5 stories you must read today, November 11: From suicide blast in Pakistan to Surendra Koli’s acquittal in last Nithari killings case and more

At least 12 people were killed in an explosion at the District and Sessions Court located in Islamabad’s G-11 area in Pakistan. According to Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, the bomber had tried to enter the court building on foot but detonated the device outside, close to a police vehicle, after waiting there for 10 to 15 minutes. Separately, a suicide bomber killed three people when he detonated his car at the entrance to the military school on Monday evening in the northwestern district of South Waziristan near the Afghan border, Naqvi said. Read more

The Supreme Court on Tuesday set aside the conviction of Surendra Koli in a case of rape and murder of a teenage girl, one of the many cases that arose out of the Nithari serial killings. A bench of Chief Justice BR Gavai, Justice Surya Kant, and Justice Vikram Nath reversed his conviction and directed that he be released if not wanted in any other case. The Nithari killings came to light with the discovery of skeletal remains of eight children from a drain behind businessman Moninder Singh Pandher’s house in Noida on December 29, 2006. Read more

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation on Tuesday started running 60 additional train trips across its corridors as GRAP-III guidelines were enforced in Delhi due to worsening pollution levels. Earlier, on October 27, DMRC had added 40 extra train trips following the implementation of GRAP-II in Delhi. The 24-hour average AQI in Delhi fell into the ‘severe’ category for the first time this season, rising from 362 on Monday to 425 (as of 9 am) on Tuesday. Read more

The Delhi High Court has held that the presumption of death in an accident is not enough to be awarded ex gratia relief. The Delhi HC bench of Justices Navin Chawla and Madhu Jain made the ruling on Monday in a case filed by a woman, seeking an ex gratia payment of Rs 50000 from the Defence Civilian Medical Aid Fund. According to the court, the woman was not able to establish that her husband met with an accident, which was a mandatory condition for granting relief under DCMAF rules, which mandate a sum of Rs 50000 in the event of ‘death in an accident’. Read more

Taiwan issued a land warning on Tuesday and evacuated more than 3,000 people ahead of the arrival of Typhoon Fung-wong, which is expected to dump large amounts of rain on the island’s mountainous east coast. Fung-wong is forecast to make landfall on Taiwan’s southwestern coast around the major port city of Kaohsiung on Wednesday, after powering through the Philippines as a much stronger system and killing six people. It is then expected to cross the bottom part of Taiwan and enter the Pacific Ocean. Read more