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) 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.

Muzaffarnagar (UP) Jan 10 (PTI) Three stray cows died while they were being shifted to a shelter home in Uttar Pradesh's Shamli district on Thursday, prompting authorities to order a probe, officials said.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had on January 3 given all district magistrates a week to ensure that all stray cattle across the state are shifted to cow shelters.

In parts of the state, farmers have reportedly herded stray cattle into places like government schools to save their crops.

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; AP: A U.S. supplier of t-shirts and other team apparel to college bookstores cut its ties Wednesday with a Chinese company that drew workers from an internment camp holding targeted members of ethnic minority groups.

In recent years, authorities in the far west Chinese region of Xinjiang have detained an estimated 1 million Uighurs and Kazakhs in heavily-secured facilities where detainees say they are ordered to renounce their language and religion while pledging loyalty to the China’s ruling Communist Party.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Amnesty International has renewed a call for an international investigation into the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi — a slaying that has implicated some members of the Saudi crown prince’s entourage.

The group made the call outside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Thursday while marking the 100th day since his Oct. 2 killing by Saudi agents there.

About 100 meters (yards) away from the consulate, the activists symbolically put up a street sign bearing the name of the journalist who wrote critically about the crown prince.

TORONTO (AP) — China’s ambassador to Canada accused the country Wednesday of “white supremacy” in calling for the release of two Canadians detained in China last month, while describing the detentions as an “act of self-defense.”

The arrests were in apparent retaliation for the arrest of a top Chinese tech executive in Canada.

But Ambassador Lu Shaye’s charged in op-ed in the Ottawa-based Hill Times that Western countries are employing a “double standard” in demanding the immediate release of the Canadians.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday abruptly walked out from a meeting with congressional leaders, saying later that his talks with top Democrats on ending the partial government shutdown were "a total waste of time."

"I asked what is going to happen in 30 days if I quickly open things up, are you going to approve Border Security which includes a Wall or Steel Barrier? Nancy said, NO. I said bye-bye, nothing else works!" Trump tweeted after his fresh engagement with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House has approved a bill to fund the Treasury Department, the IRS and other agencies for the next year as part of a Democratic strategy to reopen the government on a piecemeal basis.

The Democratic-controlled House voted 240-188 on Wednesday to approve the funding bill, which also would reopen the Federal Communications Commission, the Small Business Administration and the federal judiciary, among other agencies.

Eight Republicans joined 232 Democrats to support the bill.

BEIJING (AP) — The United States and China gave no indication of their next step after wrapping up talks aimed at resolving a tariff fight that threatens to chill global growth.

The two sides will “maintain close contact,” China’s Ministry of Commerce said Thursday. But they announced no agreements or date for meeting again during the 90-day truce declared on Dec. 1 by Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping in their fight over Beijing’s technology ambitions.

10 Jan 2019; AFP: The main jihadist alliance in Syria's Idlib region reached a deal on Thursday ending days of deadly fighting with rival rebels and extending its influence over the whole rebel enclave.

The agreement brings an immediate end to the fighting between Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), led by Al-Qaeda's former Syria affiliate, and the rival Turkish-backed National Liberation Front (NLF), according to the jihadists' propaganda website Ebaa.

BEIJING, January 10. /TASS/. Chinese President Xi Jinping said at the meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that China is ready to actively facilitate the process of nuclear denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula, Xinhua reported on Thursday.

"It is in our interests to act in the same direction with you, uniting efforts with other interested parties. To ensure peace and security, we will facilitate denuclearization and play a constructive role in maintaining long-term peace in the region," Xi said.