Breaking News, August 5

The Indian Navy on Friday inked a pact with ISRO's Space Applications Centre (SAC) in Ahmedabad on data sharing and cooperation on satellite-based naval applications.

A lady constable, who was going to report on duty in Fatehpur district, died here on Friday, police said. The lady constable Baby Pal (28), a resident of district Aligarh was posted in 'Mahila Thana' here and was going for duty at the Bakarganj intersection of the city on Friday morning.

Three more people died of Japanese encephalitis in Assam on Friday, as per an official bulletin. With these deaths, the toll increased to 60 since July 1, as per the National Health Mission's state unit. The new deaths were reported from Tinsukia, Dima Hasao and Darrang.

 58-year-old traffic police died here by suicide, police said on Friday. The reason behind the suicide is yet to be ascertained. According to police at Itmad-ud-daulah police station, the incident took place at 3 or 4 am on Friday.

All schools in Manipur will reopen for offline classes on August 8, as per notification. All government-run, government-aided and private schools will resume physical classes on that day, as per the notification issued on Friday by Education Commissioner (Schools) H Gyan Prakash.

A 14-year-old girl lost her life after falling into an open drain while riding a bicycle at Visnagar in Gujarat's Mehsana district on Friday, officials said.

Haryana reported 1,055 fresh COVID-19 cases and one death taking the cumulative infections and death toll in the state to 10,34,204 and 10,647, respectively, a health department bulletin said.

A BJP politician in Uttar Pradesh was booked by the Noida Police on Friday for allegedly assaulting a woman after a spat with her inside a housing society.  The spat took place during the day at the Grand Omaxe society in Sector-93B here when the woman objected to plantation of some trees by Shrikant Tyagi, citing violation of rules even as he claimed he was within his rights to do so.

Heavy rains lashed parts of the national capital on Friday, bringing much-needed respite from humid conditions in the city but also led to waterlogging and traffic slowdown in some areas. Rainfall was reported in Saket, Malviya Nagar, Burari, GTB Nagar, East of Kailash, Lajpat Nagar, Kailash Hills and central Delhi among other areas.

West Bengal's COVID-19 tally rose to 20,97,679 on Friday as 783 more people tested positive for the infection, while five fresh fatalities pushed the toll to 21,389, a health bulletin said. The state had registered 775 cases and four deaths on Thursday.

A woman along with her two sons was killed after getting hit by a train in the Mahanagar area here on Friday, police said. While Madhu Bhushan Gupta (35) and younger son Amish (2) died on the spot, her other son Anay (8) was rushed to a hospital where he succumbed to injuries, SHO (Mahanagar) KK Tiwari said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair the seventh governing council meeting of the NITI Aayog on Sunday and this, his office said, will pave the way for a new era of collaboration between the Centre and the states. This will be the first physical meeting of the council after July 2019 and its members include all the chief ministers.

Former Chancellor Rishi Sunak convincingly won over an audience of Conservative Party members in a head-to-head television debate with rival Foreign Secretary Liz Truss in the leadership contest to elect a new Tory party leader and British Prime Minister. The ‘Battle for Number 10’ on ‘Sky News’ on Thursday night brought the finalists face to face with Conservative members who are entitled to vote in the election but are mostly undecided on their choice. After the two contenders put forward their arguments for why they should replace Boris Johnson at 10 Downing Street, the audience members were asked who they thought had won the argument and they picked Sunak in a show of hands.

The Enforcement Directorate on Friday conducted searches at half-a-dozen locations in Tamil Nadu in connection with its money laundering probe into a case of alleged irregularities in the issuance of visas to 263 Chinese nationals in 2011, that also involves Congress MP Karti Chidambaram, officials said. The premises of some companies and their promoters are being raided in Chennai and nearby areas, they said. The ED had initiated a probe in May and filed a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after taking cognisance of a first information report (FIR) registered by the CBI in the same case. The case pertains to allegations of Rs 50 lakh being paid as kickbacks to Karti and his close associate S Bhaskararaman by a top executive of Vedanta group company Talwandi Sabo Power Ltd. (TSPL), which was setting up a power plant in Punjab, as per the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) FIR.

Wearing black clothes, Congress leaders hit the streets on Friday to protest against price rise and unemployment with a host of them, including Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, being detained by police amid dramatic standoffs outside Parliament and the AICC headquarters. Congress MPs, including former party chief Rahul Gandhi, staged a protest in the Parliament House complex and then proceeded to take out a march towards the Rashtrapati Bhawan as part of the party's nationwide stir against price rise, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) hike on essential items and unemployment.

Nine langurs were killed when lightning struck a tree they were sitting on in a forest of Maharashtra's Nagpur district, a forest official said on Friday. The incident took place on Thursday at Mouza Walni in Khapa forest range of Nagpur, he said. At least nine langurs were sitting on a tree, which was struck by lightning, killing them on the spot, the official said. The forest department conducted a panchanama and buried the carcasses in the forest, he added. 

China has announced unspecified sanctions on US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her visit earlier this week to Taiwan. A Chinese Foreign Ministry statement said Friday that Pelosi had disregarded China's concerns and resolute opposition to her visit to the self-ruled island, which Beijing claims. 

Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Friday said that Kannada film star Puneeth Rajkumar, who died last year, will be conferred with the 'Karnataka Ratna' award posthumously, on November 1, which happens to be Kannada Rajyotsava, the state's formation day. He will be the 10th recipient of the state's highest civilian honour. "We have decided to confer Karnataka Ratna award to Puneeth Rajkumar on November 1, we will be forming a committee consisting of Rajkumar family members to prepare for it, it will be conferred with full honour," Bommai said.

A Madhya Pradesh minister on Friday said the state government has ordered a probe into the land allotted to the National Herald newspaper at the Press Complex in Bhopal as commercial buildings have come up there through "violation of rules". The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has earlier questioned Congress president Sonia Gandhi and party leader Rahul Gandhi into the alleged financial irregularities in the Congress-promoted Young Indian, which owns the National Herald newspaper. "I have issued an order for the formation of an inquiry committee to probe into the land allotted to the National Herald in Press Complex Bhopal, where commercial buildings have come up by violating the rules," Madhya Pradesh Urban Administration Minister Bhupendra Singh tweeted on Friday.

The Competition (Amendment) Bill, which seeks structural changes in the governing structure of the Competition Commission of India (CCI), was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Friday. Minister of State for Corporate Affairs Rao Inderjit Singh introduced the Bill seeking substantive provisions to allow the CCI to address the needs of new-age markets. The CCI has in recent times ordered probes as well as passed various orders with respect to alleged unfair business practices in the growing digital market. The New Delhi International Arbitration Centre (Amendment) Bill was also introduced in the Lower House of Parliament. Law Minister Kiren Rijiju tabled the Bill. 

An encounter broke out between militants and security forces in Kulgam district of Jammu and Kashmir on Friday, police said. "Encounter has started at Redwani area of #Kulgam. Police and security forces are on the job. Further details shall follow," a police spokesman tweeted. There were no reports of any casualties so far on either side, a police official said. 

Two people died when the shed of a poultry farm collapsed due to heavy rains in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua district on Friday, officials said. The incident happened in Keerian Gandyal area of the district, they said, adding three people were buried under the shed. While two of them died, an injured person was shifted to a hospital in Pathankot. 

TRS will support opposition candidate Margaret Alva in Vice Presidential poll: Party leader Keshav Rao

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Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut's wife, Varsha Raut summoned by ED to appear before them tomorrow, 6th August in connection with Patra Chawl case.

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BJP MP Harnath Singh Yadav gives Zero Hour Notice in Rajya Sabha over the need to conduct proceedings of Supreme Court in Hindi and that of the High court in regional languages.

Rupal Chaudhary (51.85s Personal Best) delivers India a bronze at World Athletics U20 Championships in Women's 400m. The only Indian to win 2 medals at the same U20Worlds after she helped 4*400m mixed relay team to a silver finish earlier.

(Source: Athletics Federation of India). 

India's Sudhir wins 1st ever gold medal in Para Powerlifting at Commonwealth Games.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday arrested Mohammed Salim Mohd. Iqbal Qureshi alias Salim Fruit in the case relating to activities of fugitive mafia don Dawood Ibrahim's D Company. "Salim Fruit is a close associate of D Company and has played an active role in extorting huge amount of money in the name of Chhota Shakeel through property dealings and dispute settlements for raising terror funds in furtherance of terrorist activities of D company," an official said.

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India's Sudhir claimed the gold medal in men's heavyweight para powerlifting event at the Commonwealth Games here on Thursday. Sudhir, an Asian Para Games bronze medallist, lifted 208kg in his first attempt before increasing it to 212kg in his second effort to gather 134.5 points and break the Games record. The 27-year-old Sudhir, who has an impairment due to the effects of polio, thus opened India's para sports medal account in the ongoing CWG. Ikechukwu Christian Obichukwu won the silver with 133.6 points, while Micky Yule bagged the bronze with 130.9 points.

Four people have been critically injured after a lightning strike outside the White House, fire officials said. The four victims - two men and two women - were injured in Lafayette Park, located directly outside the White House complex, on Thursday, according to the District of Columbia Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department.

Facing criticism over ill-implementation of the liquor ban law in dry Bihar, the state police and Anti-Liquor Task Force (ALTF) on Thursday claimed to arrest more than 73,000 offenders in the last 7 months. As per an ALTF official,the department nabbed more than 40,000 people while remaining arrests were made by district police. Sharing the data, the official said that a total number of arrested persons in the state are 73,413, of which 40,074 were nabbed by the ALTF. During the period of seven months, 52,770 FIRs have been registered in different police stations of the state.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has urged the central government to provide financial and necessary assistance to save cows in the state from lumpy skin disease. More than 4,000 bovines, mostly cows, have died due to the infection which has spread to 16 districts of the state. "The state government is taking all possible measures to control the disease. The chief minister has appealed to the Centre to provide financial assistance to control the spread of the infection," according to an official statement. Gehlot has also appealed to gaushala operators, public representatives and voluntary organisations to cooperate with the state government to control and prevent the disease. 

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday reviewed development projects and the law and order situation of Varanasi division. Adityanath, who visited the Kashi Vishwanath temple and the Kaal Bhairav temple in Varanasi, also inspected the arrangements for devotees and visitors arriving in the month of 'Shravan'. The chief minister directed officials to complete the ongoing projects in a time-bound manner on priority, and warned against any laxity, an official statement said. He asked the officials to ensure that the free precaution dose of the COVID-19 vaccine is provided to all eligible beneficiaries.

The Rajasthan government on Thursday suspended an officer of the Statistics Department for allegedly circulating a fake order asking Yuva Mitras to create dummy accounts. Yuva Mitras are the volunteers who publicise welfare schemes of the state government. Assistant Director of the department posted in Sawai Madhopur, Satish Kumar Saharia, issued an order on Wednesday directing the volunteers to make 10 dummy accounts on Twitter. He said that the fake accounts should not mention that they are Yuva Mitra.

New York state health officials have issued a more urgent call for unvaccinated children and adults to get inoculated against polio, citing new evidence of possible “community spread” of the dangerous virus. The polio virus has now been found in seven different wastewater samples in two adjacent counties north of New York City, health officials said on Thursday. So far, only one person has tested positive for polio — an unvaccinated adult in Rockland County who suffered paralysis. But based on earlier polio outbreaks, "New Yorkers should know that for every one case of paralytic polio observed, there may be hundreds of other people infected,” the state's health commissioner, Dr. Mary T. Bassett, said in a statement.