Saturday, 21 December 2024
Saturday, 21 December 2024
The first batch of around 200 Indians, including students, returned to the country from Israel onboard a chartered flight. Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar welcomed the passengers at the Delhi airport as they streamed into the lounge area from the tarmac side. "We woke up to sounds of air raids' sirens. We stay in central Israel. I don't know what shape this conflict will take... I am doing postdoc in agriculture there," Shashwat Singh, a post-doctoral researcher said.
Israel's military directed the evacuation of northern Gaza, a region that is home to 1.1 people — about half of the territory's population — within 24 hours, a UN spokesman said. The United States will arrange for charter flights to evacuate its citizens from Israel, the White House said. At Columbia University, two groups of hundreds of students tensely faced each other in dueling pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian demonstrations, while university officials blocked public access to the New York City campus as a safety measure. The university closed its campus to the public on before a planned protest against the Israeli bombardment of Gaza, and one day after a 24-year-old Israeli student was beaten in front of a library on campus. Six days of Israeli airstrikes have left more than 300,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip homeless, with 2 million residents facing critical shortages of food, water and fuel, while Israeli troops prepared for a possible ground invasion after Hamas’ deadly assault. A group of 254 Nepali students rescued from the strife-torn Israel and led by Foreign Minister N P Saud arrived in Kathmandu.
CBI has arrested from Pune a 22-year-old man suspected to be the mastermind behind the case of two missing Manipuri students who were believed to have been killed, officials said. The special court has sent the accused to the CBI custody till October 16.
A Delhi court sent AAP leader Sanjay Singh, arrested in a money laundering case related to the alleged Delhi excise scam, to judicial custody till October 27. The anti-money laundering agency had arrested Singh, a Rajya Sabha MP, on October 4.
The Delhi High Court refused to interfere with the arrest and subsequent police remand of NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha and portal's human resources department head Amit Chakravarty in a case lodged under anti-terror law UAPA. Purkayastha and Chakravarty were arrested by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police on October 3.
Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) in Puri has decided to discourage people coming in shorts, transparent and revealing dresses, torn jeans and other inappropriate costumes from January 1, 2024. Though the temple administration did not implement any specific dress code, it suggested devotees to wear decent dresses like pant, shirt, chudidar-punjabi and dhoti for men and sarees, salwar kameej, etc, for women.
Online food ordering and delivery platform Zomato said a penalty of Rs 1 lakh has been imposed on it and restaurant partner McDonald's by the District Consumer Dispute Redressal Forum, Jodhpur, for alleged wrongful delivery of non-vegetarian food in place of a vegetarian food order. The company is in the process of filing an appeal against the order, Zomato said in a regulatory filing.
Air India Express, which is in the process of merging AIX Connect with itself, plans to induct 50 new B737 MAX planes in the next 15 months as the Tata Group bolsters its aviation business. In a message to staff this week, Air India Express and AIX Connect Managing Director Aloke Singh said key milestones, including migration to a common reservations and check-in system, have been achieved in terms of integration of the two carriers.
US has announced it will provide employment authorisation cards to some non-immigrant categories, including those waiting for green cards, for five years, a move that would benefit thousands of Indians living in the country. These include applicants for asylum or withholding of removal, adjustment of status under INA 245, and suspension of deportation or cancellation of removal, the federal agency said.
Britain's antitrust regulator cleared Microsoft's acquisition of 'Call of Duty' maker Activision Blizzard after the restructured deal substantially addressed its earlier concerns. 'The new deal will stop Microsoft from locking up competition in cloud gaming as this market takes off, preserving competitive prices and services for UK cloud gaming customers,' the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said in a statement.
