The Latest: Top stories of the day
1. Pakistan now claims that India failed to provide evidence that the Pathankot attackers were from across the border.
2. India describes as incomprehensible the UN decision to ban Jaish-e-Mohammed, but not its chief Masood Azhar.
3. Terror and investments are the focus as Narendra Modi lands in Saudi Arabia.
4. Political ads in print media have been prohibited in Assam and West Bengal in the run-up to the Assembly elections.
5. Women temple entry: Trupti Desai and other activists detained after trying to enter temple.
6. India Open semi-final: Saina Nehwal lost 20-22, 21-17, 19-21 to Olympic Champion Li Xuerui.
Weekend Reads
1. Writer Teju Cole sharply critiques Charlie Hebdo’s editorial blaming ordinary Muslims for Islamic terror.
2. Bivekananda Biswas lays out the extremely complex contours of the Assam election in the Business Standard.
3. In the area of intellectual property, public health and access to medicines, the Narendra Modi government should consider its independence to be of the utmost importance, argues Leena Menghaney in the Hindu.
4. “Data can empower both empires and rebels”: the Economist weighs the pros and cons of Big Data vis-à-vis democracy and public empowerment.
5. What it’s like to almost get executed: in The Marshall Project, a US convict condemned to death row recounts the tale of his near-execution.
6. Fundamental military alignments with US, taking place without open debate, may foreclose India’s options as it moves to deepen the relationship, says Pratap Bhanu Mehta in the Indian Express.
7. Mani Shankar Aiyar backs Asaduddin Owaisi up on this stand that he will not say “Bharat mata ki jai” if forced.
8. Nurith Aizenman writes on NPR about the actual and deep impact Bollywood is having on the lives of everyday India.
9. Phys.org reproduces a University of Adelaide study that uses ancient DNA to show that Europeans committed near-total genocide against early Americans.
10. Did the anti-intellectual bias against Ross on the American TV sitcom Friends trigger the downfall of Western Civilisation, asks David Hopkins.
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