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Federal agents searched the Washington-area home of Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar early on Monday as part of an ongoing federal investigation into her immigration paperwork. Homeland Security Investigations agents conducted the pre-dawn raid at the Minnesota lawmaker's DC-area residence. The Department of Justice confirmed that HSI had "executed a judicially authorized search warrant" as "part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation," but provided no further details about the purpose of the search. The investigation reportedly centres on immigration documents filled out by Omar's late father when she arrived in the United States as a child refugee from Somalia. The Somali-born lawmaker, who represents Minnesota's 5th...

The Kerala Legislative Assembly on Monday passed a resolution seeking the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, in what is believed to be the first time a state assembly in the country has taken such a step. The resolution, moved by Chief Minister V D Satheesan under Rule 118, centred on alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and questions over the Election Commission's impartiality. It set out three demands: the urgent restoration of voting rights to eligible voters said to have been wrongly excluded from the rolls, the initiation of proceedings to remove Kumar, and a reconstitution of the committee that selects the Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners...

Warsaw/Kyiv: Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday that Russia had already violated the "energy ceasefire" Donald Trump announced between Moscow and Kyiv, accusing Russian forces of striking energy infrastructure within hours of the declaration. Trump posted on social media on Sunday morning that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to an energy ceasefire, effective immediately, giving no details on duration, enforcement or the sites covered. Zelenskyy later told Axios that the deal was "news to him" — Kyiv had not been told of it in advance. The alleged violations Speaking via video link at the Warsaw Security Forum on Monday, Zelenskyy said that shortly after Trump's announcement, Russia launched a targeted strike on a power plant in...

New Delhi: India will host the first-ever BIMSTEC Home Ministers' Meeting in New Delhi on Tuesday, October 13, Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced on Monday. Shah will chair the meeting, which brings together the home ministers and delegations of the seven-member regional grouping for the first time. Announcing the meeting in a post on X, Shah welcomed the visiting delegations and said the session would focus on deepening regional cooperation against some of the most pressing security threats facing the region. Terror, drugs and cyber threats on the agenda The meeting's agenda covers cooperation against terrorism, transnational organised crime, narcotics, radicalisation, human trafficking, illicit financial flows and cyber...

The Supreme Court has questioned why the Centre's 30 per cent trade-margin cap on drugs is limited to cancer medicines, urging broader controls on medicines and medical devices in view of steep mark-ups in maximum retail prices. The court's concern Business Standard reported on October 12 that the court cited sharp differences between manufacturing costs and retail prices of medicines as it pressed the Centre on why price controls should not extend beyond the cancer-drug category. The bench urged the government to consider wider controls for medicines and devices. The government, on its part, warned of possible supply risks if price caps are extended too broadly, cautioning that manufacturers could withdraw from the market. What...

President Droupadi Murmu has appointed new governors for six states, according to a press communique issued by Rashtrapati Bhavan on October 12, 2026. The appointments Under the new arrangement, Om Prakash Mathur, who has been serving as the Governor of Sikkim, will take over as the Governor of Kerala. Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar, who has been serving as the Governor of Kerala, will move to Tamil Nadu as its new governor. Braj Mohan Ram has been appointed as the Governor of Odisha, while Sudha Yadav has been named the new Governor of Karnataka. Dhal Singh Bisen will assume office as the Governor of Uttarakhand, and Dushyant Gautam has been appointed as the Governor of Sikkim. The appointments will take effect from the dates on which...

North Korea fired multiple ballistic missiles toward the sea off its east coast on Monday, South Korea's military said, marking Pyongyang's fourth launch in a month and following Seoul's recent test of a hypersonic missile. The ballistic missiles, which appeared to be of different types, were fired at around 9:20 a.m. local time from near Pyongyang, according to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff. One type flew more than 900 km (559 miles). Earlier, Japan's coast guard said North Korea had fired two unidentified projectiles, believed to be ballistic missiles, adding that both appeared to have already fallen. Emergency meeting in Seoul South Korea's National Security Office convened an emergency meeting, where it condemned the...

The European Union has approved nearly 1,600 new sanctions listings aimed at Russia's military-industrial complex, in what the bloc's foreign policy chief described as the largest single expansion of its sanctions list since Russia's war against Ukraine began. EU foreign ministers adopted the package on Monday, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas announced on October 12. The ministers ratified an agreement that EU envoys had reached the previous Wednesday, completing the two-step approval process. Ballistic-missile supply chains in the crosshairs More than half of the newly listed individuals and entities are connected to the production chain for ballistic missiles, according to Kallas. Figures previously reported by Euronews put the...

Australian engineer Robert Pether has left Iraq after more than five years of detention and travel restrictions, and was reunited with his family at Dublin Airport on Monday, Ireland's RTE reported. An ordeal that began in 2021 Pether, 50, was arrested in April 2021 and jailed in August that year alongside his Egyptian colleague Khaled Radwan. Both men were each sentenced to five years in prison and fined $12 million after a contract dispute between their employer, Dubai-based CME Consulting, and the authorities in Baghdad. Pether had been working as a mechanical engineer on the rebuild of the Central Bank of Iraq's headquarters. UN called the detention illegal The case drew international criticism. The United Nations said Pether's...

India and the United Kingdom on Monday held the 16th meeting of their Joint Economic and Trade Committee (JETCO) in New Delhi — the first since the bilateral free trade agreement took effect — with British companies announcing fresh commercial deals worth more than £1 billion. The meeting was co-chaired by Union Minister Piyush Goyal and UK Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade Jonathan Reynolds. In a statement issued on Monday, the British High Commission in India said communities in both countries "are set to benefit from over £1 billion in new deals," timed with the arrival of a major UK business delegation aimed at maximising gains from the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), the landmark...

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has said she feels "deep concern" over a United States push for Japan to join sanctions against the International Criminal Court, widening a rare public rift between the two allies. Takaichi wrote on X on October 10 that Japan has consistently valued the rule of law in the international community and supports the ICC, which she said plays a key role in upholding it. "This measure is incompatible with Japan's consistent position, and I express deep concern," she said, according to the Asahi Shimbun and other Japanese media. Washington blacklists the entire court Her remarks followed the US State Department's announcement on October 9 placing the entire ICC on the Treasury Department's Specially...

The UN migration agency has raised the death toll from a migrant boat capsizing off Djibouti to at least 139, after 30 more bodies were recovered over the weekend. The International Organization for Migration said in a statement on Sunday that the vessel was carrying 305 people when it went down on the night of October 8-9 while travelling from Djibouti toward Yemen. More than 80 people survived, all of them Ethiopian nationals, and are being assisted at the agency's migrant response centre in Obock with healthcare, food, shelter and psychosocial support. Toll covers only officially buried bodies Alexandre Coissac, the IOM's chief of mission in Djibouti, told the Associated Press that the official count includes only bodies buried by...

Two Pakistan Army pilots were killed on Monday when a Mushshak training aircraft crashed near Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan, the military said. What happened The aircraft went down near Nawan Killi on the outskirts of Quetta around midday while on a training mission, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations, the media wing of the Pakistani armed forces. The military attributed the crash to a technical fault. The pilots were identified by the ISPR as Major Husnain Shehzad Humayun, an instructor pilot, and Captain Abdul Samad, a student pilot. Both were serving with Pakistan Army Aviation. Official reaction President Asif Ali Zardari expressed grief over the deaths and extended condolences to the bereaved...

Delhi commuters faced a disrupted morning on Monday as the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation shut entry and exit at six central Delhi stations from 6 am to 4 pm, hours ahead of a planned opposition march to the Supreme Court. Which stations were closed The affected stations were Patel Chowk, Janpath, Rajiv Chowk, Mandi House, Central Secretariat and Barakhamba Road, the DMRC said in a post on X. The corporation said interchange facilities at these stations remained available, and that the situation would be reviewed by security agencies with updates shared accordingly. Why the closures were ordered The restrictions coincided with the INDIA bloc's "Chalo Delhi - March for Democracy", led by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader...

New Delhi: The Delhi Police has de-notified Jantar Mantar as a designated site for protests and demonstrations, ending the historic venue's long run as the capital's default protest address. According to an official standing order issued on October 11 by Delhi Police Commissioner Anurag Kumar, three new sites have been designated for protests and demonstrations: Ramlila Maidan, Burari Ground, and CBD Ground in east Delhi. Opposition cries foul The move landed in the middle of the third day of protests over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and drew sharp criticism from the Opposition. Cockroach Janta Party co-founder Saurav Das said the party did not accept what he called an arbitrary decision, describing it as...

New Delhi: Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Monday filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court challenging large-scale voter deletions and alleged irregularities in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, and seeking the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. The legal move escalates the Opposition's three-day-old confrontation with the poll body, coming hours after Gandhi led the INDIA bloc's "March for Democracy" through central Delhi to the doors of the top court. CJI declined a meeting earlier Gandhi's petition follows Chief Justice of India Surya Kant's refusal to meet him and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday. The CJI's office cited sub-judice constraints, pointing...

The Maharashtra government has set up a five-member committee to overhaul the Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MPSC), naming senior IAS officer Tukaram Mundhe as its secretary, ending a 10-day agitation by recruitment aspirants in Pune. State minister Shivendraraje Bhosale announced the decision on Sunday after meeting the protesting aspirants at SM Joshi Bridge, where the agitation had been underway for ten days over demands including reforms in the state recruitment body and a probe into alleged irregularities such as paper leaks. Panel composition and mandate The committee will be headed by former judge Dilip Bhosale, with IPS officer Laxmi Gautam, former IAS officer Ganesh Patil and retired judge P.D. Naik as its other...

Saudi Arabia's King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh was attacked again on Sunday, a day after a Houthi-claimed missile strike killed 13 people and wounded more than 300 in the deadliest attack on the kingdom in more than a decade. An unidentified projectile struck the airport's Terminal 4 on Sunday, starting a fire, according to the Saudi-led coalition supporting Yemen's government. Saudi Arabia's civil aviation authority said one person was killed and 11 others were injured in the new attack. The victim was described in reports as a Pakistani resident. Coalition forces said air defences also intercepted a cruise missile in the vicinity of the airport, shot down a drone in the country's Eastern Province, and intercepted a...

Leaders of the opposition INDIA bloc marched through central Delhi on Monday in a major show of protest against the Election Commission, with Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi heading the 'Chalo Delhi - March for Democracy' rally as it moved from the Barakhamba Road area toward the Supreme Court, demanding the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Slogans Against the Poll Panel Bloc MPs converged at the Constitution Club of India, raising slogans against the CEC, before beginning the march through Connaught Place. Security personnel were deployed in strength across Janpath and nearby areas, and entry and exit at...

Sunil Bharti Mittal, founder and chairman of Bharti Enterprises, has been named a Chevalier de l'Ordre national de la Légion d'Honneur — Knight of the National Order of the Legion of Honour — by French President Emmanuel Macron, in recognition of his work deepening economic ties between India and France. The announcement was made on Monday. Established in 1802 by Napoleon Bonaparte, the Légion d'Honneur is the highest civilian distinction conferred by the French Republic. The insignia will be formally presented to Mittal at a ceremony at the Embassy of France in New Delhi on October 28, 2026. Three decades of India-France ties According to the announcement, the honour acknowledges Mittal's longstanding commitment to strengthening...