Breaking News, April 26 | LIVE UPDATES

Vice President Kamala Harris tested positive for Covid-19 after returning from a trip to California, the White House announced on Tuesday, at a time when the US has largely lifted most of its restrictions against the deadly pandemic.

Four passengers were killed and 28 others injured on Tuesday evening when the bus they were travelling in overturned and fell into a roadside ditch here, police said.

Elated with the birth of a granddaughter, a farmer in Pune district hired nothing less than a helicopter to bring her home on Tuesday.

Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President Sukhbir Badal on Tuesday said Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has sold off the state's interests to Delhi "in the garb of a knowledge-sharing agreement" and now AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal has become the de-facto Chief Minister of Punjab too.

A major fire has broken out at a landfill site in the outer north area of the national capital, a Fire Department official said on Tuesday.

Former Punjab Congress President Navjot Singh Sidhu on Tuesday met election strategist Prashant Kishor after the latter declined the offer to join the Congress.

A Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) bus caught fire on Tuesday afternoon in Vikas Marg area here, officials said.

A 20-year-old man from Uttar Pradesh was apprehended by CISF personnel at the Shahdara metro station on Tuesday for carrying a country-made pistol in his luggage, officials said.

Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday again cautioned EV makers to recall all faulty two-wheelers, saying that some EV batteries may be facing issues owing to extreme hot weather conditions the country is currently going through.

European health officials said Tuesday that they have not found a link between cases of a mysterious liver disease outbreak in children. To date 190 cases of hepatitis of unknown origin have been reported, 140 of them in Europe.

An official from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday urged Sri Lanka to tighten its monetary policy, raise taxes and adopt flexible exchange rates to overcome its ongoing debt crisis.

Former Prime Minister and chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan has called on his supporters to be ready for a mass march and a protest sit-in in Pakistan's capital Islamabad after Eid, announcing yet another anti-government march to pressure the Shehbaz Sharif government to announce immediate and early general elections in the country.

Two men from Rajasthan were arrested on Tuesday for alleged possession of mephedrone worth over Rs 23 lakh in Gujarat's Ahmedabad city, an official said.

A court in Maharashtra's Thane district has sentenced a 64-year-old man and his son to imprisonment for life for murdering the latter’s wife.

A United Nations team has landed in China ahead of a long-delayed visit by the UN human rights chief to Xinjiang, where rights groups and some Western governments allege the Chinese government is committing genocide and serious abuses against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities. The UN human rights office said Tuesday its staffers arrived in southern China on Monday to prepare for the visit by High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, expected in May.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will interact with chief ministers on the emerging COVID-19 situation in the country on Wednesday through video conferencing, an official said. Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan will make a presentation at the conference.

Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani was remanded to five days in police custody by the Assam court in an assault case.

At least 4 people were killed after an armed man opened fire at a kindergarten in Russia’s Ulyanovsk region on Tuesday, the Interfax news agency reported.

A grenade attack that was followed by firing on a CRPF party occurred at Brazloo area of Kulgam district of Jammu & Kashmir on Tuesday afternoon.

A fire broke out in the Transport Bhawan on Parliament Street here on Tuesday, Delhi Fire Services officials said.

A 22-year-old man was allegedly stabbed to death by five people during a brawl here, police said on Tuesday.

Seven Indian sailors held captive by Houthi rebels in Yemen were brought back to Delhi as they were rescued by the Government of India with assistance from Oman Government. 

At least four people, including two foreign nationals, were killed and several others injured on Tuesday when a car exploded inside the premises of the University of Karachi in Pakistan's financial capital, media reports said.

Three persons were killed when their motorcycle collided with a truck in Rajasthan's Sawai Madhopur district on Tuesday, police said.

Even as Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has asked power officials to maintain routine power supply in the state, Uttar Pradesh is likely to face a bigger electricity crisis as the backup coal stocks for thermal power plants have started depleting this month.

The coal shortage may worsen during the monsoon when the supplies fall short annually due to rain and floods that disrupt mining and transportation.

In view of prevailing heatwave conditions in the state, the Odisha government on Tuesday announced temporary suspension of classroom teaching in all higher education institutions from Wednesday.

Classroom teaching of both undergraduate and post graduate courses in all higher education institutions coming under the jurisdiction of the Higher Education Department of Odisha will remain suspended from April 27 to May 2, Higher Education Department principal secretary, Saswat Mishra said in a letter.

However, other activities such as examination, evaluation, administrative work, research work, among others, will continue as usual, he said.

A BSc student has alleged that she was molested in the college washroom in Uttar Pradesh's Maharajganj district. A case of attempted rape has been registered.

In another setback, the Mumbai City Civil and Sessions Court on Tuesday posted the hearing of independent MP Navneet Kaur-Rana and her MLA husband Ravi Rana's bail plea for Friday.

The couple's lawyer Rizwan Merchant had moved the bail plea but the court directed the prosecution to file its reply on Friday and would hear it further that day.

Arrested by the Khar Police on April 23, the Ranas were remanded to 14 days judicial custody by a Bandra holiday Magistrate, where they also filed a bail plea.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday ordered the suspension of an official for dereliction of duty, days after removing him from the post of director of secondary education following a class 12 English question paper leak. Vinay Pandey was removed as director of secondary education on April 21 and was posted as the director of literacy alternative education, Urdu and oriental languages.

After a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Agartala-Kolkata international bus service via Dhaka would resume from Thursday, an official said. A 40-seater bus is set to begin its journey from the Tripura State Transport Corporation International Terminal at Krishnanagar here to Kolkata at 10 am, he said. 

"The sale of tickets commenced today. A passenger needs to have a valid passport and transit visa to board the Kolkata-bound bus," said TRTC MD Rajesh Kumar Das.

The service will be available for six days in a week, except on Fridays, and the fare has been fixed at Rs 2,300 per passenger, Das said.

Five people, including an NRI, were killed after their vehicle fell into a canal in Punjab’s Ludhiana district, police said on Tuesday. The incident took place when Jatinder Singh, who recently returned from Canada, along with his five friends, was returning after meeting his relative at Lehal village in the Khanna area on Monday night, they said. The vehicle lost control and fell into the Sirhind canal near Jagera village, they said. Station House Officer Maloud Gurdeep Singh said Jatinder Singh and four others were killed and one person survived the incident. 

A top British government official says Russia is making “unsound” military decisions because of President Vladimir Putin's desire to secure some kind of victory in Ukraine by May 9, when Russia marks its victory in World War II. UK Armed Forces Minister James Heappey said Tuesday that Russian forces were “giving away whatever advantage they may have won” by launching an offensive in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region before enough troops were assembled.

He told Sky News that Putin's “desire to stand there on the steps of the Kremlin on May 9 and be a hero, means that thousands of Russian lives are going to be lost and the Russians are going to hand over the numerical advantage that they should have.”

Russia's top diplomat warned Ukraine against provoking World War III and said the threat of a nuclear conflict “should not be underestimated” as his country unleashed attacks against rail and fuel installations far from the front lines of Moscow's new eastern offensive. Meanwhile, the British Defense Ministry said on Tuesday that Russian forces had taken the Ukrainian city of Kreminna in the Lukansk region after days of street-to-street fighting. 

“The city of Kreminna has reportedly fallen and heavy fighting is reported south of Izium as Russian forces attempt to advance towards the cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk from the north and east,” the British military said in a tweet. It did not say how it knew the city, 575 kilometers (355 miles) southeast of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, had fallen.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday hailed the contributions of Sree Narayana Guru, a saint-cum-social reformer from Kerala, in the fight against caste discrimination which prevailed in Indian society and said he had laid equal emphasis on modernity and traditional values. If people follow Sree Narayana Guru's teachings and message of 'one caste, one religion and one God', then no force in the world would be able to divide the country, Modi observed.

The Prime Minister said as Indians we have only one caste -- Indianness -- one religion -- dharma or service and duty -- and one God -- mother India.

With COVID-19 cases registering a spike in NCR, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday stressed for taking preventive measures and significantly increasing testing to combat the threat in the state. Minimum 1.5 lakh tests should be performed every day and all necessary arrangements should be made for the treatment of infected persons, he said.

He said infected persons who are being isolated in their homes should be given complete information about the Covid protocol they have to follow, an official spokesman said. The chief minister gave these directions while chairing a meeting with senior officials, he said. Within the past 24 hours, 126 and 30 new cases were found in Gautam Budh Nagar and Ghaziabad districts, respectively, according to the state health department figures.

Elephant Safari and rafting in Assam’s Manas National Park will be closed from May one until further notice, an official release said.
Some roads within the National Park will also be closed for tourists from the same day, it added. "The Field Director of Manas Tiger Reserve has ordered the closure of the Upper Bungalow, Lower Bungalow and Dormitory at Mothanguri along with elephant safari and rafting at the Manas National Park from May 1, 2022 till further notice," the release said.

The order has been issued in compliance with a 2015 letter from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India, National Tiger Conservation Authority, it said.

The Met department has warned of severe heat wave from Tuesday to Friday in Eastern and Western belts of Rajasthan. While cities like Bharatpur, Jhunjhunu, Karauli among others will be affected the most in Eastern Rajasthan, those including Barmer, Jodhpur, Churu and Jaisalmer shall be affected by heat wave in western Rajasthan. Meanwhile, the temperature in the last 24 hours remained above normal in the different parts of the state with almost all districts touching and crossing the 40 degree-mark in all divisions.

Uber agreed to pay a 26 million Australian dollar ($19 million) fine for misleading riders by falsely warning they could be charged a cancellation fee and for inflating estimates of comparable taxi rides, the ride share company and Australia's consumer watchdog said Tuesday. Uber BV, a Netherlands subsidiary of the San Francisco-based Uber Technologies Inc., admitted breaching Australian Consumer Law by making false or misleading statements in its app, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said in a statement.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Tuesday visited Kedarnath to review the reconstruction projects and preparations underway at the Himalayan temple in view of the Char Dham yatra beginning early next month. He did an on-the-spot inspection of Saraswati Aastha Path, which has been completed, and issued instructions for the early completion of Mandakini Aastha Path. He also took information about the buildings being constructed near the temple in the traditional hill style, an official statement said. Dhami met the construction workers at the temple and asked officials to resolve the problems being faced by them in carrying out their duties. He also thanked them for their valuable work and braving the vagaries of weather, it said.

Sri Lankan protesters, who have been camping at the main beachfront outside Sri Lankan President's Secretariat here, have now extended their protest to Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa’s office, as they intensified their demand for the government led by the Rajapaksa family to step down.

Thousands of demonstrators have hit the streets since April 9, as the government ran out of money for vital imports; prices of essential commodities have skyrocketed and there are acute shortages in fuel, medicines and electricity supply.

DCGI grants emergency use authorisation to Corbevax for those aged 5-12, Covaxin for 6-12 age group: Source

A major fire broke out at a paper-manufacturing factory in Uttar Pradesh's Greater Noida on Tuesday, officials said. Over a dozen fire tenders were rushed to the factory located in the Badalpur area and the blaze was confined to one portion of the building, they said.

DCGI grants emergency use authorisation to ZycovD (Zydus Cadila vaccine) for children above the age of 12 years for a two-dose regimen: Sources

Four people died and nine more were wounded on Monday in the Russian shelling of the Donetsk region, the region's governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said Tuesday. Two of the victims were children: a 9-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy, Kyrylenko said in the messaging app Telegram. Governor of the Luhansk region, Serhiy Haidai, said the Russians have shelled civilians 17 times over the past 24 hours, with the cities of Popasna, Lysychansk and Girske suffering the most.

Two men died after a wall fell on them near a wine shop on Rampura main road in northwest Delhi's Keshavpuram area, police said on Tuesday. Sumit Verma, (42), a resident of Anand Parwat, and Bhoj Prakash (48), of Sultanpuri, were standing near the wine shop on Monday when the wall of a godown fell on them, they said. Police rushed to the spot after receiving a PCR call about the wall collapse. Fire tenders and a crane were also called to the spot, officials said.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northwest) Usha Rangnani said, "The two persons were rescued from under the debris and rushed to Deep Chand Bandhu Hospital where the doctors declared them brought dead." 

More Sri Lankans will slip into poverty this year, the World Bank has warned, as it urged the debt-ridden island nation to undertake urgent policy measures to address the high levels of debt, trim the fiscal deficit, and mitigate the adverse impacts on the poor and vulnerable. Sri Lanka is currently in the throes of an unprecedented economic turmoil since its independence from Britain in 1948.

The crisis is caused in part by a lack of foreign currency, which has meant that the country cannot afford to pay for imports of staple foods and fuel, leading to acute shortages and very high prices.

“Around 11.7 per cent of people in Sri Lanka earn less than USD 3.20 per day, the international poverty line for lower-middle income countries, up from 9.2 per cent in 2019,” the Bank said in its Spring Update on the South Asian region.

Two women were killed when a mine collapsed while they were digging out its soil in Madhya Pradesh's Shivpuri district, police said on Tuesday. The incident took place on Monday evening near a canal of the Sular river, Bamor Kala police station in-charge Punit Bajpai said.
The two victims along with some others had gone there to dig up the soil. While digging, they went deep into the cave-shaped mine which later collapsed on them, he said. Some girls accompanying them raised an alarm following which villagers pulled out the two women from the debris, the official said.

Enforcement Directorate conducts raids at 24 locations in Mumbai, Pune & Surat in ABG Shipyard bank loan fraud money laundering case. Raids are covering offices & residency of promoter Rishi Kamlesh Agarwal: ED Official

IIT Madras COVID cluster | 31 more positive cases reported today. Total positive cases 111 now: Tamil Nadu health department

Delhi on Tuesday recorded a minimum temperature of 24.9 degrees Celsius, one notch above the normal, according to the India Meteorological Department. The maximum temperature is expected to hover around 42 degrees Celsius. According to the weather department, the relative humidity in the city at 8.30 am was 37 per cent. The weatherman has predicted a mainly clear sky during the day.

Police arrested four persons after ganja worth around Rs 20 lakh was seized from a Bihar-bound train in Assam's Hojai district, an officer said. Acting on a tip-off, police seized 65 kg of the contraband in Hojai's Dholpur railway station from the train's water tank on Monday and another 112 kg from the water tank of the Rani Kamlapati train at Chaparmukh Railway station in Nagaon district.

The rupee appreciated 19 paise to 76.45 against the US dollar in opening trade on Tuesday, tracking positive trends among Asian and emerging market currencies. At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 76.48 against the American dollar, then gained further ground to quote at 76.45, registering a rise of 19 paise from the last close. On Monday, the rupee declined by 22 paise to close at 76.64 against the US dollar.

Benchmark indices rebounded sharply on Tuesday after falling for the past two days, with the Sensex jumping 657.67 points in early trade, amid recovery in global markets and buying in index majors Reliance Industries and Infosys. The 30-share BSE benchmark was trading 657.67 points higher at 57,237.56 in early trade. The NSE Nifty jumped 204.35 points to 17,158.30.

With 2,483 new coronavirus infections being reported in a day, India's total tally of COVID-19 cases rose to 4,30,62,569, while the active cases dipped to 15,636, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Tuesday. The death toll climbed to 5,23,622 with 1,399 new fatalities as Assam reconciled 1,347 deaths and Kerala 47 due to the infection, the data updated at 8 am stated.

Triple murder case in Gorakhpur police station Khorabar. The incident took place because of a love affair. The accused has been immediately arrested and further legal action is being taken. Police are present on the spot: UP Police

UP: A man was killed last night in Garden Galleria Mall, Noida. Some people got into a fight with bar staff during which one person was severely injured. He was taken to hospital, where doctors declared him dead. FIR registered; bar staff taken into custody: Ranvijay Singh, ADCP

Two terrorists associated with the JeM terror organisation were apprehended along with two pistols ammunition and two chinese grenades in the Pattan area of Baramulla: Police

Devendra Fadnavis is misleading people. No one is punished for chanting Hanuman Chalisa. If anyone wants to chant it, they can do it in their homes or temples. Trying to get inside someone else's home & destroy peace to chant Hanuman Chalisa is wrong: Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut

In view of recent fatal incidents, a ban on carrying guns in marriages, parties, etcetera, has been imposed under section 144 in Morena. All Police Stations have been informed to register a case & revoke licenses in case of further such incidents: Ashutosh Bagri, SP Morena

Former President Donald Trump said Monday that he has no intention of rejoining Twitter even if his account is reinstated following Elon Musk's agreement to buy the social media giant for roughly $44 billion. Trump told Fox News that he will instead focus on his own platform, Truth Social, which has been mired in problems since its launch earlier this year.

"I am not going on Twitter. I am going to stay on Truth," Trump was quoted telling the network.

"I hope Elon buys Twitter because he'll make improvements to it and he is a good man, but I am going to be staying on Truth."

A group of eminent pro-democracy intellectuals, politicians, journalists and activists have urged the new government in Pakistan to play a constructive role in defusing ethnic and religious conflicts, and strive for better ties with India and other neighbouring countries. At a virtual conference organised by the South Asians Against Terrorism and for Human Rights (SAATH), they said the new government formed after Imran Khan’s exit as the PM should immediately engage with Baloch nationalists to find an "amicable" solution to violence in restive Balochistan province.

Participants of the conference said relations with neighbouring countries, particularly India and Afghanistan, should be improved, a media release said.

North Korea says leader Kim Jong Un has vowed to bolster his country's nuclear capability “at the maximum speed.” The North's official Korean Central News Agency said Tuesday that Kim made the remarks during a military parade the previous night. KCNA cites Kim as saying North Korea will “continue to take steps to further bolster and develop its nuclear forces at the maximum speed.”

Kim's speech came as North Korea remains locked in a long-running diplomatic standoff with the United States over the North's nuclear programme.

A major fire broke out in a timber godown in Maharashtra's Thane district on Tuesday, but there was no report of any casualty, a civic official said. The blaze erupted around 2.30 am in the godown located near a school in Rahnal village of Bhiwandi town here, Thane Municipal Corporation's regional disaster management cell chief Avinash Sawant said. Three fire engines were rushed to the spot and the blaze was doused after four hours, he said.

A team of 12 senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders met on Monday to plan a big outreach programme to mark the eighth year of the Modi government, said sources. The meeting included Union Minister Anurag Thakur, BJP general secretaries Arun Singh, C T Ravi and D Purandareswari, among others. On the completion of 8 years of the Modi government, grand programmes will be organized all over the country and a plan of action will be prepared by May 5.

The committee members also included Union Minister Rajeev Chandrashekhar, MPs Vinay Rajdeep Roy, Raju Bista, Vinay Sahasrabuddhe and Aparajita Sarangi besides other organisation leaders like Shiv Prakash and Lal Singh Arya.

Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan has sought a report from Kerala and Kannur universities over recent goof-ups in examinations. The answer key was distributed instead of question paper to students appearing for BSc electronics examination on "Signals and Systems" at Kerala University. The exam was held in February and not a single student raised the issue during the examination. The goof-up was noticed when the answer sheets were sent for valuation.

A woman was allegedly gang-raped and murdered at a village in Dausa district. The body of the woman was found in a well. She was walking towards her parents' house when the accused offered her a lift in their vehicle.

A team of National Security Guard (NSG) reached the Mohammadpur area of South West Delhi in the wee hours of Tuesday where an old and rusted grenade was recovered.

Delhi Police received a call regarding an unidentified bag in the Mohammadpur area on Monday evening. Following this, Police and Bomb Disposal Squad reached the spot and recovered an old and rusted grenade.

India created history and marked its name in the Guinness Book of World records by waving the maximum number of the National Flag simultaneously on April 23. Union Home Minister Amit Shah was present during the historical event. On April 23, India entered the Guinness Book of World Records by waving 78,220 flags simultaneously at 'Veer Kunwar Singh Vijayotsav' programme at Bhojpur, Bihar, said the Ministry of Culture. The attempt was witnessed by representatives of the Guinness Book of World Records and attendees were asked to wear bands for the physical identification.

"The most people waving flags was achieved by Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Culture, Government of India (India), to celebrate Azaadi ka Amrit Mahotsav' at Jagdishpur, Bhojpur, Bihar, India on April 23, 2022," reads Guinness World Records certificate.

Congress high command will announce the Haryana state chief in a week, informed sources on Monday. However, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda is leading the race for state Congress chief. Haryana Congress incharge Vivek Bansal on Monday held a meeting with party president Sonia Gandhi at 10 Janpath which lasted for almost an hour. It's crucial for the Congress High Command to resolve the ongoing tussle in the state of Haryana.

Focusing on the upcoming Haryana assembly elections, the change of guard is on the cards as the party is in the process of making organisational changes to build a strong base.