Breaking News, February 3 | LIVE Updates

 External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday spoke to his British counterpart Liz Truss, focusing on defence and security ties, the situation in Ukraine and implementation of the India-UK 'Roadmap 2030'. The 'Roadmap 2030' was adopted at a virtual summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his British counterpart Boris Johnson in May last year. "Good catching up with UK Foreign Secretary @trussliz. Conducted periodic review on our Roadmap 2030. Also discussed the situation in Ukraine," Jaishankar tweeted. On her part, Truss said "Russian aggression against Ukraine" was discussed apart from defence and security cooperation as well as the proposed India-UK free trade agreement.

 Delhiites shivered due to cold winds that swept through the national capital on Thursday, bringing the maximum temperature down by eight notches to 14.4 degrees Celsius, the coldest for the month in 19 years.
Overnight rains brought the temperature down in the city, with people waking up to a windy, cloudy and foggy morning
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), a western disturbance has brought the temperature down with winds sweeping Delhi at a speed of 30 to 40 kilometres per hour.
The maximum temperature recorded on Thursday is the lowest in the last 19 years for this month. It was on February 1, 2003 when the national capital had recorded a high of 14.3 degrees Celsius.

A 20-year-old woman and four girls drowned in a creek on Thursday in Daman district of the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, police said. A group of five girls ventured into a creek near Jampore beach for a bath in the afternoon, when four of them drowned, while one was rescued by her family members, district Superintendent of Police Amit Sharma said.

A shooting on a Greyhound bus in Northern California killed one person and injured several others before the attacker was arrested inside a nearby Walmart, police said Wednesday night. Police received 911 calls shortly after 7:30 pm that someone was shooting inside a bus outside a convenience store in the small city of Oroville, north of Sacramento, according to a statement from the Butte County Sheriff's Office. Sheriff's deputies and Oroville police officers found several people with gunshot wounds and one died at the scene despite lifesaving measures, the sheriff's office said.

Forty people from eight Dalit families in Theni, southern Tamil Nadu have embraced Islam after they found living amongst the upper caste Hindus a nightmare.

The conversion occurred a couple of days before at Dombicheri village in Bodinayakanur town in Theni district and Islamic priests solemnised the conversion.

Incidentally, Bodinayakanur is the constituency of the former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and senior leader of the AIADMK, O. Panneerselvam.

Those converted said that they were continuously attacked by Upper caste Hindus who don't allow them to drink tea or coffee from local restaurants and wayside tea shops citing the lower caste status. The neo converts charge that while the men were beaten up, the Dalit girls were teased and lewd comments and gestures were made at them while they were walking on the streets.

Rahima (32) who was earlier Veeralakshmi while speaking to IANS said: "We are forced to convert. We are being teased, beaten, insulted, and not being allowed to walk in the same street where Upper caste Hindus walk. Our parents and grandparents suffered this ignominy and we decided that enough is enough. We are now Muslims and we don't find any demarcation here."

Preposterous to blame a third country for delay in the appointment of an Ambassador of a foreign country to another: MEA Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi on Pakistan alleging that India is instrumental in blocking confirmation of a former PoK President as Ambassador designate to US

 The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) may go for a hike of up to 0.25 per cent in the reverse repo rate at which the RBI absorbs excess liquidity and leave the repo rate at which it lends, to narrow the policy rate corridor, a British brokerage said on Thursday.
"Growth concerns amid spread of the Omicron variant and relatively benign inflation out-turns provide the RBI with enough room to maintain its growth-supportive monetary policies," analysts at Barclays said, ahead of the resolution announcement next week.

A small fringe group of pro-Khalistan elements in Canada is spreading anti-India feelings and the government remained closely engaged with that country over the issue, Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan said on Thursday. He told Rajya Sabha that both governments have recognised the fundamental principle of respect for sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of India and Canada as the basis of bilateral ties. "The vast majority of people of Indian origin in Canada share a warm emotional bond with India and have worked for the betterment of relations between India and Canada," Muraleedharan said.

India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Thursday predicted dense fog conditions in the isolated pockets over Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi during the next two days.

According to a statement issued by the IMD, "Dense Fog conditions in isolated pockets in the night and morning hours very likely over Punjab and Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi on during next 2 days."

This will be Chouhan's first one to one meeting with Modi in 2022. The official statement from the office of the Chief Minister (CMO) informed that the meeting will commence at 4:00 pm.

The Chief Minister will inform the Prime Minister about the upcoming programs to be organized in Madhya Pradesh, the official statement said.

BJP MP Nishikant Dubey on Thursday gave a 'Breach of Privilege' and 'Contempt of the House' notice in Lok Sabha against Congress MP Rahul Gandhi for "inciting" people by his speech in the Parliament yesterday. In his letter to the Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, the BJP MP alleged that the comments made by Wayanad MP about "two-India's" yesterday should be categorised as "Contempt Of The House" and also said that the Congress leader used "unparliamentary" terminology.

In the letter, the Godda MP said, "In his speech, he has uttered that 'India is described as a Union of States and not described as a Nation'. He has further co-related this with making a hollow, baseless and childish prophecy that the people of Tamil Nadu, etc, would never allow themselves to be ruled by the present Government/Party."

Haryana Govt's 75% quota for locals in private jobs put on hold by Punjab and Haryana High Court

Assam: A leopard was rescued from Sishugram Red Cross society near IIT Guwahati by forest officials today.

Udupi hijab row: Petition filed in Karnataka High Court seeking to permit students to attend classes wearing hijab without any interference from the college administration

Last week, girl students in Govt PU College, Udupi were allegedly asked to attend classes without wearing hijab

BMC has decided to allow private & govt companies to install Public Electric Vehicle Charging Station (PEVCS) in BMC’s public parking spaces. LOI to set up PEVCS at 12 such spaces have been issued: BMC

Sensing imminent threat and to stop further misadventure, Border Security Force (BSF) has killed a Pakistani intruder in Punjab's Ferozepur sector as he did not stop and continued moving ahead in an aggressive manner crossing International Border, the force says

A man killed his wife by stabbing her with scissors and then surrendered before the police in Delhi's Govindpuri early morning today: Delhi Police

The top brass of the Indian Army including Army Chief Gen Manoj Mukund Naravane and all Army Commanders carrying out operational review of the situation along the borders with China and Pakistan today in view of the recent changes in the leadership in Northern and Eastern Command

This would be Lt Gen Manoj Pande’s first meeting as the Vice Chief of Army Staff while Lt Gen Upendra Dwivedi is the new Northern Army Commander. Lt Gen RP Kalita also took over as the Eastern Army Commander on February 1.

BJP has asked its MPs to explain the Union Budget 2022-23 to people in their parliamentary constituencies on February 5 and February 6: Sources

Two sanitation workers died allegedly while cleaning a septic tank at Huda market in Faridabad' Sector 14 on Wednesday evening, informed the police.

The deceased have been identified as Balbir (50) and Pradeep (40), who were private sweepers used to clean septic tanks.
According to the police, the incident was reported at 5.15 pm when both were cleaning the tank.

The bodies have been sent to the government BK Hospital for post-mortem.

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Kolkata has seized 128.600 kg of Ganja from Murshidabad's Beldanga. The agency intercepted a 4-wheeler (Mahindra Verito Car) that was being used to smuggle the contraband and arrested two suppliers from Odisha's Angul-Dipak Ranjan Pradhan and Soumya Ranjan Sahoo.

Delhi residents woke up to a light shower of rain on Thursday morning which pushed the minimum temperature in the city to 11 degrees Celsius.
The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted a partly cloudy sky and light rain with thunderstorms in Delhi today. It has also predicted light or moderate rainfall in Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Uttar Pradesh on February 3 and 4 with its peak intensity on February 3.

Thunderstorm with light to moderate intensity rain and wind speed of 20-30 kmph would occur over and adjoining areas of isolated places of entire Delhi and NCR (Hindon, Loni Dehat, Ghaziabad, Noida, Greater Noida, Gurugram) during the next two hours (issued at 7 am): IMD

Delhi Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana will interact with people of the national capital on Thursday on Twitter through a Fever FM radio programme, an official said on Wednesday. The Delhi police chief will be available for a question-answer session with people from 5 pm, he said adding “in case you have any questions, you can connect with the top cop” on Twitter.

The Delhi Police is looking forward to an enriching engagement with the public, he said.

A 30-year-old debt-ridden businessman allegedly committed suicide by jumping from a multi-storey building in suburban Malad, a police official said on Wednesday.

According to the official, the deceased, identified by the police as Saurabh Pitale, jumped off the terrace of the four-storey building on Monday.

The businessman left behind a purported suicide note, in which he claimed he was under a debt of Rs 25 lakh and finding it difficult to repay his creditors, the official said.

The deceased had an engineering workshop in Malad and his business was allegedly affected during the coronavirus-induced lockdown, he said.

The body of a 47-year-old man was found by the side of the Gurugram-Faridabad road near Khushboo Chowk with injury marks on the neck and head, police said on Wednesday. According to the brother of the victim, he used to work as a driver and lived with the family at Mehrauli in Delhi.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Gurugram Police informed him about his brother's death.

"When I reached the place, I found the body of my younger brother Ikrar Hussain. Injury marks were visible on the neck and head. There were marks on the throat also... it's clear that he has been murdered," the victim's brother told police.

An FIR has been registered at Sushant Lok Police Station and investigation was underway, SHO of the police station said.

The Haryana Chief Minister's Flying Squad busted a fake call centre here that was allegedly involved in duping US nationals and arrested three of its team leaders, officials said. A laptop, a hard disk and five mobile phones were also recovered from the call centre, they said.

The CM's Flying Squad, Gurgaon, received a tip-off that a fake call centre was being run from the fourth floor of DLF Corporate Greens Tower 1 in Sector 74A. Based on the information, CM's Flying Squad DSP Inderjeet Yadav conducted a raid at the spot with his team. Twelve men and four women were found working at the call centre, the officials said.

They did not have any valid OSP (Other Service Providers) licences from the Department of Telecommunications or any other document related to their work, they said.

A high-voltage power cable fell during a storm Thursday and killed 26 people in Congo's capital of Kinshasa, most of them women working at a local market, authorities said. Prime Minister Sama Lukonde said the victims at the Matadi Kibala market were electrocuted after the cable fell during bad weather. Authorities said 24 of the victims were women.

“We were crowded in a church in the square to wait for the rain to end. Suddenly, we saw a flame and we shouted Lord, protect us!'” said Charlene Twa, a local vendor.

The FBI has confirmed purchasing NSO Group's powerful spyware tool Pegasus, whose chronic abuse to surveil journalists, dissidents and human rights activists has long been established. It suggested its motivation was to “stay abreast of emerging technologies and tradecraft.”
The agency added in a statement Thursday that it obtained a limited license from the Israeli firm “for product testing and evaluation only,” never using it operationally or to support any investigation.

But critics wondered why the premier US law enforcement agency would need to pay for access to a notorious surveillance tool that has been extensively researched by public interest cyber sleuths if its interest was so limited.

A classified satellite for the US National Reconnaissance Office was launched into space from California on Thursday. The NROL-87 satellite lifted off at 12:27 pm from Vandenberg Space Force Base aboard a two-stage SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

The launch was webcast until the first stage completed its burn and separated from the second stage. Under NRO rules, coverage of the continuation of the flight to orbit ended at that point.

The Falcon's first stage flew back to the seaside base northwest of Los Angeles and landed so that it can be reused in a future NRO mission. 
Central coast residents were advised to expect sonic booms as the booster returned.

Mississippi is legalising medical marijuana for people with debilitating conditions such as cancer, AIDS and sickle cell disease. Republican Gov Tate Reeves signed the legislation Thursday and it became law immediately. It could be months before the first marijuana dispensaries open.

“There is no doubt that there are individuals in our state who could do significantly better if they had access to medically prescribed doses of cannabis,” Reeves wrote in a statement posted to Twitter.

“There are also those who really want a recreational marijuana program that could lead to more people smoking and less people working, with all the societal and family ills that that brings.”

The National Conference of State Legislatures says 36 states and four territories already allowed the medical use of cannabis. Mississippi becomes the 37th state.

Two blasts have been reported in Pakistan's Balochistan province, reported local media citing the Frontier Corps. The blasts occurred in Balochistan's Noshki and Panjgur areas on Wednesday. The blasts were followed by firing, which is ongoing, Dawn quoted a Frontier Corps (FC) spokesperson as saying on Wednesday.

The blast in Noshki occurred near an FC building and the one in Panjgur took place at an FC camp, said the spokesperson.

Pimpri Chinchwad police of Pune district on Wednesday arrested a BJP corporator and former Deputy Mayor Keshav Gholve along with 4 others in connection with an extortion case, informed local police.

According to the police, Gholve and others are arrested on a complaint by a local shopkeeper (trader) Mohammad Taiyyab Ali Shaikh. All the accused have been sent to four days of police custody.

"Accused have been taking money from the complainant and other traders with a promise to help them in getting shops for their business which were likely to be displaced due to acquisition for the Metro works in the area," said the police officer.

The Delhi Gym Association has requested the government to allow gyms to re-open as they claim almost everything is open now except their establishments.

"Everything has been opened but only gyms are closed. One lakh people are directly employed with it. We protested but till now nothing has been done," said Chirag Sethi, Vice President, Delhi Gym Association.

"In Haryana, gyms weren't closed for a single day. We request the government to allow us to re-open them here also," he added.

Earlier last month, Hundreds of people associated with the gyms carried out a protest march near the Chief Minister's residence in Civil Lines and raised their grievances.

Congress leader and former deputy chief minister of Rajasthan Sachin Pilot on Wednesday said the union budget would promote inflation and not generate employment, "This budget is full of inflation but less of employment. Currently, there are three main issues, farmers' issues, inflation, unemployment," said Pilot.

"Government should've given relief to the people who are suffering from inflation but Finance Minister disappointed them," he added.

The UAE has said that it intercepted three drones with hostile intent and destroyed those objects which penetrated the country's airspace on Wednesday.

"The Ministry of Defence (MOD) announces interception and destruction, away from populated areas, of three hostile drones that penetrated UAE airspace at dawn today, 2/2/2022," said the UAE's Ministry of Defence on Wednesday (local time).

As many as 3,855 applications have been approved so far for PM CARES for Children scheme to support children who have lost both parents to COVID, said the Ministry of Women and Child Development on Wednesday. Union Minister of Women and Child Development Smriti Irani, in a written reply in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced PM CARES for Children scheme to support children who have lost both parents or surviving parents or legal guardians or adoptive parents due to COVID pandemic.

The scheme is accessible through an online portal pmcaresforchildren.in. The applications of such children are uploaded on the portal by the respective State/UT governments. 

As of January 31, as many as 6,624 applications have been uploaded on the portal out of which, 3,855 applications have been approved as per due process.

In a shocking revelation about China hiding its losses in the Galwan Valley clash with India in June 2020, new research has shown that the People's Liberation Army (PLA) lost at least nine times more soldiers than its official count of four.

At least 38 PLA troops drowned while crossing a fast-flowing, sub-zero river in darkness, according to an article in the Australian newspaper 'The Klaxon' which cited a report prepared by a group of social media researchers after a year-long investigation.

Of the four soldiers China has confirmed died, only one - Junior Sergeant Wang Zhuoran - is reported as having drowned, the investigative newspaper said.

Delhi: A case of death of a minor girl has come to light in Dwarka on January 31. She was found unconscious in bathroom and was taken to a hospital where she was declared dead. Post mortem report claims death due to inhalation of Carbon Monoxide gas leaking from a geyser, say Delhi Police

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Wednesday targeted Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his remarks that the BJP government's policies have brought "China and Pakistan together," stating that "some history lessons are in order" and that Pakistan illegally handed over the Shaksgam Valley to China in 1963, when a Congress government was in office.

He said that China built the Karakoram highway through PoK in the 1970s and CPEC was started in 2013 when Congress-led UPA was in power at the Centre.

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An eyewitness says a property dealer was shot dead by some unidentified miscreant around 11 pm. Police reached the spot, trying to gather evidence. Police are investigating the nearby CCTV cameras

Historic places in Maharashtra's Aurangabad reopen for tourists with an online ticketing system

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will visit Chhattisgarh's Raipur today to lay the foundation stone of 'Amar Jawan Jyoti' and inaugurate Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Bhumiheen Krishi Mazduur Yojana. According to an official statement, Amar Jawan Jyoti will be constructed on the premises of the 4th Battalion, Chhattisgarh Armed Forces Mana, Raipur. 

The flame of Chhattisgarh Amar Jawan Jyoti will continue to be lit in honour of the martyrs.

"We will honour the martyrdom of the sons of Chhattisgarh who sacrificed their lives for the country by joining uniformed services, as well as the Bravehearts of the country who sacrificed their lives in Chhattisgarh through 'Chhattisgarh Amar Jawan Jyoti'," said Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel.

Yellow alert for heavy snowfall has been issued in higher areas of Himachal Pradesh -- including Chamba, Spiti, Kullu, Shimla. 

Duration of snowfall was longer in comparison to previous years. Coming 48 hours will be extremely cold with heavy snowfall, says Surender Paul, IMD head, Himachal Pradesh

Hindustani Bhau arrest case: ACP Pranaya Ashok says, "We received information that students will protest outside Dharavi Police Station in support of Vikas Pathak alias Hindustani Bhau. Reserved Forces were prepared for the same. Several students were instructed via social media not to involve in such illegal activities."

Rohtak's Unnati Hooda returns home after winning Odhisha Open Badminton Championship 2022