Palestinians joined Israeli Arabs on Monday in a general strike against Israel’s controversial Jewish nation-state law, while commemorating the deaths of 13 people killed in clashes with the police in October 2000. In the Arab Israeli community of Jatt in northern Israel, 1,500 participated in the central march in memory …

Indonesia’s President formally invited foreign donors to contribute to rescue and recovery efforts on the quake-and-tsunami-struck-island of Sulawesi on Monday, but his government was at pains to stress the situation was under control. “The President has decided to accept aid from abroad,” said Army General-turned-Minister Wiranto. Giving a less than …

Offers to lift ties between the two nations to ‘a new level’ Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday congratulated Ibrahim Solih, Maldives’s President-elect. In his message, President Xi offered to “lift the comprehensive friendly cooperative partnership between China and Maldives to a new level”. Mr. Xi stressed that he “highly …

Lauded for their path-breaking research on cancer therapy Two immunologists, James Allison of the U.S. and Tasuku Honjo of Japan, won the 2018 Nobel Medicine Prize for research into how the body’s natural defences can fight cancer, the jury said on Monday. Unlike more traditional forms of cancer treatment that …

The agreement replaces the 25-year-old NAFTA, which Trump had threatened to cancel Canada and the U.S. reached a deadline deal on a new free trade pact that will include Mexico, the governments announced late on Sunday, after more than a year of talks to revamp a pact President Donald Trump …

UPSC allows candidates to withdraw from exams Claiming that only half of the over 10 lakh aspirants who apply for civil services exam actually write the test, the UPSC on Monday said it has, for the first time, decided to allow candidates to withdraw from the examination if they wish …

A petition has been moved in the Supreme Court to restrain the government from taking steps to deport Rohingya refugees lodged in jails or detention centres in Assam or other parts of the country. The plea has been made by Mohammed Salimullah, the lead petitioner in a PIL plea against …

From his petty shop opposite the Jeevan Deep building on Parliament Street, Lal Poddar has had a ringside view of thousands of dharnas organised at Delhi’s premier protest venue. Monday’s rally by the Pension Parishad and HelpAge India, however, had a personal significance for him. “They are demanding a pension …

Shortly before the Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code, which defined adultery as a punishable offence, the Rajasthan High Court upheld a man’s conviction under the law. Last conviction This was probably the last conviction under the legal provision described by the apex …

Calls for setting up Rapid Response Teams to curb mobs Leaders of outfits who instigate a mob to an act of vandalism, which results in death or loss of public and private property, will personally face criminal action and are liable to compensate the victims of the violence, the Supreme …

Clarity sought on the number of aircraft in service The Air Passengers Association of India (APAI) has expressed concern over India’s low ‘air safety oversight score’, which is lower than that of Myanmar, Bangladesh, Maldives, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and North Korea in the Asia-Pacific region. The report prepared by …

A type 2 strain of polio virus (P2) found in a sewage sample from Mumbai in the last week of August may have triggered the investigations against vaccine-making company Bio-Med. The P2 strain was found in L ward (Kurla), during a routine environmental surveillance which involves collecting sewage samples from …

Who will decide on the creamy layer among the reserved categories of SCs/STs?’ While the Narendra Modi government is keeping mum on last week’s Supreme Court judgment on reservation in promotion that adds a caveat of “creamy layer”, Union Minister and Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan has criticised …

The Union Health Ministry has ordered an inquiry into the type-2 polio virus contamination detected in the vials used for immunisation in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Telangana, and has ordered additional immunisation in three States. The government, which has stepped-up surveillance after the breach, has said, “That all possible precautions …

Attorney-General wants salaries of SC, HC judges doubled or tripled and retirement age raised Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra on Monday called the Indian judiciary the “most robust in the world”. The outgoing Chief Justice’s declaration, in his farewell speech a day before he retires, comes even as Attorney-General …

What we wear, eat, say, read and think are no longer “small and insignificant” questions about our personal lives. They have become issues which “cut and divide us.” They make us hate and despise those who are different, Chief Justice of India-designate Justice Ranjan Gogoi said on Monday in the …

Authorities attribute deaths to infighting, infection As many as 21 lions have died in Gujarat’s Gir forest since September 12, sending shockwaves through the only abode of Asiatic lions in the world. Government authorities have attributed the deaths to infighting and viral infection, prompting the State to bring in experts …

Oceanic buoys, tide gauges failed to detect any unusual activity before the disaster While early warning systems around the world were quick to pick up the earthquake in the Pacific, the tsunami that subsequently ravaged the Indonesian city of Palu, claiming more than 800 lives, seems to have struck in …

Gandhiji’s statue is installed in a shrine in Mangaluru and puja is offered thrice daily What do the legendary Tulu Nadu folk heroes — Koti and Chennayya — have to do with Mahatma Gandhi? Little, one might say. But the tallest figure of the Indian freedom struggle has a special …

Two barges carrying 1,233 tonnes of bagged fly ash from Bihar reached its destination — Guwahati’s Pandu port — on Monday morning to rekindle hope for a transport system that had virtually ended with Partition in 1947. Around Independence, Assam’s per capita income was the highest in the country primarily …