Indian Sub-continent

Islamabad, Oct 2 (PTI) Pakistan has slashed the Chinese investment in railways by USD 2 billion citing a huge burden of loans, giving credence to reports that the new government led by Prime Minister Imran Khan may scrutinise the multi-billion dollar CPEC, a media report said Tuesday.

Railways Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad said that the share of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in the railways has been reduced from USD 8.2 billion to USD 6.2 billion.

Kolkata, Oct 2 (PTI) Five people, including a woman and a child, were injured in an explosion in front of a multi-storey building in the Nagerbazar area in Kolkata's northern suburbs on Tuesday, police said.

The explosion was reported outside a fruit shop on the ground floor of the building in the congested Kazipara area under the jurisdiction of Dum Dum Police Station around 9 am, a police officer said.

The injured have been rushed to the state-run R G Kar Medical College and Hospital, he said.

Ghaziabad, Oct 2 (PTI) Thousands of farmers Tuesday marched towards Delhi over demands ranging from farm loan waiver to cut in fuel prices, blocking traffic movement on arterial roads leading to the national capital.

National Highways leading to the national capital were swamped with farmers who came in from places as far as Gonda, Basti and Gorakhpur in eastern Uttar Pradesh as well as the sugarcane belt of western Uttar Pradesh.

New Delhi, Oct 2 (PTI) Farmers marching towards Delhi as part of the Bharatiya Kisan Union's (BKU) protest call over demands ranging from farm loan waiver to cut in fuel prices,

were stopped at the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border Tuesday with police using water cannons to disperse them.

The farmers, riding tractors and trolleys, broke barricades of the UP Police and then started proceeding towards the barricades put up by the Delhi Police, a senior police officer said.

A girl was tricked for a job offer then gang raped by three men. According to FIR lodged with Shekhu Nagar police station, a Mahoba woman called the girl from Kanpur for a job opportunity. Woman asked the girl to stay at her house and promised to organise a job for her next morning.

On Sunday evening, woman left the house telling the girl that she is going to bring some food, leaving her behind with three men, Raghu, Akash and Dhirendra.

Charges have been laid against Self-styled godman Daati Maharaj for raping his 25 year old disciple.

Woman said that she was a disciple of Daati Maharaj for a decade, but returned to her native place in Rajasthan after being raped raped by him and two of his disciples.

According to The Indian Express, “a female disciple of the godman used to force her into his room and if she refused, would tell her that other disciples slept with him as well’’.

The Delhi High Court has ended the house arrest of Gautam Navlakha saying his detention had exceeded 24 hours which is “untenable”. Gautam Navlakha, was one of the five rights activists under house arrest in the Bhima Koregaon case.

Supreme Court also said the accused could seek legal recourse in an appropriate court.

MALE, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) -- A Maldivian court on Monday granted bail to former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom who was found guilty of obstructing justice and sentenced to 19 months in prison in June, local media reported.

The Maldives High Court granted Gayoom bail at 60,000 Maldivian rufiyaa (3,891 U.S. dollars) and granted him bail until the court reaches a verdict on the appeal filed by Gayoom's lawyers.

Gayoom is also awaiting trial on charges of trying to bribe officials to topple the government of President Abdulla Yameen in February.

New Delhi, Sep 30 (PTI) Chief Justice of India-designate Ranjan Gogoi has said he has a plan to deal with the pendency of cases which has been bringing in a lot of "disrepute" to the judicial system.

Justice Gogoi, who will take over as the 46th CJI on October 3, said Saturday he has a plan to deal with the backlog of cases and he will "unfold" it soon.

He was speaking at an event 'Role of Bar and Bench in Social Engineering,' organised by the Youth Bar Association of India.

Mumbai, Oct 1 (PTI): The Reserve Bank is likely to increase the repo rate by 25 basis points in the upcoming monetary policy review as inflation is expected to accelerate further due to higher crude prices and the weakness in rupee.

The monetary policy committee will start its three- day meeting from October 3 to decide on the fourth bi-monthly monetary policy.

After two successive hikes, the repo rate currently stands at 6.50 per cent.