Chinese president Xi Jinping's forthcoming visit to India will achieve nothing unless the new leaders of India and China can overcome existing inertia and seriously start revamping their bilateral relations. 

US Secretary of State John Kerry today said Egypt was on the "frontline of fighting terrorism" as he met Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in his effort to build a broad coalition against Islamic State terrorists who have seized large chunks of land in Iraq and Syria. 

Ugandan security forces stopped a cell of Somalia's Al-Qaeda linked Shebab insurgents apparently "planning for an imminent attack," the US embassy said today. Arrests were made, police said, in raids two weeks after Ugandan troops, fighting in Somalia, reportedly provided intelligence that helped US special forces kill the Shebab's chief in a devastating air strike. 

Ugandan security forces stopped a cell of Somalia's Al-Qaeda linked Shebab insurgents apparently "planning for an imminent attack," the US embassy said today. Arrests were made, police said, in raids two weeks after Ugandan troops, fighting in Somalia, reportedly provided intelligence that helped US special forces kill the Shebab's chief in a devastating air strike. 

Echoing the views of a BJP MLA from Madhya Pradesh, firebrand VHP leader Pravin Togadia today said Muslims must not be allowed inside the Garba events and insisted identity cards of each and every person be checked for participants in and visitors to such events. 

Ebola is thousands of miles away from Kenya's pristine Indian Ocean beaches, but the deadly disease appears to be discouraging tourism there and elsewhere in this vast continent. 

RJD leader Lalu Prasad who underwent a cardiac surgery on August 27 at the Asian Heart Institute here was discharged today. 

A top Iranian nuclear negotiator said today that "disagreements over serious questions" persisted in the latest talks with the world powers on his country's atomic programme. 

The National Security Agency was unable to find evidence that leaker Edward Snowden ever raised concerns internally about its sweeping surveillance programs, after an exhaustive search that included deleted emails, court documents showed. 

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday he was comfortable that the United States would form a broad-based coalition to fight Islamic State militants but said it would not be appropriate for Iran to be involved in the efforts.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is expected to hold first meeting with her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on September 27 on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, a foreign ministry official said here today.

Two hundred and fifty tourists out of about 500 from Kerala who were stranded in the floods in Jammu and Kashmir have returned home, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said today. 

Superstar Shah Rukh Khan led bidders at the Osian's auction of rare and vintage film memorabilia here as he bought two majestic original posters of "Mughal-e-Azam" for Rs 6.84 lakh. 

Indian Air Force has airlifted about 11,000 people so far from various places in flood- ravaged Jammu and Kashmir, a senior officer said today.

The IAF has airlifted 11,000 people from various helipads, including make-shift ones that have been established post- floods, Air Vice Marshal Upkarjit Singh, who is the Task Force Commander of the IAF relief and rescue operation said.

These include nearly 900 winchings (people airlifted from flooded areas), he said. Singh said the entire transport fleet of the IAF which includes fixed wing planes like C-17, C-130J, IL-76 and AN-32, which have been pressed into service for airlifting relief material from all parts of the country to the affected state.

A delegation of ministers from Jammu and Kashmir today called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and requested him to declare the recent floods in the state as "national calamity" and also ensure smooth supply of food grains and other essential items.

The delegation, led by state's Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather, submitted a memorandum to the PM putting forth several demands to help the state government which was grappling with the worst deluge in over 100 years.

"The PM was very positive and assured us complete support to overcome the crisis," senior state minister Ali Mohammed Sagar, who was a part of the delegation, told reporters. The delegation requested Modi to declare the tragedy in the state as "national calamity" so that other benefits including more grants from the Centre and soft loans from financial institutions could be availed.

Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad today said people in flood-hit Kashmir will get free telecom services for a week on BSNL network, and mobile networks have been substantially or partially restored in the valley, except Poonch.

Of the total 12,306 base transceiver stations or mobile towers in J&K, 6,811 were submerged, he said, adding that of these the government has restored 1,208.

"People can talk free for a week on BSNL's network in the flood affected areas. We have also requested private telecom operators. They have allowed 60 minutes of free talk time everyday," Prasad said at the press conference marking the first 100 days of in the ministry.

Sixteeen people were killed and seventeen injured today when a bus in which they were travelling fell into a gorge in Tehri district of Uttarakhand.

A total of 33 persons were on board the bus when it fell into a 300 ft deep gorge near Juyalgarh, Tehri Superintendent of Police Mukhtar Mohsin said. Nearly half of the bus was submerged in a local stream, which joins River Alaknanda, after the accident, he said.

The bus was going from Haridwar to Karnaprayag. The mishap occurred as the driver tried to overtake another vehicle, he said. Sixteen bodies have been recovered and 17 persons were rescued alive from the mangled remains of the bus, Moshin told PTI on phone. Tehri is about 120 km from here.

One of the two anti-government protest leaders in Pakistan today said that he has suspended talks with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government following a crackdown in Islamabad on demonstrators demanding ouster of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

"We have suspended the talks as the government has begun arresting my workers in Islamabad and around the country," Pakistan Awami Tehreek chief and populist cleric Tahir-ul Qadri said, deepening the month-long political impasse in the country.

"The government was unwilling to hear out the legitimate grievances of people who had been camped outside the halls of power for a month now," Qadri was quoted as saying by Dawn

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa has called for an emergence meeting of AIADMK MLAs in Chennai on or before September 20.

Tamil Nadu civic elections are scheduled for September 18. But party insiders do not rule out a drastic step that Jaya may take if verdict on September 20 in the disproportionate assets case goes against her. There is speculation that she may appoint a successor at the meet.   

Over 1,42,000 people have been rescued from the flood-ravaged parts of Jammu and Kashmir so far, as the relief operations launched by the armed forces entered the 12th day today.   

"The armed Forces and NDRF have so far rescued over 1,42,000 persons from different parts of J&K in the ongoing rescue and relief operations," a defence spokesperson said.   

Thirteen tonnes of water purifying tablets and six water filtration plants with a capacity to filter 1.2 lakh bottles per day has already reached Srinagar, he said.   

Suction pumps and other engineering equipment from Vishakhapatnam have also reached the flood affected area for relief work, he said, adding twelve sewage pumps from Delhi have also been dispatched to the Valley.   

The spokesman said communication equipment of department of telecommunication, army, the BSNL and some private companies have also been dispatched to restore the network.

CBI Chief Ranjit Sinha has said that noted lawyer Prashant Bhushan cannot claim immunity from disclosing the name of a "whistle blower" who provided him the list of visitors to his official residence and demanded that he reveal his source.

In his affidavit filed before the Supreme Court in response to the plea of Bhushan that Sinha be removed from the 2G scam probe in the wake of his allegations that he met accused and officials of accused companies at his residence, the agency chief said it is not open to the lawyer to argue his case without disclosing the source from which he got the details of the visitors mentioned in their affidavit.

He had filed this affidavit yesterday in response to plea of Bhushan, counsel for an NGO, Centre for Public Interest Litigation, seeking his removal from 2G spectrum scam probe.

At least 274 people have been killed and over two million affected in massive flooding triggered by heavy monsoon rains in Pakistan, officials said today.

The rains lashed vast areas of the country last week and since have stopped but the floods triggered by the heavy showers are still out of control. Reema Zubari of National Disaster Management Authority said in a statement that 194 people have been killed in Punjab, 66 in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and another 14 in the Gilgit-Baltistan region.

NDTV reports:  Amid tense talks over seat-sharing for the October 15 Maharashtra polls, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray has delivered a sharp warning to long-time ally BJP: "Excessive lust leads to divorce."

In an editorial in the Sena mouthpiece Saamna, Thackeray said allies in a coalition must dream of a victory. "For this, all parties must give up the lust for more seats. To say we will stay in the coalition only if we get so many seats is not right," he said.

Expressing concern over corruption in the judiciary, Chief Justice of India RM Lodha asserted that independence of judiciary is non-negotiable. "As things change and economy grows, corruption also grows. Don't do anything that brings corruption in judiciary," he said.

He also warned judges to be wary of people who tempt them for unlawful acts. "There are people who play trick on judges and are prepared to tempt judges and please them. We have to ensure that corruption is eradicated in all forms in judiciary.

NCP MLA Laxmanrao Dhobale has been booked on a rape charge after a 42-year-old woman accused him of repeatedly sexually abusing her, police said today.   

The legislator from Solapur has been booked under IPC sections 376 (rape), 323 (Punishment for voluntarily causinghurt) and 506 (criminal intimidation) by the Borivali police, said Deputy Police Commissioner Balsingh Rajput.   

The victim, who works in a college with which Dhobale has a close association, approached the police yesterday with a complaint, the DCP said.

US President Barack Obama has pointed to a "silver lining" in the violence wrought by the Islamic State, saying it has brought "clarity" in the Muslim world in a long time about the need to snuff out this "brand of Islamic extremism".

At a Democratic Party fund-raiser, Obama said the militant group IS, poses the most prominent threat in the Middle East when it comes to terrorism. The IS, he said has not only taken over large swathes of Iraq and Syria but displayed the kind of brutality that even by the standards of terrorists is extraordinary.

"What also is a silver lining in the terrible mayhem that ISIL has wrought throughout the region is that it has focused attention I think for the first time in a long time in the Muslim world, a great clarity about the need to completely distance from and ultimately snuff out this particular brand of Islamic extremism that really has no place in the 21st century," Obama said yesterday.

The BJP-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad has swept the Delhi University Students' Union central panel polls by winning all the four seats.

DU student politics is dominated by the Jat and Gujjar communities. Both the ABVP and National Students' Union of India had fielded two candidates from the Jat community and one each from the Gujjar community.

Voting began yesterday at 9.30 am and went on till 6 pm. This year, voter turnout saw a marginal dip -- from 56 per cent in 2013 to 55 per cent.

Gen. John Allen is a logical point man in the fight against the Islamic State, writes Dan Lamothe in The Washington Post.

Read the full report here

President Barack Obama has chosen retired Marine Corps General John Allen, who earlier served as the commander of the US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, to head the US-led global coalition against the dreaded terror group Islamic State, earlier known as ISIS.

"In this role, General Allen will help build and sustain the coalition so it can operate across multiple lines of effort in order to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL," US Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters in Ankara yesterday.

Considered as one of the most experienced and respected American military leaders, Gen Allen has been roped in by the State Department to serve as the special presidential envoy for the global coalition to counter IS.

"General Allen is a patriot and a remarkable leader. He is a marine and by "is," I mean "is," because as a navy man I have to admit that retired or not once a marine, always a marine. His extraordinary career in the military speaks for itself," he said.

The Jammu-Srinagar National Highway remained closed for the tenth consecutive day today due to landslides and sinking of road at various places, with hundreds of vehicles stranded on the route.

The traffic was suspended on the 300-km long crucial road link due to landslides, washing of road patches and flooding at various places on September 4.

Hundreds of passenger and commercial vehicles were stranded on the highway at various place in Banihal, Ramban, Batote, Kud, Patnitop, Chenani, Udhampur and Jammu due to closure of the road, police officials said.

CNN-IBN reports: After having been cut off for more than a week, telecom servies in the flood-hit Kashmir Valley are being normalised with BSNL restoring around 80 per cent of the affected network.

Barring the towers which are submerged in water, services to other 55 towers in Srinagar has been restored. All India Radio had also said that the services of it's popular Kashmir Channel which had got disrupted, have also resumed.

By-elections are being held in 36 Lok Sabha and assembly seats across 10 states including Gujarat's Vadodara constituency vacated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

As polling began, Modi, in a tweet, urged voters "across the country today to vote in large numbers".

One of the two Australian DJs, who made a hoax call to a London hospital about Kate Middleton's first pregnancy, today tearfully apologised to the family of an India-born nurse who committed suicide after the broadcast of the prank.

Jacintha Saldanha, found hanged at a London hospital in 2012 days after receiving the hoax call from an Australian radio station about the Duchess of Cambridge's first pregnancy, committed suicide, an inquest into her death has concluded.

One of the 2Day FM DJs, Melissa Greig, apologised to Saldanha's family at the inquest, tearfully telling them, "I'm truly sorry, I have wanted to say that for so long." After the coroner had given her conclusion, Grieg said through her lawyer that she wished to make a statement.

In tears, she apologised to Saldanha's family and to the other nurse, saying: "This tragedy is always going to stay with me as a constant reminder."

"To the second nurse involved, I am so deeply sorry for what you have had to endure. I pray you have found the strength to live on as best you can. I was always concerned about the wellbeing of both nurses and I wish I'd tried harder to stop that prank from being aired," Greig said.

Image: Australian radio jockeys Michael Christian and Mel Greig (right) posed as members of the royal family to pull the prank on the hospital staff.

All India Majlis-e Ittihad al-Muslimin leader Akbaruddin Owaisi today hit out at Yogi Adityanath over his alleged "love jihad" comments and said that people who love cannot be called "jihadis".

"When people are in love, whatever caste they may be, it is only about love between them. How can love be equated with jihad? If you can make atrocious comments, then be prepared to hear the same degree of comments from us as well," he said while addressing a gathering of the minority community ahead of the upcoming assembly elections in the state.

Firebrand BJP leader Yogi Adityanath, the Gorakhpur MP, had alleged Love Jihad, a term coined by Hindutva activists to protest alleged organised conversion of Hindu girls, is an "international conspiracy" against India.

Owaisi, an MLA of the Telangana Legislative Assembly, also alleged that the Congress-led government in Maharashtra had failed to work for the welfare of muslims and only appeased the minority community to lap up votes.

Manmohan Singh may have made a mistake: Kamal Nath
Tough road for Congress ahead of assembly polls
Over 1,25,000 flood-hit people rescued in J-K so far; J-K govt announces relief package
SC seeks Centre's report on J-K floods
7 days' judicial remand for Saradha accused MP Kunal Ghosh