Saudi Arabia and Egypt are considering holding "large-scale" military exercises after launching air strikes on Yemeni rebels who have been slapped with a UN arms embargo and sanctions. 

Around 400 people, including 80 Indians were evacuated today from strife-torn Yemen's Al Hodeidah city by the Indian Navy. The evacuees, mostly foreigners, would be taken to Djibouti, a neighbouring country.

The Supreme Court today expressed serious concern over lack of improvement in the sex ratio in the national capital and passed a slew of directions on the issue of female foeticide including the need to form a statutory board for strict implementation of law prohibiting sex determination. 

Iran's foreign minister said on Wednesday that Russia's decision to go ahead with the sale of S-300 surface-to-air missile systems to Iran is "fully legal" and has no impact on talks for a nuclear deal with major powers.

Following an alert sounded by the Central Intelligence Bureau about possible terror attacks across the country, Gujarat police have beefed up security at all major establishments and also along the coastline. 

After being accorded the Guard of Honour in Ottawa, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with Canada's PM Stephen Harper and signed the uranium deal through which Canada will supply uranium to India for the next 5 years.  

Mukhtar Ahmad/Rediff.com reports from Srinagar: 

PM Modi in Canada:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi gifted Canada PM Stephen Harper a miniature painting showing Guru Nanak Dev with his disciples Bhai Bala & Bhai Mardana. In a tweet, Modi said, "So many of our Punjabi brothers & sisters have made Canada their home and enriched it with their renowned vigour & entrepreneurial drive."

Former Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi  described merger of Janata Parivar parties as 'maha pralay' (great devastation), and said he and 17 other Bihar MLAs would remain in JD-U and move Election Commission to retain the party symbol.

Hours after known-separatist leader Masarat Alam was seen waving a Pakistan flag and chanting pro-Pakistan slogans at SAS Geelani's rally, the Centre has taken note of the issue and said that the state needs to take action against the two. "We have taken note of it and have encouraged the stateto initiate action against such people," said Minister of State Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju. 

In a daring move again, Pakistan violates the ceasefire at the International Border in Jamu. Border Security Force posts in Hiranagar sector of Jammu were targeted in the attack. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been accorded the Guard of Honour in Ottawa. The PM reached Canada earlier in the day and will be focusing on commercial cooperation in the civil nuclear energy sector. Modi's visit is the the first by an Indian PM in 42 years. 

Coming to the defence of party MP Sanjay Raut whose controversial write-up demanding disenfranchisement of Muslims to end vote bank politics drew flak from various quarters, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray sought to know why nobody reacted when MIM's Asaduddin Owaisi spoke of "finishing Hindus". "We never said that Muslims should be stripped of their voting rights. We only highlighted how they are bein exploited by political parties. If Muslims couldn't vote, there wouldn't have been vote bank politics," Thackeray said.

Separatist leader Masarat Alam on Wednesday sparked fresh controversy after he was seen waving Pakistan's flag at a rally in Srinagar.

The incident has led to widespread criticism over Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufit Mohommad Sayeed's move to release the separatist leader.

Earlier, Alam was released from the Baramulla prison following the new Jammu and Kashmir government's policy to free political prisoners who do not face criminal charges.

Alam is the chairman of Muslim League, a constituent of hardline Hurriyat Conference led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani and is widely seen as the latter's successor.

He had been convicted for organizing anti-India protests resulting in the death of 112 people in stone pelting across the Valley in 2010.

Read: White paper on Tibet by China. 

Unidentified persons today created a ruckus at the South Mumbai office of former Mumbai sheriff Nana Chudasama, to protest his 'anti-Marathi' banner, days after Shiv Sena staged a protest against columnist Shobha De for opposing a government order on screening Marathi movies.

"My father has been writing these banners. The banner in question read: Promoting Marathi welcome. Diktats not welcome. Tell me, what is wrong in this banner. It is not anti-Marathi. You can't barge into an 84-year-old's office and burn a banner," Chudasama's daughter and BJP spokesperson Shaina NC said, reacting to the development.

According to staffers at the office, the attackers were allegedly from MNS but the Raj Thackeray-led outfit has so far not commented on this.

In the second fuel price cut this month, petrol prices cut by 80 paise a litre, diesel by Rs 1.30 per litre with effect from midnight. After the cut, petrol will cost Rs 59.20 a litre in Delhi and diesel will be available Rs 47.20/litre.

Petrol prices were slashed on April 1 by 49 paise per litre and diesel by Rs 1.21 a litre on softening international oil rates.

The reduction in rates will be effective from midnight tonight.

The reduction follows two rounds of price hikes in February and March -- first by Rs 0.82 a litre in petrol and Rs 0.61 per litre in diesel on February 16 and by Rs 3.18 per litre in petrol and Rs 3.09 a litre in diesel on March 1.

As a three-day visit by India's prime minister gets underway Tuesday, it appears Canadians could benefit from a social studies refresher when it comes to Asia's rising superpower, according to a new poll.

The vast majority of Canadians would not be able to pick Prime Minister Narendra Modi out of a lineup.

They also do not know that Islam is the second-largest religion in India after Hinduism, says the poll by the Angus Reid Institute.  Read more

In an attempt to tackle the Narendra Modi-powered BJP government, six parties from the erstwhile 'Janata Parivar' have finally decided to come together and float a new political front.

The six parties, which have come together are Nitish's Janata Dal (United), Lalu Prasad's RJD, Mulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party (SP), Om Prakash Chautala's Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), Janata Dal (Secular) led by former prime minister HD Deve Gowda and Samajwadi Janata Party (SJP).

Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav has been chosen as the president of the new front.

No decision on the party's name, symbol or colours, yet. 

Chancellor Angela Merkel presented an original first edition print of Max Mueller's 1898 book, 'Ramakrishna- His Life and Sayings' to PM Modi.

Supreme Court today delivered a split verdict on a DMK leader's plea seeking removal of a public prosecutor from representing state in the Karnataka High Court which recently reserved verdict on an appeal of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa in a disproportionate assets case.

As a consequence of the split verdict, the matter was referred to Chief Justice H L Dattu to constitute a larger bench for an authoritative pronouncement.

Justice Madan B Lokur, heading the bench, allowed the plea of DMK leader K Anbazhagan seeking removal of Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) Bhawani Singh and ordered a fresh hearing on the AIADMK chief's plea against her conviction saying the proceedings have been "vitiated".

However, Justice R Banumathi differed with Justice Lokur and held that the SPP was duly authorised to represent the state before the Karnataka High Court as well.

During the pronouncement, Justice Lokur said the delay in deciding the case was "extremely unfortunate" and the "criminal justice delivery system is a loser". He also observed that "something drastic needs to done".

Making stuff on Earth that can be easily seen from space isn't exactly simple: there's the yellow glow of the world's metropolises at night, but in general, we just look like a blob of green, brown, and blue once you get a few hundred miles into the sky. That's no matter if you've got 11 cars at your disposal, though -- and a desert as your canvas. Read

Ardhendu Bose, grand-nephew of Subhas Chandra Bose on reports of the govt forming a committee to look at the possibility of declassifying the Bose files. "Its a fantastic news. We are very obliged to the PM," Ardhendu Bose said. 

This picture of an adult male lion in attack went viral recently. And with good reason. The photographer, who shot the picture, barely escaped with his life.

Pakistani photographer Atif Saeed, 38, captured the spine-chilling image at a safari park just outside of Lahore in 2012 -- though the picture has only recently gone viral.

Talking about the making of the picture, Saeed said he had been granted permission to go inside the core area of the sanctuary to shoot a couple of images.

Saeed, drove his vehicle into the sanctuary and did what is clearly forbidden at any wildlife park in the world -- and is certainly, foolhardy.  

He got off the vechicle.

The photographer said after he spotted the lion, he got off the vechicle because he wanted to capture the "character and status of lion" and sat on the ground, just a few feet away from the animal.

The feel of the aggressive, approaching lion from the camera is something that cant be described, Saeed told ABC News. I was witnessing every small detail of movement that no photograph or movie can show.

Saeed said that as he pressed the camera shutter, the sound alerted the lion, and he became aggressive and charged.

Saeed managed to jump back into his vehicle (thankfully, he had left the door open) with a few seconds to spare.

It was a pretty close encounter, he recalled. I was laughing afterwards at the time, but I dont think Id ever be able to do something like that again.

The government has formed a high-profile panel to look into the possible declassification of the Bose files. The IB, PMO and MHA officers are believed to be part of the panel, say reports.

The move comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi assured family members of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose that he will personally examine the case for the declassification of the Netaji files.

The prime minister gave this assurance to Surya Bose, the eldest son of Amiya Nath Bose, at the Hotel Adlon in Berlin.

Bose, the president of the Indo-German Association in Hamburg, had a half-hour meeting with Prime Minister Modi after a reception in Berlin late on Monday night where he presented a proposal on behalf of the Netaji family requesting the PM to release all the classified 'Netaji Files' held by the government.

Amid the growing controversy over declassified documents on Netaji, over eight lakh top secret files of Russian spy agencies, including the KGB, SMERSH and GRU, will be declassified and made available to the public.

Among the files dated 1917-1991 are said to be intelligence despatches of Siberian gulags (Russian camp for political prisoners), where Bose was suspected to have been imprisoned along with prisoners of war and political dissidents.

Today marks the 70th anniversary of Anne Frank's death in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. This year, instead of a minute's silence in her memory, famous faces have filmed themselves reading aloud from her diary. And they want you to join in. Read

Found. Rahul Gandhi was in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. This archival picture taken in 1973, shows three-year-old Rahul with his grandmother, the then PM, Indira Gandhi.

But seriously, the Congress vice-president, who has been on a sabbatical since February 20, is likely to return today. 

Pakistan's former president and co-chairman of opposition PPP Asif Ali Zardari has met with his estranged son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in Dubai to end misunderstandings between the two, party officials said today.

Zardari met his son yesterday and a picture of the meeting was also released to media by Pakistan People's Party.

Bilawal, who became the Chairman of the PPP through a written will of his slain mother and two time premier Benazir Bhutto, left Pakistan last year and settled in London after his father refused to hand over to him full control of the party.

Since last month Bilawal's sister Bakhtawar has been spotted with Zardari at important occasions, giving air to speculation that the son might be superseded in the war of succession in the typical South Asian dynastic politics.

According to a senior PPP leader, Zardari is trying to mend the fences with his son and trying to convince him to concentrate on studies for a couple of years before rejoining the politics. Zardari had earlier said that Bilawal needs political training before he can play a major role in politics.

After targeting social activist Teesta Setalvad, who has been a vocal critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi since the 2002 Gujarat riots, the Gujarat government has trained its guns on her main funding source, the US-based NGO, Ford Foundation, for "direct interference ... in the internal affairs of the country and also of abetting communal disharmony in India". Read more

Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamna is back doing what it does best -- provocation. The editorial in today's paper says that minorities needed to adhere to family planning as the "growing population of Muslims and Christians has become a threat to Hindus.

Referring to Sadhvi Deva Thakur's words that the population of these two communities should be controlled via vasectomy, the Saamna editorial defended her and said that maybe she wanted to say family planning.

The editorial said, "In the near future, the Muslim population of India will exceed the number of Muslims in Indonesia and Pakistan which will result in the cultural and social imbalance of a Hindu nation."

The Supreme Court gives a split verdict on the plea seeking the removal of special public prosecutor G Bhawani Singh in J Jayalalithaa's DA case before the Karnataka HC.SC refers the matter to a larger bench.

Four human skeletons, believed to be 5,000 years old, have been found by archaeologists from the site of Harappan civilisation at Rakhi Garhi village near Hisar.

Archaeologists of Haryana Archaeology Department in collaboration with Seoul National University, South Korea and Deccan College, Pune recently found four human skeletons at the site. Prof. Nilesh Yadav, co-director of the project, said this is the first time that skeletons have been recovered during the excavation in the village, which is 60 km from Hisar district. The excavation in the village started in 2012.

These skeletons are of two men, one woman and a child. The height of the skeletons of the men is five feet and six inches and both were aged about 50 years while the height of the skeleton of the woman is five feet and four inches and was aged around 30 years. The child's age was believed to be around 10 years.

These skeletons will be sent to laboratory for DNA test, Yadav said. Besides pottery with grains of food, bangles, toys, mini wheels and sling balls of different sizes have also been recovered from the excavation site. Archaeologists also recovered a seal which has some tiger-like figure inscribed on it. They believe that it was used in trade or for some other purposes. Tools which could have been used for fishing and hunting purposes have also been recovered. The excavation work was spread over an area of 50 acres and the archaeologists are still working on three mounds numbering 4, 6 and 7.

Finland-based Nokia and French telecom gear maker Alcatel Lucent today announced their merger in a 15.6 billion euro deal. The deal has been worked out to foster innovation capabilities, with Alcatel-Lucent's Bell Labs and Nokia's FutureWorks. Nokia Group will lead Nokia Corporation with Risto Siilasmaa pegged to serve as Chairman and Rajeev Suri as Chief Executive Officer.

BJP's Nalin Kohli reacts to the news report that a martyr's kin was asked to return money given for his last rites. Kohli said, "The chief minister of Chhattisgarh was on tour and on his return this morning he immediately summoned Chief Secy and the DGP. The concerned inspector who sent out this demand has been suspended."

The family of SPO Kishore Pandey, who was martyred in an encounter with Maoists four years ago, was allegedly hassled for a meagre sum of Rs 10,000 that had been given for his last rites.

Pandey was murdered by Naxals during an attack in 2011. Since his familys finances were limited they could not even afford to pay for his last rites.

The police had given Pandeys family Rs 10,000 for his funeral from the police welfare fund. When the family was later given a compensation amount of Rs 5 lakh, the department forgot to deduct the amount given earlier for Pandeys last rites.

Former Chief Minister Narayan Rane has lost the bypoll to Bandra (East) Assembly seat in Mumbai to Shiv Sena candidate Trupti Sawant. Sawant defeated Congs Narayan Rane by over 20,000 votes.

In the by-election to Tasgaon-Kavathe Mahankal seat of Maharashtra's Sangli district, NCP nominee Suman Patil, the widow of NCP stalwart late R R Patil, is comfortably placed and her declaration as winner is just a matter of formality as she has established a lead of around 96,000 votes. Sena candidate Sawant, the widow of former MLA Bala Sawant whose death necessitated the bypoll in Bandra(E) seat, has polled 45,123 votes as compared to 28,433 votes polled by Rane so far.

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) candidate Rehbar Khan has polled 10,571 votes at the end of the 13th round of counting. Bandra (East) constituency in suburban Mumbai houses the residence of Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, 'Matoshree'.

The Bandra (East) by-election has turned crucial for Rane who had lost the state Assembly poll last year from his home turf Sindhudurg district in coastal Konkan.

A total of 10 candidates were in the fray in Bandra (East) and nine in Tasgaon-Kavathe Mahankal constituency. The bypoll for the two seats in Maharashtra was held on April 11.

Lieutenant General Ashok Joshi (retd) remembers Lieutenant General Hanut Singh, one of India's finest soldiers who passed into the ages on Sunday, April 12. Read

The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the trial court to consider within a month bail plea of accused, including Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, in 2008 Malegaon blasts case.

The apex court bench headed by Justice FMI Kalifulla has asked the trial court not to consider Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) provisions while deciding bail pleas of Sadhvi Pragya, Lt Col Prasad Shrikant Purohit', and other accused in the case.

The SC, however, said that MCOCA provisions apply on accused Rakesh Dattatreya Dhawade (Pune-based weapons expert who allegedly helped procure weapons)'.

The court said there was no material connecting Malegaon accused with Parbhani and Jalna bomb blast cases, but said that there is material connecting Dhawade with Parbhani and Jalna blast.

The case is being investigated by the National Investigation Agency.

Sadhvi Pragya is accused of hatching the conspiracy with others, which led to the September 29, 2008, blast at Malegaon in Nashik district in which six people died, after which she was arrested on October 23, 2008.

Sadhvi is also an accused in the murder of RSS activist Sunil Joshi.

More than 800 Valmikis, fighting civic authorities to save their houses from demolition in Rampur, "converted" to Islam on Tuesday. Coming good on a threat they had issued a week ago when they said they have no option but to change their faith, they chose Ambedkar's 124th birth anniversary to embrace Islam. Read more

Madhu Kishwar on Smriti Irani's ability to talk without conveying anything and more... Read

SC says that MCOCA provisions apply on Rakesh D Dhawde due to his involvement in a previous case.

Just in: French telecom gear firm Alcatel Lucent to merge with Nokia Corporation.

The Supreme Court has asked a lower court to consider within a month, the  bail plea of accused, including Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, in the 2008 Malegaon blasts case. The SC relaxes the MCOCA charges for bail against Sadhvi Pragya, Col Purohit etc. except for Rakesh Dhawade.

The Sadhvi is accused of hatching the conspiracy with others, which led to the September 29, 2008, blast at Malegaon in Nashik district in which six people died, after which she was arrested on October 23, 2008.

She is also an accused in the murder of RSS activist Sunil Joshi.

In what will come as a much-needed relief for former PM Dr Manmohan Singh, the CBI has told a Special Court that ex-telecom minister A Raja had "misled" Manmohan Singh on policy matters pertaining to 2G spectrum allocation. The CBI told the court that Raja had deliberately advanced the cut off date to favour accused firms in 2G allocation.

The former PM last month had moved the Supreme Court against a special court order summoning him as accused in the case of allocation of Talabira-II coal block in Odisha in 2005 to Aditya Birla group company Hindalco.

Hindalco Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla and former Coal Secretary PC Parakh, who were also summoned as accused in the case, have also filed petitions challenging the trial court order. 

Priyanka Gandhi was the cynosure as she and Robert Vadra hugged Ajitabh Bachchan at the wedding reception of his daughter Naina.

Many noticed Priyanka's sari - it was the purple one her grandmother had worn to a White House state banquet hosted by President Lyndon B. Johnson and his wife during Indira Gandhi's 1966 US visit. The only accessories Priyanka wore were pearl earrings and her grandmother's trademark man's watch, which Indira had inherited from Jawaharlal Nehru and passed on to her granddaughter.

Read the full report here.

Pic: The sari that Priyanka wore at the reception belonged to Indira Gandhi. The former PM had worn the sari at a reception hosted by then US president Lyndon B Johnson. Pic courtesy: Telegraph.

Former Maharashtra chief minister Narayan Rane was trailing by 3,733 votes to his Shiv Sena rival in the Bandra East Assembly bypoll after the second round of counting.

Shiv Sena's Trupti Sawant secured 8,752 votes, whereas Rane polled 5,019 votes.

Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen's (MIM) Rehbar Khan was a distant third with 761 votes.

In Tasgaon-Kavathe Mahankal constituency in Sangli district, NCP nominee and late R R Patil's widow Suman Patil had established a comfortable lead of 26,071 votes over her immediate rival, BJP rebel and independent candidate Swapnil Patil after the fourth round.

Bandra East constituency in suburban Mumbai houses the residence of Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, 'Matoshree'.

The Bandra East bye-election has turned crucial for Rane who had lost the state Assembly polls last year from his home turf Sindhudurg district in coastal Konkan.

A total of 10 candidates were in the fray in Bandra East and 9 in Tasgaon-Kavathe Mahankal constituency. The bypolls were held on April 11.

Bandra (E) bypoll: After 11 rounds, Narayan Rane (21672) way behind Trupti Sawant's 40282 votes. MIM has polled 6162 votes.

Trupti Sawant (Shiv Sena): 40,284

The Political Affairs Committee of the Aam Aadmi Party will meet on Wednesday amidst indications of strong action against dissident leaders Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav.

 Former Maharashtra chief ministerNarayan Rane was trailing by 3,733 votes to his Shiv Sena rival in the Bandra East assembly bypoll after the second round of counting. Shiv Sena's Trupti Sawant secured 8,752 votes, whereas Rane polled 5,019 votes.

Counting of votes for the assembly by-elections to Bandra (East) in suburban Mumbai and Tasgaon Kavthe-Mahankal in Sangli district began this morning.

ISIS has threatened to unleash another 9/11-style attack on the US after launching a new terror campaign on social media aimed at striking fear in the hearts of Americans.

After the first round of counting for Bandra East assembly by-poll, former chief minister Narayan Rane of Congress was trailing behind Shiv Sena's Tripti Sawant.

Survivors of a capsized migrant boat off Libya have told the aid group Save the Children that an estimated 400 people are believed to have drowned.

Special Police Officer Kishore Pandey was killed in a 2011 Naxal attack in Chhattisgarh and the money was used from the police welfare fund.

Apple is making it absolutely clear that it will not tolerate any person attending its upcoming WWDC developers conference who gets into a selfie-clicking mode using a telescoping stick.

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, who had gone completely off the political map for almost two months, is likely to emerge from his sabbatical on Wednesday to focus on issues related to farmers and Dalits in order to boost his party's standing.

James Bond actor Daniel Craig will now take on a new role as the first United Nations advocate for elimination of mines, where he will have the 'licence to save' through  his support for a world free from the threat of landmines and explosive remnants of war.

An Indian-origin former leader of a now defunct Hindu temple in Georgia has been sentenced to 27 years in prison for committing bank and tax frauds, money laundering and using the temple's income to fund his personal lifestyle.

Marking the first standalone bilateral visit in 42 years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived today in Canada where the focus will be on setting a "trajectory" in ties through cooperation in energy, including civil nuclear, and attracting trade and technology for India's development.

AAP rebels float new group; decision on political party later