Indian Sub-continent

Bhopal, Sep 30 (PTI) Congress leaders from Madhya Pradesh would stage a sit-in outside Prime Minister Narendra Modi's official residence in New Delhi on Thursday to demand release of central funds for losses suffered by the state due to heavy rains this monsoon.

The Congress wants that the Centre immediately release Rs 32,171 crore to Madhya Pradesh, party MLA Arif Masood, who would lead the demonstration, told PTI on Monday.

The party would also submit a memorandum of its demands to the prime minister, said Masood, who is an MLA from Bhopal.

Chennai, Sep 30 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said the world has "great expectations" from India, and asserted his government will lead the country to a path of 'greatness' where it will be beneficial to the entire globe.

On his first visit to Tamil Nadu after retaining power in this year's Lok Sabha polls, the Prime Minister reiterated his campaign against single-use plastic.

Hazaribag (Jharkhand), Sep 29 (PTI) A woman constable has alleged that a trainee sub-inspector of police raped her in Hazaribag district, police said on Sunday.

The woman constable alleged that the sub-inspector had physical relationship with her after promising to marry her.

But the SI was no refusing to marry her, she alleged.

New Delhi, Sep 30 (PTI) The commerce ministry on Monday said it has banned exports of electronic cigarettes, e-Hookah and other similar devices.

The notification was issued to comply with the government's ordinance issued on September 18 to ban production, import, distribution and sale of electronic cigarettes.

New Delhi, Sep 30 (PTI) Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has been fielded again from Karnal as the BJP announced on Monday names of its 78 candidates for October 21 assembly polls in Haryana where the saffron party is seeking to retain power.

The party has given tickets to a number of noted sportspersons who had joined it in recent weeks with wrestler Babita Phogat, former Indian hockey captain Sandeep Singh, Olympic medallist Yogeshwar Dutt contesting from Dadri, Pehowa and Baroda respectively, its national general secretary Arun Singh told reporters here.

Patna, Sep 30 (PTI) After being pounded by heavy rain over the weekend, most parts of the Bihar capital remained submerged even as the state-wide death toll mounted to 25

In Patna, there has been a let up in rainfall since morning though the sky is overcast and the IMD has predicted showers later in the day

According to the state disaster management department, six casualties have been reported from Gaya district where five persons were buried alive in a wall collapse while another person was drowned in a river which was in spate because of incessant rains

COLOMBO (Reuters) - A court in Sri Lanka set up a three-judge panel on Monday to hear a petition challenging the citizenship of presidential nominee Gotabaya Rajapaksa, which could disqualify the hardline former defense chief from the Nov. 16 vote if it succeeds.

Rajapaksa is widely seen as the election frontrunner because of his popularity among majority Sinhala Buddhists over his role in ending a 26-year civil war in 2009, ushering in a decade of relative peace until Easter Day bombings that killed 250 people.

ISLAMABAD, Sep 29 (APP): Prime Minister Imran Khan Sunday while advising the nation to ward off pessimism in hard times declared that the whole Pakistani nation would keep standing for the just rights of oppressed eight million Kashmiris who had been bracing the worst kind of inhuman curfew and atrocities in the Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJ&K).

ISLAMABAD, Sep 29 (APP): Chairman Kashmir Committee, Syed Fakhar Imam has said due to effective policy of the Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) government on Kashmir, the international community was now considering Indian narrative wrong that Kashmir was its internal issue on the issue.

Thane, Sep 29 (PTI) Thane Police have nailed a 48- year-old man in connection with the rape of a woman here in Maharashtra on the basis of bite marks on his chest, an official said on Sunday.

The accused, Lakhan Devkar, caught hold of the 50- year-old woman, a resident of Ulhasnagar township, when she was returning home alone on June 23 this year.

He dragged her to secluded place in the area where he raped her, police inspector Balaji Pandhre said.