Author: Naman Raina

SRI LANKA ECONOMIC CRISIS UPDATE: Sri Lanka’s president Gotabaya Rajapaksa has agreed to replace his older brother as prime minister in a planned temporary government to end the country’s longest political standstill in decades, a major politician said Friday. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa decided to establish a national council to pick a new prime minister and cabinet comprising of members of all political parties in Parliament, MP Maithripala Sirisena stated during their meeting. Sirisena, who served as President before Rajapaksa, was a ruling party legislator before defecting with roughly 40 other MPs earlier this month. Consumer prices increased 29.8 per cent…

Russian rockets blasted into central Kyiv Thursday, stunning UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and wounding ten, in the capital’s first such rocket attack since mid-April. At around 17:15 GMT, a powerful explosion shook the Ukrainian capital, sending emergency vehicles running towards a residential neighborhood in the western part of the city, in an attack that stunned the UN head and his colleagues. The emergency services said that one attack damaged two floors of a 25-story residential structure, while AFP journalists witnessed a low-rise building engulfed in flames, with black smoke billowing into the air and rescuers on the scene. Twelve fire…

NEW DELHI: The Delhi administration has warned of a probable delay in delivering uninterrupted energy to critical facilities in the capital, including Metro trains and hospitals, as a result of a worsening coal scarcity. Satyendar Jain, the Delhi’s Power Minister, convened an emergency meeting to review the situation and wrote to the Centre seeking that sufficient coal is made available to power plants supplying energy to the national capital. “Due to the outage at the Dadri-II and Unchahar power facilities, a number of vital institutions, including the Delhi Metro and Delhi government hospitals, may experience issues with 24-hour power delivery,”…

Loudspeakers Removed by UP Police: On Thursday, Uttar Pradesh police officials revealed that close to 22,000 unauthorized loudspeakers were removed from religious places and a volume of over 42,000 was set to permissible limits across the state, as part of an ongoing exercise launched on the orders of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Notably, the state administration ordered the removal of unlawful loudspeakers from religious locations around the state on April 23.    Additionally, ADG Kumar stated that those loudspeakers installed without prior approval from the district administration or in excess of the permissible number are classified as illegal.…

SRINAGAR: The Jammu and Kashmir High Court on Wednesday declined to delete a first information report (FIR) registered against a lawyer for his social media remarks under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). The court stated that statements such as “slaves of the Indian government” or “they [the people] are occupied by the country’s armed forces” are not protected by the right to freedom of expression.   “The petitioner feels that the Kashmiris are enslaved and that The UT of Jammu & Kashmir is occupied, which is cancerous. The petitioner believes that the Indian military occupied Jammu & Kashmir. To my…

NEW DELHI : The NCB confiscated around 50 kilograms of “high-quality” heroin and detained a man during searches in Delhi’s Jamia Nagar neighborhood on Thursday, the federal anti-narcotics agency claimed, claiming to have disrupted an Indo-Afghan drug smuggling ring. Sanjay Kumar Singh, Deputy Director General (operations) of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), stated at a press briefing that cash worth Rs. 30 lakh was also recovered during Wednesday’s operation at residential premises in south Delhi. The officer stated that the narcotics were concealed in backpacks and jute bags and were wrapped in packets from e-commerce giant Flipkart and other firms.…

NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chastised Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday after being seen on camera slouching in his chair during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s COVID-19 review meeting. Kejriwal was reportedly seen crossing his arms over his head and slipping down the chair’s back as Modi talked through video conference. The BJP Delhi took to Twitter to upload video footage of the event, writing, “Mannerless Delhi CM!” Kejriwal and the AAP have yet to issue a public statement in reaction to the saffron camp’s onslaught. Naveen Patnaik, Odisha’s chief minister, Basavaraj Bommai, Bhupesh Baghel, Chhattisgarh’s…

Singapore killed a mentally challenged Malaysian man sentenced to death for narcotics charge on Wednesday, despite a court rejecting a last-minute appeal from his mother and worldwide calls to spare him. Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, 34, had spent almost a decade on execution row after being convicted of smuggling around 43 grammes of heroin into Singapore. The leadership of the city-state has stated that its usage of the death sentence for drug offences is made explicit at the country’s borders. The execution was verified Wednesday by Nagenthran’s relatives and social activists. His sister Sarmila Dharmalingam stated, “Permit me to state that Malaysia…

NOIDA: A quarrel about bill payment at a Noida pub resulted in the murder of a 30-year-old man. He died apparently as a result of severe injuries sustained after a struggle with bar personnel, officials said today. A 30-year-old man died on Tuesday, officials said, after reportedly being hurt in an altercation at a restaurant bar in a Noida mall over bill payment. According to Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Noida) Ranvijay Singh, the event occurred Monday night at the Lost Lemons restaurant and bar at the Garden Galleria Mall, which is inside the Sector 39 police station’s jurisdiction. According…

NEW DELHI: Political analyst Prashant Kishor’s last round of negotiations with the Congress on improving the decaying fortunes of the 137-year-old party broke through due to the most obvious of stalemates. Telangana was not the state in question. It was not a matter of ideology. While the 45-year-old desired big reforms and the opportunity to act as a disruptor, the Congress leadership eventually opted for modest improvements, according to congressional insiders. Unlike last year, when similar discussions came to a halt, Congress President Sonia Gandhi kept senior party leaders informed, acted on their suggestions, and has chosen to make them…