The Enforcement Directorate ED will soon seek an Interpol arrest warrant against liquor baron Vijay Mallya based on a non-bailable warrant issued today by a Mumbai court in a money laundering case.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on met mother of a 23-year-old Russian woman who was attacked with acid in Varanasi in November last year and assured her of severe punishment to the guilty.

Pakistan Prime Minister's Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz today indicated that his country may consider a request by India for a visit by its NIA team to further probe the Pathankot terror strike, days after top Pakistani envoy ruled out the same. 

The Juvenile Justice Board on Monday reserved its order against the minor, who allegedly mowed down a 34-year-old with his Mercedes Benz, for tomorrow.

The Enforcement Directorate today sought dismissal of a plea by Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh's two children from Delhi High Court challenging the provisional attachment order of some of their assets in connection with a money laundering case.

Just in: Body of Kirpal Singh (who died in Pakistani jail) will be brought back to India tomorrow.

Family members of Kirpal Singh, who died in Pakistan's Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore last Monday, met Home Minister Rajnath Singh over the weekend and asked for the government's help in bringing back the Indian prisoner's body.

"As soon as possible, we should be given his body so that we can perform the last rites on him," said Jagir Kaur, sister of Kirpal Singh.

Fifty four-year-old Singh, who was serving a life term in Pakistan after being convicted in a 1992 bomb blast case in Faislabad, reportedly died of a heart attack on Monday.

But the family isn't convinced and draw a parallel with Sarabjit Singh, another Indian prisoner who was lodged in the same prison as Kirpal. In May 2013, Sarabjit died after being attacked by two Pakistani jail inmates.

"Once the body comes back, there should be a fresh post mortem examination here so that we can be satisfied," said Dalbir Kaur, Sarabjit Singh's sister who is helping Kirpal Singh's family with taking up Kirpal's case with the government in New Delhi.

The family has found support from the Congress party. "Given the past track record of Pakistan, the family's apprehension may well be true," said party spokesperson Manish Tewari at a Congress briefing.


Pic: Dalbir Kaur, Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh's sister, comforts Kirpal Singh's sister
 

North Koreans have been banned from having piercings and face new restrictions on 'Western clothing' including jeans.


Pyongyang is reportedly concerned that people living in those areas will be more exposed to the outside world and therefore more influence by Western fashion.

Three killed, 8 injured after explosion at an illegal firecracker unit in Srikakulam, Andhra Pradesh.

A mirage appears on Rajpath as the mercury touched 40 C in Delhi.

Pic: All India Radio.

Taxi aggregator Uber has temporarily suspended surge pricing in Delhi-NCR region, following wide criticism for the manifold increase in fares. On the fourth day of odd-even scheme run by Delhi government, passengers faced difficulties in booking cabs as the platform showed fares to be as high as 5 times than the normal fare. The US-based firm said it "regularly does surge pricing when demand outstrips supply".


"However, given the threat of the Delhi government to cancel permits and impound vehicles of our driver partners, we are temporarily suspending surge in Delhi with immediate effect. We hope to work with the government to keep Delhi moving, especially during this time when the citizens need us the most," Uber India General Manager North Gagan Bhatia said.

The Maharashtra government today made it mandatory to have a 'track and trace' mechanism, and hologram on liquor bottles to ensure the stuff inside is genuine.

In order to know if the liquor bottle is genuine or fake, all one will need is a barcode scan from mobile phone. The decision was taken at a meeting of the state cabinet here, chaired by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. To root out the menace of spurious liquor, the state Excise department proposed to make it mandatory for all liquor bottles to carry a hologram and barcode with embedded covert and overt features.

 This will enable a "track and trace mechanism", which will follow the journey of the beverage from the manufacturer to the final point of sale and also reveal its authenticity to consumers and officials, an official said. Retailers will have to stock special lenses so that consumers can read the covert security features on the hologram, invisible to the naked eye, and thus verify the brew's authenticity.

So, the impossible has happened. Former lovers Shahid Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor Khan shared a stage.  This is their first time together since their break up in 2007.


The duo were promoting their new film together Udta Punjab over the weekend in Mumbai.  While Kareena seemed awkward and held on to her pout the entire evening, Shahid took on an aggressive stance and picked on the media. The couple do not have any scenes together in the film, and when he was asked why, Shahid answered defiantly: 'What do you want to know? What should I say, how good it was not sharing the screen space together? Or how much fun it was not working together?"


So, did old sparks ignite? Read more

A 5.8 magnitude earthquake jolts southern Japan. Two powerful earthquakes hit the south-western island of Kyushu last week killing at least 42 people.

Nearly 250,000 people have been told to leave their homes amid fears of further quakes in Japan, an aid agency says.

Naoki Kokawa, advisor to the Japanese Red Cross Society, told the BBC that more medical teams were being dispatched to evacuation centres.

Japan's meteorological agency has also warned that more tremors are likely to hit in the coming days.

More than 1,000 people are injured and there has been widespread damage to buildings, houses, roads and bridges. About 30,000 rescue workers are looking for survivors. Police said 11 people are still missing, public broadcaster NHK reported.

FM Sushma Swaraj: I have told Chinese Foreign Minister that if we are to fight terrorism unitedly then China should review its position at the UN.

Surrounded by controversy over her selfies taken in drought-hit Latur, Maharashtra minister Pankaja Munde today skipped the state Cabinet meet, citing "heat stroke".


India Today reports that the Maharashtra Rural Development Minister has come under fire from ruling ally Shiv Sena and the opposition for clicking selfies during her visit to Marathwada. She took the selfies with the dried-up Manjara river as the backdrop while on a visit to the parched region to review desilting work on the river bed.


"Maharashtra is facing severe drought. Women and even kids are going far away from their home for getting water. And in such a serious situation, the ministers are clicking selfies," Shiv Sena spokesperson Manisha Kayande said.


"This could have been avoided. It lessens the impact of such tours. Entire Maharashtra is reeling under serious drought. There was no need of selfie. It is mainly women who are suffering carrying water and a woman takes selfies. It is strange," she added.

The BJP leader was also trolled on Twitter after her selfies went viral on social media.

Just in: Special PMLA Court issues non bailable warrant against Vijay Mallya.

Earlier today, the special Prevention of Money Laundering Act court rejected the application moved by Kingfisher Airlines terming as "false and incorrect" the Enforcement Directorate's charges against its owner Vijay Mallya that he had siphoned off Rs 430 crore of the IDBI loan and used this money to acquire property abroad.

Hundreds of refugees are feared to have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea after their boats capsized on the way to Europe, a Somali ambassador has said. More than 400 refugees are thought to have drowned, the Somali ambassador to Egypt told BBC Arabic. Reports say the refugees were fleeing to Italy from Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea in four boats which were ill-equipped for the journey.


Pic: This September 2015 picture shows migrants disembark a train at Frankfurt station. The train had left from Budapest's Keleti station.

The Delhi government will give "more" advertisements on the odd-even scheme, Transport Minister Gopal Rai said today, noting that all the money required for the road rationing programme will be spent as it is a matter of people's life.


Reacting to the BJP's charge that the AAP government is spending "huge" funds on odd-even advertisements, he said, "We are not doing it for ourselves, we are doing it for the people of Delhi. We will advertise it even more and spend all the money required for odd-even scheme because it is a matter of people's life in Delhi."


Rai, who met BJP MP Vijay Goel in the morning to request him to not to violate the scheme which he did later and paid a fine of Rs 2000, alleged that BJP was trying to "fail" Delhi and its people.


"Everyone, including the schoolchildren, are working for the success of the scheme while Goel chose to violate it which is very unfortunate. This thinking of BJP is not proper, they are trying to fail Delhi and its people," he said. The minister said that he urged Goel to desist from violating the odd-even rule as it will send a "wrong message" to others.

The special Prevention of Money Laundering Act court rejected the application moved by Kingfisher Airlines terming as "false and incorrect" the Enforcement Directorate's charges against its owner Vijay Mallya that he had siphoned off Rs 430 crore of the IDBI loanand used this money to acquire property abroad.

Two days after Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray demanded shutting down of water supply to breweries in drought-hit Aurangabad in Marathwada region, the party today said drinking beer instead of water is not our culture. 

Maharashtra's Rural Development and Water Conservation Minister Pankaja Munde responds to the criticism on social media after her selfie in drought-hit Latur district in Maharashtra state went viral. 


Munde has now explained that she posted selfies on her tour of parched Latur on the weekend in appreciation of the work done there by the local administration for drought relief. 

@Pankajamunde This pics are work done by govt n ppl participation it's my dept n I was working from day 1sence of satisfaction if it rains we are ready.

On Sunday, the minister visited the drought-hit Latur district to review desilting work being carried out by the government. At Sia village where desilting work is being carried out in the dry Manjara river bed, Munde decided to click a selfie with the river as the backdrop.

Twitterattis accused Munde of finding a photo opportunity in the drought-hit district.

Bharatiya Janata Party ally Shiv Sena did not miss a chance to attack Munde over her selfie. "It is unfortunate that a minister went and clicked selfies in drought-hit Latur," Shiv Sena leader Manisha Kayande said.

On a hot day in Agra, when the temperature hit 106f and the sun beat down mercilessly from a cloudless Indian sky, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge did the unthinkable. They chose to pose at the Taj Mahal on what has become known as 'Diana's bench' '" the spot where William's mother, the late Diana, Princess of Wales, famously and purposely set out to show the world that she felt abandoned and alone in a loveless marriage.

Read more

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday attacked the RSS by saying that its ideology is not good for the country or its people. He also urged all like-minded parties to unite against the BJP. Sangh (RSS) ka vichardhara sahi nahin hain, yeh desh hit mein nahin hain," Nitish Kumar told a press conference in Patna after holding his weekly janata durbar where he addressed grievances of people.

The Bihar CM has said in the past that the RSS was banned and later the ban was lifted and now the party was back to doing things it had been banned for in the past.

I am not against any individual. My opposition to the RSS is ideological, he said and reiterated that the need of the hour is a Sangh-mukt India.

Nitish Kumar said it is high time all non-BJP parties and all others opposed to the RSS unite across the country. Our main aim is to stop the BJP, he said on Saturday at a function where he blamed the BJP for sowing the seeds of social discord in society.

He said that he has never compromised with his ideology despite being part of the BJP-led NDA at the centre and had ruled Bihar for over seven years.


M I Khan in Patna/Rediff.com.

White House and intelligence officials are reviewing whether to declassify one of the country's most sensitive documents -- known as the "28 pages." They have to do with 9/11 and the possible existence of a Saudi support network for the hijackers while they were in the U.S. Read more

The witty Shirish Kunder's reposte to the government's statement that the Kohinoor diamond was not stolen, but gifted to the East India Company and the UK could therefore keep it.


@ShirishKunder  tweets: Also, they can keep it in a '56-inch treasure chest'.

NDTV's Sreenivasan Jain who has been covering the severe drought in Marathwada, tweets a question that begs an answer from the minister. @SreenivasanJain Rather than selfies, q. to ask  #PankajaMunde is why her home district of Beed operates maximum tankers in Marathwada - more than 600.

The Central government on Monday told the Supreme Court that the Kohinoor diamond was not stolen by the British but was in fact gifted by Maharaja Ranjit Singh.


The Centre's reply comes after the apex court had asked the government to clarify its stand on a PIL seeking return of Kohinoor diamond in the country. The reply is contradictory to the stand taken by the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS).


That stand, the Supreme Court has warned, could mean "You will face a problem in the future for making any legitimate claim" to the 105-carat diamond.


The apex court was hearing a PIL filed by All India Human Rights & Social Justice Front seeking directions to the High Commissioner of United Kingdom for return of the diamond besides several other treasures.
The PIL has made Ministry of External Affairs and Ministry of Culture, High Commissioners of UK, Pakistan and Bangladesh as parties in the case.

It has also sought return of the "ring and talwar of Tipu Sultan and other treasures of Tipu Sultan, Bahadur Shah Zafar, Rani of Jhansi, Nawab Mir Ahmad Ali Banda and other rulers of India.

The proposed bullet train between Mumbai and Ahmedabad will have to ferry 88,000-118,000 passengers per day, or undertake 100 trips daily, for the Railways to keep it financially viable, according to a report by Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A).


The report, titled, "Dedicated High Speed Railway (HSR) Networks in India: Issues in Development,' states that if the Railways set the ticket price at Rs 1500 for 300 km drive per person 15 years after the operation, it will have to ferry between 88,000 and 110,000 passengers every day to ensure that it repays the loans with interest on time.


Japan has offered a concessional loan of Rs 97,636 crore to fund about 80 per cent of the project cost with a repayment period of 50 years beginning from the 16th year of operation at an interest rate of 0.1 per cent. For the remaining 20 per cent loan, the authors assume 8 per cent average rate of interest (on Rs 20,000 crore to be funded by the Centre).


Japan has offered a 15-year moratorium on loan, so revenue concerns for the Indian Railways will arise from the 16th year, the authors state in the paper.

The desert state of Rajasthan is in the grip of a water crisis with 19 out of the 33 districts being famine affected, with the government sending water trains to parched Bhilwara and tankers to other areas facing acute shortage.

Nearly 17000 out of the total 44672 villages are facing water crisis and transportation of water through rail in Bhilwara and by tankers in other areas has already started by the state public health and engineering department.

Just In: India's foreign minister Sushma Swaraj raises the issue of China blocking India's bid at the UN to ban JeM chief Masood Azhar with her Chinese counterpart.

Swaraj arrived in Moscow today for the second leg of her two-nation visit, during which she will attend the annual foreign ministers' meeting of Russia, India and China (RIC).

"Namaste Moscow! EAM @SushmaSwaraj arrives in Russia to attend RIC Foreign Ministers Conference tomorrow," MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted.


She is also expected to have a bilateral meet with her Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Moscow.  On the sidelines of RIC, Swaraj met her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi during which she raised the issue of China blocking India's bid at the United Nations to ban Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar.

In Iran, she had a wide rage of engagements with several top Iranian leaders, including president Hassan Rouhani.

Earlier this month, China stopped UN sanctions committee from designating Azhar as terrorist, maintaining that the case "did not meet the requirements" of the Security Council. This is not the first time China has blocked India's bid to get Pakistan-based militant groups and leaders proscribed by the UN.

The UN had banned the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) in 2001 but India's efforts for slapping sanctions on Azhar after the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks also did not fructify as China, that has veto powers, did not allow it apparently at the behest of Pakistan.


Pic: Sushma Swaraj with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi

Playing down India's decision to sign a logistic agreement with the US, China's state media today said the proposed deal is "stalled" because of distrust between the two as India wants to be the "most beautiful woman" wooed by all, especially Washington and Beijing.


"Besides their traditional distrust, the speculation heralding a US-India alliance is also an obvious underestimation of India's ambition for a role of swing-state between superpowers," an article in the state-run Global Times said as Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar started his first visit to Beijing today for talks with Chinese officials.


"The basic idea is that India would like to continue to be the most beautiful woman wooed by all men, notably the two strongest in the house, US and China," the article titled 'Indo-US strategic distrust stalls LSA signing'.


"This is not an unfamiliar role to India. We can still recall how its diplomatic manoeuvring had earned itself a special role between the two competing blocs during the Cold War," it said.

Just in: Embattled Indian tycoon Vijay Mallya's UB Group has denied allegations that it used Rs 430 crore of bank loans to now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines to buy property overseas.  Kingfisher has now moved court saying the ED's contention is false.

Mallya, a liquor baron and lawmaker, has been at an unknown location since March 2 after Kingfisher's creditors stepped up pressure to recover the $1.4 billion they are owed.

The Enforcement Directorate made the money-laundering allegation against UB Group before a court, and has sought a non-bailable warrant against Mallya, a UB Group spokesman said in a statement late on Sunday.

"The audited accounts of Kingfisher Airlines including for the year ended (March 2010) show all foreign exchange transactions which includes funds borrowed from IDBI Bank used for legitimate business purposes only," the spokesman said, calling the basis of the warrant against Mallya "erroneous and unjustified".


State-run IDBI Bank is one of Kingfisher's more than a dozen creditor banks.

It started with a post on social media. Or, to be more exact, a series of posts about a visit to McDonald's to buy a milkshake. Within hours, Josh Raby's gripping account on Twitter was international news, covered by respected outlets on both sides of the Atlantic.

The push for traffic means that clicks rule -- even if the facts don't check out. Read

Maharashtra's Rural Development and Water Conservation Minister Pankaja Munde was trolled on Twitter after her selfie in drought-hit Latur district in Maharashtra state went viral on various social media platforms.

On Sunday, the minister visited the drought-hit Latur district to review desilting work being carried out by the government. At Sia village where desilting work is being carried out in completely dry Manjara river, Munde decided to click a selfie with the dry riverbed as the backdrop.

Twitterattis accused Munde of finding a photo opportunity in the drought-hit district.

Bharatiya Janata Party ally Shiv Sena did not miss a chance to attack Munde over her selfie. It is unfortunate that a minister went and clicked selfies in drought-hit Latur, Shiv Sena leader Manisha Kayande said.

Nationalist Congress Party leader Majeed Memon said, This kind of irresponsible behaviour on the part of leaders only betrays the confidence that is reposed in them to rule us.

Congress party spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi also slammed Pankaja Munde and said that it was an example of insensitivity of the Maharashtra government which has not been able to address the problems of the farmers who are suffering.

Women rights activist Abha Singh also criticised Munde and said, It was disaster tourism which shows the immaturity. The minister should have done something substantial.

The Arvind Kejriwal-led government faces its real test for the second phase of the odd-even scheme on Monday -  the first working day since the road-rationing measure was rolled out in the national capital on April 15.

Looming ahead for the Delhi government is another huge challenge today -- an auto rickshaw and taxi strike -- but reports say the strike has been called off after Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's promise to up the ante against Uber and Ola.


Meanwhile, BJP MP Vijay Goel was fined Rs 2000 for violating the Odd-Even rule by Delhi Traffic Police today.  Goel even tweeted before he set out from home: @VijayGoelBJP "On my way to Parliament in an odd numbered car to expose #oddevencorruption of AAP."


Goel said in the the name of the Odd-Even scheme, the AAP govt has wasted crores of public money on useless advertisements. AAP Transport minister Gopal Rai offered a rose to the BJP MP after he threatened to protest against Odd-Even plan.


Rai also met senior police and transport department officials for discussing the necessary arrangements to tackle any problems arising out of the strike when only even numbered vehicles, barring exempted categories, can be on the roads.


The government has set a fine of Rs 2,000 for violators. 2,000 traffic personnel, 580 enforcement officials and over 5,000 civil defence volunteers have also been deployed to implement the scheme.


Pic: AAP Transport minister presents Gopal Rai with roses after the BJP MP promised to protest the Delhi government's odd-even 'scam'.

China refuses to talk to India on nuclear or ballistic missile issues and conclude any de-targeting agreement as Beijing did with Russia or a non-targeting agreement with the US.

Srikanth Kondapalli, one of India's leading China watchers, looks at the likely outcome of Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar's visit to China. Read

Attingal double murder case: Thiruvananthapuram court sentences first convict Nino Mathew to capital punishment, while the second accused Anushanthi gets rigorous life imprisonment.

The case pertains to the murder of a 60-year-old woman, Omana, and her four-year-old granddaughter, Saswathika, at their house at Attingal on April 16, 2014.

The police subsequently linked the murder to the alleged extramarital affair between Omanas daughter-in-law, Anushanthi, a Technopark employee, and her colleague, Nino Mathew.

The police believe the motive for the murder was the desire of the lovers to live together.

The editor-in-chief of American Vogue, Anna Wintour, has apologized for branding Kanye West's latest clothing range as " migrant chic."


"I apologise if my remark was offensive in any way," adding that the migrant crisis is real and she didn't intend to trivialise that issue, News.com.au reported.


After Wintour used the phrase during an appearance on the US talk show Late Night with Seth Meyers, it drew a flurry of criticism by social media users who found it insensitive. One Facebook user said, "So, definitely not the best or most sensitive thing to say," while another wrote, "Anna Wintour called Yeezy season 3 "Migrant Chic". Even though "Chic" is a good thing, the word "Migrant" can be taken any other ways."


West has not publicly responded to the comments.

A day after P C Thakur was shifted to Delhi on the Central government's orders, Director General of Police (DGP) Prithvi Pal Pandey took additional charge as the Gujarat Police chief in Gandhinagar on Saturday. Pandey is the senior-most IPS officer of Gujarat cadre. Out on bail in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case, he was also the senior-most officer who was chargesheeted in the case.  Read more

The twin earthquakes that have paralyzed parts of southern Japan are having ripple effects far beyond the disaster zone, with automakers and other manufacturers suspending output in other areas due to disruptions in its parts supplies.


Toyota Motor Corp says it has stopped production at a factory in Kyushu, where the quakes struck late Thursday and early Saturday, killing at least 42 people and leaving nearly 1,100 people injured. The shutdown will progress to other plants in Japan through Friday. Output will resume depending on the availability of parts.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi's daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra served a legal notice to leading daily Times of India demanding an "unqualified apology" for its report on her official accommodation.

Nearly 96 hours have lapsed since Handwara shot into international limelight. In this time, a policeman has been suspended, the Army has "regretted" the incident twice apart from assuring "action" against guilty, the political class has made the right sounding noise and the Valley remains on the boil.

The ongoing fact-finding probe into the Jat agitation that shook Haryana in February has heard testimonies confirming that a section of the police force virtually rebelled during those three days of arson, deserting their posts and ignoring orders. 

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar today kicked off his first visit here by holding talks with Chinese counterpart Gen Chang Wanquan stating that India attaches highest priority to its relationship with China and is committed to further develop the ties. 

Mobile internet services were restored across the Kashmir Valley on Monday after the minor girl told the chief judicial magistrate that she was not molested by any army soldier.

The real test of the second phase of traffic rationing measures begins in the national capital on Monday, the first working day since the odd-even scheme was rolled out on April 15. All offices, schools and other institutions reopened after an extended weekend.