Myanmar today maintained that Indian forces had carried out an attack on insurgents inside India and that it would not tolerate rebel groups using its soil to attack neighbours. 

Pakistan Army Chief Raheel Sharif on Wednesday took serious note of Indian "hostile rhetoric" and pledged to foil any "evil" design against the country.   

The flood situation in Assam deteriorated drastically today affecting about 1.95 lakh people in over 550 villages and destroying crops in more than 8,200 hectares in the Bramhaputra valley. 

Former defence personnel will go ahead with their protest against the government after their meeting with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was inconclusive over the One Rank One Pension scheme.

India will organise a mega event in Madrid to celebrate the International Day of Yoga on June 21 with the cooperation of Spanish government and 12 yoga schools. The Indian mission in the Spanish capital will offer yoga master class at the prestigious venue of Discovery Gardens Plaza de Colon. It has also released a special DVD with 30 minutes of yoga postures to serve yoga enthusiasts.

JUST IN: NSA Ajit Doval to visit Myanmar soon to discuss further joint action against insurgents. 

Days after 18 army men were killed when insurgent groups ambushed a convoy, an explosion occurred in Moreh town, in Manipur's Chandel district. This is the same place where the ambush took place. The explosion comes a day after Indian Army Special Forces hit back and killed 36 insurgents in Myanmar. A crack team of about 70 commandos from 21 Para of the Indian Army carried out the surgical strike inside Myanmar territory in the thick of the night, killing 38 militants in around 40 minutes. 

AAP MLA Somnath Bharti's wife Lipika has filed a domestic violence complaint against him with the Delhi Commission for Women. Speaking to ANI she said, "Can't explain in a couple of words, its been going on since 2010. I want out from this marriage."

The DCW has issued a notice to Bharti to appear before it by June 26.

Somnath Bharti, who is in Kerala, says he's shocked and did not expect this. He said the complaint was completely false and believed there was a conspiracy behind it.

The AAP reacted saying it was a personal matter and should be dealt with in a personal manner.

This is not the first time Somnath has been in soup. During AAPs 49-day government, Somnath had stormed a house belonging to Ugandan women, alleging illicit activities. 

Just in: A farmer from Punjab who met Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi committed suicide today after he was unable to pay off his debt.   Surjit Singh Dadu, who hailed from Majjra village, had told Rahul Gandhi, who visited Mandi on April 30, that the condition of farmers in the state was very bad.

"Nobody is procuring the produce and I have a debt of Rs 13.5 lakh. No money has been paid by any agency during the past 28 days," the farmer had told the Congress Vice President.

The interaction with the farmers and labourers took place along the wheat stacks kept at the Mandi.

The Congress has been alleging that the Punjab government is not purchasing the produce of farmers adequately.

Gandhi had recently attacked the government, alleging that it was "ignoring" the farming community and favouring the industrialists and rich people.

He has also accused the government of giving out contradictory figures about the damages suffered by farmers during the recent unseasonal rains.


Union Minister and Akali Dal leader Harsimrat Kaur dubbed Gandhi's visit to the mandi as a "drama".


Fresh fodder for the BJP.

Current account deficit narrows sharply to USD 1.3 bn or 0.2 per cent in fourth quarter of FY15, as against USD 8.3 bn or 1.6 per cent in Q3. For entire 2014-15, CAD shrinks to USD 27.5 billion or 1.3 per cent of GDP from USD 32.4 bn or 1.7 per cent in FY14.

Just in: Can it get any worse for AAP? A domestic violence complaint has been filed against AAP MLA Somnath Bharti by his wife with the Delhi Commission For Women.

A defiant Pakistan reacted to India's anti-terror ops in Myanmar today, warning India, with this message: Do not mistake Pakistan for Myanmar. Our army is fully capable of responding to adventurism.


Special forces of the army in coordination with the air force on Tuesday carried out a surgical strike inside Myanmar, killing nearly 20 insurgents of the groups believed to be responsible for the deadly ambush in Manipur that killed 18 soldiers.


Elite commandos of the army went a few kilometres inside the Myanmar territory to destroy two camps of insurgents hiding there after their attacks in Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh last week by Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland- Khaplang and Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup outfits.


In fact, the counter-insurgency operation was being planned since the last three months. The ambush on the convoy of soldiers of the Army's 6th Dogra Infantry, that killed 18 of them in the morning of June 4 in Manipur's Chandel district, became the trigger to advance the operation by joint forces of the Indian military to June 9.


According to a source in government, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar had secretly visited Myanmar last month to tie up things with the government there regarding the Indian military operation whenever it took place.

Amid a bitter conflict, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today met Lt Governor Najeeb Jung and is believed to have discussed ways to ensure better coordination between the two.


Kejriwal, accompanied by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, also informed the Lieutenant Governor about his decision to include Delhi Jal Board vice-chairman Kapil Mishra in his cabinet as Law Minister.


Earlier in the day, Mishra was named as the new Law Minister replacing Jitender Singh Tomar who had resigned from the post last night following his arrest on charge of possessing fake degrees.


Sources said a number of issues including the need to have better coordination between the Lt Governor and the AAP government figured in the meeting.


They said the meeting went off well and Jung came to the porch of his office to see off the Chief Minister. The AAP government and the LG has been locked in a fierce confrontation over appointments of senior officials and functioning of the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB).

Amid the face-off between Delhi government and the Centre over Jitender Singh Tomar's alleged fake degrees, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar today demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on moral grounds and asked him to apologise to the people for backing his erstwhile ministerial colleague.


Dubbing the Tomar episode as a "shameful open-and-shut case of forging papers", Javadekar said it was difficult to believe that Kejriwal was not aware of the facts of the case.


"How can the CM (Kejriwal) not know that the degree provided (in records) by his law minister was fake? The government went all out to support his appointment but he finally had to resign. This is a shameful open-and-shut case of forging papers," Javadekar said.


"(Arvind) Kejriwal needs to apologise to the people of the country because he came to power on the plank of providing a corruption-free government and he has given Delhi the most corrupt government. The true face of the party has come out now. Therefore, he (Kejriwal) should resign on moral grounds," he said.

Taking exception to the dramatic way in which former law minister Jitender Singh Tomar was arrested by the Delhi Police, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday stated that the man at the centre of the fake degree controversy is not a terrorist."


Jitender Tomar is not a terrorist, he was a minister. An FIR was lodged at 3 a.m. in the night and seven IPS officers along with 33 cars reached there; his driver was dragged out and Tomar was bundledout in the car as if he's a terrorist," AAP spokesperson Ashutosh said.


"Whatever happened yesterday is not possible in a democracy, it can only happen under a dictator's regime. It's for the court to decide whether Tomar's degree is fake or not, but should the police beallowed to work in such a manner?" he added.


Tomar had tendered his resignation to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal late on Tuesday

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked his ministerial colleague Jitendra Singh to go to Manipur to take stock of situation there, a day after army's retaliatory strike in Myanmar that neutralised insurgents believed to be behind the ambush in the state that killed 18 soldiers.


Singh, Minister of State in Prime Minister's Office, will hold interaction with various sections following the Prime Minister's directive, official sources said.


He will also visit neighbouring Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh, they said. Singh, also MoS for Development of Northeastern Region, will interact with members of the civil society, political parties and security officials, the sources said. Singh, who will be touring these states for three days, will leave here in a day or two, they said.

A day after Indian Army carried out a surgical strike inside Myanmar on militants believed to be involved in the June 4 killing of 18 soldiers in Manipur, Union minister Prakash Javadekar today said the country's response will serve as a lesson to those who incite terror.


"The military's action against insurgents with assistance from the Myanmarese government speaks volumes about India's resolve to fight terror. This is a lesson and a message to all the terror groups that India will not hesitate in going beyond its geographical borders to eliminate terrorists," Javadekar said.


While replying to a query, he, however, refused to comment on if India will carry out a similar strike on Pakistan-based groups plotting terror against India. Javadekar was speaking to reporters here while outlining the achievements of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government's one year in office.

A suicide bomber has blown himself up near the ancient Temple of Karnak in the Egyptian city of Luxor, police say.


BBC report that three assailants were killed in the attack and that four bystanders were injured.


The assailants reportedly tried to storm a barricade at the temple, one of Egypt's most popular tourist sites.


Two of the attackers are believed to have been shot dead by police, but a third passed through barricade and detonated an explosive device.


There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but jihadist militants have killed hundreds of security forces and government personnel since the military overthrew President Mohammed Morsi in 2013.

A 19-year-old sprinter of the Lakshmibai National College for Physical Education here, a Sports Authority of India (SAI) centre, attempted to cut a vein in his left arm this morning but the reason for his actions is not yet clear.


"The boy tried to harm himself. He created a small cut on his left arm using a glass piece and was immediately rushed to the Trivandrum Medical college hospital here where he was given first aid and discharged," Dr G Kishore, Principal of the LNCPE, said.


"It was only a superficial cut. It appears he was under some mental tension," Dr Kishore said. Meanwhile, SAI has ordered an internal inquiry to find out what triggered the incident.

Government has "zero tolerance" towards terror and terror organisations, senior minister Nitin Gadkari said today without going into details of army's "hot pursuit" of militants in Myanmar.


Briefing reporters after a meeting of the Union Cabinet, Gadkari first ignored questions on whether the ministers congratulated the Prime Minister on the operation.


When pressed further, he said that the issue was not discussed in the meeting and that the Prime Minister was not congratulated in the meeting.


"It is already clear that we have a zero tolerance towards terror and terror organiszation. The official spokesperson of military has given detailed information about the action that our military has done," Gadkari said.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and deputy CM Manish Sisodia arrive at LG Najeeb Jung's residence. The appointment is at 3 pm. 

The meeting, which is taking place at the Raj Niwas, is being called routine. Normally, it is Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia who meets the LG, but the Chief Minister will join him today. On the agenda is the handing over of Jitendra Singh Tomar's resignation as law minister.


The Delhi Jal Board vice-chairman Kapil Mishra was today named as the new Law Minister replacing Tomar. Tomar resigned late last night after he was arrested for allegedly forging degrees and sent to police custody.

An Indian woman with a rare deadly form of tuberculosis has created a health scare in three US states where authorities are tracking down hundreds of people who may have been in her contact during her visit.


The woman, who arrived in Chicago from India on April 4 and travelled by car to visit relatives in Illinois, Tennessee and Missouri, is now being treated at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.


She is suffering from an extremely rare drug-resistant form of the disease, known as XDR-TB, which is immune to most Tuberculosis drugs, The New York Times reported.


The unidentified woman is in an isolation room designed for patients with dangerous respiratory infections, according to the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).


The CDC today described her condition as stable. Health officials in Illinois were working with the CDC to find people with whom the woman may have had prolonged direct contact, in close quarters. Health officials say the risk to the public is low.


TB is nowhere near as contagious as the flu or measles. But people who had long periods of close contact with the patient, like the relatives with whom she stayed, are at risk.


For people who were on the flight with the woman, the odds of catching TB are low but not zero. The CDC said that it will obtain the flight manifest for the woman's trip from India and notify passengers who may have been exposed. Based on her medical history and molecular testing, she was diagnosed with XDR TB, it reported.


She was initially placed in respiratory isolation at a suburban Chicago hospital and later transported by air ambulance to the NIH Clinical Center. Globally, nine million people contracted TB in 2013, and one and a half million died from it, according to the World Health Organization. Nearly a quarter of all the cases occurred in India, which has the world's largest epidemic.

The white police officer who was recorded on video pushing a black girl to the ground at a North Texas pool party has resigned from the police force. Officer David Eric Casebolt's actions were "indefensible," McKinney Police Chief Greg Conley said at a press conference after the officer submitted his resignation.


But Casebolt was not pressured to quit the force, Conley said. A video recorded by another teenager and posted online showed Casebolt pushing a bikini-clad black girl to the ground on Friday and brandishing his gun at other black teens after he and other officers responded to complaints about the pool party at a community-owned McKinney swimming pool.


The 41-year-old former Texas state trooper was put on administrative leave after the incident. Conley said a review of the incident video showed that "our policies, our training and our practices do not support his actions."


In all, 12 officers responded to the report of fights and a disturbance at the pool party at the Craig Ranch North Community Pool in an affluent area of western McKinney. "Eleven of them performed according to their training," Conley said. Casebolt did not, he said.


"He came into the call out of control and the video showed he was out of control during the incident," Conley said. Despite Casebolt's resignation, his actions remain under investigation and no decision has been made as to whether charges will be filed against him, Conley said. Charges of interfering with an officer and evading arrest against the only man arrested during Friday's incident have been dropped, Conley said. Everyone else was released.

Five people, including a Red Cross volunteer, were wounded in an attack on a car near the Chinese border where battles have raged between government soldiers and ethnic insurgents, the second such attack within a week, the Red Cross said on Sunday. Read more

The Delhi High Court today refused to stay two notifications of the Centre which had taken away the power of the city government's Anti-Corruption Branch to prosecute officials of the union government, saying a vacation court cannot grant the relief sought by a fresh PIL.


A bench of justices S Muralidhar and I S Mehta said as the issue was already before a regular bench, it being a vacation court will not pass any orders at this stage and tagged the PIL with another petition filed by a law student, who has also challenged the notifications.


"A vacation court can't grant stay. Let the regular division bench hear it. It is seized of the matter in another PIL," the bench said. Both petitions are now likely to be heard by the high court on August 5.

Pakistan PM's national security advisor Sartaj Aziz speaking in parliament says that PM Modi's comments in Bangladesh vitiate the atmosphere. "PM Modi's comments in Bangladesh put question mark on India's sincerity to establish good neighbourly relations with Pakistan," he said.


Modi who was in Bangladesh over the weekend said, "Pakistan aaye din (constantly) disturbs India, jo naako dum la deta hai (creates nuisance), terrorism ko badhawa (deta hai)...ki ghatnaayein ghatthi rehti hain (promotes terrorism and such incidents keep recurring)." 

OK, here's the video of the man petting the jaguar (which quite honestly, looks like a leopard). See

And another picture of the man teasing the jaguar. 

In a medical breakthrough, a 28-year-old woman has become the first person in the world to give birth to a healthy baby using ovarian tissue that was removed and frozen in her childhood.


Previous successful transplants resulting in pregnancies have used frozen ovary tissue removed from adult women, but this is the first time ovarian tissue was taken from a girl when she was just 13 years and 11 months old.


It was not known whether tissue taken from girls before puberty could develop to produce mature eggs. The breakthrough, described in the journal Human Reproduction, gives hope to thousands of young cancer victims that face treatments such as chemotherapy which can damage the ovaries, leaving them infertile.


The patient, who was born in the Republic of Congo but moved to Belgium aged 11, had received a transplant of her brother's bone marrow to treat her sickle-cell anaemia.


The procedure required chemotherapy to disable the immune system and prevent rejection of the bone marrow, 'The Times' reported. Doctors removed her right ovary just before she turned 14 and froze tissue fragments. Puberty and breast development had begun but she had not started her periods.


The treatment left her with no functioning ovary and when she was 15 doctors began hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to induce menstruation.


Ten years later, she decided to start a family and doctors, led by Isabelle Demeestere, a gynaecologist and research associate at Erasme Hospital, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, stopped the HRT and grafted four fragments of the frozen ovarian tissue on to the remaining left ovary and other fragments in the surrounding area.


The transplanted tissue started to respond to her hormones and grew follicles containing maturing eggs. Her periods began five months later. After two years, she became pregnant naturally with her partner and delivered a healthy boy in November last year.

Breaking the law and then bragging about it on Facebook can land you in jail.Areeb Taha Mehdi, a 23-year-old stockbroker illegally entered a jaguar enclosure in Nehru Zoological Park in Hyderabad at night by allegedly bribing an employee. He then clicked pictures of himself pulling the jaguar's paw and even took a video of him petting it.


He then uploaded the video on Facebook on Sunday and tagged more than 75 people. The photo has been taken down now.


Areeb bragged about knowing how to access the enclosure."Anyone interested to have such mindblowing experience do let me know will give you details to meet these species," he posted.


It is unclear when the incident occurred, but Mehdi was arrested yesterday.


The zoo officials identified the staffer as Govind and filed a complaint at the Bahadurpura police station against the duo.


The police have registered an FIR and booked Mehdi for trespassing and also invoked section 38 (j) of the Wildlife Protection Act which prohibits teasing of an animal in a zoo. The zoo staffer has also been arrested. 

Bihar's minister Ramai Ram's grandson accused of blinding employee.

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal sends Jitendra Tomar's resignation to President through LG Jung.

Just in: Delhi Jal Board's Kapil Mishra to be the new law minister. Mishra replaces Jitendra Tomar, who resigned late last night after he was arrested on charges of fraud and cheating by the Delhi Police.


The arrest escalated tensions between the central and state governments, with Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia accusing the Delhi Police of carrying out a political vendetta.

In another round of action against erring NGOs, the government has cancelled the licence of 4,470 such entities that surprisingly included a number of top universities, Supreme Court Bar Association and Escorts Heart Institute, which bars them from receiving foreign funds.


The decision to cancel the registration of these entities under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act has been taken by the Union Home Ministry after examination of their activities that allegedly include non-filing of annual returns and other anomalies.


All associations were given proper notice by the Foreigners Division of the Home Ministry with adequate time to reply before their FCRA licences were cancelled, official sources said.


Other prominent organisations whose FCRA licences were cancelled include Panjab University, Chandigarh, Gujarat National Law University, Gargi College, Delhi, Lady Irwin College Delhi, Vikram Sarabhai Foundation and Kabir floated by Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia.
 

In the last round of crackdown, licences of nearly 9,000 NGOs were cancelled in April last for alleged violation of Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA).

Cabinet approves Rs 6,000 crore interest-free loan to sugar mills for making payments to cane farmers. Shares of sugar companies surged on Wednesday thereafter.


The Cabinet at a meeting on Wednesday, approved a Rs 6,000 crore interest-free loan to sugar mills for making payments to cane farmers.


Shares of Shree Renuka Sugars, Bajaj Hindusthan, Sakthi Sugars and Oudh Sugar Mills surged between 12-14 per cent. Other major gainers included Balrampur Chini Mills, Dhampur Sugar Mills And Eid Parry (India) Ltd, which rose between 6-8 per cent.

Those advocating a raid in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir, like the one in Myanmar, need to have a reality check on whether the same template can be applied to other borders, says Nitin Gokhale. Read

Chinese officials have refuted allegations of the country's army assisting militants in northeast India, saying such charges are "absurd' and such a linkage is "impossible".


Any claim that People's Liberation Army (PLA) officers may be in touch with the leaders of an insurgent group -- Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland-Khaplang (NSCN-K) -- suspected to have been involved in a recent attack on Indian troops is "absurd', state-run Global Times reported quoting officials of the government-run think-tanks.


Experts believe that the existence of ties between the PLA and Indian militants is impossible, the report said. Earlier, reports in Indian media quoted a senior Indian official as saying that NSCN-K abrogated its ceasefire pact with the Centre following instructions from PLA. Chinese Foreign Ministry has not commented on the allegations so far.

The body of the second militant, recovered by the Army from near the site of the ambush in which 18 personnel were killed in Manipur, has been claimed by his family members after identification.


The insurgent was yesterday identified by his family members as Keisham Rajen (29), son of K Khamba of Nongren Maning Leikai village of Imphal East district, a police official said.


He was a member of militant outfit, Kanglei Yaol Kanna Lup (KYKL), the official said. According to the family members who claimed the body, Rajen had left home 10 years ago and joined the militant outfit.


The Army had recovered the body from the jungles of Leibung village near the ambush site on June 7. It bore three bullet wounds. Eighteen Armymen were killed in the deadly attack on the Army convoy at Paraolon village in Chandel district on June 4.

Sharad Pawar re-elected NCP President at party's sixth national convention in Patna.

IRCTC is offering passengers who fail to get their waitlisted ticket confirmed an option to convert it into an airline ticket at a competitive fare.
 
The Railway PSU has already tied-up with budget carrier GoAir and have sold about 100 tickets through this scheme in the past one month.
 
"We have also entered into an understanding with SpiceJet under the scheme and plan to rope in other domestic carriers too," said IRCTC spokesperson Sandip Dutta.
 
However, the scheme applies to tickets booked at least three days prior to the date of the journey. The flight tickets would be made available only for the day of the train journey or a day after that.
 
IRCTC would be sending e-mails to waitlisted passengers who seek to avail the benefit under the scheme.
 
Passengers booking train tickets right from sleeper class to AC classes can avail the facility, Dutta said.
 
"For such passengers, the airline ticket would be competitively priced and cheaper by as much as 30-40 per cent," he said.
 
The airlines would be placing their unsold tickets with IRCTC, a move that not only promises a boon for the domestic carriers but an added option for the passengers in reaching their destination without having to abort their trip.
 
With an average seat factor of about 70 to 75 per cent, most of the domestic airlines fly with about 20 per cent seats empty in their plane and IRCTC plans to make the best use of it.

Mumbai-based businessman Salim Saboonwala and high-profile lawyer Janhavi Gadkar were both out celebrating on Tuesday but the day ended very differently for them.

 
The Audi Q3 driven by an inebriated Gadkar at a speed of more than 120kmph slammed into the taxi in which Saboonwalas family was travelling early on Tuesday morning, killing the businessman and the driver. Four others were injured, including Saboonwalas wife Hafeeza.

Read more

The Centre on Tuesday appointed a BJP member and television actor who played Yudhishthir in BR Chopra's epic TV series Mahabharat as president of the Film and Television Institute of India, triggering reactions of surprise from the industry.


ABP News reports that Bollywood veterans questioned the information and broadcasting ministry's choice of Gajendra Chauhan, saying he has not had any association with the premier institute in the past, nor could be placed in the same league as some of his predecessors.


Chauhan, who has been associated with the BJP for over 20 years but became an official member in 2004, had campaigned extensively for the party in Haryana during the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections last year.


"The FTII once produced gems of actors and directors who have been gifts to the Indian film industry. It is sad that appointments now are only about extending political largesse," said producer Mukesh Bhatt, who is also the president of the Film and TV Producers Guild of India.


The institute - which counts among its alumni Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Prakash Jha, the late Smita Patil, Shabana Azmi and Rajkumar Hirani - has of late not been attracting quality faculty.


There have also been allegations of increased bureaucratic meddling, according to more than one filmmaker. An official statement said the government had reconstituted the FTII Society for a three-year period. Actress Vidya Balan, filmmakers Hirani and Jahnu Barua and cinematographer Santosh Sivan were among those nominated as new members of the reconstituted council.


While the ministry has declared the FTII "an institution of national importance", the autonomous body did not have a president for more than a year since Saeed Akhtar Mirza's term ended in March 2014.

Forty-two years after the crime against Aruna Shanbaug, a new crime against the Constitution is in the making. Her assailant is being condemned to death by starvation. Public institutions and a complicit society are punishing him again. The Supreme Court must step in suo motu. Read more

A woman and her two-year-old son sleeping on the BRTS corridor, were killed and four others injured when a car ran over them in Shivranjani area in Ahmedabad, police said today.


The deceased were identified as Gunjan Chunara (30) and her toddler son Kishan. The accused driver-- Kamlesh Tirgad-- has been arrested in connection with the incident that took place last night, police said.


"The mother-son duo was killed when a Swift DZire car driven by Tirgad ran over them when they were asleep on the Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) corridor at Shivranjani cross road area in the city," Satellite police station officer Yakub Khan said.

One epic awkward moment coming up as Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal meets Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung this afternoon.


The meeting will take place at the LG's residence, Raj Niwas, and has been described as routine.


Yesterday, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia met the LG, but the Chief Minister will join him today.


On the agenda is the handing over of the resignation of Jitendra Singh Tomar as law minister.


Tomar resigned late last night after he was arrested for allegedly forging degrees and sent to police custody. Tomar has maintained that his degrees are genuine.

With the search for the missing Coast Guard Dornier aircraft with three crew members making no headway, more ships will join the operation and a review of the situation is on, a top official said today.


"We have got no input so far about the missing aircraft" which went off the radar on Monday night, Inspector General S P Sharma, Commander, Coast Guard (East), said.

"There are no concrete signals (from the Dornier plane) from the coastal areas," he said. Asked if the search operation will be stepped up, Sharma said, "More ships will join the search effort and we are now reviewing the situation." The search continues without any break to locate the plane, he said. Eight ships -- four each belonging to CG and Navy -- are already involved in the search operation.


A long-range maritime surveillance aircraft P81 and helicopters have also been involved in the exercise. The aircraft CG-791, which was inducted last year, went off the radar at 9.23 PM on Monday during a routine surveillance mission.

The least the leaders who met Modi could have done was to highlight the plight of Muslim riot victims, but they chose to ignore it, so privileged they must have felt to be in the prime minister's presence, says Syed Firdaus Ashraf. Read

Questioning the government's move to organise mass yoga programmes, Congress leader Digvijaya Singh today alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is running out of ideas and camouflaging his failures by "nautanki" (drama).


"Don't understand the logic of mass yoga events by GOI? Modi running out of ideas and camouflaging his failures by such nautanki," Singh said on twitter.


However, he said that while he recommended Yoga for good health, he failed to understand why it was being made a "religio-political" issue.


"Doing Yoga Dhyan Pranayam since 40 years. I strongly recommend for good health. Don't understand why it is being made religio-political issue?" the former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister said in another tweet.


The BJP-led NDA government has planned a mega event on Rajpath to mark the 'International Yoga Day' on June 21.


However, the move has run into a controversy as some minority groups including the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AMPLB) have opposed compulsory yoga classes in schools, following which the government had to clarify yesterday that participation in June 21 events to mark International Yoga Day was not "compulsory".

Cyclonic storm Ashobaa will be moving north-north-westwards and intensify further into a severe cyclonic storm by tonight. Rainfall is expected over coastal Karnataka, Konkan and Goa as well as south Gujarat.

Strong winds speed reaching 70 to 120 kilometres per hour would prevail along and off Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra coasts. According to the MeT Department, sea condition would be very rough to high along and off Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra coasts.

A woman and her two-year-old son sleeping on the BRTS corridor, were killed and four others injured when a car ran over them in Shivranjani area in Ahmedabad, police said today.

The deceased were identified as Gunjan Chunara, 30, and her toddler son Kishan. The accused driver-- Kamlesh Tirgad-- has been arrested in connection with the incident that took place last night, police said.

"The mother-son duo was killed when a Swift DZire car driven by Tirgad ran over them when they were asleep on the Bus Rapid Transit System corridor at Shivranjani cross road area in the city," Satellite police station officer Yakub Khan said. Four others were injured in the accident and were taken to a nearby government hospital.

The Aam Aadmi Party gets into a huddle over the arrest of Jitendra Singh Tomar, its former law minister, over a fake degree. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Deputy Manish Sisodia will meet at 11 am to discuss the ongoing crisis.     

Thousands of people across Assam have been affected after incessant rains over the last week caused several rivers, including the Brahmaputra, to overflow.

The overflowing rivers have breached embankments, inundated villages and damaged standing crop, affecting over 80,000 people, according to a report by the state disaster management body.

The districts of Lakhimpur and Dhemaji in eastern Assam, where nearly 45,000 people were affected by the overflowing rivers, were the worst hit, The Indian Express reports. 

Former Delhi law minister Jitender Singh Tomar insisted that he has not fake his degrees. "My degrees are genuine. The Centre is conspiring against me," he said.

Tomar stepped down from his post last evening after he was arrested by the Delhi police over the alleged fake degrees. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will meet Lt Governor Najeeb Jung this afternoon and is likely to hand over law minister Jitender Singh Tomar's resignation.

Tomar is now being taken by train to Faizabad for questioning.

Photograph: ANI/Twitter

Former Delhi law minister Jitender Singh Tomar is being taken to Faizabad in Uttar Pradesh to further probe whether he faked his degree. He is being taken by train to Faizabad, about 700 km away from Delhi.

Police are expected to validate a BSc degree that Tomar claims he got from the Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Avadh University, NDTV reports.

The minister quit last night after his arrest earlier in the day over a fake degree.

Tomar has been under scrutiny for submitting an allegedly fake law degree from the Bishwanath Singh Institute of Legal Studies in Bihar's Munger. Police are also expected to take him to the college to validate the LLB degree, the report says. 

In an innovative way to eradicate practice of open defecation, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation has announced 'use and get paid' scheme under which people will be paid Re 1 for using public toilets.

The civic body has turned around its 'pay and use' public toilets scheme to 'use and get paid' in its bid to keep the city clean and curb menace of open defecation. The novel approach was cleared by the standing committee of the AMC recently.


The novel approach was cleared by Standing Committee of the AMC recently.

White House reporters were evacuated from the media briefing room in the middle of press conference by the presidential spokesperson Josh Earnest, after law enforcement agencies received a bomb threat call.

The reporters who were escorted to the nearby Eisenhower Executive Building yesterday by Secret Service were allowed to re-enter the White House and the press briefing room about half an hour later, after it was found safe.

United States President Barack Obama remained inside his Oval Office and the First Lady Michelle and the family inside the White House while the Secret Service did their security sweep. The Secret Service spokesman Brian Leary attributed the evacuation to a "telephonic bomb threat concerning the White House briefing room" that was called in to the metropolitan police department of Washington.

Former Delhi law minister Jitender Singh Tomar, who was arrested yesterday on charges of fabricating documents and submitting fake degree while filing nomination for the Delhi assembly polls held in February this year, has been taken to Faizabad in Uttar Pradesh for questioning. He has reached Lucknow.

49-year-old Tomar was remanded to four-day police custody by a city court hours after he was arrested for allegedly forging his science graduation, law mark sheets and a migration certificate. Last evening, he quit as minister and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal accepted his resignation.

Tomar was a MLA from Trinagar and a first-time minister.

President Barack Obama said Monday his top national security advisers were still working to solidify training plans for Iraqi defense forces battling ISIS in their own country.

Rebels in Syria say they have captured a major army base in the south of the country.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had given the go ahead to the Indian Army for "hot pursuit" of militants into Myanmar in which two militant camps were completely annihilated, Union Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore disclosed today. 

Delhi Law Minister Tomar quits, resignation accepted
Modi and his 'Sarkari Mussalmaans'
Army strikes back, guns down 20 militants behind Manipur ambush
Opposition criticises Khadse's claim that Namaz is Yoga
Participation in Yoga Day celebrations voluntary: Swaraj
Cash-for-vote: TDP MLA home raided, flurry of cases against KCR
'Tomar's law degree is indeed fake, Smriti's case is different'
Why did Lalu Yadav surrender to Nitish Kumar?

Fifteen people were killed when Boko Haram attacked a remote village in northeast Nigeria, opening fire and burning homes to the ground, three residents said today. 

Fifteen people were killed when Boko Haram attacked a remote village in northeast Nigeria, opening fire and burning homes to the ground, three residents said today.