'Harry Potter' creator JK Rowling dines with Obama in London

President Barack Obama went from Shakespeare to Harry Potter during his visit to London.

The boy wizard’s creator, J.K. Rowling, was among guests who were dining with Mr. Obama at the U.S. ambassador’s London residence on Saturday. Earlier the President visited Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre to mark the 400th anniversary of the playwright’s death.

Ms. Rowling spokeswoman Rebecca Salt confirmed on Sunday that the author attended a private dinner with Mr. Obama. British Prime Minister David Cameron was also among the guests.

If Shakespeare is Britain’s greatest-ever writer, Ms. Rowling is its most successful living one. Her Potter books have sold more than 400 million copies worldwide.

Ms. Rowling has met the President several times, and attended a banquet thrown by Mr. Obama and his wife for Queen Elizabeth II when the U.S. first couple visited Britain in 2011.

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At Windsor Castle, Queen forced Obama to halve his accompanying helicopters

Barack Obama may be the world’s most powerful man but Queen Elizabeth II forced him to slash by half the number of choppers his Secret Service can land on the Windsor Castle lawns when the U.S. President came over for dinner with the 90-year-old monarch.

The Queen called Mr. Obama’s bevy of choppers “over the top,” meaning the Secret Service had to rethink their plans to land about six aircraft in the 300-year-old gardens of her main residence.

“It was a write-off and the Queen was not amused,” Daily Express quoted a royal source as saying.

She was firm

“Her Majesty refused to back down and said, ‘three helicopters only’ The Secret Service had to go away and think about their plan. The President’s officials were told that the Queen regarded Windsor Castle as her family home and the most important of all royal residences,” the report said.

“She rarely imposes her will but when she does people listen — it just took the U.S. Secret Service agents a little time to realise that,” the source said.

No way of a hefty entourage

The Queen, whose 90th birthday was celebrated recently, said there was no chance Mr. Obama’s extensive security backup would be accompanying him to Windsor Castle.

Her insistence came after Mr. Obama’s helicopters damaged the grass when half-a-dozen of them landed during his last visit in 2011.

Grass reeks with history

The engines’ heat scorched the grounds and the wheels left divots in one of U.K.’s oldest lawns, planted during the reign of Queen Anne in the early 1700s.

The Queen said only three helicopters, including the president’s personal aircraft Marine One, could land on the lawn when Mr. Obama (54) and his wife, Ms. Michelle Obama (52) came for dinner with the monarch and Prince Philip to celebrate her 90th birthday, the report said.

Ultimately she had her way

An insider said U.S. aides refused to change their plans on security grounds but came around to the Queen’s wishes eventually.

“They said they needed to be within reach of the President at all times. They also wanted guards posted inside the dining hall when he had lunch with the Queen,” the insider said.

” But Her Majesty refused to back down and said, ‘three helicopters only.’ Eventually the President’s aides accepted her wishes,” the report said.

Mr. Obama visited the U.K. as part of his ongoing three-nation tour which also included Saudi Arabia and Germany.

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CJI Thakur’s emotional appeal to Modi to protect judiciary

Breaking down several times in his half-hour speech addressed directly at Prime Minister Narendra Modi present on the dais at the Annual Chief Ministers and Chief Justices Conference on Sunday, Chief Justice of India, Tirath Singh Thakur, launched a scathing attack on government inaction, squarely blaming the Centre for stalling appointment of judges to the High Courts. He also blamed the Centre of doing nothing to increase the number of courts and judges in the country, thus denying the poor man and under trial prisoners their due of justice.

The Chief Justice asked what the point of ‘Make in India’ was and inviting foreign direct investments when investors are increasingly doubtful about the timely delivery of justice.

“Therefore not only in the name of the litigant… the poor litigant (he pauses as his voice trembles with emotion) languishing in jail but also in the name of the country and progress, I beseech you to realise that it is not enough to criticise the judiciary… you cannot shift the entire burden to the judiciary,” Chief Justice Thakur said in an unprecedented criticism of the government.

“I feel that if nothing else has helped justice, an emotional appeal might,” Chief Justice Thakur told an audience of his fellow Supreme Court judges, High Court Chief Justices, former Chief Justices of India, senior Union Law and Justice Ministry officials, dignitaries and the media at Vigyan Bhawan as the Prime Minister and Union Law Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda watched on.

He said there are 434 judicial vacancies in the High Courts waiting to be filled up as of date.

“This is thanks to the long time the NJAC case took to be decided,” Chief Justice Thakur said, referring to the year-long litigation in the Supreme Court over the government’s attempt to replace the Supreme Court Collegium with the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC). Judges’ appointments to the High Courts and the Supreme Court had remained frozen as the court battle had raged on.

“Once the litigation was over, a concerned collegium cleared pending proposals for judicial appointments in six weeks. We had already appointed 54 High Court judges whose cases were pending with us before the NJAC case. Fifty per cent of the proposals were turned down by us as we did not want the slightest blemish on the name of the judiciary. But 169 proposals are still pending with the government till now… ” Chief Justice Thakur said.

“Now how long will you take to process these proposals? … How long? When jails are overflowing… In Allahabad High Court, 10 lakh cases are pending.”

‘Ratio of no. of judges to the population grossly inadequate’

Chief Justice Thakur, in his scathing criticism of the government’s inaction, said the Centre chose not to lift a finger to help reduce the “impossible burden” judges carry and aid the cause of justice delivery despite a Law Commission report in 1987 warning that the country is slipping into a crisis where the ratio of the number of judges to the population is grossly inadequate.

He read out a letter from his predecessor, Chief Justice of India (now retired) Altamas Kabir, who had to then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on February 21, 2013, requesting the latter to take steps to increase judges’ strength over a period of five years to at least 50 judges per million.

Chief Justice Thakur then read out Mr. Singh’s reply, in which the latter acknowledges that judges’ numbers have to be increased manifold, but ends his letter by passing the blame to the State governments for not taking the “initiative.”

“So in 2013, the Government of India commits itself to increase the number of judges, but nothing is done. The Centre says the States should take the lead and the States say Centre should take the lead. As this tug-of-war goes on, judges’ strength remains the same and litigants remain in jail,” Chief Justice Thakur slammed the government.

He said that at least five crore cases are filed every year and judges dispose of only two crore.

“Nobody talks about our disposal rates… there is a limit to what a judge can do, to his or her performance capacity. In the United Supreme Court, nine judges sit together as a Bench and decide only 81 cases in a year. Judges come from abroad and are amazed by what an Indian judge does in a year in a stress-filled atmosphere… Yet we struggle on as the people have faith because we are doing our best,” Chief Justice Thakur said.

He referred to how the Law Commission in 1987 had recommended 40,000 judges in the country to tide over the problem of pendency of that time. Its report had said that there were only 10 judges to a million population when there should be at least 50 judges per 10 lakh population.

Noting that population has increased by over 25 crore since 1987, Chief Justice Thakur said the only solution to this “extraordinary situation” was to bring back proven judges from retirement in a bid to dispose of cases which are more than five years old.

He noted how setting up of Commercial Courts was close to Prime Minister Modi's heart but questioned its viability. He said merely naming an existing court as Commercial Court would only further delay the process of justice for the ordinary litigant.

"Speeches have been made in the past, debates have been held in the Parliament, but I think nothing is moving," Chief Justice Thakur said.

PM makes an unscheduled speech

The Chief Justice’s remarks and appeal that it is “time to protect the judiciary, which is one of the pillars of our Constitution” saw Prime Minister Narendra Modi deliver an unscheduled speech immediately after the former took his seat on the dais.

Mr. Modi recounted how as Gujarat Chief Minister he had attended the same conference several times and heard speeches. He said how speakers in the conference had elbowed aside his suggestion for judges to reduce their annual holidays to help reduce pendency.

The Prime Minister said judges and the government should sit together and work for a more efficient tomorrow rather than dwell in the past and what was said in 1987.

He said the ordinary citizen has full faith in the judiciary and the government would not let that faith in the judges falter. He blamed the flood of archaic laws that fill up the statute books, faulty or vague drafting of laws and their multiple interpretations by various courts as reasons for prolonged litigation.

“Some of these laws date back to 1880s. Somebody wants to do something, he is shown a law drafted in the last century and told to stop doing it,” Mr. Modi said.

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Uddhav targets BJP government over Hardik, Kanhaiya

In a veiled attack on the Narendra Modi government, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday said instead of guiding the youth in the right direction, it has “given birth” to Rohith Vemula, Hardik Patel and Kanhaiya Kumar, the youth figures who have been in news in the last few months.

"India has a big population of youths. Instead of giving them proper guidance and directions, the government is misleading them," he said and cited the examples of Rohit Vemula (Dalit scholar who committed suicide in Hyderabad University), Hardik Patel (Gujarat Patel quota stir leader who is in jail) and JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar (who has been charged with sedition).

He, however, did not name BJP or the Modi government.

The Modi government has come under attack over the way it has handled the issues related to these three youths.

When Hardik Patel became popular, he was charged with sedition, and now Kanhaiya Kumar is fighting against the government, Mr. Uddhav said, and asked, “Who gave birth to these youths?”

Youths of the country required proper guidance and direction and it is not wrong to give advice to our friend (BJP) with whom we have an alliance, he told reporters here.

“We will oppose any bifurcation of Maharashtra,” the Sena leader said in the backdrop of ongoing debate on separate Vidarbha.

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50 U.P. districts in the grip of drought

Only two dozen students turned up at the upper-primary school in Kahla village on Saturday. Apart from the scorching April heat, the students had a valid reason for staying away: the only hand pump in the school has been non-operative for four months. This has not only deprived them of drinking water but also rendered the school toilet non-functional. While girls have been discouraged from attending school, boys who turn up are told to use the open space to defecate.

To run the school, which has 130 students, teachers are forced to fetch water from a nearby hand pump. Even that has an erratic supply; dozens of hand pumps in the region have entirely collapsed or are dysfunctional. Attempts to re-bore them have also failed, as the ground water level is critically low.

In Kahla, only a fifth of the hand pumps are operational. “The students are de-motivated as their homes are two kilometres away and they have to walk back in the heat. We had to ask them to get water from home. We are also struggling to prepare the midday meals — the cook has to fetch water from a tubewell 500 metres away,” said assistant teacher V.D. Tripathi. “In spite of several applications, not a single official has visited us to repair the pump,” he said.

Parched countryside

Fifty districts in Uttar Pradesh are reeling under severe drought and swathes of parched land lie unused as the water crisis has devastated the rural economy. Securing potable water has become an ordeal with the worst of summer yet to come.

Seven districts of Bundelkhand — Chitrakoot, Banda, Mahoba, Hamirpur, Lalitpur, Jhansi and Banda — are the worst affected. Kahla is located in the Hateti Purva gram panchayat of Banda, on the edge of the Ken, one of the major rivers in the region and a tributary of the Yamuna. A walk through the village takes one past dozens of dried up hand pumps — even those that are operational can produce not more than a few buckets of water.

It is noon and there is still a steady rush of women, with pots on their head and children by their side, moving towards the Ken. Alongside are many villagers who have brought their buffaloes for bathing. The river is fast drying up. But for a large section of villagers, it is still the only source of water. The same stream is used to bathe, collect drinking water and wash animals. The State government’s tankers are yet to touch Kahla.

“What option do we have? The Ken is our only lifeline — all other sources of water have failed,” said Ramsakhi Nishad, who walked 1.5 kilometres with her young grandchildren to bathe and collect drinking water at the river. All the hand pumps in her dera (locality) have failed and her family now drinks from the river. In solidarity, villagers in other areas have allowed people to use their hand pumps but that has not been enough to meet the needs.

“I run to the river in this sweltering heat each time we run out of water. We cannot arrange even a lota (glass) of water for guests,” Ramsakhi said.

Water fights ahead

Banda District Magistrate Yogesh Kumar says 35 per cent of the 33,000 hand pumps in Banda have been rendered non-functional. The drinking water problem is made worse by the high salinity levels in the region. Since the Ken is drying fast and is expected to become shallow in May, villagers fear the worst, and in recent weeks many water fights have been reported.

“I have never seen the Ken so dry. Its flow will completely break next month. People may not die of thirst but it will surely become a struggle,” said pradhan Om Prakash Nishad, whose community’s traditional methods of growing cantaloupes and watermelon on river beds in summer has somewhat mitigated the loss of a major crop.

As hundreds of ponds, canals and local reservoirs have dried up across Bundelkhand, stray cattle, or “anna janwars,” are dying of thirst. Though no human deaths have been reported of starvation or thirst, Chitrakoot Divisional Commissioner Venkateshwarlu said the situation is grave.

The administration is trying to fight it by introducing tankers in villages and repairing hand pumps, he said. Around 1,950 hand pumps had been re-bored in the Chitrakoot in the past year. Of these, 17 were in Kahla. “We have never needed so many re-bores,” Mr. Nishad said.

The Akhilesh Yadav government has allocated Rs 30 crore for solving the drinking water crisis in Bundelkhand. Over 3,200 hand pumps will be installed in the seven districts, while an additional 440 tankers will cater to areas beyond repair, the government has said.

Man-made crisis

Deficit rainfall — less than 40 per cent — natural scarcity of water and other climatic factors are being cited as the immediate causes of the water problem. But environment activist Ashish Sagar says the encroachment of hundreds of Chandela-era ponds and the overall degradation of the forest cover are to be blamed for the sustained crisis. Through an RTI, Mr. Sagar found that in the past decade, 4,020 ponds have “vanished” in Bundelkhand, primarily due to encroachments by land sharks.

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Solar-powered plane completes journey across Pacific Ocean

A solar-powered airplane landed in California on Saturday, completing a risky, three-day flight across the Pacific Ocean as part of its journey around the world.

Pilot Bertrand Piccard landed the Solar Impulse 2 in Mountain View, in the Silicon Valley south of San Francisco, at 11-45 p.m. following a 62-hour, nonstop solo flight without fuel. The plane taxied into a huge tent erected on Moffett Airfield where Mr. Piccard was greeted by project’s team.

“You know there was a moment in the night, I was watching the reflection of the moon on the ocean and I was thinking ‘I’m completely alone in this tiny cockpit and I feel completely confident.’ And I was really thankful to life for bringing me this experience,” Mr. Piccard said at a news conference after he landed. “It’s maybe this is one of the most fantastic experiences of life I’ve had.”

The landing came several hours after the Mr. Piccard performed a fly-by over the Golden Gate Bridge as spectators watched the narrow aircraft with extra wide wings from below.

“I crossed the bridge. I am officially in America,” he declared as he took in spectacular views of San Francisco Bay.

Mr. Piccard and fellow Swiss pilot Andre Borschberg have been taking turns flying the plane on an around-the-world trip since taking off from Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, in March 2015. It made stops in Oman, Myanmar, China, Japan and Hawaii.

The trans-Pacific leg was the riskiest part of the plane’s global travels because of the lack of emergency landing sites.

The aircraft faced a few bumps along the way.

The Solar Impulse 2 landed in Hawaii in July and was forced to stay in the islands after the plane’s battery system sustained heat damage on its trip from Japan. The team was delayed in Asia, as well. When first attempting to fly from Nanjing, China, to Hawaii, the crew had to divert to Japan because of unfavourable weather and a damaged wing.

A month later, when weather conditions were right, the plane departed from Nagoya in central Japan for Hawaii.

The plane’s ideal flight speed is about 28 mph, though that can double during the day when the sun’s rays are strongest. The carbon-fiber aircraft weighs more than 5,000 pounds, or about as much as a midsize truck.

The plane’s wings, which stretch wider than those of a Boeing 747, are equipped with 17,000 solar cells that power propellers and charge batteries. The plane runs on stored energy at night.

Solar Impulse 2 will make three more stops in the United States before crossing the Atlantic Ocean to Europe or Northern Africa, according to the website documenting the journey.

“The adventure continues,” Mr. Piccard said. “The story is not finished.”

The project, which began in 2002 and is estimated to cost more than $100 million, is meant to highlight the importance of renewable energy and the spirit of innovation.

“I think innovation and pioneering must continue,” Mr. Piccard said. “It must continue for better quality of life, for clean technologies, for renewable energy; this is where the pioneers can really express themselves and be successful.”

Solar-powered air travel is not yet commercially practical, however, given the slow travel time, weather and weight constraints of the aircraft.

“Maybe it will be boring in 20 years when all the airplanes will be electric and people will say ‘Oh it’s routine.’ But now, today, an airplane that is electric, with electric engines, that produces its own energy with the sun, it can never be boring,” Mr. Piccard said. “It’s a miracle of technology.”

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Trump mocks Indian call centres

Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump used a fake accent to mock a call centre representative in India.

At the same time, he described India as a great place. The billionaire from New York said he called up his credit card company to find out whether their customer support is based in the U.S. or overseas.

“Guess what, you’re talking to a person from India. How the hell does that work?” he told his supporters in Delaware. “So I called up, under the guise I’m checking on my card, I said, ‘Where are you from?’” Mr. Trump said and then he copied the response from the call centre in a fake Indian accent. “We are from India,” Mr. Trump impersonated the response.

Fake accent

“Oh great, that’s wonderful,” he said as he pretended to hang up the phone.

“India is great place. I am not upset with other leaders. I am upset with our leaders for being so stupid,” he said. “I am not angry with China. I am not angry at Japan. I am not angry with Vietnam, India...all these countries.”

Mr. Trump mentioned the fake call to India during his remarks on what he described as “crooked banking”.

Delaware is a hub for America’s banking and credit card industry. The list includes Bank of America, Citibank Delaware, M&T Bank and PNC Financial Services Group.

“They are making a lot of money,” he said. “You can’t allow policies that allow China, Mexico, Japan, Vietnam, India. You can’t allow policies that allow business to be ripped out of the United States like candy from a baby.”

“The manufacturing jobs are being stolen. Our jobs are being taken. We are losing at every front. There is nothing good. Our country does not win anymore. The jobs are being stripped. Factories are closing. We are not going to let this happen anymore,” he said.

Mr. Trump added he has as many as 378 companies registered in Delaware, where the Republican presidential primary is scheduled on April 26 along with several other states. He is leading in polls against his other primary rivals.

In his speech, Mr. Trump praised Delaware’s status as a tax shelter and slammed President Barack Obama for not using the term “radical Islamists” in the fight against terrorism. “I want to run against crooked Hillary,” he said.

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