U.K. court denies bail to Nirav Modi for third time

Diamond merchant Nirav Modi will remain in Wandsworth prison in London after the Chief Magistrate at Westminster Magistrates Court on Wednesday refused to grant him bail for a third time, concluding that while new evidence had been put before the court and the security offer upped to £2 million, it had not been enough to assuage her concerns.

These centred around the “large fraud” at the heart of the allegations against Mr. Modi (including the allegation that “$60 million had been squirrelled away personally” by Mr. Modi), his lack of community ties in the U.K., the risk that he would attempt to interfere with witnesses and damage evidence, and the risk that he would attempt to use the substantial means available to him to evade justice.

ASI identifies Indian artefacts seized from smuggler Subhash Kapoor

From idols dating back to the Gupta period (5th-6th Century AD) to terracotta objects of the Harappan culture, a range of Indian antiquities and artefacts that were smuggled by Subhash Kapoor have been identified by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) during a team’s recent visit to the United States.

Cyclone Fani tears down artists’ village in Odisha

Rarely has artist Bijoy Mohapatra, 40, remained idle in recent memory. But with Cyclone Fani tearing down this artists’ village, part of the coastal district of Puri, Mr. Mohapatra and his ilk is struggling to come to terms with the damage.

When the cyclone made landfall on the morning of May 3, two front wooden doors of his house could not withstand the ferocity of the wind and his entire body of work was exposed to the lashing rain.

I was misquoted: Maneka Gandhi on her controversial speech at Sultanpur

Union Minister Maneka Gandhi, who had stirred a controversy by asking Muslims to vote for her as they would need her once the Lok Sabha elections were over, on Wednesday said her remarks were taken out of context.

Busy electioneering here for the May 12 polling, the BJP leader said she had only stressed that while working she never gave any importance to caste and religion but felt bad when people said they would not vote for her as they do not want to vote for “lotus”.

VVPAT: Opposition has a recourse in slip counting

Although the Supreme Court and the Election Commission have not agreed to the Opposition parties’ demand for 50% random physical verification of the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) results with Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips, they can still take recourse to Section 56-D of the Conduct of Election Rules to request for slip counting.

Section 56-C of the Rules provides for the procedure of vote counting. In case a candidate or election agent disputes the announced results of any polling station(s), they can seek scrutiny of VVPAT slips under Section 56-D.

Opinion | Begusarai, metaphor of a secular crisis

Begusarai, in the Gangetic plains of Bihar, has long been a stronghold of the Communist Party of India (CPI). Kanhaiya Kumar, the firebrand young leader and former president of Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union, is the CPI candidate from the Begusarai Lok Sabha constituency. Over the past five years, he has become a national icon of resistance against Hindutva.

Iran says it will not honour nuclear curbs

Iran said on Wednesday it had stopped respecting limits on its nuclear activities agreed under a 2015 deal with major powers until they find a way to bypass renewed U.S. sanctions.

The announcement came as Washington stepped up its rhetoric against Tehran, accusing it of planning “imminent” attacks and deploying an aircraft carrier strike group with several nuclear-capable B-52 bombers to the region.

Mueller report: Trump asserts executive privilege

U.S. President Donald Trump exercised executive privilege to prevent the release of the unredacted Mueller report to the House Judiciary Committee. The decision was conveyed on Wednesday morning by the assistant Attorney-General Stephen Boyd, as the Judiciary Committee hearing and vote on holding Attorney-General William Barr in contempt of the House was under way.

‘Firms missing from database will not affect GDP calculation’

The deficiencies found in the MCA-21 database of the corporate sector, where more than a third of the sample companies were either untraceable, out of coverage, or closed, will not have a major impact on the calculation of GDP and GVA, according to prominent statisticians closely associated with the subject.

Prithvi’s opening salvo and Pant’s final flourish do it for Delhi Capitals

Rishabh Pant emerged the star of the evening as Delhi Capitals snatched a nervous two-wicket win over Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL Eliminator here on Wednesday.

Chasing 163 for victory, Delhi had stuttered after Khaleel Ahmed and Rashid Khan had snared four quick wickets between them.