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Hillary Clinton clinches Democratic presidential nomination: Reports

Hillary Clinton has secured the Democratic Party presidential nomination after reaching the required number of delegates.

According to Associated Press (AP) and US networks, 68-year-old Clinton claimed exactly the number of delegates needed to secure the nomination against her rival Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Clinton will therefore be the first women, after almost two centuries, who will lead a major US party in the race for the White House.

She has also became the first spouse of a former president to win the presidential nomination in her own right. AP's tally puts Clinton on 2,383 - the number needed to make her the presumptive nominee.

However, Sanders, who does not seem to be giving up so easily said he intended to stay in the race until the party's convention in July.

Sanders, who has given an unexpectedly strong and increasingly contentious challenge to Clinton, said that no Democrat will lock in the nomination until the Democratic national convention in July because unbound super-delegates cannot vote until then.

RBI keeps policy interest rate unchanged to 6.5%; reverse repo rate stayed at 6%

The Reserve Bank of India on Tuesday kept the policy interest rate unchanged at 6.5%, which was in line with analysts' expectations. The reverse repo rate also stayed unchanged at 6%.

The cash reserve ratio of scheduled banks remains unchanged at 4.0%.

The announcement was made after the bi-monthly monetary policy meeting, reported The Times of India.

April's inflation reading makes the future trajectory of interest rates somewhat more uncertain, said RBI. Rising crude prices and the implementation of the Seventh Pay Commission pose an upside risk to inflation, it added.

Retaining the growth projection of 7.6% for 2016-17 citing corporate profits and a surge in consumption, the central bank said it will also soon review the implementation of marginal cost lending rate framework by banks.

Bihar road rage: Gaya police files chargesheet against Rocky Yadav, 3 others

Rocky Yadav, his father Bindi Yadav, a cousin, Teni Yadav, and his family's bodyguard Rajesh Kumar have been named as accused in a 462-page chargesheet filed in Monday by the police in the Gaya road rage murder case.

Rocky Yadav had allegedly killed student Aditya Sachdev in a case of road rage when the car Sachdev was travelling in with his friends overtook his own on 7 May, says the Hindustan Times. Following the killing, Rocky absconded, aided by his parents MLC Manorama Devi from the JD(U) party, and Bindi Yadav, a local strongman.

Dadri lynching: BJP minister wants probe into who else had eaten the beef

Union minister Sanjeev Balyan on Monday demanded an investigation to learn who had joined Mohammad Akhlaq as he consumed the cow meat allegedly found outside his house in Bisara village, Dadri, eight months ago. A mob allegedly outraged by Akhlaq's consumption of the meat had beaten him to death on 28 September last year.

"A cow weighs nothing less than 150 kg and one person alone cannot consume it. There should be a probe into what happened and who were involved in the crime," said Balyan according to The Indian Express.

Caste lines harden between Jats and non-Jats in Haryana

The Jat quota violence in Haryana has had its expected fallout: communities are now divided on caste lines. Many non-Jats are shifting their businesses out of the state, non-Jats are uniting against Jats on an electoral level, and age-old communities are withdrawing into their own spheres.

For example, in the municipal committee elections held in Jhajjar in May, only one of the 19 seats was won by a Jat candidate. According to The Indian Express, this is unusual since the Jats are a dominant caste in Haryana and would usually have won between five to seven seats.

It's official: Jogi to launch his own party, name to be decided by supporters

In a two-hour-long speech on Monday, former Chhattisgarh chief minister Ajit Jogi declared himself free and said he would launch a regional party that would be named and outfitted with a symbol and flag by his supporters.

"I am free now," Jogi said. "Chhattisgarh's problems will now be decided within Chhattisgarh."

Last week, Jogi had hinted that he would leave the Congress to float his own party and take on the BJP-led Raman Singh government, according to The Telegraph. On Monday, he made his announcement at a 'maha-baithak' of his supporters.

96 children ill after eating mid day meal contaminated by a lizard

At least 96 children fell ill after eating a mid day meal at a government school in Jharkhand, which had apparently been contaminated by a lizard that fell in while the food was being prepared.

After eating their lunch, the children began to complain of stomach aches and were taken to a hospital for a check-up, according to The Indian Express.

Government schools do not have a good record of hygiene when it comes to the preparation of food for the mid day meal which is often the only meal these children get.

In Vasundhara Raje's district, teachers are now motivators against open defecation

The Rajasthan government has roped in teachers for yet another government initiative: Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. According to an order issued by the secondary education officer in the state's Jhalawar district, from 21 June, government school teachers must counsel those who defecate in the open and motivate them to use toilets.

The order came as a relief to the teachers after they mistakenly received an earlier order that had asked them to step out of their homes at 5 am, photograph people relieving themselves in the open, and WhatsApp the pictures to the authorities concerned, according to The Telegraph.

Bob Dylan's tribute to Ali

In a short but moving Facebook post Saturday, Dylan wrote:

"If the measure of greatness is to gladden the heart of every human being on the face of the earth, then he truly was the greatest. In every way he was the bravest, the kindest and the most excellent of men."

Few can craft words as beautifully as Dylan

Girls outshine boys in class 10 Maharashtra

With a pass percentage of 91.41 percent, girls once again outshone boys in the Maharashtra Board Class 10 examination results of which were declared on Monday.

The overall pass per percentage of 89.56 percent has been dropped by 1.90 percent as compared to last year, Chairman of the Maharashtra Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board, Gangadhar Mhamane told reporters.

In what seems to be a tradition now, girls once again outperformed boys with passing percentage of 91.41 percent against 87.98 percent.

The Konkan division registered the highest pass percentage with 96.56 among nine divisions of the board, whereas, Latur division was lowest with pass percentage of 81.54.

Artic region getting green due to climate change

Due to changing climate, Arctic regions of North America are getting greener, with almost a third of the land cover looking more like landscapes found in warmer ecosystems, according to a new NASA study.

With 87,000 images taken from Landsat satellites, converted into data that reflects the amount of healthy vegetation on the ground, the researchers found that western Alaska, Quebec and other regions became greener between 1984 and 2012.

Scientists have observed grassy tundras changing to shrublands, and shrubs growing bigger and denser - changes that could have impacts on regional water, energy and carbon cycles.