Breaking News, April 27 | LIVE UPDATES

Two-three terrorists including a Pakistani terrorist of JeM outfit trapped inside the cordon. Halted operation due to the evacuation of civilians. One soldier is injured during the ongoing operation

If we have to avoid reimposing Covid19 restrictions, then, self-discipline, the wearing of mask and vaccination are important. We will urge the Centre to make vaccination compulsory

Austria has accepted the new ruble gas payment mechanism, introduced by Russia earlier this month, and will abide by it, Chancellor Karl Nehammer announced on Wednesday.

"We, that is, (state energy company) OMV, accepted the terms of payment, as did the German government. They (the terms) were found to be in line with the terms of the sanctions. For us, this was important," he said at a press conference, RT reported.

Nehammaer added, however, that Austria still supports Ukraine-related anti-Russia sanctions.

"Before the fake news of Russian propaganda steps in," he stressed, "of course, OMV continues to pay for gas supplies from Russia in euros. Austria adheres to the point of view and supports the jointly adopted EU sanctions."

According to him,, Austrian oil and gas company OMV has already opened an appropriate account with a Russian bank for transferring payments. Nehammer noted that during his recent trip to Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin explained the new payment mechanism and assured him of further gas supplies in full.

On March 31, Putin signed a decree that defined a new procedure for paying for Russian gas supplies by buyers from "unfriendly" countries, which placed sanctions on Moscow in response to its military operation in Ukraine.

How did Hanskhali (rape-murder) incident occur? Why did Inspector Incharge not keep forth correct facts? This occurred due to his negligence. It needs to be reported how many people died in your district. Panchayat issues certificates & we don't even know about it. A suicide case was turned into a rape case. BJP and CPI(M) are both trying to defame Bengal. We will not let Bengal become Hathras or Unnao.

Don't underestimate Cong, it will come back. Without Cong's role, you can't think of change of guard in Delhi. Nehru-Gandhi family real powerhouse, guiding force of Cong; without them Cong won't be acceptable to 99 pc workers across country. Concerted effort to bring uniformity in every field is dangerous for country.

PM Modi is particularly quoting only opposition-ruled states to reduce taxes on fuel. He won't say that Gujarat or Karnataka should reduce the taxes. The quantum of tax collected by GoI is 3 times what is collected by these states. The Central govt talks about one thing but they do something else. They need money, they talk about $5 trillion economy but are selling PSUs like a poor family in distress.

The Ghazipur district administration on Wednesday attached a piece of commercial land worth Rs 5.10 crore belonging to a relative of gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari. Superintendent of Police, Ghazipur, Ram Badan Singh said, "Mukhtar Ansari's relative had some illegal commercial land in Babedi area of the district which was attached on Wednesday. The relative is also a member of Ansari's gang." The action was taken in accordance with the provisions of the Gangsters Act under which Ansari has been booked. The land attached was purchased using income from illegal activities, Singh added.

The Rajasthan government has approved the compensation and financial aid for the victims of the Karauli violence in Rajasthan on Tuesday. The government has decided to provide Rs 1,20,25,000 to the 64 victims for damage to their properties, and Rs 11 lakh (11,00,000), as medical compensation, to the 17 people injured.

Covid vaccination of all eligible children at the earliest is a priority for the government and specialised programmes will need to be conducted for it in schools, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday. Speaking at an interaction with chief ministers on the emerging COVID-19 situation in the country, Modi asserted that it is clear that the threat of coronavirus is not fully gone yet. Citing rise in COVID-19 cases in some states in the last two weeks, he said there was a need to remain alert. "Our scientists and experts are continuously monitoring the national and global situation. We have to work on their suggestions with a pre-emptive, pro-active and collective approach," he said.

Ruling TRS supremo and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Wednesday said the country needs an alternative agenda and not political realignment, as he asserted he had said no to Communist leaders' idea to "dislodge" the ruling BJP at the Centre. In his address at the 21st Foundation Day celebrations of his party Telangana Rashtra Samithi, Rao also said the state has emerged as a role model for other states, but that it needed to achieve even more. The country needs alternative agenda and not political fronts or political realignment, Rao, who is engaged in stitching up an anti-BJP bloc against the saffron party, told about 3,000 delegates of his party who were present at the event.

A junior engineer of a government-owned power company was caught red-handed while taking a bribe of Rs 15,000 from a man to settle an electricity-related case in Narsinghpur district of Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday, an EOW official said. The accused, Virendra Singh Chouhan, was posted as the junior engineer with the MP East Zone Power Distribution Company at Karakbel in Narsinghpur. A person, Jagdish Singh Rajput, complained to the Economic and Offences Wing on April 24 that Chouhan had allegedly demanded Rs 15,000 to settle the case related to seizure of electric wires from Rajput's farm, EOW's Superintendent of Police Devendra Singh Rajput said.

In the wake of a controversy over the use of loudspeakers at religious places, authorities of five mosques in Pune and some other senior Muslim community members here have decided to shun DJ music during the upcoming Eid celebration and utilise funds collected for it to help the poor and needy people. They also appealed to youth from the community not to play loud DJ music during the Eid al-Fitr celebration on May 2. Everyone knows the ill-effects of such loud DJ music, which is not good for sick people and those with a weak heart, said Maulana Mohsin Raza, the imam of the Bhartiya Anjuman Qadariya Mosque in Lohiya Nagar area here in Maharashtra. "So, we formed a core committee of five mosques in the area and convened a meeting of their imams and functionaries along with other senior members of the community and decided not to have DJ music during the Eid celebration," he told PTI.

As Russian forces intensify their shelling of eastern Ukraine, more people are leaving their homes in search of safety. In Pokrovsk, a town in the Donetsk region, people lined up Tuesday to board a train headed to the far west of the country along the border with Hungary and Slovakia. One person was lifted onto the train in a wheelchair, another on a stretcher. The passengers took with them cats, dogs, a few bags and boxes, and the memory of those who did not flee in time.

On the precipice of another punishing heatwave spell, Delhi is predicted to see a jump of two to three degrees Celsius in the maximum temperature on Wednesday. The Safdarjung Observatory- Delhi's base station- had recorded a maximum temperature of 40.8 degrees Celsius on Tuesday. It is expected to breach the 42-degree mark on Wednesday and soar to 44 degrees Celsius by Thursday, according to the India Meteorological Department  (IMD). The maximum temperature may even leap to 46 degrees Celsius in parts of Delhi, a Met department official said. The capital had recorded a maximum temperature of 43.2 degrees Celsius on April 21, 2017. The all-time high maximum temperature for the month was 45.6 degrees Celsius on April 29, 1941.

Reliance Industries Limited on Wednesday became the first Indian company to hit the Rs 19 lakh crore market valuation mark following a rally in its share price. The market heavyweight stock jumped 1.85 per cent to its record high of Rs 2,827.10 on the BSE. Following the gain in the share price, the company's market valuation jumped to Rs 19,12,814 crore in morning trade on the BSE. In March this year, the company's market valuation had gone past Rs 18 lakh crore. Last year on October 13, the company's market valuation went past Rs 17 lakh crore mark.

In a shocking incident, a man allegedly set his 60-year-old mother on fire when she tried to stop him from thrashing his wife in Muktapur village of Uttar Pradesh's Bhadohi district. The accused, Mahajan, later consumed poison himself. Inspector Aurai Ajay Seth said that Mahajan's mother, Rajkumari, succumbed to burns at a Varanasi hospital while her son is struggling for life in a private hospital in Varanasi, where his condition is stated to be critical.

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As many as 11 persons were electrocuted during a temple chariot procession in the district when it came into contact with a high tension transmission line, police said Wednesday. The deceased included children. The tragic incident occurred early today at nearby Kalimedu when the Appar temple chariot procession was underway. The temple car was negotiating a turn and faced some obstacle before being reversed when it came in to contact with the overhead line, police and eyewitnesses said. The people standing on the chariot were thrown in the impact.

A 24-year-old man has been arrested by Thane police for allegedly abducting and murdering a four-year-old boy, police said on Tuesday. Yuvraj Thakur, the boy, had gone missing from Hanumannagar area of Ulhasnagar in Thane district on April 20. His body was found near the Ordnance Factory in Ambernath in the district three days later, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Ulhasnagar) Dr Sudhakar Pathare.

All India Institute of Medical Sciences here will undertake research with an aim at reducing snakebite cases in Odisha, where an upward trend of deaths due to it has been witnessed. The study will help analyse the level of awareness about "appropriate first-aid methods, prevailing taboo, and healthcare-seeking behaviour in cases of snakebite", the institute said on Tuesday. It will also aid in examining preventive practices to reduce snake intrusion, breeding and biting on domestic premises, according to a release. "The World Health Organization has declared snakebite a neglected tropical disease. It's a public health issue in Odisha," Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology additional professor Sudipta Ranjan Singh said.

Maharashtra Environment Minister Aditya Thackeray met Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw here on Tuesday with a request to integrate the services of the Mumbai Suburban Rail Network with the National Common Mobility Card for payments on bus and metro rail in the city. The National Common Mobility Card was launched by Bombay Electric Supply and Transport (BEST), which runs bus services in Mumbai and neighbouring areas, on Monday. Thackeray said the Railway Minister had given his consent to integrate suburban rail services with the NCMC and assured him to expedite the process. "We further discussed station and station area development of the Railway Ministry along with civic services and other modes of public transport," Thackeray said.

Officials in Poland and Bulgaria said Tuesday that Russia is suspending their countries' natural gas deliveries after they refused to pay for their supplies in Russian rubles. The governments of the two European Union and NATO members said Russian energy giant Gazprom informed them it was halting the gas supplies starting Wednesday. The suspensions would be the first since Russian President Vladimir Putin said last month that “unfriendly” foreign buyers would have to pay the state-owned Gazprom in rubles instead of dollars and euros. Poland's state gas company, PGNiG, said it was informed by Gazprom that its deliveries through the Yamal-Europe pipeline would stop Wednesday at 8 am.

The West Bengal government on Tuesday appointed IPS officer Debasmita Das as the deputy commissioner (headquarters) of Bidhannagar Police, as per a notification. Das, who was the deputy commissioner (special) of the Kolkata Police's detective department, replaced Surya Pratap Yadav, it said. Yadav was sent to Kolkata Police in the post held by Das. IPS Amitabha Maiti, who was Superintendent of Police (SP) of Malda district, was made Special Superintendent (SS) of state Intelligent Bureau. Pradeep Kumar Yadav, who held the post of SS (IB), was made the new SP of Malda.

The hearing on the maintainability of a civil filed by five persons seeking the removal of Shahi Masjid Idgah situated adjacent to the Shri Krishna temple in Mathura has been adjourned to May 10, a court official said. "As the arguments remained inconclusive the hearing was adjourned for May 10," said Sanjai Gaur, District Government Ccounsel (Civil). He said that in their suit, the five applicants have sought the removal of Shahi Masjid Idgah constructed on a part of 13.37-acre land of Thakur Keshav Dev Ji Maharaj temple. The suit has been filed by plaintiff Mahendra pratap Singh and four others. Defense counsel advocate JP Nigam, appearing for the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board, said the plea was not maintainable as the plaintiffs has not submitted supporting documents about the land holding in the suit. 

A massive fire broke out Tuesday evening at a dairy plant in Siyana area here, official said. They said police, fire and administrative officials are at the Ananda Dairy to control the blaze. Several fire tenders have been engaged to douse the flames, they said. The cause of the fire could not be ascertained immediately, they said, adding it was not yet clear if dairy employees were present at the plant when the fire started.