Breaking News, August 30 | HIGHLIGHTS

Gold ornaments and cash collectively worth more than Rs 15 lakh were stolen from the residence of a senior official of the Western Coalfields Limited (WCL) in Nagpur city of Maharashtra, police said on Wednesday. The incident took place on August 26 in Ashok Nagar area under the Jaripatka police station limits, they said.

An inspector, posted at a godown of the Punjab Grains Procurement Corporation (Pungrain), was arrested for allegedly misappropriating wheat worth Rs 1.24 crore, the Punjab Vigilance Bureau said on Wednesday. Bikramjit Singh was arrested after a team of the bureau conducted a surprise inspection at Pungrain godowns at Khadoor Sahib in Tarn Taran district, it said.

The Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) Wednesday arrested three people including two ex-army personnel for allegedly impersonating vigilance officials and extorting Rs 25 lakh from a person, the agency said. The arrested persons were identified as Manjeet Singh, a resident of Bhaini Salu village (Ludhiana); Paramjeet Singh of Mehlon (Ludhiana) village; and Parminder Singh, a resident of Akash Colony (Hoshiarpur).

Assam's flood situation worsened on Wednesday with over 3.40 lakh people affected in 22 districts as the water level of the Brahmaputra river and its tributaries maintained a rising trend, according to an official bulletin. Altogether 3.07 lakh people had been hit by the deluge in 21 districts of the state on Tuesday.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday visited Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray at his residence here and tied a rakhi on him. Banerjee went to Thackeray's residence 'Matoshree' in suburban Bandra after visiting Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan at his residence in Juhu, sources said.

With a rainfall deficit of 60 per cent so far, Delhi is on track to experiencing the second-driest August in at least two decades, according to India Meteorological Department data. Delhi recorded above-normal rainfall in the last four months. The cumulative precipitation so far this year has already surpassed the yearly quota of 774 mm. However, August has recorded a large deficit with the total rainfall so far this month (91.8 mm) being 60 per cent less than normal. 

Former Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy was admitted to a private hospital today after complaining of weakness and discomfort. The 63-year-old Janata Dal (Secular) leader, son of former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, was immediately evaluated, and treatment was begun, Apollo Hospitals said in a health bulletin, adding that he has responded well.

The Delhi forest department is beautifying streets with about 2.5 lakh potted plants ahead of the G20 Summit in the city, Environment Minister Gopal Rai said today. 
Addressing a press conference, he said approximately 300 officers and employees of the department have been entrusted with the responsibility of maintaining these plants.

Three persons were killed after their car rammed into a mini-truck on a highway in Gujarat's Patan district in the wee hours of Wednesday, police said. The victims were on their way to Chotila town in neighbouring Surendranagar district to offer prayers at a temple when the accident took place on Sami-Sankheshwar state highway in the district at around 3 am, an official from Sami police station said. The car rammed into the mini-truck from behind, he said.

A court in Maharashtra's Thane district has sentenced a 56-year-old man to three years' rigorous imprisonment while convicting him on the charge of attempt to murder in a 2012 case of a fight between two groups during a function in a village. Thane Sessions Judge Dr Rachna R Tehra in her order passed on August 17 acquitted 12 other persons accused in the case, giving them the benefit of doubt. A copy of the order was made available on Tuesday. The judge imposed a collective fine of Rs 5,500 on convict Ravikant Motiram Patil, from Sawande village in Bhiwandi taluka.

Kempegowda International Airport Bengaluru's (BLR Airport) Terminal 2 (T2) is set to commence its international operations, with the first flight scheduled on August 31. Passengers travelling on Singapore Airlines flight SQ508/SQ509 between Singapore and Bengaluru will be the first to experience the international zone of the new terminal, a BIAL statement said on Wednesday. IndiGo will be the first Indian carrier to start international operations in T2, with its flight 6E1167 to Colombo.

A 15-year-old girl was allegedly abducted and raped for three months by a man here, police said on Wednesday. The girl was rescued from Deoria on August 26 while the 27-year-old accused was arrested on Tuesday, they said. On May 29, the girl accompanied her mother to the court in Kotwali area of Ballia city. She was lured and taken away by Markandeya Yadav alias Sonu, who belongs to the same village as the victim, police said.

Three persons were killed when a private bus collided with a mini-truck carrying passengers in Madhya Pradesh's Seoni district on Wednesday, police said. The accident took place near a temple on Lakhnadon-Ghansore road at around 4.30 am, a police official said. The bus was going to Mandla from state capital Bhopal when it collided with a mini-truck coming from the opposite side, Lakhnadon police station's assistant sub-inspector NP Choudhary said.

Two labourers were killed and 16 others injured when a four-wheeler hit a truck from behind near Utelwa here on the Lucknow-Varanasi highway early on Wednesday morning, police said. The vehicle carrying 18 labourers, who worked in a bread factory in Varanasi, was on its way to Lucknow when the incident occurred around 4 am, SHO of the Kamrauli Police Station Abhinesh Kumar said.

Tata Steel Ltd's CEO and MD TV Narendran was appointed the new chairperson of the board of governors of IIT-Kharagpur, a statement said. IIT-Kharagpur director VK Tewari said that as a man beholding technical and industrial supremacy, Narendran understands the needs of the society and the practical implications of industry-academia amalgamation with a technical institution.

Ahead of assembly polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party will take out 'Jan Ashirwad Yatras' from five places in Madhya Pradesh in the first week of September which will be flagged off by BJP president JP Nadda, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and other senior leaders. These yatras, a mass outreach programme of the ruling party ahead of polls, will traverse through Vindhya, Mahakaushal, Malwa, Gwalior-Chambal and Bundelkhand regions before culminating in Bhopal, a state BJP spokesman said on Tuesday.

Russian officials accused Ukraine of targeting six Russian regions with drones early Wednesday in what appears to be the biggest drone attack on Russian soil since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine 18 months ago. Drones hit an airport in the western Pskov region and started a massive fire there, the local governor and media reported. According to the Defense Ministry, more drones were also shot down over the regions of Oryol, Bryansk, Ryazan, Kaluga and the Moscow region surrounding the Russian capital.

Australians will vote on October 14 on a proposed law to create a so-called Indigenous Voice to Parliament in the nation's first referendum in a generation. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Wednesday announced the referendum date, triggering just over six weeks of intensifying campaigning by both sides of the argument. The referendum would enshrine in the constitution an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, a collection of advocates aimed at giving the nation's most disadvantaged ethnic minority more say on government policy.

Russia's Defense Ministry accused Ukraine of targeting five Russian regions with drones in the early hours of Wednesday in what appears to be the biggest drone attack on Russian soil in 18 months. Drones hit an airport in the western Pskov region and were shot down over the regions of Oryol, Bryansk, Ryazan and Kaluga. 

Two people were fatally shot Tuesday in front of a courthouse in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico and a third person was injured. The unidentified shooter was arrested minutes later at the courthouse in the northern city of Caguas, according to a police statement.

The Congress on Tuesday claimed the slash in LPG prices by the Centre is the result of BJP's rout in the Karnataka polls and two "highly successful" opposition meetings, and said people should expect more such "gifts" as Prime Minister Narendra Modi becomes "even more desperate to cling on to his chair". Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said when the votes start decreasing, then the election gifts start getting distributed. "The merciless Modi government, which looted the hard earned money of the people, is now showing feigned goodwill towards the mothers and sisters," he said in Hindi on X. For nine and a half years, by selling Rs 400 LPG cylinders for Rs 1,100, they kept destroying the lives of the common people, Kharge said, asking, then why didn't any "affectionate gift" come to mind.

A high-level team of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) on Tuesday inspected the damaged portions of the Jammu-Pathankot highway in Samba and Kathua districts of Jammu and Kashmir, officials said. The administration on Friday had assured people about a visit by an NHAI team to assess the road's condition. The assurance came following massive protests by several political and social organisations, and a hunger strike by the Yuva Rajput Sabha over the poor condition of the highway. They also demanded the removal of a toll plaza at Sarore in Samba district.