Anil Sinha was on Tuesday chosen as CBI director to succeed outgoing chief Ranjit Sinha after a high-profile meeting in Delhi earlier during the day.

The head of Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) today said that Pakistan had introduced 50 home-assembled multi-role JF-17 Thunder fight jets into its airforce. 

Washington Post reports:

Lebanese officials say authorities have detained a wife and son of the Islamic State's leader.

European nations agreed today to build a new-generation rocket to maintain their lead in the market for satellite launches, ministers said. 

A Bill seeking stringent punishment including death penalty for hijackers was approved by the Union Cabinet tonight.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday called Maoists a "national challenge" which he said the government has accepted and will fight it. 

A 25-year-old Indian national was today sentenced to one year in prison for assaulting a woman police officer during the country's worst street violence in 40 years.

Government is likely to get a favourable view from a Parliamentary panel scrutinising the Insurance Bill that proposes raising foreign investment cap to 49 per cent, after the Congress agreed on most provisions except allowing FIIs.

Taking ahead its cleanliness drive, the railways has asked officials to to visit airports, five-star hotels and corporate hospitals to learn best "upkeep practices".

Remember the video  that went viral a few days ago where a young DD anchor is seen making one gaffe after another? 

From the CNN: The attack is harrowing: Al-Shabaab militants raid a quarry in Kenya, separating non-Muslim workers from their Muslim counterparts and executing them.

From CNN: Ashton Carter will be President Barack Obama's choice as the new secretary of defense, barring any last minute-complications, several US administration officials said.   

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today disapproved of the controversial remarks by Union Minister Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, saying such comments were "not acceptable" and asked party MPs to refrain from those that gave a bad name to the government and the party. 

Just in: First meeting held at PM Modi's residence to select new CBI chief, 43 people shortlisted, say sources.

The meeting is between a collegium of the government, the Opposition and the Chief Justice of India and focussed on the selection of the new director of the CBI. Ranjit Sinha retired as CBI chief today.

The collegium comprised the Prime Minister, Chief Justice of India HL Dattu and the leader of the largest Opposition party or Congress. In this case, Mallikarjun Kharge, who leads the Congress in the Lok Sabha, will represent the opposition. 

Army Chief General Dalbir Singh Suhag today visited the forward areas in Rajouri and Jammu districts and reviewed the overall security situation in the region. "Gen Singh visited Nagrota on his visit south of Pir Panjal today.

The chief was received by GOC White Knight Corps Lt Gen K H Singh who later briefed him in detail on the security situation in the area and the proactive and effective security cover put up by the formations and units of the Corps," an army officer said.

Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis says that the BJP-Shiv Sena talks have positive. Fadnavis is in Delhi to brief BJP president Amit Shah. "I'm sure a decision will be made soon," he said.

Yesterday, Fadnavis had said that the talks with the Shiv Sena over power sharing were 70-80 per cent complete. According to the pact, Sena will be allotted a total of 12 ministries in the Fadnavis government, out of which 5 will be of Cabinet rank.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh announces compensation of Rs 38 lakh each to the kin of the 14 CRPF jawans killed in a Naxalam bush in Sukma, Chhattisgarh and Rs 65,000 each to the 15 injured.

Four persons were injured when a private bus caught fire as it rammed into a road divider when its driver tried to avoid three persons coming on a motorbike in the opposite direction at K R Puram, Bangalore, today.

A day after Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said the talks with Shiv Sena over power sharing were 70-80 per cent complete, a senior Sena leader today said both the parties have "buried" their differences and agreed on a "suitable" formula.

According to the pact, Sena will be allotted a total of 12 ministries in the Fadnavis government, out of which 5 will be of Cabinet rank.

However, the formal announcement in this regard is likely to be delayed in the wake of demise of Congress veteran and former Maharashtra chief minister A R Antulay today.

And in Jharkhand, which also went to the polls in the second phase today, the percentage is 64.99%. 

Vinod Zutsi, EC on polls in J&K: Poonch 75%, Kupwara  68%,
Kulgam - above 60%. Riyasi 80%, Udhampur 76%.

Overall poll percentage till around 5:30 pm is 71% and is likely to go up says Zutsi. Polls in the entire phase 2 was peaceful with no untoward incident of significance, he said.  

Just in: It's a record 71 per cent polling in the second phase of the assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir today.  In fact, it's been a virtual replay of the impressive 71.28 per cent turnout in the first phase.

A total of 18 seats went to polls in the second of the five phases over which assembly elections are to be held in J-K. In the fray are 175 candidates, including four sitting ministers of the coalition government.

Ignoring the separatists' call to shun the vote, electors in the five districts emulated the trend seen in the first phase by turning up at polling booths in large numbers at 8 am, the scheduled start of voting.

Transgressions along the India-China border occured when troops of both the countries undertook patrolling "up to their respective perception of the Line of Actual Control (LAC)," Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said today.

In September, Chinese troops had "transgressed temporarily across our perception of the LAC in Chumar area," he said in reply to a written
question in Rajya Sabha, adding they pulled back after a flag meeting.

"There have been no instances of intrusion along the India-China border. There is no commonly delineated LAC between India and China. There are areas along the border where India and China have differing perception of LAC," Parrikar said.

"Transgressions occur, on occasions, on account of both sides undertaking patrolling upto their respective perception of LAC," the minister said.

Replying to another related question, he said "due to such difference of perceptions, transgressions have also occured in the general area of Pangong Tso Lake."

Unclaimed bag found near finance ministry in Delhi's Raisina Hills area. Bomb disposal squad rushed for detection. 

Supreme Court permits Sahara group to sell four domestic properties which will fetch around Rs 2710 crore.

Subrata Roy, the jailed head of the Sahara group has to raise a bail amount of Rs 10,000 crore. He is back in his cell in Tihar jail after living in a makeshift prison office for two months while working on the sale of three luxury hotels in New York and London.

A pall of gloom descended in Naubasta area in Kanpur today as news of the demise of CRPF jawan Bijendra Singh, who was killed yesterday in a Naxal attack in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh, unfolded.

Bijendra Singh, who was posted as a deputy commandant, is survived by two children. His wife passed away 11 months ago due to some illness, family sources said. The body will reach tonight.

Local authorities have started preparation for the last rites of the martyr.

When asked whether any monetary assistance was announced to provide the martyr's family by the Uttar Pradesh government, Singh said the district administration has not yet received any information regarding this.

Maoists had yesterday unleashed a major attack killing 14 CRPF personnel, including two officers, and injuring 12 others in the second ambush on the force in 10 days in the same area in Naxal-infested Sukma district of Chhattisgarh.

BJP senior leader Murli Manohar Joshi on Niranjan Jyoti's abusive rant: "All those at constitutional posts must have control over the kind of language they use."

Altogether 82 people were killed in police custody this year so far, while 974 such deaths were reported in judicial custody, Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju told the Lok Sabha today. The figure was 140 in 2013.

Maximum cases were reported from Maharashtra and union territories since 2013-14, with 18 cases registered this year while in Jammu and Kashmir, no such death under police custody has been recorded since 2012-13.

Judicial custody deaths were 974 this year as against 1,577 in 2013.

Woman, believed to wife of ISIS leader was travelling with fake passport as she crossed from Syria and is now being questioned. Read 

Reviving the port lands could be Mumbai's best bet for affordable housing, transport links and public space. But chances like this have been squandered in the past. Read

Voting percentage in Jammu & Kashmir till 2 pm is 53.20 per cent.

Another video has emerged of the Rohtak girls who were in the news for fighting off three men who harassed them on board a bus in Haryana.

The new video that has surfaced today, shows the sisters beating up a man for reportedly making derogatory remarks. The incident happened in what looks like a public park. Details are awaited on this video.

On Friday, the two college-going sisters thrashed three men inside a moving bus, even as passengers chose to look the other way.

The sisters used their belts to beat the men when they used derogatory language and made obscene gestures at them. The incident was recorded by a pregnant woman passenger on her mobile phone, which went viral both on television and social media. Expectedly, the male passengers in the bus didn't bother to help the women.

A case has been registered against three men, police said, but no arrest has been made.

The boom under the UPA has ended; to achieve respectable growth, the NDA government will have to do something in terms of reforms and the Prime Minister will have to go beyond simply designing excellent websites and think out of the box. Read

In Handwara (J&K), Sajjad Lone votes. As many as 18 Assembly segments, spread over five districts - two in the Valley and three in Jammu region - will decide the fate of 175 candidates which includes the lone woman minister in the National Conference-Congress coalition government, Sakina Ittoo as well as the deputy speaker, four ministers and 11 other sitting MLAs.

Lone is in a triangular contest against sitting National Conference MLA Choudhary Ramzan -- against whom his father Abdul Gani Lone had fought bitterly -- and PDP's Ghulam Mohideen Sofi, Sajad's own creation, a shopkeeper whom he had made his proxy in 2002 and who defeated Ramzan.

Terror emanating from the territory under Pakistan's control remains a core global concern and the neighbouring country should not allow its soil to be used for terrorism against India, government has said.

Gold records this year's biggest single-day gain of Rs 840 to Rs 27,040 per 10 grams.

With money managers pouring in a whopping USD 16.5 billion in Indian stocks, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is being treated like a rock star by investors around the world, a leading American financial daily has said.

"Investors around the world are giving Modi, and India, the rock star treatment. Money managers have poured USD 16.5 billion into Indian stocks this year, the most of any developing country tracked by the Institute of International Finance," The Wall Street Journal has reported.

Even as the 30th anniversary of the Bhopal gas disaster is being observed in India, its victims continue to be plagued with a number of problems that have not been resolved over the years. The pyres have died, but the memories of 1984 still smoulder. See our slideshow.

For thousands of residents of Bhopal, the disaster began the night they choked on the air which smelt of burnt chillies, and it hasn't ended yet.

The survivors got a pittance as compensation, thanks to an out-of-court settlement by the Indian government, and the late Warren Anderson, then chief executive officer of Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL), was not extradited for trial in India. Justice seemed remote then, and 30 years later even more so.  Read more

The bullishness in the Indian stock market is likely to continue and the benchmark Sensex will reach 32,500 by December 2015, Global brokerage firm Morgan Stanley said.

Children among stone-pelters in Khudwan, Kulgam, Jammu and Kashmir, throwing stones at security forces, reports ANI.

Voting percentage in Jammu & Kashmir till 12 noon is 32.03 per cent. 

Voting began this morning in 18 constituencies of Jammu and Kashmir for the second of the five-phased assembly elections in the state.

So far, people have mostly stayed indoors due to cold weather and heavy fog engulfing the Kashmir valley.

Polls are being held amid tight security in Kulgam and Kupwara districts following recent attacks on sarpanches or village heads by militants.

Only 48 per cent of Indian adults have bank accounts and nearly half of them lie dormant, says a report. According to a nation-wide survey on financial behaviour, India has the highest account dormancy rate even more than countries like Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Nigeria, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Just in: Govt hikes excise duty on petrol by Rs 2.25 a litre, and on diesel by Rs 1 a litre effective tonight. But there will be no impact on retail prices of petrol and diesel due to hike in excise duty, govt sources said.

Agni 4, the 4000 km range nuclear capable ballistic missile was successfully launched from Wheeler island off the coast of Odisha today.

Just in: Union minister sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti remains combative after her apology. She said there is no question of he quitting from the government.  Maafi mangne ke baad koi question nahin hota. Main sant hoon, sant hone ke naate bhi maafi mangti hoon, main jhukne ke liye tyaar hoon. (There is no question (of quitting) after my apology. I have apologised despite being a saint. I'm ready to concede further.)

The BJP has also backed her saying there is no question of her resigning. "If the opposition wants, they can lodge an FIR," the BJP said.

PM Modi told BJP MPs at the parliamentary party meet that indiscipline is unacceptable and latecomers won't be allowed after 9.30 am.

An assortment of sophisticated weaponry belonging to security personnel, including 10 AK- series rifles, were carried off by the Naxals from the site of the encounter yesterday in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh which left 14 CRPF jawans dead and over a dozen others injured.

An assessment report says that the team of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel lost about 10 AK 47/56 rifles, one self-loading rifle, an INSAS rifle and about 400 rounds of ammunition in the gunfight which took place in the jungles in the Chintagufa police station area of the district.

Three AK rifles in this cache were of an advanced configuration, fitted with the powerful under-barrel grenade launchers (UBGLs).

The report also said that about 14 suspected Naxals were killed while 15 others were injured in the gunfight which lasted for over four hours.

The entire command of the CRPF party which was caught in the encounter -- 223rd battalion -- was killed in the action, including its Deputy Commandant BS Verma, Assistant Commandant Rajesh Kapooriya and Sub-Inspector HR Sharma.

One SI of the unit has been critically injured. The report said that the Naxals, when engaged by the CRPF personnel near Kasalapada village, made 'human shields' of the local villagers, including women and the aged.

Anecdotes and laughter peppered the launch of Renu Kurien Balakrishnan's debut novel, Four Aleys. Read

Rajya Sabha adjourned for third time over Jyoti's remarks. FM Arun Jaitley says her comments are improper and unacceptable.

A reshuffle of governors is likely this week, highly-placed sources tell us.
PMO is believed to have shortlisted four names for Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir. Changes for J&K governor will be made once the elections are completed. Narinder Nath Vohra has been J-K governor since 2008. 

Vikram Seth, Rajiv Gandhi, Amitav Ghosh, Prannoy Roy, Abhinav Bindra are some of the school's alumni.

Doon School, Dehradun.

Dr Peter McLaughlin, headmaster of the school speaks to Rediff.com/Archana Mashih. Read

Just in: Rajya Sabha adjourned for the second time during Zero Hour over controversial remarks of union minister Niranjan Jyoti; Cong members demand her resignation.

Congress says the prime minister has to explain the sadhvi's remarks and a simple apology is unacceptable. 

Finance minister Arun Jaitley says that the minister has apologised and the law will take its own course.

The BJP has also said that the PM has condemned the sadhvi's remarks at the party's parliamentary meet.

BJP's Sambit Patra on Niranjan Jyoti's apology: She has expressed an apology with maturity, her intention was not to hurt anyone.

"As I struggled to come to grips with the untimely death of Phillip Hughes this past week, I thought of the words of the spiritual master, Amit Ray, who said, "It does not matter how long you are spending on earth, how much money you have gathered or how much attention you have received.

"It is the amount of positive vibration you have radiated in life that matters.' The response from around the world has been staggering. His death has stopped the Australian nation in an unprecedented way. This has been Australia's Princess Diana moment."

Oz cricket legend and former India coach Greg Chappell on Phillip Hughes. Read

Union minister Sadhvi Jyoti says she "takes back her words. My intent was not hurt anyone's sentiments."

She has apologised in the Rajya Sabha as well amid clamour from the opposition that she should resign.

Zip the lip: PM Narendra Modi advises his ministers to refrain from addressing the nation.

Chetan Bhagat tweets: The honeymoon period of the government is officially over. Come home. Cook dinner. Be judged by a billion mother in laws.

Ashwani Kumar, Congress senior leader on minister Niranjan Jyoti: I believe that the words used by a minister of the Modi govt is a new low in Parliamentary history.

So, Union Minister of State Sadhvi Niranjan Jyot has apologised in Parliament today a day after she used abusive language to urge voters to choose between candidates.

Addressing voters while campaigning for the Bharatiya Janata Party, in west Delhi's Shyam Nagar, Niranjan Jyoti on Monday called on the electorate to choose between Ramzadon and h********n.

"Aapko tay karna hai ki Dilli mein sarkar Ramzadon ki banegi ya har**zadon ki. Yeh aapka faisla hai (you have to decide whether Delhi will get a government of those born of Ram or of those born illegitimately)," said the BJP MP from Fatehpur in Uttar Pradesh.

The 47-year-old Niranjan Jyoti joined the Modi government as a minister of state for food processing on November 9. 

During the rally, the minister also attacked Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, over his wealth.

Delhi Archbishop Anil Couto has called upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to urgently order a judicial inquiry into the burning of St Sebastian's Church at Dilshad Garden on Monday morning.

Just in: Three terrorists have been killed in an operation being conducted by the Army in Naugam sector of Jammu and Kashmir in the Srinagar valley. Operations began at 2 am today and is still on. 

Former Maharashtra Chief Minister and veteran Congressman AR Antulay had been admitted to the Breach Candy hospital in Mumbai for kidney failure.

Congress leaders Ahmed Patel and AICC general secretary Mohan Prakash had visited the 85-year-old Antulay, who was also a union minister in UPA-I.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who was in Mumbai to attend the funeral of senior party leader Murli Deora last week, was scheduled to visit the Breach Candy hospital and inquire about his health.

However, due to a change in her schedule, she asked Patel and Mohan Prakash to call on the ailing leader.

RBI keeps growth target for the current fiscal unchanged at 5.5 per cent.

Voting is underway for the second phase of the five-phased state elections in 18 seats in Jammu & Kashmir and 20 seats spread across seven Maoist-hit tribal districts of Jharkhand amid tight security.

Former union minister A.R. Antulay is dead. The former Union minister and veteran Congress leader passed away in Mumbai today.

The former Maharashtra chief minister had been ill for some time and was admitted to the Breach Candy hospital for a kidney failure recently.

Antulay (85) had served as a union minister in UPA-1 government.

Just in: RBI interest rates remain unchanged. 

The last of Amitav Ghosh's Ibis trilogy is up for a 2015 release and if the stunning cover is anything to go by, the story must be even better. The first two books were Sea of Poppies and River of smoke. The final book is called the Flood of Fire.

Here's the synopsis.

It is 1839 and tension has been rapidly mounting between China and British India following the crackdown on opium smuggling by Beijing. With no resolution in sight, the colonial government declares war. 

One of the vessels requisitioned for the attack, the Hind, travels eastwards from Bengal to China, sailing into the midst of the First Opium War.

The turbulent voyage brings together a diverse group of travellers, each with their own agenda to pursue.

Among them is Kesri Singh, a havildar in the East India Company who leads a company of Indian sepoys; Zachary Reid, an impoverished young sailor searching for his lost love, and Shireen Modi, a determined widow en route to China to reclaim her opium-trader husbands wealth and reputation.

Flood of Fire follows a varied cast of characters from India to China, through the outbreak of the First Opium War and Chinas devastating defeat, to Britains seizure of Hong Kong.  

To be published May 2015 in India. 

Shiv Sena is likely to get four berths in the Fadnavis government in Maharashtra, but not the post of deputy CM. 

Just in: Reports say that the Shiv Sena has given up on its demand for the deputy CM's post in the Fadnavis government. 

This is a huge comedown for the Shiv Sena which just three days earlier, had told the BJP that it would settle for nothing less than the deputy chief ministership and home ministership.

Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Maharashtra minister Chandrakant Patil on Friday held talks with Sena president Uddhav Thackeray and persuaded him to let the Sena join the government. Sena veteran Subhash Desai too was present at the hour-long conclave at Matoshree.

Sources says the Sena and BJP are finally close to sealing the deal in Maharashtra, solving the month-long stand-off over sharing of ministerial berths. According to the sources, Sena will get 10 posts in the Fadnavis government and another berth in the Union Cabinet. 

Veteran Bollywood actor Deven Verma passed away this morning after he suffered kidney failure in Pune. The 78-year-old actor was known for his comic timing in movies such as Angoor, Khatta Meetha and Andaz Apna Apna. The actor was living in Pune with his family.

Terrorists the world over are known to deploy suicide bombers to wreak death and devastation on their targets, but have you ever heard of a bird being used as a suicide bomber? The Taliban seem to be using such a strategy in which the bird is equipped by the terrorists with an explosive pouch, a GPS tracker and a detonator.

Minister of State for Food Processing Industries Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti sparked a controversy by saying Muslims and Christians are all sons of Ram. She added that those who do not believe this, do not belong to this country. 

Mumbai police have sent a team to Kolkata to look for a Maharashtra-based engineering professor suspected to have brainwashed four local youths into flying to Iraq and joining the Islamic State in May. One of the four, 22-year-old engineering student Arif Majeed who returned to India on Friday, has allegedly named the professor and a few other local contacts to his interrogators.

Following the deadliest Maoist attack in Chhattisgarh in 2014 in which 13 CRPF personnel were killed, Home Minister Rajnath Singh will be visiting Sukma today to assess the situation. On Monday, Maoists killed 13 Central Reserve Police Force personnel in an ambush. The Maoists allegedly used villagers as human shields and fired at the soldiers, who could not retaliate. Following the attack, Singh had said, "It is an act of cowardice. I strongly condemn this dastardly act of violence. It is a challenge for the entire country."

JUST IN: One policeman has died and another has been injured in Meerut after a local goon opened fire on them when the authorities confronted him. The area where the incident took place has been cordoned off and investigations are on. 

People lined up to cast their vote in Jharkhand and Jammu Kashmir in the second phase of polling for the state assembly. Heavy security was deployed in the areas to ensure that no incident took place. And even as people lined up to cast their vote, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged people to go out and vote on Twitter. In his tweet, the PM said, "As phase 2 of assembly polls in J&K and Jharkhand commence, I strongly urge people voting in those areas to vote in large numbers."

A mentally ill British man will stand trial in the US next year on charges of trying to set up an Al-Qaeda training camp in Oregon 15 years ago, a judge said today. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow will stop pursuing Gazprom's South Stream pipeline project that would supply natural gas to Europe with an underwater link to Bulgaria, blaming the European Union for scuttling the project.

Spurred by the Ferguson, Missouri shooting, President Barack Obama is calling for USD 75 million in federal spending to get 50,000 more police to wear body cameras that record their interactions with civilians. However, Obama is not seeking to pull back federal programs that provide military-style equipment to local law enforcement.

NASA's quest to send astronauts out into the solar system begins this week with a two-laps-around-Earth test flight. The new Orion spacecraft is not going to Mars just yet; Thursday's debut will be unmanned and last just 4 hours. 

The Sikh-community here finally got its own Gurudwara, modelled on traditional architecture from the religious shrines of Indian state of Punjab, after an eight-year-long battle with their white South African neighbours who were opposed to its construction. 

US Secretary of State John Kerry held a meeting with Pakistani Army Chief General Raheel Sharif during which they discussed regional security issues. 

The Ebola epidemic and the war in Syria have cast a spotlight on the inadequacies of the United Nations as it tries to operate in a globalised world with a power structure that hasn't changed since 1945. 

The European Union welcomed Britain's return to a controversial EU-wide arrest warrant system today following a vote by the British parliament. Britain's government opted out of all 133 EU police and criminal justice measures last year, but decided to rejoin some of them before that decision came into effect today. Parliament voted to back that decision in November.

Boko Haram today launched two separate attacks on state capitals in northeast Nigeria, when two female suicide bombers hit a busy market and fighters launched a major assault on police. 

Joshua Wong, the teenage face of Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement, and two other student demonstrators went on hunger strike today, raising the stakes after one of the worst nights of violence to hit the demonstrations.

2nd sarpanch attacked in Shopian in 2 days, condition critical
PM-led panel to decide next CBI chief on Tuesday
Maoists kill 13 CRPF personnel in Chhattisgarh ambush
IS may have a 'dirty bomb', says report
Rohtak case: 3 accused remanded in custody; state to honour bravehearts
Is the BJP playing communal politics at AMU?
Over 50 Jamaat terrorists hiding in Bengal?
J&K sarpanch shot by suspected militants, dies in hospital
PHOTOS: Amazing moments of the week gone by