Indian Sub-continent

New Delhi, Aug 10 (PTI) As the Congress Working Committee began consultations on Saturday to find its next president, UPA chief Sonia Gandhi and outgoing party head Rahul Gandhi left the meeting midway, saying they couldn't be part of the process.

"We cannot be part of this process," Sonia Gandhi said after she recused herself from the deliberations.

Rahul Gandhi left soon after, saying he would be visiting his parliamentary constituency Wayanad in Kerala, which is currently ravaged by heavy rains.

New Delhi, Aug 10 (PTI) The Centre signed on Saturday a pact with an insurgent group of Tripura under which it has agreed to lay down arms and join the mainstream.

According to a Home Ministry statement, the tripartite Memorandum of Settlement (MoS) was signed here by the governments of India and Tripura, and the National Liberation Front of Twipra led by Sabir Kumar Debbarma (NLFT-SD).

The NLFT-SD has agreed to abjure the path of violence, join the mainstream and abide by the Constitution of India, it said.

Thane, Aug 10 (PTI) A special court here has awarded 10 years of rigorous imprisonment to a 35-year-old van driver for raping two girls, whom he used to drop at a local school.

Special POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act) court judge S P Gondhalekar convicted Tulshiram Manere and awarded the sentence to him on Friday.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs 28,000 on the convict.

New Delhi, Aug 9; GANASHAKTI - Students and professionals hailing from Jammu and Kashmir staged a demonstration in the city on Friday to protest against the scrapping of Article 370 and asked the Centre to lift the restrictions in the state.

The protesters, residing in various cities of Delhi-NCR, covered their mouths with black ribbons and carried placards during the protest at Jantar Mantar Road.

Dozens of students from Delhi University, Jamia Millia Islamia, JNU and other educational institutions in Delhi as well professionals took part in the protest.

Kochi, Aug 8; GANASHAKTI: Flight operations at the international airport here have been suspended till Friday morning as floodwaters inundated the apron area (parking area), authorities said.

Earlier on Thursday, flight operations were suspended for four hours till midnight as a precautionary measure in view of heavy rains.

"As the apron area is waterlogged due to the flood, all aircraft operations (have been) suspended at Kochi airport till 9 am on August 9," a statement issued on Thursday by the Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL) said.

Mumbai, Aug 9 (PTI) The country's foreign exchange reserves declined by USD 697.2 million to USD 428.952 billion in the week to August 2, due to fall in foreign currency assets, the latest weekly RBI data showed.

In the previous reporting week, the reserves had declined by USD 727.1 million to USD 429.649 billion.

The reserves had touched a life-time high of USD 430.376 billion in the week to July 19, 2019.

New Delhi, Aug 9 (PTI) A Mumbai-based delivery boy was arrested for allegedly sending threat mails to senior political party leaders, including Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the police said on Friday.

According to tweets shared by the official handle of Delhi's Deputy Commissioner of Police, Cyber Crime Cell, the 28-year-old delivery boy Abhisekh Tiwari "gave life threats" to Kejriwal. Tiwari was arrested from Nala Sopara in Mumbai on Thursday.

Pune, Aug 9 (PTI) Over 2.85 lakh people have been evacuated due to the devastating floods in Western Maharashtra's five districts including the worst-hit Kolhapur and Sangli, with the death toll reaching 29 on Friday.

The region is being pummeled by rain over the last few days, and major rivers including the Krishna and Panchaganga are in spate.

Divisional commissioner Dr Deepak Mhaisekar said flood waters had begun to recede in Kolhapur and Sangli. "In Kolhapur, the water level has decreased by two feet and in Sangli it has decreased by 3 inches," he said.

Srinagar/Jammu, Aug 9 (PTI) After being confined to their homes for days, people in Kashmir offered Friday prayers in their local mosques as restrictions were eased for the purpose, officials said, adding the Valley was largely peaceful barring minor incidents of stone pelting in the apple-town of Sopore in north Kashmir.

Srinagar, Aug 9 (PTI) As the authorities eased restrictions in Kashmir on Friday, some cattle traders appeared on the roads here to sell their sheep and goat for Eid, but there were few takers.

Despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi's assurance that the government is making all sincere efforts to ensure that the people in the region have no difficulties in celebrating Eid-ul-Azha, which is on Monday, sale of sacrificial animals is unimpressive in view of heavy security deployment.