Breaking News, September 13 | HIGHLIGHTS

A dozen people cheered last month as Tegucigalpa resident Hector Enriquez held a glass jar filled with mosquitoes above his head, and then freed the buzzing insects into the air. Enriquez, a 52-year-old mason, had volunteered to help publicize a plan to suppress dengue by releasing millions of special mosquitoes in the Honduran capital.

The government on Wednesday listed a special discussion on Parliament's journey of 75 years starting from the Samvidhan Sabha on the first day of the five-day special session of Parliament beginning September 18.

Senior BJP leader PP Mukundan who was the former state general secretary of the party in Kerala, passed away on Wednesday morning. He was 77.

Santosh Jha, presently Ambassador of India to Belgium, has been appointed as the next High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka, said Ministry of External Affairs.

Two beekeepers have been booked for allegedly poisoning Indian roller birds in the Alapur area of this Uttar Pradesh district, police said on Wednesday. Bablu and Harvansh mixed poison in eatables for the birds that were allegedly affecting their bee farm, the police said. District Forest Officer Ashok Kumar said 70 Indian rollers (Coracias benghalensis) died and six were found unconscious in a field in Myaun.

A man based in Maharashtra's Navi Mumbai lost more than Rs 18 lakh as he was allegedly cheated by a fraudster under the promise of an online job, police said on Wednesday. A first information report (FIR) was registered in this connection on Tuesday at the Cyber Police Station in Navi Mumbai based on a complaint lodged by the victim, he said. In his complaint, the victim said that he was offered the job of completing certain tasks on some websites and social messaging platforms. Initially, he was paid money for completing the tasks. He was then asked to make payments for certain tasks on the promise of good returns, the police said. He paid a total of Rs 18.36 lakh. But he neither received returns on the investment, nor got the invested amount back. After that, he approached the police, they said.

A man allegedly cheated a 56-year-old woman from Navi Mumbai of cash and jewellery worth Rs 45 lakh after befriending her on a social media platform, police said on Wednesday. The woman, who has a son and is a resident of Sanpada area, separated from her husband in 2020.

Senior BJP leader and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Uma Bharti has said that she has not quit politics and that she would contest the next election. Addressing a public meeting in Sagar district of Bundelkhand region in Madhya Pradesh on Monday, she said she only took a five-year break as she had been working for a long time. "I had refused to contest the election (last time) as I had been working for a long time. I thought of taking a break for five years. People thought that I left politics, but I am tired of saying that I have not quit politics," she said. Citing several development works, including the Ken-Betwa river interlinking project and the Lalitpur-Singrauli rail line, Bharti said that these projects became a reality as she was in politics.

Three members of a family were killed when the roof of their house collapsed following rains in Ghonsli village here, police said on Wednesday. The incident took place on Tuesday night, trapping four members of the family, police said. While three persons identified as Mahavir (35), his sons Ritik (2) and Sachin (1) died on the spot, his wife Sunita (32) was rushed to a hospital where her condition was stated to be stable. Sub Divisional Magistrate Ramesh Babu said the bodies have been sent for postmortem.

Delhi High Court has asked the authorities to strictly comply with all provisions relating to the capture and the release of street dogs for special events such as Independence Day and Republic Day. The order -- released on Wednesday -- came on a public interest litigation by Anita Santiago, who sought directions to release the dogs captured by the civic authorities for such events and to ensure their welfare according to the Animal Birth Control (ABC) Rules, 2023.

A 55-year-old mason died after allegedly falling from the third floor of a building in east Delhi's Old Kondali area while working, police said on Wednesday. Officers at Ghazipur police station received information from LBS Hospital regarding an injured person on Tuesday. The police rushed to the spot to find Surender Singh, a resident of Ghazipur village, admitted with injuries, a senior officer said. Inquiries revealed that Surender Singh was a mason and employed at the construction site in Old Kondali. He allegedly fell from the third floor while working. He was admitted in the hospital by landlord Inderpal Singh, he said. Surender Singh succumbed to his injuries during treatment, the officer added. A case under sections 287 (negligent conduct with respect to machinery) and 304A (causing death by negligence) of the Indian Penal Code has been registered and an investigation is underway, they added.

North Korea fired two ballistic missiles toward the sea Wednesday, as leader Kim Jong Un rolled through Russia on an armoured train toward a meeting with President Vladimir Putin. That meeting underscores how the two leaders’ interests are aligning in the face of their separate, intensifying confrontations with the United States. The launch extended a highly provocative run in North Korean weapons testing since the start of 2022, as Kim used the distraction caused by Putin’s war on Ukraine to accelerate his weapons development. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff didn’t immediately say how far the North Korean missiles flew. Japan’s Coast Guard, citing Tokyo’s Defence Ministry, said the missiles have likely already landed but still urged vessels to watch for falling objects.

President Vladimir Putin has praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Make in India' initiative and said Russia can emulate the success stories of its partners like India in promoting the growth of its domestic industries. Putin made these remarks on Tuesday while speaking at the Plenary session of the 8th Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, a major port city in sanctions-hit Russia's Far East region.
 

Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange has demanded that Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde meet him so that he can withdraw his hunger strike. Jarange made the demand late Tuesday night after speaking to CM Shinde over a phone call. State Industries Minister Uday Samant met the activist late night. Earlier on Tuesday, Jarange said he was ready to end his indefinite hunger strike, which he started on August 29, but would not leave the protest site at Antarwali Sarati village in Jalna district until the state government starts issuing Kunbi caste certificates to the Maratha community from the Marathwada region.

The Karnataka State Police is organising a one-day conference here on Wednesday where all the Director Generals of Police of southern states as well as senior officers from the Central Police Organisations would participate. This conference is a major milestone in regional coordination among various police forces in South India, an official release said.

President Droupadi Murmu has arrived on a visit to Gujarat where she will address legislators on the first day of the state assembly's monsoon session in capital Gandhinagar on Wednesday. Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel received Murmu on her arrival in Ahmedabad on Tuesday.

Eleven people from Gujarat were killed and at least 15 injured when a trailer rammed into their bus from behind in Rajasthan's Bharatpur district early on Wednesday, police said. The bus was on its way from Gujarat to Mathura in Uttar Pradesh when the accident occurred around 4.30 am, they said. The bus had halted at Antra flyover in the Lakhanpur area when the trailer rammed into it from behind. Five men and six women died on the spot, the police said. According to the police control room, Antu, Nandram, Lallu, Bharat, Lalji, his wife Madhuben, Ambaben, Kambuben, Ramuben, Anjuben and Madhuben -- the wife of one Arvind -- died in the accident. They were from Dihor in Gujarat's Bhav Nagar.

The just concluded G-20 Leaders' Summit in New Delhi wherein the communique reflected the success of Indian diplomacy, is a crowning moment for India and a big loss for China, the head of an India-centric American business advocacy and strategic group said on Tuesday. “So basically, two things came out. One is that you have a single communique coming out, but more important is that India came out as the leader of the Global South. That also means that it was a loss for China because they did not send their president there,” Mukesh Aghi, the president of the US-India Strategic and Partnership Forum, told PTI in an interview. “G-20 is a crowning moment for India. Congratulations to the (Indian) leadership,” Aghi said, adding: “And to be honest, we were surprised when we heard that there was a communique coming out because we thought there would be no communique coming out (of G-20)."

Three people were arrested for allegedly abducting a 14-year-old boy and demanding a ransom of Rs 30 lakh from his family near here on Tuesday, said police. The boy was also rescued by the police. According to the police, the boy, the son of a scrap dealer, was kidnapped by three people on Tuesday morning from the Tathawade area of the adjoining Pimpri-Chinchwad township. "On receiving a complaint from the family, a team were formed and during investigation, it was revealed the kidnappers had taken the boy to Saswad. The kidnappers had earlier called a relative of the boy and demanded Rs 30 lakh and threatened to kill him if the ransom money was not paid," said an officer of the Pimpri-Chinchwad crime branch.

The Meghalaya Cabinet has scrapped two power projects, as those were found to be financially unviable, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said on Tuesday. Sangma said the two hydro power projects are Kynshi Stage I and Upper Khri Stage I & II. “Because of the financial issues and also the time taken by the different companies to implement these projects, the decision was taken by the cabinet that the projects will be terminated,” he told reporters here. “But, the state government and the department concerned will immediately make efforts to look for new partners or maybe the same partners in a new format...,” the chief minister said. The cabinet also approved the proposal for creation of an engineering wing in the police headquarters at Shillong.