Breaking News, April 13 | LIVE UPDATES

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has said there is no place for riots in Uttar Pradesh, stressing that the Ram Navami celebrations coinciding with Ramzan went off without any incident of violence -- not even an altercation or "tu-tu, main-main". His remark at an event Tuesday came against the backdrop of recent cases of communal violence in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Gujarat. Adityanath said the situation during Ram Navami reflected the "new thinking of development" in UP.

Jawaharlal Nehru University Vice-Chancellor Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit on Wednesday said that the university doesn't impose food choices on students and stressed that they can debate and agitate but should not indulge in violence. Her comments came days after two groups clashed allegedly over the serving of non-vegetarian food in a hostel mess where a puja had been organised by some students on the Ram Navami festival.

Delhi government on Wednesday inducted 80 new low-floor AC CNG buses to its fleet of over 7,000 public transport buses. Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot flagged-off the new buses from Rajghat Cluster Bus Depot in the national capital.

Karnataka Minister KS Eshwarappa on Wednesday ruled out resigning from the cabinet amid the opposition's demand for his resignation and arrest over a case related to the death of a contractor.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Uttarakhand government to file a status report regarding the progress in the investigation into the speeches delivered at the Dharam Sansad event held in Haridwar in December 2021. A bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar and Abhay S Oka also permitted the petitioners -- former High Court judge and senior advocate Anjana Prakash and journalist Qurban Ali -- to alert the concerned authority against the proposed Dharam Sansad event to be held in Himachal Pradesh.

Maharashtra minister and state NCP president Jayant Patil on Wednesday accused MNS chief Raj Thackeray of attacking the NCP and its president Sharad Pawar at the BJP's behest. Patil was talking to reporters at Mangaon in Raigad, a day after Thackeray hit out at NCP leaders at a rally in neighbouring Thane. The opposition BJP in Maharashtra harbours a grudge against Pawar as the NCP chief along with Shiv Sena and Congress formed the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in the state, he said.

Ten more children have tested positive for COVID-19 in Uttar Pradesh's Gautam Buddh Nagar, taking the total number of minors who got infected this week to over 20 in the district, officials said on Wednesday. The Gautam Buddh Nagar health department said 33 more people have tested positive for the infection in the district since Tuesday morning, including the 10 children. The total number of active cases in the district, adjoining Delhi, stands at 90, the department said in a statement. "Of the new cases reported today, 10 are children. We have not got any information from their schools, neither were the COVID-19 tests held in their schools. "The schools have not reported the cases.

AAP MLA from Greater Kailash Saurabh Bhardwaj on Wednesday took charge as the vice chairman of the Delhi Jal Board. Bhardwaj succeeded Raghav Chadha who was elected as a member of the Rajya Sabha in March. "Shri@Saurabh_MLAgk assumed the charge of Vice Chairman, Delhi Jal Board, today. #DJB welcomes him and aspires to create landmarks under his leadership!" the water utility tweeted.

A senior BJP leader from Himachal Pradesh joined the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) here on Wednesday, saying he was “fed up” with the policy of the saffron party. Harmel Dhiman, who was national executive member of the BJP's Scheduled Caste Morcha, joined the AAP along with his supporters in the presence of senior party leaders. Along with Dhiman two other BJP leaders from Himachal Pradesh—Devraj and Jagdish Pawar also joined the AAP.

Jharkhand reeled under heatwave conditions on Wednesday with the maximum temperature shooting past the 40 degrees Celsius mark in most parts of the state, weather officials said. Heatwave conditions also gripped Ranchi, once the summer capital of undivided Bihar. Ranchi has been registering a temperature of maximum around 40 degrees Celsius for the past two days. The city recorded the season's highest temperature at 40.2 degrees Celsius on Monday. It was 39.6 degrees Celsius on Tuesday, four notches above the normal, the weather office said.

A case has been registered against Karnataka Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (RDPR) minister K S Eshwarappa for abetment of suicide in connection with the death of a civil contractor, police said on Wednesday. They said Eshwarappa has been named as the first accused in the case. The FIR was registered based on a complaint from Prashanth Patil, brother of Santhosh Patil, who had levelled bribery charges against the senior minister earlier. Patil was found dead at a lodge in Udupi in a case of suspected suicide.

Former Kerala Health Minister M P Govindan Nair died here on Wednesday morning. He was 94-years-old. Nair died of age-related ailments at his residence here, family sources said. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan offered his condolences on the death of Nair, who was the Health Minister during the Congress rule in the state from 1962 to 1964.

The death toll in the explosion at an illegal firecracker manufacturing unit in Madhya Pradesh's Shivpuri district has reached five after three more persons succumbed during treatment, an official said on Wednesday. Following the explosion in the firecracker unit in Badarwas town of the district on Tuesday afternoon, a woman and her minor daughter died on the spot while eight others were injured. Out of the eight injured persons, a man, a woman and a minor boy died during treatment in different hospitals in Shivpuri and Guna, Badarwas police station in-charge Rakesh Sharma said.

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The death toll from landslides and floods that hit the central and southern Philippines after a summer tropical depression unleashed days of pounding rain has risen to at least 43, with 28 others missing, officials said Tuesday. More than 100 villagers were injured in landslides in the hard-hit city of Baybay in central Leyte province over the weekend and early Monday, officials said. Army, police and other rescuers were struggling with mud and unstable heaps of earth and debris to find the missing villagers. "We are saddened by this dreadful incident that caused an unfortunate loss of lives and destruction of properties," said army brigade commander Col. Noel Vestuir, who was helping oversee the search and rescue.

A woman had to give birth under the light of mobile phones at a community health centre in Alewa town in this Haryana district on Tuesday as there was a power cut. The woman's mother-in-law said she was taken to a health centre in Pegga village on Monday night as she was in labour.

Italy has began the process of distributing a second Covid-19 booster shot to the most high-risk members of its population. Italy's medicines agency, AIFA, gave its approval to the distribution of second booster doses to those over the age of 80 and those over the age of 60 if they are deemed unusually vulnerable, Xinhua news agency reported, adding that in both cases, the shots will be distributed only if the previous vaccine dose was received at least 120 days earlier.

Only 203 out of 1,027 government schools in the national capital have a headmaster or principal, the apex child rights body NCPCR said on Tuesday and sought an explanation from the Delhi government for the high vacancy in the important posts. The Delhi government, however, said the recruitment of teachers in its schools is done by the services department which comes directly under Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal who is appointed by the central government. In a letter to Delhi Chief Secretary Vijay Dev, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) said its team led by its chairperson visited a number of schools in Delhi and found discrepancies with respect to infrastructure and other aspects.

With significant development in the COVID-19 situation across Odisha, the state administration on Tuesday decided to allow entry of the general public and accreditated journalists into three major government office buildings from April 18, an official notification said. The three office buildings include Loka Seva Bhawan, the state secretariat. These buildings were closed to the public and journalists from July 2, 2020, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. People will be able to apply for passes to enter the office buildings online, according to the notification issued by the Home department OSD-cum-Special Secretary, PC Pradhan.

The National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) has issued an arrest warrant against Keonjhar Collector Ashish Thakare for failing to appear before the panel despite repeated summons. The NCST in a letter titled “Warrant of Arrest of Witness” has asked Odisha DGP Sunil Bansal to “arrest and bring” the Keonjhar Collector before the commission in New Delhi. The NCST action came after Thakare failed to appear for the commission’s hearing in the state capital on April 4. The commission since September 2021 had been issuing several summons to the Collector to attend the hearing, but he did not respond.

Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav on Tuesday visited the Etawah Safari Park (ESP) and enquired about the arrangements there. Etawah Safari Park (formerly Lion Safari Etawah) is a drive-through wildlife safari park. It is considered to be a pet project the SP patriarch and his son and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav. Mulayam Singh Yadav was greeted by party workers at the gate of the park.