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The Delhi Police on Thursday said more than 18,000 of its personnel from district and traffic units will be deployed across the national capital to ensure security during New Year celebrations. Traffic restrictions will be in place at Connaught Place from 8 pm on Saturday. Special Commissioner of Police (law and order) Dependra Pathak said, "Over 16,500 personnel from local police will be deployed across the city on Saturday in view of the New Year celebrations. This time, there will be anti-terror measures in high footfall areas where local police, in real-time coordination with the Special Cell, has made the arrangements."

India is unlikely to join Ukraine 'grain corridor', the External Affairs Ministry said on Thursday, adding bilateral mechanisms are in place for India to extend food grain assistance to several countries in the global south. "We have been extending assistance to countries from the south bilaterally. I don't have any clarity if we will join, probably not, our focus has been on bilateral south-south mechanisms," MEA Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said when asked if India is considering joining the grain corridor.

As many as 15 electric auto-rickshaws, part of a fleet used to ferry tourists around the Statue of Unity in Gujarat's Narmada district, were gutted in a fire early Thursday morning, officials said. The Statue of Unity Area Development and Tourism Governance Authority (SOUADTGA), however, denied reports that the rickshaws caught fire during battery charging. A private firm manages a fleet of more than 90 electric auto-rickshaws for tourists who visit the Statue of Unity and employs local tribal women as drivers, an official said.

India is "excited" about working with the new government in Nepal, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said on Thursday. "Our PM congratulated Pushpa Kamal Dahal. Nepalese PM also responded and said he wants friendly relations. He talked about natural affinity. Both our countries have unique bilateral relations. We hope to work together with the new government of Nepal. We are excited to work with the new government," Bagchi said.

India is "excited" about working with the new government in Nepal, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said on Thursday. "Our PM congratulated Pushpa Kamal Dahal. Nepalese PM also responded and said he wants friendly relations. He talked about natural affinity. Both our countries have unique bilateral relations. We hope to work together with the new government of Nepal. We are excited to work with the new government," Bagchi said.

The Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday moved the Supreme Court challenging the Allahabad High Court order quashing its draft notification on the urban local body elections and directing the state to hold the polls without reservation for the Other Backward Classes. The state government, in its appeal against the December 27 order, has said that the high court cannot quash the December 5 draft notification which had provided reservation of seats in the urban body polls for the OBC – apart from those for the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and women.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday conducted searches at 56 locations in Kerala in a case related to "unlawful and violent activities" being carried out by the banned Popular Front of India (PFI) and its affiliates, an official said.
The raids were carried out in 12 districts at the residences of seven each state executive committee members and zonal heads of PFI, 15 physical training instructors-trainers and seven cadres trained in use of knives, daggers, swords and other types of weapons to carry out murderous violent acts, an NIA spokesperson said.

The National Eligibility Test (NET) to determine the suitability of students to be recruited as assistant professors will be conducted from February 23 to March 10, 2023, the National Testing Agency (NTA) announced on Thursday.
The exam will be a Computer Based Test (CBT) in 83 subjects. According to University Grants Commission (UGC) Chairman M Jagadesh Kumar, the NTA has been entrusted by the UGC to conduct the UGC-NET. The test determines the eligibility of Indian nationals to become "Assistant Professor" and "Junior Research Fellowship" (JRF) in Indian universities and colleges.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has been discharged from AIIMS where she was admitted with symptoms of viral fever earlier this week, sources said. Sitharaman was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here on Monday morning with what was described as symptoms of viral fever. She has now been discharged from the hospital, sources said on condition of anonymity.

A foreign tourist, who visited the Taj Mahal on December 26, has gone missing after he tested positive for COVID-19, a senior health official said on Thursday. Dr Arun Srivastava, who is the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Agra, said that they have not been able to find the tourist as the contact details given by him is incorrect. "A tourist visited the Taj Mahal on December 26 and his sample for the COVID-19 test was taken at the entrance gate of the monument. His report was found COVID-19 positive in RT PCR test. However, the contact number and other details mentioned by the tourist is incorrect and we have not been able to find him since then," Srivastava told PTI.

The CBI conducted searches at 91 locations across the country on Thursday in connection with its investigation against several state medical councils and foreign medical graduates who were allowed to practise in India without qualifying a mandatory test, officials said. The agency had registered an FIR against 14 state medical councils and 73 foreign medical graduates who were allowed to practise medicine in India without qualifying the mandatory Foreign Medical Graduate Examination (FMGE), they said. According to norms, a foreign medical graduate must qualify FMGE/Screening Test conducted by the National Board of Examination in order to get provisional or permanent registration with the National Medical Commission or a state medical council to practise medicine in India. The sources said NBE sends its results to candidates as well as councils, they said. When fake eligibility certificates were produced by these candidates, medical councils could have verified it from the results directly sent to them by NBE, they said.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has been discharged from AIIMS, Delhi, said Sources. 

A total of 16,397 persons were killed in road accidents in 2021 due to not wearing seat belt, of which 8,438 were drivers and remaining 7,959 were passengers, according to a report by Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH). The report titled 'Road accidents in India -- 2021', further said during 2021, a total of 46,593 persons were killed in road accidents due to not wearing helmet, of which 32,877 were drivers and 13,716 were passengers. A total of 4,12,432 road accidents occurred in 2021 which claimed 1,53,972 lives while 3,84,448 people were injured. According to the report, not wearing helmet caused injuries to 93,763 persons and not wearing seat belt caused injuries to 39,231 persons during 2021. Not using safety devices such as helmet and seat belt does not cause accidents but are critical for averting fatal and grievous injuries in the event of road accidents.

Indian Air Force officials on Thursday successfully conducted a trial run of the 4.1 km emergency landing facility constructed near Picchikalagudipadu village of Korishapadu mandal on the National Highway-16. An IAF official said a transport plane AN-32, two Sukhoi fighter planes and two Tejas-light combat fighters participated in the trial. "The report we got is that the runway is perfect for landing," the official told a TV channel. According to him, there was still working pending for the runway including fencing of the road on both sides to prevent entry of people and animals.

A team of central agencies and the Uttar Pradesh drug department on Thursday carried out an inspection at the Noida office of a pharmaceutical firm whose cough syrup is allegedly linked to the death of 18 children in Uzbekistan, officials said. The company, Marion Biotech, does not sell the cough syrup, 'Doc-1 Max', in India and its only export has been to Uzbekistan, a state government official said. The inspection began at Marion Biotech's office in Noida Sector 67 on Thursday morning, Gautam Buddh Nagar Drug Inspector Vaibhav Babbar told PTI. The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) has initiated a probe in connection with the death of 18 children in Uzbekistan allegedly linked to Marion Biotech. The health ministry of Uzbekistan has claimed that the 18 children had consumed the cough syrup. Hasan Harris, legal representative of Marion Biotech, said the governments of both countries are looking into the matter and inquiring. "There is no problem from our end and no issue in testing. We have been there for the past ten years. Once the government report will come, we will look into it. For now the manufacturing has stopped," Harris said.

A five-year-old girl suffered a fracture after a teacher taking private tuition classes in Bhopal allegedly twisted her hand for not properly spelling the word 'parrot', police said on Thursday. The incident took place on Tuesday following which the 22-year-old teacher was arrested, they said.
The accused, Prayag Vishwakarma, allegedly twisted the minor girl's hand and also slapped her after she could not spell the word 'parrot', Habibganj police station inspector Manish Raj Singh Bhadauriya said. The tutor twisted the girl's hand so badly that it got fractured, he added. Archana Sahai, director of NGO Childline which works for children in distress, told PTI that the girl suffered a severe fracture in her right hand. The girl was admitted to a hospital after the incident and is likely to be discharged on Thursday, she added. Inspector Bhadauriya said the accused has been charged for assaulting the child under relevant sections of the India Penal Code and the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act. "We arrested him on Tuesday after a complaint from the victim's family," he added.

Authorities in Ukraine say several regions of the country, including its capital, were facing a Russian missile attack on Thursday. Air raid sirens rang out in many regions of the country early on Thursday. In Kyiv, the regional administration said that air defence systems have been activated to fend off the ongoing missile attack. Sounds of explosions were heard in Kyiv. Ukrainian authorities in several regions said that some Russian missiles have been downed. Thursday's attack is the latest in a series of Russian strikes targeting vital infrastructure across Ukraine. Moscow has launched such attacks on weekly basis since October. In Dnipro, Odesa, and Kryvyi Rih regions, the authorities said that they switched off electricity to minimise the damage to critical infrastructure facilities if they are hit. (AP) FZH

A 20-year-old man was killed by a leopard in Jharkhand's Garhwa district, the fourth such death in the last three weeks, an official said on Thursday. It is suspected that all four people were killed by the same leopard, he said, noting that the Garhwa forest division was finalising a draft proposal to declare it a man-eater. The leopard attacked the boy, identified as Harendra Nayak, when he was returning home from his uncle's house in Kushwaha village in Ramkanda around 6.30 pm on Wednesday, Garhwa Divisional Forest Officer (South) Shashi Kumar told PTI. "The leopard pounced on the neck of the boy and he died on the spot," he said. This was the fourth such incident in the region in the last 20 days, he added.

The full bench of the Election Commission is scheduled to visit Tripura for two days starting from January 11 next year to review preparedness for the state assembly elections due early 2023, an official said on Thursday. The ECI team led by Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar will hold meetings with representatives of political parties during its visit to the northeastern state and take stock of security arrangements for the polls to the 60-member assembly. “The full EC team, comprising Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar and two election commissioners - Anup Chandra Pandey and Arun Goel - is scheduled to arrive here on January 11 and will review poll preparedness the next day,” Tripura Chief Electoral Officer Gitte Kirankumar Dinkarrao told PTI.

The government has started close monitoring of exports of products used to deal with Covid infections such as PPE kits, masks, ventilators and certain medicines like paracetamol on account of rising infections in various countries, including China, an official said. The move is aimed at dealing with any possible emergency situation on account of a spurt in coronavirus cases."We are keeping a close watch on exports of all these products. We are  monitoring the situation to take appropriate decisions, though the situation at present is not alarming. We should be prepared for everything and for that our domestic requirement should be ready,” the official said.

Security arrangements were "fully made" for Rahul Gandhi in accordance with laid down guidelines but he himself "violated" the security protocols, government officials said Thursday, a day after the Congress alleged security breaches during the 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' in the national capital. The Congress on Wednesday wrote to Home Minister Amit Shah, alleging security breaches during the Yatra in the city and demanded immediate steps to ensure the security of Gandhi and others taking part in the march.

A 17-year-old girl and her boyfriend allegedly killed her mother in Maharashtra's Thane district after she objected to their friendship, police said on Thursday. The incident took place on Wednesday in Mumbra area and efforts were on to nab the two absconding accused, they said. The teenage girl was annoyed after her 37-year-old mother reprimanded her over her friendship with the boy. The girl hatched a conspiracy and with the help of her boyfriend she allegedly stabbed her mother brutally with a knife. The duo then fled from the spot after locking the house from outside, Mumbra police station's senior inspector Ashok Kadlag said.
 

A 70-year-old man was killed after splinters from a bonfire caused a fire at his shanty in a village here, police said on Thursday. On Wednesday night, a fire broke out in Tirnai Khijirpur village in which Ram died, Ubhaon Station House Officer Rajiv Kumar Mishra said. He said on receiving information about the incident, police reached the spot and retrieved the body. It has been sent for postmortem, Mishra added.

Cold wave and cold day conditions are predicted to wallop parts of Delhi on New Year's eve and the winter chill would intensify further in early January, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has said.  Cold conditions have abated in north India, including Delhi, for now under the influence of a western disturbance, characterised by warm moist winds from the Middle East. However, the minimum will start dropping again from December 31, meteorologists said. The minimum will drop to 6 degrees Celsius on Saturday and further to 4 degrees Celsius by Monday (January 2), the IMD forecast.  On Thursday, the Safdarjung observatory, Delhi's primary weather station, recorded a minimum temperature of 7 degrees Celsius against 6.3 degrees Celsius on Wednesday, 5.6 degrees on Tuesday and 5 degrees on Monday.

A fire burning through a Cambodian hotel casino on the border with Thailand has killed at least 10, local media reported. The website Cambodianess, which belongs to the Thmey Thmey media group, reported the blaze at the Grand Diamond Casino and Hotel in the border town of Poipety broke out around midnight on Wednesday and was still burning Thursday morning. It cited Banteay Meanchey provincial Police Commissioner Maj. Gen. Sithi Loh saying that according to initial information, at least 10 people had died and another 30 were injured. (AP) FZH

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) officials on Thursday carried out raids at multiple locations including residences of second-rung leaders across of the banned Islamist outfit Popular Front of India in Kerala. The raids, which started late last night are still underway, sources in the Kerala police said. Multi-agency teams spearheaded by the NIA had arrested several functionaries including top leaders of the radical Islamic outfit in September in near simultaneous raids at multiple locations in 15 states for allegedly supporting terror activities in the country. Officials then had described the mega crackdown as the "largest-ever investigation process till date" against the PFI.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday paid tributes to 10th Sikh Guru Gobind Singh on his birth anniversary. His unparalleled courage will continue to motivate people for years to come, Modi tweeted, and posted a previous clip of his speech lauding the guru. He tweeted, "On the sacred occasion of his Parkash Purab, I bow to Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji and recall his contribution towards serving humanity. His unparalleled courage will continue to motivate people for years to come."

Attorney General Keith Ellison charged a former Minneapolis police officer Wednesday with beating a man during protests over George Floyd's death. Justin Stetson, 34, faces one felony count of third-degree assault in connection with the May 30, 2020, beating of Jaleel Stallings. He would face up to five years in prison if convicted. It wasn't immediately clear whether Stetson has an attorney. A Minneapolis city attorney who represented him and other officers in a federal lawsuit Stallings filed against them didn't immediately respond to an email inquiring if she knew if Stetson has a criminal defense attorney.

Twitter on Thursday suffered a major outage as signing in to its web version was difficult for a lot of users who were greeted with an error message when they tried signing in, according to Al Jazeera. In the early hours of Thursday, when users attempted to access the microblogging service, they were met with an error notice. More than 8,700 users reported problems with the site as of 7:30 am EST (12:30 pm GMT), Al Jazeera reported citing Downdetector, which tracks website outages. "User reports indicate Twitter is having problems since 7:13 EST," Downdetector said in a tweet. The outage occurs two months after Elon Musk acquired Twitter in a USD 44 billion deal. One of the richest men in the world and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has significantly decreased the platform's personnel, introduced a paid membership service, and overseen divisive modifications to its moderation procedures. In the latest move, Musk has decided to reform Twitter policies and said that the new Twitter policy will follow and question science.

At least five persons, including a woman and four children, were killed after a fire broke out at their home in Shaharpur village here, police said on Wednesday. The fire broke out at the house in Kopaganj police station limits on Tuesday night, District Magistrate Arun Kumar said. Guddi Rajbhar (38), her three sons -- Abhishek (12), Dinesh (10), Anjesh (6) -- and her 14-year-old niece were killed, Kumar said and added, "Prima facie, it appears that the fire started from the cooking stove". The police have sent the bodies for post mortem. The district administration has announced a compensation for family members of the deceased.

The Noida Authority on Wednesday announced a hike in land purchase rate from farmers to Rs 5,324 per square metres from the existing Rs 5,060 per square metres. The authority also said that it would bring a scheme to facilitate resettlement of dues in group housing projects and sports city plots to help home buyers with the registry. It further amended provisions related to time extension for completion of projects by real estate developers. The decisions were taken during the 208th board meeting of the Noida Authority chaired by Uttar Pradesh Infrastructure and Industrial Development Commissioner Arvind Kumar. Noida Authority CEO Ritu Maheshwari and Uttar Pradesh Financial Corporation Managing Director Rajshekhar also attended the meeting held here. Regarding determination of rates of land to be purchased from farmers by mutual agreement, the statement read, “On the basis of registered sale deed, purchase was being made by the Noida Authority at the rate of Rs 5,060 per sq m. It was decided to increase it to Rs 5,324 per sq m in public interest.” For facilitation of resettlement in residential projects of group housing, the Noida Authority said, “In order to solve the problems in the registry of flats owners, the facility of rescheduling will be brought from 01.01.2023 to 31.03.2023 for depositing overdues for residential and sports city plots in Group Housing, Commercial Department.”

The US announced new COVID-19 testing requirements on Wednesday for all travellers from China, joining other nations imposing restrictions because of a surge of infections. The increase in cases across China follows the rollback of the nation's strict anti-virus controls. China's "zero COVID" policies had kept China's infection rate low but fuelled public frustration and crushed economic growth. Beginning Jan. 5, all travellers to the US from China will be required to take a COVID-19 test no more than two days before travel and provide a negative test before boarding their flight. The testing applies to anyone 2 years and older. Other countries have taken similar steps in an effort to keep infections from spreading beyond China's borders. Japan will require a negative COVID-19 test upon arrival for travellers from China, and Malaysia announced new tracking and surveillance measures. India, South Korea and Taiwan are requiring virus tests for visitors from China.

US crash investigators say Ethiopian authorities failed to consider all factors that contributed to a deadly 2019 crash after a key flight-control system malfunctioned on a Boeing 737 Max airplane. The National Transportation Safety Board agreed with the Ethiopians' conclusion that the automated flight system was partly responsible for the crash by pitching the nose of the plane downward. However, the board also faulted the pilots' "inadequate use" of other means of manually controlling the plane. The US board said Ethiopian Airlines failed to train pilots how to respond when the nose of the plane pitches down unexpectedly. The US investigators said that a sensor that sent erroneous readings to the flight-control system, causing it to malfunction, might have been damaged by the plane hitting a bird soon after take-off. The Ethiopian officials said they found no evidence of a bird strike.