Secretary of State John Kerry today sought to clarify controversial remarks he made about the crisis in Egypt. Kerry said in a TV interview yesterday the Egyptian military did not take over when it ousted President Mohammed Morsi. 

A moderate intensity earthquake today rocked the India-Myanmar border region, including some parts of Manipur and Shillong, this evening. 

More than 20 Afghan policemen and dozens of Taliban insurgents were killed today when hundreds of fighters ambushed a police and military convoy in eastern Afghanistan, officials said. 

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's party has won a two-thirds majority in parliament in this week's elections, officials say.

BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha yet again said senior leader L K Advani will be the best choice as party's prime ministerial candidate suggesting Narendra Modi's appointment as campaign committee chief has diverted attention from burning issues of Congress' scams and price rise.        

 

In a veiled dig at party President Rajnath Singh's oft-repeated statement that Modi was the most popular leader in the country, the MP from Patnasaheb constituency, said if popularity was the yardstick, then Amitabh Bachchan should become the President of India.  

 

"He (Advani) may not be a contender. But my personal view is that Advani is the best (for prime minister's candidate) suited from all aspects, including seniority.  

 

"His contribution to the party is immense. He made it a party of two MPs to close to 200 MPs. His performance was very good. There is nobody better than him in the party. He is the best of all," Sinha told Aaj Tak.  

Just in: An unspecified terror threat has prompted US to direct its embassies and consulates throughout the Muslim world to close on Sunday

The visa application of Bollywood actor Salman Khan has been rejected by the United Kingdom government. This has led to the delay in the shooting of his upcoming film Kick.

The authorities have not provided any reason for the rejection of the actor's visa.

However, it is being speculated that this would be a consequence of Salman Khan being caught up in the 2002 hit-and-run case.

The United States has announced that it will close certain embassies and consulates -- mostly in Muslim dominated countries on August 4 due to unspecified security reasons.

"The department of state has instructed certain US embassies and consulates to remain closed or to suspend operations on Sunday, August 4th," the state department spokesperson Marie Harf said.

"The department has been apprised of information that, out of an abundance of caution and care for our employees and others who may be visiting our installations that indicates we should institute these precautionary steps," she said, without giving further details.

MDMK leader Vaiko and several party volunteers were detained when they attempted to march towards the airport in Tiruchirappalli to stage a black flag demonstration against the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over India's support to a Commonwealth meet to he held in Colombo in November.   

Police said about 150 MDMK men, including the partyGeneral Secretary were detained when they insisted onproceeding to the airport to stage the protest.

A day after CBI gave a clean chit to independent MLA Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya in DSP Zia-ul-Haq's murder case, the former UP minister today met SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav fuelling speculations about his re-induction as minister in the government.    

Raja Bhaiya met Yadav at his residence this morning and left within half-an-hour, sources said.

The rupee weakened below the 61 mark against the dollar in a clear indication that current measures to prop up the currency are not being too effective. The partially convertible rupee hit an intraday low of 61.15 against Thursday's close of 60.43/44, reports NDTV.

Pakistani authorities have told a court that the ban on YouTube cannot be lifted until a mechanism is put in place to permanently block blasphemous contents on the popular video-sharing website.

The federal Information Technology Ministry conveyed its position to a division bench of the Peshawar high court yesterday. The court was hearing a petition filed by lawyer Mina Muhibbulah Kakakhel, who challenged the nearly year-old ban on YouTube.

YouTube was blocked in September 2012 by former premier Raja Pervez Ashraf after clips from the anti-Islam film "Innocence Of Muslims" were posted on the site, triggering violent protests across the country.

Parel's Aditi restaurant, which made national headlines last month for printing an anti-UPA slogan on its bill, will be issued a demolition notice by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, reports Pune Mirror.

Civic officials said that the hotel had illegally encroached upon the pavement.

Read the full report here

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar blames CM Prithviraj Chavan for delay in tabling Adarsh probe report. "I was told by the CM that the report will be  tabled by session-end," he said.     

'In this installment of Digital Diversity, brothers David and Christopher Mikkelsen tell the story of how their organisation, Refugees United, was born, Ken Watch of National Geographic Emerging Explorer posts in Newswatch of National Geographic.

The army today staged a flag march in trouble-torn Karbi Anglong district as fresh incidents of violence erupted even as railway services were paralysed in Assam with several ethnic organisations stepping up their demand for separate states on the lines of Telangana.   

The army was called in to assist the civil administration and it staged a flag march this afternoon in several violence-hit and vulnerable areas, official sources said.   

Two additional companies of paramilitary forces have also been deployed in the district which witnessed violencefor the third day today following the Congress and UPA's decision to create Telangana as the 29th state of the country.      Train services across the state have been affected following the 12-hour Rail Blockade called by different Bodo organisations to press their demand for a separate Bodoland.

The poor would be moved if they only knew how much reverence the well-fed have for their condition, a sort of sacred plight that should not be defiled by charlatan statistics. In fact, the elite in India are deeply influenced, affected and shaped by the nation's poverty, Manu Joseph writes in the New York Times, here.

Mosiqi Acharya tweets: @narendramodi's govt is citing the Bombay Tenancy n Agricultural Lands Act,1948 to evict these SIKH farmers residin in Kutch since partition

'The July 24 suicide attack on the local headquarters of ISI in the highly secured Barrage Colony area of Sukkur has renewed the fears among the Sindhi civil society and political groups that the influence of Taliban and other militant groups is spreading in interior Sindh,' reports Zia ur Rehman in the Friday Times.

A former Goldman Sachs trader nicknamed 'Fabulous Fab' has been found liable in a fraud case brought by federal regulators in response to the 2007 mortgage crisis that pushed the country into recession. 

A police constable posted on sentry duty at the RSS headquarters in Nagpur allegedly committed suicide, the police said today. 

The BCCI  will reportedly file a special petition in the Supreme Court against the Bombay high court's verdict that the probe panel it had formed to probe the spot-fixing and betting scandal in the Indian Premier League was "unconstitutional and illegal".

A crucial meet of the Indian cricket board's working committee was cancelled at the last minute.

The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court today refused to interfere in the suspension of IAS office Durga Shakti Nagpal by the Akhilesh Singh Yadav government, saying that it was "a matter between the master and the servant". 

A crucial meeting of the BCCI working committee in New Delhi has suddenly been cancelled without any reason being given.There has been a sharp divide in the cricket board over N Srinivasan's presence.

Sources tell CNN-IBN that Sirnivaisan was adamant about chairing the meet, which would suggest his return as the board president.

His presence at the IPL meet angered other governing council members, say sources.     

The famous Manikarnika Temple on the banks of the Bhagirathi was swept away by the swirling waters of the river in the wee hours today, even as fresh attempts were launched to trace the Almora SDM Ajay Arora, who slipped off a makeshift bridge and fell into the Mandakini river. 

The Congress suffered a jolt today with five of its Lok Sabha MPs from the Andhra region tendering their resignation over the decision to form Telangana. 

Less than three years after launching it, Google, the internet's 800-pound gorilla, has shut down the music service for India.

If you regularly search LinkedIn profiles for national security information, you'll find hundreds of highly compensated individuals who worked for NSA and who list, as one of their skills, the fluency in XKEYSCORE, writes Marc Ambinder in theweek.com, here. But how many of you know what it is? We certainly didn't till we came across this article.

'It is not enough that a citizen not be a terrorist or thief; it is very essential that the citizen fulfills with responsibility and diligence his part of the social compact. In no society is the rule of law or good governance available off the shelf; citizens have to earn it.'

'The SP appears to be leaving no stone unturned in communalising' the Durga Shakti Nagpal issue, reports Smita Gupta in The Hindu. 

A defiant N Srinivasan is all set to attend the crucial BCCI working committee meet today where discussions will be held on the Bombay high court's ruling that a two-member panel that investigated the spot-fixing scandal was illegal.  

The working committee members are expected to question him after the meet.

Srinivasan is expected to attend today's meeting as the representative chief of the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association.

PTI reported yesterday: The crucial meeting will mark Srinivasan's return as BCCI president after nearly two months since stepping aside pending an internal inquiry into the spot-fixing episode that rocked the sixth edition of the Indian Premier League.

More on the meet here

NDTV reports: India will launch its first indigenous aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant, on August 12 from the Kochi shipyard. This will make India only the fifth country after the United Stat, Russia, Britain and France to have the capability to build such vessels.

Read the full report here

The Supreme Court today issued notice to Unitech MD Sanjay Chandra on the CBI's plea for cancellation of his bail in the 2G case.

The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court will hear the PIL against the suspension of Indian Administrative Service officer Durga Shakti's Nagpal, reports Hindustan Times.

Social activist Nutan Thakur had filed the PIL on Monday. As per the petition, there is a serious problem of illegal sand mining and illegal religious constructions in public places all over the country. The Supreme Court had also issued strict instructions to put an end to both the practices.

Thakur has asked the high court to direct the Centre as the cadre controlling authority of IAS officers to seek details about Nagpals suspension and quash it if found illegal and improper.

Read the full story here

Akhilesh Yadav defend his action against IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal yesterday. And to make matters worse a local party leader Narendra Bhati was caught on camera boasting about how he got the official, who campaigned against the sand mafia in Uttar Pradesh, suspended "in 40 minutes flat."

On video, Bhati tells a crowd of supporters, "I spoke to Mulayam and Akhilesh at 10.30 and at 11 the suspension order arrived... She behaved so badly and couldn't last for 40 minutes after that. Within 41 minutes, the order came from Lucknow and she was suspended."

Read the full report on NDTV

CNN-IBN reports: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha supporters have allegedly burnt down a state forest bungalow in Takda Kurseong in Darjeeling as they demanded for statehood. The GJM had called for a 96-hour band in Darjeeling yesterday.

The developments came a day after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee ruled out any division of West Bengal and cautioned that her government would take stern action against those disturbing law and order in the region.

A moderate intensity quake today shook some parts of Punjab, Chandigarh and Haryana. No loss of life or property has been reported from any parts of the region so far in the quake that measured 5.4 on the Richter scale, officials said.

According to the seismology department, the epicentre of the earthquake was Doda in Jammu and Kashmir.

The Telangana crisis is expected to worsen today. Sources tell our correspondent in New Delhi that four Union ministers and seven MPs of the Seema-Andhra region have decided to quit today. They will announce their at 11 am at the Parliament Central Hall and submit their resignations to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar.

The Union ministers who are expected to quit are MM Pallam Raju, J D Seelam,  D Purandeswari, Killi Kruparani.

Lagadapati Rajagopal, Kanumuri Bapiraju, Vundavalli Arun Kumar, Harsha Kumar, Anantha Venkatarami Reddy, Sai Pratap and KVP Ramachandra Rao are the MPS who are expected to resign.

A father of five burnt alive two of his daughters after pouring petrol on them near Ahmedabad police CID office.

"We have booked Govind Rathod for murdering his two daughters by pouring petrol on them and setting them afire. Further investigations are on to ascertain what was the motive behind his act," Meghaninagar police inspector DA Desai told PTI.

A controversial United States surveillance programme that sweeps Internet usage data had 700 snooping servers installed at 150 locations around the world, including one in India, according to a report.

The XKeyscore programme, run by the National Security Agency, allowed analysts to search through vast databases containing e-mails, online chats and browsing histories of millions of individuals, the Guardian reported, citing documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

A February 2008 training material presentation for the XKeyscore programme included a map of locations of the surveillance servers, one of which appeared to be near the national capital, according to the Guardian report.

Italy's supreme court has upheld the prison sentence given to ex-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi for tax fraud. However, the court ordered a review of a five-year ban on public office that was part of the sentence. Berlusconi faces house arrest or community service instead of going to jail because of his age - he is 76.

His lawyers had asked judges at Rome's Court of Cassation to overturn a one-year jail sentence and political ban. When Berlusconi was convicted in October last year, he was sentenced to four years in prison but this was automatically reduced to one under a 2006 pardon law.

Read the full report on BBC

Dozens of people were killed and wounded in the central Syrian city of Homs on Thursday when a rebel rocket attack hit an ammunition depot in a neighborhood known for its support for President Bashar al-Assad, according to residents and opposition activists.

A former Goldman Sachs trader who earned the nickname "Fabulous Fab" was found liable today in a fraud case brought by federal regulators in response to the 2007 mortgage crisis that helped push the US into recession. 

Morgan Tsvangirai, the challenger to Zimbabwe's longtime president, Robert Mugabe, declared on Thursday that the country's presidential election had been a "huge farce' and called upon international observers to investigate. 

The United States said it would close an unspecified number of embassies around the world on Sunday over security concerns. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf today called the step "precautionary" but declined to specify the threat or list which missions would be closed. 

S Secretary of State John Kerry suggested Thursday that US drone strikes targeting Taliban and Al-Qaeda operatives in Pakistan could end "very soon" as the threat of militancy recedes. 

Three ministers from Andhra- Rayalaseema regions submitted their resignations to Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy late tonight even as at least 15 others are understood to have backed out following a stern warning by the high command. 

A USD 60 million research ship funded by a Google executive is setting sail from San Francisco to study a so-called "dead zone" in the Pacific Ocean and other mysteries of the sea. 

The White House is "very disappointed" that National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden has been granted temporary asylum in Russia. Snowden has legal status in Russia for one year, his Russian lawyer Anatoly Kucherena said earlier Thursday, adding that his client has left the Moscow airport.

 

Hours later White House spokesman Jay Carney spoke about the news in a press conference. The United States is reconsidering a planned meeting between President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin next month in Moscow before a G-20 gathering in St. Petersburg, Russia, he said. "We are evaluating the utility of a summit."

 

Read the full report on CNN

Upset over the Telangana decision, Congress Union Ministers and some MPs from Andhra Pradesh met tonight in Delhi amid indications that some MPs could resign.        

 

Sources said while the four Union Ministers from Andhra present at the meeting have ruled out their resignations, some of the seven MPs present contemplated doing so to force the party high-command and government to reverse the decision on Telangana.        

 

The meetig was held late tonight at the residence of Congress MP K V P Ramachandra Rao. The sources added that a final decision on whether the MPs will tender their resignations or not is expected by tomorrow after some more MPs from Andhra Pradesh join them.        

 

As deliberations continued late in the night, the Union Ministers are understood to have counsel the MPs that after the Congress high-command's decision on Telangana formation, it will be proper to focus on Andhra's future development and the setting up of the new capital rather than resigning.        

 

However, the MPs feel that still the situation has not gone out of hand and by tendering their resignations, they can force the government to hold back its decision.        

 

The Congress MPs present were Lagadapatti Rajagopal, Kanumuri Bapiraju, Sai Pratap, Vundavalli Arunkumar, Anantha Venkatarama Reddy, Harsha Kumar and K V P Ramachandra Rao. Union Ministers M M Pallam Raju, J D Seelam, Purandareshwari and Killi Krupa Rani were also present.

AP bifurcation issue: 16 TDP MLAs resign

Government shuts off transparency, makes parties happy

Renewed statehood stirs pose fresh challenge for Assam

5 LeT terrorists among 11 killed in ongoing Kupwara gunbattle

IAS officer Durga Shakti blemish-free, says DM's report

US snooping programme had one server in India: Report

No Telangana bill this Parliament session

Shobhaa De faces Tweet fury in Mumbai

Battlelines drawn! It's Rahul Gandhi vs Congress

Click here for yesterday's LIVE NEWS UPDATES