Breaking News, October 26

The family of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was shot dead in the West Bank last spring, again called for an independent investigation after briefly meeting Pope Francis during the general audience Wednesday.

A man from Karnataka, who was seriously injured in a road accident in neighbouring Kerala four months ago and remained in coma since then, has died at a hospital here on Wednesday, an official said.

A 32-year-old man was stabbed to death in suburban Goregaon, police said on Wednesday. The incident took place on Mulund Link road late Tuesday night, said an official of the Vanrai police station.

Maoists abducted and killed the brother of a journalist on suspicion of being a police informer in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district, a senior officer said on Wednesday.

 The government on Wednesday unveiled new policy reforms for satellite communications services to ease procedures and streamline clearance processes and nudged the telecom industry to substantially speed up the deployment of 5G towers.

A man allegedly killed his 39-year-old cousin with a sword following an argument over using a water pump at a common well in Kotwali area of Nagpur on Wednesday, police said.

 Gunmen opened fire on Wednesday at a major Shiite holy site in the southern city of Shiraz, killing at least 15 people and wounding dozens, according to state-run media.

The police here said they were on their toes upon seeing cars parked along the roads, particularly after the explosion of a car in front of a temple the other day. After the blast, the police are letting no stone unturned and went about checking the four-wheelers on suspicion. The lawmen have so far confiscated seven unclaimed cars, not forgetting the incident that rocked the city on the eve of Deepavali.

The Madurai bench of Madras High Court on Wednesday directed the bank officials to hand over the golden armour of the statue of freedom fighter Pasumpon Muthuramalinga Thevar to the Ramanathapuram district revenue officer ahead of the annual 'Thevar Jayanthi' celebrations on October 30.

A Delhi court has allowed the ED to interrogate Saigal Hossain, a former security guard of arrested Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Anubrata Mondal, in its custody till October 28 in connection with a money-laundering case related to alleged cattle smuggling.

About 30 members of a film crew who were trapped in a limestone cave in northern Malaysia during heavy rain on Wednesday have been rescued, police said.

Regulator Irdai on Wednesday announced to set up a 15-member Health Insurance Consultative Committee with an aim to achieve the goal of universalisation of health insurance in the country.  The panel has been set up for two years, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) said in a circular. The committee, headed by Irdai member Rakesh Joshi, has been tasked to identify the challenges in carrying out the health insurance business smoothly and make recommendations to facilitate ease of doing business.

Hundreds of protesters poured into the streets of a northwestern Iranian city on Wednesday to mark the watershed 40 days since the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, whose tragedy sparked Iran's biggest anti-government movement in over a decade. Deaths are commemorated in Shiite Islam — as in many other traditions — again 40 days later, typically with an outpouring of grief. In Amini's Kurdish hometown of Saqez, the birthplace of the nationwide unrest now roiling Iran, crowds snaked through the local cemetery and thronged her grave.

Budget airline Air India Express is looking to lease two Boeing 737 aircraft from full-service carrier Vistara to offer more flights during the winter schedule, according to a source. Both Air India Express and Vistara are part of the Tata group, which also has Air India and AirAsia India under its wings. The source close to the development said the two narrow-body planes are expected to be inducted into the Air India Express fleet on a short-term lease in November and December, respectively.

Navjit Kaur Brar, an Indo-Canadian healthcare worker has become the first turban-wearing Sikh woman to be elected as a city councillor of Brampton city in Canada. Brar, a respiratory therapist, was on Monday elected the Brampton city Councillor in the recent municipal council polls after she won the race in Wards 2 and 6. The mother of three beat Jermaine Chambers, a former Conservative MP candidate for Brampton West, as she secured 28.
85 per cent of the votes cast.

Swastika Mukhopadhyay, an eminent singer and former principal of Sangit Bhavana at Visva-Bharati University (VBU), died at a private hospital in Kolkata on Wednesday after a prolonged illness, family sources said.

The house was damaged in the explosion. A case has been registered & investigation is underway, said Naresh, SHO, Chilkalguda PS.

A retired IAS officer has been arrested in connection with an attempt to murder case in Rajasthan's Nagaur district, police said on Wednesday. According to an FIR lodged by victim Satveer Singh, about 10-12 people vandalised the house he was living in and opened fire on the directions of former IAS officer Rohitash Singh on October 21.

The overarching theme of UNSC Counter-Terrorism Committee would be 'Countering the use of new & emerging technologies for terrorist purposes. It'll begin with tribute to victims of terrorism, said Sanjay Verma, Secy (W), MEA.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday monitored drills of the country's strategic nuclear forces involving multiple practice launches of ballistic and cruise missiles, the Kremlin said. Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu reported to Putin that the drills were intended to simulate a “massive nuclear strike” by Russia in retaliation for a nuclear attack on Russia. The exercise comes amid soaring Russia-West tensions over Moscow's actions in Ukraine.

The Jammu and Kashmir unit of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad on Wednesday staged a demonstration to demand the withdrawal of the Jammu Kashmir Public University Bill, 2022, that, it claimed, eroded the autonomy of universities in the Union Territory.

The Pakistan government on Wednesday reconstituted a panel probing the killing of senior journalist Arshad Sharif in Kenya by dropping an ISI representative from the team, days after he was shot dead by the Nairobi police. Sharif, 49, a former reporter and TV anchor with ARY TV, and known for his proximity to former prime minister Imran Khan, had fled to Kenya after he was booked on charges of sedition and peddling “anti-state” narrative by Pakistan's security agencies earlier this year.

The Department of Pension and Pensioners' Welfare (DoPPW) has resolved 3,150 pending pension-related grievances during the ongoing special Swachhata campaign, an official statement issued on Wednesday said. The DoPPW is the nodal department for formulation of policies relating to pension and other retirement benefits of central government pensioners/ family pensioners.

An arduous journey awaits Mallikarjun Kharge who took over the mantle of the Congress from the longest-serving party president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday as the party strives to regain its hold among the masses and revive its electoral fortunes.

A probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) into the Coimbatore explosion case would be recommended to the Centre, the Tamil Nadu government said here on Wednesday. The state government also announced raising a special police force to foil sabotage and bolster its intelligence wing.

Tata Steel has inked an agreement with American carmaker Ford to supply "zeremis green steel" from its Netherlands-based IJmuiden plant after the unit shifts to hydrogen-based steel making. In Europe, Tata Steel is working to switch to low-carbon technologies to manufacture steel in the UK and the Netherlands. The company's both businesses Tata Steel UK and Tata Steel Nederland have been developing detailed plans for transition to low CO2 technologies in line with the company's goal to produce CO2-neutral steel by 2050 in Europe, company's CEO & MD T V Narendran and Executive Director and CFO Koushik Chatterjee earlier said.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah will inaugurate and lay foundation stones of four projects worth Rs 6,629 crore from a programme in Haryana’s Faridabad, according to a statement. The event will be held on Thursday at Faridabad’s Parade Ground, Sector 12.

Political strategist-turned-activist Prashant Kishor on Thursday hinted that he was receiving financial assistance for his 'Jan Suraaj campaign' in Bihar from his former clients, many of whom were now chief ministers of their respective states. 

A Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist was killed on Wednesday as security forces foiled an infiltration bid along the Line of Control in Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir, a defence spokesperson said. The operation was launched in the Tangdhar sector on the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday. The slain terrorist was identified as Mohammed Shakur (32) from Syedpura in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), he said. The joint operation was launched based on specific information received from the police regarding the infiltration of a group of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists through the Sudpura forward post in the Karnah area of Kupwara district. The inputs were corroborated by other intelligence agencies, the spokesperson said in a statement.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will embark on a two-day visit to China next week and meet President Xi Jinping during which they will review the all-weather strategic cooperation partnership and exchange views on regional and global developments, the foreign ministry said here on Wednesday. Sharif will be among the first foreign leaders to visit China following the recently-concluded historic 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in which President Xi won an unprecedented third five-year term in power. Sharif's trip to China comes at a time when cash-strapped Pakistan is making all efforts to arrange billions of dollars for payment of debts and bridge trade deficit. Pakistan owes Paris Club countries a combined sum of around USD 10.7 billion. The Paris Club is a group of officials from major creditor nations whose role is to find coordinated and sustainable solutions to the payment difficulties experienced by debtor countries.

Samajwadi Party MP Shafiqur Rehman Barq here said India should have a prime minister from the minority community. "There is no harm in it. I want to that the country should have a prime minister from the minority community," he told reporters when asked about Indian-origin Rishi Sunak becoming the prime minister of the UK. On the Darul Uloom Deoband, Saharanpur, Barq said it did not need any recognition as many madrasas are associated with it. "If there is any shortcoming in it, the government should fulfil it," he said.

Senior officials of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday held discussions with the Tamil Nadu police here over the car explosion and resultant death of a person in front of a temple in the city. Chief Minister M K Stalin reviewed the law and order situation in the wake of the incident, even as the Opposition AIADMK and BJP trained their guns against the government over the issue. The city police had arrested five associates of the deceased Jamesha Mubeen, after invoking the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and remanded them to judicial custody till November 8. Mubeen was killed after a gas cylinder in the car he was travelling in exploded.

Karnataka has received Rs seven crore from the Centre to set up two more forensic laboratories for testing of seized narcotic drug samples. In a set of tweets, the Director General of Police Praveen Sood also said that the department is attaching ill-gotten wealth of the criminals involved in drug trafficking.

Two men have been arrested for allegedly firing at a person on Diwali in north Delhi's Shastri Nagar area, police said on Wednesday. The accused have been identified as Abhishek Khari (25), a resident of Dera Walan Nagar, and Mayank Kharbanda (26) of New Gupta Colony, they said. On Monday, officers at Sarai Rohilla police station received information regarding a firing at Jalebi Chowk in Shastri Nagar. The police reached the spot and found that the injured person had been shifted to Deep Chand Bandhu Hospital, a senior officer said. The police recorded the statement of the complainant Umesh, a resident of Shastri Nagar, on Tuesday. In his statement, Umesh said when he was on his way to Jalebi Chowk, he was caught in a traffic jam and noticed the driver of a car waving a pistol, the officer said. When he asked the driver to put the pistol inside the car, the accused fired a bullet, which hit his leg, the police added.

A day after anti-trust regulator CCI imposed a fine of Rs 936 crore on Google over Play Store policies, the US-based tech giant on Wednesday said it remains committed to users and developers and is reviewing the decision to evaluate the next steps. Indian developers have benefited from the technology, security, consumer protections, choice and flexibility that Android and Google Play provide, Google said. "And, by keeping costs low, our model has powered India's digital transformation and expanded access for hundreds of millions of Indians," a Google spokesperson said. The company also said it remains committed to users and developers and is "reviewing the decision to evaluate the next steps."

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Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren has approved a proposal to register a case against 29 people, including government employees, in connection with alleged irregularities in the drinking water and sanitation department, an official said on Wednesday. The Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) will register an FIR against the accused state government employees and contractors, he said. "The chief minister has permitted Anti Corruption Bureau, Ranchi to conduct a probe by registering an FIR against 29 public servants and others involved in the corruption," the official said.

Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan has written to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan informing that he has "ceased to enjoy pleasure" in Finance Minister K N Balagopal, indicating his withdrawal from the state cabinet, an official source said here on Wednesday. In his letter to the CM, the Governor alleged that Balagopal delivered a speech at a University campus here on October 19, seeking to stoke the fire of regionalism and provincialism and undermining the unity of India and he was left with no option but to convey that the Finance Minister has "ceased to enjoy my pleasure".

A tribal man allegedly committed suicide in Madhya Pradesh's Khargone district following which his family members and locals claimed he took the extreme step after the forest department demolished his house being constructed under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. However, Divisional Forest Officer Prashant Kumar Singh said the man, identified as Dhyan Singh (45), had encroached upon a forest land. The encroachment was removed about a month back and a notice had also been served to the man to know his version, he said. After the man hanged himself at his home in Navalpura village on Tuesday afternoon, Khargone Collector Kumar Purushottam ordered a magisterial inquiry into it, Kasrawad's sub divisional officer (revenue) Agrim Kumar said.

Veteran leader Mallikarjun Kharge formally took over as Congress president on Wednesday after he was handed over the certificate of election to the top post at a function at the AICC headquarters. Kharge, the first non-Gandhi to head the party in 24 years, had defeated Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor in a direct contest for the president's post in the grand old party after the Gandhis opted out of the race. Kharge was handed over the certificate of election as the Congress president by the party's central election authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry. Mistry said he hopes other parties will draw a lesson from the Congress and hold polls for party presidency by secret ballot.

Delhi on Wednesday recorded a minimum temperature of 14.9 degrees Celsius, two notches below normal, according to the India Meteorological Department. The maximum temperature is likely to settle at 32 degrees Celsius, the IMD said. The weather department said clear skies and calm winds are expected during the day. On Tuesday, the capital had recorded a minimum temperature of 14 degrees Celsius, the lowest for the season so far.

Three persons, including the president and general secretary of the Assam Miya Parishad, have been detained for their alleged association with terror outfits, police said on Wednesday. The development comes after the controversial 'Miya Museum', set up in a house allotted under PMAY in Assam's Goalpara district, was sealed on Tuesday. The president of the Miya Parishad M Mohar Ali was picked up from the museum at Dapkabhita in Goalpara district when he was sitting on a dharna, while its general secretary Abdul Baten Sheikh was taken into custody from his residence in Alamganj of Dhubri district on Tuesday night, police said. Tanu Dhadumia, who had inaugurated the museum on Sunday, was detained from his residence in Kawamari village in Dibrugarh, they said.

For the first time in New Zealand's history, a majority of lawmakers are women. Soraya Peke-Mason from the liberal Labour Party was sworn in to Parliament on Tuesday, replacing former Speaker Trevor Mallard, who left to become ambassador to Ireland. With the resignation of another male lawmaker, it has tipped the balance in Parliament to 60 women and 59 men. “Whilst it's a special day for me, I think it's historic for New Zealand,” Peke-Mason told reporters. The milestone places New Zealand among a half-dozen nations in the world that this year can claim at least 50% female representation in their parliaments, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union. Other nations include Cuba, Mexico, Nicaragua, Rwanda and the United Arab Emirates.

Syria is facing “acute violence,” the worst economic crisis since the war began in 2011, and a rapidly spreading cholera outbreak with more than 24,000 suspected cases reported throughout the country and at least 80 deaths, U.N. officials have said. U.N. special envoy Geir Pedersen told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday that the conflict remains “very active” across the country despite the “strategic stalemate” that has blocked efforts to launch a political process between the government and opposition. He pointed to infighting between armed opposition groups in Afrin in northern Aleppo province in recent weeks, pro-government airstrikes in the northwest, violence in the northeast, security incidents in the southwest, airstrikes attributed to Israel on airports in Damascus and Aleppo, and discovery in the northeast of one of the largest Islamic State arms caches since its so-called caliphate fell in 2017.

India is an important manufacturer of vaccines for the world, the White House said, acknowledging the crucial role the country played in supplying vaccines against COVID-19 globally. “Because of its incredible manufacturing capacity, (India) has been a major exporter of vaccines,” Dr Ashish Jha, White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator, told reporters at a news conference here on Tuesday. Responding to a question, Dr Jha said the QUAD partnership – a strategic security dialogue between Australia, India, Japan and the US -- on coronavirus was important to the Joe Biden administration. “I think India is an important manufacturer of vaccines for the world. I mean not just for India itself, this is a really important thing,” he said at the White House news conference.

Delhi's air quality improved on Wednesday morning on the back of favourable wind speed but it remained poor. The Air Quality Index (AQI) stood at 262 at 6 am, improving from 303 at 4 pm on Tuesday. It was 312 at 4 pm on Monday, the day of Diwali. The neighbouring cities of Ghaziabad (262), Noida (246), Greater Noida (196), Gurugram (242) and Faridabad (243) reported "moderate" to "poor" air quality. An AQI between zero and 50 is considered "good", 51 and 100 "satisfactory", 101 and 200 "moderate", 201 and 300 "poor", 301 and 400 "very poor", and 401 and 500 "severe".

A gang of five armed dacoits looted valuables from a bungalow and attacked family members residing in the house, leaving two of them injured, in Thane district in the wee hours of Tuesday, police said. The unidentified dacoits gained entry into the bungalow in the Raju Nagar locality from the rear side and assaulted its occupants at around 2 am before decamping with valuables, they said. Two family members were injured in the attack, the police said, adding exact value of the looted items was not yet known.

The Biden administration has said Russia has given notice that it intends to stage routine drills of its nuclear capabilities amid heightened tensions over the war in Ukraine. The Pentagon and State Department on Tuesday said Russia had complied with the terms of the last U.S.-Russia arms control agreement in notifying Washington of the upcoming tests. Although such notifications have been routine under the terms of the New START treaty so that drills are not mistaken for actual hostilities, this one comes as the conflict in Ukraine has intensified and at a time when diplomatic contacts between the two sides have been sharply reduced.

Sky gazers assembled on rooftops and in open ground across West Bengal on Tuesday to witness the partial solar eclipse, which was visible from most parts of India along with several other countries. At Birla Industrial & Technological Museum (BITM), Kolkata, around 25 students, teachers, and other visitors had gathered on its premises to watch the celestial spectacle. The director at Institute of Astronomy Space and Earth Science, Debiprosad Duari, said, “The cosmic experience began at 4:52 pm, and it was at its peak at 5:01 pm.

A 19-year-old who killed a teacher and a 15-year-old girl at a St. Louis high school was armed with an AR-15-style rifle and what appeared to be more than 600 rounds of ammunition, a police official has said. Orlando Harris also left behind a handwritten note offering his explanation for the shooting on Monday at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School, St. Louis Police Commissioner Michael Sack told reporters. Tenth-grader Alexzandria Bell and 61-year-old physical education teacher Jean Kuczka died and seven students were wounded before police killed Harris in an exchange of gunfire.