Breaking News, April 21 | LIVE UPDATES

The Sri Lankan government on Thursday deployed troops as a precautionary measure in the southwestern region of Rambukkana where one person was killed and 13 others were injured in violence after the police opened fire at unarmed anti-government protestors demonstrating against the latest fuel price hike.

Earlier, the authorities lifted the curfew at 5 AM (local time) on Thursday.

At least three of the 14 hospitalised protesters at Rambukkana, some 90 kilometers northeast of Colombo, were critical at the Kegalle hospital, an official said. Fifteen police personnel have also been injured.

Chaminda Lakshan, a 41-year-old man who died of gunshot wounds, is survived by two children.

“I want justice for my father’s death. I do not want money or any other help,” his 16-year-old daughter Piyumi Lakshani told reporters.

A delegation of Congress leaders visited violence-hit Jahangirpuri on Thursday but was stopped by the police from going to the area where an anti-encroachment drive was conducted by the North MCD a day before.

The Congress delegation included former Union minister Ajay Maken and AICC in-charge of the state unit Shaktisinh Gohil.

The demolition drive conducted by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation to remove encroachments was stopped following a Supreme Court on Wednesday.

Maken told reporters that the drive was an attack on the poor people and their means of livelihood. Citing court judgements, he said the drive was conducted by violating the rules.

An adviser to the Ukrainian president says Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision not to storm the last remaining Ukrainian stronghold in Mariupol means that the Russian military is unable to perform the task.

Oleksiy Arestovich, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said Thursday that “they cannot physically capture Azovstal,” a giant steel plant that is Ukraine's last stronghold in the strategic Sea of Azov port.

Arestovich's statement followed Putin's attempt to claim control of Mariupol even though Ukrainian defenders have continued to fight at Azovstal. Putin ordered his defence minister not to send troops to storm the plant and to block it instead.

I'm not aware of the specifics of the case. Who will do vendetta politics when I don't know him? There will be enough evidence in Congress ruling states where things (tweets) have been taken seriously

The State government has decided to set up four Olympic training academies in the four zones of the state. We are taking all possible steps to set up a mega-sports city near Chennai: Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin in State Assembly

One person was charred to death after a fire broke out at a chemical plant in Tarapur MIDC industrial area in the district on Thursday morning, an official said.

The blaze started around 9.45 am, said Regional Disaster Management Cell chief Vivekanand Kadam. It was brought under control within three hours by three fire engines of Tarapur MIDC fire station. The cause of the fire and identity of the deceased man were not known yet, the official added. 

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The Delhi High Court on Thursday sought the stand of court authorities on public interest litigation against the fraudulent use of 'Judge' parking stickers on vehicles.

A bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi issued notice to the administration of the Delhi High Court and Tis Hazari courts on the petition by lawyer Sanser Pal Singh and asked the authorities to file their response specifically dealing with certain instances mentioned by the petitioner concerning the infraction of the guidelines on issuance of such parking stickers and to “take remedial steps” where required.

The petitioner has claimed that there have been several instances when he noticed the presence of cars with a 'Judge' parking sticker but it was subsequently found that no such sticker was issued by the authorities against the registration numbers of those vehicles.

Congress MLA Jignesh Mevani was brought to Guwahati on Thursday morning after being arrested by the Assam Police from Gujarat over a social media post, sources said. After landing at the Guwahati airport around 11 am, Mevani was taken by road to Kokrajhar, around 220 km away, they said. The prominent Dalit leader was arrested from Palampur town in Gujarat after a case was registered in Kokrajhar, said his aide Suresh Jat.

Government think tank Niti Aayog on Thursday released a draft battery swapping policy under which all metropolitan cities with a population above 40 lakh will be prioritised for development of battery swapping network under the first phase. The Aayog in its draft policy further said all major cities such as state capitals, UT headquarters and cities with population above 5 lakh will be covered under the second phase, given the importance of the two-wheeler and three-wheeler vehicle segments in growing cities. According to the draft policy, vehicles with swappable batteries will be sold without a battery, providing the benefit of lower purchase costs to potential EV owners.

The local administration on Thursday relaxed curfew for four hours in riot-hit Khargone town of Madhya Pradesh. No untoward incident was reported during this period, said a police officer. While restrictions on movement were lifted from 8 am to 12 noon, vehicles were not allowed on the roads. Curfew was imposed in the town after violence broke out during a Ram Navami procession on April 10. Since April 14, the local administration has been relaxing the curfew for intervals of two hours, but on Wednesday it was relaxed for six hours.

Two officials and a clerk have been suspended for allegedly altering records and facilitating early release of at least three inmates of the Nashik Road Central Prison. A First Information Report (FIR) has also been registered against them, police sources said on Thursday. No arrest has been made yet. Following an inquiry, Additional Director General and Inspector General of Police ordered their suspension earlier this week, sources said.

The World Health Organisation says that the number of reported new COVID-19 cases worldwide decreased by nearly a quarter last week, continuing a decline since the end of March. The Geneva-based UN health agency said in a weekly report that nearly 5.59 million cases were reported between April 11 and 17, 24% fewer than in the previous week. The number of newly reported deaths dropped 21% to 18,215. WHO said new cases declined in every region, though only by 2% in the Americas. The report was dated late Wednesday and sent to journalists on Thursday.

A top Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander, Yousuf Lattoo, was killed in an encounter with security forces in Baramulla district of Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday, police said. Three soldiers were injured in the initial exchange of fire between the two sides, they said. Based on specific inputs about the presence of terrorists in Malwah area of Baramulla in north Kashmir, security forces launched a cordon and search operation there, a police official said. The search operation turned into an encounter after the terrorists fired upon the forces, who retaliated.

A 80-year old man died and three of his family members suffered burn injuries when the battery of an electric scooter plugged in for charging exploded at their house in Nizamabad district, police said. The incident happened early on Wednesday, when the detachable battery of the electric two-wheeler kept on charge in a room burst triggering flames resulting in burn injuries to three people sleeping there while another family member was injured while trying to douse the flames, they said. The octogenarian and those injured were admitted to a hospital in Nizamabad town, but after the elderly man's condition became critical he was referred to a hospital in Hyderabad, but he succumbed to the injuries on the way, police said.

BJP MLA Kailash Chandra Gahtori resigned from his Champawat seat on Thursday, paving the way for Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami to contest the assembly bypoll from there. Gahtori submitted his resignation to Uttarakhand Assembly Speaker Ritu Khanduri, BJP sources here said. Soon after resigning from the seat, Gahtori visited the chief minister's residence.

A BSF officer allegedly shot himself dead outside his battalion headquarters in Tripura's Dhalai district, police said on Thursday. The incident happened on Wednesday night in front of the main gate of the BSF camp in the Jawaharnagar area, they said. The deceased, a native of Rajasthan, was posted at the MK Para border post in Dhalai, police said. "It is suspected that he died by suicide. Police have initiated an investigation into the incident to know the actual cause of the death," a BSF official said. The BSF officer was brought dead to the Kulai district hospital around 9 pm, Superintendent of Police of Dhalai Ramesh Yadav told PTI.

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Thursday attacked the BJP over bulldozers razing several structures in violence-hit Jahangirpuri during an anti-encroachment drive, saying "we see the rule of law break down everyday" and soon there will be "no law and no rules". Several concrete and temporary structures close to a mosque were brought down on Wednesday morning as part of an anti-encroachment drive by the BJP-ruled North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC), days after the northwest Delhi neighbourhood was rocked by communal violence. The Supreme Court had to intervene twice to stop the drive after it took cognizance of a petition filed by Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind against the demolition.

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President Joe Biden is set to announce plans on Thursday to send additional military aid to help Ukraine fight back against the Russian invasion, according to a US official. The official, who was not authorised to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Biden will deliver a Thursday morning address at the White House detailing his plans to build on the roughly USD 2.6 billion in military assistance the administration has already approved for Ukraine. The new package is expected to be similar in size to the USD 800 million package Biden announced last week. It includes much needed heavy artillery and ammunition for Ukrainian forces in the escalating battle for the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.

The global coronavirus caseload has topped 507 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 6.20 million and vaccinations to over 11.20 billion, according to the Johns Hopkins University. In its latest update on Thursday morning, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload and the death toll stood at 507,015,168 and 6,207,545, respectively, while the total number of vaccine doses administered increased to 11,202,915,650. The US continues to be the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 80,801,505 and 990,206, respectively, according to the CSSE.

The Luhansk governor said Russian forces now control 80% of the region, which is one of two regions that make up the Donbas in eastern Ukraine. One of Russia's stated goals is to expand the territory in the Donbas under the control of Moscow-backed separatists.

Three soldiers were injured in an encounter between security forces and militants in Jammu and Kashmir's Baramulla district in the early hours of Thursday, police said. Based on specific inputs about the presence of militants in the Malwah area of Baramulla in north Kashmir, the security forces had launched a cordon-and-search operation there, a police official said. He said the search operation turned into an encounter after the militants fired upon the forces, who retaliated.

Sri Lanka’s bitter debt crisis experience has emerged as one of the major topics of discussion among the global financial leaders who have gathered for the annual spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, according to the officials. The island nation is grappling with unprecedented economic turmoil since its independence from Britain in 1948. The crisis is caused in part by a lack of foreign currency, which has meant that the country cannot afford to pay for imports of staple foods and fuel, leading to acute shortages and very high prices.

A small plane crashed Wednesday in the bustling Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, killing at least five people and injuring several others, authorities said. The plane was headed to the southern coastal city of Jacmel when it tried to land in the community of Carrefour and hit a truck transporting soda bottles, said Pierre Belamy Samedi, a police commissioner for that region. He told The Associated Press that the truck driver was among the dead. Samedi said the pilot was taken to the hospital, but his condition was not immediately known. He said a total of five people were aboard the plane.

The Delhi BJP on Wednesday hit out at the AAP and said it has become "nervous" over the demolition drive against “illegal Rohingyas and Bangladeshis” in Jahangirpuri whom it provided "freebies". The AAP leaders launched a scathing attack on the BJP, hours after the saffron party-ruled North MCD started a demolition drive in Jahangirpuri that was stayed by the Supreme Court. Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta charged that opposition parties were giving a "political colour to the removal of rioters’ encroachments”.

Justice Rajiv Gupta of Allahabad High Court has recused himself from hearing two criminal cases filed against mafia-turned-politician and former MLA Mukhtar Ansari who is presently lodged in Banda jail. One of these cases was filed under the Gangsters’ Act and is pending in Azamgarh, and another relating to the alleged misuse of vidhayak nidhi (MLA’s fund) is pending in Mau. Gupta passed these orders when two separate petitions were presented before him.

The Delhi government will give real-time updates to teams so that they can rush with cranes and ease bunching of buses caused by wrong parking or other obstructions, it said in a statement on Wednesday. Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot on Wednesday inspected the ongoing bus lane enforcement drive near Apollo Hospital, across Ashram Chowk to Badarpur Corridor, and said that by training and inculcating lane discipline, the government aims to ensure safety of the people on Delhi's roads. “To address the bunching of buses in a structural manner, Delhi government has developed a technology tool to give real-time updates on bunching (caused by obstruction or wrongly parked vehicles) where enforcement teams can rush with cranes,” the statement said. The government also said that it towed 85 vehicles for improper parking in the bus lanes during a drive till April 19.

A high growth rate for India, as projected in the latest World Economic Outlook, is not only healthy for the country but also positive news for the world, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund Kristalina Georgieva has said. The IMF, early this week, projected a “fairly robust” growth of 8.2 per cent for India in 2022, making it the fastest-growing major economy in the world, almost twice faster than China’s 4.4 per cent. The global growth has been projected at 3.6 per cent in 2022, down from 6.1 per cent in 2021.