Indian Sub-continent

PTI; Guwahati, Jul 30 :  Over 40 lakh peoples' fate remains in limbo with the Centre today declining to comment on their citizenship status after exclusion of the names from the "complete draft" of National Register of Citizens (NRC), which contains names of 2.89 crore eligible persons.

At a press conference here, Registrar General of India Sailesh announced that 2,89,83,677 people were found to be eligible for inclusion in the complete draft of the ambitious NRC out of a total 3,29,91,384 applicants.

New Delhi, Jul 30 (PTI); The Delhi High Court was today told that over Rs 15 crore collected since 2006 from wages of convicts lodged in Tihar Jail for welfare of their victims has been lying unutilised.

The submission was made before a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar by the prison authorities during hearing of a PIL challenging the practice of deducting 25 per cent of the convicts' wages towards a victim welfare fund.

New Delhi, Jul 30 (PTI); The Supreme Court considered today the submission of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association (JKHCBA) that it should dispose of the suo motu cognizance of the Kathua gangrape and murder case in which it has taken strong note of some lawyers obstructing the judicial process.

By Lalit K Jha

Washington, Jul 30 (PTI); India is a key partner in America's efforts to ensure peace, stability and prosperity in the strategic Indo-Pacific region, the Trump administration has said.

The remarks by a senior US diplomat came ahead of the announcement by the US of initiatives for development and economic assistance in the entire region.

By Sajjad Hussain

Islamabad/Peshawar, Jul 30 (PTI); Imran Khan said today that he will take oath as prime minister on August 11, even as his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party was striving to get the required numbers to form a government.

The PTI, led by 65-year-old Khan, has emerged as the single largest party in the National Assembly after the July 25 elections, but it is still short of numbers to form the government on its own. Khan's party yesterday announced that it is trying to reach out to smaller parties and independents to form the next government.

New Delhi, July 30 (PTI); Civil society organisations today held a protest demanding the resignation of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over the alleged sexual abuse of minor girls in a shelter home at Muzaffarpur in Bihar.

They staged a protest outside Bihar Bhawan in Chanakyapuri here and also sought a fair probe into the incident.

Slamming the state government, the protesters indulged in sloganeering against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bihar Chief Minister.

Yavatmal (Maha), Jul 30 (PTI); The central government will soon bring a bill proposing death penalty for the crime of lynching, Union Minister of State for Home Hansraj Ahir said here today.

The proposed bill will be on the lines of a legislation seeking capital punishment to those convicted of raping girls below the age of 12 years, he said.

"Lynching is a barbaric crime and no civilised society can accept it. The Union government will soon bring a bill proposing death penalty for lynching.

New Delhi, Jul 30 (PTI); A crucial bill seeking to provide death penalty to those convicted of raping girls below the age of 12 years and making the law against such sexual offences more stringent, was passed by the Lok Sabha today.

The bill replaces the Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance promulgated on April 21, following an outcry over the rape and murder of a minor girl in Kathua in Jammu and Kashmir and the rape of another woman at Unnao in Uttar Pradesh.

KATHMANDU, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Industrial investment more than doubled in Nepal in the last fiscal year 2017-18 that concluded in mid-July, the Department of Industry (DoI) said on Saturday.

Investors registered 496 industries at the DoI with the committed investment of 350.58 billion Nepali rupees (3.18 billion U.S. dollars) in the last fiscal, DoI data showed.

New Delhi, Jul 29 (PTI); In an act of defiance, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today said "no mandatory permission" should be required from police to install CCTV cameras, as he tore apart a report of a panel set up by

Lt Governor Anil Baijal on working out the guidelines for installation and monitoring of surveillance cameras.

The L-G office in a statement issued later, however, said, the rules were only at a "draft stage" and had been put out in public domain for suggestions and clarifications.