Indian Sub-continent

Kolkata, Jan 15 (PTI) Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee is a better leader than many others, but it cannot be said at this juncture if she would make a good prime minister, former national security advisor M K Narayanan said Tuesday.

Narayanan, also a former governor of West Bengal, said he had spent a lifetime in intelligence and had seen almost all leaders since Independence and she is "better suited among others as she is a listener at least to some.... She is a difficult person with some remarkable qualities."

New Delhi, Jan 15 (PTI) Finance Minister Arun Jaitley unexpectedly left for the US for a medical check-up following a kidney transplant last year, sources said.

Jaitley, 66, who had a kidney transplant operation and follow-up check-ups at AIIMS last year, left for the US on Sunday night for a "regular medical check-up", sources said, adding that he would be back by this weekend.

This is Jaitley's first overseas visit since his kidney ailment was confirmed in April last year.

Mumbai, Jan 15 (PTI) The BEST bus strike in Mumbai continued for the eighth day on Tuesday as the agitating workers and the management of the civic-run transport undertaking failed to reach an agreement.

Over 32,000 employees of the various workers' unions of the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport Undertaking (BEST) have been on strike since Tuesday last week and 3200-odd buses in its fleet are off the roads.

Jaipur, Jan 15 (PTI) A minor girl has been allegedly raped and murdered in the Amber area of the city, police said Tuesday.

The body of the girl, aged around seven years, was recovered from an open area in Chainpura village under Amber Police Station limits on Tuesday, officials said.

"She was allegedly raped and strangulated to death. Different teams are working on the case. Some suspects have been identified. The case will be cracked soon," DCP north Vikas Sharma said.

The body was handed over to family members after postmortem.

Kolkata, Jan 15 (PTI) The West Bengal unit of the BJP on Tuesday said it did not take the Supreme Court verdict, putting on hold the party's proposed "rath yatra" programme in the state, as a setback, adding that it would decide on the future course of action after discussions with the party's central leadership.

14 Jan 2019; AFP: Freelance reporter Asad Hashim was named as winner of the 2018 Agence France-Presse Kate Webb Prize on Monday for his coverage of the plight of ethnic Pashtuns and blasphemy issues in his native Pakistan.

The award, named after one of AFP's finest correspondents, recognises journalism by locally-hired reporters in Asia operating in risky or difficult conditions.

14 Jan 2019; AFP: The largest religious gathering anywhere on earth gets under way Tuesday, with tens of millions of Hindu pilgrims congregating in India to bathe in sacred rivers for the Kumbh Mela.

Organisers are expecting the enormous spiritual festival in Allahabad to attract more than 100 million devotees over the next 48 days, with seas of pilgrims camped by the riverside.

The ancient city in northern Uttar Pradesh state rises alongside the banks of the Ganges, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati rivers.

Islamabad, Jan 14; PTI/GANASHAKTI: The US' demand for maintaining long-term military bases in Afghanistan has emerged as a sticking point in talks with the Taliban to end the 17-year-long war in the country, according to a media report here.

The report came as the US special representative for Afghanistan reconciliation, Zalmay Khalilzad, stepped up efforts to bring the Taliban to negotiations, with Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Russia and Iran involved in discussions with the Taliban over the past few months.

New Delhi, Jan 14 :  Former JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar and others, named in a charge sheet filed by the Delhi Police in a sedition case on Monday, termed the move as "politically motivated" and questioned its timing, ahead of the parliamentary election.

"The charge sheet is politically motivated. However, we want the charges to be framed and a speedy trial in the case so that the truth comes out. We also want to see the videos that have been placed on record as evidence by the police," Kumar told PTI.

KANPUR: A discord erupted on a simple issue when a ball darting into air descended into a house of Ajitganj locality in Babupurwa area here on Sunday. Enraged persons losing their mental control allegedly attacked one youth of the rival side with a sharp-edged knife. He was injured seriously. Police got the blood-smeared youth admitted into the hospital and urged both the agitated groups to maintain order and calm.