Indian Sub-continent

NEW DELHI, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- India's Minister of State for Science and Technology Jitendra Singh on Thursday announced the launch of the country's first indigenously developed vaccine "Cervavac" for the prevention of cervical cancer.

The vaccine has been jointly developed by the Serum Institute of India, located in Pune city in the southern western state of Maharashtra, and the Department of Biotechnology under the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — The International Monetary Fund announced Thursday it has reached a preliminary agreement to provide Sri Lanka with $2.9 billion over four years to help it recover from its worst economic crisis.

The arrangement will help restore financial and macroeconomic stability and debt sustainability as well as enable the country’s growth potential, an IMF team visiting Sri Lanka said in a statement.

NEW DELHI, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- India's gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 13.5 percent during the April-June quarter, showed the official data released by the country's National Statistical Office on Wednesday.

April to June is the first quarter of India's financial year, which begins in April and ends in March of the following year.

The country's central bank, the Reserve Bank of India, had forecast the growth rate to be around 16.2 percent during the quarter.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Officials in Pakistan raised concern Wednesday over the spread of waterborne diseases among thousands of flood victims as waters from powerful monsoon rains began to recede in many parts of the country.

Some doctors said initially they were seeing mostly patients traumatized by the flooding, but are now treating people suffering from diarrhea, skin infections and other waterborne ailments in the country’s flood-hit areas. Many pregnant women living in flood-affected areas were also exposed to risks.

Kanpur: Three unknown miscreants entered a house and looted a couple at gunpoint in district's Mardanpur village. The thieves also stole gold jewellery & Rs 45,000 cash from the house.

On Monday night, the thieves entered the house of a grocery trader named Amit Sahu. On account of the ongoing construction on the first floor, Amit, wife Lalita and their son were sleeping on the ground floor.

COLOMBO, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- The Sri Lankan government has decided to establish a State-Owned Enterprise Restructuring Unit to help with the restructuring of state-owned enterprises, President Ranil Wickremesinghe said on Tuesday while presenting the Interim Budget 2022 in the parliament.

Wickremesinghe said about 556,000 U.S. dollars have been allocated to implement the unit establishment proposal.

KABUL, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- Afghanistan received another fresh batch of 40 million U.S. dollars in cash as humanitarian aid late on Monday, the country's central bank, Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB), said in a statement released here Tuesday.

"As part of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, 40 million U.S. dollars in cash arrived in Kabul yesterday (Aug. 29) and was transferred to one of the country's commercial banks," DAB said in the statement.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The United Nations and Pakistan issued an appeal Tuesday for $160 million in emergency funding to help millions affected by record-breaking floods that have killed more than 1,160 people since mid-June.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Pakistan’s flooding, caused by weeks of unprecedented monsoon rains, were a signal to the world to step up action against climate change.

New Delhi, Aug 29 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Monday directed Jitendra Narayan Tyagi, an accused in the Haridwar Dharma Sansad case related to alleged inflammatory speeches made against Muslims, to surrender by September 2.

Tyagi, formerly known as Wasim Rizvi, is currently out on medical bail.

New Delhi, Aug 30 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Tuesday dropped a contempt case against activist-lawyer Prashant Bhushan and journalist Tarun Tejpal filed in 2009 over their remarks against the judiciary.

A bench of Justices Indira Banerjee, Surya Kant and M M Sundresh closed the proceedings after senior advocate Kapil Sibal informed that an apology has been tendered.