India

Barabanki (UP) May 21 (PTI) Uttar Pradesh's Barabanki district has emerged as the new COVID-19 hotspot as 95 new cases of the virus were reported in a single day, half of them migrant workers returning from other states.

District Magistrate, Barabanki, Aadarsh Kumar, said on Wednesday that of the 245 samples sent for testing on May 15-16, 95 have been found positive.

Among those who tested positive, 49 are migrants who had recently returned from other states, the DM said, adding that all have been admitted to hospital as per the protocol.

Bhopal, May 21 (PTI) Huge swarms of locusts from Rajasthan have entered parts of western Madhya Pradesh, posing a threat to crops in the central state, an official said on Thursday.

An advisory has been issued to 22 agriculture science centres on how to fight the menace, Jabalpur-based Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Vishwavidyalayas extension services director Dr Om Gupta told PTI.

The locusts initially entered Rajasthan from Pakistan where they flew in from Iran last year.

KANPUR: Though shops in the city have been opened for a defined duration, online shopping is still preferred by the customers. They do not want to go to the market owing to the restrictions. 

New Delhi, May 21 (PTI) A day after announcing resumption of domestic commercial passenger flights from May 25, the Civil Aviation Ministry on Thursday issued detailed guidelines for airlines, airports, passengers and other stakeholders.

The ministry said it will prescribe lower and upper limit on air fares and airlines will have to adhere to it "during the period of COVID-19 pandemic".

"On the day of commencement (May 25), limited operations (about one-third) would be permitted," it said.

NEW DELHI, May 21 (NNN-PTI) – Three people were killed Wednesday, after super cyclone Amphan battered India’s eastern states of West Bengal and Odisha.

According to local media, two women and a man were killed after gusty winds uprooted trees in Howrah and North 24 Parganas districts of West Bengal.

The super cyclone, triggering winds of up to 190 kph, entered West Bengal accompanied with heavy rains, leaving a trail of destruction.

Officials said, the cyclone entered into human habitations, blowing away makeshift houses, uprooting electric poles and trees.

NEW DELHI (AP) — At first, the kitchen at the Bangla Sahib Gurdwara cooked 40,000 meals each day for the hungry who live on the streets of India’s capital city, or who have lost their livelihoods to the coronavirus lockdown.

But the need was greater than that. So workers at the golden-domed temple in central New Delhi made 80,000 meals daily. Then 100,000. Soon, they expect to be making 300,000 -- all provided free to the growing ranks of the unfortunate.

NEW DELHI (AP) — A powerful cyclone ripped through densely populated coastal India and Bangladesh, blowing off roofs and whipping up waves that swallowed embankments and bridges and left entire villages without access to fresh water, electricity and communications. At least 22 people were reported killed Thursday.

The cyclone weakened after slamming ashore Wednesday evening amid massive evacuations. Officials warn that relief and repair work will be made harder by the coronavirus pandemic, which has already sapped the health care system.

Surat, May 20 (PTI) A 20-year-old migrant labourer from Assam, who had lost his job due to the COVID-19-enforced lockdown, allegedly committed suicide at a slum in Gujarat's Surat city on Wednesday, police said.

Sunil Rijajagan Maheli was found hanging from the ceiling of his tenement in the Bhestan locality in the morning, inspector D K Patel of Pandesara police station said.

"The deceased, who was living with other Assamese labourers, had lost his job and had stayed behind even as others left for their home state," the official said.

Beed, May 19 (PTI) A case was registered against a BJP MLC for allegedly entering a COVID-19 containment zone in Ashti area in Maharashtra's Beed district, police said on Tuesday.

A case was registered against Suresh Dhas, a member of the Legislative Council from Ashti, for allegedly entering a containment zone in the city on Monday, an official said.

"Dhas entered Patan Sangvi, a containment zone in his constituency, and met residents of the sealed area on Monday morning," Ashti police station in-charge Madhav Suyavanshi said.

New Delhi, May 19 (PTI) The Indian Railways' most powerful 12000 HP Made in India locomotive made its maiden commercial run between Deen Dayal Upadhaya and Shivpur stations in Uttar Pradesh on Monday, the national transporter said.

Built by French company Alstom under the government's Make in India programme at the Railways' Madhepura factory in Bihar, these engines are the highest-powered locomotives that will run on Indian rails.