LIVE updates: BJP to contest all 117 Punjab seats, says state party chief

1:28 PM

Bombay HC remands Anil Deshmukh in ED custody till Nov 12

The Bombay High Court on Sunday set aside a special court's order remanding former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh to judicial custody, and sent him in the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) custody till November 12 in a money laundering case.

 

A vacation bench of Justice Madhav Jamdar was hearing an application filed by the ED, challenging the special court's order of November 6 remanding Deshmukh to 14-day judicial custody, on the ground that it was bad in law and against the principles of natural justice.

 

Deshmukh's counsel Vikram Chaudhri and advocate Aniket Nikam told the court that while they were opposing the plea on merits and maintainability, the NCP leader has consented and volunteered to be interrogated by the ED.

 

1:18 PM

Puducherry adds 35 new COVID-19 cases, overall tally rises to 128,200

The union territory of Puducherry registered 35 fresh COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, a senior official of the Department of Health said on Sunday.

 

The new cases were detected at the end of the examination of 2,534 samples pushing the overall tally to 1,28,200, Director of the Health Department G Sriramulu said in a release.

 

The 35 fresh infections were spread over Puducherry (14), Karaikal (12), Mahe (5) and Yanam (4).

12:50 PM

BJP will write new story in West Bengal, Nadda assures leaders

West Bengal politics resonated in the Bharatiya Janata Party national executive meeting being held in the national capital Sunday as party chief JP Nadda assured the leaders and people that "the BJP will chart a new story in the state".

 

With many leaders who played a crucial part in the recently concluded Assembly polls in West Bengal, Swapan Das Gupta, Anupam Hazra, Kailash Vijayvargiya present in the audience, the BJP President assured that the BJP will write a new story in West Bengal.

 

"I want to assure the people of West Bengal that we will be with you and we will chart a new story in the state," said Nadda.

 

12:25 PM

Nadda hails PM Modi for 'bold decisions', tackling economic challenges amid Covid

Bharatiya Janata Party chief JP Nadda on Sunday hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for taking the "bold decision" of lockdown amid the COVID-19 pandemic and tackling the ensuing economic challenges.

Addressing the inaugural address of the first national executive committee after the outbreak of the Covid pandemic, Nadda said, "Decision to impose the lockdown was a taken by PM Modi and within three months after the lockdown, all essential facilities were made available to people across the country. The methodology applied to fight Covid has three Ts- Track, Test and Treat."

Praising PM Modi, the BJP chief pointed out that the PM led from the front to take on the COVID-19 pandemic.

12:14 PM

Twenty-seven new cases of Covid in Ladakh

Ladakh recorded 27 new cases of coronavirus, pushing the overall virus tally to 21,033 and active cases to 114, officials said on Sunday.

 

The Union Territory has so far registered 209 Covid-related deaths -- 151 in Leh and 58 in Kargil -- since the outbreak of the pandemic last year.

 

The officials said a total of 1,179 people were tested for COVID-19 in the twin districts on Saturday and 27 of them returned positive in Leh.

 

11:57 AM

Arunachal Pradesh logs four new COVID-19 cases

Arunachal Pradesh's COVID-19 tally rose to 55,180 as four more persons tested positive for the infection, two more than the previous day, a senior health official said here on Sunday.

 

The total number of recoveries in the state rose to 54,840 as five more persons recuperated from the disease on Saturday, the official said.

 

The COVID-19 recovery rate in the state now is 99.38 per cent, while the active percentage is 0.11, State Surveillance Officer (SSO) Dr Lobsang Jampa said.

11:36 AM

Annual COVID-19 booster vaccines likely in Australia for "foreseeable future": Pharmacists

Australians will require annual coronavirus vaccines for years, according to the nation's peak pharmacists body.

 

Pharmacy Guild president Trent Twomey said annual booster vaccines will be necessary "for the foreseeable future" to protect Australians from COVID-19.

 

"The question is what booster and what interval we need to get that booster, whether it's every six, nine or 12 months. Those decisions need to be based on evidence and facts and at the moment that is an evolving space," he was quoted by Nine Entertainment newspapers as saying on Sunday.

11:34 AM

Maharashtra: 95 new COVID-19 cases in Thane, 4 deaths

With the addition of 95 new cases of coronavirus, the infection count in Maharashtra's Thane district has gone up to 5,66,631, while four deaths pushed the toll to 11,542, an official said on Sunday.

 

These new cases were reported on Saturday, he said.

 

The COVID-19 mortality rate in Thane is 2.03 percent, he added.

11:17 AM

Rains lash Chennai, two reservoirs to be opened; flood alert sounded

Heavy rains lashed Chennai and its suburban areas overnight and it continues, with waterlogging all around and authorities on Sunday sounded a preliminary flood alert to people as two city reservoirs are set to be opened.

 

Chembarambakkam and Puzhal reservoirs, that serve as important sources of drinking water to the Chennai city would be opened to let out surplus rain water, authorities here announced.

 

Sounding a preliminary flood alert, the state water resources authorities advised district collectors of Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur to evacuate people living in low-lying areas and house them in safe locations.

10:41 AM

Rajnath, Shah, other Union Ministers arrive for BJP's national executive meeting

Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari and Piyush Goyal arrived at the NDMC Convention Centre in the national capital to take part in Bharatiya Janata Party national executive meeting on Sunday.

 

Bharatiya Janata Party's national president Jagat Prakash Nadda on Sunday arrived at NDMC Convention Centre in Delhi to attend the party's national executive meet.

 

The meeting is expected to deliberate on recent by-poll results and decide on the strategy for upcoming Assembly elections.

 

Earlier, Union Ministers Anurag Singh Thakur, Hardeep Puri, former Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister Bhupendra Yadav, Union Minister of State Vijay Kumar Singh arrived at the venue. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath also arrived at the venue.

 

10:40 AM

Pak court acquits 6 leaders of Hafiz Saeed's JuD in terror financing case

Pakistan's Lahore High Court (LHC) on Saturday acquitted six leaders of Hafiz Saeed-led Jamat-ud-Dawah (JuD), the front organisation for the proscribed Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), responsible for carrying out the 2008 Mumbai attack, in a terror-financing case.

 

Lashkar-e-Taiba orchestrated the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks that killed more than 160 people.

 

According to Dawn, the trial court had sentenced nine-year imprisonment to each Prof Malik Zafar Iqbal, Yahya Mujahid, Nasrullah, Samiullah and Umar Bahadur while Hafiz Abdul Rehman Makki had been awarded a six-month jail term.

 

10:40 AM

Zika virus case found in 2nd UP district

Even as the Zika virus continues to create havoc in Kanpur, a confirmed case has now been found in uttar Pradesh's Kannauj district.

 

According to health officials, a 45-year-old man in Kannauj was detected with the virus on Saturday.

 

The man may have contracted the virus from Kasamau village in Shivrajpur area of Kanpur, that he visited recently, according to health officials.

10:03 AM

Active Covid-19 cases in country decline to 144,845

India saw a single-day rise of 10,853 COVID-19 infections, which took the country's total tally of cases to 34,355,536, while active cases have declined to 144,845, the lowest in 260 days, according to Union health ministry data updated on Sunday.

 

The death toll has climbed to 460,791 with 526 more fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am.

 

The daily rise in new coronavirus infections has been below 20,000 for 30 straight days and less than 50,000 daily new cases have been reported for 133 consecutive days now, the ministry said.

10:00 AM

Over 1.165 bn COVID-19 vaccine doses provided to States, UTs so far

More than 1.165 billion (1,165,827,955) COVID-19 vaccine doses have been provided to States and Union Territories so far through the Centre and direct state procurement category, the Union health ministry said on Saturday.

 

More than 157.7 million (157,770,771) balance and unutilised vaccine doses are still available with the States and UTs to be administered, it said.

 

The Union government is committed to accelerating the pace and expanding the scope of COVID-19 vaccination throughout the country, it added.

 

9:36 AM

Global Covid-19 caseload tops 249.5 mn

The global coronavirus caseload has topped 249.5 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 5.04 million and vaccinations soared to over 7.22 billion, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

 

In its latest update on Sunday morning, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload, death toll and the total number number of vaccine doses administered stood at 249,502,872, 5,043,945 and 7,226,106,343, respectively.

 

The US continues to be the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 46,461,564 and 754,278, according to the CSSE.