A day after a report said a Saudi man had chopped off an Indian maid's hand, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj on Friday deplored the act and said that India has taken up the issue with Saudi authorities. The minister also said the she was disturbed by the brutality meted out to the Indian lady in Saudi Arabia. India had on Thursday demanded that a case of attempted murder be lodged against the culprit. "We are aware of the plight of Kashturi Munirathinam, a domestic help who has suffered serious injuries allegedly inflicted by her Saudi Arabian sponsor. This is a very unfortunate and most condemnable incident.” "Our embassy in Riyadh has taken up the matter with the Saudi Foreign Office and asked for strict action in the matter and severe punishment for the sponsor. We have also sought an independent probe in the incident and urged that a case of attempted murder be lodged against the sponsor so that he is punished, if found guilty as per law," the spokesperson in the external affairs ministry said. Munirathinam is currently being looked after in a Saudi hospital, he said.

Last month, a Saudi diplomat in Delhi was accused of raping his maids. He eventually fled the country under the protection of diplomatic immunity.

Missionaries of Charity orphanages face action
The central government is mulling derecognising 13 orphanages run by Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity due to its non-compliance with adoption guidelines. However, Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi said on Thursday that the charity itself had written to the government asking to be derecognised. The issue came to the fore after the charity refused to give children up for adoption to single, divorced or separated people.

Anup Jalota to be part-time member of Prasar Bharti board
Ashok Tandon, media advisor to former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and singer Anup Jalota are among the four persons that have been cleared as part-time members to the Prasar Bharti board. Besides Tandon and Jalota, businessman Sunil Alagh and journalist Shashi Shekhar are the other names which have been cleared by a three-member committee headed by Vice President M Hamid Ansari.

HRD Ministry puts up fresh advt for appointment of CBSE head
The HRD Ministry has put up fresh advertisement for appointment of the CBSE chairman. The development came after the Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC) rejected the names proposed by the Ministry for the CBSE chairman's post in April, with the Cabinet Secretary raising objections to the names, mainly over the experience criteria adopted for their selection. The ACC had directed the HRD Ministry to complete the selection process within two months and submit its proposal to it for consideration before October 31.

Meeting to discuss hate messages on  social media
The government is holding a meeting to discuss modalities on objectionable content on social media sites. It is likely to ask social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to remove objectionable contents, hate messages and those having communal overtones on their own accord. The move by the government comes in the wake of widespread use of social media platforms for circulation of hate messages, pictures, audios and videos with communal overtones and hate contents in recent past, especially after the Dadri incident , where a Muslim man was lynched over rumours of cow slaughter.

US media body seeks probe into killing of UP TV scribe
A US-based media watch body has sought thorough investigation into the death of a television journalist in Uttar Pradesh, asking the state authorities to bring perpetrators quickly to justice. Journalist Hemant Yadav was shot dead on October 3 by motorcycle-borne gunmen in Uttar Pradesh, the third such incident in four months in the state."We call on authorities to step up their investigation into the killing of Hemant Yadav. Police must act quickly and decisively to investigate this case and bring his killers to justice," said Bob Dietz, Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)'s Asia program coordinator. "Far too often, journalists' murders go unpunished in India, no matter the motive. It is time for India to address this tradition of impunity," Dietz said in a statement. Of the 11 journalist murders CPJ has confirmed as work-related in the last 10 years in India, all have been carried out with complete impunity, a media statement said.

Indian toll in Haj stampede rises to 101
The toll of Indian pilgrims killed in the stampede near Mecca in Saudi Arabia during Haj has risen to 101. External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj took to microblogging website Twitter and said 32 nationals still remain missing after the last month's tragedy. The ministry has put on its website the list of Indians who died in the Mina stampede, the list of hospitalised/injured patients and the list of Indians from the Haj committee and private tour operators missing as reported at the Indian Haj Mission. Minister of state for rxternal sffairs VK Singh was in Saudi Arabia for the identification process of the missing Indians by the Saudi authorities.

Repolling in 11 booths in West Bengal local body polls today
The West Bengal State Election Commission (SEC) on Thursday announced repolling in 11 booths - 9 in Bidhannagar and two in Asansol civic bodies - will be held on Friday with the results of the October 3 municipal elections being declared on Saturday. The announcement of the repolling and the date of counting were made by interim state election commissioner Alapan Bandyopadhyay on a day when his appointment to the post was challenged before the Calcutta high court. Meanwhile, the opposition - the Communist Party of India-Marxist-led Left Front and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced boycotting Friday's repoll, alleging the state election commissioner was "acting on behalf of the state's ruling Trinamool Congress".

Air India told to hire more pilots, cabin crew
The civil aviation ministry has asked Air India to hire more pilots and cabin crew after it found that the national carrier is still reeling under a shortage that is resulting in delay of flights. The recruitment process, which will begin with the carrier ascertaining the number of people required, comes shortly after Air India hired more than 900 cabin crew members and 220 pilots. The airline has a strength of 3,500 cabin crew members and 1,500 pilots.

iPhone 6s and 6s Plus to be expensive buy
Apple's much-awaited iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus will cost Rs 62,000 for the lowest storage variant and as much as Rs 92,000 for the top-end model, distributors said Thursday. The India prices are much higher than those in overseas markets, which may deter many buyers. The 16 GB, 64 GB and 128 GB variants of the iPhone 6s will be sold for Rs 62,000, Rs 72,000 and Rs 82,000, respectively, and similar versions of the 6s Plus will cost Rs 72,000,Rs 82,000 and Rs 92,000.
 
Surge in stock market
Due to positive global market cues Indian stock market saw a jump this morning.  The 30-share S&P BSE Sensex rose 301.49 points, or 1.12%, to 27,147.30. The 50-share Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) is up 88.75 points, or 1.09%, to 8,218.10 at 9.30 am. Asian stock markets also went up on expectations the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates at a record low for several more months. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 138.46 points, or 0.8%, to 17,050.75 on Thursday. The Standard and Poor’s 500 rose 17.60 points, or 0.9%, to 2,013.43 and Nasdaq composite jumped 19.64 points, or 0.4%, to 4,810.79.