Indian Sub-continent

Mangaluru, Feb 18 (PTI) The Mahatma Gandhi Memorial (MGM) college in the district headquarters town of Udupi in coastal Karnataka, which witnessed chaotic scenes last week with student groups facing each other shouting slogans against hijabs and saffron shawls, reopened Friday after a 10-day break.

The college reopened as practical examinations are scheduled to be held for pre-university (PU) students. For the PU section, only students appearing for the examination are being allowed entry into the college premises.

New Delhi, Feb 18 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted a number of prominent Sikhs at his residence on Friday.

The meeting came two days before the Punjab Assembly polls, with the BJP going all out to woo the Sikh community as it seeks to put up a strong show in an alliance with former chief minister Amarinder Singh's Punjab Lok Congress and the Akali Dal faction headed by Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa.

New Delhi, Feb 18 (PTI) The CBI on Friday questioned former CEO of National Stock Exchange (NSE) Chitra Ramkrishna in view of fresh facts emerging in connection with its ongoing probe into the alleged abuse of co-location facility in the NSE, officials said.

The agency has also opened look out circulars against Ramkrishna, another former CEO Ravi Narain and former COO Anand Subramanian to prevent them from leaving the country.

Kanpur: "Sadak nahi, vote nahi," is written on the banner at the entrance of Saraiya lane in Jajmau locality here.

This is a way to express resentment, say, the people of the area.

This older lane seemed to have not been repaired for long. Just at the entrance, a big mound can be seen even to this day, they further added.

It was supposed to be dug up for some purpose but the work remained incomplete. The ire of the people persists on account of the negligence.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Fear accompanies reporter Banafsha Binesh from the moment she leaves her Kabul home each morning for the newsroom at Afghanistan’s largest television station.

It starts with the Taliban fighters, who roam the streets of the capital with weapons slung over their shoulders. Binesh, 27, says she is frightened by their reputation of harshness toward women, rather than any unsavory encounter.

Dread and uncertainty mount with every new report of a fellow journalist having been detained, interrogated or beaten by Taliban fighters.

Mangaluru, Feb 17 (PTI) Around 60 final year students of the government G Shankar memorial women's first grade degree college in Udupi on Thursday returned home after they were told to take off their hijabs by college authorities.

Though the Muslim girl students argued with the authorities saying the chief minister has clarified that uniforms are not mandatory in degree colleges, the authorities said it is the college development committee that fixed the rules.

New Delhi, Feb 16 (PTI) The Income-tax department has conducted searches at multiple premises of Chinese telecom company Huawei in the country as part of a tax evasion investigation, official sources said on Wednesday.

The raids were launched at the company's premises in Delhi, Gurugram (Haryana) and Bengaluru in Karnataka on Tuesday.

Sources said the officials looked at financial documents, account books and company records as part of a tax evasion investigation against the company, its Indian businesses and overseas transactions.

Mumbai, Feb 16 (PTI) World-renowned author and public intellectual Yuval Noah Harari has warned of the perils of too-much dependence on data-driven technologies because that can result in data colonialism, which will lead to creation of tyrant governments and monopolistic corporations.

Shillong, Feb 16 (PTI) Two persons were arrested in Meghalaya's Ri-Bhoi district on Wednesday with a huge cache of explosives, police said.

Acting on a tip-off, a vehicle was intercepted at Byrnihat police outpost area near the inter-state border with Assam around 5 am and the explosives were recovered, Superintendent of Police Giri Prasad said.

Two persons allegedly involved in illegally transporting the explosive substances were arrested, he said.

Ghaziabad, Feb 16 (PTI) Twenty women were booked here for carrying out a protest rally in favour of hijab without permission, police here said on Wednesday.

The protest was held on Sunday and a video of it was also found circulating on social media today.

The video purportedly showed a few cops, male and female, using batons to disperse the protesting women.

The rally was held in Shani Bazaar market of Navneet Vihar colony, Circle officer, Indirapuram, Abhay Kumar Mishra said.