Indian Sub-continent

New Delhi, Jul 24 (PTI); The Supreme Court today expressed dissatisfaction over the Centre's response on appointment of search committee members for a Lokpal.

A bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi, R Banumathi and Navin Sinha asked the Centre to file a fresh affidavit giving relevant details of the search committee.

During the hearing, Attorney General K K Venugopal submitted an affidavit and said a meeting of the selection committee was held but the names for the search committee were not finalised.

Panaji, Jul 24 (PTI); A woman today accused a priest of the Mangueshi Temple in Goa of molesting her, the second such complaint against him in a week, police said.

The woman, in her 20s, filed a complaint against the priest with the Ponda police, accusing him of molesting her, Deputy Superintendent of Police (Ponda) Mahesh Gaonkar said.

The priest has been booked under IPC section 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), he said.

New Delhi, Jul 23 (PTI); The Supreme Court today lifted a blanket ban on rallies, dharnas or sit-ins at the Jantar Mantar and Boat Club areas here, saying there could not be an "absolute" ban on protests in such localities.

The top court also asked the Centre to frame guidelines within two months for according sanctions to such events.

A bench of justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan said, "There is a need to strike a balance between conflicting rights such as the right to protest and the right of citizens to live peacefully."

By Ashwini Shrivastava

New Delhi, Jul 23 (PTI); The Finance Ministry has refused to share copy of three reports on the quantum of black money held by Indians inside the country and abroad, saying its disclosure would cause a breach of privilege of Parliament.

The then UPA government had in 2011 commissioned these studies by Delhi-based National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP) and National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) as well as the National Institute of Financial Management (NIFM) in Faridabad.

The number of people killed on Indian roads due to pot holes has been estimated to be 3,597 in the year 2017, a more than 50% rise compared to 2016.

Compare this with the number of people killed in terrorist attack: 803, that includes Naxal terrorists, security personnel and civilians.

NEW DELHI, India, July 23 (NNN-PTI) - India's main opposition Congress party, on Sunday, named its chief, Rahul Gandhi, as the grand old outfit's prime ministerial candidate, for next year's general elections.

"Naturally, the Congress president would be the only face to be projected. The Congress would fight this election by putting forward our leader," party spokesman, R.S. Surjewala, told the media in Delhi.

Chandigarh, Jul 22 (PTI); Police today arrested seven more accused in connection with the alleged rape of a 22-year-old woman from Chandigarh by 40 men for four consecutive days at a guest house in Morni area of Haryana's Panchkula district, officials said today.

They said that while accused Sahib Singh, a resident of Panchkula was arrested earlier, six more were nabbed later in the day.

COLOMBO, July 21 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena attended a groundbreaking ceremony on Saturday to launch the construction of a China-Sri Lanka friendship hospital in Polonnaruwa in north central Sri Lanka.

The National Nephrology Specialist Hospital is being constructed following a request by President Sirisena to the Chinese government.

The 25,517-square-meter hospital, which will be the largest kidney hospital in South Asia, will include 200 inpatient beds and 100 hemodialysis beds.

Jaipur, Jul 21 (PTI); A 19-year old youth was today given death penalty by a court for raping a seven-month-old child in Alwar district of Rajasthan in May, the first such sentencing in the state after a law entailing capital punishment to those convicted of raping a child below 12 years of age came into force, according to police.

A special court hearing cases of SC/ST Act and POCSO Act in Alwar sentenced to death Pintu, who was found guilty of raping the infant in Laxmangarh area in Alwar on May 9.

Mumbai, Jul 21 (PTI); Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal said today that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's reply to the Lok Sabha debate on the no-confidence motion was "full of hatred".

"The country cannot run on hatred. Our country is a family. Modi's speech in the Lok Sabha yesterday was full of hatred. The need of the hour is to protect the country and its Constitution," Sibal said at a 'Bharat Bachao' meeting organised here by the Youth Congress.

"It is not the BJP, but the RSS that is ruling the country," he alleged.