Indian Sub-continent

NEW DELHI, May 18 (Reuters) - India is looking to domestic firms and eastern European nations for military gear and ammunition, as the world's biggest buyer of Russian arms seeks alternative suppliers at a time when Moscow is fighting a war with Ukraine and facing sanctions.

New Delhi has long talked of diversifying the suppliers to its huge armed forces, and even making more equipment at home, objectives that have taken on new urgency since Russia's invasion, two government officials and a defence source said.

NEW DELHI, May 18 (Reuters) - India's Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the release of A.G. Perarivalan, who was convicted of involvement in the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991.

Gandhi was killed by an ethnic Tamil suicide bomber while campaigning in an election in the southern Indian town of Sriperumbudur in May 1991. His killing was seen as an act of retaliation after he sent Indian peacekeepers to Sri Lanka in 1987.

Perarivalan was convicted in 1991 of purchasing the batteries used to detonate the bomb that killed Gandhi.

ISLAMABAD, May 18 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Wednesday kicked off a fresh nationwide anti-polio campaign after three new cases of the crippling disease were reported in the country.

"We have launched a new anti-polio campaign with a renewed zeal and focus ... A polio-free Pakistan is our national goal," the prime minister said on Twitter.

Millions of children up to the age of five would be given polio drops by health workers across the country as part of the door-to-door vaccination campaign.

Colombo, May 18 (PTI) Sri Lanka has received USD 160 Million from the World Bank and is looking at the possibility of using some of it to buy fuel, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told Parliament on Wednesday, as protests continued in the country against the ongoing fuel and gas shortages caused by the economic crisis.

"160 million dollars has been received from the World Bank and a grant from the ADB (Asian Development Bank) is also expected," Wickremesinghe said.

He said the money received from the World Bank cannot be used to buy fuel.

Balasore (Odisha)/New Delhi May 18 (PTI) The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Indian Navy Wednesday successfully conducted the maiden flight-test of indigenously-developed Naval anti-ship missile launched from a Naval helicopter from Integrated Test Range (ITR), Chandipur off the coast of Odisha, DRDO sources said.

The mission met all its objectives. It is the first indigenous air launched anti-ship missile system developed for the Indian Navy, they said.

Mathura (UP), May 17 (PTI) A group of lawyers and law students has filed a plea in a court here demanding that Muslims be restrained from offering prayers at the Shahi Idgah mosque, which they said has been built at the place believed to be the birthplace of Lord Krishna.

Ten separate petitions have earlier been filed in Mathura courts by different Hindu groups seeking the removal of the mosque, which they claimed was built at the birthplace of the deity, within the 13.37-acre premises of the Katra Keshav Dev temple.

New Delhi, May 17 (PTI) The construction work of Ram temple at Ayodhya, a three-storey structure, is proceeding as per schedule, an official statement said on Tuesday.

According to the statement from the Ram temple construction committee Chairman Nripendra Misra's office, the construction of plinth with granite stone, which started in February 2022, is planned for completion by August 2022. About 17,000 stones of size 5ftx2.5ftx3ft will be used in the construction of the plinth.

Ghazipur (UP), May 18 (PTI) A 22-year-old woman was allegedly killed for dowry at a village here, police said on Wednesday.

Chanda's body was found hanging in her room Tuesday morning at her in-laws' Sakra village, they said.

In a police complaint, her father claimed that Chanda's in-laws were demanding a motorbike in dowry, and they allegedly killed and hanged her body.

Mumbai, May 18 (PTI) The rupee on Wednesday declined by 16 paise to close at its fresh lifetime low of 77.60 against the US dollar amid unabated foreign fund outflows and a stronger greenback in overseas markets.

At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee opened lower at 77.57 and later hit the day's low of 77.61 as the dollar rebounded in global markets following hawkish comments from US Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell.

Crude oil prices also surged over 1 per cent, which weighed on the rupee.

Chitrakoot (UP), May 18 (PTI) A 26-year-old woman was allegedly raped by an occultist and her relative here on the pretext of treating her headaches, police said on Wednesday.

The incident took place on the night of May 13 under Mau police station area. One of the accused has been arrested, they said.

Station House Officer (SHO), Mau, Bhaskar Mishra said the woman had gone to the occultist, Rambabu alias Bengali Baba, along with her elder sister and a relative to seek treatment for her headaches.