Bhopal, Dec 29 (PTI) The Congress-led Madhya Pradesh Government said Saturday that it is going to create an Adhyatmik Vibhag (spiritual department) by merging several existing departments.

The Congress had promised to form such a department before the last month's Assembly elections.

The `Anand Vibhag' (Department of Happiness) set up by the previous BJP government, a first in the country, would be incorporated into the new department.

New Delhi, Dec 29 (PTI) Four women employees of a shelter home in Delhi, where girls were allegedly abused by its staff, were arrested on Saturday, police said.

During an inspection of the private shelter home in Dwarka on Thursday, the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) found that girls were severely punished by the staff for not following rules. Some teenage girls alleged that the female staff put chilli powder in their private parts as punishment. They were also forced to have chilli powder, the DCW had said.

KANPUR: A case of deception has come to light at the Hallet Hospital here on Saturday.

One Eshu became the victim of this fraud at the hands of the swindlers roaming in and around the hospital. Disturbed with his mother’s illness he consulted Dr Ranjeet Nigam of the Medicine Department at the hospital. The doctor advised him to admit his mother. Certain medical tests were also asked to complete.

29 Dec 2018; DW: Scholar Allan Lichtman defied mainstream wisdom by forecasting early on that Donald Trump would win the 2016 presidential election. In an interview with DW, he now predicts that the president will be impeached next year. The US president's basic conduct and politics are unlikely to change in 2019, but the new Democrat-controlled House of Reps, coupled with the Russia investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller, will lead to the impeachment of Donald Trump, predicts Lichtman.

29 Dec 2018; DW: Sarah McIver, held in China over a work permit issue, has been released. Her case is unrelated to the detention of two other Canadians, who some believe were held in retaliation for the arrest of a top Huawei executive.

The Canadian government has confirmed that China has freed Sarah McIver, a Canadian teacher who was detained earlier this month over issues with her work permit.

Richard Walker, a spokesman for Global Affairs Canada, said Friday that McIver "was released and has now returned to Canada."

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Yemen’s Shiite rebels on Saturday handed over control of the main port in the Red Sea city of Hodeida to the country’s navy and coast guard under U.N. supervision, security officials said, in a significant step in the implementation of a deal reached during peace talks in Sweden earlier this month.

Wall Street capped a week of volatile trading Friday with an uneven finish and the market’s first weekly gain since November.

Losses in technology, energy and industrial stocks outweighed gains in retailers and other consumer-focused companies. Stocks spent much of the day wavering between small gains and losses, ultimately unable to maintain the momentum from a two-day winning streak.

ANKARA, December 29. /TASS/. The Turkish heavy military equipment is being deployed to the border with Syria, Anadolu Agency reported on Saturday.

Convoys with tanks, howitzers and armored vehicles set off from the republic’s western provinces toward the border, the agency reported.

29 Dec 2018; DW: Germany and France have demanded "the immediate and unconditional release" of 24 Ukrainian sailors detained by Russia. But Russia has rejected the calls, describing them as unacceptable.

GAZA, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) -- An Israeli army helicopter attacked early on Saturday morning a military facility that belongs to Islamic Hamas movement's military wing in central Gaza Strip, no injuries reported, medics and security officials said.

Security officials said that the Israeli airstrike on central Gaza Strip was carried out shortly after Gaza militants fired a rocket into southern Israel.

No one claimed responsibility for the rocket attack and no injuries or damages were caused, according to Israeli media reports.

29 Dec 2018; AFP: Egyptian police killed 40 alleged "terrorists" in a crackdown on Saturday after a roadside bomb hit a tour bus claiming the lives of three Vietnamese holidaymakers and an Egyptian guide.

The suspects were killed in separate raids in Giza governorate, home to Egypt's famed pyramids and the scene of Friday's deadly bombing, and in the restive Sinai Peninsula, the interior ministry said.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday threatened to close the southern border amid an ongoing partial government shutdown, resuming his push for the funding of a long-promised U.S.-Mexico border wall.

"We will be forced to close the Southern Border entirely if the Obstructionist Democrats do not give us the money to finish the Wall & also change the ridiculous immigration laws that our Country is saddled with," Trump tweeted Friday morning.