Indian Sub-continent

New Delhi, Nov 8 (PTI) Close to 50 lakh kilogrammes of firecrackers were burst in Delhi on Diwali despite a Supreme Court directive limiting the bursting of crackers to only two hours, according to a report by a research group.

That is the same amount of firecrackers burst last year.

It equates to 1,50,000 kg of mass of PM2.5 (particles in the air with a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometres).

Reacting to the report by Urban Emissions, Ritwick Dutta, environment lawyer, said the violation is not unexpected.

Bhubaneswar/Guwahati, Nov 8 (PTI) The Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee on Thursday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should apologise to people as the demonetisation move, undertaken "hurriedly and arbitrarily", failed to eliminate black money.

OPCC president Niranjan Patnaik said the announcement to ban high-value currency notes was followed by prolonged cash shortage for weeks, which created significant disruption throughout the economy.

New Delhi, Nov 8 (PTI) A 22-year-old woman was allegedly raped by a property dealer and his associate on the pretext of providing her a job in Anand Vihar area, police said Thursday.

The incident took place on Wednesday afternoon, they added.

In her complaint to police, the woman alleged that the property dealer called her to his associate's office in Anand Vihar on the day of Diwali on the pretext of giving her a job and the duo raped her, a senior police officer said.

Mumbai, Nov 9 (PTI) Megastar Amitabh Bachchan and superstar Aamir Khan's "Thugs of Hindostan" has collected Rs 52.25 crore (nett) on the first day of its release.

The Yash Raj Films project, directed by Vijay Krishna Acharya, made Rs 50.75 (Hindi version) and 1.50 crore coming from Tamil and Telugu dubbed versions.

New Delhi, Nov 9 (PTI) Opposition leader Sharad Yadav Friday accused the BJP of indulging in "drama" of changing names of cities, streets and roads, rather than fulfilling its electoral promises.

He asked the party's government at the Centre and in states to work to fulfil promises made by them before elections.

Uluberia (WB), Nov 9 (PTI) A differently abled 10-year-old minor, who was allegedly raped in Simulia area of Howrah district on Monday, died while being taken to a hospital, police said on Friday.

The deaf and dumb girl was raped inside a toilet near her residence under Shyampur police station on Monday, a police officer said.

However, the incident came to light only on Thursday after her mother noticed that she was behaving differently for the last few days and also experiencing urinary problems, he said.

Jammu, Nov 9 (PTI) A man was arrested on Friday for allegedly raping a woman six months ago in Jammu and Kashmir's Reasi district, officials said.

The police conducted a raid in Gran Goswan village of Reasi district and arrested Prem Singh, the accused, they said.

The accused was absconding for the last six months, they said. A case was registered against Singh.

New Delhi, Nov 9 (PTI) The Election Commission on Friday imposed a near month-long ban on holding exit polls beginning November 12 in the five poll-bound states.

A notification issued by the poll panel said between 7 am of November 12 and 5.30 pm of December 7, "conducting any exit poll and publishing or publicising the result of exit poll by means of the print or electronic media or in any other manner shall be prohibited" .

While Chhattisgarh is going to polls in two phases on November 12 and 20, Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram have elections on November 28.

Abhinandan Pathak looks and speaks like PM Narendra Modi. He starts his speech with ‘Mitro’ and says “achche din nahin ayenge”.

Abhinandan Pathak, vice-president of BJP-led NDA constituent Republican Party of India (Athawale) in Uttar Pradesh, has left his party and joined the Congress.

Raipur, Nov 8 (PTI) Four civilians and a CISF jawan were killed when suspected Naxals detonated a bus with an improvised explosive device (IED) in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district on Thursday, four days ahead of the first phase of elections in the state, police said.

Two personnel of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) were also injured in the explosion, the third Naxal attack in 15 days in the poll-bound state.