New updates: IMA announces nationwide withdrawal of services by doctors on August 17

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Indian Medical Association (IMA) said it has declared nationwide withdrawal of services by doctors of modern medicine from 6 am on Saturday, August 17 to 6 am on Sunday, August 18, for 24 hours, as a mark of protest against the brutal rape and murder of a junior doctor in RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata.

A new round of peace talks aimed at ending the Gaza war started on Thursday, White House National Security spokesperson John Kirby said. The United States, Qatar and Egypt met with an Israeli delegation in Qatar as the Palestinian death toll from the 10-month-old war climbed past 40,000, according to Gaza health authorities. International mediators were set to hold a new round of talks Thursday aimed at halting the Israel-Hamas war and securing the release of scores of hostages, with a potential deal seen as the best hope of heading off an even larger regional conflict. The United States, Qatar and Egypt were to meet with an Israeli delegation in Qatar as the Palestinian death toll from the 10-month-old war climbed past 40,000, according to local health authorities. Hamas, which is not expected to participate directly, accuses Israel of adding new demands to a previous proposal that had US and international support and to which Hamas had agreed in principle. A cease-fire in Gaza would likely calm tensions across the region. Diplomats hope it would persuade Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah to hold off on retaliating for the killing of a top Hezbollah commander in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut and of Hamas' top political leader in an explosion in Tehran.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address members of the Indian-American community at a mega diaspora event here next month when he visits the US for the high-level UN General Assembly session. The community event will be held on September 22 at the 16,000-seater Nassau Coliseum in Long Island. Modi is scheduled to address the high-level UN General Assembly session here on September 26, according to a provisional list of speakers issued by the UN. Sources told PTI that preparations are in full swing for the community event in Long Island, coming 10 years after Modi had addressed a massive community gathering at the famed Madison Square Garden in New York in September 2014. This happened just months after he had first taken charge as Prime Minister and had visited the city to attend the high-level annual General Assembly session.

In 2019, Modi addressed the mega community event Howdy Modi' at the NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas, where he was joined by then-US president Donald Trump.

Nine persons have been taken into custody after a mob ransacked the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata in the early hours of Thursday during a protest against the horrific rape and murder of a trainee doctor. Women in Kolkata and many other parts of the country had organised a vigil, called 'reclaim the night,' on Wednesday night. 

Freedom is a protective shield woven into constitutional and democratic values,  Congress leader Rahul Gandhi stated today in his Independence Day greetings to the nation. "Happy Independence Day to all countrymen. For us, freedom is not just a word - it is our biggest protective shield, woven into constitutional and democratic values," Congress MP Rahul Gandhi said in a message on X. "This is the power of expression, the ability to speak the truth and the hope to fulfil dreams. Jai Hind," he added.

The judicial custody of Kannada film star Darshan Thoogudeepa, his associate Pavithra Gowda, and 15 additional suspects in the Renukaswamy homicide investigation was extended by a Bengaluru court on Wednesday. Their custody will now continue until August 28.

A Dalit teenage girl's mutilated corpse was discovered near a pond in a Muzaffarpur district village in Bihar on Tuesday morning. Her parents are day laborers. Police have filed charges against six individuals for gang rape and murder. The case has sparked political controversy, with opposition parties calling for swift arrests of the accused.

On Thursday morning, unidentified miscreants vandalised a part of the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata where a woman doctor was found dead last week, police said. The vandalism took place amid midnight protests by women in various parts of the state against the alleged rape and murder of the doctor in the seminar hall of the hospital. "The goons entered the campus and beat up agitating doctors. This was an attempt to break our morale so that we back out from the protest. But such incidents have only strengthened our resolve to fight till the end," said one of the protesting doctors. According to the police, nearly 40 people, masquerading as protestors, entered the hospital premises, vandalized property, and pelted the police personnel present with stones, prompting the force to burst tear gas shells to disperse the crowd. After visiting the area following the incident, Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Goyal said, "We are looking into the matter." He also claimed that a "malicious media campaign" aggravated the situation.