Breaking News, April 12 | HIGHLIGHTS

The Mumbai police's Special Investigation Team (SIT) has recovered a cutter that was allegedly used by the batchmate of IIT Bombay student Darshan Solanki to threaten the latter, an official said on Wednesday. The SIT arrested Solanki's batchmate Arman Khatri three days back in connection with the alleged abetment of his suicide. Khatri and Solanki stayed on the same floor of a hostel at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay located in suburban Powai.

Two school buses were gutted in a fire that broke on the premises of a private school in Sector 45 here on Wednesday, an official from the fire department said. No damage or loss of any kind was reported, they said. Two fire brigades were deployed at the spot to control the blaze, they said, citing short-circuit as the reason behind the incident.

Prince Harry will attend the coronation of his father, King Charles III, at Westminster Abbey on May 6, Buckingham Palace said Wednesday, ending months of speculation about his presence. Harry's wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, will remain in California with the couple's two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, the palace said. The coronation date coincides with their eldest son's birthday.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur on Wednesday scoffed at the efforts of opposition parties to defeat the BJP in the run up to the 2024 Lok Sabha election, and termed the alliance a “thugbandan” of parties sunk neck-deep in corruption.

Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday inaugurated an upgraded stretch between Dhaula Kuan and IGI Airport here and pledged Rs 1,500 crore for revamping of roads in Delhi. Accompanied by Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena, Gadkari inaugurated the 8-km stretch revamped and beautified by the Public Works Department (PWD).

President Emmanuel Macron argued Wednesday that protests in France and the Netherlands are a social price that has to be paid as governments in the two countries push ahead with reforms. “We must sometimes accept controversy,” Macron said. "We must try to build a path for the future.”

Delhi experienced partly cloudy skies on Wednesday and the maximum temperature settled at 36.7 degrees Celsius, a notch above normal for this time of the year, the India Meteorological Department said. The city had recorded a maximum of 36.8 degrees Celsius on Tuesday, the highest this summer season so far.

The aim of establishing Delhi Sports School is to nurture young sports talents and prepare them for international competitions, Delhi Education Minister Atishi said on Wednesday. Inspecting the facilities at the school campus, she said education and sports have always been considered two separate departments and the Arvind Kejriwal government is working to change that perception.

A female employee of Pilibhit Nagar Palika was suspended Wednesday for giving a false affidavit for the death certificate of a living person, an official said. An application was moved in April 2017 for the death certificate of one Naeem by his family, Pooja Tripathi, Executive Officer of the municipality, said.

A court here has granted bail to a man accused of being a part of the riotous mob that allegedly killed Delhi Police head constable Ratan Lal during the 2020 northeast Delhi riots. Additional Sessions Judge Pulastya Pramachala was hearing the bail plea of accused Shahid against whom (along with other co-accused persons) the city police had filed a chargesheet under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code, including sections 302 (murder) and 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object).

A woman was found dead in a forest in Fatehpur district and a nine-year-old boy, earlier reported abducted, was found inside a pit, also dead, in Ballia’s Hanumanganj village, police said Wednesday, suspecting at least woman to have been murdered. Jafarganj Police Station SHO Jaychandra Bharti said the body of the 20-year-old, barely clothed, was located Wednesday on the information of the villagers.

The Andhra Pradesh CID has asked central agencies like the ED and the Income-tax department to probe the Margadarsi chit fund company, floated by media baron Ramoji Rao, for alleged violations of the chit fund law after it found that cash deposit records of the firm were "bloated and incorrect", a senior state police officer said Wednesday.

Billionaire Elon Musk has told the BBC that running Twitter has been “quite painful” but that the social media company is now roughly breaking even after he acquired it late last year. In an interview also streamed live late Tuesday on Twitter Spaces, Musk discussed his ownership of the online platform, including layoffs, misinformation and his work style.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanth on Wednesday paid rich tributes to the late BJP leader Lalji Tandon on his birth anniversary and described him as a man who dedicated his life to public welfare and development.

Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena on Wednesday lauded the city police for maintaining peace and harmony during Ram Navami and Hanuman Jayanti celebrations this year despite over a threefold increase in the number of processions and public participation in the festivities.

The Supreme Court agreed to hear on April 28 a plea challenging the Constitutional validity of a provision of the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 which states that a woman who legally adopts a child below the age of three months would be entitled to maternity leave.
The petition submitted that the purported 12 weeks of maternity benefit to adoptive mothers is not only a "mere lip service but when juxtaposed with the maternity benefit of 26 weeks provided to biological mothers, fails to stand even the basic scrutiny of Part III of the Constitution which is wedded to the concept of non-arbitrariness."

A wanted criminal carrying a reward of Rs 2.5 lakh was gunned down in an encounter here in which five police personnel sustained injuries, officials said on Wednesday.

Acting on information received late Tuesday night, a police team from Seohara raided notorious criminal Aditya Rana's hideout in Budh Napur, Superintendent of Police Neeraj Kumar Jadaun said. The SP said miscreants opened fire at the police team, which retaliated, and Rana was injured in the gunfight.

A young man lost one of his hands and injured the other in an explosion which occurred in this district while he was allegedly making a bomb, police said on Wednesday.
The incident took place around 11.
30 PM on Tuesday near Eranjolipalam area of Thalassery here.

 A 25-year-old Indian-origin man, allegedly wielding an axe, was charged in court on Wednesday on charges of assault and other offences in Singapore's Central Business District (CBD), according to a media report.

In a video posted on YouTube, Manohar Thirunavukkarasu is seen wielding an axe in CBD's Stamford Road on Tuesday morning while crossing the road towards Raffles City shopping mall, The Straits Times newspaper reported.

He then walked towards a police car parked at a nearby traffic light, and two uniformed officers point their weapons at him.

 Former Deputy Chief Minister Laxman Savadi on Wednesday announced his decision to resign from primary membership of the BJP, a day after the ruling party denied him a ticket to contest in the May 10 Assembly elections.

Sitting MLA Mahesh Kumathalli was given ticket in Athani in Belagavi district.

Savadi is a three-time MLA from Athani, but lost in the 2018 elections to Kumathalli (then in the Congress).

Four people were killed in a firing incident at Bathinda military station in Punjab on Wednesday morning, with the state police terming it as a "fratricidal incident".
Punjab's Additional Director General of Police, SPS Parmar told PTI over the phone, "It is not a terrorist attack, it is not an attack from outside.
It is a fratricidal incident".

Earlier, the Army said quick reaction teams were activated following the firing incident at 4:35 am.

An 18-year-old man was stabbed to death allegedly by three people in south Delhi's Dakshinpuri area, police said on Wednesday.

They said the incident took place around 10 pm on Tuesday.

The victim was taken to a hospital in a PCR van by police personnel but he succumbed to injuries during treatment, Deputy Commissioner of Police (south) Chandan Chowdhary said.

The poll process for the May 10 Karnataka Assembly elections will be formally set in motion on Thursday with the gazette notification. According to the Election Commission's (EC) schedule of events, the last date of making nominations is April 20. The papers will be scrutinised on April 21 and the last date of withdrawal of candidature is April 24. Of the total 224 constituencies, 36 seats have been reserved for Scheduled Castes and 15 for Scheduled Tribes. The counting of votes is on May 13. The state has 5.24 crore voters and 58,282 polling stations. Karnataka will largely witness a triangular fight between the ruling BJP, the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular). The BJP announced its first list of candidates in 189 constituencies on Tuesday. The Congress has already declared 165 candidates and said it would support Karnataka Sarvodaya Party's Darshan Puttannaiah in Melukote segment. The JD(S) has named 93 candidates.

The Tejas Express train operating between Mumbai and Karmali in Goa will have the second vistadome coach, which provides a wider and hindrance-free view of the surroundings, from April 14, Central Railway officials said. These coaches, having huge windows and transparent roofs, have become popular among passengers of rail sections from Mumbai to Pune and Goa. The Konkan belt offers a stunning view of waterfalls, rivers, valleys, tunnels, lush green fields and creeks. One vistadome coach was attached to the Mumbai-Karmali Tejas Express in September last year.

In the last 24 hours, Uttar Pradesh recorded 402 new Covid-19 cases, marking the highest single-day spike of this year as well as a jump of 128 per cent since the previous day's figure. The new cases increased the state's overall active caseload to 1,498 as of Tuesday, including 338 in Lucknow, where 83 people tested positive in the last 24 hours. In Lucknow, seven patients are admitted to Covid facilities. Meanwhile, one death was also registered in the same period which was reported from Ambedkar Nagar. The state's total death toll now stands at 23,652, according to the Health Department. In order to check the preparedness of hospitals in the state to tackle the resurgence, the first mock drill of the year was conducted in 75 districts of the state on Tuesday.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday chose an ex-National Security Council communications official to be the next spokesman for the State Department. In a statement, Blinken announced that Matthew Miller will assume the role as the daily face of American foreign policy from the State Department podium at the end of April. Miller is a longtime fixture in Democratic political circles and served as the chief spokesman for former Attorney General Eric Holder during the Obama administration. He has also worked closely with Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., the current chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. After President Joe Biden was elected, Miller worked on the incoming administration's transition team, including helping to shepherd Blinken's nomination to be America's top diplomat in the Senate. He then took a temporary post at the NSC last year to coordinate US messaging after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Bloodshed in Sudan's long-troubled Darfur region has left at least 14 people dead over the last three days, two activists said Tuesday. Adam Haroun, a local activist, said clashes erupted Sunday in West Darfur province after Arab gunmen on motorcycles shot and killed a trader in the remote town of Fur Baranga. The killing sparked a series of reprisal attacks between Arabic and African tribal groups and looting, said Adam Regal, spokesman for a local organization that helps run refugee camps in Darfur. The violence continued Tuesday and the death toll was likely to rise, Haroun said.

A senior leader of Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena on Tuesday said his party will contest elections in Goa and soon launch an outreach campaign in the BJP-ruled coastal state. Talking to reporters here, Shiv Sena leader Anandrao Adsul said in the party, which is in power in Maharashtra in an alliance with the BJP, needs to work at grassroots level to win elections in Goa.

One man was killed and three other people were critically injured Tuesday in a shooting outside of a funeral for a homicide victim in the nation's capital, according to police. Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Contee said a police officer was stationed near the funeral home in northeast Washington where the service was held when the gunfire broke out around 12.30 pm. The shooting happened about 20 minutes after a funeral ended for a victim of a homicide who was shot and killed in March. The victim's family had asked police to have officers near the funeral, Contee said.

An earthquake of magnitude 4.3 occurred in Araria, Bihar . The depth of the earthquake is 10 Km: National Center for Seismology

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday had a meeting with her counterpart from Saudi Arabia Mohammed Aljadaan during which they discussed the global debt crisis and strengthening of the multilateral development banks, an Indian initiative under its G-20 presidency. "H.E. Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and I discussed the #G20 agenda, and the progress made," Aljadaan said in a tweet after the meeting held on the sidelines of the annual Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.