Highlights: DU teachers condemn university's decision to work on Eid

The United States is encouraged by recent efforts by Armenia and Azerbaijan to engage productively on a peace process, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Tuesday as Washington hosts the two countries' foreign ministers for talks.

Earlier on Tuesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov ahead of talks between the two, and emphasized that direct dialogue is key to solving the conflict in the South Caucasus, Miller said.

(Reuters)

A section of Delhi University teachers have deplored the varsity's decision to observe June 29 as a working day despite the festival of Eid-ul-Adha, terming the move as “sectarian and insensitive”.

However, DU said that June 29 has been marked as a working day to “complete all arrangements” prior to the next day's function where Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be the chief guest.

In a notification, the varsity also mentioned that the employees who wish to celebrate the festival on June 29 are exempted from attending the office.

“The Valedictory Function of Centenary Celebrations is scheduled on Friday, 30 June 2023. With a view to completing all arrangements prior to the function, the University will be observed Thursday, 29 June 2023 as a working day for all the employees of the University.

(PTI)

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and a senior Palestinian official discussed violence in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, with Gallant's office saying he offered reassurance about Israel's intention to crack down on Jewish settler riots.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, owner of the private army of inmate recruits and other mercenaries that has fought some of the deadliest battles in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, is in Belarus after his abortive armed rebellion against the Kremlin, Belarus’s president said Tuesday.

The exile to Belarus of the 62-year-old owner of the Wagner Group was part of the deal that ended the short-lived mutiny in Russia. He and some of his troops would be welcome to stay “for some time” at their own expense, President Alexander Lukashenko said.

The Russian Defense Ministry said preparations are under way for Wagner to hand over its heavy weapons to the Russian military. Prigozhin had said his troops were preparing to turn over their weapons ahead of a July 1 deadline for them to sign contracts to serve under the Russian military’s command.

(AP)

A New York appeals court on Tuesday narrowed state Attorney General Letitia James' civil lawsuit accusing Donald Trump and his family business of a "staggering" fraud, and dismissed all claims against the former U.S. president's daughter.

The Appellate Division in Manhattan said statutes of limitations prevented James from suing over transactions that occurred before July 13, 2014 or Feb. 6, 2016, depending on the defendant.

It also said that because all allegations against Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump were too old, all claims against her should have been dismissed as untimely.

(Reuters)

Eid is a festival of love and brotherhood that spreads the message of peace and tranquility, Jammu and Kashmir Lt Governor Manoj Sinha said on Tuesday.

Eid-ul-Adha, the celebration of Prophet Ibrahim's sacrifice for his Lord, will be observed in the Union Territory on Thursday.

Sinha made the remarks while speaking to reporters after reviewing the arrangements for Eid-ul-Adha at the Hazratbal shrine overlooking the Dal Lake.

"This is a festival of love and brotherhood. The arrangements for the festival in Jammu and Kashmir have been put in place. I have taken meetings with the administration in which the Waqf Board chairperson was also present," Sinha said.

(PTI)

Bank of America Corp is adding consumer branches in four new U.S. states, it said on Tuesday, bringing its national footprint closer to rival JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Bank of America will open new financial centers in Nebraska, Wisconsin, Alabama and Louisiana as part of a four-year expansion across nine markets, including Louisville, Milwaukee and New Orleans.

The openings will give BofA a retail presence in 39 states, compared with JPMorgan, the largest U.S. lender, which has branches in 49 states.

(Reuters)

A Russian court has fined Alphabet's Google 4 billion roubles ($47 million) for failing to pay an earlier fine over alleged abuse of its dominant position in the video hosting market, the country's anti-monopoly watchdog said on Tuesday.

The decision is the latest multi-million dollar fine in Moscow's increasingly assertive campaign against foreign tech companies.

Google was fined 2 billion roubles in February 2022. The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) at the time said Google's YouTube had a "non-transparent, biased and unpredictable" approach to "suspending and blocking users' accounts and content", the TASS news agency reported.

(Reuters)

Delhi Mayor Shelly Oberoi speaking on MCD's monsoon preparations told ANI, “In the last 15 days, we have held meetings 2-3 times not only with MCD officers but also inter-departmental. We called officers from PWD, DDA, Delhi Jal Board, Railways and Metro. We discussed all the preparations that should be made. They have been instructed that instead of blaming each other, it will be better if all the officers coordinate and work to prepare Delhi for monsoon.”

AITC National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee began campaigning for West Bengal Panchayat polls from Domkal in Murshidabad on Tuesday. 

As many as 18 former Congress corporators of Maharashtra’s Bhiwandi Nizampur City Municipal Corporation (BNCMC) have been disqualified from contesting any elections for the next 6 years for voting against their party’s official mayoral candidate in 2019.

In an order issued on Monday, the Urban Development Department headed by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said that the ex-corporators defied the whip issued by the Congress.

Despite the Congress having 47 corporators in the 90-member BNCMC House, its mayoral candidate Rishika Raka lost the poll in December 2019 due to cross-voting by 18 corporators from the party.

(PTI)

Pope Francis' peace envoy to Ukraine will visit Moscow on Wednesday and Thursday, just weeks after visiting Kyiv, the Vatican said. It will be the first visit to Moscow by a senior Vatican official since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

"On June 28 and 29, 2023, Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi... accompanied by an official of the (Vatican) Secretary of State, will pay a visit to Moscow as envoy of Pope Francis," a Vatican statement said.

"The main purpose of the initiative is to encourage gestures of humanity, which can help promote a solution to the current tragic situation and find ways to achieve a just peace."

(AFP)

Four people died and three others were missing after landslides hit a county in China's southwestern Sichuan province on Tuesday, leading authorities to evacuate more than 900 people.

The landslides, triggered by flash floods, occurred in Miansi and Weizhou townships in Wenchuan county, according to the county's emergency management bureau. More than 400 rescuers searched for missing people after the landslides hit early Tuesday, state media said.

Four people, including a couple from Miansi township, were found dead later on Tuesday, while three others remained missing, according to official broadcaster CCTV.

(PTI)

A statue of BR Ambedkar was vandalised by some mischievous elements in a village here, police said on Tuesday. The statute in Dr Ambedkar Park in Bhatla village was vandalised on Monday night, they said.

Some villagers belonging to the Scheduled Caste community lodged a police complaint in the matter, following which a case was registered against unidentified persons under Section 295 (destroying, damaging or defiling a place of worship) of the Indian Penal Code, a spokesperson of Hansi police said.

CCTV footage from nearby areas has been collected to trace those behind the incident, the police said. The villagers who lodged the complaint demanded immediate arrest of the accused and that the administration install a new statue in the park.

(PTI)

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's helicopter made an emergency landing at the Sevoke air base near Siliguri on Tuesday afternoon due to bad weather, officials said.

Banerjee was on the way to the Bagdogra airport after addressing an election rally in Jalpaiguri when her helicopter ran into bad weather while flying over the Baikunthapur forest, they said. "It was raining very heavily here, and the pilot decided to make an emergency landing," an official told PTI.

After the incident, it was decided that Banerjee will travel by road to the Bagdogra airport, and then fly back to Kolkata, he said.

(PTI)

The Manipur government has decided to invoke "no work, no pay" rule for its employees who are not attending office. Read more

Assam Police on Tuesday detained protestors in Karimganj who were staging a demonstration against the proposed delimitation draft by the Election Commission of India (ECI). Read more

A clash broke out between two groups at Gitaldaha in West Bengal's Cooch Behar on Tuesday morning, in which one person died of bullet injuries. Read more

Tomato prices have recently shot up in the markets across the country from ₹10-20 per kg to a price of ₹80-100 per kg. The reason behind this is the dip in supply due to heatwaves in tomato-growing areas and heavy rain.

Ajay Kedia, a Mumbai-based commodity market expert and head of Kedia Advisory said, "This year, for a variety of reasons, fewer tomatoes were sown than in prior years. As the price of beans surged last year, many farmers switched to growing beans this year. However, a lack of monsoon rains has caused the crops to dry out and wilt. The limited supply of vegetables, particularly tomatoes are due to crop damage caused by heavy rainfall and extreme heat."

New York City will add Diwali to its list of public school holidays in recognition of the growth of the city’s South Asian and Indo-Caribbean communities, city mayor Eric Adams said on Monday. Read more

PM Narendra Modi flags off five Vande Bharat trains from Rani Kamlapati Railway Station in Bhopal.

A boulder crashed on the Mumbra bypass road in Maharashtra's Thane district, affecting vehicular movement on the route, a civic official said on Tuesday.

No one was injured in the incident which took place at around 11.30 pm on Monday when the boulder crashed near a temple on the bypass, Thane Municipal Corporation's disaster management cell chief Yasin Tadvi said.

Several organisations and political parties have called for a 12-hour bandh in Barak Valley, Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi districts, as a protest against the proposed delimitation draft by the Election Commission of India (ECI).

An elevator at Gaur Home residential complex in Ghaziabad's Govindpuram got stuck last night. Residents trapped in the lift for around 15 minutes were later rescued with the help of locals.