United States President Donald Trump today scored a major political victory as the Senate passed his administration's $1.5 trillion tax plan, a historic step in tax reform.

The bill lowers tax rates for individuals and families till 2025 and permanently cuts corporate tax rates from 35 per cent to 20 per cent.

The House of Representative has already passed the bill.

The two versions of the bill would now have to be reconciled before it can be sent to the White House for Trump to sign into law.

'Biggest Tax Bill and Tax Cuts in history just passed in the Senate. Now these great Republicans will be going for final passage. Thank you to House and Senate Republicans for your hard work and commitment!' Trump said in a tweet.

'Look forward to signing a final bill before Christmas,' he added.

"The administration looks forward to working with Congress to fulfil the promise we made to deliver historic tax cuts for the American people by the end of the year," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement, adding that the president applauded the Senate for passing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

Passed by the Senate on partisan line of 51-49 votes, the bill also touches other Republican goals, including opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling and repealing the mandate that individuals purchase health insurance, which would punch a sizable hole in the 2010 Affordable Care Act, the Wall Street Journal reported.  -- PTI

United States President Donald Trump today rejected as 'fake news' the media reports of ouster of his Secretary of State Rex Tillerson but acknowledged his disagreements with his top diplomat.

For the past two days, US media has been reporting that the White House has planned to replace Tillerson with the Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo as the new Secretary of State.

Both the White House and the State Department have refuted the reports.

'The media has been speculating that I fired Rex Tillerson or that he would be leaving soon - FAKE NEWS!' Trump said in a tweet.

'He's not leaving and while we disagree on certain subjects, (I call the final shots) we work well together and America is highly respected again!' Trump said as he linked the tweet to the swearing-in of Tillerson in his Oval Office early this year.

Tillerson would be leaving Monday on a three-nation European tour. -- PTI

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav today claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party was an 'expert in fooling people' and said the SP would support the Trinamool Congress and other parties who are fighting for secularism in the country.

He also said the Samajwadi Party would play a major role in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

"We are ready to make sacrifices to strengthen the fight for secularism. We are ready to extend our support to all those who are fighting for secularism.

"And for that we are extending our support to didi (Mamata Banerjee)", he said at the eighth state conference of the SP in Kolkata.

He said the country required leaders who would lead in the fight for secularism.

"The BJP is expert in telling lies. They tell lies in such a manner that people have started believing them. The BJP has lied to the people in the name of demonetisation, in the name of GST, in the name of digital India, in the name of Make in India," he alleged.

The SP chief said the real strength lies in the hands of poor farmers and wondered what the BJP has done for them and the labourers.

He claimed that the GST and demonetisation had taken away their jobs and affected the market.

Yadav said in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the SP would play a major role in fighting the saffron party.

"We will stop the BJP in UP," he said.

Asked about the differences between him and his father, Mulayam Singh Yadav, he said, "We always have with us the blessings of the Netaji (Mulayam). And a father is just like God."  -- PTI

IMAGE: Former UP CM Akhilesh Yadav meets West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee. Photograph: ANI

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi today took to Twitter to question Prime Minister Narendra Modi over low government spending on education in the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Gujarat.

Posing the fourth question in the series 'a question a day', Gandhi asked, 'Why is Gujarat on the 26th position with regard to spending on government education? What wrong has the youth of the state done?'

The Congress leader, who is leading his party's poll campaign in the western state, accused the prime minister of 'commercialising education at the cost of government schools and institutions and hitting students hard with fee hikes'.

'How will the dream of a 'New India' be realised this way,' Gandhi asked Modi, who has been canvassing for votes for his party for the assembly polls.

The tagline of his posers to the prime minister is '22 salon ka hisaab, Gujarat mange jawaab (Gujarat demands answers for 22 years of BJP rule'.

Gandhi earlier asked Modi why public money was 'squandered' in purchasing power at higher rates from private companies in Gujarat.

He also asked why the people of Gujarat should pay up for the 'financial mismanagement' and publicity by him.

He asked whether it will take 45 more years to provide new houses to Gujaratis as the incumbent BJP government in the state has provided only 4.72 lakh houses in the last five years against the promised 50 lakh.  -- PTI

Photograph: PTI Photo

United States Defence Secretary Jim Mattis will visit Pakistan next week as part of a four-nation tour during which he is expected to pressure Islamabad to do more against terrorist groups.

During the tour, Mattis will visit Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan and Kuwait to re-affirm the enduring US' commitment to partnerships in the Middle East, West Africa and South Asia, the Pentagon said.

Mattis would reach Pakistan on December 4, the second such trip after US President Donald Trump announced his South Asia strategy on August 21.

Trump while announcing the strategy had criticised Pakistan for providing safe havens to terrorists.

Pakistan denies sheltering the terrorists, and the issue has emerged as a major irritant to bilateral ties.

During his Pakistan visit, Mattis is expected to meet Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Army Chief Qamar Javed Bajwa.

Early this week, Gen John Nicholson, the commander of the US-led NATO forces in Afghanistan, rued that Pakistan has not been able to carry out the counter terrorism actions which it promised to the Trump administration after the announcement of the new South Asia Strategy. -- PTI

India's second largest IT firm Infosys said today that it has appointed Salil S Parekh as its chief executive officer and managing director.

Parekh, who is joining the company from Capgemini, will take over on January 2, 2018, Infosys said in a statement.

'He (Parekh) has nearly three decades of global experience in the IT services industry. He has a strong track record of executing business turnarounds and managing very successful acquisitions,' said Nandan Nilekani, Chairman of Infosys Board.

The board believes that Parekh is the right person to lead Infosys at this transformative time in the industry, he added.

Previously, Parekh was associated with Capgemini where he was a member of the Group Executive Board.

He has Master of Engineering degrees in Computer Science and Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University, and a Bachelor of Technology degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.

U B Pravin Rao will step down as the interim CEO and Managing Director effective January 2, 2018 and will continue as Chief Operating Officer and a whole-time Director of the company, Infosys said.  -- PTI

The Indian Navy and the Coast Guard continued search for missing fishermen using ships, dornier aircraft and helicopters in the 'rough sea' off Kerala and Lakshadweep in the wake of Cyclone Ockhi.

While INS Nireekshak, INS Jamuna and INS Sagardhwani are continuing search and rescue operations in their designated areas along the coast off Vizhinjam in Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam, two ships INS Shardul and INS Sharda are heading towards Lakshadweep, a defence spokesman said.

The naval ships, which left from the Southern Naval Command in Kochi yesterday, are likely to reach Lakshadweep this evening.

The spokesman said about eight boats from Kerala with 36 people on board are reported to be adrift at sea off Kalpeni island.

"The sea is very rough.. Naval ships moved as soon as we received intimation," he said.

Fifteen fishermen rescued by the Coast Guard are being brought to the Thiruvananthapuram coast, the official said.

Four fishermen were rescued by a Navy chopper this morning, 20 miles off Kochi.

They were taken to a naval clinic here for medical examination. INS Nireekshak rescued two fishermen off Alappuzha coast.

INS Sagardhwani fished out one cadaver, 30 km off Thiruvananthapuram coast.

The ship had earlier found another cadaver. The body has been handed over to the civil administration, he said.

Indian Coast Guard ship Samar rescued a fishing boat with five crew members on board, the spokesman said.

He said one of the crew in an advanced light helicopter was wounded while assisting fishermen trapped in the sea off Kerala coast.

The crew member, V K Verma, suffered hand injury caused by the winch wire.

He, however, continued 'heroically' to help the fishermen to be rescued, before himself being winched up, the spokesman said.

Verma has been admitted to a hospital in Thiruvananthapuram.

The 'very severe' cyclonic storm Ockhi -- which in Bengali means 'eye' -- is likely to continue to move west- northwestwards across Lakshadweep islands during the next 24 hours and then recurve northeastwards during the subsequent 48 hours, a Met department bulletin said.  -- PTI

IMAGE: Destruction by Cyclone Okchi in Kochi. Photograph: ANI

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is in Surat today. Addressing the media, he said Gujarat is a very important region for the Bharatiya Janata Party because 'we have been winning and serving here more than two decades'.

"During 80s politics of social polarisation was rampant here. The region got rid of that under the BJP government and we have been constantly trying to take it on the path to development," Jaitley told reporters in Surat.

Referring to the previous United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre, he said, "The 10 years of governance before (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi ji's government was the most corrupt government we have ever seen."

"It was a leaderless government. It was said that the then PM is a PM in office but not in power," Jaitley said.

"Foreign investments had completely stopped at a point in India. Today, we have come up by 42 positions in the World ranking of ease of doing business," he added.

He said while the BJP has maintained its credibility, the Congress is slowly becoming extinct.

"In the 1990s, the (economic) reforms were taken under compulsion but the government under PM Modi is undertaking the reforms by conviction," Jaitley said.

On opposition parties' allegations of tampering with the electronic voting machine, he said, "The results haven't been out yet and they have already started making excuses for their defeat."

He also said that the BJP has always been seen as a 'pro-Hindutva' party.

"So if an original is available why one would prefer a clone?" he said, apparently referring to Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi's temple visits in the state.

On the Padmavati controversy, Jaitley said 'it's a matter of Censor Board. Let them take a decision'. -- ANI

A United States Navy veteran charged with killing an Indian techie and injuring two others in a racially motivated hate crime at a bar in Kansas City early this year has pleaded not guilty.

Adam Purinton, 52, was charged with first-degree murder in the February shooting in Olathe that killed 32-year-old Srinivas Kuchibhotla.

He also faces two counts of attempted first-degree murder for wounding two other men.

During a preliminary hearing on Friday, Purinton pleaded 'not guilty'.

He waived his preliminary hearing and the not guilty plea was entered on his behalf. The next hearing is scheduled for May 8.

He faces a maximum penalty of death or life in prison.

Federal prosecutors allege that Purinton targeted Kuchibhotla and another Indian man, Alok Madasani, because of their race or ethnicity.

The third man was shot when tried to help the two victims.

Witnesses said Purinton yelled at the two Indian men to 'get out of my country' before pulling the trigger.

After the shooting, Purinton drove 70 miles east to an Applebee's restaurant in Clinton, Missouri, where he told a bartender what he'd done.

Kuchibhotla was working at Garmin International.

Federal prosecutors alleged that Purinton committed the offences after substantial planning and premeditation, attempted to kill more than one person in a single criminal episode, and knowingly created a grave risk of death to others on the scene.  -- PTI

IMAGE: Srinivas Kuchibhotla with his wife Sunayana Dumala. Photograph: Facebook

Several houses suffered damage, coconut trees got uprooted and communication lines were disrupted as rains accompanied by strong winds lashed the Lakshadweep islands under the influence of Cyclone Ockhi.

Five fishing boats were damaged early today at Kalpeni island as water level rose due to heavy rains, sources said.

The 'very severe' cyclonic storm Ockhi -- which in Bengali means 'eye' -- over Lakshadweep is likely to intensify further in the next 24 hours.

It is likely to continue to move west-northwestwards across Lakshadweep islands during the next 24 hours and then recurve north eastwards during the subsequent 48 hours, according to the latest Met department bulletin.

Minicoy island received 14cm of rains in the last 24 hours ending at 08.30 this morning, Met department sources said.

Coconut trees have been uprooted in various places and houses damaged in eastern Kalpeni and Minicoy, official sources said, adding the extent of the damage was being assessed.

The breakwater jetty, the embarkation and disembarkation point to Kalpeni island have suffered severe damage.

Efforts were on to rescue fishermen who had ventured into the sea in 12 fishing boats from Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

Gale winds with speed reaching 120-130 kmph gusting to145 kmph is very likely over Lakshadweep in the next 24 hours and gradually decrease thereafter, the met bulletin said.

Giant waves were expected along the Kerala coast, official sources said.

Yesterday, 218 fishermen, stranded in mid-sea off thecoast were brought safely to the shore through active coordination of various agencies including the Navy, the Air Force and the Coast Guard.

The rescued fishermen included 60 who were saved by a Japanese cargo vessel.  -- PTI

IMAGE: Destruction caused by strong winds and high tides under the influence of Cyclone Ockhi in Lakshadweep on Saturday. Photograph: ANI

A special team of the Enforcement Directorate will interrogate former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi in Patna in connection with the IRCTC hotel scam, today.

Rabri's son Tejashwi was interrogated by ED for eight and half hours on October 10.

He was questioned about money laundering in the railway hotel allotment case as the agency was unsatisfied with the earlier probe.

The investigative agency had, in July, registered a corruption case against Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Yadav, his wife Rabri Devi, son Tejashwi, Sarla Gupta, wife of Prem Chand Gupta, Vijay Kochar and Vinay Kochar, both directors of Messer's Sujata Hotel Private Limited, Messer's Delight Marketing Private Limited, P K Goel, the then managing directors, IRCTC and others under Section 120B read with Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 13(2) read with Section 13(1)d Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 in connection with the case.  -- ANI

Veteran Congress leader P Chidambaram, a vocal critic of the BJP-led government at the Centre, took to Twitter today to make a stinging remark a day after the BJP won the UP local body polls.