News update

The Bengaluru Police received a fake bomb threat call to their control room in the Kempagowda airport in the wee hours of Friday. The airport officials confirmed the incident to  The Indian Express   and said it was a hoax threat. Police are investigating and more details are awaited. Meanwhile, 9 people have lost their lives and 23 houses were damaged in pre-monsoon showers in Karnataka, said the state revenue department Friday. Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai undertook a city tour for the second day in a row to inspect the rain-related damages. Many dams including the Krishnaraja Sagar, Kabini, Harangi, Hemavathi, Almatti, Narayanapura, Bhadra, Tungabhadra, Ghataprabha and Malaprabha were inching towards filling to the brim due to the heavy rains. As many as 85.63 per cent of the students have cleared the  Karnataka SSLC (class 10) examinations , for which the results were announced on Thursday. The pass percentage,  up from 72.42 per cent in 2019-20, was the highe...

A signboard of Aurangzeb Lane in Lutyens’ Delhi   was defaced on Thursday   by the Delhi   BJP   Yuva Morcha, which pasted a banner that read ‘Baba Vishwanath Marg’ over it. Meanwhile, the All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS-New Delhi)  has done away with user charges for all tests  and diagnostics that cost below Rs 300 “with immediate effect”. This will make most blood and urine tests, plain x-ray, and ultrasound among others free to patients visiting the outpatient department or admitted to general wards. In other news, Delhi recorded 520 fresh Covid-19 cases and one fatality due to the disease on Thursday, while the positivity rate stood at 2.09 per cent, according to data shared by the city health department. On Wednesday, the national capital had recorded 532 cases at a positivity rate of 2.13 per cent and zero fatality. Also, ruling that the Delhi government cannot implement its proposed scheme for home delivery of ration in its p...

In claims   likely to deepen the Kashi Vishwanath-Gyanvapi row,  two reports on a videography survey of the Gyanvapi mosque complex state that debris of old temples were found at the corner of the northern and western walls outside the barricading, and Hindu motifs such as bells, kalash, flowers and trishul were visible on pillars in the tehkhana (basement). The  two reports have been submitted to the Varanasi court  which ordered the survey. Also Thursday, the Supreme Court, agreeing to a request to defer the hearing on an appeal challenging the orders of the Varanasi court, asked the court not to take any further action in the matter until Friday. Advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain, who filed an application in the Supreme Court “for bringing on record additional facts and documents”, said “after the reports filed by the Advocate Commission, it is evident that the disputed structure is having the religious character of a Hindu temple”. He said Mughal emperor Aurangzeb’s “...

Weeks after he was granted bail in a fodder scam case, Lalu Prasad Yadav has been charged in a fresh corruption case over alleged irregularities in recruitment between 2004 and 2009 when he was Railway Minister. Besides Mr Yadav, his wife and former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi, daughter and Rajya Sabha MP Misa Bharti and other family members have been named accused in the new case, sources said. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) today started searches at 15 locations linked to the Rashtriya Janata Dal patriarch, including his residences. In the new case, the CBI has alleged that Mr Yadav and his family members received land and properties as bribe for giving out railway jobs. The 73-year-old veteran leader walked out of jail last month after the Jharkhand High Court granted him bail in the ₹ 139 crore Doranda Treasury scam case. A CBI special court had in February sentenced him to five years in prison in the case. He was also fined ₹ 60 lakh. The treasury...