Latest news LIVE: India logs 4,043 new Covid cases; active tally declines

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12:57 PM

Iran to soon import Russian gas daily: Ministry

The Iranian Oil Ministry said on Monday the country will soon purchase 9 million cubic meters of gas per day from Russia through Azerbaijan.

The Ministry announced the plan in a report on monday providing details of a $40 billion deal between the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) and Russia's state-owned gas producer Gazprom reached in July, reports Xinhua news agency.

It added it will soon receive 6 million cubic meters per day of gas from Russia under a swap deal to export them in LNG (liquefied natural gas) to other countries from southern Iran.

12:49 PM

Cong appoints Yuri Alemao as CLP leader in Goa

Cuncolim constituency MLA Yuri Alemao has been appointed as the leader of Congress Legislature Party in Goa.

A letter signed by AICC General Secretary K.C. Venugopal said that Congress President has appointed Yuri Alemao as the leader of Congress Legislature Party (CLP), Goa, with immediate effect.

Yuri Alemao is the son of former Minister Joaquim Alemao and nephew of former Chief Minister of Goa Churchill Alemao.

12:49 PM

Ukraine, using captured Russian tanks, firms up its lines

Ukraine is now deploying captured Russian tanks to solidify its gains in the northeast amid an ongoing counteroffensive, a Washington-based think tank said Tuesday, as Kyiv vowed to push further into territories occupied by Moscow.

The Institute for the Study of War, citing a Russian claim, said that Ukraine had been using left-behind Russian T-72 tanks as it tries to push into the Russian-occupied region of Luhansk.

The initial panic of the counteroffensive led Russian troops to abandon higher-quality equipment in working order, rather than the more damaged equipment left behind by Russian forces retreating from Kyiv in April, further indicating the severity of the Russian rout, the institute said.

12:24 PM

Imran claims Shehbaz felt intimidated in Putin's presence

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan mocked his successor Shehbaz Sharif, saying that the latter felt intimidated in the presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin at the recently-concluded Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Uzbekistan.

Addressing a public gathering in Chakwal on Monday, Khan took a jibe at the premier claiming that his legs were trembling in the presence of Putin during their bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the 22nd SCO Summit, Geo News reported.

Khan criticised Sharif for his recent foreign trips following flood devastations in the country and said: "Look at Shehbaz's insensitivity. He is visiting (countries) abroad during such conditions. What battle is he going to win aboard while the country has been flooded?"

12:07 PM

Cities cannot be developed with election-centric approach: PM Modi at mayors' conference

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday asked BJP mayors to plan a holistic development of cities, and said the elected representatives should not think just in terms of winning polls as cities cannot be developed with an election-centric approach.

The elected representatives should not think just in term of winning elections. You cannot develop your city with an election-centric approach, Modi said after virtually inaugurating the BJP mayors' national conference in Gujarat capital Gandhinagar.

He also said the Metro rail network in different cities of India was less than 250 kilometres in 2014 and has now increased to more than 750 km, while work is going on for another 1,000 km.

12:00 PM

Russia's Black Sea fleet relocating some of its submarines, UK says

Russia's Black Sea fleet has relocated some of its submarines from port of Sevastopol in Crimea to Novorossiysk in Krasnodor Krai in southern Russia, the British military said on Tuesday.

 

The relocation is likely due to the recent change in the local security threat level in the face of increased Ukrainian long-range strike capability, the Defense Ministry said in its daily intelligence update on Twitter.

11:42 AM

Hong Kong to cut hotel quarantine as China shows support

Hong Kong wants to relax Covid rules like mandatory hotel quarantine that have made travel difficult for nearly three years, Chief Executive John Lee said Tuesday, as mainland officials signaled their approval.

 

The number of infections in the Asian financial hub has fallen to about 6,000 a day, creating room to reconsider the measures that have crimped the city’s competitiveness, Lee told reporters at a weekly briefing. Hotel quarantine will be replaced with seven days of home health monitoring, the South China Morning Post reported, though it said the change won’t be announced until all the details have been determined.

11:11 AM

Mumbai airport handles record 130,374 passengers in 24 hours, highest since pandemic

Breaking its own single-day record, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA), one of the world's busiest single runway airports, handled the highest passenger movement of 1,30,374 on September 17, 2022, the highest since the pandemic, said the airport officials.

The growth in traffic is a result of newer destinations, rising flight movements and an increase in airline capacity at Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport.

"Close to 95,080 passengers travelled through Terminal 2 (T2) and 35,294 were witnessed travelling through Terminal 1 (T1) with 839 total flight movements on this day," read a statement by CSMIA.

11:10 AM

India, UAE and France hold first trilateral ministerial meeting in US

India, the UAE and France have held their first trilateral ministerial meeting here on the sidelines of a UN General Assembly session and exchanged ideas on a new and more contemporary way of doing diplomacy with a focus on “active exchange” of ideas between strategic partners and UNSC members.

 

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar arrived in New York on Sunday to participate in the high-level 77th session of the UN General Assembly, which kick-starts September 20 with the opening of the General Debate.

10:18 AM

Sundar Pichai meets Indian ambassador in the US, discusses Google's commitment to India

Google CEO Sunder Pichai has held discussions with the Indian envoy in the US, Taranjit Singh Sandhu, about the technology giant's activities in India, particularly its aggressive push towards digitisation, as he became the first top Indian-American tech business leader to visit the country's embassy here.

 

“Thank you” Ambassador Sandhu for the great conversation, Pichai said in a tweet after his visit to the Indian Embassy in downtown Washington DC late last week.

 

This is for the first time that a top Indian-American tech CEO has visited the embassy here.

 

10:05 AM

UN chief warns global leaders: The world is in 'great peril'

Warning that the world is in great peril, the head of the United Nations says leaders meeting in person for the first time in three years must tackle conflicts and climate catastrophes, increasing poverty and inequality and address divisions among major powers that have gotten worse since Russia invaded Ukraine.

In speeches and remarks leading up to the start of the leaders' meeting Tuesday, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres cited the immense task not only of saving the planet, which is literally on fire, but of dealing with the persisting COVID-19 pandemic. He also pointed to a lack of access to finance for developing countries to recover -- a crisis not seen in a generation that has seen ground lost for education, health and women's rights.

9:54 AM

Chhattisgarh govt to procure paddy at support price from November 1

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Monday announced the procurement of paddy at a support price from November 1.

"I've asked officials to prepare for the paddy procurement, we're fully ready and will start procuring it from November 1 onwards," he said while speaking to the media.

According to an official statement, the procurement will be done on the support price. Preparations for the same have been started in the state.

9:42 AM

Thane records 49 new COVID-19 cases, 1 death

As many as 49 new cases of coronavirus and one death due to the disease have been reported in Maharashtra's Thane district, a health official said on Tuesday.

With the addition of the latest cases and death on Monday, the infection tally in the district, which is part of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, has gone up to 744,504 and the fatality toll to 11,959, he said.

There are currently 731 active COVID-19 cases in Thane, he said, adding that the count of recoveries has reached 732,518.

9:02 AM

PM Modi to virtually inaugurate National Mayors' Conference in Gujarat today

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Tuesday virtually inaugurate the two-day 'National Mayors' Conference' to be held in Gujarat capital Gandhinagar, a Bharatiya Janata Party leader said.

As many as 121 mayors and deputy mayors of BJP-ruled urban local bodies across the country will participate in the two-day event, which is being organised by the party's 'sushasan (good governance) cell, BJP national secretary Rituraj Sinha said.

"PM Modi will (virtually) inaugurate the National Mayors' Conference on Tuesday morning by delivering his address. He will guide the invited guests on urban development," Sinha told reporters in Gandhinagar on Monday.

8:55 AM

India logs 4,043 new Covid cases, 15 deaths

India on Tuesday recorded 4,043 new Covid cases, taking the nation's tally from the pandemic to 44,543,089. With 15 new deaths, India's Covid toll has reached 528,370. The nation's tally of recovered Covid cases has reached 43,967,340, as 4,676 people recovered from the infection in the last 24 hours.