Indian Sub-continent

The Kanpur administration has directed the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board to close tanneries and factories situated on the banks of Ganga in Jajmau amidst the upcoming Magh Mela in Prayagraj.

The Control Board's regional office has written letters to the Tannery Associations. It has wanting them to shut the tanneries for two-three days prior to different bathing dates. So that the bathing festivals should be followed in clean water.

In case of closed tanneries the discharge will not be generated inside the tanneries.

ISLAMABAD, Dec 19 (APP): A specially convened meeting of the 57 member states of the OIC Sunday vowed to play a leading role in delivery of humanitarian assistance to the people of war-torn Afghanistan and unanimously agreed on establishing a Humanitarian Trust Fund, launch a Food Security Programme and engage with the World Health Organization for securing vaccines and medical supplies.

ISLAMABAD, Dec 19 (APP): Prime Minister Imran Khan Sunday while highlighting the collapsing hospital systems, education sector and deteriorating humanitarian situation in Afghanistan called for the world to take immediate action as Afghanistan was heading towards chaos.

DHAKA, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has forecasted 6.6 percent GDP growth for Bangladesh in the current fiscal year 2021-2022 (July 2021-June 2022).

The projection came after an IMF staff team, led by Rahul Anand, visited Dhaka from Dec. 5-19.

"Despite being hit by multiple waves of the COVID-19 pandemic, quick and decisive actions by the authorities, supported by the external environment, led to a much quicker rebound than Bangladesh's regional peers," the IMF team said in a statement posted on its website Sunday.

NEW DELHI (AP) — A man was beaten to death in the northern Indian city of Amritsar after he allegedly attempted to commit a sacrilegious act inside the historic Golden Temple, one of Sikhs’ most revered shrines.

The incident occurred during the daily evening prayer on Saturday, media reported, after the man jumped over a railing inside the inner sanctum and attempted to grab a sword that was kept near the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh holy book.

TV footage showed people inside the temple rushing to stop him.

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — The death toll from a sewer gas blast in Pakistan’s largest city of Karachi jumped to 17 as some critically injured people died overnight and Sunday, police said.

Initially, 12 people were reported dead and 11 others injured in Saturday’s gas explosion in a sewage system in the commercial hub of Pakistan Saturday.

Senior police officer Sarfaraz Nawaz Shaikh said the loss of lives and property could be blamed on human errors of construction over the sewer. He said the number of injured also increased to 16.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The economic collapse of Afghanistan, already teetering dangerously on the edge, would have a “horrendous” impact on the region and the world, successive speakers warned Sunday at the start of a one-day summit of foreign ministers from dozens of Islamic countries.

The hastily called meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Islamabad brought together dozens of foreign ministers with the special representatives on Afghanistan of major powers, including China, the U.S. and Russia.

New Delhi, Dec 18(PTI) Delhi government is ready to tackle the Omicron variant of COVID, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Saturday.

He advised people not to panic saying even though the variant was said to spread faster than the previous ones, its symptoms were mild.

He said Delhi might not face another wave of infections, since according to the sero survey conducted by the Delhi government, 96 per cent of the state population was found to have antibodies and a majority of them were vaccinated.

Kolkata, Dec 18 (PTI) The VHP will launch a campaign against religious conversion from December 20 to 31 in the country, its national joint general secretary Surendra Jian sid on Saturday.

Jain, who was speaking to reporters, demanded a law against forced interfaith marriages and for denying benefits due to Dalits and Hindu tribals who convert to other faiths.

He claimed that large-scale conversion had taken place during the outbreak of the COVID pandemic.

Alappuzha, Dec 19 (PTI) Kerala's coastal Alappuzha district was rocked by back-to-back killings of two party leaders, the first belonging to the SDPI and the second to the BJP, leading to clamping of prohibitory order by police on Sunday.

Following the killing of an SDPI state secretary, a BJP leader was hacked to death subsequently in 12 hours and prohibitory order under CrPC section 144 was imposed in the entire Alappuzha district on Sunday, district officials said.