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The Delhi High Court on Wednesday turned down the bail appeals of Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam in the alleged "larger conspiracy" case tied to the February 2020 riots in North-East Delhi, saying it could not go beyond the conditions laid down by the Supreme Court earlier this year. A division bench of Justices Prathiba M Singh and Dinesh Bhatt dismissed the two appeals, holding that the High Court was "bound by judicial discipline" and could not modify directions issued by the apex court in the Gulfisha Fatima matter. Tied to Supreme Court's January order The January 5 Supreme Court order had granted bail to five co-accused in the case — Gulfisha Fatima, Meeran Haider, Shifa-ur-Rehman, Mohd Saleem Khan and Shadab Ahmed — but denied...

Modi, Trump Hold 'Productive' Phone Call on Trade, Defence and Energy Amid Deal Talks Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with US President Donald Trump by telephone on Wednesday, describing the conversation as "productive" in a post on X, as the two countries continue negotiating a trade agreement and managing friction over Washington's new Russia-Iran sanctions law. A Prime Minister's Office statement said the two leaders reviewed bilateral cooperation across trade, defence, energy and critical technologies, and agreed to "maintain close engagement" to advance the Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership. They also exchanged views on regional and international issues, including ongoing efforts to advance global peace and security...

The Supreme Court on Wednesday came down sharply on steep mark-ups in essential medicines, calling a tenfold gap between a cancer drug's price to retailers and its maximum retail price "carnage" and "broad daylight dacoity" — remarks that sent hospital stocks tumbling up to 6 per cent. A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta, hearing petitions on medicine pricing, generic prescriptions and medical-device controls under the Drugs (Prices Control) Order, 2013, cited a cancer drug supplied to retailers at Rs 2,700 but carrying an MRP of Rs 27,000. "This is carnage. Plain and simple," the bench told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, questioning where the money goes and who benefits. "Ultimately, the loser is the honest taxpayer. We...

Saudi Arabia has firmly rejected reports that its officials took part in talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his unannounced visit to the United Arab Emirates, insisting its position on Israel has not changed. A Saudi official told AFP on Tuesday: "No official meetings. No talks. Nothing whatsoever. Our stance on Israel remains unchanged." The denial followed reports in Israeli media that Saudi representatives had joined a wider meeting after Netanyahu's talks with UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi on Sunday. Those reports said the discussions centred on security cooperation, Iran, Yemen's Houthis and regional defence systems. Netanyahu's unannounced Abu Dhabi visit Netanyahu travelled to...

Hamas and its allied Islamic Jihad group have agreed to form an unlikely electoral coalition with a bloc led by former top Fatah official Mohammed Dahlan, Palestinian officials told The Associated Press. Islamic Jihad deputy secretary general Mohammed al-Hindi confirmed the formation of the alliance in a rare interview with the AP in Istanbul on Monday. He said it would support a "unified national list" that could be made up of independent figures rather than members of the groups themselves. An unlikely partner Dahlan is a former Fatah security chief who went into exile in 2010 after a bitter falling-out with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, and who had previously been driven out of Gaza by Hamas. He has since...

A Russian strategic bomber capable of carrying nuclear weapons crashed during a training flight in the country's far eastern Amur region on Tuesday, killing at least six of its seven crew members, Russia's Defence Ministry said. The ministry, cited by Russian state media, said the Tu-95 aircraft went down in an uninhabited area of the Amur region, which borders China. One crew member survived the crash and was taken to hospital with injuries, the ministry added. No weapons aboard, investigation under way The bomber was not carrying ammunition or weapons during the training mission, the state-run TASS news agency reported, citing the ministry. An Aerospace Forces commission has been dispatched to the crash site to establish the...

A FlyDubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia early on September 30 after what the airline described as an onboard security incident that left both pilots injured, in one of the most alarming aviation incidents of the year. What happened FlyDubai flight FZ1073, a Boeing 737 MAX 8 bound from Dubai (DXB) to Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport (TLV), departed in the early hours of Wednesday. About two hours into the flight it signalled an emergency, with its transponder squawk changing from 7700 — a general emergency code — to 7500, the code for unlawful interference, according to Flightradar24 data cited by the Wall Street Journal and USA Today. The aircraft's altitude data showed extreme fluctuations...

The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled out a complete ban on firecrackers for this year's Diwali, signalling instead that it is inclined to permit time-bound use of next-generation green firecrackers that meet stricter emission and noise standards. The indication came during a hearing on September 30 in the long-running air-quality case. The bench observed that a blanket prohibition was not on the table, but made clear that incessant, unrestricted bursting of crackers would not be allowed either. The court has been moving toward a calibrated middle path — allowing regulated celebration while keeping pollution in check. Conditions under discussion The court's tentative framework centres on next-generation green crackers with reduced...

The US economy grew at a stronger-than-expected 2.2% annualised pace in the second quarter of 2026, the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis said on Wednesday, sharply upgrading its previous estimate of 1.5%. **Stronger consumers, stronger investment** The third estimate of April-June GDP came in well above the 1.5% pace economists polled by Reuters had expected. Consumer spending — which accounts for more than two-thirds of US economic activity — grew at a 3.8% rate, revised up from 3.4%, after growing just 0.7% in the first quarter. Business investment also stayed robust, reflecting the AI infrastructure buildout. Imports rose 12.6% on surging shipments of computer chips and other AI-related products, dragging growth...

The Election Commission of India has withdrawn the additional SIR-related declaration from Form 6 in states where the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has been completed, days after the full Commission decided the extra declaration would apply only while the exercise was underway. **What changed** The additional declaration has been removed from the ECINET app and the Commission's portal, as well as the websites of the respective Chief Electoral Officers. Applicants seeking new enrolment in such states will now fill only the statutory Form 6 prescribed under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, without the extra SIR-linked declaration. The decision followed a September 26 meeting of the full Commission...

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar has warned that the world could face a "major food crisis" in the coming months, as overlapping wars, energy market stress and fertiliser shortages squeeze the Global South. The warning came during an event at the Asia Society in New York on Monday, held shortly after the UN General Assembly's high-level week. Jaishankar argued that two separate conflict zones are compounding the risk. The war in Ukraine has already disrupted grain flows, and he said he fears what is unfolding around Iran and the Gulf will feed into the same crisis and aggravate it. With energy markets "very tight", major grain exporters potentially unable to ship through the Black Sea, and key fertiliser producers in West Asia...

Title: INDIA Bloc Announces 'Save Democracy' Marches From October 2-8, MPs to March to Election Commission on October 6 The opposition INDIA bloc on Wednesday announced a week-long nationwide agitation against the Election Commission, including district-level "Save Democracy" marches from October 2 to 8 and a march by all opposition MPs to the Election Commission headquarters in New Delhi on October 6, in protest over alleged "vote theft" and irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. The decision was announced by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge at a press conference after a three-and-a-half-hour meeting of INDIA bloc leaders at the Constitution Club in New Delhi on September 30. Kharge, Sonia...

NATO chief Mark Rutte on Tuesday urged allied countries to stay "calm, carry on and support Ukraine" in the face of what he called Russia's campaign of sabotage across Europe, hours after Estonia formally accused Moscow of ordering an August arson attack on a defence company. Speaking at a joint press conference in Brussels with Lithuanian Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevicius, Rutte said Russia's hostile campaign was aimed at weakening Western resolve. "Russia continues its reckless campaign of hostile actions against NATO allies. It is trying to weaken our resolve and stop our support for Ukraine. But Russia is failing," he said, adding that Moscow was "failing on the battlefield in Ukraine and it is failing to undermine our unity and...

A blast followed by a fire struck the Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) plant at Kuthethoor, near Jokatte, north of Mangaluru, on Wednesday afternoon, injuring seven people and sending thick black smoke into the sky. The explosion occurred around 12:25-12:30 pm at the Coker Hydrotreater (CHT) unit of the refinery, according to reporting by the Indian Express and Mathrubhumi. The blast was heard kilometres away, including in areas around Mangaluru International Airport. Residents of Jokatte and Surathkal said their houses shook and doors and windows vibrated; a local resident told media that windows, gates and glass panes were damaged. One worker, Rajesh Baptist, sustained burn injuries covering about 35% of his body. He...

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved three major decisions carrying a combined outlay of Rs 2,79,157 crore, spanning farm price policy for rabi crops, a new renewable energy mission called PM DHARA, and an intelligent traffic management system for the national capital. The price policy for rabi crops for the Rabi Marketing Season 2027-28 was cleared with an outlay of Rs 90,962 crore, setting the support-price framework that will govern procurement of the winter crop next year. Separately, news agency PTI reported, citing sources, that the Cabinet was expected to raise the wheat minimum support price by Rs 25 per quintal to Rs 2,610, up from Rs 2,585 in 2026-27. The increase follows a recommendation from the Commission for...

US Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked a Democratic-led bid to require the Trump administration to report to Congress on increasing violence in the occupied West Bank, including the deaths of nine American citizens. The procedural vote fell largely along party lines. Reuters reported the resolution was blocked 47 to 51, with every Republican voting no except Rand Paul of Kentucky, while every Democrat voted in favor except John Fetterman of Pennsylvania. (Al Jazeera reported the tally as 47-53.) The vote marked the latest sign of friction between Democrats and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government over Israel's treatment of Palestinians. What the resolution demanded The measure, led by Senator Chris Van Hollen of...

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."...