NATIONAL
- An ISIS terrorist, who was arrested with two Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) after a brief shootout, was plotting a “lone wolf attack” in the capital, Delhi Police said.
- IEDs were found in a pressure cooker after an ISIS operative was arrested in Delhi’s Dhaula Kuan area, the Delhi Police Special Cell stated on Saturday.
- An operative of the Islamic State was arrested by Delhi Police after an exchange of fire in the national capital’s Dhaula Kuan area, officials said on Saturday.
- AIIMS Delhi has constituted a five-member medical board of forensic experts to look into Sushant Singh Rajput’s autopsy files. The CBI had approached the hospital for assistance.
- Weekend lockdown has been imposed in Haryana. The weekend lockdown comes after Home Minister Anil Vij’s order issued on Friday. Its effect was seen across the state on Saturday. Markets, shops, malls remained closed.
- Unlock-3 is the 22nd day in the state. Due to increasing corona cases in Haryana, the Haryana government has imposed a two-day lockdown which will be applicable every Saturday and Sunday till further orders.
- India has recorded its biggest one-day rise in coronavirus cases as 69,878 people tested positive in the last 24 hours.
- The Indian Railways on Friday cancelled its global tender issued for manufacturing 44 semi-high speed Vande Bharat train sets, and tweeted, “A fresh tender will be floated within a week as per Revised Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India) order.”
- The Drugs Controller General of India gave approval to Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech to test administering its potential COVID-19 vaccine COVAXIN via the skin, called as intradermal vaccine delivery.
- Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Friday ordered the imposition of Section 144 in the state, amid COVID-19 pandemic.
- In an attempt to help students amid the coronavirus pandemic, a government school teacher from Jammu and Kashmir’s Baramulla district has created a school website and an Android application.
- The Border Security Force (BSF) on Saturday said that five intruders were shot dead along the India-Pakistan border in Punjab’s Tarn Taran.
- Several houses have been damaged after Pakistan violated ceasefire and resorted to heavy shelling in a border village in Kathua district, Jammu and Kashmir.
- former Jharkhand Chief Minister Shibu Soren has tested positive for coronavirus, his son and state Chief Minister Hemant Soren tweeted.
- A 22-year-old woman who was allegedly trafficked from Bengaluru was found in a secret room behind a mirror at a Tamil Nadu lodge after it was raided by police.
- Sikkim Health Minister MK Sharma announced in a Facebook post on Friday that he has tested COVID-19 positive.
- Rajasthan Health Minister Raghu Sharma said that the results of rapid antigen tests are not credible and added that the Centre should not waste money on them.
- Bombay HC said the state government must introduce “a regime of conduct with stricter norms” to address inflammatory social media posts.
INTERNATIONAL
- The WHO hopes the coronavirus crisis can be over in less than two years, the organisation’s chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
- Apple on Wednesday became the first US company and the world’s only second company to hit $2 trillion market cap.
- As he accepted the Democratic nomination for US President, Joe Biden said, “Here and now, I give you my word: if you entrust me with the presidency, I’ll draw on the best of us, not the worst.”
- California Governor Gavin Newsom has said that crews are fighting 560 wildfires across the US state.
- A Chinese mining company said it used a COVID-19 vaccine in a trial on its employees in the Pacific island nation of Papua New Guinea (PNG), The Australian reported. PNG has banned COVID-19 vaccine testing or trials after the company claimed to have vaccinated 48 Chinese employees.
- Harley-Davidson is looking to shut down its assembly operations in India as a result of poor sales in the country, according to reports.
- A Bank of America customer in the US state of Massachusetts found an extra $2.45 billion in his account, on both the web and the mobile app.
- Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said that the 19th Amendment to the country’s Constitution which curtailed the executive powers of the President and transferred it to Parliament and independent commissions will be removed.
- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Friday announced that the country had made its biggest-ever discovery of natural gas in the Black Sea with an estimated reserve of 320 billion cubic metres.
- Iran unveiled a new missile named after Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a US air strike in Baghdad in January.
- China and Pakistan are “good brothers and partners” and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) holds “great importance” in forging closer ties, President Xi Jinping said.
- A 48-year-old Indian man has been arrested in US on charges of conspiracy to commit visa fraud and for inducing foreign nationals to come to the country using fraudulently obtained H-1B visas.
- North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has said plans to improve the national economy have been “seriously delayed” by “severe internal and external situations and unexpected manifold challenges”, state media reported.
- Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, has now become the country’s de facto second-in-command, South Korea’s spy agency said.
- India, Japan and Australia have reportedly begun talks to build a trilateral ‘Supply Chain Resilience Initiative’ (SCRI) to reduce dependence on China.
