The BJP on Friday termed the talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif a "breakthrough".

Modi and Sharif held a meeting on Friday morning on the sidelines of the SCO meeting in Ufa city in Russia.

"The meeting was a breakthrough, the reason for this is very clear as for the first time Pakistan has accepted our definition of terrorism," BJP leader M.J. Akbar said at a press conference here. 

"For the first time Pakistan has accepted to combat terrorism in ‘all its forms’," he said, while pointing out that Pakistan had, for long, tried to play a nuanced game on this subject by trying to differentiate between good terrorism and bad terrorism; for India terrorism was always an unmitigated evil.

Akbar also pointed out that both sides have agreed to expedite the 26/11 Mumbai attacks case trial and will exchange voice samples of the accused.

"Pakistan has accepted the voice samples, which are the basis of our case. They were the evidence we provided, it was visible to the whole world. Now that Pakistan has accepted this, there is glimmer of light in the relationship between the two countries," Akbar added.

The BJP leader also stressed on Modi’s stated position on wanting to improve India’s ties with all its neighbours so that the region can go forward on the path of prosperity.

"…but this prosperity requires peace and this common prosperity is only possible if all the countries take an united view on terrorism," Akbar said.

As many as 166 people were killed in a terror attack carried by 10 Pakistani terrorists in Mumbai on November 26-28, 2008.

The Delhi High Court on Friday pulled up a MCD Councillor for roping in President of India as a respondent in a PIL seeking tabling and implementation of the 4th Delhi Finanace Commission report by the AAP government and said he was not answerable to any court.

The court further said Article 361 of the Constitution of India protects President and Governors of states.

It said if the courts too have no power to sue the President, how can any individual make such persons respondents like this.

"You will have to amend your petition and file fresh memos of parties (respondent) against whom you are seeking direction by this court," the bench said, adding that "or else we will not take up the issue".

The court’s oral observation came on a public interest litigation filed by Chairman of the Department of Environment Management Service (DEMS) Committee of North Delhi Municipal Corporation and Rohini Councillor Vijay Prakash Pandey, who has filed a plea on behalf of the corporation.

Sensing the mood of the court, the Councillor’s advocate said he would file an application with regard to the amended memo of parties.

The petitioner said that despite many requests, letters and petitions, the Delhi government has refused to pay any heed to the demands for adequate funds.

"The petitioner has no other option other than to seek remedy from the court since we are finding it extremely difficult to fulfil our monetary requirements for performing basic functions and carrying out development work," the civic body said in their plea, which will be heard on August 6.

Second-hand smoke increases the risk of stroke by about 30 per cent for nonsmokers, researchers say.

Even after adjusting other stroke factors such as hypertension, diabetes and heart disease, the 30 per cent risk for nonsmokers remained, the team from Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston said.

"Our results suggest the possibility for adverse health outcomes such as stroke among nonsmokers and supports stricter smoking regulations," said lead researcher Angela M Malek in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

The study included almost 22,000 participants with 23 per cent reporting second-hand smoking exposure.

During April 2003 to March 2012, 428 strokes were reported; a further analysis of the type of stroke was performed and showed that most strokes were due to blockage of blood flow to the brain.

The literature concerning adverse health effects of second-hand smoke is becoming clearer, the authors said.

"Future research will need to explore potential exposure to additional environmental variables, such as ambient air pollutants in relation to stroke," Malek said.

Three persons were arrested by forest personnel on charges of poaching a leopard in Chandragiri reserve forest under Rarsingi range in Odisha’s Ganjam district, officials said on Thursday.

A country-made loaded gun, three mobile phones and a knife along with skin of the leopard were seized from the hunters who were arrested on Wednesday, said Divisional Forest Officer (Ghumusara South), Ramaswamy P.

The accused, identified as Ashok Dihudi of Tilisingi, Kalyan Nayak of Gujarali and Santosh of Samarada village of the nearby area were produced before the court, the DFO said adding the trio had no past record of poaching.

Around eight-year-old male leopard was allegedly shot dead by the accused persons. The accused claimed that they fired the leopard by mistake from a distance suspecting the animal might be a wild boar, the DFO said.

Though several leopards were roaming in the reserve forest, it was the first case of leopard poaching in the division in the recent years, Ramaswamy said.

Poaching of the leopard came to light when some forest officials were patrolling in the reserve forest area in early morning, he added.

After killing the animal, the hunters had removed its skin and kept the legs separately, perhaps to remove its bones, said a wildlife officer.

"We have recovered these from different places in the jungle after arresting the trio," said forest ranger (Tarsingi) Anupam Banarjee.

All works in the Jalpaiguri district court came to a standstill on Friday after a letter claiming to have been sent by the NDFB reached the court office earlier in the day threatening to blow up the court building.

Bar Association Secretary Avinandan Chatterjee said, the sender of the letter, claiming to be a member of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) terror outfit, informed that three bombs were kept in the district court premises and two others in the nearby consumer court complex and police were informed.

A senior police officer said people were evacuated from the court compound quickly and sniffer dogs pressed into action but till now nothing had been found.

He said police were treating the matter with all seriousness and trying to identify the sender and if he had any link with the terror outfit.

Superintendent of Police Akash Megharia was camping at the spot along with the officer-in-charge of local police station.

The SP said investigations were on.

The National Green Tribunal on Friday asked the Hindu College here to stop construction work of a hostel and plant 100 trees in its premises against the ten trees it has cut.

"You (college) must first plant 100 trees against the 10 trees you have felled for construction work. Submit a report and show us the proof after which you can start the work," the bench said while posting the matter for July 27.

The tribunal’s direction came after the counsel for the college submitted that it had cut ten trees to facilitate the construction.

The bench was hearing a petition filed by NGO Jai Hind through advocate Gaurav Bansal alleging that the college management was illegally constructing certain blocks in its premises and cutting trees without prior permission from the authorities.

On April 15, the tribunal had restricted the college from cutting trees without prior approval from the forest department or without any specific orders from it.

The counsel for the college had then submitted that it has not cut any trees but only trimmed the branches.

The college had also said it would not use ground water or potable water supplied by the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) for construction purposes.

It had assured the tribunal that it would get water from other sources preferably from the Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) of the DJB and would maintain account and documentation in support thereof.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Friday sought Centre’s support to make his state a ‘model state’ in renewable energy projects including solar and wind hybrid projects.

Naidu met Coal, Power and New & Renewable Energy Minister Piyush Goyal here and discussed various issues related to development of power and renewable energy sector in Andhra Pradesh.

"We have discussed issues related to development of power sector in the state," Goyal said after around a two-hour long meeting with the chief minister.

A senior state official said that the Andhra Pradesh government also wants to capitalise on the big opportunity of developing power sector in the state, particularly renewable energy sector.

He said that the state has conducive conditions like required sunlight for solar power and speedy wind to run mills for generating electricity.

Under the National Solar Mission, India has increased its targeted solar power generation capacity by five fold to 100GW by 2022.

At present, the solar power generation capacity is around 4,000MW .Thus, there is a huge potential to develop solar plants in the country.

Last month, Japan’s telecommunications and Internet giant SoftBank Corp expressed interest in collaborating with the state government in the renewable energy sector.

SoftBank Chairman & CEO Masayoshi Son met Naidu and said that the company will work to make AP a ‘model state’ in solar and wind hybrid projects in the country.

During the meeting, Naidu sought SoftBank’s collaboration in renewable energy to make the future sustainable.

SoftBank has formed a joint venture with India’s Bharti Enterprises to make investments in renewable energy sector in India. The JV will invest USD 20 billion in solar and wind energy projects over the next 10 years.

State-run BHEL on Friday said that it has commissioned the second 500 MW unit at Tuticorin Thermal Power Station (TPS) in Tamil Nadu.

"Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has successfully commissioned the second 500 MW unit at Tuticorin Thermal Power Station (TPS)," the company said in a press release on Friday.

The first 500 MW unit of the project was commissioned on March 10.

Tuticorin TPS has been set up by NLC Tamil Nadu Power Limited (NTPL), a joint venture of Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC) and Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO).

The project is situated near the Thoothukudi (Tuticorin) port on the shore of the Bay of Bengal. Earlier stages of Tuticorin TPS comprise five units of 210 MW, all installed by BHEL in three phases between 1979 and 1992.

Recently, BHEL had commissioned second unit of NLC’s 250 MW circulating fluidised bed combustion (CFBC) based power plant at Neyveli. The other project being executed by BHEL for NLC is the prestigious, 2×500 MW pulverised lignite fired thermal power plant, also coming up at Neyveli, which is the highest rating set of its kind in the country.

BHEL commissioned 8,230 MW in the power sector utility segment in the country during the financial year 2014-15, surpassing government’s capacity addition target of 6,914 MW set for BHEL, by 19 per cent.

In all, BHEL commissioned/synchronised 11,941 MW in domestic and international markets during 2014-15, besides making major contribution to another 1,600 MW by commissioning two boilers of 800 MW each.

Significantly, BHEL’s installed capacity has crossed 155 GW, including 132 GW of domestic utility sets and the company has joined the elite club of international manufacturers that have supplied power generating equipment of more than 150 GW.

A sessions court has upheld the jail term of a man convicted of driving his car in drunken condition, saying he was like a "dead unconscious" man behind the wheels who posed "mortal danger not only to himself but also to all other persons using the road".

Additional Sessions Judge Amit Bansal, while dismissing the appeal of Nikhil Shankar, a resident of Karol bagh here, against the two-day jail term awarded to him by a trial court, said, "He was a menace to the public at large" and such conduct must be deprecated.

"The quantum of alcohol content in blood of the convict was very high ie 17 times of permissible limit. He, in these circumstances, could be stated to be almost a dead unconscious man behind the wheels who posed a mortal danger not only to himself but also to all other persons using the road.

"He was thus a menace to the public at large. Such type of conduct of appellant/convict must be strongly deprecated and cannot be condoned under any circumstance," the judge said.

The court refused to show leniency towards Nikhil and said that the fact that he was heavily drunk is itself aggravating circumstance which does not warrant any leniency from court.

"Keeping in view the circumstances in which the present offence was committed, the convict is not entitled to be released on probation of good conduct and thus his plea in this regard is declined," it said, adding that the trial court had already been lenient by awarding only a two-day jail term.

The court’s decision came on the plea of Nikhil, who was found driving a car in a drunken condition with alcohol content of 524.1 mg per 100 ml blood which was more than the permissible limit of 30 mg per 100 ml blood.

In its May 11 order, the magisterial court had, besides jailing him, imposed a fine of Rs 2,000 and had impounded his driving licence for a year. Nikhil had challenged only the sentence.

In his appeal, he had argued that the trial court had passed a very harsh sentence after convicting him under section 185 (drunken driving) of the Motor Vehicle Act.

Nikhil, who is working as a sales executive in a garment shop, had sought leniency from the sessions court, saying he was a first-time offender and has a two-year-old daughter to look after.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu today sought Centre’s support to make his state a ‘model state’ in renewable energy projects including solar and wind hybrid projects.

Naidu met Coal, Power and New & Renewable Energy Minister Piyush Goyal here and discussed various issues related to development of power and renewable energy sector in Andhra Pradesh.

"We have discussed issues related to development of power sector in the state," Goyal said after around a two-hour long meeting with the chief minister.

A senior state official said that the Andhra Pradesh government also wants to capitalise on the big opportunity of developing power sector in the state, particularly renewable energy sector.

He said that the state has conducive conditions like required sunlight for solar power and speedy wind to run mills for generating electricity.

Under the National Solar Mission, India has increased its targeted solar power generation capacity by five fold to 100GW by 2022.

At present, the solar power generation capacity is around 4,000MW .Thus, there is a huge potential to develop solar plants in the country.

Last month, Japan’s telecommunications and Internet giant SoftBank Corp expressed interest in collaborating with the state government in the renewable energy sector.

SoftBank Chairman & CEO Masayoshi Son met Naidu and said that the company will work to make AP a ‘model state’ in solar and wind hybrid projects in the country.

During the meeting, Naidu sought SoftBank’s collaboration in renewable energy to make the future sustainable.

SoftBank has formed a joint venture with India’s Bharti Enterprises to make investments in renewable energy sector in India. The JV will invest USD 20 billion in solar and wind energy projects over the next 10 years.