Breaking News, September 24 | LIVE UPDATES

A 24-year-old woman was allegedly strangled to death by her live-in partner, who was nabbed while transporting the body in an ambulance in Bhiwandi town of Maharashtra's Thane district, police said on Saturday.

The Rs 100-crore Jagannath Temple being built by the West Bengal government at the beach town of Digha in Purba Medinipur district will be completed by December 2023, an official said on Saturday.

A 29-year-old Nepalese national was arrested for allegedly conniving with cyber fraudsters to cheat people, police said on Saturday. Suresh Chaudhary alias Abhinash Tamang, a native of Nepal, would "open and sell" his bank accounts to these fraudsters for money. The fraudsters would then use the same account details asking people to transfer money while duping them, they said.

A mountaineering team of the border guarding force ITBP has become the first to scale an over-7,000-metre-tall peak located in Sikkim, a senior officer said Saturday. Mount Dome Khang is located in the Lachen valley of north Sikkim at a height of 7,250 metres.

The Jabalpur district administration in Madhya Pradesh has turned down the land lease renewal application of United Christian Missionary Society, officials said on Saturday. The order, which was issued on Friday by Additional District Magistrate Sher Singh Meena, also said the plot in question must now be registered as government land.

RJD national president Lalu Prasad Yadav on Saturday said that BJP will be wiped out from Bihar in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. While speaking to media at the Patna airport, Lalu Prasad said: "We will wipe out BJP in 2024. An ailing Lalu Prasad, who was in the national capital for his treatment, had returned to Patna last month. He is scheduled to go to Singapore for a kidney transplant on Monday.

The National Green Tribunal has imposed restrictions on the Odisha government's ambitious Bali Jatra project, for which the Cuttack district administration had “reclaimed an area of around 426 acres of the Mahanadi riverbed”, environmentalists said on Saturday. As part of the Bali Jatra riverfront or the Barfi project, the district administration had reclaimed the floodplain zone of the river near Jobra barrage in Cuttack city by filling sand and garbage, they claimed. According to them, the move allegedly "reduced the water retaining capacity of the barrage and posed a threat of inundation to at least 38 nearby villages". A five-member special bench, headed by chairperson Justice A K Goel, said it was difficult to accept the state government’s plan for construction on the reclaimed land, which has been clearly established to be part of the floodplain zone.

Police early Saturday recovered the body of a female receptionist, allegedly killed by a BJP leader's son, from Cheela canal where the accused had dumped her. The development in the case was shared by Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami in a tweet, who said he was pained by the incident. Pulkit Arya, the key accused in the case and the owner of the resort where the victim worked, is a son of Vinod Arya, a BJP leader from Haridwar.
The politician was formerly a chairman of the Uttarakhand Mati Kala Board. An SIT led by DIG police P Renuka Devi has been set up to conduct a speedy probe into the killing of the 19-year-old woman.

The White House is looking into the recommendations of a presidential commission to reduce the adjudication and processing of Green Card applications to just six months and remove all the backlogs by April 2023, a proposal if implemented would benefit hundreds and thousands of immigrant families, in particular, those from countries like India and China. The recommendations were made in May this year by the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders. On Friday, the commission released its inaugural report detailing recommendations that were approved on May 12 and transmitted to the President on August 24. The White House Domestic Policy Council is currently reviewing the recommendation before it can be sent to President Joe Biden for his decision. A Green Card, known officially as a Permanent Resident Card, is a document issued to immigrants to the US as evidence that the bearer has been granted the privilege of residing permanently.

The Biden administration on Friday ramped up its diplomatic efforts to press China to end provocative actions against Taiwan and warned it about any active support for Russia in its war against Ukraine. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made both cases in a meeting with his Chinese counterpart on Friday in a meeting on the sidelines of the annual UN General Assembly in New York, according to US officials. The session was one of the few that Blinken kept on his schedule after the death of his father on Thursday. The officials wouldn't describe the Chinese response, but said Foreign Minister Wang Yi was receptive to the messages and that the two men discussed the need “to maintain open lines of communication and responsibly manage the US-China relationship, especially during times of tension.”

READ FULL STORY HERE

Ahead of the festive season, the Noida police have held a meeting with religious leaders along with eminent citizens and asked them to report any anti-social activity or mischievous post on social media immediately. They have also been told not to hold any event without permission in the coming days. The meeting was held on Friday on the instructions of Police Commissioner Alok Singh, according to an official statement.

Former Congress leader and senior lawyer Kapil Sibal has alleged that people have been living in the fear of investigating agencies, the State, and the police. Talking about the "use of religion as a weapon", the Rajya Sabha MP on Friday said that even though it was happening all over the world, "India is an excessive example of the use of religion." "It's happening all over the world. It was complete intolerance what happened in Leicester yesterday. We all know what happened there. So it's being exported now.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday resumed the Bharat Jodo Yatra from Perambra near here after a day's rest and he was joined by hundreds of party workers in the march. The march resumed around 6.30 am. The morning leg of the march will conclude at Amballur junction after covering 12 km. "After a day of rest, the 17th day of the Bharat Jodo Yatra began around 6:35 am today from Perambra Junction, Thrissur district. The Yatris will walk 12 km this morning," senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh tweeted.

A worker of a cement factory in Rajasthan's Pali district died after he fell from a height while working, following which other workers ransacked the premises, set a car on fire and pelted stones at policemen. Satyendra (42) from Jharkhand was injured while working in the factory in Pali's Balada village on Thursday. He was taken to a hospital by the factory management and he died during treatment last night, Station House Officer, Anandpur Kalu, Nirmal Kumar said on Friday. After the news of Satyendra's death broke, about 2,000 workers gathered outside the factory on Friday. They ransacked the factory, set a car on fire and pelted stones at policemen, injuring three of them, he said. The angry workers demanded compensation for the kin of the deceased and steps to prevent the reoccurrence of such incidents in future, he added.

When Florida Highway Patrol troopers arrived at a crash scene in the Panhandle this summer, they found a 23-year-old Navy officer dead at the wheel with neck wounds that initially looked like a possible shooting. A trooper later messaged the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that injuries were from the deployment of an air bag in the 2006 Ford Ranger pickup in the July accident in Pensacola. Though the NHTSA is investigating and hasn't made a final determination yet, the family of Hayden Jones Jr. says there's ample evidence the death was caused by an exploding Takata air bag. It would be the 20th such death in the United States — and would come six years after the start of a recall of that vehicle model. The NHTSA recall notices for the 2006 Ford Ranger underline the urgency, saying owners shouldn't drive these vehicles “unless you are going straight to a dealer to have them repaired.”

The Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court on Friday granted bail to Samajwadi Party spokesperson IP Singh, who was lodged in Balrampur jail. Justice Shree Prakash Singh passed the order on the bail petition of the SP leader. He was booked in 2000 in a booth capturing case in Balrampur district. Singh was sent to jail on September 15 for escaping a hearing in the 22-year-old case. 

The Rajasthan Assembly on Friday sent the Right to Health Bill, which seeks to establish legal rights and entitlement of citizens to avail the best health services, to a select committee for review. Later, Speaker C P Joshi adjourned the seventh session of the Legislative Assembly sine die. Medical and Health Minister Parsadi Lal Meena proposed to refer the Right to Health Bill, which was passed in the House by a voice vote, to a select committee. Meena said the select committee will present its report in the first week of the next session.

Weeks after an international daily praised the AAP-led Delhi government's education model, the apex child rights body NCPCR has pointed out lacunas like high number of vacant posts of principals, pupil to teacher ratio and dropout rate. Titled 'Clean Toilets, Inspired Teachers: How India's Capital Is Fixing Its Schools', the New York Times had praised the Delhi government's education system, calling it a lifeline for millions of families looking to break the cycle of poverty.

In four days of fiery speeches over war, climate change and the threat of nuclear weapons, one issue felt like an afterthought during this year's UN General Assembly: the coronavirus pandemic. Masks were often pulled below chins- or not worn at all- and any mention of COVID-19 by world leaders typically came at the tail-end of a long list of grievances.