Senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid on Thursday termed the arrest of party leader P Chidambaram as 'deeply distressing' and said 'we are very confident there is no case against him'.

The Mansarovar Yatra has been halted in Uttrakhand after heavy rain washed away a portion of the road connecting Tanakpur-Champawat. A total of 56 pilgrims were headed to Mansarovar on this route. The pilgrims were sent back to Dharchoola due to the bad condition of the roads in Chankan, Lamari and Malpa areas where rain have caused landslides.

The Defence Ministry on Wednesday said the decision to convert state-administered arms factories, which function directly under the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) headquartered in Kolkata, into public sector enterprises has been taken after considering recommendations of at least three committees formed in the past to examine their functioning.

Rahul's statements come at a time when Congress is observing weeklong events to commemorate the 75th Birth Anniversary of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. On Monday, Gandhi scion had announced that the whole week will be dedicated to by drawing the country's attention towards his incredible achievements.

Countries like India, Iran, Russia and Turkey would have to fight against terrorists in Afghanistan at some point of time, US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday, ruing that the job against terrorists is being done only by the US some 7,000 miles away. Trump said that other nations currently are making very less efforts against the terrorists in Afghanistan.

Medical tests of former finance minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram were conducted inside the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) headquarters here, sources said. After his arrest by the CBI from his Jor Bagh residence on Wednesday, Chidambaram, 73, was taken to headquarters of the probe agency. He is likely to be produced before a CBI court at the Rouse Avenue on Thursday.​

The senior counsel fell back on archaeological evidence, mentions in Gazettes during British rule and the continuous worship for centuries by Hindus in the faith that Lord Ram was born at that place to argue that Hindus always believed that it was a temple, even after it was demolished for construction of the mosque.

UK broadcasting regulator Ofcom in July investigated five of Peace TV’s programmes and found four of them breached its codes by containing hate speech and highly offensive content, which in one instance could incite crime. In two instances the breaches were so serious that sanctions will be imposed.

Sources said the number of overstaying ex-MPs has now reduced to only 109. Officials said most of the former law makers have vacated their accommodations on their own. “But the one week ultimatum from the House Committee and PM’s mention of system being put in place for expeditious hand over of these accommodations to new MPs had the maximum impact. We are hopeful of more than 90% compliance in the next few days,” an official said.

This is the latest in a series of such manoeuvres Beijing has been undertaking to assert its claims in the territorial dispute with Vietnam and is not particularly aimed against India. China had in the past also warned Russian giant Rosneft against drilling fresh production wells in the field, identified as Block 6.1, in the Nam Con Son basin.

Union home secretary Rajiv Gauba was on Wednesday appointed as the next Cabinet secretary for a tenure of two years. Gauba, a 1982-batch IAS officer of the Jharkhand cadre, will initially join as the officer on special duty in the cabinet secretariat, before he takes over the charge of the country's top bureaucratic post from incumbent P K Sinha.

A team of CBI officials descended on the residence of P Chidambaram Wednesday night, minutes after a dramatic appearance at a press conference at AICC headquarters. The team of about 30 CBI sleuths and Delhi police officials reached the residence of Chidambaram and knocked at the doors for a few minutes before scaling the boundary wall to enter the premises.

A Delhi court Wednesday sent former independent MLA in Jammu and Kashmir, Sheikh Abdul Rashid to judicial custody in a case related to funding of terror activities in the Valley. Rashid Engineer was a legislator from the Langate Assembly seat in north Kashmir and is the first mainstream politician to have been arrested by the NIA in the case.

The ED's money laundering probe against P Chidambaram has been enlarged as it suspects his role in granting illegal FIPB clearances to 4 more business deals, apart from INX Media and Aircel-Maxis, and receiving multi-crore kickbacks through multiple shell firms, sources said on Wednesday. The Delhi HC had on Tuesday cancelled the anticipatory bail given to Chidambaram.

The BJP's J&K unit on Wednesday defended the restrictions imposed in the state following revocation of its special status after nullification of the Article 370, saying it is a must to foil bids of some elements, including those of «urban Naxalites», to create trouble in the state, specially in the Valley.

The Indian government has lodged an appeal against a local UK council's attempt to close down a memorial dedicated to Bhimrao Ambedkar in north London, inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to the UK in November 2015.

The CBI has issued a lookout circular against former finance minister P Chidambaram to prevent him from leaving the country, officials said on Wednesday. The agency has alerted all the airports to prevent Chidambaram from boarding a flight. The ED has also issued a fresh lookout circular against him in connection with the INX Media money laundering case.

The BJP on Wednesday accused former Union minister P Chidambaram of behaving like fugitive businessmen Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi by not cooperating with the central agencies probing alleged corruption in the INX Media case. The party also rejected the Congress' charge of vendetta levelled against the Centre over the action of probe agencies against P Chidambaram.

The Congress in Assam on Wednesday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of diverting the attention of the people from the economic slowdown by bringing up issues such as Article 370, triple talaq and Ram Mandir. There are signs of severe slowdown in the Indian economy under the Narendra Modi government, state Congress president Ripun Bora told a press conference here.