Breaking News, June 15

Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath on Wednesday accused the BJP-led NDA government of misusing central agencies and turning them into "instrument of politics".

Two National Students' Union of India (NSUI) workers climbed a water tank on Wednesday in Delhi to protest the Enforcement Directorate probe against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald money laundering case.

Several students were injured when a school bus met with an accident in Shopian district of Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday. 

The ruling BJP and opposition Congress registered victory in one teachers' constituency each in the biennial election to the Karnataka Legislative Council for which results were declared on Wednesday, while counting of votes is underway for two graduates' seats in which both national parties are leading in one each.

Alleging that the democratic rights of voters were snatched by the ruling BJP and its ally during the latest elections to panchayats and civic bodies in Tripura, former chief minister and CPI(M) leader Manik Sarkar on Wednesday appealed to people to exercise their franchise "fearlessly" in the upcoming bypolls.

Five people were injured after being run over by a speeding water tanker in a busy market in southeast Delhi's Badarpur area, police said on Wednesday.

The Prayagraj police have issued posters of 59 people, allegedly involved in the June 10 violence, which will be put up on roadsides and public places so that they could be identified and arrested, officials said on Wednesday. The posters will also be circulated on social media platforms, they said.

The Kerala government on Wednesday decided to include nine more communities in the state OBC list.

The rupee plunged 13 paise to close at a fresh all-time low of 78.17 (provisional) against the US dollar on Wednesday, as a lacklustre trend in domestic equities and persistent foreign fund outflows weighed on investor sentiments. At the interbank foreign exchange market, the local currency opened at 77.99 and finally settled at its all-time low of 78.17, down 13 paise over its previous close of 78.04.

Seven earthquakes struck off Iran's southern Kish Island on Wednesday, rattling Dubai and other areas across the Persian Gulf. The U.S. Geological Survey said six magnitude 4 temblors struck, as well as one magnitude 5.3 off the island near the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

Karnataka Primary and Secondary Education Minister B C Nagesh on Wednesday clarified that neither the state nor the central government has issued any directions regarding selecting Hindi-speaking students for the 'Azadi Ka Amrut Mahotsav' tour programme.

Equities ended lower for the fourth straight day on Wednesday, with the Sensex falling 152 points in volatile trade amid mixed global cues and unabated foreign capital outflows.

An FIR was registered against a Congress leader from Nagpur in Maharashtra for allegedly making derogatory remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a demonstration held near the Enforcement Directorate's office. 

The Income Tax Department has notified the cost inflation index for the current fiscal to calculate long-term capital gains arising from the sale of immovable property, securities and jewellery. The cost inflation index (CII) is used by a taxpayer to compute gains arising out of the sale of capital assets after adjusting for inflation. The Cost Inflation Index for FY 2022-23 relevant to AY 2023-24 is 331.

Over 450 people were booked in a day for drunken driving across Noida and Greater Noida in Gautam Buddh Nagar district of Uttar Pradesh, police said on Wednesday. The action was taken on Tuesday evening during an inspection in all three police zones - Noida, central Noida and Greater Noida - of the district, they said. As many as 455 people -- 181 people in Noida, 224 in central Noida and 50 in Greater Noida - were issued challans for drunken driving, police said. "As per the instructions of Police Commissioner Alok Singh, the DCPs of all zones, the additional DCPs, ACPs and police station in-charges carried out foot marches in their respective areas, inspecting busy areas like metro stations, malls, markets, and other crowded places," a police spokesperson said.

Hundreds of Congress workers continued to stage protests at different locations in the national capital over their leader Rahul Gandhi being summoned by the Enforcement Directorate for the third consecutive day on Wednesday. The sloganeering and massive protest began soon after Gandhi reached the ED office located at the Abdul Kalam road in the city. There was heavy police deployment in and around the Congress headquarters and the Enforcement Directorate office. The police personnel in heavy numbers, along with paramilitary force and rapid action force teams were deployed at several points to avoid any untoward incident.

Heavy rain in China has claimed six lives this week and forced the evacuation of some 200,000 people. Five people died in southeastern China, according to state media reports: A house collapse took three lives in Fujian province on Tuesday, and two died Monday in a landslide caused by torrential rain in neighboring Jiangxi province. One person died and three are missing in northern China after a vehicle fell into the water in mountain flooding from heavy rain in the Inner Mongolia region. China regularly experiences seasonal rains and flooding during the summer, most frequently in central and southern areas.

A factory manufacturing duplicate 'Surf Excel' detergent powder was busted in Uttar Pradesh's Greater Noida and one person was arrested in connection with the case, the police said on Wednesday. The unit, located in the Site-5 area of Greater Noida, was busted by the Kasna police on Tuesday, they said. Over 10,000 sachets of 80-gm weight having the label of Hindustan Unilever's Surf Excel brand and more than 32,000 unprinted sachets of the same size, besides 50 kg of raw material and a similar amount of a chemical was seized from the spot, officials said.

Two minors were taken into custody for objectionable post on social media that sparked tension at Kumardhubi, about 46 km from Dhanbad town, police said on Wednesday. The minors allegedly posted objectionable post against a particular community on social media on Tuesday that went viral leading to tension in the area under the jurisdiction of Kumardhubi police station, Nirsa Sub-Divisional Police Officer, Pitamber Singh Khawar said. Kumardhubi police took swift action to control the situation by taking both the minors into custody on Tuesday night for interrogation and assured the agitating people to take legal action against them, the SDPO said.

Three earthquakes struck off Iran's southern Kish Island on Wednesday, rattling Dubai and other areas across the Persian Gulf. The US Geological Survey said two magnitude 4.7 temblors struck, followed by a 5.3 off the island near the strategic Strait of Hormuz. Iran reported no immediate damage from the quakes. Iran lies on major seismic faults and experiences one earthquake a day on average. In 2003, a magnitude 6.6 earthquake flattened the historic city of Bam, killing 26,000 people. A magnitude 7 earthquake that struck western Iran in 2017 killed more than 600 people and injured more than 9,000. 

The Election Commission of India on Wednesday raised a preliminary objection to a petition filed by Maharashtra Shiv Sena MLA Suhas Kande against the ECI's decision declaring his vote cast in the last week's Rajya Sabha elections as invalid. The ECI's decision had come after the BJP alleged that he violated the voting process. Kande, in his petition filed through advocate Ajinkya Udane, said the ECI's decision discharging his vote has caused grave prejudice to his dignity and reputation, and sought that the HC quash and set aside the ECI's decision.

Former India captain and BCCI Apex Council member Shantha Rangaswamy on Wednesday lauded the cricket board and its secretary Jay Shah for increasing the pension of former Test and first-class players along with retired umpires. BCCI has doubled the pension of former first-class and Test cricketers with those earning Rs 15,000 going up to Rs 30,000 and those with Rs 37,500 being upgraded to Rs 60,000 bracket. Those who received Rs 50,000 will get Rs 70,000 from now on.

In a major political development in Bihar, the ruling Janata Dal (United) on Tuesday (June 14) expelled its spokesperson Ajay Alok from the primary membership of the party. Besides Ajay Alok, JD(U) has also suspended state general secretaries Anil Kumar and Vipin Kumar Yadav from primary membership. "Party's state general secretaries Anil Kumar and Vipin Yadav and spokesperson Ajay Alok are relieved of their posts and suspended from party's primary membership. Party leader Jitendra Neeraj is also being suspended from the primary membership of the party. 

The CBI has summoned Trinamool Congress MLA Saokat Molla for questioning in a case of alleged coal theft from the mines of the Eastern Coalfields Ltd in West Bengal, officials said on Wednesday. The CBI asked Molla, an MLA from Canning Purba constituency, to appear for questioning at its office in Kolkata on Wednesday to answer questions pertaining to alleged theft and payments made thereof, they said. A team of the central investigating agency had interrogated Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee's wife at their residence for over seven hours on Tuesday in connection with the alleged coal pilferage scam.

The Union Cabinet has approved the modalities for holding 5G spectrum auctions, and 72097.85 MHz of radio waves will be put on the block by July-end, an official release said on Wednesday. The Cabinet also decided to enable the development and setting up of 'Private Captive Networks' to spur a wave of innovation in new-age industry applications such as machine-to-machine communications, Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI) across automotive, healthcare, agriculture, energy, and other sectors. "The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved a proposal of the Department of Telecommunications to conduct spectrum auction through which spectrum will be assigned to the successful bidders for providing 5G services to public and enterprises," the release said. A total of 72097.85 MHz of spectrum with a validity period of 20 years will be put to auction to be held by the end of July, 2022.

Customs officials at the Mangaluru International Airport (MIA) have seized 2.468 kg of gold worth Rs 1.36 crore from two passengers in separate incidents on Tuesday. A customs release said here on Wednesday that the two separate smuggling attempt cases involved passengers who arrived here from Dubai. In the first case, customs officers seized 1.684 kg of 24 carat purity gold valued at Rs 86.89 lakh. The rectangular shaped gold bar was concealed in undergarments and sanitary pad worn by a female passenger who arrived from Dubai. In the second case, customs officers seized 964 gm of 24 carat purity gold valued at Rs 49.74 lakh from a passenger arriving from Dubai. The gold was attempted to be smuggled through body concealment in four oval shaped objects concealed in powder form, the release said. 

The rupee opened on a flat note and inched higher by 5 paise to 77.99 against the US dollar in opening trade on Wednesday. Forex traders said lacklustre domestic markets, elevated crude oil prices and persistent foreign capital outflows weighed on the local unit. At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 77.99 against the dollar, registering a rise of 5 paise over its previous close. On Tuesday, the rupee had closed at its lifetime low of 78.04 against the US dollar.

Two persons, including a man said to be Uttarakhand BJP president Madan Kaushik's media in-charge or PRO, have been booked here for cheating a former gram pradhan of lakhs of rupees after promising to give jobs to his son and nephew, police said on Wednesday. According to the FIR lodged in the case at Bhagwanpur police station here, Sanjeev Sharma and Pintu Sharma, who is said to be Kaushik's media in-charge, took Rs 7 lakh (4.5 lakh in cash and 2.5 lakh through bank deposit) from former gram pradhan of Sartheri village Dharmapal Singh promising to give jobs to his son and nephew.

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Punjab Police brought gangster Lawrence Bishnoi under heavy security to the state from Delhi in the early hours of Wednesday to question him in the singer Sidhu Moosewala murder case. Bishnoi was produced before a court in Mansa district which remanded him to seven-day police custody, sources said. A Delhi court on Tuesday granted Punjab Police the transit remand of Bishnoi to take him to Punjab in the case related to the singer and Congress leader Moosewala’s murder.

Federal authorities have indicted 26 people and seized nearly 500,000 counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl during a two-year investigation into an international drug smuggling operation, prosecutors announced Tuesday. Charges of conspiracy to traffic drugs and possessing drugs with intent to distribute were filed against 26 people. Seventeen defendants, most of them from San Diego and surrounding areas, have been arrested and the others are being sought, the U.S. attorney's office announced.

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The new grouping of India, Israel, the United Arab Emirates and the United States, which will hold its first virtual summit next month as part of the efforts of the Biden administration to re-energize and revitalize American alliances across the world, a US official said. “Part of our approach, from the start, is not only to revitalise and re-energize our system of alliances and partnerships around the world, but also to stitch together partnerships that did not exist previously or were not utilised to their full extent,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters at his daily news conference on Tuesday.

President Joe Biden confirmed Tuesday that he will visit Saudi Arabia next month for talks with its leaders, a dramatic change in his stance on the kingdom that he pledged to make a “pariah” as a Democratic candidate for the White House. With the visit at the tail end of a July 13-16 Middle East trip that includes stops in Israel and the West Bank, Biden is edging off his adversarial stance on the Saudis' human rights record. He's looking to reset the relationship at a time when the US could use help from the oil-rich kingdom to alleviate soaring prices at the pump for motorists at home and around the globe. The stop in Saudi Arabia will include talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto leader of the kingdom, according to White House and Saudi officials. US intelligence officials have determined Prince Mohammed likely ordered the 2018 killing of US-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

A local court on Tuesday granted a regular bail to Samajwadi Party MLA Azam Khan in an alleged cheating case. The regular bail application was filed by the Rampur MLA before the special MP/MLA court of Judge Alok Dubey as per the directions of the Supreme Court. According to the prosecution, Khan was booked for allegedly fraudulently obtaining the affiliation certificate of a branch of Rampur Public School from the basic education authorities. Khan is the chairman of Maulana Muhammad Ali Jauhar Trust which runs the three branches of Rampur Public School. Speaking with PTI, District Government Counsel Arun Prakash Saxena said, "After listening to the arguments, the court has granted the regular bail to Mohd Azam Khan in the matter." Prakash had vehemently opposed the bail application of Khan.

A private company that uses satellites to spot sources of methane emissions around the globe said Wednesday that it detected one of the largest artificial releases of the potent greenhouse gas ever seen, coming from a coal mine in Russia earlier this year. Montreal-based GHGSat said one of its satellites, known as Hugo,' observed 13 methane plumes at the Raspadskaya mine in Siberia on January 14. The incident likely resulted in about 90 metric tons of methane being belched into the atmosphere in the space of an hour, the company calculated. “This was a really, really dramatic emission," Brody Wight, GHGSat's director of energy, landfills and mines told The Associated Press.

Two Lashkar-e-Taiba militants were killed in an encounter with security forces in Shopian district of Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday, police said. The encounter broke out between the militants and security forces at Kanjiular in Shopian after the personnel launched a cordon and search operation in the area, they said. Inspector General of Police, Kashmir zone, Vijay Kumar said one of the slain militants was identified as Jan Mohammad Lone, who was allegedly involved in the killing of a bank manager in Kulgam district recently. "One of the killed #terrorists has been identified as Jan Mohd Lone of #Shopian. Besides other #terror crimes, he was involved in recent killing of Vijay Kumar, Bank manager on 2/6/22 in #Kulgam district," the officer tweeted.

Two people were killed and as many injured when a speeding car overturned on the Yamuna Expressway here on Tuesday, police said. The accident occurred early Tuesday and the car was on its way to Agra from Noida. The driver of the car lost control of the vehicle, they said. Karan, a resident of Unnao, was driving the car and died on the spot while Mohd Arif Ansari, hailing from west Champaran in Bihar, succumbed to injuries at a private hospital in Agra, police said. The other two occupants of the vehicle are hospitalised and their condition is stated to be stable, police added.