TopNews

The government may not be able to offer any amnesty programmes such as the Service Tax Voluntary Compliance Encouragement Scheme (VCES) for the next two decades, Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said.

Addressing a group of traders and senior officials from Customs, Central Excise and Service Tax departments, Mr. Chidambaram said that various factors, such as curbs imposed by the Supreme Court, would not allow the government to offer any such amnesty programmes.

He described the VCES as a "lifetime opportunity".

Every human has the right to food security but any such programme shouldn't distort the global agriculture market, EU Trade Commissioner Karl De Gucht said.

Reacting to India's tough stance on holding on to food subsidy, Gucht said, "Every human being has the right to food security, either living in India or (elsewhere) ... discussion at stake is how you make sure that the food security programme does not distort the agriculture market."

Los Angeles, Dec 5 : Paul Walker died of the combined effects of traumatic and thermal injuries suffered in a car crash, the autopsy report says.

Walker, who was in the car with friend Roger Rodas, died from multiple traumatic injuries suffered upon impact.

According to the coroner, who conducted the autopsy of both the men, the duo's toxicology results will be available in six to eight weeks.

The medical examiner says both deaths have been ruled as an accident and as per the sources in the coroner's office, both men were positively identified by using dental records.

New York, Dec 5 : Vegetarians often get to hear how boring their life is sans meat. But eating fake meat all the time simply kills the appetite. There are vegetarian dishes that no longer excite people who stay miles away from meat.

Huffingtonpost. com shares a list of worst vegetarian foods:

* Any kind of fake meat: Most of the time these products don't taste anything close to the real ones.

New Delhi, Dec 5 : The notice inviting applications (NIA) for the spectrum auctions in January 2014 is expected to come in another 15-20 days, M. F. Farooqui, secretary, Department of Telecommunications (DoT) said Thursday.

“The NIA will come in about 15-20 days' time from now,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the India Telecom 2013 organised here by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and DoT.

NIA is a legal document that lays down rules and regulations of the auction.

New Delhi, Dec 5 : Minority Affairs Minister K. Rahman Khan Thursday accused BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi of trying to protect the perpetrators of the violence during the 2002 Godhra riots in Gujarat by opposing the Communal Violence Bill.

"The people who Narendra Modi represents, they are the people who will probably be affected because they are the perpetrators of communal violence and will be punished," the minister said in an interview to Times Now news channel here.