News highlights: Pakistan to open trade route with India because of devastating floods, food price hike
Clashes erupt after Iraqi Shiite cleric resigns, 3 dead
An influential Shiite cleric announced on Monday he would resign from Iraqi politics, prompting hundreds of his angry followers to storm the government palace and sparking clashes with security forces in which at least five protesters were killed.
Congress now just a party of brother-sister: J P Nadda
"Why did Congress, the oldest political party, keep getting smaller? Why has it been weakening? Because they did not integrate local aspirations with national aspirations,"BJP chief JP Nadda said in Guwahati.
"Those who were with Congress for 20-40 years left the party because they are now neither national nor regional. Now it is just a party of dynasty, of the brother-sister,"he added.
After Gandhi it is Modi who has understood people's sentiments: Rajnath Singh
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Monday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the only leader after Mahatma Gandhi who understood the sentiments of the masses, asserting he directly connects with people who in turn trust him.
Speaking at the release of the book, The Architect of the New BJP: How Narendra Modi Transformed the Party, Singh heaped praise on the prime minister's governance and organisational capabilities and said he has no parallel in contemporary politics.
PM tweets about devastation of Pak floods
HC stays local body elections in Puducherry
A division bench of the Madras High Court on Monday directed the Puducherry government to maintain status-quo ante on holding elections to the local bodies in the Union Territory.
The bench of Justices M Duraiswamy and Sundar Mohan granted the injunction while passing interim orders on a petition from R Siva, DMK MLA and Leader of the Opposition in the Puducherry Assembly. The interim order followed production of a sealed cover to the bench by the Election Commission.
Earlier, senior counsel P Wilson, representing Siva, argued that the reservations granted for OBC and ST in 2019 were withdrawn by the Puducherry government without any reasons.