Breaking News, December 24 | HIGHLIGHTS

The Taliban government on Saturday ordered all foreign and domestic non-governmental groups in Afghanistan to suspend employing women, allegedly because some female employees didn't wear the Islamic headscarf correctly. They also separately banned women from attending religious classes at the mosques in the capital of Kabul.

Former Tripura chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb on Saturday asserted that the ruling BJP will win 40-45 seats of the 60-member assembly in the state polls due early next year. In the 2018 elections, the saffron party secured 36 seats and its ally Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) bagged eight assembly constituencies. “If the political equation remains the same, the BJP will win 40-45 seats in Tripura because the party has worked a lot for all-round development," the Rajya Sabha MP said in a press conference.

A court here on Saturday sent all the six people, including a Himachal Pradesh Staff Selection Commission (HPSSC) employee, who have been arrested in connection with the junior office assistant (IT) exam paper leak case, to police custody for four days.

A 19-year-old woman was allegedly beaten up by her boyfriend in Madhya Pradesh's Rewa district after she asked him to marry her, police said on Saturday. The police have registered a case against the 24-year-old man after a video of the alleged incident, which took place on Wednesday, surfaced on social media, an official said.

Two women sanitation workers died and three others were seriously injured when a speeding car ran over them in Medak district of Telangana on Saturday, police said. According to a senior police official, the incident happened in Medak town at 5 am when three sanitation workers of Medak Municipality were going to their office when the car ran over the trio and subsequently two women workers of a petrol pump.

Two persons, who stole an antique idol of Lord Hanuman from a temple in Patteeswaram in Kumbakonam, were arrested and the stone idol was recovered from them, the Tamil Nadu Idol Wing CID said on Saturday.

Taliban security forces used a water cannon to disperse women protesting the ban on university education for women on Saturday, eyewitnesses said, as the decision from the Taliban-led government continues to cause outrage and opposition in Afghanistan and beyond. The development came after Afghanistan's Taliban rulers on Tuesday banned female students from attending universities effective immediately. Afghan women have since demonstrated in major cities against the ban, a rare sign of domestic protest since the Taliban seized power last year.

Two persons from Tamil Nadu have been taken into custody here for allegedly trying to transport drugs and a total of 3.1 kg of pseudoephedrine (a controlled substance), worth Rs 3.1 crore, was seized from them, police said on Sunday. Acting on information, the two, both residents of Chennai, came to Hyderabad on Friday and were trying to transport the narcotic through courier when they were caught, the police said.

"If nobody came to our borders then why are rounds of talks being held with China, questions Congress's Rahul Gandhi. 

PM Narendra Modi congratulates Sitiveni Rabuka, newly elected PM of Fiji . "I look forward to working together to further strengthen the close and long-standing relations between India and Fiji," tweets PM Modi.

The decapitated body of a 20-year-old man was recovered beside railway tracks in this district, police said on Saturday. The body was found in Kurebhar police station area on Friday, they said. Police have sent the body for post-mortem and initiated an investigation.

Three Nigerians were arrested for alleged possession of cocaine and mephedrone worth Rs 27.5 lakh in Maharashtra's Thane city on Saturday, police said. Based on a tip-off, the Crime Unit-5 of Wagle Estate police laid a trap and nabbed the trio near a mall around 1 am, senior inspector Vikas Ghodke said.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath paid tribute to the army personnel who died in a tragic road accident in Sikkim and announced to provide financial assistance of Rs 50 lakh each to the kin of four soldiers hailing from the state.

A day before the Ambala Zila Parishad chairman election, Police on Saturday detained AAP leader Makkhan Singh Labana for his alleged involvement in illegally sending people abroad. The development prompted the AAP to condemn the police action and also dub it a “politically motivated move”.

The Aam Aadmi Party Saturday claimed the BJP will support an Independent candidate for Delhi mayor and challenged it to field its own candidate for the top MCD post.

Hong Kong's leader said Saturday that China has agreed to a reopening of the city's border with the mainland, which has been largely closed by pandemic restrictions, and that he is aiming for a mid-January start. Chief Executive John Lee, returning from a trip to Beijing where he met President Xi Jinping and other officials, told reporters at the Hong Kong airport that the two sides would develop a plan to reopen the border in a gradual and orderly manner.

Noting that the achievement of a USD 5 trillion economy is a short-term “aspirational goal,” former RBI Governor C Rangarajan on Saturday said even after that India will still be known as a middle-income country with a per capita income of USD 3472.
In order to reach the level of an upper middle-income country, he underscored that the country will take another "two decades" to be classified as a "developed nation". Further, he noted that the per capita income will have to be at a minimum of USD 13,205 and the economy should maintain strong growth of between 8 to 9 per cent in order to achieve the goal.

Jammu and Kashmir State Investigation Agency (SIA) on Saturday seized a house in the Barzulla area which was registered in the name of late separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani. According to the officials, the property was believed to have been purchased in the late 1990s by Jamat-e-Islami (JeI) and was registered in Geelani’s name who used to live till early 2000. Subsequently, he shifted to the Hyderpora area of the city. Notably, Geelani died in September last year.

Bhojpur police arrested five persons on the charge of chanting 'Pakistan Zindabad' slogans after winning a local badminton tournament. Four of the five accused have been identified as Mohammad Tanvir Alam, Mohammad Arman, Kallu and Sonu. The action was taken against them after a video of the winning march was uploaded on social media where the accused were chanting the slogans.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday expressed grief at the loss of lives in a brick kiln blast in Bihar's Motihari and announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh from the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund (PMNRF) to the next of kin of each deceased.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday stopped his Bharat Jodo Yatra near Apollo hospital here to give way to an ambulance. He halted for a while to let the ambulance pass. He also asked fellow Yatris to give way to the ambulance. This incident occurred near Apollo hospital in the national capital at around 8:30 am
 

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday morning conducted raids at multiple locations in Chandigarh, and Jammu and Kashmir in two separate cases having links to terror activities. The raids are still on at the premises and hideouts of some suspects in these cases, sources said.

Despite BJP's several appeals to follow the Coronavirus protocols, Congress has resumed its "Bharat Jodo Yatra" in the wee hour of Saturday. During the yatra, Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi also joined in Delhi and walked with Rahul Gandhi for a short distance.

BJP MLA Jaykumar Gore met with an accident on the Pune-Pandharpur road in Satara district near Malthan last night. He is admitted to a Pune hospital along with his driver and two guards.

Fire broke out in a shop in Delhi's Vikaspuri area on Saturday. 18 fire tenders rushed to the spot. Further details are awaited.

Eight devotees died after their car plunged into a 40-foot-deep pit at Kumuli mountain pass in Tamil Nadu's Theni district.

Seven people died whereas several others were injured due to the explosion in the chimney of the brick kiln in Narirgir of Ramgarhwa PS. The injured were admitted to a hospital. A rescue operation is underway.

Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra will enter Delhi today.