Breaking News, March 17 | HIGHLIGHTS

In a first, a special NIA court in Jammu has framed charges against two accused -- a journalist and a university scholar -- for writing and publishing a "seditious" article on a news portal. The case against arrested journalist Peerzada Fahad Shah and Kashmir University scholar Abdul Ala Fazili was probed by the Special Investigation Agency (SIA) which successfully brought it up to the stage of framing charges, an official said.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday said the current logjam in Parliament could end if the opposition and the government sit for a discussion and both move two steps forward. Participating in the India Today Conclave here, Shah also said there are certain issues which are above politics and even former prime minister Indira Gandhi had refused to discuss domestic politics in foreign land.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Saturday inaugurate a two-day global conference on millets in the national capital and also unveil a customised postal stamp as well as a commemorative currency coin to mark the International Year of Millets being celebrated this year. A video on millets, which the government named 'Shree Anna', will also be released during the event, with the announcement of Hyderabad-based Indian Institute of Millets Research (IIMR) as the global centre of excellence, an official statement said.

Two young men who allegedly stole potted plants put up on a road here as part of the beautification drive ahead of G20 meetings have been arrested by the police. A video showing the accused carrying off potted plants in a BMW car had gone viral on social media. Both the accused, 25 and 22 years old, are residents of Nagpur, said inspector Mangesh Kale of Rana Pratap Nagar police station in the city.

The International Criminal Court said Friday it has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes because of his alleged involvement in the abductions of children from Ukraine. The court said in a statement that Putin “is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of the population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.”

Gujarat reported 121 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, while no fresh death linked to the infection was registered in the state, said the health department. After a gap of almost six months, Gujarat is witnessing a steady rise in fresh cases of coronavirus since the beginning of this month. No new death due to the viral infection was reported during the last 24 hours, keeping the toll unchanged at 11,047, said the department in a release. The number of active cases stood at 521, of which three patients are on ventilator support, it said.

Thousands of government employees took out a march demanding restoration of the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) here on Friday. Shivaji Khandekar, a coordinator of the `morcha' (protest march), said several unions of state government employees, employees affiliated to Zila Parishad departments and those of teachers and non-teaching staff of schools took part in it.
The march concluded outside the Collector's Office. More than 15,000 employees participated in the march, Khandekar claimed.

Noida Police on Friday said a 30-year-old man was arrested for allegedly carrying counterfeit currency notes of Rs 38,220 face value that he had printed at his residence in Delhi after taking lessons from YouTube. Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central Noida) Rajeev Dixit said the accused was held by officials of Badalpur police station from the GT Road near Chhapraula village following a tip-off. “The police team succeeded in arresting a man who printed fake currency notes using a printer. The accused has been identified as Abdul Raqib, who currently lives in the Ghazipur area of Delhi, and is a native of Muzaffarpur in Bihar,” Dixit said.

The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear a plea filed by a Muslim woman who claimed the provision of Shariat law to the extent of not giving equal share to a female compared to a male is "discriminatory" and violative of the rights guaranteed under the Constitution. A bench of justices Krishna Murari and Sanjay Karol was hearing the appeal against the Kerala High Court's January 6 order filed by Bushara Ali, who claimed that it is her grievance that being a daughter, according to Shariat Law, she was only allotted half the shares as of her male counterparts. The bench issued notice to petitioner's 11 siblings which include four sisters.

The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear a plea filed by a Muslim woman who claimed the provision of Shariat law to the extent of not giving equal share to a female compared to a male is "discriminatory" and violative of the rights guaranteed under the Constitution. A bench of justices Krishna Murari and Sanjay Karol was hearing the appeal against the Kerala High Court's January 6 order filed by Bushara Ali, who claimed that it is her grievance that being a daughter, according to Shariat Law, she was only allotted half the shares as of her male counterparts. The bench issued notice to petitioner's 11 siblings which include four sisters.

Two young women who went missing in Samba district here were found within 72 hours of their disappearance in Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag and Punjab, police said on Friday. Acting on the complaints lodged by their relatives, the police found the two women from different locations -- one from Anantnag district and the other from Punjab’s Amritsar, a police spokesperson said. He said both the young women have been reunited with their families and further investigation is going on. Senior Superintendent of Police (Samba) Benam Tosh said a total of 16 missing women and seven missing men have been recovered in two months from different parts of Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab.

Ramsahaya Prasad Yadav, a senior leader from the Madhes region, was elected as Nepal's Vice President on Friday, in a further boost to the coalition government headed by Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda'. Ramsahaya Prasad Yadav, a candidate from the Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP), comfortably defeated his nearest rival Ashta Laxmi Shakya of CPN-UML to become the Himalayan nation's third Vice President and the first from the Madhes region, bordering India.
Yadav, 52, secured 30,328 votes against 16,328 secured by Shakya, according to the Election Commission.

The Supreme Court on Friday said it will hear on March 24 the appeal of the Gujarat government and the bail pleas of several accused who are serving life imprisonment in the 2002 Godhra train burning case. A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices P S Narasimha and J B Pardiwala, meanwhile, directed the counsel for the Gujarat government and the convicts to provide a soft copy of the consolidated chart containing details such as actual sentences awarded to them and the period spent in jail till now.

The budget session of the Delhi Assembly commenced on Friday with the maiden address of Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena, who listed out various achievements of the government and hoped that the national capital becomes a progressive global city one day. His address was interrupted as BJP legislators raised slogans demanding Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's resignation over alleged corruption in the now-scrapped excise policy and AAP legislators opposing them.

Rajasthan will spend Rs 362.13 crore to provide drinking water in 367 villages of Udaipur district. Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has approved the financial proposal for the project that will enable drinking water supply to these villages from the Som-Kamala-Amba dam, according to a statement issued on Friday. The financial approval was given in compliance with Gehlot's announcement in the 2023-24 Budget.

The bodies of the two pilots killed in an Army helicopter crash in Arunachal Pradesh were flown to their home states on Friday, a defence spokesperson said here. The mortal remains of Lt Col. VVB Reddy have been sent to Hyderabad and that of Maj. Jayanth A to Madurai, Defence spokesperson Lt Col. Mahendra Rawat said. The bodies were flown by a special military plane after a wreath-laying ceremony at Tezpur. The duo was killed when a Cheetah helicopter of the Army, on an operational sortie from Missamari in Assam to Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh, crashed near Mandala in West Kameng district on Thursday morning.

A court here on Friday reserved its order on an Enforcement Directorate plea seeking the custody of AAP leader Manish Sisodia, who has been arrested in a money laundering case related to the Delhi excise policy, for seven more days.
Sisodia was produced before special judge M K Nagpal, who will announce the order on the extension of the former Delhi deputy chief minister's custody shortly.

A 28-year-old man was shot at by two people following a quarrel in Delhi’s Raj Park, police said on Friday. The incident happened on Thursday night. The accused have been identified as Arun and Ismile, they said. The victim, Ravi Kumar, in his statement told police that he had a dispute with Arun about a year ago. On Thursday, Arun and Ismile came to meet him and an argument broke out between them. Following this, the duo fired two rounds with a country-made pistol and one of the bullets hit the victim on his knee, police said. The victim was rushed to Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital in Mangolpuri for treatment, a senior police officer said. An FIR has been registered under section 307 (attempt to murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code and sections of the Arms Act, police said. Efforts are on to nab the absconding accused duo, they said.

The Bombay High Court has upheld the Centre’s decision to ban entry to India for a man, who secured Belgian citizenship but used his Indian passport to travelled to other nations, noting that the same was not arbitrary and does not violate his fundamental rights. A division bench of Justices Gautam Patel and Neela Gokhale in its order of March 14 refused relief to the man, Vikram Shah, who had filed a petition against the Centre's decision. The court refused to accept Shah's contention that he had made an innocent mistake.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Friday condoled the death of Army Major Jayanth A, who was killed in a chopper crash in Arunachal Pradesh on March 16. The deceased Jayanth hails from Tamil Nadu's Theni district. In a statement here, the CM expressed shock and anguish over Jayanth's demise. "On behalf of the government of Tamil Nadu, I extend my condolences and sympathies to his colleagues, family, friends and the people of the country," he said.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday said various hurdles were being put in the way of the city government but it was overcoming them to work for people. Talking to reporters after the conclusion of the first day of the budget session of Delhi Assembly, he said L-G VK Saxena had also said that the government has been working despite various obstacles. "There is interference in the functioning of the government. Various obstacles are being put but we are crossing them and working with the support of the people of Delhi. Not only the people of Delhi but the entire country acknowledges this," Kejriwal said. While exiting the assembly, Saxena said in the last few days, the dignity of speech has been shattered. When Kejriwal was asked about the remarks, he said: "These are small things. Democracy should be respected. If two crore people have chosen a government, it should be allowed to work. It is not good to interfere in its functioning," he said.

Himachal Pradesh chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on Friday presented the first annual budget in his tenure for the financial year 2023-24 in the state assembly. The chief minister announced that Himachal Pradesh will be made the model state for adopting electrical vehicles in the state's public transport. A total of 1,500 diesel buses will be replaced at a cost of Rs 1,000 crore, he said. In order to boost tourism, Sikhu said that Kangra district will be developed as the tourist capital and all 12 districts will be connected with heliport facility in the next one year.

Ramsahay Yadav, a leader from Nepal's Madhes region, is likely to become the third Vice President of the country on Friday as lawmakers began voting for the post. The candidates vying for the Vice President's post include Ramsahay Yadav from the Janata Samajbadi Party, Ashta Laxmi Shakya from the CPN-UML, Pramila Yadav and and Mamata Jha from the Janamat Party. The ruling alliance’s efforts to finalise a common candidate at the last hour have failed. A meeting of the political parties that took place at Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda's' official residence here on Wednesday to find a consensus over the candidate for the post of Vice-President ended inconclusively. Ramsahay Yadav, a leader from the Madhes region, is tipped to become the new Vice President and has the support of seven parties, including the three major parties of the Nepali Congress, CPN-Maoist Centre and CPN-Unified Socialist. The Madhesi community in Nepal's southern Terai region is mostly of Indian origin.

User fee collection at toll plazas on National Highways (NHs) during the financial year 2021-22 was at Rs 34,742.56 crore, the government informed the Parliament on Thursday (March 16). Among the states, Uttar Pradesh witnessed the toll collection of Rs 4,183.74 crore while Rajasthan and Gujarat recorded Rs 3,933 and Rs 3,642.40 crore user fee collection on NHs respectively during the year 2021-22, the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways said in a written reply to Parliament. On a question, whether the government or the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has set any target of toll collection in current financial year 2023-24 and next three years, the ministry said that there is no such target set for current financial year as well for next three years. However, user fee collection is expected to increase by 5 per cent due to annual traffic growth and by 3 per cent due to change in Wholesale Price Index (WPI) every year. Further, new fee plazas are put for commercial operation upon completion of NHs Stretch adding additional revenue every year, the ministry added.

An Army jawan was arrested here for allegedly killing the wife of a colleague, who was in an illicit relationship with his spouse and was blackmailing her using her objectionable pictures and videos, police said on Friday. On March 13, a case was registered against an unidentified person at Cantt. police station for the murder of Sudeshna, the wife of Army jawan Manoj Senapati, Additional Superintendent of Police (City) Rahul Bhati said. During the investigation, the police team examined footage of CCTV cameras installed in the area. On the basis of the footage, Nitish Pandey, also an Army jawan and the victim's neighbour, was arrested on Thursday with the help of military police, he said. Pandey's wife was in an illicit relationship with Senapati, Bhati said. Senapati was also in possession of some objectionable pictures and videos of Pandey's wife and was using them to blackmail her, the SP said. On March 13, Pandey went to Senapati's house and found his wife Sudeshna there. The accused asked Sudeshna to call Senapati and ask him to delete his wife's pictures and videos. This angered Sudeshna and she started an argument, the police said.

The long march of farmers and tribals has halted after assurance from the government, but their representatives on Friday said they will continue to head to Mumbai if they see no concrete steps from the government to address their issues. “We have halted the long march. But we need to see concrete action from the government that our issues will be addressed or else we will head to Mumbai,” Vinod Nikole, Communist Party of India (Marxist) MLA said. His party colleague and former MLA Java Gavit is spearheading the long march comprising thousands of farmers who started their walk from Nashik. He said till the time the government does not issue orders to officials on ground, they will stay put. Their demands range from Rs 600 per quintal relief to onion farmers, 12-hour uninterrupted power supply to farmers, and waiver of farm loans. The march is currently at Vasind, around 80 kilometres from Mumbai. Chief minister Eknath Shinde, who led the talks with Deputy Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday, termed the discussion with farmers’ representatives positive. He will also make a statement on the issue in the state legislature on Friday

The Union home ministry has announced 10 per cent reservation for former Agniveers in vacancies in the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), a week after it notified a similar quota for them in the BSF. The ministry also notified relaxation in the upper age limit depending on whether they are part of the first batch or subsequent batches of Agniveers. The announcement was made through a notification after amending the rules made under the Central Industrial Security Force Act, 1968, (50 of 1968). "Ten per cent of the vacancies shall be reserved for ex-Agniveers," the notification said. The upper age limit shall be relaxable up to five years for candidates of the first batch of former Agniveers and up to three years for candidates of other batches, the ministry said. Ex-Agniveers will also be exempted from the physical efficiency test, the notification said.

Two meat vendors were allegedly beaten up and robbed by seven men, including three Delhi Police personnel, in east Delhi's Shahdara, a senior officer said. The incident took place in Anand Vihar area on March 7 when the two meat vendors were travelling in their car and hit a scooter. The accused, alleged to be 'gau rakshaks', urinated on the victims' faces and threatened to kill them, the police said on Thursday. Reportedly, a case was registered four days later, even though the victims had approached the police immediately. All the seven men involved in the incident were booked and the three policemen, one of them an assistant sub-inspector, were suspended, the police said. Nawab, who supplies meat to the Ghazipur slaughterhouse and a resident of Mustafabad, was headed home in his car with his cousin Shoaib when he hit a scooter near Anand Vihar. They were carrying meat in the car, according to the FIR.

Japan and South Korea agreed to resume regular visits between their leaders and take steps to resolve a trade dispute during a long-awaited summit Thursday. Japan's prime minister called their meeting a "big step" to rebuilding the two nations' security and economic ties as they try to overcome a century of difficult history. The summit could revise the strategic map of northeast Asia. The two U.S. allies, who have long often been at odds over their history, are seeking to form a united front, driven by shared concerns about a restive North Korea and a more powerful China. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol both stressed the importance of improved ties as they opened the summit, hours after a North Korean missile launch and encounters between Japanese and Chinese vessels in disputed waters. In his opening remarks, Kishida said that the meeting will mark the resumption of regular visits between the leaders, which have been on hold for more than a decade. He told a joint news conference that the countries had agreed to resume defence dialogue and vice-ministerial strategic talks, while also restarting a process of trilateral communication among Japan, South Korea and China.

North Korea said Friday that its latest intercontinental ballistic missile launch was intended to send a "stronger warning" over combined U.S. military exercises with South Korea, blaming those for creating a "most unstable security environment" in the region. Thursday's launch from North Korea's capital area came hours before South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol travelled to Tokyo for a summit with Japanese Prime Minster Fumio Kishida. The meeting underscored Seoul's urgency to tighten security cooperation with a fellow U.S. ally in the face of North Korean nuclear threats. The ICBM launch was North Korea's fourth missile event in about a week as it ratcheted up a tit-for-tat response to U.S.-South Korean military drills, the biggest of their kind in years, which began Monday and run through March 23. North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency said leader Kim Jong Un supervised the test-firing of the Hwasong-17 ICBM from Pyongyang's international airport and stressed the need to "strike fear into the enemies" over what it called the "open hostility" shown to the North by the large-scale exercises.

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) and the BSE has announced that three Adani group companies- Adani Enterprises, Adani Power and Adani Wilmar- will move out of the short-term additional surveillance measure (ASM). The stocks will be excluded from the short-term ASM framework with effect from March 17, according to separate circulars available on the exchanges. The NSE and the BSE had put the three Adani group firms, including the flagship firm Adani Enterprises, under the ASM framework on March 8. The parameters for shortlisting securities under ASM include high-low variation, client concentration, number of price band hits, close-to-close price variation and price-earning ratio. In addition, the NSE said that on these securities, "margins to be restored prior to ASM on all existing derivative contracts." Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Ltd (TTML) is also another stock that was excluded from the framework.

Mexican authorities have arrested a 14-year-old boy nicknamed “El Chapito” for the drug-related killing of eight people near Mexico City, the federal Public Safety Department said Thursday. The boy allegedly rode up on a motorcycle and opened fire on a family in the low-income Mexico City suburb of Chimalhuacan. Another man was also arrested in the Jan. 22 killings, and seven other members of the gang, were arrested on drug charges.

At least six people, including women, were killed in a major fire that broke out in a multi-storey commercial complex in Secunderabad here on Thursday evening, officials said. A senior police officer said the cause of death would be known after investigation but, most likely, inhaling smoke could be the reason. "We have information that six persons have died," the officer said, adding the fire has been brought under control. Twelve people were admitted to different hospitals and six of them died during treatment at one of the hospital, the officer said, adding the rest were still undergoing treatment., The victims belong to Warangal and Khammam districts of Telangana. They were employed in a marketing company which had an office in the complex, officials said.

Rescue operations at a coal mine in central Colombia that collapsed earlier this week ended Thursday and officials said the accident had left 21 workers dead. The mine near the town of Sutatausa collapsed late Tuesday following an explosion that blocked several of its entrances. Rescue teams worked nonstop for more than 30 hours to find survivors and retrieve bodies. Nicolás García, the governor of Cundinamarca province, said nine workers survived the accident and had been released from the hospital, while the relatives of miners who were killed were receiving psychological support. Officials said all of the workers who were at the mine at the time of the accident had been accounted for. Colombian Minister of Mines Irene Velez said Thursday that the explosion was caused by methane inside the mine. She said the complex would remain closed until officials investigate how the explosion occurred. Mining accidents are common in Colombia, particularly in coal and gold mines. Last year 117 accidents were registered at mines throughout the country by the National Mining Agency, which says that 146 workers were killed in those incidents. 

Microsoft is infusing artificial intelligence tools into its Office software, including Word, Excel and Outlook emails. The company said Thursday the new feature, named Copilot, is a processing engine that will allow users to do things like summarise long emails, draft stories in Word and animate slides in PowerPoint. Microsoft is marketing the feature as a tool that will allow workers to be more productive by freeing up time they usually spend in their inbox, or allowing them to more easily analyse trends in Excel. The tech giant based in Redmond, Washington, will also add a chat function called Business Chat, which resembles the popular ChatGPT. It takes commands and carries out actions- like summarising an email about a particular project to co-workers- using user data.