Breaking News, August 12

A man in Montenegro went on a shooting rampage after a family dispute, killing 11 people on the streets of a city before being shot dead in a gun battle with police, Montenegro state TV reported Friday, quoting police sources.

India and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) are in touch with each other at different levels for quite some time now, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Friday.

Announcing a bonanza for women on the occasion of 'Rakhar Punia', Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Friday said 6,000 posts of Anganwadi workers will be filled in the state.

Angry with his wife for disobeying him by going to her maternal home to celebrate Raksha Bandhan, a man suffocated one of their one-year-old twins with a pillow, police said on Friday.

A man was burnt to death and nine others were injured on Friday when an acid tank exploded due to lightning at Hindustan Zinc in Rajasthan's ​​Chittorgarh district, police said.

A suspected Naxalite carrying a reward of Rs 5 lakh on his head was killed in an encounter with security forces in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district on Friday, a senior official said.

Farmers protesting over the non-payment of sugarcane dues for the past four days here blocked the second side of the Jalandhar-Ludhiana stretch of the national highway on Friday. Roads leading to Hoshiarpur, Nawanshahr and Nakodar were also blocked by parking tractors, leading to traffic snarls. The authorities had to divert traffic on alternative routes.

Dabur India on Friday said Amit Burman has stepped down as the company's Chairman and Mohit Burman has taken over as the Non-Executive Chairman. Amit Burman would continue to be the Non-Executive Director of the company, according to a regulatory filing.

Shares of Sterling and Wilson Renewable Energy on Friday dropped nearly 4 per cent after Shapoorji Pallonji and Company proposed to offload 1.25 pc stake in the firm.

A suspected Naxalite carrying a reward of Rs 5 lakh on his head was killed in an encounter with security forces in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district on Friday, a senior official said.

State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) on Friday reported its highest quarterly net profit of Rs 15,206 crore in the June quarter on the back of record oil and gas prices.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday proclaimed unwavering UN commitment to a fully denuclearised North Korea, even as a divided Security Council allows more room for the isolated country to expand its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes.

Three persons died after inhaling a poisonous gas on entering a well in a village in Madhya Pradesh's Sagar district, police said on Friday. The incident took place in Piparia village, around 40 km from the district headquarters, on Thursday evening, an official said.

Trinamool Congress leader Pawan K Varma tendered his resignation to party president Mamata Banerjee on Friday. His resignation came days after Nitish Kumar returned to the Mahagathbandhan and formed a new government in Bihar, snapping the JD(U)'s ties with the BJP-led NDA in Bihar. Varma tweeted, "Please accept my resignation from the @AITCofficial. I want to thank you for the warm welcome accorded to me, and for your affection and courtesies. I look forward to remaining in touch. Wishing you all the best, and with warm regards." Varma, a former JD(U) MP, had joined Trinamool Congress last year, saying it was the need of the hour to work for strengthening the Opposition. Varma and poll strategist Prashant Kishor were expelled from the JD(U) in 2020 when they vehemently opposed the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act.

A 57-year-old man from Andhra Pradesh has donated a gold crown worth Rs 36.98 lakh and a silver plate worth Rs 33,000 to the famous Saibaba Temple in Shirdi town of Maharashtra, an official from the trust managing the shrine said on Friday (August 12). Satish Prabhakar Annam donated a gold crown weighing 770 gm and a 620 gm silver plate on the auspicious day of Raksha Bandhan on Thursday, said Bhagyashri Banayat, the chief executive officer of the Shri Saibaba Sansthan Trust. Annam is a former legislator and a resident of Bapatla district of Andhra Pradesh, it was stated. Last month, an 80-year-old doctor from Hyderabad donated a gold crown worth Rs 33 lakh to the temple trust. 

Former Kerala Minister and ruling LDF MLA K T Jaleel on Friday courted a huge controversy by describing Jammu and Kashmir as "Indian adheena Jammu and Kashmir" (India occupied Jammu and Kashmir) and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir as "Azad Kashmir." Jaleel made the remarks in a Facebook post regarding his visit to Kashmir. In the post written in Malayalam, the Kerala MLA said "the part of Kashmir annexed to Pakistan was known as 'Azad Kashmir' and it was an area where the Pakistan government does not have direct control." Jaleel, who was a minister in the previous CPI(M)-led LDF government, said "Indian adheena Jammu and Kashmir" (India Occupied Jammu and Kashmir) consists of parts of Jammu, Kashmir Valley and Ladakh." BJP leader Sandeep Varier slammed Jaleel for his remarks, saying they were "serious and it is clear that his venomous thinking is visible through the lines."

More than 100 dams in Rajasthan are filled to their capacity as the state received good rainfall this monsoon season. From June 1 to July 30, the state received 351.4 mm rainfall as compared to 220.7 mm in the corresponding period last year. According to water resources department data, the water storage in 716 dams of Rajasthan till August 11 was 7,675.64 million cubic metres. The figure was 7,113.92 million cubic metre in the corresponding period last year. More than 60 per cent of the total capacity of the dams in the state has been achieved this season. Rajasthan has 716 dams, out of which 101 dams have completely filled, 373 are partially filled and 231 are empty.

Former president Ram Nath Kovind and his family members on Friday met Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar here. The Kovind family, including the former president's wife Savita Kovind reached Upa-Rashtrapati Nivas to meet the Dhankhars. Kovind's term as the president ended on July 24. Dhankhar took over as the vice president on Thursday. 

For most teenage girls in Afghanistan, it's been a year since they set foot in a classroom. With no sign the ruling Taliban will allow them back to school, some are trying to find ways to keep education from stalling for a generation of young women. At a house in Kabul, dozens gathered on a recent day for classes in an informal school set up by Sodaba Nazhand. She and her sister teach English, science and math to girls who should be in secondary school. “When the Taliban wanted to take away the rights of education and the rights of work from women, I wanted to stand against their decision by teaching these girls,” Nazhand told The Associated Press. Hers is one of a number of underground schools in operation since the Taliban took over the country a year ago and banned girls from continuing their education past the sixth grade. While the Taliban have permitted women to continue attending universities, this exception will become irrelevant when there are no more girls graduating from high schools.

Around 25 people are missing since the boat capsize in the Yamuna river here a day back and three bodies have so far been fished out, officials said on Friday. NDRF and SDRF personnel were conducting a search operation, and divers have also been called in from Prayagraj to assist, they said. At least three people, two women and a child, drowned in the tragic accident, Deputy Inspector General of Police, Banda, Vipin Mishra said. On Thursday, police, however, said four bodies had been recovered.

An elderly woman and two other persons were killed in separate incidents of attack by wild elephants in Chhattisgarh, officials said on Friday. While two men were trampled to death in Mohla area of Rajnandgaon district, the woman was killed in a similar incident in neighbouring Balod district, they said. All three incidents took place on Thursday. A herd of more than 20 elephants entered Bhainsbod village in Mohla area adjoining Maharashtra and destroyed three houses before charging towards a man, identified as Santlal Mandavi (37), a local forest official said. The man died on the spot in the attack, he added. Another man, Rambharose (45), of the same village went inside the jungle in the evening despite being warned. He was trampled to death by the same herd of elephants, he said.

Most parts of Mumbai received light rains with occasional spells of moderate to heavy showers on Friday morning, but there was no report of waterlogging in any low-lying areas of the city, officials said. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted moderate rainfall in the city and suburbs in the next 24 hours, they said. Public transport services, including suburban trains and Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) buses, are operating as per their usual schedule, the officials said. A civic official said that in the 24-hour period that ended 8:00 am on Friday, the island city recorded 9.54 mm rainfall, eastern suburbs 23.49 mm, and western suburbs 26.35 mm.

The Supreme Court on Friday sought a response from the Centre on an appeal of Vedanta Ltd against a Delhi High Court verdict related to a production sharing contract (PSC) of Vedanta and the ONGC to produce oil from the Barmer oil field in Rajasthan. Vedanta Ltd has moved the top court against the March 26 judgement of a division bench of the Delhi High Court setting aside a single judge order directing the Centre to extend till 2030 its PSC with Vedanta Ltd and ONGC to produce oil from the Barmer oil field. “Issue notice,” said a bench comprising Chief Justice NV Ramana and Justice Krishna Murari after hearing brief submissions from senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for Vedanta Ltd. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre and the ONGC, said that he accepted the notice and sought four week’s time for filing the responses.

A war of words broke out between Union Minister Giriraj Singh and Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav on Friday over the RJD leader's poll promise of 10 lakh jobs made earlier. Singh tweeted a clip of an interview of Yadav in which he spoke about generating 10 lakh jobs for the young people of Bihar. This led to a spat between the two on the social media platform. In a dig at Yadav, Singh said the RJD leader would fulfil his poll promise of providing 10 lakh jobs only after he becomes the chief minister as he was now a deputy. Responding, Yadav posted a longer version of this interview and said, "Don't be so shameless. No one becomes knowledgeable just by keeping a one-foot-long braid."

Delhi Police busts a syndicate involved in the smuggling of ammunition, recovers a huge quantity of ammunition including around 2000 live cartridges; 6 persons arrested.

Supreme Court gives an additional time of one week for demolition of Supertech’s twin 40-storey towers in its Emerald project in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, in case of any supervening circumstances or technical issues delaying the demolition on August 28.

US Mission India Chargé d’Affaires, Patricia Lacina met with business leaders and entrepreneurs in Bengaluru to underscore the strong US-India economic and commercial ties. Joining the Chargé in Bengaluru were US Consul General in Chennai Judith Ravin and Director of the US National Science Foundation (NSF) Dr. Sethuraman Panchanathan. At a reception for commercial and business leaders on Wednesday, Lacina acknowledged the immense contributions of over 650 US companies in Bengaluru that employ tens of thousands of people in the formal sector.

Police have registered a case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder against the son-in-law of a Congress MLA in Gujarat after his Sports Utility Vehicle rammed into an autorickshaw and a motorcycle, killing six persons, officials said on Friday. The accident had occurred on Thursday evening near Sojitra village on a state highway connecting Anand town with Tarapur, they said, adding that the six victims included three women. "The accused has been identified as Ketan Padhiyar, the son-in-law of Congress MLA from Sojitra Assembly seat, Punambhai Parmar. Padhiyar is currently under treatment at a private hospital in Anand as he also sustained injuries in the incident," Sojitra police station sub inspector AP Parmar said.

Customs sleuths at the Mangaluru International Airport have seized 24 carat gold weighing 831 gm from a passenger who arrived by an Air India flight from Dubai on Wednesday. A Customs communique here said the male passenger, hailing from Kasaragod in Kerala, was carrying the gold in paste form. He had packed the gold in a white tape pouch and had concealed it inside a stitched pocket of the undergarment that he had worn. The seized gold is valued at Rs 43.29 lakh. In another seizure on Thursday, officials of the air intelligence unit seized assorted foreign currency equivalent to Indian currency value of Rs 5,97,040 from a male passenger hailing from Bhatkal who was to travel to Dubai by a SpiceJet flight. The passenger had concealed the currency in a handbag carried by him, the communique said. 

An eight-year-old girl was allegedly raped by husband of a Mukhiya (Panchayat head) in Jharkhand’s Giridih district, police said on Friday. The incident took place at a village under Birni police station area on Thursday afternoon. However, the accused identified as Mikku Mandal, 35, has gone missing after the incident, police said. “We have set up a three different teams to nab the accused. The girl was referred to Dhanbad Sadar hospital for better treatment from Giridih. Her condition is stated to be normal,” Bagodar sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) Naushad Alam told PTI.
He said that a case has been registered by the family members of the girl at Birni police station.

Equity benchmark Sensex fell 155 points in early trade on Friday, tracking losses in index-heavyweights TCS, Infosys and Maruti amid a mixed trend in global markets. The 30-share BSE index was trading 155.21 points or 0.26 per cent lower at 59,177.39 in initial deals. Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty slipped 37.25 points or 0.21 per cent to 17,621.75. Tech Mahindra was the top loser in the Sensex pack, slipping 1.34 per cent, followed by Nestle India, Maruti, Infosys, UltraTech Cement, TCS and Sun Pharma. On the other hand, Tata Steel, PowerGrid, SBI, NTPC, IndusInd Bank, ICICI Bank and Titan were the gainers. In the previous session, the BSE gauge ended 515.31 points or 0.88 per cent higher at 59,332.60 -- its highest closing since April 8, 2022. Likewise, the Nifty gained 124.25 points or 124.25 per cent to close at 17,659.

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Around two men fell into the creek at SV Road and Sea Link Road Junction, Bandra (W), Mumbai. The search operation is underway.

Seventy-five per cent of the Maharashtra ministers have declared criminal cases against themselves, according to the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). Maharashtra now has 20 ministers, including the chief minister, after the council of ministers was expanded on August 9 with the induction of 18 members. After the cabinet expansion, the Association for Democratic Reforms and the Maharashtra Election Watch analysed the self-sworn affidavits of all ministers submitted during the assembly polls in 2019. According to the analysis, 15 (75 per cent) ministers have declared criminal cases against themselves and 13 (65 per cent) have declared serious criminal cases against themselves.

Nalini Sriharan, serving life sentence in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, has moved the Supreme Court seeking her premature release. Nalini has challenged the June 17 order of the Madras High Court, which rejected her plea for early release, and cited the apex court judgement ordering the release of co-convict A G Perarivalan while seeking to be set free. The high court had on June 17 rejected the petitions of Nalini Sriharan and Ravichandran, both convicted in the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, to order their release without even the consent of the state's governor.

Three school girls were allegedly kidnapped and sexually assaulted in the national capital by a man, who had planned to sell them in Chandigarh but all the girls managed to escape, police said. The girls were kidnapped from South Delhi's Defence Colony area and were taken to Rohini on August 6 (Saturday) where they were allegedly raped. The police added that they have arrested four persons, including two women in connection with the case. The accused were identified as Bangali Lal Sharma (45), Sandeep alias Shanky (36), Ruksana (40) and Jyoti (19). However, the fifth accused Prakash alias Sanjay alias Minto is absconding. A senior police official said that on August 6, the father of one of the girls lodged a complaint with the Defence Colony police station that his daughter went to school in Delhi's Andrews Ganj at 7.30 a.m. by her school van.

A woman in Uttar Pradesh's Kanpur was brutally attacked by a man using a cleaver due to which she had to get 200 stitches. According to the police, the woman, Nidhi Pandey, a property dealer, met the accused, Arvind Singh Rathore, in Bashahi Naka area of Kanpur, to seek return of the money she had invested. An altercation ensued between the two and the accused assaulted her with a cleaver and forced-fed her chillies. The woman escaped from the hotel and filed a police complaint. She is currently being treated at a private hospital.

New Zealand on Friday welcomed the first cruise ship to return since the coronavirus pandemic began, signaling a long-sought return to normalcy for the nation's tourism industry. New Zealand closed its borders in early 2020 as it sought at first to eliminate COVID-19 entirely and then later to control its spread. Although the country reopened its borders to most tourists arriving by plane in May, it wasn't until two weeks ago that it lifted all remaining restrictions, including those on maritime arrivals.

A migrant worker from Bihar was shot dead by terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir's Bandipora district, police said on Friday. The attack took place around midnight, they said. "During intervening night, #terrorists fired upon & injured one outside #labourer Mohd Amrez S/O Mohd Jalil R/O Madhepura Besarh #Bihar at Soadnara Sumbal, #Bandipora," the Kashmir Zone Police said on Twitter. The police said Amrez was shifted to a hospital for treatment where he succumbed to injuries. 

An eastern Indiana police officer shot in the head during a traffic stop and search for possible narcotics remained in "extremely critical" condition Thursday, her police chief said. Richmond Police Department Officer Seara Burton is being treated at a hospital in Dayton, Ohio, following the shooting on Wednesday evening. "Surgery has been performed and she is initially showing slight signs of responsiveness. She has not regained consciousness and is still fighting for her life," Richmond Police Chief Michael Britt said in a Facebook post on Thursday night.

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The body of a 24-year-old man who was swept away in a swollen drain in Indore was found on Thursday and two others were missing in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra after rains, while the Met office warned of flash floods in Vidarbha, officials said. Some rivers in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra were flooded after heavy showers and several people from Bhandara and Chandrapur districts were shifted to safer places, they said. The heavy rains also caused damage to crops and an assessment survey was on, an agriculture department official said.

An armed man clad in body armour who tried to breach the FBI's Cincinnati office on Thursday was shot and killed by police after he fled the scene and engaged in an hours-long standoff in a rural part of the state, the Ohio State Highway Patrol said. The confrontation came as officials warned of an increase in threats against federal agents in the days following a search of former US president Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. The man is believed to have been in Washington in the days leading up to the January 6, 2021 insurrection and may have been present at the Capitol on the day of the attack, according to a law enforcement official briefed on the matter. The official could not discuss details of the investigation p

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Thursday said his government is making all efforts to protect cattle amid the outbreak of lumpy skin disease. The chief minister said he recently met Union Animal Husbandry Minister Parshottam Rupala at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi and discussed the steps needed to contain the spread of the disease. Rupala assured that the central government would extend full cooperation to the state government, he claimed. In an official statement, Gehlot said the chief secretary of the state is continuously monitoring the situation and meetings with all district collectors are being held regularly. Conservation and promotion of cow progeny is the priority of the state government, Gehlot said. He said the period of grant for gaushalas in the state has been increased from six months to nine months and his government is committed to the protection and promotion of livestock. 

Prosecutors in South Florida announced a second-degree murder charge Thursday against social media model Courtney Clenney in connection with the fatal stabbing of her live-in boyfriend. Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle announced the charge against the 26-year-old model during a news conference. Clenney was arrested on Wednesday in Hawaii. Fernandez Rundle said Clenney, who goes by the name Courtney Tailor on such platforms as Instagram and OnlyFans, remained jailed in Hawaii while authorities seek her extradition to Florida.

Three inmates were killed on Thursday in a fight between rival gangs at a prison in Ciudad Juarez, a Mexican border city across from El Paso, Texas, officials said. The prosecutors' office in the border state of Chihuahua said on Thursday that authorities called in the army and National Guard to control the fight at the Number 3 prison. The office said the dispute was between "rival gangs", but did not identify which groups were involved. Ciudad Juarez has seen years of battles between gangs like the Artistas Asesinos, backed by the Sinaloa cartel, and the La Linea and Aztecas gangs and the Juarez cartel.

Noted Kannada singer Shivamogga Subbanna passed away following a heart attack at a hospital here on Thursday night, sources close to the family said. He was 83. "He was admitted to Jayadeva Hospital in the city where he passed away," one of the sources said. He is survived by a son and a daughter. Subbanna was the first Kannadiga to win a National Award for playback singing for his song "Kaadu Kudure Odi Banditta" in the film "Kaadu Kudure". Known for his work in the field of 'Sugama Sangeetha', a genre in which poetry in Kannada is set to music, Subbanna has worked on and sung poetries of famous poets such as Kuvempu and Da Ra Bendre, and got several awards and honours. He was also a singer with Akashvani and Doordarshan and had worked as an advocate.