Breaking News, August 19

A 38-year-old grocery shop owner was stabbed to death in northeast Delhi's Bhajanpura area, police said on Friday. The murder took place on Thursday. Police were informed around 9.15 pm, they said.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday inaugurated an Annapurna Bhawan here to provide free food to needy pilgrims. The chief minister expressed gratitude to seer Vijai Kaushal Maharaj for being instrumental in starting the facility.

Two coronavirus patients died in Rajasthan on Friday while the state recorded 748 new cases, officials said. According to a Health Department spokesperson, one coronavirus patient each died in Jhalawar and Pratapgarh on Friday. So far, 9,603 people have died from the pandemic in the state.

A group of people thrashed a man suspected of theft, partially shaved his head and made him clean an open drain in north Delhi's Wazirabad area. A case was registered on Friday after a video of the incident went viral, officials said.

The IMD on Friday rejected speculations of the deep depression over the Bay of Bengal intensifying into a cyclone, even as several places in Odisha were pounded by heavy rain under the impact of the weather system. The deep depression over northwest and adjoining the northeast Bay of Bengal moved west-northwestwards during the past six hours with a speed of 14 kmph, and lay centered at 5.30 pm over northwest Bay of Bengal, the IMD said in a bulletin.

Schools in Himachal Pradesh's Mandi district will remain closed on Saturday due to incessant rain, Deputy Commissioner Arindam Chaudhary said.

Four Sukhoi-30 MKI fighter jets and two C-17 heavy-lift aircraft of the Indian Air Force on Friday joined a 17-nation air combat exercise in Australia. The three-week 'Pitch Black' exercise, being hosted by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), is taking place amid the conflict in Ukraine and China's military muscle-flexing in the Taiwan Strait following US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taipei.

The Delhi University (DU) has notified it will soon launch its application process for admission to undergraduate programs for the new academic session, and asked candidates to ensure their documents and certificates are ready by August 31.

Federal health officials confirmed on Friday that a Nebraska child died from a rare infection caused by a brain-eating amoeba after swimming in a river near Omaha.

Offence of dowry death is a crime against society and a strong message must be sent that a person who commits such an offence shall be dealt with an iron hand, the Supreme Court has said.

A 20-year-old woman was found dead with her throat slit in Suradevi area of Nagpur on Friday, a police official said. The woman has been identified as Kajal Kukde and she was working in Lata Mangeshkar Hospital in Sitabuldi, the Koradi police station official said.

Police on Friday recovered the decomposed body of a man, who was allegedly killed by his wife and daughter in West Bengal's Jalpaiguri district, officials said.

It was a warm Friday in the national capital with the maximum temperature settling two notches above normal at 35.7 degrees Celsius, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD). The minimum temperature was recorded at 26.7 degrees Celsius, it said.

A rocket attack on a crowded market in a town held by Turkey-backed opposition fighters in northern Syria on Friday killed 15 people and wounded dozens, an opposition war monitor and a paramedic group reported.

An alert Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel rescued a woman who fell off a moving train at Gondia railway station in Maharashtra, an official said on Friday.

Security forces have arrested two ‘hybrid militants’ in Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir and seized arms and ammunition from their possession, police said on Friday.

A fire at a munitions depot near the Russian village of Timonovo has led to the evacuation of two villages in Russia's Belgorod region on Ukraine's northeastern border, an official said on Friday.

Fourteen cases of aspirants allegedly using fake documents have been found during the Agniveer recruitment rally under the Agnipath scheme in Hisar. The cases were detected on Friday, an official statement said here. It has been alleged that the candidates have made attempts to enter the recruitment drive using fake or tampered admit cards. These cases are being caught due to strict vigilance and transparency in the recruitment process and strict action will be initiated against such fraudsters, said the statement. A large number of aspirants are taking part in the recruitment rally which began in Hisar under the Agnipath scheme on August 12. 

At least six people were stuck in Neugal Khad as water level suddenly increased in the stream in Kangra district Friday morning, the state disaster management said. Personnel from the army and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), and the local police's quick response team have been sent to the spot to rescue the people stuck there, state disaster management director Sudesh Kumar Mokhta said. Mokhta said that the Kangra district emergency operations centre said that 6-7 people got stuck in Neugal Khad in Thural in Dheera subdivision due to an instant increase in the water Level. Further report is still awaited, he added.

Dr. Ilona Butova almost looks out of place in her neatly pressed lavender scrubs as she walks through a door frame that hangs from a crumbled wall into what used to be an administrative office of her hospital in Zolochiv. Not one building in the facility in the northeastern Ukrainian town near the Russian border has escaped getting hit by artillery shells. Since Russia's invasion on Feb. 24, space to treat patients at the hospital has shrunk constantly because of damage. Her staff has dwindled to 47 from 120. And the number of people seeking treatment in the small town 18 kilometers (11 miles) from the border is often higher now than before the fighting began.

CEAT Ltd plans to expand its tyre sales network in places with population of 5,000-10,000 via its FMCG style of distribution, aiming to double outlets to 1 lakh in two to three years, company COO Arnab Banerjee said on Friday. The company, which has successfully partnered with kirana store operators, small automobile spare parts sellers and puncture repair shops, feels that it has more or less "saturated" penetration in places with 25,000 population in the country and there is a need to go to even lesser populated areas for its two-wheeler tyres. What started around 2011-2012 as a step to come closer to rural two-wheeler customers, who otherwise had to travel over 25 kilometres to buy replacement tyres, has now yielded good returns for CEAT, contributing around 70 per cent of its overall sales from the replacement segment, Banerjee said. "We have a total of 50,000 outlets, which we plan to double to 1,00,000 in the coming years. For that one huge operation is going on for further improving penetration. We think we have (reached) saturation in places of up to 25,000 population but below 25,000 there are gaps," he said.

Conspiracies will not break him or deter his resolve to continue to work for good education, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said on Friday as the CBI conducted raids at his residence and 20 other places. The CBI has arrived and is welcome, Sisodia said on Twitter. Besides the home of the Aam Aadmi Party leader, the probe agency also searched the residence of IAS officer Arava Gopi Krishna and 19 other locations after registering an FIR in connection with the Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22. "We are hard core honest and are shaping the future of lakhs of children. It is very unfortunate that those who do good work in our country are harassed like this. That is why our country could not become the number one," Sisodia said.

Three major telecom companies of the country have shown interest in the Chief Minister Digital Seva Yojana of the Rajasthan government under which 1.35 crore women in the state are to be given smartphones, officials said Friday. A senior official said a high-level committee will take a decision on the bidders this month after evaluation. The government wants to complete this process at the earliest so that the scheme can be implemented before the assembly elections next year. The total cost of the project is Rs 12,000 crore. The technical bids for the government project were opened here on Wednesday. "Technical bids were opened on Wednesday. Vodafone, a private company that offered the tender, did not appear," Project in-charge Chhatrapal Singh told news agency PTI.

India's gold imports, which have a bearing on the country's Current Account Deficit (CAD), rose 6.4 per cent to USD 12.9 billion during April-July this fiscal due to healthy demand, according to government data. The imports stood at USD 12 billion during the same period a year ago. In July 2022, however, imports of the precious metal fell sharply by 43.6 per cent to USD 2.4 billion, as per the latest data released by the commerce ministry. Increase in gold and oil imports during the first four months of this fiscal contributed to a record trade deficit of USD 30 billion, against USD 10.63 billion in April-July 2021.

Millions of people in the United States will be spared from big increases in health care costs next year after President Joe Biden signed legislation extending generous subsidies for those who buy plans through federal and state marketplaces. The sweeping climate, tax and health care bill sets aside $70 billion over the next three years to keep out-of-pocket premium costs low for roughly 13 million people, just before the reduced prices were set to expire in a year beset by record-high inflation. As the calendar pushed closer to the Nov. 1 open enrollment date, Sara Cariano was growing nervous about her work helping people across Virginia sign up for subsidized, private health insurance on the HealthCare.gov website.

Equity benchmarks started the trade on a positive note on Friday, with the Sensex climbing over 113 points in early trade, amid mixed trends from global equities. The 30-share BSE index advanced 113.2 points to 60,411.20 in early deals. The broader NSE Nifty climbed 35.7 points to 17,992.20. Later, both the benchmark indices turned volatile, with the Sensex and the Nifty swinging between gains and losses.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday greeted people on the occasion of Janmashtami. "May this festival of devotion and gaiety bring happiness, prosperous and good fortune to everyone," he said. Devotees believe that Lord Krishna was born on this day, as per the Hindu calendar, and Janmashtami is celebrated to mark the occasion. 

Police arrested a criminal carrying a reward of Rs 40,000 following a brief exchange of fire, officials said on Thursday. However, the associate of Chand, alias Pillu, managed to escape. The exchange of fire took place near the Radha Rani temple. SP (Rural) Shrish Chandra said efforts are on to nab Pillu's associate. Officials said Pillu was injured in the incident and has been admitted to a hospital. 

A fire broke out at a trauma centre on the Lucknow-Varanasi highway here on Thursday after explosion in oxygen cylinders, police said. No one was reported to be injured in the incident. The incident took place around 10 pm when oxygen cylinders exploded due to which the fire broke out, leading to panic in nearby Kanshiram Colony. According to locals, at least five cylinders exploded. Fire brigade is trying to douse the flames. Chief Medical Officer Dharmendra Tripathi said no one was injured in the incident. 

Two planes collided in Northern California while trying to land at a local airport Thursday and at least two of the three occupants were killed, officials said. The collision occurred at Watsonville Municipal Airport shortly before 3 p.m., according to a tweet from the city of Watsonville. There were two people aboard a twin-engine Cessna 340 and only the pilot aboard a single-engine Cessna 152 during the crash, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Officials say multiple fatalities were reported but it was not immediately clear whether anyone survived.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will virtually address `Har Ghar Jal Utsav' event here on Friday. Union Minister of Jal Shakti Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant would be present for the event. “Hon'ble Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi ji will virtually address #HarGharJalUtsav in Goa which will be held at Institute Menezes Braganza tomorrow 19th August, 2022 at 10.30 am onwards," the Chief Minister's Office tweeted. Goa was the first state in the country to achieve 100 per cent piped water supply in rural areas, it said. Under the Jal Jeevan Mission, a centrally sponsored scheme, Har Ghar Jal Utsav will be held, it said.

An excise official was given a punishment posting and transferred to the department headquarters after an audio byte in which he is purportedly heard telling a liquor store employee to send scotch whisky bottles for a minister's function made rounds. In the audio, which the liquor store owner has sent to the chief minister's grievance redressal system, the home minister and senior officials, excise department inspector Sandeep Lohan is purportedly heard telling the employee of the liquor store, located at Bakhtawar Chowk in Sector 47, that six bottles of 15-year-old 'Glenfiddich' whisky be sent to a hotel as the minister was hosting a programme there.

The sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un says her country will never accept South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol's “foolish” offer of economic benefits in exchange for denuclearisation steps, accusing Seoul of recycling past proposals Pyongyang already rejected. In a commentary published on Friday's edition of North Korea's official Rodong Sinmun newspaper, Kim Yo Jong stressed that her country has no intentions to give away its nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles program for economic cooperation, saying “no one barters its destiny for corn cake.”

Punjab PWD Minister Harbhajan Singh on Thursday directed immediate recovery of access road charges from owners of commercial properties such as petrol pumps, marriage palaces, hotels, industrial units, private schools and hospitals. Singh, while reviewing the work of his department here, expressed concern over the loss of revenue as many establishments have not taken approval for the access route and those who have taken the nod have not paid the due fee. In a statement, the minister directed field officers to prepare and execute a time-bound action plan for these recoveries and warned them if any official is found to be negligent in this regard, then strict action will be taken. The PWD minister ordered the forest, power and sewerage board officials to remove electricity poles and the obstacles for the smooth execution of ongoing projects of the department so that the construction work could be completed quickly. 

The Centre on Thursday made public the draft of the "urban regeneration policy", under which areas or residential blocks built more than five decades ago but currently in dilapidated state will be regenerated through amalgamation of plots and other incentives. The draft, which seeks amendments to the DDA Act, 1957, states many existing areas in Delhi have developed over the last more than 100 years and some of them do not meet the norms for healthy and safe urban habitations. These areas can be utilised optimally through redevelopment or urban regeneration, stated the draft uploaded on the website of the Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry.