Indian Sub-continent

New Delhi, Jan 10 (PTI) Former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has been appointed the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president after Ajay Maken resigned from the post citing ill-health.

Maken congratulated Dikshit saying that under her leadership the Congress party will play the role of a powerful opposition against the governments in the national capital and at the Centre.

However, an official announcement of Dikshit's appointment is yet to be made.

Sources said it would be made soon and she will have a few working presidents to assist her.

New Delhi, Jan 10 (PTI) The high-powered committee headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi met for over two hours on Thursday to decide fate of CBI Director Alok Verma, reinstated by a Supreme Court order after he was sent on forced leave by the government.

The meeting was also attended by Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge and Justice A K Sikri, who was nominated by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi to represent him.

It was not immediately clear what transpired in the meeting, called for the second consecutive day.

Mumbai/Nagpur, Jan 10 (PTI) Maharashtra Congress president Ashok Chavan Thursday wondered if IPS officer Alok Verma was shunted out as CBI director as he allegedly was going to probe the Rafale jet deal.

Chavan asked what was it that the Narendra Modi government was so afraid of and said the move to remove Verma from the top post raised several questions.

New Delhi, Jan 10 (PTI) Alok Verma was shunted out as the CBI chief after a marathon meeting of high-powered selection committee led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, officials said.

Verma, a 1979-batch AGMUT cadre IPS officer, has been removed from the high-profile post on the charges of corruption and dereliction of duty making him the first chief in the history of the agency to face such action, they said.

He is likely to be moved to the National Human Rights Commission, they said.

KANPUR: IIT technician’s dead body was found at Murda Ghat alongside Ganga River here on Thursday. He died in mysterious circumstances.

IIT technician had been missing since January 7. His location was not accessible since he had gone to attend his friend’s father's funeral.

10 Jan 2019; AFP: Sri Lanka's prime minister said Thursday the country was struggling to pay back its ballooning foreign debt, blaming a recent political crisis for dealing a "death blow" to the economy.

Ranil Wickremesinghe said his government was scrambling to raise $1.9 billion to help service a first debt payment of $2.6 billion, that is due on Monday.

Sri Lanka faces $5.9 billion in foreign debt repayments in 2019, a record for the cash-strapped island.

10 Jan 2019; AFP: Delhi plans to create a special home for both elderly people and some of the Indian megacity's thousands of cows, in a new animal welfare blitz also aimed at reducing numbers of monkeys and stray dogs.

The local development minister Gopal Rai said as he unveiled the programme on Wednesday that "cows and senior citizens will co-exist, taking care of each other" in the planned pilot facility in southwest Delhi.

New Delhi, Jan 9 : CBI Director Alok Verma joined office Wednesday, 77 days after he was sent on forced leave by the central government through a much-criticised late-night order on October 23, 2018, which was set aside by the Supreme Court.

The October order sent Verma and his deputy Special Director Rakesh Asthana, booked by the agency on corruption charges, into exile in a first-of-its-kind move by the government in the agency's history.

New Delhi, January 9; GANASHAKTI: The following press release has been issued to the media by the Central Trade Unions in the press-meet on 9th January 2019 at New Delhi.

Meerut (UP), Jan 10 (PTI) Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha member Shikhar Agarwal, a key suspect in the mob violence in Bulandshahr last month, was arrested early Thursday, police said.

Agarwal was held from the adjoining Hapur district by the Bulandshahr police, a senior official said.

"He was arrested this morning. We are interrogating him and will produce him in the local court later today," Additional Superintendent of Police (Bulandhshahr city) Atul Kumar Srivastava told PTI.