9 Nov 2018; AFP: Sri Lanka's President Maithripala Sirisena on Friday dissolved parliament and called a snap election after failing to gain enough support for his nominee for prime minister, deepening the island's political crisis with a gamble deemed illegal by the ousted premier's party.

Sirisena sparked the two week-old drama last month by sacking Ranil Wickremesinghe as prime minister and naming Mahinda Rajapakse -- the country's authoritarian president from 2005 until 2015 -- as his replacement.

Muzaffarnagar (UP), Nov 8 (PTI) Three persons were arrested for allegedly stabbing a Dalit youth to death and dumping his body in a field in Nawla village here on Thursday, police said.

Mohan Kumar (20) was murdered over an old enmity. A case has been registered against four persons -- Rahul, Jagpal, Saurabh and Kallu -- based on the FIR lodged by the deceased's brother, said Circle Officer Rajeev Kumar Singh.

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.

9 Nov 2018; DW: Germany's health minister has called for people without children to pay significantly more into the pension scheme. But others in the government have dismissed the idea as an attempt to punish childless residents.

Childless people should be paying much more towards care and pension insurance than those who have started a family, German Health Minister Jens Spahn said Friday.

In a guest commentary for the daily Südwest Presse newspaper, Spahn appealed for a fundamental rethink of the system, describing it as a question of fairness.

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) 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.

BRUSSELS; 9 Nov 2018; AA: The European Commission said Friday they are discussing a joint stance for Saudi Arabia following the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

“In any case, the member states are in contact with one another,” commission spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic said, in a daily press briefing in Brussels.

She added that the joint stance would be taken once the results of the investigation into Khashoggi's murder are revealed.

Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post, went missing after entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.

New Delhi, Nov 9 (PTI) IT firm Wipro Friday said its acquired entity, Appirio, has set up a new office in Porto, Portugal to expand its European operations and meet the growing business requirements of the region.

Appirio -- a global services company that helps clients create next-generation worker and customer experiences using cloud technologies -- has offices in Amsterdam, Dublin, London, Paris and Stockholm presently.

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) 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.

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.

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.