Photo: Ajay Aggarwal / Hindustan Times via Getty Images

A day after BJP MP Kirti Azad was suspended for "anti-party activities", the party's Margdarshak Mandal members LK Advani and Shanta Kumar went into a huddle at Murli Manohar Joshi's residence.

According to sources, the meeting was a hush hush affair and no one in the Party was aware of it. What's interesting is that this meeting comes just a day after Azad said he would move the Margdarshak Mandal committee and ask them how could he be suspended for exposing corruption. The BJP veterans are likely to meet Azad and raise the issue in party forum. Last time, after the BJP faced defeat in Bihar elections, members of the Margdarshak Mandal had gone public with their views and held the party high command directly responsible for the debacle.

ULFA general secretary Golap Baruah alias Anup Chetia was on Thursday released from Guwahati central jail. The court had on Wednesday granted him bail in the last of the four cases registered against him, paving the way for his release.

Chetia had earlier been granted bail in three cases out of the four that were registered after his deportation to India from Bangladesh. Chetia was handed over to India by Bangladesh where he was in jail since his arrest by the country's police in 1997 on charges of cross-border intrusion, carrying fake passports and illegally keeping foreign currencies.

On November 17, Chetia was brought to Guwahati by the CBI on a transit remand and produced before the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate amid tight security.

--PTI

Brazil health authorities on 24 December declared a state of emergency after 2,400 babies were born with microcephaly. 29 of the babies have succumbed to the congenital condition, that is associated with incomplete brain development, so far.

According to media reports, Brazilian health officials have linked the deaths to a mosquito-borne virus called Zika after a postmortem on one of the infants revealed the association.

A 17-year-old girl was gang raped and killed by unidentified persons in Harduganj area, police said on Thursday. The victim, a Class-XI student, was on her way to school on a bicycle on 23 December when the accused waylaid her. She was then raped and murdered.

As news spread, angry villagers assaulted four policemen who arrived on the spot. Senior police officials rushed to the spot and managed to control the situation.

-- PTI

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has been on a one-day trip to Kabul surprised many by announcing his itinerary on Twitter. Modi chose to visit Pakistan on his way back and meet his counterpart Nawaz Sharif.

Incidentally, it is Sharif's birthday and also Modi's first visit to the neighbouring country. He was received by Sharif at the airport from where the duo headed to the Pakistani Prime Minister's residence, where his grand-daughter's wedding is being held. After blessing the bride, he left for Delhi.

The move was welcomed by Kashmiri separatist leader Mirwaiz Omar Farooq and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted that the two leaders discussed Indo-Pak relations.

The relations between India and Pakistan have witnessed some positive developments in recent past. The two countries recently decided to launch a comprehensive dialogue after Mr Modi and Mr Sharif met in Paris.