Indian Sub-continent

Kolkata, Apr 23 (PTI) West Bengal government's 'Utkarsh Bangla' scheme, aiming to create a pool of skilled candidates industry ready, on Tuesday was awarded the prestigious World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) award of the United Nations, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said.

"Out of 1062 nominations in 18 categories from all over the world, #UtkarshBangla emerged No 1 in the Capacity Building category to win this prestigious award of @WSISprocess #wsis2019," she tweeted.

Ghaziabad, April 24 (PTI) Software engineer Sumit Kumar, who allegedly killed his wife and three children here last week, has been arrested from Karnataka, police said Wednesday.

Ghaziabad Police arrested Kumar with the help of Udipi Police on Tuesday night. Three teams were deputed to nab him.

On the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday, Kumar allegedly served sedative-laced drinks to his wife Anshu Bala (32), son Prathimesh (5), daughter Akriti and son Arav (twins aged 4 years) and then slit their throats, police had said.

Mumbai, Apr 24 (PTI) Urmila Matondkar, leading Bollywood actor of the 90s who joined the Congress recently, says she has faced a lot of trolling on social media and personal attacks after her entry into politics, but asserted that she is here to stay.

Matondkar, who is contesting from the Mumbai North Lok Sabha constituency -- a BJP stronghold, said these elections will decide the direction in which the country will go and if democracy will be saved.

Muzaffarnagar (UP), Apr 24 (PTI) A police sub-inspector (SI) in Uttar Pradesh's Shamli district was suspended allegedly for bigamy, a senior official said Wednesday.

The SI, Lavik Tyagi, posted at Thana Bhawan, was suspended Tuesday, the official said.

According to SP Ajay Kumar Pandey, the action was taken after Tyagi's second wife submitted a complaint in this regard.

The SI had married her around five years ago and also has a child from his second marriage, Pandey said.

Asansol, Apr 24 (PTI) If you don't want to be identified as a sympathiser of a particular political party, do what the people of Asansol do. They attend meetings called by every political party, and say it is the surest way to keep away from being aligned to any one of them ahead of polls marred by violence.

Residents are wary of discussing their political preference openly in Asansol, a metropolitan city and important coal-trading centre in West Bengal. They say the atmosphere is not conducive for such a discussion.

New Delhi, Apr 24 (PTI) Disgruntled BJP MP from northwest Delhi Udit Raj joined the Congress on Wednesday, a day after being denied ticket by the saffron party.

Raj joined the Congress after meeting party president Rahul Gandhi here this morning. On Wednesday, Raj tweeted he would not have been "hurt" had the BJP told him earlier that he would not be given a ticket.

KATHMANDU, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Nepali President Bidya Devi Bhandari left for a visit to China on Wednesday to attend the Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation.

During a recent exclusive interview with Xinhua in Kathmandu, the Nepali president said that Nepal is in the final stage of finalizing cooperation projects under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative.

"I believe Nepal's engagement under the BRI framework and participation in this summit will help fulfill Nepali people's longing of development," she said.

COLOMBO, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Investigations by Sri Lankan police have confirmed that nine suicide bombers were involved in Sunday's attacks, eight of whom have been identified, State Defense Minister Ruwan Wijewardene said on Wednesday.

The leader of a local extremist group that carried out the bombings was one of the suicide bombers, the minister told a press conference.

Wijewardene said, so far 60 suspects had been arrested over the explosions and 32 of them had been handed over to the Criminal Investigations Department.

Kanpur: Cubs intact but medical help ahead for survival. All the three cubs of leopard are getting care at Kanpur zoo since its arrival here. However, the Chief Conservator of Forest Sunil Pandey has directed the zoo director to be more careful towards those newly brought cubs. 

The cubs were recovered from interiors of Mordabad district and the forest department officials thought it suitable to keep the little cubs at the famous Allen Forest zoo here. 

MOSCOW, April 23. /TASS/. Sri Lankan Minister of Mass Media and State Minister of Defense Ruwan Wijewardene stated on Tuesday that according to investigators local extremists committed explosions in churches and hotels on the island in response to the mosque attacks in New Zealand’s city of Christchurch in which 50 people were killed. The TV channel News First quoted the minister of mass media on Twitter.