Former Illinois Congressman Joe Walsh declared "This is now war" and called for US President Obama to "watch out" in a Twitter post reacting to a Dallas shooting incident that left five police officers dead and seven injured. 

Even as the United States come to grips with the worst police killing since 9/11, tales of the cops who died in the attacks emerge. 

Micah Xavier Johnson, the gunman who opened fire on Dallas police officers, served in the US Army Reserve. According to the police, he had no previous criminal history or ties to terror groups.

The government today decided to crack the whip on telecast by unauthorised channels, warning cable operators of action if norms were violated, a move that comes amid the escalating controversy over Islamic preacher Zakir Naik's speeches on 'Peace TV'.

Authorities say a suspect exchanged gunfire with a police officer in south Georgia, but it's unclear if anyone was wounded. A news release from the city of Valdosta says a police officer was called early Friday to investigate a report of property damage. That officer encountered a man in the parking lot of an apartment complex, and gunshots were then exchanged. 

Authorities say a suspect exchanged gunfire with a police officer in south Georgia, but it's unclear if anyone was wounded. 

Scores of Kashmiris came out on streets and took to the social media in defence of Islamic preacher Zakir Naik as the controversy surrounding him peaked and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh ordered a thorough probe into his speeches. 

A missing university student has been identified as the suspected terrorist who was killed during an encounter with police after an attack on one of Bangladesh's biggest Eid gatherings in Sholakia, killing four persons. 

Visitors in the US Capitol Building and Capitol Visitor Center were asked to immediately close, lock and stay away from external doors and windows, US media has reported.

Dallas police chief David Brown has described the final words of a man who gunned down five police officers early Friday morning. The suspect said he was upset about Black Lives Matter, the recent police shootings, upset at white people and wanted to kill white people, especially white officers, said Brown.

The Independent, quoting the police chief said that reports that the suspect killed himself was not accurate.

He was deceased from the detonation of the bomb, he said. The bomb, launched on a robot, was triggered after a standoff between the suspect and police which lasted for hours.

"He was lucid. He expressed anger. He wanted to kill white police officers. He was angry for Black Lives Matter," said Mr Brown.

Brown said the suspect said he was not identified with any group, but the police chief said this does not mean there were not others involved.

The mayor of Dallas has said the identity of the suspect will not be released whilst a criminal investigation is ongoing.

The Delhi High Court today remanded back to the Election Commission a plea seeking cancellation of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) symbol 'Elephant', for alleged misuse of public funds by the erstwhile Mayawati government in installing statues of the pachyderm across the state.


"I am remanding the matter back to the Election Commission of India," Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw said. The order came on the plea of an NGO which had claimed that putting up elepehant statues in public places "disturbs the level-playing field" in an electoral contest as it stands on the same footing like the display of a photograph inside an office.

The EC had earlier rejected NGO Common Cause's plea for cancellation of BSP's symbol, saying the then Mayawati government in UP had not, despite repeated requests, furnished the desired information about the exact number and location of the elephant statues. The NGO had moved high court against the EC's decision.

The CPI(M)-led LDF government in Kerala proposed a slew of new tax proposals, including five per cent tax on certain packed foods and a 'fat tax' of 14.5 per cent for burgers, pizzas and pastas served in branded restaurants.

The move spells bad news for multi-national fast food chains like McDonalds, Pizza etc.

The state, however, expects to earn over Rs 10 crore from the new tax. A similar fat tax is already in place in countries such as Denmark and Hungary.

Stating that the state was passing through a severe financial crisis due to various factors, the budget proposed an 'anti-slowdown package' of Rs 12,000 crore for taking up various development and infrastructure projects like roads, bridges and IT parks.

The Gujarat High Court today granted bail to Patel quota agitation leader Hardik Patel in two sedition cases, with a rider that he will have to stay outside the state for the next six months.

However, Hardik cannot come out of jail for now, as another case of mob violence at an MLA office is pending against him in Visnagar town of Mehsana district.

The next hearing of the Visnagar case bail application in the high court is scheduled on July 11. Justice A J Desai granted bail to Hardik with strict conditions, one of them being that he will have to stay outside Gujarat for the next six months.

The court also directed Hardik's lawyer to give a fresh written undertaking on his behalf which should state that he would not indulge in any activities that would lead to law and order problem.

The judge, while pronouncing the judgement, said that he has listed other conditions in written order. The 22-year-old Patel quota stir spearhead has been behind bars since October 2015, in sedition cases that were filed against him in Ahmedabad and Surat.

Eminent author Amitav Ghosh will stay in Rashtrapati Bhavan as Writer In-Residence from July 10 to 14, 2016. He will be accompanied by his wife, Deborah Baker.


Ghosh is award-winning author and essayist whose books include:- The Circle of Reason, The Shadow Lines, In An Antique Land, Dancing in Cambodia, The Calcutta Chromosome, The Glass Palace, The Hungry Tide and The Ibis Trilogy: Sea of Poppies, River of Smoke and Flood of Fire.

The 'In-Residence' programme in Rashtrapati Bhavan was launched by the President of India on December 11, 2013 with the aim of providing writers and artists an opportunity to stay in Rashtrapati Bhavan and be a part of the life of Rashtrapati Bhavan.

The Programme seeks to provide an environment which will inspire creative thinking and rejuvenate artistic impulses.It is intended to honour and recognize eminent and established artists and writers as well as young upcoming talent from different parts of the country.

The first person to stay in Rashtrapati Bhavan as part of the programme was eminent artist and Member of Parliament, Jogen Choudhury. Invitations to live in-Residence have been also extended to Sculptor Subodh Gupta and Artist Paresh Maity.

The 'In-Residence' programme now includes grass root innovators, artists, writers, inspired teachers from Central Universities, award-winning school teachers from different States and scholars from IITs, IISERs, IISc-B and NITs. Around 140 persons have been part of these 'In-Residence' programmes till date.

Just in: MEA Spokesperson Vikas Swarup says "Just to clarify, reports of an NSG team visiting Bangladesh are false."

Dallas update: A family member of a woman shot in Dallas says she was injured but survived when snipers opened fire on police at a rally. She was  shielding her sons when she was injured.

AP reports that the sister of 37-year-old Shetamia Taylor says the woman was at the protests Thursday night with her four sons, ages 12 to 17.

When the shooting began, Taylor threw herself over her sons. She was undergoing surgery early Friday after being shot in the right calf.

Police say five police officers were killed and 11 injured in the shootings.

The shootings happened at a protest over recent fatal police shootings of two black men.

Two of Taylor's sons became separated from their mother in the chaotic aftermath. She says they're now stuck behind a police barricade at a hotel near a parking garage where police exchanged gunfire with a suspect.


Image: Shetamia Taylor/Facebook

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who was summoned as an accused in a criminal defamation complaint filed by BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri, was today granted bail by a court in New Delhi.

Metropolitan Magistrate Harvinder Singh granted the relief to Kejriwal on furnishing of a personal bond of Rs 10,000 after he appeared before the court.

The court has now fixed the matter for further hearing on August 6. Kejriwal was summoned as accused by the court in February this year on a criminal defamation complaint filed against him by Bidhuri, an MP from South Delhi parliamentary constituency, under section 500 (defamation) of the IPC. Bidhuri had alleged that Kejriwal had defamed him during an interview to a news channel.

A local court has issued notice to BJP MP Varun Gandhi asking him to appear in court in connection with a 2009 hate speech case. The notice was sent to Varun yesterday by District Judge Kautilya Kumar Gaur through the Lok Sabha Speaker as he did not appear in the court. The court fixed September 30 as the next date of hearing.

After Varun was acquitted in a 2009 hate speech case in 2013, a social worker Asad Hayat had challenged the order in the district court after which summons were sent to him but he did not appear in court. Varun had allegedly made inflammatory comments against a particular community in his speeches at public meetings in Pilibhit during the 2009 Lok Sabha election campaign.

'Sins' of the father did the son in, say our sources.

In other words, the reason why Jayant Sinha was shunted out from the finance ministry and dumped in civil aviation is because of his father, senior leader, Yashwant Sinha.

Our sources tell us that Prime Minister Narendra Modi tasked finance minister Arun Jaitley to break the news to his MoS Jayant Sinha and convince him to accept the civil aviation ministry.

Prime Minister Modi is upset with Yashwant Sinha for criticising the government over the Nuclear Suppliers Group exercise.

Sinha  had flayed the Narendra Modi government over its vigorous push to get NSG membership, saying there was no need for it as India stands to lose and not gain by becoming a member and alleged that people sitting in the government were misguiding it every day.

The BJP veteran, who has often been critical of the Modi government after being sidelined in the party, said India should not have gone to the elite grouping as an applicant and should not accept NSG membership as it has already got what it needs.

The son got demoted because of his outspoken father, say highly-placed sources.

Of course, there's the ToI report, which said that Jayant Sinha's tea party may have triggered his ouster. Sinha hosted a party at his home, where bank chiefs and finance ministry officials were invited. The report claimed that Punita Kumar Sinha, Jayant Sinhas wife, was present at the meeting. Punita is a well known investor and a fund manager. Jayant Sinha was also seen as someone who had strong views on several issues, such as getting NIIF to invest in a bank-driven stressed asset fund, which did not factor in political implications, the report said.

Hardik Patel granted bail by Gujarat High Court in sedition case, on condition of that he will stay out of the state for 6 months.

"When I lived in Bandra, I stayed in rented homes. Today the rent in those places starts at Rs 1.5 lakh (Rs 150,000) a month and the price of the properties is over Rs 7 crore. These are basic two-bedroom apartments in buildings that are not fancy and offer nothing special. Who buys these places and where and how do these people make their money? Only 5,430 Indians pay income tax of more than Rs 1 crore (Rs 10 million)."

Aakar Patel wonders (as we all do) why real estate in India so damn expensive. Read

So, here's the real story on why and how former MoS Environment (Independent charge) Prakash Javadekar got the HRD portfolio in the recently reshuffled Council of Ministers.

Our sources tell us that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was keen to induct senior journalist, columnist and Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta as Minister of State (Independent charge) Human Resources Development ministry. The source confirmed that Dasgupta was in fact, the hot favourite of Narendra Modi for the portfolio.

But the hitch was that Dasgupta is a nominated Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha by President Mukherjee along with Dr Subramanian Swamy.

Which means if a ministry is given to one, it cannot be denied to the other -- especially if that other person is Dr Swamy given his penchant for controversy.

So Swapan Dasgupta's loss turned to be Javdekar's gain.

The MoS Environment minister was then identified as the person to replace Smriti Irani and elevated to the post of Cabinet Minister.

On the day of the expansion of the Council of Ministers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called a few senior BJP leaders at 7:30 am and consulted them about the impending portfolio changes. It is believed the PM hinted to a few of the Cabinet ministers of the changes ahead and thanked them for their services to the telecom and HRD ministries.

But none of the other ministers, at that point of time, knew of the induction of Prakash Javadekar.

On July 5th at 8:30 am the PM sent a note to President Pranab Mukherjee about his intention to induct Prakash Javadekar as a  Cabinet Minister.

Quickly another chair was added to the row where the ministerial designates were to be seated at Ashoka Hall in Rashtrapati Bhavan where the swearing-in ceremony took place. And of course, another paper was readied, for Javadekar to be sworn in.

Such was the secrecy over Javadekar's appointment.

Ramdhari Singh Dinkar's poems speak to every Indian, uniting them across political, social, religious and caste divides.They elevate; they inspire; they stir the soul and goose-bump the flesh.

Archana Masih/Rediff.com stopped by at his native village in Simaria, Bihar, and realised that Dinkar's poems still lead the way, showing us where we need to go as a nation. Read more

India is (so we say) the world's largest democracy; China the world's largest and most powerful one-party state. Democracies are supposed to nurture free and original thought, whereas totalitarian regimes are said to promote insularity and ideological conformity.  Read more

Prime Minister Modi was accorded a ceremonial welcome at the Union Building in Pretoria, South Africa. Concluding his one-day visit to Mozambique, Modi arrived in Pretoria on Thursday evening on the second leg of his four-nation five-day tour to the African continent

He will now have a meeting with President Jacob Zuma, followed by meetings with other senior leaders across the political spectrum to further enhance relations with South Africa.

The Prime Minister will also hold delegation level talks at the Presidential Boardroom at the Union Building, followed by an exchange of agreements at the Media Room and press statements.

Prime Minister Modi will attend an official lunch hosted by President Zuma.

He will meet Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, and participate in the India-South Africa Business Meet. Thereafter, he will depart for Johannesburg. The Prime Minister is also expected to visit Pietermaritzburg and Durban. Pietermaritzburg is the place where Mahatma Gandhi was thrown out of the train compartment.

Maharashtra Cabinet expansion: 11 ministers, including 10 new faces, sworn in; Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray skips ceremony.

The toll in Dallas goes up to five.

Five police officers killed and several wounded in Dallas on Thursday night when snipers opened fire on policemen during protests over two recent fatal cop shootings of black men. Three suspects - including a woman - have been arrested. One of them has warned negotiators there are "bombs all over" in downtown Texas, officials said.

The US aviation authorities have restricted flights over Dallas.

In a massive setback for the Aam Admi party-led government, the Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain its petition on interpretation of powers of Delhi Goverment vis-a-vis the Centre.

During the hearing, the Apex Court stated that the High Court has already reserved its judgement on the matter.

Rebuking the state government, the court said that they should have withdrawn their plea in the Delhi High Court before approaching the SC. The bench headed by justice Dipak Misra stated that all High Court's have their own independence under the Constitution to decide the matter.

"Why should we ask Delhi HC to decide only on jurisdiction and not on the merit on the case," Misra said. Earlier, the Kejriwal government had said the HC did not have jurisdiction to adjudicate a dispute between a state and the Centre, contending that the matter fell squarely within the SC's purview.

In its petition, the AAP government alleged that it is unable to function as the Lieutenant Governor, at the behest of the Centre, either annuls or changes its decisions on the ground that Delhi is not a complete state.

The AAP government and Centre have been locking their horns over governance in Delhi for most of the party's tenure, leading to the ruling party seeking the apex court's intervention in resolving the matter.

US President Barack Obama reacts to the horror of an unarmed man in Minnesota shot by the police. Obama who is in Warsaw for the NATO summit, begged the nation to confront the racial disparities in law enforcement while acknowledging the dangers that officers face.

"When incidents like this occur, there's a big chunk of our citizenry that feels as if, because of the color of their skin, they are not being treated the same, and that hurts, and that should trouble all of us," Obama said in a statement after arriving in Warsaw.

"This is not just a black issue, not just a Hispanic issue. This is an American issue that we all should care about."

He also said he felt compelled to follow up a Facebook message with a personal statement about the killings, though he said he could not comment directly on them. "But what I can say is that all of us, as Americans, should be troubled by these shootings, because these are not isolated incidents," he said. "They're symptomatic of a broader set of racial disparities that exist in our criminal justice system."

The president cited the nation's tortured racial history and current statistics on unequal treatment of the races. He added, "Maybe in my children's lifetimes, all the vestiges of that past will have been cured."

Four police officers have been killed by two snipers who targeted them during a protest at Dallas in Texas, United States over two recent fatal cop shootings of black men.

The snipers shot at 11 police officers, four of whom succumbed to their injuries, Dallas police chief David O Brown said. 

The snipers shot from "elevated positions" during the protest. In addition to the four dead, two are in surgery and four are in critical condition, according to a Dallas Police statement.

Brown said three suspects were custody and officers were continuing to negotiate with one suspect, believed to be one of the shooters, who was cornered on the second floor of a garage.

He added that he did not have a "complete comfort level" that all suspects had been apprehended.

Officers were continuing to exchange gunfire with the cornered suspect.

Saudi Arabia officials have stated that 12 out of 19 people arrested over Monday's bomb attacks in the country are from Pakistan.

An Interior Ministry spokesman also named a suicide bomber who killed four security officers near a mosque in the sacred city of Medina as Naer Muslim Hamad, a 26-year-old Saudi man, who had a history of drug abuse.

Three people who allegedly carried out attacks in Qatif were also named as Abdulrahman al-Omar (23), Ibrahim al-Omar (20) and Abdulkarim al-Husni (20).

The ministry said none of them had Saudi IDs. The attacks in Qatif took place on the same day and were also suicide bombings.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks yet but they are suspected to have been the work of people with allegiances to Islamic State.

Looks like Sunjay Kapur did not take his former wife Karisma Kapoor's decision to move on very well. According to Mumbai Mirror reports, Kapur lost his cool when he saw Lolo with her good friend Sandeep Toshniwal at the same restaurant he was dinning in.

The reports said that Sunjay was dining at a restaurant in the British capital with some of his friends. He apparently was so piqued at seeing his former partner with her good friend that he began shouting and made a scene. It was only when his friends asked him to pipe down, saying he was no longer married to her, after which Sunjay got back his cool. The 42-year-old actress and her former hubby's divorce battle was one of the ugliest one, involving immense mud-slinging.

US aviation authorities restrict flights over Dallas after deadly shooting, reports AFP. The Dallas police chief David O Brown says three people are in custody in the protest march shooting, while the 4th suspect is exchanging fire with police. Dallas suspects claim to have 'planted bombs all over'. 

"The suspect that we are negotiating with that has exchanged gunfire with us over the last 45 minutes has told our negotiators that the end is coming, and he is going to hurt and kill more of us, meaning law enforcement. And that there are bombs all over the place in this garage and in downtown," Police Chief David Brown told reporters.

"So we are being very careful in our tactics so we don't injure our citizens in Dallas as we negotiate further."

Four police officers have been killed by two unidentified snipers who targeted them during a protest at Dallas in Texas, US over two recent fatal cop shootings of black men.

The 2 gunmen shot at 11 police officers, four of whom succumbed to their injuries, the Associated Press quoted the Dallas police chief as saying.  He added that negotiations were in progress with the second sniper suspect who is sporadically opening firing at police inside a garage.

The snipers shot from "elevated positions" during the protest. In addition to the four dead, two are in surgery and two are in critical condition, according to the statement.


Image: A photograph of one the suspected shooters issued by the police.

The Supreme Court says Army and paramilitary personnel cannot use "excessive and retaliatory force" in Manipur. The court also seeks details of 1528 alleged extra judicial killings in Manipur.

The court was delivering its verdict on Friday on petitions demanding a probe by the CBI or a special investigation team into the alleged 1,500 extra-judicial killings by the army and other security forces in Manipur during 2000-12.

The petitioners allege the security forces escaped action because they operated under the controversial Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act. The law makes it mandatory for the local police to take Centre's permission before initiating prosecution against erring security personnel.

The court said that the Army can also conduct its own inquiries into accusations of extra judicial killings in Manipur till the Court examines the PIL seeking SIT/CBI probe into Manipur extra judicial killings. 

Just In: Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh says, "We have taken note of Zakir Naik's case, his speeches and CDs are being probed."

CBI's forensic lab confirms conversation between ex-principal secretary Rajendra Kumar & other accused in corruption case, reports ANI

Maharashtra Cabinet expansion: 11 ministers, including 10 new faces, sworn in; Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray skips ceremony.

Just In: Aam Aadmi Party lawmaker Prakash Jarwal has been arrested for allegedly misbehaving with a woman, reports ANI.

Just In: The United States has decided to deploy advanced missile defence system in South Korea, forcing China to lodge a protest.

Sena to be part of Fadnavis' cabinet expansion