Breaking News, February 3 | HIGHLIGHTS

The Himachal Pradesh BJP will prepare its road map for the next Lok Sabha elections during its three-day state-level executive committee meet which commenced in Una on Friday, state unit chief Suresh Kashyap said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday asserted that the deprived and backward sections will be given priority in the government’s quest for development of the nation. Modi, during a virtual address at the ‘Krishnaguru Eknaam Akhand Kirtan for World Peace’ in Assam's Barpeta district, also said special provisions have been made in the Union Budget 2023-24 to increase the interest rates on women's savings to empower them.

BJP MLAs on Friday staged a sit-in outside Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's residence here to demand payment of salaries to teachers and other staff of the 12 Delhi-government funded colleges, and urged the UGC to intervene in the matter. The teachers of these colleges, affiliated to the Delhi University, have been protesting over irregular payment of salaries and other benefits for many years.

Himachal Pradesh BJP president Suresh Kashyap on Friday suspended four working committee members for six years for indulging in anti-party activities. The suspended members include Tek Chand Chandel from Nalagarh in Solan district, Anu Thakur and Mahendra Thakur from Anni and Balak Ram from Banjar in Kullu district.

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Friday asked the people to protest if any activity was undertaken in forest areas without the permission of gram sabhas, alleging that Centre was trying to exploit the state's natural resources.

Lok Sabha adjourned till February 6

Customs duty changes in Budget will promote Make in India initiative: GTRI

Lok Sabha has been adjourned till 2 pm while Rajya Sabha till 2:30 pm after opposition uproar at Adani row. 

An uproar broke out in Lok Sabha as opposition sought Joint Parliament Committee probe into the Adani group row on Friday. 

16 Parties comprising of INC, DMK, SP, AAP, BRS, SS, RJD, JDU, CPIM, CPI, NCP, NC, IUML, KC (Jose Mani), KC (Thomas), & RSP attended Opposition parties meeting in LOP Mallikarjun Khargeji’s chamber in Parliament building.

Opposition party's meeting under way in Parliament

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Uma Bharti tied stray cows in front of a liquor shop in Orchha town of Madhya Pradesh and fed them hay as she called upon people to drink cow milk and shun alcohol.

A man has been arrested for dragging a motorcycle by his speeding car for more than three kilometres, ignoring attempts by other commuters to stop his vehicle, the Gurugram Police said.

Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of Opposition, Rajya Sabha calls a meeting of Opposition party floor leaders at 10 am in his parliament office to chalk out the strategy for the floor of the House. 

The UN special envoy for Iraq urged the country's new government Thursday to keep fighting corruption and move quickly on much-needed economic, fiscal and financial reforms. Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert told the UN Security Council many other areas also need immediate government attention, among them ensuring human rights, resolving issues with the Kurdistan Regional Government, improving public services, addressing environmental challenges, and continuing to return Iraqis from camps and prisons in northeast Syria.

Democratic Party Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, known for her frequent anti-India tirade, has been voted out of the powerful foreign affairs committee by the Republican-majority House of Representatives, a move that was quickly condemned by the White House. The House voted to remove her from the House Foreign Affairs Committee with 218 to 211 votes on the party lines.

Quad, an informal grouping of four countries Australia, India, Japan and the United States, has agreed to leverage machine learning and related advanced technologies to enhance cyber security, the White House has said.

At least seventeen people have been killed after a truck hit a bus coming from the opposite direction in Pakistan's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Thursday, police said.

Haryana government has constituted a four-member inquiry committee to probe the death of 44 cows and a bull in Karnal, an official statement said on Thursday.

 A 32-year-old man was killed following a fight that broke out while he was dancing at a wedding ceremony in this district, police said on Thursday.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Thursday targeted the opposition BJP by comparing the four-year term of his government with that of the previous government of the saffron party. The chief minister said he had 10 questions for the BJP and wanted the opposition party to answer those.

Manipur Governor La Ganesan on Thursday informed the state assembly that 75 insurgents surrendered and 309 extremists were arrested in 2022. Addressing the first day of the two-day session, Ganesan while highlighting the activities of the state government said the administration continued to strengthen and improve the scenario of the northeastern state.

A shooting at a Tennessee library on Thursday left one person dead and a police officer “critically” wounded, authorities said. Officers were called to the Poplar-White Station Library around 12:30 p.m., the Memphis Police Department tweeted. Both the person and the officer were shot, police said. The person was pronounced dead at the library and the officer was taken to a hospital and “remains in extremely critical condition,” police said.

Israel expects to fully normalize ties with Sudan sometime later this year, Israel's foreign minister said Thursday, after returning from a lightning diplomatic mission to the Sudanese capital. Eli Cohen spoke to reporters after a one-day trip to Khartoum that included high-level meetings with Sudan's ruling general, Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and other military leaders.

The US is tracking a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that has been spotted over US airspace for a couple days, but the Pentagon decided not to shoot it down due to risks of harm for people on the ground, officials said Thursday.

An alleged Chinese spy balloon said to be the size of “three buses” was spotted over the United States' airspace, the Pentagon said. The development comes days ahead of the Beijing visit of Secretary of State Antony Blinken.