Some 600 people have been evacuated from their homes in the old city of Frankfurt so specialists could remove a World War II-era bomb that was discovered in the Main River.

Firefighters had discovered the American 250-kilogram (550-pound) bomb during diving training in the river on Tuesday.

Even more than 70 years after the end of the war, bombs and other munitions still turn up regularly in Germany, a testament to the ferocity of the fighting in World War II.

One Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel and three Maoists were killed in an encounter in Giridih district of Jharkhand on Monday morning, reported news agency PTI.

Officials said an AK-47 rifle, three bullet magazines and four pipe bombs were recovered from the site. A search operation in underway

India and ASEAN have resolved to strengthen ties by deepening cooperation in the maritime sector and boosting connectivity.

The two sides made the affirmations at the 21st ASEAN-India Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM) held here on April 11-12, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said.

The meeting was co-chaired by Vijay Thakur Singh, SOM Leader and Secretary (East), Ministry of External Affairs, and Busaya Mathelin, SOM Leader and Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Thailand.

The ASEAN-India SOM reviewed the strategic partnership and its future direction. It assessed the progress of cooperation under all three pillars — political-security, economic and socio-cultural, the MEA said.

Former Additional Chief Secretary of Kerala, D Babu Paul died early Saturday at a private hospital here. He had been admitted to the hospital last Friday for heart-related ailments.

Babu Paul, a noted administrator and writer, was 77 and leaves behind a son and daughter. His wife had predeceased him in 2000, family sources said.

Scientists have found no long-lasting, major epigenetic differences in astronaut Scott Kelly, who spent a year in space aboard the International Space Station (ISS), and his twin brother, Mark Kelly, who remained on Earth. Epigenetic changes involve chemical "tweaks" to DNA that can influence gene activity, but the changes don't affect the underlying genetic code itself. The changes affect when and how a gene is read, or expressed, for its protein-encoding instructions.
 
Andrew Feinberg from the Johns Hopkins University in the US said that the study is the dawn of human genomics in space and they developed the methods for doing these types of human genomic studies to draw conclusions about what happens to humans in space.
 
Scientists have long monitored and studied the physiological effects of space travel on astronauts. However, most of these astronauts travel on spaceflight missions of six months or less, not the longer missions required to travel to Mars or elsewhere. Feinberg noted that studying identical twins -- who, by nature, have the same genetic material -- was an important and rare opportunity to compare physiological and genomic changes when one twin went into space and the other remained on Earth.

A new state-of-the-art, Virtual Reality Centre (VRC) to provide a major boost to indigenous warship design capabilities of the Navy was inaugurated by Navy chief Admiral Sunil Lanba in New Delhi on Friday. 

Speaking on the occasion, Lanba said the project will facilitate collaborative design reviews for continuous interaction between designers and end-users to improve design and ergonomics onboard warships.   
  
The Navy said in a statement that the VRC at the Directorate of Naval Design would   provide impetus to "self-reliance and greater fillip" to warship construction under the 'Make in India' initiative of the Indian government.

BJP president Amit Shah has congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi for being conferred the order of Saint Andrew the Apostle, highest civilian award of the Russian Federation. 

Mr Shah said it is a matter of pride and joy for all Indians and is a recognition for the countrymen. BJP President said every award which has been given to Mr Modi in the last five years is of every Indian who aspires for a happy and strong country.

The Indian women's hockey team beat Malaysia by a solitary goal to complete a 4-0 win in the five-match bilateral series in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.

It was Navjot Kaur's fine field goal in the 35th minute and a good defensive display that helped India win.

The team will return from its successful campaign on Friday.

In United States, SpaceX has carried out its first commercial launch with its Falcon Heavy rocket tasked with placing a Saudi satellite in orbit. 

The bright white rocket rose with a mighty roar and spewed thick gray smoke on the ground as it made its way up into clear blue skies over Cape Canaveral, Florida last night.

SpaceX said the rocket exerts 5.1 million pounds of thrust - that of more than a dozen jetliners. 

The rocket is to carry a Saudi Arabian satellite operated by Arabsat, a year after sending founder Elon Musk's red Tesla roadster into orbit as a test. The Falcon Heavy had been scheduled to lift off from the Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday but was delayed because of fierce winds in the upper atmosphere.

The Union HRD Ministry has appointed vice chancellors to three universities after the Election Commission gave its nod as the Model Code of Conduct is in place due to the Lok Sabha elections.

A senior HRD ministry official said, Najma Akhtar has been appointed as the V-C of Jamia Millia Islamia and Sanjiv Sharma has been appointed as the V-C  of Mahatma Gandhi Central University in Motihari. 

Name of Rajaneesh Kumar Shukla has been approved for the top post at Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya in Wardha, the official said. Akhar, is the first woman to be appointed to the Vice Chancellor's post at Jamia.