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Supreme Court issues notice to Centre on Pegasus issue
The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notice before admission to the Central Government in a batch of petitions seeking probe into the Pegasus snooping controversy. The court will take up hearing on the petitions after 10 days, by which time the Centre has to give its response. The petitions...
E-Visa to fast-track Afghanistan evacuation
New Delhi: The government today announced a new category of electronic visa to fast-track applications from Afghans who wish to leave the Taliban-controlled country. The new visa category is called “e-Emergency X-Misc Visa”. Thousands of people, desperate to flee the land-locked nation, have been thronging capital Kabul’s airport since Sunday,...
Biden vows devastating response if Taliban attack US interests
Washington: US President Joe Biden warned the Taliban Monday not to disrupt or threaten the evacuation of thousands of American diplomats and Afghan translators at the Kabul airport. The response to any attack would be “swift and forceful,” Biden said in a televised address from the White House. “We...
Desperate scenes at Kabul airport
New Delhi: A video of hundreds of Afghans jostling to climb into an aeroplane to fly out of the country amid the Taliban’s return may become the latest defining image of desperation in a war-torn country. A parked aircraft at Kabul airport is surrounded by a sea of...
Centre informs SC about panel to examine Pegasus issue
The Pegasus snooping allegations will be examined by a group of experts in the field, the government told the Supreme Court today. The Centre has denied allegations linked to recent reports that Israeli Pegasus spyware was used to target opposition leaders, journalists and others, in a two-page affidavit filed...
Afghans worried about return of Sharia
Kabul: The Taliban entered Afghanistan capital Kabul today and Western-backed President Ashraf Ghani left the country, with the terrorists saying they were seeking complete power. Two officials from the Islamist group told Reuters there would be no transitional government following their lighting sweep across Afghanistan that led back to...
Ministers ask Naidu to ‘punish unruly Rajya Sabha MPs’
New Delhi: The “unprecedented, extreme, and violent acts” by Opposition MPs in the Rajya Sabha last week demands stern action, a delegation of seven Union Ministers has submitted to House Chairman Venkaiah Naidu. Receiving a memorandum on the matter from the team, he said he will examine the matter...
Modi promises big changes in next 25 years
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, outlining the aspirations of a new India on its 75th Independence Day, said the country “should not confine our 75th year in a single celebration”. “We should lay the ground for new goals, move forward with a new determination,” he said, pointing...
Modi orders August 14 to be observed as Partition Horrors Day
Underscoring that pain of Partition can never be forgotten, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today announced that August 14 will be observed as Partition Horrors Remembrance Day, a day before India’s Independence Day. Pakistan celebrates its Independence Day on August 14. “Partition’s pains can never be forgotten. Millions of our...
India among nations not ready to recognize Taliban rule
New Delhi: India, Germany, Qatar, Turkey and several other nations have reaffirmed to not recognise any government in Afghanistan that is imposed through the use of military force and called for an immediate end to violence and attacks in the war-torn country. A statement issued by Qatar on Friday...
Embassies brace up for evacuations
Kabul: The Afghan Taliban tightened their territorial stranglehold around Kabul on Saturday, as refugees from the insurgents’ relentless offensive flooded the capital and US Marines returned to oversee emergency evacuations. With the country’s second- and third-largest cities having fallen into Taliban hands, Kabul has effectively become the besieged, last...
Allahabad HC quashes NSA detention for cow slaughter
Lucknow: The Allahabad High Court has quashed the detention of three men under the stringent National Security Act (NSA) for cow slaughter, saying the issue may be a matter of law and order but not public order. Hearing habeas corpus petitions, the Lucknow Bench of the High Court said...
Flight tickets to get costlier as fare cap raised for 4th time
New Delhi: Flight tickets are about to get more expensive as the government has raised the price cap on domestic airfares for the second time in just over two months by 9 to 12 per cent. In an order dated Thursday, the lower limit for flights under 40 minutes...
Mumbai sees 1st death from Delta variant
Mumbai: Three deaths from the Delta Plus Covid variant have been reported from Maharashtra, including one in Mumbai, at a time the state is trying to ease tough restrictions in place for months. A 63-year-old woman who died on July 27 is reported to be Mumbai’s first Delta...
Chinese being ‘locked up’ in homes amid Covid surge
Taipei: Numerous videos have surfaced on social media appearing to show Chinese officials locking residents inside their homes as China grapples with a nationwide surge of the Delta variant of COVID-19. Keoni Everington, writing in Taiwan News, said that the move was a repeat of the extreme tactics seen...
Maharashtra cancels decision to reopen schools
Mumbai: The Maharashtra education department has put on hold its decision to reopen schools after objections from its task force on Covid. The government had announced on August 10 that schools can reopen from August 17 — a resolution was made and detailed SOPs were formulated on restarting classes...
Opposition alleges outsider involvement in assault on MPs
Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and nearly a dozen other opposition leaders gathered outside Parliament today to protest an abrupt end to the monsoon session and the alleged assault on women MPs. They also called on Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu to lodge a complaint, and alleged “outsiders who were not...
PM, Sonia attend Speaker’s meet on parliament disruption
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress president Sonia Gandhi were both in Speaker Om Birla’s room in parliament when he met with leaders of various parties after the monsoon session ended on Wednesday morning, two days early. PM Modi and Sonia Gandhi sat on adjoining sofas in the meeting....
