to AP Cooperative Society.

Mr Kishan moved the High Court and received orders in his favour. But every official he met shooed him away.

Mr Kishan has five daughters, only two of whom are married. He had bought the land for Rs 12 lakh to sell it off to pay for his daughters’ marriage.

When contacted, the RDO, Chittam Lakshmi Reddy said, “He is showing the sale deed of the land with Survey No 57/2 whereas the land shown is under survey No. 57/1,” the RDO added.

ED grills Darbari on CWG payout

The Enforcement Directorate on Monday questioned sacked the CWG Organising Committee joint director-general, Mr T.S. Darbari. for six hours even as the Lok Sabha saw the Opposition demanding a joint parliamentary committee to probe the allegations of corruption in the Commonwealth Games. The government said the irregularities would be inquired into “exhaustively” and the corrupt pursued till the “ends of the earth”.

Official sources said the ED may interrogate some more members of the OC and officials of other agencies, like the Indian Olympic Association, over alleged financial irregularities.

Sources stated that Mr Darbari, a close aide of the CWGOC chairman, Mr Suresh Kalmadi, has told investigators that his role was limited to liaison and execution of contracts and is understood to have denied during questioning his role in any of the irregularities. Mr Darbari is understood to have told the ED that he had no role in signing any contracts and that he would provide documents to support his case.

Official sources said that based on the leads received from the questioning of Mr Darbari, some more OC officials are likely to be questioned. Mr Darbari was summoned to explain certain financial transactions undertaken in connection with the Queen’s Baton relay in London last year. The ED has registered a case under the Foreign Exchange Management Act in this regard.

“All documents brought by Darbari related to monetary transactions and grant of contracts to different agencies in London will be scrutinised by the agency,” an ED official said. This was done in the wake of the British authorities referring to the Indian High Commission a matter regarding AM Films to which a large sum of money was transferred through the Royal Bank of Scotland. The authorities in London have already begun a probe into the dealings of the firm.

In the Lok Sabha, the Union urban development minister, Mr S. Jaipal Reddy, said that every aspect of the allegations would be looked into and the corrupt pursued till the “end of the earth”. He also appealed to all shades in the House to cooperate in ensuring the successful organisation of the mega event.

Intervening during the debate, Mr Reddy said, “We all know that the CVC and other constitutional bodies do their respective jobs, but if every primary observation is blown out of proportion to the extent of a scam then we cannot function. I don’t say that corruption has not taken place. All irregularities will be inquired into exhaustively.”

Debunking the claims made by members from the Opposition benches that Rs 1 lakh crores has been used for the games, the minister said a total of Rs 28,054 crore has been spent on the Games of which Rs 16,560 crore was being spent by the Delhi government for upgrading infrastructure in the national capital.Earlier, initiating the debate on the issue in the Lok Sabha, the BJP’s Kirti Azad referred to the recommendations of the CVC and said several government departments have been charged with irregularities. He also criticised various departments for cost escalation to the tune of 513 per cent.

Suggesting that a probe into the alleged irregularities could not be postponed till the Games are over, the JD(U) president, Mr Sharad Yadav, said the present situation gives the impression that management of the CWG is “no longer the hands of either the Central or the Delhi government”.

The RJD supremo, Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav said, “Each penny should be accounted for. A parliamentary committee should be formed to inquire into the allegation.”

Mamata shows green signal to Reds at rally

For the first time since November 2008, from when the Maoists began “ruling” Lalgarh, this hamlet witnessed a public rally where the Trinamul supremo, Ms Mamata Banerjee, echoing the home minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, urged the Maoists to “shun violence first and sit for talks”.

In Delhi, the Congress declared its “moral support” for the rally.

The rally, which was publicised as an “apolitical” event, gave the minister, keeping an eye on the Assembly elections, a chance to present a rosy future for Junglemahal.

“All the violence and misunderstandings need to be ended. There should not be any more killing. Be it a policeman, a social worker, a mediaperson, a TMC supporter, a CPM man or even a Maoist — all are human beings and deserve to live,” Ms Banerjee told thousands of people. The Maoists had declared support for the the rally, and the PCPA had canvassed support for it.

“Just tell me, what do you want? Where do you want to meet? But you have to stop the killings first,” she told the Maoists.

Mentioning the talks between the Centre and the Maoists that was negotiated by Swami Agnivesh, Ms Banerjee said, “The killing of Azad was not right. We pray for his soul. But the peace process that was initiated by Agniveshji must start again. If needed we will go to Dantewada and Chhattisgarh also.”

She was referring to the encounter killing of Azad alias Cherukuri Raj Kumar in Adilabad in Andhra Pradesh in July.

Pranab asks states to help check price rise

The finance minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, on Wednesday called on state governments to take a coordinated action with the Centre to control rising prices, saying it was a joint responsibility of the nation’s political leadership.

“Coordinated action by the Centre and states is needed, else it would be difficult to deal with the problem of price rise,” Mr Mukherjee said while replying to the debate in the Lok Sabha on inflationary pressures in the economy and its impact on the common man.

Holding states equally responsible for rising prices, the minister noted that they had powers under the Essential Commodities Act and the Essential Services Maintenance Act to deal with hoarding. “But I will not pass on the buck to them alone.”

The finance minister also urged the House and the states to cooperate in introducing the Goods and Services Tax by April 1, 2011 to help check inflation. “Time is running out. We must bring in the constitutional amendment Bill in this session to pave the way for GST,” Mr Mukherjee said. He said the recent hikes in petrol, diesel and kerosene prices were necessary, and added the petroleum sector was an important source of revenue for states, accounting for 34 per cent of their earnings. He noted the NDA government had raised kerosene prices from Rs 2 to Rs 9 per litre, while the UPA had hiked it from Rs 9 to Rs 12 per litre: this, he said, showed the difference in “sensitivity” of the two towards the common man. “I am a village boy, studied under a lamp post and walked 10 km to school. Don’t ridicule my sensitivity,” the minister said, in a dig at the Opposition.

“Mere rhetoric can’t locate petroleum sources. The priority is also to ensure the availability of petroleum products,” he said, observing that oil marketing PSUs were given a subsidy of Rs 1.03 lakh crore in 2008-09 to ensure that petroleum products were available at affordable prices.

Congress sends stern warning to Jagan camp; Surekha faces music

In a loud and clear message to the Kadapa MP, Mr Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, the Congress high command on Wednesday decided to initiate disciplinary action against his diehard loyalist and MLA, Ms Konda Surekha, for her outburst against the Chief Minister, Mr K. Rosaiah.

The AICC has asked the PCC disciplinary committee chairman, Mr Kantei Suryanarayana Raju, to issue a show-cause notice to Ms Surekha, MLA from Parakala and former minister, asking why action should not be taken against her for her critical remarks on the party and its leaders.

Ms Konda Surekha, who resigned last year addressed a media conference on Tuesday at which she described the functioning of the state government as awful.

“We will give her a week to reply and we will decide the next course of action after going through her reply,’’ said Mr Raju.

Earlier, the AICC had suspended the former MLA, Mr Ambati Rambabu, from the party and had removed Mr Gattu Ramachandra Rao from the post of general secretary of the AP Congress Kisan Cell.

Meanwhile, Jagan said in Kakinada on the concluding day of his Odarpu tour that he was pained at the action being taken on loyalists of his father YSR for no fault of theirs. He added that he was “fast losing patience”.

7 more slain in Valley, Omar for political fix

Talking tough, the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, Mr Omar Abdullah, on Monday made it clear that restraint cannot be one-sided. Mr Abdullah, who briefed the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, on the situation in the Valley, said the cycle of violence must stop, only then could one reopen channels.

He said the Valley needed a “political package more than an economic one”. The Centre has decided to rally behind Mr Abdullah and provide adequate assistance, sources said.

Meanwhile, as violence continued to rage in the Valley, the Centre rushed an additional 2,000 paramilitary personnel from New Delhi and Jammu. Nine CRPF companies are being despatched from Delhi while 10 companies are being pulled out of Jammu to be sent to the
Valley.

The Valley itself experienced another day of mayhem with at least seven protesters gunned down by police and paramilitary personnel struggling to contain protests and mob violence which have spread to new areas. About 20 people sustained bullet wounds and many more were injured in daylong street clashes with the security forces, reports from various parts of the Valley said.

Kayani wants India out of Afghanistan

Pakistan Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, whose forces sponsor a large-scale rebel war through Afghan proxies to keep New Delhi out of Afghanistan, wants Indian consulates in the war-torn country to be closed, says a Canadian diplomat and former deputy head of the UN mission in Kabul.

Chris Alexander, who was Canada’s ambassador in Kabul from 2003 to 2005 and later deputy of the UN mission until 2009, said Gen. Kayani is calling the shots on Afghanistan and prepared to support suicide attacks in Afghanistan’s cities.

The Pakistani general has even told President Hamid Karzai that he can broker a peace deal with the Taliban, only if Indian consulates in Afghanistan are closed.

Writing in the Globe and Mail under the title “The huge scale of Pakistan’s complicity”, Mr Alexander said: “The Pakistan Army under Gen. Kayani is sponsoring a large-scale, covert rebel war through Afghan proxies, whose strongholds in Balochistan and Waziristan are flourishing. Their mission in Afghanistan is to keep Pashtun nationalism down, India out and Mr Karzai weak.”

“The principal drivers of violence are no longer, if they ever were, inside Afghanistan... ISI is the main driver of the conflict... Gen. Kayani and others will deny complicity. But as the WikiLeaks material demonstrates, their heavy-handed involvement is now obvious at all levels,” the Canadian diplomat said.

Because of this policy, he said “reconciliation has failed to get off the ground: the Pakistan-based Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan — the official name for the Taliban and its allies — clearly prefer to fight”. Without Pakistani military support, “the Islamic Emirate’s combat units would collapse like a house of cards. Peace and reconciliation would prosper”, he said.

Giving many examples of how Gen. Kayani controls the principal drivers of the Afghan violence, the Canadian diplomat said: “First, in February, Pakistan’s security forces began arresting a dozen or so Taliban leaders, whose presence on their soil they had always noisily denied, presumably because these insurgent commanders had shown genuine, independent interest in reconciliation.”

“Second, the Chief of Pakistan’s Army Staff, General Ashfaq Kayani, in 2010 once again successfully resisted the United States pressure to launch military operations in Balochistan and North Waziristan, where the Islamic Emirate is based”.

“Third, Gen. Kayani told Mr Karzai this spring that the condition for peace in Afghanistan would be the closing of several Indian consulates, while offering to broker deals with Islamic Emirate leaders, whom he considers a ‘strategic asset’”.

“Fourth, Gen. Kayani blithely told Washington audience that he remained wedded to ‘strategic depth’ — that is, to making Afghanistan the kind of proprietary hinterland for Pakistan, free of Indian or other outside influence, which it was from 1992 to 2001.”

He said the Pakistan Army’s interference in Afghanistan violates the UN Charter and poses a threat to world peace. “It deserves serious discussion in multilateral forums, including the UN.”

62 days for CWG: New stadium roof collapses

In a major shock to the Commonwealth Games organising committee, a portion of the roof covering the weightlifting auditorium, part of the newly-remodelled Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium complex, came crashing down on Sunday even as top Games officials were briefing the media about its inauguration.

Hours after the auditorium’s inauguration, red-faced CWG officials were forced to hand it back to the Central Public Works Department for repairs. Strangely, though, the Union sports minister, Mr M.S. Gill, who was present at the inaugural function, insisted that the leaking of the roof and its collapse was “normal” and there was “nothing to worry about”. “It happened due to the continuous rains,” he said.

Delhi government and CWG officials said the roof of the weightlifting auditorium started leaking after Saturday’s showers, which had led to water accumulating inside it.

The Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium is the main venue for the Games, and the venue for both the opening and closing ceremonies. The roof, on which Rs 90 crore was spent, will now take a week more to be repaired, Games officials confirmed.

Pranab's breakfast diplomacy, Opposition agrees to debate

Signalling an end to the deadlock in Parliament, leaders of all opposition parties met the finance minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, on Monday morning and agreed to hold a debate and allow both houses to function peacefully.

The all-party breakfast meeting agreed to the debate on the issue and to allow Parliament to function peacefully from Monday.

"The discussion over the price rise issue will take place Tuesday," Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Mr Sitaram Yechury, told reporters.

Asked under which rule the debate would be held, Yechury said: "Under no rule. It is Mr Pranab Mukherjee's rule."

Troubleshooter Mr Mukherjee called the opposition leaders to draw up a formula for ending the stalemate over their demand for a discussion under a rule that entails voting.

The government had rejected the opposition demand, leading to an impasse that led to virtually no business being transacted through last week.

The breakfast meeting also decided to to draft a resolution to be adopted by parliament. The resolution will urge the government to take "effective steps" to contain prices, sources said.

Proposed YSR park faces water scarcity

The officials are at their wits’ ends to provide water for the YSR memorial park at Nallamala forest. None of the three bore wells dug so far has yielded any water. Incidentally, YSR is known as a modern day Bhagiratha for taking up all pending irrigation works under the Jalayagnam scheme.

The state government had sanctioned the Dr YSR Smruthi Vanam Project to be taken up by the forest department at a cost of Rs 13 crore in two stages. The location of the park is on the Atmakur-Nandyala route and stage-I works are now continuing at a brisk pace to meet the inauguration deadline of September 2, coinciding with the first death anniversary of YSR.

“We were facing a major problem in getting water for the project as the three borewells did not yield any water. Thanks to the recent rains, we have some water in the borewells,” the project officer of the park, Mr Chandramohan Reddy, said.

Project officials are clueless about this peculiar problem of water shortage as the area is adjacent to the Nallamala forest and a large irrigation dam, Velugodu, is nearby. Mr Reddy said that the assumption of many people that the YSR Park would destroy the ecology of the region and the constructions would hamper the movements of wild life in the area was baseless.

“We are not taking up any activity at Pavuralagutta. The park is situated 20 km away from the site. Even movement of people is prohibited in the core area of the Gundla Bhrahm-eswaram Wildlife Sanctuary,” Mr Reddy added.

According to the official, the park will enhance the forest restoration and habitat improvement. “The ecology of the Nallamala forest will be highlighted for the first time as there is no documentation of this famous forest range,” Mr Reddy said.

Jagan ends one leg of tour, talks about rivals

The Kadapa MP, Jagan Mohan Reddy, on Thursday concluded his 18-day Odarpu yatra in East Godavari district. While recalling the contribution of his father, Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, Mr Jagan said, “It is not how long one lives, but it is how he lives.”

Mr Jagan wondered aloud how long he would have to bear with the current situation in the state when his father’s deeds were being questioned by detractors. “Leaders such as Ms Konda Surekha and Mr Ambati Ramabu were being suspended on the baseless charges,” he said. Mr Jagan said he was upset that his rivals had chosen to make his Odarpu yatra a controversy, when his only motive was to keep the promise made by him at a condolence meeting at Pavuralagutta on September 25.

“Were not the people, who lost their lives in the aftermath of his father’s death, Congress workers,” Jagan said. Over 20 MLAs and five MLCs were present on the last day of the tour. The social welfare minister, Mr P. Subhash Chandrabose, Mr Ambati Rambabu, Ms Konda Surekha, Mr Konda Murali, Mr B. Karunakara Reddy, former ministers, Mr Konatala Ramakrishna and Mr Jaggampudi Rammohana Rao were among those present.

Ideal man, woman now weigh 60, 55 kg

The ideal Indian man is now five kg heavier and the ideal woman weighs 10 kg more than their ancestors in the pre-Independence era. The Centre has fixed the weight of the Indian “reference man” at 60 kg and the Indian “reference woman” at 55 kg.

These figures will now be taken as the standard weight for Indian adult. The earlier values were 55 kg for the man and 45 kg for the woman, and were fixed before Independence.

These new anthropometric values were suggested by an expert committee on daily recommended dietary allowance appointed by the Indian Council of Medical Research.

According to the committee, the ideal or reference man of India is between 18 and 29 years of age and weighs 60 kg with a height of 1.73 metres and a body mass index of 20.3. He is free from disease and physically fit for active work.

Likewise, the reference woman is aged between 18 and 29 and weighs 55 kgs with a height of 1.61 metres, a body mass index of 21.2. She should also be non-pregnant and non-lactating and physically fit for active work. Based on these new anthropometric values, the total calorie intake for an Indian adult man has been fixed at 2,320 kilo calories if he leads a sedentary life.

The values for moderate work and heavy work respectively are 2,730 kilo calories and 3,490 kilo calories. The corresponding figures for the ideal Indian woman are 1,900 kcal, 2,230 kcal and 2,850 kcal.

“For any nation to have its own recommended dietary allowance there needs to be an ideal or reference man and woman,” said Dr B.S. Narasinga Rao, chairman of the experts committee. “We have arrived at the new values based on the present day conditions,” he said.

The earlier values were fixed before Independence (1936-1944) on the recommendations of the committee of nutrition, British Medical Association, and the health committee of the League of Nations.

PM calls for Maha, AP Babli meet on Aug. 2

The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, has convened a joint meeting of the Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra on August 2 to find a political solution to the Babli project row.

The Prime Minister’s Office on Thursday sent a communication to the AP Chief Minister, Mr K. Rosaiah, in this regard. Thanking the Prime Minister for heeding the request of the all party delegation to find a political solution, Mr Rosaiah told mediapersons that he would convene an all party meeting on August 1 to discuss the strategy to be adopted at the meeting with his Maharashtra counterpart.

When asked whether he was hopeful of the joint meeting, Mr Rosaiah said he always had a positive attitude and hoped that the state would benefit from it. At the same time, the state government has decided to effectively “expose” the neighbouring state in the meeting amid apprehensions that Maharashtra might take cover under an ongoing case in the Supreme Court. “We pressed for a political solution after Maharashtra went ahead and erected gates violating an interim order of the Supreme Court,” said a senior official.

The Chief Minister added that in a federal system the Prime Minister has to play the role of an adjudicator and cannot leave the neighbouring states to wage war against each other. “We feel happy that the Prime Minister convened the meeting and we will put forth our views strongly,” he said.

10 am: Harish Rao leads TRS rally with record win, DS trails by 12K

The Telangana Rashtra Samiti's K Harish Rao won the Siddipet bypoll with an astounding margin on 98,000 votes, even as the TRS and BJP moved decisively to retain all their seats.

Thanks to Mr Rao's record margin, his Congress and Telugu Desam opponents lost their deposits.

In Nizamabad Urban, perhaps the most watched bypoll battle, the BJP's Y. Lakshminarayana was forging ahead at the end of the seventh round of counting. He was leading by 12,000 votes over Mr D. Srinivas, the state Congress president, dealing a severe blow to his political future.

Koppula Eshwar won the Dharmapuri (SC) seats by 35,000 votes.

TRS candidates were leading in all the other constituencies which went to polls on July 27.

The Congress had taken a slender lead of 2,000 votes in Sirpur in the first round, but the TRS made up the deficit and was leading in the subsequent rounds.

Earlier, counting for the bypolls began amid tight security in all 12 constituencies that went to the bypolls.

Results are expected by 11 am in the rest of the seats which saw the use of EVMs: Sirpur, Chennur (SC), Mancherial, Vemulawada and RNizamabad (Urban), the results having been declared at Siddipet and Dharmapuri (SC).

In Yellareddy, Koratla, Sircilla, Huzurabad and Warangal West, where ballot papers were used, results are expected towards late evening. The TRS was ahead in all these seats.

Fall in Nizamabad poll percentage worries DS

The electoral fortunes of the Pradesh Congress Committee chief, Mr D. Srinivas, wavered on Wednesday with the Election Commission declaring that the final poll percentage of Nizamabad was 45 and not 51.72 as first assumed.

The low voter turnout of 39.5 per cent proved costly for Mr Srinivas in the 2009 elections. The initial figures put out on Tuesday indicated that the PCC chief was able to mobilise minorities in his favour. But with the poll percentage being pegged at 45, there are fears that he may not romp home.

However, analysts felt that the PCC chief still had a fair chance since there was no minority candidate opposing him. “Minorities who supported the Praja Rajyam candidate in the general elections plumped for Mr Srinivas and this will make lot of difference,” said a leader.

In 2009, a strong section of minority leaders affiliated to the Congress pulled strings to field a minority candidate in the PR ticket mainly to spoil Mr Srinivas’ chances. But this time, they were all working for the PCC president.

Significantly there were divergent views on the low turnout too. While one section of leaders felt that it would favour Mr Srinivas, others suspect that it indicated the apathetic mood of minority voters.

Mr Srinivas’s aides, for instance, claimed that around their leader got 30,000 minority votes. The BJP was confident that its sitting MLA, Mr Lakshminarayana, would win again thanks to the strong Telangana sentiment. The BJP and TRS fought elections together and the TRS president, Mr K. Chandrasekhar Rao, campaigned for the BJP candidate.

Meanwhile, the Chief Electoral Officer, Dr I.V. Subba Rao, said that counting would begin at 8 am on Friday.

Men charged for racially abusing Indian in Australia

In a first such case in Victoria, three men have been charged with inciting racial hatred nearly six months after they physically assaulted an Indian student in this Australian city.

The police have laid racial vilification charges against all the accused who racially and physically abused an Indian student on a bus heading towards Portsea on the Mornington Peninsula on February 6.

Two of the men have been charged with inciting racial hatred, intentionally causing serious injury, assault and offensive language, AAP reported on Wednesday.

They have been ordered to appear at the Frankston Magistrates Court on September 1. A third man is expected to be summoned on the same date.

“Police are hoping the laying of charges in relation to a serious racial vilification incident will send a strong message to the community that this behaviour will not be tolerated,” a statement from Victoria Police said.

“This is the first time that charges of this nature have been put before the courts.”

Osama hired bombers in Pak: Wikileaks

Contradicting CIA’s assertion that it has no intelligence on the world’s most wanted terrorist Osama bin Laden since 2003, leaked secret US military documents say the Al Qaeda chief personally attended a recruitment drive for suicide bombers in Pakistan in 2006. CIA chief Leon Panetta said in June that the last time the US had precise information on Bin Laden’s location was in the “early 2000s”.

But the US military intelligence reports leaked by the whisteblower website Wikileaks show repeated instances in which US forces saw signs of the Al Qaeda chief in Pakistan. The evidence appears to contradict Mr Penetta’s claim in June that there has been no intelligence on Al Qaeda leader since 2003, the Daily Telegraph reported, quoting the leaked documents published by the Guardian.

For example, he was reported as attending meetings with recruited suicide bombers in 2006 in Pakistan, it said. A “threat report” generated by International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan said: “Reportedly a high-level meeting was held in Quetta, Pakistan, where six suicide bombers were given orders for an operation in northern Afghanistan.”

“These meetings take place once every month, and there are usually about 20 people present. The place for the meeting alternates between Quetta and villages (NFDG) [no further details given] on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. The top four people in these meetings are Mullah Omar, Osama bin Laden, Mullah Dadullah and Mullah [Baradar],” according to the leaked documents. The documents also contain numerous unverifiable reports on Bin Laden’s death, the report said.

People will pick resigned MLAs, says Lagadapati

Even as the bypolls to the 12 constituencies in the Telangana region drew to a close, the Vijayawada MP, Mr Lagadapati Rajagopal, predicted that 11 constituencies would re-elect those who had resigned in the wake of the Telangana agitation. He refused to disclose who would win in the twelfth constituency. This is according to a survey conducted by an Ellur-based agency named Flash Team. Incidentally, it is a known fact that Flash Team is being owned by Mr Lagadapati.

Out of the 12 constituencies where bypolls were conducted on Tuesday, 10 were held by the TRS and one each by the BJP and the TD. Mr Rajagopal claimed that the Congress will emerge second in all the constituencies. Flash Team, Mr Rajagopal claims, has been predicting accurately since 2005. He said that all those who resigned will be winning again by a substantial margin. But he added that the outcome has nothing to do with the T-sentiment as all the candidates were in favour of Telangana.

Mani, Kalmadi slug it out over CWG

The former sports minister, Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar was labelled “anti-national” by Commonwealth Games organising committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi after the senior Congress leader’s critical comments on the quadrennial event.

Mr Aiyar, who has been a vocal critic of the Games, went as far as calling the patrons of the event “evil”. “I am delighted the rains are causing difficulties for the Commonwealth Games. Basically, I will be very unhappy if the Games are successful because then they will start bringing Asian Games, Olympic Games and all these,” Mr Aiyar told reporters outside Parliament House on Tuesday.

“Those who are patronising the Games can only be evil. Thousands of crores are being spent on a circus like this while common children are being deprived of basic facilities to play sport,” Mr Aiyar said.

Reacting to the comments, Mr Kalmadi said, “No individual can spoil the Games. It is a totally irresponsible and ridiculous statement from such a senior person, who has also headed the sports ministry earlier. No Indian national can speak like this.”

He added: “With the Commonwealth Games fast approaching, he should know his responsibilities and think before making such a statement. He is an elected member of the Rajya Sabha and it is an anti-national statement from him.”

“It was because of his openness that he was removed from the sport minister’s post. If he would have been the minister, the Commonwealth Games would never have come to India,” Mr Kalmadi said.