A look at the headlines right now:

  1. Congress calls for return to use of ballot paper, speaks against simultaneous elections: At its plenary session, the party said it was ready to cooperate with other parties to defeat the BJP in the 2019 elections.  
  2. Punjab court finds Jagtar Singh Tara guilty of role in former CM Beant Singh’s assassination: The Chandigarh court will pronounce the quantum of sentence on Saturday. 
  3. UIDAI refutes reports on Aadhaar security compromise, asks people to take precautions: The agency claimed that it was impossible to impersonate an individual by knowing their biometric identity number.  
  4. Centre will explain our stand on Andhra Pradesh special status, says BJP after meeting with TDP: MK Stalin asked AIADMK government to back TDP’s no-confidence motion against Centre.
  5. Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe fired two days before his retirement: The US attorney general said McCabe leaked information to the media, and misled investigators reviewing the agency’s handling of the Clinton Foundation inquiry.
  6. BJP worker’s father beheaded over land dispute, not for naming square after Modi, says Bihar deputy CM: Calling the allegation ‘totally false’, Sushil Kumar Modi said the ‘Modi chowk board was put up long back’.
  7. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav asks deputy to meet Lalu Prasad Yadav in jail, says report: Kiranmoy Nanda said he would ‘carry a message of Opposition unity’ against the BJP.  
  8. Facebook suspends firm that worked for Donald Trump’s election campaign for leaking user data: The social media network said Alexandr Kogan, a Cambridge University psychology professor, passed on information from an app to Cambridge Analytica in 2015.
  9. In a tit-for-tat response, Russia expels 23 British diplomats over nerve agent attack row: The United Kingdom had expelled 23 Russian diplomats after Moscow refused to meet PM Theresa May’s ultimatum to provide details about the incident.  
  10. Mauritius president resigns after claims that she used an NGO’s credit card for expensive purchases: Ameenah Gurib-Fakim has asserted that she refunded the money to the non-governmental organisation.