India

Hamirpur (UP), Dec 11 (PTI) A five-year-old girl was alleged raped by a teenager in Uttar Pradesh's Hamirpur district, police said on Wednesday.

The incident took place at a village in Muskara area on Tuesday night. The 14-year-old boy took the girl, who was playing outside her house, to a secluded place and raped her, Additional Superintendent of Police, Santosh Kumar said.

Thane, Dec 11(PTI) Domestic workers will hold rallies across Maharashtra this week to raise concerns over the government's labour code and wage code, a member of an umbrella body of household workers said on Wednesday.

The Union Cabinet last week approved the Code on Social Security Bill-2019, which seeks to consolidate laws relating to social security of workers and subsume eight central laws.

Maharashtra Rajya Gharkamgar Union convener Rekha Jadhav told reporters here that the government was not making efforts to provide support to the domestic workers.

Digha (WB), Dec 11 (PTI) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said unity in diversity is the ethos of the state and people here are not divided on the basis of caste, creed and religion.

Her statement came when the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill is being debated in Rajya Sabha. The contentious Bill that seeks to provide Indian citizenship to non-Muslim refugees coming from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan after facing religious persecution there, was passed in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

Guwahati, Dec 11 (PTI) Tens of thousands of protesters against CAB descended on the streets of Assam on Wednesday, clashing with police and plunging the state into chaos of a magnitude unseen since the violent 6-year movement by students that ended with the signing of the Assam accord.

Thane, Dec 11(PTI) A BJP corporator was on Wednesday sentenced to five years' rigorous imprisonment by a court here in Maharashtra for taking bribe in 2014.

District Judge (special Anti-Corruption Bureau cases) P P Jadhav pronounced Varsha Bhanushali, the corporator in the BJP-ruled Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) of Thane district, guilty under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs five lakh on her, additional public prosecutor Vivek Kadu said.

New Delhi, Dec 11 (PTI) The Army will shut down its Officers Training Academy (OTA) in Gaya, Bihar, as it has become unviable and is being used below its capacity, sources said on Wednesday.

An Army official said a proposal was sent to the Defence Ministry that the OTA should be shut as it is "not serving the purpose the way it was planned". The ministry has approved the proposal, the official added.

Dharamshala, Dec 10 (PTI) Twelve people were killed and 39 injured in attacks by stray bulls in Himachal Pradesh in two years, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur informed state assembly on Tuesday.

In a written reply to a question by Hamirpur BJP MLA Narinder Thakur, the CM said 12 people had been killed and 39 injured in 51 incidents of attack by bulls from June 30, 2017, to July 31 this year.

Thakur said the five persons had been killed in Kangra district, followed by three in Hamirpur and Una each and one in Mandi district during the period.

Kolkata, Dec 10 (PTI) The spiralling prices of onions have partially affected restaurant business in the city, with owners apprehensive that customers might skip eating out during Christmas and New Year festivities, if they hike the rate of food items.

With the kitchen staple still hovering between Rs 150 and Rs 170 a kilo, several restaurants are feeling the pinch, some of them even mulling to pass on the burden to customers if the situation does not stabilise.

Pune, Dec 10 (PTI) The Maratha Kranti Morcha has demanded speedy justice in the 2016 case of rape and killing of a 15-year-girl in Maharashtra's Kopardi village.

The pro-Maratha outfit sent a letter to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackarey on Monday, seeking his intervention into the matter and their other pending demands.

Mumbai, Dec 10 (PTI) The Shiv Sena on Tuesday said centralisaton of power in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) was one of the main reasons for the "poor" economic health of the country.

The central government wants the finance minister and RBI governor under its control, an editorial in Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana' claimed, adding that the present BJP-led dispensation is not ready to listen to economists as it considers the economy as a "share market gamble".