Indian Sub-continent

Mumbai, Feb 2 (PTI) A POCSO court sentenced a man to 20 years imprisonment on Saturday for raping his minor neighbour in Dharavi area here.

The accused, Kisan Damodar (53), was found guilty under section 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code and relevant provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act by additional Session Judge S J Gharat.

Raipur, Feb 2 (PTI) A journalist of a Raipur-based website was allegedly beaten up Saturday by BJP functionaries while he was recording a meeting of the party's district-level meeting here, police said.

Based on the complaint by journalist Suman Pandey, who sustained minor injuries to his head, a case has been registered against four persons, including BJP Raipur district president Rajeev Agrawal, a police official told PTI.

LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — An aide to Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif says has he been shifted from his prison cell to a government hospital in the eastern city of Lahore.

Senator Asif Kirmani says Sharif was taken from his cell in Kot Lakhpat prison on Saturday to the Services Hospital following the recommendation of a government-appointed team of doctors.

Kirmani says Sharif was diagnosed with heart-related issues which could be life threatening.

01 Feb 2019; AFP: Several EU countries on Friday seized and destroyed suspect beef from a Polish slaughterhouse where allegedly sick cows were butchered, as French authorities said some of the meat had already been sold to customers.

Warsaw has attempted to reassure affected countries and says the meat does not pose a health risk.

ISLAMABAD, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- An earthquake of 5.8 magnitude jolted parts of Pakistan including the capital city of Islamabad on Saturday evening, the country's National Seismic Monitoring Center said.

According to the center, the earthquake struck at 5:04 p.m. local time, with the epicenter determined in Hindu Kush Region in Afghanistan with a focal depth of 80 km.

Islamabad, Feb 2 (PTI) China will provide USD 2.5 billion in loans to Pakistan to boost the foreign exchange reserves of its "all-weather ally", a media report said Saturday.

Pakistan is nearly broke with the drying up of foreign cash reserves and mounting external debt.

The country's USD 8.12 billion reserves, which are below the minimum level that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) prescribe, are sufficient to cover only seven weeks of imports.

Raipur, Feb 2 (PTI) A suspected woman naxal was killed and another injured Saturday in an encounter between security forces and ultras in Chhattisgarh, police said.

The skirmish took place early this morning in the forest of Rengaiguda village, around 450 kms from Raipur, under Polampalli police station limits when a joint team of security forces was returning after an area domination operation, Sukma Superintendent of Police Jitendra Shukla told PTI over phone.

Chennai, Feb 2 (PTI) A 48-year-old man was arrested Saturday at the airport here by the cyber crime sleuths in connection with alleged offensive posts in the social media against Muslims, police said.

Kalyanasundaram Rangasamy had allegedly made defamatory comments offending Muslims recently, police said, adding they were on the lookout for him for the offence for quite some time.

New Delhi, Feb 2 (PTI) Former Madhya Pradesh Police chief Rishi Kumar Shukla was on Saturday appointed CBI director for a fixed tenure of two years, according to an order issued by the personnel ministry.

The 1983-batch IPS officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre is at present chairman of the Madhya Pradesh Police Housing Corporation.

He succeeds Alok Kumar Verma, who was on January 10 removed from the post.

Nagpur, Feb 2 (PTI) Suspected naxals Saturday killed two villagers in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli district, apparently on suspicion that they are police informers.

The incident occurred in the wee hours when some ultras dragged Girma Kadyami and Samru Kosni, both residents of Markegaon village in Dhanora taluka, out of their houses and shot them dead, said Gadchiroli superintendent of police Shailesh Balkawde.