Digest of domestic news for week ended Dec 17

Saturday, December 11

New Delhi: India today lodged a strong protest with the US for subjecting Ambassador Meera Shankar to 'pat-down' security check at an American airport as Deputy Chief of US Embassy here was summoned to the Ministry of External Affairs.

Mumbai: The widow of slain Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare today slammed senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh for claiming that her husband feared for his safety from hardline Hindu groups, who were upset over his probe into the Malegaon bomb blast.

Sunday, December 12

New Delhi: Attacking Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh, the BJP says the party should force him to resign for the "absurd" remarks on death of former Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare during the 26/11 terror strikes.

Bangalore/New Delhi: Cadres of banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) are understood to have been fast regrouping under the banner of Popular Front of India (PFI), an outfit which has expanded its tentacles to north after carrying out initial recruitment in south India.

Monday, December 13

New Delhi: Home Minister P Chidambaram seeks to blame migrants to Delhi for crimes like rape, a statement that came under attack from political leaders, following which he withdrew it.

New Delhi: Government has accepted the recommendations of the Technical Advisory Committee to include transgenders as a separate 'Others' category in the Census 2011.

Tuesday, December 14

New Delhi/Ahmedabad: The controversy over  former Union Minister A Raja allegedly trying to influence a Madras High Court judge in a criminal case returned to haunt former CJI Justice K G Balakrishan with a sitting judge of the Supreme Court H L Gokhale flatly contradicting him.

New Delhi: The Environment Ministry refuses to lift its "stop-work" order on the controversial hill-city project of Lavasa in Maharashtra and said a final decision in the case will be taken by the month-end after hearing the company again.

Wednesday, December 15

New Delhi/Chennai: In a crackdown here and in several places in Tamil Nadu in connection with the 2G spectrum scam, the CBI searches the office and residential premises of corporate lobbyist Niira Radia, former TRAI Chairman Pradip Baijal and a Chennai NGO with which DMK MP Kanimozhi is linked.

Srinagar: Defying curfew, Shia mourners, forming part of Muharram procession, clashed with security forces at several places in Srinagar city, forcing the law enforcing agencies to fire tear smoke shells to restore order.

New Delhi: Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao says India and China are not 'rivals' and that there is enough space for both the countries to develop and prosper, as their companies were poised to sign $16 billion worth deals.

Thursday, December 16

New Delhi: Acknowledging that there was enough space in the world for China and India to grow, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao says the two countries should seize opportunities to expand converging interests and backed New Delhi for greater role in international affairs.

New Delhi: The three interlocutors, appointed to initiate dialogue on Jammu and Kashmir, will begin their third visit to the state tomorrow after which they are likely to submit the "broad contours" for a political settlement to the decades-old issue.

Friday, December 17

Kolkata: The Left Front demands a statement from Trinamool Congress and the Congress on the killing of seven Forward Bloc supporters by Maoists in Purulia, otherwise it would be construed that they support such acts of terror.

Kochi: The NIA lists alleged LeT operative T Nazeer and PDP leader Abdul Nasser Madani's wife among the accused in its charge sheet in the 2005 Tamil Nadu bus burning case and said the incident was a revenge against Madani's continued detention in the Coimbatore blast case.