India

New Delhi, Jan 14 (PTI) Petrol and diesel prices on Thursday were hiked by 25 paise per litre each, the second straight day of increase in rates that took the prices to new highs.

Petrol now costs Rs 84.70 per litre in Delhi and diesel is priced at Rs 74.88, according to a price notification from oil marketing companies.

This is the second straight day of a price increase. Rates were hiked by 25 paise each on Wednesday after a five-day hiatus.

Banda (UP), Jan 14 (PTI) A 17-year-old girl, who was raped 10 years ago, allegedly committed suicide by hanging herself in her house in a village here, police said on Thursday.

She was raped 10 years ago by a man of her village who recently returned after completing seven years jail term, they said.

The girl allegedly committed suicide on Wednesday and her body has been handed over to her family after post-mortem, Sub-Inspector incharge of Khaptiha Kala police chowki, Dinesh Kumar, said.

Mumbai, Jan 14 (PTI) The Shiv Sena on Thursday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to honour the sentiments of protesting farmers and scrap new controversial farm laws, and said he will "grow bigger" in stature by doing so.

An editorial in the Shiv Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana' also accused the Centre of trying to end the farmers' protest by using the Supreme Court as the front.

Chandigarh, Jan 14 (PTI) Bhartiya Kisan Union president Bhupinder Singh Mann, who was one of the four members of the Supreme Court-appointed committee on farm laws, on Thursday said he is recusing himself from the panel.

Mann said he is thankful to the apex court for nominating him on the committee but would sacrifice any position offered to him so as not to compromise the interests of farmers.

Rajnandgaon, Jan 14 (PTI) A group of Naxals allegedly killed the husband of a village sarpanch on suspicion of being a police informer in Chhattisgarh's Rajnandgaon district, police said on Thursday.

The incident took place on Wednesday night in Pardoni village under Manpur police station limits, a Naxal-affected area located around 170 km from the state capital Raipur.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - WhatsApp is battling mistrust globally after it updated its privacy policy to let it share some user data with parent Facebook and other group firms, and the backlash risks thwarting its ambitions in its biggest market, India.

Though WhatsApp has yet to see mass uninstalls of its app in India, users concerned about privacy are increasingly downloading rival apps such as Signal and Telegram, research firms say, propelling them higher on the download charts and putting those apps ahead of their ubiquitous rival in India for the first time.

NEW DELHI/PUNE, Jan 13 (NNN-PTI) — The first consignment of Covishield vaccines reached Delhi from Pune on Tuesday, four days ahead of the launch of a nationwide drive against the coronavirus.

A SpiceJet flight carrying the vaccines landed at the Delhi airport around 10 am. It had left for the national capital around 8 am, three hours after three trucks with the maiden consignment of the vaccines rolled out of the Serum Institute of India (SII) facility, 15 km from the Pune airport.

New Delhi, Jan 12 (PTI) Former union minister M J Akbar on Tuesday told a Delhi court that journalist Priya Ramani failed to prove her charges of alleged sexual misconduct by him 20 years ago.

Akbar made the submission before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Ravindra Kumar through senior advocate Geeta Luthra during the final hearing in a criminal complaint filed by him against Ramani for allegedly defaming him by accusing him of sexual misconduct.

Ramani had made allegation of sexual misconduct against Akbar in the wake of #MeToo movement in 2018.

Chandigarh, Jan 12 (PTI) Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Tuesday said the farmers protesting at Delhi's borders should end their agitation now following the formation of a committee by the Supreme Court over the new farm laws.

The ball is now in the court of the SC and I feel whatever is its decision, it will be acceptable to all, he said, welcoming the SC order.

The Supreme Court stayed till further orders the implementation the three central agri-marketing laws over which farmers from Punjab and Haryana have been protesting for weeks.

Gwalior (MP), Jan 12 (PTI) The Hindu Mahasabha on Tuesday closed a study centre named for Nathuram Godse following an intervention by the district administration.

The "Gyanshaala" or study centre, opened at the Mahasabha's office in Daulatganj area here two days ago, had created controversy as it was named for Godse, Mahatma Gandhi's assassin.

Additional District Magistrate Kishore Kanyal said that after learning about the study centre, preventive orders under section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure were imposed in Daulatganj area.