Breaking News, August 24

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday flagged off 97 high-tech electric buses.

As part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav and to bring to the fore India's freedom struggle, Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting Anurag Singh Thakur on Wednesday launched Azadi Quest, a series of online educational mobile games developed in collaboration with Zynga India.

India can add another 23.7GW of wind energy capacity in the next five years, according to a study. Global Wind Energy Council and MEC Intelligence (MEC) on Wednesday released the report titled "Renewing wind growth to power the energy transition: India Wind Energy Market Outlook 2026".

Sebi on Wednesday barred Gold Tree and its proprietor Sarvesh Kumar from the securities markets for providing advisory and portfolio manager services without the market regulator's authorisation.

Wickremesinghe and a visiting IMF team on Wednesday analysed Sri Lanka's current economic crisis as the two sides began crucial talks to finalise a bailout package and secure a staff-level agreement for the cash-strapped country.

Lakhs of suburban rail commuters served by select telcos will be able to enjoy faster internet on their mobile phones courtesy of a new technology. Cloudextel, which pitches itself as a 'network as a service' company, has tied up a pilot project with Railtel to provide the shared Radio Access Network (RAN) solution at nine railway stations between Churchgate and Dadar on the Western Railway.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday said that Nagaland requires exposure to get investment and needs hand-holding in terms of resources.

The Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday raided the office of North Bengal University (NBU) Vice-Chancellor Subires Bhattacharyya in Siliguri in connection with its probe into the school recruitment scam, and sealed his apartment in Kolkata.

A 17-year-old girl was killed allegedly by a youth who lived with her family in the Outer Delhi's Tikri Border area on Wednesday, police said. Harish, 18, was overpowered by the public at the spot and was handed over to the police, they said. Harish worked with the victim's mother at a factory in Bahadurgarh and also lived with her family, police said.

A special session of the Delhi Assembly will be held Friday amid a political slugfest over action by central probe agencies in the Kejriwal government's excise policy and the AAP accusing the BJP of trying to lure its MLAs. The Assembly session is scheduled to be held from 11 am on August 26, according to a document issued by the Delhi Assembly on Wednesday.

One more person was arrested in connection with the busting of a gang that cheated vehicle owners on the pretext of renewing their lapsed insurance policies, police said on Wednesday. The gang has cheated about 450 people of about Rs 43 lakh by pretending to be the employees of an insurance aggregator, they said.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday said 80 per cent of the over 10,000 buses plying in the capital by 2025 will be electric, making Delhi the city with the highest number of e-buses in the country.

A 19-year-old youth was allegedly stabbed to death by his cousin over a trivial issue in Kota city on Wednesday, police said. The victim's father and two brothers sustained injuries while trying to rescue him, they said, adding the accused has been arrested.

'When BJP fears or loses in the state, it puts ahead its three 'jamai', CBI, ED and IT... When I go to foreign countries, BJP issues lookout notices against me & when fraudsters like Nirav Modi run away, they don't do anything, says Bihar Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav in Legislative Assembly. 

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Wednesday announced plans to ease border controls from early September by eliminating requirements for pre-departure COVID-19 tests for travelers who have received at least three vaccine doses, and he will also consider increasing daily entry caps as soon as next month. Japan, which has imposed some of the toughest border measures for the coronavirus, currently requires negative PCR test results within 72 hours of departure for all entrants, a practice that has been criticized as cumbersome.

Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Wednesday said the state police were conducting a detailed investigation into the death of BJP leader Sonali Phogat. Considering the opinion of doctors and Goa Director General of Police Jaspal Singh, it preliminary looks like she died due to a heart attack, Sawant told reporters. Phogat (42), the BJP leader from Haryana who had found fame on Tik Tok, was "brought dead" at the St Anthony Hospital at Anjuna in North Goa on Tuesday morning, a police official earlier said, adding that she died of a suspected heart attack. The postmortem is scheduled to be conducted at the Goa Medical College and Hospital on Wednesday. Sawant said he has been following up the matter with Director General of Police Jaspal Singh. “The Goa Police are conducting a detailed investigation into the case,” he said. The Anjuna police have registered a case of unnatural death.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) claimed on Wednesday that the BJP has approached four of its legislators in Delhi, asking them to switch sides and join the saffron party or else, face "false cases, the CBI and the ED". Addressing a press conference here, AAP's national spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said the MLAs -- Ajay Dutt, Sanjeev Jha, Somnath Bharati and Kuldeep Kumar -- have been approached by leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with whom they have "friendly relations". Taking to Twitter, Delhi Chief Minister and AAP's national convenor Arvind Kejriwal said it is "a very serious matter" and a meeting of the party's Political Affairs Committee (PAC) has been convened at his residence at 4 pm to "take stock of the situation and chalk out further strategy".

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has called a meeting of the Public Affairs Committee (PAC), the AAP's highest decision body, at his residence on Wednesday. The meeting scheduled for 4 p.m. has been called amid alleged offers from the BJP to AAP MLAs. Earlier in the day, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia alleged that the saffron party has again approached the AAP MLAs with an offer of Rs 20 crore. "After they failed to lure me, they have started conspiring to break AAP with offering MLAs with Rs 20 crore and ED raid. Be alert BJP. These are the soldiers of Arvind Kejriwal and followers of Bhagat Singh. They will not betray the party. CBI and ED are nothing before their determination," he said in a tweet.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has ordered fresh assessment of security threat of protectees after several protected individuals in Punjab had approached it against the withdrawal and de-categorization of their security cover. While hearing a batch of 45 petitions filed among others by former Punjab Deputy Chief Minister O P Soni, the court said it cannot lose sight of the fact that decategorisation of security may sometimes prompt inimical anti-social elements to take drastic step to overcome the decategorised security in order to attack the protectee.

The Trinamool Congress removed its Tripura state president Subal Bhowmik on Wednesday amid speculations that he may return to the BJP. Bhowmik, a former MLA from Sonamura, had crossed over to the TMC from BJP in July last year. "This press release is to announce that Subal Bhowmik is being relieved from his duties of state president of Tripura Pradesh Trinamool Congress with immediate effect," the TMC said. "All the members of the state committee, state youth committee, state mahila committee, state ST cell shall continue in their position," it said. Bhowmik has been staying away from party programmes for the last few days. The TMC announced that former West Bengal minister Rajib Banerjee, the party's in-charge for Tripura, and Rajya Sabha MP Susmita Dev will look after the functioning of the party till a new state president is appointed.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (MMRCL) to strictly abide by its undertaking that no trees would be cut in Mumbai's Aarey colony and warned that any violation will result in strict action. A three-judge bench headed by Justice U U Lalit said he would hear the matter on August 30 after counsel for the Maharashtra government sought time to collate documents. "The counsel for MMRCL submits that her clients have already filed an affidavit that no trees have been or would be cut in any manner. The said undertaking by the MMRCL director has already been taken on record and MMRCL shall be strictly bound by the same," the bench also comprising Justices S R Bhat and Sudhanshu Dhulia said.

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Bihar Assembly Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha announced his resignation on the floor of the House on Wednesday after an emotionally charged speech in which he expressed anguish over the no-confidence motion moved against him by the ruling 'Mahagathbandhan'. Sinha, who belongs to the BJP which now stands stripped of power in the state, left the House in turmoil as he adjourned proceedings till 2 pm. He made a hasty exit from the House, and MLAs of the BJP, almost all of whom were wearing saffron scarves and raising slogans like ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ and ‘Jai Shri Ram’, followed suit.

Police carried out raids here on Wednesday at the residences of three lawyers, including former Kashmir High Court Bar Association president Mian Abdul Qayoom, as part of the probe into the killing of an advocate. "Srinagar police conducting searches at residence of Adv Miyan Qayoom, Adv Manzoor Dar and Adv Muzzaffar Mohd in connection with further #investigation of #murder of Adv Babar Qadri, FIR No 62/2020 of PS Lal Bazar," Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), Kashmir Zone, Vijay Kumar said in a tweet.

Trinamool Congress leader Anubrata Mondal on Wednesday said he wanted a CBI probe into a threat letter against a judge of Asansol special CBI court who is hearing the alleged cattle smuggling case against him. Asansol special CBI court judge Rajesh Chakraborty wrote to Paschim Bardhaman district judge on Monday requesting him to take note of the "threat" and bring it to the notice of the Registrar, Judicial Service, of the Calcutta High Court. "I want to request the judge to order a CBI investigation into it," Mondal said in reply to questions by reporters about the threat letter while he was being taken to the Asansol special CBI court for production. A letter threatening to implicate his family members in NDPS case of commercial quantity if Mondal is not released on bail soon was sent to the officer-in-charge of the court, judge Chakraborty wrote to the district judge.

Shares of NDTV jumped 5 per cent to hit their highest trading permissible limit for the day on Wednesday after Adani group launched a bid to take over the media company. The stock climbed 5 per cent to Rs 384.50- its upper circuit limit as well as 52-week high- on the BSE after begining the trade on a positive note. At the NSE, it jumped 4.99 per cent to Rs 388.20 -- its upper circuit limit as also the one-year peak. The 30-share BSE Sensex was trading 70.29 points lower at 58,961.01 points.

Jammu and Kashmir Police on Wednesday carried out searches at the residences of three senior advocates in Srinagar in connection with a murder case investigation. Vijay Kumar, Additional DGP (Kashmir) told media that searches were underway at the residences of senior advocate Mian Qayoom, advocate Manzoor Dar and advocate Muzaffar Muhammad. "Srinagar police is conducting searches at residence of Adv Miyan Qayoom, Adv Manzoor Dar and Adv Muzzaffar Mohd in connection with further investigation of murder of Adv Babar Qadri, FIR No 62/2020 of PS Lal Bazar," the ADGP said.

A cyclonic circulation over the north Bay of Bengal triggered heavy rains in Gangetic West Bengal on Wednesday, the Met department said. South Bengal districts, including Kolkata, have been receiving intermittent showers with heavy downpours at one or two places since Tuesday owing to the weather system. The cyclonic circulation over the north Bay of Bengal will bring heavy rain in Gangetic West Bengal in the southern part of the state till Thursday morning, the Met department said in its forecast. Most of the districts in south Bengal are likely to receive heavy rain, accompanied by gusty wind reaching speed of 30 to 40 km per hour, it said. The sub-Himalayan districts of the state are also likely to receive heavy rain till Thursday morning owing to an active monsoon trough, the Met said.

The Mumbai Police registered an FIR on Wednesday against a hospital management firm and four persons for allegedly submitting fake documents to obtain contracts of COVID-19 care centres, an official said. The FIR were registered at the Azad Maidan police station based on a complaint by former BJP MP Kirit Somaiya, the official said. The case was registered against M/s Lifeline Hospital Management Service Firm, Dr Hemant Ramsharan Gupta, Sujit Mukund Patkar, Sanjay Madanlal Shah and Raju Nandkumar Salunkhe. In his complaint, Somaiya alleged that these persons cheated the Mumbai civic body and people to obtain contracts of COVID-19 centres with the help of fake documents.

Sparks are set to fly at the Bihar assembly on Wednesday when the BJP, now stripped of power and politically isolated, will try to hold its own against the mighty seven-party ruling 'Mahagathbandhan'. The special session is set to commence on a stormy note on account of Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha's stout refusal to resign despite the new ruling dispensation's motion of no-confidence against him. Sinha, a senior BJP leader, evidently enjoys the backing of his party which has vowed to take on "Paltu Kumar", a pejorative it has coined for Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his many volte faces, and the new government which has been formed through "back door", a charge the party has, ironically, been facing since 2017.

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The Bishop of the Lucknow Diocese of Church of India, who had lodged an FIR against the Bishop of Church of North India (CNI) in 2019 for fraudulently selling church property worth crores in Prayagraj, is getting life threats on WhatsApp calls as well as defamatory messages from an international number. In the FIR lodged with the Para police station, Bishop John Augustine said that the unidentified caller is threatening him with dire consequences if he does not withdraw the cases registered against Bishop Peter Baldev who was arrested on July 29 for misappropriation of funds and selling church properties in Prayagraj and Lucknow worth about Rs 1,000 crore. Besides Bishop Augustine, several other people have also lodged FIRs against Baldev for misappropriation and forgery while serving as Bishop of CNI.

Congress' rally at Ramlila Ground here on September 4 against price rise and unemployment in the country under Modi government rule, will be attended by all the top leaders of the party including Rahul Gandhi, Delhi Congress president Anil Kumar said on Tuesday. The Delhi Congress leaders discussed preparation of the rally in a meeting at Rajiv Bhawan on DDU Marg. “There is a country-wide anguish against price rise and unemployment,” Kumar said. The Congress party has been protesting against the “anti-people” policies of the Modi government from every platform, he said. Besides Rahul Gandhi, party MPs, other top leaders, office-bearers, and party workers from all over the country will attend the rally, he said.

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Bird flu has killed hundreds of wild black vultures at a Georgia sanctuary that houses more than 1,500 other animals. No other birds at Noah's Ark have tested positive for or shown symptoms of the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain, sanctuary officials told news outlets. An outbreak of the virus has led to the deaths of 40 million chickens and turkeys and about 2,000 wild birds this year. The wild birds include more than 240 black vultures and nearly 220 bald eagles, according to the US Department of Agriculture. Even seals have died from it. Officials said they were told Saturday that initial tests indicate the black vultures that roost at Noah's Ark died of the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain. State authorities were notified when an unusual number of dead vultures were found Aug. 13, according to a statement released to news outlets. At least 700 black vultures have died, Noah's Ark animal care manager Allison Hedgecoth told WXIA-TV. State workers euthanized 20 to 30 other birds, she said.

US President Joe Biden has appointed more than 130 Indian-Americans to key positions in his administration so far, the best representation from the community that makes up around one per cent of the American population. In doing so he has not only fulfilled his promise to the community that he had made as a presidential candidate in 2020, but also shattered the record of his predecessor Donald Trump who had appointed more than 80 Indian-Americans and his previous boss Barack Obama, who had appointed over 60 Indian-Americans to key positions during his eight years of presidency.

Senior TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee on Tuesday said that those with a clean image and good track record would get preference during candidate selection for the West Bengal panchayat elections due next year. The TMC national general secretary also cautioned party leaders against resorting to strong-arm tactics in the elections, asserting that "such incidents affect the party's image". The Diamond Harbour MP, for the last two days, has been holding meetings with district leaders of Paschim and Purba Medinipur, considered the backyard of Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari to assess the TMC’s preparedness for the rural polls. "Banerjee said that even if we lose a few seats, we must not resort to strong-arm tactics. Violence will not be tolerated. This was his clear message," TMC Purba Medinipur district president Soumen Mahapatra said after a meeting.

The US has received sufficient number of applications needed to reach the Congressionally mandated 65,000 H1-B visa cap for the fiscal year 2023, the country’s federal agency for immigration services said on Tuesday. The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. Technology companies depend on it to hire thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China. The H-1B visa programme is the most sought-after work visa among foreign professionals, including Indians. “We have received a sufficient number of petitions needed to reach the Congressionally mandated 65,000 H-1B visa regular cap and the 20,000 H-1B visa US advanced degree exemption, known as the master’s cap, for fiscal year 2023,” the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said in a statement. USCIS has completed sending non-selection notifications to registrants’ online accounts.

Jadavpur University Teachers' Association (JUTA) on Tuesday criticised West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's decision to provide Rs 60,000 as financial aid to 40,000 Durga Puja committees across the state. The state government hiked the financial aid by Rs 10,000 this year. The Left-leaning teachers' body, in a statement, said that money is being allocated from the state exchequer even as teaching job aspirants are staging a protest for over 500 days alleging irregularities in recruitment.

From former roadways bus drivers to those who haven't driven a four-wheeler before, the Delhi Transport Corporation's first batch of 11 women drivers have varied profiles but a unanimous opinion that public transport will become safer with more women joining it. Kiran (23), one of the 11 bus drivers who were handed over appointment letters by Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot on Tuesday, said she is looking forward to driving on the roads of the national capital. "It is a proud moment for me that I will be driving in Delhi, but it will take me at least two days to learn the routes," she told PTI. Asked about the notion that women are not good drivers, Kiran said, "If women are given opportunities, they will prove this wrong. With more women joining, public transport will become the preferred mode of transportation for women."'

Hundreds of people lined up Tuesday to pay tribute to the daughter of a leading right-wing Russian political thinker killed in a car bombing that Moscow blamed on Ukrainian intelligence. Speaking during a farewell ceremony at a Moscow broadcast production centre, Alexander Dugin said with his voice breaking that his 29-year-old daughter, a commentator with a nationalist Russian television channel, "died for the people, died for Russia." "The huge price we have to pay can only be justified by the highest achievement, our victory," he said, standing next to his daughter's casket, her black-and-white portrait placed behind it. "She lived for the sake of victory, and she died for the sake of victory. Our Russian victory, our truth, our Orthodox faith, our state."