Today’s Top News Headlines and Latest News at 10:30 am on 5th October 2022

Neither of the two Opposition parties was given the chairmanship of the important panels on Home, Finance, IT, Defence and External Affairs. The move drew sharp criticism from the Opposition with Congress describing it as a “draconian step”. Congress MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi has been replaced by BJP MP and retired IPS officer Brij Lal as head of the Parliamentary Standing committee on Home Affairs — which was headed by Anand Sharma of the Congress.

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"In other news: Video clips that purportedly show a man flogging those arrested for pelting stones at a Garba event Monday night in Gujarat’s Kheda district have triggered outrage, with the Opposition identifying the person involved as a police officer and demanding that action be taken.

The clips show at least four-five men being held, one after the other, by a group of men in plainclothes against an electricity pole at a chowk and being flogged with a lathi by one man. Indravadan Patel, sarpanch of Undhela village in Matar taluka, where the stone-pelting took place, told The Indian Express: “The police arrested ten of the 43 accused, brought them to the spot where the Garba was held and punished them.”

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"In other news: At least 25 people died on Tuesday evening after a bus carrying 45-50 members of a marriage party fell into a gorge in the Bironkhal area of Uttarakhand’s Pauri district.

According to the disaster control room, the bus was on its way to a village in Bironkhal from Laldhang, when it fell into a 500-metre gorge near the Simri bend at around 8 pm.

Rescue operations were launched by four SDRF teams, which rushed to the site of the accident. Personnel managed to rescue 21 people overnight, who were then admitted to nearby hospitals."
"In some political news: Telangana Chief Minister and TRS supremo K Chandrashekar Rao, who is aspiring to play a major role in national politics and form an anti-BJP alliance of regional parties, is all set to launch a national political party today at a conclave of party leaders, ministers, MPs, MLAs, MLCs and district level coordinators, which will be held at the TRS headquarters Telangana Bhavan in Hyderabad.

The CM will announce the renaming of TRS as Bharatiya Rashtra Samiti (BRS),’’ said the Telangana State Planning Board vice-chairman and ex-MP, B Vinod Kumar. The announcement would be made in the afternoon at an “auspicious time” in the presence of over 250 TRS leaders and lawmakers."
"Meanwhile, the Centre has designated four operatives of two terror groups active in Kashmir as terrorists under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). The terrorists have been identified as Hizb-ul-Mujahideen operatives Showkat Ahmad Sheikh, Basit Ahmed Reshi and Imtiyaz Ahmed Kandoo, and Habibullah Malik of Lashkar-e-Taiba.

According to a notification issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), at least one of them is a Pakistani while others are of Kashmiri descent, and all operate from Pakistan.

According to the MHA notification, Sheikh alias Showkat Mochi is a native of Baramulla in Kashmir but is currently based in Pakistan. He, the MHA has claimed, is operating as the “chief launching commander of terror outfit Hizb-Ul-Mujahideen”, which is already proscribed under the UAPA."
"Let us now look at some international news: Days after India abstained on a United Nations Security Council resolution which sought to declare Russian annexation of captured Ukrainian territories invalid, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a phone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and told him “there can be no military solution” to the conflict and India was ready to “contribute to any peace efforts”.

In a statement, the Ministry of External Affairs said, “The leaders discussed the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Prime Minister reiterated his call for early cessation of hostilities and the need to pursue the path of dialogue and diplomacy."""
"News from the US: A man suspected of kidnapping a Sikh family, including an 8-month-old baby, in central California tried to kill himself and is hospitalised in critical condition, authorities said. The family is still missing.

The Merced County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that investigators identified Jesus Salgado, 48 after he used a victim’s ATM card. The family was kidnapped Monday at gunpoint from a business in Merced, the office said, without providing further details.

The sheriff’s office said the FBI, the California Department of Justice, and other local law enforcement agencies are helping with the investigation.

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"Lastly, this year’s Nobel Prize in physics has been awarded to Alain Aspect, John F Clauser and Anton Zeilinger for their work on quantum information science.

Hans Ellegren, Secretary General, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, announced the winner at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.

A week of Nobel Prize announcements kicked off Monday with Swedish scientist Svante Paabo receiving the award in medicine for unlocking secrets of Neanderthal DNA that provided key insights into our immune system."

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