Breaking News, June 29

Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor (LG) Manoj Sinha on Wednesday said the annual Amarnath Yatra strengthens the faith in the goodness of mankind and its successful conduct is the duty or every citizen of the Union Territory. He said this at a meeting with leaders of political parties here.

Three children drowned in the pond of a gurdwara in a village here, police said on Wednesday.

Train services to Assam's Dima Hasao district, which was ravaged by landslides in May, will resume on Thursday, the North East Frontier Railway (NFR) said. Two special trains will be run from June 30 to July 14 daily to facilitate the movement of passengers, it said on Wednesday.

Over 40 workers of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) were detained in Surat city on Wednesday after they organised a rally demanding electricity at a cheaper rate without permission, police said. Hundreds of AAP workers took out the rally on a busy road while shouting slogans and holding party flags and banners.

Syrian forces conducted a missile strike on a vehicle carrying members of a Turkey-backed armed opposition faction in a rebel-held part of the country's north Wednesday, opposition activists said, and nine gunmen were killed.
 

Two children drowned in a septic tank in Himachal Pradesh's Solan district on Wednesday, a state disaster management official said. Four-year-old Sehanbaz and his seven-year-old brother Maharaj, natives of Uttar Pradesh, were playing at a construction site at Government School, Kishanpura, in Baddi tehsil when they accidentally slipped into the tank, the official said.

Delhi logged 1,109 COVID-19 cases with a positivity rate of 5.87 per cent and one fatality, according to data shared by the health department here on Wednesday. Delhi had reported less than 1,000 single-day infections in the last two days.

The southwest monsoon is likely to arrive in some parts of Punjab and Haryana including their common capital Chandigarh between June 30 and July 1.

Police on Wednesday arrested a 40-year-old man who had allegedly rented out his flats in the ill-fated building in suburban Kurla which collapsed and claimed the lives of 19 persons. A case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder was registered earlier in the day against some flat owners and others at Nehru Nagar police station in connection with the Monday midnight's incident.

Naib Subedar Amrendra Kumar, who slipped and fell into a stream in Arunachal Pradesh nearly 72 hours ago, is yet to be traced.

The Maharashtra government has directed that titles of the national civilian awards, such as Bharat Ratna, Padma Vibhushan etc, should not be used as suffixes or prefixes by their recipients.

A boat carrying migrants trying to get to Europe capsized off the coast of Senegal, killing at least 13 people, according to local Red Cross officials.

The European Union's executive branch proposed Wednesday a ban on the sale of flavoured heated tobacco products, including some vaping items, as part of its plan to fight cancer. The European Commission said its proposal comes in response to a significant increase in the volume of such products sold across the 27-nation bloc.

IndiGo on Wednesday said it will operate additional flights on Delhi-Leh, Delhi-Srinagar and Lucknow-Pantnagar routes from July 1 onwards due to increased demand.

Two persons were killed and three critically injured when their car collided with a truck in Chhattisgarh's Surajpur district on Wednesday morning, police said. The accident occurred near Tara check-post under Premnagar police station limits in Surajpur, which is a neighbouring district, around 350 km away from Korba, an official said.

Rebel Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde on Wednesday claimed the support of 50 dissident MLAs from his own party and independents, contending that they can pass “any floor test” number. Visiting the Kamakhya temple here for the second time in the day, Shinde asserted: "We have 50 MLAs with us, more than two-third of the legislators. We are not worried about the floor test and we will pass the test.” Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari has asked the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government to take a floor test on Thursday, although the Shiv Sena approached the Supreme Court challenging the direction.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has announced a cash award for anyone who can update the agency about the whereabouts of absconding Trinamool Congress leader, Vinay Mishra, who is the prime accused in the coal smuggling case in West Bengal. The value of the cash award is Rs 1,00,000. The CBI has issued a newspaper advertisement with picture of Vinay Mishra and his address. In the advertisement, the CBI has assured that the name of the informer will be kept secret. Vinay Mishra's younger brother, Vikash Mishra is currently under the custody of the central agency sleuths.

Mumbai police have registered a case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder against some flat owners and others in connection with the collapse of a building in suburban Kurla that killed 19 persons and injured 15 others, an official said on Wednesday. The incident had occurred around Monday midnight in the ground-plus three-storey building at Naik Nagar Co-operative Housing Society, he said. Although the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had declared the building as dangerous to live, some flat owners, including Rajni Rathod, Kishore Chavan, Balkrishna Rathod and Dilip Vishwas rented the flats to tenants, he said adding that they were booked.

A driver was allegedly stabbed and wounded by his wife during a quarrel between them in south Delhi’s Palam village area, police said on Wednesday. Sanjay, the husband, sustained minor injuries during the incident which happened Monday, and is stated to be in stable condition, they said. The couple who tied the knot three years ago, got into a fight around 11.30 pm, and it is during the fight. The wife stabbed the husband and injured him, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southwest) Manoj C. The injured was taken to Deen Dayal Upadhyay hospital after the incident, police said. The accused woman was arrested but later released on bail, the DCP said. 

A 25-year-old man allegedly killed his father over a petty dispute and was caught while transporting the body in a plastic sack in Madhya Pradesh's Jabalpur district, police said on Wednesday. The police intercepted the accused, who was on a motorcycle, in Maharajpur locality on Tuesday and the latter claimed that he was transporting vegetables in the sack, Panagar police station in-charge RK Soni said. Aman Vanshkar was taking the body of his father Ramlal (50) for disposal to an isolated area, and was arrested when the police checked vehicles at a crossing in Maharajpur, he said.

Full-service law firm Naik Naik & Co on Wednesday said it has entered into a joint venture agreement with Anand and Anand, an intellectual property (IP) law firm, for the Mumbai region. As part of the JV agreement, Naik Naik & Co will hive off its media and entertainment and IP practices into the new alliance- Anand and Naik- which will take effect from July 1, 2022, the firm said in a statement. The 50:50 alliance will focus on areas, including IP protection, IP litigation, technology, media and entertainment, data protection, fashion, advertising, social media, gaming, sports and technology. It will also lay focus on emerging technologies such as OTT, broadcasting, digital media, internet convergence, tech-based hybrid areas like fintech, ed-tech, agri-tech, health-tech and digital asset management including currencies, NFTs and metaverse, the statement said.

Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Wednesday condemned the brutal murder of a tailor in Udaipur and said perpetrators of "Talibani barbarism" are the biggest enemies of both Islam and humanity. Two men with a cleaver murdered a tailor in Udaipur and posted videos online, claiming that they are avenging an insult to Islam. No community or country can tolerate such barbarism and brutality, Naqvi told reporters. "We should beware of such elements who want to shatter the strength of India through their nefarious and heinous conspiracies. We have to work united to defeat such evil forces," the senior BJP leader asserted.

At least five people were killed and two others injured after a passenger bus collided with a motorcycle and rickshaw in Sargodha district of Pakistan's Punjab province on Wednesday morning. The accident took place on Khushab road in the district when the bus driver tried to pass a motorcycle and eventually hit the rickshaw coming from the opposite side, Xinhua news agency reported quoting police. All the casualties were occupants of the rickshaw, the police said, adding that the accident occurred due to the bus driver's negligence. Police said that the bus driver fled the site while the bus was taken into custody.

Some 10,000 police are locking down Spain's capital for the NATO summit. The gathering of 40 world leaders, including US President Joe Biden, is taking place behind roadblocks formed by police vans and armoured cars. They are ringing Madrid's vast IFEMA conference centre on the edge of the city, where the talks open Wednesday. Spain's National Police have deployed surveillance drones, while the flying of civilian drones is prohibited during the event. Local authorities have recommended that Madrid residents work from home if possible and avoid further complicating the traffic problems caused by the security apparatus. 

Over a week after the Shiv Sena lawmakers led by Eknath Shinde raised the banner of revolt against the party, Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari has asked the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government to take a floor test on Thursday, although the Sena approached the Supreme Court challenging the direction. The letter was issued by Koshyari to Maharashtra Legislature's Principal Secretary Rajendra Bhagwat on Tuesday night, after a group of BJP leaders, including former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, met him at the Raj Bhavan and urged him to direct the government to prove its majority in the wake of the Sena MLAs' rebellion.

Capital markets regulator Sebi has penalised total 18 entities, including National Stock Exchange (NSE) and its former chiefs Chitra Ramkrishna and Ravi Narain in the 'dark fibre' case. The regulator has imposed a penalty of Rs 7 crore on NSE and Rs 5 crore each on Ramkrishna and Narain. Besides, a fine of Rs 5 crore has been levied on Subramanian Anand. Further, Sebi has slapped a fine of Rs 6 crore on Way2Wealth Brokers, Rs 5 crore on GKN Securities and Rs 3 crore on Sampark Infotainment. They have been asked to pay the total amount of penalty within 45 days, according to a Sebi order passed on Tuesday.     

European Union countries reached a deal backing stricter climate rules that would eliminate carbon emissions from new cars by 2035 following hard-fought talks that dragged into the early hours of Wednesday. The 27 EU members found a common agreement on draft legislation aimed at slashing EU greenhouse gases by at least 55% in 2030 compared with 1990 rather than by a previously agreed 40%. “A long but good day for climate action: The Council's decisions on Fitfor55 are a big step towards delivering the EU Green Deal," said Frans Timmermans, the European Commission Vice-President in charge of the Green Deal, after the meeting of environment ministers in Luxembourg.

The contentious issues of extension of GST compensation mechanism for states and a highest 28 per cent tax rate on online gaming, casinos and horse racing is slated for discussion at the second day of the GST Council meeting. On the first day, the 47th GST Council chaired by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and comprising state counterparts, decided to tweak tax rates of some goods and services, including bringing pre-packed and labelled food items under the tax net to check evasion. Besides, a host of procedural and legal changes, including monthly GST return form, and mechanisms for dealing with high-risk taxpayers were also discussed.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Wednesday said his government has taken a serious view of the gruesome murder of a tailor in Udaipur, asserting such incidents cannot take place without involvement of radical elements at national and international levels. Kanhaiya Lal, the tailor, was on Tuesday murdered by two men who had posted videos online that said they were avenging an insult to Islam. The incident triggered stray cases of violence in Udaipur and curfew was clamped in seven police station areas of the city. Mobile Internet services were suspended across all 33 districts of Rajasthan.

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The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear at 5 pm the plea of Shiv Sena chief whip Sunil Prabhu challenging the Maharashtra Governor's direction to the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government to take floor test in the Assembly on Thursday. A vacation bench of Justices Surya Kant and J B Pardiwala took note of submissions of senior advocate A M Singhvi that an urgent hearing was needed in view of the decision taken by Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari asking the MVA government to prove majority at 11 am on Thursday. "We will keep at 5 pm. Please make sure that paper books are supplied by 3 pm to parties concerned," the bench said.

A wildfire that erupted in Northern California forced evacuations as it threatened about 500 homes and other buildings Tuesday, authorities said. The Rices Fire erupted at around 2 p.m. near the Yuba River in Nevada County and had spread to more than 500 acres (202 hectares) by nightfall, said Unit Chief Brian Estes of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The flames also threatened power lines, water delivery systems and a state park, Estes said. The rural area is in the Sierra Nevada, northeast of Sacramento and about halfway between the state Capitol and the Nevada border. Authorities earlier said the fire began with a burning building and the flames spread to nearby dry vegetation.

Andaman and Nicobar Islands reported 12 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, six more than the previous day, pushing the tally to 10,149, a health department official said. Six patients have travel history while six infections were detected during contact tracing, the official said. The union territory now has 38 active COVID-19 cases, while 9,982 people have recovered from the disease, including nine in the last 24 hours, he said. A total of 129 patients have succumbed to the disease till date. 

Dissident Shiv Sena MLAs and a group of independent legislators, led by Eknath Shinde, who have been camping at a hotel here since June 22, will leave for a neighbouring state of Maharashtra later on Wednesday, official sources said. A chartered flight will depart from the Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International (LGBI) Airport in Guwahati in the afternoon with the MLAs, they said. "It will leave around 3 pm from Guwahati," the sources told news agency PTI.

A rare Republican who supports abortion rights found success in Colorado in the first primary elections held since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, while New York's first female governor positioned herself to become a major voice in the post-Roe landscape. In Illinois, Democrats helped boost a Republican gubernatorial candidate loyal to former President Donald Trump in the hopes that he would be the easier candidate to beat in November. And in at least two states, election deniers were defeated, even as pro-Trump lightning rods elsewhere won.

A bipartisan group of American state governors and top officials have vouched for strong bilateral ties with India and pitched for investment from the Indian corporate sector who they said not only brings foreign direct investment but also skills and creates local jobs in the US. Governors Tom Wolf from Pennsylvania and Asa Hutchinson from Arkansas along with Lt Governors Garlin Gilchrist from Michigan, and Eleni Kounalakis from California made an aggressive pitch before a group of more than 100 Indian businesses travelling to the US to attend the annual Select USA Investment Summit in the American Capital.

The Congress on Wednesday distanced itself from party MP Manish Tewari's stand favouring the Agnipath scheme, saying those were entirely his own views and not of the party which firmly believes the new military recruitment initiative is "anti-national security and anti-youth". In an article in the Indian Express, Tewari wrote that the Agniveer recruitment reform must be contextualised in the backdrop of the larger canvas of defence reforms that include the appointment of a Chief of Defence Staff, a reorganisation of the armed forces into theatre commands to promote jointness and synergy.

Counting of votes polled during the elections to the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration in Darjeeling hills and Siliguri Mahakuma Parishad in north Bengal began on Wednesday morning. Polls to the GTA, the semi-autonomous council that governs the Darjeeling hills, were held on Sunday, after a decade marked by a series of changes in the region's political dynamics. The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) swept the first and only GTA polls in 2012, winning all the seats. Elections could not be held in 2017 due to a violent statehood agitation, with a state-appointed administrative body taking over the reins of the council.

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A ground commander level meeting was held between the border forces of India and Pakistan along the international front in Rajasthan, a BSF spokesperson said on Wednesday. The meeting was held on Tuesday at Munabao in Barmer district of the state. The Indian side was led by Border Security Force (BSF) Commandant G L Meena and the other side was headed by Lt Col Murad Ali Khan, Wing Commander, Pakistan Rangers. "Such meetings are held to address border security-related issues at local commander (battalion) level," the spokesperson said. The BSF guards the more than 3,300 km-long India-Pakistan IB that runs along Jammu (Jammu and Kashmir), Punjab, Rajasthan, and Gujarat along the country's western flank. 

Desperate families of migrants from Mexico and Central America frantically sought word of their loved ones as authorities began the grim task Tuesday of identifying 51 people who died after being abandoned in a tractor-trailer without air conditioning in the sweltering Texas heat. It was the deadliest tragedy to claim the lives of migrants smuggled across the border from Mexico. The driver of the truck and two other people were arrested, U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas told The Associated Press.

The Delhi State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) has granted the environmental clearance for the construction of the "Executive Enclave" as part of the Central Vista redevelopment plan, sources have said. The user agency, Central Public Works Department (CPWD), will transplant 487 trees during the construction of the Executive Enclave, which will house the new Prime Minister's Office, the Cabinet Secretariat, the India House and the National Security Council Secretariat.

In a shocking incident, an advocate allegedly shot dead his wife for objecting to his liquor addiction, police said on Wednesday. The accused was identified as Ashok Kumar Chaurasia while the deceased is Pushpa Chaurasia, residents of Thakurganj. Additional deputy commissioner of police (ADCP) West Zone Chiranjeev Nath Sinha said on Tuesday evening, the couple had a verbal spat over his addiction to liquor. In a fit of rage, Ashok lifted his handgun and opened fire at Pushpa hitting her on the chest.

Former Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, leader of opposition Tejashwi Yadav, RJD vice president Shivanand Tiwari and other leaders from Bihar condemned the barbaric broad daylight murder of a tailor in Rajasthan's Udaipur and demanded stringent punishment for the culprits. Jitan Ram Manjhi, the former CM of Bihar said in a tweet: "The murder incident in Udaipur was extremely painful and shocking. The law of the country should conduct speedy trials against so-called protectors of a particular religion and hang them in middle of a 'chowk' so that other people would not do such a heinous act in the shade of religion." Tejashwi Yadav in a tweet said: "I am extremely afflicted with the barbaric incident in Udaipur. Religious extremism not only makes any community blind but also takes away their ability of thinking from them. The perpetrators should be punished immediately."

Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Wednesday morning flagged off the first batch of pilgrims for the annual Amarnath Yatra from the Bhagwati Nagar base camp in the Jammu city for their onward journey to the Pahalgam and Baltal base camps in Kashmir. The 43-day pilgrimage to the cave shrine will begin from twin base camps in Kashmir on Thursday and will conclude on August 11 on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan. The annual Amarnath Yatra is being organised after a gap of two years due to the Covid pandemic. Amid chants of 'Bam Bam Bhole' and 'Jai Barfani Baba ki', the pilgrims left the Bhagwati Nagar base camp here in a convoy of vehicles amid tight security arrangements.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to return ownership of prime California beachfront property to descendants of a Black couple who built a resort for African Americans but were stripped of the land in the 1920s. The board voted 5-0 on a motion to complete the transfer of parcels in an area once known as Bruce's Beach in the fashionable city of Manhattan Beach that is now the site of the county's lifeguard training headquarters and its parking lot.

When President Donald Trump learned his attorney general had publicly rejected his election fraud claims, he heaved his lunch at the wall with such force that the porcelain plate shattered and ketchup streamed down. bOn the morning of January 6, 2021, consumed by crowd size concerns, he directed staff in profane terms to remove metal detectors he thought would slow down supporters who'd amassed in Washington for a speech. Never mind that some were armed — they weren't there to hurt him, he said. And later that day, irate at being driven back to the White House instead of the Capitol, Trump uttered words to the effect of, "I am the f'ing president. Take me up to the Capitol now" and grabbed at the steering wheel of the presidential vehicle.

Singapore on Tuesday reported 11,504 new COVID-19 cases, the highest in over three months, with Health Minister Ong Ye Kung warning people that the latest wave of infections has arrived sooner than expected. Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said that Covid cases are expected to continue rising in the coming weeks. Wong, who is also the co-chair of the COVID-19 multi-ministry task force, had on Monday said there was no need to tighten COVID-19 safety measures at this stage but adjustments will be made "if need be". The uptick in the number of infections is caused by the newer BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants of Omicron, he had said.

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Police in Argentina blocked a major entry point to the capital's centre on Tuesday to keep a group of truckers from joining a downtown protest, adding traffic snarls in Buenos Aires to a series of disruptions caused by anger over rising prices and shortages of fuel across South America, largely as a result of Russia's war in Ukraine. Cars were backed up for several kilometers (miles) until truckers agreed to open up a lane to regular traffic as they moved to take a protest over diesel shortages and prices that has been going on for weeks to Argentina's capital.

Latest data released by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) showed the number of confirmed monkeypox cases in the country has reached 1,076. According to UKHSA, up to June 26, 2022, there were 1,076 laboratory confirmed cases in the UK. Of these, 27 were in Scotland, five in Northern Ireland, nine in Wales and 1,035 in England. Since the WHO's previous update on June 17, there have been 1,310 new cases reported, with eight new countries reporting cases, Xinhua news agency reported. It means almost a third of all cases in the world reported since the current outbreak started have emerged in the UK.

A Florida man has pleaded guilty to three felony charges related to the insurrection and storming of the US Capitol in January 2021. Mitchell Todd Gardner II, 34, of Seffner, Florida, pleaded guilty Monday in federal court in the District of Columbia to civil disorder, obstruction of an official proceeding and assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers with a dangerous weapon, according to court records. He faces up to 45 years in prison at his October 21 sentencing.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russian President Vladimir Putin Tuesday of becoming "a terrorist" leading a "terrorist state" and urged Russia's expulsion from the United Nations. In a virtual address to the UN Security Council, Zelensky urged the UN to establish an international tribunal to investigate "the actions of Russian occupiers on Ukrainian soil" and to hold the country accountable.

Michael Stenger, who served as the US Senate's sergeant-at-arms and resigned after the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, has died. He was 71. Stenger died Monday of natural causes, according to two people familiar with the matter. One of the people said he had been diagnosed with cancer and had been ill. The people would not discuss details of his condition publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. Stenger had served in the role as the sergeant-at-arms of the Senate since 2018 and had previously worked for the U.S. Secret Service for more than three decades.

Opposition parties on Tuesday targeted the AAP-led government in Punjab over its maiden budget, calling it “directionless” and claiming that it “betrayed" the women of the state as no funds were earmarked for the monthly allowance scheme for them. Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema on Monday presented the state budget for 2022-23, providing 300 units of free electricity to households from July 1, setting up of 117 Mohalla Clinics and upgrading 100 schools as 'schools of eminence' in the state among other proposals.