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Security forces killed a senior Lashkar-e-Taiba commander in an encounter in Jammu and Kashmir's Budgam district on Wednesday morning, officials said, in a joint operation launched on specific intelligence about terrorist presence in the area. The operation was carried out in the Yousmarg–Korag area by a joint team of the Indian Army, the Jammu and Kashmir Police and the CRPF. According to the Army, troops challenged suspicious movement in the area, after which the terrorists opened fire, triggering an exchange of fire in which one terrorist was neutralised. Who was killed Officials identified the slain terrorist as Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Fauzi Musa, also reported as Sulaiman Shah alias Musa. He had been wanted in connection with...

The Indian Coast Guard, in a joint operation with the Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad, has seized 526 kg of methamphetamine and heroin valued at more than Rs 3,000 crore from an Iranian dhow in the Arabian Sea, officials said on Wednesday. Five Pakistani nationals operating the vessel were detained in the operation, which was carried out near Lakshadweep on September 25, the Coast Guard said in a statement. Acting on intelligence inputs, Coast Guard assets carried out sea-air surveillance and tracked the suspicious dhow before launching a hot pursuit and boarding it west of Lakshadweep. The seized contraband comprised high-grade methamphetamine and heroin. The vessel, its crew and the seized drugs were brought to Mumbai under armed...

The Supreme Court on Tuesday set aside the preventive detention of Mulla Afroz, an accused in the November 2024 Sambhal violence case, holding that the Uttar Pradesh government had illegally kept him under the National Security Act (NSA) for nearly a year after he had secured bail in the criminal cases against him. A bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Sheel Nagu imposed a cost of Rs 10 lakh on the state government, payable to Afroz, and reminded the state to "remain faithful" to the jurisprudence of preventive detention rather than using it as a punitive measure. The detention order had been passed on October 13 last year. The court noted that the state failed to give a satisfactory explanation for the order and that there were...

Title: Breaking: Russian Glide Bombs Strike School and Homes in Ukraine's Sumy; Casualties Reported Russian glide bombs struck homes and a school in the northern Ukrainian city of Sumy on Tuesday, leaving people dead and injured in what President Volodymyr Zelenskiy described as a strike on an ordinary school where children were present at the time, according to officials cited by Reuters. One bomb struck a house, killing a woman, while a second hit the school, Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address. "An ordinary school, where children happened to be at the time," he said. "The building sustained considerable damage, but the children and teachers were in a shelter, and fortunately, thanks to that, no one was hurt at the school."...

Title: INDIA Bloc Meets in Delhi Today Over SIR Voter-Deletion Row; DMK, TVK and AAP Stay Away The INDIA Bloc's top leadership is convening in New Delhi on Wednesday, September 30, to plan a united response to the Election Commission of India over the controversial Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, with a proposed nationwide protest and the demand for Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's removal topping the agenda. The meeting at the Constitution Club comes in the wake of an Indian Express investigative report claiming that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi raised objections at least 14 times over a 10-month period to decisions taken by CEC Kumar without their prior knowledge. The...

President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order formally replacing the term "artificial intelligence" with "Super Intelligence" across the US federal government, declaring the technology "much bigger than the internet." The order, titled "Inaugurating the Era of Super Intelligence," directs all federal departments and agencies to use "Super Intelligence" and "SI" in official correspondence, public communications, policy documents and other non-statutory materials — and to stop acknowledging the terms "artificial intelligence" and "AI" in those settings. What the order requires The terminology change applies "to the maximum extent permitted by law." It is not retroactive: existing regulations, government contracts, grants...

The US Supreme Court on Tuesday cleared the way for President Donald Trump's administration to resume deporting migrants to countries other than their own, without first giving them a chance to argue they could face harm there. The justices also agreed to hear full arguments on the policy's legality in December. The court granted the Justice Department's emergency request to pause a ruling by Boston-based US District Judge Brian Murphy, who had found the Department of Homeland Security's third-country removal policy unlawful. The pause will last while the administration appeals the matter. Third temporary win for the administration The court's three liberal justices dissented from the decision. It is the third time the justices have...

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Pradeep Purnekar was shot dead in Thane city on Tuesday night, police said, in an attack that has added a fresh flashpoint to Maharashtra's political landscape. Purnekar, the party's Thane vibhag pramukh (division chief), was attacked around 9 pm under the jurisdiction of the Kapurbawdi police station. Unidentified assailants allegedly fired two rounds at him and also physically assaulted him, PTI reported. He was rushed to a hospital on Ghodbunder Road with serious bullet injuries but died during treatment. Investigation underway Police have cordoned off the area around the attack site and begun examining CCTV footage to identify the assailants, officials said. Checkpoints have been set up across Thane to...

US President Donald Trump on Monday called Canada "one of the worst countries in the entire world" to deal with, as nearly $1 billion in US tariffs on Canadian imports took effect on Tuesday, escalating the trade war between the longtime allies. In the Oval Office, Trump accused Ottawa of treating the United States "very unfairly," claiming Canada had imposed tariffs of 400% or more on American farmers and taken advantage of Washington. "The problem is that they've treated the United States very unfairly," he said. "They want to have a deal with us. They call us all the time... They have been one of the worst countries in the entire world." New Tariffs Bite Nearly $1 billion in US tariffs on certain Canadian imports — including...

The United States has finalised steep fee increases for its EB-5 immigrant-investor programme, with the cost of the main application set to more than double from November 30, a change likely to affect Indian applicants seeking permanent residence through investment. US Citizenship and Immigration Services announced the revised fee structure on Tuesday. The agency said the fee for Form I-526, used by standalone investors, will rise from $3,675 to $7,615, while the fee for an initial Form I-526E petition, used by investors participating through an approved regional centre, will increase from $3,675 to $7,850. Initial I-526 and I-526E petitions will also carry a $75 technology fee. Why the Fees Are Rising The final rule was developed...

French authorities detained 440 people, most of them minors, on September 29 as a wave of student protests featuring school blockades spread across the country. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez announced the detention figures during an appearance on BFMTV, saying the arrests were made in connection with blockades and demonstrations at high schools throughout France. The protests, which began last week, have seen students picketing outside hundreds of schools. Grievances Over Staffing and Overcrowded Classes Students have cited a range of complaints, including difficult timetables, overcrowded classrooms, and a shortage of teachers. Overheated classrooms during this year's heatwaves have added to the frustration, with pupils demanding...

Hurricane Polo made a second landfall on Mexico's northwestern Pacific coast on Tuesday near the port city of Guaymas, Sonora, hours after battering the Baja California peninsula as a stronger storm. State authorities ordered emergency evacuations as 543 people hunkered down in shelters. Polo came ashore near Guaymas on the Sea of Cortez as a Category 1 hurricane. The US National Hurricane Center reported maximum sustained winds of around 75 mph (120 km/h) when the storm was inland at 10 a.m. (1600 GMT), and said rapid weakening was expected as the center moved farther inland. State authorities ordered evacuations in southern Sonora municipalities including Guaymas, Empalme, Benito Juarez and Vicam. Officials said 543 people sheltered...

India is in talks with China to explore an air route over Xinjiang as an alternative for Indian airlines, which have been shut out of Pakistani airspace for more than a year, according to government sources quoted by ANI. The Indian government is exploring an air route over Hotan in Xinjiang to mitigate the impact of Pakistan's airspace ban, the sources said. India's Ministry of External Affairs is engaging with its Chinese counterparts on the matter, and the discussions have been ongoing for over a year. The development comes after Pakistan extended its airspace ban for Indian aircraft until October 24, according to a report in Dawn citing a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) issued by the Pakistan Airports Authority. The previous extension of...

The Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF) has released video footage it says shows the first armed operation by the group's newly formed women's unit, the Karima Armed Assault Division (KAAD) — and claimed that nine Pakistani military personnel were killed in the attacks. The casualty figures come from the separatist group's own statements and have not been independently verified. What the group claims According to the BLF, the footage shows first-person shots of a mission in Turbat, in which KAAD fighters carrying rifles fired on a three-vehicle Quick Response Force convoy on the highway linked to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) on September 22. A woman commander is seen briefing the fighters before the operation in the...

New Delhi: Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday backed the ongoing student-led protests in Delhi demanding greater safety for women, urging young women — particularly those from Gen Z — to join the demonstrations in larger numbers. In a post on X, Gandhi said women should not face restrictions because of crimes committed against them, and called for safer public spaces and swift action against perpetrators. "Stop punishing women for the crimes committed against them. Across our country, women are afraid to walk the streets, afraid of being harassed, afraid of being raped. And the government's answer: stay at home," he wrote. "This is patriarchy at work: a system that blames the victim and shields the...

US President Donald Trump and the chiefs of the country's biggest artificial intelligence companies have signed what Trump called a "morally binding" accord on developing AI safely, at a White House meeting on Tuesday. "It's almost like a Constitution in a way, and the biggest people in the world signed that and I signed it as president and it really is a form of protection," Trump told reporters after the meeting. The one-page document, titled the "White House Accord on Super Intelligence: Joint Commitment on Frontier Responsibilities", was released on Truth Social. Six executives signed alongside Trump: Google chief executive Sundar Pichai, Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei, Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI's Greg...

The Gandak River has swelled to the highest level ever recorded at Bagaha in Bihar's West Champaran district, breaching embankments and placing several districts of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh on flood alert. The Water Resources Department in Bihar said the river reached 91.25 metres at the Bagaha gauge site — a new Highest Flood Level that surpasses the previous record of 90.90 metres set in 2024 by 35 centimetres. A massive discharge of 5,43,500 cusecs was recorded at the Valmikinagar Gandak Barrage at 6 am on Tuesday. The discharge stayed above 5 lakh cusecs for 13 hours and above 4 lakh cusecs for 32 hours, the department said, sending floodwaters surging through West Champaran, East Champaran, Gopalganj, Saran, Muzaffarpur and...

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to list and hear early a petition challenging allegations that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar has been exercising authority unilaterally in the name of the Election Commission of India, and seeking his suspension from office. Appearing before Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, senior advocate Vikas Singh, along with advocates Sudeep Chandra and Mudit Gupta, made an oral mentioning for an early hearing of the plea filed by petitioner Rakesh Kumar Singh. The petition urged the court to direct that Kumar should not exercise the functions of Chief Election Commissioner pending the final hearing of the case. The Chief Justice agreed to list the matter next week. The petition argues...

The United Nations Security Council on Tuesday extended by six months the mandate of the international security force in Haiti, hours after gang members burned homes and killed at least 11 people in the country's breadbasket region. The vote Twelve nations voted to renew the mandate of the Gang Suppression Force (GSF); none voted against. Three nations abstained — China, Russia and Pakistan — with their representatives citing concerns over insufficient funds, personnel and efficacy. The renewal extends the mandate until March 31, 2027, and is intended to provide security ahead of Haiti's first election in a decade, scheduled for December 13, with final results due March 7. Why it matters Armed groups continue to control large parts...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday that North Korea is preparing to send another 10,000 troops to Russia, deepening a military partnership that has already shaped the course of the war in Ukraine. What Zelensky claimed Citing what he described as "new data" on North Korea's military deployment, Zelensky said in a public address that more than 8,000 North Korean troops are already stationed on Russian territory, and that an additional contingent is now being selected for training ahead of deployment to Russia. The claim follows an earlier statement from the Ukrainian president in August, when he said as many as 50,000 North Korean soldiers could eventually be sent to fight for Russia. He has repeatedly urged South...