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LIVE! 8 coaches of Meerut-Lucknow Rajya Rani express derail, 2 hurt

10:27  Air China to suspend flights to North Korea from Monday:  Air China has decided to suspend its flights between Beijing and North Korean capital Pyongyang.  

The suspension of service will go into effect from Monday, according to the Chinese state media.  

A representative of Air China told CNN the temporary suspension was done due to weak sales.  

The suspension comes in the wake of rising tensions in the peninsula. North Korea has been facing pressure from the United States to curtail its programmes related to the development of nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities.  

China, on the other hand, acts as an economic bedrock for North Korea. The biggest source of foreign currency for North Korea stands to be China, to which it sells millions of tonnes of coal.  

Earlier, on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump, in a series of tweets, called on China to “solve the North Korean problem”.  

Trump tweeted, “I explained to the president of China that a trade deal with the US will be far better for them if they solve the North Korean problem!”

10:17  Just In: National Conference president Farooq Abdullah is leading by 1047 votes in the Srinagar Lok Sabha bypoll after two rounds of counting.

10:14  Update: 8 coaches of Meerut-Lucknow Rajya Rani express derail, 2 hurt:  Eight coaches of the Meerut-Lucknow Rajya Rani Express derailed near Rampur in Uttar Pradesh today, leaving at least two passengers injured, railway officials said.

The accident occurred between Mundapandey and Rampur railway stations, Northern Railway spokesperson Neeraj Sharma said. 

He said while two passengers have been injured, there was no casualty in the accident.

The Moradabad divisional railway manager has reached the spot to oversee the rescue and relief operations. 

A medical team has also reached the spot, he said. 

The official said the cause of the accident was not known yet. 

Earlier, police officials in Rampur had said 15 passengers were injured and had been rushed to hospital.

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09:54  Media kept out of counting hall in Srinagar:  The media is not being allowed to enter the counting hall for the Srinagar LS bypoll, and the authorities are not sharing any information with journalists waiting at the counting centre, reports PTI.
09:52  Meerut-Lucknow Rajya Rani Express derails in UP:  Just In: Eight coaches of the Meerut-Lucknow Rajya Rani Express derailed today near Kosi bridge in Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, injuring 15 passengers, the police said. However, a railway spokesperson said there were no casualties. 
09:18  FIR against 3 TN ministers for obstructing income-tax raids:  Three Tamil Nadu ministers, a senior state government official and the driver of state health minister were booked by the police on Friday for allegedly obstructing and threatening income-tax officials while they were carrying out searches in Chennai last week.

An FIR was filed against food minister R Kamaraj, handlooms and textiles minister Udumalai Radhakrishnan and information and publicity minister Kadambur Raju on the complaint of an income-tax official with the Chennai police commissioner. 

The complaint has been filed against them for obstructing raids at Tamil Nadu health minister Vijayabaskar’s residence.  I-T officials last week raided several premises belonging to Vijayabaskar and his relatives in Chennai and other districts in the wake of complaints that he was involved in cash distribution to voters in R K Nagar constituency where a by-election was to be held on April 12. 

The I-T department also conducted searches on the premises of actor and All India Samathuva Makkal Katchi leader R Sarathkumar, former All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) legislator Chitlapakkam Rajendran and vice-chancellor of Dr MGR Medical University S Geethalakshmi. 

By-polls in Chennai’s R.K. Nagar constituency, which was earlier represented by late chief minister J Jayalalithaa, were cancelled by the Election Commission after the cash-for-votes allegations surfaced.  

The decision came after income-tax raids in Chennai found money was being distributed to voters. The I-T officials had alleged that the Sasikala faction of the AIADMK paid Rs 89 crore to voters to buy support for its candidate TTV Dinakaran, who is also Sasikala’s nephew. 

As evidence, the department had cited documents seized during raids on Friday in more than 35 places — including Vijayabaskar’s property. 

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09:00  Update: If India retaliates Pakistan cannot fight back: Parrikar:   Former defence minister Manohar Parrikar has said Pakistan is playing a “dangerous game” in the case of Kulbhushan Jadhav, sentenced to death in the neignbouring country on charges of spying. 

“Pakistan is playing a dangerous game. Pakistan should understand that if India starts retaliating then it does not have the power to fight back, whatever they may project themselves to be,” the Goa chief minister told Doordarshan in an interview which was aired on Friday evening.  

“But, we want peace. We do not want provocation. So they should send Jadhav back,” he said. 

“First of all, they have abducted him. He was not in Pakistan. He was in Iran. Iran has said that the Taliban kidnapped him and took him to Pakistan. Pakistan has a habit of doing something or other,” Parrikar said. 

“….(External Affairs Minister) Sushma Swaraj has given an apt reply — ‘we will not keep quiet’ (if Pakistan executes Jadhav). The country will do what is required. We can take care of Pakistan if it tries to do anything ill-advised,” he said. 

A military court in Pakistan has sentenced Indian naval staff Jadhav to death for alleged espionage. The Indian government reacted strongly to the development saying if the sentence were to be carried out it would be considered as “pre-meditated murder”. 

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08:58  Bifurcate Valley to house Pandits, nationalist forces: Panun Kashmir:  An organisation of Kashmiri Pandits has demanded the “bifurcation” of Kashmir to carve out a separate homeland for displaced “Pandits and nationalist forces” as it termed the Valley as an “ungoverned region”. 

“Kashmir Valley has virtually become an ungoverned area. The separatists and anti-India forces have become powerful. There is virtually no space left for the nationalist forces,” Ajay Chrungoo, chairman, Panun Kashmir, told reporters.  

Chrungoo said, “The time has come when the government should bifurcate Kashmir and crave out a homeland for Kashmiri Pandits”. “The policies pursued by the Government of India in Jammu and Kashmir have failed because it has relied upon harnessing soft-separatism instead of nourishing nationalism. 

“The prime minister should personally intervene and abandon the Agenda of Alliance, the common minimum programme between PDP and BJP on the basis of which the government was formed in the state,” he said.

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08:54  IAF chopper combats forest fire near Mt Abu:  A major fire broke out in the forest area near Mount Abu in Sirohi district of Rajasthan, prompting the Indian Air Force to deploy an MI-17 chopper to douse the flames.  

The fire broke out in the morning and spread over several kilometres. 

The administration is making use of a modified MI-17V5 helicopter to put out the blaze, district collector Abhimanyu Kumar said.  

The affected area is close to Mount Abu, the sole hill station in the state, where a large number of tourists arrive in the summer season. However, tourist activities remained unaffected in the area, a police official said.  

A defence spokesperson said: “The helicopter unit at Phalodi in Jodhpur swung into action on receiving a call from the state government, seeking help in dousing a massive forest fire in the hills fast progressing towards the inhabited areas assisted by winds.” 

A suitably modified MI-17V5 helicopter reached the site and conducted a quick aerial recce before the operation for which it drew water out of Nakki lake in the middle of Mount Abu.  

The IAF team managed to push in seven sorties dropping close to about 20,000 litres of water over the spread of fire dangerously close to the inhabited areas, the spokesperson said.

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08:49  2nd Romanian held in Kenya for Kerala ATM fraud:  A Romanian national was arrested on Friday in Kenya for his alleged role in a high-tech case of ATM fraud in Kerala last year, the police said.

Ionut Alexandru Marinoiu, the second Romanian involved in the case, was arrested on the basis of a red corner notice issued by the Interpol based on the Kerala police’s recommendation.  

The police said efforts are being made to bring Ionut to Kerala. 

He is the second Romanian to be arrested in the case involving six accused.  

Earlier, on August 10 last year, another Romanian national, suspected to be behind the ATM fraud case along with two other foreigners, was arrested in  Mumbai. 

The police had then said three Romanians were involved in the racket, in which they had allegedly obtained the details of bank customers and withdrawn their money using fake ATM cards. 

The police suspect that the electronic device at the ATM counter had enabled the fraudsters collect the secret PIN and card details.

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08:31  Former J&K governor Gary Saxena is dead:  Former Jammu and Kashmir governor Girish Chandra Saxena, whose tenure saw a significant decline of militancy in the Valley, died in New Delhi on Friday after a brief illness. He was 90. 

Saxena breathed his last after he was rushed to a hospital following breathlessness, his brother and former cabinet secretary Naresh Chandra said.  

The funeral pyre of Saxena, who served as the governor of the troubled state twice, was lit by his grandson Varun in the presence of political leaders and senior bureaucrats, including National Security Advisor A K Doval. 

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief ministers Farooq Abdullah and Ghulam Nabi Azad, former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit, BJP leader Yashwant Sinha and serving and retired officers from RAW and Intelligence Bureau also gathered at the crematorium to pay their last respects to Saxena. 

Born in Agra in 1928, Saxena, an IPS officer of the 1950 batch of Uttar Pradesh cadre, who also headed the country’s external intelligence agency RAW from 1983 to 1986, is survived by his wife and two daughters.  

He first took charge as the Jammu and Kashmir governor on May 26, 1990, barely a few days after the religious head of Muslims in Srinagar Mirwaiz Farooq was gunned down by the Hizbul Mujahideen..  

He was credited with the revival of intelligence gathering mechanism of the state police. His experience at RAW came in handy in discharging his duties from Raj Bhavan.  

After his first stint as governor, Saxena was again brought to the state in 1998. He was lauded for his efforts which turned the state police into an effective counter-insurgency force. 

“No militancy can be fought without the local police,” he had once said during his second stint as governor.  

Former J&K chief ministers, the father-son duo Farooq and Omar Abdullah, while condoling his demise, said a visionary has been lost. 

“I recall my association with Governor Saxena. He was very cool in extreme situations and always had a humane approach to any problem,” Farooq said. 

Omar said, “It’s a sad news for me. He (Saxena) had always guided me during my initial days in politics.”

Image: A file photo from Rediff Archives of J&K governor G C Saxena in 2002.

Source: Rediff