HIGHLIGHTS

Following are the top stories at 1700 hrs:

TOP STORIES

DEL9 PM FLIGHT-PAKISTAN India requests Pak to let PM Modi's flight pass through its airspace

New Delhi: India has requested Pakistan to let Prime Minister Narendra Modi's aircraft fly over its airspace to Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan where he has to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit on June 13 and June 14, said a senior government official.

FGN21 PM-LDALL LANKA PM Modi meets top Lankan leadership; describes terrorism as a 'joint threat'

Colombo: Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Sri Lanka's top leadership including President Maithripala Sirisena Sunday and the two sides agreed that terrorism is a "joint threat" that needs collective and focussed action, weeks after the island nation witnessed the worst jihadi attack.

NATION

CAL2 WB-VIOLENCE-PARTIES Tension prevails in WB's Sandeshkhali, police looking for 'missing' persons

Kolkata: Tension prevailed on Sunday in strife-affected Sandeshkhali in West Bengal's North 24 Parganas, with the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Trinamool Congress accusing each other of orchestrating Saturday's violence that allegedly claimed at least four lives.

DEL2 DEF-BRAHMOS-SUKHOI Integration of Brahmos missiles on Sukhoi jets to be fast-tracked

New Delhi: Weeks after the Balakot air strikes, the government decided to fast-track integration of the Brahmos supersonic cruise missile on over 40 Sukhoi fighter jets, a closely guarded strategic project aimed at bolstering combat capability of the Indian Air Force, official sources said Sunday.

DEL6 CAPFS-FAREWELL-RETIREMENT Farewells, pension processes for hundreds of CAPF personnel held up due to govt indecision

New Delhi: Hundreds of retirements and subsequent pension procedures for personnel of various Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) have been stuck since May 31 as the Ministry of Home Affairs is yet to take a final decision over fixing a benchmark superannuation age in these uniformed services. By Neelabh Srivastava

DEL4 NCGG-MALDIVES-AGREEMENT India to help train 1,000 civil servants of Maldives

New Delhi: The National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG), India's leading civil services training institution, has entered into an agreement with the Maldives Civil Services Commission for capacity building of 1,000 civil servants from the Maldives over the next five years, an official statement issued on Sunday said.

MDS4 KL-AYSUHMAN-GOVT Kerala govt joins issue with PM on Ayushman Bharat, says state member of scheme

Thiruvananthapuram: Joining issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his appeal to it for joining Ayushman Bharat, the LDF government in Kerala has said the state is already a member of the Centre's health insurance scheme and the PM has "misunderstood" it.

MDS2 KL-RAHUL-NURSE Rahul meets Kerala nurse who held him in her hands as a baby

Kozhikode (Ker): It was a special moment for 72-year-old Rajamma Vavathil, a retired nurse, when Congress president Rahul Gandhi hugged and held her hand here on Sunday, 49 years after she took him in her hands as a newborn at a Delhi hospital.

BUSINESS

DCM21 BIZ-ILFS AUDITORS IL&FS probe: Not just connivance, auditors also pitched products to top-brass

New Delhi: Auditors of debt-laden IL&FS not only connived with the top management in their fraudulent activities, but also sought to sell them certain products and services, according to findings of the SFIO probe that show large-scale violations in their auditing activities.

FOREIGN

FGN2 PM-MALDIVES-INDOPACIFIC PM Modi bats for making Indo-Pacific a region for shared prosperity

Male: Prime Minister Narendra Modi underscored India's firm commitment to make the strategic Indo-Pacific an area for shared economic growth, saying it has been "our lifeline, and also the highway for trade and prosperity."

FGN14 HUAWEI-CONTRACTS Huawei obtains 46 commercial 5G contracts from 30 countries despite US ban

Beijing: Chinese telecom giant Huawei said it has obtained 46 commercial 5G contracts so far in 30 countries and shipped more than one lakh 5G stations globally, emerging as a top player in the race for setting up the super-fast telecommunications system despite the US ban on use of its 5G services. By K J M Varma IND IND