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Indian Railways recorded a 6.14 per cent year-on-year increase in freight loading in September 2026, the Railway Board said on Tuesday, moving 135.35 million tonnes of goods compared with 127.52 million tonnes in the same month last year. Coal and foodgrain shipments drive the numbers Coal loading, the backbone of the railway's freight business, grew 9 per cent during the month. The ministry said the transporter stepped up domestic coal supply to power houses, with the average number of coal rakes supplied daily rising to 443, up from 397 in September 2025 — an increase of 11.6 per cent. Foodgrain loading posted the strongest performance among major commodities, rising 25 per cent year-on-year. Clinker was up 20 per cent, domestic...

Air India and IndiGo have cancelled all flights to Saudi Arabia until October 17, 2026, as Houthi missile attacks on the kingdom intensify and Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport remains shut after a deadly strike on Saturday. IndiGo said in a travel advisory on Tuesday that all flights to and from Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam and Madinah stand cancelled until October 17, urging passengers to check flight status on its website before leaving for the airport. The airline said safety remained its top priority and that it was in constant coordination with the relevant authorities. Air India separately announced that all flights to and from Riyadh, Dammam and Jeddah would remain suspended through October 17, offering affected passengers...

India's first bullet train corridor has crossed a major construction hurdle in Vadodara, with the National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) completing all 14 portal beams over the busy Delhi–Mumbai Rajdhani railway line. The state-run corporation announced the milestone on Monday, October 12. The Vadodara section, about 8.3 km long, runs through a densely built-up urban and railway zone where the high-speed alignment crosses five existing Indian Railways lines, including two main lines, and cuts diagonally over the Rajdhani route. Because the work sits directly above operational tracks, engineers used the cast-in-situ method, pouring and curing concrete on site instead of launching precast segments. Each finished beam...

Eight people were wounded in a stabbing at a supermarket in the South Korean city of Incheon on Tuesday, with one woman in cardiac arrest, police said. Officers responding to the scene arrested a male suspect and are investigating the motive and circumstances of the attack. A witness cited by Yonhap News Agency said the suspect appeared to have knives tethered to both hands and moved through several floors of the shopping complex, attacking people as he went, before being subdued by bystanders and handed over to police. What is known so far South Korean media reports described the suspect as a man in his 60s who was wearing an electronic monitoring ankle bracelet. The victims included six women and two men, with a woman in her 20s in...

Detainees held by the Delhi police during three days of protest-related detentions in the national capital have alleged beatings, assaults and excessive force in custody, accounts that have raised concerns about post-detention practices of law enforcement personnel, The Hindu reported on Tuesday. Thousands of protesters were detained by the police in the national capital on October 10, 11 and 12, according to the report. Those held included journalists, members of youth organisations and minors, underscoring the scale of the crackdown that accompanied days of demonstrations in the city. The accounts of beatings and assaults described by detainees have put the spotlight on how detainees are treated after being taken into custody. The...

Two cargo ships were struck by drones in the Black Sea off Bulgaria's coast on Tuesday, sinking one vessel and leaving 11 sailors missing, in what Bulgarian officials described as the second such attack in a week. The Maltese-flagged Chelsea 3, a Ukrainian-owned cargo vessel, was hit by three drones roughly 18 nautical miles off the coast around 1:30 a.m., according to Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev. All 15 crew members — seven Ukrainians and eight Azerbaijanis — were evacuated to the port of Varna, with five receiving treatment for minor injuries. No one was seriously hurt, officials said. A second vessel struck overnight near the coastal village of Krapets sank. Rescue crews recovered one crew member, but 11 sailors were still...

The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed the trial in the criminal defamation case against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his alleged remarks describing Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a "commander-in-thief" during the Rafale fighter jet controversy. A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Aparesh Kumar Singh passed the interim order while hearing Gandhi's appeal against a September 8 Bombay High Court decision that had refused to quash the proceedings. What the court ordered Issuing notice to the Maharashtra government and the complainant, the bench directed that "further proceedings before the trial court shall remain stayed" and posted the matter for hearing after four weeks. Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi appeared for Gandhi and...

Qatar Airways has temporarily suspended flights to and from the Saudi Arabian cities of Riyadh and Dammam following Houthi attacks on Saudi airports, the airline announced on Monday, as the aviation fallout from the weekend strikes widened. "Due to the current situation, flights to and from Riyadh and Dammam are temporarily suspended," the carrier said in an updated travel advisory, urging passengers to check flight status through its website or mobile app. The airline did not say when services would resume. Death toll at 13 The death toll from Saturday's strike on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh has risen to 13, after an Indian national injured in the attack died of his injuries on Sunday, the Indian Embassy in Riyadh...

A man died and several other people were hurt on Monday afternoon after an incident on the Goliath roller coaster at Six Flags Over Georgia, the amusement park outside Atlanta, police said. The Cobb County Police Department said one person died and several were injured in the incident, which happened at about 3:58 p.m. local time on October 12. Atlanta television stations WSB and 11 Alive reported that the man died after falling from the Goliath ride; WSB said four others were injured. What witnesses described Witnesses told local broadcaster 11 Alive that the man was ejected from his coaster car and struck the ride structure as he fell. One rider said the man could be seen in the background of their on-ride souvenir photograph. The...

The Central Armed Police Forces (General Administration) Act, 2026 came into force last week, even as thousands of serving officers challenge its constitutional validity before the Supreme Court. A Ministry of Home Affairs notification appointed October 8, 2026 as the date the law's provisions take effect, nearly five months after Parliament passed the legislation. The Act creates, for the first time, a uniform statutory framework governing recruitment, promotions, deputation and service conditions of officers in India's five central paramilitary forces: the CRPF, BSF, CISF, ITBP and SSB. The deputation dispute At the heart of the legal battle are the law's provisions on Indian Police Service officers posted to senior paramilitary...

Mansa: Anti-drug activist Parvinder Singh, popularly known as Jhota, was shot dead at a chemist shop in Mansa town on Tuesday morning while he was confronting the shop owner over the alleged sale of addictive drugs - an argument he was live-streaming on his Facebook page. According to The Tribune, Jhota was questioning the chemist shop owner about the sale of certain drugs to a customer and recording the exchange on his mobile phone when the situation turned violent. A five-minute, 48-second live video streamed on his Facebook page captures the final moments of the confrontation. Shots fired during the livestream In the video, Jhota can be heard telling viewers that the shop owner had taken out a pistol moments before shots were...

Breaking: CJP Leaders Saurav Das, Ashutosh Ranka Detained After Breaching Jantar Mantar a Day After Its De-Notification Leaders of the CJP were detained in Delhi on Tuesday after allegedly attempting to break a security cordon and enter Jantar Mantar, just a day after the site was de-notified as a designated protest venue. According to ABP Live and Oneindia, CJP leaders Ashutosh Ranka, Saurav Das and Ajinkya Shinde had gathered in the early hours of Tuesday morning to demonstrate against the de-notification before being taken into custody by Delhi Police. CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke said on X that the leaders "sneaked into Jantar Mantar early this morning before they were picked up by Delhi Police" and shared a video of them breaching...

New Delhi: National Security Advisor Ajit Doval spoke to his Iranian counterpart Mohsin Rezaei on Monday evening, the Iranian government said, a day after two merchant ships with Indian crew members were attacked in the Strait of Hormuz, according to a report. The two national security advisers discussed the "latest developments", The Hindu's morning digest reported on Tuesday, citing the Iranian government's statement about the call. Ships with Indian crew attacked The conversation came against the backdrop of a fresh attack on two merchant vessels carrying Indian crew in the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world's most critical energy shipping lanes. Details of the damage to the vessels and the condition of the crew members were not...

New Delhi: Delhi Police has registered two first information reports over Monday's Opposition march to the Supreme Court against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, officials said on Tuesday. The FIRs were filed at the Barakhamba Road and Tilak Marg police stations, according to officials cited in multiple reports. According to the police, no permission had been granted for the march to the Supreme Court, and several Opposition leaders were allegedly seen breaking police barricades with the help of a mini-truck during the protest on Monday. The cases relate to alleged barricade-breaking and graffiti on roads during the demonstration. The 'March for Democracy' The protest, billed as a 'March for Democracy', saw several INDIA...

The Trump administration is planning to move three senior officials of its AI testing agency to the White House, technology news site The Information reported on Monday, citing a White House official. Leadership shift for the AI safety unit The officials come from the Center for Advancing Innovation and Standards for Super Intelligence (CAISSI), a Commerce Department unit that evaluates advanced AI models for safety and capabilities and plays a role in the administration's framework for testing frontier AI systems before deployment. According to the report, the three officials — whose names have not been disclosed — would report to Michael Kratsios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Sean...

A United States federal judge on Monday ordered a 24-hour halt to tree-cutting at the East Potomac Golf Course in Washington, D.C., after hundreds of trees were felled over the holiday weekend despite the court's earlier demand for advance notice. U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes issued the temporary order following a three-hour emergency hearing at which she sharply criticised the Trump administration's handling of the project. The 106-year-old public course has been drawn into President Donald Trump's broader plans to remake the capital, including a renovation of its historic golf links. Weekend felling triggers emergency hearing The tree removal began on Friday afternoon and continued through Saturday. The National Park Service...

Panama: A fresh earthquake struck Panama on Monday, days after a powerful magnitude 7.7 tremor shook the country, as authorities reported more than 300 aftershocks and a national state of emergency remained in force. The European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre measured Monday's quake at magnitude 6 at a depth of 35 km. The US Geological Survey measured the same quake at magnitude 6.1 with a depth of 10 km, about 18 km west of Rio Grande, according to Times Now. Follows Friday's 7.7 and 6.6 quakes The new tremor follows Friday's magnitude 7.7 and 6.6 earthquakes, which collapsed buildings near the epicentre and triggered evacuations. Panama has recorded more than 300 aftershocks since Friday, according to Emergency Operations...

New Delhi: Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi has invited INDIA bloc MPs, civil society members and student organisations for a high tea at his residence on Tuesday, as the opposition keeps up pressure over alleged irregularities in the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. A joint press conference of INDIA bloc leaders is scheduled for the afternoon, followed by tea at 4:00 p.m. at 5, Sunehri Bagh Road, New Delhi, according to PTI sources. Follows Monday's "March for Democracy" The invitation referred to the previous day's "March for Democracy," in which leaders of the INDIA bloc marched through central Delhi toward the Supreme Court to protest alleged irregularities in the voter-roll revision...

Leaders of the INDIA bloc marched through central Delhi on Monday evening toward the Supreme Court to protest alleged irregularities in the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, in a rally that Delhi Police stopped at barricaded Bhagwan Dass Road. The "Chalo Delhi - March for Democracy" rally, led by Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, began near the Constitution Club and moved toward the Supreme Court. Police halted the procession at Bhagwan Dass Road, where additional barricades had been put in place, and protesters were also seen climbing barricades near Barakhamba Road during the march. Petition filed by Rahul Gandhi and 10 Opposition leaders Earlier in the day, Rahul Gandhi and 10...

Canada's Foreign Minister Anita Anand will travel to India this week for talks with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on trade, energy security and defence cooperation, as Ottawa looks to deepen its diplomatic and economic partnership with New Delhi. The minister's itinerary, announced by Global Affairs Canada on Monday, covers India and the United Arab Emirates from October 13 to 16. During her India leg, Anand will meet Jaishankar to advance cooperation on priorities identified in the bilateral roadmap, including trade, energy, people-to-people ties, and security and defence. The meeting will be the 11th between the two foreign ministers since September 2025, reflecting the frequency of diplomatic contact between Ottawa and...