News brief: Big stories of the day

In a first, India's minister VK Singh visits North Korea, meets top officials

India's minister of state for external affairs General VK Singh visited North Korea from May 15-16.

India and North Korea had established diplomatic relations in December, 1973, this year marks the 45th anniversary of relations between the two countries.

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Government announces ceasefire during Ramzan in J&K

The home ministry today declared a state of ceasefire during Ramzan in Jammu and Kashmir

Chief minister Mehbooba Mufti had appealed for ceasefire earlier.

The roller-coaster life of Malaysia's Anwar Ibrahim

Anwar Ibrahim, a controversial figure in Malaysian politics, was freed on Wednesday after pardon from King Sultan Muhammad V. Anwar was sentenced to five-year jail term for sodomy, a charge he says was trumped up by the government of ousted Prime Minister Najib Razak. 

Syrian rebels pull out of their last besieged area

The remaining fighters started to withdraw from the last rebel-held enclave in central Syria on Wednesday, state television reported, sealing the government's control over the area and opening a major stretch of the country's most important highway.

Watch: WB panchayat polls — Ballot box looted at gunpoint in Malda

Brandishing a gun, unidentified miscreants, on Wednesday, escaped with a ballot box from polling booth no. 76 in Malda's Ratua during the re-polling in the Panchayat elections.