Indian Sub-continent

KATHMANDU, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- Nepal will not join the first ever joint military drill among the armies of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) members, to be hosted by India next week, an advisor to the prime minister said here on Saturday.

Kundan Aryal, press advisor to Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli, told Xinhua that Nepal will not to join the joint military drill to be organized in Pune of the western Indian State of Maharastra on Sept. 10-16.

New Delhi, Sept 7; GANASHAKTI: The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:

The first two-plus-two meeting between the foreign and defence ministers of India and the United States represents the institutionalization of the  strategic alliance with the US.

New Delhi, Sep 8 (PTI) The Delhi Police's Special Cell has arrested a 37-year-old member of Manipur-based banned terrorist outfit, Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP-PWG), for allegedly threatening and extorting businessmen and influential people, police said Saturday.

The accused, Moirangthem Rana Pratap alias Paikhomba, self-styled General Secretary of the banned outfit, was arrested from Bishnupur area on September 4, they said.

Srinagar, Sep 6; PTI: National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval's assertion that a separate constitution for Jammu and Kashmir was probably an "aberration" was an attempt to "distort" facts and history, CPI(M) MLA Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami claimed Thursday.

"J&K acceded to India under the guarantees provided by the Constitution of India. It is the constituent assembly which incorporated Article 370 in the Constitution providing a constitutional basis for the relationship of J&K with the Union," Tarigami sain in a statement here.

Shahjahanpur (UP), Sep 7; PTI: A 26-year-old woman was raped by three persons in a car in the district here, police said Friday.

The woman, hailing from Lucknow, had taken a lift in the car on August 27 when she did not get a bus for reaching Sitapur, following which she was taken to a place near a cold storage and allegedly raped, Superintendent of Police City Dinesh Tripathi said.

The woman, in an FIR lodged with the police yesterday, said that she was dropped in Sitapur late at night by three persons who fled from the spot, the SP said.

New Delhi, Sep 5; PTI: A year after Gauri Lankesh was shot dead outside her home in Bengaluru, many other journalists continue to face death threats, attacks and false charges, Amnesty International India said Wednesday, asserting it is a "dangerous" time to speak truth to authorities in India.

The rights body said attacks on journalism not only stifle the constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression but also have a "profound silencing effect".

ISLAMABAD, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Wednesday called for the political solution to the Afghan issue and the two sides agreed that "present conditions in Afghanistan were conducive to intensifying efforts for a political settlement," according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry here.

Mumbai, Sep 6 (PTI) The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has taken Amol Kale, the prime accused in journalist Gauri Lankesh murder case, in its custody in connection with its probe in rationalist Narendra Dabholkar's murder case, an official said Thursday.

The CBI suspects that Kale is also the mastermind of Dabholkar's killing, he said.

Kale, who was arrested in May this year by the Karnataka Police's Special Investigation Team (SIT) in connection with Lankesh's killing.

New Delhi, Sep 6 (PTI) India and the US Thursday held the first edition of the two-plus-two talks, aimed at further strengthening bilateral defence and security collaboration as well as boosting their global strategic partnership, particularly in the Indo-Pacific region.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman held talks with US Secretary of State Michael R Pompeo and Defence Secretary James Mattis.

By Prashant Rangnekar

Bengaluru, Sept 6 (PTI) Stepping up space cooperation, India and France Thursday inked an agreement to collaborate on Gaganyaan, ISRO's first human space mission.

The two countries have formed a working group for the project.