A look at the headlines right now:

  1. More than 200 SP legislators have signed an affidavit in support of Akhilesh Yadav, say reports: The Uttar Pradesh chief minister is expected to meet the Election Commission on Friday to stake claim over the party symbol.
  2. Another New Year’s eve sexual assault reported, this time from Delhi: The accused later got together with a large mob to attack the police personnel who intervened and ransack their chowki, officers said.
  3. India-US relationship will be one of the defining partnerships of the 21st century, says John Kerry: In his exit memo, the secretary of state said Washington should continue to work with New Delhi to ‘expand the vast areas of cooperation between our nations’.
  4. CBI must finish probe into purchase of 111 Air India aircraft during UPA regime, says Supreme Court: The bench dismissed a petition that wanted the investigation supervised by the judiciary.
  5. Demonetisation may temporarily slow down the economy: President Pranab Mukherjee: In his New Year address to governors and lieutenant governors, he said the poor would need some help ‘to alleviate their suffering’.
  6. 30 seconds of confusion projected as mass molestation, Bengaluru’s police commissioner tells BBC: There is no evidence to prove that ‘sex attacks’ took place in the city’s MG Road-Brigade Road area on New Year’s Eve, Praveed Sood said.
  7. RBI will release fresh data on demonetised cash soon: A statement from the apex bank said the process would rule out accounting errors.
  8. Osama Bin Laden’s son’s name added to US counter-terrorism blacklist: Washington’s State and Treasury Departments also listed Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula leader Ibrahim al-Banna as a threat.
  9. Kashmir is an integral part of Pakistan, says Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif: He called Burhan Wani a martyr and added that all countries must urge India to change its policy towards the Valley.
  10. Tax collections for 2016-2017 will exceed Budget estimate of Rs 16.3 lakh crore, says Arun Jaitley: The finance minister said demonetisation had not affected revenue collections, even as states asked the Centre to relax borrowing limits.