After Bhatkal and Mangalore in Karnataka, Bihar’s Darbhanga, Pune, Kerala has become the target of the Indian Mujahideen for setting up sleeper cells and recruiting terrorists. Top arrested IM commander Yasin Bhatkal has told his interrogators that he has been instrumental in setting up new sleeper cells of IM in north Kerala districts. The agencies are now trying to gather more evidence on these modules and the suspects who were being trained to carry out fresh strikes in the country.
***
Booker Prize expands to all English writers
London, Sept. 18: Britain’s Man Booker Prize announced on Wednesday that it was expanding to cover all novels written in the English language, saying it would welcome authors whether they come from “Chicago, Sheffield or Shanghai”.
The $80,000 Booker has until now been awarded for the best work of fiction by an author from Britain, the Commonwealth or Ireland, but had notably excluded US writers. Previous multiple winners include English novelist Hilary Mantel, Australian author Peter Carey and South Afr-ican J.M. Coetzee. —AFP