Indian Sub-continent

Jakarta, Mar 25; PTI/GANASHAKTI: Bali's airport has returned to normal operations after some flights were cancelled on Friday night following an eruption of the Mount Agung volcano that spread ash over the south of the Indonesian island.

The national disaster agency said the eruption lasted 4 minutes and 30 seconds and spread lava and incandescent rocks about 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) from the crater.

Seoni/Bhopal, May 25; PTI/GANASHAKTI: Suspected cow vigilantes thrashed two persons in Madhya Pradesh's Seoni with sticks, accusing them of carrying beef, following which five accused have been arrested, police said Saturday.

The group of five 'gau rakshaks' also allegedly forced one of the victims to beat up a woman accompanying them with chappals, a police officer said.

Police said that the three persons who were beaten up were arrested on May 22 as possession, transportation or sale of beef is illegal in Madhya Pradesh.

Kolkata, May 25; PTI/GANASHAKTI: Violent incidents were reported from across West Bengal on Saturday in which one person died and many were injured, officials said, as a face-off brewed between the ruling Trinamool Congress and a surging BJP after the Lok Sabha results were declared.

TMC alleged that a number of its party offices have either been taken over or vandalised by BJP workers.

New Delhi, May 24 (PTI) Litigants and advocates will now be able to file their cases anytime from anywhere as the district court at Tis Hazari Courts Complex launched an e-filing facility Friday for arbitration matters.

A new homepage for the court's website and a new software for its mediation centre was also launched.

The new e-filing feature would help lawyers or litigants to file cases online and keep a track of the already filed ones. The arbitration cases can be filed online at anytime at the web portal www.efiling-dl.ecourts.gov.in.

Surat, May 25 (PTI) The toll in the devastating fire that engulfed a commercial complex in Surat's Sarthana area has gone up to 22 with two more students succumbing to burn injuries, a senior police official said Saturday.

Surat police spokesperson and assistant commissioner of police P L Chaudhari on Saturday identified the two deceased students, both teenagers, as Karnavi Sitapara and Dhruvi Ribadiya.

Both were undergoing treatment in separate hospitals, he added.

Thiruvananthapuram, May 25 (PTI) Coming out in support of the AICC chief, Congress leaders in Kerala said there was no need for Rahul Gandhi to resign in the wake of the party's poll debacle.

Gandhi had offered to resign as the Congress received a severe drubbing in the Lok Sabha polls.

The Congress party had faced similar defeats earlier also and has bounced back, Opposition leader in the state ssembly Ramesh Chennithala told reporters here.

New Delhi, May 25 (PTI) President Ram Nath Kovind Saturday dissolved the 16th Lok Sabha with immediate effect on recommendation of the Union cabinet, the Rashtrapati Bhavan said in a statement.

A communique issued by the Rashtrapati Bhavan said the President dissolved the Lok Sabha after a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi made such a recommendation Friday.

"The President has accepted the advice of the Cabinet on 24.05.2019 and signed the Order dissolving the 16th Lok Sabha," it said.

Hyderabad, May 25 (PTI) The Governor of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana E S L Narasimhan Saturday invited YSR Congress president Y S Jagan mohan Reddy to form the government in AP.

The swearing-in ceremony would be held at Indira Gandhi Municipal Corporation stadium, Vijayawada on May 30 at 12.23 PM, a Raj Bhavan communique said here.

It said Botcha Satyanarayana and other YSR Congress elected members of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly called on the Governor and informed him about the election of Reddy as the leader of the YSR Congress Legislature Party.

Mumbai, May 25 (PTI) NCP president Sharad Pawar said Saturday that the drought situation in Maharashtra was very serious.

Addressing a gathering in Satara district, Pawar said he would try his best to ensure that the government provided maximum assistance to drought-hit areas.

Last October, the Maharashtra government announced drought in over 150 of 358 tehsils in the state following a bad monsoon.

Pune, May 25 (PTI) A lawyer representing some of the accused in the Narendra Dabholkar murder case was Saturday arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation, an official said.

Advocate Sanjeev Punalekar and a Sanatan Sanstha member identified as Vikram Bhave were held from Mumbai and will be produced in a Pune court on Sunday, the CBI official said.

He said preliminary probe had revealed that Punalekar was known to one of the shooters of Dabholkar.