Indian Sub-continent

Panaji, Mar 18 (PTI) BJP's Pramod Sawant willl be the new chief minister of Goa, party sources said Monday.

Two MLAs from the BJP alliance partners will be made deputy chief ministers as part of the compromise reached with allies, they said.

KANPUR: Harcourt Butler Technical University graduate students will now have a chance of obtaining admission in a PhD course. Only those B. Tech students will be admitted who passed their graduation with 75% marks or more. A change has been brought in the regulation for the PhD admission.

Christchurch, Mar 16; PTI: India's High Commission in New Zealand on Saturday said that it has been pursuing with local authorities whereabouts of seven Indians and two Indian-origin persons after the terror attacks on two Christchurch mosques.

Two Indians are receiving treatments, the Indian mission said.

"We have been pursuing with NZ auth whereabouts of 9 Indians, incl 2 PIOs. 2 indians receiving treatment. Following up with NZ Govt for others. Also r in regular touch with their families (sic)," the Twitter account of the Indian High Commission in New Zealand said.

New Delhi, Mar 17; PTI/GANASHAKTI: National record holder KT Irfan Sunday became the first Indian from athletics to qualify for the next year's Olympics while finishing fourth in the 20 km event of the Asian Race Walking Championships in Nomi, Japan.

The 29-year-old Irfan clocked 1 hour 20 minutes and 57 seconds to better the Tokyo Olympics qualification standard of 1 hour 21 minutes.

New Delhi, Mar 17 (PTI) The National Green Tribunal has directed six states to submit by April 30 action plans for bringing air quality standards within the prescribed norms, failing which they would be liable to pay environment compensation of Rs 1 crore each.

A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel ordered the chief secretaries of Assam, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Nagaland governments to submit their plan within the stipulated time.

Male, Mar 17 (PTI) India and the Maldives on Sunday discussed measures to strengthen bilateral ties and collaborate in the fields of defence, development cooperation, capacity building and health as External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj held talks with the country's top leadership, including her Maldivian counterpart Abdulla Shahid.

Swaraj arrived here on Sunday on a two-day visit, the first full-fledged bilateral trip from India to the island nation after the government of President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih came to power in November last year.

Khagaria (Bihar), Mar 17 (PTI) A man allegedly hacked to death his 19-year-old daughter for resisting his attempts to molest her in Bihar's Khagaria district on Sunday, the police said.

The father was arrested by the police after the incident at Khajretha village and made an abortive bid to commit suicide, Bharatkhand police outpost officer-in-charge Manoj Kumar said.

He is being treated at a nearby hospital, Kumar said.

Lucknow, Mar 17 (PTI) Sounding the poll bugle from the banks of river Ganga, Congress' in-charge of eastern Uttar Pradesh Priyanka Gandhi Vadra Sunday said political stagnancy had left the youths, women, farmers and labourers distressed in Uttar Pradesh and it was her responsibility to change the politics here.

Gandhi arrived here for the next leg of her UP tour, as part of which she is to sail from Allahabad to Varanasi on river Ganga.

New Delhi, Mar 17 (PTI) A 40-year-old rickshaw puller was arrested Sunday for allegedly raping his minor daughter in West Delhi's Punjabi Bagh area, police said.

According to a senior police officer, the seven-year-old girl of the rickshaw puller told a woman, who was working in an NGO and used to teach her sometimes, that her father raped her.

A case has been registered under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, the officer said.

Kolkata/Bankura, Mar 17 (PTI) The West Bengal CID on Sunday intercepted a truck at Beliator in Bankura district and seized a large amount of explosive material stored inside.

A senior officer of West Bengal police said around 250 packets of gelatin sticks and 229 bags of ammonium nitrate were recovered from the truck that came from Telangana.