Breaking News, May 4 | LIVE UPDATES

Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on Wednesday said that veracity or genuineness of ‘Aadhaar’ can be "easily established" both in an online and offline mode, and outlined multiple ways to do so. UIDAI noted that the issue of how to verify the genuineness of an Aadhaar card is often faced by organisations, when the biometric ID presented to them as a proof of identities, and listed out multiple ways to verify the credentials.

COVID-19 vaccine sales helped Moderna triple its net income in a better-than-expected first quarter. The vaccine maker said Wednesday that revenue from its coronavirus preventive shots jumped to USD 5.92 billion, from USD 1.73 billion in last year's quarter, when the vaccines were debuting in most markets.

A 20-year-old man was arrested for allegedly killing his friend for having an "affair" with his former girlfriend in Rajasthan's Alwar district, police said on Wednesday. Police cracked the kidnapping and murder case 21 days after a complaint was lodged.

The Delhi High Court has directed Twitter to take down certain defamatory tweets posted by academician Dr. Audrey Truschke against historian Vikram Sampath over allegations of plagiarism. Justice Amit Bansal, who was dealing with an application by Sampath for removal of the tweets, said that the tweets are defamatory in nature and contain links to the “very same letters” whose publication was restrained by the court earlier and a prima facie case is made out on behalf of the plaintiff.

A teenaged girl travelling with her aunt in an autorickshaw was pulled out of the vehicle and assaulted and molested in the Dhanepur police station area of the district, police said on Wednesday. The incident occurred on April 23 when four youths stopped the auto in which the girl was travelling, pulled her out of the vehicle and dragged her to roadside bushes where they tore her clothes and molested her while also making a video of their act, Gonda’s Additional Superintendent of Police Shivraj said.

Senior BJP leader and Union Home Minister Amit Shah will meet his party's West Bengal leaders, including all MPs and MLAs, address a public rally and visit forward areas along the Indo-Bangladesh border during his two-day tour of the state from Thursday.

A man was arrested for allegedly raping and impregnating a 27-year-old differently abled woman in the Jaisinghpura Khor area here, police said on Wednesday. The accused, Dharmendra Soni, was known to the victim’s family, police said.

The Haryana Police has arrested a man with six illegal pistols and a live cartridge in Jind district on Wednesday, officials said. "The accused has been identified as Happy alias Kashi, a resident of Alewa in Jind," a spokesperson of Haryana Police said.

The rupee appreciated 8 paise to settle at 76.40 (provisional) against the US dollar on Wednesday following RBI's surprise rate hike ahead of the US Federal Reserve's policy decision. At the interbank forex market, the domestic unit opened at 76.46 against the US dollar.

The National Medical Commission and the Dental Council of India have issued a public notice on Tuesday, advising medical students to avoid travelling to Pakistan for pursuing any medical education.

Forty-six cases of Covid-19 were reported at the Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law in Patiala in Punjab on Wednesday, taking the total number of cases to 60.

Authorities have declared the university campus a containment zone, the only one in Patiala district.

With four more people being apprehended in connection with the murder of an RSS leader last month in Palakkad district, the total number of arrested accused in the case has reached 20, police said on Wednesday. ADGP (Law and Order) Vijay Sakhare told PTI that of the four arrested on Tuesday evening, one was allegedly part of the six member group which carried out the killing of RSS leader S K Srinivasan (45) on April 16.
Two persons of the attacking party remain to be arrested, he said.

The TMC on Wednesday appointed Kirti Azad as the new in-charge for its Goa unit. Azad, a cricketer-turned-politician, had switched over to the TMC from Congress last year. He was earlier a BJP MP from Bihar. Azad replaced TMC MP Mahua Moitra who was the in-charge of the Goa unit.
The appointment will come into force with immediate effect, the party said in a statement.

Delhi is staring at a water crisis amid the rising heat, with the water levels at the Wazirabad pond depleting alarmingly due to less flow in the Yamuna, officials said. The city government has written to the Haryana Irrigation Department, for a second time in a week, asking it to release additional water in the river to prevent disruption in water supply in the capital, they said.

An official said the water level at the Wazirabad Barrage dropped to a critical low of 672.30 feet on Wednesday morning, against the normal level of 674.5 feet.

LIC public offer, the country's biggest-ever IPO, was subscribed 0.29 times till noon by investors on the first day of bidding on Wednesday.

Of the total, the policyholder portion was subscribed fully while the reserved employees' portion was subscribed 0.49 times, as per the data on stock exchanges.

Qualified Institutional Buyer (QIB) and Non-Institutional Investor (NII) portion has received a tepid response so far. The LIC initial public offering (IPO), now open for retail and institutional investors, is set to close on May 9. The government aims to generate about Rs 21,000 crore by diluting its 3.5 per cent stake in the insurance behemoth.

Kotak Mahindra Bank on Wednesday posted a 65 per cent jump in standalone net profit at Rs 2,767.40 crore in the three months ended March 2022. The private sector lender had reported a net profit of Rs 1,682.37 crore in the same quarter of the previous fiscal year.

The bank's total income on a standalone basis during the latest January-March quarter rose to Rs 8,892.26 crore as against Rs 7,953.12 crore in the year-ago period, according to a regulatory filing.

For FY22, the lender recorded a 23.1 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 8,572.69 crore compared to Rs 6,964.84 crore in the same period a year ago.

• Shortages, volatility in commodities and financial markets are becoming more acute: RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das
• Governor says that RBI had announced intention to withdraw accomodative stance
• RBI hikes benchmark interest rate by 40 bps to 4.40 pc in an unscheduled policy review with a view to contain inflation

5G voice users will reach 2.5 billion globally by 2026, increasing from only 290 million in 2022, a new report showed on Wednesday.

The growth of 780 per cent will be driven by acceleration of 5G roll-outs following a slowing down during the pandemic, reports Juniper Research.

The report identified interactive calling as a key opportunity for operators who have launched 5G to provide more valuable voice services and compete with OTT voice apps.

One worker was killed and three others were injured in an explosion at a steel factory in IDA Bollarum on the outskirts of Hyderabad on Wednesday. The mishap is suspected to have been caused by the explosion of the boiler.

The injured were shifted to a hospital at Kukatpally in Hyderabad, where their condition is stated to be critical.

The deceased was identified as Hemanth (28). The body was shifted to a government hospital at Patancheru for autopsy.

The European Union's leader on Wednesday called on the 27-nation bloc to ban oil imports from Russia in a sixth package of sanctions targeting Moscow for its war in Ukraine.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also proposed that Sberbank, Russia's largest bank, and two other major banks be disconnected from the SWIFT international banking payment system.

Mumbai police on Wednesday detained a number of MNS workers gathered outside party chief Raj Thackeray's residence here, a day after the latter urged people to play Hanuman Chalisa on loudspeakers wherever they hear loudspeakers blaring 'azaan', officials said.

However, MNS functionaries Sandeep Deshpande and Santosh Dhuri managed to quickly leave from the spot in a vehicle when a police team tried to catch them.

A female police constable fell down while taking the action against MNS workers outside Thackeray's home in Shivaji Park area.

Honda Cars India on Wednesday said it has launched City e:HEV priced at Rs 19.49 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi), marking its debut in the strong hybrid electric vehicle segment in the country.

The City e:HEV is the first car in the mainstream segment equipped with strong hybrid electric technology, the automaker said in a statement.

As per the company, the model, an extension of its City model range, features self-charging two-motor strong hybrid system connected to a 1.5 litre petrol engine, entailing a peak power of 126 PS and fuel efficiency of 26.5 km per litre.

Ministry of Home Affairs has asked for a detailed report from the Rajasthan government over communal tension in the state's Jodhpur district: Sources

A 28-year-old mother of two was allegedly stabbed to death by her husband on suspicion of having an extramarital affair, police said on Wednesday.
They said the incident happened in the Naya Rasoolpur locality in the Rasoolpur area on Tuesday.

Assistant Superintendent of Police (city) Mukesh Chandra Mishra said the woman's husband got angry after he allegedly saw his wife with their neighbour.

In the spur of the moment, he stabbed his wife to death with a knife, the ASP said. The husband managed to flee from the spot, but locals nabbed him and later he was arrested, the ASP said.

The BJP will hold its office-bearers meeting in Jaipur on May 20-21 to deliberate over its strategy for upcoming polls in states and discuss the current political situation, sources said on Wednesday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to address one of the sessions virtually, they added. 
BJP president J P Nadda will chair the meet, and all its national office-bearers besides state party chiefs and key organisational leaders will attend the meeting. 

The BJP's decision to hold the meeting in the Congress-ruled Rajasthan is politically significant as the party has been seeking to corner the state government over a host of issues, including recent incidents of communal violence in several places. 

The Congress is also holding its "chintan shivir" in the state next week. 

The British military believes Russia will make a push to try to seize the cities of Kramatorsk and Severodonetsk in eastern Ukraine. The British made the comment Wednesday in a daily briefing it posts on Twitter about the war.

The Defence Ministry said Russia had some 22 battalion tactical groups near Izium in its attempt to advance in the area. Russia uses so-called battalion tactical groups — units of infantry typically reinforced with tanks, air defenses and artillery — in its operations. Each group typically has around 800 troops.

Estranged Samajwadi Party MLA and president of the Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party Lohia (PSPL) Shivpal Singh Yadav is set to form a new political front with another senior SP MLA Mohd Azam Khan. Yadav is waiting for Azam Khan's release from jail which should be anytime this month. Khan has already obtained bail in all cases against him, except one.

According to sources, Shivpal, who has met Azam Khan in jail, has already formed a broad blueprint for the new political front which is likely to include leaders who want to maintain an equal distance from BJP as well as SP.

Both, Azam Khan and Shivpal Yadav, are extremely upset with SP chief Akhilesh Yadav's style of functioning and have been feeling slighted in the party.

As many as 97 people have been arrested so far in connection with communal clashes over the hoisting of a flag before Eid in Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot's constituency Jodhpur where curfew continued in 10 police station areas for the second consecutive day on Wednesday. The situation is under control and no fresh incident of violence has been reported, police said.

Nearly 1000 policemen have been deployed to maintain law and order.

The Jodhpur deputy commissioner of police had issued orders imposing a curfew besides suspending mobile internet services.

Shares of Hero MotoCorp fell over 2 per cent in early trade on Wednesday, a day after the company said its consolidated profit after tax (PAT) declined by 30 per cent in the fourth quarter ended March 2022. The stock declined 2.27 per cent to Rs 2,430 on the BSE. At the NSE, it dipped 1.90 per cent to Rs 2,440 apiece.

Hero MotoCorp on Tuesday said its consolidated profit after tax declined by 30 per cent to Rs 621 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 2022 on account of lower sales.

The country's largest two-wheeler maker had reported a PAT of Rs 885 crore in the January-March quarter of 2020-21 fiscal.

Domestic Terminal of Nepal’s Tribhuvan International Airport vacated after a phone call claiming suspicious object planted inside the terminal was received: Airport authorities

Search for suspicious object underway

India reported 3,205 new coronavirus infections in a day, pushing the number of active cases to 19,509 and the overall tally to 4,30,88,118, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated Wednesday. The data released at 8 am also showed that 31 fatalities -- 29 of them from Kerala alone -- were reported in a 24-hour span, taking the cumulative death toll to 5,23,920.

The active cases constitute 0.05 per cent of the total infections, the health ministry said, adding the country's COVID-19 recovery rate is 98.74 per cent.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 0.98 per cent while the weekly figure was recorded at 0.76 per cent, the ministry said. An increase of 372 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload which now stand at 19,509. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease rose to 4,25,44,689, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.22 per cent.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a yellow alert, warning of a dust storm or thunderstorm with winds gusting up to 50 kilometres per hour in the national capital on Wednesday. There is also a possibility of very light rain in parts of the city.

The maximum temperature at the Safdarjung Observatory, Delhi's base station, is likely to settle around 38 degrees Celsius.

The minimum temperature was recorded at 28.8 degrees Celsius which was four notches above normal for this time of the year.

Equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty turned choppy on Wednesday, tracking weakness in index heavyweights Reliance Industries, TCS and HDFC Bank amid a mixed trend in global markets. After surging over 200 points in early trade, the 30-share BSE benchmark turned volatile and was trading 27.41 points or 0.05 per cent lower at 57,184.21 in early deals. The NSE Nifty also slipped 33.45 points or 0.2 per cent to 17,069.10.

From the Sensex pack, Dr Reddy's, Titan, Sun Pharma, Reliance Industries, TCS and HDFC Bank were the prominent losers. In contrast, PowerGrid, NTPC, Infosys and Wipro were among the gainers.

The Khargone administration has relaxed the curfew for 11 hours on Wednesday and allowed petrol pumps to open for the first time since violence took place in the Madhya Pradesh city during a Ram Navami procession on April 10, an official said.

Earlier, on Tuesday, there curfew was in place for 24 hours and citizens were asked to celebrate the Eid-al-Fitr and Akshaya Tritiya festivals at home.
However, the administration decided to relax the curfew from 6 am to 5 pm on Wednesday.

Petrol pumps can also be opened, but religious places will remain closed, Khargone's Sub-Divisional Magistrate Milind Dhoke told reporters on Tuesday night.

Passenger buses will be allowed to operate during curfew relaxation, he said.

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday said that general elections must be held in the country under the supervision of a neutral chief election commissioner (CEC), reported local media.

Claiming that the "selected" government has been imposed on the masses through planning and plotting, he said that an election must be held as soon as possible, otherwise, democracy will suffer a huge blow, reported Geo News.

North Korea has fired an 'unidentified projectile' eastward, reports AFP quoting South Korea's military

South MCD will start the first phase of the demolition drive from May 4 to May 13 in several parts of south Delhi. Letters have been written to the south and southeast DCPs in this regard: Rajpal Singh, deputy chairman of the Standing Committee in the corporation

Amid the leaked draft opinion of the Supreme Court to overturn the Roe vs Wade judgment that gave individual abortion rights, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt on Tuesday signed a controversial bill, modelled after the Texas rule, banning abortion beyond six weeks of pregnancy into law.

Slated to take effect this summer, 90 days after the legislative session ends, the law would punish health care providers who perform an abortion with up to 10 years in prison and up to USD 100,000 in fines. It makes an exception only in the case of a threat to the life of the mother.

This comes amid protests in the US after the apparent leak of a US Supreme Court order overturning a ruling on abortion rights which the court said is authentic but does not represent the high court's final decision.

Maharashtra | Amravati MP Navneet Rana is being taken to JJ Hospital in Mumbai from Byculla jail for her spondylosis treatment.

The Delhi Police on Tuesday said that departmental action will be taken against personnel of the force's Third Battalion who were not on duty on Eid.
According to a senior police officer, 500 personnel of the battalion were deployed on duty across the national capital on Tuesday on the occasion.
"Those found absent will be dealt with as per rules," the officer said.

Tight security arrangements were put in place at major religious places and also in different parts of the city for peaceful progression of Namaz on Eid.

A diplomat from the Dominican Republic apparently has been kidnapped in neighbouring Haiti, prompting Dominican authorities to call for his safe release. The local newspaper El Dia reported on Tuesday that the government also had beefed up its military presence on the border, though officials did not immediately have any comment on that.

The Dominican government said in a weekend statement that Carlos Guillén Tatis, the agriculture counsellor at its embassy in Port-au-Prince, apparently was kidnapped on Friday while travelling toward a border crossing.

LIC public offer, the country's biggest-ever IPO, on Wednesday opened for subscription for retail and institutional investors. The government aims to generate about Rs 21,000 crore by diluting its 3.5 per cent stake in the insurance behemoth. The LIC initial public offering (IPO), now open for retail and institutional investors, is set to close on May 9.

LIC has fixed the price band at Rs 902-949 per equity share for the issue. The offer includes a reservation for eligible employees and policyholders. The retail investors and eligible employees will get a discount of Rs 45 per equity share, and policyholders will get a discount of Rs 60 per equity share.

The Yogi Adityanath government has decided to activate the Integrated Covid Command Centre (ICCC) in Meerut after ten persons of a family tested positive for Covid in the district. Health officials said that the surveillance teams have also been asked to gear-up and an intensive checking campaign will be conducted across the district.

Meanwhile, the passengers coming from other states will also be screened at railway stations and bus stands.

The chief medical officer, Dr. Akhilesh Mohan, has directed the district hospital and medical college to ensure the availability of adequate oxygen beds.

The Biden administration has announced an automatic extension of expiring work permits for certain categories of immigrants, including those seeking green cards and spouses of H-1B visa holders who get employment authorisation cards (EAD), for a year and a half.

The move, announced by the Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday, is likely to benefit thousands of Indian immigrants.

The extension period of up to 180 days will automatically be extended to up to 540 days from the expiration date stated on the current EADs, the Department of Homeland Security said.

Two Indian student groups from Punjab and Tamil Nadu have won the NASA 2022 Human Exploration Rover Challenge, a media release said.

Announced by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration during a virtual awards ceremony on April 29, the challenge involved as many as 91 teams, including 58 colleges and 33 high schools.

All that "gilded glamour" brought in some real gold. This year's Met Gala earned a record USD 17.4 million, museum officials said.

The annual gala is a fundraiser for the self-funding Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The money pays for operating the institute and putting on annual blockbuster exhibits like the current "In America: An Anthology of Fashion" which was launched at the gala Monday night and opens to the public May 7. That exhibit is part of a broader two-part exhibit exploring the roots of American fashion.

The gala is traditionally held the first Monday in May, but because of the pandemic, the 2021 version was held last September. The two galas together brought in USD 33.7 million, the institute said on Tuesday.

Sri Lanka's main opposition party has issued a no-confidence declaration aiming at ousting Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and his Cabinet and blaming them for failing in their constitutional duty to provide decent living standards amid the island nation's worst economic crisis in memory.
A group from United People's Force party, led by leader Sajith Premadasa, delivered the motion on Tuesday demanding the no-confidence parliamentary vote to Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena.

The move came amid countrywide protests demanding the resignation of Rajapaksa and his younger brother, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who the demonstrators hold responsible for the economic crisis.

A former Nigerian government official arrested in connection with a massive fraud against Washington state's pandemic relief efforts pleaded guilty in federal court, prosecutors said.

Abidemi Rufai, 45, of Lekki, Nigeria, acknowledged in US District Court in Tacoma on Tuesday that he used stolen identities to receive more than USD 3,50,000 in pandemic-related unemployment benefits from Washington state.

He also admitted earlier frauds: Since 2017, he had obtained identifying information for more than 20,000 Americans, submitted USD 2 million in claims for disaster relief and other federal benefits, and received more than USD 6,00,000, prosecutors said.

Almost 13 million children in the United States have tested positive for COVID-19 since the onset of the pandemic, according to the latest report by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Children's Hospital Association.

Over 149,000 of these cases were added in the past four weeks. Over 5 million reported cases were added in 2022, according to the report published late Monday.

Children represented 19 per cent of all COVID-19 cases in the country, the report showed.

Amid the ongoing protests in the US after the apparent leak of a US Supreme Court order overturning a ruling on abortion rights, an "anti-abortion" activist on Tuesday (local time) climbed a 60-storey tower in San Francisco, before being rescued and subsequently detained by the police.
The activist, who goes by the name of Maison Deschamps on Instagram, describes himself as a "Pro-Life Spiderman" and had even posted an Instagram story mid-climb on the tower, Fox Business reported.

"I am here at the Salesforce tower... It's going alright," the man could be heard saying in the Instagram story posted.

Amid the ongoing war in Ukraine, Russia's gas supplies to China have soared by as much as 60 per cent in the first four months of 2022 compared to the same period last year.

Russian energy giant Gazprom announced the significant rise in exports on Sunday, even as energy exports to Europe remain uncertain in light of the ongoing hostilities, and the tightening sanctions on Russia by the West.

The deliveries have been made through the Power of Siberia pipeline as part of the contract between Gazprom and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), the company said, reported Russia Today.

The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police arrested Assistant Superintendent of Tihar Jail on Tuesday. The 57-year-old official, identified as Prakash Chand, has been arrested for facilitating jailed conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar in committing the crime. The EOW had lodged an FIR and is probing the case.

One person was arrested while three suspects have been detained in connection with two tribal men who were beaten to death by a mob over the suspicion of cow slaughter in Simaria village of Seoni district in Madhya Pradesh.

"Last night, police received information that 15-20 men thrashed two tribal men after they were caught with cow meat. Both of them died today in the morning. FIR in the case has been registered. One person is arrested and three to four people have been detained on suspicion," Kumar Prateek, Superintendent of Police told reporters on Tuesday.

During his visit to the Haridwar district of Uttarakhand, Union Minister Piyush Goyal visited Patanjali Research Institute where he praised the management for their work on traditional forms of medicines.

Ukraine seeks full restoration of territory, including Crimea. Our goals are to halt Russia’s advance, reclaim territory & restore Ukraine’s entire territory through diplomacy- Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky at the WSJ's CEO Council Summit: The Kyiv Independent

Amid heavy police presence all across the district, 97 people have been arrested so far in connection with incidents related to Jodhpur violence, informed police official on Tuesday.

"Curfew is being strictly enforced in the district. Higher-level officers have been deployed here. Every small incident occurring in the district is being monitored. A total of 97 people have been arrested in connection with incidents that have occurred in Jodhpur," said Hawa Singh Ghumaria, Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order).

Saying that the talks held on the occasion of the India-Denmark business forum were good, a top Danish business executive on Tuesday said that the economic reforms underway in India are creating new opportunities and are paving the way for "big developments".

The India-Denmark Business Forum was held with the attendance of top business leaders from India and Denmark, in the presence of Prime Miniter Narendra Modi and his Danish counterpart Mette Frederiksen.

Answering a question on his opinion on economic reforms in India, Jorgen Mads Clausen, chairman of the board of directors at Danfoss said that in the past there were bureaucratic hindrances to major development initiatives which are no longer present.

Twitter is testing a new feature called 'Twitter Circle' where users can handpick a smaller crowd of 150 people with whom they want to share their tweets.

The new Twitter feature seems to be on a similar line to Instagram's Close Friends feature, which allows selecting the audience for their stories.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the second India-Nordic summit in Denmark, before departing for Paris to meet the newly re-elected President Emmanuel Macron on the final day of his 3-day Europe visit on Wednesday.

The second India-Nordic summit will see the participation of the Prime Ministers of Denmark, Iceland, Finland, Sweden and Norway, and will follow up from the first summit that took place in Stockholm, Sweden in 2018.