Toddlers and young children are among at least 39 refugees who drowned in the Aegean Sea while trying to cross from Turkey to Greece overnight.

They were on an overcrowded smuggler boat that sank just metres off the shore of Ayvack after hitting rocks.

Photos showed bodies lining beaches and coves, including children who appeared as young as two wearing life jackets and warm winter coats in preparation for the journey their families hoped to make to safety in Europe.

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A 16-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a Madarsa teacher and his friend in Sumerganj Mandi town in Bundi district of Rajasthan, police said on Saturday.

The girl was raped by teacher Sharif at a secluded spot in the premises of a mosque on January 1 when she went to pick her younger sister who takes classes at the Madarsa, circle in-charge of Indergarh police station, Kelash Chand Jat said.

On Wednesday, Sharif took the girl from her home on some pretext and left her with his friend Akbar who raped her in his home, he said.   When the victim disclosed her plight to Rasheed Mohammed, a person in her contact and sought help, he threatened that she would be murdered if she revealed the incidents to anyone, Jat said.

On the basis of her complaint, a first information report was registered against the three under Sections 376D (rape), 120 (concealing design to commit offence punishable with imprisonment) of the Indian Penal Code and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, the CI said.

Jat said though Rasheed did not rape the girl, he threatened her so he has also been booked as accused under the same sections.

The victim was today sent for medical examination, he said, adding that efforts are on to nab the accused.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Saturday said that Rohith Vemula, the scholar who committed suicide in the Hyderabad Central University, was not a Dalit.

"The facts have come out in the case and as per as my complete knowledge, that student (Rohith) was not a Dalit. By calling him a Dalit student, this whole case has been raised a communal incident by some people," Swaraj said in Maharashtra on Saturday.

Terming the expulsion of Dalit research scholar Rohith Vemula from Hyderabad University hostel as a 'small incident', Bharatiya Janata Party leader Kailash Vijaywargiya today said he doubts whether this alone led to suicide by the 'courageous youth'.

"The suicide of Vemula is unfortunate. He was a courageous youth who had a zeal to swim against the tide. Though a probe is on in his death, I don't believe he committed suicide just because of a small incident of his expulsion from the hostel," the BJP general secretary said.

"I don't think he took the extreme step because he was perturbed over his expulsion," he told reporters.

"I think those people who are responsible for his suicide are the ones who are agitating to defame Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government. Once the probe is complete, these people would get exposed," Vijaywargiya maintained.

Asked about Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi taking part in the agitation over Rohith's death, Vijaywargiya said, "Politics should not be done on the issue. Our political rivals are unable to digest that under Modi's leadership, the country's stature is rising in the world and therefore they are indulging in such acts."

The budget session of Parliament is likely to begin on February 23 as the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs, headed by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, meets on February 4 to finalise the broad schedule.

The main focus of the session will be the transaction of the General and Railway Budgets but the government is also keen to get passed a number of key reforms measures including the contentious goods and services tax and real estate bills.   Sources said that the session is likely to begin on February 23.

Usually, the budget session begins in the third week of February and concludes early May. There is a recess in between when the budgetary demands for grants are discussed in the committees.

The General Budget is expected to be presented in the Lok Sabha on Feb 29, the last day of February, as is the practice traditionally.

Meanwhile the process for the Assembly elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam and Puducherry, where the tenure of the Assemblies is set to end in May-June, will begin in the midst of the session and that could raise questions about the number of sittings. A curtailment may be necessary to accommodate campaign by leaders during the elections.

Against the backdrop of near washout of the previous sessions, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today expressed the hope that Congress will 'see reason' and help in passage of the GST legislation, which is stuck in the Rajya Sabha during the coming session.

"It (GST) is the important reform of the United Progressive Alliance. If I had to credit the authorship of it, I have to give credit to them. Now, If the author turns against his own script, what do I make... I have reached out (and) I have spoken to them. I have explained to them and I hope they will see reason... (And) see the rationale behind passing the GST," he said.

Veteran actor Anupam Kher and Congress leader Shashi Tharoor were involved in a war of words on Twitter over the former's comments that he is scared to openly say he is a Hindu.

Posting a link of Kher's recent TV interview, Tharoor tweeted, 'Come on Anupam. I say it all the time. I'm a proud Hindu. Just not the Sangh's kind of Hindu. @AnupamPkher.'

This did not go down well with the 60-year-old actor, who called Tharoor a 'Congi Chamcha' (Congress stooge).

'Come on Shashi. Never thought you will misinterpret my statement like trolls do. And behave like a Congi Chamcha.'

Tharoor quickly retorted saying, 'Abuse, @AnupamPkher , is what you use when you run out of arguments. I'm a proud MP of @INCIndia &I don't resort to insults. #CongiChamcha.'

Quoting Tharoor's tweet, Kher replied, 'Sadly, you forgot that you brought in your kind of Hindu & Sanghi Hindu first. You want to categorize that also?'

Former Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa's son was arrested today along with four other people over money laundering allegations.

Yoshitha Rajapaksa, the second son of ex-strongman Mahinda was, arrested and quizzed this morning by the police's Financial Crimes Division at the Sri Lankan Navy headquarters, a navy spokesman said.

He and four others have been arrested on money laundering allegations, police said in a statement.

Yoshitha, who is a navy officer, is the first immediate family member of former President Mahinda to be arrested since his shock defeat at the hands of Maithripala Sirisena in the polls last year.

He was quizzed in connection with TV channel Carlton Sports Network which had close links with the Rajapaksa sons. CSN was controversially handed over Sri Lankan cricket's television broadcast rights under the Rajapaksa regime.

The broadcast rights had been the preserve of the state television until then. Nishantha Ranatunga, who was CSN's chief executive officer, was also among those arrested. He was also the secretary of the cricket governing body.

Three unidentified militants were killed in an encounter with security forces in Kupwara district of north Kashmir, a police official said today.

The gunbattle broke out at Dardpora in Lolab area of Kupwara on Friday night after security forces launched a search operation there, the official said.

He said while one militant was killed in the initial exchange of firing on Friday night, two others were killed this evening.

The identity and group affiliation of the slain ultras have not been ascertained yet, the official said, adding three weapons have been recovered from the scene of the encounter.

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi nad Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula's mother ended their hunger strike at University of Hyderabad on Sunday.

Activist and Professor Kancha Ilaiah offered juice to Gandhi to end his strike.   Earlier, Gandhi's move to join the hunger strike at HCU was criticised by the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Gandhi thanked Rohith's family and students of the university for inviting him.   Drawing a parallel between the lives of Rohith and Mahatma Gandhi, the Congress vice president said, "It is a very interesting day as it is not just Rohith's birthday but also Mahatma Gandhi's death anniversary. Nobody has a right to take away the right to 'search for the truth'. This is exactly what happened with Gandhiji and Rohith as well."

He said that there is massive discrimination in the educational institutions of the country.

"Every single student must realise that most powerful thing they have is not what some powerful people tell you but what you believe in. When you let what has happened to Rohith happen in the country, it will happen to you one day, no matter who you are. You will one day find that the very same people who crushed Rohith will be blocking your path to freedom, to progress," Gandhi said.

"My main opposition to (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is that they are trying to crush spirit of Indian youngsters by imposing one idea from on top. Please put your idea in the market place of ideas and then if students accept that idea, I am fine with it," Gandhi said.

Aurangabad bench of the Bombay high court has issued notice to the Centre, the Maharashtra government and Ahmednagar district administration over Shani Shingnapur temple entry issue.

The court has asked all the parties to file their replies by February 16 in the matter.

A group of women activists has been agitating to lift the ban on women devotees from offering prayers at the sacred platform in the temple.

JUST IN: Three ISIS sympathisers who were deported by United Arab Emirates and arrested by National Investigation Agency have been sent to 10-day police custody by a NIA court in New Delhi.

A Kolkata court on Saturday pronounced death penalty to three convicts of the Kamduni rape and murder case, while the remaining three were sentenced to life term imprisonment.

Six of the accused were held guilty for gangraping and murdering a woman at Kamduni village in West Bengal's North 24 Parganas district in 2013.

On June 7, 2013, a B.A. second year student was allegedly gang-raped and murdered by few local miscreants inside an isolated compound at Kamduni village, while she was returning home from her college.

Her body was found the next day.

Nine persons were arrested in connection with this case.

Gopal Naskar, one of the arrested persons, died of fever and septicaemia in custody on August 1 last year.

Senior IPS officer Datta Padsalgikar was today named as the new Police Commissioner of Mumbai. Padsalgikar will take over tomorrow and succeeds Ahmed Javed, who has been appointed as Ambassador to Saudi Arabia. 

 An Amritsar Court on Saturday sent wanted cop-turned-smuggler Ranjit Singh, who was arrested by joint forces of Border Security Force and Punjab police yesterday, to five days police custody

A fire at Deonar dumping ground two days ago has led Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation to shut down 74 schools run by it for two days, as the smoke from the ground veiled the area causing breathing difficulties. 

Three Naxals, including two women, were today gunned down by security forces at two different places in Chhattisgarh's insurgency-hit Bastar division, taking the total number of ultras killed in separate gun-battles in the region this month to 21. 

Vice Admiral Sunil Lanba, PVSM, AVSM, will assume charge as Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Western Naval Command (FOC-in-C, West) here tomorrow. Vice Admiral Sunil Lanba completed his schooling from Mayo College in Ajmer.

The Centre on Saturday criticised Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi for joining the mass hunger strike at the University of Hyderabad campus to express solidarity with hunger-striking students over the suicide of Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula.

"Happy Republic Day. I salute the courage and service of lakhs of police personnel like you." This personalised SMS is sent by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to 18 lakh personnel of police forces and paramilitary forces on the occasion of the Republic Day, an official says.

Eminent Indians, including Union Minister for Communication and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad, movie superstar Kamal Hasan, Congress leader Sashi Tharoor and film director Karan Johar, will be addressing the 13th edition of annual India conference at the prestigious Harvard University. 

Modernist painter Amrita Sher-Gil has been honoured with a Google doodle today on her 103rd birth anniversary. On its home page, the search engine has posted a depiction of Sher-Gil's famed painting 'Three Girls' created by Jennifer Hom. 

Undeterred by the indefinite protest by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi workers who are agitating over the non-payment of their dues, the public works department, which comes under the Delhi government has set up a task force to clean up the piling garbage across the city. 

The US state department has withheld release of "seven email chains" sent from former secretary of state Hillary Clinton's private server, admitting for the first time that her home server contained closely guarded government secrets.

A 14-year-old girl, who was rehabilitated along with her family after the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots, was allegedly gang-raped by three youths at Ambeta village in the district. 

In an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court to justify imposition of President's rule in Arunachal Pradesh, the Centre has alleged that there was complete breakdown of governance and law and order in the state, and Governor Jyoti Prasad Rajkhowa and his family are apprehending grave danger to their lives.

About 24,000 'madrassas' in Pakistan are funded by Saudi Arabia which has unleashed a "tsunami of money" to "export intolerance", a top American senator has said adding that the US needs to end its effective acquiescence to the Saudi sponsorship of radical Islamism. 

 A man was tonsured, garlanded with shoes, and paraded in disgrace on the streets of Jalaun in Uttar Pradesh by Bajrang Dal activists who accused him of converting Hindu men to Christianity.

JUST IN: Security forces continue with search operations in District Kupwara (J&K), one militant has been killed until now.

A strong, deep 7.0-magnitude earthquake rocked Russia's far eastern Kamchatka peninsula on Saturday, the US Geological Survey reported.

The BJP today slammed Rahul Gandhi's second visit to the Hyderabad Central University campus in as many weeks over the suicide of a Dalit scholar, charging him and the Congress with politicising the issue and dubbing the visit as "classic politics of vulturisation". 

In a veiled attack at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha tweeted, "I have tremendous faith in our dashing dynamic action hero PM. But wonder who the "great" advisors are who advised President's Rule in AP."

Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday sat for two and half hours in the wee hours along with the students of Hyderabad Central University who were on a 18-hour-mass hunger strike.

The country pays homage to the father of the nation- Mahatma Gandhi on his martyrdom day today as he was assassinated on this day in 1948.