Breaking News, December 31 | HIGHLIGHTS

Haryana will conduct health check-ups of around 1.25 crore people in the state in 2023 under its ambitious Nirogi Haryana scheme, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said on Saturday. "Furthermore, in the future, health check-ups of each citizen will be done every two years and the record kept for further investigation and early diagnosis of every medical issue," Khattar added.

A 17-year-old boy allegedly killed his 70-year-old mother, ostensibly after she refused to give him money to "indulge his addiction", police said on Saturday. The deceased has been identified as Kailash Kumari, they said.

Traffic congestion was witnessed in parts of central Delhi, including Connaught Place and India Gate, on New Year's eve, officials said on Saturday. The Delhi Police has deployed over 18,000 personnel from district and traffic units across the national capital to keep a strict vigil on any kind of violation and ensure security during New Year celebrations, they said.

"18-year-old IIT student allegedly molested by Navi Mumbai police constable at Palm beach road last night. Case filed, accused constable arrested. PS-incharge, who didn't register victim's complaint, suspended,"said Navi Mumbai Police. 

With the addition of two new cases of coronavirus, Mumbai's tally of infections stood at 11,55,124 on Saturday, an official from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said. As per a bulletin issued by the civic body, the toll remained unchanged at 19,746, while the count of recoveries reached 11,35,338.

A soldier who died of frost bite in Sikkim was buried with military honours in his native town of Karamadai, 35 km from here, on Saturday.

 A woman was killed while her two sisters were injured when their two-wheeler collided with a truck here on Saturday, police said.

A pre-departure RT-PCR negative test report will be mandatory from January 1, 2023 for passengers coming in all international flights from China, Singapore, Hong Kong, the Republic of Korea, Thailand and Japan. From January 1, 2023, airlines are directed to modify their check-in functionalities to incorporate the changes and issue boarding passes only to those international passengers travelling from these five countries who have submitted self-declaration forms on the Air Suvidha portal.

A Delhi court has granted bail to a man arrested for allegedly running an illegal visa racket, noting that no one victim had come forward to file a complaint against him. Vacation Judge Shailender Malik granted relief to accused Nanda Ballab Joshi, noting that while 32 passports were recovered from his possession, he was admittedly running a tour and travel agency.

Two people died when the motorcycle on which they were travelling was hit by an unidentified vehicle in Uttar Pradesh's Banda district, police said on Saturday.

While addressing a press conference at Congress headquarters in New Delhi, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said, "I can give this in writing that Congress is going to sweep the Madhya Pradesh elections. BJP will be seen nowhere. I can guarantee this for you. Every person in MP knows that BJP has formed its government using money."

While addressing a press conference at Congress headquarters in New Delhi, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said, "Why is there so much disturbance because of the T-shirt? I do not wear a sweater because I am not scared of winter. I am thinking to wear a sweater once I start feeling cold."

While addressing a press conference at Congress headquarters in New Delhi, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said, I" want them (BJP) to attack us aggressively, this will help Congress party understand its ideology. I consider them (BJP) as my Guru, they are showing me the way and training me on what is not to be done."

While addressing a press conference at Congress headquarters in New Delhi, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said, "When I started this, I just took it as an ordinary yatra from Kanyakumari to Kashmir. Slowly we understood that this yatra has a voice & feelings. I want to thank people from BJP & RSS, because the more they target us, it helps us in some way or the other."

An extended portion of the house of a Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) militant was demolished in Anantnag, officials here said on Saturday. According to authorities, Ghulam Nabi Khan alias Amir Khan had a wall built on encroached land as an extension to his house in Liver Pahalgam in the south Kashmir district.

A 14-year-old girl was allegedly gang-raped and thrown in a tube well in a village under Ghosi police station area of the district, police said on Saturday.
Two people have been arrested and a hunt is on to trace the third culprit, they said. According to a complaint filed by the victim's father, she went out to throw garbage Friday morning when she was taken away by the accused and was gang-raped. The minor was rescued after some labourers raised an alarm and informed the police.

India reported 226 new coronavirus infections, raising the tally to 4. 46 crore, while the active cases increased to 3,653, the Union Health Ministry said on Saturday. The death toll stands at 5,30,702 with three fatalities reconciled by Kerala, data updated at 8 am by the ministry stated. The daily positivity rate was recorded at 0. 12 per cent while the weekly positivity rate was pegged at 0. 15 per cent, the ministry said.

 Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Uma Bharti has said her party does not "hold patents" on Lord Ram, Hanuman or the Hindu religion and anybody can have faith in them, but "our faith is beyond political gains".

In a statement issued here on Friday, the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister also said it was not the BJP which inculcated in her the faith in Ram, the Tricolour, Ganga and cow, but it was "already within" her.

US President Joe Biden on Saturday condoled the demise of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s mother Heeraben Modi. "Jill and I send our deepest and heartfelt condolences to Prime Minister @narendramodi on the loss of his mother, Heeraben Modi. Our prayers are with the Prime Minister and his family at this difficult time," wrote US President on Twitter.

 Nine persons were killed and nearly 15 others injured after a sports utility vehicle (SUV) rammed into a luxury bus in Navsari district of Gujarat in the wee hours of Saturday, police said.

The accident occurred on a national highway near Vesma village when the bus was going towards Valsad, while the SUV was coming from the opposite direction, Navsari Superintendent of Police (SP) Rushikesh Upadhyay said.

At least several people were injured after a bus collided with a car in Gujarat's Navsari. According to ANI, all injured have been admitted to the hospital. 

Google will pay Indiana USD 20 million to resolve the state's lawsuit against the technology giant over allegedly deceptive location tracking practices, state Attorney General Todd Rokita announced.

Rokitas filed a separate lawsuit against Google when negotiations between the company and a coalition of state attorneys general stalled, he said.
Those states agreed to a USD 391. 5 million settlement with the company in November.

Alok Sharma, an Indian-origin former UK minister, has been knighted for his contribution to combatting climate change through his leadership at the COP26 summit by King Charles III in his first New Year Honours list released here.

Agra-born Sharma, 55, who was a Cabinet-level minister until October, is named on the “Overseas List” and leads a tally of over 30 Indian-origin campaigners, economists, academics, medics and philanthropists to be honoured in the annual list issued in the name of the British monarch for their “incredible public service” across the UK and abroad.

India has once again warned its neighbouring country Pakistan and China that it will never negotiate or compromise on the border as well as on terrorism issues. Speaking at an event in Cyprus, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday in a veiled attack on Pakistan said that "New Delhi will not allow terrorism to be used as a tool to negotiate border issues". 

"We will never normalize it. We will never allow terrorism to force us to the negotiating table. We want good neighbourly relations with everybody. But good neighbourly relations do not mean excusing or looking away or rationalizing terrorism. That we are very clear," EAM Jaishankar said while interacting with the Indian diaspora in Cyprus.

Shiv Sena (UBT) Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut on Friday met Nationalist Congress Party leader Anil Deshmukh, who was released on bail a couple of days ago after spending more than a year in jail. On Tuesday, the Bombay High Court had refused to further stay its order granting Deshmukh bail in a corruption case registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), leading to the former state home minister walking out of Mumbai's Arthur Road prison on Wednesday.

The BJP on Friday claimed that most candidates supported by it have emerged victorious in the urban local bodies (ULBs) polls in Bihar, results of which began coming out on Friday. Nominees considered to have been backed by the ruling Mahagathbandhan also won in several posts. The ULB elections were not held on political party lines in the state and the win of an individual candidate cannot be declared as that of a political outfit, the RJD said. While the counting of votes was still on for many places, Sita Sahu returned as the Mayor of Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC), officials said. The “BJP-backed” candidate defeated her nearest rival Majzabi by a margin of 18,529 votes. Another candidate Chandravanshi won the post of deputy mayor by defeating Anjana Gandhi by a margin of 5,251 votes.

Ten months into Russia's latest invasion of Ukraine, overwhelming evidence shows the Kremlin's troops have waged total war, with disregard for international laws governing the treatment of civilians and conduct on the battlefield. Ukraine is investigating more than 58,000 potential Russian war crimes — killings, kidnappings, indiscriminate bombings and sexual assaults. Reporting by The Associated Press and “Frontline,” recorded in a public database, has independently verified more than 600 incidents that appear to violate the laws of war. Some of those attacks were massacres that killed dozens or hundreds of civilians and as a totality it could account for thousands of individual war crimes. As Karim Khan, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, told the AP, “Ukraine is a crime scene.”

The UK has joined a growing list of countries, including India, to introduce curbs on travellers from China amid a surge in coronavirus cases in the country after Chinese authorities relaxed the strict "zero-COVID" rules. Passengers arriving from China to England from January 5, 2023, will need to show a negative COVID-19 pre-departure test (PDT) taken no more than two days prior to departure. Although there are no direct flights from China to Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, the government said it was working with the devolved regions to ensure this is implemented UK-wide as soon as possible. “As COVID cases in China rise ahead of them reopening their borders next week, it is right for us to take a balanced and precautionary approach by announcing these temporary measures while we assess the data,” said UK Health Secretary Steve Barclay. “This allows our world-leading scientists at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) to gain rapid insight into potential new variants circulating in China. The best defence against the virus, however, remains the vaccine,” he said on Friday.

North Korea fired a ballistic missile toward the North's eastern waters Saturday morning, South Korea's military said. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff gave no further details on the launch, such as the specific type of weapon Pyongyang launched or how far it travelled. It's the latest in a barrage of weapons tests by North Korea this year. Some experts say North Korea is seeking to modernise its arsenal and increase its leverage in future dealings with the United States. Saturday's launch came five days after North Korea allegedly flew drones into South Korea's airspace for the first time since 2017.