Breaking News, July 16 | HIGHLIGHTS

A dramatic bus accident at the mouth of a highway tunnel in northeast Spain left 25 people in need of hospital treatment, including three in critical condition, officials said Tuesday. The bus was carrying 50-60 textile workers to a nearby factory when the accident occurred on the C-32 highway about an hour north of Barcelona, according to emergency services and local officials.

Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya met BJP president J P Nadda on Tuesday, as the party works out its strategy following its poor performance in the crucial state in the Lok Sabha elections. Maurya made no comments to media persons as he left the BJP headquarters here following the meeting. Party sources said Nadda was expected to meet UP BJP chief Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary too.

At least five class 12 students of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Theog in Shimla district have been suspended for 15 days for ragging, officials of the school administration said on Tuesday. On the night of July 13, the five students beat up some students of class 10 in a hostel after they refused to wash the clothes of their seniors, the officials said, adding the junior students suffered minor injuries.

Police in Thailand say the bodies of six people were found on Tuesday in a luxury hotel in downtown Bangkok and poisoning is suspected. Thailand's Foreign Ministry said in a short statement that the dead were reported to be two Vietnamese Americans and four Vietnamese nationals. They were not identified further.

The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday restrained West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and three others from making any defamatory or incorrect statement against Governor CV Ananda Bose. In an interim order, Justice Krishna Rao said the matter will be heard again on August 14. Bose had filed a defamation suit against Banerjee, two newly-elected TMC MLAs Sayantika Banerjee and Reyat Hossain Sarkar and party leader Kunal Ghosh.

The Noida Police has arrested a man for allegedly filing a false car theft report after hiding his vehicle and removing its GPS system, an officer said on Tuesday. A police spokesperson said the accused, a Delhi resident, worked as cab driver and had designs to dupe his employer who owned the vehicle. On Monday, Jitendra, 35, reported at Sector 126 Police Station that his Maruti Swift had been stolen by "unknown thieves".

Highlighting streamlined parking as a tool for traffic decongestion in Bengaluru, Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara on Tuesday told the Legislative Assembly that the city needs a "Parking Policy" with both short and long-term plans. Replying to a question during the 'Question Hour', he said that he will discuss with the transport department, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and others regarding what can be done collectively and practically.

The police will set up special points on the national and state highways to check incidents of drunk-driving, said a senior police officer on Tuesday. Additional Director General of Police (Traffic and Road Safety), Amardeep Singh Rai, said the police have ordered 800 new alcometers, which will be distributed across the districts.

Probationary IAS officer Puja Khedkar has lodged a complaint of harassment against Pune district collector Suhas Diwase with Washim police, an official said on Tuesday. Khedkar is under the scanner for her claims on her disability as well as OBC certificates while clearing the IAS and for her conduct when she was posted in the Pune collector's office.

Israeli airstrikes killed more than 60 Palestinians in southern and central Gaza overnight and into Tuesday, including one that struck an Israeli-declared “safe zone” crowded with thousands of displaced people. Airstrikes in recent days have brought a constant drumbeat of deaths of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, even as Israel has pulled back or scaled down major ground offensives in the north and south. Almost daily strikes have hit the “safe zone” covering some 60 square kilometers (23 square miles) along the Mediterranean coast, where Israel told fleeing Palestinians to take refuge to escape ground assaults.

Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) chief Mukesh Sahani has said that they won't be afraid after his father was brutally murdered at his ancestral home in Bihar's Darbhanga on Tuesday. Mukesh Sahani has called for strict action against the accused adding it was a black day for the 'Nishad' community.

A massive landslide occurred in Shirur in Karnataka's Uttara Kannada district on Tuesday in which seven persons, including a five-member family, were feared killed.

Worli (Mumbai) hit-and-run case accused Mihir Shah was sent to Judicial custody for 14 days, till 30th July.

On Mukesh Sahani's father murder, Jitendra Singh Gangwar, ADG, Headquarters said, "Jitan Sahani,70, who used to stay alone was murdered by unknown persons probably in the night. Police headquarters has taken cognizance of the incident. FSL team are collecting evidence from the spot. An almirah containing papers and money was found lying outside the house. An investigation is being conducted. STF from Patna has been sent to Darghanga. SIT headed by Darbhanga SP Rural will investigate the case. Till now, two unidentified persons detained for questioning. Body sent for post-mortem. If anyone has any information, they can give it to us at 9431822992 or 6287742988; We have a toll-free number - 14432."

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday granted the Centre time till July 25 to decide on allotment of office space to the AAP on account of it being recognised as a national party. On June 5, the high court granted six weeks to the Centre to decide the Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) request in this matter.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday asserted that India would give a befitting reply to Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Sarma, who is the Jharkhand election co-incharge of the BJP, is on a two-day visit to the state to participate in workers' felicitation programmes and Vijay Sankalp Sabhas.

A Dakshineswar-bound Kolkata Metro rake was briefly stranded at the Tollygunge station in the older North-South corridor due to power disruption on Tuesday morning. The movement of trains was regulated along the route in the busy morning hours till power was restored after around 14 minutes, a Kolkate Metro spokesperson told PTI.

The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday raided multiple premises in Bihar, Delhi and Pune as part of a money laundering investigation against Bihar cadre IAS officer Sanjeev Hans and former RJD MLA Gulab Yadav, official sources said. The raids are being undertaken against the 1997-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Hans, currently serving as the Principal Secretary of the Bihar energy department, apart from Yadav and some others.

Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi on Tuesday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi, the Raj Bhavan said.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought responses from the CBI and ED on AAP leader Manish Sisodia's pleas seeking bail in the corruption and money laundering cases linked to the alleged Delhi excise policy scam. Sisodia, a former deputy chief minister of Delhi, has sought bail contending that he has been in custody for 16 months and the trial against him was at the same stage as it was in October last year.

The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday conducted searches against a Punjab-based liquor company as part of its money laundering probe linked to a case of alleged contamination of soil and groundwater in Ferozepur district, official sources said. Seven premises of the liquor company in Punjab, Delhi and Madhya Pradesh were raided by the federal probe agency.

Senior BJP leader in West Bengal, Suvendu Adhikari, has launched a portal to enable genuine voters who allegedly could not exercise their franchise during the Lok Sabha elections and the recent bypolls to register their complaints. Adhikari claimed that thousands of electors could not cast their votes during assembly by-elections in four segments on July 10. "As promised, I have launched a portal where genuine voters can register their names, who were not allowed to vote in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and the recently concluded assembly bypolls.

Equity benchmark indices maintained their winning momentum for the third straight session on Tuesday, with the Sensex and Nifty hitting their new all-time peaks, amid foreign fund inflows and a rally in the US markets.

About 51 per cent of the applications received under the PM CARES for Children scheme for COVID orphans has been rejected, according to officials. Launched at the peak of COVID-19 cases in India on May 29, 2021, the PM CARES for Children Scheme aims to support children who lost their parents, a legal guardian, adoptive parents, or a surviving parent to the pandemic between March 11, 2020 to May 5, 2023.

Pune police will conduct an inquiry into the authenticity of medical certificates submitted by probationary IAS officer Puja Khedkar, accused of misrepresenting herself under the physical disabilities category, an official said on Tuesday. Khedkar, the 2023-batch officer currently posted in Washim district, had submitted to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) multiple medical certificates, one of them indicating visual impairment, under the Persons with Benchmark Disabilities (PwBD) provision.

Chief of Army Staff Gen Upendra Dwivedi on Tuesday briefed Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on the anti-terror operation in Jammu and Kashmir's Doda district. Four army personnel, including an officer, have been killed in action during the operation against a heavily-armed group of terrorists, according to official sources. The defence minister's office said he spoke to Gen Dwivedi this morning.

The city woke up to a humid morning with the minimum temperature recorded at 29.1 degrees Celsius, two notches above normal. The weather department has predicted a generally cloudy sky with light rain. The maximum temperature is likely to settle around 36 degrees Celsius.

Three people have died and several injured in a road accident in Noida.

Tamil Nadu: Naam Tamilar Party's Madurai North District Deputy Secretary Balasubramanian was hacked to death this morning when he was walking on the street near state  minister Palanivel Thiagarajan's residence: Madurai City Police Commissioner

In a shocking incident, Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) chief Mukesh Sahani's father Jitan Sahani was murdered by unknown assailants in Bihar's Darbhanga. According to the information, the incident took place at his residential house on Monday night. 

President Joe Biden told NBC News in an interview on Monday that it was a “mistake” to say he wanted to put a “bull's-eye” on Republican nominee Donald Trump, but argued that the rhetoric from his opponent was more incendiary while warning that Trump remained a threat to democratic institutions. The remark in question came during a private call with donors last week as Biden had been scrambling to shore up his imperiled candidacy with key party constituencies. During that conversation, Biden declared he was “done” talking about his poor debate performance and said it was “time to put Trump in the bull's-eye,” saying Trump has gotten far too little scrutiny on his stances, rhetoric and lack of campaigning.

Five pilgrims died and more than 30 were injured after their bus collided with a tractor on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, police said on Tuesday. The deceased were warkaris (devotees of Lord Vitthal) who were on their way to Pandharpur for the Ashadhi Ekadashi celebrations from their hometown Dombivli near Mumbai, police said. The bus collided against the tractor and fell into a gorge around midnight.

The Delhi Police is likely to file a chargesheet in connection with AAP MP Swati Maliwal’s assault case at a local court on Tuesday (July 16), official sources said. Maliwal had alleged in May this year that she was assaulted by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s aide Bibhav Kumar at the CM’s official residence when she went to meet him during his interim bail. AAP had denied the allegations and accused its own MP of attempting to frame Kejriwal during the then ongoing Lok Sabha Elections on behalf of the BJP.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah will visit poll-bound Haryana on Tuesday (July 16), in his second visit to the state in the over two weeks. He will visit Mahendragarh today where he will address a meeting of the backward classes. "Union Home and Cooperation Minister Shri @AmitShah ji will address the Backward Classes Samman Sammelan," Haryana BJP chief Mohan Lal Badoli posted on X on Monday. The event will be held in Mahendragarh's Pali.

Four army personnel, including an officer, who were critically injured in a gunfight with heavily-armed terrorists, succumbed to injuries in Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir early Tuesday, official sources said. The encounter took place when the troops of Rashtriya Rifles and Special Operations Group of J&K Police launched a joint cordon and search operation at Dhari Gote Urarbagi in Desa forest belt, some 55 km from Doda town, late Monday evening, the officials said. After a brief exchange of fire, they said the terrorists tried to escape but were chased by the brave troops led by an officer despite challenging terrain, thick foliage leading to another firefight in the woods around 9 pm.