News Highlights: Maharashtra CM confirms return of 24 victims' bodies from Nepal via IAF plane

The dead bodies of 24 deceased in a bus accident which took place in Pokhara, Nepal will be brought back to Maharashtra Tomorrow. chief minister’s office has confirmed that these 24 dead bodies will be brought by Indian Air Force plane. Tomorrow. Chief Minister Eknath Shinde is also having charge of the disaster relief and rehabilitation department and after the incident was reported, he contacted Union Home Minister, Amit Shah, and other officials in Delhi and also appointed a nodal officer to coordinate bringing back the dead bodies of devotees to Maharashtra as soon as possible. Due to the intervention of Union Home Minister Amit Shah Now arrangements have been made for an Indian Air Force plane, which will carry the dead bodies from Uttar Pradesh to Maharashtra on Saturday: CMO, Maharashtra

Aviation regulator DGCA has imposed a penalty of Rs 90 lakh on Air India for operating a flight with non-qualified crew members.

Besides, the watchdog has slapped fines of Rs 6 lakh and Rs 3 lakh on Air India's Director of Operations and Director of Training, respectively, for the lapse.

In a release, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said the pilot concerned has been warned to exercise caution to prevent such occurrences in future.

India and the US have signed two key agreements as Defence Minister Rajnath Singh began his official visit to Washington to further boost the comprehensive global strategic partnership between the two countries.

The agreements signed on Thursday pertain to the Security of Supplies Arrangement (SOSA) and a Memorandum of Agreement regarding the Assignment of Liaison Officers.

National Conference leader and former minister Sakina Itoo on Friday filed nomination papers from the D H Pora assembly constituency in Jammu and Kashmir.

Itoo filed her nomination papers before district election officer and deputy commissioner Kulgam. She was accompanied by NC vice president Omar Abdullah and other leaders of the party.

One of the 39 candidates in the fray in Sri Lanka’s presidential election scheduled for September 21 has passed away.

Idroos Mohamed Ilyas, 79, an independent candidate from the north-western Puttalam district died last night from a heart attack while he was being taken to a hospital, his family said.

Italian emergency services resumed their search on Friday for the body of Mike Lynch's 18-year-old daughter, the only person still unaccounted for since the British tech magnate's family yacht sank off Sicily this week, killing him and six others.

The British-flagged Bayesian, a 56-metre-long (184-foot) superyacht carrying 22 passengers and crew, was anchored off the port of Porticello, near Palermo, when it capsized and sank on Monday within minutes of being struck by a pre-dawn storm.

Lynch's daughter, Hannah, is presumed to be the seventh victim of the shipwreck. An interior ministry official said on Thursday her body might not be inside the yacht and could have been swept out to sea.

Ukraine's Navy confirmed on Friday that it had destroyed a ferry in the Russian port of Kavkaz that was used to deliver fuel and weapons to occupied Crimea.

Local authorities had earlier said the ferry was set ablaze and damaged in Thursday's attack on the port in Russia's southern Krasnodar region.

"Another undoubtedly military objective has been destroyed. Its purpose was to provide fuel for the invaders. The ferry sank and this port (Kavkaz) is not usable until the ferry is removed," Navy spokesman Dmytro Pletenchuk told Ukrainian television.

FM Sitharaman says, "GST Council has been speedily resolving any issues related to the indirect tax regime."

Any requests around GST is being resolved by CBIC with speed. All that industry needs to do is approach with confidence

Want to urge GST officials to ensure effective implementation but the enforcement should be done softly not too firmly.

Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray on Friday demanded the withdrawal of the cases against those who had protested in Badlapur against the alleged sexual abuse of two kindergarten girls at a local school.

Addressing a news conference, Thackeray said the August 24 ‘Maharashtra Bandh’ called by the opposition bloc Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) is against "perversion" and urged people cutting across caste and religion to participate in it.

Centre approves release of Rs 40 crore as flood relief for Tripura, says Home Minister Amit Shah

An Indian Navy team on Friday resumed a search operation for the trainer aircraft that went missing after taking off from Jharkhand's Jamshedpur on August 20, an official said.

The search operation was called off at 6 pm on Thursday due to inclement weather, he said.

"A 19-member team of the Indian Navy, which came from Visakhapatnam following a request from the Seraikela-Kharswan district administration, has resumed the search operation to locate the missing trainer aircraft. We had to call off the search operation at 6 pm yesterday due to inclement weather," the official said.

An Indian passenger bus with 40 people onboard has plunged into the Marsyangdi river in Tanahun district, confirms Nepal Police.

“The bus bearing number plate UP FT 7623 plunged into the river and is lying on the bank of the river,” DSP Deepkumar Raya from the District Police Office Tanahun confirmed.

As per the official, the bus was en route to Kathmandu from Pokhara. Further details awaited.

Nationalist Congress Party has issued a list of star campaigners for the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections. The list of 26 campaigners includes the names of Ajit Pawar, Praful Patel and Sunil Tatkare among others.

I am very happy to see increasing investments by established companies such as Ananth Technologies, L&T, TASL etc

Startups like Dhruva Space, Pixxel, Digantara, Skyroot (Aerospace) , and Agnikul has been building capabilities

This growth of the private sector is fuelled by implementation of space sector reforms -- revised FDI norms, space policy and so on

We are working on fiscal and non-fiscal incentives, along with State governments, to promote manufacturing of space subsystems in India

The success of Chandrayaan 3 has put India's technologies in the global spotlight.

I am pleased to see the momentum in the private sector ecosystem particularly startups.

The number of space startups have increased to more than 200 -- which is a 5x increase in 5 years.

Investments in the space sector has multiplied 20x in 5 years, crossing $100 million mark 2 years in a row.

The journey of Chandrayaan 3 is going to continue. We have proven how to reach Moon. But we have to now prove how to come back from there

It is important to take the next step because we have an added vision of sending humans to Moon and bring them back safely.

Our effort is to create that enthusiasm in the community. And also to work on different technologies that are required for it. This can be launch vehicle capabilities, which should be frugal and cost effective etc

There were five experiments on Chandrayaan 3. They delivered excellent data. Today we have 55 GB of data from Chandrayaan 3.

The data has been subjected to review, analysis and publications. But today we are going to make it available to you

The Supreme Court on Friday deferred till September 5 hearing on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s pleas seeking bail and challenging the arrest by the CBI in the alleged excise policy scam.

A bench of justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan allowed the CBI to file its counter affidavit in the matter and gave two days' time to Kejriwal to file a rejoinder.

The court said that the investigation is at an initial stage and it is not inclined to enlarge them on bail.

1989 batch Sikkim cadre IAS officer Govind Mohan assumes charge of new Union Home Secretary, succeeding Ajay Kumar Bhalla, whose five-year term ended yesterday.

Thai rescuers used hoes on Friday to search muddy, forested terrain for debris and the remains of nine people aboard a charter flight that crashed the day before, authorities said, with all the travellers presumed dead.

Five tourists from China and four Thais, including the two pilots, were on the Cessna Caravan C208B aircraft that went down 100 km (62 miles) southeast of Bangkok, 11 minutes after losing contact with ground control following take-off.

All aboard the charter plane are presumed dead, said Chonlatee Yongtrong, the governor of the Chachoengsao province, the site of the crash, as authorities scramble to investigate the cause.

A tropical storm is expected to deliver strong winds and heavy rain to Hawaii this weekend, particularly to the Big Island and Maui, as it passes south of the island chain.

The August storm has evoked memories of the powerful hurricane south of Hawaii that helped fuel a deadly wildfire that destroyed Maui's Lahaina town last summer, but the National Weather Service said Thursday that Tropical Storm Hone was not creating the same conditions.

I am pleased to know that India has set its aim to make all of its space missions, debris-free by 2030

Our scientists have used very less resources but has helped in making India's space program one of the best space programs in the world.

Health, transport, environment, communication etc are few of the sectors which have greatly benefitted from the space sector

The number of startups in the sector has also increased rapidly. Youngsters have found a new way to show their talents.

Few months back, an Indian company (Agnikul Cosmos) successfully launched a single-piece 3D printed, semi-cryogenic powered rocket. This was the first of its kind.

From Chandrayaan-3 data we recently go to know that once the lunar surface was covered with magma

ISRO, apart from space sector, has contributed to India's social and economic development. I hope ISRO's contribution in India's development will continue in the future

The aim of India's space program is to achieve atmanirbharta and simultaneously contribute to the country's economic and social development

Kamala Harris has said that, if elected the commander-in-chief of the US, she will ensure that the country always has the strongest and most lethal fighting force in the world, Israel has the ability to defend itself and Ukraine and NATO allies are not abandoned.

In her address to the Democratic National Convention here on Thursday, she said that she would never hesitate to take whatever action is necessary to defend American forces and the country's interests against Iran and Iran-backed terrorists.

Telangana CM & Congress leader Revanth Reddy along with his Dy CM Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and other senior ministers will meet Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi in Delhi today.

BSP chief Mayawati on Friday attacked the BJP and the INDIA bloc, alleging that while the ruling party has adopted an anti-SC/ST stance over the issue of sub-classification and identifying creamy layer for reservation within the communities, the opposition coalition's silence on the matter is proving to be "fatal".

Earlier this month, a seven-judge bench of the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud ruled in a 6:1 majority judgement that state governments were permitted to sub-classify communities within the SC list based on empirical data.

In posts on X in Hindi, BSahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati said, "It is very sad and worrying that the (BJP-led) Centre has not yet taken any concrete steps to restore the old system as per public expectations against the Supreme Court's decision of August 1, 2024, to implement the new rule of classification and creamy layer in SC/ST reservation." Claiming that the Centre was not serious about the issue, she said, "First the weak advocacy in the court, and now, the failure to bring the Constitution Amendment Bill for it proves that the BJP's anti-SC/ST reservation attitude is still intact with the same intensity."

Accusing the opposition parties, particularly the Congress and the Samajwadi Party (SP), Mayawati said, "The silence of the Congress, SP and their INDIA bloc in this matter is equally fatal. It shows their interest in the welfare and upliftment of SCs and STs, she said.

Kamala Harris accepted the Democratic presidential nomination in Chicago on Thursday before a rapturous crowd, pledging a "new way forward" if she beats Republican Donald Trump in November's blockbuster election.

Harris pledged to be a "president for all Americans" in a bid to reach out to undecided voters.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday greeted people on the first National Space Day, and said his government has taken a series of futuristic decisions relating to this sector and will do even more in the times to come.

Modi had announced the celebration of the National Space Day last year following India's success in landing its first spacecraft on the moon on this day with the Chandrayaan-3 mission.

Russia believes that the United States will at some point remove all restrictions on the use of weapons supplied to Ukraine, the RIA news agency cited Russian ambassador to the U.S. Anatoly Antonov as saying on Friday.

"The current administration behaves like a person who extends one hand and holds a dagger behind their back with another one," Antonov said, describing Washginton's recent comments about Kyiv not being allowed to use U.S. weapons for strikes deep into Russian territory as "goading".

A volcano in southwestern Iceland erupted Thursday evening for the sixth time since December, spewing red lava through a new fissure on the Reykjanes Peninsula.

Four labourers from Nepal have died in a landslide caused by heavy rains in Phata village in Uttarakhand, officials said on Friday.

The State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) has recovered their bodies from under the debris of the landslide, they said. Rudraprayag Disaster Management Officer Nandan Singh Rajwar said authorities were informed about the incident near a 'khat gadera (rainwater pond)' in the village around 1.20 am, and a rescue team was rushed to the spot.

Kamala Harris pledged Thursday to get a Gaza ceasefire and said as US president she would stand with Ukraine but never "cozy up" to dictators like her Republican opponent Donald Trump has done.

"Now is the time to get a hostage deal and a ceasefire deal done," the vice president, speaking of the war in Gaza, told supporters at the Democratic National Convention.

Harris says will never 'cozy up' to dictators -- unlike Trump

"What has happened in Gaza in past 10 months is devastating," she said.

Harris said, "Instead of a trump tax hike, we will implement a middle class tax cut."

“In many ways, Donald Trump is an unserious man,” she said. But the consequences, but the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious.”

“Consider the power he will have, especially after the United States Supreme Court just ruled that he would be immune from criminal prosecution,” he said.

“Just imagine Donald Trump with no guardrails,” she said.

Harris has officially accepted the party’s nomination.

“On behalf of my mother and everyone who has ever set out on their own unlikely journey, on behalf of Americans like the people I grew up with, people who work hard, chase their dreams and look out for one another, on behalf of everyone whose story could only be written in the greatest nation on Earth, I accept your nomination to be president of the United States of America,” she said.

Harris pledges to 'fight for America's future'

Harris vows to be 'president who unites' Americans

“In the Bay, you either live in the hills or the flatlands. We lived in the flats, a beautiful working class neighborhood of firefighters, nurses and construction workers,” she said.

“Your record is extraordinary, as history will show, and your character is inspiring," she said.

VP Kamala Harris arrives at DNC

The final night of the Democratic National Convention included a tutorial on pronouncing Kamala Harris' name — featuring none other than the candidate's great nieces.

The actress Kerry Washington introduced the girls by saying “it's come to my attention that there are some folks who struggle — or pretend to struggle — with the proper pronunciation of our future president’s name.”

She added, “Confusion is understandable. Disrespect is not. So tonight we are going to help everyone get it right.”

Out came Amara, 8, in a pink pant suit and Leela, 6, in a light blue frilly dress. They're the daughters of Harris' niece Meena Harris.

“First you say ‘comma’ like the comma in a sentence,” Amara said.

"Then you say ‘la’ like la-la-la-la-la," added Leela.

He quickly summed up the theme DNC organisers have been trying to drive home for the entire convention.

“They love this country just as much as we do, and they and they are as eager to defend American values at home and abroad as we conservatives have ever been,” he said.

Describing her Republican rival Donald Trump as an unserious man, Vice President Kamala Harris, and the Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris on Thursday warned Americans of the consequences of re-electing him for the second term.

"We know what a second Trump term would look like. It’s all laid out in 'Project 2025.' ... In many ways, Donald Trump is an unserious man. But the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious…,’ Harris said in the excerpts of the speech released by her campaign ahead of her acceptance speech at the United Center here in Chicago.

“Consider the power he will have — especially after the United States Supreme Court just ruled he would be immune from criminal prosecution," said Harris who is the first Indian-American ever and the first Black woman to be nominated as the presidential candidate of either the Democratic or the Republican parties.

Vice President Kamala Harris will try to redefine herself for America and draw a sharp contrast with Republican Donald Trump on Thursday when she accepts the Democratic Party's 2024 presidential nomination.

"In many ways, Donald Trump is an unserious man. But the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious," Harris will say, according to advance excerpts of the speech.

Harris emerged as the Democratic candidate little more than a month ago when allies of President Joe Biden, 81, forced him to quit the race. If successful, she stands to make history as the first woman elected U.S. president.

“I am proud to watch my partner Kamala Harris accept our nomination for president. She will be an outstanding president because she is fighting for our future,” he said.

As per AFP, Kamala Harris will vow to be a "president for all Americans" in remarks delivered on the final night of the Democratic Party's convention in Chicago, according to excerpts released by her campaign Thursday.

"I know there are people of various political views watching tonight. And I want you to know: I promise to be a President for all Americans," Vice President Harris will tell the Democratic National Convention. "I will be a President who unites us around our highest aspirations. A President who leads -- and listens."

“Donald Trump never learned that lesson. He called the climate crisis a hoax,” she said. “He made it easier for big companies to poison our air and water.”

“An American president must lead the world in tackling climate change. We need a president who understands that assignment," she added as per Al Jazeera.

Speculation was rife online about who would be the much vaunted special guest Thursday on the Democratic National Convention's final night, with figures from Beyonce to George W. Bush in the frame.

Beyonce was the name lighting up social media ahead of Vice President Kamala Harris's primetime address.

Celebrity gossip site TMZ fueled the fire with an all caps headline on its homepage screaming "performing at DNC's final night!!!" above a picture of the megastar.

Harris, 59, is the first ever Indian-American and the first ever Black woman to be nominated on a major presidential ticket in the US, and she will take on Republican Party's Donald Trump in elections in November.