Indian Sub-continent

Lalitpur (UP), Dec 2 (PTI) Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday attacked the Uttar Pradesh government, alleging that it left people to die and stopped them from entering the state while they were walking back home during the coronavirus lockdown.

The pictures seen during the Covid pandemic "were not even seen during the Partition", he alleged during a rally at Ginaut Bagh of Lalitpur district.

"Who can forget the pictures when a lockdown was imposed and our labourer brothers had to come from other places," Yadav said.

New Delhi, Dec 2 (PTI) Defending party chief Mamata Banerjee's statement that there is "no UPA", TMC MP Derek O'Brien on Thursday said there has been no United Progressive Alliance for the last 10 years.

Banerjee met Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo Sharad Pawar in Mumbai on Wednesday and called for fighting the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) unitedly, while taking a veiled swipe at the Congress leadership.

Prayagraj, Dec 2 (PTI) Three Kashmiri students, studying engineering in an Agra college and arrested on sedition and cyber-terrorism charges, have moved the Allahabad High Court directly for bail, saying that lawyers in the Taj city have refused to take up their case for bail in the sessions court.

The three students were arrested in October this year for cheering Pakistan following the neighbouring country's victory in a T20 Cricket World Cup match against India.

New Delhi, Dec 2 (PTI) India on Thursday said its policy on Taiwan is clear and consistent and it is focused on promoting interactions in areas of trade, investment and tourism among others.

India's position on Taiwan was articulated by Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan while replying to a question in Rajya Sabha.

"Government of India's policy on Taiwan is clear and consistent," he said in a written reply.

New Delhi, Dec 2 (PTI) The Samyukta Kisan Morcha on Thursday said that the stand-off between farmers and the government continues as the Centre is forcing them to stay put at protest sites by not giving any formal communication with regard to their pending demands, an official statement said.

Pathanamthitta (Ker), Dec 3 (PTI) Kerala police on Friday arrested four people, including a RSS worker, among the five accused in the murder case of a CPI(M) local secretary at Peringara near here.

P B Sandeep Kumar, who is also a former panchayat member, was stabbed to death here on Thursday night.

Police have arrested prime accused Jishnu Chathankari (23), a RSS worker, Pramod (23), Nandu (24) and Mohammed Faisal (22).

Another accused, Abhi, is absconding, police added.

New Delhi, Dec 3 (PTI) Two bills were introduced in the Lok Sabha on Friday to extend the tenures of Directors of the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate up to a maximum of five years from the present two years amid strong protests from opposition members.

Kanpur: The photo of a two-year-old male leopard that has been captured in the night vision camera installed at the VSSD College campus hints at the negligence of the forest department.

The wild animal weighing about 50 to 60 kgs roams in the night while the team members employed in catching the leopard rests reportedly during the night.

The time of capturing the wild animal's at 2.15 am and its movement was timed at about 2.45 am.It was seen going towards a school after coming out of the dense thickets.

KATHMANDU, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Nepal's reliance on India for exports has increased in recent years, with over four-fifth of the total volume going to the southern neighbor in the first four months of the current 2021-22 fiscal year starting in mid-July, government data show.

Nepal exported goods worth 66.94 billion Nepali rupees (557 million U.S. dollars) to India during the first four months of the current fiscal year, or 81.51 percent of the total exports.

NEW DELHI (AP) — India has confirmed its first two cases of the omicron coronavirus variant.

India’s Health Ministry says the cases include two men in southern Karnataka state. The ministry says they came from abroad, but did not say where.

Health official Lav Agarwal said all contacts of the two men had been traced and tested for the virus.

India has already classified at least 12 “at risk” and six “ultra-risk” countries in response to the threat posed by the omicron variant.