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The Madras High Court on Monday granted the DMK permission to file a defamation suit seeking Rs 1 crore in damages against two Tamil Nadu ministers and the ruling TVK's information technology wing, escalating a bitter political fight over the POCSO case involving granite baron R. Veeramani. Justice K. Govindarajan Thilakavadi allowed an application moved by DMK general secretary Duraimurugan, seeking the court's leave because the TVK IT wing's office and the headquarters of social media companies named in the case fall outside the High Court's territorial jurisdiction. The DMK alleges that ministers Aadhav Arjuna and C.T.R. Nirmal Kumar, along with the party's IT wing, accused the DMK of shielding Veeramani — detained in a case under...

Yemen's Houthi rebels claimed on Monday that they had struck Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport, an Aramco refinery and several other Saudi targets with ballistic missiles and drones, in a sharp escalation of fighting in and around Yemen. Brigadier General Yahya Saree, the Houthis' military spokesman, said in a pre-recorded statement that the attacks also targeted Abha airport, military facilities in Khamis Mushait and other "critical sites" in the cities of Najran and Jizan. The group claimed the strikes were retaliation for about 60 Saudi air and missile strikes across Yemen in the preceding 24 hours. Coalition offensive on the coast The claims came as the Saudi-led coalition announced a military operation against Houthi...

Britain has warned Israel it will expel 27 Israeli diplomats from its embassy in London unless Jerusalem reverses its decision to close the British Consulate General in East Jerusalem, according to a report published on Monday by Israel's Ynet news outlet. The warning, said to have been conveyed by British Ambassador to Israel Simon Walters in a message obtained by Ynet, marks a sharp escalation in an already tense diplomatic standoff between the two countries. London is said to be threatening to remove one Israeli diplomat for each of the 27 British diplomats whose work at the East Jerusalem consulate would be terminated if the closure goes ahead. The closure deadline Israel ordered the consulate to shut by October 8 in retaliation...

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres arrived in Islamabad on Tuesday for a three-day official visit to Pakistan, with his trip expected to centre on Pakistan's mediatory role in the US-Iran conflict and its efforts in the Middle East. Guterres is visiting at the invitation of Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and will stay in Pakistan from October 6 to 8, the Foreign Office said on Monday. He was received on arrival by Acting Foreign Secretary Ambassador Nabeel Munir. Top-level meetings During the visit, the UN chief is scheduled to meet President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar and Chief of Defence Forces and Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim...

Lucknow: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati has once again brought her nephew Akash Anand back into the party fold, re-appointing him as its national convenor. She announced the decision on Monday through a post on X, saying it was taken after careful consideration and in the interest of the party and the wider Bahujan movement. This is the third time in as many years that Anand has been reinstated after a fallout with the party leadership. He was expelled in May 2024 and taken back within a month, removed again in March 2025 and reinstated soon after, and then stripped of his organisational responsibilities this September before being relieved of party duties entirely on September 10. What changed this time According to...

India and the United Arab Emirates on Monday began the third edition of their joint mountain warfare exercise 'Mountain Guardian 2026' at the Foreign Training Node in Chaubatia, Uttarakhand, the latest marker of the two countries' deepening defence partnership. The opening ceremony for the two-week exercise was held on October 5, with the training programme scheduled to run until October 18. It is focused on mountain warfare, joint planning and tactical interoperability between the Indian Army and the UAE Land Forces. 92 troops, women combatants in specialist roles A total of 92 personnel are taking part, with 46 troops from each side. The Indian contingent has been drawn from a Bhairav Battalion, while the UAE contingent comes from...

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will preside over a major milestone for India's indigenous warship-building programme on Tuesday, launching the Indian Navy's first home-grown Fleet Support Ship (FSS-1) into the waters of the Bay of Bengal at Hindustan Shipyard Limited (HSL) in Visakhapatnam. The ship enters the water barely 18 months after its steel-cutting ceremony, a pace officials say signals India's growing ability to build large, complex naval platforms on schedule. The ceremony marks the first step of a programme that will deliver five replenishment vessels to the Navy under a Rs 19,000-crore contract with HSL. What the ceremony includes Alongside the launch of FSS-1, Singh will lay the keel of the fifth ship in the class...

Around 150 MPs and senior leaders of the INDIA opposition alliance will march from Parliament House to the Election Commission in New Delhi on Tuesday, October 6, in a show of strength over the contentious Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and the demand for the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Congress MP Jairam Ramesh said on Monday that MPs of all opposition parties would take part in the march, which will begin from Parliament House after leaders assemble at Makar Dwar at 10.30 AM. The march itself is expected to start at 11 AM and, according to Ramesh, will be carried out peacefully. The protest is part of the INDIA bloc's wider campaign alleging vote theft and irregularities in the...

The Jammu and Kashmir Services Selection Board (JKSSB) has released the admit cards for the Junior Health Inspector and Technician recruitment examinations, with the written tests scheduled for October 6 and 7, 2026. Exams begin today The board will conduct the written examination for the two posts across the Union Territory on October 6 and October 7. Candidates who applied for the Junior Health Inspector and Technician positions can now download their hall tickets from the board's official website. According to the official announcement, candidates need to use their login credentials to access and download the e-admit card. The board has advised candidates to download and print the admit card well in advance to avoid any last-minute...

Turkey and Pakistan will rapidly deploy troops to Saudi Arabia under a newly activated mutual defence pact, the three countries announced on Monday after an emergency meeting of their defence alliance in Riyadh. Pact triggered after Houthi attacks The decision was taken at an emergency meeting of the Strategic Political and Defence Committee of the Mecca alliance on October 5, where representatives of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey noted recent attacks on the kingdom, including ones targeting the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. The announcement was made in a joint statement shared by Pakistan's foreign ministry. The three countries said they would "move immediately to the practical implementation of the collective defence...

President Donald Trump has approved the use of a United States Army firing squad to carry out the execution of convicted Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan, the Pentagon announced on Monday. The decision, disclosed by Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell, removes the last major obstacle to carrying out a death sentence imposed more than a decade ago. Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist, opened fire at Fort Hood in Texas in November 2009, killing 12 US service members and one civilian and wounding 32 others, according to the Pentagon. He was convicted in 2013 of killing 13 people during the shooting at the Texas Army base. The path to execution Hasan's death sentence survived multiple rounds of military and civilian appeals over the years...

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday announced its eight candidates for the upcoming Rajya Sabha biennial elections in Uttar Pradesh, leaving out Union Minister Hardeep Puri and every other outgoing party nominee from the state. The list, cleared by the party's Central Election Committee and issued by BJP National Headquarters in-charge Tarun Chugh, signals a complete reset of the party's Upper House bench from Uttar Pradesh. The eight nominees are Dharampal Singh, Radhakant Ojha, Prakash Pal, Vidyasagar Sonkar, Gopi Krishna Pandey, Priyanka Singh Rawat, Ram Pratap Singh Chauhan and Shruti Gangwar. The social arithmetic The candidate list keeps the party's caste-and-gender balancing act firmly in view. It includes three OBC leaders...

The Odisha government will open online applications for the Habishyali Yojana 2026 on October 6 at 10 AM, kicking off registration for one of the state's most popular welfare schemes for elderly women pilgrims. What the scheme offers Under the scheme, 2,500 selected women will observe the month-long Kartika Brata in Puri with free accommodation, special arrangements for darshan at the Shree Jagannath Temple (Srimandir) and free Abadha Mahaprasad every day. The sacred month of Kartik this year runs from October 26 to November 24, 2026. The district administration has arranged accommodation at three locations in Puri — Brundabati Niwas, the Municipal Kalyan Mandap and the Railway Tourist Complex. Volunteers will assist the...

All trekkers stranded by a violent weekend blizzard on the Tibetan slopes of Mount Everest have been brought to safety, Chinese authorities have confirmed, ending a massive rescue operation in the remote Karma Valley that at one point had nearly 1,000 people trapped in deep snow and freezing temperatures. What happened Heavy snowfall began on Friday evening and intensified across the weekend in the Karma Valley, a little-known route to Everest's eastern Kangshung face at altitudes averaging around 4,200 metres, with campsites at about 4,900 metres. Tents collapsed under the weight of the snow, trails were buried and temperatures plummeted. Hundreds of visitors had flocked to the remote valley during China's eight-day National Day...

Delhi Police have dismantled two suspected fake job-placement call centres operating from a single building in Ranjit Nagar near the Shadipur Metro station, detaining 11 people in connection with an advance-fee recruitment scam that allegedly preyed on unemployed job seekers. How the alleged scam worked According to police, the two syndicates sourced personal details of job seekers from online recruitment platforms and used them to make targeted calls posing as recruiters. Callers dangled attractive employment offers and then demanded registration or processing fees, typically between Rs 1,200 and Rs 3,500, under different pretexts. After collecting the money, the operators allegedly kept in touch with victims for a few days, assuring...

Seven more people — including three serving Army personnel — have been arrested in connection with the sensational theft of military-grade weapons from an armoury in Secunderabad, taking the total number of accused in custody to eight. The arrests were announced by Malkajgiri Police Commissioner B. Sumathi at a press conference on Saturday, October 3. The three serving personnel have been identified as Sepoy Konduri Sheshulu (36) of the 20 Battalion, Madras Regiment; Naik Vinod Kumar (34), a Kote (arms store) employee of the same battalion; and Havildar Kucharakanthi Praveen (37) of the 16 Battalion, Madras Regiment. The heist The case dates to the intervening night of August 30 and 31, when 12 military-grade weapons — four AK-203...

Voters in four states and one Union Territory are casting their ballots on Tuesday in six by-elections that mark the first electoral test since the April 2026 general elections. Polling is being held for five assembly seats and one Lok Sabha seat across West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Assam. Campaigning for the contests ended on Sunday. Why the seats fell vacant All six seats fell vacant after lawmakers elected in the April 2026 polls resigned from their second seats. The most high-profile of these is Nandigram in West Bengal, vacated by Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari after he chose to retain Bhabanipur. The Trinamool Congress has extended its support to Congress candidate Milan Pradhan in the contest. West Bengal's second...

At least 23 people were killed as relentless rain triggered one of the worst landslides in a decade across the Darjeeling and Mirik hills of West Bengal over the weekend, officials said on Monday, warning that the death toll was likely to rise as rescue teams worked through debris at dozens of sites. The landslides, triggered by incessant downpour through the night, swept away homes, buried roads under thick mud and cut off remote villages. Fatalities were reported from Sarsaly, Jasbirgaon, Mirik Basti, Dhar Gaon, Nagrakata and the Mirik Lake area. According to a compilation by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and district administrations, 11 people died in Mirik — the worst-hit zone — seven in the Darjeeling subdivision and...

The Supreme Court on Monday made it clear that it had not approved any modified version of Form 6, the statutory application used by citizens to register as new voters, with Chief Justice of India Surya Kant observing that the court would examine records to find out who had authorised the changes. "Any modified Form 6 has not been approved by us. Let's be clear. When the record is produced, we would like to see who has modified," the Chief Justice observed during a hearing before a bench that also comprised Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana. The observation came while the court was hearing petitions challenging decisions taken by the Election Commission of India during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral...

The Trump administration has warned of a "big week ahead" on foreign labour visas, sharpening the crackdown on the H-1B programme that has kept India's IT industry and hundreds of thousands of visa holders on edge. The warning On Monday, October 5, 2026, US Department of Labor Inspector General Anthony D'Esposito posted on X: "Big week ahead on the foreign labour visa front. We're taking LFG to a whole new level. American jobs. American workers." He tagged the official accounts of the president, Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling, the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud and the Justice Department's National Fraud Enforcement Division. The post named no specific visa programme, employer or...