A female rhino was shot dead and its horn stolen in Kaziranga National Park, taking the total number of rhinos killed this year in poaching to 27. Park officials said the six-year-old rhino was shot dead by poachers in the Bagori Range of the park last night.

On hearing gun shots, the authorities launched a search operation and recovered the de-horned rhino's carcass with bullet injuries at around 5.30 pm today, they said.

With this, the total number of rhinos killed by poachers this year has reached to 27.

President Barack Obama's decision to seek a Congressional nod for a military strike on Syria is not an American retreat as being described by the Syrian regime, Secretary of State John Kerry said today.

"I don't believe so at all," Kerry told the Fox News Sunday in an interview when asked to comment on the Syrian media statement that seeking congressional authorisation for military action against Syria is "the start of the historic American retreat".

"That is in the hands of the Congress of the United States. The president has made his decision. The President wants to stand up and make certain that we uphold the international norm, that we do not grant impunity to a ruthless dictator to gas his own people," he said in response to a question.

"Anybody who saw those images, anybody who know focuses on the evidence that I just gave you about signatures of sarin in the hair and blood samples of the first responders -- I mean, first responders died. People who went to help the people who were hurt, died in this case," he said.

Over 17 lakh people have been hit by the floods in Uttar Pradesh, where the situation continued to remain grim with the swollen rivers inundating thousands of villages and the death toll in the deluge and other rain-related mishaps climbing to 280.

Two persons died today in Auraiya district in an incident of house collapse. The relief commissioner office said a total population of over 17 lakh has been affected by the floods.

Over 1,000 villages are adversely hit and people have been displaced. NDRF and PAC teams are conducting relief and rescue operations, and camps have been set up in affected districts including Ballia, Allahabad, Ghazipur and others, to provide food and shelter to the affected people.

Enraged by the arrest of self-styled godman Asaram Bapu, his followers and supporters stopped several trains at Ulhasnagar's railway tracks in the neighbouring Thane district today, official sources said.

Scores of Asaram Bapu supporters staged a rail roko at around 12.30 pm, delaying local trains between the Kalyan-Karjat section for over half-an-hour, they said.

Asaram was arrested by the Jodhpur Police after midnight from his ashram in Indore. His arrest followed an FIR filed by a 16-year-old girl, alleging she was sexually assaulted by Asaram at his ashram in Jodhpur.

Distribution of food grains under the ambitious Food Security Programme formally began in the national capital today with Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit offering the entitlement to identified beneficiaries in several areas.

The scheme was launched in Delhi on August 20 by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. At the launch of the scheme, Dikshit had said food grains under the programme would be distributed from September 1.

The chief minister distributed the food grains to the beneficiaries at Lakshmibai Nagar, South Kidwai Nagar, Krishna Menon Marg and Copernicus Marg in central Delhi.

All the areas where Dikshit distributed food grains fall under New Delhi constituency which she represents. A number of Congress MLAs also distributed food grains in their respective constituency.

An earthquake of moderate intensity today shook Kishtwar and Doda districts in Jammu and Kashmir, triggering panic among people.

The quake, measuring 3.4 on the Richter scale, jolted the region at around 8.04 am, the Met office said.

There were no reports of any loss of life or damage to property, officials said. Panic-stricken people rushed out of their homes as the quake struck. Yesterday, a tremor, measuring 2.9 on the Ricther scale, had hit the area.

India Today reports: As locations go, you could call it the archetypal war room for the elaborate camouflage that hides it from prying eyes. Situated on a quiet, leafy stretch in Lutyens' Delhi, it gives out nothing about what goes on inside.

All there is at the gate is the address - 15, Rakabganj Road. Yes, it does look important. Policemen - drawn from the Haryana Police - and private securitymen stand guard. But that does not really draw attention on this VIP street.

Across the road is Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati's bungalow.

Read the full story here

The Independent reports: Sir David died of a heart attack while on the Queen Elizabeth cruise liner, where he had been due to give a speech.

The presenter fronted a number of programmes, including That Was The Week That Was and The Frost Report.

Read the full story here

Ailing anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela was discharged from hospital today though his condition remains critical and is at times unstable, the South African Presidency said.

"Former President Nelson Mandela has this morning, 1 September 2013, been discharged from the Pretoria hospital where he has been receiving treatment.

We would like to wish him all the best as he continues his recovery at his Johannesburg home," President Jacob Zuma said in a statement.

"Madiba's (Mandela's clan name) condition remains critical and is at times unstable. Nevertheless, his team of doctors are convinced that he will receive the same level of intensive care at his Houghton home that he received in Pretoria," the statement said.

Stepping up attack on BJP over Asaram Bapu controversy, Congress leader Digvijay Singh today targeted Narendra Modi, asking why he has not taken action on the report of a judicial commission which probed the mysterious death of two boys at the godman's Gujarat ashram.

The remarks by Singh, who claimed that Asaram was close to BJP, came a day after he questioned why opposition leader Sushma Swaraj was "silent" on rape allegation against the self-styled godman when she has been vocal on issue of atrocities on women and accused her party of double standards.

Reacting to it, Swaraj said the law will take its own course.

"In our country we have a law that is same for everybody," she tweeted. But Singh persisted with his charge, "This is very illustrative of the double standrads of the BJP that they cry hoarse on issues where someone else is involved but where one of them is involved, they keep quiet."

Setting up of fast-track courts to try rape cases is not sufficient to ensure speedy justice to the victims, the Supreme Court has said, favouring "drastic" amendment in the law for quick disposal of such matters.

"Fast-track courts no doubt are constituted for expeditious disposal of cases involving the charge of rape at the trial stage, but we are perturbed and anguished to notice that although there are fast-track courts for disposal of such cases, we do not yet have a fast-track procedure for dealing with cases of rape and gang rape with the result that such heinous offences are repeated incessantly," a bench headed by Justice Gyan Sudha Misra said.

"We are of the considered opinion that there is pressing need to introduce drastic amendments into the CrPC," it said.

Expressing concern that the Centre was not taking any steps to amend the law to ensure fast-track procedure, the apex court sought response from the government on why statements of victims and witnesses in rape cases be not recorded by a judicial magistrate which can be treated as an evidence instead of the police recording them which is inadmissible.

Controversial godman Asaram Bapu, accused of sexually assaulting a minor, who was was arrested by the Jodhpur police from his ashram in Indore past midnight on Sunday has landed at the Jodhpur airport.

He is likely to be produced in court shortly. His followers were not allowed to enter Jodhpur.

More details are awaited.

Arrested Indian Mujahideen operative Yasin Bhatkal and his associate used to take advantage of the unhindered passage on the Indo-Nepal border, 110 km of which lay in Bihar.

Interrogation of Bhatkal and his associate, Asadulla Akhtar alias Haddi, after their arrest from Nahar Chowk in Raxual sub-division of East Champaran district on Thursday revealed that they frequently travelled between the two countries without facing any problem.

Local people said that one has to spent as little as Rs 35 to reach Birganj in Nepal from Raxual in Bihar, a four- kilometre distance, by cycle-rickshaw. Three-wheelers standing in queue on either side of the border charged Rs 12 for each passenger for the same distance.

No passport or any travel document were required for passage between the two countries.

The Mumbai police plans to conduct test identification parade of the five accused in the photojournalist gang rape case as soon as they are remanded in judicial custody.

"Currently all the five arrested accused will remain in police custody until September 5. When they would be produced before a court on the last day, we would seek further custody of the culprits," a Crime Branch official said.

"However, if we do not get extension in the police custody and the accused are sent to judicial custody, then we would immediately go for identification parade," he said.

According to the officer, the investigators were determined to complete all the legal procedures at the earliest and file the charge sheet so that the accused are handed down the highest punishment at the earliest.

The 23-year-old photojournalist was sexually assaulted at a defunct and deserted Shakti Mills compound in Parel area on the evening of August 22 when she had gone there on  an assignment with a male colleague.

Counter-terrorism body the National Investigation Agency has moved to a new office in the heart of New Delhi at 1, Jai Singh Road. 

Self-styled godman Asaram Bapu was today flown to Jodhpur by the police, hours after his arrest from his ashram in Indore for allegedly sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl. The sexual assault case was filed by an inmate of his Chhindwara-based ashram in Madhya Pradesh. The assault allegedly took place in Jodhpur following which a case was initially registered in Delhi and later transferred to Jodhpur for probe.