Breaking News, May 29 | LIVE UPDATES

A person, who was arrested on charges of raping a girl, was shot at by the police on Sunday in Assam's Karbi Anglong district after he allegedly escaped from a health facility, where he was undergoing treatment, an officer said. The man was arrested on May 27 and later admitted to the Diphu Medical College and Hospital as he was unwell, the police officer said.

The airport at Gondia will be expanded and a dry port will be set up at the MIDC here in case 200 acres of land is made available initially, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Sunday.

Famous Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala was seriously injured after unidentified persons opened fire at him in Punjab's Mansa district on Sunday, police said. He was later declared dead on the way to the hospital. 

Two employees of a rehabilitation centre for drug addicts and alcoholics here were injured when an inmate allegedly stabbed them on Sunday, a police officer said.

Kochi, May 29 (PTI) With Sunday being the last day of campaigning for the upcoming by-poll for Thrikkakara constituency in Ernakulam district, senior politician P C George lashed out at Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and extended support for the BJP candidate in the by-election.

Pope Francis said Sunday he will elevate 21 churchmen to the rank of cardinal in a ceremony at the Vatican this summer.

Uttar Pradesh will soon be home to over 15 crore fully vaccinated individuals. This will be another milestone as Uttar Pradesh continues to conduct one of the most successful vaccination campaigns in the country since the rollout of the mass immunization drive.

A family of five people from Maharashtra and their driver were killed when their car plunged into the ravine in North Sikkim, police said on Sunday. The incident happened in Kedung Bhir, 13 km away from the popular tourist destination of Lachung, on Saturday around 8 pm, they said.

A case has been registered against seven people, including a Sub-Inspector of police and Principal of a government degree college at Teradal in the district for allegedly thrashing a student for wearing a scull cap on the premises of the institution.

Pakistan is expected to reach an agreement with the IMF next month to resurrect an enhanced bailout package to support the cash-strapped country's sagging economy, Finance Minister Miftah Ismail has said. Pakistan has repeatedly been seeking international aid to support its failing economy.

The wife of a local court judge was found hanging from a ceiling fan at her brother's residence in South Delhi, police said on Sunday. Three suicide notes were recovered from the flat in Rajpur Khurd Extension, they said. Around 10.30 pm on Saturday, the Saket court judge informed the police that his wife had been to the Malviya Nagar market at around 11.30 am but did not return. He filed a missing complaint at the Saket police station and investigation was carried out, a senior police officer said.

President Ram Nath Kovind on Sunday called upon Ayurveda experts to promote research in the field, saying there is no alternative to this medical system so far in rural parts of the country. “Ayurveda is the science of life,” he said after inaugurating the 59th meet of the All India Ayurveda Conference, and dedicated a government Ayurveda College here to the people.

A man was arrested at the Jaipur International Airport with 2.3 kg gold, concealed in a clothes-press, upon his arrival from Muscat on Sunday, a customs official said. While scanning the checked-in baggage of the passenger, the image of a dark object was noticed. When the passenger denied possessing such an item, the bag was opened and the clothes-press was found whose gold-made pressure plate was covered with a steel plate, according to an official statement. The smuggled gold weighed 2331.800 grams and was valued at over Rs 1.22 crore, the official said, adding the gold has been seized and the accused arrested. 

Rescuers in Indonesia were searching for 25 people who were missing after a cargo boat sank in the Makassar Strait in South Sulawesi province, officials said Sunday. A total of 42 people were on the boat when it sank in bad weather on Thursday morning while traveling from a seaport in Makassar to Kalmas Island in Pangkep Regency, said Djunaidi, the head of the provincial search and rescue agency. Like many Indonesians, Djunaidi goes by only one name. Seventeen people were later rescued, including some by two tugboats that were at sea at the time of the incident.

A leader of Popular Front of India (PFI) was arrested on Sunday morning in connection with the alleged provocative sloganeering by a minor boy during a recent march organised by the outfit in this district. A senior police officer of the district confirmed the arrest of Yahya Thangal in the case. Thangal was taken into custody as he was one of the organisers of the event where the slogans were allegedly raised. Thangal, on Saturday, had also made derogatory remarks against judges of the Kerala High Court. On this issue, police have not yet taken any action as the high court has to take cognisance of the same, the official said.

The south-west monsoon has set in over Kerala on Sunday, three days ahead of its normal onset date of June 1, the weather office said. The south-west monsoon is considered the lifeline of India's agri-based economy. “South-west monsoon has set in over Kerala on Sunday, May 29, against the normal date of onset of June 1,” India Meteorological Department (IMD) Director General Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said. Earlier, the IMD had forecast onset over Kerala on May 27 with help from remnants of Cyclone Asani that struck the Bay of Bengal a fortnight ago. The forecast had a model error of four days. However, the influence of the remnant weather systems that lingered over the southern peninsula petered out. 

Recognising its efforts in controlling tobacco consumption, the World Health Organization (WHO) has selected Jharkhand for the World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) Award-2022, an official said on Sunday. Stata Tobacco Control Cell of the Health Department will receive the award on the occasion of World No Tobacco Day in New Delhi on May 31, Jharkhand's nodal officer of National Tobacco Control Programme (NTCP) Lalit Ranjan Pathak told PTI. "It's a great achievement for Jharkhand, which could be possible only due to political and administrative supports that tobacco control cell has got in implementing the programme," Pathak said.

As Russian forces press their offensive to take the eastern Ukrainian cities of Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk, civilians who have managed to flee say intensified shelling over the past week left them unable to even venture out from basement bomb shelters. Despite the attacks, some managed to make it to the town of Pokrovsk, 130 kilometers to the south, and boarded an evacuation train Saturday heading west, away from the fighting.

Seven people, including three women, were killed and nine grievously injured when a tourist bus collided with a truck on the Bahraich-Lakhimpur highway on Sunday, police said. The bus carrying 16 people from Karnataka was going to Ayodhya when the incident occurred at Naniha market in the Motipur area as it entered the opposite lane, Additional Superintendent of Police, Ashok Kumar told news agency PTI.

Preparations are in full swing at the New Jalpaiguri railway station in Siliguri for the start of a new train service between India and Bangladesh from June 1, officials said on Sunday. Following the successful trial run between New Jalpaiguri and Dhaka, a distance of 595 km, the government of the two countries decided to start the services from June 1, they said. While 69 km of the train's route is within India, the rest is in Bangladesh. 

The national capital on Sunday recorded a minimum temperature of 28.7 degrees Celsius, two notches above the season's average, the India Meteorological Department said. The weather office has predicted partly cloudy sky during the day and the maximum temperature is likely to settle around 41 degrees Celsius. The humidity was 61 per cent at 8.30 am. The city's air quality was recorded in the poor category on Sunday morning with the AQI clocking 287 at 8 am, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data showed. An AQI between zero and 50 is considered good, 51 and 100 satisfactory, 101 and 200 'moderate, 201 and 300 poor, 301 and 400 very poor, and 401 and 500 severe. 

Crude bombs were hurled and houses were vandalised as two factions of the TMC clashed in West Bengal's Malda district, triggering tension among the people. The incident happened in Gopalpur Balutola area in Manikchak block on Saturday as a group of TMC workers led by panchayat samiti office-bearer Saifuddin Sheikh clashed with the faction led by the party's area president Nasir Ali. Crude bombs were hurled and at least 12 houses were vandalised in the clashes, police said. A large number of police personnel were deployed in the area, they said.

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The first-ever Indian winner of the International Booker Prize, Geetanjali Shree, has had a roller coaster few days since her Hindi novel ‘Ret Samadhi’ won the coveted literary honour for its English translation ‘Tomb of Sand’ this week. The Delhi-based author, along with American translator Daisy Rockwell, has been inundated with messages from around the world and the duo finds themselves swept away in a kind of whirlwind of excitement. One aspect that has dominated the headlines is the spotlight on literature in the Hindi language, which the author hopes will trigger some serious efforts at maintaining the momentum.

With the addition of 80 new cases of coronavirus, the infection count in Maharashtra's Thane district has gone up to 7,09,875, an official said on Sunday. These new cases were reported on Saturday, he said. The death toll in the district remained unchanged at 11,895 and the COVID-19 mortality rate stood at 1.67 per cent, he added. In neighbouring Palghar district, the COVID-19 case count stood at 1,63,612 and the death toll at 3,407, another official said.

Rescuers in Indonesia were searching for 25 people who were missing after a ferry sank in the Makassar Strait in Central Sulawesi province, officials said Sunday. A total of 42 people were on the boat when it sank in bad weather on Thursday morning while traveling from a seaport in Makassar to Kalmas Island in Pangkep Regency, said Djunaedi, the head of the South Sulawesi National Search and Rescue Agency. Like many Indonesians, Djunaedi goes by only one name.

A five-member Pakistani delegation will visit India next week for talks on the water dispute between the two countries, according to a media report on Saturday. The talks will be held in New Delhi from May 30-31, the Dawn newspaper quoted Pakistan Commissioner for Indus Waters Syed Muhammad Mehr Ali Shah as saying. The delegation would make the trip through the Wagah Border.

Jammu and Kashmir Lt Governor Manoj Sinha on Saturday said the new industrial development scheme has enabled the Union Territory to fetch investment of over Rs 38,800 crore. The proposals include 338 industrial units associated with the biotech sector in some way or the other, Sinha said after he along with Union minister Jitendra Singh inaugurated north India's first industrial biotech park constructed at Ghatti in Kathua district. With new Biotech capabilities and innovation, Jammu and Kashmir, bestowed with more than 3,500 medicinal plant species, will be able to harness market advantages in the most effective way and help the farmers to generate more income.

Coming to the defence of the IAS couple shunted out over alleged misuse of a sports stadium in the national capital, BJP leader Maneka Gandhi on Saturday said the transfer of the officials is a "loss to Delhi". The Centre had on Thursday posted IAS couple Sanjeev Khirwar and Anu Dugga to Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh, respectively, following media reports about the misuse of facilities at Thyagraj Stadium by them. Khirwar was then posted as Principal Secretary (Revenue) in Delhi. "I know (Sanjeev) Khirwar very well. The allegations against him are false. His transfer is a loss to Delhi," Gandhi said. 

The Rajasthan government Saturday accorded industry status to the tourism and hospitality sector in the state. According to an official statement, Urban Housing Development and Local Self Department Minister Shanti Dhariwal issued a notification to this effect on Saturday. In the budget announcement in February, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot had said the tourism and hospitality sector will be granted industry status. The tourism sector in the state, like everywhere else in the country and the world, was severely affected during the coronavirus pandemic.

An activist of the All India Students Association (AISA) has been accused of sexually harassing a woman inside the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus, a statement said on Saturday. "The survivor faced sexual harassment by the accused touching her inappropriately without consent and grabbing her forcefully from behind and continued this disgusting act. "The survivor is also being conveyed through classmates about conspiracies to defame and slut shame her and her credibility from the grapevine," the 'Concerned Women of JNU' said in the statement. The date of the incident was not mentioned in the statement.

Man held for murder of brother-in-lawThe Gurugram police nabbed a man and his mother in connection with the murder of his brother-in-law in DLF Phase 3 area after an argument over stock market losses. According to the police, Suraj killed his brother-in-law Shubhankar Bhadra by hitting him on the head with an iron rod, while the victim's mother-in-law Malti is accused of concealing and misleading the incident. On May 26, Nathupur police chowki received information that Bhadra died due to injuries caused by falling from the stairs inside his house. "Bhadra's wife said that she had gone to a shopping mall with her sister-in-law and nephew when she got a call informing her that her husband fell from stairs and had been admitted to Neelkanth Hospital, where he died during treatment," police said .