Breaking News, October 15

Pope Francis exhorted members of a major Catholic lay group Saturday to keep up their enthusiasm, a year after Vatican reforms put checks on the leadership of such organizations. In St. Peter's Square, Francis addressed thousands of members of Communion and Liberation, a lay organization present in some 90 countries. The group is particularly active in Italy and seeks political influence.

Samajwadi Party (SP) founder and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav's ashes will be immersed in the Ganga river in Haridwar on Monday.

Two people were electrocuted and another injured when they came in contact with a transformer while setting up tents in front of a shop in the Afzalgarh area here on Saturday evening, police said. Area SHO Manoj Kumar Singh said Guddu (22), Lala (22) and Mohammad Zaid (15) were setting up tents in front of a shop on the Kalagarh road around 7 pm on Saturday. 

A major fire broke out at an auto parts manufacturing unit in Binola village of Gurugram in the early hours of Saturday, officials said. According to fire officials, the fire broke out around 4.30 am at Zavenir Daubert India Company -- a manufacturing unit of auto parts of Maruti and other companies under the industrial area of Bilaspur.

Two wild elephants were found dead in separate districts of Chhattisgarh, forest officials said on Saturday. While a male elephant was found dead in Balrampur district this morning, the rotten carcass of another male jumbo was recovered in Raigarh district on Friday evening, they said.

The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) said on Saturday it has issued directions for the closure of 491 construction and demolition sites, including 110 in Delhi, for flouting air pollution control norms.

A 40-year-old man was arrested for allegedly impersonating as an air force officer in order to procure a special airport pass, not available to the general public. Firoz Gandhi, a resident of Geeta Colony here, arrived at the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) office on Tuesday by posing as a wing commander and sought to renew of his Aerodrome Entry Pass (AEP), which provides entry to restricted areas, police said.

At least 200 people from North Indian communities joined the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) at a function in Kalyan city of Maharashtra's Thane district on Saturday. The function organised by Kalyan Rural Assembly constituency President Vinod Patil to induct members of North Indian community from Sagaon Chera Nagar. Talking to reporters, people who joined the fold claimed that they were fed up of the ongoing politics in the state and hence, decided to go with the MNS.

A case has been registered against three persons for allegedly verbally abusing and threatening a tribal woman in Maharashtra's Palghar district, police said on Saturday. The incident took place late on Friday night at a village, where the 34-year-old woman belonging to Adivasi Malhar Koli community had gone to attend a function, an official said.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday tried to strike an emotional chord with people of poll-bound Karnataka by recalling his family’s association with the State. He made reference to Ballari from where his mother and Congress president Sonia Gandhi successfully contested the Lok Sabha election in 1999.

The partially decomposed body of a third-year student of IIT Kharagpur was found in his hostel room after the authorities broke open the bolted door, an official of the premier Institute said on Saturday.

A 70-year-old man was found dead with injuries on his head and other body parts in north Delhi’s Kashmere Gate area, police said on Saturday. The man’s body was found on Friday at the banks of Yamuna River, near Pahadi Ghat, Behind Nigam Bodh Ghat in Kashmere Gate.

A 35-year-old man was arrested for allegedly attacking a priest with a knife at an ashram in Maharashtra's Thane city, police said on Saturday. The incident took place at the ashram located in Ramnagar locality of the city on Friday afternoon, senior inspector Sunil Shine of Srinagar police station said.

Two persons were killed and as many injured in a collision between two motorcycles in the Rehar area here on Saturday, police said. The incident took place around 2 pm in front of Inter College Bhagtawala, Station House Officer of Rehar police station Manoj Parmar said.

A 67-year-old businessman was allegedly abducted when he was out on a morning walk in the district's Khurja city, his family members said on Saturday.
The businessman has been identified as Rajkumar, a resident of Goenka Colony. He runs a hardware business in the city.

The Congress party on Saturday slammed the BJP-led governments at the Centre and state and the ruling party's parent outfit the RSS and alleged that the nation is facing challenges from fascist forces.

An elephant was found dead in a forest in Chhattisgarh's Raigarh district, an official said on Saturday.

A total of 3.4 kg of gold, worth Rs 1.7 crore, has been seized from two passengers who arrived at the Calicut International Airport here on, according to the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) officials on Saturday. The yellow metal was found in paste form, the officials said. The passengers had arrived from Doha on Friday, they said. The gold was concealed in the body of the passengers, both natives of Kasargod, and they were arrested, officials said."The DRI had received a tip-off that these passengers were carriers and would attempt to smuggle gold through the airport.The officers, acting on the information, mounted surveillance at the airport and nabbed both the carriers," a DRI statement said. On October 11, a similar gold-smuggling attempt was made and 3.6 kg of gold worth Rs 1.8 crore seized, the statement said. 

The Congress presidential candidate Mallikarjun Kharge on Saturday joined Rahul Gandhi and other leaders in the ongoing 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' in the district. Kharge, who had served as the union minister and as the Congress leader in the Lok Sabha, also took part in the mega public meeting here to celebrate the yatra reaching the 1,000-km milestone. He took part in the march for the first time today in his home state. The Bharat Jodo Yatra entered Karnataka on September 30 and will make a final exit on October 20 after covering 511 km in 21 days.

A 42-year-old man was arrested for allegedly duping more than 30 people on the pretext of providing international airline tickets on 25 to 50 per cent discount rate, police said on Saturday. The accused has been identified as Ravinder Kumar, a resident of Jammu, they said. One Sourabh Grover filed a complaint alleging that he is in business of airline tickets booking. He got the mobile number of Kumar, who used to provide international airline tickets with a hefty discount of 25 to 50 per cent, a senior police officer said.

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Hours after he allegedly sexually harassed a 22-year-old female college student in Thane city of Maharashtra, police have arrested an autorickshaw driver, who had gone absconding after committing the offence, an official said on Saturday. A team of the Thane Nagar police station caught the 36-year-old accused from Digha in neighbouring Navi Mumbai, following the incident that had occurred on Friday morning. "We caught the accused within 24 hours," senior inspector Jairaj Ranaware of the Thane Nagar police station said. Three police teams had been formed for the purpose. They checked the CCTV footage and worked on intelligence inputs, before zeroing on the accused, he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a meeting of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Society on Saturday. Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh, another Union minister Piyush Goyal besides several secretaries, including those of science-related ministries, participated in the meeting. Singh had on Friday said this was the third year of the CSIR Society and the meeting was of special significance as it marked 80 years of the establishment of the council. About the agenda of the meeting, Singh had said a presentation on the various activities of the CSIR would be made before the prime minister and his suggestions would be sought on the way forward. 

The administration in at least 18 gram panchyats of the district has come up with a novel way to promote the sale of clay products and lamps made by local 'kumbhkar' (clay artisans) this Diwali. Officials in Kanwas subdivision hope their innovative thinking will not only encourage an eco-friendly Diwali celebration by discarding foreign products but also improve sales of wares made by local artisans. As part of the initiative, the administration has come up with a lottery system with prizes such as a fridge, two coolers, clocks and helmets worth Rs 50,000 on offer. Customers who purchase more than 20 clay lamps or products will be given a lucky coupon for a draw, which will take place after Diwali.

At least 40 tourists got stranded near Dudhsagar waterfall in South Goa after a small bridge on the Mandovi river got washed away due to a sudden rise in the water level following heavy rains, but were rescued by the lifeguards appointed by the state government, officials said on Saturday. The incident occurred on Friday evening, when incessant rains pounded the state. Chief Minister Pramod Sawant l

The Jharkhand High Court refused to put a stay on proceedings against three suspended Congress legislators, who were arrested from Kolkata in July, for their alleged involvement in ferrying cash. After hearing the matter of Irfan Ansari, Rajesh Kachhap and Naman Viksal Kongari, accused of laundering cash to the tune of around Rs 48 lakh, the court of Justice Sanjay Kumar Dwivedi on Friday declined to put a stay on the investigation. However, it directed that chargesheet in the case may not be filed until orders of the court are passed. The Congress had in July suspended the three Jharkhand MLAs, who were allegedly caught with huge amount of cash in West Bengal's Howrah, and accused the BJP of attempting to topple its coalition government in the state.

The Indian economy will stay on course despite global headwinds and is projected to grow at seven per cent in fiscal 2022-23, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said, attributing this to the conducive domestic policy environment and focus on key structural reforms. Sitharaman's remarks came during her intervention at the plenary session of the international Monetary Finance Committee on Friday.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address on Saturday the inaugural session of the All India Conference of Law Minister and Law Secretaries being held at Ekta Nagar in Narmada district of Gujarat via a video message. The inaugural session is scheduled at 10.30 am, a government release said.

Four astronauts returned to Earth in a SpaceX capsule, ending their nearly six-month space station mission with a splashdown in the Atlantic off Florida. Wet and windy weather across Florida delayed their homecoming. SpaceX and NASA finally gave the all-clear on Friday, and the three Americans and one Italian departed the International Space Station, their residence since April.

India has been a leader in digitalisation over the last few years and has overcome some of the administrative bottlenecks through increased innovation, a senior International Monetary Fund official said. Digitalisation has taken on added importance as the world exits the COVID-19 pandemic, Anner-Marie Gulde-Wolfe, deputy director at the IMF's Asia Pacific Department, told reporters at a news conference here on Friday.

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India's Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman met European Union's Commissioner of Economy Paolo Gentiloni here and the two leaders discussed the current global economic situation, the Union Ministry of Finance said. Sitharaman is here to attend the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. On the sidelines of these, she has been holding a number of bilateral and multilateral meetings.

A 15-year-old boy was fatally shot on a New York subway train after a dispute between two groups of people escalated into violence. It was the eighth killing in New York's subway system this year, at a time when a gradual increase in ridership after a steep decline during the COVID-19 pandemic has been hampered by riders' safety concerns. According to police, who didn't identify the victim, the teenager was in one of the groups that got into an argument on an A train in Queens shortly before 4 pm on Friday.

A magnitude-5.0 earthquake was the strongest of a series of temblors that struck Friday on Hawaii's Mauna Loa, the largest active volcano on the planet that scientists say is in a "state of heightened unrest." Smaller aftershocks followed, according to the US Geological Survey.

The Indian rupee has weakened essentially due to the strengthening of the dollar index but it is holding well as compared to currencies of other emerging market economies, State Bank of India Chairman Dinesh Khara said. Depreciation of the rupee is a cause of concern, especially for a country which has significant imports, Khara told PTI in an interview on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank here on Friday. The rupee closed at 82.19 against the US dollar on Friday amid a firm greenback overseas and sliding crude oil prices.