Breaking News May 21

Three persons, including a woman and her daughter, were charred to death in a fire at a house in West Bengal's South 24 Parganas district on Sunday night, officials said. The fire broke out at the house in Nandarampur Daspara in Budge Budge police station area around 8-8.30 pm, they said. Among the deceased were a woman and her minor daughter, who the official said got stuck under the tin roof of the house that gave in during the fire, they added. A fire services official said that there were only household articles in the house, even as some locals alleged that an illegal firecracker unit was operating out of it.

Seven deputy commissioners were among 39 IAS officers transferred on Sunday in a major bureaucratic reshuffle in Punjab, according to an official order. IAS officer Vineet Kumar has been posted as deputy commissioner of Faridkot, replacing Ruhee Dugg, who has been transferred to Muktsar, the order stated. Baldeep Kaur will take over from Rishi Pal Singh as deputy commissioner of Tarn Taran. Singh will take charge as deputy commissioner in Mansa. Vishesh Sarangal has been posted as deputy commissioner in Jalandhar while Amit Talwar will take over in Amritsar. Karnail Singh has been posted as the Kapurthala deputy commissioner, the order stated. Among the senior officers transferred, Seema Jain, the additional chief secretary of technical education and industrial training has been given additional charge of school education.

The maximum temperature breached the 45-degrees-Celsius mark in parts of Delhi on Sunday with Najafgarh recording the highest at 46.3 degrees Celsius, the India Meteorological Department said. According to the Met office, the observatories at Narela and Pitampura recorded 45 degrees Celsius, Ayanagar and Ridge reported 44 degrees Celsius and Palam recorded 43.8 degrees Celsius. The observatory at Safdarjung recorded the maximum temperature of 42.9 degrees Celsius, three notches above the season's average

Police have registered a case against a man in Madhya Pradesh's Katni district after he was seen in a video purportedly torturing a peacock by plucking its feathers, an official said. The video that surfaced on social media shows the man pulling out the bird's feathers in a brutal manner. Based on the video, the police filed the case against the man, who is a resident of Rithi town in Katni, a forest official said. Divisional Forest Officer (DFP) Gaurav Sharma said a Gujarat-based NGO had shared the video of the man torturing the peacock a couple of days back, following which the forest department launched an investigation.

A couple of days after three persons were killed in two separate attacks by gaurs, a 55-year-old man was seriously injured on Sunday in a similar incident in a tribal colony, 23 kilometers from Kuttampuzha here, police said. Vellappankunju, who lives in a tribal colony in Kunjippara here, was out with three of his friends when the gaur attacked, an officer of Kuttampuzha police station said. The incident occurred around 5 PM and Vellappankunju was seriously injured with a broken leg and suspected internal bleeding, police said and added that he was taken to a government medical college in Kalamassery. The others who were with the victim were not injured, the officer said. "Such attacks often happen there as it is a forested area. Three months ago a person was killed there in a gaur attack," the officer said. On Friday, three persons were killed in two different incidents of attack by gaurs at Erumeli and Anchal in Kottayam and Kollam districts respectively.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday said that the president should inaugurate the new Parliament building and not the prime minister. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the newly-constructed Parliament building on May 28. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla met Modi on Thursday last and extended an invitation to inaugurate the new building, the Lok Sabha Secretariat had said. Taking to Twitter, Gandhi said, "The President should inaugurate the new Parliament House and not the Prime Minister ''. Veteran Parliamentarian and former deputy leader of the Congress in Rajya Sabha Anand Sharma and some other opposition leaders were also of the same view. "It will not be Constitutionally correct for the PM to inaugurate the new building of Parliament. Jury is out whether it was required at all. No major democracy has done this. Westminster is the seat of the British Parliament and Capitol Hill of the US Congress for hundreds of years," Sharma said on Twitter.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the US next month will celebrate the "deep partnership" between the two countries, America's top diplomat said on Sunday as he met his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar here. Modi will embark on his state visit to the US next month on an invitation by President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden. The US president and the First Lady will also host Modi at a state dinner on June 22. His visit to the US comes ahead of the G20 Summit being hosted by India in September. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he had a "great discussion" with External Affairs Minister Jaishankar on the margins of the G7 summit. "We look forward to hosting Indian Prime Minister @NarendraModi in June, whose visit will celebrate the deep partnership between the United States and India," Blinken tweeted on Sunday.

The maximum temperature in Delhi on Sunday settled at 42.9 degrees Celsius, three notches above the season's average, the Met office said.
The relative humidity oscillated between 25 per cent and 74 per cent, it added.
The night temperature had settled three notches below normal at 24 degrees Celsius, the India Meteorological Department said.

 The khap 'mahapanchayat' on Sunday decided that the women supporting the protest against WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh will hold a panchayat before the new Parliament building on May 28, the day the newly-built edifice will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The leaders of khap panchayats met in Rohtak on a day when a "major decision" was anticipated but after hours of deliberations, the came out with the decision to move to the Parliament.

 BJP is like a pack of "hungry wolves" which raids the state's resources as soon as it forms its government there, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Sunday said.
He said one can test what he said speaking to any industrialist or trader, who will testify that corruption has increased 10 times in BJP-ruled states.
"There is loot going on in other states. BJP-ruled states are marked with highest levels of corruption. They are hungry wolves. And when they come they get to eat more," Gehlot told reporters when asked for his comment on BJP levelling corruption charges against his government.

 The Border Security Force shot down a Pakistani drone near the international border in Punjab's Amritsar, said a BSF statement on Sunday.
BSF troops heard the buzzing sound of the drone on Saturday night and intercepted the unmanned aerial vehicle by firing at it.
Later, during a search of the area, a drone (Quadcopter, DJI Matrice, 300 RTK) along with a consignment containing three packets of narcotics (3.3 kg heroin) was recovered from a field in Dhanoe Kalan village in Amritsar.

 A 27-year-old woman was killed and 24 people were injured when a Rajasthan-bound bus carrying Mata Vaishno Devi pilgrims overturned in Jammu and Kashmir's Reasi district on Sunday, officials said.
Additional Director General of Police of Jammu zone Mukesh Singh, quoting eyewitnesses, said the accident occurred when the driver lost control of the speeding vehicle due to a sharp curve, rubbishing the claim by some terror groups on social media that it was a terror act.

Police arrested a 33-year-old man from Vapi in Gujarat for allegedly snatching the gold chain of an elderly woman from Virar in Palghar district of Maharashtra in April, an official said on Sunday. The incident occurred on April 29 when two men parked a motorcycle near the compound of the woman's house and one of them snatched her gold chain. The police also seized the motorcycle used in the crime, the official said, adding that with the arrest of the man, they have cracked at least three cases of chain-snatching in Arnala, Tulinj and Virar. The arrested man also has cases registered against him at various police stations in Thane and Mumbai, the official added.

Police here on Sunday recovered 16 kg of Charas worth over Rs 9 crore and arrested two alleged narcotics smugglers, officials said. A special investigation team intercepted two men following a tip-off and recovered the contraband, which was kept in two bags they were carrying, Superintendent of Police Kaustubh said. The accused have been identified as Dipendra Bahadur (28), from Nepal, and Jeewan (25) of Maharajganj, he said. Police are interrogating the accused. The arrested duo were just carrying the narcotics and the racket is being operated from somewhere else, police said. The accused were booked under Narcotics, Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, they said.

Doctors at the AIIMS here performed a laparoscopic surgery on a three-month-old boy to remove obstructions in both his kidneys, the premier government-run hospital said on Sunday, and claimed he became the youngest patient in the world to undergo this procedure. The doctors in the Department of Paediatrics performed the bilateral laparoscopic pyeloplasty procedure, which is a minimally invasive surgical technique used to treat ureteropelvic junction obstruction, a congenital condition that obstructs the urinary tract and impairs urine flow from the kidneys to the bladder. The procedure was performed in December and the patient was discharged three days after the surgery. Three months after the surgery, the doctors performed a test called renogram to ascertain the success of the surgery and to confirm that the obstruction in the kidney outflow was relieved, said Dr Vishesh Jain, additional professor in the Department of Paediatrics.

In a suspected case of road rage, a cab driver was allegedly thrashed by a group of people after his car collided with theirs in Delhi's Sarai Kale Khan area. The assailants allegedly snatched the car keys from the cab driver before fleeing the spot, according to a series of tweets posted by Alok Dixit, who was travelling in the taxi. According to Dixit's Twitter bio, he is a campaigner @stopacidattacks and chairperson chhanv.org @sheroeshangout. Responding to his tweet, Delhi Police said it had taken cognisance of the incident and was doing the needful. Describing the incident, which took place on Saturday night on the Sarai Kale Khan flyover, Dixit said he had hailed a cab from the airport and "in an unfortunate turn of events, a private vehicle ahead of us abruptly reversed, colliding with our cab. Following the incident, the occupants of the car, without provocation, commenced a violent assault on the cab driver".

Madhya Pradesh Minister Vishvas Sarang on Sunday attacked senior Congress leader Kamal Nath over the anti-Sikh riots post the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi in 1984. Nath, who was chief minister of MP from December 2018 to March 2020 and is currently state unit chief of the Congress, is expected to lead his party in the Assembly polls like to be held in the end of the year. "Kamal Nath carries a big blot on his robe. Will he lead the party with it in the (Assembly) elections? He should come in the midst of people and say whether he was involved in the riots," Sarang, who is Medical Education minister in the Shivraj Singh Chouhan cabinet, told reporters.

A 15-year-old was allegedly raped by her tuition teacher, police here said on Sunday. The family members of the teen on Saturday evening filed a complaint against the accused teacher following which an investigation was taken up, Additional Superintendent of Police (Rural) Sagar Jain told PTI. The girl had gone for tuition on Thursday from where her teacher took her to Roorkee in Uttarakhand, where he raped the minor, Jain said. The teacher also threatened her with dire consequences if she told anyone about the incident, he said. After returning to her family, he narrated her ordeal to them and got the FIR registered. The teacher is absconding and efforts are on to nab him, the SSP said. A detailed probe is on in the matter.

Two people were killed at the scene and a third victim died at a hospital following a shooting at a Kansas City, Missouri, bar early on Sunday, police said. Two other victims were wounded and transported to a hospital, including one who was in critical condition and another who was in stable condition, Kansas City Police Department Officer Donna Drake said in an email. Multiple officers responded to the Klymax Lounge on Indiana Avenue at 1:25 am.
One of the victims who was killed at the scene was inside the bar, while the second was outside the building, Drake said. The victims were all adults, police said, but their ages and identities were not immediately available.
Homicide detectives and crime scene investigators were at the scene early Sunday, police said. 

J-K: Several people were injured after a bus met with an accident in Katra's Muri area in Reasi district. Injured people were rushed to hospital. Police personnel on the spot.

"This is the same story as the one that happened in 2016. There is no connection between corruption and this decision,” said Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren on RBI’s decision to withdraw Rs 2,000 currency notes from circulation.

Gujarat: Union Home Minister Amit Shah flags off new buses of Gujarat State Regional Transport Corporation (GSRTC) at Chandkheda in Ahmedabad.

SBI clarifies that the facility of exchange of Rs 2000 denomination bank notes upto a limit of Rs 20,000 at a time will be allowed without obtaining any requisition slip.

"I won't fight Assembly elections till Article 370 is restored in Jammu & Kashmir...I don't see Assembly elections being held in the near future," said PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti in Bengaluru.

Former Zonal Director of NCB Mumbai, Sameer Wankhede arrives at the CBI office in Mumbai for questioning in connection with a case related to Aryan Khan's drugs on the cruise case.

Bihar CM & JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar arrives at the Civil Lines residence of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal.

PM Narendra Modi departs for Papua New Guinea after attending the G7 Summit in Hiroshima, Japan. PM Modi will be received by the PM of Papua New Guinea upon his arrival at Port Moresby, where he will be accorded a full ceremonial reception.

Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar attends Raahgiri day celebrations in Gurugram.

PM Narendra Modi attends Working Session 8- 'Toward a Peaceful, Stable and Prosperous World' at the G7 Summit in Japan's Hiroshima.

J&K: Security tightened in Rajouri ahead of the G20 summit in Srinagar. All types of vehicles being checked.

Japan: Prime Minister Narendra Modi holds bilateral with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Hiroshima

Prime Minister Narendra Modi began his day by visiting the Peace Memorial Museum, where he observed the documented exhibits and signed the visitor’s book. PM Modi paid tribute to the memory of Hiroshima victims at Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, Japan.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a bilateral meeting with United Kingdom Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in Hiroshima, Japan.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other G7 leaders pay floral tribute at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Japan.