NEWS

New Delhi: A war of words broke out between BJP's AmitMalviya and Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Twitter after the latter "liked" a tweet by Pakistan foreign ministerKhawaja M Asif where he condemned the statement made by Indian Army Chief General BipinRawat.

Terming it a "shameful" act, Malviya, who is BJP's national information and technology in-charge, posted a screen grab of a tweet liked by the Congress leader. The tweet, liked by Tharoor, was from the foreign minister of Pakistan where he had condemned the statement by Indian Army Chief BipinRawat.

Tharoor refuted Malviya's allegation and said that he uses Twitter's like feature as a bookmark to revisit them (the liked tweet) at a later time.

New Delhi: The Left has asked Home Minister Rajnath Singh to explain why National Security Advisor AjitDoval was present at a meeting of the BJP at Singh's house to discuss the party's election strategy in poll-bound Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya.

Several BJP and RSS leaders had met Singh to deliberate on the upcoming assembly polls in the three states. On the one hand, while Singh, BJP general sceretary Ram Madhav and senior RSS functionary Krishna Gopal attended the meeting, national security advisor AjitDoval was also present during the meeting.

Asking the Home minister to immediately clarify the reasons for the NSA to be present at a party meeting, the CPM political bureau said that it was highly improper that a government functionary should be a part of such a meeting.

New Delhi: RSS chief Mohan Bhagwathas asserted that the people of India who follow diverse religious practices are united because of their "sanskriti" (culture) as they had common ancestors.

Addressing an event in Raipur, Bhagwat said people from Afghanistan to Burma (now Myanmar) and Tibet plateau to south Sri Lanka had the same ancestors and shared a common DNA.

"We have to see what unites us to attain happiness. It's India's culture which unites the country. People of the country who follow diverse practices are united because of its sanskriti. Our ancestors unite us. We are descendants of same ancestors. Science says this," Bhagwat said.

New Delhi: The United Arab Emirates has blamed Qatari fighter jets for "intercepting" a passenger plane en route to Bahrain on Monday, in an ongoing row over alleged airspace violations.

"Qatari fighter jets intercept an Emirati civilian aircraft during a routine flight to Manama in a flagrant threat to civil aviation safety and in a clear violation of international law," the UAEGeneral Authority of Civil Aviation said.

"This is a routine flight that has all the required paperwork," it said in a statement published by the state news agency.

Four UAE-based airlines -- Emirates, Etihad, flydubai and Air Arabia -- operate flights to Bahrain.