Current Affairs

The Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, Manoj Sinha, today said the media in Union territory is "absolutely free" – a matter on which questions have been raised at both national and international level. "According to an international organisation's report, seven journalists in Kashmir were arrested on charges of terrorism and disturbing social harmony, not for their reporting. This number is 10 to 20 times more anywhere in the world," he told reporters on the sidelines of an event at the Raj Bhavan. The media in Jammu and Kashmir is free and active, he said. "More than 400 newspapers are published here," he said. Since 2019, Jammu and Kashmir has undergone a lot of transformation, he added. That year, the decades-old special status to Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 of the constitution was removed and the state was bifurcated into two Union Territories. "Today's J&K is not a land of hartals or stone pelters. It is a land of ...

BJP MP and Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who has been accused of sexual harassment by seven women wrestlers, on Tuesday sought to equate grappler Vinesh Phogat with Manthara, a character in the Hindu epic Ramayana. The Ramayana says Manthara, who was queen Kaikeyi's maid, convinced her the throne of Ayodhya belonged to her son Bharat and that her step son and crown-prince Ram should be exiled from the kingdom. "The role that Manthara-Kaikeyi played in the Treta yug, similarly Vinesh Phogat is playing the role of Manthara for me," Brij Bhushan Singh told a public meeting here. He added that earlier thousands of wrestlers were staging protests against him, but now only three husband-wife pairs are left. There is no seventh, he said. "The day the results are out, I will thank Manthara also." The Delhi Police has registered two FIRs against Brij Bhushan Singh after he was accused of sexual harassment by women wrestlers, and is pro...

A man who crashed a U-Haul truck containing a Nazi flag near the White House has been arrested and charged with trying to kill or harm the president, police said Tuesday. The driver apparently drove deliberately into bollards outside Lafayette Park just before 10:00 pm (0200 GMT) on Monday, the US Park Police said, adding that no one was injured. TV images showed a red and black swastika banner that had been found during a police search of the truck. The driver of the vehicle was identified as Sai Varshith Kandula, 19, of Chesterfield, Missouri, the Park Police said in a statement Tuesday. It said he was charged with "assault with a dangerous weapon, reckless operation of a motor vehicle, threatening to kill/kidnap/ inflict harm on a president, vice president, or family member, destruction of federal property, and trespassing." A local Fox affiliate reported that some guests in a nearby hotel said they were told to evacuate after the crash. A journalist with the station...

A video is going viral on social media which shows a herd of escaped buffaloes wrecking a couple's new swimming pool- by taking a dip. The 18 buffaloes escaped from a nearby farm and took a morning dip into the Essex swimming pool, reported BBC . The CCTV footage captured the moment the animals fell through the pool cover and caused damage of 25,000 pounds (Rs 25,00, 000). Andy and Lynette Smith, who are retired told Guardian that eight of the buffaloes ended up falling into the 70,000 pounds pool and triggered a stampede that ruined the fencing and flower beds. The animals were rescued later and were unharmed. It's hot but it's not that hot! Moment herd of escaped water #buffalo stampede through couple's garden and take dip in their swimming pool - causing £25,000 in damage to their Colchester #Essex home pic.twitter.com/uYM8kZpwgP — Hans Solo (@thandojo) May 23, 2023 The incident happened last year in July when electric fencing failed, allowing the herd to br...

 Bollywood superstar Salman Khan topped the list of 10 main targets that jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi planned to eliminate, the notorious criminal confessed to the National Investigation Agency, officials said. Lawrence Bishnoi said that in the year 1998, Salman Khan hunted the black buck, which is considered sacred by the Bishnoi community and to avenge the hurt sentiments of the community the gangster said he wanted to kill the actor. Bishnoi confessed to the NIA in December last year that on acting on his directions his aide Sampat Nehra had conducted a recce of Salman Khan's Mumbai residence. Nehra was however arrested by the Special Task Force of the Harayana Police. On April 11 this year, Salman Khan received another death threat call, Mumbai Police said, weeks after a man was taken into custody for sending a threat email to the 'Dabangg' actor. Salman Khan has been provided with Y+ category security by the Mumbai police as the actor is perceived to be under th...

Mumbai Indians had a day to remember on Sunday as they registered a comfortable eight-wicket victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad in their last league stage match. However, the main reason of happiness came after Gujarat Titans defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore in the second match on Sunday, which paved way for the five-time champions into the Playoffs of IPL 2023. MI, who have now qualified with a total of 16 points, were dependent on GT's win over RCB. The team erupted in joy to celebrate their entry into the knockout stage of the tournament.  Taking to Instagram, MI posted a video where the likes of Rohit Sharma , Suryakumar Yadav , Cameron Green , Ishan Kishan and others were seen jumping and celebrating after Gujarat registered a six-wicket victory over RCB. The loss of RCB gave MI the fourth place on the points table.  View this post on Instagram A post shared by Mumbai Indians (@mumbaiindians) Cameron Green's magnificent ...

Veteran actress Zeenat Aman , who likes to keep it real on Instagram, is often found sharing anecdotal tales from her days in cinema, personal relations and all things good. On Monday, the actress did nothing different. Posting a still of Amitabh Bachchan and herself from their 1980s film Laawaris, the actress shed some light on the "long working relationship" she harboured with the superstar. Celebrating 42 years of her film Laawaris , Zeenat Aman recalled shooting for a song from the film, kab ke bichhde hue hum aaj with her co-star Amitabh Bachchan, with whom she shared a similar "work ethic." Zeenat Aman in an eloquent post wrote, " Laawaris was released 42 years ago on this day on 22nd May 1981.An old school Masala blockbuster, it's the story of a man born from an illicit relationship, and includes themes of love, betrayal, murder and reconciliation. This still is from the song “kab ke bichhde hue hum aaj”. I had been visiting a friend in London, an...

Meta Platform Inc's Instagram was down for thousands of users on Sunday, according to outage tracking website Downdetector.com. More than 180,000 users reported issues with accessing Instagram at the peak of the outage, with over 24,000 users in Canada and over 56,000 users in Britain reporting problems. Instagram did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Downdetector tracks outages by collating status reports from several sources, including users. (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.) from NDTV News- Topstories https://ift.tt/MKgnOo0 via IFTTT

Days after being involved in a "near catastrophic car chase" with paparazzi photographers in New York City, Prince Harry has been thinking of his mother Princess Diana, who died in a car crash in 1997 that also involved photographers pursuing her vehicle.  According to People Magazine , Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle were "shaken" after the car chase incident. It occurred on May 16 in New York City after the couple left the Ms Foundation's Women of Vision Awards where Meghan was honoured for her work.  Following the incident, Prince Harry reportedly told his friends the incident was the "closest I have ever felt" to understanding what happened on the tragic night his mother died.  "It was a disturbing situation, and they were shaken, but they are glad everyone's okay," the outlet's source said. They added that the photographers were attempting to pursue the couple after were seen leaving the award function in order to find...

Tree branches fell on the Puri-Howrah Vande Bharat Express during a storm in Odisha's Jajpur district on Sunday, stranding it there for over three hours, officials said. The branches got entangled with its pantograph, besides cracking its windshield, bringing the train to a halt, they said. No one was injured in the incident, a South Eastern Railway (SER) official said. The incident happened around 4.45 pm between Baitarani Road and Manjuri Road stations, near the Jajpur Keonjhar Road station, he said. The train remained stranded there for over three hours, before it restarted its journey with a diesel engine at 8.05 pm, the official said. A diesel engine would haul the train to Bhadrak as the overhead traction wire was damaged by the fallen tree branches, he said. "It will run on its own from Bhadrak to Howrah thereafter," he added. The up and down services of the train will remain cancelled on Monday since some repairs would be required for the rake, the SER said...

Manchester City won the Premier League for the fifth time in six seasons after second-placed Arsenal lost 1-0 at Nottingham Forest on Saturday. A second consecutive defeat for the Gunners left Mikel Arteta's men still four points adrift of City with one game left for them to play. Taiwo Awoniyi's winning goal also had huge ramifications at the bottom of the table as Forest are now safe from relegation in their first season back in the top flight for 23 years. City's title triumph could be the start of a treble as Pep Guardiola's men face Manchester United in the FA Cup final and Inter Milan in the Champions League final next month. Arsenal pushed the defending champions most of the way but crumbled in the decisive final months of the season. They have won just two of their last eight games to allow City to canter over the line with three games to spare. The visitors rarely even looked like scoring as a raucous atmosphere at the City Ground roared Forest onto ...

A man from Gujarat arrested by Nagpur police for allegedly taking money from three BJP MLAs in Maharashtra on the promise of ministerial berths in the Eknath Shinde-led government was in touch with 28 MLAs from many states, a senior official said on Saturday. He had been arrested by Delhi police in a similar case last year, the official said. A resident of Morbi in Gujarat's Ahmedabad district, accused Neeraj Singh Rathod was taken into custody on Tuesday before being brought here. Over the past three months, the police official said, Rathod got in touch with 28 MLAs from Maharashtra, West Bengal, Haryana, Jharkhand, and Delhi offering them ministerial berths for money and managed to con three of them. Rathod called up the MLAs by posing as the personal assistant to BJP president J P Nadda, he said. During the conversation, he also lied to his targets that the politician would be joining the call but it was Rathod who spoke in a different voice, the official said. The official ...

A double amputee ex-British Gurkha soldier has scaled Mt. Everest, scripting history by becoming the first in the category to scale the world's highest peak with artificial legs, an official said on Saturday. Hari Budhamagar, 43, scaled the 8848.86-metre peak on Friday late afternoon. "Double amputee ex-soldier Hari Budhamagar created history on Friday by becoming the first person with such conditions to scale Mt Everest," the official from the Department of Tourism said. Budhamagar, who lost both his legs in the war in Afghanistan while fighting as a soldier of British Gorkha for the UK government in 2010, scaled Mt Everest with artificial legs. He had postponed his plan to scale Mt Everest in 2018 after the government introduced a mountaineering regulation that banned blind, double-amputee and solo climbers from climbing the mountains, including Everest in 2017. A writ petition was filed against the ban and in response to that the Supreme Court vacated the rule by i...

The animal kingdom undoubtedly offers some of the most entertaining and fascinating videos. And now one such chilling video showing a vicious fight between two tigers is going viral on social media. The clip was shared on Latest Sightings' official YouTube Channel. The incident took place at Ranthambore National Park in Rajasthan.  "A female tiger spots what seems to be an abandoned deer in the road, but this meal isn't as easy as she hopes! A huge male was nearby and didn't let her steal the meal without a fight! Tinged by Vijay Kumawat in Ranthambore National Park," the caption of the post read.  Watch the video below:  The video shows an intense confrontation between a tigress and a tiger over a prey. It opens to show the tigress trying to drag away an animal carcass lying in the middle of a road. Within seconds, a tiger appears from behind the bushes and confronts the tigress.  The two wild cats pounce on each other and fight for a brief moment. However, ...

Australia legend Ricky Ponting believes that star Indian batter Virat Kohli's wicket would be the most prized for Australia in the upcoming ICC World Test Championship 2023 Final as the former Indian skipper is 'back to his absolute best'. Ponting is set to head back home following Delhi Capitals' final game of IPL 2023 against Chennai Super Kings on Saturday. Still, he said he "can't wait" to get to London shortly after that in his capacity as a commentator for the WTC23 Final. The 48-year-old looked visibly excited about the prospect of watching high-quality Test cricket at The Oval from June 7, in particular the match-ups between some of the best in the business. One of them being India No.4 Kohli. The 34-year-old has been irresistible since he found form - he scored his sixth IPL century against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Thursday - and Ponting believes that spells trouble for Australia. "I caught up with Virat about a month ago when we played them...

The United Kingdom is bracing itself for extreme heat wave conditions as meteorologists believe that the country will witness "record-breaking" temperatures with the arrival of the African Plume. The weather maps show that this high-pressure system is rapidly approaching the nation and will lead to extreme conditions within the UK by the end of May and temperature would soar to as high as 35 degrees Celsius, as per a report in Independent . The meteorological phenomena called African Plume is marked by a mass of hot air coming from the Sahara desert towards Europe. The plume brings an extended period of unusually high temperatures, frequently surpassing 30 degrees Celcius in the UK. The exceedingly high temperatures may even persist for days or weeks. Further, the intensity can vary each year, depending on the atmospheric conditions. "During an African plume event, southerly or southeasterly winds carry the hot and dry air across the Mediterranean Sea towards the Briti...

Indian mountaineer Piyali Basak who scaled Mt. Makalu has been rescued from the mountain after she experienced some difficulty while descending from the peak, the organisers said. Piyali, who scaled Mt Makalu on Wednesday without supplemental oxygen, got struck above Camp IV on the 8,485 metres high peak, Pasang Sherpa, Chairman at Pioneer Adventure said. “Piyali has been successfully rescued by a team of three skilled Sherpas from an elevation of 7,800 metres,” said Pasang. “She is aware and has been talking,” he added. “Piyali has now been taken back to camp III, and she will be airlifted by a helicopter from here to Kathmandu Friday morning,” he told PTI over the phone. “All necessary precautions are taken to ensure a smooth and secure descent,” he said adding “All necessary support and medical assistance are being provided to her.” "Piyali was very slow and couldn't move when she arrived at around 7,800m descending from the summit point," according to Sherpa. Pi...

Three people including a woman died in an explosion at a firecracker manufacturing unit in Tamil Nadu's Sivakasi in Virudhunagar district on Thursday. Expressing anguish over the demise, Chief Minister M K Stalin ordered an aid of Rs 3 lakh each to the victims' families. An unexpected blast at the firecracker making factory in Oorampatti village in Sivakasi led to the deaths of S Kumaresan, R Sundararaj and K Ayyammal, an official release here said. "I am pained at hearing the sad news about the death of three persons," the Chief Minister said and directed the officials to ensure specialised treatment to S Irulayee, who was injured in the explosion, and undergoing treatment in a hospital in the district. Expressing his heartfelt condolences and sympathies to the bereaved families and friends, the Chief Minister ordered and aid of Rs 3 lakh each to the victims' families besides Rs 50,000 to the injured from the Chief Minister's Public Relief Fund, the releas...

Silence reigns in political corridors about the surprise reshuffle of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's council of ministers this morning. BJP leaders who are otherwise vocal, feigned ignorance when asked why Kiren Rijiju has been demoted. There is no clear answer why Mr Rijiju -- one of the most prominent faces of the Modi government -- has been completely sidelined and shunted from the high-profile Law and Justice ministry to a low-key Earth Science ministry. Senior party leaders, on condition of anonymity, said yesterday, Mr Rijiju was part of a high-profile meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, where other senior ministers were also present. He seemed to have no idea that within 24 hours, he would lose the portfolio, they claimed. Mr Rijiju's predecessor, Ravi Shankar Prasad, was removed from the law ministry in another sudden decision. The leader -- who also handled the IT and Electronics ministry -- was perceived as being responsible for mishandling a bitter wa...

Virat Kohli was at his best on Thursday night and the world rejoiced. To top it all, the batting great hit his sixth IPL century off just 62 balls in an IPL 2023 match against SunRisers Hyderabad to equal West Indies great Chris Gayle 's feat of most number of tons in the premier T20 competition. Against SRH, Kohli was at his aggressive best eight from the word go and the fans present lapped up every moment of the feat. This was also the first time in IPL history that a century was scored in both innings in an IPL match. Earlier, Heinrich Klaasen hot a ton for SRH to help his team set a 187-run target for RCB. In-form Heinrich Klaasen displayed his big-hitting prowess on way to his maiden IPL hundred as Sunrisers Hyderabad recovered from a poor start to post 186 for five against Royal Challengers Bangalore in a crucial match here on Thursday. The keeper-batter had six hits over the fence and eight across it during his scintillating 51-ball knock. He forged a 76-run partnership ...