India

New Delhi, Dec 10 (PTI) WTO's dispute settlement mechanism will be impaired with the departure of two of the three judges on its appellate body following completion of their term on Tuesday.

The US has stalled appointments of members in the appellate body of WTO's dispute settlement system.

WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo told a meeting of the full WTO membership on Monday that he would launch more intensive, high-level consultations on how to resolve the longstanding impasse over the appointment of appellate body members.

Patna, Dec 10 (PTI) The Rashtriya Janata Dal on Tuesday resolved to install Lalu Prasads heir apparent Tejashwi Yadav as the next Chief Minister of Bihar and defeat the current dispensation, headed by Nitish Kumar, in the assembly elections due next year.

A resolution to the effect was passed by the RJDs national council meeting here, which was for the first time held in the absence of its founding president who is in Ranchi serving sentences in fodder scam cases.

New Delhi, Dec 10 (PTI) As high as 40 lakh children and adolescents (age group 10-17 years) in India use opioids and 30 lakh are addicted to alcohol, the government said on Tuesday.

In a written reply to a question from a Lok Sabha member, Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Rattan Lal Kataria said 30 lakh children in that age group use inhalants (for pleasure) according to the data of a 2018 national survey on substance use.

Pune, Dec 10 (PTI) Some social organisations in Pune in Maharashtra on Tuesday appealed to the state government to move Supreme Court against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill which was passed in Lok Sabha on Monday late night.

These organisations have sent a joint letter to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray through Pune district collector.

Mumbai, Dec 10 (PTI) Two persons were detained on Tuesday in connection with the theft of 168kg of onions worth more than Rs 20,000 here last week, police said.

The theft took place between the intervening night of Thursday and Friday in a market in Dongri in south Mumbai, an official said.

In total, 168 kg of onions, whose prices have skyrocketed in the recent past, making them a precious commodity, were stolen from two shops in the market, he said.

Jaipur, Dec 10 (PTI) A 26-year-old woman was allegedly gang-raped and killed in Rajasthan's Bharatpur district, police said on Tuesday.

The woman's body was found hanged from a tree at Roshiaka village in the district on Monday, after which a case was registered against six people, they said.

Jajpur (Odisha), Dec 10 (PTI) Police on Tuesday arrested a person for allegedly raping a 44-year-old woman in Odisha's Jajpur district.

The incident took place at Khandara Gedisahi village on Saturday night and the accused was arrested from a neighbouring area, they said.

As per the complaint filed by the woman at Jajpur Town police station, the accused took advantage of the fact that she stays alone in her house after demise of her husband.

Mumbai, Dec 10 (PTI) Senior BJP leader and former Maharashtra minister Pankaja Munde on Tuesday remained absent from the party's state unit core committee meeting here, claiming she needed time to oversee preparations for her public address in Gopinathgad in Beed on December 12.

Munde, who has been holding a public rally every year on the birth anniversary of her father and former Union minister, the late Gopinath Munde, was absent from the division-level meetings of the BJP as well.

Muzaffarnagar, Dec 11 (PTI) A man was arrested for allegedly abducting and raping a minor girl in the Purkazi area here, police said on Wednesday.

Rajiv, 21, had adducted the 14-year-old girl from her house and raped her on November 12, they said.

The girl was rescued on December 8, police added.

Lucknow, Dec 11 (PTI) The SP and the BSP came out openly against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill on Wednesday, describing it as a "historical mistake" and "divisive" respectively.

"BJP's step like the CAB is not historic but a historical mistake," Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav said in a one-line tweet in Hindi.

BSP supremo Mayawati said, "The BSP is of the view that the CAB is divisive and unconstitutional. This is why the BSP voted against it in the Lok Sabha and will do the same in the Rajya Sabha too.