Breaking News, July 2

 In a bid to facilitate Amarnath pilgrims to stay connected with their families back home, the Jammu Smart City Limited (JSCL) on Saturday set up WiFi zones at three vital locations including the base camp Bhagwati Nagar here, an official said.
The two other locations where the WiFi zones were established are Jammu railway station and the main bus stand, the official said.
The official said the three locations were among over two dozen already identified places in the city where the WiFi services are planned to be installed under the smart city mission for the benefit of the students and the business community besides the visiting tourists.
JSCL, a special purpose vehicle constituted in August 2017 by the Jammu and Kashmir government for the implementation of smart city development projects in Jammu city, had signed an agreement with service provider LMES to install WiFi hotspots at 20 more locations in November last year.
The officials said any user can avail the Public WiFi facility which is free of cost up to 500 MB after a login and validation through a One Time Password.
Amarnath pilgrims camping in Jammu have welcomed the facility and said this will enable them to remain connected with their families back home.
"The prepaid mobile SIM connections are not working in Jammu and Kashmir once you enter the Union Territory. The installation of the WiFi facility is a welcome step by the government," Arjun Kumar, a pilgrim, said.
Meanwhile, Amarnath pilgrims reaching Jammu from different parts of the country demanded opening of many more counters to facilitate their smooth registration.

Two teens were electrocuted to death when a motorcycle on which they were travelling collided with an electricity pole in Pali district on Saturday, police said.
Naresh (18) and his cousin sister Suman (14) were returning from a programme when the bike skidded and hit the pole.
They were rushed to a nearby hospital where doctors declared them dead, the police said, adding that the bodies were handed over to family members after postmortem.

Defence Secretary Ajay Kumar made a brief visit to Naval Air Station INS Parundu at Ramanathapuram in Tamil Nadu on Saturday.

During his short visit to the centre located about 600 kilometres from here, Kumar was briefed on the operation activities of the station, an official release said.

Later, he was given a windshield tour of the facility.

According to the Ministry of Defence, INS Parundu provides search and rescue (SAR) coverage and conducts operational sorties over the Palk Bay area on a regular basis.

The air station provides transit facilities for Navy and Coast Guard Dornier aircraft. It operates an unmanned aerial vehicle, Chetak helicopter and a Dornier aircraft.
With induction of unmanned aerial vehicles in the station, this Forward Operating Base has become the Navy's eyes and ears for the region.

A clash between two groups of migrants near the Serbia-Hungary border left one person dead and seven others injured Saturday, Serbia's state television reported. The migrants were stranded in northern Serbia while attempting to cross into the European Union when the violence erupted. The injured were taken to a local hospital, including a 16-year-old girl who was seriously injured, Serbian media reports said, quoting doctors.
They said the clash, which included firearms, occurred in a forest near the border with Hungary. Police blocked off the area while conducting the investigation.

The clash also involved migrant smugglers from Afghanistan and Pakistan who take money to get them across the border, according to the media reports, which couldn't be independently verified.

Thousands of migrants fleeing wars and poverty in Africa, Asia and the Middle East are stranded in the Balkans, one of the major European routes for those trying to reach Western Europe.

The killing of a chemist in eastern Maharashtra's Amravati city was related to social media posts supporting suspended BJP leader Nupur Sharma, police said on Saturday, even as the case was handed over to the National Investigation Agency.
The alleged master-mind of the killing was also arrested during the day, said a senior official. This was the seventh arrest in the case.
The crime branch of Amravati city police arrested Irfan Khan (32), a local resident, from Nagpur in the evening. He had allegedly hatched the conspiracy to murder Umesh Prahladrao Kolhe (54), who ran a medical shop in Amravati, and roped in others, said city police commissioner Dr Aarti Singh.
Kolhe was stabbed to death around 10.30 pm on June 21 near Ghantaghar in Shyam chowk area of Amravati.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Vikram Sali told reporters that on the face of it, the killing was linked to certain posts that Kolhe had shared in WhatsApp groups, supporting Sharma who has been suspended by the BJP for making controversial comments about Prophet Mohammad.

Earlier, police had arrested Mudassar Ahmed alias Sonu Raza Sheikh Ibrahim (22), Shahrukh Pathan alias Badshasha Hidayat Khan (25), Abdul Taufik alias Nanu Sheikh Taslim (24), Shoeb Khan alias Bhurya Sabir Khan (22), Atib Rashid Aadil Rashid (22) and Yusuf Khan Bahadur Khan (44) in connection with Kolhe's killing.

Observing that the Presidential election is taking place under "extraordinary circumstances", the joint candidate of opposition parties Yashwant Sinha on Saturday said his fight to safeguard democratic and constitutional values in the country would continue even after the poll.

The Goa police on Saturday arrested two men for allegedly assuming false identities and checking into a starred hotel at Dona Paula where the rebel MLAs from Maharashtra had camped, an official said.

Rebel Shiv Sena MLAs who support Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde returned to Mumbai from Goa on Saturday evening on the eve of a special two-day session of the state legislature which will see election for the post of Assembly Speaker as well as a floor test of the new government. 

The tussle in the opposition AIADMK over the single leadership issue became rancorous with former Tamil Nadu chief minister O Panneerselvam on Saturday clearly asserting that he continued to function as the party's coordinator. Panneerselvam's one-line retort appears to challenge the open submission of K Palaniswami that he ceases to be coordinator with effect from June 23. "As per the party by-laws, I continue to be the AIADMK coordinator till date," Panneerselvam told reporters after greeting NDA Presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu at a five-star hotel here.
Declining to take further questions on the ongoing leadership crisis in the party, Panneerselvam said he had called on Murmu and wholeheartedly extended AIADMK's support for her in the election. In his one-page letter addressed to his colleague on June 30, Palaniswami, buoyed by the support of majority members in the party, emphatically said that Panneerselvam ceased to be coordinator as the June 23 General Council of the AIADMK did not endorse the amendments made to party by-laws on December 1, 2021.

A police constable risked his life to rescue a 54-year-old man trapped up to his neck in a swamp here, officials said on Saturday.

The Congress' youth wing staged a protest here on Saturday demanding the rollback of the Agnipath scheme for short-term recruitment of soldiers.

A special CBI court here has accepted a closure report filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in a case of alleged fraud against Pushpak Bullions Private Limited and some bank officials, even as the Enforcement Directorate (ED) opposed it. The ED, probing a related case, had attached the properties of a firm controlled by Shridhar Patankar, brother-in-law of former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.

The mere fact that the ED case was pending before a Prevention of Money Laundering Act Court which has taken its cognizance would not bind the CBI to submit a charge ­sheet as the latter had found no evidence, the court said.

While special judge A Sayyad accepted the probe agency's closure report on June 29, the detailed order became available on Friday.

In 2017, the ED had registered a case against Pushpak Bullions, bank officials and some private persons, claiming that during demonetisation, Rs 47.75 crore and Rs 37.15 crore in cash were deposited into the current accounts of Pihu Gold and Satnam Jewels, respectively, at Zaveri Bazar branch of the Union Bank of India.

All sections of people in Puducherry should ensure that they adhere to COVID-appropriate behaviour without lowering their guard against spread of the pandemic in the Union Territory, a senior official said on Saturday. Secretary to Revenue-cum-Member Secretary to State Executive Committee of Disaster Management Authority of Puducherry E Vallavan, who issued an order in the wake of 'rise in number of COVID-19 cases', said the public should adhere to COVID guidelines at places of public gathering, market places. All field level functionaries such as Health, Police, Revenue, Local Administration Department and Labour shall without causing panic ensure wearing of masks by the public and maintained social distancing, he stated.
Monitoring teams should be formed immediately to sensitise all business establishments, malls, liquor shops and hotels and restaurants so as to ensure adherence to COVID protocol, he said. Meanwhile, Director of Health G Sriramulu said 101 fresh COVID-19 cases were reported during the last 24 hours after examining 1,673 samples.

An army recruitment rally under the new Agnipath scheme will be conducted from August 23 to September 11 in Ahmednagar district, over 120 kilometres from here, an official said on Saturday. The recruitment rally is being conducted for Agniveer General Duty, Agniveer Technical, Agniveer Clerk/ Store Keeper Technical and Agniveer Tradesman categories and will be open for candidates from Pune, Beed, Ahmednagar, Latur, Osmanabad and Solapur districts.

The rally will be conducted at Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth, Rahuri from August 23 to September 11, a defence release said. Candidates are required to register and apply online and admit cards will be posted on their registered email ID, the defence release said. 

"Candidates enrolled in the recruitment rally will governed by the Agnipath Recruitment Scheme and will be for a period of four years. Prospective candidates will be screened district and tehsil wise over the scheduled 20 days," it said.
"Candidates will be biometrically verified and admit cards for the rally will be scanned before candidates are allowed to undergo actual selection tests, comprising Physical Tests, Medical Tests and Common Entrance Exam (written exam)," the release added.
The scheme has been opposed by some segments and protests against it had turned violent in many states, with participants indulging in arson and inflicting heavy damage to property. 

The Odisha government on Saturday presented a Rs 2-lakh crore budget for the 2022-23 financial year in the state assembly with a focus on strengthening infrastructure, developing education and health sectors and improving livelihoods of people. Odisha Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari claimed that the estimated outlay for the current financial year is the "highest" in the history of the state budget, and is around 17.6 per cent more than the Rs 1.7 lakh crore allocated for the last fiscal. He also said Rs 1 lakh crore of the total budgetary estimates is the planned expenditure.
"Over the last twenty-two years, there had been a seventeen-fold increase in the size of the state budget and we are touching the landmark figure of Rs 2 lakh crore this year," Pujari said. The capital outlay in FY23 was estimated at Rs 38,732 crore, which was around 5.4 per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product. "As a sign of our economic prosperity, the share of our own revenue in the state budget has exceeded the devolution of taxes from the central government by a substantial margin," he said.

Bharatiya Janata Party president JP Nadda on Saturday lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership in his opening remarks at the party's national executive. 

Southwest Monsoon has covered the entire country six days before the normal date, as parts of Rajasthan and Gujarat received their first seasonal rains on Friday. The Monsoon had set over Kerala on May 29, three days ahead of the normal date of June 1. 

A 27-year-old man was shot at allegedly by two bike-borne persons in southwest Delhi's Bindapur area on Saturday, police said.

A Delhi Police constable allegedly shot himself dead with his service revolver in North West district, officials said on Saturday. They said they were informed around 9 am by a passerby in Delhi's Prashant Vihar about a body spotted in a car parked alongside the boundary wall of a petrol pump in the area.

The BJP national executive will pass two resolutions, one political and another on the 'garib kalyan' (pro-poor welfare) measures of the Narendra Modi government, the party said on Saturday with its president J P Nadda crediting the programmes for its win in state and local elections besides bypolls. Briefing reporters after the BJP office-bearers meeting here, party vice president Vasundhara Raje said all important issues and prevailing political environment will be discussed in the national executive meeting. It will be decided in the executive meeting which topics are to be considered, she said.

Teams from the National Investigation Agency and the Anti-Terrorism Squad on Saturday presented the four men arrested in the Udaipur tailor's murder case before a court. Prior to this, a police team from Jaipur took the accused- Riaz Akhtari and Ghouse Mohammad and their accomplices Asif and Mohseen- to the office of the ATS' Special Operations Group. According to sources, the NIA has collected all documentary evidences from the ATS. Akhtari and Mohammad allegedly hacked tailor Kanhaiya Lal to death with a cleaver at his shop on June 28 for extending supporting to now suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma, and posted videos online saying they are avenging an insult to Islam.
Additional police force has been deployed at the court as well as in city areas for security reasons. 

To fight pollution more effectively, the Delhi government is aiming to plant 35 lakh plants in the national capital in 2022, Environment Minister Gopal Rai said on Saturday. We are taking multiple measures to further improve Delhi’s green cover. We aim to plant 35 lakh plants in Delhi via different agencies this year, Rai said. The government will also launch a 15-day plantation drive 'Van Mahotsav' from July 11 in the city, he said. "Delhi government has been working relentlessly to improve the environment of the city. The steps that we have taken to combat pollution have set an example for the entire country," Rai said. He also said contact numbers of 14 nurseries in various parts of Delhi will be made available to people. "Delhi has increased its green belt up to 32 per cent and we aim to increase it further," Rai said at an event, where he distributed free medicinal saplings as a part of Delhi government's initiative to plant more trees. He said the Delhi cabinet has also decided to promote urban farming so that people can grow vegetables within the premises of their residences. 

Three people were killed after being run over by an unknown vehicle here, police said on Saturday. The three men who were travelling from Banda to Delhi on a motorcyle were run over by the vehicle on Friday night near Pratappur Chauraha under the Shikohabad police station area, they said. Superintendent of Police (rural) Akhilesh Narayan said the deceased have been identified as Jaicharan (25) and Ganesh (23), both residents of Banda, who were going to Delhi from Banda on a motorcycle with their friend Narendra (24), a resident of Sultanpur. "At around 2 pm, an unknown vehicle hit their motorcycle from behind, killing them on the spot," he said. The officer said the bodies have been sent for post-mortem examination. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has expressed grief over the loss of lives in the accident. In a tweet in Hindi, Adityanath directed officials to provide all possible help to the family members of the deceased. 

Two persons, including a security guard, were arrested for allegedly stealing from a temple at a housing society in Bhiwandi town of Maharashtra's Thane district, police said on Saturday. Some unidentified persons had broken into a Saibaba temple in the premises of a housing society in Bhadwad earlier this week and had stolen a silver crown and cash from the donation box, an official said. An offence was registered in this regard at the time, he said. During the probe, the police zeroed in on the security guard of the society, who gave a tip of to the other accused to commit the theft, the official said. The police on Friday arrested Rajnish Tiwari (19), the security guard and Nikhil Tiwari (23), a resident of Malad in Mumbai, who stole valuables worth Rs 27,000 from the temple, he said. 

READ FULL UPDATES HERE

Shiv Sena MLA Rajan Salvi on Saturday filed his nomination as the Maha Vikas Aghadi's (MVA) candidate for the post of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Speaker, election for which will be held on July 3. On Friday, first-time BJP legislator Rahul Narvekar had filed his nomination for the post. While Narvekar represents Colaba Assembly constituency in Mumbai, Salvi is the MLA from Rajapur segment in Ratnagiri district. A special two-day Assembly session has been convened on July 3 and 4. While election for the speaker's post will be held on Sunday, the newly sworn-in Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, in whose cabinet BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis is the deputy CM, will face the floor test the next day.

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat arrived in Rajasthan on Saturday ahead of the week-long Akhil Bharatiya Prant Pracharak meeting. Bhagwat reached Jaipur by train and was received by senior RSS leaders of the state. He then left for Bharti Bhavan for a brief stay, sources in the organisation said. The RSS chief will reach Churu in the evening and spend the night there. On Sunday, Bhagwat will meet Acharya Mahashraman of Terapanth Sangh. He will stay in Jhunjhunu during the RSS' Akhil Bharatiya Prant Pracharak meeting from July 4 to 10, the sources said. 

Four men allegedly gang-raped a woman and impregnated her, police said on Saturday. The woman suffered a miscarriage after the accused beat her up as they learnt about her pregnancy, the police said. In a complaint at the Deoband police station, the 24-year-old woman alleged that in January a young man barged into her house when she was alone. He allegedly raped her and also filmed the act. He threatened to kill her parents and also make the video viral if she lodged a complaint.

READ HERE

Delhi Police on Saturday produced Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair before a court here in a case related to an “objectionable tweet” he had posted in 2018 against a Hindu deity and sought his 14-day judicial custody. Zubair was produced before the court on expiry of his five-day custodial interrogation. The police told Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Snigdha Sarvaria that he was not required anymore for custodial interrogation. After the police application, Zubair moved a bail plea before the court. 

Three law enforcement officers were killed and five wounded in eastern Kentucky when a man with a rifle opened fire on police attempting to serve a warrant, authorities said. Police took 49-year-old Lance Storz into custody late Thursday night after an hourslong standoff at a home in Allen, a small town in the hills of Appalachia. An emergency management official was also injured and a police dog was killed, according to the arrest citation. The responding officers encountered “pure hell” when they arrived on the scene, Floyd County Sheriff John Hunt told reporters Friday afternoon. “They had no chance,” he said.

The district administration here has relaxed the curfew, imposed in seven police station limits in the aftermath of a tailor's murder by radical elements recently, for four hours from 12 pm, an official said. Kanhaiya Lal was hacked to death on Tuesday allegedly by two men for extending support on social media to a controversial remark against Prophet Mohammad by now suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma. The two alleged killers were arrested hours later in Rajsamand. "Curfew has been relaxed from 12 pm to 4 pm on Saturday," a district administration officer said. It was imposed in Dhan Mandi, Ghanta Ghar, Hathi Pole, Amba Mata, Suraj Pole, Bhupalpura and Savina police station areas on Tuesday night. The decision was taken after reviewing the situation. With peaceful conduct of the Jagannath Rath Yatra on Friday, in which thousands of people took part, the administration has decided to give a relaxation today, official sources said. 

READ FULL STORY HERE

A man was arrested in Assam's Hailakandi district for allegedly supporting the brutal killing of the tailor in Rajasthan's Udaipur, police said. Samsul Laskar, a resident of Katlicherra area, was arrested for a comment in a social media website, in which he allegedly supported the killing, they said. Laskar was arrested on Thursday, and a case was filed against him under various sections of the IPC and the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act after Hailakandi's Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) president Milan Das filed a police complaint. Das, in his complaint, accused Laskar of making the comment on a post by a person named Abu Choudhury who demanded capital punishment for the culprits involved in the murder of Kanhaiya Lal, the tailor, police said.

READ FULL STORY HERE

A massive ovarian tumour, weighing about 15 kg, was surgically removed from the abdomen of a woman at a government hospital in Patna, doctors operating upon her said on Saturday. According to Dr Usha Kumari, a professor of gynaecology and obstetrics at the Nalanda Medical College and Hospital, the patient, aged 40, was admitted earlier this week with complaints of abdominal pain and swelling. "We were shocked to see reports of the tests Rupa Devi, a resident of Alamganj locality in the city, was made to undergo after she came here on Tuesday with the symptoms she was experiencing for a few months," said the doctor who headed the team which performed the operation. She said the patient was out of danger after the surgery on Friday. "To the best of my knowledge, the tumour was the largest ever to have been surgically extracted in our department at NMCH," she added. 

A three-year-old Pakistani boy, who inadvertently reached the International Border (IB) in Punjab, has been handed over to his family by the BSF, officials said on Saturday. The incident was reported in Ferozepur sector of the state at around 7 pm on Friday when the Border Security Force troops noticed a child who stood crying near the IB fence. The child kept crying and calling "papa, papa", following which the BSF field commander sought an immediate flag meeting with the Pakistani Rangers so that he could be handed back, they said. The child was shortly handed over to the Rangers in the presence of his father, the officials said.

Thane district in Maharashtra has reported 546 new coronavirus positive cases, taking its infection tally to 7,28,511, a health official said on Saturday. With the addition of these cases on Friday, there are now 5,110 active cases in the district, he said. As one patient died due to the infection during the day, the fatality count reached 11,907, while the number of recovered patients has gone up to 7,10,948, the official added. 

Amid tight security arrangements, the fourth batch of 6,113 pilgrims, including 1,292 women, left the Bhagwati Nagar base camp on Saturday to pay obeisance at the 3,880-metre-high holy cave shrine of Amarnath in south Kashmir Himalayas, officials said.  The pilgrims, also comprising 195 Sadhus and 25 children, will be reaching the twin base camps of Pahalgam in Anantnag district and Baltal in Ganderbal district later in the day. Over 20,000 pilgrims have offered their prayers at the cave shrine, housing the naturally formed ice-shivlingam, since the commencement of the 43-day yatra on June 30 from the twin routes - the traditional 48-km Nunwan-Pahalgam in south Kashmir's Anantnag and the 14-km shorter Baltal in central Kashmir's Ganderbal. 

At a tourism conference in Phuket last month, Thailand's prime minister looked out at attendees and posed a question with a predictable answer. “Are you ready?” Prayuth Chan-ocha asked, dramatically removing his mask and launching what's hoped to be the country's economic reset after more than two years of coronavirus-driven restrictions. When the crowd yelled its answer — yes, according to local media — it might have been speaking for the entire pandemic-battered world. But a full recovery could take as long as the catastrophe itself, according to projections and interviews by The Associated Press in 11 countries in June. They suggest that the hoped-for rebound is less like a definitive bounce — and more like a bumpy path out of a deep and dark cave.

Donald Trump's social media company and some of its employees received subpoenas from both a federal grand jury and securities regulators, according to a public disclosure Friday, possibly delaying or even killing a deal promising a cash infusion needed to take on Twitter. Trump Media and Technology Group received subpoenas from a grand jury in New York and the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to a securities document filed by Digital World Acquisition Corp. on Friday. Digital World has plans to buy Trump Media, releasing USD 1.3 billion for its fledging business, but the deal is unlikely to be done during two legal probes.

For three days, authorities combed the turquoise waters north of Puerto Rico searching for 23-year-old Harold Carrión, whose mother reported him missing earlier this week and feared drowned at a popular beach. The US Coast Guard said it scoured an area about half the size of the U.S. territory as Puerto Rico police officers, scuba divers, emergency management officials and others helped in a search that began Tuesday and cost more than USd 1.2 million. But Carrión turned up alive on Friday after police received an anonymous tip and said they found him hiding in an abandoned structure in the north coastal town of Arecibo. His mother had earlier said Carrión was climbing some rocks near the ocean and fell in. Police detained Carrión, but it wasn't immediately clear if he had been charged with anything. He was supposed to have appeared in court this week on unrelated charges.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday (July 1) inaugurated 25 fire stations in 18 districts and flagged off 25 fire-fighting vehicles while directing the officials to ensure that every tehsil of the state should have a fire station in the next two years. Addressing an event organized after the inauguration of 25 fire stations in Lucknow, the chief minister said that programmes which can improve the entire system of the police force are being taken forward in the state at a rapid pace. In the last five years, more than 1.5 lakh police personnel have been recruited due to which the law and order situation has improved, investment has increased, people's perception about Uttar Pradesh has changed and the youth of the state have got employment and jobs, the chief minister said.

Seven people in Jharkhand's Dumka district were injured after one person allegedly attacked a sweetmeat stall with acid as its owner refused to give him food on credit, police said. The incident Haripur village under Jermundi police station After the stall owner refused to give him food on credit, the accused went home and returned with acid which he threw inside the shop injuring seven people, police said. They were taken to a local hospital. A case has been registered in this regard on the statement of the stall owner, police said.

Paramhans Das, the priest of Ayodhya's Tapasvi Chhawani temple, on Friday burnt a poster of AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi over his alleged provocative remarks and warned "anti-national" leaders that tomorrow it will be them instead of the poster. He also targeted Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra for not visiting the party-ruled Rajasthan where a tailor was hacked to death by two men to avenge an "insult to Islam". Accusing All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen president Owaisi of making inflammatory statements, Das said such statements are increasing terrorist activities.

Symptoms of monkeypox patients in the UK differ from those observed in previous outbreaks elsewhere in the world, according to a study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal on Saturday. The researchers looked at 54 patients who attended sexual health clinics in London, UK and were diagnosed with monkeypox during a 12 day period in May this year. The finding suggests that patients in this group had a higher prevalence of skin lesions in the genital and anal area and lower prevalence of tiredness and fever than in cases from previously studied outbreaks of monkeypox.

Continuing its upward trend, Bengal's COVID-19 tally mounted to 20,31,164 with 1,739 fresh cases, the health department said on Friday. The death toll, however, remained at 21,219, it said. The state now has 8,277 active cases, while a total of 20,01,668 people have recovered from the disease so far. Kolkata added 673 new cases, followed by North 24 Parganas (441), the bulletin said, adding, the positivity rate rose to 14.72 per cent from 12.89 per cent the previous day. The state had reported 1,524 Covid cases on Thursday. West Bengal has tested 11,811 samples in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of such clinical examinations to 25,569,034, it added. 

Senior journalist and political analyst Ayaz Amir was assaulted by unidentified men in Lahore on Friday night, a day after he termed Pakistan's Army generals "property dealers". Amir (73) was returning home after his TV programme on Dunya News was intercepted by unidentified men. He claimed that he was dragged out of the car and thrashed. With bruises on his face, Amir alleged that the masked men not only "hit him and tore his clothes, they also took away his cellphone and wallet. They left when people started gathering on the busy road". On Thursday, during a speech at a seminar in Islamabad on the 'Regime Change and its Fallout on Pakistan', Amir targeted the powerful military establishment for its role in Pakistan's politics. The seminar was also attended by former prime minister Imran Khan.