Breaking News, June 17

A 65-year-old man was allegedly duped to the tune of Rs 6.06 lakh after he helped a woman who claimed she was undergoing treatment in a hospital, Nagpur police said on Friday.

An eight month old infant allegedly sold by his own parents for Rs 5 lakh was rescued by the joint efforts of the Delhi Police and the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW).

Three cyber criminals, who used to cheat people on the pretext of updating their bank KYC, were arrested by the Delhi Police from Gujarat's Surat and Jharkhand's Giridih, an official said on Friday.

Days after a 29-year-old food delivery agent was allegedly stabbed to death by two "Nihangs" in west Delhi, police are yet to arrest the second accused. Sagar Singh, who worked as a food delivery agent, was killed following a quarrel over smoking a cigarette in the Tilak Nagar area.

The COVID-19 tally in Nashik increased by 28 to reach 4,76,334 on Friday, while the death toll stood unchanged at 8,899, an official said. So far, 4,67,317 persons have been discharged post recovery, including 22 during the day, leaving the district with 118 active cases, he added. 

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has traveled to Kyiv to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Johnson tweeted a picture Friday of himself and Zelenskyy with the words “Mr President, Volodymyr, It is good to be in Kyiv again.”

The Calcutta High Court on Friday directed that a special investigation team (SIT) of the CBI – which is probing alleged illegal appointment of teachers in West Bengal government-sponsored and aided primary schools -- will also look into cases of irregularities in recruitment of teaching and non-teaching staff in secondary schools.

Fifteen-year-old Divya Pavale, who was detected with cancer while undergoing tests for coronavirus at the peak of the pandemic, was all smiles as she managed to score a creditable 81.60 per cent in the Class 10 exams conducted by the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education, the results of which were declared on Friday.

At least 12 fishermen stranded in the sea for over 12 hours were rescued by the Coast Guard and Odisha Police on Friday. However, one crew member of the vessel they were in is still missing and a search operation is underway, said Inspector Srikant Barik of Talchua Marine Police Station in Kendrapara district.

Benchmark indices extended their losing streak to the sixth straight session on Friday, with the Sensex declining 135 points in choppy trade amid mixed global markets, unabated foreign fund outflows, and rising crude oil prices.

Three people were killed and as many injured when a speeding car allegedly rammed into a tractor-trolley on Lucknow Highway here on Friday, police said.

A man was stabbed to death and three others sustained minor injuries during a quarrel between two families over a trivial issue in northwest Delhi's Jahangirpuri area, police said on Friday. The deceased was identified as Abdul Mutalif (42), a resident of Jahangirpuri's E-Block, they said. According to police, they received information around 10.45 pm on Thursday about an argument between two neighbours in Jahangirpuri's E-Block. During inquiry, it was found that an argument broke out between two minor boys after the bicycle of one of them accidentally hit the other. Later, their families intervened and the argument escalated, Deputy Commissioner of Police (northwest) Usha Rangnani said.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has been recording the statement of Maharashtra legislator Anil Bhosale at Yerawada prison in Pune, where he is currently lodged, in connection with a money laundering case registered against him, an official said on Friday. The ED officials on Thursday approached the prison authorities and showed to them the court's permission to record Bhosale's statement, an official said. "A team of ED officials reached the prison on Friday morning as well and started recording Bhosale's statement," the official said, adding that the process is likely to continue till June 21.

A blanket of hot air stretching from the Mediterranean to the North Sea is giving much of western Europe its first heat wave of the summer, with temperatures forecast to top 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) from Malaga to London on Friday. Some areas are expected to see the mercury pass 40C (104F). Germany's national weather service DWD predicted that the big sweat would continue over the weekend, as the heat moves eastward into central and eastern Europe. The heat follows an unusually dry spring that's resulted in authorities ordering water to be rationed in northern Italy and parts of France. Experts say that climate change is already affecting rainfall patterns and evaporation rates across the region, with knock-on effects for agriculture, industry and wildlife. 

All gates of the Delhi Metro's ITO station are closed, the DMRC said Friday as members of the Left-affiliated All India Students’ Association protested against the Agnipath scheme for recruitment in the armed forces and demanded its rollback. The AISA also demonstrated against police action on those protesting against the Agnipath scheme. "All gates of ITO Metro Station are closed," the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation tweeted around 12:40 pm as the protest escalated and some members of the student organisation were detained. The entry and exit gates of some other metro stations including Delhi Gate and Jama Masjid were also briefly closed, the DMRC said. The protesters held placards reading: "Immediately fill all the post lying vacant in defence forces on permanent basis"; "Rollback Aginpath scheme"; and "Wake up Modi government".

Holding that High Courts do not have the special power of the Supreme Court, the Madras High Court on Friday rejected a plea from Nalini Sriharan and Ravichandran, both convicted in the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, to order their release without even the consent of the State Governor. The High Courts do not have the power under Article 226 of the Constitution to do so, unlike the Supreme Court which enjoyed the special power under Article 142, the first bench of Chief Justice M N Bhandari and Justice N Mala said. The bench was dismissing two writ petitions from Nalini and Ravichandran, today.

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Friday said the decision to raise the upper age limit to 23 years from 21 for candidates under the 'Agnipath' scheme for 2022 will benefit those who have fallen out of the age bracket to join the armed forces. Gadkari in a tweet said that empowering youth power is the topmost priority of the Modi government, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. "The decision to relax the age limit from 21 years to 23 years for candidates of Agnipath Yojana, will benefit those who have fallen out of the age bracket to join the armed forces. Gratitude to Hon'ble PM on this move," he said. The government on Thursday had increased the upper age limit for recruitment under the 'Agnipath' scheme to 23 years from 21 years for 2022 amid widespread protests against the new model for enrolment of soldiers into the three services. 

Girls outperformed boys in the annual Class 10 exams conducted by the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education, the results of which were declared on Friday. While the overall pass percentage this year is 96.94 per cent, girls yet again outshone boys with their pass percentage of 97.96 as against the boys' 96.06 per cent, an official said. The Konkan division registered the highest pass percentage of 99.27, while Nashik division is at the bottom with 95.90 per cent, the board's chairperson Sharad Gosavi said.

Aspirational districts should be 'inspirational districts' of India, and the Aspirational District Programme should be extended to block and city levels, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said. Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP) launched in 2018 aims to transform 112 districts that have shown relatively lesser progress in key social areas. "Lauding the success of the Aspirational Districts Programme, the prime minister said the government should strive to make these the 'inspirational districts' of India and extend the programme to the block and city levels," an official statement quoted Modi as saying on Thursday.

A journalist was arrested here on Friday on the basis of a complaint by his woman colleague alleging that he persuaded her to produce a fake indecent video connected to a woman minister in the state. In her complaint lodged with the Kochi city police Commissioner on May 27, the woman alleged that the journalist TP Nandakumar--also known as 'Crime Nandakumar'--threatened and harassed her using vulgar language when she refused to obey him, police said. He has been charged under relevant sections of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and various sections of the IPC including Section 509 (Word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman), 294B (Obscene acts) and 506 (Punishment for criminal intimidation), they said. Police said his office was searched for any digital evidence in connection with the allegations against him. He was arrested by the Kochi Cyber Crime Police six months ago for allegedly making derogatory remarks against the woman minister. 

Protests against the Center’s 'Agnipath' recruitment scheme intensified in Bihar on Friday as angry aspirants set fire to at least 20 bogies of the New Delhi-Bhagalpur Vikramshila Express and New Delhi-Darbhanga Bihar Sampark Kranti Express at Lakhisarai and Samastipur stations and blocked highways in the state. The demonstrators blocked highways at several places in Buxar, Bhagalpur and Samastipur and burnt tyres as a mark of protest, officials said. The protests, which is into its third day in the state, caused massive disruption of railway services at Buxar and Kahalgaon, officials of East Central Railways said.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi was detected with a lower respiratory tract infection after her admission to the Ganga Ram Hospital here, and continues to be under close observation and treatment, the party said Friday. Congress chief spokesperson Jairam Rameah said Gandhi was admitted to the hospital on June 12 after bleeding from her nose following a recent Covid infection. "She was immediately put under treatment and underwent a related follow-up procedure yesterday morning," he said in a statement. Ramesh, who is the new general secretary in-charge of the party's communications department, said a fungal infection in her lower respiratory tract was also detected upon admission. 

The 14th summit of BRICS nations - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - will be hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on June 23 via video link, the Foreign Ministry announced here on Friday. China is this year's chair of the BRICS. Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa are expected to take part in the summit hosted by Chinese President Xi. The Summit will be held in virtual format under the theme of “Foster High-quality BRICS Partnership, Usher in a New Era for Global Development”, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said in a statement.

Bharat Biotech International Limited (BBIL) on Friday announced that its COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin has proven to be safe, well-tolerated and highly immunogenic in paediatric subjects in phase II/III study. A press release from the vaccine maker said the study has been accepted and published in Lancet Infectious diseases, peer reviewed high impact factor journal. Bharat Biotech had conducted phase II/III, open-label, and multi-centre study to evaluate the safety, reactogenicity and immunogenicity of Covaxin in healthy children and adolescents in 2-18 years age group.

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Jailed Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh has been granted a month-long parole, a senior official said on Friday. Singh was lodged in a jail in Haryana's Rohtak after his 2017 conviction in rape cases. "He has been granted one-month parole and he came out of the prison on Friday," a senior police official from Rohtak jail told news agency PTI. Earlier in February, the Dera chief was granted three week's furlough. The sect chief is serving a 20-year jail term for raping two women disciples at his ashram in Sirsa, where the dera is headquartered. He was convicted by a special CBI court in Panchkula in August 2017. The sect chief was lodged in Rohtak's Sunaria jail. Sources said the Dera chief was likely to go to Dera Sacha Sauda Ashram, Barnawa in Uttar Pradesh's Bhagpat. 

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The Enforcement Directorate is conducting raids at multiple locations in the national capital region in connection with a money laundering case against Delhi minister Satyendar Jain and his associates, officials said Friday morning. At least 10 residential and business locations are being covered by the officials of the federal probe agency under the searches. Jain, 57, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on May 30 under the criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and is in judicial custody at present. The agency had claimed to have seized "unexplained" cash worth Rs 2.85 crore and 133 gold coins after similar raids were conducted against Jain's family and others after his arrest. Jain, a minister without portfolio in the Kejriwal government, is being probed by the agency under the PMLA on charges of alleged hawala dealings. 

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Four policemen were arrested on Thursday while accepting bribe in two separate incidents in Rajasthan's Dungarpur district, an Anti-Corruption Bureau spokesperson said. The accused had allegedly taken Rs 2.50 lakh and Rs 80,000 as "monthly bribe" from liquor traders, the official said. The role of several other officers is also being investigated. Dhambola SHO Bhaiyalal Anjana was arrested while taking a bribe of Rs 2.50 lakh through Constable Bhopal Singh.

Nearly five million people in India were internally displaced due to climate change and disasters in 2021, the United Nations has said in a report. The annual Global Trends Report by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) highlighted that globally 100 million people were forced to flee their homes last year due to violence, human rights abuses, food insecurity, the climate crisis, war in Ukraine and other emergencies from Africa to Afghanistan. According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), in 2021, there were 23.7 million new internal displacements globally due to disasters (these are in addition to those internally displaced due to conflict and violence). This represented a decrease of seven million, or 23 per cent, compared to the previous year, the report said.

Multiple people were shot at a church in Alabama on Thursday evening and a shooting suspect has been taken into custody, police said. Police said the shooting took place at Saint Stephens Episcopal Church in the Birmingham suburb of Vestavia Hills on Thursday. A police statement said authorities received a call reporting an active shooter at 6:22 pm (local time) at the church and rushed to the scene. The statement said police confirmed multiple people had been shot but did not give the exact number of victims or their conditions. The statement said that while a suspect had been detained, it did not identify the person or details of what had happened. Police said numerous law enforcement agents, along with emergency crews, were at the scene and that more information would be released later.

The United States is “there for” India, the Biden administration has said, noting that New Delhi's relationship with Moscow developed over several decades when Washington was not ready for that. "We have had a number of discussions with our Indian partners, and the point that we have made is that every country is going to have a different relationship with Moscow," State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters at his daily news conference on Thursday. He said India's relationship with Russia developed over several decades. "It developed over the course of decades at a time when the United States was not prepared or able to be a partner of choice for the Indian government," Price said.

Mexican immigration authorities said they have found a veritable United Nations of migrants aboard a freight truck. Mexico's National Immigration Institute on Thursday said the truck was carrying migrants from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Yemen, Uzbekistan and South Africa. There were also people aboard from Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Venezuela. Agents found the truck parked on the side of a road in the southern state of Chiapas, which borders Guatemala. There were so many migrants they were dangling their legs off the roof of the freight container. Migrants have been desperate to leave Tapachula, another city closer to Guatemala, where authorities have made them wait for visas. So many migrants try walking, or hitching rides, toward the north. 

Opposition Congress in Odisha led by state unit president Sarat Pattnayak on Thursday staged a peaceful agitation near Raj Bhavan here protesting against the ED’s repeated questioning of Rahul Gandhi and alleged police excess at the party headquarters in the national capital. Pattnayak accused the BJP-led government at the Centre of attempting to silence Gandhi who, he claimed, has been raising the voices of the poor and downtrodden. The Congress activists started their rally from near the Additional District Magistrate’s Office here and reached the Raj Bhavan shouting slogans against the Narendra Modi government. They later sat on a Dharna as part of the party’s decision to state units to intensify the agitation over ED questioning Gandhi. Gandhi has been facing the ED’s questioning for three days in connection with the money laundering probe linked to the National Herald newspaper. 

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday night visited his mother and party president Sonia Gandhi at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital here and is likely to stay through the night with her, sources said. The Congress president was admitted to the hospital on Sunday, owing to post-Covid issues. He is likely to stay through the night with his mother at the hospital, the sources said. Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had on June 13 visited their mother at the hospital. She had been staying with her mother as Rahul Gandhi was being questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), sources said.