Indian Sub-continent

Chandigarh, Aug 7 (PTI) Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh's wife Preneet Kaur fell prey to a cyber fraud, losing Rs 23 lakh to a scamster who duped her through a mobile phone call, posing as a bank manager, said police.

Also a Congress MP from Patiala, Kaur was duped a few days back, said police on Wednesday, adding the scamster, however, has been arrested.

A team of Punjab police arrested the fraudster after tracing his phone call to Ranchi in Jharkhand, said officials .

Jammu, Aug 7 (PTI) National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval on Wednesday undertook a whirlwind visit to the militancy-infested south Kashmir and assured the locals that their security is the government's responsibility.

Doval arrived in Kashmir on Tuesday, a day after the Centre revoked the provisions of Article 370, which gave special autonomous status to Jammu and Kashmir. He is reaching out to the local population in the Valley as a confidence building measure (CMB).

ISLAMABAD, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan on Wednesday informed India to withdraw its high commissioner after the country decided to downgrade diplomatic relations and suspend trade ties with India during a national security committee meeting amid recent Kashmir tensions.

Prior to the expel notification, a Pakistani Foreign Ministry official told Xinhua that the ministry has been told to cancel all the commitments with the Indian embassy.

Lucknow, Aug 7 (PTI) Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday alleged that the vehicle of administration had derailed in Uttar Pradesh.

In a statement issued here, Yadav said, "The vehicle of adminstration has been derailed in Uttar Pradesh. The chief minister may make tall claims, but his control over officials cannot be seen. The law and order situation is poor and health services have crumbled in the state."

New Delhi, Aug 7 (PTI) Pakistan has closed a corridor in its airspace, which will result in an additional up to12 minutes of flying time for overseas flights, an Air India official said on Wednesday.

The flights will have to be diverted to other routes due to the closure, the official said.

"One air corridor has been closed (in Pakistani airspace), requiring a maximum of 12 minutes diversion. It will not affect us (much)," said the Air India spokesperson.

Pauri (UKD), Aug 8 (PTI) A ten-year-old girl from Nepal was raped and killed allegedly by two Nepalese nationals at Kotdwar in the district sparking tension in the area, police said on Thursday.

The partially mutilated body of the girl, who had been missing since Monday evening, was recovered from railway station premises after the perpetrators were arrested and confessed to the crime on Wednesday, Additional Superintendent of Police Pradip Rai said.

JAMMU, India (AP) — Hit by a complete security lockdown in Kashmir, hundreds of poor migrant workers have begun fleeing the Himalayan region to return to their far-away villages in northern and eastern India.

Some complained on Wednesday that their Kashmiri employers didn’t pay them any salary as security forces began imposing tight travel restrictions over the weekend and asked them to leave their jobs.

Kanpur: As many as six students from a prestigious educational institution at Kidwai Nagar area were reported to be missing after the school was over in the afternoon on Wednesday.

The guardians were perplexed, disturbed and clueless. The school management was also in a fix. The police were informed about the incident. The CCTV footage was closely studied. The missing students were seen going out of the school gate at 1:53 p.m. The police made alert at nearby police stations. Police denied it a case of suicide.

New Delhi, Aug 6 : A petition was filed in the Supreme Court Tuesday challenging the Presidential order on Article 370 which revokes the special status given to Jammu and Kashmir.

The plea has been filed by advocate M L Sharma who claimed that the Presidential order was "illegal" as it was passed without taking consent from the state assembly.

Sharma is likely to mention his plea for urgent listing before the apex court on Wednesday.

New Delhi, Aug 6 (PTI) A Hindu body on Tuesday strongly pitched in the Supreme Court for control and management of the entire disputed 2.77 acre land in the politically and religiously sensitive case of Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute at Ayodhya.

Nirmohi Aakhara, one of the leading parties in the case, asserted its claim over the disputed site where the medieval structure was demolished on December 6, 1992, and said that Muslims have not been allowed to enter the place since 1934.