The British police today said they were examining the "relevance and credibility" of recently received new information about the deaths of Princess Diana and her boyfriend Dodi Al Fayed.       

Attacking the UPA government over rising prices, senior BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu today sought to remind the Congress how sudden the spurt in onion prices had led to the fall of his party's government in Delhi 15 years ago.        

Three people were arrested today for their alleged involvement in the murder of former MLA and BSP leader Sarvesh Kumar Singh alias Seepu on July 19.        

Egyptian authorities have arrested the brother of Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri for backing ousted President Mohammed Morsi, an official said today.        

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad today said it has urged Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav to work as a bridge between Hindus and Muslims to pave the way for the construction of the Ram Temple.

A large contingent of Chinese army men, along with their families, visited Bum La pass in Tawang district of Arunachal Pradesh for a special border personnel meeting on August 15 to celebrate Indian Independence Day.        

Mounting a scathing attack on Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for inept governance, senior Congress leader and Union Minister Jairam Ramesh today held the BJD government responsible for the inordinate delay in the implementation of the Posco steel project.        

Iran continues to detain an Indian tanker, citing environment concerns, for the sixth day today, even as the two countries are involved in hectic negotiations to resolve the issue.        

The BJP's Bihar unit today became the first state body to ask its central leaders to formally name Narendra Modi as the party's prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.        

The mahayuti (mega-alliance) comprising Shiv Sena, BJP and RPI would begin seat sharing talks for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls after the Ganesh festival in September.        

The Laadli Media Awards, which recognises journalism with 'gender-just perspectives', has invited entries for the 2013 awards.   

The CRPF faces its biggest challenge in Naxal areas and it will focus on minimising troop casualities as it takes on the left-wing extremists, the new chief of the country's largest paramilitary said today.       

Monsoon showers continued to lash Uttar Pradesh, where six people were today killed in rain-related incidents, taking the death toll this season to 221.        

Terming dialogue as a better option in improving ties with neighbouring countries, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid today said India believes in strengthening relations with its neighbours through talks.       

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi today targeted the Centre's rural development schemes, saying 'charity' for winning elections instead of solid development work will not help improve rural India.     

A court in Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh, today directed the police to register a case against social activist Anna Hazare for allegedly showing disrespect to the National Flag during his visit on July 29.        

Activist-turned-politician Arvind Kejriwal today gave an undertaking in a Delhi court that he will appear before it whenever required in a defamation case filed by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit's political secretary for his alleged remarks against her during power tariff hike protests.        

The Congress will set up new communication teams with a separate wing dedicated to social media in five poll-bound states of Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram.        

The Centre has criticised the Gujarat government for challenging its pre-matriculation scholarship scheme for students of minority communities in the Supreme Court.        

Sadhu Yadav, the estranged brother-in-law of RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, is set to face disciplinary action from the Congress for praising and meeting Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.        

 

Sources in the party said that action against Yadav will follow soon but the party would prefer the matter to be a low key affair. "Action against him, if any, will be taken at district or state level. What is so big about him," averred a party functionary speaking on the condition of anonymity.        

 

After meeting Modi yesterday, Yadav, who had contested the last Lok Sabha election on Congress ticket, said the Gujarat Chief Minister has better qualities to become Prime Minister than Rahul Gandhi.        

 

AICC general secretary Shakeel Ahmed said, "I am not sure whether he (Yadav) is still in Congress or not. He had indeed contested the 2009 Lok Sabha election on Congress ticket and then assembly polls in October 2010. But after that we have not seen him active in party affairs."

Amid speculations that Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia may lead Madhya Pradesh after assembly elections, Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh today sought to dispel the perception, saying it's the party convention not to name chief ministerial nominee during polls.   

 

"As per the Congress tradition, elected MLAs choose their chief minister after Assembly elections," Digvijay told reporters here.     

 

His remarks came against the backdrop of unconfirmed reports that party leadership has zeroed in on the Union minister of state for power to lead the state if Congress wins elections, which are due by year-end.

BJP top brass today asked the party's spokespersons and media cell office bearers from across the states to be more aggressive in taking on Congress, but maintain decency and decorum while countering the opposition through television debates and press interactions.        

 

At a closed-door media workshop organised for its spokespersons, panelists and media cells at the Centre and in states, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and her Rajya Sabha counterpart Arun Jaitley dwelt on the "do's and don'ts" while handling the media and attacking the political opponents.        

 

Swaraj, who inaugurated the workshop, said party leaders should exercise caution while hitting out at the Congress as "words once spoken cannot be taken back", party sources said.        

 

She emphasised on the need for the spokespersons and panelists to speak in one voice and maintain decorum while firmly rubbishing arguments of the political adversaries.

At least 29 people have died and 14 others reported missing in floods and landslides triggered by heavy rains in northeastern China over the past week, state media said today.        

 

Floods in Heilongjiang, Liaoning and Jilin provinces have led to the relocation of 140,000 people, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. The latest casualties brought the death toll of floods to 29, Xinhua said, adding that the flooding in the region is the worst in decades.        

 

In Heilongjiang, the floods have destroyed over 2,500 houses and severely damaged at least 12,500 others, with direct economic losses estimated at $1.15 billion, said the provincial civil affairs department.

A Delhi court has send top Lashkar-e-Tayiba terrorist Abdul Karim Tunda, who was picked up by police off the Indo-Nepal border earlier in the day, to three-day police custody.  

 

A Pakistani passport issued on January 23, 2013 has been found in the possession of Tunda, sources in Delhi Police said.   Tunda had planned to carry out blasts in and around Delhi before the Commonwealth Games: Delhi Police, sources added.

A six-year-old girl of Nischinda area of Howrah was allegedly raped by her neighbour who has has been arrested today, police sources said. 38-year-old Arun Agarwal had allegedly raped the girl on August 5 and had threatened her that if she told about the incident to any one then he would kill her and her family members, they said.  

 

Fearing this the girl had not disclosed anything to her family. Yesterday the girl fell ill and was rushed to the hospital where she disclosed the matter, they said.        

 

The girl's family members then lodged a police complaint against Agarwal with the Nischinda police station under Howrah Police Commissionerate yesterday.         The police today arrested Agarwal based on the complaint, the sources said, adding further investigations were on.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday ruled out the possibility of India witnessing a repeat of the 1991 balance of payments crisis and also reversing the path to globalisation of the economy.  

 

"There is no question of going back to1991 (balance of payment crisis). At that time foreign exchange in India was a fixed rate. Now it is linked to market. We only correct the volatility of the rupee," he told PTI.  

 

In 1991, Singh said, the country had only foreign exchange reserves for 15 days. "Now we have reserves of six to seven months. So there is no comparison.

 

And no go question of going back to 1991 crisis."   Against the backdrop of the high Current Account Deficit the Prime Minister was asked about fears in some quarters that the country may be witnessing a throw back to 1991 crisis when gold was pledged and the country was forced to adopt a reforms programme that put it on the path of globalisation of economy.  

 

He was speaking after release of the fourth volume of RBI history titled "RBI History-Looking Back and Looking Ahead" at a small function at his Race Course residence.

At least 26 people have died and more than 200 are missing after a ferry collided with a cargo ship and sank off the Philippines. The MV Thomas Aquinas was in collision with the cargo vessel on Friday evening near the central city of Cebu, officials said.

 

The ship was carrying 752 passengers and 118 crew, according to latest coast guard figures. The incident took place around 2km (1.2 miles) from the shore. The ferry was sailing into the port at Cebu - the country's second biggest city - when it collided with the cargo ship travelling the other way at about 21:00 local time.

 

Read more on BBC

Supporters of deposed Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi are trapped in a mosque near Cairo's Ramses Square, as military and police forces keep the area surrounded. A tense standoff continued early on Saturday morning at the Egyptian capital's Al-Fateh mosque.

 

Witnesses inside the building told Al Jazeera that police, soldiers and "thugs" in plain clothes were attempting to storm the building and that there were hundreds of people inside, including women and children.

 

Read more on Al Jazeera

Senior IPS officer Dilip Trivedi has been appointed as the new chief of the country's largest paramilitary force CRPF. Trivedi, a 1978-batch officer of Uttar Pradesh  cadre, is presently serving as the Special Director General of  the BSF at its headquarters in New Delhi. 

 

Trivedi has served in various positions in the state police and has also served in the Centre as ADG of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police. The post of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) DG fell vacant on July 31 after incumbent chief Pranay Sahay retired.        

 

NSG chief Arvind Ranjan was given the charge in an additional capacity by the Union Home Ministry. Trivedi is expected to take over charge today.

Two people were injured when four armed men opened indiscriminate firing at the office of a leading media group in Pakistan's Karachi city, police said.         Atleast 22 rounds were fired at the building. The injured guard and woman were shifted to a nearby hospital for treatment.        

 

Four motorcycles-borne men, all wearing helmets, had shown up outside the main office building of the Express media group in Karachi yesterday. Two of them got down and opened indiscriminate firing, police said.        

 

"A woman and a guard were injured in the firing they fired atleast 20 to 22 rounds," a police official said. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and President Asif Ali Zardari took notice of the incident and demanded immediate report on the attack at the Express Media office.

 

They also hoped for speedy recovery of the injured. A spokesman for the media group said the attack instilled fear and tension among the workers.        

Vicky Nanjappa reports: In a major development, Abdul Karim Tunda, a key operative of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba has been arrested by the Delhi police.   Sources say Tunda, one of India's most wanted terrorist, was picked up from the Indo-Nepal border.  

Image: The site of one of the five blasts that rocked New Delhi in 2008

 

Tunda is wanted in over 33 cases which include bomb blasts in Delhi. He is the mastermind of the blasts which occured at Delhi, Kanpur and Ludhiana, in which over 21 people died.

Pakistan should revoke its decision to resume executions and renew its moratorium on the death penalty, global rights groups have said.

The Human Rights Watch and the International Commission of Jurists said in a joint letter to the Pakistani government today.

"After a five-year unofficial moratorium on executions, Pakistan's new government has said it intends to resume the heinous practice of sending people to the gallows," said Ali Dayan Hasan, Pakistan director at Human Rights Watch.

"The government should instead declare an official moratorium, commute all existing death sentences, and then abolish the death penalty once and for all," he said.

The two bodies urged the Pakistani government to demonstrate its commitment to international human rights obligations by halting all executions, immediately adopting a moratorium on the death penalty, and abolishing the death penalty permanently in domestic law.

Pakistani troops fired on forward Indian posts along the Line of Control in Mendhar and Hamirpur areas of Poonch district late tonight in yet another instance of ceasefire violation, drawing retaliation from India.

There was no immediate report of casualties on Indian side.

Defence spokesman S N Acharya said the Pakistani troops targetted the Indian forward areas with small arms fire at around 9.45pm and Indian troops responded to it.