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10:22 AM

Complaint plea filed in Bihar court over song in film 'Pathaan'

A complaint petition was filed before a court in Bihar's Muzaffarpur district, seeking an FIR against Bollywood actors Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone for "hurting religious sentiments" of Hindus in a song of their upcoming film 'Pathaan'.

Sudhir Ojha, a Muzaffarpur-based lawyer, filed the prayer before the CJM court on Friday, which will hear the matter on January 3.

"The song 'Besharam Rang' of the film 'Pathaan' is objectionable and it hurts the sentiments of the Hindu community," Ojha later told reporters.

10:15 AM

S.Africa's ruling ANC starts conference to elect new leader

South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) party had started its 55th national conference in Johannesburg to elect a new leader.

More than 4,000 delegates from across the country are attending the conference, which is scheduled to end on December 20 and expected to elect the party's top leadership for the next five years, reports Xinhua news agency.

President Cyril Ramaphosa, also the ANC chief and running for re-election to the party's top post, said that in the past five years the country had low economic growth, blaming it on corruption, state capture, Covid-19 and the effects of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.

10:09 AM

India logs 167 new Covid-19 cases, death toll rises to 530,667

With 167 fresh cases, India's COVID-19 tally has climbed to 44,675,776, while the number of active cases of the infection has declined to 3,608, the Union health ministry said on Saturday.

The death toll due to the viral disease has gone up to 530,667 with four more fatalities, including three reconciled by Kerala and one reported by Maharashtra in the last 24 hours, according to the ministry's data updated at 8 am.

The active cases account for 0.01 per cent of the total caseload, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has increased to 98.8 per cent, according to the ministry's website.

A decrease of 83 cases was recorded in the active Covid caseload in a span of 24 hours, the ministry said.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease has gone up to to 44,141,501, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.19 per cent.

10:07 AM

Twitter's suspension of journalists' accounts draws global backlash

Twitter's unprecedented suspension of over twenty prominent journalists citing they had violated rules against "doxxing," has drawn swift backlash from around the world.

This comes after the accounts belonging to CNN's Donie O'Sullivan, The New York Times' Ryan Mac, The Washington Post's Drew Harwell and other journalists who have covered Musk in recent weeks were all permanently suspended. The account of progressive independent journalist Aaron Rupar was also banned.

Many journalists and media institutions reacted to the suspension of various journalists' Twitter accounts.

9:35 AM

Koo's handle suspended on Twitter

Microblogging site Twitter has suspended the account of Indian microblogging platform Koo.

The Twitter handle @kooeminence was suspended on Friday, a development that came in the wake of billionaire Elon Musk-owned Twitter suspending the accounts of several prominent global journalists, including those from the New York Times, CNN and Washington Post.

Taking to Twitter, Mayank Bidawatka, co-founder of the homegrown microblogging platform said, "I forgot. There's more! - Banning Mastodon account. - Not allowing mastodon links saying it's unsafe. - Banning Koo's eminence handle. I mean seriously. How much more control does the guy need?"

Mastodon is the social media rival of Twitter.

9:35 AM

CBI and Delhi Police help FBI in busting a multimillion-dollar tech support scam

The Delhi Police and Central Bureau of Investigations have helped the FBI in busting a major trans-national scam that duped thousands of Americans, mostly senior citizens, of millions of dollars in about 10 years on the pretext of providing them with tech-support, a US attorney has said.

Harshad Madaan, 34, from New Delhi and Vikash Gupta, 33, from Faridabad, were arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Delhi Police this week. The third Indian Gagan Lamba, 41, from New Delhi remains at large.

Gagan's brother Jatin Lamba is also in police custody.

All are charged by indictment with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit computer fraud, and substantive violations of wire fraud and computer fraud.

9:06 AM

Biden administration launches 'China House' amid competition with Beijing

The United States is launching the new Office of China Coordination to help manage competition between Washington and Beijing, the State Department said on Friday.

"Today Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken presided over the launch of the new Office of China Coordination, informally known as China House. China House will ensure the US government is able to responsibly manage our competition with the People's Republic of China (PRC) and advance our vision for an open, inclusive international system," the State Department said in a statement.

China House brings together a group of China experts from throughout the State Department to work on security, economic, technological, diplomatic and strategic issues, the statement said. Improved coordination will result in more consistent State Department policy, and better position the US to more deeply engage with allies and partners, the statement added.

8:46 AM

Ukraine's 2nd largest city without power after Russian strikes

In the wake of the latest wave of Russian missile strikes that targeted Ukrainian energy infrastructure, the war-torn nation's second biggest city of Kharkiv was left without electricity for hours.

According to local officials, at least nine power facilities were hit as Russian forces fired 76 missiles and carried out drone attacks on Friday, reports the BBC.

On Friday evening, Oleg Synegubov, head of Kharkiv's regional administration, said electricity supplies had been restored to 55 per cent of city residents and 85 per cent of those living in the north-eastern region.

He added that energy sector employees were working to restore full power by midnight.

However, Ukraine's power grid operator, Ukrenergo, warned that the scale of the damage could mean it will take longer to restore supplies.

8:37 AM

US buying 3 million barrels of oil to start replenishing reserves

The Biden administration said Friday it is buying 3 million barrels of oil to begin to replenish U.S. strategic reserves that officials drained earlier this year in a bid to stop gasoline prices from rising amid production cuts by OPEC and a ban on Russian oil imports.

President Joe Biden withdrew 180 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve starting in March, bringing the stockpile to its lowest level since the 1980s. The purchase, to begin in January, will start to replenish the reserve and is likely to be followed by additional purchases, officials said.

The Energy Department called the purchase "a good deal for American taxpayers'' since the price will be lower than the $96 per barrel average the U.S. oil was sold for. The replenishment also will strengthen U.S. energy security, the department said in a statement.

8:30 AM

Demonstrations held in POK to mark Bangladesh's War of Independence

Demonstrations were organized in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir's (POK) Bagh and Hajira on Friday to mark the Bangladesh War of Independence, which led to East Pakistan becoming a new nation-state.

The protesters compared the situation of then East Pakistan with the present situation of the POK under the Punjabi Pakistani regime. Slogans were raised against Islamabad with fresh calls of 'haquqi azadi' (true freedom) from Islamabad.

This was for the first time that such protests were organised on December 16 in POK.

8:15 AM

BJP to hold nationwide protests today over Pak minister's 'derogatory' remarks against PM Modi

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will hold nationwide protests on Saturday against the "derogatory" remarks made by Pakistani foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari against Prime Minister Narendra Modi that sparked outrage across the country.

 

"The protests will be held in all the state capitals across the country. BJP karyakartas will burn the effigy of Pakistan and Pakistani Foreign Minister and will strongly condemn the shameful statement of Pakistani Foreign Minister," BJP said in a statement on Friday.

 

This outrage comes in response to the Pakistani foreign minister's defamatory remarks made during a press conference at the United Nations in New York.

8:14 AM

GST Council meet today: Decriminalisation of offences, gutkha biz on agenda

The GST Council in its meeting on Saturday is expected to decide on a number of issues like decriminalisation of offences under the GST law, setting up appellate tribunals and mechanism to curb tax evasion in pan masala and gutkha businesses.

 

Besides, GST on online gaming and casinos may come up for deliberations as the Group of Ministers (GoM), chaired by Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma, submitted its report on the issue to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday.

 

8:13 AM

Bharat Jodo Yatra has taken shape of national Jan Andolan: Kharge hails Rahul Gandhi

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday congratulated party leader Rahul Gandhi for completing 100 days of the Bharat Jodo Yatra', saying it has taken the shape of a national Jan Andolan.

 

He said the yatra has reached a historic milestone by completing 100 days on Friday.

 

"I congratulated Rahul Gandhi ji on this occasion. The Bharat Jodo Yatra is getting the support and confidence of lakhs of people. In the yatra we are directly interacting with people, with youths, farmers, oppressed sections of society, women, ex-servicemen, social workers and all sections of society," Kharge said in a video message on the 100 days of the yatra.

 

He said the yatra is uniting the country primarily on three issues -- the first is against the hatred being spread in society in the wake of rising atrocities against scheduled castes, backward classes and minorities.

 

The Congress is raising its voice against these atrocities, he added.

8:12 AM

Not Nehru's India of 1962, it's Modi's new India: BJP on Rahul's remarks

Hitting back at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his remarks that India is ignoring the threat of war from China, the BJP on Friday said he is trying to spread confusion and demoralise soldiers and added it is not Jawaharlal Nehru's India of 1962.

 

"This is Modi's India, this is new India. Now if anyone raises an eye against the country he gets a befitting reply," he asserted.

 

Addressing the press on the sidelines of his Bharat Jodo Yatra earlier in the day, Gandhi alleged that China is preparing for war and the Indian government is sleeping over it and trying to ignore the threat.

 

8:11 AM

We would take PM Modi at his words, says US on India's stand on Ukraine conflict

The United States on Friday once again welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's position on the Ukraine conflict, which calls for the cessation of all kinds of violence and the pursuit of the path of diplomacy.

 

"We would take PM Modi at his words and welcome those comments when they took place. Other countries will make their own decision on engagement with Russia. We continue to coordinate with allies to mitigate impacts of war," said State Department's Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel during a press conference on Thursday.

 

Patel made these remarks in response to a question on India's position on the Russia-Ukraine conflict and PM Modi's call to end the war.