Minister of External Affairs, Sushma Swaraj has reached out to the families of two Indian victims of suspected hate crime shootings in US. Harnish Patel, Indian-origin store owner in the US was shot dead outside his home while Deep Rai, a 39-year-old Sikh man was injured when a unidentified man shot him on the arm.

The Minister, further, took to a social networking site to inform that Deep Rai had a bullet injury on his arm and is currently out of danger.

“He (Deep Rai’s father, Sardar Harpal Singh) told me that his son had a bullet injury on his arm. He is out of danger and is recovering in a private hospital,” the minister tweeted.

Condoling the death of Harnish Patel, Swaraj said that the Indian counsul had reached Lancaster and met the victim’s family.

43 -year-old Harnish was found dead of gunshot wounds in the front yard of his home on Thursday. It is suspected that Patel was confronted by the killer while driving back home from his store, just 6 km away.

Deep Rai, on the other hand, had been shot by a partially- masked gunman who shouted "go back to your own country".

Both the incidents comes just days after an Indian engineer, Srinivas Kuchibhotla, was killed in Kansas last month when a 51-year-old US Navy veteran Adam Purinton fired at him and his friend Alok Madasani. This time, too, the attackers yelled, "get out of my country".

The Election Commission wants laws to be changed so that it can disqualify from contesting polls the candidates who do not clear their water and power bills.

It has asked the Law Ministry to amend the Representation of the People Act, 1951, so that such defaulters can be barred from contesting Lok Sabha and Assembly polls.

According to the poll panel, it will require amendment to the chapter-III of the R P Act which deals with electoral offences.

A new clause will have to be inserted therein for disqualification "on the ground of being a defaulter of public dues".

The issue is pending with the government.

In an August, 2015 order, the Delhi High Court had asked the Commission to ensure that candidates contesting Lok Sabha and Assembly elections furnish a 'no dues certificate' from the agency providing electricity, water and telephone connections to their accommodation.

Since February, 2016, the Commission had been insisting on an additional affidavit in the prescribed format along with the 'No Demand Certificate' from the agencies providing these services.

A 'no rent due' certificate is also required in case the candidate had been occupying government accommodation during the 10 years leading to the polls.

The Delhi High Court, while delivering the verdict, had said that those wanting to contest elections will clear their dues after the order.

In March 2016, when the EC had met political parties here to discuss electoral reforms, it was told that the 'no dues certificate' for candidates was leading to corruption as bribes were being allegedly paid to obtain it.

Recently, the Commission had proposed that political parties, as a pre-condition for fielding candidates, furnish affidavit stating that they have not defaulted on dues on account of usages of public utilities.

The Election Commission wants laws to be changed so that it can disqualify from contesting polls the candidates who do not clear their water and power bills.

It has asked the Law Ministry to amend the Representation of the People Act, 1951, so that such defaulters can be barred from contesting Lok Sabha and Assembly polls.

According to the poll panel, it will require amendment to the chapter-III of the R P Act which deals with electoral offences.

A new clause will have to be inserted therein for disqualification "on the ground of being a defaulter of public dues".

The issue is pending with the government.

In an August, 2015 order, the Delhi High Court had asked the Commission to ensure that candidates contesting Lok Sabha and Assembly elections furnish a 'no dues certificate' from the agency providing electricity, water and telephone connections to their accommodation.

Since February, 2016, the Commission had been insisting on an additional affidavit in the prescribed format along with the 'No Demand Certificate' from the agencies providing these services.

A 'no rent due' certificate is also required in case the candidate had been occupying government accommodation during the 10 years leading to the polls.

The Delhi High Court, while delivering the verdict, had said that those wanting to contest elections will clear their dues after the order.

In March 2016, when the EC had met political parties here to discuss electoral reforms, it was told that the 'no dues certificate' for candidates was leading to corruption as bribes were being allegedly paid to obtain it.

Recently, the Commission had proposed that political parties, as a pre-condition for fielding candidates, furnish affidavit stating that they have not defaulted on dues on account of usages of public utilities.

The do or die campaign for the seventh and final phase of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, covering 40 assembly seats in seven districts, including Prime Minister Narendra Modis constituency, will come to a close tomorrow, March 6.

The polling in these seats will be held on March 8.

As the battle for Uttar Pradesh converges on the banks of the river Ganga in Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modis parliamentary constituency, all eyes are on the seat as it is increasingly seen as the bellwether for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Top BJP leaders and Union ministers have made a beeline to Varanasi towards the fag end of electioneering, making the poll atmosphere highly surcharged.

The saffron party, which is locked in a tight electoral battle with the SP-Congress alliance and the Mayawati-led BSP, hopes that a good performance in the eastern parts of the state will take it past the majority mark in the 403-member state Assembly.

Modi is camping in Varanasi and holding roadshows, the first after such an exercise during the run up to the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. He even paid tribute to Madan Mohan Malviya by garlanding the statue of the late leader on Saturday.

The Prime Minister almost crossed path with Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav and his ally Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, when the latter took out a joint roadshow to garner votes for the alliance.

The do or die campaign for the seventh and final phase of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, covering 40 assembly seats in seven districts, including Prime Minister Narendra Modis constituency, will come to a close tomorrow, March 6.

The polling in these seats will be held on March 8.

As the battle for Uttar Pradesh converges on the banks of the river Ganga in Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modis parliamentary constituency, all eyes are on the seat as it is increasingly seen as the bellwether for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Top BJP leaders and Union ministers have made a beeline to Varanasi towards the fag end of electioneering, making the poll atmosphere highly surcharged.

The saffron party, which is locked in a tight electoral battle with the SP-Congress alliance and the Mayawati-led BSP, hopes that a good performance in the eastern parts of the state will take it past the majority mark in the 403-member state Assembly.

Modi is camping in Varanasi and holding roadshows, the first after such an exercise during the run up to the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. He even paid tribute to Madan Mohan Malviya by garlanding the statue of the late leader on Saturday.

The Prime Minister almost crossed path with Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav and his ally Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, when the latter took out a joint roadshow to garner votes for the alliance.

One Direction singer Louis Tomlinson has been arrested at Los Angeles airport after an altercation with a paparazzi photographer.

The 25-year-old singer was taken into custody before being released on a USD 20,000 bond and instructed to return to court on March 29, reported TMZ.

The singer was reportedly with his girlfriend Eleanor Calder when the confrontation, which happened on Friday, took place.

Police documents showed Tomlinson was subjected to a citizen's arrest.

Calder then argued with onlookers who had begun filming the incident.

The photographer was too close for Tomlinson's comfort, "so he allegedly pulled the photographer to the floor by his legs. The photographer fell backwards and struck his back and head on the floor." 

The incident took place as the couple were returning to Los Angeles from a holiday in Las Vegas.

Vaccines saved more than 10 million lives globally, by preventing an estimated 4.5 billion cases of diseases such as polio, measles, rabies and hepatitis A, a new study has found.

Among these nearly 200 million cases and about 450,000 deaths were prevented in the US over the past five decades, researches said.

Scientists developed the normal human cell strain in 1962 and it has been used ever since to safely grow the viruses needed to produce vaccines against more than 10 diseases.

The recent emergence of some diseases that were previously considered dormant in the US, such as measles, demonstrates that the anti-vaccination movement is having a direct, negative effect on public health and vaccination rates for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) in the US are now as low as 50 to 86 per cent, said Leonard Hayflick of the University of California in the US.

Researchers wanted to study how many lives had been saved by the development of cell strain WI-38.

Previously-published data on cases and deaths for each disease in the US was studied to determine the number of cases of disease and deaths prevented by vaccines developed using WI-38 from 1962-2015.

Researchers assumed that the prevalence rates would have held constant through the years without vaccines.

Since vaccines for individual disease were introduced over time, to determine how many cases were prevented and lives saved for each disease, they multiplied the number of years the vaccine has been out by the prevalence of cases and deaths caused by that disease in 1960.

"Vaccination is a particularly important issue to think about now, given the rise of an anti-vaccine movement that has the potential to reverse the health gains achieved through one of the most powerful interventions in medical history," Hayflick said.

When almost everyone in a community is immunised against a disease, if an immunised person becomes infected, the disease has little opportunity to spread because there are so few unprotected hosts. This is known as 'herd immunity.' 

However, if enough people forego vaccination, outbreaks can occur as the disease spreads among unprotected individuals, researchers said.

The study was published in the journal AIMS Public Health.

Nagpur, Indore, Surat, Vadodara and Udaipur have emerged among the top cities outperforming other cities in India in the Centre's Smart City mission.

 Ahead of the completion of two years of the mission in June, these cities have achieved an Investment Conversion Ratio (ICR) of 90 per cent and above, according to an analysis of the implementation of smart city projects. ICR indicates the percentage of funds currently being used at the ground level for implementing the projects as against the funds approved by the Centre. Interestingly, all the five cities are BJP ruled states.

The Urban Development Ministry has approved smart city plans of 60 cities so far. 20 cities announced for the mission in January 2016, followed by 13 in May and another 27 in September.

Indore, Surat, and Udaipur were among the first batch of 20 cities announced in January last year. Nagpur and Vadodara, despite being selected in September last year, got into top league within a short span, an official said.

The first batch of 20 cities, with a total approved investment of Rs 48,064 crore, is set to achieve an ICR of 49 per cent by June this year. The ICR of the 13 announced in May is about 4 per cent and 21 per cent in the case of 27 cities announced in September. A total investment of Rs 1,31,762 crore has been approved for the 60 cities.

Back to full fitness and hungry for a good fight, ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal says she is ready to take on the world's best at the prestigious All England Championship starting next week.

After putting in the hard yards following a complete recovery from injury, Saina is aiming to regain her position in world badminton.

"My target is to be one of the best badminton players in the world and facing strong opposition from best players is the real enjoyment of playing badminton," Saina told in an interview.

"I was runners-up in 2015 All England Championship but facing Carolina (Marin) was a very big task. She overpowered me and won the title. I am fine and well-trained now so I am ready to face my opponents," she added.

Left heart-broken after a knee problem scuttled her Rio Olympic plans, Saina showed tremendous mental fortitude to recover well and resume competitive badminton in November, despite going through a surgery in August.

The 26-year-old participated in three tournaments — China, Hong Kong and Macau — last year before competing at the Premier Badminton League for Awadhe Warriors in January.

The Hyderabadi, who was still in the process of strengthening her knee, then notched up a stunning title win at the Malaysia Masters Grand Prix Gold to begin the season on a positive note.

Saina then decided to skip the Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold in Lucknow, saying she needed more time to be fully fit ahead of the Super Series events which start with the All England at Birmingham on March 7.

"I did not have enough time to train hard before the Malaysia Masters. But now I am fit, I have no injury issues.

Practising hard under the watchful eyes of my coach for at least a fortnight prior to major tournaments is the most optimal time," said the 2015 World Championship silver medallist.

"I got enough time to train on full speed after Malaysia Open. I have been training under the guidance of Vimal sir, keeping the new trend of the game in mind.

"Mr Umendra Rana is also helping me as my sparring partner during training. He is from Sports Authority of India.

Training is followed by stretching which also is very essential and Mr Arvind Nigam is a very sincere physio. He helps me a lot in the proper conditioning of my body after heavy training," she added.

The London Olympics bronze-medallist is set to lock horns with defending Champion Nozomi Okuhara of Japan in the opening round. Okuhara is nursing a shoulder injury and last played in November where she withdrew half-way through her first round encounter.

Asked about the draw, Saina said: "The draw is good. I guess it is not an issue who I am facing, it is all about giving your best out of the best learning. Let us see how the matches go."

The 2010 Commonwealth Games champion was appointed as a member of the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) Athletes' Commission in October last year.

Saina rued that she has not been able to attend the meetings due to her busy training schedule but hoped to give it some time in July.

"I'm an IOC AC member and recently they have nominated me for BWF AC as a liaison between players in BWF and IOC AC. I haven't attended most of the meetings of IOC AC but I may attend the meetings slated for July," she said.

The Finance Ministry has refused to disclose whether its boss Arun Jaitley was consulted before the announcement of demonetisation by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 8, 2016.

The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had earlier claimed that the query whether the Finance Minister and the Chief Economic Advisor were consulted before the announcement does not come under the definition of "information" under the RTI Act.

The definition of "information" under the Act refers to "any material in any form" under the control of a public authority.

The response of the Finance Ministry to an RTI query filed by Press Trust of India (PTI) assumes significance as it acknowledges that there are records pertaining to the question but they cannot be disclosed under the Right to Information Act.

The Finance Ministry has taken refuge under the exemption clause of section 8(1)(a) of the Act to deny the information.

It did not, however, give any reasons as to how the information would attract the section.

The section allows withholding information "disclosure of which would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, relation with foreign State or lead to incitement of an offence".

According to procedure, a first appeal can be filed with the Ministry concerned which is to be handled by a senior official. If it is unsuccessful, the matter escalates to the Central Information Commission, the top adjudicating body on the RTI Act.

The three key institutions which are directly related to the move of demonetisation– the PMO, the RBI and the Finance Ministry– have refused to disclose information about the sudden measure on different pretexts.

The Finance Ministry is the latest respondent.

The RTI Act has specific provision which allows records attracting its exemption clauses to be disclosed "if public interest in disclosure outweighs the harm to the protected interests".

"The clause of public interest would apply where exemption clause applies on the information sought by an applicant. In the present case, the information sought does not attract any exemption clause," former Central Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi told PTI.

He said the law is very clear: when a public authority rejects to disclose information it must give clear reasons as to how the exemption clause would apply in the given case.

On the responses of the PMO and the RBI, former Chief Information Commissioner AN Tiwari had said that their replies are wrong as the applicant had sought to know a fact which would be part of records hence an "information" under the RTI Act.

Notes of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 ceased to be legal tender after a surprise announcement by the PM on November 8 last year.

Police have seized Rs 1.36 crore in scrapped currency notes here and detained five persons, an official said today.

A team of police officials kept a vigil at the Upavan Lake area and nabbed five persons who were carrying Rs Rs 1.36 crore in demonetised notes, said DCP (Zone-V) Sunil Lokhande.

The five were detained and the currency was seized, he added.

With this, the police in the last one week have seized Rs 3.52 crore in defunct bills and detained a dozen persons.

Adele narrowly averted an on-stage mishap while performing in Brisbane after the singer tripped over her dress.

The Grammy-winning singer was performing "Hello" while trying to run up a set of stairs in her floor-length gown when she almost took a tumble, causing her to hit a "dodgy note", reported AceShowbiz.

"I don't know if you saw, but after you did your marvelous sing along to the Hello chorus, I nearly tripped up those stairs did you see me, Oh My God!" Adele told the crowd.

"I've never worn a dress like this, I'm basically celebrating Beauty and the Beast coming out… but I forgot to lift it up and tried to run up and nearly fell over," she added.

Adele is set to perform another show in Brisbane on March 5 before heading to Sydney for concerts on March 10 and 11.

India removed dangerous opener David Warner and in-form captain Steve Smith cheaply on the second morning as they kept a tight leash on the Australians who reached to 87 for 2 at lunch in an intense session of cricket in the second Test here today.

Warner (33) and Smith (8) fell to Ravichandran Ashwin (1/22) and Ravindra Jadeja (1/11) respectively as the Indian bowlers, especially the spinners, made it difficult for the Australians to score runs on a turning Chinnaswamy Stadium track which had a lot of cracks.

Ashwin, who opened the bowling with Ishant Sharma, gave India the breakthrough in the sixth over of the day and third of his own as a gem of delivery knocked off Warner's off-stump as the batsman was completely beaten by the extravagant turn of ball after landing outside the leg. Warner's 33 came from 67 balls and contained three fours.

Smith, who had scored a brilliant century in the first Test which Australia won by 333 runs, fell three overs before lunch after he consumed 52 deliveries for his eight runs which did not have any shot to the boundary.

Opener Matt Renshaw, who was dropped by Indian captain Virat Kohli at slips off Umesh Yadav's bowling, was batting on 40 off 144 deliveries at the lunch break after starting the day on 15. Shaun Marsh was giving him company on 2 off 10 balls.

Australia, who were 40 for 2 overnight, could only add 47 runs from 29 overs while losing two important wickets. They now trailed India by 102 runs with their eight second innings wickets in hand.

India, who were shot out for a paltry 189 in the first innings, showed a lot of intent and they were fired up for most part of the morning session.

The session belonged to India as they put shackles around the Australian batsmen by not allowing them to score freely.

The crucial session also saw a lot of theatrics and verbal sparrings between the players of the two sides.

Ishant and Smith were involved in some theatrics with the India pacer making faces on quite a few occasions to the visiting captain after his shout for an LBW was turned down by the umpire. Kohli was also seen enjoying the moment as he wore a smile from behind to what Ishant was doing.

Smith looked like amused initially but later retorted in his own way. The Australian captain also survived a close LBW decision. India asked for a DRS referral but to no avail.

The Australian captain was not to play a long innings today as he succumbed to the intense Indian pressure in the 42nd over as his defensive shot off Jadeja hit the inside edge of his bat and the pad before wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha took a fine diving catch.

To bridge the gap in priority sectors of development, Odisha government today initiated a proposal for institutionalisation of CSR funds and projects of corporate houses operating in the state.

The proposal was discussed in a meeting chaired by Chief Secretary A P Padhi who asked the industry department to prepare a data base of the industries and corporate houses that come under the orbit of CSR regulations and identify the areas of converged action.

Development Commissioner R Balakrishnan suggested the department to look into various models and practices followed in different parts of the country and suggest the model most suitable for Odisha.

Industries Secretary Sanjiv Chopra said, "As per preliminary calculation, there are near about 287 corporate houses who are taking up CSR activity through their own agencies".

In 2014-15, around Rs 344 crore has been allocated by all these corporate houses towards CSR activities, an official statement said.

However, the fund allocation and spending pattern show substantial disparity among the districts in availing CSR projects, the meeting felt.

While around 10 districts have received 90 per cent of the CSR resources, some have been left out. Many of the CSR projects also fail to have any countable contribution towards priority sectors of the state's development agenda.

Most of the members emphasised on formation of a CSR council for an effective planning and implementation of CSR interventions, the statement said.G

Australia were 87/2 in their first innings at lunch on the second day of the second cricket Test against India here today.

Brief Scores:

Australia 1st Innings: 87/2 in 45 overs (Matt Renshaw 40 batting, R Ashwin 1/22).

India and the US are set to further strengthen their bilateral security ties under the Trump administration with the two countries deciding to continue exchange programmes on hostage crisis, terror crime scene probe and cybercrime.

A delegation of officials from the US met their counterparts in the Home Ministry last week and discussed ways to streamline the training programmes being conducted under the Anti-Terrorism Assistance (ATA) pact.

Indian police officers will undergo training programmes in the US training institutes on negotiations in hostage situations, terror crime scene investigations, besides on two new courses relating to cybercrime and maritime security.

India and the US are working towards strengthening bilateral ties on security front, including training programmes. The US will be introducing two new courses for Indian police officers this year, a Home Ministry official said.

Indian police officers currently can opt for six training programmes under the ATA pact.

These courses have been an integral part of the bilateral cooperation on internal security between the two countries.

India is a key strategic partner of the US in its war on terror and with groups like ISIS using Internet to reach out to potential recruits in India, the ATA courses are seen as extremely relevant, the official said.