Breaking News, February 24 | HIGHLIGHTS

Six persons were killed and 10 others injured as a speeding truck hit two buses parked on the roadside on Rewa-Satna border in Madhya Pradesh on Friday, a senior official said.
The injured persons were being shifted to the Rewa Medical College hospital, Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) Home, Dr Rajesh Rajora told PTI. The victims were returning after attending the Kol Mahakumbh gathering addressed by Union home minister Amit Shah in Satna city, he said. Top officials of Sidhi and Rewa districts including collector and superintendent of police had reached the spot, and all the passengers from two buses have been rescued, Rajora added.

Hours after the municipal House was rocked by fresh clashes between the councillors of the BJP and the AAP, Delhi Mayor Shelly Oberoi on Friday alleged that a few members of the saffron party inflicted life-threatening attack on her. At a press conference here, she alleged that her colleague Ashu Thakur was also attacked by another BJP councillor.
There was no immediate reaction from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Shortly before the media interaction held at the Civic Centre, the mayor adjourned the House and announced that the election to six members of the standing committee of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) will be held afresh on February 27 at 11 am.

The Delhi High Court is likely to pronounce on February 27 its judgement on a batch of petitions challenging the Centre's Agnipath scheme for recruitment in armed forces. A bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad had on December 15 last year reserved its verdict on the matter. According to the cause list of Monday (February 27) uploaded on the High Court's website, the judgement will be pronounced by the bench at 10.30 am. The Agnipath scheme, unveiled on June 14, 2022, lays out rules for the recruitment of youths in the armed forces. According to these rules, those between 17-and-a-half and 21 years of age are eligible to apply and they would be inducted for a four-year tenure. The scheme allows 25 per cent of them to be granted regular service subsequently. After the scheme was unveiled, protests erupted in several states against the scheme.

The people of Jharkhand are experiencing summer-like weather in February with the maximum temperature soaring 3-5 degrees Celsius above the normal, the weather office said on Friday, predicting that the mercury may rise further. The state Urban Development Department said it has put its officials on high alert to deal with a drinking water crisis. Chaibasa in West Singhbhum is reeling at 35.2 degrees Celsius, 5.7 notches above the normal, while Bokaro Thermal recorded 33.1 degrees Celsius, 5.3 notches above the normal.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday stressed on the need for multilateral coordination to deal with the rising debt vulnerabilities of many developing countries, and welcomed G20 nations' support in building a coordinated global policy on cryptocurrencies. Sitharaman also sought views on how multilateral development banks like the IMF and World Bank can be strengthened to address shared global challenges of the 21st century while maintaining a focus on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and poverty eradication. The minister was speaking at the first session of the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (FMCBG) meeting on international financial architecture, sustainable finance and infrastructure.

At least seven people were killed and 20 sustained injuries after an under-construction roof of a cold storage collapsed in Daurala here on Friday, police said. The incident occurred at around 3 pm and senior administrative and police officials along with a team of the National Disaster Response Force rushed to the spot -- 30 km from here -- to carry out rescue work, they said. Preliminary investigation suggested that the collapse was triggered by an explosion allegedly caused by a leakage of ammonia gas inside the cold storage that was used to store potatoes, officials said.

A 55-year-old woman sustained injuries in an IED explosion suspected to have been triggered by Maoists in Jharkhand's West Singhbhum district on Friday, police said. The incident took place when Jema Bahanda went inside Rankuburu forest in Tonto area to collect firewood, SP Ashutosh Shekhar said. The woman, who was seriously injured in the blast, was taken to Sadar Hospital in Chaibasa, he said, adding, her condition is stated to be stable.

As many as 12 cows have died of suspected acidosis, a metabolic disorder, at a `goshala' or cow shelter at the Kaneri Math in Maharashtra's Kolhapur district, an official said on Friday.
Three of the animals died on Thursday and nine on Friday, while 12 more cows are being treated and they are stable, said an official from the state Animal Husbandry Department. Kaneri Math is the highest seat of the Kadsiddheshwar religious tradition. Its goshala has more than 1,000 cows. The official said a team of veterinary doctors is treating the animals. Acidosis, the official said, is a kind of food poisoning and is caused by the consumption of cooked food such as dry rotis. It is characterised by too much acid in body fluids.g

Two men were killed and two injured when their cars collided in central Delhi's IP Estate area on Friday morning, police said. The police received information about the collision near IP Metro station around 1.12 am, they said. A Ford EcoSport approaching Sarai Kale Khan from ITO and a Honda Civic coming towards ITO from Sarai Kale Khan collided with each other at the Ring Road near IP Metro station, a senior officer said.

A 43-year-old man has been arrested with mephedrone or MD worth nearly Rs 10 lakh from suburban Goregaon in the city, an official said on Friday. The man faces at least 15 serious cases related to property, bodily harm and drug peddling, said the official. He said a team from the Crime Branch’s Unit-11 took the man into custody from near a temple in the Dindoshi area on Thursday evening. Police recovered 56 grams of mephedrone, a recreational drug, worth Rs 10.4 lakh and two mobile phones from him, said the official, adding that the man has been remanded in police custody till February 27.

Harish Khurana of BJP said that the Election officers on Friday declare the election and said that the votes declared invalid by Mayor are valid. He further said that AAP councilors do hooliganism at the civic centre as instructed by Kejriwal. 'Election officers declare the election & say that votes declared invalid by Mayor are valid & 3 candidates each of AAP & BJP have won. But AAP does hooliganism here as instructed by Kejriwal. We won't tolerate this goondaism & approach the Court,' said Harish Khurana of BJP. 

Ruckus breaks out at Delhi Civic Centre once again as AAP and BJP Councillors jostle, manhandle and rain blows on each other. This is the third day of commotions in the House.

A 70-year-old man allegedly died by suicide by jumping before a train in Rajasthan's Bundi district after attacking his wife during a fight, police said on Friday.
His body was found from railway track near Bhavpur village on Friday morning, they said. The man was identified as Ghasilal Gurjar, resident of Nayapura in Lakheri town.
Gurjar had stabbed his wife Lodhabai on Thursday evening after a fight with her and fled the spot presuming her dead, police said. The woman is undergoing treatment at a hospital and her condition is reported to be out of danger, police said.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann will call on former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray at his Mumbai residence on Friday.
"Thackeray has invited Arvind Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann for tea at his residence," a source in the AAP said. "The meeting will be held at Thackeray's residence at 7.30 pm today," the source said. Kejriwal, the AAP's National Convenor, and Mann have already reached Mumbai, the source added.

Bihar is bracing for some political sabre-rattling on Saturday when Union Home Minister Amit Shah will address BJP supporters at two places, and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his deputy Tejashwi Yadav will hold a joint rally of the 'Mahagathbandhan'. Shah, the BJP's veritable principal strategist, will begin his tour of the state with a public meeting in Balmiki Nagar Lok Sabha constituency, a party stronghold that was given away to the chief minister's JD(U) in 2019 as part of seat-sharing arrangements.

India was able to save more than 3.4 million lives by undertaking a nationwide COVID-19 vaccination campaign at an unprecedented scale, a report by Stanford University said.
The Covid vaccination campaign also yielded a positive economic impact by preventing a loss of USD 18.3 billion, the working paper by Stanford University and Institute for Competitiveness titled 'Healing the Economy: Estimating the Economic Impact on India's Vaccination and Related Issues' released by Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Friday said. Mandaviya said much before COVID-19 was declared a public health emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO) in January 2020, processes and structures to focus dedicatedly on various facets of the pandemic management were put in place.

A Delhi court on Friday fixed March 7 for hearing arguments on charges against Aaftab Amin Poonawala, accused of strangling his live-in partner Shraddha Walkar and chopping her body into multiple pieces. Additional Sessions Judge Manisha Khurana Kakkar fixed the date for the hearing on charges after Poonawala was produced physically before the court.
Earlier, Principal District and Sessions Judge Narottam Kaushal assigned the case to the court of ASJ Kakkar.

The BJP-ruled Gujarat government on Friday presented a Rs 3.01 lakh crore budget which imposed no new taxes. Finance Minister Kanubhai Desai presented the budget for 2023-24 in the Assembly here on the second day of the Budget Session. This was the first budget of the new Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government headed by Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel which took office in December last year after the saffron party won a landslide victory in the Assembly polls. Desai said the budget outlay of Rs 3,01,021.61 crore for 2023-24 indicates a "significant increase" of Rs 57,077 crore, or 23.38 per cent, in comparison to the previous fiscal.

Two Pakistani brothers held by the United States at Guantanamo Bay military prison for two decades were freed by US officials and returned home on Friday, officials said.
They will be reunited with their families after a formal questioning by Pakistani authorities, according to security officials and a Pakistani senator. Pakistan arrested Abdul and Mohammed Rabbani on suspicion of their links to al-Qaida in 2002 in Karachi, the country's largest southern port city. It was the same year Ramzi Binalshibh, a top al-Qaida leader, was arrested by Pakistan's spy agency on a tip from the CIA.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday claimed that the Congress used Northeast as an ATM, while the BJP considers the eight states of the region as 'Ashtalakshmi' (eight forms of Goddess Lakshmi) and is working for its peace and development. Addressing an election rally at Chumoukedima near Dimapur, he said the NDA is striving to bring permanent peace in Nagaland so that Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 is completely lifted from the state. "The country can't be run by distrusting your own people but by respecting and solving their problems. Earlier, Northeast had politics of divide, but we have now transformed it into divine governance. The BJP does not discriminate people on the basis of religion or region and religion," Modi said. Noting that there was political instability in Nagaland during the Congress rule, he claimed that the grand old party remote-controlled Northeast from Delhi, and siphoned off money meant for its development, while giving primacy to "dynasty politics, from Delhi to Dimapur".

Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi arrived in Chhattisgarh capital Raipur on Friday afternoon to attend the party's three-day 85th plenary session that began here in the morning. Tribal folk artistes wearing colourful dresses accorded a grand welcome to the Gandhis at the Swami Vivekananda Airport Raipur amid beating of drums. The artistes also presented a traditional dance to welcome the two leaders, when they arrived in a special aircraft shortly after 2.30 pm. Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, his Rajasthan counterpart Ashok Gehlot, Congress general secretary K C Venugopal, state Congress chief Mohan Markam and other senior leaders of the party were present at the airport to welcome them.

A Delhi court on Friday fixed March 7 for hearing arguments on charges against Aaftab Amin Poonawala, accused of strangling his live-in partner Shraddha Walkar and chopping her body into pieces. Additional Sessions Judge Manisha Khurana Kakkar fixed the date for hearing on charges after Poonawala was produced physically before the court. Earlier on February 21, a magisterial court had committed the case to sessions court where cases of heinous offences like murder are tried. On February 7, the court had taken cognizance of the 6,629-page chargesheet filed by the police on January 24.

Congress MPs Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi arrive in Raipur, Chhattisgarh for the Congress Plenary Session

Justice Ashish Jitendra Desai was appointed as the acting chief justice of the Gujarat High Court on Friday, a day before the incumbent chief justice demits office. Law Minister Kiren Rijiju said on Twitter that Justice Desai, the senior-most judge of the Gujarat High Court, has been appointed as its acting chief justice with effect from February 26. Gujarat High Court Chief Justice Sonia Gokani will demit office on February 25 upon attaining the age of 62 years. She was appointed to the post on February 12. At present, she is the only woman chief justice of a high court. India has 25 high courts. Another woman judge, Justice Sabina, is the acting chief justice of the Himachal Pradesh High Court. Acting chief justices are usually appointed in high courts in the event of the incumbent chief justice either retiring or being elevated to the Supreme Court. Acting chief justices hold charge until a regular chief justice is posted based on the recommendation of the Supreme Court Collegium.

Punjab School Education Board has postponed the 12th standard English (compulsory) exam which was scheduled to be held today

Punjab School Education Board has postponed the 12th standard English (compulsory) exam which was scheduled to be held today

ED gets three days extension of the remand of Sukesh Chandrashekhar in a money laundering case. ED alleged that it needs to know about payments to Deepak Ramdani & some jail officials. ED also gets 5 days police remand of co-accused Deepak Ramdani.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday flagged the threat of unsustainable debt facing some developing nations as he called upon the Group of 20 (G20) nations to focus on the world's most vulnerable citizens. Trust in international financial institutions has eroded partly because they have been slow to reform themselves, he said in a video message at the start of the two-day meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors.

Over two dozen shanties were gutted in a fire that broke out in a JJ cluster in Noida on Friday, officials said. There was no injury to any individual in the fire that broke out around 2.45 am near Ilahabas village in Sector 138, Chief Fire Officer Pradeep Kumar Choubey said. "Responding immediately to the alert call, 10 water tenders along with firefighters were rushed to the spot and the blaze was brought under control," Choubey said. "The fire gutted around 30 shanties but there was no harm to any person," he said. The officer said the cause of the fire as well as other damage to property was yet to be ascertained.

A fresh poll is being conducted on Friday to elect six members of the MCD's standing committee on the order of Delhi Mayor Shelly Oberoi. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) House reconvened around 11 am to make another bid to elect members of the municipal corporation's standing committee, a day after it was adjourned following pandemonium triggered by clashes between AAP and BJP councillors. The proceedings to hold polls for electing members of the committee -- the MCD's highest decision-making body -- begun around 6.15 pm on Wednesday, hours after the AAP's Shelly Oberoi was elected as Delhi's new mayor.

The Congress has criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Goa for welcoming the formation of 'PRAWAH' or Mhadei Water Authority, saying it proves the Pramod Sawant-led dispensation has accepted the Centre's decision to divert the river water to Karnataka. Goa Pradesh Congress Committee President Amit Patkar on Thursday said the Sawant government has accepted the Centre's decision even as the state's plea challenging the Mhadei Water Dispute Tribunal's award on the distribution of the river water is pending before the Supreme Court.

The ongoing high decibel political and legal battle between rival Shiv Sena groups is all set to resonate loudly in the Maharashtra legislature when it begins its Budget session on February 27. The Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, buoyed by an Election Commission (EC) ruling in its favour, and the Uddhav Thackeray faction are locked in a bitter feud to lay claim over the 56-year-old party and legacy of its founder Bal Thackeray. Going by the legislative majority, the EC last week allotted the Shiv Sena name and the 'bow and arrow' poll symbol to the Shinde group while recognising the split in the party, which was rocked by a rebellion in June last year.

A suburban Chicago woman was run over and her 2-year-old son was temporarily abducted by a thief who forcibly stole her SUV on Thursday, police said.
The woman had returned home Thursday afternoon to Libertyville with her two children and had taken one child inside when another vehicle drove up and a man hopped out and commandeered her SUV, battering the woman as she tried to get to her 2-year-old son, who was still in her vehicle, the Lake County Sheriff's Office said. As the two vehicles fled, one of the drivers ran her over, causing serious injuries to her extremities, the office said in a news release. She was hospitalized in serious condition.

China has called for a cease-fire between Ukraine and Russia and the opening of peace talks as part of a 12-point proposal to end the conflict. The plan issued on Friday morning by the Foreign Ministry also urges the end of Western sanctions imposed on Russia, measures to ensure nuclear facilities, the establishment of humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians and steps to ensure the export of grain, after disruptions caused global food prices to spike. China has claimed to be neutral in the conflict, but it has a “no limits” relationship with Russia and has refused to criticize its invasion of Ukraine over even refer to it as such, while accusing the West of provoking the conflict and “fanning the flames" by providing Ukraine with defensive arms. The peace proposal mainly elaborated on long-held Chinese positions, including referring to the need that all countries' “sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity be effectively guaranteed."

11 people were killed and several others injured after a pickup vehicle collided with a truck in the Baloda Bazaar-Bhatapara district last night: SDOP Bhatapara, Siddhartha Baghel

China has called for a cease-fire between Ukraine and Russia and the opening of peace talks as part of a 12-point proposal to end the conflict. The plan issued on Friday morning by the Foreign Ministry also urges the end of Western sanctions imposed on Russia, measures to ensure nuclear facilities, the establishment of humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians and steps to ensure the export of grain, after disruptions caused global food prices to spike. China has claimed to be neutral in the conflict, but it has a “no limits” relationship with Russia and has refused to criticize its invasion of Ukraine over even refer to it as such, while accusing the West of provoking the conflict and “fanning the flames" by providing Ukraine with defensive arms. The peace proposal mainly elaborated on long-held Chinese positions, including referring to the need that all countries' “sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity be effectively guaranteed."

The CBI on Thursday conducted a surprise inspection at the General Post Office located on the Mall Road in the heart of Shimla, officials said. The inspection was conducted to check accounts and documents, an official said, without divulging details.  The inspection started after 10 am and continued till late Thursday evening. CBI officials did not mention whether the inspections were related to some ongoing cases or a new case.Later, Thursday night, a communiqué issued from the Office of Chief Postmaster General, Shimla said the exercise was a Preventive Vigilance Check aimed at examining any procedural irregularities.   No irregularities have been found so far and anything noticed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will be suitably rectified. Such checks are useful to prevent lapses in the future, the statement added.

North Korea on Friday said it test-fired long-range cruise missiles in waters off its eastern coast a day earlier, adding to a provocative streak in weapons demonstrations as its rivals step up military training. The launches came as the United States and South Korea held a simulated military exercise in Washington, DC, aimed at sharpening their response to North Korean nuclear threats. North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency said that Thursday's launches were aimed at verifying the reliability of the missiles and the rapid-response capabilities of the unit that operates those weapons. The agency said the exercise involved four missiles, which flew for nearly three hours, drawing oval and figure-eight shaped patterns above the sea, and showed that they can hit targets 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles) away.

Authorities in Albuquerque discovered three people had died after an off-duty state parks law enforcement officer spotted a person lying in the street and police followed a trail of blood inside a home where two people had been shot, police said Thursday. The person found in the middle of the roadway appeared to have been stabbed and ultimately died, Albuquerque police spokesperson Gilbert Gallegos said. Inside, officers found two people with fatal gunshot wounds. Neighbours had reported hearing the sound of gunshots earlier that morning. No identities were released.

India slammed Pakistan after it referred to Jammu and Kashmir during a special session on Ukraine in the UN General Assembly, terming the provocation as “regrettable and misplaced” and calling out Islamabad’s track record of harbouring and providing safe havens to terrorists with impunity. “I'm taking the floor today to say that India chooses this time not to respond to Pakistan's mischievious provocations. Our advice to the delegate of Pakistan is to refer to our numerous Rights of Reply that we have exercised in the past,” Counsellor in India’s Permanent Mission to the UN Pratik Mathur said. Mathur exercised India’s Right of Reply on Thursday after Pakistan’s envoy at the UN Munir Akram referred to Jammu and Kashmir while delivering the explanation of vote on the UN General Assembly resolution on Ukraine during the Emergency Special Session.