Breaking News, April 22 | LIVE UPDATES

The relations between India and Cambodia, especially in trade, are yet to reach their full potential, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla said on Friday.

A special NIA court in Ernakulam, Kerala, awarded three-year rigorous imprisonment to a man accused in the ISIS-Omar Al-Hind module case.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday chaired a National Security Committee (NSC) meeting to discuss the alleged 'threat letter', media reports said.

A Class 12 question paper of Rajasthan Board has gone viral on social media, creating an uproar, as a few questions asked in the paper were reportedly aimed at 'glorifying' the Congress.

A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator from Karnataka's Udupi on Friday termed the attempt of two girl students to attend the Class 12 exams wearing hijab as a deliberate attempt to seek media attention.

The Delhi government on Friday evening reimposed the fine of Rs 500 for not wearing the mask in public places with immediate effect amid rising Covid cases in the city. 

The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear on Monday a plea in connection with the removal of 'jhuggis' in the Sarojini Nagar in the national capital.

A sessions court here on Friday sentenced a 32-year-old man to life imprisonment for murdering his elder sister four years ago.

Terrorists fired upon two outside laborers in Nowgam area, on the outskirts of Srinagar City. Both of them have been shifted to hospital. Area cordoned off, search going on.

The National Green Tribunal has directed the authorities to strictly follow the Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2017 for the protection of the Surajpur wetland in Uttar Pradesh's Greater Noida.

Amid RJD supremo Lalu Prasad getting bail from the Jharkhand High Court, another big political development is expected in Patna on Friday evening.

At least 10 tourists were injured in a head-on collision between a bus carrying tourists and a truck in Jharkhand's Deoghar district on Friday, police said.

Amid a surge in Covid-19 cases and laxity among people in following the health protocol, the Tamil Nadu government on Friday re-introduced levying penalty on those who don't wear a face mask and directed officials of the departments concerned to ensure that the rule was strictly followed across the State.

Visitors to Thailand who are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus will no longer need to undergo any test or quarantine on arrival starting May 1, a measure the authorities hope will help rejuvenate the country's lucrative tourism industry.

After rallying in two consecutive sessions in a row, equity benchmark indices traded lower on Friday. At 9.47 a.m., Sensex was at 57,392 points, down 520 points or 0.90 percent, whereas Nifty at 17,230 points was down 162 points or 0.93 percent.

Among the stocks, Hindalco, Eicher Motors, Dr. Reddy's, SBI, and HDFC Life were the top five losers among the Nifty 50 companies, declining 3.6 percent, 2.3 percent, 2.2 percent, 2.1 percent, and 2.1 percent, respectively. On the contrary, Adani Ports, HCL Technologies, ONGC, Tech Mahindra, and Coal India were the top five gainers.

An Antonov AN-26 transport plane, which was carrying out a technical flight, crashed in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhya region on Friday, authorities said, adding there were casualties.

Authorities in Shanghai have said they will tighten the enforcement of lockdown measures, as the surge in Covid cases continues in China's financial capital, BBC reported.

The Karnataka government is all set to strictly implement the law in connection with Azaan. The move is likely to add to the existing social unrest in the state.

Two Ukrainians, who illegally entered India, were detained by Government Railway Police (GRP) at Badarpur in Assam's Karimganj district, officials said on Friday.

The Jharkhand High Court on Friday granted bail to Rashtriya Janta Dal(RJD) chief Lalu Prasad in connection with a fodder scam case relating to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 139.5 crore from the Doranda treasury in undivided Bihar.

As many as 15 inmates deliberately injured themselves at the Tihar Jail in the national capital, an official said on Friday.

Two persons sustained minor injuries after a security guard posted at Rohini Court fired a shot on the ground to stop a fight between three people outside the Court premises in the national capital on Friday morning.

A man was killed in celebratory firing during a marriage ceremony in Pipri Bhawanipur village, police said on Friday. Sheshmani Pandey (59) died in the incident that happened on Thursday night, they said. He got injured during the celebratory firing when he along with other family members was going to the village to attend Shailendra Pandey’s ‘tilak’ ceremony, police said. Sheshmani later succumbed to injuries during treatment, Circle Officer (CO) Jaisinghpur KK Saroj said.

Primary and Upper Primary schools in West Bengal are finding it difficult to serve midday meal to students due to hike in prices of essential commodities, according to authorities of different schools in districts. The Bengal Primary Teachers' Association has drawn the attention of the School Education Department to the issue and demanded the present midday meal allocation of Rs 4.97 for every student at primary level and Rs 7.45 for every student at upper primary level be raised so that the midday meal menu is not tinkered with for the children and their nutritional aspects are not compromised.

Officials in Shanghai promised Friday to ease anti-virus controls on truck drivers that are hampering food supplies and trade as they try to revive the local economy while millions of people are still confined to their homes. A deputy mayor, Zhang Wei, promised “every effort” to resolve problems that prompted complaints about lack of access to food and fears that the shutdown, which confined most of Shanghai's 25 million people to their homes, might disrupt global trade. On Friday, the government reported 11 coronavirus deaths and 17,529 new cases in Shanghai.

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Friday said that in order to tide over the current load shedding crisis in the state, the government has decided to import coal to some extent from outside the country for power generation. He also said that efforts were on to get one coal mine in Chhattisgarh allocated to the power department in Maharashtra. Speaking to reporters, Pawar said the supply of coal was not being done in the country the way it should be.

The second-year pre-university examinations started in Karnataka on Friday amid tight security and in the shadow of the hijab row. Over 6.84 lakh students will write the exam at 1,076 centres across the state. The exams will go on till May 18. As there is a ban on hijab or any cloth linked to religious identity, the authorities made arrangements at exam centres for the Muslim girls to remove their head scarves before entering the exam halls.

Delhi Congress vice-president Abhishek Dutt's SUV car was stolen from near his residence in the Jangpura Extension area here on Friday morning, officials said. In a tweet, he said his white colour Haryana number Toyota Fortuner car got stolen this morning. A senior police officer said that a case has been registered and legal action is being initiated.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that Earth Day is about expressing gratitude to "Mother Earth" for her kindness and reiterating one's commitment to care for the planet. Earth Day is observed on April 22 every year to raise awareness about the need to protect the environment. Modi also posted a clip of his past remarks about India's traditional regard for the environment. In the clip, he said it is the responsibility of every generation to conserve the environment.

Shanghai has extended the COVID-19 lockdown to April 26, amid reports of growing public resentment as the eastern metropolis of 26 million reported 11 more deaths on Thursday, taking the toll in the current outbreak to 36. China on Thursday reported 2,119 locally transmitted confirmed COVID-19 cases, of which 1,931 were reported in Shanghai, according to the National Health Commission. Shanghai has added 17,629 new cases in the previous 24 hours, 4.7 per cent fewer than a day earlier, according to data released on Friday, taking the city’s cumulative cases since March 1 to 443,500.

A 16-year-old girl was allegedly raped by four people in Alwar district of Rajasthan, police said on Thursday. The incident took place near the girl's house on Tuesday night, according to police. The father of the victim lodged a complaint on Wednesday. One of the accused is believed to be a minor while the other three are yet to be identified, Station House Officer (SHO) Narayanpur Ajay Singh said.

The leaders of the rival Koreas exchanged letters expressing hope for improved bilateral relations, which plummeted in the past three years amid a freeze in nuclear negotiations and North Korea's accelerating weapons development. North Korea's state media said leader Kim Jong Un on Wednesday received a personal letter from outgoing South Korean President Moon Jae-in and replied on Thursday with his own letter appreciating Moon's peace efforts during his term.

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New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy has appointed eminent Indian-American physician Nimisha Shukla to the State Board of Medical Examiners, a media release said on Thursday. This is the first time an Indian-American physician will be serving on NJ Medical Board of Examiners under the Murphy administration.

An Indian doctor in Abu Dhabi has performed the first paediatric stem cell bone marrow transplant in the UAE, the hospital where it was performed has announced. The highly advanced allogeneic procedure was successfully carried out on a five-year-old girl from Uganda with sickle cell disease by Dr Zainul Aabideen, Head of the Department of Paediatric Hematology and Oncology at Burjeel Medical City. According to a statement released here, the procedure, conducted at the 400-bed multi-specialty hospital's Bone Marrow Transplant Unit, is the very first paediatric treatment of its kind to be performed in the country.

A UK patient with a severely weakened immune system had COVID-19 for almost a year and a half, scientists reported, underscoring the importance of protecting vulnerable people from the coronavirus. There's no way to know for sure whether it was the longest-lasting COVID-19 infection because not everyone gets tested, especially on a regular basis like this case. But at 505 days, “it certainly seems to be the longest reported infection," said Dr Luke Blagdon Snell, an infectious disease expert at the Guy's and St.
Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust.

Two farmers were killed and one sustained grievous injuries when a sloth bear attacked them in Jharkhand's Gumla district on Thursday, police said. The three members, belonging to a family, were engaged in ploughing their paddy fields in the morning when the animal attacked them at Ambera Nagesiatoli village under the jurisdiction of Karanj police station in Bharno block, a senior officer said. Fifty-six-year-old Lalit Kishan died on the spot, Subhash Kishan (25) and Mangleshwar Kishan (35) sustained grievous injuries after the wild animal pounced on them suddenly. The injured were rushed to Sisai Referral Hospital for primary treatment before they were referred to Rajendra Institute of Medical Science (RIMS), Ranchi.

The Krishna District Police in Andhra Pradesh have arrested 25 people and seized from them over 900 litres of illicit liquor, officials said on Thursday. Superintendent of Police Siddharth Kaushal said 23,000 litres of black jaggery wash has been destroyed and 40 cases have been filed in three days. Police forces conducted a massive search operation in Machilipatnam rural and Pedana rural areas and seized illicit liquor and destroyed jaggery wash, he said.

The Shahjahanpur district administration on Thursday attached properties worth Rs 22 Lakh of an alleged loan shark. The accused is in jail on charges of abetment to suicide after a family of four killed themselves over alleged harassment by loan mafia. Two residential plots of Sushil Gupta, valuing about Rs 22 lakh, were attached. A notice regarding the same has also been pasted there, Superintendent of Police Sanjay Kumar told PTI. Properties of another loan shark Avinash Bajpai will be attached on Saturday, district officials said.

An encounter broke out between terrorists and security forces following a search operation in a locality on the outskirts of Jammu on Friday, officials said. The encounter in Sunjawan took place amid heightened security arrangements in Jammu and Kashmir, two days ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s scheduled visit to Samba district. Additional Director General of Police of Jammu Mukesh Singh said the encounter started when the police's Special Operations Group and the CRPF launched a joint search operation in the area.