L A T E S T      N E W S

14-day judicial custody for Gopal Kanda

New Delhi: Former Haryana minister Gopal Goyal Kanda, key accused in the Geetika Sharma suicide case, was today sent to 14-day judicial custody by a Delhi court.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate D K Jangala remanded Kanda to judicial custody till September 11 after the Delhi police said he was not required for further custodial interrogation.

Kanda was produced before the court after expiry of three days of police custody which was extended on August 25 after seven days of custodial interrogation.

Kanda was arrested on August 18 after he had surrendered before the police, almost 13 days after former air hostess Geetika Sharma was found dead on August 5 at her Ashok Vihar residence in north-west Delhi.

In her suicide note, Geetika had alleged that Kanda and one of the MDLR employees Aruna Chaddha were harassing her to rejoin the former minister's firm after she left the job.

BJP adamant, Sonia hits back 

New Delhi: Leading the counter-offensive on the coal block allocation issue, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday hit out at the BJP saying the main opposition party was holding Parliament to ransom.

The BJP has scant respect for Parliament; it is mocking the people of India, Gandhi told the general body meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Party this morning.

Saying “we have nothing to hide or to be defensive about”, the Congress president told her party MPs to go on the offensive and give a strong response to the BJP which has not allowed Parliament to function since last Tuesday over the coal block allocation issue.

As media was not allowed inside the meeting venue, sources quoted Gandhi as saying: “We must effectively rebut the charges. We should take up the issue and go to the people.”

She reiterated that the Congress was ready for fight the negative politics of BJP.

Americans feel Obama will win prez poll

Washington: Majority of Americans believe that President Barack Obama will win the November presidential elections, even as series of latest opinion polls have thrown out a virtual statistical tie between him and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney.

As many as 58 per cent of the Americans now believe that Obama will win the elections as against 36 per cent for Romney, Gallup poll said today as it released the results of its opinion poll that it conducted between August 20 and 22.

Americans' expectation that Obama will win has been remarkably consistent, virtually unchanged since May despite three intervening months of campaigning, Gallup said.

A similar poll by it on May 10-13 had revealed that 56 per cent of Americans believe that Obama will the 2012 elections, as against 36 per cent for Romney.

According to an average of recent opinion polls compiled by Realclearpolitics, Obama has a slender lead of 1.1 percentage point over Romney.

In an email to his supporters, Vice President Joe Biden warned that they might lose the elections if they are not able to raise enough money in the coming weeks, given that the Romney campaign have outraised them for three months in a row.

"Three months in a row, Mitt Romney and the Republican Party have trounced our fundraising totals. And, along with allied outside groups, they're using that cash to try to obliterate our side on the airwaves, outspending us in some battleground states by margins of up to three to one," he wrote.

Corrupt people raising fingers at each other: Hazare

Bangalore:  Anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare tonight said the issue of coal block allocation had "blackened" the hands of ruling Congress and BJP with corruption.

"The ruling and opposition parties have blackened their hands in coalgate. All corrupt people are raising fingers at each other," he told reporters on his arrival here.

Hazare reached the city to undergo a rejuvenation treatment at Jindal Nature Cure Institute.

He said "if people want a bright future, then honest people should be voted to the Parliament. Don't look at the ruling and opposition parties, they will not give a bright future," he said. Hazare is expected to be at the insitute for a week, sources said.