Breaking News, May 22

Digital payments firm Paytm expects that the issue of RBI ban on its subsidiary Paytm Payments Bank to onboard new customers would be resolved in 3-5 months after the clearance by the banking regulator to the processes being put in place.

Auto industry body SIAM on Sunday sought reduction in CNG prices while welcoming the government's decision to lower the petrol and diesel prices.

Counting of votes for the second phase of panchayat polls in Jharkhand, which began on Sunday, was currently underway amid tight security, an election official said. As the polling was conducted in ballot papers, it will take days to declare the final results, State Election Commission (SEC) Secretary Radhe Shyam Prasad stated.

One person was killed and two others, including a minor, were seriously injured after an SUV hit a stationary car near a village on the Ambala-Delhi national highway here, police said on Sunday. The accident took place near Mohra village on Saturday evening, they said.

Pakistan’s ousted prime minister Imran Khan on Sunday asked his supporters to march peacefully to Islamabad on May 25 to press for the dissolution of the National Assembly and fresh elections in the country. 

A sex racket being operated from a spa centre at a mall in the national capital has been busted and 12 people, including 11 women, arrested, a Delhi Police official said on Sunday.

Former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan once again praised India for buying discounted oil from Russia despite being a key member of a US-led Quad alliance.

The six-year-old boy who was pulled out on Sunday from a 100-foot-deep abandoned borewell in a village in Punjab's Hoshiarpur district after eight-hours rescue operation died, authorities said.

Telangana on Sunday recorded 29 new COVID-19 infections taking the total cases in the state to 7,92,871, a health department bulletin said.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday dodged a query about the recent CBI raids on residences of his arch-rival Lalu Prasad and the latter’s wife Rabri Devi.

A young couple was found charred to death inside a car in Karnataka's Udupi district on Sunday, police said.

An Indian ship carrying urgent relief supplies like rice, life-saving medicines and milk powder for the people of crisis-hit Sri Lanka arrived in Colombo on Sunday and the consignment was handed over to the government in the island nation.

Two men, travelling in a car, were shot dead near Puthi Samain village on Sunday, police said. The unidentified assailants have fled, they said, adding the victims, both aged around 25 years, died on the spot.

A portion of the newly constructed Meghalaya Legislative Assembly building collapsed but there were no reported injuries, officials said on Sunday. The 70-tonne dome of the Rs 177.7 crore building constructed by a UP-based UPNRNNL collapsed at around 12:30 am last night, they said.

MNS chief Raj Thackeray on Sunday claimed that political developments around his proposed Ayodhya visit were a ploy to "trap" his party workers into legal tangles and hence, he decided to defer his trip to the Uttar Pradesh city. Addressing an indoor rally at a hall in Pune city of Maharashtra, Thackeray said he has to undergo a surgery on June 1 and after recovering from it, he would again address a public meeting. He reiterated that the MNS workers will resume agitation if loudspeakers atop mosques do not follow the noise rules. Thackeray had earlier asked his partymen to play 'Hanuman Chalisa' outside mosques where loudspeakers play 'azaan'.

Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR and CE) Minister, P K Sekar Babu Sunday trekked about 6 kms on Vellangiri hills, the abode of Lord Shiva here, to review the availability of facilities. Babu along with senior HR and CE department officials walked bare foot on the hills, at an altitude of 6,000 feet in Poondi, around 25 kms from here and enquired with the locals about the basic facilities available for the devotees and requirements for developing the hill shrine. According to official sources, the legislative assembly has decided to develop roads at hill shrines in the state and an expert team will soon be constituted to ascertain the feasibility of laying roads at a cost of Rs 1 crore here. The Minister also inspected the food being served at the shrine and also special lodging facilities for the pilgrims, with the officials there, they said.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday claimed that the BJP has ended the "culture of corruption" in the Northeast and funds meant for development work now get percolated to the last man, whereas middlemen siphoned off most of the amount during the Congress rule. He alleged that the region had remained neglected during 50 years of Congress rule and asserted that it came on the fast track of development only after Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014. Addressing a public rally in Namsai district of Arunachal Pradesh, Shah lashed out at the Congress for questioning Modi on what he did for the region, saying that the grand old party won't be able to see development if it keeps its eyes closed.

A 21-year-old Pakistani national was arrested when he intruded into the Indian territory from across the International Border (IB) here, officials said on Sunday. Saber Nawaz, a resident of Malik Chak, crossed into Akhnoor sector in the outskirts of Jammu on Saturday and was noticed by the alert Indian army guarding the border, the officials said. They said Nawaz was challenged and subsequently taken into custody. He was handed over to Khour Police station on Sunday for interrogation, the officials said. 

The petrol and diesel rates in Madhya Pradesh capital Bhopal have come down to Rs 108.63 and Rs 93.88 per litre, respectively, in the wake of the excise duty cut by the Centre, a fuel association representative said on Sunday. However, this sudden announcement will cause losses to petrol pump owners as oil companies do not provide tax relief on the existing stock, Madhya Pradesh Petrol Pump Owners Associations president Ajay Singh told news agency PTI.

Bihar Police has allegedly demolished nine huts in West Bengal's Malda district along the inter-state boundary and also beaten up several residents including women when they protested the drive, officials said on Sunday. Malda district administration claimed the incident happened in Sadlichak gram panchayat area in Harishchandrapur 2 block on the West Bengal side of a road that marks the inter-state border on Friday night and bulldozers were used to demolish the huts. "Nine houses belonging to three families have been demolished in West Bengal. Higher authorities have been informed and the matter was discussed with the Katihar district administration of Bihar," Malda District Magistrate Rajarshi Mitra said.

Thirteen cows were charred to death after a truck carrying them caught fire in Madhya Pradesh's Ujjain district, police said on Sunday. The incident took place late Saturday night near Ghinoda village under Khachrod police station limits, they said. The truck was carrying more than 20 bovine animals. Some people saw the vehicle, which was without the driver, up in flames and tried to douse the blaze, but five cows and eight calves died by that time, Khachrod police station in charge Ravindra Yadav said. The villagers claimed that 10-15 cows saved by them from the truck ran away into a nearby forest, he said. Five cows saved from the truck were sent to a shelter, he said.  A search was on for the vehicle's owner, driver and helper to get details about the incident, he said. 

State gas utility GAIL (India) Ltd has laid a dedicated pipeline to supply natural gas to HPCL Mittal Energy Ltd's (HMEL) Bathinda refinery in Punjab as it looks to take the environment-friendly fuel to all corners of the country. This is a step towards making natural gas available to large customers, the company said in a statement. The gas receiving station for the pipeline was inaugurated by Prabh Das, Managing Director and CEO, HMEL in the presence of Manoj Jain, Chairman and Managing Director, GAIL; Vartika Shukla, Chairman and Managing Director, Engineers India Ltd and Deepak Gupta, Director (Projects), GAIL, it said. "The dedicated pipeline, which will supply 1 million standard cubic meters per day of gas to HMEL, has been laid at a cost of Rs 142 crore.

The national capital on Sunday recorded a minimum temperature of 23.1 degrees Celsius, three notches below the average and the IMD has predicted light rains in the city. Rainfall recorded in 24 hours till this morning was is 0.8 mm. The relative humidity at 8:30 am is 56 per cent, weather department officials said.

With Russia claiming to have taken prisoner nearly 2,500 Ukrainian fighters from the besieged Mariupol steel plant, concerns grew about their fate as a Moscow-backed separatist leader vowed they would face tribunals. Russia has declared its full control of the Azovstal steel plant, which for weeks was the last holdout in Mariupol and a symbol of Ukrainian tenacity in the strategic port city, now in ruins with more than 20,000 residents feared dead. The seizure gives Russian President Vladimir Putin a badly wanted victory in the war he began nearly three months ago.

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Two girls have been killed after the scooter they were riding rammed into a borewell drilling machine in Jharkhand's Godda district, police said on Sunday. The accident took place on Mahagama-Pathargama road in Mahagama Police Station area on Saturday when the duo was on the way to Godda town, around 22 km away. The rider lost control over the two-wheeler and hit the borewell drilling machine, a police officer said. The deceased were identified as Rosy Murmu and Varnika Soren, residents of Jhalua and Tulsipur Amda villages respectively and students of St. Joseph School, Godda, Deputy Superintendent of Police Shiv Shankar Tiwary said. The bodies have been sent for post-mortem examination and further investigation is underway, he added.

Voters in Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, headed to the polls Sunday to elect a new governor, in a contest whose results are likely to be seen as a barometer of the public mood ahead of an approaching general election. A record-high 31 candidates entered the race, but the battle being watched most closely is between two who registered as independents: former Transport Minister Chadchart Sittipunt, whom opinion polls have marked as the strong front-runner, and Asawin Kwanmuang, who served as the appointed governor since 2016 until stepping down in March this year to contest the race.

Petrol price on Sunday was slashed by Rs 8.69 a litre and that of diesel by Rs 7.05 per litre following the government's decision to cut excise duty on auto fuels, giving relief to consumers battered by high fuel prices that had pushed inflation to a record high.

One man was killed and eight people were wounded during an overnight shooting at a party that drew about 100 people to a Southern California hookah lounge, police said Saturday.

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Pakistan's new Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi will hold talks on Sunday in the Chinese city of Guangzhou to firm-up the all-weather ties between the two countries. This is Bilawal's maiden visit to China after he took over as Foreign Minister following the fall of Imran Khan government. Their meeting was being held in Guangzhou as Beijing is currently under semi-lockdown to contain the fast-spreading Omicron variant of the COVID-19. "Landed in Guangzhou on my first bilateral visit. Today also marks 71st anniversary of establishment of diplomatic ties between Pakistan and China. Looking forward to meeting Chinese State Councilor & Foreign Minister Wang Yi for in-depth discussions on Pakistan-China relations", Bilawal tweeted.

A man was killed and another injured after a tanker hit them in West Bengal's Jalpaiguri district on Saturday, police said. The incident took place at Gararmore Tea Park area within the limits of the Jalpaiguri police station when the men were returning home after cremating a person who had died on Friday. The two were taken to North Bengal Medical College and Hospital where one was declared dead. The police identified the deceased person as Ajoy Sarkar, while the injured, Sourav Choudhury, was undergoing treatment at the hospital. The MLA of Fulbari-Dabgram constituency, Sikha Chatterjee, visited the deceased person's family. 

Odisha sweltered in scorching heat and intense humidity on Saturday as the mercury rose by several notches in the state, the Met office said. At least 18 weather stations, as compared to 10 the previous day, recorded a maximum temperature of over 40 degrees Celsius, the Bhubaneswar Meteorological Centre said.

Agra division commissioner has instructed the officers to increase facilities at noted pilgrim centres of Mathura, a senior official said here on Saturday. “Ensure parking in noted pilgrim centres, drinking water, toilets and uninterrupted power supply," said CEO UP Braj Teerth Vikas Parishad Nagendra Pratap, narrating the details of instructions given by commissioner Agra division. The commissioner has also instructed to prepare a proposal for parking near Sri Krishna Janmabhumi, collectorate, Vaishno Devi temple and Prem temple in Vrindavan, the official said.

Three members of a family were found dead on late Saturday evening inside a flat in southwest Delhi's Vasant Vihar area, police said. On Saturday at 8.55 pm, police received information that flat number 207 of Vasant Apartment in Vasant Vihar was locked from inside and the persons inside the house were not responding, a senior police officer said. Police managed to open the door and found that the gas cylinder was partially opened in the house and there was a suicide note too, the officer said.

A fire broke out at a furniture godown in Delhi's Bhalswa area on Saturday evening, officials said. According to the fire department, a call about the blaze was received at 9.12 pm, and 11 fire tenders were rushed to the spot. The fire was doused around 11.20 pm. No casualty has been reported, the officials said. 

An eight-year-old boy died of asphyxiation in Basrehi village after getting entangled in the rope of a swing on Saturday, police said. SHO of Kotwali Police Station Umakant Ojha said Arjun was playing in one of the rooms of his house and made a swing using a rope. He then stacked some wheat bags one above the other and climbed them to hang the swing from the fan. As he began swinging, the wheat bags on the top got displaced due to which the boy lost balance and the rope got wrapped around his neck choking him to death, he said.