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BJP calls on riots-tainted men to campaign for Muzaffarnagar assembly bypoll

Claiming they have not set out to communally polarise voters, the BJP nevertheless has pulled in four party members named in the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots, to campaign for the 13 February Muzaffarnagar assembly bypoll in Uttar Pradesh, reports The Indian Express. They are union minister Sanjeev Balyan, MP Hukum Singh and MLAs Suresh Rana and Sangeet Singh Som. These four have apparently been brought in to counter the Congress candidate, Salmaan Saeed, who has also been accused of giving a hate speech before the riots broke out in Muzaffarnagar. The BJP's candidate in Muzaffarnagar is Kapil Dev.

Rajnath, Doval meet senior Muslim clerics to discuss ISIS and India

Home Minister Rajnath Singh and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval met leaders of the Muslim community on Tuesday to discuss how to prevent the radicalisation of young Indian Muslims by the Islamic State (ISIS), reports The Economic Times. Sixteen young men have been arrested in India so far this year for links with the terror group. Issues such as the misuse of social media, possible points leading to radicalisation, the growth of ISIS influence and the best possible response from the forces of law and order were discussed.

Pakistan offers visa to Anupam Kher; Actor says no

Following the row over actor Anupam Kher's visa to Pakistan, the Pakistan High Commission has now reportedly offered him a visa to allow him to attend the Karachi Literary Festival - scheduled to begin on 5 February.

Anupam Kher

Kher claimed that Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit called him up today to offer him a visa to visit Karachi. But the actor turned down the visa saying that he had already taken up other assignments on the scheduled dates and that he might visit Pakistan in the future.

10 Indian army soldiers missing after avalanche hits Siachen

10 soldiers of the Indian Army had reportedly gone missing after an avalanche hit the Siachen Glacier in Jammu and Kashmir today.

The troops reportedly belonged to the Madras Regiment. As per media reports said rescue efforts had been launched, but clear details on the incident have been received.

The avalanche hit the northern part of the glacier.

Stop supporting militants in Kashmir, Pakistan's parliamentary panel tells Nawaz Sharif

The Pakistan Parliamentary panel has urged Nawaz Sharif to stop active support of armed, banned, militant groups in Kashmir. However, the panel encouraged a continued "diplomatic and moral" support of Kashmir's struggle for right to self-determination. The panel has asked the Sharif government to raise alleged violation of the Indus Water Treaty by India. Part of a policy recommendation by the country's lower house, the panel issued by the National Assembly Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, issued a four-page report to improve India-Pakistan relations. In perhaps what maybe the first of its kind, the report further recommended that the government take proactive action against violent armed outfits in the region. This could be seen as admission of Pakistan's military involvement in Kashmir, a fact that the country has long denied.

Kejriwal announces Rs 550 crore loan to MCD, blames BJP for instigating strike

Kejriwal_PTI

File Photo

In order to pacify the ongoing MCD pandemonium in Delhi, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced a loan of Rs 550 crore to the agencies so that they could pay the workers their unpaid dues.

"We will arrange salaries till 31 January, for which Rs 690 crore is needed. We are paying Rs 142 crore immediately," Kejriwal said in Bengaluru, where he is undergoing treatment at a naturopathy centre.

However, he reiterated that the Delhi government does not owe any money to the agencies and that adequate funds had been allocated to them under the budget.

Mounting an attack on the Centre, the Delhi CM said that the MCD has become a den of corruption under BJP and that the Modi government is attempting to destabilise his government in Delhi.

Bengaluru: Tanzanian woman stripped, thrashed by mob as police watches

A young woman and four of her friends were driving through Hesaraghatta in north Bengaluru on 31 January, when an angry mob stopped them and dragged them out of their WagonR. The woman, a 21-year-old from Tanzania, was stripped, thrashed, violated while the police watched, Deccan Chronicle reports.

The BBA student at Acharya College didn't know why any of this was happening to her. As it turns out, a Sudanese man, a complete stranger to her, had run over a 35-year-old woman with his sedan in the same spot 30 minutes prior to the attack. The mob decided that since she was of African origin, she too was involved in the case, and so they took matters into their hands.

Earth made up of two planets?

A "violent, head-on collision" created Earth as we know it, ground-breaking new research has revealed. A planetary embryo called Theia, thought to be around the size of Mars or Earth, collided with Earth 4.5 billion years ago when our planet was just 100 million years old, a report in the Independent said.

It was already known that Theia and Earth collided, but the new evidence from the UCLA-led scientific team shows it was less of a side swipe, as previously thought, and more of a "head-on assault". The force of the impact resulted in early Earth and Theia, together to form a single planet, with a piece breaking off and entering its gravitational pull to form the moon. Researchers studied moon rocks from three Apollo missions and compared them with volcanic rocks found in Hawaii and Arizona.

UK scientists to genetically modify human embryos

Scientists in the UK will be allowed to genetically modify human embryos for the first time in history, after they received a licence to go ahead with groundbreaking research into the early stages of human life, the Independent has reported. Permission has been granted to alter the DNA of embryos in the first seven days after fertilisation, and could provide clues in the short term as to what causes miscarriage in women. It remains illegal for the scientists to implant the altered embryos into women, but the decision represents a huge landmark in the use of revolutionary gene-editing technology known as Crispr-Cas9. The committee added a caveat that no gene editing can take place until the research receives separate approval from an ethics panel, which could be achieved by March.

3 million died in Bangladesh liberation war, says International Crimes Tribunal

3 million Bangladeshi people sacrificing their lives to free their country against Pakistan's Army during Bangladesh's Liberation war of 1971 is an 'undisputed' and 'settled' history, declared the International Crimes Tribunal on Tuesday.

The tribunal also said that lakhs of women lost their dignity and crores of people had to migrate to India. This statement is significant against the backdrop of opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia's statement which questioned the authenticity of martyr numbers and the recent verdict of executing two war criminals by the Tribunal.

CPM leader caught on camera robbing a NRI businessman's home

Raghavn, a branch secretary of the communist party in North Kerala's Kasargode district was seen on CCTV footage attempting a burglary, armed with an iron road, at the house of a NRI businessman Mohammed Younus who was in UAE at the time with his family.

The video has gone viral and the party has expelled him with immediate effect. He has been missing since the video was public.

Neighbours noticed doors to be open in the house and informed relatives of Younus, who in turn, called the police. POlice identified him based on the camera footage. He was dressed in a white dhoti and shirt and was carrying a bag.

Now get a Revolver for Rs 35,000, courtesy Make in India

A new .22 bore revolver, named 'NIdar' is set to flood the market after it is introduced by the Ishapore Rifle Factory, West Bengal. The revolver comes cheap at Rs 35,000 with each bullet costing Rs 22 and has 8 chambers.

It weighs 250 gm and 140 mm in length, with muzzle length at 40.3 mm. The clientele for this gun are women, according to the Ordnance Factory Board.

""The idea behind creating Nidar was to arm both office going/ professional men and women, so that they can defend themselves from goons roaming on the urban streets", said PK Aggarwal, officer-in-charge, Ishapore Rifle Factory.