Breaking News, August 13

A man was arrested and four others were detained for allegedly duping people using a toll-free number similar to that issued by an international bank for their customers, police said on Saturday.

Four persons were arrested for their alleged involvement in cyber fraud cases in Bihar's Nawada district on Saturday, police said. Acting on a tip-off, a joint team of Telangana and Bihar Police conducted searches at the premise of an accused Mithlesh Prasad in Bhawani Bigha village on Saturday.

West Bengal reported 461 fresh COVID-19 cases, 11 less than the previous day, pushing the tally to 21,02,008, a health department bulletin said on Saturday.

The intelligence wing of the Rajasthan Police arrested two men for allegedly spying for Pakistan, officials said on Saturday. The accused were identified as Narayan Lal Gadri, 27, a resident of Bhilwara, and Kuldeep Singh Shekhawat, 24, of Jaipur. They were interrogated jointly by intelligence agencies.

Farmers protesting here for the past five days over the non-payment of dues by a sugar mill lifted the blockade from one side of the Jalandhar-Ludhiana stretch of the National Highway-1 on Saturday.

A third gender person was raped allegedly by two men in Jalna in Maharashtra on Saturday, a police official said.

At least three people were killed and five others injured in a landmine blast in the country’s restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Saturday, police said.

A CRPF personnel was injured when militants hurled a grenade at security forces personnel in Eidgah locality of Srinagar on Saturday, police said.

Three persons associated with an overseas education consultancy firm in Ahmedabad in Gujarat were arrested on Saturday for allegedly forging marksheets to help students secure admission to institutes abroad, police said. An owner of the office of the firm identified as Uniworld Education here and his two associates have been arrested for changing marks in subjects like English, in which good scores are needed to get admission abroad, an official said.

Part of a temporary concert stage collapsed in strong wind on Saturday at an outdoor music festival in eastern Spain, killing one person and injuring dozens of others, regional authorities said.

Himachal Pradesh recorded 423 new COVID-19 infections on Saturday, taking the infection tally to 3,07,482, officials said. A 45-year-old woman succumbed to the disease in Sirmaur district as the death toll rose to 4,163, they said. The tally of active COVID-19 cases in the state stands 3,024.

Two teenagers drowned in Swan river in Himachal Pradesh’s Una district on Saturday, the state disaster management department said.

Evacuation of people from vulnerable areas intensified as the swollen Yamuna river continued to flow above the danger mark of 205.33 metres in Delhi on Saturday, officials said. The flood control room said the water level was at 205.99 metres at 3 pm, unchanged since 5 am. The river had breached the danger mark of 205.33 metres around 4 pm on Friday following heavy rain in upper catchment areas, prompting authorities to evacuate people from low-lying areas.

Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra general secretary Champat Rai here said the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya will be complete by December next year. People will be able to have a glimpse of Ram Lalla at the grand temple then, he said at a function held to mark Raksha Bandhan on Friday

A female elephant was found dead in a highly decomposed state and also partially eaten by wild animals in Anaikatty area of Segur forest range, officials said. The forest department staff noticed the carcass during patrolling in the area on Friday evening and a post-mortem was conducted on Saturday.

A mutilated body was found from a sugarcane field on Saturday morning here, with officials saying the victim was killed by a wild animal.

A 20-year-old man died after he was allegedly stabbed in his thigh by a juvenile for talking to a girl in east Delhi's Jwala Nagar area, police said on Saturday. Police have apprehended four juveniles in connection with the incident. Police received information from Hedgewar Hospital on Thursday at 9.08 pm that one Yuvraj alias Annu, a resident of Kasturba Nagar, was taken to hospital where he was declared dead, a senior police officer said.

State-owned PowerGrid Corporation on Saturday said R K Tyagi has assumed charge as its director (operations). "RK Tyagi has assumed the charge of post of Director (Operations), POWERGRID on 12th August, 2022 till the date of his superannuation i.e. March 31, 2026 or until further orders, whichever is earlier," the company said in a BSE filing. Tyagi, 56, is an electrical engineer from Punjab Engineering College (PEC), Chandigarh and has completed MTech in Energy Studies from IIT Delhi. He has work experience of over 32 years in power transmission system, out of which over 26 years are in operation and maintenance (O&M) of sub-stations and transmission lines at various key positions in premier CPSUs in the power sector such as PowerGrid and NTPC. 

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur has ordered an inquiry into the collapse of a portion of the Shimla-Chandigarh national highway in Solan district. A major portion of the road at Mauza Shamlech had collapsed due to heavy rain on Thursday evening. Two cars were damaged in the incident. The chief minister told the media on Friday that though the road does not fall under the jurisdiction of the state government, yet he asked the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and the state Public Works Department (PWD) to submit a report after conducting an inquiry.

Union External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday took part in a ‘Prabhat Pheri’, a morning march, in Ramanagara district to spread awareness about the Centre's ‘Har Ghar Tiranga’ campaign. Accompanied by BJP workers, sporting saffron scarves around their neck, Jaishankar led the march in Harohalli village in Kanakapura Taluk, the home constituency of Congress state president D K Shivakumar. People carrying the tricolour raised slogans like 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' and 'Vande Mataram' during the rally organised to mark the country's 75th year of independence.

The Jharkhand government has drafted a Rs 2,300 crore plan to provide drinking water facilities to around 10 lakh people living in areas under 18 urban local bodies of the state. The projects will be funded by agencies such as the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) scheme of the central government, an official release said here on Saturday. Jharkhand Urban Infrastructure Development Company (JUIDCO), a wing of the state urban development department, will implement the projects. “The scheme will be completed in a stipulated time frame, as the government’s priority is to provide pure drinking water to every urban citizen as soon as possible,” State Urban Development Authority Director Amit Kumar said.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi Saturday tested positive for COVID-19 again and will remain in isolation. Earlier this week, her daughter and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had also tested positive. "Congress President Smt. Sonia Gandhi has tested positive for Covid-19 today. She will remain in isolation as per Govt. protocol," Congress general secretary Jaiam Ramesh said in a tweet Saturday. Sonia Gandhi had tested positive for COVID-19 in early June as well. Days after she had tested positive, the 75-year-old leader was admitted to Sir Ganga Ram Hospital here on June 12. She was discharged on June 20. 

CUET-UG phase-4: UGC says exam for 11,000 candidates postponed from Aug 17-20 to Aug 30 to accommodate city choice for centre. 

Three members of a family were killed and four people injured as their car collided head on with a truck, police said on Saturday. The accident took place near Satnaur village, about 36 kilometers from here, on Friday evening. The family hailed from Pinjore in Haryana's Panchkula district and was travelling towards Hoshiarpur. Police identified the deceased as Ravinder Singh (40), his wife Divya and one-year-old Jaivik. The injured Harjeet Kaur (54), Saurav (33), Sachnoor Singh (6) and Geetu (32) were admitted to the civil hospital in Garhshankar, they said. Jaivik was Saurav's son, they said. 

The IMF's executive board will meet on August 29 to approve a bailout package for cash-strapped Pakistan within this month, including the pending disbursement of about USD 1.18 billion, a media report said on Saturday. The development follows the completion of the USD 4 billion in bilateral financing from four friendly nations, including China and Saudi Arabia, and would pave the way for immediate disbursement, expected to be in Pakistan’s account before the end of working hours on August 31.

The Jammu and Kashmir administration Saturday sacked its four employees including son of Syed Salahuddin, the chief of banned Hizbul Mujahideen, and the wife of terror-funding accused Bitta Karate, officials said. All the four employees were dismissed from service under Article 311 of the Constitution which enables the government to sack its employees without an inquiry. Farooq Ahmed Dar alias Bitta Karate is currently in judicial custody in terror-funding cases, officials said. His wife Assabah-ul-Arjamand Khan, a Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Services officer, was posted in the Directorate of Rural Development. Syed Abdul Mueed, Manager, Information and Technology at Department of industries and Commerce, is son of Syed Salahuddin, the Pakistan-based chief of banned terror outfit Hizbul Mujahideen. The others dismissed are: Dr Muheet Ahmad Bhat, Scientist; and Majid Hussain Qadiri (senior Assistant Professor) in Kashmir University. 

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) convened a meeting of its executive board on August 29 to approve a bailout package for cash-starved Pakistan, including disbursement of about USD 1.18 billion, before the close of the current month, a media report said on Saturday. The move follows the completion of the USD 4 billion in bilateral financing from four friendly nations and would pave the way for immediate disbursement, expected to be in Pakistan’s account before the end of working hours on August 31. Finance Minister Miftah Ismail told Dawn that a letter of intent (LOI) was received early Friday from the lender for the revival of the programme under the staff level agreement (SLA) and memorandum of economic and fiscal policies (MEFP) signed last month. “We are going through the LOI, would sign and send [it] back to the IMF anytime soon and look forward to (executive) board meeting later this month for approval,” he said.

Some portion of a five-storey residential building in Daighar area of Thane city collapsed, but nobody was injured in the incident, civic officials said on Saturday. The incident occurred on Friday around 11.50 pm, they said. "There are a total of 30 tenements in the building and all the residents, except the tenants from eight units, had vacated their houses," said Avinash Sawant, chief of the Regional Disaster Management Cell (RDMC) of Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC). "On being alerted that a portion of the building collapsed late night, local fire brigade personnel and an RDMC team rushed to the scene and carried out a relief and rescue operation. The tenants, who were there at the time of the incident, were evacuated," he said.

A 21-year-old man, who raped a minor girl in 2015, was sentenced to seven years by a fast track Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO) court. Special Judge T G Varghese also imposed a fine of Rs 30,000 on the convict, Govindaraj on Friday. Special Public Prosecutor S S Saneesh said the court also directed the District Legal Services Authority to provide an amount of Rs 50,000 for the rehabilitation of the 13-year-old victim. The case was reported under Marayoor police station limit in this hill district in 2015.

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China has sanctioned Lithuania's Deputy Minister of Transport, Agne Vaiciukeviciute over a visit to the self-governing democratic island of Taiwan. Vaiciukeviciute had trampled on the "one-China principle", seriously interfered in Beijing's internal affairs and undermined the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity, dpa news agency quoted the Chinese Foreign Ministry as saying on Friday. It did not say what the sanctions were in detail but it did say all forms of exchanges with the Lithuanian Ministry of Transport and Communications would also be suspended. Despite the current tensions, Vaiciukeviciute arrived in Taipei on August 7 for a visit.

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A wildfire on Hawaii's Big Island grew overnight as firefighters worked to contain the large blaze that is burning in a rural area between the Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea volcanoes. No homes were at risk, but the flames came within miles of a critical highway on Friday. The area where the fire is burning is dominated by shrubs and grasslands that are parched from persistent drought in the region.

A 19-year-old student allegedly committed suicide by jumping off the fourth floor of his college building at Seminary Hills in Nagpur on Friday morning, police said. According to the police, Shivam Moreshwar Katre, a resident of Dabha and BCA second year student, consumed about 200 ml of petrol and jumped off the fourth floor of the college building around 11.30 am. The student, who was bleeding profusely, was rushed to hospital by college faculty members, but was declared dead by doctors, they said. The reason for the suicide was not immediately known. His father Moreshwar Katre told the police his son did not have enmity with any person or faced problems at home. However, some of Shivam Katre's friends told investigators he was looking depressed for the past couple of days. The police have registered a case of accidental death. 

US federal agents took away 11 sets of classified documents from the Florida residence of former President Donald Trump during an unprecedented search earlier this week, according to legal papers related to the search and the ongoing investigation unsealed by a court on Friday. These documents are part of a potentially criminal violation of the Espionage Act and a few other laws. They included four sets of top secret documents, three sets of secret documents and three sets of confidential documents, according to an inventory of items seized by FBI agents. Some of these documents were marked "classified/TS/SCI" documents "shorthand" for "top secret/sensitive compartmented information".

A federal judge sentenced a San Diego man to 18 years in prison on Friday for piloting a small vessel overloaded with 32 migrants that smashed apart in powerful surf off San Diego's coast last year, killing three people. US District Judge Janis L Sammartino called it "the most egregious case I have ever had in my courtroom in over 15 years in the Southern District of California", before sentencing 40-year-old Antonio Hurtado. Prosecutors say Hurtado was high on drugs when he drove the migrants into rough, stormy seas in the dark in May 2021. As 5-to-8-foot (1.5-2.4-metre) waves pounded the vessel, he jumped overboard and swam to shore, abandoning the passengers he had told to hide in the cabin and under deck. The boat capsized and broke apart as they were hurled into the treacherous early morning waters. Hurtado's lawyer could not be reached for comment. More than two dozen people were injured, including a 15-year-old Mexican boy and a 15-year-old Mexican girl.

A man went on a shooting rampage in the streets of this western Montenegro city on Friday, killing 10 people, including two children, before being shot dead by a passerby, officials said. Montenegrin police chief Zoran Brdjanin said in a video statement shared with media that the attacker was a 34-year-old man he identified only by his initials, VB. Brdjanin said the man used a hunting rifle to first shoot to death two children aged 8 and 11 and their mother, who lived as tenants in the attacker's house in Cetinje's Medovina neighbourhood. The shooter then walked into the street and randomly shot 13 more people, seven of them fatally, the chief said.

Author Salman Rushdie was on a ventilator, will likely lose one eye and his liver was "stabbed and damaged" following an attack on him on Friday, his agent said, noting that the "news is not good". The New York Times (NYT) reported that according to Rushdie's agent, Andrew Wylie, the Mumbai-born controversial author was on a ventilator and could not speak. "The news is not good. Salman will likely lose one eye, the nerves in his arm were severed and his liver was stabbed and damaged," Wylie said in a statement to NYT.

Delhi on Friday reported 10 deaths due to COVID-19, the highest in six months, and 2,136 cases with a positivity rate of 15.02 per cent, according to data shared by the health department here. This is the 10th consecutive day when the city logged more than 2,000 cases in a day. The national capital on February 13 reported 12 deaths due to the viral disease. The fresh cases on Friday came out of 14,225 COVID-19 tests, according to the latest health bulletin. With the fresh cases and fatalities, Delhi's infection count increased to 19,80,402 and the death toll rose to 26,367.

The brother-in-law of sitting BJP legislator from Dholpur Shobharani Kushwah and another man were arrested on Friday after a decade of remaining absconding in a murder case in this Rajasthan district, police said. The arrested accused in the Naresh Kushwah murder case were identified as Shivram Kushwah and Jitendra Kushwah. Police had declared a reward of Rs 5,000 each on their arrest. Shivram is BJP MLA's brother-in-law, they said.

Spanning a period of over 200 years, rare original archival documents and pictures chronicling various revolts and freedom struggle during the colonial rule have been put on display here as part of an exhibition to mark 75 years of India's Independence. The exhibition titled 'Saga of Freedom: Known and Lesser-known Struggles' was inaugurated on Friday by Union Minister of State for Culture Arjun Ram Meghwal at the National Archives of India (NAI) as part of 'Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav'. "The exhibition charts the freedom struggle of India and outbreak of various revolts such as Chuar uprising by the Chuar aboriginal tribesmen of Jungle Mahal of Midnapore and Bankura districts (in present day West Bengal) from 1771-1809, Quit India Movement of 1942, and some of the key events in between, leading to the Independence. Majority of the archives are being displayed for the first time and are extremely rare," NAI's Director General Chandan Sinha told PTI. Among the rare records is a proclamation in Urdu, dated July 6, 1857, issued by Nana Sahib to Indian troops during the Indian Mutiny.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will interact with India's Commonwealth Games contingent on Saturday. The entire nation is proud of the accomplishments of our athletes at the games, he said. Modi tweeted, "Looking forward to interacting with India's CWG 2022 contingent at my residence tomorrow, 13th August at 11 AM. The entire nation is proud of the accomplishments of our athletes at the games."