On 19 July, the Supreme Court refused to stay a Bombay High Court order, dismissing Rahul Gandhi's plea for quashing a defamation case that was levelled against the Congress leader for allegedly blaming the RSS for Mahatma Gandhi's assassination.

"You can't make collective denunciations," was the apex court's response to Rahul Gandhi's petition to cancel the case against him. "If you won't apologise, you will have to face trial," the court said, rebuking him for his remarks.

"We have upheld the defamation law. The purpose of the law is to obey law so that there is harmony rather than anarchy," the court asserted, and held that the Congress leader's comments would be analysed to arrive at a conclusion as to whether they qualify as being defamatory or not.

On the second day of Parliament's Monsoon Session, the Congress-led Opposition asked Home Minister Rajnath Singh to respond over the President Rule that was imposed in Arunachal Pradesh.

Rajnath Singh responded strongly by saying that the ongoing internal problems within the Congress party forced the Centre to intervene, which led to President's Rule in Uttarakhand and Arunachal Pradesh. The Home Minister also went on to say that the Congress has an old habit of destabilising popular government.

"Mallikarjun Kharge has levelled serious allegations against the government. He said that this government has a habit of destabilising popular government. In the history of independent India if there is anyone who has an old habit of destabilizing popular Govenment, it is Congress," Rajnath Singh said in Lok Sabha.

In an unfortunate incident, at least 26 people were killed after a tourist bus caught fire on an airport expressway in Taiwan's Taoyuan region on 19 July.

The incident took place after the bus rammed into a guard rail near Taoyuan City. The driver of the bus reportedly died on the spot.

Reports suggest that the passengers were a group from the northeastern Chinese province of Liaoning who were on their way to the Taoyuan interantional airport catch a flight back home.

The cause of the fire has not been ascertained yet.

A 17-year-old refugee from Afghanistan ran amok on a train in Germany at about 9.15 pm local time, injuring four people with an axe and a knife before being shot dead by the police.

The attack took place in Wuerzburg in south Germany. Three of the four injured were seriously hurt. Fourteen other people are being treated for shock. Police say they are still unclear about the motive for the attack, reports BBC.

According to Bavarian interior minister Joachim Herrmann, the attacker had moved to Germany as an unaccompanied minor.

Eight CRPF personnel from its elite commando battalion COBRA were killed in the jungles of Aurangabad, Bihar, when an improvised explosive device laid by Naxalites went off late on Monday night.

The jawans were ambushed by the blast, which led to an encounter that ended with the deaths of three Naxalites, said a CRPF spokesperson.

The encounter took place in the Chakarbanda forest of Aurangabad. The CRPF recovered arms and ammunition from the site, according to The Indian Express.

Casualties may rise, said CRPF officials, since many jawans were severely injured in the gun battle.