Indian Sub-continent

NEW DELHI (AP) — Rahul Gandhi resigned Wednesday as president of India’s opposition Congress party, long led by his politically powerful family, to take responsibility for its crushing defeat in recent elections.

Gandhi announced his resignation on Twitter, saying he was stepping down because accountability is “critical for the future growth of our party.” He said rebuilding the party requires hard decisions and “numerous people will have to be made accountable for the failure.”

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Taliban and U.S. negotiators are scrambling to rewrite a draft agreement that will outline the withdrawal of American and NATO troops from Afghanistan and a verifiable Taliban guarantee to fight terrorism ahead of an all-Afghan peace conference Sunday.

Officials familiar with the talks, but not authorized to speak about them, say negotiations went late into the night on Wednesday and were to resume again on Thursday — the sixth day of direct talks between the insurgents and U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad.

ISLAMABAD, Jul 03 (APP): Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan said on Wednesday that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz decision to change chairman of Public Accounts Committee and appoint a new parliamentary leader was in fact no trust in the leadership of Shahbaz Sharif.

Mumbai, Jul 2 (PTI) Senior Congress leader Balasaheb Thorat is set to become new president of the Maharashtra unit replacing incumbent Ashok Chavan at a time when the party is facing crucial assembly elections, a senior leader revealed Tuesday.

Chavan had submitted his resignation to the party leadership after the Congress recorded its worst ever performance in Maharashtra in the Lok Sabha elections, winning just one seat.

Chavan himself had lost from his home turf, Nanded.

New Delhi, Jul 2 (PTI) In the first BJP parliamentary party meeting after he came back to power, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday pulled up party MPs for their poor attendance in Parliament, and asked them to be present during legislative proceedings.

According to sources, the Prime Minister expressed displeasure over the absence of party MPs from Parliament and gave examples to drive his message home.

Jaipur, Jul 2 (PTI) The Rajasthan government Tuesday gave a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the family of a seven-year-old girl who was allegedly raped last night.

The girl is admitted at JK Lone hospital here.

Chief whip of the ruling Congress Mahesh Joshi and party MLA Amin Kagzi met the family members and handed a cheque of Rs 5 lakh to the victim's father.

They also assured the family of proper action in the matter.

District collector Jagroop Singh Yadav said the compensation was sanctioned from the chief minister's relief fund.

Mumbai, Jul 2 (PTI) Mumbai was Tuesday paralaysed by incessant rain, which left many parts of the financial capital waterlogged and 21 dead in a wall collapse in the city.

Fourteen persons died in rest of Maharashtra in rain- related incidents in the last 24 hours, officials said.

Heavy rains lashing Mumbai since Sunday threw rail, air and road traffic out of gear, with several trains and flights cancelled.

MUMBAI, July 3 (Xinhua) -- The Death toll in the Chiplun dam breach on Tuesday night in Ratnagiri district of India's western state of Maharashtra rose to six, with at least 20 people missing, the district administration said on Wednesday.

At least 12 houses from a nearby hamlet adjacent to the dam were washed away.

The National Disaster Response Force team is conducting search and rescue operations.

1 July 2019; AFP: Sri Lanka's police chief and a top defence official should be tried for "grave crimes against humanity" over failure to prevent Easter bombings that killed 258, the state prosecutor said Monday.

Dappula de Livera said Inspector-General of Police Pujith Jayasundara and Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando failed to act on advance warnings of the deadly April 21 suicide attacks.

New Delhi, Jul 2; GANASHAKTI - UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi Tuesday raised in the Lok Sabha the issue of corporatisation of railway's Modern Coach Factory in her Rae Bareli constituency and accused the government of selling the country's assets to private players at a throwaway price.

This was a rare instance when Gandhi raised an issue during the Zero Hour.

She said the government has decided to corporatise six railway production units and the Modern Coach Factory is one of them.