News LIVE: IMD says Cyclone Mandous landfall started near Mamallapuram

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10:41 AM

Cyclone 'Mandous': Holiday declared in schools, colleges in Puducherry, Karaikal

With the Cyclone 'Mandous' intensified into a major cyclonic storm, Puducherry has declared a two-day holiday for educational institutions across the territory.

All educational institutions will remain shut in Puducherry and Karaikkal on Friday and Saturday.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has warned of heavy to extremely heavy rain in several coastal districts of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry on December 9 and 10.

10:39 AM

COVID-19: Thane sees seven new cases; active tally 36

Thane district of Maharashtra has reported seven new coronavirus positive cases, which took its overall infection tally to 7,47,365, a health official said on Friday.

 

With the addition of these cases on Thursday, the district's active COVID-19 count stood at 36, he said.

 

The death toll remained unchanged at 11,967 as nobody succumbed to the infection during the day, while the recovery count has reached 7,36,122, he added.

10:39 AM

UP cop who complained about mess food goes to HC against his transfer

The UP Police constable, Manoj Kumar, who got transferred to Ghazipur district from Firozabad, after he had highlighted 'sub-standard' quality food served at the staff mess in Firozabad police lines, has now filed a petition in the Allahabad High Court over his transfer.

 

The high court has sought response from the state government and the UP Police, who have been made party in the case, and directed the respondents to reply within four weeks.

 

The constable, who has joined duty in Ghazipur, has alleged that his transfer was done as an 'apparent punishment' for highlighting the issue of sub-standard food being served to policemen.

10:19 AM

Winter session: Rajya Sabha passes Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Bill

The Rajya Sabha on Thursday passed the Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Bill, 2022 which is intended to amend the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 to incorporate more species protected under the law.

The Lok Sabha passed the Bill during the Monsoon session earlier this year.

The Bill seeks to implement India's obligations under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which requires countries to regulate the trade of all listed specimens through permits.

10:04 AM

US universities add policies banning caste discrimination

The Ivy League Brown University has become the latest US institution of higher education to take action against caste discrimination, joining California State, Harvard and other universities that have targeted the practice.

 

Brown University announced this month that it was explicitly adding caste to categories like religion, sexual orientation and colour in its institution-wide non-discrimination policy.

 

The University's Vice President for Institutional Equity and Diversity, Sylvia Carey-Butler, asserted that as the South Asian population in the US increases, caste discrimination is a growing issue on college and university campuses.

10:01 AM

HP polls: Congress scores victory on several seats by narrow margin

Though the Congress wrested power from the BJP in Himachal Pradesh by winning 40 out of the 68 assembly seats, party candidates had a wafer-thin victory margin of less than 2,000 in 15 seats.

 

The difference in the number of votes received by the candidates of the two parties in Bhoranj, Sujanpur, Darang, Bilaspur, Sri Naina Devi, Rampur, Shillai, and Sri Renukaji was less than 1,000 votes.

 

9:57 AM

Cyclonic storm to cross coast between north TN and south AP

Severe cyclonic storm Mandous will cross the coast between north Tamil Nadu and south Andhra Pradesh around December 9 night and early next day, the regional weather office said on Friday.

 

Parts of Tamil Nadu witnessed rains under the influence of the system in the Bay of Bengal, including here.

 

A Twitter update from the India Meteorological Department said Mandous lay over 270 km east south east of Karaikal.

 

It is expected to cross the coast near Mamallapuram, an IMD official said. It lay centred around 270 km off Chennai. It will weaken into a cyclonic storm in the next few hours, the IMD official added.

9:57 AM

PM Modi prays for Sonia Gandhi's healthy life on her birthday

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday wished the chairperson of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Sonia Gandhi on her birthday.

 

PM Modi took to Twitter and said: "Birthday greetings to Smt. Sonia Gandhi Ji. Praying for her long and healthy life."

 

On Thursday, the former president of Congress arrived in Jaipur as the party's Bharat Jodo Yatra is passing through Rajasthan, party leaders said.

 

Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi is on a two-day tour of Rajasthan, and after arriving at Jaipur airport on Thursday afternoon, she flew to Sawai Madhopur in a helicopter.

9:56 AM

Congress to hold meeting of newly-elected Himachal MLAs in Shimla Friday

The Congress, which wrested power from the BJP in Himachal Pradesh, has convened a meeting of all its newly-elected MLAs here on Friday and the meet is likely to pass a resolution authorising the Congress president to pick the CLP leader.

 

The Congress on Thursday won 40 seats in the 68-member Assembly in the hill state which maintained its tradition of not voting any incumbent government to power since 1985.

 

Leader of the opposition Mukesh Agnihotri said that a meeting would be held in Shimla on Friday.

9:56 AM

Twitter Files: Select group placed people on secret blacklists, says report

Twitter employees build blacklists and actively limited the visibility of entire accounts, according to the second installment of Elon Musk's "Twitter Files" that shed light on the company's hidden practices of the previous management.

 

"A new #TwitterFiles investigation reveals that teams of Twitter employees build blacklists, prevent disfavored tweets from trending, and actively limit the visibility of entire accounts or even trending topics--all in secret, without informing users," said the editor of The Free Press Bari Weiss, in a series of tweet.

 

"Twitter once had a mission to give everyone the power to create and share ideas and information instantly, without barriers. Along the way, barriers nevertheless were erected," she added.

9:55 AM

Nearly a million immigrants became US citizens in FY 2022

Nearly one million immigrants obtained US citizenship during the fiscal year 2022 -- the highest number of naturalized citizens in almost 15 years, according to a US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) report.

 

USCIS completed processing 1,075,700 naturalization applications and administered the oath of allegiance to 967,400 new US citizens during the year ended September 30.

 

The number rose to 1,023,200 immigrants when considering children.

9:55 AM

Gujarat: AAP, AIMIM split minority votes of Congress; BJP gains

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM seem to have dented the Congress's sway over votes of minorities in Gujarat in the Assembly polls, bringing down the main Opposition party's vote margin considerably in various seats across the state.

 

The minorities, primarily Muslims, have been loyal voters of the Congress for the last several decades, especially after the 2002 post-Godhra riots.

 

Assembly polls were held on December 1 and 5, and votes were counted on December 8.

9:55 AM

Gujarat: After staying away from BJP in 2017, Patidars back ruling party to the hilt in 2022 polls

The Patidar community, a section of which had voted against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2017 Assembly polls held in the backdrop of the quota agitation in Gujarat, returned to the ruling outfit in the 2022 elections, helping it win most of the seats dominated by the influential social group.

 

The BJP has done extremely well in the Patidar-dominated constituencies of the state, winning almost every seat that has significant Patel population.

 

Polling for the 182-member Gujarat Assembly took place on December 1 and 5, and votes were counted on December 8.

9:54 AM

India will not be an ally of US, it will be another great power: WH official

India will not be an ally of the United States but will be another great power, a top White House official said Thursday asserting there is no other bilateral relationship that is being "deepened and strengthened" more rapidly than between the two countries over the last 20 years.

 

Responding to a question on India during his appearance at the Aspen Security Forum meeting here, Kurt Campbell, the White House Asia coordinator, said that in his view India is the most important bilateral relationship for the United States in the 21st century.

 

The fact is, I don't know of any bilateral relationship that is being deepened and strengthened more rapidly than the United States and India over the last 20 years, the top White House official told a Washington audience.

9:54 AM

Uttarakhand: President Murmu to address valedictory function at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy

President Droupadi Murmu on Friday will address the valedictory function of the 97th Common Foundation Course at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA), Mussoorie.

 

She will also grace the annual convocation of Doon University at Dehradun.