Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is standing his ground in his belief that allowing transgender people to use the bathroom of their choice "opens the door for predators," dismissing criticism from Caitlyn Jenner, who mocked him over the issue last week.

"This is not a matter of right or left, or Democrat or Republican. This is common sense. It doesn't make sense for grown adult men, strangers, to be alone in a restroom with a little girl," Cruz told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union."

"This is the height of political correctness," Cruz continued. "And frankly, the concern is not of the Caitlyn Jenners of the world, but if the law is such that any man, if he feels like it, can go in a woman's restroom and you can't ask him to leave, that opens the door for predators."

Read more HERE.

Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has been hospitalised after he complained of stomach-related problems.

According to doctors attending to him at the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital where he was admitted last evening, Gogoi had complained of stomach pain.

He is recovering fast, they said.

He was having constipation-related issues and his condition was stable now, doctors said.

Although he was fit to go home today, Gogoi will stay tonight at the hospital and undergo some further tests. 

Governor P B Acharya visited the hospital during the day to enquire about his health and wished him speedy recovery.

Doctors said the chief minister is likely to be released tomorrow.

Ten Indonesian sailors who had been held hostage by Islamist militant group Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines were released Sunday, Indonesia's President Joko Widodo announced in a televised statement.

The hostages, who had been held since March 26, were in "good condition," and were expected to arrive in Jakarta on Sunday night, he said.

Widodo thanked the Philippines government and the various parties who helped secure the release of the hostages.

Four Indonesians were still being held, and the Indonesian government would continue to work to secure their release, he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his Varanasi visit on Sunday launched a scheme for environment-friendly solar-powered e-boats at the Assi Ghat. The scheme to distribute e-boats is an attempt to reduce pollution and keep the Ganga river cleaner.

PM Modi flagged off a fleet of 11 e-boats and also interacted with boatmen at Assi Ghat. PM Modi also rode in an e-boat. The boats have been modified to install solar panels.

These e-boats will not only reduce pollution, but will also bring down the operational costs, thereby enabling higher incomes for those who earn their livelihoods through such boats on the river Ganga, claims government.

Earlier in the day, PM Modi also distributed 1,000 e-rickshaws, meeting and interacting with beneficiaries. Varanasi is the Prime Ministers Lok Sabha constituency.

Four new photographs of Britain's Princess Charlotte, taken by her mother Kate Middleton, were released today on the eve of her first birthday.

The photographs were taken by the Duchess of Cambridge in April at their family home Anmer Hall in Norfolk, east of England.

The princess, who turns one tomorrow, is seen walking - with the aid of a baby walker filled with blocks - for the first time in one of the images.

The popular character of Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel will reportedly make an appearance in the next "Avengers" movie before getting her own solo film.

The actress cast in the role of Captain Marvel will be on set by the time "Avengers: Infinity War Part 1" begins filming in Atlanta this November, reported Aceshowbiz. 

The new rumour came after Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige made a statement that "Captain Marvel" cast announcements are coming before summer's end.

Feige said that the solo movie would centre on Carol's "journey to being Captain Marvel." 

It's, however, still unclear if Marvel has cast her yet. Some reports claim the role has been filled, while other maintain that the studio is still testing performers for the part. Brie Larson and Ronda Rousey are among some actresses who are rumoured to take the role. 

Iran's new parliament will have more women than clerics when its members are sworn in this month, a first in the Islamic republic and a sign of the country's evolving politics.

Official results yesterday showed that reformist and moderate politicians allied with President Hassan Rouhani won a big victory in second round parliamentary elections.

The outcome saw them outnumber their conservative rivals many hardliners lost seats for the first time since 2004 and capped a remarkable comeback for reformists after years of isolation.

After the second round of elections a record 17 women will become lawmakers in the 290-seat parliament one more than the number of clerics, which has hit an all time low. 

In the first parliament that followed the Islamic revolution in 1979 there were 164 clerics elected. 

Islamic State hackers have published a "hitlist" of over 70 US military personnel who have been involved in drone strikes against terror targets in

Syria and asked their followers to "kill them wherever they are".

According to 'The Sunday Times', the hackers have links with Britain and call themselves 'Islamic State Hacking Division' and circulated online the names, home addresses and photographs of more than 70 US staff, including women and urged supporters: "Kill them wherever they are, knock on their doors and behead them, stab them, shoot them in the face or

bomb them." 

The group also claimed that it might have a mole in the UK's Ministry of Defence and threatened to publish "secret intelligence" in the future that could identify Britain's Royal Air Force operators.

Culture Ministry is likely to allot up to six acres of land in the campus of Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts (IGNCA) in the heart of national

capital for construction of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose memorial.

The move will meet the long standing demand of the Netaji's INA Trust for allotment of land in "prominent area" of Delhi for construction of memorial of the freedom fighter. 

"A decision in this regard has been taken by the Culture Ministry. The Ministry will allot land at the campus of IGNCA for the purpose," a Ministry source said.

IGNCA, considered a Congress legacy, was established in 1987, when Rajiv Gandhi was the prime minister, as a centre for research, academic pursuit and dissemination in the field of the arts.

There was ruckus during Kanhaiya Kumars speech in Patna on Sunday after man was beaten up by the JNU students union presidents supporters for waving a black flag at him.

The police have detained two men for protesting during Kumars speech, ANI reported.

Two cases have also been filed over the killing of 50-year-old Nikhil Chandra Joarder, who was hacked to death by three assailants who forcibly entered his house and slit his throat yesterday in central Bangladesh's Tangail district.

A Hindu tailor was hacked to death in Bangladesh on Saturday, the latest victim in a series of similar attacks in this South Asian nation.

Police said Nikhil Joarder was inside his tailoring shop in the central Bangladeshi district of Tangail when at least two assailants drove up on motorbikes and attacked him with machetes. 

He died immediately, according to Tangail Police Superintendent Mohammed Tanvir.

ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the nongovernmental counter-terror monitoring organization SITE.

Read more HERE.

The attack took place in the Nusaybin district of Mardin province, where the army has been conducting a military operation backed by a curfew against the PKK, it said. 

The Dogan news agency said the PKK opened fire with rockets on an army bomb disposal team.

'We have gathered here on Labour Day. I laud the hardwork of all Shramiks & appreciate their role in the progress of India,' PM Modi said.

'There was a time when ppl used to say,'labourers of world, unite.'Now,we need to say,' labourers, unite the world',' PM Modi said referencing Karl Marx.

'This is a Government for the poor. Whatever we will do will be for the poor. We have worked a lot on labour related issues,' the PM said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana in UP's Ballia district on Sunday.

Noted historians Romila Thapar, Irfan Habib and Amar Farooqi believe that banning the sale of a book by DU because it refers to Bhagat Singh as a "revolutionary terrorist", is display of "ignorance" to the world as martyrs had used the term for themselves.

"Clearly, today many of us would not like to call our national heroes Bhagat Singh or Surya Sen or Chandrashekhar Azad 'terrorists'. But if we claim to be nationalists, we should at least know more about our national movement and not forget that there was a time when this tag was borne with pride by people who actually died for the cause of country," the historians said in a joint statement.

Belgian capital Brussels's Muslim-dominated district of Molenbeek may have gained global notoriety as an ISIS recruitment hotbed but residents here feel the "family neighbourhood" has been unfairly stigmatised due to the evil acts "of a few" persons.

Molenbeek, a borough of about 100,000 people with large communities of Moroccan and Turkish-origin that are thoroughly middle-class, grabbed media attention worldwide post the Paris and Brussels attacks as having become an almost ideal recruiting ground for the dreaded Islamic State terror group. 

Salah Abdeslam, the only surviving direct participant in the Paris attacks, hid in Molenbeek before his arrest on March 18. Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected chief planner of the Paris attacks, lived in Molenbeek.

In all, at least 14 people tied to both attacks were either Belgian or lived in Brussels. One of them is Mohamed Abrini, a Belgian of Moroccan origin who grew up in Molenbeek and was arrested in Brussels earlier this month.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi scored 62.3 per cent in his masters in Political Science, Gujarat University's Vice Chancellor M N Patel has said. Earlier this week, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had demanded that information pertaining to the PM's educational qualifications be made public by the Central Information Commission or the CIC.

The VC however told NDTV that he hasn't been approached by anyone seeking this information yet. "We will share the PM's qualification records if ordered to," he added.

Accusing  Information Commissioner M Sridhar Acharyulu of covering up the PM's educational qualifications, Mr Kejriwal had said in his letter: "There are allegations that Narendra Modi does not have any degree. The people of the country want to know the truth. Despite that you have refused to make records regarding his degree public. Why did you do this? This is wrong."

Read more HERE.

With major fires destroying around 1,900 hectares of forests in Uttarakhand, the government has deployed two MI-17 helicopters into service to aid the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), the SDRF and the Army personnel who are working to douse the flames.

Since the first week of February this year, over 922 incidents of forest fire have been reported in Uttarakhand. The fires have claimed the lives of six people - including three women and a child, in separate incidents. The blaze has also injured seven people so far and has blighted 1,890.79 hectares of green cover, Principal Conservator of Forest (Research) BP Gupta said.

Read more HERE.

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar today said he will place all facts along with the detailed chronology about the controversial AgustaWestland chopper deal before Parliament on May 4.

"I will place the detailed chronology, giving facts about the chopper deal before Parliament on Wednesday. I will place the detailed chronology, giving how and when necessary clauses or provisions were relaxed to suit the company," he told reporters here on the sidelines of a function.

"Those who received kickbacks will not leave behind the proof for us to prosecute them, but we will have to prove it (that kickbacks were received)," he said.

Prince betrayed few signs of his ill health and apparent dependency on painkillers in the lead-up to what would be a miserable end for the music great

Hundreds of demonstrators descended on the California Republican Convention Friday to protest Donald Trump ahead of his speech, CNN reported.

Protesters -- some of whom wore bandanas over their faces and carried Mexican flags -- blocked off the road in front of the Hyatt Regency in California, forcing the GOP front-runner's motorcade to pull over along a concrete median outside the hotel's back entrance. Trump and his entourage got out and walked into the building.

"That was not the easiest entrance I've ever made," Trump said once he began speaking at the convention, adding, "it felt like I was crossing the border."

He slammed the protestors on Twitter Saturday, calling them "thugs and criminals."

"Many are professionals," he said. "They should be dealt with strongly by law enforcement!"

Commuters may face inconvenience as nearly 27,000 diesel-run taxis will not be allowed to ply on the capital's roads from May 1 after the Supreme Court on Saturday refused to extend the April 30 deadline fixed for their

conversion into CNG mode.

According to transport department, about 60,000 taxis are registered in the national capital and of them 27,000 are running on diesel. Around 2,000 diesel-run taxis had converted into CNG mode in the last two months.

The SC order is not applicable on cabs having All India Permits but most of the diesel cabs ply on local routes. This will essentially bring down the availability of cabs in the capital.

Delhi Transport Minister Gopal Rai has directed the enforcement wing of the transport department to launch a crackdown against diesel-run cabs plying on locals routes in the capital on May 1.

"We will deploy our teams at several points to catch diesel cabs plying on the local routes in Delhi. If diesel-run cab is caught, our officials will ask commuters about the pick up point and their destination following which it can be ascertained if it is following laid-down rules," said a senior government official.

The official said that there is already ban on diesel cabs plying on local routes in New Delhi.

Four persons were on Saturday arrested for allegedly trying to murder a man in Ulhasnagar township in Thane over distribution of water, police said.

Ram Gaikwad, who is associated with a charitable organisation, was attacked by Bunty, Nitin, Vicky and another unidentified person when he was distributing water from a tempo on Friday, Sub Inspector S B Khamkhar of Central Police Station said.

The accused, jumped the queue, and asked Gaikwad to give them water first. After he refused, they attacked him with a weapon and left him seriously injured, Khamkar said.

Gaikwad was admitted to a hospital. A case under relevant sections of IPC was registered in this regard, police said, adding, investigations were underway. 

Actress Kangana Ranaut on Saturday gave her statement to police in connection with an FIR filed by superstar Hrithik Roshan that an online impostor has been sending e-mails under his guise to his fans, a police official

said.

Cyber Crime Branch officials reached Kangana's residence in western suburbs, where the actress and her sister Rangoli gave their statements, the official said.

Their statements were recorded as witnesses in the impostor case filed by Hrithik. However, police refused to divulge any further details about their statements.

The FIR stated that a fake email-ID has been created and an impostor has been operating it under Hrithik's guise and misleading many of his fans, including Kangana.

Hrithik's lawyer had earlier claimed that since Kangana had not recorded her statement to assist in the probe, the proceedings in the legal battle between the two were stalled.

The two actors have been at loggerheads since the "Queen" star had hinted at Hrithik being her 'silly ex'.

The feud between Hrithik and his "Krrish 3" co-star turned nasty after they slapped legal notices on each other.

Hrithik, who was the first to send the legal notice to Kangana, has demanded that she apologise in a press conference and clear the air about their alleged affair which he firmly refutes.

A defiant Kangana, 28, had said she was not a "dim-witted" teenager and refused to apologise. She instead shot off a counter-notice to Hrithik warning him to take back his notice or face a criminal case.