By Lalit K Jha

Washington, Oct 12 (PTI) President Donald Trump has intensified his attack on the US Federal Reserve following this week's plunge in stock prices, saying the central bank is "out of control" in raising interest rates, but ruled out firing its head Jerome Powell.

Trump's remarks on Thursday were the latest in series of recent barrages he has unleashed at the Fed.

The Fed under his hand-picked chairman Powell has been gradually raising rates as the economy has strengthened to prevent a run-up in inflation.

Tiruchirappalli, Oct 12; PTI:  Passengers of a Dubai-bound Air India Express flight had a miraculous escape when their aircraft's wheels hit a perimeter wall during take off here in the early hours of Friday, officials said.

The plane, with 136 passengers and crew members on-board, continued for Dubai and was eventually diverted to Mumbai after Trichy airport officials reported to the pilots that the aircraft might have come in contact with a wall.

Washington, Oct 12 :  A top US envoy on Iran will be visiting India this week for crucial talks ahead of the November 4 deadline set by the Trump administration for countries to bring down their import of Iranian oil to zero.

President Donald Trump in May pulled the US out of the 2015 nuclear accord, saying it had "failed to achieve the fundamental objective of blocking all paths to an Iranian nuclear bomb" and did not deal with Tehran's "malign activities, including its ballistic missile programme and its support for terrorism".

BEIJING, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- China's goods trade rose 9.9 percent year on year to 22.28 trillion yuan (about 3.23 trillion U.S. dollars) in the first nine months of the year, customs data showed Friday.

Exports increased 6.5 percent in the same period to 11.86 trillion yuan while imports grew 14.1 percent to 10.42 trillion yuan, resulting in a trade surplus of 1.44 trillion yuan, which narrowed by 28.3 percent, according to the General Administration of Customs.

Washington, Oct 12; PTI: India's decision to continue buying oil from Iran after November 4 and purchase the S-400 Triumf air defence system from Russia is "not helpful" and the US is reviewing it "very carefully", the State Department has said.

The US is trying to cut off all oil imports from Iran following President Donald Trump's decision in May to pull out of the 2015 multilateral deal that eased global sanctions in exchange for curbs on Iran's suspect nuclear programmes and malign activities.

JAKARTA, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) pledged up to 1 billion U.S. dollars of emergency assistance fund to support Indonesia's immediate budgetary needs and reconstruction efforts in areas affected by earthquakes and tsunami in Central Sulawesi province.

The ADB assistance fund pledge was conveyed in the meeting of ADB President Takehiko Nakao with Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Friday during the annual meeting of International Monetary Fund and the World Bank held in Bali.

KABUL, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- Militancy and counter-militancy have left 39 people dead, mostly the armed opposition fighters, in the conflict-riddled Afghanistan over the past two days, officials said Friday.

In the latest waves of violent incident, 16 people including six security personnel and 10 militants have lost their lives as clash erupted in Dasht-e-Archi district of the northern Kunduz province on Friday, district governor Nasrudin Nazari said.

According to the official, eight more security personnel have been injured in the fighting.

Hisar (Hry), Oct 11 (PTI) Self-styled godman Rampal was Thursday found guilty by a court here in two murder cases.

Additional District and Sessions Judge, Hisar, D R Chaliya, held Rampal and some of his followers guilty in these cases.

The quantum of punishment will be pronounced on October 16 and 17.

Rampal and 27 of his followers were charged with murder and wrongful confinement after four women and a child were found dead in his Satlok Ashram in Barwala town in Hisar on November 19, 2014.

Hyderabad, Oct 11 (PTI) The BJP is trying to convert India into "RSS Raj", AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi alleged Thursday and hit out at Amit Shah, the chief of the saffron party, saying he was "frustrated and lost".

The remark of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief came a day after Shah lashed out at Owaisi, a bitter critic of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and said it was the saffron party alone that could fight people like him and not the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), Telugu Desam Party (TDP) or the Congress.

Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 12 (PTI) Members of the Opposition Congress and BJP in Kerala Friday staged demonstrations to express solidarity with Ayyappa devotees even as the CPI, the key partner in the CPI-M led LDF, said there was an attempt to "politicise" the Supreme Court order on Sabarimala.

The BJP said its protest would not be confined to Kerala and would expand to other South Indian states.

Srinagar, Oct 12 (PTI) Normal life in Kashmir was affected Friday due to a strike called by separatists after the killing of PhD scholar-turned-Hizbul Mujahideen commander Manaan Bashir Wani in an encounter with security forces.

Schools, higher educational institutions and business establishments remained closed due to the strike called by the Joint Resistance Leadership, a separatist amalgam comprising Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Mohammad Yasin Malik, officials said.

Raipur, Oct 12 (PTI) One naxal was gunned down in an encounter with security forces in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh, police said Friday.

The gunbattle took place Thursday evening in a forest under Pusnar police station when a team of District Reserve Guard (DRG) was returning after carrying out an anti-naxal operation, Sukma Superintendent of Police Abhishek Meena told PTI over phone.