Barack Obama may be the first US President to attend the Republic Day parade but he is not the first American leader to be invited for this event, according to a former Indian diplomat.      

Japan says it is seeking to verify a video that claims Japanese hostage Haruna Yukawa, held by Islamic State militants, has been killed.Prime Minister Shinzo Abe denounced the video as "absurd and unforgivable", following an emergency cabinet meeting.

One of ISIS' two Japanese hostages has been killed after a deadline for ransom passed, and the terror group has issued a new demand for the other's freedom -- a prisoner exchange -- a video posted online Saturday by a known ISIS supporter purports to show.

The video appears to show a static image of surviving Japanese hostage Kenji Goto, dressed in orange, holding a photo of what appears to be beheaded compatriot Haruna Yukawa.

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According to reports, spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has declined the Padma award.

A US brewery that drew flak over its use of Mahatma Gandhi's name and images on beer cans today agreed to drop them from its bottles, terming it as the "right move" in the wake of complaints by the Indian-American community. 

In an effort to woo young voters, BJP will set up around 2,500 'Selfie with Modi' booths across Delhi where people will be able to click their photos with a "virtual Narendra Modi".

Yoga guru Ramdev has declined any Padma award for him reportedly being considered by central government on the occasion of 66th Republic Day.

In a letter to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, he referred to media reports that the Government was considering his name for Padma Vibushan, the second highest civilian award but felt that as an "ascetic" he should refrain from getting "rewards or honours".

Ramdev requested the Home Minister instead to select some other personality for the award.

After enduring wounds from being struck 50 times, a Saudi blogger has been given a reprieve in receiving another 50 lashes this Friday, said Amnesty International.

Boko Haram gunmen killed 15 people including a village leader near Maiduguri, the heartland of the Islamist group blamed for thousands of deaths in its six-year insurgency, security sources and residents said today. 

US President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama left for for India today.

The first couple boarded the president's personal plane, the Air Force One, from Andrews Air Base on early Saturday morning.

Obama will be attending the Republic Day celebrations as the official chief guest of India. Security has been heightened in light of his arrival.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron described the Indo-British ties as "a partnership between equals" in his special message to India ahead of the country's 65th Republic Day. "As millions of people mark this important milestone, we can reflect on the enduring and special relationship between our two nations," said a statement from his Downing Street office. "This relationship has gone through great changes. Our collaboration is now stronger, deeper and more far-reaching. It is a partnership between two equals with a mutual respect for each other," the statement said.

Liberia said today it had just five remaining cases of Ebola, confirming it was close to eradicating an epidemic which has left thousands dead. The worst outbreak of the virus in history has seen the west African nation and its neighbours Guinea and Sierra Leone register almost 9,000 deaths in a year, although experts believe the real toll could be far higher. "We have five confirmed Ebola cases in Liberia as of today," assistant health minister Tolbert Nyensuwah said. 

A crowded open-air market in Ukraine's strategically important coastal city of Mariupol came under rocket fire this morning, killing at least 10 people, regional police said. Mariupol lies on the Azov Sea and is the major city between mainland Russia and the Russia-annexed Crimean Peninsula. Heavy fighting in the region in the autumn raised fears that Russian-backed separatist forces would try to establish a land link between Russia and Crimea.

The White House has issued a statement saying that US President Barack Obama regrets the cancellation of his visit to the Taj Mahal during his three-day visit to India. 

When an important guest is on his way over, it is common practice to sweep up one's odds and ends and hide them all in the back room. So it was in New Delhi this week.

Islamic State has published a list of punishments ranging from 80 lashes for drinking alcohol and losing a hand for theft, to death for committing blasphemy. The Sharia code of conduct will be enforced in areas under its control which now covers large swathes of Iraq and Syria. Those who commit adultery will be stoned to death if the adulterer was married and lashed 100 times and exiled if he or she was unmarried. Those engaged in sodomy (homosexuality) will be sentenced to death, along with those who 'spy for the unbelievers'. Those who steal 'as part of banditry' will have their right hand and left leg cut off, and the punishment for terrorising people is exile.

Ahead of the February 7 polls in New Delhi, the Aam Aadmi Party has released a new poster pitching their chief ministerial candidate 'honest' Arvind Kejriwal against Bharatiya Janata Party's 'ooportunistic' Kiran Bedi. 

An indignant letter written by a Titanic survivor to a friend in New York sold at auction this week for $11,875 (Rs 7.29 lakh), according to RR Auction in Boston. The remarks were written on Lady Lucy Duff-Gordon's personal letterhead and dated May 27, 1912 -- six weeks after HMS Titanic struck an iceberg and sank on its maiden voyage -- seem to indicate that she and her husband, Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon, didn't receive such a warm welcome home after their rescue.

Ahead of US President Barack Obama's visit, the General Officer Commanding of the Army's 15 Corps Lt General Subrata Saha has said that 150-160 militants are waiting across the Line of Control to infiltrate into India. "There are 17 launchpads and 150 to 160 militants across the Line of Control waiting for infiltration," Lt General Saha said today. There is a nationwide security alert ahead of US President Barack Obama's visit to India which begins tomorrow.

When they meet, the core challenge before Narendra Modi and Barack Obama will be how best to harness their personal and national goodwill towards each other for positive outcomes that relate to the concerns of the common people.

Indonesian salvage teams today launched an operation to raise the fuselage of AirAsia Flight 8501 from the sea bed as they recovered four more bodies from the wreckage of the crashed jet. The bid came a day after divers were able to enter the main section of the jet, which crashed in the Java Sea last month, for the first time.

Even though they haven't received an approval for their radio licence, Uber cabs are back on Delhi streets. The cab service had been banned in the capital after a driver was arrested for raping a woman passenger.

Former Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal has apparently not been invited for the Republic Day parade, where US President Barack Obama will be the chief guest. 

Pakistan President Mamnoon Hussain has decided to confer Tamgha-i-Shujaat on 145 students and staff members of the Army Public School in Peshawar who were killed in a terrorist attack December 16. A meeting chaired by the president decided that the civil award would be conferred on the principal, teachers, other staffers and students of the school who were killed by the terrorists.

JUST IN: According to sources within the ministry of external affairs, US President Barack Obama and wife Michelle might skip their visit to the Taj Mahal, which was scheduled for Tuesday, January 27. 

Bharatiya Janata Party's chief ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi today interacted with residents of Krishna Nagar in Delhi ahead of the February 7 polls. Speaking to the people, she said that one should not take money from anyone and one should not be lured by such statements, in an apparent dig at AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal who had a few days ago said that voters should take money from the BJP and Congress, but vote for the AAP. 

With 11 swine flu deaths and 250 cases in January, Telangana is the worst hit state in the country. Alarmed with the situation, the Telangana government is putting effort in to control and treat swine flu cases in the state. To prevent the spread of the disease, the government is even advising people to say no to handshakes and hugs and only say 'Namaste' to greet people. The government is reaching out to people and creating awareness about preventive measures. "We are telling people to avoid body contact that can handshake or even hugs as they can get infected," said Dr Narendra Nath, Director, NIMS, government appointed spokesperson for swine flu.

The Hindu Mahasabha has accused Bollywood actors Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan and Saif Ali Khan of love jihad and said that if the stars truly loved their wives, they would convert to Hinduism. The latest attack came in their publication -- Hindu Sabha Varta. The article also targets Fardeen Khan and Emraan Hashmi for marrying Hindu women.

Contradictory signals from the Congress on Janardan Dwivedi's statement linking Narendra Modi's election win to a "triumph of Indian-ness" have brought to the open the churning within the party following its worst ever poll defeat last year. 

With just three days left for United States President Barack Obama to visit Taj Mahal on Tuesday, the Archaeological Survey of India is yet to receive any formal intimation of the visit. ASI Additional Director General B R Mani confirmed that the agency hasn't received any information yet from either the ministry of culture or the ministry of external affairs, regarding Obama's visit to the Taj. 

It is a 'genuine honour' for US President Barack Obama to be the chief guest at the Republic Day parade and witness India's national day celebrations firsthand, the White House has said.

For what is likely to be the last time, a large number of the survivors of the Nazi concentration camps at Auschwitz will gather next week under an expansive tent, surrounded by royalty and heads of state, to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the liberation of those held there at the end of World War II.

The mayor of Winnipeg was surrounded by indigenous people as he spoke to the press Thursday -- the same day his city was declared the most racist in Canada.

China has now developed and tested its first stealth fighter jet, the J-20. The US is the only other country in the world to have a stealth fighter.

At least five policemen and a woman were injured when a bomb planted in a vehicle went off in restive Alf Maskan area here, an official statement has said.

A big asteroid will fly by Earth on Monday, but NASA says don't worry -- we'll be safe.The asteroid is called 2004 BL86. It'll come about 1.2 million kilometers from earth, or about three times as far away as the moon.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Google guru Eric Schmidt gave an answer regarding the evolution of the web. "I will answer very simply that the internet will disappear,' Schmidt said on Thursday.

We're three minutes from Doomsday. Have you updated your will? Oh, right, that won't matter anymore.For more than 60 years, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has been keeping track of just how close we are to the end of it all. 

Mild tremors were felt in south Hyderabad late tonight. The quake, with a magnitude of 1.8 on the Richter Scale, was felt late in the night, according to the National Geophysical Research Institute observatory.

A leader of pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region said Friday he is not interested in a truce with the Ukrainian government in Kiev because his troops are on the offensive.

A number of terror groups are functioning with impunity in parts of Pakistan, the White House today said, as it stated that the US values counter- terrorism co-operation with India.  

For the first time, Indonesian divers have been able to enter the fuselage of the AirAsia jetliner that crashed last month into the Java Sea and retrieved six bodies, an official said.

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