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The Indian Coast Guard, working with the Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad, has seized 526 kilograms of high-grade methamphetamine and heroin valued at more than Rs 3,000 crore from an Iranian boat in the Arabian Sea, officials said on Wednesday. Five Pakistani nationals operating the vessel were detained in the operation, carried out near Lakshadweep on September 25. The intelligence-led operation began after inputs that an Iranian dhow was attempting to move the narcotics consignment into Indian waters. Coast Guard assets mounted sustained sea-and-air surveillance, tracked the suspicious vessel, and then launched a hot pursuit before boarding it west of Lakshadweep. The boat, its crew, and the seized contraband were brought to Mumbai...

The United States completed its troop withdrawal from Iraq on September 30, ending a 12-year military campaign against the Islamic State group and closing a major chapter of American involvement in the country. The last American troops and equipment left an air base in Erbil, in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, ahead of the September 30 deadline agreed by Washington and Baghdad in 2024. US Central Command said it had completed the "orderly departure" of forces and equipment from Erbil Air Base, marking the end of the Operation Inherent Resolve mission in Iraq. An 'orderly departure' from Erbil Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell described the withdrawal as the conclusion of a 12-year campaign that defeated ISIS as an organised...

Washington is quietly tightening the flow of commercial aircraft parts to China, turning Beijing's dependence on American aviation suppliers into bargaining power for trade negotiations, Reuters reported on October 1, citing people familiar with the matter. The move shows how the United States is strengthening its hand in talks even as it works to loosen China's grip on rare earth minerals needed across vehicle manufacturing, chipmaking and aerospace. Two sources told Reuters that the Commerce Department is positioning itself to increase pressure on Beijing should the administration call on it to do so. A slower licensing pipeline The slowdown has taken several forms. The Commerce Department slowed export licensing for airplane parts...

The government has proposed decriminalising breaches of licence conditions under the Petroleum Act, 1934, while introducing a graded penalty framework that includes fines of up to Rs 25 crore for unlicensed petroleum activities. The draft Petroleum (Amendment) Bill, 2026 was released on Wednesday by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas for public and industry comments as part of the pre-legislative consultation process. Stakeholders can submit their comments by October 30, 2026. What the draft proposes The amendments seek to replace the existing general offence provision under Section 23 of the Petroleum Act with specific offences and penalties. Under the draft, carrying out an activity that requires a licence without obtaining...

Britain has announced a new round of sanctions on Russia targeting ships and individuals, in its latest effort to choke off revenue flowing to Moscow and crack down on alleged disinformation networks and those accused of deporting Ukrainian children. The package, announced on Thursday, covers 23 individuals and entities and eight ships, Reuters reported. Ships in the crosshairs The sanctioned vessels include three alleged shadow-fleet tankers, two vessels accused of providing them with bunkering services, and three Russian-owned ice-class ships. The UK government said Moscow was trying to dodge existing shipping sanctions by rotating to different vessels, and noted that the new measures hit ships Russia acquired as recently as July...

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court has refused to grant permission to offer prayers at the mosque located near the runway inside Kolkata's Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport, citing national security concerns. According to a Times Now report, the FlyDubai cockpit-attack incident was also raised during the hearing. The order came on a petition concerning the 136-year-old Bankra mosque situated within the airport complex, which challenges the indefinite restriction on devotees' access to the shrine imposed by airport authorities on security and aviation-safety grounds. The case so far The petition, before Justice Krishna Rao, contests the decision to stop entry to the mosque indefinitely. Senior advocate Kishore Datta...

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said the country must bring into public service young people who are drawn not to public office but to public service, and that recruitment examinations should test not just what a candidate knows but also why that candidate wants to join the civil services. He was addressing the centenary celebrations of the Union Public Service Commission at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi, marking 100 years since India's first Public Service Commission was constituted on October 1, 1926. Two touchstones for aspirants "Our mantra is... citizen is God. Meaning, the citizen of the country is no less than a deity to us. For us, the service of the citizen is paramount," Mr. Modi said. He added that...

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that Iran would "give up" and claimed the United States had taken more oil out of the Strait of Hormuz over the previous couple of days than at any point in history. "They will give up... We took more oil out of the Hormuz Strait over the last couple days than at any point in history," Trump told reporters at the White House, speaking after a luncheon with leading technology executives where a voluntary AI safety accord was signed. Administration's case Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Sunday that oil shipments through the strait had reached pre-war levels, averaging 15 to 22 million barrels a day against about 20 million before the conflict, and argued that Tehran was...

NEW DELHI: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has announced that the Indian Navy will induct or commission 18 warships during 2026, describing it as the largest single-year force accretion in the history of the service. Singh made the announcement on September 29 while addressing the second edition of the Navy's biannual Commanders' Conference at Nausena Bhawan in New Delhi. Calling 2026 a "historic year" for the Navy, he said the planned additions reflected the growing maturity of India's domestic naval shipbuilding ecosystem. Indigenous content and exports The minister highlighted the Navy's push towards self-reliance, noting that warships commissioned recently contain more than 75 per cent indigenous content and that the country's...

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has put the idea of Britain rejoining the European Union on the table, breaking a taboo for a UK prime minister and reopening a debate that has divided Britain for a decade — a move that drew an immediate "welcome back" from French President Emmanuel Macron. Burnham, who became premier in July after Labour MPs replaced Keir Starmer, told his party's annual conference in Manchester on September 29 that Britain's departure from the EU in 2020 had done "more harm than good" and had triggered "a decade of low growth", adding that Britain must decide on a long-term relationship with its largest trading partner. On BBC radio the following day he went further, saying his centre-left Labour government could...

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear on November 2 a plea filed by the Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha seeking legal action against former Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust general secretary Champat Rai and others over alleged irregularities linked to donations and land transactions related to the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. The plea alleges that donations collected for the construction of the temple were misappropriated, and that land in areas surrounding the temple was purchased illegally. It also asks the court to order the dissolution and complete reconstitution of the existing trust. A bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant said the petition would be heard along with other pending pleas concerning alleged...

The Supreme Court has said that courts must refrain from imposing their personal views or value judgements on morality while deciding bail applications or criminal trials. A bench of Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and Atul S. Chandurkar made the observation in an order passed on September 23, setting aside a Madhya Pradesh High Court order that had declined bail to an accused in a sexual assault case. The High Court had reasoned that granting bail could have ramifications on the social order and the "morals" of the victim's family — reasoning the apex court held to be impermissible. The court's words "We are of the view that courts should refrain from imposing the personal views or value judgement of the Presiding Judge on morality or...

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday hailed Indian pilot Captain Smit Machchhar as a "hero" for fighting off his co-pilot during an alleged attempt to crash a flydubai flight bound for Tel Aviv, as details emerged of how the seriously injured captain's actions helped save 174 people on board. Two prime ministers praise the captain "Captain Smit Machchhar is a HERO. In the face of the gravest danger and despite being seriously injured, he showed immense courage and an unwavering resolve to protect the lives of others," Modi said in a post on X. "His valour helped save hundreds of lives and avert a great tragedy," he said, adding that India was proud of the pilot and praying for his speedy recovery. On Wednesday, Israeli Prime...

Tension flared in Kerala's capital late Wednesday night after a beer bottle was allegedly hurled at the state headquarters of the Bharatiya Janata Party, an incident the BJP has blamed on Congress workers. Night-time attack According to the First Information Report, the bottle was allegedly thrown at the KG Marar Bhavan, the BJP's Kerala headquarters in Thampanoor, Thiruvananthapuram, at around 11.30 pm on Wednesday. Two people on a scooter are accused of hurling the bottle at the office and pushing police personnel who tried to stop them, the FIR states. A case has been registered against unidentified persons. Police are examining CCTV footage from the area to identify those responsible. Political blame game The BJP has alleged...

Flydubai has suspended all flights to and from Israel after the mid-air cockpit attack aboard flight FZ1073 on September 30, saying the pause will remain in place while authorities investigate the incident. The Dubai-based airline said on Thursday that the decision was taken in coordination with the relevant authorities. It apologised to passengers whose travel plans were disrupted and said it was working on support and alternative arrangements. **What happened aboard FZ1073** The Boeing 737 was flying from Dubai to Tel Aviv on Wednesday when the co-pilot allegedly stabbed the captain inside the cockpit, causing the aircraft to lose altitude. Off-duty crew members travelling aboard the flight helped overpower the attacker and secure...

NEW DELHI: The Delhi government has opened a dedicated training centre to teach its officers how to use artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies in their daily administrative work, with the first capacity-building programmes scheduled to begin on October 15. Information Technology Minister Pankaj Kumar Singh inaugurated the AI Training Centre at Vikas Bhawan in Civil Lines on Wednesday. The centre will provide hands-on instruction to officials from different departments of the Delhi government. **What officials will learn** The practical, application-oriented courses will cover AI-assisted official drafting, data analysis, prompt engineering and the creation of presentations using AI, according to the Information...

Switzerland's glaciers lost more than 5% of their ice in 2026, suffering one of their worst years of ice loss ever during a record-breaking European heatwave, according to a report released on Thursday by the Swiss Glacier Monitoring Network (GLAMOS) and the Swiss Commission for Cryosphere Observation. The findings underline how routine extreme melt years have become. Over the past five years alone, Swiss glaciers have shed almost a fifth of their ice, threatening future water supplies and raising questions about the long-term survival of Europe's ice fields. "Now we are in this new world, in this future, where glaciers are just melting away," said Matthias Huss, director of GLAMOS. A winter with too little snow followed by record...

Pakistani airstrikes on two houses in Garmsir district of Afghanistan's Helmand province killed four people and injured six others on Thursday, an Afghan provincial official said, describing most of the casualties as women and children. "According to preliminary figures, four people have been killed and six others injured so far. Most of those killed and wounded are women and children," Mawlawi Sher Mohammad Wahdat, the head of information and culture of Helmand province, told Reuters. Wahdat described the strikes as having been carried out by Pakistan's military on the two houses in the Garmsir district. The casualty figures are preliminary and have not been independently verified. There was no immediate response from Islamabad...

Title: Helicopter Crash in Zimbabwe Leaves Six Dead; Businessman Wicknell Chivayo and Wife Among Victims, State Media Reports A helicopter with six people on board crashed in a rural part of Zimbabwe on Wednesday, and officials say there were no survivors, according to the Associated Press. The helicopter went down in the Marondera district, southeast of the capital Harare, police said. Government spokesperson Nick Mangwana posted on X that four passengers — including a high-profile businessman — were aboard along with two crew members. "Current information indicates that there were no survivors in this crash," he wrote. Police spokesperson Paul Nyathi said responders were working to identify those on board, adding that the bodies...

Israeli strikes killed at least five Palestinians in two separate attacks in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, according to the territory's health officials and medics cited by Reuters. Medics said an airstrike on a vehicle killed at least four people and wounded 14 others in the Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood of Gaza City. Earlier in the day, a separate airstrike on an apartment elsewhere in the city killed a woman. Gaza's civil defence spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal, speaking to AFP, described the Tel al-Hawa attack as a strike on a passenger bus carrying civilians travelling between Gaza City and the centre and south of the territory. He said it was hit by two drone-fired missiles, killing five people and wounding 20. Gaza City's Al-Shifa...