India

KOLKATA: Bengal is taking a legal "diversion" to allow juvenile offenders charged with non-heinous offences be with parents while serving out their rehabilitation programme, instead of the typical practice of keeping young delinquents at a detention centre.The state started on Sunday "a multi-stakeholder consultation" with Unicef and West Bengal Commission for Protection of Child Rights (WBCPCR) to...

India logged over 3,800 new Covid cases on Saturday, the highest daily tally in six months, as infections in the past seven days surged at the fastest rate since the third wave in January 2022. India recorded over 18,450 fresh cases in the past week (March 26-April 1), a 2.1x rise over the previous seven days’ tally of 8,781. The doubling time of cases has reduced to less than seven days. The last...

NEW DELHI: Reiterating that India's relationship with China is not normal and that tension persists along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), external affairs minister S Jaishankar on Sunday said that any military aggression has to be countered in a similar manner. "In 2020, even when Covid was going on, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had no hesitation in moving the Indian Army and Indian Air Force in very...

NEW DELHI: External affairs minister S Jaishankar on Sunday gave a stern warning to pro-Khalistani elements, saying that India will not tolerate any disrespect towards its national flag."The days when India would have taken this lightly are behind us and this is not the India which will accept its national flag being pulled down by somebody," Jaishankar said at an event in Bengaluru.The remarks come in...

NEW DELHI: Rahul Gandhi is expected to file an appeal on Monday against his conviction in a criminal defamation case at the Surat court. According to sources, the legal team has completed all necessary preparations for this appeal.On March 23, Gandhi was convicted in the defamation case, resulting in a two-year sentence and disqualification from the Lok Sabha.Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on...

NEW DELHI: WhatsApp banned a record over 45 lakh bad accounts in India in February, in compliance with the new IT Rules 2021, the company said on Saturday.Between February 1 and February 28, "4,597,400 WhatsApp accounts were banned and 1,298,000 of these accounts were proactively banned, before any reports from users", WhatsApp said in its monthly compliance report.WhatsApp received another record 2,804...

NEW DELHI: Bhutan King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck will travel to India from April 3 to 5 at the invitation of President Droupadi Murmu, the government announced on Saturday. The king, who will be accompanied by Bhutan's foreign minister and other senior officials, will hold meetings with Murmu and also PM Narendra Modi.Official sources said the visit is in keeping with the tradition of regular...

A Swedish national, 63, was arrested in Mumbai on Thursday for allegedly molesting a 24-year-old cabin crew member on board a four-hour IndiGo flight from Bangkok. Klas Erik Harald Jonas Westberg, who was drunk at the time of the incident, also assaulted another flyer. Police filed a chargesheet using the accounts of three witnesses (all cabin crew). Westberg was subsequently released on payment of Rs...

NEW DELHI: A comment by the German foreign ministry in Berlin that it expected "standards of judicial independence and fundamental democratic principles" would apply to the proceedings against Rahul Gandhi following his disqualification from Lok Sabha set off a fresh slugfest between BJP and Congress on Thursday.At a press briefing, the foreign ministry spokesperson said, "we have taken note of the...

One person died from an alleged bullet wound during clashes on Thursday in Maharashtra's Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar on Ram Navami and scores of others were injured in skirmishes in Bengal's Howrah and Gujarat's Vadodara.In Sambhajinagar, 14 cops were wounded and 13 vehicles torched as two groups indulged in stonepelting and arson. In Bengal, the trouble erupted in Howrah's Shibpur during a Ram Navami...