LIVE news: Sisodia says 2024 Lok Sabha polls will be Modi vs Kejriwal fight
Live news updates: Sisodia termed the Excise Policy 2021-22 as the "best policy", and said there was "no wrongdoing" in its implementation
 "Manish Sisodia")
Delhi excise policy was implemented with complete transparency and there was no scam, Sisodia said. (PTI Photo/Vijay Verma)
2024 LS polls will be walkover for BJP if Kejriwal pitted against Modi: Himanta
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday asserted that the 2024 Lok Sabha elections will be a walkover for the BJP if Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal is pitted against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
He claimed that the Delhi chief minister is not even known in many states, which will lead to a further increase in the BJP's tally in the Lok Sabha.
"Badhiya hai (It will be fine)," Sarma quipped, when asked by reporters whether it will be Modi versus Kejriwal in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
"In any game, say cricket, an opposition is needed. Someone needs to play against Australia also. Modiji versus Kejriwal will be a good game," he said.
Train service between Pathankot and Jogindernagar suspended after Chakki bridge collapses
Train service between Pathankot and Jogindernagar have been suspended after the Chakki bridge in Himachal Pradesh's Kangra district collapsed due to heavy rains on Saturday, officials said.
The railway bridge over the Chakki river near Kandwal in Nurpur collapsed in the morning.
The railway authorities had declared the bridge unsafe and train service on the narrow-gauge track from Pathankot in Punjab to Jogindernagar in Himachal Pradesh has been suspended, they added.
If a judge clears 50 cases, 100 more are filed: Rijiju on pendency in courts
With the number of pending cases nearing the 5-crore mark, Law Minister Kiren Rijiju on Saturday said if a judge disposes of 50 cases, 100 new litigations are filed as people are more aware now and approach courts to settle disputes.
Addressing a seminar on the functioning of the Armed Forces Tribunal in the presence of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Rijiju said the government is tapping technology to reduce pendency in courts.
Responding to a question during Parliament's monsoon session, the law minister had said that over 4.83 crore cases are pending in courts across the country.
Day after CBI raid, Sisodia says 2024 Lok Sabha polls will be Modi vs Kejriwal fight
A day after the CBI raided his residence, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Saturday claimed that the 2024 Lok Sabha polls will be a battle between Arvind Kejriwal and Prime Minister Narendra Modi who, he alleged, was using all means to scare the AAP supremo.
Noting that the Delhi excise policy was implemented with complete transparency and there was no scam, Sisodia said they want to stop Arvind Kejriwal whose work on education and health is being talked about in the world.
The CBI on Friday morning carried out searches at the residences of Sisodia and IAS officer Arava Gopi Krishna apart from 19 other locations after registering an FIR in connection with the alleged corruption in implementation of the Delhi excise policy, officials said.
Power crisis in China forces top companies to shut down factories
China, which is already staring at multiple economic challenges, now has another problem -- an acute power outage driven by an intense heatwave in the country's southwest region. This has forced a many factories to shut down temporarily, which could further dent the supply chain network.
For example, Chongqing municipality is home to a host of factories that produce automobiles and computers. But the local government has now ordered suspending production with a view to conserving power. Similarly, factories in Sichuan province, also a manufacturing hub, have been shut.
According to reports, the move will impact companies such as Foxconn Technology, Toyota Motor Corp, Volkswagen and Tesla's battery supplier CATL among others. While several provinces are in the grip of a heatwave, there are others which have been swept by floods.
Bihar: Cong urges Nitish, Tejashwi to take necessary steps over law minister row
The Congress has urged Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his deputy Tejashwi Yadav to take necessary steps over the controversy that erupted over the appointment of RJD leader Kartik Kumar as the law minister in the Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) government.
The BJP has demanded his removal from the cabinet, alleging that an arrest warrant is pending against him in a 2014 kidnapping case, in which former Mokama MLA Anant Singh is also an accused.
The CPI-ML (Liberation), a constituent of the ruling alliance, has also demanded reconsideration of the RJD leader's induction into the cabinet.
Pakistan, India can't afford another war: Shehbaz Sharif
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has reiterated his country's strong resolve to maintain peace in the region, but added that sustainable peace in South Asia was linked to the resolution of Jammu and Kashmir issue in line with the UN resolutions and the wishes of Kashmiris, and nothing short of it would work.
"We want permanent peace with India through dialogue as war is not an option for either of the countries," The News quoted the premier as saying said while speaking to a group of students from the Harvard University.
Sharif pointed out that Islamabad and New Delhi should have competition in trade, economy and improving the conditions of their people.
Pakistan was not an aggressor, but its nuclear assets and the professionally trained army are deterrence, he said, adding: "We spend on our military to protect our frontiers and not for aggression," The News reported.
ISIS-K has expanded its reach across Afghanistan: Report
In the months after the Taliban seized national control, the Islamic State-Khorasan (ISIS-K) has mangaed to expand its reach to nearly all of Afghanistan's provinces.
This was stated by the U.N. mission in Afghanistan in November, reported The Washington Post.
ISIS-K has also stepped up the tempo of its attacks, carrying out suicide bombings, ambushes and assassinations. It has claimed 224 attacks in Afghanistan since August 2021, 30 of which were considered significant, according to SITE Intelligence Group, a non-profit that monitors terrorist groups.
CBI is 'uncaged parrot' whose plumes are saffron, says Kapil Sibal
Taking a jibe at the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), former Union Law Minister Kapil Sibal on Saturday termed the agency as an 'uncaged parrot' now.
Attacking the CBI, he said that CBI is that uncaged parrot whose plumes are saffron.
"CBI, once a "caged parrot" is now uncaged. Now, its plumes are saffron Its wings are ED It parrots what his Master says!" said Sibal in a tweet.
Cloudburst in Dehradun, swollen rivers wash away bridges
A cloudburst hit the Raipur-Kumalda area here in the early hours of Saturday, causing rivers to breach their banks and wash away bridges, officials said.
Water also entered the caves of Tapkeshwar, a famous Shiva temple on the banks of the Tons river, they said.
The cloudburst occurred around 2.15 am. A bridge over the Song river was washed away and the Kempty Falls, a popular tourist spot near Mussoorie, was flowing dangerously, the officials said.
Champions Chess Tour: Praggnanandhaa loses to Liem for first defeat, Carlsen too fumbles
The brilliant winning spree of Indian Grandmaster Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa in the FTX Crypto Cup came to a halt after four perfect rounds as he slumped to a 0.5-2.5 defeat against Vietnam's Liem Quang Le, ending his chances of taking sole lead in the event.
With world champion Magnus Carlsen losing the fifth round to Jan-Krzysztof Duda of Poland in tiebreak, Praggnanandhaa had an opportunity to take sole lead.
The Indian wonderkid Pragg, who has looked so impressive in this event and was in a neck-and-neck battle with Carlsen, finally cracked under pressure after four straight match wins. He went down in three games 2.5-0.5 to Vietnam's Liem Quang Le, ending his hopes of taking the sole lead.
Twitter to put a label on phone numbers of verified user profiles
Twitter is working on a new feature to put a label or tag on the phone numbers of verified user profiles, apart from the blue tick or badge the company places with the verified accounts.
App researcher Jane Manchun Wong discovered this new feature that is aimed at bringing more authenticity and much-needed credibility to the platform.
This comes at a time when Tesla CEO Elon Musk has taken Twitter to court over the alleged unaccounted presence of bots on its platform after cancelling the $44 billion takeover deal.
11 fresh COVID-19 cases in Andamans
The COVID-19 tally of Andaman and Nicobar Islands rose to 10,552 on Saturday as 11 more people tested positive for the infection, a health bulletin said.
All the new cases were detected during contact tracing, it said.
The Union territory now has 38 active cases, while 10,385 people have recovered from the disease so far, including five in the last 24 hours.
NASA spots 13 regions on Moon for astronaut landing in 2024
The US space agency has identified 13 candidate landing regions near the lunar south pole, as it prepares to send humans back to the Moon under the Artemis programme in 2024.
Each region contains multiple potential landing sites for Artemis III, which will be the first of the Artemis missions to bring crew to the lunar surface, including the first woman to set foot on the Moon.
"Selecting these regions means we are one giant leap closer to returning humans to the Moon for the first time since Apollo," said Mark Kirasich, deputy associate administrator for the Artemis Campaign Development Division.
Questions raised on Elon Musk's bot claims on Twitter
Leading bot researchers have questioned Tesla CEO Elon Musk's claims about the huge presence of fake/spamming accounts on Twitter, as the online tool his team used to count bots on the micro-blogging platform cannot be relied upon.
Musk's legal team has mentioned the use of 'Botometer' that tracks spam and fake accounts in a countersuit against Twitter.
Using the tool, the Tesla CEO's team estimated that 33 per cent of "visible accounts" on the social media platform were "false or spam accounts", as against Twitter's claim that spam accounts represent less than five per cent of its daily active users.
According to the BBC, the court filings made by Musk's legal team have now been questioned by 'Botometer' creator Kaicheng Yang, who said that the figure "doesn't mean anything".
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First Published: Aug 20 2022 | 7:51 AM IST
