The world football governing body took the action 12 hours after seven of its members were arrested ahead of the presidential election.

n view of the events of Wednesday 27 May 2015, FIFA President Blatter has released a statement:

Some 20,000 residents in the western German city of Cologne are being forced to evacuate their homes after authorities discovered a 200-kilogram bomb from World War II. Schools and kindergartens remained closed and dozens of ambulances were on the scene to evacuate residents of a nursing home.

BJP today distanced itself from Union minister Kiren Rijiju's reported comment on beef eating, saying the issue involves "great religious sentiments" and should not be dragged into the political domain.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today called for legal action against NGOs allegedly involved in duping Kashmiri students enrolled in various colleges under the PM's Special Scholarship Scheme.

Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com reports that contrary to other media reports, it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi who had called former PM Manmohan Singh, which the latter agreed to and the two met today. 

The Rajasthan government today expressed its inability to accord five per cent quota to Gujjars in jobs, suggesting that any such move will have adverse consequences on social harmony in the state even as the agitators continued with their protest.

The Twitter account of charity Falah-e-Insanyat Foundation, which is linked to Jamaat ud-Dawa, spearheaded by 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed, was suspended by the social network. While no official comments were available from either side, hashtag#bringbackFIF began circulating, with JuD supporters, FIF sympathisers posting images and stories highlighting the organisation's relief work.

A brother of a mobile tower owner is critically injured and has been rushed to SMHS Hospital in Srinagar after an unidentified man opened fire in the Pattan region of Kashmir. 

The stifling summer and heat has claimed 1,020 lives alone in Andhra Pradesh. The severe heat wave has "claimed 1,020 lives," said officials of the State Disaster Management, adding that the toll for Prakasam district isthe highest -- 202. The toll since May 18 are: Guntur -- 168, followed by Visakhapatnam -- 123, Vizianagaram -- 102 and Nellore --89.

The State Department plans to release tens of thousands of e-mails by White House hopeful Hillary Clinton from her time as America's top diplomat in batches every 60 days starting from June 30. In a court filing late yesterday, the hub of US diplomacy proposed a rolling schedule to release some 30,000 emails written and received by Clinton during her four years as secretary of state. The correspondence has triggered a political row after Clinton revealed that in a departure from normal practice she had used a private server and email address during her tenure.

Dr Singh's meeting with the PM is believed to be a courtesy call on one year of the Modi government.

CM Arvind Kejriwal at the Delhi Assembly: We are answerable to the people, hence we must have the right to appoint our officials. Kaha jata hai ki jis din khabar uththi hai ki Kejriwal ke khilaaf LG ne yeh kiya, uss din LG ki kursi aur pakki ho jaati hai. LG sahab ne ek din mujhe yeh nahi poocha ki 'Arvind Dilli mai bijli ka kya haal hai'? Transfer/posting main bada interest hai. Centre wants to appoint everyone from clerk to chief secretary." 

And another picture of Dr Manmohan Singh and Narendra Modi at 7RCR a short while ago.

On a day when former PM Dr Manmohan Singh blasted the Narendra Modi government saying the institution of democracy was under threat, the PM has just tweeted a picture of the two together. Modi tweeted this picture saying, "Very happy to meet Dr. Manmohan Singh ji & welcome him back to 7RCR. We had a great meeting."


Just this morning, the former PM responded to former TRAI chairmans allegations that Singh had warned him of harm if he did not cooperate on 2G telecom licences issue. Dr Singh asserted that he had never used public office to enrich himself, his family or friends.


As far as I am concerned, I can say in all humility that I have not used my public office to enrich myself, to enrich my family or to enrich my friends.


And still the BJP government keeps on harping on this theme of corruption just because it wants to distract the attention of the people to non-issues, he said in an uncharacteristic hard-hitting speech at a convention organised by Congresss student wing National Students' Union of India.

RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav announced today that his party and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar's JD-U would contest the next Bihar assembly polls together to defeat the BJP and denied reports of differences between the two parties.

"There is no confusion. A section of the media with vested interests have been trying to jeopardise the merger. We are committed towards an alliance between the RJD and the JD-U to defeat the BJP in the next state assembly polls," Lalu said today.


Lalu made it clear that the most important item on the agenda was to prevent the BJP from making inroads in Bihar by strengthening the secular forces ahead of the Bihar's polls.


Lalu also announced that he was not in the race for the chief minister's post after the polls."I am not a chief ministerial candidate nor is anyone from my family. If I cannot contest polls, how can I be a candidate?"

-- MI Khan, Patna/Rediff.com

The Delhi Assembly today witnessed unruly scenes as an AAP legislator today tore a copy of the Centre's notification giving absolute powers to the Lt Governor in appointments of bureaucrats as well as matters relating to police and public order.


Participating in a discussion on the notification, Mahendra Goyal lambasted the Centre for "trying to take away" legitimate powers of the Delhi government and tore the copy of the notification issued by the Home Ministry on May 21.


The AAP government yesterday moved a resolution in the Assembly against the notification terming it "unconstitutional".


A number of AAP MLAs spoke during the debate on the resolution and attacked the Centre for issuing the notification.


Moving the resolution, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had yesterday called the notification an "insult" to the "most popular mandate" of the people of Delhi. In the notification, the Centre gave absolute powers to the LG in appointment of bureaucrats while also clarifying that he need not "consult" the chief minister on subjects like police and public order.


The ACB of the Delhi government has also been barred from registering any case against officers and political functionaries of the central government.


However, the Delhi High Court yesterday ruled that the ACB has the authority to probe central government officials, including Delhi Police personnel.

Kuch mitha ho jaye? Monika More and her family celebrate her success in the HSC exams. Monika, 18, lost her arms in a train accident last year, but the gutsy girl who has now been fitted with prosthetic limbs, used a writer to give her exams. She scored 63 per cent in the Maharashtra HSC Class 12 board examination.  Pic: Sahil Salvi.

Eight persons, including three women, were injured when suspected Garo National Liberation Army militants today triggered a low-intensity IED blast at a busy market place in Tura town of Meghalaya's West Garo Hills district, police said.


The blast took place at around 10:55 am just outside the 'Mahabir Trade Agency', a shop at Tura bazaar, they said. Western Range Inspector-General of Police F D Sangma said, "Militants are behind the blast in which eight persons were injured, all of whom were admitted to the Civil Hospital. The area has been cordoned off." Low-intensity blast was probably aimed at creating fear among traders in the district who had been served with an extortion demand from the militants, said a police officer, who wished not to be identified. The IG, however, did not rule out involvement of the GNLA in the blast. 

National Security Adviser Ajit Doval met China State Councilor Yang Jiechi in Moscow. Jiechi said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent official visit to China scored a great success. 

The Home ministry will move the Supreme court against the Delhi High Court's order that the Delhi government's Anti Corruption Branch has jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute Delhi Police officials.


The MHA said that the high court cannot pass an order without hearing it.


The Delhi High Court had on Monday termed as "suspect" the Centre's recent notification barring Delhi government's Anti Corruption Branch from acting against its officers in criminal offenses and held that the Lt Governor cannot act on his discretion.


Arvind Kejriwal's victory whoop may have been a little premature.

A Prime Minister's responsibility is not limited to his personal integrity but extends to uprooting corruption from the entire system, BJP president Amit Shah said today as he attacked former PM Manmohan Singh over a string of scams that took place under his watch.


"I firmly believe that a Prime Minister's responsibility is not just limited to not indulging in corruption, but it is also his responsibility to stop others as well so as to uproot corruption from the entire system," Shah said in Surat today.


"Under Manmohan's leadership scams worth Rs 12 lakh crore were committed. How can Congress shrug off its responsibility for this," Shah said.


The BJP chief was responding to a scathing attack by Singh earlier in the day during which he said the Narendra Modi government was "harping" on corruption to divert people's attention to non-issues and asserted that he never used public office to "enrich" himself, family or friends.

Separatist JKLF chairman Yasin Malik today accused the state government of not giving any space to his organisation for "political" activities and gave a call for 'jail bharo' agitation from Friday to protest the "curbs".


 "The government is not giving us any space (for political activities). We wanted to reach the villages of the Valley... But we were detained. There is no political space here," Malik said.


The JKLF leader said Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed wants to pass the six years of his term by keeping the separatists under house arrest and by not allowing any political space.

Smriti Irani's retort to Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. "I am of the opinion that Mrs Vadra hasn't done her homework. There is an off campus of IIIT Allahabad in Amethi. It is astounding that while the Gandhi family has ruled that bastion for 60 years they have done nothing. Rahul won from Amethi, isn't he capable of doing anything for his constituency? A winning candidate is asking a losing candidate to develop his constituency. "


Priyanka Gandhi Vadra who was in her mother, Congress president Sonia Gandhi's constituency in Rae Bareli today, hit out at HRD minister Smriti Irani. Speaking to villagers in Sareni in Rae Bareli, Priyanka said, "HRD Minister Smriti Irani is answerable as to why there is still no IIT in Amethi."


The Congress has alleged that the Narendra Modi government is now planning to shift the IIIT campus and Science and Technology Discovery Park out of Rahul Gandhi's Lok Sabha constituency.


Established in 2005 as an extension campus of the Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT)-Allahabad, the Amethi campus was named as Rajiv Gandhi IIIT while the Discovery Park, is considered as Rahul Gandhi's pet project.

Pakistan is a "haven" for several Islamist terror groups and successive Pakistani governments are widely believed to have supported some outfits as proxies in the country's conflicts with its neighbours including India, a US Congressional research report has said.

Vikas Swarup @MEAIndia First ever Presidential @RashtrapatiBhvn visit from India to Sweden will take place from May 31- June 2 for consolidation of bilateral ties.

Sally Ride -- physicist, first American woman in space -- turned 64 yesterday. Ride's accomplishments were extraordinary. But as Ann Friedman pointed out in her excellent profile of the astronaut, being first also had its burdens. Including, for instance, the need to disabuse NASA's male scientists of their spectacularly wrong expectations with regard to tampons. Read

Alright then!  WTF is now officially in the Merriam Webster, which has updated its dictionary to include words such as clickbait and emoji.


WTF, in case, you've been tucked away under a rock, stands for "What The F**k" and is "used especially to express or describe outraged surprise, recklessness, confusion, or bemusement," says the dictionary.


WTF is now joined by emoji, net neutrality, clickbait, click fraud, photobomb and other words.


Merriam-Webster's unabridged dictionary has included some 1,700 words along with 3,200 new examples to add context.

Another must-read on Monika More, if you are unfamiliar with her story. Read our 2014 story: 'She is a himmatwali'

In a bid to showcase the dangers the ISIS represents, Iran launched an anti-Isis cartoon competition, inviting submissions from around the world.


The cartoonists were told to focus and mock the militant group and the atrocities it has committed. The winner be announced on May 31.


At least 280 works had been selected from 800 submissions, and entries came from over 40 countries. Foreign cartoonists attending the contest were travelling under pseudonyms due to security concerns.


The Tehran government had recently held a competition on the theme of Holocaust denial following the depiction of the Prophet Mohamed in the French magazine Charlie Hebdo earlier this year.

Delhi High Court allows Greenpeace interim relief to access and operate two domestic accounts. It can access fresh domestic contributions.

Extra-constitutional authorities were "really wielding" power in the UPA government: PM Modi to PTI. 

Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter has claimed that India had asked it to delete the reference made by President Pranab Mukherjee to the Bofors scam in an interview to it, pointing out that the controversy generated by the comment could affect the state visit later this week.


Mukherjee who leaves for Sweden on May 31, 2015, in an interview to Peter Wolodarski, editor-in-chief of Dagens Nyheter had said that no Indian court has yet given its verdict on the Bofors issues and therefore, it could not be called a scandal.


Following the controversy that has erupted over the President's remarks, India's Ambassador to Sweden and Latvia Banashri Bose Harrison has written a letter to the newspaper to register New Delhi's "disappointment' over the issue. Read more

PM Modi on Rahul Gandhi's jibe 'suit-boot ki sarkar'; Congress has not been able to digest its crushing defeat in Lok Sabha polls even after a year.

Monika More who lost both arms in a rail accident last year secures 63% in the HSC exams.

The Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education, Pune announced the HSC results for the Class 12 board examinations today.

Monika, a commerce student, appeared for her papers with assistance from a writer. Her parents said she was slowly getting used to the myoelectric arms and can write with it too but can't write a complete paper with it in the stipulated time. They accompanied her to the exam centre at Saraswati Vidyamandir, Ghatkopar, every day.


On January 11 last year, Monika, then 17 years old, was trying to board a local train from Ghatkopar when she fell into the gap between the platform and the train. She lost both her arms after coming under the moving train.


On May 22, 2014, Monika began using her German Ottobock prosthetic arms and has never looked back.  Salute!

Also read: And Monika More begins her new journey...

MoS Home, Kiren Rijiju's statement that he was misquoted over the beef ban. "When civil societies and press asked me if they have to go to Pakistan due to beef consumption, I said, "India is a secular country and food habits cannot be stopped but the Hindu faiths and sentiments must be respected in Hindu majority states in the same way as the other communities have rights in their own dominant states."

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra who was in her mother, Congress president Sonia Gandhi's constituency in Rae Bareli today, hits out at HRD minister Smriti Irani. Speaking to villagers in Sareni in Rae Bareli, Priyanka said, "HRD Minister Smriti Irani is answerable as to why there is still no IIT in Amethi."


During the Lok Sabha polls, Priyanka had feigned ignorance about who Smriti Irani was. Smriti was the BJP's Lok Sabha candidate from Amethi against Rahul Gandhi. "Who?" was Priyanka's cutting response to questions about Smriti Irani,

Irani, was equally scathing in her response. "I am not surprised. If u forget scams done by a family member why wud u remember my name:) (sic)," the actor-turned-politician had tweeted referring to allegations of corruption that are swarming around Priyanka's husband, entrepreneur Robert Vadra.

The Congress has alleged that the Narendra Modi government is now planning to shift the IIIT campus and Science and Technology Discovery Park out of Rahul Gandhi's Lok Sabha constituency.


Established in 2005 as an extension campus of the Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT)-Allahabad, the Amethi campus was named as Rajiv Gandhi IIIT while the Discovery Park, is considered as Rahul Gandhi's pet project.


The Congress has also alleged that the NDA government has made up its mind to close the extension campus and was only doing an eye-wash exercise.

Could the new Silk Road end old geopolitical tensions? Read

Just in: Priyanka Gandhi meets and interacts with villagers in Sareni, Rae Bareli (UP)

Delhi HC permits Greenpeace India to use its two accounts to receive fresh domestic donations.

Did MoS Home, Kiren Rijiju, get a rap on the knuckles for his beef remark? Rijiju says he was misquoted.


Rijiju reacted to the remarks of Minister of State for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi who said those who eat beef should go to Pakistan.


Rijiju was quoted by The Indian Express as telling the media that Naqvi's comments were "not palatable'.


Addressing a presser in Aizawl, Rijiju said, ""I eat beef, I'm from Arunachal Pradesh, can somebody stop me? So let us not be touchy about somebody's practices.' "This is a democratic country. Sometimes, some statements are made which are not palatable,' he added.

Closed markets and empty roads greeted Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh who came to Jammu to address a rally as part of the ongoing 'Jan Kalyan Parv', as the city is observing a day-long bandh to protest against the shifting of proposed AIIMS from Jammu to Kashmir.

This is what the union minister said:


-- We are ready to talk to everyone. Democracy is all about communication but we won't tolerate anybody raising pro-Pak
slogans on Indian territory.


-- If Pakistan wants its own welfare, then it must stop meddling in other countries' affairs. It must put an end to its nefarious designs.


-- Cong govt was victim of policy paralysis. Our government brought transparency in policy making. Cong govt took years to decide on defence deals whereas in the last one year Narendra Modi govt has cleared 40 defence proposals.

Congress spokesperson Digvijaya Singh tweets his tribute on Pt Nehru's 51st death anniversary. "We pay homage to the builder of Modern India Pt. Jawaharlal Lal Nehru. Nehruvian Thought and Ideology is still relevant to India's progress."


Pic: Indira Gandhi sits by the body of Pt Nehru

Sopore attack: Kin of dead BSNL employee seek answers. Read

And the selfie with fishermen. Mr Modi take a bow. 

A strident Rahul Gandhi addressed a fishermen's gathering at a village in Kerala's Thrissur district today.


The Congress Vice President is also expected to meet rubber plantation families in Aluva in Cochin this afternoon. Here's a gist of what he said:


-- It's a pleasure for me to come here and meet my brothers and sisters. I would like to thank the Congress party and particularly our MLA for organising this function.-- I think I'm going to come back because I was given a very, very good fish lunch today. The fish caught by the fishermen tastes better than fish caught by trawlers.


-- Land is becoming very valuable and it is owned by farmers, they have spent last 50-60 yrs working on it.Central government wants to take their land away. So we are fighting them.


-- The kisan (farmer) is asking me why is the NDA government intent on destroying us. Why are they not giving us the correct Minimum Support Price? Why are they not giving us compensation when rain and hail destroys our crops?


Office of RG tweeted this picture of Rahul, saying, "A delicious meal of Kappa with Meen Curry with the family of Kizhakkuttu Karunakaran and Thankamani in Thrissur!

Just a week after she moved into an apartment in Mumbai, Misbah Qadri, a communications professional, was asked out. "I was told that they do not give flats to Muslim people," she says.

The 25-year-old had found a three-bedroom apartment at Sanghvi Heights in Wadala after a long, difficult search. She teamed up with two working women, both Hindus; they contacted her on Facebook. Read more

Former PM Dr Manmohan Singh lashed out at the Narendra Modi government today, a day after former TRAI Chairman Pradip Baijal said in his book that Dr Singh had warned him of harm if he did not cooperate on 2G telecom licenses.


Addressing the youth wing of the Congress, Dr Singh said today, (and this is something he has repeated every time the 2G scam has come up): "I can say in all humility that Ive not used my public office to enrich myself, enrich my family, or to enrich my friends. Still the BJP govt keeps on harping on the theme of corruption just because it wants to detract the attention of people to non-issues.


"We will continue to fight corruption. BJP harps on corruption to divert attention to non-issues. We fought corruption and we will continue to do so.


On the economy, Dr Singh said, "All is not well with the economy under the Modi government. Investment is not going up. Exports are declining and farmers are in distress."


"Talk of policy paralysis is untrue, when our govt left, India was the second fastest growing economy," Singh said and added that there was a 'fragileness' in the economic recovery under the present govt.


"Many of our programs are now being repackaged and marketed as initiatives of the Modi govt. What BJP had opposed when we were in power, are now being sold as its contribution. But this doesnt surprise us, this is the compliment BJP could pay to the constructive work done by the UPA Govt," the former PM said in his stinging attack.


"We had launched many new programs. New schemes, we had put in place many new policies. This had led to profound social transformation and unprecedented economic growth as well," he said. He added that the institution of democracy is under threat and the past is being rewritten to present a communal view of history.

Dr Singh is named an accused in the 2G spectrum allocation scam case.

This is the second time in the last one month that Dr Singh has attacked the government. In April, he was among the top Congress leadership when it held a rally against the government's Land Acquisition Bill.

A man cut off his wife's nose and hair after a quarrel. Details awaited. 

An Aligarh Muslim University professor's alleged comments on madrassas that they are "dens of vice and homosexuality" has triggered a storm of protest in the campus.


The Times of India reports that professor, Waseem Raja of the university's history department, has been accused of saying in a WhatsApp message that he sent to a TV channel that "maulanas are involved in such activities" and that the fortunes of Muslim youth will only change for the better if madrassas in the country are banned.  Read more

Swiss police have arrested a number of executives from football world governing body Fifa over US corruption charges, officials have told the BBC. Police conducted the operation at a hotel in Zurich early on Wednesday.The charges are said to include money laundering, racketeering and wire fraud over the last 20 years.

In the blazing heat of Delhi, AAP supporters continue their protests against the Modi government, which turned one yesterday. It's a searing 44C in the capital today with humidity at 38 per cent at 8.30 am. 

At least five persons were injured and around 15 houses gutted after a clash erupted between two communities over construction of a religious structure in Atali village in Faridabad, following which the district administration has beefed up security.


The trouble began yesterday when the roof of the religious structure was being laid, he said.


A group of people from the other community started pelting stones and turned violent with equal retaliation from the other side, he said.


The group poured kerosene on the houses of those belonging to the community and set them on fire. The people fled from their houses, he said.


Section 144 was imposed in the village, he said, adding, twenty people have been booked under various sections of the IPC and Arms Act.


The police are on a strict vigil to avoid any untoward situation, the inspector said. The SHO of Police Station Chainsa has been suspended for not handling the situation well.


Police force from six nearby districts was called to control the situation, an official said, adding that flag march was also conducted by the police.

A top UN official has lauded India's first response and reconstruction assistance to Nepal following a devastating earthquake in April that killed nearly 9,000 people, saying the help has been welcomed by Kathmandu.

"India and China are very very present in the reconstruction effort. We have seen the Indian armed forces providing the first response," UN Development Programme Assistant Administrator and Director of the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support Magdy Martnez-Solimn told reporters during a briefing about his mission to areas of devastation in Nepal and "daunting challenges."

He said the Nepali airport was "literally occupied" by the Indian military aircraft and helicopters that provided support to the Nepalese armed forces after the April 25 temblor. India's help has "been very welcome" by Nepal, he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday paid tributes to Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru on his death anniversary. "Tributes to Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru on his Punya Tithi. We remember his contribution as a freedom fighter and as our first Prime Minister," the Prime Minister said. Nehru was born on November 14, 1889 in Allahabad and died on May 27, 1964. 

Office of RG tweets: Rahul Gandhi arriving at Chavakkad fishermen colony. #RGVisitsKerala. This is the second day of Rahul's Kerala visit.  As part of his ongoing public outreach, Rahul will take up the problems of fishing communities and rubber growers in Kerala today.


Rahul addressed a Pradesh Youth Congress rally in Kozhikode where he spoke (no surprises) about the suit-boot sarkar.

Extending its losing streak for the third session in a row, the benchmark Sensex fell by over 161 points and Nifty slipped below the 8,300 mark in early trade today on continued selling by participants on disappointing company earnings coupled with weak global cues.


Besides, caution ahead of tomorrow's May expiry in the derivatives segment and the rupee breaching the 64 mark against the dollar weighed on sentiment. The 30-share index was trading down by 161.58 points, or 0.59 per cent, at 27,369.83 with all the sectoral indices led by auto and IT trading in the negative terrain with losses up to 1.94 per cent.

The Aam Aadmi Party leaders are holding a protest against the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance government at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi.

The protest is being held a day after the Modi government completed its one year in office.

The AAP government is today expected to pass a resolution in the Delhi assembly against the home affairs ministry's notification granting more powers to the Lt Governor Najeeb Jung.


Today is the second day of Delhi legislative assembly's emergency session called by the AAP government to discuss the Centre's notification on LG's powers.

Situation in South China Sea is critical to the national security interest of the United States, the White House has said.   

"The (US) president has often talked about how criticallyimportant the security situation is in the South China Sea.It's critical to the national security of the United States,"White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters at his daily news conference.   

"It's also critical to the global economy that the free flow of commerce in the South China Sea is something that needs to be maintained," he said, adding that the US is committed to working with other countries in the region to protect it.  

"Because it is a priority you can expect that the president has been briefed on the latest in this situation and will continue to be," Earnest said in response to a question.   

A State department official said the US is "carefully"monitoring China's military developments. 

"We continue to urge China to exhibit greater transparency with respect to its capabilities and to its intentions," state department spokesperson Jeff Rathke said.   

"So in conjunction with that, we encourage China to use its military capabilities in a manner that is conducive to maintaining peace and stability in the Asia Pacific region," he said in response to a question.

Days after Minister of State for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said that those who eat beef should go to Pakistan, Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju said his colleague's statements were "unpalatable', The Indian Express reports.

I eat beef, Im from Arunachal Pradesh, can somebody stop me? So let us not be touchy about somebodys practices, Rijiju said during a visit to Aizawl on yesterday.

This is a democratic country. Sometimes, some statements are made which are not palatable. 

Image: Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju with PM Narendra Modi

Read the complete report here

BBC reports: Four gunmen have been killed after trying to storm a guesthouse in a diplomatic area of Kabul, police say.

The attack resulted in a gun fight lasting several hours in the Wazir Akbar Khan district, home to several embassies and official buildings.The Taliban said it had carried out the attack.

Read the complete story here

The heat has killed more than 1,100 people in India in less than one week.

The worst-hit is Andhra Pradesh, where authorities say 852 people have died in the heat wave. Another 266 have died in the neighbouring state of Telangana.

India recorded its highest maximum temperature of 47 degrees Celsius at Angul in the state of Odisha on Monday, B P Yadav, director of the India Meteorological Department told CNN.

There is still no official word on casualties.

The battle has been raging for over two hours now, according to various sources.  Some unconfirmed reports say two attackers have been shot dead. 

The name of the guest house is believed to be Heetal Hotel.  On December 15, 2009, the same hotel was targetted by a suicide bomber, and the explosion had killed 8 and  wounded over 40.

Two weeks ago, 14 people were killed as they waited to attend a concert in a guesthouse in Kabul.The Taliban had claimed responsibility for that attack.

The Independent says: It is thought the battle centred around a guesthouse owned by the country's foreign minister, Salahuddin Rabbani, although police did not identify it.

Heavily armed insurgents stormed a guesthouse in the diplomatic quarter of Kabul late on Tuesday night and were battling Afghan security forces an hour after the assault began.

Residents and officials faced an unprecedented wall of water during flash floods that crushed homes and swept away families over the weekend in Central Texas.

A breakthrough was awaited for resolving the Gujjar reservation issue as the second round of talks tonight between a delegation of the agitating leaders and a panel of three Rajasthan ministers failed to arrive at a conclusion. The talks between the 13-member Gujjar delegation and the ministerial committee took place at the Secretariat here and lasted for nearly four hours.

 Refuting allegations of her favouring power companies and tricking the government, Principal Secretary Shakuntala Gamlin has written to Delhi Lt Governor Najeeb Jung clarifying her stand over the charges levelled against her by the AAP government.

Libya's internationally-recognised Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni has said he survived an assassination attempt after leaving a parliamentary session today in the eastern city of Tobruk, Reuters reports.

At least five persons were injured and around 15 houses gutted after a clash erupted between two communities over construction of a religious structure in Atali village, following which the district administration has beefed up security.

A 9-week-old rabbit was killed during a live radio show in Denmark to highlight the "vast hypocrisy" of people when it comes to animal welfare, Radio24syv said in a statement on their website.

 BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj, who has time and again courted controversy with his statements, today said a Ram temple will come up in Ayodhya and that the work to give it a "grand look" will be completed "by 2019, before Lok Sabha polls".

Iran's trial of Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian began in Tehran on Tuesday under a cloak of secrecy and international condemnation.

AAP moves resolution against absolute powers to LG
1 killed in militant attack on telecom franchisee in J-K
India's killer heat wave has now killed 852 people
Happy birthday, 'suit boot ki sarkar': Rahul
How Modi can make our diplomats more effective