The Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal said said the party should not contest assembly elections in Haryana and Maharashtra, and underlined the need to focus in Delhi. Kejriwal said: "The AAP should not fight Haryana and Maharashtra assembly elections. We should use all resources and volunteers in Delhi."

Iraq state TV has announced that the security forces have retaken the city of Tirkit that had fallen to Sunni militants belonging to the ISIS group. The city had been taken over by the militants two weeks ago. However, insurgents dispute the claims, saying they are in full control of the city. 

Several Egyptians and people living around Israel are watching the World Cup broadcasts on Israeli channels owing to the hefty subscription package by Qatar's sports channels. This has left many Egyptians torn as most Egyptians are hostile towards Israel. 

It's confirmed. After scrapping the four-year undergraduate programme, Delhi University will release its first cut-off list for the 2014-15 academic session on July 1 at 9 am in the morning and the admission and payment of fees will begin on the same day and will extend till July 3. 

Speaking from the site where the under-construction building collapsed, Commissioner of Police S George said, "Around 45-50 labourers are trapped, 7 people have been rescued and 1 dead body has been recovered." He added that efforts were still on to get the people out. 

Two Tanzanian women were allegedly raped by two men in south Delhi's Sarojini Nagar area following which the accused have been arrested. According to police sources, the two women told investigators that they befriended the accused outside a hotel in South Delhi, following which they accompanied them to a quarter in Sarojini Nagar. "All four of them consumed liquor following which the two men sexually assaulted them. However, the two accused have denied the allegation and claimed that they had a dispute," said an official.

Following the 11-storeyed under construction building collapse in which 50 people are feared to be trapped, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa has promised action against the builders. She expressed shock at the incident and said that all help has been sought and the NDRF officials will also help in rescue efforts. 

Curfew was lifted from all parts of Sopore township in north Kashmir's Baramulla district on Saturday, four days after the restrictions were imposed in the wake of killing of a youth in alleged firing by security forces. An official said life has returned to normal in the town and people were going on with their daily chores. The restrictions were lifted from most parts on Friday morning, but continued in some sensitive areas as a precautionary measure to maintain law and order, the spokesman said.

Ahmed Abu Khattala, the suspected ringleader, behind the Benghazi US consulate attack appears amid tight security at US federal courthouse. Khattala is believed to have been responsible for the attacks two years ago on US facilities in Benghazi, Libya, which killed US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. 

At least 50 people are feared to be trapped under debris after an under-construction building collapsed in Chennai. This is the second building collapse today after another one came down in Delhi this morning.

After the logjam owing to the scrapping of the four-year undergraduate programme ended, the Delhi University has announced that the first list is likely to be out on July 30 and admissions are likely to begin on Tuesday. DU also announced that they will be scrapping their Bachelor of Management Studies and BTech courses for this year. 

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will chair a meeting of India's top envoys posted in Gulf countries including Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and Saudi Arabia on Sunday to discuss the situation in Iraq. The meeting will also have a session with Ambassadors of the Gulf countries posted in India. 

Murmurs of dissent grow the Congress as senior party leader Digvijya Singh said, "Rahul should have taken the responsibility of leading the Congress in the Lok Sabha. He lacks the temperament to rule."

Digvijaya further said that the Congress VP is someone who wants to fight injustice.    

In his first visit to Tamil Nadu after becoming Prime Minister, Narendra Modi will make a brief stopover here tomorrow enroute to Sriharikota to witness the launch of ISRO's PSLV C-23 rocket.

Modi has no official engagements in the city even as state BJP sources said they have not planned any function for the leader at the airport so far. Security has been beefed up at the airport in view of Modi's visit, police said.

Glowing tributes were paid to former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao today as the new Telangana government celebrated his 93rd birth anniversary as a state function for the first time.

Governor E S L Narasimhan, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, Leader of Opposition K Jana Reddy, a host of ministers, MPs, MLAs, Jnanpeeth awardee C Narayana Reddy and leaders of various parties offered floral tributes to the "son of the soil" at PV Gnana Bhoomi today.

Speaking on the occasion, the governor described the late PM as a "perfect human being" and a man with great ideals. "A leader like P V Narasimha Rao is very rare on the Indian political map. He was a modern Chanakya, a multi-faceted personality and a man with his feet firmly on the ground. He was the father of economic reforms in the country," the governor said.

With the reports of two more deaths from malaria, the death toll of the disease rose to 52 since its outbreak about 20 days ago, Tripura health minister said today.

Two deaths were reported from Kanchanpur sub-division in Norh Tripura district yesterday, Badal Choudhury said.

"A total of 8,984 patients underwent blood tests across the state yesterday, of which 1,674 were diagnosed as malaria positive," he said.

Choudhury, who visited malaria-affected interior villages with a team of doctors said no deaths were reported from Sepahijala, Gomati and Unakoti districts till date and the maximum causalities were reported from tribal-dominated Dhalai district.

CNN-IBN reports: Even as Vice President Hamid Ansari is in China to mark 60 years of the Panchsheel agreement, the Chinese government has stirred a new controversy. China has released a new map showing Arunanchal Pradesh as a part of it.

Read the full report here

The Indian navy has deployed it swarship in the Persian Gulf as the government continues efforts to ensure safety of Indian nationals stranded in Iraq.   

INS Mysore has been deployed in the Persian Gulf as ithas been asked to be on standby by the government after the meeting of the crisis management group yesterday, Navy sources said here.    

The warship has been asked to be remain there and await further instructions, they said.

More than 1,200 employees of a Chinese company have been safely evacuated from the war-torn northern Iraqi city of Samarra and moved to Baghdad, the foreign ministry said today.   

The workers are with the China Machinery Engineering Corporation that is undertaking the construction of a power plant in Iraq's northern province of Salahudin. They had been trapped in Samarra some 120 km to the north of Baghdad.

Five people have been killed and ten injured in a gas leak and blast at Alang ship breaking yard in Gujarat, reports CNN-IBN.

This incident comes a day after a gas pipeline fire in Andhra Pradesh killed 15 people.

More details are awaited.  

B.Tech students protest march against the four-year undergraduate roll back outside ministry of human resource development in New Delhi.

"We want the B.Tech course to remain for four years and the course content to remain the same," said protesting students.

NDTV reports: At the BJP orientation camp being held at a hotel in Surajkund on the border between Delhi and Haryana,  Prime Minister Narendra Modi today spelled out a list of dos and don'ts for the party's over 150 first-time MPs.

"I am also a first-time MP and I am also undergoing training at the Prime Minister's Office," the Modi reportedly said.

Addressing the MPs on ways to behave in Parliament, Modi reportedly stressed on the need to "focus on achar (conduct), vichar (thinking) and vyavahar (behaviour), adding that "parliamentary conduct and decorum has to be maintained in all conditions".

Image: PM Narendra Modi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Urban development minister M Venkaiah Naidu at the BJP camp. Photograph: ANI/Twitter 

An anchor on a US television network found himself in an awkward and embarrassing situation when he remarked that Apple CEO Tim Cook was gay and was among the few American chief executives who have been open about their sexuality.

CNBC co-anchor Simon Hobbs was part of a panel on a show discussing that there are CEOs at top American companies who are gay but have not publicly spoken about their sexual preferences.

Among the panelists was New York Times columnist Jim Stewart who was discussing his upcoming column on oil giant BP's former CEO John Browne. Browne's book, 'The Glass Closet: Why Coming Out Is Good For Business', details his life as a gay executive who hid his sexual orientation and only revealed it after his retirement.

Stewart, who is openly gay, said he had spoken to many CEOs, whom he knew were gay, but who were not willing to go on record about their experience.

Saina Nehwal has entered the final of Australian Super Series final in Sydney on Saturday. Saina defeated World No 2 Wang Shixian of China 21-19, 16-21, 21-15 in the semis, reports NDTV. 

China has reportedly commissioned a "preliminary research study" to build an international rail link connecting its border province of Xinjiang to Pakistan, a contentious project from India's perspective as it runs through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

China has allocated funds for preliminary research on building an international railway connecting its westernmost city of Kashgar in Xinjiang with Pakistan's deep-sea Gwadar Port on the Arabian Sea, state-run China Daily quoted the director of Xinjiang's regional development and reform commission, Zhang Chunlin as saying today.

"The 1,800-km China-Pakistan railway is planned to also pass through Pakistan's capital of Islamabad and Karachi," Zhang said at the two-day International Seminar on the Silk Road Economic Belt being held in Urumqi, Xinjiang's capital.

Armed American drones have started flying over Baghdad to provide additional protection for 180 US military advisers in the area. Until now, US officials had said all drone reconnaissance flights over Iraq were unarmed, reports CNN.

Using the drones for any offensive strikes against insurgent Islamic State in Iraq and Syria fighters would continue to require approval from U.S. President Barack Obama.

Six people haven been reportedly rescued from a building collapse in Delhi's Inder Lok area. Three to four people are still trapped.    

The 49-hour countdown for launch of ISRO's PSLV C23 carrying a French Earth observation satellite along with four others from Singapore, Canada and Germany on June 30, commenced at the spaceport of Sriharikota today.

"The 49 hour countdown of PSLV C23 Mission started at 08:52 am at Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota," ISRO said.

The Launch Authorisation Board, which met yesterday at Sriharikota, cleared the launch, paving the way for the start of the countdown. The launch, originally fixed at 9.49 am on June 30, has been rescheduled for 9.52 am due to the probability of space debris movement during the launch window.

A three-storey building has collapsed in the Inder Lok area of North Delhi this morning. Three to four people are reportedly trapped in the debris.

Fire engines have been rushed to the spot.

The two-day orientation for first time BJP MPs, which is being held at a hotel in Surajkund on the border between Delhi and Haryana, was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi this morning.

The PM will also be the first speaker at the programme. Other BJP A-listers like Home Minister Rajnath Singh, also the party president, will brief the rookies, reports NDTV. 

Vardhan clarifies on ban on sex education in schools 

My mother was told to kill me when I was born: Smriti Irani

How Dawood legally carries out illegal activities

Several killed after major blast at GAIL pipeline in Andhra Pradesh

RCom raises Rs 4,808 cr in share sale to institutional buyers