Today’s Top News Headlines and Latest News at 10:30 am on 11 January 2024

Meanwhile, a New York Court has ordered the US government to respond to a motion filed by Nikhil Gupta’s lawyers, seeking material relating to the charges against him. The US authorities have accused Gupta of plotting to kill Khalistani separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. In November last year, the US Department of Justice, in an indictment filed in a federal court in Manhattan, claimed that an Indian official was working with Gupta, an Indian citizen, in the foiled plot to kill Pannun. Gupta, 52, has been charged with murder-for-hire, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, and conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

Conversing with Goa police in Konkani, a four-hour traffic jam on the way to Bengaluru, and the excuse of a quick washroom break – the cab driver who was ferrying Suchana Seth to her destination has told The Indian Express how he managed to take her to the police station without arousing suspicion. Seth, a Bengaluru-based CEO of a tech start-up, is accused of killing her four-year-old son in a Goa hotel. She was caught in Karnataka’s Chitradurga district while allegedly trying to flee in a cab with her son’s body stuffed in a bag. Royjohn D’Souza, a cab driver from North Goa’s Anjuna, was instrumental in her arrest.

In other news: Given “pressure” on students during placement season, the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are considering not disclosing the highest annual packages in their placement reports, focussing on mean and median salary figures instead, The Indian Express has learnt. This consensus emerged during a recent meeting of the All IITs Placement Committee (AIPC), where discussions included the IIT-Bombay placement report from last week which claimed over 85 offers surpassing an annual package of Rs 1 crore. In a corrigendum issued on Wednesday, IIT-Bombay, while citing a “technical error”, revised the number of Rs 1 crore-plus offers in the first phase of placement to 22.

In top international news: Singapore is considering hiring auxiliary police officers (APOs) from India, China, the Philippines and Myanmar, Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam told parliament on Wednesday. The city-state is looking to expand the jurisdictions from which it recruits APOs as the number from Taiwan has fallen in recent few years. As a result, the Home Affairs Ministry has been considering expanding the jurisdictions where auxiliary police officers (APOs) can be recruited from. These potentially include Asian ones such as China, India, the Philippines and Myanmar, according to a Channel News Asia report.

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday held talks with his Maldivian counterpart Mohamed Muizzu following which the two countries signed 20 key agreements, including one on tourism cooperation, and elevated their bilateral ties to a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership. The two heads of state announced the elevation of bilateral ties to a Comprehensive Strategic Cooperative Partnership, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. The agreements signed included one tourism cooperation, disaster risk reduction, blue economy, strengthening investment in the digital economy and the Belt and Road Initiative. China will also provide grant assistance to the Maldives, but the amount was not disclosed.

In news from North Korea: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called South Korea “our principal enemy” and threatened to annihilate it if provoked, as he escalates his inflammatory rhetoric in an election year in South Korea and the US. The White House meanwhile said it has evidence that Russia had fired at Ukraine additional ballistic missiles provided by North Korea. The US, South Korea and their partners issued a statement Wednesday condemning both North Korea and Russia over the missile transfer. Experts say Kim will likely further raise animosities by test-firing more missiles to try to raise stakes in the standoff with his rivals and influence the results of South Korea’s parliamentary elections in April.

Lastly: Storms hit the United States, accompanied by tornado warnings and high winds blowing roofs off the homes in the South, and another burying cities across the Midwest in almost a foot of snow, as it makes its way towards the Northeast, news agency AP reported. The extreme weather is likely to affect Iowa’s January 15 precinct causes, where, according to AP news, snow is expected to be followed by frigid temperatures that would drift below zero degrees (minus 18 Celsius). The weather has also forced former President Donald Trump’s campaign to cancel multiple appearances by Arkansas Governor Sarah Sanders and her father, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who were scheduled to court Iowa voters on Trump’s behalf on Monday.

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