Indian Sub-continent

New Delhi, Jan 31 (PTI) The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will travel to India for a short working visit whose details were being worked out.

Sources said the visit could be just for a few hours.

MEA Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar, at a media briefing, said, "We have agreed to receive the prime minister of Israel for a short working visit to India. The dates and other details of the visit are still being worked out."

Srinagar, Jan 31 (PTI) Separatists have called for a shutdown in the valley on Sunday to protest the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Jammu and Kashmir.

Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik -- under the banner of joint resistance leadership -- Thursday appealed to people to observe a shutdown in Kashmir on Sunday when the prime minister is scheduled to arrive in the state.

Chandigarh, Jan 31 (PTI) The Punjab government on Thursday said it will provide 1.32 lakh plots of five marla each to homeless people in rural areas.

Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had on January 22 directed all deputy commissioners to launch the scheme after identifying the requisite land for this purpose.

Under the proposal mooted by the Rural Development and Panchayats Department, the chief minister had asked the deputy commissioners to allot at least 10 plots to homeless families in every village, where land is available with the Panchayats.

Hyderabad, Jan 31 (PTI) A 24-year-old woman software engineer was Thursday booked by police here on charge of kidnapping a man, who had allegedly been stalking her, police said.

The man, a carpenter, had allegedly been harassing the woman by sending messages and calling her on her mobile phone for the past several days after being warned not do so, they said.

New Delhi, Jan 31 (PTI) A day before high-powered selection committee is to meet to decide the new CBI chief, the government has appointed four officers in the central agency, officials said Thursday.

In inducting these officers, the government is understood to have also considered the views of CBI interim chief M Nageswara Rao, they said.

Srinagar, Feb 1 (PTI) Two Jaish-e-Mohammad separatists were killed in an encounter with security forces in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district on Friday, police said.

Security forces launched a cordon and search operation in Drabgam area of Pulwama following information about presence of separatists in the area, a police official said.

New Delhi, Feb 1 (PTI) Finance Minister Piyush Goyal Friday said farmers will be provided Rs 6,000 per year in three installments under a scheme to be fully funded by the central government.

Presenting the Interim Budget for 2019-20 in the Lok Sabha, Goyal sought to address some of the distress that the farm sector has been facing.

KANPUR: The banned currency notes were laying in the thick shrubs of the Sanjay Van in Kidwai Nagar area on Thursday. The notes were thrown on the ground in the polythene packets. The daily morning walkers were too surprised to find wads of abandoned banned currency notes while strolling in the gardens.

BJP contestant Krishan Middha has won Jind bypoll by 12,935 votes in the high-stakes election in Haryana.

His total vote tally was 49,229. Trailing BJP was JJP’s Digvijai Chautala with 37,681 votes.

Congress Randeep Singh Surjevala got 21692 votes, and Loktantra Suraksha Party settled with 13,582 votes.

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — An activist says more than 5,000 garment workers demanding wage hikes have been laid off while hundreds of them are facing police charges in the world’s second-largest garment export industry.

Kalpona Akter of the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity said Thursday the firings came after thousands of workers took to the streets earlier this month in and around Dhaka, the nation’s capital.

One worker was killed and more than 50 were injured in clashes.