Breaking News, January 16 | HIGHLIGHTS

Search teams retrieved the flight data and cockpit voice recorders Monday of a passenger plane that plummeted into a gorge on approach to a new airport in the foothills of the Himalayas, officials said, as investigators looked for the cause of Nepal’s deadliest plane crash in 30 years.

At least 69 of the 72 people aboard were killed, and officials believe the three missing are also dead. Rescuers combed through the debris, scattered down a 300-meter-deep (984-foot-deep) gorge, for them.

A punishing cold wave swept Delhi on Monday with the minimum temperature at the Safdarjung observatory, the city's base station, plunging to 1.
4 degrees Celsius, the lowest in the month since January 1, 2021.
 

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a plea seeking the top court’s intervention to declare Joshimath subsidence, a natural disaster.

A bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala permitted the petitioner to approach the Uttarakhand High Court with the plea.

Political resolution proposed at the BJP national executive on Monday accused the Opposition of running negative campaign over several issues against the government and launching "personal attacks" on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and asserted that Supreme Court verdicts exposed it.

Two persons have been arrested and a minor boy was detained for allegedly raping a 13-year-old girl in Bastar in Chhattisgarh, a police official said on Monday. The girl was raped in the intervening night of January 11 and 12 after she was given a cold drink laced with sedatives, the Bodhghat police station official said.
 

The 5G services would be made functional in rural and urban areas of Himachal Pradesh by 2024-end, a state official said on Monday. This will ensure better internet facilities and reduce the digital divide among the masses, IT Secretary Abhishek Jain said.

he Palestinian militant group Hamas released a video Monday of an Israeli it said was being held captive in the Gaza Strip, rare footage it described as a warning to Israel's new army chief. Hamas' military wing, the Qassam Brigades, shared the video, which purportedly showed Israeli prisoner Avera Mengistu calling on the Israeli military to secure his freedom. It remained unclear when the video was taken.

No new Covid case was reported in Delhi on Monday while the number of active cases stands at 10,  according to data shared by the city health department here. As many as 931 tests were conducted the previous day, the health department bulletin stated.

For the first time, opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan on Monday hinted at returning to the National Assembly to be part of the consultative process of a caretaker setup for general elections later this year.

Following Khan's ouster as prime minister through a no-confidence motion in April last year, the 131 PTI members of the National Assembly had resigned.
However, the NA speaker has yet to accept their resignations and called in all the PTI lawmakers to verify if their resignations are "genuine and voluntary".
 

The Election Commission on Monday held consultations with recognised national and state political parties on its proposal on remote voting with a majority of opposition parties pressing for a broad-based consensus on legal, administrative and logistical framework, including the definition of domestic migrants before taking the matter further.

 Delhi High Court has refused to restrain for the time being the sale of sandwiches under the name 'Suberb' by a city-based outlet and observed that global restaurant chain Subway could not claim monopoly over all two-syllable words.

The rupee pared initial gains and settled 21 paise lower at 81. 59 against the US dollar on Monday, tracking a rebound in the greenback overseas and a muted trend in domestic equities.

The Delhi High Court Monday ordered day-to-day hearing from April 13 of the Enforcement Directorate's plea challenging the anticipatory bail granted to former finance minister P Chidambaram and his son Karti in the Aircel-Maxis case.

The high court also listed for the same day the CBI and ED pleas challenging the trial court's order discharging former telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran and others in the same case.

Thousands of farmers on Monday began a protest in Maharashtra’s Nashik alleging the district's central cooperative bank was auctioning assets like land and vehicles of those who are unable to pay loans. The 'birhad' protest, where farmers were joined by their families, was led by Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana chief Rahu Shetti and took place in front of the Malegaon home of guardian minister Dada Bhuse.
The minister was not in town.

 Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav on Monday met uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav at his residence amid speculation that the Jaswantnagar MLA would be given major responsibility in the party.

Akhilesh Yadav reached Shivpal Yadav's residence at Vikramaditya Marg where he is said to have discussed strengthening of the party's organisation.

The wholesale price-based inflation declined to a 22-month low of 4. 95 per cent in December 2022, mainly due to fall in prices of food articles, especially vegetables, on easing supply side pressure and a higher base of last year. This is the seventh straight month of declining Wholesale Price Index (WPI)-based inflation.

As many as six candidates on Monday withdrew their nominations for the upcoming Maharashtra legislative council elections for the Nashik graduates' constituency, leaving 16 in the fray, an official said. The term of five MLCs, including two from graduates' and three from teachers' constituencies, will end on February 7, and elections for the same will be held on January 30.

Islamic extremists claimed responsibility for a bombing of a church in eastern Congo as authorities said on Monday that the toll from Sunday's attack had risen to at least 14 dead. The Islamic State group and its Aamaq news outlet issued statements saying that its militants had planted an explosive device inside the Pentecostal church in Kasindi and detonated it while people were praying.

Two people, including a woman, were killed and four others sustained injuries during a clash between two groups in Dausa district of Rajasthan on Monday, police said. Superintendent of Police, Dausa, Sanjeev Nain said members of two families in Peeloda village clashed with each other over an old dispute involving a road accident.

PM Modi's mega roadshow has commenced in the national capital.

Police have recovered two firearms and a walkie-talkie charger following an encounter with Naxalites in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district, officials said on Monday. The skirmish too place at around 2 pm on Sunday when a special force of the Gadchiroli police was carrying out an anti-Naxal operation in Vedampalli forest, said a release of the office of Gadchiroli superintendent of police.

 The death toll from the weekend Russian missile strike on the apartment building in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro has risen to 35, an official said on Monday.

The Supreme Court on Monday said it will hear on January 18 a plea of US tech giant Google against an order of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) refusing an interim stay on the competition regulator imposing a Rs 1,337 crore penalty on it. The NCLAT, on January 4, had refused an interim stay on an order of the competition regulator and had asked Google to deposit 10 percent of the amount.

The crashed ATR-72 Nepalese passenger plane was previously used by the now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines owned by liquor baron Vijay Mallya, according to Cirium Fleets data. The Yeti Airlines aircraft took off from Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport at 10:33 am on Sunday and crashed on the bank of the Seti River between the old airport and the new airport in Pokhara, minutes before landing, according to the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal.

Under the Taliban, the mannequins in women's dress shops across the Afghan capital of Kabul are a haunting sight, their heads cloaked in cloth sacks or wrapped in black plastic bags. The hooded mannequins are one symbol of the Taliban's puritanical rule over Afghanistan. But in a way, they are also a small show of resistance and creativity by Kabul's dress merchants.

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, Deputy CM Manish Sisodia and AAP MLAs marched to the LG office to protest against alleged interference in govt work. Kejriwal said, "Lt Governor cannot take independent decisions but he is doing that."

The Supreme Court on Monday held that default bail granted to an accused can be cancelled if a special and strong case is made out on filing of a charge sheet. A bench of Justices M R Shah and C T Ravikumar said mere filing of charge sheet will not result in cancellation unless the court is satisfied that a strong case is made out that the accused has committed a non bailable offence.

The Supreme Court on Monday sought a response of the Centre on a batch of petitions pertaining to criminalisation of marital rape. A bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala asked the Union government to file its response on the issue by February 15 and the final hearing on the pleas would commence from March 21. One of pleas has been filed in relation to the Delhi High Court's split verdict on the issue.This appeal has been filed by Khushboo Saifi, one of the petitioners before the Delhi High Court.

SC issues notice to Centre on pleas relating to criminalisation of marital rape. 

State-owned NHAI has no information about faulty FASTags and the penalties collected from motorists in case their FASTags are non-functional at highway toll plazas. In case a motorist does not have a FASTag or it is non-functional, then the person has to pay double the toll charges at toll plazas. According to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), more than 6 crore FASTags have been issued as on October 31, 2022.

A 17-year-old Sikh boy has died in a horrific crash after he lost control of his vehicle in Canada's British Columbia province, according to media reports. Taren Lal was driving home earlier this month when the car he was travelling in veered off the Fraser Highway in Langley, British Columbia, the CityNews Vancouver reported.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday interacted with Agniveers, who are among the initial teams of recruits under the short-term induction programme for the armed forces.
Official sources said Defence Minister Rajnath Singh also attended the exercise.

Three people were killed when a bike collided with an SUV on the Banda-Tanda road in Lalauli area here, police said on Monday. The incident took place late on Sunday when Najim (23) was going to Datauli village on a bike with his wife Sahana (22), brother-in-law Atiq (11) and a girl identified as Sahina (15), SHO, Lalauli, Ravindra Srivastava said.

A guard at the site of the under-construction Ram temple here was seriously injured after being attacked by a neelgai, officials said on Monday. The neelgai or bluebuck was earlier spotted on the more than 100 acre premises of the Ram Janmabhoomi, they said. Commando Mohammad Haneef of the 32nd battalion of the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) was attacked by the neelgai on Sunday, the officials said.

 Fire breaks out on the fifth floor of a building in Shakarpur area. Six fire tenders present at the spot. Further details are awaited.

Rupee rises 9 paise to 81.29 against US dollar in early trade

Sensex climbs 325.59 points to 60,586.77 in early trade while Nifty is up by 93.05 points to 18,049.65.

A Nigerian priest was burned alive in his home in the country's north on Sunday, police said. Father Isaac Achi was killed in the Paikoro area of Niger state after gunmen failed to break into his house and instead set it on fire, said Wasiu Abiodun, the police spokesman. A second priest living in the compound escaped with a gunshot wound to his shoulder, he said.

Ahead of visit by India's External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar to Sri Lanka this week, President Ranil Wickremesinghe has assured to fully implement the India-brokered 13th Amendment to the Constitution.

Leading Sunday services on the lawn outside his tornado-damaged Crosspoint Christian church, the Rev David Nichols told his congregation there was much for which to be grateful. The tornado that ravaged Selma hit the church's daycare. It collapsed much of building and ripped away the roof, but the 70 children and teachers who huddled inside bathrooms were unharmed.

The US military's new, expanded combat training of Ukrainian forces began in Germany on Sunday, with a goal of getting a battalion of about 500 troops back on the battlefield to fight the Russians in the next five to eight weeks, said Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Milley, who plans to visit the Grafenwoehr training area on Monday to get a first-hand look at the programme, said the troops being trained left Ukraine a few days ago. In Germany is a full set of weapons and equipment for them to use.
Until now the Pentagon had declined to say exactly when the training would start.

More rain and snow fell during the weekend in storm-battered California, making travel dangerous and prompting new evacuation orders over flooding concerns along a swollen river near Sacramento. Bands of thunderstorms with gusty winds started Saturday in the north and spread south, with yet another atmospheric river storm following close behind Sunday, the National Weather Service said.

Two suspected drug traffickers were killed early Sunday in a shootout with federal agents off Puerto Rico's northeast coast, officials said. The incident occurred shortly after midnight, when authorities detected a suspicious boat at sea and a chase ensued, Jeffrey Quiñones, spokesman for US Customs and Border Protection, told The Associated Press.