Pakistan skipper Misbah-ul Haq rates the 2-0 series win over Australia as his country's "best ever" considering his team were without three key bowlers.
While Himanta Biswa Sarma scotched rumours that he would be the king this time, political sources in Guwahati maintained that he, and not Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, had a bigger say in choosing candidates, reports Radhika Ramaseshan.
Denying his role in the 26/11 attacks at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Railway Terminus, Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab on Friday told the Bombay high court that police had cooked up a story to falsely implicate him in the crime.
The death sentence awarded to Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone terrorist arrested during the terror siege on Mumbai in November 2008, will not affect any future talks between New Delhi and Islamabad, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said.Qureshi clarified that the Mumbai special anti-terror court's judgment against Kasab will not hinder the proposed talks between the foreign ministers of the two neighbouring countries.
Ajmal Kasab, the Pakistani terrorist convicted for the 26/11 attack, told the Bombay high court on Wednesday that he had no objection to the state opening arguments on confirmation of death sentence awarded to him for his role in the carnage that killed 166 people.
The two lawyers appointed by the Bombay high court to argue Ajmal Kasab's appeal against his death sentence in the 26/11 attack case on Saturday met the Pakistani terrorist at the Arthur Road jail in Mumbai. On June 8, the high court had appointed Amin Solkar and Farhana Shah as lawyers to argue Kasab's appeal. "We met Kasab for nearly 20 minutes in his cell and spoke to him about the case. We told him that the court had appointed both of us to argue his appeal," Shah said.
For the chief minister and Assam alike, the road ahead is full of challenges, notes Aditi Phadnis.
The accident occurred when the private boat 'Ma Kamala' was headed to Majuli from Nimati Ghat and the government-owned ferry 'Tripkai' was coming from the riverine island.
The second dossier is also likely to name Lashkar-e-Tayiba leaders Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and Zarar Shah as conspirators of the Mumbai carnage and furnish details as to how they planned the attacks and trained the attackers. The DNA sample of Kasab, which has already been collected by the investigators as part of efforts to prove that he is a Pakistani national, is likely to be given soon, sources said.
The BJP's panicky return to basic-instinct majoritarianism in Bihar has pushed Muslims back into the 'secular' basement, says Shekhar Gupta.
The senior Congress leader opined that the situation in Assam can now be divided into two phases -- pre-CAA and post-CAA, and it was necessary to unite all anti-CAA forces in order to protect the ethos of the Assam Accord.
The sea training also included 'how to fish', something that made Kasab think that 'he had got a job and he could earn a respectable living'.
'Everything was sacrosanct when the BJP was led by Vajpayee and Advani.' 'That was a different culture. But with Modi and Amit Shah nothing is sacrosanct.'
Pakistan cricket has got more bad news ahead of the World Cup after all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez failed to clear the informal bio-mechanics test in Chennai.
The Central Bureau of Investigation recently took over the probe in the case, based on a Patna police FIR related to alleged criminal conspiracy and abetment to suicide against Rajput's girlfriend and actor Rhea Chakraborty.
What was the need to fictionalise a series on real events that were far more horrific because they were real? asks Vaihayasi Pande Daniel.
Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayiba's technology chief had posed as an Indian businessman while negotiating to buy from an American company a Voice-over-Internet Phone service that was later used by the LeT handlers to communicate with 26/11 attackers while concealing their actual origin.
Pakistan's spinners scythed through Australia's top order in the second innings to get them close to victory in the first Test after twin centuries from Younus Khan and youngster Ajmal Shehzad helped the hosts set an improbable target.
The BJP, on the other hand, learnt from past mistakes to clinch power.
Opener Ahmed Shehzad has been recalled to Pakistan's Test squad for the tour of Sri Lanka after being dropped for the April-May series against Bangladesh on disciplinary grounds. Besides Shehzad, the selectors also recalled southpaw Shan Masood, another out-of-favour opener, who was ignored for the last few series and tournaments.
Pakistan spinners Zulfiqar Babar and Yasir Shah took nine wickets in the second innings as the hosts beat Australia by 221 runs in the first Test on Sunday to take a 1-0 lead in the two-match series.
'When it comes to national politics, the Modi-Shah BJP has successfully redefined secularism.' 'If a party like the Congress has to have a future, it has to move closer to the secular centre from the far Left where its Left infatuation during the UPA years dragged it,' argues Shekhar Gupta.
'Today, there is pervasive fear in society; an uncertainty of what might happen.' 'This has forced Muslims to shrink further into mental ghettos, with many considering extreme measures like pretending to change their identity.'
Former Pakistan Test cricketer Saqlain Mushtaq has called on the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to appoint a full-time spin bowling coach before expressing his desire to fill in the position. The Pakistan off-spinner is currently assisting the England team on a brief consultancy basis, having joined the squad after the two Tests in Bangladesh.
The real brilliance of this RSS campaign, therefore, lies in building a dominant power base with, and for, a mostly non-RSS leadership. That is why the rise of the BJP in Assam is their stand-out victory, says Shekhar Gupta.
The constituencies spread across lower and central Assam will have 12,699 polling stations where 1,04,35,271 voters will be able exercise their franchise.
Former Under Secretary, Internal Security, in the ministry of home affairs RVS Mani has alleged that he was abused and tortured by officers of the Special Investigation Team during the United Progressive Alliance government to sign on a contradictory affidavit
The International Cricket Council (ICC) crackdowns on chucking again. West Indies mystery spinner Sunil Narine has been reported for suspect bowling action during a Champions League T20 match between KKR and Dolphins, in Hyderabad.
Pakistan retained under-fire skipper Misbah-ul Haq and out-of-form Muhammad Hafeez, but dropped tall left-arm pacer Muhammad Irfan from the 28-man probables' list for the two-Test series against South Africa.
Pakistan continued to dominate at their adopted home in the United Arab Emirates by defeating New Zealand by 248 runs in the opening Test of the three-match series in Abu Dhabi on Thursday. Starting the day needing two wickets to take a 1-0 lead in the series, Pakistan, who are forced to host matches in the UAE due to security concerns back home, dismissed the visitors for 231 in the second innings on the fifth morning.
It took 84 long years for Test cricket to come to the land of Ranjitsinhji.
'The Congress will never change its ideology, but to fight this new kind of propaganda politics, we have to prepare ourselves.'
'UP, Maharashtra, AP (including Telangana), Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, MP, Bihar, Karnataka and Kerala.' 'We chose these nine not only as being among the biggest, but also because in these states radical change is possible,' explains Shekhar Gupta.
Complaints of electronic voting machine malfunctioning poured in from several booths on Tuesday during the third and largest phase of Lok Sabha polls which saw voters turning out in large numbers to cast their vote in 116 seats, including all constituencies of Gujarat and Kerala.
'An operation such as the Mumbai attacks, which needed expert technical assessment, money and time to prepare, could not have been carried out without the knowledge of the ISI's leadership.'
'The win in Assam is likely to have a ripple effect in other north-eastern states like Manipur and Nagaland which have been reluctant to embrace the BJP in the past,' says Nitin A Gokhale, the distinguished commentator on strategic affairs, who lived and reported from Assam between 1983 and 2006.
Younus Khan led Pakistan's fightback with a dogged century after the hosts made a terrible start to the first Test against Australia in Dubai on Wednesday. After opting to bat first, Pakistan put up 219 for four wickets at stumps on the first day, with captain Misbah-ul-haq (34) and Asad Shafiq (9) at the crease.
Sri Lanka won the just-concluded Asia Cup, but none of their players figure in Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji's most valuable player index. Check it out.
Pakistan selectors will have no surprises in store when they announce the Test squad for the tour of Sri Lanka on the next 48 hours apart from recalling talented opener Ahmed Shehzad.
Ahead of the visit of an all-party delegation to Jammu and Kashmir, political parties on Saturday pitched for holding dialogue with "all stakeholders", including Hurriyat, to douse the unrest and banning the use of pellet guns by security forces.