A S Kashyap

Congress Party activists, who staged a protest outside External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s residence in Central Delhi on Monday, repeatedly demanded her resignation over her role in facilitating the clearance of travel documents for former IPL chief Lalit Modi and urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make his stand clear on the issue.

“This is a clear case of treason with the nation. The Prime Minister, who used to make tall claims saying that he will neither eat nor let others eat, is distributing the country’s money with his both hands,” said a protester.

Asserting that the collective credibility of all politicians and political parties is at stake over the implementation of One Rank, One Pension scheme, Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh on Monday asked whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi would show courage on the issue or it would another U-turn.

“One rank one pension is a commitment made to Defence Personnel by both UPA and NDA Govts,” tweeted Singh.

“Can’t go back on it.Collective Credibility of all Politicians & Political Parties at stake. Would PM show courage or it is another U Turn?” he added.

Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin produced a magical spell and was ably assisted by Harbhajan Singh before the rain-affected lone Test between India and Bangladesh ended in a draw here on Sunday.

Resuming at an overnight position of 113-3, Bangladesh lost Shakib al Hasan in the third over of the day. Imrul Kayes (72) continued to motor along and was well supported by Soumya Sarkar (37) as the duo shared a 51-run partnership. However, both batsmen departed in successive overs.

Amid demands for her resignation for helping former Indian Premier League chairman Lalit Modi with his travel documents, External Affairs Minister (EAM) Sushma Swaraj on Sunday justified her stand on the entire controversy.

The minister shared her thoughts via twitter.

“What benefit did I pass on to Lalit Modi – that he could sign consent papers for surgery of his wife suffering from Cancer ?” she tweeted.

“He was in London. After his wife’s surgery, he came back to London. What is it that I changed?” she added.

The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) officers, soldiers and their family members donated blood on the occasion of the World Blood Donor Day today.

They donated blood during a mega blood donation camp here at Salbagan in Mohanpur.

Beside the mega camp here, three other similar camps have also been organised in the state.

The CRPF group centre organised the blood donation camp under its civic action programme in association with Agartala’s ILS hospital.

The programme aimed at overcoming the crisis of blood that arises during the onset of monsoon season.

The Pakistani Army has reportedly begun preliminary preparations to launch the final phase of Operation Zarb-i-Azb in mid-July to eliminate the Taliban militants from their remaining hideouts along the border with Afghanistan.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Meenakshi Lekhi on Sunday said one should not give political colour to yoga as it belongs to Indian culture and tradition.

J.K. Rowling has announced that she will soon be releasing the third installment of ‘ Harry Potter’ trilogy titled Career of Evil under her pseudonym of Robert Galbraith.

The 49-year-old British novelist’s new book will supposedly follow the investigations of private detective Cormoran Strike and assistant Robin Ellacott, Mashable has reported.

The publishing company Little Brown described the new book as a fiendishly clever mystery.

Rowling broke the news via Twitter calling her pen name her “good friend” and announcing that the book will be released on October 22. (ANI)

Seems like, Harry Styles has found himself yet another Victoria’s Secret model, as they were seen partying together at New York’s Ludlow Hotel.

A source revealed that the 21-year-old 1D singer seemed very friendly with the rising star of the lingerie, Sara Sampaio, adding that there was definitely chemistry there as they hugged and kissed each other when she left, the Daily Star reported.

Bollywood actor Varun Dhawan says his chemistry with ABCD 2 co-star Sharaddha Kapoor is special as they have been friends since childhood.

The 28-year-old actor, who shared screen space with actresses like Alia Bhatt, Nargis Fakhri, Ileana D’Cruz, Huma Qureshi among others in his previous outings, said he sees Shraddha on top of her game in the next five years.

Retail broking firm HDFC Securities has appointed Dhiraj Relli as its Managing Director and CEO.

Relli takes over this position from Aseem Dhru, who returns to HDFC Bank as Group Head – Business Banking, Rural, Commodity and Agri-lending businesses.

Commenting on the change in ranks, Dhru said, “I am thankful to all my colleagues at HDFC Securities for their support, without which it would not have been possible to achieve what we have over the past five years.

India’s senior off-spinner Harbhajan Singh on Sunday reached a landmark as he surpassed Pakistan legend Wasim Akram’s tally of Test wickets to climb to ninth in the all-time highest wicket-takers’ list.

Harbhajan dismissed Imrul Kayes for 72 to reach 415 Test victims, one more than Akram’s 414 from 104 matches. His final figures of 3/64 took his tally to 416 victims from 102 Test matches.

In fact, the Indian off-spinner reached the landmark quicker than Akram as the Pakistani had achieved the feat in two Test matches less.

Naval submarine INS Sindhudhvaj has begun underwater search along the Tamil Nadu coastline to trace the missing Coast Guard Dornier aircraft even as an expert team started scouring the area to locate the plane’s cockpit voice data recorder.

New Zealand’s Trent Boult will miss the remainder of the Blackcaps’ tour of England after suffering a back injury, it was announced today.

“Official: Boult out of the rest of the tour with a back injury. Will head home for further assessment,” said a statement on New Zealand’s Twitter feed.

The 25-year-old left-arm paceman was New Zealand’s man of the series in their 1-1 drawn Test campaign against England, taking 13 wickets at 24.84.

He also featured in the opening two fixtures of the ongoing five-match one-day international series.

Mahindra & Mahindra will launch a new light commercial vehicle named Jeeto by the end of this month to take on homegrown rival Tata’s popular minitruck Ace Zip.

The company which has seen decline in sales in the light commercial vehicle segment during the last two years is hoping that it will see a turnaround with the new model coming in and cashing in on an expected rebound in the market.

Doing some plain speaking on call drops, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Sunday asked mobile operators to walk the extra mile to reinforce their systems as they have enough spectrum to provide telephony services without interruption.

The minister said he has asked sectoral regulator TRAI to suggest a disincentive mechanism to tackle the problem, though he refused to share if it will be a financial disincentive.

Former captain Sourav Ganguly, who is now a part of the Indian Cricket Board’s advisory committee, on Sunday said that the BCCI is yet to formally decide on Ravi Shastri’s tenure as the Team Director.

Ganguly said Shastri’s fate will be decided in the next meeting of the BCCI. “We don’t have any news on this now. During next meeting of the Board, it will definitely be known who will be India’s coach,” Ganguly told reporters here.

Domestic handset maker XOLO plans to launch new handset every quarter under sub-brand Black as it looks to compete aggressively with brands like Xiaomi, Motorola and Yu that drive significant chunk of their revenues from online sales.

XOLO, which has launched Black to cash in on the increasing consumer comfort for buying handsets online, will unveil its first device under the series later this month in the sub-Rs 15,000 range.

The Meteorological Department on Saturday predicted that heavy rainfall would continue in north and western parts of the country in the coming week.

The national capital was hit by a sudden dust storm following which heavy showers brought long awaited respite to the city, which was simmering under high temperatures.

Mercury levels fell to 26 degrees Celsius at around 6 p.m. from the earlier 40 degrees Celsius and more recorded in the past week. The capital recorded 4.8 mm rains.

The Congress Party on Sunday demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should dismiss External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj as she has helped a ‘fugitive’ former IPL chairman Lalit Modi in securing travel documents.

AICC spokesman Randeep Surjewala said that it proves to be a clear cut case of gross impropriety on the part of External Affairs Minister.

Prince William and his wife Kate Middleton celebrated Queen Elizabeth’s 69th birthday together in a wine bar with royal family including “newly arrived” Princess Charlotte.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arrived together with Prince George and Princess Charlotte at exclusive private dining club Berry Brothers & Rudd in London’s Kensington for dinner party, the Mirror has reported.

A source informed that the Queen was gushing for having her grandchildren around her as they kept her feeling young.

Kristen Stewart’s mother, Jules, has stated that she is fine with daughter’s new relationship with a woman.

The 55-year-old has given her blessing to the relationship, which comes two years after the 25-year-old split from long-term love Robert Pattinson, the Mirror has reported.

Jules said she has met ‘Twilight’ star’s new girlfriend Alicia Cargile and she’s a lovely girl, so what’s there to not accept.

People are good to do whatever they like as long as they’re not hurting people or breaking the law, she further added.

Dominatrix Carrie Reichert, who embroiled Prince Harry in a kinky Las Vegas scandal, has claimed that the Sin City bash in 2012 involved bondage, spanking and S&M.

The 42-year-old American dominatrix said that it was not a full bondage party, but it was a fun night that involved light bondage, adding that she was not invited to come up as a dominatrix but those people there knew what she did as a business, the Daily Star reported.

The National AIDS Control Organization (NACO), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, observed the ‘World Blood Donors Day’ under the aegis of the National Blood Transfusion Council (NBTC) at Connaught Place today.

The ‘ World Blood Donors Day’ celebrates their altruistic gift and thanks the unsung heroes for their priceless contribution.

The theme for this year’s campaign was ‘Thank you for saving my life’ and focused on thanking blood donors who save lives every day through their blood donations.

A new study has revealed about an experimental drug that improves the ability of heart muscle cells damaged by heart failure to pump blood.

Led jointly by researchers from the Cardiovascular Research Center and The Experimental Therapeutics Institute at Mount Sinai, the study has discovered a powerful molecule called N106, treatment with which increased heart muscle contraction to improve heart function so far in human heart cell and animal studies.