Breaking News, September 8 | HIGHLIGHTS

A Congress leader in Rajasthan's Dholpur district was shot dead by motorcycle-borne assailants on Friday, police said. Mehtab Singh (50), the Congress' Jalalpur Mangrol block chief, had gone to a tent shop in connection with the inauguration of a local village revenue office when he was attacked by seven people, they said.

Two men were found dead on Friday in a suspected case of drowning, in a temple pond near Ayathil here, police said. Police and Fire service personnel recovered the bodies of Kollam residents Giri Kumar (55) and Chacko (54) from the pond.

To provide livestock healthcare and animal husbandry services at the doorstep of people, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday flagged off 181 vehicles. Farmers will be provided with advice about basic animal healthcare, surgery, vaccination and diagnostic services from these mobile units, the chief minister said. In a video message, Patnaik said, “The Mobile Veterinary Units are working to provide veterinary services at the doorstep of people. They are being provided to the livestock keepers and farmers in the villages located at distant places.”

India and the US have settled the last trade dispute at the World Trade Organization (WTO) over poultry products, according to a joint statement released on Friday. With this, the two countries have mutually resolved all the seven pending trade disputes at the WTO. "The leaders lauded the settlement of the seventh and last outstanding WTO dispute between India and the United States. This follows the unprecedented settlement of six outstanding bilateral trade disputes in the WTO in June 2023,” the joint statement said.

Three persons were arrested in Palghar in Maharashtra for alleged involvement in a mob attack in which one man was killed and two others were injured, a police official said on Friday. On August 30, a mob in Umroli beat up Ramesh Bhandari and brothers Prashnat Mishra and Chandan Mishra mistaking them for thieves, the official said.

Rajasthan minister Ashok Chandna sat on a dharna outside the Bundi district collectorate here on Friday alleging a dissatisfactory response by discom officials on farmers' concerns about a shortage of transformers.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden on Friday vowed to "deepen and diversify" the bilateral major defence partnership while welcoming forward movement in India's procurement of 31 drones and joint development of jet engines. In their over 50-minute talks, the two leaders deliberated on India's G20 presidency, cooperation in nuclear energy, critical and emerging technologies such as 6G and artificial intelligence, and ways to fundamentally reshape multilateral development banks.

A video of a man performing dangerous stunts while hanging onto a suburban train in Mumbai went viral on social media on Friday, prompting netizens to demand a police case against the person. In the video, the man can be seen standing on the edge of the footboard of the coach's door and jumping on to the tracks while the train slows down as it approaches a station platform.

The Delhi Police on Friday said more than 40 residents of the Gandhi Nagar area have come forward to help the city police strengthen the night vigil during the G20 Summit. "In view of the G20 Summit, local residents of our area have come forward and requested the police that they will work with us. We have agreed as we are already short of staff. We would be taking their help at pickets and night patrolling," a senior police official said.

A man stabbed another to death here due to a rivalry between them, police said on Friday. Two pigeon keepers in Nistoli village of Teela Mor police station area had an altercation with both accusing the other of catching their pigeons following which one Yogendra stabbed Ajay, said Surya Bali Maurya, ACP, Shalimar Garden. Police said the two had frequent fights over the issue.

A white tigress has given birth to three cubs at Siddharth Zoo in Aurangabad city of central Maharashtra, an official of the facility said on Friday. The feline, named Arpita, gave birth to the three cubs -- all of them white -- on Thursday, he told reporters. The cubs and their mother are absolutely fine, said the official, adding this was the six-year-old tigress's first litter.

A clash broke out between youth wing members of the Congress and the ruling CPI(M) in Manarcad area of Puthuppally constituency on Friday soon after the by-election results were declared. The police resorted to lathi charge to disperse the two groups which hurled stones at each other, leaving five people injured.

A day before the G20 Summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday held talks with his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina on diversifying bilateral cooperation and discussed issues such as connectivity and commercial linkages. In a post on his second bilateral of the day after holding talks with Mauritian Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth, Modi said he had "productive deliberations" with PM Sheikh Hasina.

Pakistan has started the construction of a Cultural Theme Park at Kartarpur Corridor (Gurdwara Darbar Sahib) in Punjab province to woo more pilgrims to the revered place of worship for the Sikhs. The foundation stone for the project was laid by the country's caretaker federal religious minister Aneeq Ahmad during his visit to the Karatarpur Sahib on Thursday. He also met visiting Sikh Yatrees from India and asked them about facilities at the gurdwara.

Delhi recorded trace rainfall on Friday, on the eve of the G20 Summit, with the maximum temperature settling three notches above the season's average at 36.4 degrees Celsius. The minimum temperature was recorded at 26.4 degrees Celsius, a notch above normal. The Safdarjung Observatory, the official marker for the national capital, recorded trace rainfall between 8.30 am and 5.30 pm.

The Kerala government on Friday placed senior IPS officer G Lakshman under suspension for his alleged involvement in a cheating case connected to conman and self-styled antique dealer Monson Mavunkal. In an order, the government said the involvement of the Inspector General of Police in the crime came to light during the course of investigation.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday held bilateral talks with his Mauritian counterpart Pravind Jugnauth and Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Both foreign leaders arrived to a warm welcome at the New Delhi Airport to attend the G20 Summit from September 9-10.

The Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI.50) drive to identify and register all children under the age of five will be launched in Odisha on September 11, an official said on Friday. The drive will also identify and register pregnant women who missed their vaccine doses, director of family welfare Bijaya Kumar Panigrahy said.

Rains returned to Maharashtra’s Nashik district after a gap of nearly a month on Friday, with Nashik city receiving 62.4 mm of rains between 11.30 am and 5.30 pm. While Wednesday saw light showers, followed by a few spells the next day, rains picked pace on Friday. Nashik city apart, Malegaon, Nandgaon, Peth, Surgana, Chandwad, Manmad, Dindori and Trimbakeshwar talukas also received rains, said officials.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina held a bilateral meeting in Delhi. The details of the crucial meeting are awaited.

Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray on Friday said the Maharashtra government must immediately give compensation to farmers who have suffered crop losses due to lack of rains. Thackeray, who visited Ahmednagar where standing crops in many villages have perished due to the dry spell over the past few weeks, also hit out at Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.

Congress's Chandy Oommen, who retained the party's bastion Puthuppally with a historic margin in the September 5 bypoll, will take oath as its new MLA on Monday, filling the seat left vacant by the death of his father and party stalwart Oommen Chandy.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday held talks with his Mauritian counterpart Pravind Jugnauth here, the Indian leader's first bilateral meeting before the start of the G20 Summit. Jugnauth arrived on Thursday to a warm welcome at the New Delhi Airport to attend the Summit from September 9-10.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak arrived here on Friday for the G20 Leaders' Summit beginning on Saturday and said he would work with world leaders to address some of the challenges that impact every one of us. Accompanied by his wife Akshata Murthy, Sunak was welcomed at the airport by Union minister Ashwini Choubey, British High Commissioner to India Alex Ellis and senior diplomats.

The exclusion of Congress president and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge from President Droupadi Murmu's G20 dinner is an attack on democracy and reflects the ruling dispensation's thinking, party leaders said on Friday. Though Kharge and other opposition leaders were not invited to the dinner on Saturday, Union ministers and chief ministers, including of states ruled by opposition parties, have received invites.

The Rajasthan government has approved Rs 256.46 crore for the construction of a high-level bridge on Chambal river in Kota district. The bridge will be constructed on state highway 120 in Gothra Kalan village after Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot gave his approval, an official statement said.  The chief minister had earlier allocated Rs 165 crore for the project in the budget, it said.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Friday unveiled a statue of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, who composed the national anthem, to honour his rich contribution to the nation. The life-sized statue was erected on behalf of the state Information and Public Relations department on the premises of Queen Mary's College (QMC), which is the city's first women's college, founded in 1914.

Two persons were killed and nearly 50 injured in two different firing incidents at Pallel in Manipur’s Tengnoupal district on Friday, officials said. Among the injured, four civilians sustained bullet wounds, they said. Firing between two groups of unidentified men began at Pallel around 6 am leading to the death of a person, officials added.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday said the United States, Europe, and India need to create an alternative, competitive model to the Chinese production model that is "coercive." Gandhi was addressing the journalists at the Brussels Press Club in Brussels on the second day of his visit. Gandhi is on an almost week-long tour of Europe during which he is to hold meetings with European Union (EU) lawmakers, students, and the Indian Diaspora.

Dealing a crushing blow to Kerala's ruling LDF, Congress candidate Chandy Oommen on Friday retained for the party-led UDF, the Puthuppally assembly seat, which his father and former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy held for over half-a-century. Chandy Oommen trounced his main rival Jaick C Thomas of CPI(M) by a huge and historic margin in the bypoll. The 37-year-old Oommen defeated Thomas by a margin of 37,719 votes in the bypoll battle that saw a nearly month-long vigorous campaigning by leaders of the Congress, CPI(M), and BJP for their respective party candidates.

A minor crude oil spill was reported at the seashore near Pirwadi beach of Uran in Navi Mumbai but the spill was soon arrested, sources said. The spill was reported around 0545 hours on Friday. The Oil Spill Response (OSR) team of ONC Uran rushed to the spot, they said, adding that the root cause was detected and the spill stopped.

Sounds of drums, conches, gongs and cymbals reverberated the Shrikrishna Janmasthan complex here during 'abhishek' ceremony, the traditional bathing of the deity, performed at the midnight to mark the birth of Lord Krishna. Devotees in large numbers paid obeisance to the deity at the Bhagwat Bhavan temple Thursday midnight and beyond with tremendous religious excitement, office-bearers of the Shrikrishna Janmasthan said.

The ruling TMC wrested the Dhupguri assembly seat in West Bengal's Jalpaiguri district on Friday from the BJP in a by-election, officials said. TMC candidate Nirmal Chandra Roy, a college professor, won the seat by over 4,313 votes. He bagged 96,961 votes, while his nearest rival BJP's Tapasi Roy, the widow of a CRPF jawan killed in a terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir in 2021, got 92,648 votes, they said.

Ahead of the G20 summit, India on Friday said the New Delhi Leaders' Declaration is "almost ready" and will be recommended to the leaders of the grouping during the conclave. India also said its presidency of the G20 has lived up to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of being inclusive, ambitious, action-oriented and very decisive. Addressing a press conference ahead of the two-day summit beginning Saturday, India's G20 sherpa Amitabh Kant said New Delhi Leaders' Declaration will be the voice of the global south and developing countries.

The BJP on Friday retained the Bageshwar assembly seat in Uttarakhand with its candidate Parwati Dass defeating Congress' Basant Kumar by more than 2,400 votes. Dass polled 33,247 votes while Kumar got 30,842 votes, Bageshwar District Magistrate and returning officer Anuradha Pal said. The BJP won by 2,405 votes, she declared.

There is a "full-scale assault" on the democratic institutions of India and there are concerns in the European Union (EU) quarters over this attempt to “stifle” the country’s democratic structures, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Friday.

A pro-Trinamool Congress platform of senior professors in West Bengal, including former vice-chancellors of state universities, on Friday asked Governor CV Ananda Bose to elaborate how professors with less than 10 years of experience could be appointed as interim VCs by the Raj Bhavan and accused him of trying to throttle higher education through his acts. In an open letter to Bose, the Educationists' Forum said there is no provision in the law which allows the governor, who is the chancellor of state varsities, to delegate power to persons of choice in this respect.

British police scoured a huge London park on Friday for an ex-soldier who escaped from prison while awaiting trial on terrorism charges. The Metropolitan Police confirmed the search of Richmond Park in the city's southwest, which involved two helicopters and officers on the ground, was connected to the hunt for Daniel Abed Khalife. The 21-year-old slipped out of Wandsworth Prison on Wednesday morning while working in the kitchen, apparently by clinging to the underside of a food-delivery truck, police said.

A local court here on Friday held as not guilty Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in connection with a complaint that accused the BJP leader of not disclosing criminal cases pending against him in his poll affidavit ahead of the 2014 assembly elections.

A 30-year-old Bangladeshi national was arrested here for allegedly sexually harassing a female flight attendant on board a Muscat-Dhaka flight travelling via Mumbai, a police official said on Friday. The incident took place in the early hours of Thursday some time before the Vistara flight was scheduled to land at the Mumbai International Airport, he said. "The accused, identified as Mohammed Dulal, who is a Bangladeshi national, was going to Dhaka from Muscat via Mumbai on a Vistara flight. Half an hour before the plane was to land in Mumbai, Dulal got up from his seat, hugged a female flight attendant and tried to kiss her," the official said.

The Reserve Bank has given its nod for the appointment of Dipak Gupta as interim Managing Director and CEO of Kotak Mahindra Bank following the resignation of Uday Kotak. RBI through its letter dated September 7, 2023, approved Gupta's appointment for a period of two months with effect from September 2, 2023, Kotak Mahindra Bank said in a BSE filing. It is expected that RBI would decide the full-time MD of the bank during the period.

Shares fell Friday in Asia after Japan reported its economy grew less than earlier estimated in the last quarter. Oil prices declined, while US futures edged higher. Japan, the world's third largest economy, grew at a 4.8 per cent annual pace in the April-June quarter, below the earlier estimate of 6 per cent growth, according to data released on Friday. Much of that growth was driven by exports, which rose nearly 13 per cent, while private consumption fell 2.2 per cent on weak investment spending. A separate report showed that wages declined in July for the 16th straight month, falling 2.5 per cent from a year earlier.

India has added 46 new coronavirus infections, while the active cases have been recorded at 485, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Friday. The death toll stood at 5,32,024, the data updated at 8 am stated. The country's Covid case tally is 4.49 crore (4,49,97,583).  The number of people who have recuperated from the disease has increased to 4,44,65,074 and the national recovery rate stands at 98.81 per cent, according to the health ministry's website.

Delhiites woke up to a sunny morning on Friday with the minimum temperature settling at 26.4 degrees Celsius, a notch above the season's average, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD). The relative humidity at 8:30 am stood at 76 per cent. The maximum temperature for the day is expected to settle around 38 degrees Celsius, according to the IMD.

The Union Environment Ministry has set up a new Central Empowered Committee (CEC), replacing an ad hoc expert panel with the same name which assisted the Supreme Court in matters of forest and environment issues. The CEC, initially established by the apex court in 2002, served as a watchdog for issues pertaining to environmental conservation and compliance. Over the years, the committee has played a pivotal role in shaping India's environmental policy and governance landscape.

An Alabama teenager convicted of killing five family members, including three younger siblings, when he was 14 years old has been sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole. Circuit Judge Chadwick Wise handed down the sentence on Thursday to Mason Sisk, now 18. Wise wrote that the crime was “ghastly, disturbing, and draped in unmitigated evil" and warranted the harshest punishment allowed by law.

North Korea said Friday it has launched a purported nuclear attack submarine it has been developing for years, a step leader Kim Jong Un described as crucial in his efforts to build a nuclear-armed navy to counter the United States and its Asian allies. The North's official Korean Central News Agency said the vessel – named "Hero Kim Kun Ok" – is designed to launch tactical nuclear weapons from underwater but did not specify the number of missiles it could carry and fire.

Security has been beefed up across the national capital, especially in New Delhi district, on the eve of the G20 summit with police, paramilitary forces and other agencies maintaining a hawk-eye vigil in the city, officials said. Markswomen and armed forces deployed at strategic locations, enhanced patrolling and intensive checking in border areas are some of the security measures taken by the Delhi Police ahead of the G20 summit that will be held here from September 9 to 10 at Pragati Maidan.

Delhi Police has continued its security checks in the wake of the G20 Summit, scheduled to be held in the national capital from September 9 to 10. Latest visuals from Delhi-Gurugram Border.

A fire broke out at a slum in Kurla East of Qureshi Nagar in Mumbai. The fire tender was present at the spot to douse the flame.