• My doors are always open for you, Rahul Gandhi tells students at Hyderabad university campus.

The VC and Union Ministers in Delhi have not acted fairly. This youngster was put in so much pain that he had no option but to kill himself

— Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) January 19, 2016

• There should be no discrimination on the basis of caste. Rohith came to university with a certain hope: Rahul Gandhi
• Rahul Gandhi addresses students, says Rohit Vemula’s family should be paid compensation. He further seeks Vice Chancellor P Appa Rao’s removal.
• Research scholar Rohit Vemula, who allegedly committed suicide in a room on the campus of the University of Hyderabad, had in a letter purportedly written
  by him said he was not getting his fellowship for past seven months. “If you, who is reading this letter can do anything for me, I have to get 7 months of my fellowship, one lakh and seventy five thousand rupees. Please see to it that my family is paid that. I have to give some 40 thousand to Ramji. He never asked them back. But please pay that to him from that (sic),” Rohit purportedly wrote in the letter.
• RPI leader Ramdas Athawale will visit Rohith Vemula’s family in Hyderabad tomorrow.
• On the university campus, scores of students intensify their protests, demanding that Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya, BJP MLC Ramchander Rao, university’s Vice Chancellor P Appa Rao and two ABVP leaders, against whom cases were registered for abetting suicide of Rohit, be jailed.
• Several students in campuses outside the state come out of classes in solidarity with their Hyderabad Central University counterparts.
• Rahul Gandhi interacts with students over the issue.
• Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi arrives at Hyderabad university’s campus.
• A video of altercation between Rohith Vemula and ABVP activists tearing down, ABVP flag has surfaced.
• Have appointed Secretary Anita Agnihotri to investigate Dalit scholar’s suicide case: Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Thaawarchand Gehlot
• Attacking the government over the alleged suicide of a Dalit scholar in Hyderabad, Congress leader Digvijay Singh today charged that vice chancellors have
  been handpicked by the BJP and RSS, and asked student wings to come together to fight the “communal forces”.
  Also Read: Hyderabad student suicide: Digvijay asks student wings to unite
• A two-member Trinamool Congress delegation led by party MP and national spokesperson Derek O’Brien is going to Hyderabad this evening to express solidarity with the students protesting against the alleged suicide.
• Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi slams Rahul Gandhi, says the Congress leader is visiting Hyderabad to just rub salt in the wound.
• Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati sends two-member team to Hyderabad to probe into the matter.
• The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) student leader, who emerged as a key character in the entire episode, has expressed shock over the death of Rohith.
  Also Read: Shocked at Rohith Vemula’s suicide; it was just student politics: ABVP leader Susheel Kumar
• Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar tweeted:

Deeply saddened at the tragic death of Dalit student Rohit Vemula in Hyd. Govt must ensure fair probe & action against those responsible.

— Nitish Kumar (@NitishKumar) January 19, 2016

• In Pune, the students of FTII sat on a day-long hunger strike outside the institute’s gate, expressing “solidarity” with students protesting over the alleged suicide.
• Commenting on Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Hyderabad, Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Thaawarchand Gehlot tells ANI that politics should not be played in such cases. The ministry is gathering information regarding this case, justice will be don, assures Gehlot.
• Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Thaawarchand Gehlot seeks report from Telangana on Dalit student`s suicide​.
• Also Read: Arvind Kejriwal attacks PM Narendra Modi over Dalit student Rohith Vemula’s death
• Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal trained his guns on Prime Minister Narendra Modi:

Modi govt constitutionally duty bound to uplift dalits. Instead Modi ji's ministers got five dalit students ostracised n suspended(1/2)

— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) January 19, 2016

It's not suicide. It's murder. It's murder of democracy, social justice n equality.Modi ji shd sack ministers n aplogoize to the nation(2/2)

— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) January 19, 2016

• Telangana Jagruti Yuva Morcha protests outside Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya’s residence in Hyderabad. Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya and Hyderabad University Vice Chancellor were yesterday named in an FIR regarding the case.
• Rohith Vemula, 28, was found hanging in his friend’s room in the hostel on Sunday. The second year research scholar of science, technology and society studies department was one of the five students expelled from the hostel and barred from all facilities except their classrooms following a clash with leaders of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).
• Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi heads to Hyderabad to meet the to meet the students after Rohith Vemula allegedly committed suicide sparking massive protests. Rahul is leaving for Hyderabad along with party general secretary Digvijay Singh and will meet the students of the university, party sources said.
  Also Read: Dalit student’s suicide case: Rahul Gandhi to visit University of Hyderabad today
• All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi on Tuesday condemned the “cold-hearted attitude” of the concerned minister and the government over the suicide of a Dalit research scholar of Hyderabad Central University (HCU). “I condemn this attitude and hope strong action will taken against Vice Chancellor,” added Owaisi.

Pakistan’s former military ruler General Pervez Musharraf was today acquitted by an anti-terrorism court in the murder case of Baloch nationalist leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti.

The court in Balochistan’s provincial capital Quetta acquitted former president Musharraf, ex-provincial home minister Mir Shoaib Nosherwani and Qaumi Watan Party chief and member of National Assembly Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao.

After the announcement of the decision by Judge Jan Muhammad Gohar, the lawyer representing Bugti’s son Jamil Bugti, Sohail Rajput, announced his decision to challenge the judgment of the court, the Dawn reported.

“They should have been convicted and I do not understand why the court set them free,” Rajput said.

“We are not satisfied with this judgement and we will challenge it,” Rajput told reporters outside court.

Musharraf, 72, was indicted in the case in January 2015. The court also rejected the request by Jamil to order exhumation of the body of his father to confirm that the body buried in Dera Bugti was that of Akbar Bugti.

In a separate application, Jamil had requested the court to summon the members of a parliamentary committee who had met Akbar Bugti following the violence in Dera Bugti in March 2005
in which dozens were killed.

Jamil had named Musharraf, former Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, former Governor of Balochistan Owais Ahmed Ghani, ex-interior minister Sherpao and others for the murder.

Bugti, former chief minister of Balochistan and head of his tribe, was killed in 2006 in a military operation ordered by Musharraf who was president and army chief at the time. His killing sparked nationwide protests and further fuelled an armed insurgency that began in 2004 in Balochistan.

Two co-accused – Musharraf’s then interior minister Sherpao and ex-provincial home minister Nusherwan – were also indicted for their alleged role in the murder of Bugti. Musharraf never appeared in the court during the entire legal process which had been in progress since 2009.

He was also absent when the charge-sheet was read out in the court. Musharraf came to power in a bloodless coup in 1999, deposing then-prime minister Nawaz Sharif. Facing impeachment following elections in 2008, Musharraf resigned as president and went into self-imposed exile in Dubai.

The ex-army chief is facing a slew of court cases after returning from five years of self-exile in Dubai to contest the general elections in 2013 which he lost.

He is also facing trial in high treason case for abrogating the constitution in 2007 and illegal detention of judges same year.

Yet again spewing venom against India, 26/11 attacks mastermind and Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief Hafiz Saeed has said that the neighbouring country is within the range of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons.

“India and Israel are within the range of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons,” Saeed said while addressing JuD supporters on 15 January.

The 2008 Mumbai attacks mastermind didn’t even spared his own Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. While targeting Sharif, the JuD chief said the Pakistani Premier wasn’t able to put forward Islamabad’s case when he met President Barack Obama in the US.

The JuD chief said that Sharif went to US with a file allegedly containing evidence against India and its spy wing RAW for spreading terror in Pakistan, but it was of no help to the country, Saeed maintained.

“When the Pakistan Premier reached US, he had to first meet US Secretary of State John Kerry who asked him to handover the file to him. After reluctantly giving the file to Kerry Sharif met Obama, who refused to pay heed to accusations against India and asked him about the action taken by Pakistan against JuD, Haqqani network and Lashkar-e-Toiba,” Saeed said.

Saeed also put his weight behind the banned Jaish-e-Mohammad, saying that Pakistan government is taking action against JeM to “please” Modi government in India.

“The arrests are regrettable as the Nawaz government is only doing so to please Modi sarkar (government). The arrests will only encourage the Indian government to put further pressure on Pakistan to backtrack it’s stance on Kashmir,” he said.

Saeed further said the Pakistani government is ignoring “national interest” for the sake of its friendship with India.

Republican frontrunner Donald Trump has attacked Ted Cruz over his birth in Canada, saying it raises questions about his presidential eligibility.

In the latest Republican debate for White House hopefuls, Mr Trump told his rival: “There’s a big question mark over your head.”

The constitution mandates the president be a “natural born citizen” of the US.

Issues of national security, the economy and foreign policy have also played heavily in the debate.

In the polls, the pair are leading the five other candidates, who were also on the stage in North Charleston.

The debate came just two weeks before the first real test of the campaign, when voters in Iowa pick their Republican and Democratic choices for president.

US media verdict on the debate

“Cruz acquitted himself well, cementing his status as the front-runner’s chief opponent,” writes Howard Kurtz for Fox News.

“But Trump didn’t suffer, and in fact may have had his strongest debate performance… The two-man top tier remains just that, way ahead of the rest of the field.”

“For much of his career in Washington, Ted Cruz has been dismissed as a cartoonish sideshow,” Michael Barbaro notes in the New York Times. However, he “did not just dominate much of the Republican debate, he slashed, he mocked, he charmed and he outmanoeuvred everybody else on stage”.

“Donald Trump and Ted Cruz had an unofficial non-aggression pact at the first five Republican presidential debates… but the sixth one Thursday night quickly became a flurry of mutual scorn,” writes Susan Page in USA Today.

“There were only three real players in this exercise: Trump, Cruz and Rubio,” according to Josh Marshall on the Talking Points Memo website. “Trump wins, Cruz loses a bit of ground but not much and the clock continues to run out on Rubio.”

Highlights

• Mr Cruz defended a controversy over his campaign finances in 2012, alleging bias in the media
• He said Mr Trump embodied “New York values”, adding “not a lot of conservatives come out of Manhattan – I’m just saying”
• Mr Trump defended his call for a halt on Syrian refugees, saying they were a “Trojan horse” bringing in people who would harm the US
• He came under fire from Florida Governor Jeb Bush for proposing a ban on Muslims coming to the US
• Florida Senator Marco Rubio said Mr Obama would confiscate every gun in the US if he could
• The candidates bickered over how to respond to China’s impact on the US economy

Analysis – Anthony Zurcher, BBC News, Washington

The sixth Republican presidential debate was the political equivalent of a wrestling “battle royale”, where fists fly, chairs are thrown, the crowd cheers and the referees flee for safety.

There could have been no clearer indication that the Cruz-Trump honeymoon was over. The two candidates who stand atop the Republican presidential opinion polls had exchanged warm words through much of the campaign but with the Iowa caucuses just two weeks away, the niceties have melted away.

They exchanged barbs over Mr Cruz’s Canadian birthplace and Mr Trump’s alleged liberal “New York values”.

From there, numerous side fights broke out. Rubio v Christie over Mr Christie’s tenure as New Jersey governor. Trump v Kasich, Rubio v Bush on trade. Rubio v Cruz on immigration. Each candidate could boast a strong moment or two, but each also felt the sting of their competitors’ barbs.

A battle royale is supposed to end when only one participant is left standing. In Charleston, however, all the candidates survived – but all were bloodied.

The event hosted by Fox Business Network came after days of Mr Cruz and Mr Trump taking shots at each other, shattering a months-long period of goodwill between the two men.

The start of hostilities began a week ago when the billionaire businessman started raising questions about whether the Texas senator’s birth in Canada put his eligibility in doubt.

But on the debate stage on Thursday night, Mr Cruz said there was “zero chance” of a lawsuit succeeding because the constitution’s definition of “natural born citizens” included people born to an American parent.

Mr Cruz was born in Calgary to an American mother and a Cuban father.

But the business mogul stood firm, noting that a Harvard law scholar had raised doubts and Mr Cruz could face lawsuits by Democrats wishing to challenge his qualification.

Candidates for US president must

• be a “natural born citizen” – this has never been tested in court but is widely interpreted as being a US citizen at birth, so born in the US or having a US citizen parent
• be 35 years of age or older
• have lived in the US for the past 14 years

Could a Canadian be US president?

They also argued over the meaning of “New York values”, which Mr Cruz threw at the New York billionaire as a slur on his conservative credentials.

But the New Yorker said that was an insult to the “great people” who pulled together after the 9/11 attacks.

After the debate, Mr Trump told reporters: “I guess the bromance is over.”

All the candidates targeted leading Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, who was repeatedly attacked for her time as Secretary of State.

The primary contests, in which each party picks their nominee for president, begin in February and the presidential election is in November.

Six people are in a critical condition – including one in a coma – after clinical trial of new drug in France, the country’s health minister says.

Health Minister Marisol Touraine is travelling to Rennes. Photo: AFP/BBC

Marisol Touraine said there had been a “very serious accident” during a trial by a private laboratory in Rennes.

The minister said she would be making an emergency visit to the city, in the north-west of France, on Friday.

The trial has been suspended and the firm is recalling the volunteers. It is unclear how many people are involved.

Participants had taken “a drug taken orally being developed by a European laboratory” that was licensed to operate, the ministry said in a statement (in French).

Unconfirmed French media reports said it was a cannabis-based painkiller.

The first people to fall ill were taken into hospital earlier this week, French media said. An investigation is under way.

Touraine expressed her “deep determination to get to the bottom… of this tragic accident” and find who was responsible.

In yet another scathing attack against the Centre, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday made sensational allegations against the BJP disposition and alleged that his deputy Manish Sisodia or Delhi cabinet minister Satyendra Jain could be the next ‘target’ of Narendra Modi regime.

Kejriwal said that the PMO officials were being pressurised to dig out something ‘wrong’ signed by Sisodia and Jain to trap them.

Kejriwal also tweeted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi can’t harm him and Delhi ministers as ‘God is with them’.

The Delhi CM has been at loggerheads with Centre since coming to power in February last year.

Last month, Kejriwal had accused Union Minister Arun Jaitley and the central government of raiding his office to get control of certain files pertaining to the DDCA scam, where the union Finance Minister’s role is being questioned.

A suicide bomb attack and subsequent gunfire outside the Pakistani Consulate in Jalalabad killed at least seven Afghan security personnel on Wednesday.

The suicide bomber blew himself up outside the Pakistani consulate and the bombing was followed by gunfire from unidentified terrorists.

Afghan security forces swiftly responded to the attack and engaged with the gunmen barricaded in a house near the Pakistan Consulate.

The gunbattle continued for nearly four hours.

“Seven of our security forces were killed and seven others wounded as a result of the terrorist attack,” Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said on Twitter.

It was not clear how many terrorists had been killed.

Witnesses earlier said heavy gunfire and a series of explosions could be heard and residents and children from a nearby school had been evacuated.

Attaullah Khogyani, a spokesman for the provincial governor, had earlier said a suicide bomber tried to join a queue of people seeking visas to Pakistan and blew himself up after being prevented from entering the building.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far.

Indian interests have been targeted twice this month – an attack on the Indian consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif (Afghanistan), and a raid by Islamist insurgents on an Air Force base in Punjab.

A small bomb also exploded near the Indian consulate in Jalalabad last Tuesday, but no casualties were reported.

(With agency inputs)

Lahore: Pakistani authorities have shut down several religious schools run by the Jaish-e-Mohammad militant group accused of masterminding an attack this month on an air base in India, the provincial law minister said on Friday.

The crackdown in Punjab province, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif`s power base and the headquarters of Jaish-e-Mohammad, follows the arrest this week of several members of the militant group, including its leader, Maulana Masood Azhar, an Islamist hardliner and long-time foe of India.

Pakistan has said it is clamping down on Azhar`s group, which India has long accused Pakistani authorities of tolerating, while it investigates Indian assertions that the January 2 attack on the Pathankot air base was the work of the Pakistan-based militants.

“Officials of the Counter-Terrorism Department raided the Jamiatul Nur seminary in the Daska area on Thursday and arrested more than a dozen people,” Rana Sanaullah, the law minister of the Punjab province where Jaish-e-Mohammad is headquartered, told Reuters.

“The seminary has been sealed off and documents and literature have been confiscated from the premises.”