Breaking News, October 13 | HIGHLIGHTS

The Congress leadership on Friday discussed the candidates for the Madhya Pradesh assembly elections at a key meeting of the party's Central Election Committee, and asserted that the party is moving towards securing a full majority in the state.

The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a PIL challenging Darwin's theory of evolution and Einstein's theory of special relativity that expresses the equivalence of mass and energy. A bench comprising Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia said there cannot be a writ petition under Article 32 of the Indian Constitution to challenge scientific beliefs.

The Delhi High Court on Friday refused to interfere with the arrest and subsequent police remand of NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha and portal's human resources department head Amit Chakravarty in a case lodged under anti-terror law UAPA.

An 18-year-old youth was stabbed to death in central Delhi's Jama Masjid area, police said on Friday. Police received a call regarding the incident on the intervening night of Thursday and Friday, they said, adding that the victim has been identified as Areeb. He had multiple stab injuries on his body which may have resulted in his death, police said.

The Supreme Court on Friday sought a report from the medical board of the AIIMS on whether the 26-week foetus of a married woman, who is seeking permission to undergo termination of pregnancy, is suffering from any abnormality. A bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud was hearing arguments on the Centre's application seeking recall of the apex court's October 9 order permitting a 27-year-old woman, a mother of two, to undergo termination of pregnancy at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday cautioned that conflicts and confrontations being faced by the world today do not benefit anyone, saying the world has to move forward with a human-centric approach. Addressing the inaugural session of the ninth G20 Parliamentary Speakers' Summit (P20) here, he also said we have to remove obstacles in the way of global trust.

A 41-year-old man allegedly opened fire inside the Sealdah-New Delhi Rajdhani Express over an argument with a coach attendant for a seat, a railway official said on Friday. There was no report of any casualty in the incident.

A woman's body with strangulation marks was recovered from the bushes near a village here with police suspecting it to be a case of murder. "At the time of recovery of the body on Thursday, blood was oozing out from the mouth and nose. Seeing the rope mark on her neck, it seems that she was strangulated," the SHO Payagpur police station Kamal Shankar Chaturvedi said.

Noted environmentalist and professor, T Shobheendran died at a private hospital here, sources close to his family said on Friday. Shobheendran was admitted to a private hospital here after he complained of uneasiness but died due to a cardiac arrest on Thursday night. He was 76.

A part of the ceiling slab of an electrical transformer room of an industrial estate collapsed in Maharashtra’s Thane city in the early hours of Friday, a civic official said.

Israel's military directed the evacuation on Friday of all of the hundreds of thousands of civilians living in Gaza City ahead of a feared Israel ground offensive. The directive came on the heels of what the United Nations said was a warning they received from Israel to evacuate 1.1 million people living in the north of Gaza within 24 hours.

The Delhi High Court on Friday agreed to list during the day a plea by AAP leader Sanjay Singh against his arrest in a money laundering case related to alleged irregularities in the scrapped Delhi excise policy. The matter was mentioned for urgent hearing by a lawyer for the Rajya Sabha MP before a bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Sanjeev Narula.

At least three people were killed and several others were feared trapped after a coal mine collapsed in West Bengal's Paschim Bardhaman district, officials said on Friday. Police suspect that the incident took place when coal was being illegally extracted from the Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL) mine in Narayankudi area in Egra gram panchayat in Raniganj police station area.

The ruling BRS Party in Telangana has released the first list of in-charges for 54 Assembly constituencies who will work for the victory of the party candidates. BRS Working President KT Rama Rao who held a teleconference on Thursday with the in-charges gave directions to them on the activities to be followed for the success of the candidates, a press release issued Thursday night said.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal Friday urged the parents of students in schools run by the Delhi government and the MCD to attend the parent-teacher meeting to discuss the progress of their children. 

A minor fire broke out at a plastic granules factory in Udyog Nagar area of West Delhi on Friday morning, fire officials said. No casualty has been reported

The rupee traded on a flat note at 83.24 against the US dollar in early trade on Friday as an upward trend in crude oil prices dented investor sentiment despite positive domestic macroeconomic data. Forex analysts said the Indian currency continued to stay under pressure due to unabated foreign fund outflow amid negative equity markets across Asia.

At least 27 American citizens have died and 14 remain unaccounted for as a result of unfolding violence in Israel and the US will arrange charter flights to evacuate its citizens from the strife-torn Jewish state, the White House has announced.

A group of suspected Maoists, armed with sophisticated weapons, arrived at a private resort in this north Kerala district and took control of the manager's mobile phone to send a statement to the media regarding issues faced by estate workers.

Gaza's interior ministry on Thursday said that an Israeli airstrike on a residential building in the densely populated Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza has killed at least 45 people and wounded dozens more. Eyad Bozum, the spokesperson of the interior ministry, told The Associated Press that a late afternoon airstrike hit the al-Shihab family house at the center of the Jabaliya camp.

Joe Biden had been to Dachau, the infamous concentration camp in Germany, several times before, but he sensed changes when he visited as vice president with a teenaged granddaughter. “It seemed as though things had been rearranged to make visitors less uncomfortable," he recalled in a memoir published two years after the 2015 visit. "They had softened the cruel edges over the years.”

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Thursday announced a new support package, including GBP 3 million extra funding, targeted at enhanced protection for the country’s Jewish communities against antisemitic attacks in the wake of the conflict in Israel.

Senior JD(U) leader Lalan Paswan on Thursday quit the party, voicing protest against Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's alliance with arch-rival Lalu Prasad’s RJD.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday pressed Turkey to quickly ratify Sweden's membership in the military organisation, three months after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he would help hasten the process in the Turkish parliament.

A glass window of the Udaipur City–Jaipur Vande Bharat Express was shattered after it was allegedly struck by a stone in Rajasthan's Bhilwara district, police said on Thursday. No passenger or train staff was injured, they said.

The server of AIIMS Delhi was reportedly down from Wednesday afternoon till Thursday noon, causing inconvenience to doctors and patients at the hospital's emergency and outpatient departments.

President Vladimir Putin arrived in Kyrgyzstan on Thursday on a rare trip abroad for the Russian leader who was indicted earlier this year by the International Criminal Court for war crimes in Ukraine. In the capital, Bishkek, Putin met with Kyrgyz President Sadyr Zhaparov and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. He also attended an event marking the 20th anniversary of a Russian airbase in Kyrgyzstan.

Five law enforcement officers were shot and wounded Thursday morning in an incident near the east-central Minnesota city of Princeton, authorities said.

YSR Congress Party president and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on Thursday alleged that TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu and Janasena chief Pawan Kalyan commercialised politics. He made these allegations at Samarlakota in Kakinada district on the sidelines of a public house construction drive.

The Congress on Thursday alleged that some government officials in poll bound Telangana were being biased towards the ruling BRS and sought the removal of the state DGP.

The Delhi government has reiterated its demand to the DMRC to change its recent decision to allow passengers to carry two liquor bottles each in Metro trains, officials said on Thursday. The Excise department of the government wrote to the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) on October 6 to take action in this regard, a senior Delhi government officer said.

India has "consistently upheld human rights" and believes in peace and never initiating any war, former president Ram Nath Kovind said on Thursday.