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The Central Bureau of Investigation's supplementary chargesheet in the IDFC First Bank fraud case puts suspended Haryana IAS officer Pankaj Agarwal at the centre of an "illegal gratification" trail, with three unnamed women — identified in the chargesheet as W-1, W-2 and W-3 — listed as key witnesses whose statements detail lavish parties and payments allegedly made on his behalf. The chargesheet, filed on September 2 before the Special CBI Judge in Panchkula and reported this week, alleges that part of the money siphoned off in the fraud — described as the Rs 645-crore IDFC First Bank case, though some reports put the total at Rs 657 crore — was used by former bank manager Ribhav Rishi, described by the agency as the fraud's main...

Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces staged a lightning advance on Monday to retake the coast around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait up to the city of Mocha, pushing the Iran-backed Houthis out of most of the areas they seized last month, Reuters reported on October 6. According to the Yemeni government, its forces — backed by heavy Saudi air strikes — reached the outskirts of Mocha late on Monday, with Houthi fighters retreating into the highlands. The defence ministry said the city had fallen, and government forces had already secured key positions including an airstrip in the Dhubab district at the mouth of the strait, whose seizure by the Houthis last month sent shockwaves through energy markets. A disputed advance The Houthis rejected...

Union Home Minister Amit Shah is expected to visit Manipur on Wednesday, October 7, where he is likely to lay the foundation stone for a medical college in the Naga-dominated Senapati district, The Tribune reported on October 6. The visit, if it goes ahead as expected, would be Shah's third trip to the state since ethnic violence erupted there on May 3, 2023. It comes at a delicate moment: the Centre has not renewed the annual Suspension of Operations (SoO) pact with militant organisations despite the agreement expiring in September, and fresh violence in September claimed 14 lives, several of them Nagas. Why the visit matters The planned visit builds on an August 26 meeting in New Delhi between Shah and Manipur Chief Minister Yumnam...

Breaking: At Least 18 Killed as Landslide Buries Private Bus in Himachal Pradesh's Bilaspur At least 18 people were killed on Tuesday evening after a massive landslide struck a private bus in Himachal Pradesh's Bilaspur district, burying the vehicle under tonnes of debris, according to a Times of India live blog tracking the disaster. The landslide hit the bus on a hilly stretch, and several passengers were feared trapped under the debris as rescue teams rushed to the spot. NDRF personnel and local authorities were deployed for rescue operations, which were hampered by the difficult mountain terrain and continuing heavy rainfall in the region. The Prime Minister's Office announced an ex-gratia payment of Rs 2 lakh for the families...

Gujarat Revenue Employees Announce Indefinite Strike From October 7 Over 14 Pending Demands Revenue employees across Gujarat have announced an indefinite statewide strike beginning Wednesday, October 7, after the state government failed to respond to 14 long-pending demands, according to a report by Gujarat Samachar. The strike announcement follows a call for mass casual leave by the employees on Monday, October 6. The employees' association says staff including Deputy Mamlatdars, Revenue Talatis, and clerical workers serving in Mamlatdar and Collector offices across the state are part of the agitation, giving it the potential to disrupt routine revenue administration across Gujarat. The 14 pending demands centre on promotions...

Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz put the military on high alert on Tuesday ahead of the third anniversary of Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack, warning that Gazans would pay a "heavy price" if Israeli forces were harmed. Katz's office said the instruction came "in light of intelligence regarding Hamas's intentions to attempt to carry out attacks and terror operations against our forces in Gaza on that day". The minister's statement added: "If, heaven forbid, our forces are harmed, the ones who will pay the heavy price will be Hamas and the population of Gaza — beyond all proportion." The alert follows warnings from Israel's Shin Bet chief David Zini, who told the Security Cabinet that Hamas was planning to kidnap Israeli soldiers...

Bhopal, Oct 7: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav on Tuesday announced a sweeping set of measures for young people in the state, declaring 2027 the "Year of Youth" and promising that the Madhya Pradesh Public Service Commission (MPPSC) examinations will be held twice a year from next year. Addressing the CM Youth Conclave-2026 at Bhopal's Lal Parade Ground, Yadav said the state would organise education, skill development, research, innovation and employment programmes around the youth-year theme. He described the twice-yearly PSC exam — alongside separate job-oriented examinations beyond the regular MPPSC cycle — as a first-of-its-kind step anywhere in the country. The announcements went well beyond recruitment calendars. The...

The Ministry of Defence has signed a contract worth nearly Rs 661 crore for the procurement of the BrahMos fire control system and launchers for Indian Navy ships, in a move aimed at sharpening the fleet's maritime strike capabilities. The contract was signed on Tuesday, October 6, in New Delhi. The fire control systems and launchers will equip Navy warships with the supersonic BrahMos cruise missile, one of the fastest in its class and a long-standing pillar of India's naval firepower. Naval modernisation in focus The deal fits into the Navy's ongoing modernisation drive, which has seen new frontline warships, including the first fleet support ship launched at Visakhapatnam's Hindustan Shipyard, join the fleet in recent weeks...

The Central Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday registered a corruption case against Rajbir Singh Guman, an Officer on Special Duty to Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, along with six others, and conducted searches at eight locations including the Chief Minister's camp office in Chandigarh. The agency said it acted on the orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Court and on a report from the Enforcement Directorate. What the CBI alleges According to the CBI's statement, the OSD and his associates are accused of influencing and manipulating the postings of officers, including IAS and IPS officers, departmental proceedings, policy formulation, administrative approvals, tender conditions, licensing, land-use conversion, property...

Eleven Indian crew members were injured on Tuesday after a Panama-flagged commercial vessel was hit by a projectile while transiting the Strait of Hormuz, prompting a strong condemnation from the Indian government. The vessel was attacked during its transit through the strait, one of the world's most strategically important shipping chokepoints. The eleven injured crew members are all Indian nationals, according to the reports. India's response The Indian government has strongly condemned the attack, which injured its citizens working aboard the commercial vessel. Further details about the condition of the injured crew and the circumstances of the strike have not yet been officially confirmed. A dangerous shipping lane The incident...

The Counter Intelligence Cell of the Andhra Pradesh Intelligence Department has announced the discovery of an alleged espionage module in which 18 people, including 13 Indian Navy personnel, are suspected of passing sensitive naval information to Pakistani intelligence operatives. Two of the suspects have been arrested. What the police have disclosed According to a release issued by officials on Tuesday, October 6, the suspects were allegedly sharing information related to defence establishments and strategic locations at the Visakhapatnam Naval Base and elsewhere in the country with Pakistani intelligence operatives. The investigators acted on a tip-off and registered a case with the Counter Intelligence police in Vijayawada under...

An earthquake of magnitude 4.9 struck Uttarakhand's Chamoli district at 10:23 pm on Tuesday, with tremors felt across Delhi-NCR and parts of north India, the National Center for Seismology said. The NCS said the quake struck at 10:23:13 pm IST at a depth of 13 km, with its epicentre in Chamoli. Confirmation came around 10:40 pm, after residents across the region took to social media to report shaking. Two agencies, two readings The US Geological Survey put the quake slightly higher at magnitude 5.1, placing the epicentre 34 km north-northwest of Bageshwar at a depth of 10 km. Tremors were registered across parts of northern India, including Delhi-NCR, according to the USGS. Capital feels the shake Residents in several parts of...

India's government on Tuesday appointed Air Marshal Ashutosh Dixit, the Vice Chief of the Air Staff, as the next Chief of the Indian Air Force. He will take over as the 29th Chief of the Air Staff in the rank of Air Chief Marshal on the afternoon of October 31, succeeding Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh, who retires the same day. The Ministry of Defence announced the appointment in a statement, noting that Dixit will remain in the post until December 31, 2028. A decorated career of nearly four decades Dixit was commissioned into the fighter stream of the Indian Air Force on December 6, 1986. An experimental test pilot and qualified flying instructor, he has logged more than 3,500 hours of flying on aircraft including the...

Two people died and 11 crew members were rescued after a fire engulfed a grain ship in the Black Sea off the Romanian coast, in an incident that Ukraine says was caused by a Russian drone strike. Romania's interior ministry said rescuers recovered two bodies after the fire aboard the ship Royad Mammadov, which later sank. Eleven crew members were pulled to safety, one of them injured. The vessel was in waters outside Romania's territorial limits but within the country's exclusive economic zone when the blaze broke out. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the civilian ship had been hit by two Russian drones. "A horrific strike by two Russian drones on a civilian vessel in neutral waters carrying corn and owned by Türkiye...

Israel has ordered its military to pursue and kill the remaining participants in the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack, with Defence Minister Israel Katz saying about 2,000 of the attackers are still alive. Katz said on Monday that about 6,000 attackers crossed into Israel during the assault and that 4,000 had since been killed. "We ordered the military to pursue and kill them all, from the most senior to the most junior," he said, adding that the order was issued jointly with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu reinforced the message at a state memorial ceremony at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem on Monday, saying Israel would continue pursuing those who carried out the attack as well as those who held Israeli hostages. He...

The World Health Organization has granted prequalification to Cervavac, India's first indigenously developed gender-neutral quadrivalent vaccine against human papillomavirus, clearing the way for it to be purchased by United Nations agencies for immunisation programmes. Serum Institute of India, which developed and manufactures the vaccine, announced the milestone this week. The recognition marks the 32nd WHO prequalification secured by the Pune-based manufacturer for its products and biologicals. Inclusion on the WHO list of prequalified vaccines makes Cervavac eligible for procurement by UN bodies, a step that can open supply to countries working to expand protection against HPV, the virus responsible for nearly all cervical...

A former head of Germany's foreign intelligence service was arrested on Tuesday on suspicion that he passed state secrets to a foreign intelligence service, the federal prosecutor's office said, in what would be an unprecedented case in modern German history. The arrests August Hanning, who led the Federal Intelligence Service, known by its German acronym BND, from 1998 to 2005, is "strongly suspected of treasonous espionage, spying out state secrets, attempted treason, and espionage," the federal prosecutor's office said in a statement. Hanning, 80, was arrested in Bad Toelz-Wolfratshausen in southern Germany. A former aide, identified as Manfred D. in line with German privacy rules, was also arrested on Tuesday in Steinfurt in...

Spain's two highest courts cleared the way on Tuesday for self-exiled Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont to return to the country without being arrested, ending nearly a decade on the run and injecting fresh drama into a volatile political landscape weeks before an early national election. The Constitutional Court ruled that an amnesty law for Catalan separatists applies to the embezzlement charges against Puigdemont. Shortly afterwards, the Supreme Court responded by lifting the arrest warrant that had kept the former Catalan head of government from setting foot in Spain since he fled to Belgium in 2017. How the courts got here The amnesty was the defining legislation of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's current term, enacted...

At least 22 people have died after two boats collided on the Congo River in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the provincial interior minister told Reuters, while local reports citing the minister put the death toll at 30 with dozens missing and search efforts continuing. What Happened The collision occurred near the town of Ngombe in Lukolela territory in western Equateur province at around 2 a.m. local time on Saturday, provincial interior minister Crispin Mputu told Reuters. The collision involved two vessels travelling on the river. One was a commercial boat operating between Kinshasa and Mbandaka, while the other was a passenger riverboat travelling from Mongala province to Kinshasa. The impact caused the passenger boat to sink...

The Allahabad High Court has ruled that parents cannot invoke a writ of habeas corpus to compel an adult daughter to live with them against her wishes, holding that an adult has the right to decide where and with whom she wants to live. The Court's Finding Justice Sandeep Jain dismissed a habeas corpus petition filed by Kalawati Devi, who had sought the production of her 25-year-old daughter Pooja before the court. The court directed that the woman, being a major and competent person, shall remain at liberty to reside at a place of her choice and with a person of her choice. In its order dated September 28, the court observed that a major person cannot be compelled, against her expressed will, to reside with a particular person...