Indian Sub-continent

Bengaluru, Feb 7 (PTI) The 'hijab' (scarf) row in Karnataka intensified on Monday with some students seeking to defy the government order mandating uniform style of clothes as Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai issued an appeal to maintain peace.

At a college at Kundapur in Udupi district of the State, the principal talked to girl students wearing hijabs and explained the government order to them. But the students insisted on wearing the headscarves, and were asked to go to a separate room arranged for them.

Patna, Feb 7 (PTI) The Nitish Kumar government in Bihar came under fresh attack on Monday from state BJP president Sanjay Jaiswal whose party seems annoyed with junior ally JD(U)'s shrill demands for special assistance from the Centre.

Jaiswal, who is also the Lok Sabha member from Pashchim Champaran, came out with a lengthy Facebook post asserting that Bihar was already getting more central help than states like Maharashtra and West Bengal, which were almost of the same demographic size.

Jaipur, Feb 7 (PTI) Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Monday announced the cancellation of Level-2 examination of Rajasthan Eligibility Examination for Teachers-2021 (REET) amid accusations of largescale irregularities.

He also announced to reconduct the exam for 62,000 posts instead of exisiting 32,000 posts. First, eligibility examination will be conducted and then a final examination will be held, the chief minister said.

Rewa, Feb 8 (PTI) A man and two minor boys allegedly raped a 17-year-old tribal girl and bit her face after abducting her at a village in Madhya Pradesh's Rewa district, police said on Tuesday.

The incident took place on Sunday night under Hanumana police station area, about 80 km from the district headquarters, but it was reported to police on Monday, Additional Superintendent of Police Shivkumar Verma told reporters.

New Delhi, Feb 8 (PTI) The Supreme Court Tuesday refused to grant interim bail to Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan for campaigning in the UP assembly polls.

A bench comprising Justices L Nageswara Rao and B R Gavai, however, granted liberty to Khan to approach the concerned court and request for expeditious disposal of bail pleas.

How can you file 32 petitions to seek bail? Don't bring politics in court, the bench observed.

New Delhi, Feb 8 (PTI) The Special Cell of the Delhi Police has busted a fake visa racket and arrested six people, officials said on Tuesday.

Equipments used for preparation of fake visas of different countries, especially European nations, were also recovered, they said.

A total of 225 passports and large number of fake visa stickers were recovered, police said.

Lucknow, Feb 8 (PTI) The BJP has developed its poll narratives around Hindutva and development in the battle for Uttar Pradesh and the Samajwadi Party on welfare schemes based on socialism, but the core of their poll strategies appears to be caste arithmetic and communal faultlines.

ISLAMABAD, Feb 7 (APP): Advisor to Prime Minister on China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Khalid Mansoor said here Monday that the phase-2 of the corridor involved multi-billion dollar investments in Pakistan as most of Chinese companies had shown their interest to investment in country.

Addressing a press conference, he said that during his two-day historic visit to China, Prime Minister Imran Khan held around 20 back-to-back meetings with representatives of around 500 companies to help bring investment into the country.

KARACHI, Feb 07 (APP): State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Governor Dr Reza Baqir has expressed his gratitude to Pakistani diaspora in Saudi Arabia for their tremendous support to SBP’s Roshan Digital Account initiative.

SRINAGAR, Feb 7 (Reuters) - An Indian court on Monday gave a Kashmir freelance journalist two days to appear before it over a police complaint that he had acted against the public interest by sharing information on social media about a militant attack on a policeman.

The complaint against Gowhar Nazir Geelani comes days after the editor of web portal Kashmir Walla, Fahad Shah, was arrested for uploading on social media "anti-national content to provoke the public to disturb law and order".