Breaking News, January 12 | HIGHLIGHTS

A Naxalite carrying a reward of Rs 1 lakh on his head was killed on Friday in an encounter with security forces in Bijapur in Chhattisgarh, a police official said.

The national capital reeled under severe cold conditions on Friday morning as the minimum temperature dropped to 3.9 degrees Celsius, the lowest this season so far, according to weather department officials.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday filed a charge sheet against eight persons, including two absconders, in a case of prison radicalisation and 'fidayeen' (suicide) attack conspiracy by the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in Karnataka, an official said.

 Two persons were killed and another was seriously injured in a collision between two motorbikes in the Revati area here, police said on Friday.

PM Narendra Modi on Friday inspected the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Sewari - Nhava Sheva Atal Setu in Maharashtra, as he inaugurated India's longest sea-bridge.

Atal Setu is the longest bridge in India and also the longest sea bridge in the country. It will provide faster connectivity to Mumbai International Airport and Navi Mumbai International Airport and will also reduce the travel time from Mumbai to Pune, Goa and South India.

Union Minister Meenakashi Lekhi says, "The whole country is aware of the way Congress has done politics regarding Ram Temple... We have seen their statements regarding religion. They remember the temple only during elections. When it comes to building, grooming and decorating the temple, they remain missing ..."

Norway's government insisted on Friday that Anders Behring Breivik, a right-wing extremist who killed 77 people in a bomb and gun rampage in 2011, remains dangerous and should stay in solitary confinement, rejecting his claim in a suit that his human rights are being violated.

At the launch event of the book "Gandhi: A Life in Three Campaigns" by MJ Akbar, NSA Ajit Doval says, "...Gandhi was a great strategist. He could understand and he could just think that in this asymmetrical war, probably his tools will have to be different..."

"Our party will not participate in that event (pranpratishtha ceremony). It is a state-sponsored political event organized by the BJP and RSS combined. It is known to the whole world and all countries. BJP and RSS have combined, making it a political event for their own electoral gains. There are many issues which I do not want to raise because it violates the spirit of the constitution which we have today. The Constitution makes it clear that the Indian state should remain a secular democratic state. Indian state should be neutral to all religions. Indirectly, directly it should not take steps to provide de facto official religion status to any particular religion. But here, what we are witnessing is the PM is going and along with him, there will be RSS's chief participating in that event. What is happening in our country? It is being done keeping elections under consideration because they think they can convert this into a huge electoral campaign, a political campaign to hoodwink people in the name of a temple at the time of elections. And we are not for such things. So we will not participate our party declines...," said CPI General Secretary D Raja. 

Atal Setu - the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link -  is India's longest bridge built on the sea and it is expected to see the movement of more than 70,000 vehicles every day. It will be inaugurated by PM Modi today.

Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia inaugurates AAR Indamer Technics MRO Facility in Nagpur. 

He says, "...For a long time now, international hubs have been based in our eastern or western countries. We want an international hub within India. We are making an effort to initiate this in Delhi. We are holding discussions with Delhi Airport, Air India and IndiGo. We are trying to build an architecture for domestic-to-international, international-to-domestic and domestic-to-domestic so that point-to-point traffic goes from India to abroad, comes to India from abroad, and in the days to come, the traffic going from abroad-to-abroad halts in India and then continues its journey..."

Addressing the Rashtriya Yuva Mahotsav at Tapovan Ground, Prime Minister Narendra Modi says, "Today in every area, the work is being done with double speed than the previous governments... People used to go abroad and wondered when India would also have such ports and airports... It is out of the world's imagination the low-priced data Indians are using... India is leading in the technology field... UPI is being used from malls to small shops and the world is amazed..."

The 55th Garment Buyers and Sellers Meet of WBGMDA generated an estimated Rs 850 crore in business transactions in wholesale deals, an official said on Friday. Over 900 national and international brands participated in the three-day event of the West Bengal Garment and Manufacturer and Dealers Association (WBGMDA), a statement said.

A 35-year-old man and two children were found dead inside their house near here, police said on Friday. Police said Jose Pramod had allegedly murdered his two sons -- Devanarayanan (9) and Devananda (7) -- and then died by suicide at his house near Pattathanam area.

The Karnataka BJP on Friday hit out at the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government over the attack on an interfaith couple in Haveri district, alleging that a surge in crimes against women in the state reflects rampant lawlessness, and that criminals operate boldly without fear of police intervention. On January 8, seven men allegedly barged into a hotel room and attacked an interfaith couple during their stay in Haveri, a city situated 340 km north-west of Bengaluru.

Cold wave tightened its grip on Punjab and Haryana on Friday with minimum temperatures dropping below normal at most places. Several parts of the two states also witnessed fog in the morning. According to the meteorological Department here, Amritsar was the coldest place in Punjab with a low of 1.4 degrees Celsius. The mercury settled at a low of 2 degrees Celsius in Bathinda, 2.8 degrees Celsius in Faridkot, 3 degrees Celsius in Gurdaspur, 4.6 degrees Celsius in Ludhiana, 4.4 degrees Celsius in Patiala and 5.4 degrees Celsius in Pathankot.

Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar has credited former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru with bringing India out of "utter stagnation" and said the country would have been growing at 21 per cent or more today had it maintained the "Nehruvian rate of growth". Speaking at the Kerala Literature Festival (KLF) here on Thursday, the former Union minister said the Nehruvian tradition appeared to have been abandoned in almost every aspect of nation-building.

A dense layer of fog blanketed Lucknow this morning as cold wave conditions continue to prevail in north India.

Traffic will be affected near the India Gate in central Delhi for over five hours due to Republic Day parade rehearsal, police said today. The Delhi traffic police advised people to avoid the Vijay Chowk and crossings in the vicinity of the landmark. "Due to Republic Day Parade Rehearsal kindly avoid Vijay Chowk, Rafi Marg-Kartavyapath crossing, Janpath- Kartavyapath crossing, & Man Singh Road- Kartavyapath crossing from 0700 Hrs to 1200 Hrs on 12-01-2024," it posted on X.