Breaking News, June 23

A man allegedly set himself on fire outside a police station in Odisha's Cuttack district on Thursday, alleging police inaction on a complaint he filed. The incident took place in front of the Kissannagar police station.

India on Thursday resumed its diplomatic presence in Kabul by deploying a team in its embassy in the Afghan capital, over 10 months after it pulled out its officials from the mission following the Taliban's capture of power.

Cash-strapped Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday warned that the country may witness more difficult times as it struggles to steer itself out of the ongoing economic crisis. Sharif also said that his government faced an uphill task to revive a stalled assistance program by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) due to the broken promises with the global lender by the previous government.

Mumbai witnessed a sharp jump in new COVID-19 cases at 2,479 on Thursday, up by 831 from a day ago and the highest daily count since January 23, while one more patient succumbed to the infection, the city civic body said. The tally includes some backdated cases, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said in a bulletin.

Over 43 per cent voters in the Rajinder Nagar assembly constituency in Delhi exercised their franchise in Thursday's bypoll to the crucial seat, officials said. This is significantly less than the figures recorded in the 2020 polls, when the voter turnout in Rajinder Nagar was 58.27 per cent -- 58.09 per cent male voters and 58.5 per cent female voters.

In a first-of-its-kind initiative, the Lucknow police has opened a dedicated help desk for transgenders in Lucknow.

A person died while at least six people were rescued after a fire broke out at a building in Rohini area here on Thursday evening, officials said.

A 63-year-old truck driver has died in Sri Lanka after standing for five days in a queue at a filling station in the country’s Western Province, the 10th death reported due to prolonged waiting for fuel procurement in the debt-ridden island nation grappling with the worst economic crisis since its independence, according to a media report on Thursday.

Three people were killed in a blast at a firecracker manufacturing unit in Cuddalore, about 174 km from here, on Thursday, police said. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin announced a solatium of Rs 3 lakh each to the families of the deceased. He directed the officials to provide medicare to Vasantha of Nellikuppam village, who was injured in the accident. 

Six people were killed when a helicopter crashed in West Virginia on Wednesday, authorities said. The Vietnam-era helicopter was based at the Logan airport and used for tourism flights, Ray Bryant, chief of operations for Logan County's office of emergency management, told WSAZ-TV. All six on board were killed, the office's deputy director, Sonya Porter, told ABC News affiliate WCHS.

The body of an 80-year-old woman was fished out from a well at a village in Maharashtra's Thane district on Thursday, a civic official said. The regional disaster management cell (RDMC) received a call about a body spotted in a well at Betavade village in the Diva area of the district, RDMC chief Avinash Sawant said.

Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty bounced back on Thursday to close higher by nearly 1 per cent on gains in banking, IT and auto shares amid mixed global trends. The 30-share BSE Sensex rose by 443.19 points or 0.86 per cent to settle at 52,265.72. During the day, it rallied 694.26 points or 1.33 per cent to 52,516.79. The NSE Nifty advanced 143.35 points or 0.93 per cent to 15,556.65.

Pre-monsoon rains were recorded in many areas of Rajasthan in a span of 24 hours till Thursday morning, with the highest of 86 mm being measured in Fatehgarh. According to the meteorological center in Jaipur, light to heavy rainfall was recorded in many parts of the state during this period.

Met Smt. Droupadi Murmu Ji. Her Presidential nomination has been appreciated across India by all sections of society. Her understanding of grassroots problems and vision for India’s development is outstanding.

Altogether 44.81 per cent of 3.54 lakh voters exercised their franchise till 1:00 pm on Thursday in the by-election to Mandar assembly seat in Jharkhand's Ranchi district, an election official said. Polling began at 7:00 am amid tight security arrangements and it will continue till 4:00 pm. Voting is underway peacefully and no untoward incident has been reported so far, Chief Electoral Officer K Ravi Kumar. "We are monitoring the situation. CCTV cameras have been installed, besides webcasting facilities in sensitive booths. We are also getting information from zonal magistrates," he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday appealed to exporters and the industry to fix long-term export targets for themselves and suggest ways to the government to achieve those goals. Inaugurating the new Vanijya Bhawan here, he said that the exports play a critical role in the transition of a country from developing to developed status. During the last fiscal year, the Prime Minister said despite the historic global disruptions, India's exports stood at a total (goods and services) of USD 670 billion (Rs 50 lakh crore). He added that India's merchandise exports in 2021-22 crossed USD 418 billion (Rs 31 lakh crore), as against the target of USD 400 billion (Rs 30 lakh crore). "Encouraged by this success of the past years, we have now increased our export targets and have doubled our efforts to achieve them. Collective effort of everyone is very necessary to achieve these new goals… Industry, exporters and export promotion councils are here. I will urge them to set not only short-term but also long-term export targets for themselves," he said. He said that the new Bhawan will significantly benefit people associated with trade, commerce and the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector. The Prime Minister also launched the NIRYAT (National Import-Export Record for Yearly Analysis of Trade) portal - which is developed as a one-stop platform for stakeholders to get all necessary information related to India's foreign trade. The government is working to promote ease of doing business and boost exports, Modi said adding new domestic products like handlooms are reaching new markets.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday held talks with his Rwandan counterpart Vincent Biruta during which they discussed the agenda of the Commonwealth summit beginning Friday and exchanged perspectives on regional developments. Jaishankar arrived here on Wednesday on a four-day visit to attend the 26th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). He will be representing Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the summit of the 54-nation bloc on June 24-25. "Began the day by meeting my host counterpart FM @Vbiruta of Rwanda. Reviewed our bilateral cooperation and follow up to PM @narendramodi's 2018 visit. Discussed the Commonwealth agenda and wished Rwanda a successful Summit. Exchanged perspectives on regional developments," Jaishankar tweeted on Thursday.

Australia's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence Richard Marles has said that his ongoing visit to India reflects the conviction and the commitment by the new Anthony Albanese government to place India "at the heart of Australias approach" to the Indo-Pacific and beyond. Marles is the first high-ranking official from Australia to land in New Delhi after Albanese was sworn in as the 31st Prime Minister of the country, last month. Hours after assuming office on May 23, Albanese had flown to Japan to attend the Quad Leaders' Summit where he also held detailed talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on shared priorities in the Indo-Pacific region and further strengthening of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between the two countries. Currently on a four-day visit to India, the Australian Defence Minister said on Wednesday that one of the priorities of the new government back home is India and Canberra must "deepen its understanding of, and engagement with, one of the world's oldest continuous civilisations, the soon to be most populous nation in the world, and a deeply consequential power".

Nearly 13 per cent polling was recorded in the first three hours of the bypolls to the Punjab's Sangrur Lok Sabha seat on Thursday. The voting began at 8 am for the parliamentary seat, where the ruling AAP is facing its first test of popularity after its impressive performance in the Assembly elections earlier this year.

A day after appealing to all Odisha MLAs to support the "daughter of the soil" in the ensuing presidential elections, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday said two of his cabinet colleagues will remain present during the filing of nomination by NDA candidate Droupadi Murmu. Patnaik is currently on an official foreign tour to Italy. "BJP President Shri @JPNadda Ji spoke to me about the filing of nomination of Smt #DraupadiMurmu Ji for #PresidentElections. My cabinet colleagues Shri @saraka_fan and Smt@TukuniSahu will sign nomination papers today and attend the event tomorrow," he tweeted.

The Bhagwant Mann-led Punjab government's maiden budget session will commence on Friday, with opposition parties gearing up to launch an offensive against the ruling AAP over law and order and other issues. Members of the House will assemble on Friday for obituary references and motion of thanks on the Governor's address, followed by a discussion on it. Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema will present the budget for 2022-23 on June 27, and the general discussion on the budget will take place thereafter. According to the tentative schedule, the budget session will continue till June 30. Opposition Congress, the BJP and the SAD have targeted the Mann government over alleged deteriorating law and order situation, especially in the wake of last month's gruesome killing of popular Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala.

The upcoming Noida International Airport (NIA) at Jewar has selected global technology firm ICAD Holding as its Master System Integrator (MSI) consultant, as it aims to become the country's first greenfield digital airport. The airport's digital plans include paperless processing across all checkpoints in line with the central government's DigiYatra policy. ICAD, as part of its mandate, will support the facility with the systems integration design, integration program management and integration of ICT and Airport Systems, according to a Yamuna International Airport Private Limited (YIAPL) statement on Thursday.

The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to entertain a plea seeking a direction to add 92 “in-service quota seats” of NEET super speciality 2021 surrendered by Tamil Nadu in the newly added seats and make them available to all candidates irrespective of their joining in earlier rounds. A vacation bench of Justices C T Ravikumar and Sudhanshu Dhulia said the top court on May 9 had allowed mop-up round for all the unfilled/stray/vacant super-speciality seats subject to the condition that any doctor who had joined seats earlier will not be allowed to join.

NDA'S nominee for president Droupadi Murmu reached the national capital from Bhubaneswar on Thursday, a day before she files her nomination papers for the post. Her nomination papers are being prepared at Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi's residence, sources said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, senior ministers Rajnath Singh and Amit Shah, and BJP president JP Nadda will be among her proposers. Union ministers and senior BJP leaders are signing on as proposers and seconders at Joshi's residence. BJD's Sasmit Patra, whose party has backed her nomination, was also among those at Joshi's home to sign the papers.

AIADMK Coordinator O Panneerselvam on Thursday walked out of the party's General Council meeting here after it stuck to the single leadership demand and favoured his rival and party Joint Coordinator Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS). As EPS was honoured with a decorated crown, a sword and sceptre by supporters amid chants favouring him, OPS along with his supporters including Deputy Secretary R Vaithilingam moved out of the hall and left the premises. The GC meet, that witnessed chaotic scenes was over within 40 minutes after it started. B Valarmathi, a senior office-bearer and a former Minister sung a song from party founder M G Ramachandran's movie and said, 'a leader will emerge' apparently hailing EPS. The GC meet, which stuck to the one and only demand of making EPS the supreme party leader, turned out to be a full show of strength of the Palaniswami camp with OPS followers heavily outnumbered. OPS, as Panneerselvam is known, was seated close to EPS on the dais when the GC burst into the single leadership chorus. The party announced that the GC would again meet on July 11. 

Couples who intend to take the surrogacy route to become parents will have to buy a general health insurance coverage in favour of a surrogate mother for a period of 36 months, according to the Surrogacy (Regulation) Rules issued recently. The insurance amount should be sufficient enough to cover expenses for all complications arising out of the pregnancy and also postpartum delivery complications. According to the rules notified by the Union health ministry on June 21, the number of attempts of any surrogacy procedure on the surrogate mother should not be more than three times.

The Kerala High Court on Thursday (June 23) granted bail to Catholic priest Thomas M Kottur and co-convict Sister Steffi in the sensational sister Abhaya murder case. The two have been asked to deposit a sum of Rs 5 lakh each and refrained from leaving the state without the court's permission. Incidentally, in December 2020, a CBI Special Court had sentenced Kottur to two life terms besides a fine of Rs 5 lakhs after conviction under Section 302 of the IPC. Sister Steffi was also convicted and handed down life imprisonment under the same Section in addition to seven years of rigorous imprisonment for tampering with evidence under Section 201.

A charcoal-laden truck caught fire on the busy Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway here in Maharashtra on Thursday morning, officials said. The truck driver jumped out in time and escaped unhurt, they said, adding that vehicular movement on the route was disrupted for a couple of hours. The vehicle caught fire near the Charoti toll naka in Manor area of Palghar district around 6.15 am when it was on way to Ahmedabad in Gujarat from Mumbai, a fire brigade official said. After being alerted, local firemen and police rushed to the spot, but the truck was completely gutted by that time, he said. The vehicle driver jumped out to safety, an official at Manor police station said. The traffic movement on the busy route was affected for a couple of hours, he said. The fire was later doused and the vehicle was removed from the spot, he said. A fire brigade official said they suspect that a short-circuit in the truck led to the blaze, but the exact cause was still not known. 

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday condoled the loss of lives in floods in Assam and urged party workers to continue extending assistance in rescue and rehabilitation operations. The flood situation in Assam remained grim on Wednesday as 12 more people were killed and 55 lakh people affected across 32 districts with the rising Brahmaputra and Barak rivers inundating new areas. "My thoughts are with our brothers and sisters in Assam facing unprecedented floods. Heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families," Gandhi said on Twitter. 

Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya will on Thursday chair a high-level review meeting with the core team of experts over increasing cases of COVID-19 in the country, official sources said. India has been witnessing an increase in coronavirus infections over the last couple of weeks. As on date, ten states -- Maharashtra, Kerala, Delhi, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, West Bengal and Gujarat -- have over 1,000 active cases. India saw a single-day rise of 13,313 new coronavirus infections, taking the infection tally to 4,33,44,958, while the active cases have increased to 83,990, according to the Union health ministry data updated on Thursday.

Survivors dug by hand Thursday through villages in eastern Afghanistan reduced to rubble by a powerful earthquake that killed at least 1,000 people, as the Taliban and the international community that fled their takeover struggled to aid the disaster's victims. In Paktika province's hard-hit Gayan district, villagers stood atop the mud bricks that once was a home there. Others carefully walked through dirt alleyways, gripping onto damaged walls with exposed timber beams to make their way. The quake was Afghanistan's deadliest in two decades, and officials said the toll could rise. An estimated 1,500 others were reported injured, the state-run news agency said.

The COVID-19 tally of Andaman and Nicobar Islands rose to 10,108 on Thursday as five more people tested positive for the infection, a health bulletin said. Three new patients have travel history, while two infections were detected during contact tracing, it said. Eight cases were recorded in the archipelago on Wednesday. The Union territory now has 34 active cases, while 9,945 people have recovered from the disease so far, including 11 in the last 24 hours. A total of 129 patients have succumbed to the infection to date. The administration has thus far tested over 7.5 lakh samples for COVID-19, and fully vaccinated 3.40 lakh people. 

The additional district and sessions and fast track sessions court-2 here has sentenced a 42-year old man to ten years rigorous imprisonment on finding him guilty of raping a 17-year old girl. The court judge K M Radhakrishna also imposed a fine of Rs 60,000 on the convicted person, Abdul Lathif (42) from Kandavara village. As per the charge sheet, the girl was working in the sales section of the readymade garment shop of Lathif. In April 2017, when the girl complained of headache, Lathif made her take a tablet along with juice and asked her to rest in the change room. When the girl was unconscious, Lathif sexually assaulted her.

The Konkan Divisional Commissioner in Maharashtra has removed seven sarpanchs (village heads) and a deputy sarpanch from their posts over alleged irregularities in work and mismanagement of panchayats, officials said on Thursday. On February 15 this year, the commissioner had held a hearing in connection with complaints and reports against 35 office-bearers of various village panchayats.

High gas prices have Wallace Reid looking for a new career. Reid, who drives for Uber and Lyft in New York, fills up his Lexus at least three times a week. He pays around $95 each time, about double what he was paying last year. To make up for that, he's driving more often, but he's also applying for other jobs that wouldn't require his car. “It's more hours, more stress,” he said. “New York City is not an easy city to work and it's affecting our lives.” Reid isn't alone. Millions of Americans who rely on their cars for work are changing their habits, signing up for carpools or even ditching their cars for bicycles as gas prices recently hit $5 per gallon for the first time ever. This week, it's averaging $4.95 per gallon nationwide, up from $3.06 per gallon a year ago, according to AAA.

Amid the political crisis in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra, three more Shiv Sena MLAs on Thursday left for Guwahati in Assam to join the rebel camp led by cabinet minister Eknath Shinde. Deepak Kesakar (MLA from Sawantwadi), Mangesh Kudalkar (Chembur) and Sada Sarvankar (Dadar) took a morning flight from Mumbai to Guwahati, a close associate of Shinde said. On Wednesday evening, four MLAs, including Maharashtra minister Gulabrao Patil, had flown to Guwahati. Shinde will consult the MLAs with him and then decide when to return to Mumbai, his associate said. After reaching Guwahati on Wednesday, Shinde had claimed the support of 46 legislators, including some Independents.

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Voting began Thursday morning for the bypoll to the Punjab’s Sangrur Lok Sabha seat, where the ruling AAP is facing its first test of popularity after its impressive performance in the assembly elections. Amid tight security, the polling began at 8 am and will continue till 6 pm, officials said, adding the counting of votes will be taken up on June 26. There are 15,69,240 eligible voters -- 8,30,056 men, 7,39,140 women and 44 from transgender community -- in the Sangrur parliamentary constituency. A total of 16 candidates, including three women, are in the fray.

A Black former Tesla worker who said he was harassed and faced with “daily racist epithets,” including the “N-word,” while working at the company's Fremont, California, plant has rejected a substantially reduced award of $15 million in his lawsuit. Owen Diaz, who worked at the Tesla plant in 2015 and 2016 as a contracted elevator operator before quitting, was originally awarded $6.9 million in damages for emotional distress and $130 million in punitive damages in the case.

Bollywood actor Sonam Kapoor has appealed to voters of the Rajinder Nagar constituency here to turn out in large numbers as the bypoll to the crucial assembly seat got underway Thursday morning. A total of 1,64,698 electors are eligible to cast vote in this constituency, including 1,899 voters in the 18-19 age group. "Voting began at 7 am under tight security arrangements for the Rajinder Nagar bypoll. Actor Sonam Kapoor in a video message has appealed to voters to exercise their franchise and turn out in large numbers," Delhi Chief Electoral Officer Ranbir Singh told news agency PTI.

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By-elections to four assembly seats in Tripura began at 7 AM on Thursday amid tight security arrangements, an election official said. Polling to the Agartala, Town Bardowali, Surma and Jubarajnagar seats is taking place in 221 booths, and it will continue till 5 PM.

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Voting began Thursday morning for the bypoll to Rajinder Nagar in Delhi, largely being seen as a battle between a confident AAP and a spirited BJP for the crucial assembly constituency. A total of 1,64,698 voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in the bye-election, in which 14 candidates are in the fray, with water shortage and the city government's liquor policy among the key election issues.

A man has been arrested for staging a fake firing incident at his house in Moga to get an arms license, police said on Wednesday. The man was arrested with two of his aides who helped him stage the firing, they said. "The firing incident reported by a Bambiha Bhai village-based man claiming that some unidentified persons opened fire at his house on Monday morning, has turned out to be a story concocted by him to obtain the arms license," a Punjab police statement said here Wednesday evening.

A Malaysian of Indian origin was on Wednesday sentenced to seven months and three weeks’ jail for terrorizing his girlfriend by beating her, smashing her phone after swallowing a SIM card, tearing up her passport and choking her with his hand. Paartiban Maniam’s sentence was backdated to March 12 when he was arrested and remanded, TODAY newspaper reported. The 30-year-old Malaysian pleaded guilty to two charges each of criminal intimidation, committing mischief and causing hurt to his partner. He was intoxicated on all these occasions. District Judge James Elisha Lee took into consideration six other similar charges for sentencing purposes.

A fire broke out at a factory in Noida Wednesday night, officials said. No individual was harmed in the fire that broke out around 10 pm at the cardboard-manufacturing factory in Sector 8, Chief Fire Officer Arun Kumar Singh said. "The fire broke out on the second floor of the building and spread to the first floor also. Ten fire tenders have been rushed to the site," said Singh, who oversaw rescue and relief operations at the site. "No individual was harmed. The fire has been contained within the factory premises and prevented from reaching adjoining buildings," he said. The exact cause of the fire and loss to the property will be assessed after the blaze is completely controlled, Singh said. 

Children infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus can experience symptoms of long COVID lasting at least two months, according to a study published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health journal on Thursday. The largest study to date of long COVID symptoms in children aged 0-14 years used national level sampling of children in Denmark and matched COVID-19 positive cases with a control group with no prior history of a the disease. "The overall aim of our study was to determine the prevalence of long-lasting symptoms in children and infants, alongside quality of life, and absence from school or day care," said Professor Selina Kikkenborg Berg, from Copenhagen University Hospital, Denmark "Our results reveal that, although children with a positive COVID-19 diagnosis are more likely to experience long-lasting symptoms than children with no previous COVID-19 diagnosis, the pandemic has affected every aspect of all young people's lives," Berg said.

The GSAT-24 satellite, built by ISRO for NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), was successfully launched by French company Arianespace from Kourou in French Guiana (South America) on Thursday. GSAT-24 is a 24-Ku band communication satellite weighing 4180 kg with pan-India coverage for meeting DTH application needs. It was the first "demand driven" communication satellite mission undertaken by NSIL post space sector reforms. NSIL, a Government of India company under the Department of Space, has leased the entire satellite capacity to Tata Play. GSAT-24 was launched on-board Ariane-V VA257 flight from the Guiana Space Centre, Europe’s spaceport in Kourou.