Indian Sub-continent

Mathura, Sep 2 (PTI) The Congress has asked the Narendra Modi government why it inked a deal with France's Dassault Aviation to buy just 36 aircraft when 126 fighter jets were required.

The party's national spokesperson, Priyanka Chautrvedi, asked if there's any urgency, why the government did not ask the French company to supply all the aircraft in one go.

"The first lot of the aircraft will be supplied in 2019 and the rest in 2022. If there is any urgency, the whole lot should have been supplied by 2019," she said here Saturday.

New Delhi, Sep 1; GANASHAKTI: Sudha Bharadwaj, one of the five activists arrested in multi-city raids by the Maharashtra Police, has outrightly rejected the claims made by the investigating agency and said a purported letter implicating her was "totally concocted" to criminalise her and human rights organisations.

The police had Friday claimed that Bharadwaj had written to one "Com. Prakash".

These could have been the sequence of events Rahul Gandhi seem to be saying, based on an Indian Express report.

Crooked deal was all worked out beforehand.

French President Francois Hollande was invited to New Delhi as the Republic Day chief guest.

MALE, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- The China-Maldives Friendship Bridge, the first cross-sea bridge in the Maldives, opened to traffic on Thursday evening.

Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen and representative of the Chinese government and head of China's International Development Cooperation Agency Wang Xiaotao attended the bridge opening ceremony.

Speaing at the occasion, Maldivian President Yameen said the bridge is an embodiment of the long relations between the Maldives and China.

New Delhi, Aug 30; GANASHAKTI: Calling raids on prominent activists and intellectuals an attempt by the government to strike terror among those fighting for the marginalised, Jharkhand's civil society members, including economist Jean Dreze, have demanded the immediate release of the people arrested.

Islamabad, Aug 31 (AP) Thousands of Pakistan's hard-line Islamists have called off their rally after reaching near Islamabad following the cancellation of a Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest by a Dutch anti-Muslim lawmaker.

The far-right opposition politician Geert Wilders said yesterday he cancelled the cartoon contest following death threats and concerns other people could be put at risk.

The decision prompted Khadim Hussain Rizvi, a firebrand Pakistani cleric, to end his march today. It began on Wednesday from the eastern city of Lahore.

Shahjahanpur (UP), Aug 31 (PTI) A 28-year-old woman, who was allegedly raped by a man, died after she set herself ablaze in a police station here following which three policemen were suspended, an official said today.

The woman's husband Ramvir has alleged that she was upset after police refused to file an FIR in the case and they were exerting pressure on the victim to reach a compromise with the accused, Vinay Kumar.

Yesterday, the woman was rushed to a district hospital, where she succumbed to injuries, the official said.

Muzaffarnagar, Aug 31 (PTI) A 55-year-old woman was found dead in her under-construction house at Bagowali village here last evening, police said today.

Zahida was missing since Wednesday, they said.

The victim was found with her hands tied, SHO Harsharan Sharma said, adding that she might be strangulated to death.

A case was registered against unidentified persons and the body has been sent for post mortem, he added.

NEW DELHI, August 30. /TASS/. The members of the first Indian space crew may undergo training in a foreign state, Russia being one of the options, Kailasavadivoo Sivan, head of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), told journalists.

ISRO will need to take the help of a foreign country for advanced training of the crew, he said. "We have not decided which country we will choose for training. Russia, Germany and USA have the facilities," Sivan said, according to the PTI news agency.

New Delhi, August 29: Intellectuals, academics, artists has jointly  issued the following statement:

We the undersigned are utterly shocked and appalled by the simultaneous arrests of several prominent civil rights activists in different parts of the country, and the raids on their houses and those of many others.