Breaking News, April 11 | HIGHLIGHTS

A man allegedly hanged himself along with his three-year-old son in the Revdar police station area of the Sirohi district of Rajasthan, police said on Tuesday.

A Pakistani intruder, who was caught by the Indian Army near the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district a couple of days ago during an infiltration bid, is undergoing treatment at the Government Medical College in Rajouri, officials said. A Pakistani intruder was killed and two more were arrested as Army troops foiled an attempt to smuggle in 17 kg of narcotics through the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district early on Sunday.

A 4.1-magnitude earthquake jolted Western Nepal on Tuesday, officials said. The earthquake, with epicentre at Baluwa area of Gorkha district, 140 km west of Kathmandu, hit the region at 6:50 pm local time, according to the National Seismological Centre, Kathmandu.

With more than 100 cases of coronavirus being reported in Odisha for four days now, the state government Tuesday requested the Centre for at least an additional 50,000 doses of vaccine in the first phase to cover people who have not received the booster dose yet, an official said. The state director of family welfare Bijay Panigrahi, who is also its nodal officer for immunization, has in his letter to the ministry of health and family welfare sought CorBEvax vaccine for Odisha. 

The Moscow-appointed leader of Crimea said Tuesday the region is on guard for what may be an impending Ukrainian counteroffensive. Sergei Aksyonov told reporters that Russian forces in Crimea had built “modern, in-depth defences” and had “more than enough” troops and equipment to repel a possible Ukrainian assault after 13 months of war following Russia's full-scale invasion.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) workers on Tuesday celebrated its newly acquired status of a national party, saying that the elevation from a regional outfit has brought on them more responsibilities to root out corruption from the country.

A court in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district Tuesday sentenced a 30-year-old man to 10 years rigorous imprisonment for raping a 20-year-old deaf and dumb woman.

Apple will next week open its first retail store in India, in signs of importance the iPhone manufacturer attaches to the world's fastest growing smartphones market. The company will open its first official store in Mumbai on April 18 and the second in Delhi on April 20.

Amid a spurt in fresh Covid infections, 234 cases of XBB1.16.1 mutated sub-variant have been found in the country, according to INSACOG data. XBB1.16.1 is a mutation of Omicron's infectious XBB1.16 variant. The XBB1.16.1 has been found across 13 states and Union Territories, including Delhi, Gujarat and Haryana, the data showed.

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud everyday usually hears around 100 cases on an average seeking urgent listing before the benches of the Supreme Court. The Chief Justice's court is often packed with lawyers, who mention their matter seeking urgent hearing.

A man and his two sons were killed after their motorcycle collided with a vehicle here, police said on Tuesday. Intezaar Khan (55), and his sons Zulfiqar (25) and Jarnain (18) died on the spot in the Monday night incident, Additional Superintendent of Police Sudhir Jaiswal said.

The Indian History Congress (IHC) has expressed its deep concern over the recent move of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to bring changes in history textbooks and syllabus. In a statement issued on Monday, IHC president Kesavan Veluthat and secretary professor Nadeem Ali Rezavi said that all those scholars who value "rational scientific knowledge" have found this approach as flawed and unacceptable.

As he ended his daylong fast demanding action from his own government over cases of alleged corruption during the BJP term, senior Congress leader Sachin Pilot on Tuesday said his movement against graft will continue.

A day after Maharashtra minister Chandrakant Patil said not a single Shiv Sena worker was involved in the Babri Masjid demolition, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray said Chief Minister Eknath Shinde should either step down or seek Patil's resignation over his remarks. When the mosque was being brought down, rats were hiding in their burrows, Thackeray said addressing a press conference here on Tuesday. The former CM said his party's Hindutva is "nationalism" and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) should explain what is its Hindutva. "When Babri was being demolished, all rats were hiding in their burrows," he said. Thackeray said either CM Shinde should resign over Patil's remarks or seek the latter's resignation.
 

The Supreme Court's decision on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh marches in Tamil Nadu is a "slap" on the state government's "anti-Bharat secular policies", the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) said on Tuesday. The VHP's reaction came after the apex court earlier in the day upheld the Madras High Court orders allowing the RSS to hold marches in Tamil Nadu and dismissed the appeals of the state government. "Supreme Court dismisses Tamil Nadu's pleas against Madras HC order allowing RSS marches in the state," VHP national spokesperson Vinod Bansal said in a tweet.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought responses from Tamil Nadu and Bihar on a plea filed by a YouTuber, arrested for allegedly circulating fake videos of migrant labourers being attacked in the southern state, seeking clubbing of the FIRs lodged against him. A bench of Justices Krishna Murari and Sanjay Karol issued the notice to the Centre, the Tamil Nadu and the Bihar governments, and sought their replies within a week on the plea filed by Manish Kashyap. The matter has been posted for hearing on April 21. Senior advocate Siddhartha Dave, appearing for Kashyap, submitted that the petitioner was facing five prosecutions in two states. Referring to journalist Arnab Goswami's case, Dave said one offence cannot give rise to multiple proceedings.

The CBI on Tuesday collected voice sample of Congress leader Jagdish Tytler in connection with a 1984 case of anti-Sikh riots in the city's Pul Bangash area, officials said. The agency, which has filed three closure reports so far, made the move after getting "fresh evidence" in the case, they said. Tytler arrived at the Central Forensic Science Laboratory in the CGO Complex where his voice sample was collected by experts, they said. He was allowed to leave in the forenoon after the exercise was complete, they said. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will distribute about 71,000 appointment letters to newly inducted employees on April 13 via video conferencing and also address them on the occasion, according to a statement issued by his office on Tuesday. The programme is part of the 'Rozgar Mela' drive, under which 10 lakh people are expected to be given jobs. The statement said it was a step towards fulfilment of the prime minister's commitment to accord the highest priority to employment generation.

Two persons were found dead with head injuries near the violence-hit Biranpur village in Chhattisgarh's Bemetara district on Tuesday, police said. The bodies of the two men were found nearly five kilometres away from Biranpur in the morning, Bemetara Superintendent of Police Indira Kalyan Elesela told reporters. He said the bodies, yet to be identified, were sent for a post-mortem. As per preliminary investigation, the bodies had head injuries, Elesela said, adding further probe into the case was underway.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has called on Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni and discussed possible cooperation in the areas of trade, infrastructure, energy and defence.
Jaishankar, who arrived in Uganda on Monday, met Museveni at his farm in Rwakitura and conveyed to him the personal greetings of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "Privileged to call on President @KagutaMuseveni of Uganda at his farm in Rwakitura. Conveyed the personal greetings of PM @narendramodi. Appreciated his guidance on furthering our traditional and long-standing ties," he tweeted on Monday.

Radical preacher Amritpal Singh's close aide Papalpreet Singh was on Tuesday sent to a prison in Assam's Dibrugarh, police said. Papalpreet Singh, who is considered to be Amritpal's mentor, was nabbed in Amritsar district on Monday and detained under the National Security Act. A five-member team led by Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Sanjiv Kumar on Tuesday left the city along with Papalpreet Singh for Dibrugarh Jail in Assam. They took a flight from the Shri Guru Ramdas International Airport here. Senior Superintendent of Police Amritsar (Rural) Satinder Singh said the team left for Dibrugarh early in the morning.

An industry body in Andaman and Nicobar Islands has called for a 12-hour strike on Wednesday against "harmful policies, lack of infrastructure and gross negligence by the administration" which is "adversely affecting" the economic growth of the archipelago. The strike, called by the Andaman Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI), will cover all industries and commercial establishments, and modes of transportation, it said in a statement. Only emergency services will be kept out of the purview of the bandh from 6 am to 6 pm, the industry body said.

All "anti-national forces" that want to halt the country's progress are against the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), its national convenor Arvind Kejriwal said here on Tuesday. Describing the AAP's newly-acquired status of a national party in a short span of 10 years as a "miraculous and incredible" achievement, Kejriwal said it brings with it a huge responsibility as well. He urged people to join the AAP in order to make India the number one country in the world. "All anti-national forces that want to stop the progress of the country are against the AAP, but the almighty is with us," the Delhi chief minister said in an address at the party headquarters here.

 'Swaraj Abhiyan’, a political party, on Tuesday moved the Supreme Court seeking an urgent hearing on its plea for a direction to the Centre to ensure that states have adequate funds to implement the rural employment guarantee scheme, MGNREGA. A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and justices P S Narasimha and J B Pardiwala took note the submissions of lawyer Prashant Bhushan, and said the plea may be mentioned for urgent hearing before the bench concerned. “We will give you liberty to mention it before the bench headed by Justice Ajay Rastogi (before whom the matter was listed earlier),” the CJI said.

After Mumbai, iPhone maker Apple will open its second retail store in India on April 20 in Delhi, the company said on Tuesday. The world's largest mobile devices company announced that its Apple store in Mumbai will open on April 18. "Today Apple announced it will open its doors to customers at two new retail locations in India: Apple BKC in Mumbai on April 18, and Apple Saket in Delhi on April 20," the company said. The barricade for Apple Saket was revealed this morning and features a unique design that takes inspiration from Delhi's many gates, each signifying a new chapter to the city’s storied past, Apple said.

Despite a warning issued to him by the Congress, former Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot sat on a daylong fast at the Shaheed Smarak here on Tuesday, demanding action in cases of alleged corruption related to the previous BJP government in the state led by Vasundhara Raje. Pilot reached the Shaheed Smarak, where his supporters were waiting for him. The former Union minister offered floral tributes to social reformer Jyotirao Phule on the occasion of his birth anniversary and sat on the fast.

A Warrant has been issued against gangster Atiq Ahmed. He will be taken to Prayagraj. As per reports, Uttar Pradesh police have reached Sabarmati jail with a fresh warrant. An FIR under section 147 has been registered on 13 including notorious mafia Atiq Ahmed and his son in Dhoomanganj police station. The list also includes Asad Kalia, Shakeel, Shakir, Sabi Abbas, Faizan, Saif, Nami, Affan, Mehmood, Maud and Aslam. 

With more and more fake certificate incidents coming to the fore, the Indian Post, Odisha Circle has urged the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe into the case. The Post Master General (PMG) has written a letter to the CBI SP, Bhubaneswar to probe the fake certificate racket, a spokesperson of the department said.

Police have raided a fake call centre operating from a farmhouse in Maharashtra's Palghar district and arrested 49 of its employees, an official said. The call centre was located near Rajodi beach at Arnala in Virar township, the official from Mira Bhayander-Vasai Virar police said. The accused, posing as employees of an online payments company, used to intercept the inbound calls of an Australian firm. They would allegedly steal its customer database and pass it on to the call centre associates to defraud the firm's customers, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Zone III Virar, Suhas Bawche told reporters on Monday evening.

The minimum temperature in the national capital settled at 16.6 degrees Celsius on Tuesday morning, four notches above normal. The weather office has forecast strong surface winds later in the day. The city logged a maximum temperature of 34.9 degrees Celsius on Monday, the highest this year so far. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted above-normal maximum temperatures and more-than-usual heat wave days in northwest India from April to June. On Tuesday, the relative humidity was recorded at 57 per cent, according to the IMD data.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, after his disqualification as an MP, and his sister Priyanka Gandhi would be visiting this border district of Kerala on Tuesday to participate in various activities organised by the UDF as a show of strength. Rahul Gandhi was disqualified as the MP from Wayanad last month after being convicted and sentenced in a criminal defamation case. The two Congress leaders would first participate in a roadshow called 'Satyameva Jayate' in Kalpetta here in the afternoon.

The West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE) has asked the district inspector of schools to submit the names of teaching/non-teaching staff of state-run and aided schools who were absent at workplace on March 10 during a strike called by a section of government employees. The DIs have been asked to send the list of all such absentee teachers and non teaching staff of schools by April 12. The WBBSE since mid March has been show-causing school teachers on the issue asking them to explain their absence on March 10, the day a joint action committee of state employees called a strike to press for DA hike, disobeying the state's instruction to be at the workplace except for medical emergencies.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday paid tributes to noted social reformer Jyotirao Phule, recalling his towering contribution to social justice and empowering the downtrodden.
The 19th century reformer, who came from a backward caste, worked tirelessly for the empowerment of deprived communities and was joined by his illustrious wife Savitribai Phule in the cause, especially promoting education among women. Modi tweeted, "On his birth anniversary, I bow to Mahatma Phule and recall his towering contribution to social justice and empowering the downtrodden. His thoughts give hope and strength to millions."

India is home to the second largest Muslim population in the world and those blaming the country on minority issues have no clue about the ground realities, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said. Addressing a Washington DC audience during a fireside chat at the Peterson Institute for International Economics on Monday, Sitharaman said the Muslim population is only growing in numbers in India. "If there is a perception or if there's, in reality, their lives are difficult or made difficult with the support of the State, which is what is implied in most of these write-ups, I would ask, will the Muslim population be growing from what it was in 1947... The contrast can be sharper as opposed to Pakistan, which was formed at the same time,” she said.

The Congress has slammed Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar over his remarks that people should leave their "political spectacle" behind while embarking on a foreign visit, saying the Rajya Sabha chairman should be impartial and not always praise the government. Speaking at a World Homeopathy Day function here, Dhankhar on Monday said as India lays the foundation for the centenary of its independence in 2047, every attempt that seeks to attack the country's dignity should be blunted.

The steps taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the interest of the Sikh community including their long-pending demands have resulted in the fizzling out of the separatist Khalistan movement, a delegation of Sikh Americans told the visiting Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday. Led by its chairman Jasdeep (Jassee) Singh and president Kanwaljit Singh Soni, the delegation felicitated her with traditional Saropa, memento, and flower bouquet. Applauding the Modi Government for being there for Sikhs and for implementing several demands from the Sikh Community in the past nine years, Jassee Singh also said that due to these actions of the prime minister, Khalistan movement has fizzled out in the USA.

Three people died and two others were injured Monday during a shooting in the US territory of Puerto Rico, according to police. The killings occurred at a corner store in the southern coastal town of Guayama, authorities said. The two people injured were hospitalized, but police said they didn't know their condition. It wasn't clear what prompted the shooting. No further details were immediately available.

A 23-year-old used a rifle to kill four people at the Louisville bank where he was an employee Monday, according to police. Police Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel identified the shooter as Connor Sturgeon, who was also killed during the shooting. Police also identified the victims, who ranged in age from 40 to 64. The shooting, the 15th mass killing in the country this year, comes just two weeks after a former student killed three children and three adults at a Christian elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee, about 160 miles (260 kilometers) to the south. That state's governor and his wife also had friends killed in that shooting.

The co-owner of a restro-bar and its manager were arrested here on Monday after a purportedly dubbed video of TV serial Ramayana was played on a big screen inside the facility, officials said. The police took the action after short clips of the dubbed video of the serial surfaced on social media, with several internet users expressing anguish over it.
The police had lodged an FIR on its own. The purported video showed the characters of Lord Ram and demon king Ravana with modern music playing in the backdrop, which apparently offended certain social media users.

Taking strong objection to the proposed dharna by former Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot, the Congress on Monday evening said any such protest against its sitting government clearly amounts to anti-party activity. Pilot on Sunday alleged that the Ashok Gehlot-led government failed to investigate cases of alleged corruption during the BJP's rule in Rajasthan and announced plans to hold a day-long fast on April 11 to press for action.

Delhi on Monday logged 484 fresh COVID-19 cases with a positivity rate of 26.58 per cent, meaning that nearly one in every four people tested returned a positive result, according to data shared by the city government's Health department. Three people suffering from COVID-19 died in the national capital. However, the health bulletin stated that COVID-19 was not the primary cause of death. With the addition of the fresh cases, Delhi's COVID-19 tally has risen to 20,15,121. The death toll stands at 26,543, the bulletin stated. Delhi logged 699 COVID-19 cases with a positivity rate of 21.15 per cent on Sunday while four patients had died.

Lawyers of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee on Monday met the eight people detained in Assam's Dibrugarh jail under the stringent National Security Act after they were nabbed following a crackdown by Punjab Police against radical preacher Amritpal Singh and his aides. The SGPC is pursuing cases of the eight people who have been detained under the NSA. SGPC member and senior advocate Bhagwant Singh Sialka led the delegation, including advocates Mandeep Singh Sidhu and Rohit Sharma, to Assam. SGPC chief Harjinder Singh Dhami said following the order of the Jathedar of Akal Takht, the cases of youths imprisoned under the NSA at Dibrugarh are being pursued.

The Aam Aadmi Party was recognised as a national party while the Trinamool Congress, NCP and the CPI were stripped of the coveted status by the Election Commission on Monday.
In separate orders, the Commission also revoked the state party status granted to RLD in Uttar Pradesh, BRS in Andhra Pradesh, PDA (Manipur), PMK (Puducherry), RSP (West Bengal) and MPC (Mizoram). The NCP also lost the state party status in Goa, Manipur and Meghalaya. The country now has six national parties – BJP, Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), CPI(M), National People's Party (NPP) and AAP. Election Commission officials said the parties can regain their national and state party status based on their performance in future electoral cycles as also the Lok Sabha elections due next year.

The unruly passenger on board the Air India Delhi-London flight who created a ruckus mid-air and forced it to return to the national capital tried to open an aircraft door and assaulted two crew members as they tried to stop him, police said here. Jaskirat Singh, aged 25, verbally abused the crew members and hit one of them on the neck causing her to fall on the floor. He then pulled her by the hair and hit another crew member on her face, they said. Singh had to be restrained with the help of other crew members and passengers, and the aircraft was brought back to Delhi about three hours after its departure. He was deboarded and subsequently detained by police, a police official said.

The Gujarat High Court on Monday issued a notice to the state government on a batch of petitions challenging its notification setting the cut-off age for Class 1 admission at six years as on June 1 for the academic year 2023-24. The court of Justice Sangeeta Vishen issued the notice, returnable on April 24, to the state government as well as the education secretary and schools. The notification under challenge was issued by the education department, requiring schools to admit students in Standard 1 for the academic year 2023-24 only if they complete 6 years of age as on June 1, 2023. The notification was issued on January 31, 2020, but came into force from the 2023-24 academic year.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday suggested state-level alliances of the anti-BJP parties to deal a major blow to the saffron party in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. The senior member of the CPI(M) politburo also asked if Congress was ready to adopt such a strategy at the regional level. Speaking at a programme organised at Angamaly near here, Vijayan said that in today's times, it would be difficult to form a new national-level front that would be able to take on the BJP and remove it from power. "So we need to think practically," he said.

Maharashtra Minister and senior BJP leader Chandrakant Patil on Monday said he believed civic polls in the state would be held in October-November if the Supreme Court gives it order on reservation for Other Backward Classes as well as ward delimitation by May. Speaking to reporters, Patil said if the decisions on these matters come by May, then delimitation and other aspects can be carried out by the Election Commission during the monsoons, when it would not be feasible to hold polls, and the civic elections can take place by October-November.

World's second richest person and Twitter's new owner Elon Musk has started following Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a Twitter handle said on Monday. With over 87.7 million followers, Modi is among the most followed global leaders on Twitter. Musk follows 193 accounts on Twitter and is the most followed personality on the platform with over 134 million followers.

For the first time, two B1 heavy  bomber jets of the US Air Force will be part of an India-US mega air exercise that began on Monday amid rapidly evolving regional security scenario and China's growing military muscle-flexing in the Indo-Pacific. The American platforms at the exercise 'Cope India' that started off Kalaikunda will also include a fleet of F-15 E fighter jets, C-130 and C-17 transport aircraft. The B1 bombers and F-15 E fighters will join the exercise later this week, Gen Kenneth S Wilsbach, the commander of the US Pacific Air Forces, told a small group of journalists.