Ranchi, Dec 18 (PTI) A teen-aged girl was allegedly abducted and gangraped by a group of youths when she and her friends were returning here after celebrating the birthday of one of them, police said Tuesday.

The incident happened in a forest under Kharsidag police station outpost in Namkum area, around 35 km from Ranchi city on Sunday night, the police Tuesday.

Jaipur, Dec 18 (PTI) In the first bureaucratic reshuffle after the Congress formed government in Rajasthan, 40 IAS were transferred Tuesday, according to a release.

Kuldeep Ranka, who was principal secretary tourism and forest, was appointed as principal secretary to the chief minister. He replaced Tanmay Kumar who has been appointed as commissioner irrigation command area development in Bikaner, it said.

KANPUR: Furore engulfs the Indian Institute of Technology as the institution's administration has decided to terminate as many as 135 students for failing to do well in examinations. This decision was taken at the institute’s senate meeting here on Monday. A total of 150 cases related with the students were received at the Senate meeting. 

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The Taliban say “another” meeting is to be held with the United States, this time in the United Arab Emirates and involving representatives of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates.

The terse statement from Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said the meeting would be held Monday without offering details.

The State Department has neither denied nor confirmed previous meetings, but U.S. special peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad previously said he has met with all Afghans involved in the 17-year war.

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Soldiers and police fanned out across Indian-controlled Kashmir on Monday to enforce a security lockdown for a second straight day to stop anti-India protests and foil a call by separatists for a march toward India’s main military garrison in the disputed region.

Government forces patrolled streets in the region’s main city of Srinagar and sealed off all the roads leading to India’s military garrison in the city.

Islamabad, Dec 17 (PTI) Pakistan on Monday released Indian prisoner Hamid Nihal Ansari, who was detained by the country's intelligence agencies in 2012 and subsequently sentenced to three years' imprisonment by a military court in 2015 for possessing a fake Pakistani identity card.

Ansari, a 33-year-old Mumbai resident, was lodged in the Peshawar Central Jail after being sentenced by the military court on December 15, 2015. His three-year jail term ended on December 15, 2018 but he was not able to leave for India as his legal documents were not ready.

17 Dec 2018; DW: A lawyer who represented victims of far-right violence had her daughter threatened, possibly by extremist police. The resulting investigation has revealed a neo-Nazi network within the Frankfurt police force.

State criminal police (LKA) are investigating an alleged right-wing extremist network in the Frankfurt police force, respected German newspaper Frankfurt Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) reported Sunday.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The Taliban say they are holding “another” meeting on Monday with U.S. officials, this time in the United Arab Emirates and also involving Saudi, Pakistani and Emirati representatives in the latest attempt to bring a negotiated end to Afghanistan’s 17-year war.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid offered no further details.

DAMASCUS, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov has stressed his country's resolve to support Syria to surpass all of the troubles caused by the more than seven-year war, the pro-government al-Watan newspaper said Sunday.

"We are determined to stand by the side of Syria to overcome all the woes that it has been through over the past seven years," the Russian official told al-Watan in an interview.

The Russian-US standoff in Syria has been intensifying, thus stonewalling efforts on stabilizing the situation to the east of the Euphrates River and in the south near Al-Tanf controlled by Washington, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said in a message to his US counterpart Jim Mattis last week, Nezavisimaya Gazeta writes.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Pushing the government to the brink of a partial shutdown, the White House is insisting that Congress provide $5 billion to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border despite lawmaker resistance from both parties.

Without a resolution, parts of the federal government will shut down at midnight Friday.

“We’re going to do whatever is necessary to build the border wall to stop this ongoing crisis of illegal immigration,” White House senior adviser Stephen Miller said Sunday.

 17 Dec 2018; AFP: Nuclear-armed North Korea condemned the United States over its latest sanctions measures, warning Washington's approach could "block the path to denuclearisation on the Korean peninsula forever".

After a rapid diplomatic rapprochement this year that culminated in the Singapore summit in June between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump, progress has stalled in talks on Pyongyang's nuclear arsenal.