Breaking News, June 24

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Friday criticised the US Supreme Court's ruling that ended the right to abortion, saying when a nation is hopelessly divided, non-elected judges can impose their prejudiced opinions on the people and get away.

An official of the Delhi government's revenue department has been suspended for the alleged "fraudulent" transfer of land to a private entity in south Delhi, official sources said on Friday. The action was taken under the "zero-tolerance" policy against corruption adopted by Lt Governor V K Saxena, they said.

 Two people, including a newly elected vice-chairman of a panchayat samiti, were killed and three others seriously injured after a truck ran over them in Jharkhand's Dumka district on Friday, police said.

The Congress on Friday made new appointments in its communications wing, making Vineet Punia AICC secretary in-charge of internal communications and Vaibhav Walia secretary in the department.

President Biden to address nation Friday after Supreme Court ends 49-year constitutional protections for abortion

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday extended the card-on-file (CoF) tokenisation deadline by three months to September 30, 2022, given various representations received from industry bodies. Card-on-file, or CoF, refers to card information stored by payment gateway and merchants to process future transactions.

(PTI) Former Drinking Water and Sanitation Secretary Parameswaran Iyer, who spearheaded the Swachh Bharat Mission, was on Friday appointed as the CEO of Niti Aayog, according to a government order.

In a major rejig of top IAS officers in the state, the Kerala government on Friday appointed Dr V Venu, who was the Higher Education Secretary, as the state's Home Secretary. State Health Secretary Rajan Khobragade has been transferred and appointed as the Water Resources Department, Principal Secretary.

The Supreme Court has ended constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years in a decision by its conservative majority to overturn Roe v. Wade. Friday's outcome is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states.

An Afghan prisoner who held in U.S. custody for nearly 15 years has finally been released from the Guantanamo Bay detention center, Afghanistan's Taliban government and an international human rights group said on Friday. Asadullah Haroon Gul's release was announced by Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban's deputy culture and information minister, who wrote on Twitter that Gul was one of the last two Afghan prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay.

The opposition in Bihar created a ruckus on the inaugural day of the assembly's monsoon session on Friday over the Agnipath scheme of recruitment in the armed forces, which it termed a "scam".

Pakistan’s vaccination programme has come under suspicion after the detection of poliovirus in sewage samples in London for the first time in four decades, according to a media report on Friday. The UK Health Security Agency has noted that the virus detected on Thursday was probably imported from some country, and has asked parents to ensure their children were fully immunised against the crippling disease.

A two-year-old boy died and a man was injured when a wall collapsed in the Basedi area of ​​Dholpur district, police said on Friday. The incident happened on Thursday night when Ashok who worked as a labourer was laying a tin shed at the site, police said.

RBI Deputy Governor Michael Debabrata Patra on Friday exuded confidence that the monetary policy actions will be more moderate than the rest of the world, as inflation is expected to fall below 6 per cent in the January-March quarter of the current fiscal. The Reserve Bank has already raised the key policy rate by 90 basis points in May and June to 4.9 per cent to tame high inflation, mainly due to supply disruptions on account of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday announced a 10 per cent “super tax” on large-scale industries like cement, steel and automobile, a move he said was aimed at tackling spiralling inflation and saving the cash-strapped country from going "bankrupt." High net worth individuals will also be subject to a "poverty alleviation tax," Sharif announced after chairing a meeting of his economic team on the federal budget for the next fiscal year 2022-23. “Our first motive is to provide relief to the masses and to reduce the burden of inflation on the people and facilitate them,” Sharif said, Geo TV reported. “Our second motive is to protect the country from going bankrupt," he said, adding that it has been devastated due to the "incompetency and corruption" of the previous Imran Khan-led government. The sectors on which this “super tax” will be levied include cement, steel, sugar, oil and gas, fertilisers, LNG terminals, textile, banking, automobile, cigarettes, beverages and chemicals, according to the Dawn newspaper.

Both men and women in the Rajinder Nagar assembly constituency were enthusiastic about exercising their franchise at the just-concluded bypolls with 43.67 per cent of the male electorate and 43.86 per cent of female voters turning up for the polling. The percentage of third-gender voters stood at 50 per cent, a senior official told PTI on Friday. Overall, the bypoll saw a low voter turnout of 43.75 per cent. 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.

Leaders of Commonwealth nations are meeting in Rwanda Friday in a summit that promises to tackle climate change, tropical diseases and other challenges deepened by the COVID-19 pandemic. The summit for Commonwealth heads of state in Kigali, the Rwandan capital, is the culmination of a series of meetings earlier in the week that have reported some success in efforts to improve the lives of people in the 54-nation bloc that is home to 2.5 billion people. Those numbers are set to rise with the expected admission into the Commonwealth of the African nations of Togo and Gabon, which have asked to join the bloc despite having no colonial history with Britain. The Commonwealth comprises mostly former British colonies, but countries such as Mozambique and Rwanda — a former Belgian colony with an Anglophile leader — have in the past launched successful bids to join the group whose titular head is Queen Elizabeth II.

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The Jammu-Srinagar national highway was closed for the fourth consecutive day on Friday even as agencies stepped up efforts to restore traffic by blasting boulders blocking roads, officials said. The highway was blocked due to landslides, mudslides and shooting stones at 33 places in Ramban and Udhampur districts apart from washing of a 150-feet long road stretch and an under-construction bridge due to flash-floods triggered by heavy rains. "Srinagar-Sonamarg-Gumri road closed for repair and maintenance. However Mughal road through for vehicular movement", the traffic department said. Explosives were used to blast boulders that were hampering the ongoing restoration work on the highway on Thursday evening.

A day after sending relief material to earthquake-hit Afghanistan, India on Friday said it stands in solidarity with the Afghan people and remains firmly committed to providing them with required relief assistance. India has already dispatched 27 tons of relief material in two flights for the people of Afghanistan as a "true first responder" to address their difficulties, the Ministry of External Affairs said. A powerful earthquake hit Afghanistan's eastern Paktika province on Wednesday that killed around 1,000 people and injured over 1,500.

The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the Special Investigation Team's (SIT) clean chit to then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and 63 others in the 2002 riots in the state and dismissed a plea by slain Congress leader Ehsan Jafri's wife Zakia Jafri. A three-judge bench headed by Justice A M Khanwilkar upheld the magistrate's order rejecting Zakia Jafri's protest petition against the closure report filed by the SIT in 2012.

In the wake of Shiv Sena minister Eknath Shinde's rebellion, MP Sanjay Raut on Friday admitted that the party's numbers in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly have dwindled, but expressed confidence that the rebel MLAs will support the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) combine during the floor test, saying that "figures can change any time". He said the rebel MLAs will face the real test of their loyalty towards the party when they return to Mumbai. Raut also attacked BJP leader Narayan Rane, without naming him, for "threatening" NCP chief Sharad Pawar.

Equity benchmark indices continued to gain on Friday, with the BSE Sensex climbing 644 points in early trade, mirroring a firm trend in the global markets. The 30-share BSE Sensex was trading with a jump of 644.15 points to 52,909.87 in early trade. The NSE Nifty also gained 192.6 points to 15,749.25. From the Sensex pack, IndusInd Bank, Hindustan Unilever, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Industries, UltraTech Cement, Dr Reddy's, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank were the major gainers. On the other hand, Tech Mahindra, Asian Paints and Maruti Suzuki India were the laggards. Elsewhere in Asia, markets in Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong and Shanghai were quoting in the green in mid-session deals.

The Meghalaya government has directed the autonomous district councils (ADCs) in the state to immediately shut down all toll gates set up by them along the national highways (NH) and state highways (SH), a minister said. Governor Satya Pal Malik had earlier this month spoken to Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on the affairs of the ADCs, their failure to submit utilisation certificates (UCs) and the need to shut down all illegal toll gates set up by the tribal councils along the NH and state highways. District Council Affairs (DCA) Minister Lahkmen Rymbui who attended a meeting chaired by the Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma with the representatives of the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) and Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council (JHADC), said the state government have issued directions to the Councils on the matter.

Goa Director General of Police Jaspal Singh has said that all the cases of land irregularities in the state will be transferred to the newly-formed Special Investigation Team (SIT). Talking to reporters on Thursday, Singh said that there are several cases related to the land fraud registered at the police stations across the state. The formation of the SIT will encourage people to come forward to register complaints of land fraud, he said, adding, "So many more such cases will be transferred to the SIT in future." Singh said that besides investigating the cases, the SIT will also recommend amendments to the existing laws, rules or procedures so that such instances can be avoided in the future.

On the year of the centenary birth anniversary of Gautam Adani's father Shri Shantilal Adani, and Gautam Adani's own 60th birthday, the Adani Family has committed a donation of Rs 60,000 crore to a range of social causes. This corpus will be administered by the Adani Foundation.

Donald Trump hounded the Justice Department to pursue his false election fraud claims, striving in vain to enlist top law enforcement officials in his desperate bid to stay in power and relenting only when warned in the Oval Office of mass resignations, according to testimony Thursday to the House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. Three Trump-era Justice Department officials recounted persistent badgering from the president, including day after day of directives to chase baseless allegations that the election won by Democrat Joe Biden had been stolen. They said they swept aside each demand from Trump because there was no evidence of widespread fraud, then banded together when the president weighed whether to replace the department's top lawyer with a lower-level official eager to help undo the results.

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READ FULL STORY HERE

READ FULL STORY HERE

An eight-year-old boy, Shivansh Mohile, from Uttar Pradesh's Prayagraj has set a record of sorts by swimming across the Yamuna river in just 18 minutes. Earlier this month, Aradhya Srivastava had crossed the river ( about 250 metres) in 22 minutes. However, Shivansh stunned his trainers who appreciated his efforts and determination to cross the river in less time compared to other boys of his age group. Shivansh, who is a student of class 2 at Tagore Public school, accomplished his swim from Meerapur Sindu Sagar ghat and reached the other side of the river bank. His trainer, Tribhuwan Nishad said that the boy has brought laurels for his parents after he crossed the Yamuna river in just 18 minutes.

An Indian-American Muslim body on Thursday praised Congresswoman Ilhan Omar for introducing a resolution in the US House of Representative that condemns India for the alleged human rights violation against the minorities in particular the Muslims. Co-sponsored by lawmakers Rashida Talib and Juan Vargas, the resolution urges the State Department to act on the recommendations of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) and designate India as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) under the International Religious Freedom Act. The USCIRF's recommendations are not binding on the State Department and for the past several years successive American administrations have ignored its recommendations in this regard.

Scientists have discovered the world's largest bacterium in a Caribbean mangrove swamp. Most bacteria are microscopic, but this one is so big it can be seen with the naked eye. The thin white filament, approximately the size of a human eyelash, is “by far the largest bacterium known to date”, said Jean-Marie Volland, a marine biologist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and co-author of a paper announcing the discovery Thursday in the journal Science.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un doubled-down on his nuclear arms buildup to overwhelm “hostile forces” at a key meeting where military leaders approved unspecified new operational duties for front-line army units. Members of the ruling Workers' Party's Central Military Commission decided to supplement an “important military action plan” on the duties of front-line troops and further strengthen the country's nuclear war deterrent, state media said Friday. North Korea hasn't specified the new operational duties for front-line army units, but analysts say the country could be planning to deploy battlefield nuclear weapons targeting rival South Korea along their tense border.

The devastating earthquake this week in Afghanistan is one more emergency facing the country, which is also confronting its worst drought in 30 years and massive poverty. Afghanistan also has the highest number of people in the world facing the risk of famine and there are increasing human rights violations by the country's new Taliban rulers, senior UN officials said Thursday. The grim picture of the hardships and perils facing Afghanistan's 38 million people was presented by UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths and the UN deputy special representative for Afghanistan, Ramiz Alakbarov.

NASA wants its moon dust and cockroaches back. The space agency has asked Boston-based RR Auction to halt the sale of moon dust collected during the 1969 Apollo 11 mission that had subsequently been fed to cockroaches during an experiment to determine if the lunar rock contained any sort of pathogen that posed a threat to terrestrial life. The material, a NASA lawyer said in a letter to the auctioneer, still belongs to the federal government. The material from the experiment, including a vial with about 40 milligrams of moon dust and three cockroach carcasses, was expected to sell for at least USD 4,00,000, but has been pulled from the auction block, RR said Thursday.

COVID-19 vaccines prevented over 42 lakh potential deaths in India in 2021, said a study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal, which based its findings on estimates of "excess" mortalities in the country during the pandemic. Globally, the mathematical modelling study found that COVID-19 vaccines reduced the potential death toll during the pandemic by nearly 20 million (1 million = 10 lakhs) or more than half in the year following their implementation. In the first year of the vaccination programme, 19.8 million out of a potential 31.4 million COVID-19 deaths were prevented worldwide, according to estimates based on excess deaths from 185 countries and territories, the researchers said.

A video purportedly showing a government doctor checking an ailing woman on a rickshaw by the roadside instead of providing her a stretcher and admitting her to hospital has gone viral, following which the government has initiated proceedings to terminate him from service. According to officials, the woman exhibited symptoms of HIV and her son-in-law carried her to the MMG District Hospital here in the rickshaw for anti-retroviral therapy. They were accompanied by the woman's husband and children.

Three men were arrested for allegedly honey-trapping a person by posing themselves as policemen, officials said on Thursday. The accused have been identified as Pawan (37), Manjeet (33) and Deepak (29), all residents of Haryana. The woman gang member Honey Preet is absconding, police said. On May 1, a 55-year-old man had complained that Preet had befriended him on social media and invited him over to her flat in Paschim Vihar here. As he was spending time with her, the three men entered the flat in the guise of policemen.