Indian Sub-continent

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan; 13 Jan 2019; AA: Saudi Minister for Petroleum and Energy Khalid Bin Abdul Aziz confirmed that his country will establish an oil refinery in Pakistan's southwestern strategic port city of Gwadar at a cost of $10 billion, local media reported on Sunday.

The agreement is likely to be signed during a proposed visit of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman to Pakistan in February, daily Dawn reported.

Mumbai, Jan 13; PTI: Angry over delay in payments, farmers attacked offices of sugar factories in Satara, Sangli and Kolhapur districts of Maharashtra and set some of them ablaze, police said Sunday.

A group of protesters torched the office of Krishna Sugar Factory at Karad in Satara on Friday, a police official said.

Some important documents, computers and furniture were destroyed in the blaze, he said, adding that offences were registered against unidentified persons by the Karad rural police.

Kolkata, Jan 13; PTU: Gujarat independent MLA and Dalit leader Jignesh Mewani said Sunday that the Centre's move to provide 10 per cent quota to upper caste poor is a step towards realizing the RSS-BJP's agenda to remove caste-based reservations from the system.

President Ram Nath Kovind Saturday gave his assent to the constitutional provision to provide 10-per cent reservation in government jobs and education to economically backward section in the general category. The bill was passed by the Parliament on January 9.

Srinagar, Jan 13 :  Top Al-Badr commander Zeenat-ul-Islam was among the two Kashmiris killed by Indian security forces in Kulgam district of Jammu and Kashmir, police said Sunday.

The two Kashmiris killed in the Katpora encounter have been identified as Zeenat-ul-Islam and Shakeel Ahmad Dar.

According to J&K police, Islam had switched over to Al-Badr from Hizbul Mujahideen in November last year following consensus between the two outfits to strengthen the Al-Badr.

Rameswaram (TN), Jan 13 (PTI) At least 20 Tamil Nadu fishermen were arrested Sunday by the Sri Lankan Navy for fishing off Neduntheevu, sources said.

Eleven fishermen hailing from Pudukottai district and nine from Jegathapattinam were surrounded by the Lankan Navy for fishing in the Lankan waters early Sunday morning and were later taken to Karainagar for an interrogation, they said.

Their boats were impounded and the fishermen were later sent to jail, they added.

Hyderabad, Jan 13 (PTI) Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu Sunday called for return to the Indian traditions of healthy eating and living by giving up "west-oriented lifestyles".

He was speaking during the second anniversary function of the Swarna Bharat Trust's (SBT) branch here.

It was time Indians made changes to their lifestyle and returned to the traditional methods of healthy living, he said.

"We need to follow the customs and practises of our forefathers and abandon west-oriented lifestyles," he said.

New Delhi, Jan 13 (PTI) The government has re-promulgated the ordinance banning the practice of instant triple talaq.

Under the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Ordinance, 2019, issued on Saturday, divorcing through instant triple talaq will be illegal, void and would attract a jail term of three years for the husband.

A Bill to convert the earlier ordinance, issued in September, 2018, was cleared by Lok Sabha in December and was pending in Rajya Sabha.

Hazaribagh (Jharkhand), Jan 13 (PTI) A girl has been raped by a person in a Hazaribagh forest, police said Sunday.

Seeing a girl alone in Hazaribagh on Friday, the person forcibly huddled her into his SUV, took her to a forest in Tati-Jharia area on Hazaribagh-Bagodar road (NH-100) and raped her, they said.

The girl, who came to Hazaribagh from Raj Dhanwar in neighbouring Giridih district to purchase medicine, was waiting for a bus to return home when the incident happened, police said.

Lucknow, Jan 13 (PTI) A day after it was virtually left out being part of an anti-BJP alliance formed by the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party, the Congress on Sunday declared it will contest all the 80 Lok Sabha seats from the state on its own.

However, the grand old party of India has kept the doors of a possible alliance open saying if any secular party which is competent to fight the BJP and willing to go with it (Congress), then it will be accommodated.

New Delhi, Jan 13 (PTI) Amid a row over the removal of CBI director Alok Verma, Congress Sunday sought "immediate removal" of the chief vigilance commissioner, alleging that he had acted like a "puppet" in the hands of the government.

Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi at a press conference at the AICC headquarters here, said, the "CVC (central vigilance commissioner) should be sacked or tender his resignation", but the "CVC must go".

There was no immediate reaction from the Central Vigilance Commission or the government.