Indian Sub-continent

JALALABAD, Afghanistan, Nov 6 (NNN-ANA) – Fifty-five members of the Daesh terror group, surrendered to Taliban rulers in eastern Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province, a Taliban provincial official said yesterday.

“Following efforts by local elders, a total of 55 members of the Daesh group, gave up fighting and surrendered to the provincial department of the General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI), in Nangarhar yesterday,” Mohammad Bashir from the provincial intelligence office, told reporters.

NEW DELHI (AP) — Eleven patients died Saturday after a fire broke out in a hospital’s COVID-19 ward in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, police said.

There were 17 patients in the ward in the city of Ahmednagar where the fire started, said police Inspector Jyoti Karkade. The remaining six patients are in stable condition, she added.

While the fire has been brought under control, the cause was not immediately clear. Officials said they will carry out an investigation.

Chandigarh, Nov 5 (PTI) Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu on Friday said he has withdrawn his resignation as Punjab Congress chief, over a month after he took the decision to step down from the post.

I have taken back my resignation, he said.

Dantewada, Nov 5 (PTI) A naxal carrying a reward of Rs five lakh on his head was killed in an encounter with security forces in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district on Friday, an official said.

The skirmish took place in a forest under Geedam police station area around 4 in the afternoon when a team of District Reserve Guard (DRG) of the police ran into a group of naxals, said Dantewada Superintendent of Police Abhishek Pallava.

New Delhi, Nov 5 (PTI) Billionaire Mukesh Ambani has no plans to relocate or reside in London or anywhere else in the world, his flagship firm Reliance Industries Ltd said on Friday as it sought to scotch speculations over India's richest family dividing time between the UK and Mumbai.

It termed reports of the Ambani family looking to make the 300-acre country club in Buckinghamshire, Stoke Park their primary residence, as "unwarranted and baseless speculation".

New Delhi, Nov 5 (PTI) Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai on Friday alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) instigated people to flout the ban on firecrackers on Diwali by linking it to religion.

The minister said Delhi's air quality deteriorated due to a surge in farm fires and some people bursting firecrackers on purpose.

"A large number of people did not burst firecrackers. I thank them all. But some people burst firecrackers on purpose. I categorically say the BJP instigated them to do it," he told reporters here.

Kanpur: It is yet again 13 fresh Zika virus cases were revealed here on Saturday, according to the ANI.

The total tally of the mosquito-borne disease stands at 79 now as it stepped up surveillance to check its spread, health officials said.

Dr Anil Nigam, CMS, Ursala Hospital said that our team was inspecting regularly. The Municipal corporation teams have also been deployed for the fogging to destroy mosquito breeding points.

So far Zika virus infection has been spreading rapidly in Kanpur. In this case, special caution is required.

NEW DELHI, Nov 5 (NNN-PTI) – India’s COVID-19 tally rose to 34,333,754 today, as 12,729 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours, the federal health ministry’s data showed.

Besides, as many as 221 deaths have been reported since yesterday morning, taking the total death toll to 459,873.

There are still 148,922 active COVID-19 cases in the country, as there was a rise of 343 active cases during the past 24 hours.

NEW DELHI, Nov 5 (NNN-PTI) – Ten people were killed and many others taken ill, after consuming toxic liquor in the eastern Indian state of Bihar, local media reported yesterday.

The casualties were reported from West Champaran and Gopalganj districts, north of Patna, the capital city of Bihar.

“Prima facie, these deaths seem to have occurred, following the consumption of poisonous substances. However, the exact cause of death could only be known after the post mortem report,” a local newspaper, Hindustan Times, quoted a senior police officer, as having said.

Islamabad, IRNA -- Pakistan has lifted COVID-19 travel restrictions from the Islamic Republic of Iran while announcing new conditions for air travel to the country.

National Command Operation Center on Wednesday in a meeting decided to relax coronavirus-related restrictions after the enforcement of obligatory vaccination for inbound travelers.

Accordingly, six countries, including the Islamic Republic of Iran, which was previously on List C of the air travel ban to Pakistan, were removed from the list.