Breaking News, March 19 | HIGHLIGHTS

Cash-starved Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif Sunday announced that his government will provide subsidised petrol to low-income people to offset the impact of raging inflation.

A subsidy of Rs 50 per litre was part of a relief package and it would be available to those who own motorcycles, rickshaws, 800cc cars, and other small vehicles, Sharif told a meeting held to review the relief package for the vulnerable groups.

“The programme to help the people will be implemented soon and a comprehensive strategy is being formulated on the issue,” he said, adding that the government was committed to assist the poor despite economic difficulties.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday hinted at possible "political reasons" behind the class 10 state board exam question paper leaks even as police claimed to have "almost cracked" completely the case.

In another matter of an alleged leak of the Geography question paper, two more students are facing questioning after the arrest of one on Saturday, police said.

The Mumbai Police has registered an FIR against gangsters Lawrence Bishnoi and Goldy Brar and another person after an e-mail threatening actor Salman Khan was received at his office in the city, an official said on Sunday.

The sender of the e-mail, written in Hindi, said: "Goldy Bhai (Goldy Brar) wanted to talk with Salman Khan face to face".

Apart from Bishnoi and Brar, the First Information Report, which was registered on Saturday, names one Rohit, the official said.

 Two groups belonging to different sects of the Jain community clashed over a long-standing dispute in Shirpur area of Maharashtra's Washim district on Sunday, police said.

According to police sources, Digamber and Shwetamber sects of the community have been in conflict over plastering of Antarishkji Parshwanath Maharaj temple in Shirpur.

There were lot of civil suits and petitions in the Bombay High Court and Supreme Court about the same.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will embark on a day's visit to poll-bound Karnataka on Monday to attend the 'Yuvakranti Samavesha' in Belagavi, the party said. In view of the Assembly elections due by May, the former Congress president will participate in the event at Belagavi in northern Karnataka, a party release said on Sunday.

A SWAT team of the Uttar Pradesh Police arrested six persons selling stolen petroleum products, an official said here on Sunday. The racketeers allegedly stole petrol and diesel from the refinery here and sold those to the public, they said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has visited the occupied port city of Mariupol, Russian state news agencies reported on Sunday, his first trip to the Ukrainian territory that Moscow illegally annexed in September.

An illegal arms factory was busted and three people were arrested after an encounter here, police said on Sunday. Acting on a tip-off regarding the manufacturing of illegal weapons, police on Saturday started a search operation in a jungle area in Dhaurera village, Superintendent of Police (city) Martand Prakash Singh said.

Four persons, three of them minors, were killed when an unidentified vehicle hit their motorcycle in Madhya Pradesh's Jhabua district, police said on Sunday. The accident took place at around 11 pm on Saturday at Umra Falia area in Mundat village, around 25 km from the district headquarters, Kalyanpura police station in-charge Kaushalya Chauhan told PTI.

Several shops were gutted as a major fire broke out in Assam's Kokrajhar district in the early hours of Sunday, police said. The fire in the Hauriapet area of Gossaigaon broke out around 4 am, they said.

Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Sunday embarked on a three-day visit to Karnataka attending a series of programmes starting from Sunday, the Congress party said. In view of the Assembly elections due by May, the Congress leader will participate in two programmes in Belagavi in North Karnataka and Kunigal in Tumakuru district.

Jharkhand reported for the first time two new cases of H3N2 influenza, besides five fresh cases of Covid, a health department official said on Sunday. A 68-year-old woman, who was admitted to Tata Main Hospital (TMH), Jamshedpur with symptoms of cold and fever on Thursday, tested positive for influenza virus H3N2 on Saturday, the official said.

A person was arrested with heroin worth Rs 2.2 crore in Aizawl, an Assam Rifles official said on Sunday.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said that her country's first cross-border oil pipeline with India will play a vital role in ensuring fuel security in Bangladesh at a time when the world was facing a serious energy crisis due to the Ukraine war.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday asserted that the BJP would be politically finished in the days to come, “just like the Congress”, for “misusing” central agencies against opposition parties.

A Special POCSO court here has sentenced a 22-year-old man to 20 years' rigorous imprisonment for abducting and raping a minor girl, a court official said on Sunday.

At least 17 people were killed and 30 injured when a speeding bus veered off the road and fell into a ditch in Bangladesh on Sunday, according to media reports. The Dhaka-bound bus operated by Emad Paribahan veered out of control on an expressway in Madaripur around 7.30 am, the police said.

A fire broke out at a film studio in Tollygunje area here on Sunday morning but there was no report of any casualty, officials said. A fire brigade official said three fire tenders rushed to the site at NT 1 Studio to control the blaze which broke out at around 6 am. "The fire was spotted at a godown in the compound of the studio at around 6 am but it did not spread to the shooting floors and nobody was in the godown at that moment

North Korea launched a short-range ballistic missile toward the sea on Sunday, its neighbours said, ramping up testing activities in response to US-South Korean military drills that it views as an invasion rehearsal. The missile launched from the North's northwestern region flew across the country before it landed in the waters off its east coast, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. It said South Korea's military has boosted its surveillance posture and maintains a readiness in close coordination with the United States. Japan's Defence Ministry said a suspected North Korean missile was launched on Sunday morning. It said the suspected weapon landed outside Japan's exclusive economic zone. There were no immediate reports of damage in the area.

Four Assam Civil Service (ACS) officers have been suspended for alleged financial irregularities in the execution of projects under the MP Local Area Development Fund, officials said. The CM's Special Vigilance Cell had carried out an inquiry into the allegations and detected "irregularities and anomalies" in the execution of works and utilisation of funds of Rajya Sabha MP Ajit Kumar Bhuyan for 2021-22 and 2022-23, they said. All the accused have been placed under immediate suspension, pending drawal of departmental proceedings, an official order said on Saturday. The suspended officers include the deputy secretary in the Home and Political Department, and the additional deputy commissioner and the assistant commissioner of Kamrup Metropolitan.

Six persons, including a child, were killed when the minivan they were travelling in collided with a lorry in this district early on Sunday, police said. A total of nine persons were travelling in the vehicle when the mishap occurred. Four men and a woman were the other deceased, police said, adding three injured persons have been admitted to a government hospital.

Ajay Kumar Lallu, former Uttar Pradesh Congress chief, has been sentenced to one-year imprisonment in a four-year-old defamation case. The two-time MLA from Kushinagar's Tamkuhi Raj constituency, was also slapped a fine of Rs 10,000 by the court of additional chief judicial magistrate, Ambrish Kumar Srivastava. Following the verdict, Lallu said, "I respect the court's order. I will challenge it in a higher court." The Congress leader was booked for making 'defamatory' remarks against Shrikant Sharma, who served as the energy minister during Yogi Adityanath's first term as chief minister. Lallu had accused Shrikant of being involved in the Dewan Housing Finance Corp Limited (DHFL) scam. Shrikant Sharma scrapped all accusations and demanded an apology from Lallu. Later, when the Congress leader did not take back his allegations, Sharma filed a defamation case. In its verdict, the court observed that the chief of a major political party should have exercised restraint and not made the allegation. The leader was not arrested and secured bail from the court.

'Ripper' Jayanandhan, a notorious criminal serving a life sentence, will be able to attend his daughter's wedding next week after Kerala High Court granted him parole, observing that conviction for a crime does not reduce a person into a non-human. The high court granted the relief to Jayanandhan, a dreaded killer lodged in a high-security prison in central Kerala's Thrissur district, on a plea filed by his wife. Jayananadhan is serving three life sentences at the central jail in Viyyur. He will be allowed to take part in the wedding ceremony at Thrissur's Vadakkumnathan Temple under heavy police surveillance on Wednesday. In her plea before the court, Jayanandhan's wife challenged the authorities' reluctance to grant relief to her husband to take part in the wedding. The couple have two daughters. The petitioner was represented by their lawyer daughter. "Since the wedding of a daughter is an auspicious occasion and the presence of the father of the bride at that solemn function is most appropriate, this court is of the view that petitioner's husband ought to be given parole for partaking in the wedding of his daughter," Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas said in the order. "For the purposes of the wedding functions, he is also permitted to visit his house on March 21, 2023, from 9 am till 5 pm and be returned back to the prison on the same day. He is also permitted to attend the wedding on March 22 again from 9 am to 5 pm," the order stated. The court observed that conviction for a crime does not reduce a person into a non-human.

Israelis on Saturday took to the streets in protests, now in their 11th week, against plans by Benjamin Netanyahu's hard-line government to overhaul the country's legal system. The protesters say the proposed changes undermine the country's democracy by restricting the power of the Supreme Court. Netanyahu and his allies say the plan is needed to curb what they claim are excessive powers of unelected judges. The main protest in the central city of Tel Aviv drew tens of thousands of people who waved Israeli flags and traffic sign banners that read "Dead End!" and "Risk Ahead!" Smaller protests were reported in other parts of the country. On Wednesday, Netanyahu swiftly rejected a compromise proposal by Israeli President Isaac Herzog to resolve the standoff, deepening the crisis over a program that has roiled the country and drawn international criticism. Israeli police deployed a water cannon to disperse protesters gathered at a main junction in Karkur, a town in northern Israel. A video obtained by The Associated Press showed the water cannon spraying at protesters as they chanted "Democracy," in Hebrew. It was not immediately clear if anyone was injured.

Eight people, including two children, suffered injuries after two cars crashed on the Yamuna Expressway in Greater Noida on Saturday night, police said. Both the cars were on the carriageway from Agra to Noida when the accident took place around 9.30 pm, a police spokesperson said. "The accident took place on the Yamuna Expressway under the Dankaur police station limits, leading to injuries to eight passengers who were onboard the two cars. The injured were later sent to hospital in an ambulance," the spokesperson said.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador held a massive rally in Mexico City's main plaza attended by tens of thousands of people Saturday. Though it was called to commemorate Mexico's 1938 expropriation of the oil industry, many of those attending the Saturday rally agreed that it was the de-facto opening salvo to the 2024 elections that will choose the president's successor. It may be one of the last rallies that will be headed by López Obrador, who is known for his folksy style and charisma. The process to nominate a presidential candidate for his Morena party will begin later this year. After that, the party's candidate is likely to take centre stage. But most agree that few of the presidential hopefuls can match the popularity of a president whose approval ratings are routinely above 60 per cent. That is especially true for the Morena party, which was largely built around López Obrador.

A strong earthquake shook southern Ecuador and northern Peru on Saturday, killing at least 14 people, trapping others under rubble, and sending rescue teams out into streets littered with debris and fallen power lines. The U.S. Geological Survey reported an earthquake with a magnitude of about 6.8 that was centred just off the Pacific Coast, about 50 miles (80 kilometres) south of Guayaquil, Ecuador's second-largest city. One of the victims died in Peru, while 13 others died in Ecuador, where authorities also reported that at least 126 people were injured. Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso told reporters the earthquake had "without a doubt ... generated alarm in the population." Lasso's office in a statement said 11 of the victims died in the coastal state of El Oro and two in the highlands state of Azuay. In Peru, the earthquake was felt from its northern border with Ecuador to the central Pacific coast. Peruvian Prime Minister Alberto Otárola said a 4-year-old girl died from head trauma she suffered in the collapse of her home in the Tumbes region, on the border with Ecuador. One of the victims in Azuay was a passenger in a vehicle crushed by rubble from a house in the Andean community of Cuenca, according to the Risk Management Secretariat, Ecuador's emergency response agency. In El Oro, the agency also reported that several people were trapped under rubble. In the community of Machala, a two-story home collapsed before people could evacuate, a pier gave way and a building's walls cracked, trapping an unknown number of people.