Highlights: Amid heavy rain, 3 Delhi-bound flights diverted to Lucknow, Amritsar

Two brothers allegedly committed suicide by hanging from a tree in Rajasthan’s Bikaner on Tuesday, police said.

Assistant sub-inspector Ravindra Singh said Jethu Singh (20) and Gopal Singh (18) committed suicide by hanging themselves on a tree in Pundalsar village.

The reason behind their extreme step is being probed, he said.

The bodies were handed over to the relatives after post-mortem.

(PTI)

Delhi LG V K Saxena and National Green Tribunal Chairperson Justice (retd) Adarsh Kumar Goel took a ride on a Navy boat on Tuesday, inspecting a stretch of the Yamuna river between ISBT and ITO Bridge, according to a statement from Raj Niwas.

The navigability of the stretch was ascertained last month with the boat provided by the Indian Navy at the lieutenant governor's request, it said.

The Delhi L-G is chairman of a high-level committee formed by the NGT for the rejuvenation of the heavily polluted Yamuna river.

"Work on the restoration of the floodplains from Wazirabad barrage to ITO barrage that was started in February this year is complete. Cleaning operations on the stretch between ITO barrage and Okhla are underway," Saxena said.

(PTI)

Three Delhi-bound flights were diverted on Tuesday owing to bad weather in the national capital.

One flight was diverted to Lucknow and two flights were diverted to Amritsar according to airport sources. Flight UK836 from Chennai to Delhi and Flight UK960 from Mumbai to Delhi were diverted to Amritsar (ATQ) due to bad weather at Delhi Airport. Both of the flights reached Amritsar at 3.30 pm and 3.40 pm respectively.

"Flight UK836 from Chennai to Delhi (MAA-DEL) has been diverted to Amritsar (ATQ) due to bad weather at Delhi airport and is expected to arrive in Amritsar at 1540hrs," the airlines said in a statement.

(ANI)

U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday welcomed NATO's decision to extend Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg's term by a further year, opting to stick with an experienced leader as war continues to rage on the alliance's doorstep rather than try to agree on a successor.

Stoltenberg, a former prime minister of Norway, has been the transatlantic security alliance's leader since 2014 and his tenure had already been extended three previous times.

The decision means continuity at the top of NATO as its 31 members grapple with the challenge of supporting Ukraine in repelling Moscow's invasion while avoiding a direct conflict between NATO and Russian forces.

(Reuters)

In a relief to foreign medical graduates, the Bihar government on Tuesday announced that government medical colleges and hospitals will not charge any fee from them for granting permission for internships.

Besides, the state government also decided to provide stipends and other facilities at par with those extended to Indian medical graduates, officials said.

The decisions were taken at a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar here on Tuesday.

(PTI)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Rajasthan on July 7 and 8 during which he will inaugurate and lay the foundation stones of about 50 projects worth around ₹50,000 crore, official sources said Tuesday.

All these states, except Uttar Pradesh, are slated to go to polls later this year.

On Friday, Prime Minister Modi will first travel from Delhi to Raipur, where he will lay the foundation stone and dedicate multiple projects, including the six-lane sections of the Raipur-Vishakhapatnam corridor, to people. Thereafter, he will attend a public meeting.

The prime minister will then travel to Gorakhpur where will attend a programme at the Gita Press, the sources said.

(PTI)

Two youths hailing from Himachal Pradesh were feared drowned in Ranjit Sagar dam in Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday, a police official said.

Gagan (20) and Sahil (19), both residents of Sadar Bazar area of Dalhousie, were taking bath when they ventured into the deep waters and went missing around 4.15 pm, he said.

The official said the police, along with the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), launched a rescue operation to trace out the youths.

(PTI)

A car ramming and stabbing attack in Tel Aviv wounded seven people Tuesday before the suspect was shot dead, on the second day of Israel's biggest military operation in years in the occupied West Bank.

Palestinian militant group Hamas praised the "heroic" attack as "an initial response to crimes against our people in the Jenin camp" where Israeli forces had killed 10 people in a "counterterrorism" operation on Monday.

The driver in Tel Aviv was thought to have intentionally hit several pedestrians on a shopping street before getting out of the vehicle to "stab civilians with a sharp object," police said.

The "terrorist", a West Bank resident, was shot dead by an armed civilian passerby, said police chief Yaakov Shabtai.

(AFP)

Afghanistan's Taliban authorities have ordered beauty parlours across the country to shut within a month, the vice ministry confirmed Tuesday, the latest curb to squeeze women out of public life.

The order will force the closure of thousands of businesses run by women -- often the only source of income for households -- and outlaw one of the few remaining opportunities for them to socialise away from home.

"I think it would have been good if women did not exist at all in this society," said the manager of a Kabul parlour who asked not to be identified.

"I am saying this now: I wish I did not exist. I wish we were not born in Afghanistan, or were not from Afghanistan."

(AFP)

China has cancelled a trip by European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell scheduled for next week, an EU spokesperson said on Tuesday.

No reasons were given for the cancellation, which comes as Europe seeks to reduce the risks created by its close economic relationship with China, which Brussels has dubbed an "economic competitor and a systemic rival".

"Unfortunately, we were informed by the Chinese counterparts that the envisaged dates next week are no longer possible and we must now look for alternatives," spokesperson Nabila Massrali told Reuters in a written statement on Tuesday.

(Reuters)

French authorities imposed a two-million-euro ($2.2-million) fine on Google on Tuesday over incomplete results in its search engine and app store.

The Competition, Consumer and Anti-Fraud Office said the US tech giant's search engine lacked information concerning the ranking criteria of results. The watchdog said results for searches on tourism accommodation lacked explanations for the prices.

The Google Play Store, it added, also lacked information on the ranking criteria of results, payment information and dispute resolution procedures. The store also did not give consumers reasons for not publishing their reviews of apps in the store.

(AFP)

Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh announced that Classes 1 to 8 in schools will be reopened from July 5.

"We have decided to deploy state security forces and paramilitary forces in vulnerable areas. Deploy more security personnel in five particular districts. We have decided to reopen the schools for standards 1 to 8 from 5th July," Biren Singh told the reporters.

The Chief Minister was briefing the media persons at the Chief Minister's Secretariat on Monday evening.

Owing to the extremely turbulent situation in the state, the schools have remained shut since the first week of May.

(ANI)

In a significant rejig, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) appointed new party chiefs for several states on Tuesday. Releasing statements, BJP president appointed new state chiefs for four states.'

As reported by PTI, in this rejig, mostly posts were allotted to those who had recently joined the BJP from other parties. Some of those who were allocated posts are — Sunil Jakhar and D Purandeswari – left Congress, Etela Rajender – left BRS.

(Read Here)

The protection wall of a civic school collapsed in Maharashtra's Thane city on Tuesday and no one was injured in the incident, a civic official said. The incident took place around 1.15 pm at a civic school in Kalwa area, chief of the Disaster Management Cell of the TMC Yasin Tadvi said.

The protection wall of the school building collapsed and the remaining portion of the wall is in a precarious state, he said. Local firemen and the RDMC team members rushed to the spot and cleared the debris and cordoned off the area, the official said, adding that no children were around at the time of the collapse.

(PTI)

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg will stay in office for another year, the 31-nation military alliance decided on Tuesday.

Stoltenberg said in a tweet that he is “honoured by NATO Allies’ decision to extend my term as Secretary General until 1 October 2024.”

“The transatlantic bond between Europe and North America has ensured our freedom and security for nearly 75 years, and in a more dangerous world, our Alliance is more important than ever,” he said.

Stoltenberg, a former Norwegian prime minister, has been NATO’s top civilian official since 2014. His term had been due to expire last year but was extended then to keep a steady hand at the helm after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

(AP)

France has returned 35 people — 10 women and 25 minors — from a sprawling camp in northeast Syria housing thousands of people linked to Islamic State extremists.

Al-Hol Camp — named after a town near the Iraqi border — holds about 51,000 people, including many widows, wives and children of Islamic State fighters. Iraqis make up nearly half the population, but a sizeable minority are from outside the Middle East.

Part of the camp called the Annex holds around 8,000 women and children from 60 nationalities who are considered the most die-hard among the residents, and experts have warned for years that the camp's wretched conditions and confined spaces risk creating another generation of Islamic State fighters.

(AP)

China's Xi Jinping urged SCO leaders on Tuesday to work towards safeguarding "regional peace" as he addressed a virtual summit of their Shanghai alliance.

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday declared the Toshakhana case against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan inadmissible, PTI reports.

A day after the CBI filed a chargesheet against Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav and others in connection with the land-for-jobs scam, JD(U) national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh on Tuesday accused the BJP-led central government of running a "witch-hunt" against the RJD leader, PTI reported.

The price of the Harley-Davidson X 440, being manufactured by Hero MotoCorp's Neemrana plant, starts at ₹2.29 lakh and goes up to 2.69 lakh (ex-showroom).

Russian military claims shooting down of five Ukrainian drones in vicinity of Moscow.

Moscow's Vnukovo airport resumed operations from 8 a.m. local time (0500 GMT), Russia's aviation watchdog Rosaviatsiya said on the Telegram messaging app, after a drone attack on the city on Tuesday, Reuters reported.

Eight Chinese aircraft crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday morning, Taiwan's defence ministry said, as China ramps up military pressure on the democratic island, Reuters reported.

Indian stock markets update: Sensex opens with 320 points gain to cross 65,500 mark; Nifty over 19,400.