Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is addressing the United Nations General Assembly.

Describing America as India's "natural global partner", Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in New York today on a five-day visit to the US, holding out an assurance that India is "open and friendly" for business and innovations.

Alright then, look who's in New York during Modi week!

@quizderek In New York to spend pujo with the wife.Some exciting concerts over next few days at Madison Square Garden: Enrique & Billy Joel...wink:)

That folks, is TMC MP Derek O'Brien's handle.

And the countdown begins. Maharashtra CM Prithviraj Chavan resigns. He has submitted his resignation to governor CV Rao. Earlier in the day, the BJP had met the governor calling for President's rule in the state after the NCP pulled out from the coalition government in the state. 

Loved this one, courtesy, @news_houndz  

The White House wants the Kurds to help save Iraq from ISIS. The Kurds may be more interested in breaking away. Read

Narendra Modi's friends in New York and New Jersey travel down memory lane and remember a simple man with great ambition.
Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com tracks down the Modi bhakts, who knew since his first visit in 1993 that he was destined for bigger things. Read

Just in: Flights grounded at both Chicago airports after fire at air traffic control centre.

When India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives in the US on Friday, some will be watching what he does to tighten ties between the world's two most populous democracies. Others will be watching what he wears. Read

Even as the Shiv Sena parted ways with the BJP in Maharashtra, breaking a 25-year-long alliance, Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray made two phone calls. He called his estranged cousin and political rival, Raj Thackeray, reports NDTV.

Yesterday, the Sena-BJP alliance ended over the number seats to be contested in the upcoming Maharashtra polls and over who would be the state's next chief minister.

The calls were made last week, say reports, even as things were coming undone with the BJP. But NDTV reports that "there was nothing political" about the the calls and that the cousins talked of Raj's health.

The MNS chief was reportedly down with malaria.  

The co-creator of the famous Asterix cartoons, Albert Uderzo, has ended a seven-year legal battle with his daughter amicably, French media report. Read

Just in: BCCI appoints Ravi Shastri as the Director of Indian cricket team till 2015 ICC World Cup.

We are talking to leaders of both (BJP and SS) parties, will see how many seats each of them offer us and then decide, Ramdas Athavale, RPI.

After NCP parted ways from the Congress in Maharashtra, the party has moved ahead to align with the Samajwadi Party for the upcoming state assembly elections.

Samajwadi Party spokesman Abdul Qadir Chaudhary on Friday said that Abu Asim Azmi, the state SP chief, met Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and Congress President Manikrao Thakare on Thursday night and decided to finalise the new alliance.He said Samajwadi Party will contest eight seats in alliance in Congress.

Argentine artists Marianela Perelli and Pool Paolini's depiction of the classic Barbie doll as Kali, has angered Hindu clerics.

The Kali Barbie is part of an exhibition series called "Barbie - The Plastic Religion,", which is set to open in Buenos Aires on October 11.

The artists will present various avatars of Barbie, and her male companion Ken.

A photograph of the "Kali-Barbie" on the artists' website shows this doll holding up a severed head and the toy box has a symbol of Om and "Jai Kali Ma" in Hindi printed on it.

Rajan Zed, a Hindu cleric and notable interfaith leader who has led a prayer in the US Senate said, "Hindus welcome the art world to immerse in Hinduism, but taking it seriously and respectfully and not for refashioning Hinduism concepts and symbols for personal agendas. Barbie-fication of Kali is simply improper, wrong and out of place."

Indian swimmer Sandeep Sejwal wins bronze medal in 50m breaststroke event of the Asian Games.

During his visit to the U.S., Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has plans for a private dinner with President Barack Obama and lunch with Vice President Joe Biden. There's one complication. He won't be eating.  Read

In an opinion column in The Wall Street Journal before he arrives in the U.S. today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his country was ready for rapid, responsible economic development, promised to abolish redundant red tape to make doing business here easier and described the US as India's "natural global partner."  Read 

Can Indian tycoon Subrata Roy sell New York's Plaza Hotel and get out of jail? Read

Pankaja Munde (BJP) files nomination from Beed. Pankaja who is the daughter of the late Gopinath Munde said it was sad that the alliance has ended, but polls can't be ignored. "I will contest with full force," she said. 

NCP chief Sharad Pawar on the end of the 15-year alliance with the Congress: "So our party has decided to contest this election independently and we will be happy to take support from other secular parties. Due to time constraint and other issues, we were compelled to take bold step to end 15 years of alliance with the Congress in Maharashtra. I would like to say that there were significant differences arises between our party and Congress on various critical issues."

In what came as a shock for the Indian fans, star shuttlers Saina Nehwal and Parupalli Kashyap fell by the wayside as the two lost their respective women's and men's singles matches to bow out of the 17th Asian Games here today.

BJP leader Eknath Khadse meets Maharashtra Governor C Vidyasagar Rao, demands dismissal of the minority Congress government and imposition of President's Rule.

"Where's the tiger?" Dhananjay Taneja asked keepers at the Delhi zoo where a white tiger mauled a young man to death on Tuesday.

Dhananjay, aged 11 from Uttar Pradesh, was among a surge of visitors to the zoo after video footage of the fatal attack beamed onto Indian television screens. Read more

Maharashtra governor is likely to write to the home ministry seeking advice on whether President's rule should be imposed in the state. The NCP withdrew support from the Congress-led ruling coalition in the state yesterday.

The BJP met Maharashtra Governor CV Rao and requested him to impose President Rule in the state. 

PM Modi leaves his hotel in Frankfurt for the next leg of his journey to the US. This is the itinerary he will be keeping...

Sept. 26
Meeting with New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Sept. 27
9/11 memorial visit
UN General Assembly address
Bilateral meeting with Prime Ministers of Bangladesh and Nepal and President of Sri Lanka
Meeting with former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg
Meeting with leading Indian Americans and non-resident Indians
Global Citizens' Festival at Central Park

Sept. 28
Meeting with governors of New York and South Carolina states
Madison Square Garden address to Indian diaspora and meeting with select group of Indian Americans
Meeting with representatives of Sikh communities in the U.S. and Canada and representatives of the American Jewish community
Dinner hosted by the Indian ambassador to the US, S Jaishankar

Sept. 29
Breakfast meeting with top executives from 11 multinationals, including Google, PepsiCo and MasterCard, followed by individual meetings with top executives from another six companies, including Boeing, IBM and General Electric.
Meeting with members of  the Council for Foreign Relations in New York
Meeting with Bill and Hillary Clinton
Private dinner with President Obama

Sept. 30
Visit to Memorial of Martin Luther King Jr, Lincoln Memorial and Mahatama Gandhi Statue
U.S-India Business Council reception
Lunch with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry
Meeting with Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives John Boehner and the House Leadership
Meeting with Governor of Maryland Martin O'Malley
Bilateral meeting with President Obama

The Narendra Modi government yesterday launched the 'Swachh Bharat Mission'  with two sub-missions - 'Swachh Bharat Mission' (rural) and 'Swachh Bharat Mission' (urban). Union ministers like Ravi Shankar Prasad and Smriti Irani wielded the jhaadu to flag off the mission. And in doing so, probably inadvertently, usurped the AAP's symbol -- the jhaadu -- and it's relevance in Indian politics.

That's the cartoon on the Hindu today.

With 35 engagements planned over five days, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the United States will be a whirl of events. He will take centrestage in Madison Square Garden and Central Park, not to mention the world stage at the United Nations General Assembly, and meet, albeit fleetingly, dozens of leaders on his maiden official visit to the US.  Read

Amid moves by Pakistan to rake up the Kashmir issue at the UNGA session, India is likely to exercise its right to reply on the matter.

Earlier, Pakistan had said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif would again highlight the Kashmir issue in his address to the UN General Assembly (UNGA) today while ruling out resumption of any dialogue with India unless New Delhi takes the initiative in this regard. Pakistan's Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry said here that there is "no reason" for Sharif not to raise the subject of Kashmir during his address.

The right to reply will be exercised by a senior official of India's Permanent Mission to the United Nations.

'The threat that India faces and the threat the United States faces is not just to the homeland, but to our people and to our institutions wherever they may be.' In an exclusive conversation with Aziz Haniffa/Rediff.com, US Assistant Secretary of State Nisha Desai Biswal outlines the importance of Prime Minister Modi's visit for America. Read

As Prime Minister Narendra Modi begins his historic visit of the United States of America, here's a look at some landmark visits by Indian prime ministers to the United States of America.  Read

Former DG police in Punjab, KPS Gill's piece on the Supreme Court's guidelines on police encounters.

"The Supreme Court's order defining guidelines for encounter fatalities has been a long time coming -- the appeal was first filed in 1999. But it is a critical reiteration of the law at a time when there has been a tremendous deterioration in the top leadership of the police." Read 

To promote his film Bang Bang, Hrithik Roshan started challenging celebrities like Priyanka Chopra, Dino Morea, Uday Chopra, Dabboo Ratnani to do quirky dares. E.g. he challenged Priyanka Chopra to do a headstand with pushups, Dino Morea for a 20 parallel bar dips etc.

It was all ho hum, until he challenged Ranveer Singh. See what happened

Doordarshan correspondent visits New Jersey based Rajbhog sweets where 15-20,000 Modi mix packets are being prepared for the Madison Square venue of Narendra Modi's address in New York.

Rajbhog Sweets and Deep Foods, two of the top companies in America specialising in packaged Indian food, will distribute 20,000 packets of food each, outside Madison Square Garden in Manhattan on September 28, handing it out to people who stream out of the venue after attending the public reception for the Indian PM.

The rules of MSG don't allow food to be handed inside the venue. Four large trucks will be stationed at streets outside, with workers and volunteers positioned on seventh and eighth avenues, handing over the packets, even to passersby, reports American Bazaar.

The packet by Rajbhog Sweets will contain a chivda and a barfi, while Deep Fried Foods will offer dry bhel.

Crucial decision in Jayalalithaa wealth case tomorrow; Amma will have to quit CM post if convicted.

As the countdown begins for the verdict in the 18 year-old disproportionate assets case against AIADMK supremo and Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, political parties are keenly watching what the special court in Bangalore has in store for the 66-year-old leader tomorrow.

Anxiety prevails in the AIADMK, where workers and office-bearers are waiting for the D-Day for their 'Amma' (Mother), even as they maintain that she will weather yet another storm in her political life.

They insist that the case was "foisted" by DMK due to political vendetta after its triumph in the 1996 elections and point out to the fact that she has come out unscathed in some other cases filed against her. 

Asserting that there is a 'high tide of hope for change' in India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that the country will be open and friendly for business and ideas to make it a new global manufacturing hub. Read

The US State Department and other lobbies who denied Modi a visa when he was chief minister of Gujarat, says one organiser of the Madison Square Garden event, will get a clear idea of what kind of "force" is behind Modi in America.

Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com meets the people behind the event in New York and finds out what's in store for Sunday's show.  Read

The Indian diaspora in the US is willing to go to any extent to watch Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address at Madison Square Garden here on Sunday with several people who were denied the most sought after ticket now willing to be volunteers.

"I was not there at the time of Swami Vivekananda. I did not see Sardar Patel. I do not want to miss the chance of seeing or watching live the greatest leaders of India of our times," Palak Jain, an Atlanta-based software engineer who is among the thousands of Indian Americans who failed to get the ticket, said.

"I wish, I get a glimpse of the Prime Minister, or else, I would watch it at the Times Square," said Jain who left India as a student some 15 years ago.The Indo-American Community Federation (IACF) which is organising the event said that every day it is receiving hundreds of emails, letters and phone calls from people across the US and even from Canada for a ticket to the most coveted event for the Indian diaspora.

All the 18,000 tickets - 96 per cent of which have been provided free of cost after a computerised draw of lots - were booked weeks in advance.

SBI ATM, Mint Road, Fort, Mumbai, broken and all cash looted by burglars who came through the gutter below late night.

Ishrat lost her second son on Tuesday when Maqsood was mauled to death by a tiger at the Delhi zoo. Read

Pakistan today successfully test-fired short range surface-to-surface missile 'Hatf IX' that has a range of 60 kilometres and can cover parts of India. The test of the missile also called Nasr was conducted with successive launches of four missiles from a state-of-the-art Multi Tube Launcher with Salvo Mode, the military said.

After the buzz over India's mission to Mars and the Prime Minister's high-decibel Make-in-India, both meant to be showcases of the nation's engineering talent, here is the latest, grim reminder of the quality of freshly minted engineers:

-- While 97% want jobs either in software or core engineering, only 3% are good enough to be engineers in software/product roles, and only 7% can handle core engineering tasks.

-- Only 11% find jobs in knowledge-intensive sectors because their English skills are poor (74%), as are their analytical or quantitative skills (58%).

- A student from a tier-3 college will get Rs 66,000 per annum less than a student of equal merit from a tier-1 college. Read more

What Modi can accomplish in the US and why he is unlikely to succeed. Siddharth Varadarajan on what lies ahead. Read

Gujarat-based Rajesh Muliya creates a sand sculpture on Modi's US visit.

We hear you! ISRO's Mars Orbiter tweets: @MarsOrbiter The bravest of us all @NASAVoyager, having ventured out the farthest. We're here for you.

The term, 'bamboo curtain', has today fallen into complete disuse. Yet, until the post- Mao Zedong succession struggle was conclusively resolved in favour of the reformist Deng Xiaoping in 1978, China was a closed society and, indeed, a mystery that professional China-watchers tried to solve with an imperfect mixture of information, ideology and conjecture.

Swapan Dasgupta's piece for the Telegraph today. Read

Falling for the fourth straight session, the benchmark BSE Sensex fell by another 102 points in early trade today on persistent capital outflows amidst a weak global trend.

The 30-share barometer, which had lost 738.38 points in the previous three sessions, fell by 102.96 points, or 0.38 per cent, to trade at one-month low of 26,365.40.

All the sectoral indices, led by consumer durables, FMCG, healthcare, banking and capital goods, were trading in negative territory with losses about up to 0.99 per cent. Similarly, the National Stock Exchange index Nifty fell by 27.00 points, or 0.34 per cent, to 7,884.85.

The Jayalalithaa government in Tamil Nadu has added cement in its list of subsidised items. The state already has subsidized salt, canteens, seeds, medicines and most recently grooming kits for newborns made available at heavily discounted rates. The 'Amma Cement Scheme' will sell cement at low rates.

Vinod Mehta's piece for the Economic Times that has ensured he's trending on Twitter.

On how Indians love the people of the US, but is the reverse also true?

Read

When the crowded command control room of India's Mars mission exploded into applause after it successfully put a satellite into orbit around the Red Planet, photographer Manjunath Kiran of the AFP news agency clicked this remarkable image of scientists congratulating each other.  Read more

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj raised the issue of early reform of the UN Security Council during her meetings with counterparts from China and the IBSA and G4 blocs, saying that concerted efforts should be made to complete the reform process by 2015, coinciding with the 70th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations.

Swaraj held back-to-back meetings on the second day of her visit to New York, holding bilateral talks with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, Brazilian Foreign Minister Luis Alberto Figueiredo Machado and Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmud Ali on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

She participated in multilateral meetings with the foreign ministers of Brazil, Germany and Japan in the G4 bloc, Commonwealth foreign ministers, SAARC, IBSA (India, Brazil, South Africa), BRICS and Latin American countries in the CELAC quartet.

Devendra Fadnavis, Maharashtra BJP President says the party is confident that the 'Mahayuti' will get a clear majority. He will be filing his nomination as a representative of the Mahayuti. Fadnavis says the BJP will not ally with the NCP at any cost.

Pakistan "spoilt the game" by engaging with Kashmiri separatists before talks between the two countries last month, Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj told reporters in New York on Thursday.

"The new government has given a new signal. So they spoilt the talks, they spoilt the game," Swaraj said after meeting with foreign ministers of Brazil and South Africa on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session. Read more

The Shiv Sena said today that it will not declare its list of candidates for the October 15 Maharashtra polls. It has asked the candidates to file their nominations directly.

The moves comes after the BJP severed its 25-year-old alliance with the Sena over seat sharing in the state. 

Launching a scathing attack on its former ally, Shiv Sena today dubbed those who broke the25-year-old alliance as "enemies of Maharashtra."   

"Our other (Mahayuti) alliance parties wanted the Sena-BJP combine to continue. More than that, it was what the11 crore people of Maharashtra wanted. Those who trampled these sentiments are enemies of Maharashtra," Sena said.   

"This (breaking of alliance) is an insult to the 105 Marathi martyrs of the Samyukta Maharashtra movement," an editorial in Sena mouthpiece Saamana said. "It is unfortunate that the Sena-BJP alliance which for the last 25 years was bound by the Hindutva ideology has ended," the Sena said.

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif would raise the Kashmir issue in his address to the UN General Assembly today, the government said while ruling out resumption of any dialogue with India unless the initiative in this regard is taken by New Delhi.

Pakistan's Foreign Secretary Ajaz Ahmad Chaudhry told reporters in New York that there was "no reason" for Sharif not to raise the issue of Kashmir during his address to the annual session of United Nations General Assembly this afternoon.

An United States court has issued summons against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his alleged role in Gujarat during the 2002 riots when he was chief minister of the state.

The federal court in New York's summons comes hours before Modi is supposed to start off his five-day US trip, which comes after a nine-year visa ban, reports India Today.

The lawsuit, filed by the American Justice Centre, a non-profit organisation identified among the plaintiffs "two survivors of the horrific and organised violence of Gujarat 2002", and called for a response from Modi based on the Alien Tort Claims Act and the Torture Victim Protection Act.

Reports said the summons issued by the federal court of southern district of New York requires the PM to respond within 21 days after it is served.

Asserting that there is a "high tide of hope for change" in India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that the country will be open and friendly for business and ideas to make it a new global manufacturing hub.

"We will create world-class infrastructure that India badly needs to accelerate growth and meet people's basic needs. We will make our cities and towns habitable, sustainable and smart; and we will make our villages the new engines of economic transformation," Modi said.

"'Make in India' is our commitment  and an invitation to all to turn India into a new global manufacturing hub. We will do what it takes to make it a reality," he wrote in an op-ed article in The Wall Street Journal.

Modi said India will pursue its dreams in partnership with its international friends. "History tells us that India's natural instinct is to be open to the world. India will be open and friendly for business, ideas, research, innovations and travel," Modi said.

French fighter jets struck Islamic State targets in Iraq on Thursday, and the United States hit them in Syria, as a U.S.-led coalition to fight the militants gained momentum with an announcement that Britain would join.

US and New York officials strongly downplayed a claim Thursday by the Iraqi prime minister that his country uncovered a plot to attack subways in New York and Paris.

A US-Russian space crew has blasted off successfully for the International Space Station. The Russian Soyuz-TMA14M spacecraft lifted off as scheduled at 2:25 am (local time) today from the Russian-leased Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan. It's carrying NASA astronaut Barry Wilmore along with Russians Alexander Samokutyaev and Elena Serova for a six-month stint at the station.

Indonesia's parliament voted today to scrap the direct elections of local officials in what critics say is a blow to the country's democracy. The bill is supported by a coalition of parties whose candidate was narrowly defeated in July's presidential elections.

President Barack Obama raised the fate of jailed journalists in Egypt and his concerns over political repression in his first meeting with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, US officials said. Obama and Sisi met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, as Washington and Cairo gingerly seek common ground after a period of turmoil sparked by the toppling by Sisi, a former army chief, of Egypt's first elected president, Islamist Mohamed Morsi, last year.

Militants with the Islamic State group tortured and then publicly killed a human rights lawyer in the Iraqi city of Mosul after their self-proclaimed religious court ruled that she had abandoned Islam, the UN mission in Iraq said today. 

Militants with the Islamic State group tortured and then publicly killed a human rights lawyer in the Iraqi city of Mosul after their self-proclaimed religious court ruled that she had abandoned Islam, the UN mission in Iraq said today. 

The United States has identified the masked Islamic State militant who murdered two kidnapped American journalists in separate videotaped beheadings, FBI chief James Comey said today. 

Leaders of the world's most developed economies today warned Russia of more sanctions unless all fighting stops in Ukraine and vowed to stand by the war-torn country as winter approaches. 

US police have reached a USD 1.5 million settlement with a black woman who was repeatedly punched by a cop in a video filmed by a passerby, her lawyer said today. 

An Arab-backed resolution singling out Israel for special attention over its alleged nuclear arsenal was defeated today at an annual conference of the UN atomic agency. Nations meeting at the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) general conference voted 58-45 against the resolution, while 27 abstained.

The chief U.S. negotiator at nuclear talks with Iran said in an exclusive interview with VOA's Persian Service on Thursday that optimism for a final deal remains. 

American and coalition warplanes will continue to target the sources of revenue for the Islamic State after hitting 12 small oil refineries in eastern Syria overnight Thursday, Pentagon officials said, in the continuing effort to degrade the ability of the Sunni militant group to fund and carry out its operations.

A powerful earthquake shook up a large swath of Alaska, including the state's largest city. The West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning center says the quake had a 6.1 magnitude. 

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani wavered between criticism and engagement in a speech to the UN today, slamming Western blunders in the Middle East but signalling commitment to securing a deal on nuclear power.