News Highlights: PM likely to address rally in Punjab on January 5

Italy on Tuesday allowed a charity boat carrying hundreds of migrants rescued at sea to dock in the Sicilian port of Augusta, with another vessel waiting offshore for permission to bring 440 more to land.

The Geo Barents ship, run by charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF), took onboard 558 people, mainly Africans, in eight separate operations off the coast of Libya in the last 11 days, the charity said.

They include 174 minors and a woman who is eight months pregnant.

The German charity boat Sea Watch 3 is also seeking a port to disembark 440 migrants it rescued in recent days in the Mediterranean, including women and young children.

. The prime minister is scheduled to inaugurate a satellite centre of the Chandigarh-based Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) in Punjab's Ferozepur and is likely to address a rally after the event, the sources in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said.

. India bundled out South Africa for 197 in their first innings on Day 3 in the first Test at Centurion on Tuesday.

. The People's Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) on Tuesday said the police’s briefing on the Hyderpora encounter was only a repetition of the "old story" and demanded a judicial enquiry into the incident.

It said there is a strong public perception that the civilians killed in the incident were made human shields by security forces.

"Today's press briefing of J-K police about last month's Hyderpora tragic incident is only a repetition of the old story. It does not even slightly give any objective picture of this shocking incident," said PAGD spokesman Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami said in a statement.

He said the statement seems to be a “concocted cover-up story”.

“It will not suffice the legitimate concerns of the people at large and family of the slain victims.”

. Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Tuesday asserted that the party will regain its old glory and also return to power in West Bengal.

Chowdhury claimed that non-Congress governments have never been able to steer the country on the path of development.

Addressing a programme on the 137th foundation day of Congress at Baharampur in Murshidabad district, the state party president said, "There are ups and downs in fortunes, it does not mean Congress will continue to remain weak. The party will regain its old glory and definitely return to power in West Bengal."

The Congress ruled West Bengal since Independence till 1977, with a brief gap of a few years. It was unseated from power by the Left Front which ruled the state uninterruptedly till 2011. However, both Congress and the Left parties failed to win even one seat in this year's assembly elections.

. A gunman killed four people and injured an officer in the Denver area, police said Monday.

. Actress Amala Paul, who is well known in both the Tamil and the Malayalam film industries, has received the prestigious Golden Visa offered by the UAE.

The actress took to social media on Tuesday to make the announcement.

She said, "They say go for Gold, and for gold I went! Received UAE's Golden Visa today. Feeling absolutely fantastic. Thank you to everyone that made this happen."

Amala Paul is the latest in a long list of film celebrities who have been granted the Golden Visa. Prior to Amala Paul, several actors including Mammootty, Mohanlal, Tovino Thomas, Parthiepan and Shah Rukh Khan have received it.

. Addressing a rally here, the BJP leader also alleged that the SP, BSP and the Congress made numerous efforts to stop the construction of the Ram temple at Ayodhya and asserted that they "will not succeed even if they unleash their full force".

. Road crashes have claimed more lives across Noida and Greater Noida than coronavirus in the two years of 2020 and 2021, according to official statistics.

The Covid-19 infection has so far claimed 468 lives in the two cities in Gautam Buddh Nagar district of Uttar Pradesh, according to the state health department's data.

On the other hand, road crashes ended 380 lives in 2020 and 320 in 2021 across the district, totalling 700 deaths during the two-year period, showed Gautam Buddh Nagar police data accessed by PTI.

The data for road crashes did not include figures for the ongoing month of December.

. India collapsed on the third morning of the first Test against South Africa at SuperSport Park in Centurion on Tuesday.

. The jury in British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell's sex abuse trial was due to reconvene on Tuesday, following three full days of deliberations in which jurors have reviewed testimony from four women who said Maxwell set them up for abuse.

Maxwell, 60, is accused of recruiting and grooming the four women to have sexual encounters with the late financier Jeffrey Epstein when they were teenagers. Over a three-week trial, jurors heard emotional and explicit testimony from the women, three of whom said Maxwell herself touched their nude bodies.

The daughter of late British media baron Robert Maxwell has pleaded not guilty to six counts of sex trafficking and other crimes. Her lawyers argue prosecutors are treating her as a scapegoat for Epstein, who killed himself in 2019 in a Manhattan jail cell while awaiting trial on sex abuse charges.

. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday asked IIT graduates to chooses challenge over convenience and urged them to start working for the kind of India they want in the next 25 years, saying as a lot of time has already been wasted.

. The resident doctors protesting across the national capital to expedite the counselling of NEET-PG 2021, on Tuesday demanded an apology from Delhi Police over cops' "stern action" during their Monday's Supreme Court march.

"We want respect. This is now our foremost demand. We want an apology from the police over their brutality on our fellow doctors," a protesting doctor told IANS .

On Monday, a protest march was held by the resident doctors towards the Supreme Court, however, they were stopped mid way by the Delhi Police. As the doctors were not allowed to continue their march, they surrendered their medical apron on the road to register the protest. The doctors alleged they were thrashed and dragged during their march to the Top Court.

. A 7-month old lion cub at Sarthana Zoo in Surat. (PTI Photo)

. 2008 Malegaon blast case | A witness tells Special NIA court that he was tortured by ATS, the then probe agency of the case. He also told the court that ATS forced him to falsely name Yogi Adityanath and 4 other people from RSS. ( ANI )

. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on board the state of the art Kanpur Metro train, in Kanpur. Read more ( PTI Photo)

. "Today there're only a few cases of Omicron. Is BJP conspiring to postpone elections? There're many speculations. Election Commission's credibility as an independent institution is suspicious nowadays as they attended a meeting called by PMO,"Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel. ( ANI )

. On Dec 22, I-T Dept conducted searches on two business groups engaged in civil construction and land development in Nandurbar andDhule districts of Maharashtra for large-scale suppression of taxable income by inflating their expenses and carrying out unaccounted transactions.

. Representatives of Federation of Resident Doctors’ Association (FORDA) will meet Union Health Minister at Nirman Bhavan in Delhi today over their demand to expedite NEET-PG counselling and also seek an apology for alleged police brutality during yesterday's protest march. ( ANI )

. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh e-inaugurates 27 infra projects constructed by Border Roads Organisation (BRO)

"In today's era, distance is not measured in kilometers, but in hours. BRO's roads, tunnels andbridges have reduced the distance&time between places today," Sing said. ( ANI )

. "Be in touch with your human side. When it comes to showing your emotions, let there not be an https 404 error," said PM Modi to the students of IIT Kanpur at the convocation ceremony.

. Prime Minister Narendra Modi launches blockchain-based digital degrees at the 54th Convocation of IIT Kanpur. These digital degrees can be verified globally and are unforgeable.

. Three pedestrians killed as mini-truck knocks them down on Mumbai-Bengaluru highway in Maharashtra's Pune city. ( PTI )

. "They're rewriting history to give themselves a role they don't deserve. The finest traditions of our parliamentary democracy are being deliberately damaged. Congress will fight these destructive forces: Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi during 137th Foundation Day address

. Former Mohali mayor and realtor Kulwant Singh on Monday joined the Aam Aadmi Party ahead of the Punjab Assembly polls next year.

AAP's leader Raghav Chadha and state party chief Bhagwant Mann inducted him to the party fold.

Mann said Kulwant Singh's familiarity with Mohali's issues and voters will help AAP a great deal.

Meanwhile, Sheetal Angural, national executive member of BJP SC Morcha, joined AAP with his associates at party headquarters here. ( PTI )

. "When PM holds election rallies, inaugurates various projects, misses Parliament proceedings, then, why should Assembly elections be stopped? Elections should be held,"Mallikarjun Kharge on TS Singh Deo's statement that polls in 5 States should be held early. ( ANI )

. After a brief suspension, OPD services at Safdarjung Hospital resume with senior doctors and consultants attending to the patients.

. IFoS Chandra Prakash Goyal appointed as Director-General of Forests & Special Secretary (DGF&SS), Ministry of Environment, Forests andClimate Change. ( ANI )

. A prominent member of Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) Jaswinder Singh Multani, who is allegedly linked to the Ludhiana District Court Complex blast case, was held in Germany on December 27.

. BCCI President and former India captain Sourav Ganguly has been admitted to hospital after he tested positive for Covid-19, news agency PTI reported quoting BCCI sources. Read more

. An Israeli airstrike hit the Syrian port of Latakia on Tuesday, the second such attack on the key facility this month, according to Syrian state media.

Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes on Syrian territory since civil war broke out there in 2011, targeting government positions as well as allied Iran-backed forces and Hezbollah fighters.

"At around 03:21 am, the Israeli enemy carried out an aerial aggression with several missiles from the direction of the Mediterranean... targeting the container yard in Latakia port," Syrian state news agency SANA cited a military source as saying. ( AFP )

. Bangalore South MP Tejasvi Surya set social media abuzz as he asked Hindus to “dream big” and "reconvert" Pakistanis to Hinduism. Read more

. The United States and Russia will negotiate on nuclear arms control and tensions over Ukraine on January 10, a White House national security spokesman told AFP on Monday.

"The United States looks forward to engaging with Russia," the spokesman for the National Security Council said.

Moscow and NATO representatives are then expected to meet on January 12, while Russia and the OSCE regional security body, which includes the United States, will meet on January 13, the spokesman added.

. PM Narendra Modi to visit Kanpur today, to address the 54th convocation at IIT Kanpur after which he will inaugurate the completed section of the Kanpur Metro Rail Project andthe Bina-Panki Multiproduct Pipeline Project.

. Telecom operators have established 5G trial sites in Gurugram, Bangalore, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Delhi, Jamnagar, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Pune and Gandhi Nagar, and these metros and big cities will be the first places for launch of 5G services in the country, in 2022, a DoT release said on Monday.

News Highlights: PM likely to address rally in Punjab on January 5

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PM likely to address rally in Punjab on January 5, may share stage with Amarinder

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