An MEA staffer at the Indian Embassy in Beijing was sent back to India in October after it was learned that he had been having an affair with a Chinese national also employed at the embassy, reports Mail Today. The Indian staffer had access to some of the embassy's most sensitive and secure areas. While a preliminary enquiry revealed that the staffer had not shared any sensitive information with his Chinese paramour, a more detailed investigation is taking place in Delhi. Local staff at the Beijing embassy are recruited through Chinese employment agencies. At least some of them may be linked with Chinese security agencies.

Sameer Bhujbal, nephew of NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on Monday in a money-laundering case, reports The Telegraph. Sameer was arrested after being questioned about a scam in the construction of a new Maharashtra Sadan in Delhi in 2007 when Chhagan Bhujbal was PWD minister. Chhagan Bhujbal was also an ED target on Monday, accused of money-laundering and land-grabbing. His properties were raided just a few hours after he left for the US for a dialogue on education on the invitation of the US Congress.

The government on Monday appointed Tamil Nadu cadre IPS officer Archana Ramasundram as Director General of Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), reports The Indian Express. Ramasundram, a 1980-batch IPS officer, is now the first woman to head a paramilitary force in India. Currently heading the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), she will take up her new post in a little while, after wrapping up an ongoing conference in Bhopal. Ramasundram will be DG of the SSB till she retires on 30 September, 2017.

The Overseas Friends of BJP, a group comprising BJP loyalists among the Indian diaspora, is preparing to become a formal, structured body that will work as a pressure group in countries such as the US, the UK, Australia, Canada and the UAE, reports The Economic Times. "We plan to make the Overseas Friends of BJP a structured body that works on a sustained basis throughout the year," said a source in the BJP. "It would work as a pressure group for India's cause in these countries and be in touch with the governments, political parties, influential professionals and other bodies."

Government formation in Jammu and Kashmir could be resolved with just a phone call from Prime Minister Narendra Modi or BJP president Amit Shah to PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti, reports The Indian Express. PDP sources said Mehbooba just needs to be assured by Modi or Shah that the BJP will stand by the agenda of alliance between the two parties in J&K. Kashmir has been under Governor's Rule since 8 January, a day after its chief minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed passed away. Mehbooba Mufti, who has taken over from her late father, indicated on Sunday that she was reconsidering the alliance between her party and the BJP in the state.

A British arms agent has sent a letter to the International Tribunal of the Law of the Seas in Hamburg and also the Permanent Council of Arbitration at The Hague, accusing the Indian government of offering Italy the freedom of two Italian marines in exchange for information that links Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her family to a helicopter scam in 2013, reports The Telegraph. Michel said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made the offer during a secret brush-by meeting with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi in New York in September 2015, when both attended the UN General Assembly.

The Supreme Court will hold an open court hearing, at 3PM today, of a petition that asks it to reconsider its 2013 decision to retain the criminalisation of gay sex as per a section of the IPC that dates to 1860, Hindustan Times reported. The curative petition, considered a last resort for litigants, will be heard by a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice TS Thakur. Equal rights activists are hopeful that LGBT rights will be recognised after today's hearing. If not, they say, they will take their battle to Parliament. Section 377 has long been challenged by human rights groups as violating the Constitutional guarantee of equality to all citizens.

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Actor Anupam Kher has been reportedly denied a Pakistani visa to allow him to attend the Karachi Literature Festival (KLF), say media reports.

But according to some reports, authorities in Pakistan have denied the news. Pakistan authorities have reportedly claimed that the actor had not even applied for a visa to attend the festival - which is scheduled to start on 5 February.

Expressing disappointment, Kher told CNN-IBN that 17 out of 18 people were granted the visa while he was the only one who was denied the same.

Republican Ted Cruz defeated Donald Trump in the Iowa caucus. Cruz used a cross-state network of volunteers, and stayed away from negative publicity and psychological profiling techniques - just about all of Trump's tactics.With 98 per cent of the votes in, Cruz held a 27.7 per cent to a 24.3 per cent lead over Trump - with Rubio at 23.1 per cent.

In a verdict that has given new hope to the LGBT community, the Supreme Court has agreed to re-examine its verdict on upholding the constitutionality of Section 377 that criminalises same sex relations.

The apex court has referred the case to a five judge bench. Former Union Minister and lawyer Kapil Sibal, who appeared for the petitioners, is reported to have told the bench - headed by Chief Justice TS Thakur - that since the issue was a constitutional matter, only a constitutional bench can hear the case.

The curative petition was filed by gay rights activists and the NGO Naz Foundation against the top court's 11 December 2013 judgement upholding validity of section 377.

There seems to be no progress on the Jammu and Kashmir government formation. Speaking to the media for the first time since her father Mufti Mohammad Sayeed's demise, PDP chief Mehbhooba Mufti said that the BJP government needed to take some concrete measures for the benefit of the state before a final call could be taken on the whether the PDP-BJP coalition needs to continue. She said: "I don't have the vision which Mufti sahab had, neither do I have the experience right now. Before the formation of the new J&K government, I want the central government to take some confidence building measures for the region".