Breaking News, August 20

Congress leader Kanhaiya Kumar on Saturday alleged that the Central Bureau of Investigation was being misused by the Union government to "strangulate" the opposition.

Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan will be on a four-day visit to Australia to strengthen India-Australia ties and explore the connection, collaboration and cooperation aspects in education and skill development.

Civic authorities have sealed 171 meat shops in Delhi during April-July period for running "without licence", officials said on Saturday. Besides, the MCD has also slapped them with a fine worth Rs 52,33,960.

Sleuths of the Kerala Excise Department on Saturday arrested a civil police officer and his friend for possession of highly-potent synthetic drug MDMA and ganja.

Rains lashed parts of the national capital on Saturday, bringing the maximum temperature down by a notch below the season's average, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

A man was killed after his tractor overturned in Nagpur's Mauda area, a police official said on Saturday.

A 40-year-old man allegedly committed suicide by jumping into a well in Maharashtra's Nagpur district, police said on Saturday.

Some 291 Syrian soldiers and Islamic State (IS) terrorists have been killed in confrontations between the two sides since the beginning of this year, a war monitor reported. The victims include 136 IS members killed in Russian airstrikes in the desert regions of Homs, Sweida, Hama, Raqqa Deir al-Zour and Aleppo, Xinhua news agency quoted the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights as saying late Friday night.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) has rescued an Israeli national in Ladakh suffering from mountain sickness with difficulty in breathing due to the high altitude, a defence spokesperson said on Saturday. The spokesperson said that the 114 Helicopter Unit received a call on Saturday morning for Casevac (Casualty Evacuation) from the Nimaling Camp near Markha valley.

The Railway Protection Force (RPF) on Saturday rescued 67 live turtles from a coach of Ajmer-Kishanganj Garib Nawaz Express at Kishanganj station.

The BJP took out a protest march here on Saturday against the state government over its failure to maintain law and order in Rajasthan. The protest was led by BJP state president Satish Poonia.

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan could be arrested by the country’s top investigating agency for failing to appear before it and snubbing its notices in the prohibited funding case, according to a media report on Saturday. The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) issued a second notice to Khan on Friday, according to The News. Khan, the cricketer-turned-politician, received the first notice last Wednesday, but he refused to appear before the FIA investigation team, the newspaper said. “The final decision to arrest Imran Khan could be taken after issuing three notices,” the report said, quoting highly-placed sources in the FIA. The FIA has traced five companies related to Khan’s party that were operating in the USA, Australia, Canada, Britain and Belgium and they were not mentioned in the reports submitted to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), the report said, quoting sources.

Rains lashed parts of the national capital on Saturday bringing much-needed relief from the heat, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD). Shahdara, Laxmi Nagar, Paschim Vihar, Punjabi Bagh and Dwarka were among the areas which received rains, it said. The minimum temperature settled at 27.5 degree Celsius, a notch above the season's average, the IMD said. The relative humidity was 79 per cent at 8.30 am, it said. The maximum temperature is likely to settle around 35 degree Celsius. The air quality of the capital was recorded at 73 at 8 am which falls under the 'satisfactory' category. 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". 

A 20-year-old woman was allegedly killed by her boyfriend after she broke up with him in Maharashtra's Nagpur city, police said on Saturday. The victim, Kajal Umrao Kukde, was found dead with her throat slit in the isolated area of Suradevi near the city on Friday, an official said. Kajal, who was employed at a hospital in Sitabuldi, had met her boyfriend Ankit Randive (25) in Suradevi and spoke to him about ending their relationship, deputy commissioner of police (detection) Chinmay Pandit said. Angered by this, Randive allegedly attacked Kajal and killed her by slitting her throat. The accused then fled the scene with the victim's two-wheeler, he said. Locals in the area spotted the body and alerted the Koradi police, who rushed to the spot and sent the body for post-mortem, the official said. A case of murder was registered and the accused was subsequently apprehended from Khaperkheda area of the city, he said. 

Six people were killed and 13 others were feared dead in separate incidents of flash flood and landslide triggered by heavy rains in Himachal Pradesh, officials said on Saturday. Twenty-two people, who were stranded following a flash flood in the state's Hamirpur district, were evacuated safely, they said. According to officials, trains between Jogindernagar-Pathankot route have been suspended after the Chakki bridge in Kangra district collapsed in the morning due to heavy rains. The railway authorities had declared the bridge unsafe.

A day after the CBI raided his residence, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Saturday claimed that the 2024 Lok Sabha polls will be a battle between Arvind Kejriwal and Prime Minister Narendra Modi who, he alleged, was using all means to scare the AAP supremo. Noting that the Delhi excise policy was implemented with complete transparency and there was no scam, Sisodia said they want to stop Arvind Kejriwal whose work on education and health is being talked about in the world.

Facing financial trouble, a man threw his 11-month-old son into a canal in Rajasthan's Jalore district and lied to his wife that he had dropped him off at his father's place, according to police. The accused, Mukesh Berwal, a resident of Gujarat, has been arrested and the infant's body has been recovered, the police said. "The couple wanted to give a good life to their son but Mukesh was barely earning anything. As he was not even able to feed his son, he decided to kill him. "He knew about the Narmada canal in Jalore, nearly 50 km from his place in Gujarat, and decided to throw his son into it," said Station House Officer, Sanchore, Praveen Kumar.

The International Monetary Fund is facing pressure to reevaluate how it imposes fees on loans it disperses to needy countries like war-torn Ukraine — which is one of the fund's biggest borrowers. The move comes as more countries will need to turn to the IMF, as food prices and inflation internationally continues to rise. Surcharges are added fees on loans imposed on countries that are heavily indebted to the IMF. Treasury Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo said in Aspen last month that finance ministers of several countries realise they have to pay a price for Russia's war in Ukraine, especially with food prices going up. “They're going to have to go to the IMF, they're going to need to find assistance,” Adeyemo said. However, the IMF fee system could change through U.S legislation.

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A court in Assam has sentenced two Bangladeshis to five years of imprisonment each for illegally entering India last year. The District and Sessions Judge on Friday also asked the two persons, identified as Abdul Hai and Niranjan Ghosh, to pay a fine of Rs 10,000 each. Hai hails from Kurigram district, while Ghosh is from Jamalpur district of Bangladesh. 

The Mumbai Police Traffic Control has received a message purportedly warning of another terror attack in the country's commercial capital, officials said here on Saturday. The threats were in a WhatsApp message, ostensibly from a neighbourhood nation, though details of the sender or when the strikes will take place were not clear. The message also claims that the next strike would revive the memories of the 26/11 terror attacks in the city by heavily armed 10 Pakistani extremists. Nationalist Congress Party's Leader of Opposition Ajit Pawar said the state government must take the threat seriously and probe.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday paid tributes to former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi on his 78th birth anniversary. India's youngest prime minister, Gandhi held office during 1984-89, the last time the Congress had a majority in Lok Sabha. He was assassinated by a LTTE suicide bomber in 1991. Modi tweeted, "On his birth anniversary, tributes to our former Prime Minister Shri Rajiv Gandhi." 

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Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina likely to visit India in the month of September. 

A thief who was caught stealing a water motor from a house in North Delhi's Wazirabad area was beaten up and his head was shaved by an angry mob, police said. The police said that they swung into action on Friday night after receiving a video of the incident which had gone viral on social media. "On Friday one video clip surfaced on social media in which some persons were found beating a person. During inquiry, it was learnt that local residents of Wazirabad village apprehended him allegedly stealing a water motor. He was brutally beaten up and his head was shaved," the police said. The thief was identified as Shakil.

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Schools in Himachal Pradesh's Mandi district will remain closed on Saturday due to ongoing incessant rains, a senior administration official said. In view of incessant rains in Mandi for the past two days and the weather forecast of heavy rainfall in the next 24 hours, it has been decided that all the government and private educational institutions except colleges and ITI in Mandi district shall remain closed on August 20, district deputy commissioner cum district magistrate Arindam Chaudhary said in an order issued on Friday evening. All the Aganwaris will also remain closed, the order said. The official said that the heads of closed educational institutions shall strictly comply with the order issued as a matter of public safety. 

The Assam Cabinet on Friday decided to raise the retirement age of faculty members of government medical colleges in the state from 65 to 70 years. The move is aimed at augmenting availability of experienced doctors for educational and medical services, government spokesperson and Minister for Water Resources Pijush Hazarika told reporters. The cabinet also decided to sanction Rs 136.8 crore for implementation of the Free Drugs and Consumables scheme for 2022-23, which will ensure uninterrupted availability of free essential drugs, surgicals, disinfectants, chemicals and consumables in government health facilities, he said. It also approved the decision to re-engage 66 former employees of Hindustan Paper Corporation Ltd (HPCL) in vacant grade-III and -IV posts through a special recruitment drive with relaxation of the upper age limit, Hazarika said. 

Police on Friday busted a prostitution racket which was being run in the guise of a spa centre here and arrested its manager. Two women were also detained after the raid at the spa centre located in a mall in Sector 51, but were let off after questioning, police said. Police identified the arrested spa manager as Yogesh Kumar, a resident of Karol Bagh in Delhi. The spa is owned by one Bhagat Singh, a resident of Sector 15. He is yet to be arrested, they said.

An ASI posted in Madhya Pradesh's Chhatarpur district has been suspended for allegedly seeking guidance from a self-proclaimed spiritual leader to crack a murder case. The suspention order against ASI Ashok Sharma was issued after a video surfaced on social media, showing him seeking the help of a self-proclaimed spiritual guru to nab the killer of a 17-year-old girl. The ASI could be seen handing over a list of suspects to the spiritual guru with folded hands, who then said "There are a few names in your list and I would now take some names. The name which is not there in your list is the main accused."

A fire at a munitions depot inside Russia forced the evacuation of two villages near the border with Ukraine, an official said on Friday, while two civilians were reported wounded by Russian shelling near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant as both sides traded accusations about fighting near the facility in southern Ukraine. The fire late Thursday struck the munitions storage building near the village of Timonovo in Russia's Belgorod region on Ukraine's northeastern border. About 1,100 people live in Timonovo and Soloti, about 25 kilometres from the border. No one was hurt, said Belgorod regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov. The fire came days after another ammunition depot exploded on the Crimean Peninsula, a Russian-occupied territory on the Black Sea that was annexed by Moscow in 2014.

The yatra to the Vaishno Devi shrine atop Trikuta hills in Reasi district of Jammu and Kashmir was temporarily suspended on Friday evening following heavy rain, officials said. Chief Executive Officer of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board Anshul Garg said the situation was under control and there was no report of any casualty or damage. Several videos shared on social media show flood-like situation on the Vaishno Devi track. An official said heavy rains lashed Katra, the base camp for the pilgrims visiting the revered shrine, for several hours in the evening, prompting the authorities to suspend the yatra as a precautionary measure till 5 am on Saturday.

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The US for the first time on Friday said it will give Ukraine Scan Eagle surveillance drones, mine-resistant vehicles, anti-armour rounds and howitzer weapons to help Ukrainian forces regain territory and mount a counteroffensive against Russian invaders. A senior defence official told reporters that a new USD 775 million aid package will include 15 Scan Eagles, 40 mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles known as MRAPs with mine-clearing rollers, and 2,000 anti-armour rounds that can help Ukraine troops move forward in the south and east, where Russian forces have placed mines. The official said the US is looking to help shape and arm the Ukrainian force of the future as the war drags on.