Breaking News, February 12 | HIGHLIGHTS

The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps are holding joint exercises in the South China Sea at a time of heightened tensions with Beijing over the shooting down of a suspected Chinese spy balloon. The 7th Fleet based in Japan said Sunday that the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier strike group and the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit have been conducting “integrated expeditionary strike force operations” in the South China Sea.

United States Chargé d'Affaires Ambassador to India Elizabeth Jones on Sunday said her country's delegation to Aero India-2023 is one of the biggest ever in the premier aviation exhibition's history, and insisted that India and the US are crucial partners in many ways to ensure a free, open and resilient Indo-Pacific region where democracies can thrive.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday accused the Congress government in Rajasthan of lacking vision and hindering the state's development, and said its plans and announcements remained just on paper.

A 21-year-old IIT Roorkee student drowned in the Ganga here on Sunday while bathing in the river, police said. Siddharth who hailed from Nagaur in Rajasthan was in Haridwar along with other students and a professor for a project, Shyampur police station SHO Vinod Thapliyal said.

The Aam Aadmi Party on Sunday protested outside the BJP headquarters here, demanding a probe into the allegations of fraud against the Adani group in the Hindenburg research report. The party's Delhi convener Gopal Rai said a joint parliamentary committee comprising members from various parties should probe the matter.

A 46-year-old man was arrested on Sunday for allegedly attacking the residence of Union Minister V Muraleedharan here last week, police said. Manoj, a Kannur resident was picked up in Thampanoor. 

A fire broke out in a three-storeyed old heritage building situated about 200 metres from the chief minister's official residence here in the wee hours today. The fire broke out at around 4:30 am after which fire tenders were rushed from Mall Road, Chhota Shimla, and Boileauganj fire stations. The fire was under control but not fully extinguished and was still smouldering, officials said.

Some unknown militants on Sunday stormed the house of a police officer and opened indiscriminate firing, injuring eight persons in the restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, local police said. The militants attacked the house of the police Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) in the Ghulam Khan area of the tribal district of north Waziristan bordering Afghanistan, and injured eight people, including the ASI and two women, the police said.

The Delhi Police is all set to sign an MoU with caller ID verification platform Truecaller to help the public identify verified numbers and protect themselves from cyber frauds and scams relating to impersonation in the name of government officials. In addition to educating Delhiites and holding a joint awareness campaign against cyber frauds, Truecaller will soon help display official numbers of the Delhi Police representatives on the app's government directory services, police said.

Two persons were killed and three others injured when a speeding truck hit their sports utility vehicle (SUV) from behind in Madhya Pradesh's Rajgarh district, police said on Sunday. The accident took place on Saturday evening near Narsinghgarh on National Highway no.52, an official said.

 New Zealand's national carrier canceled dozens of flights Sunday as Aucklanders braced for a deluge from Cyclone Gabrielle, two weeks after a record-breaking storm swamped the nation's largest city and killed four people.

The 14th edition of India's largest aerospace and defence exhibition, Aero India, takes off here on Monday with inauguration by Prime Minister Narendra Modi bolstering 'Make in India' campaign and giving a fresh impetus to the domestic aviation sector. The five-day event will include aerial displays by aircraft and helicopters along with a large exhibition and trade fair of aerospace and defence companies.

Former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh has visited his hometown Nagpur for the first time in 15 months after being released from jail and alleged that he was implicated in false cases. The Nationalist Congress Party MLA from Katol in Nagpur district, who is out on bail, received an enthusiastic welcome from party workers upon arrival at the airport in Nagpur on Saturday.

The tortured bodies of four municipal employees were found on Saturday stuffed into a vehicle in Mexico's Caribbean coast resort of Playa del Carmen. Prosecutors in the Caribbean coast state of Quintana Roo said identified the victims as city employees, but gave no additional details.

Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya has said the government is working to equal the number of undergraduate and postgraduate medical seats within four years so that all MBBS graduates can pursue PG courses. Speaking at the 13th annual conference of the Global Association of Physicians of Indian origin (GAPIO) here on Saturday, Mandaviya also invited healthcare professionals from the Indian diaspora to invest in research and open hospital chains in the country with "assured business."

An uncrewed Russian supply ship docked at the International Space Station has lost coolant pressure, the Russian space corporation and NASA reported Saturday, saying the incident doesn't pose any danger to the station's crew. Roscosmos said the hatch between the station and the Progress MS-21 had been locked so the loss of pressure didn't affect the orbiting outpost.

Senior TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee on Saturday slammed the Centre and the Border Security Force over the "killing" of a local person in West Bengal's Cooch Behar district in December last year, whom the BSF has claimed to be "a cattle smuggler". Prem Kumar Barman, 24, was gunned down by a BSF constable in the Dinhata block near the India-Bangladesh border in December 2022.

Tens of thousands of Israelis took to the street in several cities across the country Saturday, protesting judicial overhaul plans by Benjamin Netanyahu's government. Critics say measures introduced by the new hard-line government would weaken the Supreme Court, limit judicial oversight and grant more power to politicians.

The last date for submission of online applications for Haj 2023 is March 10, according to the Ministry of Minority Affairs notice. The submission of online applications along with documents started from February 10, 2023. The interested can submit their applications on hajcommittee.gov.in/haf23. Notably, the Ministry of Minority Affairs on February 6, announced a new Haj policy under which the application forms have been made available for free and the package cost per pilgrim has been reduced by Rs 50,000.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the year-long celebrations commemorating the 200th birth anniversary of Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati, at Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium in the national capital on Sunday at 11 am. Prime Minister will also address the gathering on the occasion.