Indian Sub-continent

Muzaffarnagar (UP), Nov 16 (PTI) A 30-year-old Dalit woman was allegedly gang raped and beaten up by four men at Ahata Gos Garh village in Shamli district here, police said on Saturday.

The incident took place on Thursday when the woman had gone to the fields to relieve herself.

The men dragged her to a sugarcane field and took turns to rape her, they said, adding that the victim was also beaten up when she tried to resist.

New Delhi, Nov 16 (PTI) A 49-year-old woman from New Zealand, who had come to India to get married as per Indian traditions, was found dead in a hotel in Paharganj here on Saturday morning, police said.

The victim has been identified as Tuialli Polly Anne.

According to police, she was a patient of hypertension and had come to India with her boyfriend, who is an Australian national.

Nagpur/Mumbai, Nov 15 (PTI) The first-ever Shiv Sena- NCP-Congress alliance in Maharashtra appears to be taking definitive shape with Sharad Pawar on Friday announcing the prospective government will complete five-year term and provide a development-oriented administration.

The three-party coalition, a new experiment in Maharashtra involving outfits with diverse ideologies, will be led by the Sena, leaders in the Uddhav Thackeray-party and the NCP said, settling the contentious leadership issue that resulted in the unraveling of the saffron alliance.

Kanpur: The denizens appreciate the start of the metro project in the city areas but they also wait for good roads and clean city. Unfortunately, both of these factors appear to be overlooked by our political leaders. They looked too much interested in bringing the metro, an addition for the city commuters. However, at the same time, the people also raise voice for potholed free roads and dengue-free city.

Mirzapur; 16 Nov 2019 (UMM): Prof Kiran Damle of Banaras Hindu University south campus in Mirzapur district has been booked by Police on complaint by RSS for removing the RSS flag from a ‘Shakha’ inside the university campus, and later forced to quit.

She has also been charged by the Uttar Pradesh police of "insulting religious beliefs", after the local RSS unit filed a complaint.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan/KABUL (Reuters) - A plan to swap two Western hostages with three Taliban prisoners has been postponed, an Afghan government official told Reuters on Friday, and Taliban sources said the group had moved the Westerners to a “new and safe place”.

Afghan president Ashraf Ghani said on Tuesday the government would release a leader of the Taliban’s Haqqani militant faction and two other commanders in exchange for two university professors, American Kevin King and Australian Timothy Weeks.

New Delhi, Nov 15 (PTI) Lawyers in all the six district courts in the national capital continued to abstain from work on Friday to protest against the clash between advocates and police at Tis Hazari court early this month.

The proxy counsels appeared in courts to take dates in matters and assist the litigants.

New Delhi, Nov 15 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Friday paved the way for ArcelorMittal takeover of debt-ridden Essar Steel for Rs 42,000 crore and set aside the July 4 NCLAT order giving equal status to financial creditors and operational creditors.

A bench headed by Justice R F Nariman clarified that financial creditors enjoy primacy over operational creditors and the adjudicating authority cannot interfere with the decision approved by the committee of creditors.

United Nations, Nov 15 (PTI) India has pledged to contribute USD 13.5 million for various operational activities of development across the UN agencies for the year 2020.

Counsellor at India's Permanent Mission to the UN Anjani Kumar announced India's pledges at the UN General Assembly Pledging Conference for Development Activities.

New Delhi, Nov 15 (PTI) Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday announced a scheme in which people in unauthorised colonies can get their septic tanks cleaned for free.

There are around 1,700 unauthorised colonies in Delhi and around 430 have sewer lines. In rest of the colonies, people have septic tanks, which they get cleaned by hiring private parties.

Many times people die while cleaning these septic tanks and this is a big step in making Delhi clean and putting an end to sewer deaths, he said.