India

Lucknow, Oct 19 (PTI) Uttar Pradesh schools opened on Monday after a gap of seven months caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

According to Additional Chief Secretary (Secondary Education) Aradhana Shukla said students of Classes 9 to 12 attended the schools.

The classes were run in two shifts due to the COVID-19 protocal in the state, she said, adding that arrangements were made for sanitisers and thermal scanning at the schools.

Fatehpur (UP), Oct 19 (PTI) A 35-year-old woman was allegedly hacked to death in a village in Fatehpur district of Uttar Pradesh, police said on Monday.

The body of the woman identified as Rita (35) was found in the forest area, Superintendent of Police Prashant Verma said.

Ahmedabad, Oct 20 (PTI) Nearly 1.30 lakh children, mostly tribal, are illegally employed at cottonseed farms inGujarat, a city-based NGO has claimed.

Taking cognisance of the matter, an official from the state labour department told PTI on Tuesday that they will send their teams in areas specified by the NGO and take action if any wrongdoing is found.

Bhubaneswar, Oct 20 (PTI) Seven IEDs, suspected to have been planted by cadres of the banned CPI (Maoist) outfit, were defused by security forces in Odisha's Malkangiri district, a BSF statement said on Tuesday.

Acting on a tip-off, Border Security Force (BSF) personnel launched a combing operation in Swabhimaan Anchal along the Odisha-Andhra Pradesh border on Monday evening, it said.

The troops detected the improvised explosive devices planted on a road, the statement said.

NEW DELHI, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) -- India's COVID-19 tally reached 7,597,063 with 46,790 new confirmed cases recorded in the past 24 hours, showed the data released by the federal health ministry on Tuesday.

The total death toll rose to 115,197, including 587 newly reported.

This is the first time in nearly four months when the per day new cases fell below 50,000, and per day deaths below 600.

Still there are 748,538 active COVID-19 cases in the country, while 6,733,328 people have recovered and been discharged from hospitals.

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — The Indian military said it apprehended a Chinese soldier Monday in the remote Ladakh region, where the two countries are locked in a monthslong military standoff along their disputed border.

A statement by the Indian army said the soldier, Corporal Wang Ya Long from China’s People’s Liberation Army, was apprehended inside Indian-controlled Ladakh’s Demchok area and was to be released soon.

New Delhi, Oct 19 (PTI) The CBI has booked BSP MLA Vinay Shankar Tiwari and his wife Rita Tiwari in connection with an alleged bank fraud to the tune of Rs 754.25 crore involving a company, officials said Monday.

The CBI on Monday started a search operation at the residence of Chillupar (Gorakhpur) MLA Tiwari, who is son of former minister and a strongman from Gorakhpur, Hari Shankar Tiwari, and the office of the company, Gangotri Enterprises, in Lucknow.

Mumbai, Oct 19 (PTI) NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Monday said Maharashtra is facing a "historic economic crisis" and the state government has no option but to take loan to help flood-affected people in the state.

Pawar, who is on a tour of the Marathwada region to review the flood situation, told reporters in Osmanabad that a state government cannot do anything alone in a crisis of such magnitude.

Last week, heavy rains and floods claimed at least 48 lives in Pune, Aurangabad and Konkan divisions, while crops on lakhs of hectares were damaged.

Bengaluru, Oct 18 (PTI) A 30-year-old labourer went on a stabbing spree, killing a person and injuring six others, before being overpowered by police personnel here on Sunday, police said.

Ganesh went to a butcher's shop at Cottonpet area to purchase meat, stole a knife from there, ran away and stabbed six people at random.

One of those injured, also a labourer, succumbed to injuries in a hospital. Another was critically injured and was in the Intensive Care Unit, police said.

Hyderabad, Oct 18 (PTI) Two maoists were killed in an exchange of fire with the police in Mulugu district of Telangana on Sunday, police said.

According to police, two members of the maoist squad were killed in a gun battle with special police parties that were combing the forest area in Mangapet mandal of that district based on a tip-off.

Some weapons have been recovered from the spot, a senior official told PTI.