Indian Sub-continent

Bhopal, Apr 20 (PTI) The Election Commission (EC) Saturday issued a show-cause notice to Malegaon blast accused and BJP candidate from Bhopal Pragya Singh Thakur over her remark about Hemant Karkare, the Maharashtra ATS chief who was killed in the 26/11 terror attack, an official said here.

Addressing BJP workers here Thursday night, Thakur had claimed that Karkare died during the attack as she had "cursed" him for torturing her when he probed the blast case as chief of the Anti-Terrorism Squad.

However, after her remarks kicked up a row, she tendered an apology Friday.

Dhanbad, Apr 20 (PTI) A teenaged girl died hours after being allegedly raped by at least five persons, who were members of a marriage party, in a village in Dhanbad district of Jharkhand, police said Saturday.

All the five, including two minors, have been apprehended, they said.

The marriage party had come from Jamtara district of the state to the village under East Tundi block. Some of the wedding guests went to meet their relatives in another part of the village. The victim was a neighbour of their relatives, Superintendent of Police (Dhanbad Rural) Aman Kumar said.

Bhubaneswar, Apr 20 (PTI) Odisha chief electoral officer Surendra Kumar has suspended 14 government officers for dereliction of duty in the second phase of polling on April 18 and recommended fresh polling at a booth in Sorada assembly segment in Ganjam district.

Kumar said the 14 officers were deployed in five Lok Sabha and 35 assembly constituencies amd were suspended on charges of dereliction of duty during the simultaneous polls.

New Delhi, Apr 20 (PTI) The Aam Aadmi Party has extended its unconditional support to the Left Democratic Front in Kerala following which the Left front also expressed its support to the ruling party in Delhi for the general elections.

"The AAP's political affairs committee (PAC) has decided to give unconditional support to the Left Democratic Front candidates in the state (Kerala)," AAP leader Somnath Bharti said.

Jaipur, Apr 20 (PTI) Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot Saturday urged the new generation to brush up their knowledge of history and not fall prey to the BJP's "misleading" campaign on social media.

"Teams of social media are at work. They (BJP) are spending crores of rupees to attack... conspiracy is going on to mislead people of the country," he told reporters in Jaisalmer district.

Muzaffarnagar, Apr 21 (PTI) A 23-year-old woman was allegedly kidnapped and raped by four men here, police said Sunday.

The incident took place on Saturday in Jhaberpur village which comes under the jurisdiction of Purkazi police station.

According to a complaint lodged by the woman's family, she was kidnapped by the four men in a car who took her to a nearby sugarcane field and raped her, said SSP Virender Singh.

The accused had also recorded the act, he said, adding that a probe into the matter was underway.

New Delhi, Apr 21 (PTI) The Health Ministry is grappling with paucity of meningitis vaccines for Haj pilgrims as the only firm manufacturing them was asked to stop production last year after contamination was detected in their oral polio vaccines.

According to sources in the Health Ministry, the only firm which manufactured the vaccines and provided it to the government, was asked to stop production of all human vaccines in September last year after type-2 polio virus contamination was detected in oral polio vaccines.

New Delhi, Apr 21 (PTI) The Congress on Sunday condemned the serial blasts at multiple locations in Sri Lanka, with party president Rahul Gandhi terming it a "diabolical act of terrorism".

More than 160 people were killed and over 450 injured in a string of near simultaneous blasts at churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday.

Patna, Apr 21 (PTI) Top Left leaders - Sitaram Yechury, D Raja and Sudhakar Reddy - as well as Bollywood lyricist Javed Akhtar will descend on the soil of Bihar next week to campaign in Begusarai where former JNU students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar is pitted against Union minister and firebrand BJP leader Giriraj Singh.

Agartala, Apr 21 (PTI) The political turmoil in Tripura shows no sign of abating with opposition parties demanding fresh polls in Tripura West Lok Sabha constituency, claiming that the April 11 election in the state was "heavily rigged" by the ruling BJP.

Denying the charge, the saffron party said the allegations were "baseless and politically motivated".