Breaking News, February 27

The Customs officials on Sunday said an Indian woman at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport has been arrested for smuggling gold valued at Rs 33 lakh.A Customs official said the woman had arrived at the IGI on February 25. She was intercepted on suspicion and her luggage was checked.

India's rupee is expected to weaken on the back of geo-economic pressures unleashed by the ongoing hostilities between Russia and Ukraine. Higher prices of global crude oil, gold and other commodities is likely to weaken the rupee.

An active terrorist of proscribed terror outfit LeT was arrested by J&K Police in Anantnag district, officials said on Sunday. Police said during that surprise checking, movement of a suspicious person was noticed, and he was apprehended by the alert police party. He has been identified as Shahid Thoker, resident of Nossipora Keegam, Shopian. Incriminating materials and a pistol was recovered from his possession.

Political consultant and strategist Prashant Kishor appears to have started the ground work to prepare a strategy for Telangana's ruling party TRS for the next year's Assembly election. He, along with actor-politician Prakash Raj, visited the Mallanna Sagar reservoir in Siddipet district on Sunday.

With focus on implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) and Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen), Union Minister of Jal Shakti Gajendra Singh Shekhawat will chair a regional conference of ministers of the north east tates on Monday in Guwahati. In a statement, the Ministry of Jal Shakti said that the Union Minister will be setting the roadmap for the north east States, keeping in line with the guidance received from Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the Webinar on 'Post Union Budget 2022 - Leaving No Citizen Behind', held on February 23.

Graduates and postgraduate farmers from Kangra district in Himachal Pradesh, who have adopted Subhash Palekar Natural Farming (SPNF) technique, converged near here on Sunday at a workshop organized by Prakritik Kheti Khushhal Kisan Yojana (PK3Y) for young entrepreneurs in natural farming. The workshop, which was presided over by Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar, was attended by a good number of young women farmers among others. The farmers shared experiences in natural farming, the need-based innovations on their farm and the challenges in it before the Governor, who was impressed with their zeal to shift to non-chemical farming.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has allowed trailers to have a maximum of three decks to transport two wheelers, with the load body not projecting over the driver's cabin. According to the ministry, the move will enhance the carriage capacity of two wheelers by 40-50 per cent.

Nigeria's anti-drug agency said on Saturday that it had arrested a major female drug kingpin and six other suspects, recovering 5,862 kg of assorted illicit drugs including codeine in Lagos, the country's economic hub. In a press statement, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency said anti-narcotic officers stormed the Gambari street base of the drug kingpin where they arrested her and six of her accomplices at 9.30 a.m. local time on Saturday, Xinhua news agency reported.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Sunday said that they have filed a supplimentary charge sheet against three persons in connection with a case of conspiracy for extortion and disruption of government work at Tetariyakhad Colliery in Jharkhand The supplementary charge sheet was filed on Saturday before a special court in Ranchi against Saif Ansari, Shahrukh Ansari and Ajay Turi under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, the Arms Act, the Explosive Substance Act, the CLA Act, and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

People infected with the highly contagious Omicron variant of Covid are less likely to contract BA.2 subvariant, according to a study. Omicron, which has rapidly spread worldwide, carries numerous mutations in key regions and is associated with increased transmissibility and immune escape.

Though there were sporadic incidents of violence, brisk polling was recorded in 108 municipalities spread over 21 districts across West Bengal in the crucial civic body elections on Sunday. According to the latest information, 65 per cent polling was recorded till 3 p.m. The voting started at 7 a.m. and will conclude at 5 p.m.. Early visuals from the polling booths showed long queues as people turned up to exercise their franchise. The voting is being held for 2,171 wards of the 108 municipalities and the counting of votes will take place on March 2. Over 95.6 lakh voters will be deciding the fate of 8,160 candidates.

A house collapsed in Chikkaballapur district of Karnataka on Sunday morning following the explosion in an LPG cylinder. The couple residing in the house suffered serious injuries and they have been moved to the hospital. Their condition is said to be serious. According to the police, the couple had not noticed the leakage from the cylinder and when they turned on the switch in the house, the gas cylinder exloded causing fire which engulfed the entire house.

Thousands of children aged up to five years in both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh were Sunday administered polio oral drops as part of the national intensified pulse polio campaign. Ministers, legislators, other public representatives, and officials inaugurated the four-day drive in both the Telugu states. Health authorities have drawn plans to cover over 35 lakh children in Telangana and nearly 53 lakh children in Andhra Pradesh during the special drive.

Police in Pakistan's east Punjab province have arrested four terrorists in separate operations in the provincial city of Lahore, sources said. The counter-terrorism department of the province's police force launched the operations after getting on intelligence inputs regarding the presence of high-profile terrorists in their sleeper cells in the city, Xinhua news agency reported. The terrorists were arrested on Saturday from their hideouts, and arms and ammunition were also seized, the sources told Xinhua news agency.

The Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) has arrested another member of the human trafficking gang, busted on July 27, 2021. ADG, ATS, Gajendra Goswami said that the accused, identified as Rafiq a.k.a Rafi-ul-Islam of Bahadurpura Kamila in Hyderabad, was arrested from Charbagh area. "Rafiq was born in a Rohingiya camp and his parents were natives of Myanmar. Rafiq was brought up by his uncle Maqsood Ali and had shifted with him to India by crossing the border. He started living in Nadia district of West Bengal. Rafiq later moved to Delhi and then to Mewat, where he got a fake Aadhaar card made and started working at a factory," said the ADG. Rafiq had come to Lucknow to help one Ismail in court hearing, but the latter was not brought to the court on February 25. Rafiq took shelter at Charbagh railway station for the night and planned to meet Ismail in jail but the ATS team nabbed him, the official added.

A pilgrim from Delhi, on way to Haridwar, was killed while three others sustained injuries after a car rammed into their motorcycles in Budhana police station area. The deceased has been identified as Sanjiv, a resident of Mohammadpur in Delhi. His friends Manoj, Ankit and Rohit, who sustained injuries, are receiving treatment in a hospital, the police said. The four men were travelling on two motorcycles from Delhi to Haridwar in Uttarakhand to collect Ganga water on the occasion of Maha Shivaratri. When they neared the check post on the Budhana-Badaut road, a speeding car rammed into their vehicles, the police said. A case has been registered against the driver.

A ragpicker was killed in a suspected chemical explosion at a garbage dump on the outskirts of Hyderabad on Sunday, police said. The incident took place in Mylardevpalli in Rangareddy district. A woman along with her husband was picking something from a garbage dump in Anand Nagar industrial area when an explosion occurred. The woman identified as Sushilamma died on the spot while her husband Rangamuni was injured. Senior police officials of Cyberabad police commissionerate rushed to the scene. Some chemical substance is suspected to have exploded when the couple was picking it from garbage. Deputy Commissioner of Police Jagdishwar Reddy said they were probing the cause of the explosion. The city has seen similar incidents in the past. In 2019, a rapicker was killed when a bag he tried to open exploded. The chemical explosion had occurred on a footpath under PVNR Expressway.

A court in Maharashtra's Palghar has sentenced a 25-year-old man to life imprisonment for raping a seven-year-old girl and attempting to kill her in 2017, observing that the crime was "heinous in nature". Special POCSO court judge Aditee U Kadam in her order pronounced on Friday, a copy of it was made available on Saturday, also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on the accused and directed that the victim be provided compensation through the district legal services authority (DLSA). Special Public Prosecutor Jaiprakash Patil told the court that on December 9, 2017, when the victim had gone to her maternal grandmother's house in Vasai area of Palghar, the accused took her to a fort and raped her. The man later pushed the girl into a well and hit her with a huge stone. The accused was subsequently charged under relevant provisions, including sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, the prosecutor said.

Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) has decided to offer buses on hire for devotees visiting Shiva temples on Mahashivratri festival. For a group of 30 or more passengers, state-owned TSRTC will offer bus services from their residences or colonies to Shiva temples in Telangana and neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. TSRTC Vice Chairman and Managing Director V. C. Sajjanar said devotees can book buses through TSRTC call centre 040-30102829/68153333 or they can contact nearest bus depot managers or bus station managers for booking the buses. "Devotees can utiliSe this offer to have safe and happy journey together with their near and dear family members to various Shiva temple shrines in TSRTC buses during their festive season," he said. While TSRTC offer special buses on the occasion of Dassara and Sankranti every year, this is the first time that it is offering to operate buses on hire during Mahashivratri festival. This is seen as another move by the TSRTC to increase its revenues and overcome the losses. Last month, the TSRTC had operated over 4,000 special buses from Hyderabad to various destinations in both the Telugu states for Sankranti festival. The state-owned transport body had also operated 3,845 buses for Medaram Jatara, Asia's biggest tribal festival held in Telanagana's Mulugu district from February 16 to 19. TSRTC is also operating special buses for the public visiting 'Numaish', the popular trade fair in Hyderabad. 'Numaish', which had to be shut a day after opening on January 1 due to surge in Covid cases, resumed on February 25.

A 33-year-old builder was shot dead allegedly by two unidentified persons in Maharashtra, police said on Sunday. The incident, which took place on Saturday afternoon, was apparently the fallout of an old dispute between the victim, Samay Chouhan, and some other persons, a police official said. The victim was standing near a supermarket at Manvelpada in Virar area when two scooter-borne persons came near him and fired some four rounds at him. The victim collapsed and died on the spot, he said. Officials from the Mira-Bhayander Vasai-Virar police commissionerate rushed to the spot and the body was sen to a government hospital for postmortem. The police have registered a case under relevant provisions against nine people, including a former corporator of the Vasai Virar Municipal Corporation, the official said. No arrest has been made so far, he said, adding that the police have formed several teams to trace the assailants.

Four villagers have been arrested for hunting a blackbuck in Tindwari forest area of Banda district. The accused had set a trap in the field in Ghazni village here. On a specific tip-off, the forest department team raided the spot along with the police and arrested four people. A case has been registered against them under the Wildlife Protection Act. Station house officer (SHO) Arjun Singh said one Ram Ratan Nishad, a resident of Benda Ghat Laha Kyotra Dera, was hunting blackbuck deer by setting a trap in the Ghazni village, along with one Balvier, Ramkesh and one other. They were arrested from the spot. The forest department team also recovered the net, axe and carcass of a deer from the spot. The SHO said that a case has been registered against all the four on the basis of the complaint of the ranger of the forest department. "There are about 600 blackbuck deer in the Tindwari area. It is a protected animal. Their hunting is prohibited. A case has been filed against the poachers under the Wildlife Protection Act 1972. It carries a provision of imprisonment of up to seven years," said Sanjeev Kumar Agarwal, Divisional Forest Officer, Banda.

A massive fire broke out in a chemical factory in Ahmedabad on Sunday, but there was no report of any casualty, officials said. After the unit located in Santej area caught fire, some blasts occurred due to chemical barrels stored there which further escalated the blaze, a fire department official said. The fire brigade received a call at around 2 am about the fire in the factory which manufactures solvent-based adhesives. The flames spread fast due to highly inflammable chemicals stored in the unit, he said. Eighteen fire tenders were rushed to the spot along with a remote-controlled fire robot that is used for areas where working manually is not possible, he said "The fire had grown massive when we reached the spot. We have been able to control the blaze, barring some parts which are still burning due to the collapse of shed on them. There is no casualty," the official said. The cause of the fire is not yet known, he said.

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The discussions on the sale of 30 Predator armed drones by the US to India, the first to a non-NATO ally, at an estimated cost of USD 3 billion are at an advanced stage, multiple sources have confirmed. The major defence deal was announced under the previous Trump administration during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the White House in 2017. Thereafter, the two countries have intensified the discussions and increased the number of such drones to be sold to India from 10 to 30 -- 10 each for Navy, Air Force and Army. Governmental sources said the Predator/MQ9B acquisition program of 30 aircraft is at an advanced stage of discussion between the Indian and US governments. "It is a capability that operationalises the Major Defence Partner status that has been worked on for several years through the various foundational agreements and India's insertion into the MTCR. India will be the first non-NATO partner to receive this capability," the sources told news agency PTI.

The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) on Saturday expressed deep concern at the continued police repression against farmers in Birbhum in West Bengal and Dhinkia in Odisha, who, they said were protesting the land acquisition for coal mining and industry, respectively, without due process. The Morcha also expressed anguish as large number of farmers continued to languish in West Bengal jails. When the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), a consortium of farmers that had agitated for more than a year to successfully repeal the three farm laws last year, had come out in support of the farmers in West Bengal, condemning the police repression in Deocha-Panchami-Harinsingha-Dewanganj area of Birbhum district, it was followed by the West Bengal Chief Minister on February 23 announcing that the farmers and cattle & small ruminant keepers shall not be ousted from their farm and pasture lands and they will receive land-for-land. "However, so far, details of the land-for-land announcement are not available in the public domain. If local farmers accept this proposal through a process clearly laid down in the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, it can pave the way for resolution," the SKM said in a statement.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday held a telephonic conversation with his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock on the crisis in Ukraine. "Appreciate the telephonic discussion today with FM @ABaerbock of Germany on the Ukraine situation. Shared our perspectives and agreed to stay in touch," Jaishankar tweeted. The conversation came amid a deteriorating situation in Ukraine with Russian forces closing in on the country's capital Kyiv and targeting several other key cities by land and air.

Two persons, including a minor, were killed and five others suffered injuries after a mortar accidentally exploded in Manipur’s Churachandpur district on Saturday, police said. The incident took place around 7.30 pm at Mualkawi village when a few children were playing with the mortar they had found nearby, a police officer said. The deceased have been identified as 6-year-old Mangminlal and Langginsang (22). The injured are undergoing treatment in hospitals, the officer added.

The mortal remains of former Odisha chief minister and veteran Congress leader Hemananda Biswal was Saturday consigned to flames with full state honours at his native village in Jharsuguda district. The 82-year-old prominent tribal leader, who passed away during treatment for pneumonia at a hospital in Bhubaneswar on Friday, was carried to his native Thakurpada village, where his nephew Dinesh Biswal lit the funeral pyre as the district police offered gun salute. Earlier in the day, the state's first tribal chief minister's mortal remains were taken to the assembly, where legislators paid floral tributes to the departed soul.

The National Progressive Schools' Conference on Saturday wrote to Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal requesting opening of schools in Delhi from Wednesday. According to the letter, the association of schools said children from nursery to class 8 have a huge learning gap. "We are grateful for your intervention for the unconditional reopening of schools. However, the clause of reopening from April 1 seems to be a cause of concern. "Children from nursery to class VIII have huge learning gap as we are observing them. In March we could have focused our efforts to bridge that gap so that children would have been ready for the next grade in April," the letter stated. Teachers are also overburdened with online and offline teaching and assessment, it said.