It is a blessing that Prime Minister Narendra Modi "spends some time in the country also", Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said today.

In a major setback to Tibetan leader Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje, the Himachal Pradesh high court has set aside a trial court's decision to drop charges against him in a currency seizure case and directed the government to go ahead with the trial.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif will meet on the sidelines of the SCO Summit here on July 10.

According to sources, the two leaders, who will attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit, will be meeting on the sidelines of it.

However, the details of the meeting were not officially confirmed.                                                   

Modi and Sharif had last met in Kathmandu in November at the SAARC Summit where they did not, however, hold any bilateral meeting.

Earlier at the beginning of the holy month of Ramzan, the Prime Minister had called Sharif and extended his best wishes while stressing the need for having peaceful and bilateral ties.

The chairman of Madhya Pradesh High Court Bar Association, advocate Adarsh Munni Trivedi, who had in the past represented petitioners seeking a CBI probe in Vyapam scam, today could not appear before the High Court here as he took ill and his family suspected an attempt at food poisoning.                                        

Trivedi today was going to appear in another PIL about rigged admissions to private medical colleges.

"My father fell sick in early hours yesterday after consuming mangode (a fried snack made of lentil and gram) that someone had placed on the table in his office. We keep snacks in our office and my father ate a piece thinking that a family member or a client had brought them," said Ashish, his elder son.

Actor Salman Khan has filed a complaint with the Mumbai police over a false WhatsApp text that has circulating.

The screen shot of the post that has been shared has him saying that his movie can be hit without the support of his 'Muslim' fans has been used by a news channel, CNN IBN reports. The screen shot appears to be morphed.

The actor denied making any such remarks. Salman's Bajrangi Bhaijaan is slated to release on July 17.   

Delhi Metro's Vaishali-Dwarka route had to be closed today when a train developed mechanical glitch near east Delhi's Laxmi Nagar station. The stranded passengers have been evacuated, but more than 15 trains have been stuck along the 50-km route for nearly an hour, reports NDTV.

The Mumbai police has banned the use of drones for a month in the city after a drone was filmed earlier this week hovering near the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre.

A police order today cites concerns about a terror attack between now and August 2 that could involve para-gliders, remote controlled micro-light aircraft or drones, reports NDTV. The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre has been on a terror hit list for years.

As India and Pakistan are set to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, China today said the six-member grouping will play a constructive role in the improvement of relations between the two South Asian neighbours.

"We believe that India and Pakistan joining the SCO will play an important role in the development of the SCO," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunyhing said.

"The SCO will play a constructive role in the continuous development and improvement of relations between India and Pakistan," she said in comments posted on the Chinese foreign ministry website.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistan counterpart Nawaz Sharif will attend the SCO summit at Russian city of Ufa where the BRICS summit is being held ahead of it. China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan are the regular members of the SCO.

And in Ufa, bilateral talks between India and Russia begin as PM Narendra Modi meets with the host of BRICS 2015 Russia President Vladimir Putin.

Besides Modi and Chinese premier Xi, the BRICS Summit is being attended by Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and South African President Jacob Zuma.

"I expect positive outcomes in economic cooperation and cultural ties among the BRICS nations. The (BRICS) Summit in 2014 was productive and I am sure we will build on the ground covered during the last Summit," Modi had said in a statement prior to his departure from Delhi on Monday. 

The Maharashtra government has said Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorist Abu Jundal, the mastermind of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, could be assassinated or kidnapped by rivals during his transit from jail to court, the NIA has told a Delhi court.

In an application moved before District Judge Amar Nath, the National Investigation Agency said that Jundal alias Sayed Zabiuddin Ansari, who is presently in Arthur Road jail in Mumbai, could not be produced before the court on several occasions despite issuance of production warrant against him.

NIA had chargesheeted Jundal here for allegedly conspiring to carry out terror activities in India, including the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks and Aurangabad arms haul case. In the plea, the agency said the proceedings in the case lodged here was required to be expedited and the trial could be commenced through video conferencing.

Referring to a resolution passed by Maharashtra government in May 2013, the NIA said it "exclude the personal appearance of the accused Sayed Zabiuddin Ansari after taking into consideration request of Commissioner of Police, Mumbai to exclude the above-mentioned accused person from the personal appearance before court in various cases registered against him due to possibility of assassination bid on the life of accused by rival group or a bid to kidnap."

The agency also said the resolution was challenged by Jundal before Bombay High Court, but his plea was dismissed.

Read: How 26/11 handler Abu Jundal was captured

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif today told Malala Yousafzai, Pakistan's Nobel Peace Prize laureate who survived a Taliban attack, that his government has a "strong resolve to eliminate terrorism" to fulfill her dream of better education for all.


Sharif met the 17-year-old child rights activist at Oslo where he is on a three-day visit and assured her that his government is determined to improve quality of education and ensure gender equality.


"Significant steps have been taken for the promotion of rights of women, children and minorities," he said, adding that the government is committed to increase education spending up to four per cent of GDP. Sharif appreciated Malala's personal interest for the cause of promotion of education, that had invited the wrath of the Taliban.


In 2012, she was targeted by Taliban gunmen while returning home from school in the town of Mingora by bus which the gunmen boarded and asked for her by name before shooting her in the head. Sharif said the government has made a "strong resolve to eliminate terrorism which will help attain our dream of providing better education to all". "The sacrifices of those who suffered at the hands of terrorists would not go in vain," Radio Pakistan reported, quoting Sharif.


Pic: Pak PM Nawaz Sharif, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Norway's Prime Minister Erna Solberg  with Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai and her father in Oslo. REUTERS/Vegard Wivestad Grott

A student of Class 9 died in Imphal today as protesting students clashed with the police. Indefinite curfew has been clamped in the area and the situation is tense. Students want legislation to check demographic imbalance.

NDTV reports that the protesting students were part of an organisation that had been agitating for a tough law regarding an Inner Line Permit regime, a rule to restrict the entry of outsiders into the state. The organisation mostly draws its strength from students, even school-going ones.

Police used rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse the mob, which had been trying to head for the Manipur assembly. In March, the Manipur government tabled a bill in Assembly that will enforce the tracking of all outsiders who enter the state. But the protesters maintain the bill has no teeth.

Virtually ruling out his resignation, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Chauhan on Wednesday said his government would urge the Supreme Court also to order a CBI probe into the Vyapam scam.


"The Congress and the opposition cannot tolerate the path of progress under me in Madhya Pradesh. They have been demanding my resignation from the beginning. They are bringing disrepute to Madhya Pradesh," he said when asked about the demand for his resignation. 

Clash between police personnel and students in Imphal over inner line permit issue. One student dead, curfew imposed in east and west Imphal.

"The civil services are one of the many means of serving society. Anyone who is disqualified must not give up easily. During the interview, it is important to have balanced views. One cannot sound like an extremist or too wise. If you want to succeed, be sincere and listen to the advice of elders. They speak from experience, which the youth tend to dismiss."

UPSC toppers -- Ira Singhal, Nidhi Gupta, Vandana Rao and Suharsha Bhagat -- tell Rediff.com how they cracked the tough national exam.

Read

In a significant step in economic cooperation, Russia's Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) today signed an MoU with India's Infrastructure Development Finance Company (IDFC) for funding of hydro-generation projects.


RDIF Director General Kirill Dmitriev told the BRICS Business Council meeting here that his company signed an MoU with its partners in the BRICS member-states to work with sovereign funds, with the BRICS Bank and invest in the equity of infrastructure projects in these countries.


"We have signed an MoU with five funds from our five countries: the Russian Direct Investment Fund, the Silk Road Fund from China, the IDFC (Infrastructure Development Finance Company) from India, the Development Bank of South Africa and the Brazil BTG Pactual fund," he said.


"With the IDFC in India, we discussed projects in hydro-generation where Russia has a lot of expertise," Russian news agency Tass quoted him as saying. "The BRICS Bank will be doing a lot of debt providing, while the IFI (Infrastructure Fund Initiative) will be investing in equity," Dmitriev said.

A fortnight after he became the face of the Indian soldier in the Kargil war, on July 8, 1999, Vikram Batra died. He was mortally wounded after fighting through the night while recapturing Peak 4875. He was ill, but had insisted that he was fit for the mission and completed it in a manner that put him alongside some of India's greatest military heroes.


Eleven years ago, to mark the fifth anniversary of the Kargil war, Rediff.com travelled to Palampur to speak to Captain Vikram Batra's family. Today on his 16th death anniversary, we republish that feature to salute Captain Batra's ultimate sacrifice for the nation. Read

It's a Bread and Salt welcome for PM Modi in Russia. When important guests arrive, they are presented with a loaf of bread placed on a tray as a sign of hospitality. The "Bread and Salt' is a form of specially baked round bread with a salt shaker placed on top of the bread. Usually the "Bread and Salt' on a round tray is covered with an embroidered towel and is presented by a young woman dressed in a national costume.


The PM is in Ufa, Russia for a three-day visit to attend the BRICS and Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summits, on the sidelines of which he is likely to meet his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif and Chinese President Xi Jinping. At the SCO Summit, India is expected to be accorded full membership of the six-nation grouping of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.  

PM Narendra Modi gets a traditional welcome on his arrival at the Russian city of Ufa.

Apart from Raj Kapoor, this is the other Indian, Russia has honoured. 

Jailed Indian Mujahideen (IM) co-founder Mohammed Ahmed Siddibapa alias Yasin Bhatkal, an accused in the February 2013 Dilsukhnagar twin blasts here, has alleged he is facing threat to his life from police and sought round-the-clock surveillance.


In a petition filed before the Special Court for NIA cases, Bhatkal and other accused, lodged in the Cherlapalli Central Prison in Hyderabad, sought a direction to the jail authorities to install CCTV cameras in the high-security cell to maintain round-the-clock surveillance on them.


"Almost all of the jail premises is equipped with CCTV cameras except the high-security cell in which we are lodged. CCTV cameras were not installed intentionally by the jail authorities to facilitate in creating false, fabricated and imaginary stories," Bhatkal alleged.


The petitioners "apprehend great and immediate threat to their lives from the jail authorities and escort people, who are working under the direct influence and control of NIA," Bhatkal's counsel Shaik Saifullah Khaled said. He said the matter will come up before the court tomorrow when charges against the accused are expected to be framed.

Just in: In a dramatic development, the Jabalpur High Court refuses to hear the Madhya Pradesh government's plea for a CBI probe into the Vyapam scam for now. The high court has said it will wait for the Supreme Court ruling on the petition filed before it. The high court has deferred the matter till August 20.


Under pressure from all sides and on apprehension that the Supreme Court may order a CBI probe, MP chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan yesterday wrote to the High Court that the investigation into the Vyapam scam be handed over to the CBI.


The Supreme Court on Tuesday had agreed to hear on July 9 the plea of Congress leader Digvijay Singh and three whistleblowers seeking an apex court-monitored CBI probe into the Vyapam scam in Madhya Pradesh.

PM Modi arrives in Ufa, Russia for a three-day visit to attend the BRICS and Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summits, on the sidelines of which he is likely to meet his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif and Chinese President Xi Jinping. At the SCO Summit, India is expected to be accorded full membership of the six-nation grouping of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is currently on a tour of Central Asian countries and has left Kazakhistan for Russia has been tweeting regularly about his visit, but this tweet made Twitter go ROFL.


Modi had visited Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan from July 6-8 and while in Kazakhistan he visited a super computer facility.


The Prime Minister's Office on Tuesday tweeted: @PMOIndia Super computer will do super computing and will be the reason for super commitment: PM @narendramodi


Followers of the handle were quick to react. @_notyakuza tweeted: @PMOIndia @narendramodi very deep.

While, @kashish0711 tweeted: @PMOIndia @narendramodi they inspired me to become superman, how abt you?

As Prime Minister Narendra Modi heads to Russia on a three-day visit to attend the BRICS and Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summits, will he be treated to performances from Raj Kapoor films like the former PM?


Russia's love affair with Raj Kapoor was evident when the Presidential orchestra regaled the then visiting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2011 at a luncheon banquet hosted by President Dmitry Medvedev at the Kremlin. The Prime Minister and his wife Gursharan Kaur were entertained by two hit numbers from Raj Kapoor-starrer films.


Raj Kapoor and films featuring him had been a huge draw in the Soviet Union and their popularity continues unabated in Russia. Indian cinema has been and continues to find many loyal enthusiasts in Russia where there are dedicated 24 hours channels which screen Hindi movies. 

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registers a case against activist Teesta Setalvad on charges of illegally receiving foreign funds without government permission. The FIR also names Teesta's husband Javed Ananad.


The CBI will probe the alleged transfer of funds by the Ford Foundation to activist Teesta Setalvad's Sabrang Communication and Publishing Pvt Limited.

Official sources said SCPPL had accepted a grant of US $2.9 lakh from the Ford Foundation despite being a private company not having clearance from the ministry of home affairs under the Foreign Contributions Regulation Act.

This donation was, therefore, a serious violation of FCRA provisions, which mandate funding from a foreign source to only those recipients who have FCRA registration, they said.

A Supreme Court bench will hear petitions filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal challenging the constitutional validity of the criminal defamation law. The SC bench to hear the matter on merit on 14th July.

Just in: MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan arrives at Delhi airport. 

The Dalai Lama is arguably one of the most venerated leaders in the world today. He has received the Nobel Peace Prize, he meets world leaders and espouses the cause of independence for Tibet.


Now, the Dalai Lama has ventured into uncharted territory. Relationships and sex, subjects he has confessed to having no experience.

In an interview with TIME magazine, the Dalai Lama talks about aging, the future of Tibetan Budhists, meeting Pope Francis and yes, how to heal a broken heart. And


His advice to the lovelorn is this: "Practice celibacy. If you look at the nature of strong attachment, underlying that strong attachment is a clinging, grasping, and if you look at other reactive emotions that arise, actually it is strong attachment that underpins hatred, anger, jealousy and so on, so if you somehow are able to look at this and recognise that a large part of the reception is perception, that could [cure] some of this strong grasping."

Hmmm.

With Wahhabi terror growing fast with extensive technology, Indian Muslim youth could fall prey to the divisive designs of Islamic terror groups, warns an article in the Organiser, mouthpiece of the RSS.


It has asked the Indian Muslim leaders to focus on modern education and to develop a core economic model for the minority community to counter it.


The article, which appeared in the latest issue of the weekly, cautions the government as well as Muslim leaders that ignoring the challenge would be ludicrous for India. "..it's extremely important that its policymakers should imbibe the potential factors which could lead to rise of Wahhabism in India,' the article says.  Read more

The Madhya Pradesh police have decided to reopen the case of an MBBS student whose name figured in the Vyapam scam after her postmortem report, which described it has "homicidal" caused by "violent asphyxia", became public, adding yet another twist to the scandal.


The report said Namrata Damor, whose body was found near the railway tracks in Ujjain district on January 7, 2012, had died a "homicidal" death caused by "violent axphyxia as a result of smothering".


The development came a day after an embattled Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan recommended a CBI probe into the scandal that is said to have claimed 45 lives.


The case of mysterious death of Damor, an alleged beneficiary of the massive admission and recruitment scam, had got obscured with time, but was back in focus last Saturday when TV journalist Akshay Singh, probing the Vyapam scam, died soon after interviewing her parents.


Police had registered a murder case following her death but later closed it describing it as an "accident".


Despite Chouhan requesting the Madhya Pradesh High Court yesterday for a CBI probe into the scandal that has dented the credibility of his government, there was no let up in Congress' relentless assault on him with the party slamming the "criminal delay" in ordering an investigation by the central agency.


The BJP shot back, saying now that Chouhan had sought court's direction for a CBI probe, Congress should stop "monitoring" it.

Fans or rather vandals painted graffiti on the walls of of Shah Rukh Khan's residence Mannat today. The compound walls of the the star's four-storeyed residence at Bandra Bandstand were painted with messages like 'love you SRK ' and c u on 15th. The messages were signed 'Gaurav'. 

Another picture of the PM as he leaves Kazakhistan. Modi with Kazakhstan President, Nursultan Nazarbayev after the official lunch at Akorda -- the President's Palace. 

So, it's goodbye Kazakhstan. PM Narendra leaves for Ufa, Russia for the Brics summit. 

If we need to use nuclear weapons for "our survival, we will", said Pakistan defence minister Khawaja Asif.


Asif told Saleem Safi on Geo News programme 'Jirga' that use of nuclear weapons was an option as they were not kept merely for show but as deterrents.


"We should pray that such an option never arises, but if we need to use them (nuclear weapons) for our survival, we will," he said on Monday.


He also said that "fuelling terrorism directly or indirectly is India's proxy war in Pakistan". He said that Pakistan's defence capability was strong.

A Gujarati television channel Nirmana has claimed that it has interviewed fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim. The channel is owned by Gujarat cable television baron Padmakant Trivedi.


There was no independent confirmation about the veracity of the interview and if the man speaking is really Indias most wanted gangster.


In the interview, the man claiming to be Dawood claims that he had made an offer to come back to India.


When asked if he was in Lahore, Pakistan, he said that things would not have come to such a pass if the then Indian government had accepted his offer.


He claimed he was a businessman and has nothing to do with who is a terrorist and who is not.


Dawood also claimed he paid Rs 1,000 crore to former Indian Premier League chief Lalit Modi in connection with a purely business deal and claimed he name was being unnecessarily being dragged into the IPL slot fixing scandal.


You can watch the interview here.

A new skyscraper is set to go up in the Australian metropolis, and it will be in the shape of R&B star Beyonce's curvaceous body.


In the works from architecture firm Elenberg Fraser, the tentatively called Premier Tower features stunning curves and edges that take direct inspiration from Queen Bey's famed form, reported Us magazine.


The building, which is expected to house retail and residential space, mimics the superstar's shape in an artistic way and also finds function in its design.


"The twists and turns of this new project belie its pure and simple, first principles rationale... This project is the culmination of our significant research into how to best work with individual site and climatic constraints, brought together using our new parametric modeling techniques," the firm writes in a statement.


"The complex form '" a vertical cantilever '" is actually the most effective way to redistribute the building's mass, giving the best results in terms of structural dispersion, frequency oscillation and wind requirements."

PM Modi tweets: Had a very fruitful meeting & delegation level talks with President Nazarbayev.


The PM is in Kazakhistan, as part of his five-nation tour.

Apple users, here's another reason to gloat.


Apple may be working on a new way to charge your iPhone that could make it sleeker and more durable. A recently published patent application lays the foundation for how Apple could potentially create an iPhone with no ports.The patent application, which was published on July 2 and initially filed in 2013, describes what Apple calls "concealed electrical connectors."  Read more

@sehnaoui evidently has a sense of humour. With Greece in the news, here's a cool interpretation of a Grecian marble. @sehnaoui tweets: "A girl showing her mom her new #laptop with two usb ports. Marble statue, Greece, 110 BC."

Continuing its slide, the benchmark BSE Sensex in mid-session tanked over 500 points and the NSE Nifty cracked the 8,400-mark after Chinese shares extended rout and fears of Greek eurozone exit hit trading sentiment.


Reflecting steep fall in blue-chips, the 30-share index which dipped below the crucial 28,000-mark in early trade, continued to slide and tumbled by 504.63 points or 1.79 per cent to 27,667.06 during mid-session, with all the sectoral indices led by metal and auto, falling up to 4.14 per cent. The NSE Nifty also succumbed to all-round selling and cracked the 8,400-mark by falling 162.65 points or 1.91 per cent to 8,348.15.

Uber ban: The HC raised doubts on the complete ban on app-based cabs; says Delhi govt can impose strict conditions on their plying which Uber can also follow.

Relief for Uber. The Delhi High Court sets aside the Delhi government's order by which Uber's licence was scrapped. This means Uber can now ply in Delhi.


The Delhi government last month had rejected the US-based cab aggregator's fresh application for registration under the modified Radio Taxi Scheme 2006.


Similar applications from two other prominent web-app based taxi operators, Ola Cabs and Taxi4Sure, were also rejected by the Delhi Government Transport Department.


The Transport Department said the applications in question, a prerequisite for the legal operation of services by respective operators, were rejected because all three failed to declare that they were complying with the conditions of a Home Ministry-imposed ban on their services last year.


Web-app based cab operators were banned after the rape of a private executive aboard a Uber cab in late November, 2014.

India's rural employment guarantee programme MNREGA has been ranked as the world's largest public works programme, providing social security net to almost 15 per cent of the country's population, World Bank has said.

India is among the five middle-income countries running the world's largest social safety net programmes, said a World Bank Group's report 'The State of Social Safety Nets 2015'.


"The world's five largest social safety net programmes are all in middle-income countries (China, India, South Africa and Ethiopia) and reach over 526 million people," it added.

The combined spending on social safety nets in 120 developing countries amounted to about USD 329 billion between 2010 and 2014, it said.

India's Mid-day meal scheme has been classified as biggest school feeding programme benefiting 105 million beneficiaries. 

Rajasthan Governor Kalyan Singh at the 26th convocation ceremony of Rajasthan University said on Tuesday that Rabindranath Tagore while writing the national anthem had praised the 'angrezi shaasak' (English ruler) by writing 'adhinayak jai ho' and it is about time that this be amended.


Adding to the clamour of relegating rulers like Akbar as a footnote in history, Singh on Tuesday insisted that it was Rani Jhansi who was great and not Queen Victoria.


Singh had raised the issue at a recent function to felicitate donors in the field of education and reiterated his demand on Tuesday before a massive gathering at the convocation ceremony.


He suggested that instead of praising the 'adhinayak' the word should be replaced by 'mangal'."Jan gan man adhinayak jai ho kiske liye hai? It is to praise the 'angrezi shaasak''the British. It is about time that it amended and replaced by 'jan gan man mangal gaye'. I do have full faith in Rabindranath Tagore and respect him but still feel the national anthem should drop the word 'adhinayak'," Singh said.


"Similarly words like 'mahamahim' or his or her excellency should not be used any longer because no one is 'mahan'. These were used during the British rule."

Amid tight security, the eighth batch comprising 1,770 pilgrims today left from the base camp here to the holy cave shrine of Amarnath in South Kashmir Himalayas. With today's batch, as many as 15,602 pilgrims have so far left from Jammu base camp for Amarnath shrine.

Just in: The Baltimore police say four people have been shot, three fatally, near the University of Maryland, Baltimore, campus. Officers responded to a report of a shooting just after 10:30 pm Tuesday at a location a few blocks from the university.


The Globe and Mail reports that officers found a woman and two men with gunshot wounds. One man and the woman were taken to a hospital, where they died. The second man was pronounced dead at the scene.

US President Barack Obama has asked the European and Greece leaders to strike a deal on the debt crisis that can benefit the global economy as a whole. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras phoned President Obama yesterday and briefed him about the crisis.


"The President received an update from Prime Minister Tsipras on his ideas for a path forward between Greece and its creditors," the White House said in a statement.


Obama reiterated that it is in everyone's interest that Greece and its creditors reach a mutually-acceptable agreement, the statement said.


He also spoke with German Chancellor Angela Merkel about Greece debt crisis and the two leaders agreed that it is in everyone's interest to reach a durable agreement that will allow Greece to resume reforms, return to growth, and achieve debt sustainability within the Eurozone, the White House said.


"The leaders noted that their economic teams are monitoring the situation in Greece and remain in close contact," it said. "The conversations reflected the view that all parties continue to acknowledge that it's in their collective and mutual interest for Greece to remain part of the Eurozone," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters.

'Why isn't the BJP ready to give reservations to Muslims despite the high court telling it to do so? AK Antony said the Congress lost the 2014 election because of Muslim appeasement. Antony should have gone to Maharashtra prisons and found out how many Muslims were arrested during Congress rule. I don't know what kind of appeasement this is. We reposed faith in so-called great secular leaders and they deceived us."

Asaduddin Owaisi, the Lok Sabha member from Hyderabad, speaks to Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com. Read

First dead, now missing.


The local GSVM Medical College is on the radar of Madhya Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) for the alleged involvement of its students in Vyapam medical entrance examination scam of 2013 and eight of its students are missing from the campus.


The medical college management does not know about the current status of these students. According to the administration, either these students are still lodged in jails or have been release on bail. However, they have not reported back to the college. These are those students who were allegedly accused by the STF for their involvement in Vyapam scam.


Read more

The Himachal Pradesh high court on Tuesday stayed a directive of the state information commission to the government to provide information about the land purchase by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's daughter Priyanka Vadra near this popular hill station. Read

Rarely has a political book made waves as has former R&AW chief Amarjit Singh Dulat's memoir, Kashmir: The Vajpayee Years. Co-authored by journalist Aditya Sinha, the book is packed with revelations on the disastrous Agra Summit of 2001, the Rubaiya Sayeed kidnapping of 1989, the release of terrorists in exchange for passengers aboard the hijacked IC-814 in 1999, the relationship and contrast between Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani... the list is endless.

In a career in intelligence-gathering spanning over three decades, Dulat rose to the very top as special director of the Intelligence Bureau (India's internal intelligence agency) as well as the Research & Analysis Wing (India's external intelligence agency), before becoming advisor in the Prime Minister's Office, occupying the ringside for a spectacular view of events as they unfolded.

Discuss A S Dulat's stunning revelations with the man himself, on the Rediff Chat on July 8, at 11.30 am IST.  Here's where you chat.

Bollywood actress and MP (not necessarily in that order) Hema Malini has tweeted her condolences over the death of the girl, Sonam, who died in the car accident in Dausa, Rajasthan, on July 2.


"How I wish the girl's father had followed the traffic rules -- then this accident could have been averted & the lil one's life safe!" Hema Malini tweeted a week after the accident.


Last week, the Mercedes Hema Malini was in while she was travelling in Rajasthan, collided with another car. A four-year-old girl was killed in the accident and five others in the same family were injured.


The actress was taken to a hospital in Jaipur, and was treated for injuries to her nose and forehead. The father of the dead girl has said the death could have been avoided if his daughter had been taken to the hospital along with the Hema Malini. Hemas driver was arrested, but was released on


Hema also tweeted that her heart goes out to the child who unnecessarily lost her life. She thanked all her well wishers and said that her recovery would not have been so quick without their support.

Already under fire from the Opposition over her connections with tainted former IPL chief Lalit Modi, Rajasthan Chief MinisterVasundhara Raje could be in another trouble as the latest media reports suggest that Raje had recommended Modi for a Padma award in 2007. 

That's Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev welcoming PM Modi at Akorda Palace in Astana. Modi, who is on a tour of Central Asian countries, met President Nazarbayev on the second day of his visit to Kazakhstan. A welcome ceremony was held for Modi at the Akorda Presidential Palace.

After completing his visit to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will arrive in Ufa, Russia today to participate in the 7th BRICS summit. The PM will also be participating in the meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. 

The sensational Ranaghat nun rape case moved a step towards closure after 114 agonising days with the 71-year-old missionary identifying the 28-year-old rapist at the Ranaghat jail. The main accused in the March 14 incident was picked up by the police from Sealdah railway station in Kolkata on June 17. The Christian missionary identified him from a gathering of 10 persons at a test identification parade.

BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty opened in red owing to feeble regional cues amid continuing Greece debt crisis. The Sensex traded 206.75  points down to 27,964.94, while the Nifty sunk 71.60 points down at 8439.20.

Yasin Bhatkal, co-founder of banned terror group Indian Mujahideen, has asked that he be put under 24x7 CCTV surveillance at the Hyderabad Jail where he is lodged, as he fears a threat to his life. Bhatkal's lawyer, Shaik Saifullah, also said that Bhatkal has in an earlier appeal sought "sunshine, air and clean water" as his seven-feet-by-seven-feet cell in Cherlapally jail has none of these. 

On Monday, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi left for the six-nation tour from the IGI Airport in Delhi, at least four flights got delayed for over one hour. The passengers, who had already boarded the flights, had to wait for more than one hour to let the VVIP aircraft take off. Almost 500 passengers got stuck due to the VVIP movement.

Euro zone members have given Greece until the end of the week to come up with a proposal for sweeping reforms in return for loans that will keep the country from crashing out of Europe's currency bloc and into economic ruin. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to host an Iftar party in Srinagar on July 17.

A fire broke out at a shoe showroom in Mumbai's Malad suburb at around 2 am today. Following this, an unknown number of fire tenders were rushed to the spot.

After years of failed efforts, an Afghan government delegation met with Taliban officials in the Pakistani capital on Tuesday, in a significant effort to open formal peace negotiations, according to Afghan, Pakistani and Western officials.

Years before it is deemed a success or a failure, a nuclear deal between Iran and the major powers could unleash far-reaching changes in the region.

T'S another bad day for Kenya as suspected al-Shabaab militia killed 14 in the northern town of Mandera, where the borders of Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia meet.

MDMK leader Vaiko today criticised the Tamil Nadu government for filing an affidavit in the Supreme court seeking CISF deployment for Mullaperiyar dam in Kerala in view of perceived threats by the LTTE.