Breaking News, January 5 | HIGHLIGHTS

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday to change his government's policies after listening carefully to people, who are now voicing their concerns after joining the "Bharat Jodo Yatra". He also shared the experience of one Bijendra, who claimed that he was a successful businessman once but lost everything during the COVID-19 pandemic and blamed the Modi government's policies for his plight.

A man was taken in custody after he allegedly admitted to killing his wife and cutting the body in two pieces before drowning sacks holding these in a canal in the north Bengal town of Siliguri to avoid detection, a police officer said here on Thursday. The man made the admission during interrogation, 10 days after his wife went missing, the officer said.

Two police officers who were shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Khanewal district of Punjab province on Tuesday turned out to be the officials of Pakistan's spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). On the day of the attack, the police claimed that the two deceased officers belonged to the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of the provincial police. The FIR filed for the case, however, revealed that both were ISI officers working to bust a terror network in south Punjab.

Union New and Renewable Energy Minister R K Singh on Thursday said his ministry will come out with detailed guidelines and standards for making India a global hub for hydrogen manufacturing. The comment comes a day after the Union Cabinet approved the National Green Hydrogen Mission with an outlay of Rs 19,744 crore. "We will come out with a detailed order after clearance by the Cabinet," Singh said during a media interaction. The Mission is expected to attract Rs 8 lakh crore of investment to produce 5 million tonnes of green hydrogen per annum in the next five years.

Mumbai police recovered a dead body of an 18-year-old man in the washroom of a school in Mankhurd area in Mumbai. Efforts are underway to identify the deceased man. A case has been registered: Mumbai Police

Air India passenger urinating case | DGCA issues show cause notices to Accountable Manager, Director of in-flight Services, Air India & pilots & cabin crew members of that flight

The government on Thursday issued guidelines to enable new undergraduate and postgraduate technical textiles degree programmes and update existing conventional degree programmes with new papers on Technical Textiles for private and public institutes. A grant of Rs 20,000 per student per month will be also provided to empanelled firms for providing internships to B.Tech students of relevant departments/ specialisations in public/private Institutes under the 'General Guidelines for Grant for Internship Support in Technical Textiles (GIST)'.

The Calcutta High Court on Thursday upheld the dismissal from service of 59 primary teachers in West Bengal government-sponsored and aided schools for having obtained appointment through illegal means, taking the total of such persons who lost their jobs to 252. Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay had ordered the removal from service of a total of 269 primary teachers in an earlier order and these 59 people were among them. On a prayer by some of the persons who lost their jobs, the Supreme Court had directed that these 269 persons be given an opportunity to be heard by the high court.

Hong Kong will start to reopen its border with mainland China on Sunday and allow tens of thousands of people to cross from each side every day without quarantine, the city's leader said. The city's land and sea border checkpoints with the mainland have been largely closed for almost three years under China's “zero-COVID” strategy, which has restricted entry to the country, isolated infected people and locked down areas with outbreaks. The reopening is expected to provide a much-needed boost to Hong Kong's economy.

Ahead of the panchayat elections due this year, the West Bengal government has allotted Rs 371 crore for introducing chicken and seasonal fruits in mid-day meals from January to April. In addition to the existing midday meal menu of rice, potato, soybean and eggs, chicken and seasonal fruits will be served weekly once for four months for additional nutrition under PM POSHAN, according to a notification. The provision of additional items, however, is unlikely to continue after April, a school department official said.

Two restaurant workers died here and another two were hospitalized with injuries after their motorcycle was allegedly hit by a truck amid reduced visibility due to fog early on Thursday, police said. All the four workers, aged below 25 years, were on the same motorcycle when the crash took place near the Advant building under the Expressway police station limits around 1 am, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Noida) Ashutosh Dwivedi said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will flag off 'Ganga Vilas Cruise' on January 13 and preparations for the programme have started, district authorities said on Thursday. "Prime Minister Narendra Modi will flag off the world's longest cruise tour from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh to Assam to Dibrugarh via Bangladesh on January 13," the Information and Public Relations Department of Uttar Pradesh said in a tweet in Hindi. Though the administration is yet to receive any formal programme of Modi from the Prime Minister's Office, the district administration has already started the preparations.

Senior Congress leader and five-time MLA Kuldeep Singh Pathania was on Thursday unanimously elected as Speaker of the Himachal Pradesh Assembly. The election of Pathania, the member from Bhatiyyat in Chamba district, was a foregone conclusion as he was the only candidate in the fray. Protem Speaker Chander Kumar put the motion before the House and Pathania was elected unanimously. Following his election, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and Leader of Opposition Jai Ram Thakur congratulated Pathania and escorted him to the Speaker's chair.

January 5 (PTI) Delhi reported 4,469 dengue cases in 2022, 53 per cent less than the preceding year, according to data shared by the city's civic body on Monday. Till December 31 last year, dengue claimed nine lives. In 2021, Delhi recorded 9,613 cases, the highest since 2015. It also reported 23 deaths -- the highest since 2016. Cases of vector-borne diseases such as dengue and malaria are usually reported between July and November, sometimes stretching till mid-December.
In 2022, the city recorded 23 dengue cases in January, 16 in February, 22 in March, 20 in April, 30 in May, 32 in June, 26 in July, and 75 in August, according to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) report issued on Monday.

The government will soon release guidelines to support startups interested in undertaking research and innovation in the technical textiles segment and is contemplating a grant of up to Rs 50 lakh for approved proposals, a top official said on Thursday. Responding to a query by PTI, Secretary in the Textiles Ministry Rachna Shah said that she is hopeful that the norms will be unveiled in a month's time. "We would have an evaluation committee which would decide on approving a grant for that, so the grant would be up to Rs 50 lakh, that is what we are looking at," Shah said.

Man urinating on co-passenger: Aggrieved female passenger refunded full fare of the flight, Air India tells DGCA

The BJP government has failed to control the situation in Jammu and Kashmir and is now arming locals to further its agenda of creating a wedge between communities, People's Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti said on Thursday. "Arming people with weapons will only serve the BJP's agenda of creating an atmosphere of fear, suspicion and hatred. It will pit one community against the other," Mehbooba said. Mehbooba was speaking to reporters in Anantnag district after paying obeisance at the grave of her father, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and People's Democratic Party (PDP) founder Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.

In a fresh attack on Gen (retd.) Qamar Javed Bajwa, Pakistan’s ousted prime minister Imran Khan has alleged that the former army chief wanted to have him murdered and impose a state of emergency in the country. Khan, the chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, made the startling allegation during an interview with private Bol News channel in Lahore.
Khan, 70, had been at loggerheads with Bajwa ever since his ouster from power in April by a no-confidence motion.

A local court has convicted 10 accused, including a former minister in the Uttar Pradesh government, in a 2017 case of assault with the intent to kill a BJP candidate. The court has also declared nine accused, including former minister Bhagwat Saran Gangwar, absconding. The other accused who was also convicted is out on bail. Ten people, including Bhagwat Saran Gangwar, were booked for assault with the intention to kill BJP candidate Kesar Singh Gangwar and his associates in February 2017. Kesar Singh Gangwar was contesting from the district's Nawabganj assembly constituency, Special Public Prosecutor Auchitya Dwivedi said on Thursday.

Rajasthan continued to reel under intense cold conditions with Churu and Sikar recording sub-zero minimum temperatures.
The minimum temperature was recorded at minus 1.8 degrees Celsius in Fatehpur (Sikar) and minus 1.5 degrees in Churu on Wednesday night, according to the Met office. The minimum temperature remained below four degrees Celsius in most parts of the state.

During the hearing for the Haldwani case, the Supreme Court ordered a stay on the directions passed by the High Court. Supreme Court said, 'In the meantime, there shall be a stay on the directions passed by the High Court.'  The next hearing of the Haldwani case will take place on February 17. 'We have not stayed the proceedings and only the directions of the HC have stayed. The next hearing is on 7th Feb' says Supreme Court. 

The Delhi Police on Thursday said it is searching for two people who are suspected of "trying to shield" the accused in the Kanjhawala case in which a woman was dragged for 12 kilometers by a car that hit her scooter. Eighteen teams are working on the investigation of the case and all angles are being probed, it said. Special Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Sagar Preet Hooda told a press conference that based on CCTV camera footage and call detail records, the involvement of two more persons has emerged, and police are trying to track them.

Three college students in UP's Greater Noida were hit by a speeding car on New Year's eve, with one of them continuing to fight for life in a hospital, police officials said on Thursday. Sweety Kumari (22), a BTech final year student from Bihar, suffered severe injuries to her head during the accident around 9 pm on New Year's eve and was put on ventilator support at a private hospital nearby, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Greater Noida) Dinesh Kumar Singh said.

Her two friends -- Karsoni dong from Arunachal Pradesh and Anganba from Manipur – had received minor injuries in the episode and were discharged from the hospital after first aid, Singh said. "The three students were walking from the Alpha 2 bus stand towards the Delta 2 sector when they were hit by the unidentified vehicle. They were rushed to the hospital by some locals. The parents of the student who is hospitalised have reached here and the police team has also met with them," Singh said. Senior police officers have met with the injured students and interacted with the hospital officials, he said, adding an FIR has been lodged at the Beta 2 police station over the case and an investigation is underway.

Nearly 30 families in the Himalayan town of Joshimath have been evacuated to safer locations with several houses in the area prone to high seismic activity developing cracks, according to officials. Located at a height of 6,000 feet in Uttarakhand's Chamoli district, the town, on the route to Badrinath and Hemkund Sahib, falls in high-risk seismic 'Zone-V'.

Three new cases of coronavirus have been detected in Maharashtra's Thane district, taking its tally of infections to 7,47,403, a health official said on Thursday. With the addition of the latest cases on Wednesday, there are currently nine active COVID-19 cases in the district, which comes under the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, he said. The death toll remained unchanged at 11,969 and the recovery count stood at 7,36,190, he added.

A brutal cold wave swept Delhi on Thursday with the minimum temperature dropping to three degrees Celsius -- the lowest in January in two years -- making it cooler than several hill stations. Most people kept indoors and turned to space heaters and cups of hot tea to keep themselves warm as frosty winds from the snow-clad Himalayas barrelled through the plains, including the national capital. A blinding layer of dense fog over north India, including Delhi, caused major inconvenience to commuters. The visibility levels were 50 metres around 5:30 am.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will launch his 'Samadhan Yatra' from West Champaran district on Thursday, officials said. He will review ongoing government projects during the yatra from January 5-29 and also interact with people. "The CM along with his cabinet colleagues Vijay Kumar Choudhary and Sanjay Kumar Jha reached Valmiki Nagar (West Champaran) on Wednesday," a statement issued by the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) said. The cabinet secretariat department also released the itinerary of Kumar's programme, under which 18 districts will be covered. The review meeting of Sheohar and Sitamarhi districts will be held at Sitamarhi on January 6, following which Kumar will return to Patna, according to the schedule. Besides, meetings will be held in Vaishali, Siwan and Saran (Chhapra) on January 7, 8 and 9, respectively. Kumar will resume the yatra in Madhubani on January 11 and hold a meeting at Darbhanga the next day. Subsequently, a similar exercise will be held in Supaul on January 17, in Saharsa on January 18 and in Araria on January 19.

At least six pilgrims including three women were killed and a few others injured when the vehicle in which they were travelling crashed into a tree in the early hours of Thursday at Chinchanur in this district, police said. While five died on the spot, the sixth person succumbed to the injuries on the way to hospital, police said. They also said the injured were rushed to hospital. According to police, the group of people from Hulkund village in Ramdurg Taluk in the district were going to Renuka Yallamma temple at Savadatti when the accident took place. The driver lost control over the vehicle and it crashed against a roadside tree, they said. Karnataka Irrigation Minister Govind Karjol announced a compensation of Rs five lakh to the kin of each of the deceased.

A brutal cold wave swept Delhi on Thursday with the minimum temperature dropping to the season's lowest of three degrees Celsius.  Most people kept indoors and turned to space heaters and cups of hot tea to keep themselves warm as frosty winds from the snow-clad Himalayas barrelled through the plains, including the national capital. A blinding layer of dense fog over north India, including Delhi, caused major inconvenience to commuters. The visibility levels were 50 metres around 5:30 am.  The Safdarjung observatory, Delhi's primary weather station, logged a minimum temperature of three degrees Celsius as against 4.4 degrees Celsius on Wednesday and 8.5 degrees Celsius on Tuesday.The weather stations at Lodhi Road, Ayanagar and Ridge recorded minimum temperatures of 2.8 degrees Celsius, 2.2 degrees Celsius and 2.8 degrees Celsius, respectively.
The cold snap is expected to strain power grids and pose challenges to the homeless.The meteorological office had on Wednesday issued an orange alert for Delhi-NCR for Thursday and Friday.

The Goa government has announced the introduction of Blue Cab service at the Manohar International Airport in the state from Thursday. An IndiGo flight from Hyderabad will be the first flight to land at the newly-built airport located at Mopa on Thursday. Ahead of the first arrival, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant held a meeting with Tourism Minister Rohan Khaunte and Transport Minister Mauvin Godinho in Panaji on Wednesday to oversee the preparations. Talking to reporters later, Godinho said the state government has decided to introduce Blue Cabs outside the airport. “These cabs would be exclusively owned by locals of Pernem taluka where the airport is located,” he said. In addition to Blue Cabs, the airport will also have taxis affiliated to Goa Miles App and also those registered under the state-run Goa Taxi App, he said. Godinho said local taxi operators had demanded Yellow and Black Taxi permits at the airport, which was not possible, so the state government decided to introduce Blue Cabs for them.

The Congress' Bharat Jodo Yatra resumed its journey around 6 am on Thursday after halting for the night at Ailum village here, with scores of people carrying the Tricolour marching through the hinterland, despite bitting cold. Former party chief Rahul Gandhi reached the village from Delhi ahead of the resumption of the march, Congress Uttar Pradesh unit spokesperson Anshu Awasthi said. The march is expected to enter into Panipat in Haryana by Thursday evening, ending its journey in the politically crucial state that sends 80 members to Lok Sabha. Gandhi, who was again seen wearing a white T-shirt that he has sported for much of the journey, was accompanied by senior Congress leaders such as former Union minister Jairam Ramesh and the party's state chief Brijlal Khabri Scores of people carrying the Tricolour joined the yatra as it made its way through Shamli district.  The Bharat Jodo Yatra, which started from Kanyakumari on September 7, will end with the hoisting of the national flag by Rahul Gandhi in Srinagar on January 30.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi greeted former BJP president Murli Manohar Joshi on his 89th birthday. He tweeted, "Birthday wishes to Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi ji. A fine scholar and distinguished statesman, his passion towards service, education and preserving Indian culture is exemplary. His role in strengthening BJP is monumental. Praying for his long and healthy life." Besides former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, in whose government he served as a Union minister, and former deputy prime minister L K Advani, Joshi was a prominent face of the party for decades.

The United States is concerned about China's handling of COVID-19, US President Joe Biden said Wednesday and noted that Beijing is not that forthcoming. "Well, yes, I am,” Biden told reporters when asked if he was concerned about the COVID-19 situation in China. The US along with India and several countries have imposed restrictions on travellers from China. "I think we just got to make the protocol we set out: that if you're flying from China, you got to be tested, and so on,” he said. “China has not been...I know they're very sensitive...when we suggest they haven't been that forthcoming," Biden said in response to a question. State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters that when Covid is spreading anywhere, but especially in a country as populous and as large as China, of course there is the potential for variants to emerge.

A 50-year-old homeless man, who used to earn a living by working as a painter, died allegedly due to extreme cold in Indore which has been reeling under a severe cold wave, a police official said on Wednesday. Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) of the Tukoganj police station, Rakesh Singh Parihar, said the body of the victim, identified only as Ramakant, was found outside the house of a local resident in Dubey's Garden area. Ramakant used to earn a living by working as a painter, the ASI said. The victim, who had been living alone in the area for the last four years, had no home and often slept on the roadside. As usual, the 50-year-old man slept under the open sky on Tuesday night, the ASI said. On Wednesday morning, local residents noticed there was no movement of his body which had turned stiff, he said.

The daughter of former US intelligence director John Negroponte has been found guilty of fatally stabbing a 24-year-old man after a drunken argument inside a Maryland home. A Montgomery County jury on Tuesday convicted Sophia Negroponte, 29, of second-degree murder in the February 2020 death of Yousuf Rasmussen, news outlets reported. She faces up to 40 years in prison at sentencing on March 31. Sophia Negroponte was one of five abandoned or orphaned Honduran children that John Negroponte and his wife adopted after Negroponte was appointed as US ambassador to the Central American country in the 1980s, according to The Washington Post. Sophia Negroponte and Rasmussen attended the same Washington high school and had been drinking, along with another person, on the night Rasmussen was killed, Montgomery County State's Attorney John McCarthy said.

Security forces launched a search operation after three motorcycle-borne persons jumped a police checkpoint and escaped to a forest area in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district late Wednesday night, officials said. "A motorcycle with three riders broke a police naka at Thalka near Nowshera. However, policemen, with the help of locals, chased the two-wheeler and intercepted it at some distance," a senior police officer said. However, the three persons, who were riding on the motorcycle, left the vehicle in the middle of road and escaped, he said. Searches have been launched to trace them, the officer said, clarifying that some reports on social media that the three persons were carrying weapons were not true. People are advised not to spread rumour, he said. Security forces are on high alert in Rajouri after six people were killed in two terrorist attacks in Dhangri village of the district.

At least 10 vehicles, including PCR vans and night patrolling units, were deployed to trace the offending vehicle which hit a 20-year-old woman and dragged her for 12 kilometers from Sultanpuri to Kanjhawala, sources said on Wednesday. Among these 10 vehicles, three PCR vans from Kanjhawala, Hoshambi border and Aman Vihar area were trying to chase down the offending Baleno car, but could not do so due to dense fog and the car had taken narrow lanes instead of the main road to dodge police, they said.

A 26-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly misbehaving and manhandling duty officers during New Year celebration in northwest Delhi's Jahangirpuri area. According to police, a video showing some policemen allegedly misbehaving with a man and a woman made rounds of social media. The police, however, said that the couple had first misbehaved with the policemen. The video also showed a policeman slapping a woman. Police said a vigilance inquiry has been initiated in connection with the matter."The initial facts were verified and it was found that on New Year's eve, the staff of Jahangirpuri police station was patrolling the area. Around 12.30 am, they noticed that some people were creating nuisance in H-block, Jahangirpuri," Deputy Commissioner of Police (northwest) Usha Rangnani said. Some of them were under the influence of alcohol and on being directed to vacate the area, they became agitated and started abusing the police staff, the DCP said.

The United States is making every effort to reduce the waiting time for visa interview appointment in India as soon as possible, a State Department spokesperson said Wednesday. "Visa processing is recovering faster than projected and over the coming year, we expect to reach pre-pandemic processing levels," State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters at his daily news conference. The US issued more student visas in fiscal year 2022 than in any year since 2016, he said, adding that its embassy and consulates in India in particular broke their all-time record for the number of student visas issued in a single fiscal year.